The Thames Valley Network (TVN) was created in 2000-01 for the purpose of providing a high-bandwidth and reliable interconnection between the higher and further education institutions and public research laboratories in the Thames Valley region of England, along with interconnection to the JANET backbone network via its point of presence (PoP) in Reading.
In 2004 JANET(UK) determined that there was a need to ensure that the Thames Valley Network is able to support the networking requirements of the institutions it connects as we move into the SuperJANET5 era.
JANET(UK) therefore initiated a procurement exercise to upgrade TVN to a dark fibre network over which the transmission services will be procured and operated by JANET(UK).
The supplier for this dark fibre network, Neos Networks, was chosen in November 2004 and the project to install the fibre has been completed.
A procurement was launched for Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) equipment which will be used to construct the TVN transmission services. As a result of the procurement a contract was awarded to Nortel who supplied their OM5000 DWDM equipment.
The new TVN network is now in full service.
