JANET stands for Joint Academic Network. It is a very fast network that works in the UK. It connects the UK education sector. The research organisations are also communicated through this network.

JANET is a vast network which connects about 18 million users a day. This network combines LANs (Local Area Networks) and MANs (Metropolitan Area Networks) to make such a big network.

JISC is a not-for-profit company that provides the JANET network to its users. JISC stands for Joint Information Systems Committee. JISC provides IT and network services to research and education institutions.

Some features of the JANET network are:-

• It provides high bandwidth for transferring a large amount of data. In 2021, JANET carried 3 petabytes of data every day.
• JANET is a highly secure network and has built-in cybersecurity protection.
• More than 600 universities are connected through the JANET network.
• JANET also provides international communication through global cloud providers.
• JANET connects large enterprise organisations as well as small-scale organisations.

The data which is transferred through the JANET network includes:-

• Emails
• Inter-host file transfer
• Data that is transferred between different machines, such as computers, mobiles, network devices, etc.
• Interactive data, like videoconferencing data
• Audio files through which users stream audio

Versions of JANET:-

There are various versions of JANET. Some of the JANET versions are:-

• SuperJANET
• SuperJANET2
• SuperJANET3
• SuperJANET4
• SuperJANET5
• JANET6

The different versions of JANET are differentiated from each other by the speed of data transfer and the year they were launched. For example, SuperJANET4 was introduced in 2001 and can transfer 2.5 gigabits of data per second, while JANET6 was released in 2013 and can hold and transfer 2 terabits of data per second.

Some locations that are connected through the JANET network are:-

• London
• Thames Valley
• Northern Ireland
• East Midlands
• Yorkshire and Humberside
• East of England

JANET is a free service that is available for education and research organisations, but only users who live in the UK can subscribe to and use this network.