Deutsche Telekom links CERN sites in Geneva and Budapest with high-speed, 100-gigabit data connection

Super-fast transmission for super-fast particles: Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS), part of Deutsche Telekom’s International Businesses unit, working in conjunction with the local legal entity T-Systems Switzerland, has been appointed to provide a high-speed data connection between the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) data centre in Geneva and a newly established, remote data centre operated by Wigner Research Centre for Physics in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The Ethernet connection supports transmission speeds up to 100 gigabits per second.

In Geneva, CERN operates the world’s biggest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This facility allows scientists to explore the structure of matter and the fundamental interactions between elementary particles. The experiments generate huge volumes of data. To process them, CERN and partner institutes have developed a distributed computing system, the so-called Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). More than 10,000 researchers around the world use CERN’s computing infrastructure for their experiments.

With the Wigner Data Centre, CERN aims to create additional IT capacity for research activities. Computer systems will be able to transmit enormous volumes of data via the high-speed Deutsche Telekom ICSS connection between the Geneva and Budapest sites. In addition to huge data rates, CERN requires high data transmission reliability and connection availability. The research organization sought a telecommunications service provider able to meet these extremely demanding gigabit Ethernet requirements.

T-Systems Switzerland worked in close cooperation with ICSS to meet CERN’s needs. “We believe our deep technical expertise and network quality were key,” said Holger Magnussen, Senior Vice President, International Carrier Sales & Solutions, at Deutsche Telekom. “We were able to make a tailored offer within a relatively short time through the close collaboration of experts from T-Systems Switzerland and the International Carrier Sales & Solutions and Global Network units.”

“The state-of-the-art Deutsche Telekom 100 gigabits per second circuit between CERN and the Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest will not only expand our physics processing capabilities, but will also allow us to refine our Business Continuity strategy. This new contract strengthens our existing relationship, since Deutsche Telekom has been a long-standing member of the CERN Internet Exchange Point (CIXP) and one of the regular providers of CERN's connectivity to the commodity Internet,” said David Foster, Deputy Head of the CERN IT Department.

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with almost 130 million mobile customers, 33 million fixed-network lines and over 17 million broadband lines (as of June 30, 2012). The Group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 233,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011).

About Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS)

International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS), an integral part of Deutsche Telekom’s International Businesses unit within the Europe organization, is the global communications enabler of the Deutsche Telekom Group and more than 700 external customers worldwide. As one of the largest carriers in the world, ICSS provides global voice communication, Internet connectivity to millions of eyeballs, and global roaming and messaging on next generation platforms, as well as smart content distribution, media exchange, and virtual carrier solutions. The international customers of ICSS experience seamless service provisioning, including global reach, and the highest quality. The variety of solutions provided by ICSS is based on an expanding ultramodern infrastructure: Deutsche Telekom’s international network.

For further information, see www.telekom-icss.com.