The Kentish MAN

The Kentish MAN is the education Regional Network for Kent. It is operated by Kent MAN Ltd, a not-for-profit company owned by five Higher Education partners and Kent County Council.

The Kentish MAN is a high performance multi-service telecommunications infrastructure for the educational community and associated organisations in the county of Kent.

The education community in Kent is widely dispersed and much of it is in rural areas. In order to meet the needs of this community most institutions have developed a number of campuses, some quite large distances apart. Originally built with microwave radio technology the Kentish MAN now has a 2Gbps core network using Gigabit Ethernet. The core is formed from a ring Chatham-Canterbury-Wye-Maidstone-Chatham and provides resilience if any link is broken.

The Kentish MAN network has two 2.5Gbps connections to SuperJANET5, one at Chatham (University of Greenwich) and one at Canterbury (University of Kent). This provides resilient access to the Internet and this resilience is tested periodically.

In August 2006, Kent MAN Ltd became a member of RIPE NCC and is now a Local Internet Registry (LIR).

Vision

The vision of Kent MAN Ltd is to continue to develop a cost-effective network for higher and further education in Kent, providing sufficient bandwidth and access to the services required. It also seeks to collaborate with new and existing partners where the Kentish MAN will benefit.

Mission

The mission of Kent MAN Ltd is to provide a cost-effective network for higher and further education in Kent, whilst meeting the requirements of the contract with UKERNA and, where possible, to work with other partners in Kent to the benefit of the entire educational community.

What's new?

A new map of the network is available.

The minutes of the 25th meeting of the Executive Committee have been published.

A page giving a Technical Overview has been added.

Company details

Kent MAN Ltd is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee which is registered in England and Wales with the company registration number 4416782 and whose registered office is at Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QU. VAT No. 784 1351 24