REANNZ national network

REANNZ operates a backbone network which extends the length of the country - from Invercargill in the south, through major centres to Auckland, then to Mangawhai Heads in Northland where it connects to the Hawaiki Cable.

Both sides of the North Island network run at a full 100Gbps. The South Island network runs at 100Gbps on its primary path from Dunedin to the North Island. The secondary path is a combination of 10Gbps and 20Gbps connections.

REANNZ uses a traditional ‘ladder’ topology for our national network. The ladder’s two sides run north–south through New Zealand, interconnecting periodically with ‘rungs’ which provides efficient geographical coverage for members and also resilience.

REANNZ has 23 points of presence (PoPs) that also act as core network switching points. Traffic can enter or leave the network only through a PoP. Their placement and specification is therefore important to overall network performance.

Most member sites are connected by at least one dedicated fibre running from its site to a REANNZ PoP. Important sites typically have two separate fibre connections that are run in different cables in different underground trenches to two different PoP locations because cables can break.