The ORIENTplus project provides high speed direct connectivity between European NRENs and those in China to foster EU/China collaborative scientific and other user applications.

The national research and education networks (NRENs) of Europe and China have jointly funded, dedicated point to point connectivity via direct terrestrial fibre optic cables since 2007. This links the pan-European GÉANT network and the Chinese networks CERNET and CSTNET, enabling scientific and academic collaborations between their research and education communities.

The previous contract for EU/China connectivity provides 10 Gbps capacity. A project to renew this connectivity has been established and the EU and Chinese project partners tendered together to maintain (or increase) the capacity of the connectivity between them, over a multi year term. The objective of the procurement was to achieve a long term option with an element of future proofing in terms of optional potential bandwidth increases of up to 100 Gbps over the resultant contract term.