Best customer experience
Switch LAN gives you direct access to our team of highly experienced network engineers. You will not only receive support for your services, but also help on all kinds of network-related topics.
Switch LAN IP Access
We connect the university landscape with the right infrastructure and have been doing so since 1989. Switch LAN links universities to each other and to the Internet. In addition to the data network itself, we supply everything you need to use it in the best way possible.
Good enough for every application and always available – the standards for a communications network have hardly changed in decades. What is changing very quickly, however, are the range of applications and the performance of the machines employed by users. This constantly presents the networks with new challenges. When we launched Switch LAN in 1989, the connection bandwidth was a maximum of 128 Kbit/s. That was enough for all applications at the time. In the meantime, it has grown to 400 Gbit/s. That, too, is enough for all applications – at least for the moment.
Switch LAN is more than a well-functioning data network for universities. It is a unique combination of infrastructure, transmission technology, quality assurance, laboratory, support, transparency and partnership. To enable universities to make optimum use of our network, we complement the infrastructure with useful network services and competent, committed customer support.
We are part of the university community and put our resources at the service of innovation. This also means that the Switch LAN team is open to experimental projects. Justifiably, Switch LAN is the base service for many central Switch services such as Switch Cloud and Switch edu-ID.
The competence centre for your network concerns
Switch LAN brings together universities and research institutions from all over Switzerland. We also ensure that they are connected to the Internet and integrated into academic networks around the world. But what makes Switch LAN’s academic data network so unique compared to commercial providers? Quite simply: the people at Switch, who design, implement and operate the education and research network with great commitment and passion.
Our infrastructure
The Switch LAN network is based on a fibre optic network with a total length of around 3,100 km. Our network team not only runs your network operations centre (NOC), but also takes care of all aspects related to infrastructure: from conception to procurement and installation to maintenance.
Maximum performance and top quality
We deliver maximum performance with connection bandwidths from 10 to 400 Gbit/s. Planned redundancies and our security services ensure very high availability and stability. And should something go wrong, we proactively ensure quick recovery.
Internationally networked
We are internationally networked, both at the technical level and through our many relationships with international communities. At the technical level, we have links to all research networks around the world. We are connected to the rest of the Internet via four different providers and over hundreds of peerings.
Open to research and innovation
As a research network, we support researchers in the development of innovative solutions. Our infrastructure also allows us to provide support on non-network topics such as time and frequency transfer and seismology.
The Switch LAN Backbone Infrastructure
Download your copy of our backbone map here.
Daniel Bertolo
Head Network
Switch