Our history

Founded in 2000, the Restena Foundation has its origins in a project launched 11 years earlier, even before Luxembourg was connected to the internet, which quickly allowed educational and research employees in Luxembourg to benefit from a high-performance, dedicated international connection.

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Our timeline

1989-1991

1989: RESTENA project launched by the Ministry of Education to meet the communication needs of education and scientific research institutions in the country. Restena Office Picture
1990: Commissioning of the first network server allowing researchers to benefit from national and international connections (X.400).
1991: Integration of the RESTENA network into the X.400 research network infrastructure.
Restena Office Picture

1992

  • Obtaining of the authority to manage the .lu domain, through the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), allowing us to operate the .lu domain name server.
  • International connection to the EuropaNET European network nodes and the United States via IBM, MCI and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Milestones of 1992

  • First connection from Luxembourg to the internet
  • 100% of higher education and research establishments connected 
  • International connection at 64Kbit/s 

1993-1999

1993: Provision of an Internet e-mail address for all students of the Higher Institute of Technology (IST).
1994: Internet connection of future commercial internet service providers (ISPs) in Luxembourg via temporary access from Restena and launch of the ‘dial-in’ service for individual users.
1995: Connection of schools with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology and implementation of a web page hosting service.
1996: The majority of secondary schools have a leased line connection. 
1998: Establishment of the Luxembourg Internet Exchange (LIX), a national traffic exchange point for Internet Service Providers.
1999: Connection to the pan-European TEN-155 network as part of the QUANTUM Project.

Milestones of 1997

  • Around 2,500 researchers and teachers use RESTENA services to connect to the internet
  • International connection at 4Mbit/s

2000

The RESTENA project establishes the Restena Foundation

2001-2009

2001: Connection of the national infrastructure to the pan-European research network GÉANT, in particular allowing access to research networks in the United States (Internet2).
2005: Provision of the Education Roaming (eduroam) service to access wireless roaming within the national network and abroad.
2009: Launch of the cross-border INTERREG IVA project iot@ aimed at creating cross-border networking links between internet networks dedicated to teaching and research in the Greater Region: Wallonia (Belgium), Lorraine (France) and Luxembourg.

Milestones of 2008

  • Management of 10,000 electronic mail boxes

Milestones of 2009

  • 10,000 users of RESTENA services

2010

  • Creation in Esch-sur-Alzette of a cross-border networking optical node to interconnect Belgian, German, French and Luxembourg infrastructure.
  • Establishment of a Computer Security Incident Response Team (RESTENA-CSIRT) to support and co-ordinate the response to IT security incidents in the community.
  • Access via the GÉANT network to research networks in Russia and Asia.

2011-2013

2011:

Transfer of the Luxembourg Internet eXchange (LIX) platform to LU-CIX and protection of .lu with cryptographic keys thanks to Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) technology.

Milestones of 2011-2013

2011

  • 10 active nodes make up the topology of the national network

2012

  • Internet connection at 10Gbit/s

2013

  • 15,000 users of RESTENA services

2015-2019

2015:

Relocation of the Restena Foundation to the heart of the ‘Cité des Sciences’ in the Belval district of Esch-sur-Alzette.
2016:

Handling of the daily technical management of the LU-CIX platform, the internet exchange node of Luxembourg.
2018:

Commissioning of 70km of new additional fibre and expansion of the range of services to the cloud.

Milestones of 2015-2019

2015

  • Management of more than 79,000 electronic mailboxes

2017

  • 45,000 potential users of eduroam in Luxembourg

2019

  • GÉANT connection at 100Gbit/s
  • 500 institutions connected to the RESTENA Network
  • Registration of the 100,000th .lu domain name