NREN

National Research and Education Network (NREN) is a specialized high-performance network that provides connectivity and related services to national research and education communities. NRENs operate at the national level, interconnecting universities, colleges, research institutes, libraries and museums, and they link to international networks to enable global collaboration. They typically run high-capacity backbone networks and offer services such as high-speed data transfer, cloud access, identity management, and collaboration tools.

NRENs are usually organized as non-profit or government-funded organisations or consortia with member institutions. They plan, build and operate the national backbone and related services, negotiate access to international networks and maintain service-level agreements, security, and user support. They also participate in international coordination, often through organisations like GÉANT, which interconnects European NRENs, and through global research networks.

Examples include Renater in France, JANET/Jisc in the United Kingdom, DFN-Verein in Germany, SURFnet in the Netherlands, CANARIE in Canada, and others. In the United States, Internet2 and related services are widely described as the national REN ecosystem. In many countries, NRENs provide eduroam for student mobility and federated identity via eduGAIN.

Impact and trends: NRENs have driven multi-gigabit and terabit-scale networks, enabling data-intensive science, distributed computing, cloud services, and international collaboration. The landscape continues to evolve with software-defined networking, network virtualization, and increased emphasis on cyberinfrastructure for research.