What’s an R&E Network?

R&E networks operate nationally but connect globally. There are more than 125 dedicated R&E networks across the world, working together as a global ‘network of networks’ to provide seamless connectivity and tailor-made services for their education and research communities at an unrivalled scale.

Connecting to your national R&E network gives you access to the world, to scientific instruments, computational resources and cloud services, all at ultra high-speed – and being part of your national R&E network means you are part of the global R&E network community. It’s that straightforward.

Eduroam is a great example of a service developed by the R&E community. With eduroam, a secure global roaming service, students, faculty and staff on the move can gain wireless network access at more than 12,000 locations worldwide, using the standard username and password credentials they use at their home institution for wireless network access.

Our unprecedented scale, scope and reach mean that we can resolve and troubleshoot our end-to-end services, globally, in a customised way that commercial organisations cannot.

R&E networks move huge amounts of data across the globe, safely, reliably, quickly. This is essential for world-class research.

On a technical level R&E networks are engineered with low latency, low contention and with sufficient head-room capacity to support bursts of intense use. These are some of the key features that set R&E networks apart from commercial networks.

If a research project suddenly needs to transport large amounts of data there will be capacity to do so on demand.

When data travels over networks there will always be some delay from the moment data is sent until it arrives at its destination. R&E networks can provide ultra low latency connections to users in need of this kind of service, like musicians performing together over vast distances, with sound and video being transmitted with high bandwidth and low latency.

With R&E networks you are guaranteed specific bandwidth and quality of service end-to-end, as long as both sides of the connection are located within the R&E network or an R&E network in another country.

National R&E networks leverage the global community to support the bespoke and demanding needs of the research and education sector.

By sharing information and developing collaborations of best practice, the global R&E network community creates efficiencies and avoids reinventing the wheel.

In many countries, R&E networks provide connectivity for universities and institutions and organisations with a research and education mission at a cost and capacity that commercial networks cannot.

The global R&E network community understands the education and research space and occupies a unique trusted position between governments and educational institutions on the one side, and commercial organisations such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon on the other.

Many R&E networks are already recognised as pools of independent expertise within their countries and are frequently called upon to provide guidance on the development of national and international policy on education, research and IT.

R&E networks collaborated to develop and deploy eduGAIN, an inter-federation service that interconnects identity federations around the world, enabling the secure exchange of information related to identity, authentication, and authorisation. eduGAIN facilitates seamless access to services and resources across national borders for the benefit of researchers, educators, and students.

eduGAIN plays a crucial role in supporting global collaboration in research and education by allowing users from one country to easily access resources and services hosted in another, using their home institution’s login credentials. This is especially beneficial for international projects and initiatives that involve multiple institutions across different countries.

R&E networks offer a secure and reliable infrastructure for the transmission of sensitive and critical scientific data. We implement advanced security protocols and network management practices to protect data integrity and availability, which is paramount for scientific research.

To enhance the security and reliability of R&E networks, we collaborate to create security frameworks for worldwide implementation, while also individually adhering to our respective local country security regulations.

R&E networks are drivers of innovation. They develop national and international test beds and pilot services, many of which result in new services that facilitate collaboration, such as trust and identity management solutions.

Advanced R&E networks stimulate innovation in the research and education community and, in doing so enable rapid technological advances, sometimes years ahead of commercial organisations.

The R&E network community works together on a national and international scale to drive progress worldwide. The power of that community lies not only in the routers and pipes but in its people, who come together with their technology peers and researchers and educators to explore ideas, share knowledge and best practice and develop projects for the greater good.

This collaborative spirit is at the heart of the global R&E network community.