RENATER

RENATER
Name	RENATER
Type	National Research and Education Network
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Paris, France
Area served	France

RENATER is the French national research and education network connecting universities, research laboratories, Grandes Écoles, and cultural institutions across France. It provides high‑capacity networking, middleware, identity federation, and collaborative platforms that enable scientific collaboration among institutions such as Université Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, CEA, and INRIA. RENATER interconnects with international research backbones like GÉANT, Internet2, CERNET, and ESnet to support transnational projects including Human Brain Project, ITER, SKA, and Horizon 2020 consortia.

History

RENATER was established in the early 1990s as part of a wave of national research and education networks following models used by JANET, SURFnet, and NSFNET. Early partnerships involved French institutions such as Université Pierre et Marie Curie, École Polytechnique, and Université de Strasbourg, and coordination with agencies including Ministry of Higher Education and Research (France), CNRS, and CEA. During the 2000s RENATER upgraded backbone capacity in line with optical networking developments pioneered by groups like Bell Labs, Ciena, and Lucent Technologies, and participated in European projects under European Commission frameworks such as FP6 and FP7. RENATER’s evolution paralleled international initiatives like GÉANT and collaborations with submarine cable operators servicing routes to New York City, London, Madrid, and Geneva.

Network Infrastructure

RENATER’s backbone uses dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and multiplexing equipment supplied by vendors similar to Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, and Huawei Technologies to provide multi‑gigabit and terabit paths between nodes in cities including Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Lille. The network interconnects with metropolitan networks operated by institutions such as Université de Lyon, Université Grenoble Alpes, and regional networks like RIP, and peers at exchange points like France-IX and LINX. RENATER supports IPv4, IPv6, multicast, and optical lambda services used by grid computing initiatives linked to CNRS-IN2P3, CINES, and PRACE. International links provide connectivity to research infrastructures at CERN, ESRF, EMBL, and ITER Organization through partnerships with carriers and research networks including GÉANT, Internet2, and NORDUnet.

Services and Applications

RENATER offers a portfolio of services: high‑speed connectivity, identity and access management via federations interoperable with Shibboleth, eduGAIN, and SAML, collaborative platforms resembling Nextcloud and videoconferencing services interoperable with standards used by Zoom Video Communications and Jitsi. It hosts data management and storage services comparable to CINES and provides virtual private network (VPN), network monitoring influenced by tools like Nagios and perfSONAR, and certificate authority services similar to Let's Encrypt for institutional authentication. RENATER supports e‑science applications used by projects such as Euclid (spacecraft), LHC experiments at CERN, BioMed Central collaborations, and digital humanities initiatives at institutions like Bibliothèque nationale de France and INIST.

Governance and Funding

RENATER’s governance involves stakeholders from higher education and research institutions including Université de Rennes 1, Université de Toulouse, Université de Montpellier, and national agencies like CNRS and Ministry of Culture (France). Funding is a combination of membership fees from participating organizations, public funding mechanisms tied to French ministries, and project‑based grants through European Union programmes such as Horizon Europe and structural funds administered by regional authorities like Région Île‑de‑France. Strategic decisions are informed by advisory committees including representatives from Grande École networks, research infrastructures like IRSN, and national labs such as CEA.

Research and Education Community

The RENATER community encompasses universities, Grandes Écoles, national laboratories, museums, and hospital research centers such as AP-HP and collaborations with international research organizations like EMBO, ESA, and ESO. It supports academic disciplines across faculties at institutions like Université Grenoble Alpes for physics collaborations with Institut Laue-Langevin and life sciences networks linked to Institut Pasteur. RENATER enables participation in multinational consortia such as CERN Large Hadron Collider, Square Kilometre Array, and computational initiatives coordinated by PRACE and EUDAT.

Security and Resilience

RENATER operates security services and incident response coordination with entities including the Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information, regional CERTs, and computer emergency response teams at universities like Université de Strasbourg. The network implements redundancy, diverse routing, and peering policies with operators such as Orange S.A., SFR, and international carriers to maintain resilience against outages and cyberattacks similar to incidents affecting MAE-East and major exchanges. RENATER participates in exercises and research on network hardening with partners like ANSSI and academic research groups at Télécom Paris and ENSTA Paris.

Category:National research and education networks Category:Internet in France