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| R&E Network | |
|---|---|
| Name | R&E Network |
| Type | Consortium |
| Founded | 1980s |
| Area served | Global research and education communities |
| Headquarters | Multiple regional hubs |
R&E Network
The R&E Network is a global consortium of specialized research and education networking initiatives connecting universities, laboratories, museums, libraries and scientific facilities. It interlinks national and regional initiatives to enable high-bandwidth collaboration among institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CERN, Stanford University, University of Oxford and Max Planck Society and supports large-scale projects like Human Genome Project, Large Hadron Collider and Square Kilometre Array. The network evolved alongside packet-switched and optical transport technologies and remains critical for collaboration among entities including National Science Foundation, European Commission, National Institutes of Health, NASA and European Organization for Nuclear Research.
R&E Network comprises interconnected research and education backbones operated by organizations such as Internet2, GÉANT, CANARIE, AARNet, NORDUnet and RedCLARA, providing dedicated links for partners including Princeton University, California Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, University of Tokyo and Tsinghua University. It supports cross-border initiatives like Trans-Eurasia Information Network and project consortia such as LIGO Scientific Collaboration and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Key technical partners and vendors include Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Ciena, Huawei Technologies and Nokia, while standards and interoperability efforts involve Internet Engineering Task Force, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and International Telecommunication Union.
Origins trace to early packet network experiments and academic networks such as ARPANET, JANET, CSNET, Bitnet and NSFNET, with later consolidation through regional projects like SURFnet and FUNET. Milestones include adoption of optical DWDM in the 1990s, migration to IPv6 alongside RIPE NCC and ARIN allocations, and establishment of federated identity systems drawing on Shibboleth and eduGAIN. Funding and governance models evolved through mechanisms involving European Research Council, National Science Foundation, World Bank and philanthropic actors like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust. Collaborative science use cases emerged with partnerships with CERN OpenLab, European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Swiss National Supercomputing Centre.
Physical topology leverages submarine cables such as Marea cable, Southern Cross Cable Network, Apollo cable system and terrestrial fibers tied to metropolitan exchange points like LINX, AMS-IX, DE-CIX and Netnod. Core routing and switching integrate hardware from Arista Networks and Brocade Communications Systems and employ protocols standardized by IETF including MPLS, GRIP and BGP, with orchestration via platforms inspired by OpenStack and ONOS. Compute and storage federations interoperate with facilities such as European Grid Infrastructure, XSEDE, PRACE and NERSC, while data transfer tools reference Globus Toolkit, GridFTP and HTTP/2 adaptations. Edge connectivity spans campuses like Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, National University of Singapore and University of Cape Town.
Common services include high-performance file transfer for projects like Square Kilometre Array and Event Horizon Telescope, real-time videoconferencing used by United Nations delegations and distributed simulation for European Space Agency programs. Authentication and authorization harness identity federations tied to Shibboleth, eduGAIN and institutional LDAPs at entities such as University of Toronto and Monash University. Science gateways and virtual research environments integrate with Jupyter Notebook, Galaxy (open source project), Apache Hadoop clusters and cloud resources from providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure under hybrid models. Monitoring and performance tools draw on perfSONAR deployments and measurement archives coordinated with RIPE NCC and CAIDA.
Governance is multilayered, involving national research and education networks (NRENs) like SURFnet, CESNET, RedIRIS and HEAnet, regional consortia such as GÉANT and international stakeholders including OECD and UNESCO. Funding derives from a mix of government grants via agencies like European Commission Horizon programs, cooperative agreements with National Science Foundation, subscription fees from member institutions such as Columbia University and project-based sponsorships from industry partners like Intel Corporation and IBM. Policy and coordination engage legal frameworks influenced by General Data Protection Regulation and procurement norms across jurisdictions including United States, European Union, Australia and Brazil.
Operational security uses collaborative incident response teams modeled on CERT-CC and national computer emergency response teams like US-CERT, CERT-EU and AusCERT. Traffic engineering and isolation employ VLANs, VPNs and dedicated lambdas to segment experimental flows for projects involving European Southern Observatory and MAX IV Laboratory. Privacy considerations follow mandates set by General Data Protection Regulation and institutional review boards at organizations such as Johns Hopkins University and Karolinska Institutet, while encryption practices align with standards from National Institute of Standards and Technology and protocols endorsed by IETF.
R&E Network fosters breakthroughs in collaborations exemplified by Human Genome Project, LIGO Scientific Collaboration detections and multinational climate modeling coordinated with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Adoption spans higher education institutions including Yale University and University of Melbourne, national labs like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and cultural institutions such as The British Library and Smithsonian Institution. Its role continues to shape research infrastructures supporting initiatives like FAIR data principles and global open science movements advocated by OpenAIRE and CODATA.
Category:Research networks