The Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA, ) was a not-for-profit association of European
national research and education network
A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.
It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...
s (NRENs) incorporated in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, The Netherlands. The association was originally formed on 13 June 1986 as Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne (RARE) and changed its name to TERENA in October 1994. In October 2015, it again changed its name to
GÉANT and at the same time acquired the shares of GEANT Limited (previously known as DANTE).
Purpose
The objectives of TERENA are to promote and develop high-quality international network infrastructures to support European research and education. This includes:
* investigating, evaluating and deploying new network, middleware and application technologies;
* supporting new networking services where appropriate;
* knowledge transfer, among others in the shape of conferences, seminars and training events;
* advising governments and other authorities on networking issues;
* liaising with networking organisations in other parts of the world.
Full membership of TERENA is open to
NRENs
A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.
It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...
(one per member country of the
ITU) and international public sector organisations. Associate membership is available for other organisations (commercial or otherwise) with an interest in research and education networking. A complete list of the current members can be found on the TERENA website.
Similar organisations elsewhere in the world include
Internet2,
APAN,
UbuntuNet Alliance and
CLARA
Clara may refer to:
Organizations
* CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization
* Clara.Net, a European ISP
* Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium
People
* Clara (given name), a feminine gi ...
(Cooperación Latino Americana de Redes Avanzadas). In addition,
DANTE
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
operates the pan-European research and education backbone network.
History
RARE
TERENA was founded under the name Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne (RARE) on 13 June 1986. It was created by several European networking organisations to promote open computer networking standards (specifically the
OSI protocols
The Open Systems Interconnection protocols are a family of information exchange standards developed jointly by the ISO and the ITU-T. The standardization process began in 1977.
While the seven-layer OSI model is often used as a reference for tea ...
).
The first few years were dominated by the Co-operation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe (COSINE) project.
COSINE led to the implementation of some of the first standardised network-related services, for example
X.400 email and
X.500 directory service.
X.25 technology was generally used for connectivity. This technology was also used in a network called IXI (International X.25 Infrastructure Backbone Service), which was the first generation of the backbone network interconnecting the national research networks in Europe, known today as
GÉANT. To run the European backbone, RARE's Operational Unit was later split off from the association under the name
DANTE
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
.
Meanwhile, the need to choose between the OSI protocols and the
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.
...
(IP) became the subject of a long-lasting controversy known as the ''
Protocol Wars''. By the early 1990s, IP became the dominant protocol in data networking. By 1991, a project called
Ebone was proposed as an interim solution while the European research networking community made the transition from OSI to IP.
The Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (
RIPE NCC
RIPE NCC (''Réseaux IP Européens'' Network Coordination Centre) is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a branch office in Dubai, UAE.
...
) was created by RARE in 1992, and was split off five years later as a separate legal entity.
EARN
At the end of 1983
IBM had taken the initiative for the
European Academic and Research Network (EARN), which would link selected computer centres in Europe via leased lines. It used similar technology to the
BITNET in the US, and included
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
gateway capability. The EARN Association was set up as a legal entity in France in 1985. By 1993 it was clear that the EARN Association needed to merge with RARE, which it did on 20 October 1994. At the same time, RARE changed its name to TERENA.
Outreach
TERENA publishes annual editions of the ''TERENA Compendium of National Research and Education Networks in Europe'', which contain information about the organisation, staffing, finances, user base, capacity, services and developments of
NRENs
A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.
It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...
, and serve as a benchmarking tool.
TERENA supports the development of research and education networking in less advanced countries and regions in and around Europe by studying their needs and by providing advice, consultancy and training.
TERENA organises
foresight studies to look into the future development of European research and education networking. These studies included SERENATE (2002-2003), EARNEST (2006-2008) and ASPIRE (2011-2012).
Task forces and projects
TERENA supports joint European work in the development and testing of new networking, middleware and application technologies. It brings together specialists and engineers from TERENA member organisations and the wider research networking community. This work is organised in task forces and projects.
Task forces are groups where specialists in a certain field exchange information, discuss best practices and work together to investigate technologies for the development and deployment of services for the research and education community. Usually task forces are open for participation by any individual who can bring appropriate expertise and resources. By 2011, TERENA was supporting eight task forces: TF-CPR (communications and public relations), TF-CSIRT (collaboration of security incident response teams), TF-EMC2 (European middleware coordination and collaboration), TF-Media (media management and distribution), TF-MNM (mobility and network middleware), TF-MSP (management of service portfolios), TF-NOC (network operation centres) and TF-Storage (storage and cloud services).
TERENA projects are carried out by experts and engineers on the basis of a contract with TERENA. This requires funding from TERENA members and/or other interested organisations, possibly combined with a contribution from TERENA's own resources. A current example is REFEDS (Research and Education Federations).
In addition, the TERENA Secretariat staff participates in projects that are co-funded by the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, for example, the project that also provides EU funding for the
GÉANT network.
Services
A number of services have been established as spin-offs of the work in the TERENA task forces and projects.
eduroam
eduroam (''edu''cation ''roam''ing) is an international Wi-Fi internet access roaming service for users in research, higher education and further education. It provides researchers, teachers, and students network access when visiting an institu ...
provides researchers, teachers and students easy and secure network access when visiting other institutions than their own; the global governance of eduroam is under the auspices of TERENA. The TERENA Certificate Service provides
digital certificates that are recognised by the major browsers and devices to the user communities of participating
NRENs
A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country.
It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...
in a cost-effective manner. The TERENA Academic Certification Authority Repository (TACAR) is a trusted online store of trust anchor certificates, related certificate policies and certificate practice statements registered by the
Certification Authorities of organisations in the academic community. The
eduGAIN service allows Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructures to interact, enabling the sharing of data between federations and providing an interconnection framework to applications willing to provide their services, content or resources to multiple federations.
NRENum.net provides an
ENUM
Telephone number mapping is a system of unifying the international telephone number system of the public switched telephone network with the Internet addressing and identification name spaces. Internationally, telephone numbers are systematica ...
service for academia. TERENA's Trusted Introducer service offers an accreditation and certification scheme for Computer Security Incident Response Teams (
CSIRTs).
Conference
TERENA runs an annual conference for academic networkers called the TERENA Networking Conference. Usually held in late May or early June, the conference is hosted by a member
NREN and attended by around 500 delegates from academic backgrounds including networking specialists and managers from European networking and research organisations, universities, worldwide sister institutions and industry representatives.
Conference locations:
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...
(2023),
Trieste (2022), online (2021),
Brighton (2020 - canceled),
Tallinn
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...
(2019),
Trondheim (2018),
Linz (2017),
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
(2016),
Porto (2015),
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
(2014),
Maastricht (2013),
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
(2012),
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
(2011),
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
(2010),
Málaga (2009),
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
The area of the whole city a ...
(2008),
Kgs. Lyngby
Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site o ...
(2007),
Catania (2006),
Poznań (2005),
Rhodes (2004),
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
(2003),
Limerick (2002),
Antalya
la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 07xxx
, area_code = (+90) 242
, registration_plate = 07
, blank_name = Licence plate
...
(2001),
Lisbon (2000),
Lund (joint with
NORDUnet conference; 1999),
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
(1998).
The TERENA Networking Conference is the successor to the Joint European Networking Conference (JENC), which ran from 1990 to 1997. Locations:
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
(1997),
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
(1996),
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
(1995),
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
(joint with
Internet Society
The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...
's INET conference; 1994),
Trondheim (1993),
Innsbruck (1992),
Blois
Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...
(1991),
Killarney
Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross Cast ...
(1990).
The JENC, in turn, was the successor to the RARE Networkshop, which ran from 1986 to 1989. Locations:
Trieste (1989),
Les Diablerets
Les Diablerets is a village and ski resort located in the municipality of Ormont-Dessus in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
The village lies at an altitude of on the north side of the massif of the Diablerets, , in the Swiss Alps. It can be ...
(1988),
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
(1987),
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
(1986). At the first workshop in this series, held in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
in May 1985, it was decided to create RARE.
Workshops and training
TERENA regularly organises workshops for information exchange and training. Training workshops include the TRANSITS workshops aimed at staff members of
CSIRTs and the EuroCAMP workshops to teach
NREN and
campus staff how to implement
federated identity
A federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management systems.
Federated identity is related to single sign-on (SSO), in which a ...
infrastructure.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Information technology organizations based in Europe
Internet in Europe
Internet in the Netherlands
National research and education networks
Organisations based in Amsterdam
Organizations established in 1986
Research and development in Europe