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 backbone network, often offering dedicated channels for individual research projects.

NRENs are usually the places where new Internet protocols and architectures are introduced before deployment within the Public Internet. Two examples of these protocols are IPv6 and IP multicast. Two examples of architecture are client/server and Cloud computing.

In recent years NRENs have also developed many 'above the net' services. National Identity federations, many of which are represented in REFEDs, are one example of such services.

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