News for and about the Internet2 community

[Joanne Barnett <>]

TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association)
has published the fifth edition of the TERENA Compendium of National
Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Europe. These NRENs provide
advanced, high-speed and high-performance Internet connectivity for
universities and research institutions in their countries. The
Compendium gives detailed information about these organisations and
their services, allowing for comparisons and analysis of trends.

Since the first edition of the Compendium in 2001, it has grown into a
sought-after and authoritative source of reference for all those who
take an interest in the development of research and education networking.

In its current form, the Compendium consists of two parts. One part
contains basic information on the NRENs in Europe and surrounding
regions. This part is available on the web only. For each NREN, in
addition to the basic information, the web pages offer organisational
information, information on staffing, finances, the user base of each
NREN, capacity and plans and services and developments. The second part
is the printed version, which is a compilation and analysis, giving
information on various dimensions on a large number of NRENs in Europe.

This year’s edition is the first that is part of the GÉANT2 project, and
that has benefited from the input from activity leaders in that project.
This year, the Compendium has been expanded with a new chapter on
Services, additional tables and a glossary of terms. For a number of key
areas, an attempt has been made for the first time to aggregate data for
groups of NRENs and to look at and partially explain multi-year trends.
These aggregations and explanations are given in ‘overview’ sections on
Users/Clients, Network and Traffic.  Throughout the Compendium, such
analytical or explanatory text has been highlighted. Some of the trends
have again been summarised in the “Summary of key findings”.

The publication was made possible by a financial contribution from the
Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of
the European Community.

Copies of the printed version (ISSN: 1569 - 447) may be requested from
the TERENA Secretariat, email: 

 ;

The web version of the Compendium (ISSN: 1569 - 4496) is available in
pdf format from the TERENA website at:
http://www.terena.nl/compendium/2005/toc.html

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:

1. For more information about the Compendium, including the data by
country, visit: http://www.terena.nl/compendium/ ;

2. TERENA (Trans-European Research and Educations Networking
Association) is an association of National Research and Education
Networks (NRENs) in and around Europe. These NRENs provide advanced,
high-speed and high-performance Internet connectivity for universities
and research institutions in their countries. TERENA brings together
managers, technical specialists and other people in the research
networking community, mobilising the expertise and experience of
hundreds of professionals in the research and education networking area.
TERENA as an association formed in 1986, originally under the name RARE.
It is based in the Netherlands and is incorporated under Dutch Law. The
association currently has 34 national members who operate the National
Research and Education Networks in their countries. These are the
‘voting members’ of the association. In addition, TERENA has two
international members – the European Laboratory for Particle Physics
(CERN) and the European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN) – and nine associate
members from the commercial sector and industry and the European
Commission as an observer;

3. GÉANT2 Project
GÉANT2 is the seventh generation of pan-European Research and Education
Network, successor to the pan-European multi-gigabit research network
GÉANT. The project within which the network is funded began officially
on 1 September 2004, and will run for four years. The project is
co-funded by the European Commission and Europe's national research and
education networks, and is managed by DANTE, (Delivery of Advanced
Network Technology to Europe);

4. For further information about TERENA, please email:  , 
telephone: +31 20 530 4488 or visit the website at:  http://www.terena.nl/ .