1. Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN)
Updated February 2018

2. What is Canada’s NREN?

3. The National Research and Education Network (NREN) is an essential collective of infrastructure, tools and people that bolsters Canadian leadership in research, education, and innovation. CANARIE and its twelve provincial and territorial partners form Canada’s NREN. We connect Canada’s researchers, educators, and innovators to each other and to data, technology, and colleagues around the world.
Many partners in Canada’s NREN are celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2018 – including CANARIE, the federal partner
Virtually all developed countries around the world have an NREN, but Canada’s is unique in its federated nature.

4. Partners in Canada’s NREN
CANARIE is the federal partner in the NREN, responsible for interprovincial and international connectivity
NREN partners in each province and territory connect institutions within their jurisdiction – CANARIE connects these partners to each other and to 100 global NRENs

5. What does the NREN do for Canadians?

6. The NREN connects Canada’s research, education, and innovation communities via ultra high-speed (up to 100G) networks.
Research, education and innovation communities include universities, colleges, cegeps, research hospitals, government research labs, business incubators, and school boards
Updated February 2018

7. The NREN enables data-intensive research and education that would not be feasible over commercial networks.
Research data sets, like climate models, genomics datasets, and outputs from large telescopes are enormous and consume large amounts of bandwidth . Many of these data sets are not available over the commercial Internet, and others, while they could be transmitted over commercial networks, this would be a very very slow process. NRENs are designed to enable “bursty” research traffic, where extremely large volumes of traffic can flow unimpeded from origin to destination while not disrupting other network traffic.
Images: Cisco

8. The NREN makes access to global research instruments and vast data stores seamless so that distance is irrelevant.
30 Metre Telescope
Large Hadron Collider
Canadian Light Source
NRENs enable researchers to feel like research instruments and data sets are right outside their doors, so that access to date from global research instruments like the Large Hadron Collider, 30 Metre Telescope, and the LIGO (the instrument that enabled researchers to verify the existence of gravitational waves, earning the researchers the Nobel Prize) is easily accessible.
Similarly, data created in Canada, like that created by the “networked ocean” at Ocean Networks Canada, the Canadian Light Source, SNOLab and others can be easily accessed by global researchers collaborating with Canadians.
Genomics Databases
Neptune 2.0
Worldwide sensor networks

9. Canada’s NREN leverages global investments in advanced networks and enables Canadian students and researchers to collaborate with colleagues around the world.
Conditions of Use - These maps are made available in various file formats for use by members of the public who wish to utilise them, or link to the GLIF website. We request that you not alter the image in any way; otherwise, special permission should be obtained from the GLIF Secretariat. We also request that you include the following 'Acknowledgements' (and 'Additional Information' as needed).
Acknowledgements - The Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF) Map 2017 visualization was created by Robert Patterson of the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), using an Earth image provided by NASA with texture retouching by Jeff Carpenter, NCSA. Data was compiled by Maxine D. Brown of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Support was provided by GLIF, NCSA/UIUC, and the State of Illinois. For more information on GLIF, see
Additional Information - The GLIF map does not represent all the world's Research and Education optical networks, and does not show international capacity that is dedicated to production usage. The GLIF map only illustrates lambda networks owned by some of its participants – National Research & Education Networks, consortia and institutions – that have excess capacity they are willing to share with international research teams for applications-driven and computer-system experiments, in full or in part, all or some of the time, when possible. GLIF does not provide any network services itself, and researchers should approach individual GLIF network resource providers to obtain lightpath services.

10. The NREN connects almost 650
The NREN connects almost 650* Canadian universities, colleges, CÉGEPs, research hospitals, government research labs, school boards, business incubators and accelerators.
Each NREN partner can highlight key connected institutions in their jurisdictions
* Data as of July 2017; includes 61 CANARIE direct connections

11. Fast Facts about Canada’s NREN

12. Massive amounts of data flows to and from Canada to international partners, as Canadians are fully engaged in global collaborations to solve our most pressing problems.
119 Petabytes* in 2017
* The equivalent of watching movies 24/7 for 13,500 years!

13. Canadians’ investment in the NREN is leveraged by significant international investments.
International NRENs invest millions of dollars in their NREN infrastructures – and Canadians benefit from these investments as Canadians have access to international tools, data and colleagues via these networks.

14. How is the NREN operated?
The NREN is governed and managed by members of the NREN Governance Committee (presidents of the provincial and territorial networks plus the president of the federal partner, CANARIE).
Initiatives are guided by the NREN Strategic Plan, which lays out priority projects to evolve the NREN and maximize its value for stakeholders.
The presidents who are members of the NREN Governance Committee are in turn representing the needs and issues of concern of their members; these members are represented by members of each partner’s Board of Directors

15. Who pays for the NREN?
Investments in the NREN are made by the federal partner, CANARIE, and by NREN-connected institutions in the provinces and territories to support their provincial or territorial networks.

16. Questions?

17. Image Library: Original

18. Image Library: Original

19. Image Library: Original