In addition to the national NREN network in each country, specialized regional educational and scientific networks have been successfully established and developed for many years.
These networks are named according to their respective regions:
International TEIN
- INTERNET2 – North American network
- CLARA – South American network
- GEANT – European network
- TEIN – Asia Pacific Network
- CAREN – Central Asia Network
- AfricaConnect – African Network, and so on.
The purpose of the regional network is to directly connect national NREN networks with high-speed, reliable, and quality Internet traffic. It aims to implement educational and scientific projects in both regional and global environments and facilitate connections between educational and scientific institutions as well as researchers. The European Union has played a significant role in the establishment and development of regional networks. The initiative to establish a network in the Asia-Pacific region and connect it to the European network emerged at the ASEM conference in Seoul in 2000, leading to the launch of the TEIN (Trans Euro Asian Information Network) network. The first connection between France and Korea was established in 2001. The European Union primarily funded the development of the TEIN network, and a series of projects, namely TEIN1 – TEIN4, were implemented between 2001 and 2016.
Today, the Asia-Pacific TEIN network connects 28 NREN networks from 24 countries in the region, along with more than 15,000 educational and scientific institutions and 55 million researchers.
The scope and formulation of TEIN use are very varied, as they follow science and knowledge. There is no fixed model.
Some uses:
- Remote diagnosis and treatment in healthcare
- Optimizing agricultural production and increasing yields through satellite-based intelligence in agriculture
- Using technology to advance distance learning and bridge the gap in educational quality caused by the digital divide
- Investigating and assessing the consequences of natural and climatic disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, and landslides
- Processing large amounts of research data, which require expensive equipment such as nuclear analysis, in high-performance computing systems with remote accessibility
- Connecting with major research foundations and sharing knowledge and information, among other things.
What are the distinctive features of a specialized network for education and science compared to a regular Internet network?
It can be likened to the boss’s car driving under the protection of a police signal car in front, or an ordinary civilian car driving alongside an ambulance or a fire truck on the roads of Ulaanbaatar. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, which impact internet traffic speed, and interpersonal emails do not pass through this network. Only educational and scientific data are transmitted.
The TEIN network is managed by the TEIN Cooperation Center based in Seoul. Twice a year, representatives from member countries’ NREN networks convene either in person or online to discuss activity reports and plan for future work.
However, the technical management and control of the network are carried out by Tsinghua University, a world-renowned institution in China.
