On national research and educational networks

Abstract EN

National Research and Educational Networks (NRENs) provide vibrant services for the research and education community.

The services mainly focus towards increasing mutual collaboration and resource sharing.

This eventually leads to better resource utilization and enhances research quality.

However, the maturity level of NRENs varies from country to country.

In this paper, we inspect the current status of the NREN in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

We have found that there are two Saudi organizations having connections with global NRENs, namely, King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology–Internet Services Unit (KACST-ISU).

The first organization (KAUST) was the first university in KSA to have the global NREN connection in 2011.

The second organization (KACST-ISU) had its first connection in 2016 and it is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for approximately 50 different organizations in KSA.

We have used various statistical tools to compare the two organizations, including statistics concerning the amount of incoming and outgoing traffic towards global NRENs.

We found out that more than 95% of the KSA traffic exchange is between KAUST and global NRENs.

We hope that the research conducted herein helps in providing a better overview of the current status of potential KSA research and educational network(s).

Also, we hope this research will enlighten the path for a better NREN implementation in KSA in the near future.