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Who is AARNet?
AARNet (Australia’s Academic and Research Network) is a national research and education network (NREN) that provides high-capacity network and digital services to Australian universities, research agencies, schools, and related institutions.
- Operation of a high-bandwidth national and international research and education backbone network (network infrastructure)
- Connectivity services linking campuses, data centres, cloud providers, and global research networks (connectivity services)
- Network-adjacent platforms for collaboration, data movement, and research support (research collaboration services)
- Security, identity, and access services tailored for research and education environments (security and Identity Access Management (IAM) services)
- Consulting, engineering, and managed services for network, cloud, and digital research infrastructure (professional services)
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More About AARNet
AARNet (Australia’s Academic and Research Network) delivers network and digital infrastructure services designed for the requirements of universities, research organizations, schools, cultural institutions, and related public-sector entities across Australia. Its primary role as a national research and education network (NREN) is to provide high-capacity connectivity, typically at multi-gigabit scale, between campuses, data centres, and global research facilities, supporting data-intensive research workflows and inter-institution collaboration.
The AARNet backbone (network infrastructure) spans metropolitan, regional, and international links and interconnects with other research and education networks worldwide. Architecturally, AARNet operates IP/MPLS-based wide area networking, optical transport, and peering arrangements with commercial and research networks. Services generally include Layer 3 IP transit and various forms of private connectivity that support Traffic Engineering (TE), Quality of Service (QoS), and predictable bandwidth for research, teaching, and administrative workloads.
For enterprise and institutional IT, AARNet functions as a carrier and service provider with a focus on education and research use cases. Connectivity services (connectivity services) can include campus-to-campus links, access to major cloud platforms (cloud connectivity), and interconnection with data-intensive instruments, supercomputing facilities, and data repositories. These services are often integrated into institutions’ network architectures as primary or dedicated links for research traffic, separate from commodity internet paths, aligning with standard enterprise network frameworks such as hub-and-spoke, regional aggregation, and hybrid cloud designs.
AARNet also offers collaboration and research-enablement solutions (research collaboration services), which may encompass platforms for video conferencing, content and data sharing, and support for large-scale data transfer between institutions. These offerings typically leverage standard internet protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), HTTP(S), and real-time media protocols, and are often integrated with campus identity systems via federated identity and access management frameworks.
Security and identity capabilities (security and IAM services) provided by AARNet are oriented toward multi-institution collaboration and access control. These may include support for federated authentication, authorization frameworks, and alignment with common standards used in research and education such as SAML-based federation and related identity protocols. Institutions can integrate these services with their existing directory and Single Sign-On (SSO) platforms to enable cross-organization access to shared services and research tools.
In addition, AARNet provides professional and managed services (professional services) such as network design assistance, engineering, and advisory support for institutions planning or operating advanced networks, cloud connectivity, or digital research infrastructure. In enterprise directories and marketplaces, AARNet fits into categories that include network infrastructure providers, research and education connectivity, collaboration and data-transfer services, and security and identity solutions tailored to academic and research ecosystems.
Our description of AARNet. Updated December 2025.
