Azerbaijan Research and Education NetworksAssociation (AzRENA) was established in August of 2000 by the leading institutes and universities on the basis of the National Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan Republic. The Association is non-governmental organization and public for academic and education institutions.

AzRENA's policy is directed to:

• development of regional networks and regional training centers;
• enhancement of internal infrastructure of the city of Baku;
• development of the national information resource;
• implementation of data exchange in the field of education and science via Internet with a high-speed external connection;
• creation of remote training systems, E-operation and remote education;
• co-operation with organizations concerned with development of education and research networks.
  

Connection to Internet of AzRENA's education network is carried out in asymmetric mode via two NOC (Network Operation Center) with a connection speed 1 Mbps at the State Economic University and the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Republic. The education and academic institutions of the city of Baku are connected with NOCs by means of the dedicated and physical lines and Radio-Ethernet Bridge. Data transmission is carried out via local ISPs. This AzRENA network has been expanded within the project on the infrastructure enhancement and connection to AzRENA backnone of Ganja and Nakhchivan being the regional members of the Association (NATO Grant No. NIG 976370).
Providing of AzRENA network with a high-speed access to Internet via a satellite link will be carried out within the project "Virtual Silk Highway", implementation of which will allow increasing a bandwidth of the links up to 24 Mbps with a guaranteed bandwidth 3 Mbps.

AzRENA network connects about 15 education and research centers. At present time about 900 workstations serving 6000 users are connected to Internet via AzRENA.
Technology of AzRENA infrastructure networking is flexible and mobile that allows fast developing of regional education and academic networks and integrating them in a general network in the cities and regions of Azerbaijan.

There exist other organizations providing access to Internet for non-commercial education and research institutions in Azerbaijan, which AzRENA closely co-operates with. As an example may be cited: Azerbaijan Scientific Educational Computer Network (AzNET) founded by four Azerbaijan Universities and two International organizations on the basis of the infrastructure created within IREX/IATP and OSI in 1999 and Baku Scientific Educational Centre (BSTC).

In the future installation of two exchange points between AzRENA and AzNET networks is planning in the city of Baku and regions.

Co-operation with other organizations providing access to Internet for education and research institutions will allow optimizing traffic and creating of the general technical Academic Education Network in Azerbaijan.