5. Advanced, Identity and eduroam Services

Beyond the core service portfolio, the Asi@Connect survey tracks 22 advanced services — research databases, HPC, public cloud, telemedicine, IoT, blockchain, and others — using a three-state classification per NREN: Demanded, Implemented, or Planned. The dual-wave structure shows the community in motion: 108 total implementations in 2025, up from 82 in 2020 — a +32% increase — with a substantial planning pipeline.

Sections 5.1 through 5.6 examine the advanced-services landscape. Sections 5.7 and 5.8 then turn to Identity Federation — where eduGAIN connectivity, federated services portfolios, and the Identity/Service Provider population are profiled — and to eduroam coverage and operational services, where the Asia-Pacific footprint is mapped country by country. Section 5.9 closes the chapter with the first compendium-level look at AI-enabled services across the community.

5.1 The Community Pipeline

Aggregate totals show implementation catching up with demand: Implemented responses grew from 82 in 2020 to 108 in 2025 (+32%), while total demand eased slightly (147 → 136). Tracing the 147 "Demanded" items from 2020 forward five years, 48% are now Implemented and a further 13% are Planned — so roughly 61% of the demand recorded in 2020 has either been delivered or is on track; a quarter (25%) is still demanded but not yet built or planned, and 14% has dropped from the pipeline entirely. This is a strong delivery record for the community. (This five-year trace follows the 2020 demand cohort forward — a different lens from the 2025 demand-satisfaction snapshot in §5.3, which measures current demand.)

5.2 Service-by-Service Pipeline

Per service, each NREN's status falls into one of five logically distinct categories that distinguish demand-driven delivery from delivery that occurred without explicit demand: Demanded & Implemented, Demanded & Planned, Demanded only (unmet), Implemented without expressed demand, and Planned without expressed demand. eduroam and IPv6 lead implementation with most reporting NRENs already delivering. Computing/Storage, Public Cloud and HPC follow with substantial active pipelines. Services like IoT, Virtual Lab/Smart Classroom, Research Gateway Server and Content Filtering show large "demanded only" segments — these are the natural opportunities for Asi@Connect knowledge transfer and co-investment.

5.3 Demand Satisfaction

Normalising the previous figure by total demand per service gives a clean view of how well each advanced service's demand is being satisfied. Community-wide in 2025, of 136 demand responses across 21 services, 43% are met by implementation, 12% are being met through active planning, and 44% remain unmet — meaning 56% of expressed community demand is either delivered or in the pipeline. The unmet 44% represents the priority surface for Asi@Connect. (This snapshot measures 2025 demand — how much of what NRENs want today is being met — as distinct from the five-year trace of the 2020 cohort in §5.1.)

At the service level the rates vary widely. eduroam and IPv6 lead the field (89% and 88% of demand met by implementation), with e-Journals, e-Learning and Telemedicine all at 71% or above. At the opposite end, Content Filtering (86% unmet), Research Gateway Server (83% unmet), IoT (75% unmet) and Virtual Lab/Smart Classroom (67% unmet) have the largest unmet-demand fractions and stand out as natural project priorities — particularly because the absolute demand counts on these services are not small (4–7 NRENs each).

5.4 Implementation Growth, 2020 → 2025

Per-service implementation counts give a clear picture of where the community gained ground and where it lost it. The biggest gainers are Computing/Storage and Security/NFV/SOC (both +4), followed by IPv6, eduroam and Public Cloud (all +3). A handful of services show decline: e-Books (−3), Virtual Lab/Smart Classroom (−2) and e-Learning (−1), often reflecting either migration into commodity provision outside the NREN remit, or a shift in user priorities.

5.5 Top Implementers

ThaiREN remains the sustained leader, with eleven services implemented in both 2020 and 2025. REANNZ also reaches eleven in 2025, but did not report in the 2020 survey, so no trajectory is drawn for it. Below the leaders, CERNET (ten) and PERN (nine) form the next tier: PERN's rise from four to nine is the largest genuine expansion among NRENs reporting in both waves. BdREN (eight), LEARN and PREGINET (seven) and SingAREN (six) follow. The dumbbell chart shows each NREN's journey: open dot = 2020 position, filled dot = 2025 position, with the connecting line in sage for growth or coral for decline. REANNZ, lacking a 2020 baseline, appears as a single 2025 marker.

5.6 Full Status Matrix

The complete matrix shows every NREN's status against every advanced service: implemented, planned, or demanded-only. The matrix makes the natural Asi@Connect collaboration opportunities visible: services that one or two NRENs have implemented and many others are planning are prime candidates for knowledge transfer through the project.

5.7 Identity Federation

Identity federation is the connective tissue that lets a researcher's home credentials unlock services across institutions and borders. The 2020 → 2025 trend lines reveal three interlocking stories: a maturity ladder where reporting NRENs are visibly advancing, a portfolio of federated services where planning intent vastly outweighs current delivery, and a population of Identity Providers (IdPs) and Service Providers (SPs) that has roughly doubled across the community.

5.7.1 Federation Maturity Status

The federation status of each NREN follows a clear progression: Not Planned yet → Under Plan → Under Test → National Federation → eduGAIN. These five states are mutually exclusive in the survey data, with one operational nuance — NRENs at eduGAIN are by definition also operating a National Federation, since eduGAIN membership requires it. The chart below treats this implicit fact as explicit. The community-level shift between 2020 and 2025 is meaningful: 'Not Planned yet' dropped from 5 NRENs to 2, eduGAIN connectivity grew from 5 to 7, and Bangladesh's BdREN advanced two full steps from Under Test to eduGAIN — the most visible movement in the cohort. New entrants to the ladder in 2025 are NREN-Nepal (Under Test) and ErdemNET (Under Plan). REANNZ also appears at eduGAIN, but did not participate in the 2020 survey, so its earlier federation status is unknown — its appearance reflects first reporting, not a confirmed new arrival.

5.7.2 Federated Services

Seven services are tracked in the 'Federated Services' framework, where each NREN's status for each service is one of: Provided (operational federated service), Planned (on the roadmap), or no engagement. The matrix below shows every NREN's posture across all seven services in both waves. Sage arrows indicate progression — an NREN that moved from Planned in 2020 to Provided in 2025; muted arrows show continuity (same status both years); coral would mark regression (none observed). The pattern is striking: BdREN converted Big File Sender and Digital Library from Planned to Provided; CERNET converted Cloud Storage; ErdemNET remains the sole provider of Trusted Digital Certificate; LEARN newly delivered Research Repository, Big File Sender, Digital Library, and Video Collaboration. Several NRENs (CERNET, PERN, BdREN, IDREN, LERNET, NKN) maintain extensive planning portfolios, suggesting a substantial pipeline of federated services awaiting delivery.

5.7.3 Identity Provider and Service Provider Population

Beyond status flags, ten NRENs report the actual number of Identity Providers (IdPs) and Service Providers (SPs) they operate. The community totals tell an unambiguous growth story: IdPs nearly doubled, from 620 across 9 NRENs in 2020 to 1,219 across 9 NRENs in 2025 (+97%). SPs grew similarly, from 138 to 273 (+98%). CERNET dominates the population — 938 IdPs and 156 SPs in 2025 — followed by ThaiREN (87/87), LEARN (55/1), MYREN and IDREN (40 IdPs each, both newly reporting), BdREN (24/5), SingAREN (15/5), and HARNET (14/7). BdREN's twelve-fold IdP scale-up (2 → 24) is the steepest individual climb among existing reporters.

5.8 eduroam Coverage & Services

eduroam — the global federated Wi-Fi roaming service — provides one of the most concrete and widely used benefits of being an NREN. Survey respondents report two related metrics: the campus footprint of their eduroam deployment (binned into four size brackets), and a set of four operational support services (Hotspot Beyond Institutes, Configuration Automation Tools, F-Ticks statistics, and Service Location Map presence). Both metrics show community-wide growth between 2020 and 2025.

5.8.1 Campus Coverage

Across the Asia-Pacific region, 15 NRENs reported a campus-coverage bracket in 2025, against 15 in 2020. The map below shows the 2025 distribution by country. CERNET (China), MYREN (Malaysia) and Pakistan (PERN) anchor the top tier with 100–500 campuses each — MYREN's leap from the 10–50 bracket in 2020 is the single largest jump in the cohort. Indonesia (IDREN) and Thailand (ThaiREN) occupy the 50–100 band. The 10–50 bracket holds steady, gaining new entrants REANNZ (NZ) and SingAREN alongside continuing NRENs, while the ≤10 bracket holds Mongolia (ErdemNET) together with CamREN, DrukREN and Laos (LERNET).

To make the changes between 2020 and 2025 explicit at the NREN level, the chart below presents each NREN's bracket position in both waves as a journey. Open dots mark the 2020 bracket, filled dots the 2025 bracket, and the sage arrow signals upward movement. MYREN's +2-step jump stands out; IDREN, ThaiREN, PERN and NREN-Nepal each advance one step; ErdemNET, REANNZ and SingAREN are new entries in 2025. PREGINET is the sole NREN that reported a bracket in 2020 but not in 2025.

5.8.2 Associated Services

Four operational services support the eduroam stack: Hotspot Beyond Institutes (allowing roaming users to authenticate at non-academic hotspots), Configuration Automation Tools (CAT, the standard configuration distribution mechanism), F-Ticks Configured (the eduroam statistics-reporting protocol), and Presence in the Service Location Map. Community delivery grew in every category between 2020 and 2025: Hotspot 1 → 4, CAT 3 → 8, F-Ticks 4 → 7, Service Location Map 6 → 10. The matrix shows which NRENs deliver what. BdREN and LEARN stand out as having gained multiple services in this period, while REANNZ — joining in 2025 — already reports all four operational; PERN maintains continuity on three of the four services (CAT, F-Ticks, and Service Location Map presence) across both waves. Several large eduroam operators (CERNET, HARNET, ErdemNET) do not report any of these supporting services — possibly because they use bespoke implementations rather than the standard stack.

5.9 AI-Enabled Services

The 2025 survey introduced AI as a tracked category. Adoption is at an early but rapidly evolving stage: of 19 responding NRENs, 16 currently use AI in some form. The data covers three dimensions — the intensity of AI usage (as a share of activities), the impact of generative AI (self-assessed), and the specific tools deployed across the community.

5.9.1 AI Adoption Snapshot

Each NREN self-reports two related metrics: the share of organisational activities currently using AI (binned into four bands from 5–10% up to 50–100%), and the perceived impact of generative AI on its operations (Little / Moderate / Extensive). The chart below shows both dimensions side-by-side, NREN by NREN. Four NRENs — MAFFIN, NREN-Nepal, PREGINET and SingAREN — sit in the highest intensity band (50–100%), and all four also report Extensive impact, a consistent alignment. BdREN, IDREN, LEARN and MYREN cluster at 25–50% intensity, with LEARN and BdREN reporting Extensive impact and IDREN and MYREN at Moderate. The most interesting case is DrukREN — only 5–10% intensity but Extensive impact — suggesting that even limited deployments can deliver substantial value where they're well-targeted. LERNET reports the lowest position on both dimensions.

5.9.2 AI Tools in Use

Fourteen distinct AI tools are reported across the community. ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Google Gemini are nearly universal among AI-using NRENs (12 and 11 NRENs respectively); Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot follow as the next tier (9 and 7). DeepSeek (6 NRENs) joins this mainstream cluster, while Claude (Anthropic), Grok, and Midjourney are used by smaller groups. The remaining six tools — Rovo, Other.ai, Canva Magic Studio, Perplexity, ElevenLabs and Invideo — are each used by a single NREN. The rightmost column captures how broadly each NREN engages with the available toolkit: LEARN (Sri Lanka) stands out with 93% coverage (13 of 14 tools, including all five custom services that appear only in its row), followed by ThaiREN at 57%. The community average sits at 30%, with most NRENs concentrating their stack on the top three to five mainstream tools.