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FAQ
Key answers about the African eduMEET Federation: WACREN's role, participation models, identity integration, and support.
What is the African eduMEET Federation?
The African eduMEET Federation is a WACREN-led initiative to provide African research and education institutions with a sovereign, federated, open-source video conferencing service. It is modelled on the European eduMEET Federation and uses the same open-source software, but is designed for the African R&E community — seeded with media nodes across WACREN's 12-country backbone.
How does it relate to the European eduMEET Federation?
The African federation uses the same eduMEET open-source software and the same federation model as the European instance (edumeet.eu), which was developed by Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS). PCSS manages the software layer for both federations. WACREN is the seed institution for the African instance, providing the initial media-node layer and managing African tenants and NREN onboarding.
Who is this for?
Primarily National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) affiliated with WACREN and the broader African NREN community. Universities, research institutes, and other R&E institutions can participate through their NREN. Organisations outside the traditional R&E community that need sovereign, privacy-respecting video collaboration are also welcome to enquire.
What is WACREN's role?
WACREN seeds the federation with media nodes across its AfricaConnect backbone (12 countries), provides the operational framework, manages African tenants and NREN relationships, and coordinates MOU arrangements with the eduMEET team at PCSS. NRENs that join as infrastructure contributors extend the federation's geographic reach and capacity.
Do we need to provide our own infrastructure?
No. There are two ways to participate. Infrastructure contributors provide server resources for media nodes and become part of the shared infrastructure pool. Service subscribers can join without operating their own media node infrastructure, using the shared capacity from WACREN backbone nodes and contributing NRENs.
Can we use our own domain?
Yes. Every participating organisation can run the service under its own domain — for example, edumeet.nren-ng.net for NgREN or meet.myuniversity.edu.gh for an institution. Your users see your branding throughout.
Can eduMEET integrate with our institutional login?
Yes. eduMEET supports SSO via OpenID Connect. This includes eduGAIN-based identity providers, eduID.africa, and BonafID — which are the identity federation layers developed for African R&E institutions. If your institution is connected to a national identity federation, eduID.africa or BonafID, your SSO integration is straightforward.
What is the connection to eduID.africa and BonafID?
eduID.africa is WACREN's pan-African identity federation layer, and BonafID is the federated access layer developed under AfricaConnect4. Both use OpenID Connect and are compatible with the SSO integration model that eduMEET requires. This is a structural advantage of the African federation over a greenfield deployment: the identity layer is already in place.
What room sizes does the federation support?
Rooms are classified automatically by current participant count: Meetings (1–100 participants), Lectures (101–300), and Webinars (301–1,000). A room can move between categories as participants join or leave — no pre-configuration is needed.
Who maintains the software?
The eduMEET team at PCSS (Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center) manages the eduMEET software layer, installation, updates, and federation-level operation. Infrastructure contributors operate the underlying server environment. WACREN manages African tenant configuration and NREN relationships.
What happens if a media node is unavailable?
The federation model routes traffic through other available nodes. Meetings continue and participants are not removed or interrupted. WACREN's seeded nodes across the backbone provide baseline resilience even before NRENs contribute additional capacity.
Is eduMEET open source?
Yes. eduMEET is an open-source WebRTC-based platform. The federation builds on this foundation to provide a shared infrastructure model. Open-source governance means no proprietary lock-in and community participation in software development.
Can we customise the branding?
Yes. Participants can use their own logo and visual branding within their tenant. Your users see your institution's or NREN's identity, not a generic service.
What is a concurrent slot?
A concurrent slot represents one actively running session of a given size at the same time. The federation is sized by concurrent usage rather than by total named users — which is more efficient for institutions where only a fraction of users host meetings simultaneously.
Can we combine infrastructure contribution and service subscription?
Yes. Organisations can contribute infrastructure, use the resulting slot entitlement, and add paid subscriber capacity when usage grows beyond the agreed entitlement level. Contributed cores reduce the paid capacity needed.
What happens if we exceed our entitlement?
Meetings continue and participants are not removed. Excess usage is measured as overage in the relevant category and addressed after the billing period. Contact WACREN for current overage terms for African participants.
How is the African federation different from the European one?
The same software stack is used in both federations. The African federation is distinct in that WACREN seeds the initial media-node layer across the AfricaConnect backbone, the identity layer (eduID.africa / BonafID) is tailored to African institutions, WACREN manages African tenant onboarding and relationships, and pricing and subscription terms are being set to reflect African R&E context. Both federations share the eduMEET team's central management infrastructure.
Is the federation fully sovereign from day one?
Partially. The media nodes — where actual audio and video traffic flows — are hosted on African infrastructure across the WACREN backbone from day one. WACREN holds full administrative control over all African tenants, user management, and domain configuration. The orchestration and management layer currently runs on shared infrastructure operated by the eduMEET team at PCSS in Europe — the same infrastructure used by the European federation. This is a deliberate starting point that lowers operational complexity during the pilot phase.
Will WACREN operate its own management infrastructure?
Yes — this is part of WACREN's roadmap. The transition to an African-hosted management node, operated independently of the European federation, would make the African federation fully autonomous: orchestration, management, and tenant data all on African infrastructure under WACREN's operational control. The MOU between WACREN and PCSS includes provisions for this migration, covering configuration handover, data portability, and operational transition. The current shared model is the pilot architecture, not the permanent one.
How do we start?
Contact WACREN at PMO@wacren.net to discuss the right participation path for your NREN or institution. Indicate whether you can contribute server infrastructure, prefer a subscription model, or are not yet sure. WACREN will follow up with the onboarding documentation and next steps.
Still have questions?
Tell us about your organisation and what kind of participation you are considering. We will find the right path for you.
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