TERENA Technical Programme in its current status reflects recent changes in network infrastructure development from network centered concept to application and content focused concept. Special areas of interest defined by TERENA Technical Advisory Council (TAC) includes: lower layers technologies and QoS, videoconferencing and streaming, content delivery, indexing and searching, middleware, mobility.
Some efforts have been put into defining middleware as the most expanded area. Middleware is the most widely covering area and often defined as a reusable, expandable set of services and functions that are commonly used by networking applications. Middleware includes network infrastructure services related to routing, resolution and management. Particular examples of
middleware are: QoS and differentiated services; directories and public key infrastructure; authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA); security infrastructure; resource descriptions and metadata; content delivery and multicast application; data management and computational grids, active networks, etc.
Another TERENA initiative that target community needs is TERENA Academic Portal (TAP). TAP concept reflects interest of many TERENA members in building community oriented portals to bind their target community and serve their special areas of interests. TAP will help research diversification and knowledge accumulation, assist researchers and educators in building authorities in new domains. It intends to combine the expertise of TERENA's community in indexing/searching, caching/storage and streaming, directory services.