The Federated Academic Community (CAFe) is an identity federation that brings together Brazilian teaching and research institutions. Through CAFe, a user keeps all of their information in the institution of origin and can access services offered by the institutions that participate in the federation. Institutions belonging to CAFe can act as identity providers (IdP) and as service providers (SP). RNP user organizations that act as identity providers currently have a full subsidy in the price associated with the use of the CAFe service. Furthermore, none of the current agreements provide for any cost to service providers. RNP is responsible for managing the service and maintaining the centralized repository with data on members of the federation.
The CAFe allows each user to have a single account at their institution of origin, valid for all services offered to the federation, eliminating the need for multiple access passwords and registration processes.
The trust relationship between institutions participating in the Federation allows the user to authenticate only in his institution of origin, which provides the guarantees of authenticity and credibility necessary for the others.
Several countries already have federations in operation or under implementation. Within the networks of educational institutions, distance learning services and collaboration activities are among the biggest beneficiaries of infrastructure offered by federations.
Service Architecture
Target Market
International Partnerships
Federal Institutions of Higher Education.
Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology.
MCTI research units.
State Universities.
Ministries: MCTI, MEC, MINC and MS.
Internal clients.
Membership as an Identity Provider (IDP)
Membership as an Service Provider (SP)
To join CAFe, the institution needs:
- Be accredited to RNP
- Apply for Service Desk membership
In general terms, the process consists of:
- Conduct a technical interview to present the service and answer questions about the institution
- The institution will carry out the installation of the service server and, when necessary, the configuration of the user base.
The total time of the process will depend on the availability of the interview and the time that the institution will take for installation.
To make a service available via federation (CAFe), the institution just needs to contact RNP's Service Desk to start the process.
In general terms, the process consists of:
- Collection of information about the service by RNP.
- Institution metadata collection
- Insertion of metadata in the federation