POLISH OPTICAL INTERNET – PROGRAMME FOR eSCIENCE

The availability of modern telecommunication and information technologies has a direct influence on the evolution of all aspects of the information society. The needs of science and research community in Poland were the reason for establishing a dedicated programme for the development of the information infrastructure in Poland some years ago. A programme called „The Development of the Information Infrastructure for the Scientific Community in Poland” was prepared and realised by the State Committee for Scientific Research together with the Polish scientific community. As a result of this programme the following infrastructure has been built and is currently operating : * five HPC centres in Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw, * 21 metropolitan area networks (MAN) based on their own fibre cables with the ATM or/and GbEthernet technology, * broadband research and education network POL-34/622 operated by Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre [1], * local area networks in most scientific and academic centres, * access of Polish research and education networks first to the European Network TEN155 and next to GEANT.