On behalf of the scientific community centered around the PIONIER Consortium (established in 2003), PCSS manages the PIONIER National Optical Network, which is one of the most advanced in the world. The Consortium consists of 22 members: High-Performance Computing (HPC) centers and leading units managing Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). The PIONIER network is a key component of Poland’s IT research infrastructure and a vital element of the European Research Area (ERA). Furthermore, by utilizing the European GÉANT network, PIONIER provides connectivity to European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and ensures the Polish scientific community has access to global Internet resources.
The total length of fiber optic lines used in the PIONIER network is currently 8,500 km, with nearly 7,000 km located within the country. Transmission technology with a capacity of 400 Gbps has been implemented on the fiber infrastructure, with the capability to launch 800 Gbps connections. The transmission system features, among others, GMPLS functionality, ensuring technological consistency with MPLS switches at the network layer. The network offers its users (HPC and MAN centers) Ethernet access on 10 and 100 Gbps interfaces.
The PIONIER network ecosystem is evolving toward terabit capacities, offering services that support digital innovation. It is an essential component of Open Science, developed within the European Union under the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) initiative. Poland’s IT infrastructure, of which the PIONIER network is a part, actively supports national and European scientific research, meeting the requirements of modern and advanced research instrumentation.
Members of the PIONIER Consortium
- BIAMAN – Bialystok University of Technology, Białystok
- BYDMAN – Bydgoszcz University of Technology, Bydgoszcz
- CZESTMAN – Częstochowa University of Technology, Częstochowa
- CI TASK – TASK Information Centre, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk
- SASK – Silesian Academic Computer Network, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice
- KIELMAN – Kielce University of Technology, Kielce
- KOSMAN – Koszalin University of Technology, Koszalin
- CYFRONET – AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków
- LUBMAN – Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin
- LODMAN – Lodz University of Technology, Łódź
- OLMAN – Metropolitan Area Network, Olsztyn
- MAN-OPOLE – Metropolitan Area Network, Opole
- PCSS – Poznańskie Centrum Superkomputerowo-Sieciowe, ICHB PAS, Poznań
- PULMAN – Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation-SRI, Puławy
- RAMAN – Metropolitan Area Network, Radom
- RESMAN – Rzeszów Metropolitan Area Network, Rzeszów University of Technology, Rzeszów
- ASMAN – Academic Metropolitan Area Network, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin
- TORMAN – Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń
- ICM – University of Warsaw, Warsaw
- NASK – National Research Institute, Warsaw
- WCSS – Wrocław Networking and Supercomputing Centre, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wrocław
- ZIELMAN – University of Zielona Góra, Zielona Góra
Visit the PIONIER Consortium website: https://pionier.net.pl/en/
