Poland builds Europe's largest optical research network

Once restricted by the bandwidth limitations of 622-Mbit/sec ATM
leased-line connections, Polish researchers today rely on the largest
scientific network ever deployed by a European country: PIONIER, the
Polish Optical Internet. When the final five of 21 academic MANs are
interconnected-scheduled to occur by the end of this year-PIONIER will
have reached 5,500 km of optical fiber, delivering 10 Gbits/sec of
networking power.

PIONIER supports transmission speeds up to 10 Gbits/sec across 2,600 km of
optical fiber, making it the largest scientific network ever deployed by a
European country.

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