CEENet
Central and Eastern European Networking Association

Poland

Networking organization

Naukowa i Akademicka Siec Komputerowa NASK
(Research and Academic Computer Network )
Bartycka 18
00 716 Warsaw Poland

General description

NASK is an institution with the status of research and development unit, administrating its own wide area computer network, also named NASK, with a nation wide coverage and integrated with other international networks. The NASK network is constructed as backbone - its basic function is to provide computer communication to 24 regional nodes located around the country, which furnish the NASK services to more than 50 schools of university standing and over 100 research and development institutions. Operational costs of these subscribers are covered by the State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN). Among the NASK subscribers there are also various state offices and agencies, self - government institutions and private enterprises.

At present the NASK connects approximately 65 000 users and more than 11000 computers. ( It is difficult to estimate number of computers because very often under one IP address there is server with very many user computers)

The strategical decision concernig the network development are discussed and adopted by the State Committee for Scientific Research, Scientific Council of the NASK and the Committee of Users.

Actual topology

See the picture

NASK leases transmission lines owned by other telecommunication operator - mostly Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. ( Polish telecommunication operator ) The Warsaw Toruñ line operates at 64 kbps. Lines connecting Warsaw with towns of Katowice, Gdañsk, Kraków, Wroclaw, Poznañ, and Lublin have a much higher throughput of 2 Mbps.

The main international gateway of NASK is the Warsaw Stockholm satellite link with a speed of 2 Mbps providing access to the international NORDUnet network. NASK also operates the Warsaw Vienna 128 kbps trunk (soon to be upgraded to 256 kbps) and Warsaw -Moscow, Miñsk, Lviv lines.

Warman

Within the framework of NASK, the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) covering the town's area is being constructed in Warsaw. The network will serve mostly scientific and academic users ( more than 500 institutions in 200 different locations ). The WARMAN network will use the backbone structure for communication with other metropolitan networks having a world wide coverage.

Main transmission system will employ the Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology ( ATM ) an will have a form of 10 nodes and 30 concentrating units placed at different locations within the town and interconnected with fibber optic links - in most cases with a SDH/STM-1 protocol of 155 Mbps throughput.