"Solaris will be an eternal challenge to the man," wrote Stanisław Lem, an outstanding Polish science-fiction author, futurologist and philosopher. He would probably be pleased that the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre in Cracow, the city to which he was related for the majority of his lifetime, was named after his most famous novel. Because we are most definitely proud that the most powerful research device in this part of Europe is using Extreme networking solutions!
You could say it's a kind of a powerful flashlight or a scalpel. It allows us to look deep into objects, cut through some bonds in molecules, stimulate new reactions or conduct material engineering on an atomic and molecular scale
Professor Marek Stankiewicz, Director of the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre
A place of great importance
It is difficult to tell which switch was first. At the beginning, the IT "team" consisted only of me, and my duties included preparing the network architecture, designing the cabling of the future centre, as well as the first purchases and support for employees. It was a time of hard work, but also of incredible euphoria resulting from laying the foundations for a place of such great research importance
Michał Ostoja-Gajewski, Head of the Control and IT Systems Department.
One of the electromagnetin the SOLARIS synchrotron storage ring (Photo: NSRC SOLARIS)
A tried and tested solution with the most valuable experience
- ensuring the shortest possible response time for devices and servers,
- ensuring stable operation of the PLC system with a very strict delay threshold,
- building a network model, which over time will be able to handle more and more connections with increasing data transmission (e.g. data from CMOS and CCD cameras or ultimately the transmission of measurement data performed by many research teams),
- ensuring network security for synchrotron and measurement lines while maintaining real-time communication.