Porta Optica Study was an international project co-funded by the European Commission, with the ultimate goal of stimulating and consolidating initiatives to ensure the successful deployment of a dark fiber-based network in Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Southern Caucasus.
The coordinator of the project was PSNC (Poznan Supercomputing and Network Centre) – manager of the national research and educational network (NREN) in Poland.
The project brought together 12 partners from 11 countries- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarussia, Ukraine, Moldova, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Georgia.
The national networks of Armenia and Azerbaijan (ASNET-AM, ARENA, AzNET ja AzRENA) were represented by CEENet (the Central and Eastern European Networking Association) – an association of national organisations coordinating the international aspects of the academic, research and education networks in Central and Eastern Europe and in neighbouring countries.
The Porta Optica Study strived to find top-level research groups in need of a higher bandwidth. During the project, case studies have been carried out to determine the fiber network development plan in Eastern Europe, and the Cooperation Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy of the project also have been developed. Another important goal was to raise project awareness and visibility in research communities and their funding bodies.
The Project was launched on 1 February 2006 and ended on 30 April 2007.
The European Commission provided the project with 316 000 Euros in support.