Considerate Organization, Perfect Installation-ZTE Cooperates with E-tera to Build WDM Network

Customer Objective

As the growth of global telecoms services increases, so does the competition - operators are finding that in order to remain competitive they must optimize their networks and increase the availability of innovative services. In response to this challenge, E-Tera has partnered with ZTE to expand its network by adding new sites and interconnecting new links with original sites. The expansion has allowed the company to remain competitive while improving user experience and thus increasing its subscriber base. This project not only requires the newly built network adding WDM access sites on the sites which have more services requirements, improving the accessing speed, enhancing the network performance, supporting fine operation, but also makes use of the original device to reduce the TCO.

The original network was constructed by Nortel and the device is OM 5200. As business issues, the optical transport networks and Ethernet services of Nortel company was acquisitioned in March 2010 by CINEA. For this reason, E-Tera can’t see development plan of the devices used in the network, also the prices of existing board are very high, resulting in the cost of network upgrade and maintenance are too high.

 ZTE Solution

Form Q3, 2009 to Q1, 2010, ZTE proposes the backbone network SWAP plan to E-TERA and adopted by E-TERA on Q2, 2010. On 8th, August, 2010, E-TERA signed the contract to agree to adopt ZXWM M800 platform to replace the original Nortel device. From 18th, October, 2010, ZTE began the engineering and implemented the service cut-over and finished on 29th, November, 2010. The transmission network provided by ZTE covers from Paris to Geneva.The whole network covers Paris to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseilles, Lyons to Geneva and back to Paris, covering 33 major cities in France and Switzerland. The length of network is 4000KM. the network is constructed by ZXMP M800, 40 wave-length and mainly run SDH and IP services.

ZTE’s advanced IP over WDM solution has led to us winning this project. At the same time, ZTE’s excellent engineering delivery services show ZTE’s excellent post-sale capability on high-end market. The flexible Ethernet access scheduling capability and integrated network management platform saves operations, administration and maintenance costs. We are able to utilize existing equipment space and improve the network’s performance without changing the existing structure, modify the structure of device, install the device on services running. So, the quality of engineer delivery capacity and the stability of installation and Cutover received high recognition by E-TERA.

During the cutover of the entire project, no spare fiber prepared. So, we need to finish deploying fiber on day and implement the service cut-over on night(from 24:00 to 2:00), at the same time, do the interoperability testing with Nortel equipments to guarantee the services of the whole network running normally. As there is no spare fiber on the whole link. So we did the service cut-over segment by segment. In order to avoid rent additional equipment room to install ZTE’s cabinet(2400 Euro/a month  for 600mm * 600mm) and replace the corresponding router devices during the whole network SWAP process, the devices of all sites are installed in original Nortel cabinet. For the sites which can’t provide sufficient room place back to back installation, the site is not enough space to install back to back, which shows ZTE’s relevant technology and operational level on the old cabinet reutilization. It’s the first time for ZTE to adopt service running cutover method on backbone layer result to save a 3-month rental cost of the fiber for customer (more than hundred thousand Euros).

Through the careful organization, the consuming time of entire project implementation cut in half than original project plan and save one third of the entire project implementation cost including personnel, outsourcing, transportation, accommodation, instrument rental and more for the whole project.

Customer Benefits

1.E-TERA’s network has updated to guarantee the continual development of service. As adopting ZTE’s advanced transmission platform, the long-term development of products is guaranteed. As a global advanced WDM products provider, E-TERA can have a long-term cooperation with ZTE;

2.Enhancing the network quality and reliability and guaranteeing the services normally operate;

3.High cost-effectiveness solution and excellent up-gradation capability ensures the network is advanced and reduces the invest cost of whole network.