ZTE Secures Communications Services for Olympics 2008

On August 8, 2008, the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, China, drawing attention of the world. As the top provider of 3G telecom equipment in China, ZTE helped China Mobile, China Telecom, CNC and China Unicom in providing comprehensive communications services including voice, data, business and video services, in an all-around way for the Olympics and Paralympics.

Characteristics for securing communications services for the Beijing Olympics

• High-profile: The Olympics, the largest international sport event, was held in China for the first time.
• Numerous users: Over 20,000 coaches and athletes came from various countries to participate the Olympics, and over 20 million visitors were to stay in Beijing during the event.
• Long-duration: Even if the periods for preparation and transition were not counted, the events of the Olympics and Paralympics were scheduled to last for 29 days.
• Wide reach: Stadiums (31 in Beijing), key facilities for the Olympics (the main stadium, news center, Olympic village, and journalist village), key areas (the airport, expressways, artery highways, hotel designated by the organization committee, etc.)
• Diversity of equipment: ZTE was to provide services covering key equipment of all infrastructure networks, business networks and other networks of the four major operators.

How did ZTE secure communications services?

I.　 Human resources

To ensure communications services during the Olympics, ZTE set up a company-level project organization to provide services in four levels of services. 311 field personnel, 22 field vehicles and 615 key spare parts were provided in the field.

II.　 Service area classification

The service areas were classified into three levels:

Level-1 areas include the 31 stadiums, areas around the stadiums, the Capital Airport, 23 class A traffic roads, 82 class 3A tourist attractions, 119 designated hotels, and 31 VIP customer service sites of the operators.

Level-2 areas include class A or higher-rated tourist attractions, 327 government offices, key roads, key areas, core equipment rooms of the operators, and field service sites designated by the operators.

Level-3 areas include 2,000 sites not designated as key areas. Human resources could be allocated between areas of different levels.

III.　 Equipment involved

The services covered key equipment of all infrastructure networks, business networks and other networks of the four major operators.

China Mobile’s TD equipment was distributed on 275 sites in level-1 areas (the stadiums, Olympic village, media village, Capital Airport, designated hotels, and key roads to event venues). China Mobile’s TD equipment was distributed on 1,120 sites in level-2 areas (class 3A and higher-rated tourist attractions, 327 government offices, key roads, and key areas) and on 2,100 sites in level-3 areas.

CNC and China Telecom had 1.45 million lines of ADSL distributed at two Olympic stadiums in level one areas. All the sites of WLAN, China Unicom’s GSM, business support, video conferencing, transmission, and CNC’s IPTV were distributed in level-2 and level-3 areas.

Various service products of the core layer of China Unicom, China Mobile and CNC, such as CNC’s Joyful Ring Tone, China Mobile’s Color MMS, and China Unicom’s intelligent network, SMS and gateways were the key points of the services.

IV.　 Performance

Through the collaboration of the project teams and the hard work of both field personnel and back-office personnel brought about praiseworthy results: No major failure took place with any operator. 55 regular failures and hazards were resolved. Service personnel arrived at the site for spare part services within 1 hour in all cases (with both engineers and pare parts in place). All failures were resolved within 30 minutes. All indicators satisfied the strict requirements of the operators, and end users were able to experience the excellent quality and services provided by Chinese operators.

Plan for securing communications services for the Olympics

I.　　 Network personnel on duty

The global customer support center of ZTE is the single interface for all technical support. To more quickly provide the services for the Olympics, dedicated “Olympics green passage” lines were provided to admit and answer calls related to the Olympics in priority. Experienced engineers and technical experts were designated, to ensure network personnel are on duty 24 hours a day, and conduct periodical tour inspection, indicator analysis, and performance monitoring for ensuring the communications services the to the greatest extent.

II.　 Availability of spare parts

ZTE kept a lot of spare parts in all core network equipment rooms and the stadiums, in addition to emergency response vehicles and the spare part warehouse of the Beijing Olympics Communications Assurance Headquarters. Moreover, ZTE set up another four spare part warehouses in Beijing, and each warehouse was equipped with one emergency response vehicle.

ZTE had conducted complete tests (regarding structure, performance, reliability and simulation) and 72-hour aging tests of the spare parts and make-up parts, to ensure the quality of the parts.

III. Pre-Olympics assessment

To ensure the stable operation of network equipment, ZTE assessed network equipment in the service areas, analyzed possible problems and risks which might be encountered during the Olympics, assessed the impact of such risks and their severity, and put forth correction recommendations, optimization plans and emergency response plans.

IV.　 Network optimization and adjustment

Optimization measures were taken for items of concern found in the assessment. ZTE sent experienced product experts and O&M experts forming several dedicated teams, to help with the handling of various problems and ensure that sufficient preventive measures were well in place.

• Optimization plans: Optimization plans specific to existing network bottlenecks and risks were developed based on the findings of the network assessment.
•  Implementation of optimization: Optimization activities included updating with patches, configuration optimization, network correction, equipment capacity expansion, balancing of modules, etc.
• Network tour inspection: The networks which had been improved were inspected again to ensure the networks were running as expected.
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IV.　 Emergency response exercises and plans

ZTE’s Olympics Communications Assurance Headquarters developed emergency response plans for various scenarios and products, and actively worked with the operators in organizing cross-team and cross-department exercises, to be ready for dealing with the shocks of high voice and data traffic, and regular and extraordinary cases. During the development of these emergency response plans and emergency response exercises, problems in the actual environment were identified. Accordingly, the emergency response plans were revised, and emergency response exercises were carried out again. The repetition of this process finally generated operable and effective emergency response plans for quick action, and improved the skills and psychology of all personnel involved.

ZTE are experienced in communications assurance for major events in China and other countries:

• In 2004, ZTE was awarded the contracts for DSL broadband data access and GoTa cluster systems for 16 key stadiums of the Athens Olympics, and successfully secured the communications services for the Olympics. This was the first time China-made telecom products were used for network construction and service assurance for the Olympics.
• In August 2006, ZTE, with strong technical power and rich experience in network construction, designed the “Longitudinal and Transverse” Gota network coverage plan for China Qingdao International Regatta. The comprehensive plan even included the provision of mobile telecom emergency response vehicles and successfully secured the communication services for regatta.
• In October 2009, China’s 11^th National Games was successfully held in Shangdong. ZTE’s team worked hard to help China Mobile Shandong conduct tour inspection, exercises and on-site work, satisfactorily completed the services, and met the goal of “Double 100s” of China Mobile Shandong. ZTE work was highly recognized by China Mobile Shandong.

ZTE has a professional team which is able to provide mature and systematic solutions for communications service assurance. ZTE has demonstrated excellence in communications service assurance with rich experience from major cultural and sport events. ZTE is confident to help operators address the challenges posed by various major events, to ensure the network stability and availability in all cases of high traffic and exceptional conditions and improve the loyalty of end users and the operator’s branding.