OCTOBER 22, 2008 -- Cisco (search for Cisco) today announced that Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar has completed an upgrade of its optical network based on Cisco's DWDM offering.
Kyivstar's backbone includes more than 17,000 km of optical cable connecting all Ukrainian regional centers as well as big cities and resorts. It is a unified network with more than 11,000 base stations. Every city has at least two independent traffic routes that help ensure the reliability and availability of the network. Having its own extensive network, the company says it is able to provide fast and high-quality service for large volumes of mobile traffic.
"At Kyivstar, we aim to provide a reliable, high-quality communications experience at a reasonable price to meet the needs of our 24 million subscribers across the country," asserts Jozsef Huszlicska, Kyivstar's CTO. "Therefore, developing our network and improving its performance are of great importance to us. To ensure the highest quality of services, we are building a reliable platform: a backbone based on cutting-edge networking technologies like DWDM," he says.
Over the past few years, Kyivstar says it has experienced significant growth in its subscriber base, longer call durations, the emergence of new services, and a significant increase in the demand for mobile Internet. To address its customers' need for greater bandwidth, the company decided to implement a nationwide optical DWDM backbone that enables simultaneous voice and data transfers through different channels and at different speeds. The Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform was used for upgrading existing networks to considerably increase traffic capacity and to minimize outages.
As a result of the DWDM implementation, Kyivstar has already increased its network capacity eight fold since 2006, and is ready to accommodate additional capacity increases. Kyivstar's 320-Gbit/sec backbone is now one of the largest countrywide networks in Ukraine, say company representatives. Thanks to the DWDM technology, it is possible to increase the capacity of the backbone without interrupting existing services, which is crucial for the country's largest mobile operator.
"Leading mobile operators like Kyivstar require innovative converged infrastructures that enable more efficient delivery of services while providing the framework for the delivery of tomorrow's new, application-intensive services," adds Alexander Lazarenko, strategic account manager at Cisco Ukraine. "By deploying Cisco's Next-Generation Network Optical Multiservice Transport Platform, Kyivstar is demonstrating its leadership in helping end users, businesses, and consumers alike handle the influx of voice, video, data and mobility services over a range of devices to deliver existing and future Next-Generation Network services," he says.
As one of the critical ingredients in the service provider optical transport network foundation, the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform with reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexing (ROADM) technology offers Kyivstar the optimum combination of flexibility, capacity, and future-proofing, Cisco reports.
The project was implemented by Cisco's Gold Certified Partner S&T Ukraine, who together with Kyivstar solved complex technological tasks such as the seamless integration of the new network into the existing transport infrastructure.
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