Marconi has been awarded a contract to expand the network of Iceland Telecom Ltd. with Marconi SmartphotoniX DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) technology.
The contract involves the installation of equipment from the Marconi SmartphotoniX optical system portfolio, including Photonics Line Terminals, capable of delivering an initial 40 wavelengths per fibre, carrying 2.5Gbit/s per wavelength. The Marconi optical products are scalable up to 80 channels of 10Gbit/s each in and around Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik, as part of a fully managed, highly resilient network.
The initial links in the network represent the first order for operational photonics equipment in the country and the contract includes training for Iceland Telecom engineers and comprehensive support.
Iceland Telecom Ltd. has built up a telecommunication system with world-leading traffic carrying capabilities. Investment in infrastructure is enables the company to deliver the capacity needed to cope with growing volumes of network traffic due to Internet, multimedia and GSM mobile services. It also augments Iceland's position as an international hub, supporting transatlantic submarine and satellite stations.
General telephone traffic, connections for mobile telephones, data links and television signals are carried over a series of optical fibre rings around the island. In addition to the phased DWDM project, Iceland Telecom has increased the capacity of its Marconi SDH-based fibre rings from 565Mbit/s to 2.5Gbit/s and aims to step up to 10Gbit/s in metropolitan areas such as Reykjavík, where demand for bandwidth is increasing rapidly. An ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) transmission service, supporting end-users enjoying broadband services such as fast Internet, Video On Demand and multimedia content, is based on the Marconi SDH core infrastructure.
Marconi's SmartphotoniX range is an integrated family of products, line systems, optical Add/Drop Multiplexers, metro products and optical Cross Connects that provide customers with an all-optical network solution. All elements of the network are managed by a single network level management system in the customer's central maintenance center. The SmartphotoniX equipment supports scalable, modular enhancement of Iceland Telecom's backbone capacity, capable of carrying on a single fibre mixed combinations of traffic including SDH/SONET, ATM, IP, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, ESCON, Fibre Channel, HIPPI, plus video and HDTV signals. The 80-channel, 10Gbit/s ADMs include ITU-T standard Digital Wrapping technology, providing inherent Quality of Service and Forward Error Correction controls irrespective of the traffic type. Pre-equalization techniques applied to the optical signals enable smooth upgrades to the maximum number of channels, as and when Iceland Telecom chooses, in flexible, "pay-as-you-grow" increments.
Iceland Telecom's international and domestic maintenance center monitors the various core systems, including the forthcoming DWDM equipment, using Marconi's existing MV36/MV38 network management systems.