China Mobile picks Nortel to upgrade Zhejiang optical backbone
June 30, 2005 Beijing, China -- Wireless carrier China Mobile has selected Nortel to upgrade the carrier's optical backbone network in China's Zhejiang province, in order to address accelerating subscriber growth while preparing for migration to 3G mobile services. For the upgrade, the company's Optical Cross Connect HDX Multiservice Switch and Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 optical platforms are being deployed to optimize carrier's provincial backbone network.
Zhejiang Mobile, a provincial affiliate of China Mobile, operates the province-wide network. Scheduled for completion by September 2005, the upgrade is designed to significantly enhance Zhejiang Mobile's network by helping to improve network performance, flexibility, quality of service (QoS), and operational cost-effectiveness. The carrier expects its subscriber base to grow from 17 million at year-end 2004 to 20 million by late 2005.
The upgrade will include two Optical Cross Connect HDX switches as hub nodes to be configured as multiple rings to optimize the backbone network. The HDX's cross connect capacity is scalable beyond one Terabit per second; in the Zhejiang Mobile deployment, the HDX will be initially provisioned at 640 Gbits/sec. The OME 6500 platform will be used in the deployment as a high-density service aggregator subtended under the HDX switch. The OME 6500 platform provides Layer 2 switching functions to support various kinds of Ethernet services. The company says the platform's VC12/VC3/VC4 cross connect capacity will enable the carrier to deliver broadband triple play services including IPTV.
"Zhejiang Mobile has been growing quickly to keep pace with the province's booming economy, and upgrade of its network is critical to maintaining high-quality services to subscribers," remarks Yuan-Hao Lin, CTO for Nortel's Greater China division. "This Nortel upgrade is designed to help China Mobile ignite and power its strategic vision for Zhejiang Mobile, while helping to reduce operating expenses."