Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), the Paris transport authority, has chosen Marconi to build a new multi-service broadband network for video surveillance, voice communications, and advanced data services for the Paris Metro and the city's train, bus, and tram system.
When complete, the 8 million British Pounds (14 million Euros or about $12 million) network will be one of the largest networks installed anywhere in Europe and will support up to 6,000 cameras and 300 video monitors. It will also connect 400 Private Automatic Branch Exchanges (PABXs), linking some 40,000 telephone lines and 1,500 local area networks across 500 Metro, train, and bus stations.
RATP's primary objective was to upgrade its video surveillance system to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance security inside its stations. The network will also provide new services for passengers, such as Internet access and an internal video channel. To achieve all this, the RATP needed a new multi-service broadband video, voice, and data network that would also allow it to make use of its existing legacy networks. According to RATP representatives, Marconi's ATM solution provided a packet-based, multi-service network that matched their requirements exactly.
"The RATP's need for a communications network that links a number of Local Area Networks and supports different applications is similar to the requirements of a service provider," contends Zeus Kerravala, vice president of Enterprise Infrastructure at the Yankee Group (Boston). "Marconi's expertise in delivering carrier-grade, multi-service solutions with the flexibility and scalability to expand in a cost-effective manner, is a good fit for RATP. It is also an example of how communications networks need to evoke the same business efficiency and certainty that users expect of their utilities--always on, but transparent to the end users like electrical service," he adds.
Deployment of the backbone network for RATP is due to begin in the summer of 2002.
For more information about Marconi plc (London and Pittsburgh, PA), visit the company's Web site at www.marconi.com.