23 June 2003 Munich Lightwave--Siemens IC Networks is supplying its new resilient packet ring (RPR) optical transmission system to China for the first time. The first customers are the Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant in Dapeng Town (Guangdong Province) and China Netcom Corporation(CNC), one of the country's four major carriers. Delivery is scheduled for July 2003.

IC Networks is equipping the two companies' networks with its new optical transmission system based on the RPR Metro Ethernet standard. RPR allows Ethernet services to be connected within a SDH ring. RPR networks attain a high degree of transmission security because of the ring-shaped arrangement of the nodes. Moreover, metro carriers can offer their customers Ethernet services such as virtual private networks and digital subscriber line access multiplexer aggregation alongside classical TDM services. The services can be made available with different quality classes (service level agreements). Assignable on an application and customer-specific basis, existing bandwidth can be exploited to maximum advantage. The Siemens technology can be integrated in existing SDH networks.

For the Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant, Siemens is setting up an IP-based corporate LAN on the basis of RPR, making the Chinese utilities company independent of public carriers' services. The nation-wide network provider China Netcom will be employing RPR network technology in conjunction with a broadband solution from Siemens in its regional network in the Province of Shanxi. This will enable the carrier to make very efficient use of its existing SDH network and offer its customers a comprehensive range of IP-based applications. China Netcom will also be able to address corporate customers in Shanxi as it can expand its portfolio to include high-grade Ethernet services such as video and voice-over-IP.