Metro de Madrid selects Transmode gear

18 NOVEMBER 2008 � Transmode (search for Transmode) says it has been selected by the Metro de Madrid for a network improvement project to increase network reliability and to ensure that communications services continue in a disaster recovery situation.

Metro de Madrid is the company that runs the Madrid Metro, which provides service for commuters across 218 stations. The company put out a public tender seeking equipment to interconnect its main communications hubs. These are located at various points on the metro: Alto del Arenal, Puerta del Sur, Depósito de Canillejas, and Campo de las Nacion. The aim of the project was to install a fibre-optic network with built-in redundancy among these sites, ensuring that communications services are maintained while minimising the impact of any natural catastrophes or terrorist attacks.

In the first phase of the project, Transmode improved the communications network by providing Alto del Arenal and Puerta del Sur stations with a redundant, high-capacity link. Communications are now running between both locations, providing all applications, signalling information, and end-user services.

The installation, based on Transmode's TM-Series/TS-Series WDM systems, won the tender because it provided the highest network reliability and the best price/performance ratio, according to the systems vendor. The Transmode equipment was integrated into Metro de Madrid's management platform by Indra (a certified partner of Transmode), Spain's first IT multinational and one of Europe and Latin America's most important.

Enrique Pérez Amorós, manager of telecommunications, signals and control at Metro de Madrid, says, "After studying the existing technology options and the various bidders for this project, the choice was clear: Transmode fulfilled Metro de Madrid's requirements. Another factor in Transmode's favour was that the company has experience of working with other metro systems around the world."

The new system has to support the existing critical services such as:

• MetroSur's low-speed (SDH) systems
  
• Metro de Madrid's (GbE) PDHoIP systems
  
• PABX and TETRA telephony systems over ATM
  
• Metro de Madrid's gigabit Ethernet LAN network (10G)
  
• SAN-NAS systems with 4G Fibre Channel connectivity.
  

Now that the first stage has been successfully completed, Metro de Madrid is planning future developments. One is the integration of connections of the main sites in a ring-shaped homogenous architecture, and another is the possibility to integrate any future new locations.

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