Fiber brings World Cup 98 to billions of soccer fans

Fiber brings World Cup `98 to billions of soccer fans

By ROBERT PEASE

World Cup `98, the latest installment of a quadrennial competition among worldwide soccer powers, represents one of the world`s largest sporting events this year. Approximately 37 billion television viewers and 2.5 million spectators will watch a 32-team field play 64 soccer matches in 10 cities. As some of the world`s best athletes coordinate their moves and communications on the playing field, a team of technology suppliers is providing a coordinated telecommunications effort to make coverage of the event possible.

France Telecom (Paris), in a partnership with eds, Hewlett-Packard, and Sybase, is using its national fiber-optic network to link 10 stadiums throughout France. A double fiber-optic loop provides connectivity and security to each stadium linked by the network. Each loop carries all types of traffic--data, voice, video, and mobile communications--from the stadiums and surrounding areas to the International Broadcast Center. During each soccer contest throughout the event, France Telecom teams will supervise traffic in and out of each location every half-hour to compensate for saturation problems that may arise.

France Telecom was selected as the official telecommunications operator for World Cup `98, the first time a single company has ever held that responsibility for an event of this magnitude, according to Elizabeth S. Mayeri, director of corporate communications for France Telecom.

"We`re using our existing fiber-optic network to integrate 100 local networks and 2000 computers that were installed for the World Cup," says Mayeri. "These workstations enable access to databases, e-mail, and operational management of ticketing, accreditation, and other functions from any official site."

France Telecom`s fiber-optic network was constructed in the 1980s and takes advantage of recent advancements in fiber cable, Asynchronous Transfer Mode switching, and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy technology. During the last four years, the network has nearly doubled, from 12,000 to 21,000 km of fiber on the national network, and from 27,000 to 60,000 km for the regional network. France`s major cities, cities bordering neighboring European countries, intercontinental submarine cable landing points, and satellite earth stations sites are all served by redundant synchronous fiber-optic loops.

Other technologies have found their way into France Telecom`s national backbone network, including wavelength-division multiplexing (wdm).

"France Telecom developed and deployed the first European wdm for the 320-km fiber link between Nates and Penmarch," says Mayeri. "This link combined wdm and signal amplification to achieve 10 Gbits/sec end-to-end, and began service in 1997. It`s a strategic link because it carries transatlantic telecom traffic to and from submarine cable landing points."

The use of France Telecom`s network for telephone traffic alone during the World Cup is equivalent to adding a city of 20,000 inhabitants, says Mayeri. Bringing the excitement of World Cup action to 37 billion viewers around the world is a formidable task, but France Telecom and other members of the technology team are rising to that challenge.

eds (Plano, TX) is the lead project manager and official information technology services provider. With prior World Cup experience, and having provided support for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, eds has brought this year`s event such services as consulting, systems design and development, network design, and systems integration. World Cup On-Line, the event`s official Internet site, is an eds creation as well. The third member of the team is Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto, CA), the official IT hardware and maintenance supplier. The company is providing systems to support management, information, and media, using the event`s telecommunications infrastructure. Finally, Sybase Inc. (Emeryville, CA) is the official software supplier, providing database technology, application development tools, middleware products, and software support. q