Avaya continua!
Not for Avaya`s sake, but all of ours, may its success in staging network design and management at past World Cups also benefit 2010. We spoke to the local office to get an idea of what such a network might look like - whoever implements it.Six years before the first whistle of the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup, the technology requirement is already under serious discussion. It seems very early for this to be happening. Do we know what technologies will be around then, or even which companies will survive the onslaught of consolidation?But the 2010 bandwagon is belting out corporate anthems and spawning radio campaigns, motorway billboards and pole ads. We cannot in good conscience ignore all this, because what is needed is a communications network of a scale that isn`t built in a day.Admittedly, experience has shown that the design, building, monitoring and maintenance of a global converged network can be done in a relatively short time. After two years of planning for the 2003 Women`s World Cup in China, the SARS virus broke out and Avaya had to abruptly relocate to six US stadiums within a few weeks. Its 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup network, it should also be noted, was done and dusted in five months.But we have the luxury of six whole years to think about an area of technology that is fairly matter-of-fact these days, notwithstanding new developments in IP convergence. And there`s no time like the present. Basically...Given the complexity of the network requirement and the specifics of the brief, we will focus exclusively on Avaya because of its past successes in staging World Cup networks, and place our bets on IP-based converged comms to remain good for a long time. And so, with fearless pragmatism, our series about the tech platform for the World Cup kicks off by outlining the network requirement.What must such a network do? It must handle e-mail, voice and Web access for a press delegation of hundreds of reporters, from stadiums (wireless) to media centres and out onto the wires. It must do the same for officials and scorekeeping partners. It should offer quality of service in circumstances featuring high unknowns in throughput requirements. And it must have serious bandwidth for transmission of multi-megabyte images.It must connect and protect the offices of the organising committee and their dealings with FIFA head office. It must augment and connect the broadcasting network that feeds thousands of regions across the world, and it must both give access to, and terminate in, a multitude of devices and platforms. Big askIt has to integrate with existing systems and lay down new capacity where required. It must hook together stadiums, which in some cases haven`t been conceived, much less built. It has to connect to content providers in the tourism and leisure industries.It must be secure and support remote monitoring.Cost-effectiveness is the name of the game, and system capacity and sophistication are non-negotiables. The country`s ask of the candidates (most likely international vendors with the capacity to deliver an end-to-end solution) is onerous, to say the least, considering bandwidth requirements, lack of comms and telephony infrastructure, local financial constraints and South Africa`s relative inconsequentiality to multinational vendor coffers.But someone has to do it, and Alain Schram, MD of Avaya sub-Saharan Africa, says he is in discussion with his principals in New Jersey about a possible repeat FIFA World Cup involvement in 2010.Part of Schram`s motivation is that the exercise will leave a massive technology infrastructure and learning legacy, and that it could jet propel South Africa to where it belongs. For Avaya, its involvement has to date been "a great global branding exercise".Avaya (formed when Lucent spun out its enterprise division) is listed independently on the NYSE, and it holds global leadership status in important networking technologies like IP telephony and contact centres. It may again take one of a handful of major sponsorships for the South African World Cup, something that may stand it in good stead, given Cisco`s and other competitors` top-of-mind awareness in some areas of networking.It`s not a straight financial return on investment Schram is looking for, nor may it be a straight sale. South Africa doesn`t (yet) mean much in global turnover (one percent is a good rule of thumb for multinationals in ICT), and given the sponsored nature of past deals, the chances are that FIFA or the organising committees won`t actually have to buy the gear and expertise."Avaya plans to hold discussions with FIFA, once that part of the bidding is opened," says Schram. "Hopefully our guys should have first right of refusal based on our track record in 2002 and the upcoming 2006 event."His biggest problem will be quantifying the return on investment for Avaya South Africa. However, the exercise will be looked at on a global level, as the event is internationally broadcast, he says.Generally, translating raised brand awareness into financial terms is a stretch. "Korea-Japan grew our business by 25 percent quarter-on-quarter," he says. But Africa, though it goes wild for football and is the fastest growing region in many areas of IT, will probably not excite many vendors in terms of sales volumes. So branding it is. Tough sellAside from proffering that opportunity, and the chance to get on the shoulders of an awakening regional giant while cost of competition is cheap, plus the chance to fulfil company charter obligations, the proponents, including Schram, will have to argue around a relatively low-cost business plan to convince head office of the viability of the venture.Fulfilment would be through a combination of Avaya`s local channel and other outsourced contractors."I don`t believe our partners are presently geared for it," he says. But this need not compromise his desire to engender enterprise development of small black companies in partnership with the existing channel. Avaya fulfils through a select band of integrators in the shape of Business Connexion, Dimension Data, Spescom/ DataFusion and specialised distributor Kathea. Depending on the nature of the sponsorship, it will have further needs in the form of staffing, project management, promotion and education requirements - besides the technological sourcing and construction needs.The vastness of the requirement for multiple dissemination channels (traditional broadcasting and Web sites terminating on ever more devices), carrier networks, wiring (hotels, stadiums, airports and ad hoc offices) and the myriad applications on top of all that (ticketing, scoring, booking, tourism information and more), means Avaya`s task will involve a lot of solutions and services, underscoring the need for partner fulfilment.In the final analysis, the company`s involvement would be as prime contractor rather than as implementer of the gamut of contact centres, wireless access, power over Ethernet, VOIP, Internet, wireless LANs and remote monitoring. Cabling, as well as PC and server hardware (previously contracted to Toshiba), will be done through other vendors. The scopeViewers of the 2002 World Cup final numbered 1.75 billion, and the cumulative viewing figure for all matches was 40 billion. This ought to put the fear of God into local contractors. But one might begin unravelling the requirement by saying, reassuringly, that theoretically the South African event will offer only half the complexity of the 2002 event, since it will be hosted in just one country.In 2002, 20 stadiums were used. The number in South Africa will depend on the organising committee`s requirements, and they will be linked to the organising committee offices, a fully redundant data centre, an international media centre, remote monitoring from two locations - one international - and one central virtual contact centre with distributed locations.Schram figures call centres will be best located on customer premises where there is a future requirement for a lot of CRM, such as local government emergency services partnerships and utilities.Korea and Japan needed 40 000 network connections, 10 000 communications and network devices, 25 communication servers, and more than 8 000 kilometres of structured cabling. The South Africa requirement will only be made public in March 2005.To address security, in 2002 Avaya consulting teams worked with FIFA to secure the network and ensure continuous operations. In addition, it remotely monitored around the clock.To minimise the number of public phone lines, thousands of IP phones were used on a private FIFA network, and staff and journalists used IP soft phones to make Internet calls from laptops and PDAs. Coming on a converged network, this allowed Avaya to deploy quickly, support with fewer personnel, and manage moves, adds and changes (MACs) quickly and efficiently.The VOIP avenue is now open to South Africa as well, and there is enough time before the tournament for the voice service gold rush to abate and the real business of sorting out interconnection and service squabbles to be done with. In 2002, Avaya offered wireless high-speed Internet access to more than 500 FIFA officials, journalists and photographers by providing high-speed wireless laptop cards. This is a given for the next World Cup - or the concessions of the Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) will have been for nothing. The stuffWith all this as background, we perused past network diagrams for an idea of what the next network might look like. The diagram shown here is, at heart, a link-up between the abovementioned media and data centres and official offices, and their inter-connections. Technologies used may include power over Ethernet, WLANs, IP Sec-based VPNs, class-based queuing, Frame Relay and ATM. Remote monitoring tools will include remote alarm monitoring and resolution tools.From the 2002 example, each stadium will access the core network via dual E1 links. Links of 20 Mbps and 45 Mbps could connect the media centre and data centre respectively. The media centre, data centre and officials` centre will feature Internet access, probably running at 45 Mbps. A combination of leased lines, dial-up and Internet VPN connections could link the management centre. Standards-based routing protocols will ensure interoperability with other-vendor equipment.An IP-enabled communications server will be placed in every stadium. IP soft phones and hard phones will be provided and virtual private networks (VPNs) will be used extensively. Based on IP Sec, the VPN solutions will use encryption and support remote monitoring and maintenance. They will also provide a low cost fail-over solution for the data connection to scorekeepers, as well as secure global access to vendor personnel.And before the kit is dropped, design and installation, network assessment and security consultation will take place, leading to a staging phase where testing is done. Security could involve port lock-down, despite natural fears that this would slow down inevitable MACs. Wireless comms and FIFA head office comms will have to be placed in a demilitarised zone. OutcomesThe Avaya network did all of this with distinction in 2002. During 30 days of games, it carried 12.03 terabytes of data. It handled approximately 3.2 million IP telephony and analogue calls, including 100 000 IP calls on an average game day. More than six million daily visitors to www.FIFAworldcup.com had access to match information. "Even by conservative estimates, Avaya`s converged network saved FIFA more than $200 000 in telephone and network costs over the month-long event," the case study boasts. And it may be time to do it again.Schram sees, unofficially, that leaving a tech legacy of this magnitude behind could be a good way to strengthen the government`s communication abilities, and says it could be done by flying some "Avayans" down to project manage, and if need be, design, install, test and run - with a strict adherence to the spirit of the charter`s knowledge transfer ethos."We could put a whole training initiative behind it," he says, referring most basically to technology skills transfer and contact centre agents - feeding through to South Africa`s outsourcing ambitions.And the pay-off? As noted above, this would be a branding, upliftment and infrastructure enhancement exercise. Though it would cost an arm and a leg, "the returns for Avaya and South Africa would be phenomenal."Once we know we have 2010, we will put it on business cards, letterheads and ad campaigns," says Schram. "It is a lobbying opportunity, not just for Avaya, but for the country as a whole. The key is to use it to help bridge the digital divide. The legacy is not just the kit, but the knowledge."
30 November 2004
Not for Avaya`s sake, but all of ours, may its success in staging network design and management at past World Cups also benefit 2010. We spoke to the local office to get an idea of what such a network might look like - whoever implements it.
But the 2010 bandwagon is belting out corporate anthems and spawning radio campaigns, motorway billboards and pole ads. We cannot in good conscience ignore all this, because what is needed is a communications network of a scale that isn`t built in a day.
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