This national digital cross-connect network will be the first of its kind in China. It will also be the largest digital cross-connect network ever built in Asia Pacific. It will greatly strengthen the reliability and flexibility of China Telecom’s transmission network, thus meeting the country’s demand for advanced multimedia services and key customers’ need for special traffic protection.
Alcatel will implement the project in 30 major cities by mid-2001. The cross-connect systems will cover an area of more than five million square kilometers throughout the Central and Eastern provinces of China, where premium-quality and high-speed multi-service transmission demand is booming. It is estimated that 1 billion people will directly benefit from this project.
According to the contract, Alcatel will supply its Optical Multi-service Gateways (4/4 and 4/1 Digital Cross-Connect), which are part of the Optinex(TM) family Alcatel’s transmission solutions. With a total network cross connect capacity above seven Terabit per second, this backbone will be able to connect simultaneously more than 100 million existing telephone lines.
By adopting the intelligent DXC technology, China Telecom will be able to greatly upgrade the capability and quality of its high-speed backbone network, said Mr Chang Xiaobing, Deputy General Manager of China Telecom Group. This cross-connect network will offer a reliable, flexible, unified and advanced high-capacity core platform for all kinds of services, including Virtual Private Networks, fully satisfying the need for high-quality traffic. It would also greatly reduce the costs by fully and efficiently utilizing its current transmission capacity, and would improve the integrated business operation of China Telecom Group, he added in a press release.
Just widening the streets is not enough to reduce traffic jams, and you need to solve problems at crossroads, parking areas, traffic lights coordination, and in case of accidents. And Alcatel’s cross-connect solution greatly enhances the network transport by taking care of these issues, said Jean-Marie Vansteenkiste, president of Alcatel’s terrestrial networks activities.
The enabling technology of digital cross-connect solutions will automatically route the digital flow via crossroads to its destination in the most flexible, efficient and reliable way, maximizing the use of the network capability. The advanced PRC (Protection and Restoration Combined) technology ensures immediate traffic recovery against multiple and simultaneous failures by intelligent and automatic re-routing.
