As of today, RailTel has a commissioned OFC network of about 45000 KM connecting about 4500 Railway stations across India. RailTel is terminating 1 pair of fiber at every Railway station enroute which are spaced at 8-10 Kms to serve Indian Railways. The network diagram showing details of OFC laid, under progress and work proposed is shown in the following diagram:
As of today, RailTel has a commissioned OFC network of about 44500 KM connecting about 4400 stations across India. RailTel is terminating 1 pair of fiber at every Railway station enroute which are spaced at 8-10 Kms to serve Indian Railways. The network diagram showing details of OFC laid, under progress and work proposed is shown in the following diagram:
Backbone Network
RailTel has followed a layered approach in designing its network for efficient resource utilization and ease of management. Accordingly, RailTel has created three layers viz. Access Layer, Edge Layer & Backbone/Core layer.
Concept of Layered Network Architecture
The Access layer is provided minimum of STM-4 (625 Mbps) bandwidth at every stations normally spaced at every 8-10 Kms. The traffic from access layer is aggregated on to the edge layer each having STM64/STM-16 (10/2.5 Gbps) connectivity which is available in important locations at every 30-40 KMs. While the traffic from edge layer is finally aggregated on to the backbone layer available in big cities/towns located at every 60-70 Kms predominantly having DWDM (n*10 Gbps) capacity.
Backbone network have been configured in multiple ‘self-healing’ ring architecture which provide for redundancy by automatically redirecting traffic away from failed/ de-graded route for fault-free service. These networks have been designed in such a way that full redundancy is available for bandwidth between any two points, all the time.
The complete network is managed by centralized Network Management System (NMS) located at regional Network Operating Centers (NOCs) at New Delhi, Mumbai, Secunderabad & Kolkata. It enables provisioning of traffic of any granularity with the extensive reach from any part of the country to any other part.
RailTel Data Network
One of the objectives of formation of RailTel was to spread telecom revolution in the remote and backward areas of the country by building state of the art multimedia network. In this process, on top of the SDH/DWDM network, RailTel has implemented country wide MPLS-IP backbone network to provide whole range of VPN & Internet services. The network has been built using high end carrier grade routers. The network supports services like Layer 3 and Layer 2 VPN services, broadband internet access, multicast services etc. The Core MPLS network has POPs at 40 cities across the country and with 200 edge routers available at other important cities/towns also. The IP services at all 4500 POPs in the country can be extended through Ethernet interface available in the SDH networks at these locations which will in turn be connected to MPLS –IP backbone network. The MPLS NOC is also equipped with network provisioning and performance management tools.
Further on top of the MPLS network, RailTel has also rolled out NLD (National Long Distance) Services for carriage of Inter-Circle voice traffic based on the State of the Art NGN (Next Generation Network) platform.
Termed as the next step in World Communications, this NGN network has the potential to converge the traditional PSTN (voice) network, Wireless network and Data (Internet) Network on to a single Packet (IP) infrastructure. NGN is termed to be a future proof technology enabling RailTel to launch various Value Added Services (VAS) as and when market demands.
Access/Last Mile Network
RailTel has attracted customers from all major verticals like Service Providers, Enterprises, Govt. /PSU departments, Banking & Financial Institutions, MNCs, Universities, and Defense among others. This has necessitated building equally strong access network in all important cities across country.
Accordingly, RailTel has created a fiber access network in over 100 important cities of the country. The access technology based on Metro Ethernet/PTN/WDM is being widely deployed to enable high capacity provisioning for our customers. Most of the commercial hubs within these cities have been connected with backbone network so as to enable timely & efficient delivery of various services to our customers. In addition to above, RailTel also provides point to point and point to multi-point wireless access network across India which helps in delivery of services wherever fiber is not technically or commercially viable.
Data Center
RailTel in Apr’13 launched its first Data Centre (as well as of Indian Railways) at Secunderabad. This is the 8th Data Centre in the country having Tier-III certification for design and facilities by Uptime Institute, U.S.A. Subsequently in Mar’15, RailTel also launched its second Data Center at Gurgaon having Tier-III certification from Uptime Institute, USA. Both Data centers have approx. space of 5000 sq ft. each providing approx. 110 racks of Data Center space.
It has world class facilities with state of the art Data Centre Infrastructure Management System (DCIMS) and Building Management System (BMS) in place. All the infrastructure in the Data Centres are concurrently maintainable with the state of the art redundancy features including redundant power supply as well.
RailTel Data Center at Secunderabad
Network Operations Centre (NOC)
The complete network is managed by centralized Network Management System (NMS) located at regional Network Operating Centers (NOCs) at New Delhi, Mumbai, Secunderabad & Kolkata. It enables provisioning of traffic of any granularity with the extensive reach from any part of the country to any other part. The complete MPLS network is managed by centralized network management system (NMS) located at New Delhi with back up at Secunderabad. For the SDH/DWDM network, RailTel has NOC situated at all four regional HQs which maintains the network under their respective territory. However, each of the NOC is provided with back up on the other regional NOCs. RailTel has got the unique advantage to meet the quality bandwidth and service requirements from single network. The state of art network enables point and click provisioning of the bandwidth from any one point to any other point on the network, across the country.
RailTel has an excellent team of highly qualified engineers supporting our customers 24x7x365. Proactive maintenance and monitoring is the hallmark of service delivery by engineers thus ensuring better support. The NOCs are capable of generating online reports for monitoring of SLA parameters on a periodic basis.
A Centralised Network Operations Centre (CNOC) is being developed at Delhi by RailTel, with capabilities of monitoring and managing the entire RailTel network across the country from one location. It shall have better features and controls on the network, providing for easier and more efficient network management.
Designation : Dy. General Manager – Corporate Coordination
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