Promonte Leads with All-IP Transformation

We are very happy to establish this new partnership with ZTE and together build a future-proof network which will benefit both Promonte’s customers and the environment.

—Christopher Laska, Promonte CEO

Montenegro is located in southeastern Europe and has a coast on the Adriatic Sea. With its picturesque coast and a mountainous northern region, the country is a popular tourist destination. The Telenor Group, headquartered in Norway, is the sixth largest provider of telecommunications services worldwide, and its subsidiary, Promonte, is Montenegro’s largest mobile operator. Promonte is 100% owned by Telenor and its mobile subscriptions account for 50% of the population. As Montenego’s tourism industry has developed, its mobile market has grown rapidly so that mobile penetration now exceeds 200%.

Promonte’s networks were costly to maintain and did not support smooth upgrade to LTE, so the company decided to upgrade its existing network to grow and consolidate its market share. After a vigorous selection process by Telenor and Promonte, ZTE was chosen as the sole vendor for the upgrade of the 2G/3G network (with some sites being upgraded to LTE in 2013). ZTE supplied high performance IP Transport Network (IPTN) products for construction of the bearer network.

ZTE’s new generation SDR base stations were installed to replace the original ones, and a plan was made to deliver LTE services by 2013. This represented an evolution of mobile services from TDM to all-IP. Montenegro is a mountainous country, and microwave is the dominant technology for wireless base stations. Issues such as utilizing and boosting bearing efficiency, fast provision of new services, improving user satisfaction, and managing CAPEX and OPEX, required careful consideration to ensure long-term evolution of mobile network and to build an outstanding bearer network. With packet-based kernel, IPTN can carry packet services efficiently. Because Promonte holds ZTE’s IPTN products and solutions in high regard, ZTE was chosen above all others to build the bearer network.

■    One network to enable multi-service access: New base stations are all IP based. A number of E1 and STM-1 services, as well as services from other networks, are still carried by the existing network. ZTE provided a complete IPTN solution to cope with this situation. IP RAN was used for access and aggregation layers, to carry both Ethernet and TDM services. ZXCTN 9008 served as a PE node of the MPLS network for access to all services from RAN and the core side, while ensuring network security through node redundancy.

■    Delivery of high-quality services in tourist season: Because Promonte employed microwave technology to build the original network, the maximum bandwidth of its three national backbone rings was only 600MB. IPTN can provide an IP-based networking mode and implement bandwidth multiplexing on the link, resulting in a higher utilization rate for microwave link. IPTN has a perfect QoS mechanism and can deliver differentiated services based on service class. This satisfies the requirement for high-quality service delivery during the tourist season.

■    Reliability is the basis of network: IPTN features robust reliability, a complete OAM mechanism, and protection schemes such as PW dual-homing and tunnel protection, which provide end-to-end and hierarchical protection from service layer to link layer. High reliability, redundant critical board, and universal board design allow equipment to operate normally even in severe weather.

■    Smooth evolution to LTE: IPTN supports bearer technologies such as IP RAN and Metro-E, and is capable of smooth evolution to LTE.

■    Fast delivery: To guarantee network stability prior to the tourist season in summer, Promonte required network swap to be completed before April 2009. This involved collocation of nearly 300 2G/3G base stations and core network equipment. As the infrastructure network, the mobile bearer network had higher requirements. Prior to service swap, ZTE needed to complete installation and commissioning of transmission equipment at all nodes and ensure they passed acceptance tests within three months. Many stations were located in the mountains where the terrain was difficult and the roads were icy during winter. Some stations on the mountaintop were only accessible by helicopter. Despite installation challenges caused by the environment, ZTE engineering staff braved the bitter cold to complete the installation and commissioning of the transmission equipment earlier than agreed. All items passed an acceptance test on the first attempt, and this gave a strong indication of success in subsequent service swap. ZTE’s swift response was greatly appreciated by Promonte.

The successful implementation of the Promonte project helped the company improve the quality of its mobile bearer network. It can now deliver much-improved services to attract more customers, drive service growth, and consolidate its leading position in Montenegro’s mobile communications market. Montenegro is well on the road to an all-IP era.