Telkom Matures with Backbone Network Expansion

Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands, making it the largest archipelago in the world. With around 240 million people, it is also the fourth most populated country. Indonesia’s economy has grown quickly in recent years, driven by market demand and supported by state policies. Its telecommunications industry has become more dynamic and has entered a stage of rapid growth. PT.Telkom is the largest fixed-line operator and the leading international gateway operator in Indonesia. It boasts abundant communications infrastructure and holds a majority stake in Indonesia’s largest mobile operator, Telkomsel.

Because of the rapid development of Indonesia’s telecommunications industry and the increasing demand for communications services, the capacity of Telkom’s transport networks has become a bottleneck in service development. Indonesia’s unique geographical location also poses some problems for Telkom’s existing network protection solution.  ZTE has developed a perfect solution for Telkom based on their existing network and has helped Telkom build a cutting-edge backbone transport network. This provides strong foundation for Telkom’s rapid business growth. 

Securing a Dominating Position

Indonesia’s population and telecommunications infrastructure are distributed unevenly. The island of Java is only 10% of Indonesia’s territory but owns 70% of the total exchange capacity in the country. Java is strategically important to all operators in Indonesia.

Telkom planned to build its Java backbone transport network in 2004. The network would carry backbone services for all major cities in Java. Because of Java’s vital strategic position, Telkom put high requirements on network stability and reliability.

After a long and careful selection process, Telkom chose ZTE as their exclusive supplier of the Java backbone transport network. Ultra-long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and next generation synchronous digital hierarchy (NG-SDH) equipment was chosen, and since it was put into operation in 2005, the network has been stable and highly reliable. ZTE and the backbone network have been highly praised by Telkom. Telkom now earns millions of dollars every year by leasing transmission bandwidth to operators without backbone transmission facilities. Telkom’s Java backbone transport network has become the core telecom network in Indonesia. This cements Telkom’s dominating position in Indonesia’s telecom industry.

Seeking Optimal Solutions for Expanding Capacity

With the rapid development of Indonesia’s telecom industry, Telkom has encountered new challenges:

   An upsurge in voice and data traffic and growing demand for new services mean there is an urgent need for Telkom to expand network capacity and simplify network hierarchy.

   Indonesia has a lot of volcanic and earthquake activity. Many fiber breaks are caused by natural disasters and present new challenges to MSP protection at the SDH layer.

   Because different types of old and new optical cables are used, cable aging and replacement places high requirements on management of optical power and dispersion.

To address these problems, ZTE has proposed a unique solution for transforming dual-ring networks into three-ring and five-ring networks. Double insurance is provided for optical cables by integrating service protection functions of SDH and DWDM. An IP over WDM solution is adopted to carry fast-growing IP traffic over existing DWDM. These solutions meet all of Telkom’s requirements, helping Telkom successfully expand network capacity while greatly reducing investment. 

Implementing Seamless In-Service Swapping

Telkom’s Java backbone transport network carries over 5,000 2M TDM services and a large number of POS services. In the capacity expansion project, many optical sections and nodes must be reconstructed or swapped. The project is so complicated that any service interruption caused by a small mistake will have serious consequences.

For in-service network reconstruction, ZTE leveraged the excellent protection capability of its transmission equipment and developed a highly reliable project implementation solution. The solution allows for multinode section-by-section reconstruction, whole service migration, off-line circuit configuration, and fast system restoration. ZTE succeeded in upgrading and reconstructing the whole backbone network without adversely affecting network services.

Telkom also used ZTE’s automatic power optimization (APO) system to expand capacity. The system can automatically detect attenuation variation of optical cables, adjust system optical power in real time, and keep system power in an optimal state. Manual adjustment and optimization are not required for aging and attenuated optical cables. This reduces maintenance work and improves network performance. Telkom’s requirements for optimization and management of the WDM system have been well satisfied, and its network TCO has been reduced. The excellent performance of ZTE’s DWDM equipment and ZTE’s reliable project implementation mean Telkom’s Java backbone transport network has been smoothly upgraded to a 40G network and seamless in-service swapping has been implemented.

Telkom has cooperated with ZTE on many projects, including two expansions and reconstructions of its Java backbone transport network, construction of a MAN in Sumatra, construction of a backbone transport network in Bali, and construction of an inter-island WDM submarine cable network. Telkom has expanded its network coverage, and its leading position in Indonesia’s telecom market has been strengthened. From Q1 2009 to Q1 2010, Telkom increased its fixed broadband user base by 79% and mobile broadband user base by 607%.