Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group Heads Towards a New IP Era

Challenges

● An increasing number of users as a result of network convergence

● An increasing number of high-speed mobile data services and multimedia services

● Dual-network convergence and optimization requirements for service development in the coming five years

● Unsatisfactory capacity and performance of the network export router

Solutions

● Replace the Internet router with ZXR10 T8000 cluster router to enhance performance by  fourfold

● Adopt 40G wire-speed slots (100G ready), which can be upgraded to 400G

● Adopt a multi-chassis system as a final solution to the network expansion problem

● Add an Internet local address of other site to absorb a part of traffic and to ensure stable network breakout

Benefits

● Expand network capacity severalfold to facilitate business development

● Implement protective measures to ensure network security and reliability

● Have large capacity, high performance, and smooth upgrading to meet SMG’s need for more services and functions

Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands and a population of more than 200 million, which makes it the fourth most populous country in the world. In recent years, Indonesia’s economy has grown rapidly, and the high-speed growth of its telecommunication industry has been supported by strong national policies and market demand. PT Smart Telecom is a CDMA network operator affiliated with SMG in Indonesia. Since PT Smart Telecom was established, it has cooperated closely with ZTE—its network solution provider. Over five years of development, PT Smart Telecom now has approximately 2.5 million users. In 2010, it was renamed PT Smartfren Telecom after another local CDMA network operator, M8, became affiliated with SMG. PT Smartfren Telecom is dedicated to developing data services and has deployed CDMA 1X, CDMA Rev. A and CDMA Rev. B networks. PT Smartfren Telecom has a flexible pricing policy, and this has increased the number of data card users and increased the network load.

After converging their mobile and Internet networks, SMG was faced with new challenges in their Internet breakout gateway:

● The number of mobile network users doubled along with the convergence

● Continually increasing demands for high-speed mobile data services and multimedia services

● Higher requirements on network experience and fiercer market competition

SMG’s former platform had 10G capacity, however, it wasn’t satisfying the needs of such a large number of users and was incapable of high-speed mobile broadband. The new network comprises the converged Smart and M8 networks, and it is better able to meet the demands of SMG’s business development in the next five years. It was necessary for SMG to upgrade its network breakout equipment in order to cope with skyrocketing demand for high bandwidth and new services. In order to provide better experience for Internet users, routers with expandable capacity, stable performance, and multiple functions needed to be developed.

After the strict testing and evaluation, SMG selected ZTE as its exclusive supplier and chose the ZXR10 T8000 cluster router as its Internet breakout solution. The T8000 cluster router has 1.92T exchange capacity and 40G wire-speed forwarding through a single slot (100G ready) that can be smoothly upgraded to 400G. It can be used to create a multi-chassis system, which allows the network to be expanded and gives strong support to high-bandwidth services.

With ZTE’s forward planning and careful execution, SMG was able to connect the T8000 with equipment used in the existing network. The T8000 can bear all of the Internet traffic on the SMG network.

The CPU’s rate of multipurpose use reported by the ZXR10 T80000 can be determined by observing the remote webmaster and on-site equipment. This rate was less than eight percent even in peak service periods. This reflects the superiority of the forwarding and control-element separation of the new-generation cluster router and distributed component based software. The ZXR10 T8000 router allows new services or functions to be dynamically loaded, and capacity can be smoothly, reliably, and stably expanded. Depending on the in-service software upgrade (ISSU) function, ZXR10 T8000 allows regular online module upgrading.

Although one Internet breakout gateway satisfies the need for network expansion, potential risks still exist because of the single node and single address. Natural disasters also occur frequently in Indonesia, and optional cables are easily broken in such events. After considering network optimization proposals by ZTE engineers, SMG decided to add a local address to offer local mobile Internet users nearby access, to absorb part of the network traffic, and to shorten the response time of Internet services. This measure also enhanced the breakout strength of the SMG network. 

SMG already has more than 500,000 mobile data users and 100,000 data card users and is happy with excellent performance of the ZTE ZXR10 T8000 cluster router. Richard Tan, vice president of PT Smartfren Telecom, said, “ZTE T8000 cluster router helps us out of our difficulty with network expansion, and we are very satisfied with its stable performance and reliable operation. It fully meets our demands for network development.”