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BSNL's third attempt to save network today

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: State-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will make the third attempt to save its IP MPLS network by opening technical bids this afternoon through MPLS-based Next Generation Transport-Core tender.

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The existing IP MPLS core network of the company has seen a load of over 89 per cent resulting in frequent breakdown of links during peak hours of the day.

According to a copy of the network load report, between October 1 and 15, 2010, viewed by CIOL, STM 16 link between Silchar and Guwahati touched a peak load of 89.85 per cent seven times. This link was down for over 36 hours and 32 minutes in the first of October.

STM 16 link between Mumbai and Nagpur and STM 16 link between New Delhi and Chennai broke down 19 times during this period. Mumbai—Nagpur link broke down after touching a peak load of 51.46 per cent only. This link remained down for total of 174 hours and 45 minutes which is equivalent to 7 days' time. New Delhi and Chennai link, after frequently touching a load of 77.6 per cent, broke down for 80 hours and 38 minutes.

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According to the report viewed by CIOL, there has been a total of 46 links that have witnessed breakdown during this period.

As mentioned in an earlier report by CIOL, a BSNL official involved in the operation of this network has mentioned that most of the core network routers installed in the IP MPLS network are Cisco routers and are working at one-tenth of their capacity. This official explained that BSNL just need to put additional interface cards to increase capacity.

“These routers cannot accept interface cards from any other vendor and hence BSNL is entirely depended on Cisco for expansion of these routers,” said the official.

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The official has alleged that Cisco vendors taking advantage of non-interoperability of interface cards required for these routers are quoting extremely steep prices than the prevailing price in the market.

Another BSNL official involved in the MNGT tender process mentioned to CIOL that the existing MPLS core network was set up five to six years back when prices of routers were very high. Cisco vendors have been reportedly asking for the same level of price which was quoted in RFP through which the network was set-up, he added.

“You know price of electronic equipment comes down significantly every year. From other tender of BSNL we have learnt that the price of the same routers was close to Rs 20 lakh in year 2007. Price of the similar router with better feature was seen at around Rs 5 lakh in another tender of BSNL this year. In three years we have seen a reduction of 75 per cent in the pricing of routers. Hence the price of interface cards should be much less but vendors are not passing best price on to us,” said the BSNL official.

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This official involved in MNGT tender mentioned that BSNL has been cautious and the norms of new tender have been drafted to ensure that BSNL is not deprived of products at competitive price in future.

“We have certain limitation but we have done our best within the existing framework to ensure that BSNL networks are optimized and get deployed at low cost in the coming days,” said the official.

On the other hand, Cisco refused to comment on the pricing issue of interface cards but mentioned that Cisco routers are in accordance to standards framed by International Telecommunication Union and follows industry accepted practice on international level.

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“Cisco’s routers are fully interoperable as Cisco adheres to open standards in all its technology offerings,” the company said.

For any STM-64 link (or any other link) it will have two end’s: Far end and home end. Home end (interface card) of vendor ‘A’ will only be supported across router of vendor ‘A’ only, and this is an international practice.

“Interoperability means that I could have on one end any vendor’s router and on the other end Cisco router and both of them could be connected over STM-64 link. This in industry terms would mean that both Cisco and the other vendor follow internationally laid down guidelines by governing bodies (in this case ITU), and hence are interoperable,” read the statement issued by Cisco in response to a query from CIOL.

CIOL got in touch with other players in industry to check the status of non-interoperability among interface cards. Only ZTE responded to the query and the company’s spokesperson mentioned that even interface cards can be made interoperable if ATCA architecture is adopted by players in industry.

“There is non-interoperability between interface cards and routers as of now. However, if the high-end routers can use ATCA architecture, the  interface cards from different company will to be compatible, but this is not happening yet,” said a ZTE spokesperson.

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