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Avaya Has its Own Goals For 2006 FIFA World Cup
TMCnet Associate Editor
Avaya’s state-of-the-art converged communications network for the 2006 FIFA World Cup will be put to the test today during the Final Draw, which takes place at the Messe Leipzig conference centre in Germany.
The Final Draw, which determines which teams will compete in the World Cup next summer, will be viewed by approximately 350 million people worldwide, making it an ideal test for the capacity of Avaya’s network.
Avaya has been a partner of FIFA since 2001 and is the Official Convergence Communication Provider for the 2006 World Cup. It also installed the communication networks for the 2002 FIFA World Cup; the FIFA Confederations Cup 2005; and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2003.
More than 1,500 guests - including VIPs from the worlds of football and celebrity – will be on hand for the draw night celebrations. In addition, more than 1,600 members of the global media are expected to attend or be accredited.
The converged network was developed over a period of nine weeks by a team of more than 40 Avaya employees working on site. The network, which will stay live for 11 days, took three days to activate has been live since Dec. 1.
In a company press release issued today, Avaya claims it has created the “largest converged communication network for world’s largest sporting event.” Today’s finals will be “the first in a series of events that will place extremely high demand on the performance of the Avaya network.”
The network was already tested - albeit to a much lesser degree - during the weeks leading up today’s events, providing access and support to more than 500 users including FIFA and Messe employees, customers, partners, media and other guests.
According to the press release, attendees, FIFA employees and accredited users can access the network from a variety of locations within the Messe complex. Seven major conference rooms are fully equipped with Avaya AP8 Wireless Access technology. Avaya has reduced the cost of call traffic over the network
In addition to providing flexible access, Avaya has equipped FIFA staff with its Extension to Cellular mobility application, so they can benefit from one business number while being able to make and receive calls, and use applications on either a desk phone or mobile handset. The network is fully interoperable and open-standard based. As a signal of confidence in the Avaya technology, the Messe Leipzig has purchased Avaya’s voice solution for permanent installation.
Doug Gardner, managing director of Avaya’s Global FIFA Programme, said the network “is our most scalable and advanced to date, combining full flexibility with first-class performance and durability.”
“Avaya is pulling out all the stops to develop the capabilities and reach of the Final Draw network to make this our strongest and most innovative solution to date,” he said.
Mike Kelly, head of IT solution at FIFA, said “everything we learn now will feed into the 2006 FIFA World Cup network, which will be the culmination of our work with Avaya on this project.”
To improve the service quality and access options of people attending the draw, Avaya has designed and implemented a distributed network that links an additional 12 remote sites to the main converged network at the Messe Leipzig. These sites include VIP hotels, major airport lounges and train stations, and offer accredited users access to key FIFA administration, communication and businesses applications.
In addition, Avaya has provided a full converged security solution that includes an intrusion detection system and remote monitoring services from Avaya Global Services’ monitoring center in Carlton, Texas. Based on Avaya’s Enterprise Service Platform (ESP), this secure service enables Avaya consultants to access and monitor remotely all of the key systems, to track security threats or incidents.
As a precaution, the entire network was first built and tested in just three weeks at Avaya’s technology laboratory in Frankfurt. This enabled Avaya consultants to design the system, as well as to test security, performance and functionality. This was integral to meeting the strict build and dismantling deadlines imposed.
The network includes Avaya’s Communication Manager IP software running on two Avaya S8700 Media Servers, G600 Media Gateways and Avaya-Tenovis i55 gateway. In addition, the Messe Leipzig was equipped with Wireless AP8 Access Point technology. Extreme Networks will provide its data networking equipment to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted operation of Avaya’s communications solution to FIFA.
For more information on Avaya visit www.avaya.com.
Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.
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