OTE Video Contribution Network
Who is OTE?
OTE is the Hellenic National Telecommunications Organization, the largest telecommunications provider in the Greek market and, together with its subsidiaries, forms one of the leading telecom groups in southeastern Europe.
Since 1996 (when OTE was a state-owned monopoly), the Greek government has been gradually reducing its participation in OTE's share capital. On May 14th 2008, an agreement was signed between the Greek Government and Deutsche Telekom regarding the participation of the latter in OTE's share capital.
The OTE Group offers a full range of products and services, from broadband services, fixed and mobile telephony, to high-speed data communications and leased line services. In addition, the Group is involved in a range of activities in Greece, notably satellite communications, real-estate and professional training. At present, OTE companies employ over 30,000 people in 4 countries.
Project Description 2007-2009
In 2007, Telmaco was awarded the project to supply, commission and support the equipment for upgrading the landline Audio/Video contribution network of OTE. The older technology equipment, already in operation for decades, was to be gradually removed and replaced. This supply would cover the whole national contribution network, using OTE's SDH backbone ring. The following categories of equipment from Tandberg TV have been supplied:
-MPEG-2, 4:2:2 encoders
-ATM adapters
-MPEG-2, 4:2:2 decoders
-Management system
The technical challenge for Telmaco was to provide a solution for and commission the large number of equipment spread, country-wide by OTE (close to 1000pcs of equipment) under a unique management and control system. The contribution network finally has been put in operation rapidly with no significant problems.
Design philosophy & equipment
The interfaces to OTE's SDH network, depending on the areas required to have access, is E3 (34Mbps), and STM-1 (155Mbps) electrical and optical. Any point-to-point or multipoint-to-multipoint connection should be performed through a centre located in Athens where the monitoring and control/routing is managed.
For the high-traffic central areas the Tandberg's MA5300D Network adapter of has been provided either with bi-directional STM-1 electrical or optical interfaces depending upon the available line type in each area. The MA5300D adapter is capable of receiving and/or transmitting a total of 24 ASI streams per unit, coming from the MPEG-2 encoders or going to the MPEG-2 decoders.
For the low-traffic areas where only one service may be required, the MPEG-2 encoder E5710 has been provided with a built-in 34Mbps adapter option. In this case, the encoder only transmits towards the destination point through the Telecom network directly. In the case where this single service meets a higher traffic mid-point, a network adapter TT6120 is supplied to convert the signal from 34Mbps to ASI and feed the larger MA5300D along with other possible services towards OTE's centre and the final destination.
Originating sites are using the E5710MPEG-2 encoders and destination sites the TT1260 decoders in order to decode the stream to baseband PAL or SDI video and audio signal. In many cases originating sites are also destination sites including encoder(s) and decoder(s) in the same area.
Management System
The management system includes an HP server running Tandberg's nCM Cortex software under a Windows Server 2003 operating system, exchanging information currently with 3 client PCs (with capability up to 10 clients) running the same applications as the client, under the Windows XP operating system.
Using a graphical user interface the authorized user may create point to point or point to multipoint connections to be activated immediately or at a specific time in the future. The system provides the necessary information about the resources of the network and alerts if the resources, in terms of bandwidth or other resources, are not sufficient for a connection.
Live connections are displayed on a map along with the status or possible alarms on any device on the network. An alarm log is available for the users to have a clear and fast view of the alarm history.
