Alcatel-Lucent IP and SDN technology to increase agility to TIM’s national backbone network

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is to transform and make more agile the national ‘backbone’ network of TIM in Italy, deploying its portfolio of IP core routing and Carrier software-defined networking technology to optimize the provision of new video and cloud services.

The transformation project with TIM will see Alcatel-Lucent deploying its 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS) IP Core Router portfolio alongside its previously provided 100G agile optical networking technology. Alcatel-Lucent’s 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) will enable integrated end-to-end management of IP and optical transport network.  The network will be implemented by end of 2016.

TIM will also use Alcatel-Lucent’s Carrier SDN-based Network Services Platform which will allow it to cost-efficiently define new services and activate them in real-time. This reduces TIM’s costs and improves network operations while offering its subscribers a high-quality, on-demand service experience.

Key Facts

• Under this agreement Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 7950 XRS nationwide across Italy, with the 5620 SAM providing end-to-end network management across the IP and optical network layers, allowing TIM to meet its customers’ demands for high-quality, fast and efficient data services into the future.

• Alcatel-Lucent will also deploy its Network Services Platform. The NSP is a Carrier SDN technology developed specifically for application in the Carrier Wide Area Network (WAN) that  combines network-aware service automation with service-aware network-automation so that service providers can reduce network complexity and gain the insight and control needed to deliver on-demand network services quickly, profitably and at scale.

• Alcatel-Lucent’s 7950 XRS portfolio delivers class-leading scale, efficiency and versatility to address a wide range of networking requirements. More than 50 customers have chosen to deploy the 7950 XRS to-date.
• In June, Alcatel-Lucent announced it would deploy its 100G agile optical networking technology using the 1830 Photonic Service Switch in  TIM’s  core and metro networks.

Quotes

Gabriela Styf Sjöman, Head Engineering & TILab at Telecom Italia|TIM, said “I am very pleased to announce our collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent for TIM’s Next Generation Core Network. It is an important and strategic decision for us as it is a key step in the continuation of our network modernisation in which we keep transforming our network for more Service Agility. Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise will help us to execute on this complex and technologically demanding project. With the IP Core Router we get a router that has the leading IP technology we require, enabling us to introduce more abstraction, programmability and simplified management in the network. Leveraging SDN WAN technology wil allow us to execute on our plans for IP/Optics integration and converged SDN control.”

Roberto Loiola, Senior Vice-President, South and Centre Europe at Alcatel-Lucent said: “We have gained a deeper understanding of TIM’s network transformation needs by working closely with the service provider, leveraging expertise at our Vimercate IP and Optical R&D center and with early support from Bell Labs Consulting, we showed how our IP Core Router would help optimize costs. Additionally, by deploying our Network Services Platform we can help TIM harness the dynamism of Carrier SDN and drive even further network agility.”

TIM collaborated with Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs Consulting on a study which demonstrated how Alcatel-Lucent’s proposed IP core network architecture and technology choice would help address the business need for improving the cost structure.

About TIM
TIM is Telecom Italia Group’s single brand, operating in the market, through the strategy of the shared value for the company and the community,   offering fixed and mobile telephony services, internet, digital content and cloud services. TIM, the enabler of the most innovative information and communication technology, is accompanying Italy towards the objective of total digitalisation, by creating ultrabroadband network infrastructure and disseminating latest generation services.