The Cutting Edge of CWG

The biggest
sporting event of the country till 2010, the Commonwealth Games
(CWG), which took place in New Delhi in October 2010, witnessed one
massive deployment as far as IT infrastructure is concerned. This
project involved multiple stakeholders, including MTNL Delhi as the
official service provider for setting up an entire communication
network, Cisco as an OEM, and HCL Infosystems as the system
integrator. This entire project was for Prasar Bharti, which had
hired MTNL to design and implement the complete CWG wide area network
(WAN). In this project, Cisco with the help of HCL Infosystems and
MTNL deployed the largest state-of- he-art IP next generation network
(NGN) for any sporting event. This enabled the Government of India
and the CWG Organizing Committee (OC) to deliver world-class games
applications, communication services and impeccable standards of
collaboration services to athletes, officials and honored guests from
all over the world. This is the first project worldwide where an all
IP network has been used in any gaming event, which provided much
higher level of redundancy, manageability, and control. Besides, a
huge volume of high-definition uncompressed video (~400Gbps) was
broadcasted through Cisco's IP NGN Medianet Solution, wherein
viewers were able to witness high quality video of the games
uninterrupted. The deployment included an end- o-end quad-play
architecture with data, voice, video and mobility. The Cisco unified
communication and collaboration solution was provided through 3,500
IP phones including high- nd video phones. Another key highlight of
this deployment was that Cisco had deployed a disaster recovery (DR)
site for the main studio for the high-definition uncompressed
contribution service by leveraging the IP multicast technology. This
happened apparently for the first time in the history of
broadcasting. For this an NOC (Network Operation Center) was set up
at the MTNL building in CGO complex.

GAMES REQUIREMENTS

The basic need for
the CWG was to create 3 separate networks. One was the broadcast
network, which was the most critical and was supposed to carry the
live video feeds from the various gaming and non-gaming venues to the
International Broadcast Center (IBC) that was set up at Pragati
Maidan in New Delhi. All the international broadcasters and the RHB
(right holders to broadcast) like Doordarshan and BBC were stationed
at IBC. The second one was setting up a security data network for
carrying surveillance solutions. The surveillance cameras were put

up at various
stadia and across the city. And there was requirement of a network to
carry this surveillance traffic to the police headquarters from
across Delhi and NCR. Cisco's role here again was to lay down this
network and make sure that it is 100% redundant and without any
congestion. And the third one was games data network, which was set
up to provide Internet access, facilitating the gaming applications,
ticketing applications, and all other interfaces. In addition to
these, the stakeholders were also asked to set up a TV network to
connect more than 3,000 LCDs across 8 different venues like Ashoka
Hotel to view the events live on a contribution network. Also, there
was requirement for a VoIP network (UC solutions) across the 49
locations and other government offices.

CISCO'S
SOLUTIONS

These were the
basic 5 activities provided by Cisco on the WAN side. The LAN was
provided by various other vendors. Cisco's role was to create a
network which is redundant and secure and carries the uncompressed
high-definition video feeds from the stadiums, as well as other
places like India Gate and Qutub Minar to the IBC. Hence, it created
this IP network from all the 49 different venues and almost 107 live
feeds to the broadcast center. “Cisco had won the IT infrastructure
deployment contract for 2010 CWG, which meant the entire IT
infrastructure was managed by us. This was one of the biggest
projects for Cisco where it had deployed some of its advanced,
breakthrough technologies,” said Rakesh Goyal, senior VP-advanced
services, Cisco India and Saarc.

The Cisco IP NGN
infrastructure contains two separate networks-Managed Data Network
(MDN) and Broadcast Network (BN). Both the networks are built on IP
MPLS technology for delivering multiple services concurrently, while
meeting all other essential attributes or requirements of each
service. The core of the networks was built using 12 highspeed Cisco
CRS-1 routers that were located at 4 locations in Delhi to create
the informationsuper highway. The 4 core locations had full mesh
connectivity between each other on multiple high-speed links of
40Gbps and 10Gbps bandwidth. During these games many breakthrough
architectures were deployed for the first time by Cisco including the
first allhigh definition video contribution and distribution solution
over IP NGN infrastructure in this region. In totality, Cisco built
up 3 control points-one was NOC and DR site, a Security Operation
Center (SOC), and a control room in the broadcast center. In the SOC,
the company set up a separate team comprising of security specialists
with the objective to monitor the live traffic that was coming at the
Internet points and make sure that if there was any malicious attack
or traffic, it is proactively barred and prohibited. Goyal asserted,
“Everyday, we used to run scans to check the vulnerabilities in the
system coming from all across the globe. Our approach on security was
very strong, as this was one area where we didn't want to go wrong.
The team built an architecture that was 100% secure. And finally, no
security breach happened despite numerous DDoS attacks on this
network. And through the control room, we would interact with various
broadcasters. We not only collected their feedback, but we also tried
to rectify their issues from time to time. We also received some
tremendous comments from them about the quality of audio on this
network.”

MTNL — THE
CARRIER

MTNL had played a
very critical role in this entire communication network set up for
2010 CWG. It provided the core network around which applications were
running. All the security cameras were connected through MTNL's
network. As a service provider, it provided a robust and reliable
network that lead to 100% uptime and availability. “The entire
network was based on optical fiber network. Cisco, HCL, and other
stakeholders provided technical support to the system. For connecting
all the stadia, IBC, police headquarter, we had used the optical
fiber cable. Looking at the geographical locations of all these
places, the topology, reliability, and availability of the entire set
up, we prepared a framework of technological solutions. And that's
where we roped in HCL, Cisco and other OEMs. We had deployed the IP
MPLS infrastructure and the entire audio solution was based on it. It
has brought a paradigm shift in the entire audio solution,” pointed
out Jitendra Garg, DGM- TF CWG, MTNL Delhi. According to Garg, all
the stakeholders provided unconditional support to MTNL, be it Cisco
or HCL Infosystems. MTNL had given around 7 months time to HCL to
complete the entire project and had promised to provide the entire
required infrastructure by end of March or by early April 2010.
However, the sites got ready only by September 2010. Though this
brought all of them under tremendous pressure, everything was
commissioned by September 28, 2010. “I can divide the Cisco
experience in two parts. One is the manpower and advanced services
provided by the company, and second one is equipment and technical
solutions. Cisco's solutions were incomparable. They were of
excellent quality, reliable, and interoperable. It also offered very
high standard solutionsand equipment. And that's the reason why we
chose Cisco. The company coordinated very well with other OEMs and
delivered the entire project without creating any fuss. Its team was
competent enough to meet all the targets,” said Garg. Meanwhile,
MTNL invested approximately Rs 425- 450 crore in this entire project.
It is also looking forward to use this experience in other gaming
events not only in India, but also internationally.

HCL'S ROLE AS SI

The implementation
of this entire communication network was undertaken by HCL
Infosystems. HCL was the system integrator for this complete CWG WAN
data network, which was based on the cutting-edge IP MPLS technology.
“There were many stakeholders involved in this project. We had
designed this WAN along with the major OEM (Cisco). Apart from this,
we also established NOC at CGO complex, where we used to monitor all
the activities live about the health of the system and any
equipment/device going faulty. We had respective teams sent to
different sites to take control of the complete network,”
highlighted Col Harjeet Singh Bedi, project director-CWG, HCL
Infosystems. The company also played an instrumental role in
providing 24x7 support in order to ensure that there was 100% uptime
and highavailability of WAN. The support structure included NOC and
DR center established at the OC headquarter in the NDCC building.
Cisco had set up a Technical Assistance Center that gave technical
assistance support to HCL to maintain the high-availability of the
network. Col Bedi further added, “For the first time, we deployed a
solution called FTMS (Fibre Terminal Management System). It used to
manage the health of all the fiber at the NOC, and an immediate
action was taken by the team present at the ground to repair them. We
managed to give 100% redundancy even if the fiber was cut somewhere,
as there were other redundant routes available. This has been our
contribution as the SI.”

BEATING THE ODDS

All the
stakeholders involved in this project had to face one challenge or
the other-be it during the implementation phase or after the
project had gone live. As an OEM, Cisco feels that handling such a
large and complex project is itself a big challenge. Besides, some of
the changes that happened at the sites till the last moment were
difficult to handle for the company. The involvement of multiple
stakeholders and liaisoning with other government agencies,
ministries, host broadcasters, and others was a daunting task for
Cisco. “There were a lot of logistical issues as well because
accessing some of the sites was a big task for us. However, the good
part was that all the stakeholders were committed and working very
closely with us. We ensured an increased communication and put up
additional teams to manage the last minute changes and requests,”
said Goyal. Similarly, the biggest challenge for HCL Infosystems was
the time for execution. Adaptability to work with large number of
stakeholders was also a big challenge, as the company believes that
nothing works in isolation. There were some internal challenges like
monitoring the equipment from all across the globe, managing the
logistics, etc. Col Bedi further added, “We precisely had 5-6
months to set up everything. But in reality the sites were not ready
in time. We were promised by both the OC and MTNL that they would be
ready in all aspects by April 30, 2010. However, we got some sites at
the end of August and some by mid- September 2010. Surprisingly, we
got 3 sites after the game commenced. This gave us hardly any time to
test our systems.
For this kind of project, you need at least 18 months. Even the
instructions from the government did not trickle down right up to the
working level.” “We had to face challenges on the technology
front. Since we were using high-definition, uncompressed video for
the first time and that too on such a large scale, managing it was a
big challenge for us. We had to deal with a lot of interoperability
issues as well. During the implementation phase, time was the essence
of the entire project. We got a limited number of days from the
government of India to implement the entire network. Liaisoning and
coordinating with all the agencies and meeting their expectations and
requirements was also a daunting tasks for us,” concluded Garg.