Ericsson and Extreme Networks have collaborated to work with OGERO Telecom, Lebanon’s sole provider of fixed lines, to complete the country's first region-wide packet switched metro network, in a bid to make the country's broadband communications simple and cost effective. The two have built Ethernet metro networks in China, Sweden, New Zealand and Italy.
The new communications network spans distances of 65 Kilometers and consists of 57 core sites with 36 access sites that will cover all of Lebanon, with an Ethernet Ring connecting Points of Presence (PoPs) around Beirut and surrounding major cities.
The network is designed for carrier class performance, featuring a physically redundant network configuration with fast restoration performed with Extreme Network's Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching Protocol (EAPS) capability, providing automatic service recovery over the network within less than one second.
In addition to providing a broadband network service infrastructure for the region, OGERO Telecom's internal corporate network, supporting bandwidth intensive applications such as IP video conferencing. Completion of the network, including two phases of testing and switch installation occurred in less than three weeks.
OGERO was created in 1972 to run the installation of the previously established Franco-Lebanese Radio-Orient company. In January 1975, the organization was asked by decree to administer and run the existing computer for Billing and IT activities on behalf of the
Maintenance and Exploitation Directorate at the Ministry of Telecommunications (MoT).
In September 1994, the duties of maintenance for the MoT preexisting facilities were handed over to OGERO in the frame of a five-year plan aiming to the installation of one million new phone lines to be followed again by another million in a second phase.
Ericsson provides Mobile and Broadband Internet communications solutions in more than 140 countries. Headquartered in California, Extreme Networks provides applications infrastructure in more than 50 countries. — (Mena Report)
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