Compensating for the ever-increasing demand for high-bandwidth connectivity is every service provider's number one concern.  This is for good reason. Next generation services can help mobile operators limit churn and enable them to tap into new revenue streams and improve their bottom lines.

Unfortunately, completely rebuilding a network is cost-prohibitive for most service providers.  This creates a quandary over what to do. One viable option for forward-thinking service providers is IP/MPLS backhaul solutions.  These enable carriers to leverage their existing broadband access infrastructure – whether it be microwave, copper (DSL) or fiber-based (GPON).  In the process they serve as the foundation for a flexible high-performance network, all without major capital expenditures or increased operating expenses.

Several broadband access solutions currently exist, but most all of them fail to successfully address broadband infrastructure backhaul requirements while leveraging DSL or GPON.

According to Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) in a recent application note, Leveraging Broadband Access Infrastructure for IP/MPLS Backhaul, these requirements include:

• Comprehensive Services Offering: While providing modern Ethernet-based services is critical to every service provider, legacy technologies – such as TDM, ATM, Frame Relay and HDLC – must also be taken into account. Providing the ability to offer these services simultaneously with no QoS problems is essential for any IP/MPLS backhaul solution.

• High Reliability and Availability: To minimize churn and improve customer loyalty, access solutions must be capable of delivering redundancy and resiliency at all platform and network levels, including the IP/MPLS Layer, the DSL Physical Layer and the GPON Physical Layer.
• Efficient Bandwidth Scalability: No telecom solution is worth the initial investment if it is incapable of scaling alongside the growth of a subscriber base. A capable solution must be able to cost-effectively provide the required bandwidth needs in current and future markets. If a platform can't exceed current bandwidth needs, it shouldn't be considered.
• Quality of Service: The ability to provide business customers with strict service level agreements (SLAs) can be a key differentiator for an operator that is trying to drum up new business. This can be difficult with backhaul solutions because multiple services are being aggregated, each of which has different latency and jitter requirements. Platforms that can account for this and support flexible QoS assignment and protection for multiple differentiated traffic flows set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.
• Strong Network Management and OAM Capabilities: A capable access solution must offer operational management capabilities that are required to address the service and commercial expectations in an end-to-end IP network.

Reality is that until recently, no broadband access solution was capable of supporting these requirements, making the technology rather unappealing to operators. That all changed when Alcatel-Lucent-Lucent launched the 7705 Services Aggregation Router (SAR) family of products, which provides an integrated set of DSL and GPON backhaul capabilities that can help service providers quickly and efficiently accommodate for business traffic growth.  

With the SAR line of products, operators can add more bandwidth to compete with 4G network providers without having to tear down their own network or make any major capital expenditures. 7705 SARs provide automated bring-up and template provisioning capabilities – making management a snap – as well as comprehensive hierarchical traffic conditioning and management functionality for controlling network QoS while maintaining strict SLA enforcement.

Alcatel-Lucent’s success in the space has been well documented. The company was recently recognized as the leading global vendor in the Ethernet cell site gateway and Ethernet mobile backhaul router market for the first six months of 2011. Since being recognized last year, Alcatel-Lucent added to the family by unveiling new power-efficient, small footprint, high-performance 7705 SAR-M models, which they say provide additional network flexibility by supporting a variety of cell site access options.

With backhaul constituting in many cases the largest expense of mobile services operations, finding a solution that can accommodate today’s requirement while providing a cost-effective glide path to the future is critical. That is why looking at all of the elements that go into the creation of an end-to-end next generation IP-based mobile network is key, and why the backhaul component is getting so much attention these days.

Sustaining a successful public transportation system, such as train service, depends on that system being both convenient and safe. For train passengers, especially women, safety (both actual and perceived) can be a major issue.

In a recent article in TRACKTALK, “What puts women off using the train?” Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Associate Dean at University of California Los Angeles’ School of Public Affairs and Urban Planning, shined a light on the critical role video surveillance and passenger information systems (PIS) can play in helping female travelers feel safe. As she noted, “Dark and deserted stations and trains are understandably off-putting and can encourage people to seek alternative means of transport, or even not travel at all, to avoid feeling threatened, or in some instances becoming a victim of crime.”

For the uninitiated, PIS are electronic information systems that provide real-time information about estimated arrival and departure times, as well as brief descriptions regarding the causes of disruptions. PIS not only can be strategically located at transportation hubs but their information can be accessed remotely via a web browser or mobile device.  As the author says, video surveillance solutions like those developed by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), using a new Critical WAN Infrastructure solution based on IP/MPLS, go hand-in-hand with PIS as tools that, when combined with human staffing, can address the most pressing aspects of safety for all train passengers.

Loukaitou-Sideris researched this topic in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, and found that women train passengers are most concerned about their personal safety in several types of situations: 

• Waiting for a long time at a station
• Poor visibility at the station (e.g. night, poorly lit)
• Lack of staff members at the station
• Being the only passenger on board a train carriage
• The presence of another single, male passenger, or a crowd of drunken passengers

“Darkness, isolation, and limited opportunities for surveillance were all identified as the major reason that anxiety might increase among passengers, particularly women,” the author said. However, she found that unfortunately there is a gap between security measures that women feel are appropriate, and security measures operators generally choose to provide.

Transport authorities, Loukaitou-Sideris found, tend to prefer installing technology like closed-circuit TV (CCTV) video surveillance rather than adding more security staff, because it costs less. Video surveillance, of course, is only effective at actually stopping crimes if security staff is watching the feed and responds promptly when there are issues. “Technological solutions that are currently available and widely used such as communication points, and emergency buttons are viewed as a positive means of drawing attention,” stated  Loukaitou-Sideris. She added, “However, concerns though remain about where exactly the operator at the other end of the line might be, and how quickly they will be able to respond.” 

While the most fear-inducing possibility is a violent crime like rape or other physical assault, instances of intimidation, verbal assault and groping are much more common yet hard to prove, and thus tend to haunt female passengers.  Women, Loukaitou-Sideris says, feel that if there were more security staff around, these “lesser” crimes would occur less often. 

That said, if used appropriately, video surveillance and other technology can and does make passenger safer. For example, accurate information about train arrival and departure times—displayed on screens at the platform, or delivered through other means like on-board communications—helps passengers minimize the time they spend waiting at an unstaffed station.

Where Alcatel-Lucent’s Critical WAN Infrastructure Solution serves a vital function is to automate and simplify operations management. As TRACKTALK highlights, as a result of the increased desire by transit authorities around the world to protect not just passengers but critical physical assets that might be targeted by terrorists, there has been an increasingly holistic approach to railroad security.  This is driving the need for interconnected surveillance and alerting.  In this regard, several perspectives — social, economic, customer and transit system operations — must be taken into account.

It may sound a bit obvious but this approach must rely on a networking environment that is always on, always available, and can provide a level of granularity that enable authorities to accurately identify trouble spots and people and react quickly. In short, there can be no alternative to being on constant watch and having trained professionals ready to react to any contingency.   

Finally, Loukaitou-Sideris states that security must be balanced with efficiency. After all, the goal is to get people to use the system.   The implementation of cumbersome and time-consuming security practices, especially for mass transit systems in urban hubs, could dissuade not just women but all potential customers from riding the train.  She found that, “Anything that delays the transport process makes public transport less attractive compared with automobiles…Airline passengers are able to tolerate more delays, but it is not the same for rail passengers who would not wait for hours to go through security. In busy cities where thousands of people are flowing through stations this is impractical anyway.”

While we live in an increasingly dangerous world, having a high-performance communications network that can support all aspects of rail security (in stations as well as throughout the physical transit network) is no longer being viewed as a luxury, but as a necessity.  Finding the optimal balance to assure safe journeys with minor inconvenience is a complicated task which is why transit authorities are working closely with communications solutions providers to achieve that balance.