Nokia completed an optical transport network upgrade for Indian neutral telecom infrastructure provider RailTel, addressing growing bandwidth requirements and digital inclusion initiatives using a vendor agnostic strategy.

The vendor integrated its 7750 Service Router with a Broadband Network Gateway and Carrier Grade NAT functionality, a set-up it stated positions RailTel to handle enterprise-grade high-speed traffic and internal ISP offerings.

Nokia also deployed its 1830 Photonic Service Switch and transponder technology, delivering a “substantial increase in transport capacity” while keeping cost per bit to a minimum.

RailTel’s existing infrastructure and unused channel spectrum were added to the mix, and Nokia delivered Lambda transmission and “express traffic lanes between cities”.

The work spanned the entirety of RailTel’s DWDM National Long-Distance network.

Sanjai Kumar, RailTel chair and MD, said the project is a “pivotal step” in modernising its systems.

Adding Nokia’s technologies to its existing infrastructure provides RailTel the efficiency needed to “deliver superior, faster and more reliable services” to enterprise and broadband customers, he said.

RailTel is a central public enterprise within the Ministry of Railways which set out to modernise rail communications and since evolved into an ICT service provider.

It operates a nationwide fibre network of more than 64,000km and two Tier-3-certified data centres.