Case Study

US Army, 550th Signal Company, Qatar

Requirements

The US Army 550th Signal Company in Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar had a requirement to build a Voice over IP (VoIP) system that would interface with the DISA Edge Nortel SL-100 PBX system for DSN connectivity. The US Army needed a complete turnkey infrastructure built, right from an outdoor fiber plant to indoor premise cabling, Layer 2 and 3 switching, routing, Call Manager VoIP clusters and VoIP gateways with T1 links to the DISA Nortel SL-100. The system had to be JITC PBX1 compliant and the entire VoIP infrastructure required a pervasive environment supporting round the clock needs and desired service levels.

Solution

The Fiber optic network infrastructure had to be planned and built in advance to serve as a broadband platform for delivery of voice, video and data services

The Army needed an outdoor fiber plant designed and built to specification and code. INX worked with the US Army DPW (Department of Public Works) to determine the base layout, existing cable runs. outdoor conduits, manholes and building access points. Trenching was performed at various building access distribution points. The OSP (Outside Premise) cable was pulled using cable trucks and routed according to the base plan approved by the Army DPW. Multi-pair armored outdoor Single Mode Fiber (SMF) cable was selected for this application. INX selected Corning as the vendor for this application.

Indoor fiber optic cabling had to be planned and built for service delivery

The Army needed an ISP (Inside Premise) fiber plant designed and built to specification and code. INX worked with DPW to determine the building layouts and Carmex access points. The ISP cable was pulled and routed according to the plan approved by the Army DPW. Multi-pair indoor Multi Mode Fiber (MMF) cable was selected for this application. INX selected Corning as the vendor for this application.

Indoor Structured UTP cabling had to be planned and built for user access

The Army needed structured category 5 UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) cable pulled within the Buildings. The UTP cable was terminated in UTP patch panels and interfaced with the MMF fiber optic system using Layer 2 Catalyst switches with Gigabit capability.

The Layer 2 Switched Infrastructure had to be planned and built for network access

The Army needed a Layer 2 switched network built that could deliver voice and data services over the ISP and OSP fiber optic plant(s). INX designed a Gigabit Layer 2 network with Catalyst switches that were JITC PBX2 compliant and implemented the access network in the various buildings on the base. Voice and data Virtual LANs (VLANs) were implemented to separate the voice and data traffic. Layer 2 CoS (Class of Service) levels were implemented to ensure that VoIP traffic was prioritized over data. INX selected Cisco Systems as the vendor for this application.

The Layer 3 Routed Infrastructure and VoIP gateways had to be planned and built

The Army needed a Layer 3 Routed network built that could deliver voice and data services over the ISP and OSP fiber optic plant(s). The Layer 3 devices also had to provide VoIP gateway functionality. INX designed a Layer 3 network with Cisco 3745 Routers that were JITC PBX2 compliant. T1 links interconnected the 3745 VoIP Gateways with the Nortel SL-100. Layer 3 CoS (Class of Service) levels were implemented to ensure that VoIP traffic was prioritized over data. INX selected Cisco Systems as the vendor for this application.

The VoIP SoftSwitch had to be planned and built

The Army needed a VoIP SoftSwitch that would complement the existing Nortel SL-100 TDM based PBX system. INX selected Cisco Call Manager for this application. The dial and route plans were developed to ensure compatibility with the DSN system. SRST Router gateways were implemented for redundancy. The VoIP stacks on the IP phones were configured, tested and implemented. INX selected Cisco Systems as the vendor for this application.

Benefits

The Army considered the following benefits of the VoIP Solution:

• VoIP simplifies moves, adds, and changes
• VoIP phone numbers are portable and are associated with an IP phone instead of a location
• The Army can add or delete numbers from IP phones and turn features on or off
• Users can control features through a web based application or their IP phone interface
• Various XML applications developed by the DoD can be accessed by the IP phones