Avaya Managed Services Powers Peak Performance for 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany Network™

12-Jun-2006

Avaya Network Operations Centers see more than six terabytes of information in first week while monitoring 30,000 devices and 45,000 network connections across 70 locations including all 12 stadia from Frankfurt to Munich

Munich, Germany and Basking Ridge, N.J. -- On the field, the spontaneous choreography of opposing teams echoes the traffic displayed in Avaya’s Network Operations Centers supporting the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™. One player mirrors another and in milliseconds foresees the path of least resistance; still others prepare for deviations. Engineering for contingencies is critical for both team and network. Performance is based on anticipation, action and recovery – in simultaneously seeing both the direct route and the alternate.

It’s showtime. Network activity peaks with more than six terabytes of information transmitted in the first week as the millions volunteers, players, organizers, journalists and spectators converge on the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany. Now, Avaya Global Services takes the stage in the FIFA IT Command Center in Munich, Germany and the Avaya Network Operations Center in Coppell, Texas. Their mission: optimal functionality, maximum uptime, no security breaches. The converged network Avaya built for FIFA combines voice and data and connects over 70 locations including all 12 FIFA World Cup stadiums – from Frankfurt to Munich - the media centers in all stadiums, and the FIFA headquarters in Berlin.

For Avaya (NYSE:AV) the Official Convergence Communication provider for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, months of planning meet the final test as terabytes of data race over wired and wireless, public and private, IP networks from origin to goal. Worker and spectator accreditation and ticketing requirements vie for network space needed to send photos, player information and game results instantaneously around the globe.

Equipped with sophisticated remote monitoring and trouble resolution tools, the Centers continuously track the FIFA network performance – all 30,000 devices, all 45,000 network connections – twenty-four hours per day, every single day throughout the games.

The Avaya network is used by journalists, stadium officials, volunteers, the Local Organizing Committee, even referees and players to communicate with each other and with fans throughout the games over phone, Internet and video. Thirty-two teams, FIFA executives and employees, countless officials and visiting dignitaries will all depend on the transportation and protocol application to get to hotels, cars, trains and airports.

For more than 250 Avaya Global Services personnel directly supporting the event, the kit-bag of choice is Avaya IP Support Services, packed with monitoring and management services key to making the mission a success, including:


* The Enterprise Service Platform (ESP), a unique, service delivery platform, is the foundation for Avaya IP Support Services. ESP provides remote network management services that proactively monitors the relationship between voice and data IP applications, as well as their shared physical network infrastructure to quickly detect – and in some cases, automatically resolve – performance issues at their source - before any impact occurs.



* The Secure Intelligent Gateway (SIG) which provides a secure access and visibility to devices across the converged network, and receives information from these devices for continuous, real-time analysis. The SIG also enforces pre-set network security policies established by Avaya for FIFA World Cup.


For the 2006 FIFA IT Solution, Avaya Global Services is like a coach who gains a broader perspective of the field in play and makes adjustments to optimize the team. On the FIFA IT field, Avaya gets help from its Converged Network Analyzer (CNA), which focuses on the end-to-end performance of applications -- such as FIFA’s accreditation and ticketing applications -- as they traverse the network. CNA measures all available paths over the IP WAN and determines whether a better path exists to meet the needs of the application. If the application indicates a slow-down on the network, intelligent analysis of the cause can help determine whether re-routing can reduce network congestion or whether a virus is affecting performance. Early, effective action helps ensure the end-users virtually never experience delays, outages or loss of data.

“The Converged Network Analyzer is one tools on which we rely heavily for the FIFA IT Solution. Network performance can affect application performance, and CNA provides visibility into the applications,” said Bryan Jefferson, senior technical director, Avaya FIFA World Cup Program. “It’s a powerful tool that not only monitors performance, it isolates faults and notifies us when delays prevent operation within the level of quality need.”

Although championship teams make sure that their players get enough rest, for Avaya, the network never sleeps. Twenty-four hour monitoring means someone, somewhere needs to be on the alert – even with all the remote monitoring tools at their fingertips. When the sun goes down on the FIFA IT Command Center in Munich, another continent away in Coppell, Texas the Avaya Global Services engineers and technicians pick up the watch. The result: an optimal performance by a championship team.

To see a demo of Avaya’s IP Support and Managed Services, please go to:
http://www.avaya.com/gcm/master-usa/en-us/resource/filter.htm&Filter=Type:Demos

To see a 1 minute video of Avaya’s work supporting the World Cup, please go to: http://www.avaya.com/2006fifaworldcup


About the FIFA World Cup and Avaya
As the Official Convergence Communication provider for the FIFA World Cup 2006™, Avaya is providing a champion communications network for the World’s largest sporting event. The converged network – that combines voice and data on the same infrastructure– will connect the 12 host stadiums, the international media centres in Munich, Berlin and Dortmund and the FIFA headquarters in Berlin. Players, coaches, volunteers and fans alike will benefit from the Avaya network that will be instrumental in player and journalist accreditation, the reporting of results, material tracking, accommodation confirmations, transportation, and ticketing among other critical functions. With an estimated 45,000 network connections, 30,000 network devices and over 15 terabytes (or 15,000,000,000 bytes) of data, it is the largest converged communication network ever built for a sporting event.

About Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services.

Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications – and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services – Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: http://www.avaya.com.

Contact Information

Deb Kline

Avaya

Contact via E-mail