Nortel Upgrading German GSM-R Network

Germany's national railway, Deutsche Bahn has ordered a GSM-R upgrade from Nortel Networks. Nortel first deployed GSM-R - a wireless technology, specially designed to meet the needs of railways - for Deutsche Bahn in 1999, and the current upgrade is key to Deutsche Bahn's long term development plans.

Nortel will simplify the existing network's base station controllers so that fewer, more powerful pieces of equipment can be used to support additional features for high speed trains. The controllers are being integrated using the existing Nortel-delivered core (NSS), intelligent network (IN), terminals and access (BSS) networks.

"At Nortel our innovation is focused on making business simple for our customers," said Wim te Niet, president, Central Europe. "We have this focus because the evolution of technology is rapid, and the conflict between legacy systems, platforms and approaches can slow business. By continually simplifying and enhancing Nortel GSM-R technology solutions we can deliver a solution for Deutsche Bahn that enhances communications and improves business efficiency without adding complexity."

Under the current contract, Nortel will deploy Base Station Controller (BSC) 3000 and Transcoder (TCU) 3000 Units along the entire Deutsche Bahn GSM-R network. The Nortel BSC 3000 delivers higher data and voice capacity and the ability to connect to a larger number of base stations. The upgrade also provides capacity for a potential prospective implementation of evolved wireless standards such as EDGE for GSM-R.

Posted to the site on 12th June 2008