CE 1.1 Project: Reliance SDH Ring Upgrade, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand

This project report details the upgrade of an existing SDH ring by Reliance Integrated Service Pvt Ltd in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India, from January to July 2008. The project involved swapping Nortel SDH Network Elements (NE) with Fibcom NE to upgrade the collector ring from STM-1 to STM-4, addressing bandwidth constraints and supporting both CDMA and GSM networks. The author, as the MCN in charge, was responsible for planning, coordinating with OSP and NOC teams, supervising the swapping, and managing the installation, commissioning, and traffic migration. The project successfully replaced the STM-1 ring with two STM-4 rings, providing a flexible, high-speed, and cost-effective solution while minimizing mobile site outages. The report highlights the application of electronics engineering skills, database design for site details, and effective coordination, resulting in successful project completion within the set timeframe.

CE 1.1 Project Information
Name of the project: Upgrading the existing SDH ring by swapping Nortel SDH NE
with Fibcom NE
Location of the project: Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India
Project Duration: From January of 2008 to July of 2008
Organization: Reliance Integrated Service Pvt Ltd
Role and Designation during the time: MCN in charge of operation and maintenance
activity
CE 1.2 Company Background
Reliance Group is considered to be among the top private business houses in India. It has
more than 250 million customers. This group is responsible for providing power,
telecommunication, media, infrastructure, healthcare, media and financial services. This
organization was founded by Shri Dhirubhai Ambani. Reliance Group believes in shaping the
future of the nation. Reliance Integrated Service Pvt Ltd was incorporated in the year 2000. It is
a non-government company. This company provides other computer related services and
activities such as website maintenance.
CE 1.3 Project Background
CE 1.3.1 Characteristics of the project
This project of upgrading the existing SDH ring by swapping Nortel SDH NE to Fibcom
NE was undertaken by Reliance Integrated Service Pvt Ltd. The duration of this project was

from January of 2008 to July of 2008. This project was conducted in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand,
India. This project was undertaken for upgrading the existing collector ring that was of STM-1
with STM-4. The existing ring that was provided by Nortel had to be deployed and swapped with
the Fibcom 6350 series SDH equipments. The existing rings were able to carry traffic of the
CDMA network and Reliance had also started to provide same media to GSM network. There
was bandwidth constraint. This led to the proposal of upgrading the links and creating new rings
from the old rings. After completion of the shifting process, the old equipments were needed to
be recovered and shipped back to their head office along with proper documents.
CE 1.3.2 Objectives developed for the project
Reliance Integrated Service Pvt Ltd had undertaken this project to upgrade the existing
SDH ring and swap the Nortel SDH NE with Fibcom NE. The main objectives of this project
were:
 To upgrade the existing collector ring
 To replace STM-1 with STM-4
 To ensure that Nortel ring was swapped with the Fibcom 6350 series
 To overcome bandwidth constraint
 To create new rings from existing rings and swap SDH NE in various
geographical locations
 To provide flexible solutions with several functionalities
 To provide a high speed and cost-effective solution by using Fibcom 6350 series
 To minimize the outage of the mobile site

CE 1.3.3 My area of work
I was appointed as the MCN in charge for this project. My main area of work was to
expand and swap SDH NE in different geographical regions. I was working in Hazaribagh,
Jharkhand. I was working under the supervision of the Transport Manager. My area of work was
to execute the plans and activities throughout the project. I had to ensure that we were
coordinating with the OSP and Transport NOC team. After receiving the NE list in my region, I
was involved in checking the circuits and its working type on NE and find complete details.
After this step, categorization of NE based on the number of links was carried out. Being the
MCN in charge, my area of work was to supervise the entire activity of the project and upgrade
the existing ring.

Subhas Banerjee
CTO
Suprakash Majumdar
Circle Manager
Manoj Sinha
Cluster Lead
Azhar Kamal (Me)
MCN In charge
CE 1.3.4 Project Group

Figure 1: People involved in the project
CE 1.3.5 My responsibilities throughout the project
My supervisor or the Transport Manager had given me various responsibilities
throughout the project. As an MCN in charge of this project, I was mainly responsible for
managing and completing project activities and ensuring that the work was achieved within
given time. I had undertaken a significant research work for understanding the requirements of
this project and details of collector ring, NE that was to be replaced and details of new capacity
of the ring. I was responsible for making migration plans from the field side. I had to coordinate
with OSP and NOC for carrying out appropriate migration plans. I was also responsible for
implementing at field side within the desired time. I was given the responsibility to look after
commissioning and installation of the system with the vendor. Later on, I had to carry out
migration of live traffic with appropriate outage window. One of my main responsibilities was
recovering the equipment after carrying out successful migration.
CE 1.4 Distinctive Activity
CE 1.4.1 Engineering knowledge and skills applied in the project
I have applied my electronics engineering skills for upgrading the existing SDH ring and
swapping the Nortel SDH NE with Fibcom NE in an effective manner. I have utilized my
technical knowledge for making a substantial migration plan. My electronics engineering
knowledge and skills helped me to carry out the commissioning and installation process of the
system effectively. I have comprehensive knowledge in this field of electronics engineering that
facilitated me to recover equipments after carrying out migration. I have used my protocol
knowledge to load balancing. I have applied my network configuration knowledge for

successfully recovering the old NE along with the required details such as site ID, MAC address
and NE ID. My technical knowledge has been utilized in splitting the ring. I have utilized my
basic engineering knowledge and skills for designing a database for storing and organizing
required site details and help in resource management.
CE 1.4.2 Accomplishment and task performed
Effective planning and application of knowledge led to the accomplishment of this
project. This project was able to achieve its objectives by successfully upgrading the existing
collector ring and replacing STM-1 with STM-4. I had performed several tasks for successfully
carrying out the migration plan. Initially, I had undertaken relevant research study for
understanding the details of collector ring, new ring capacity and NE that was to be swapped.
The management team had carried out an audit in all sites for taking into consideration all the
physical constraints such as space, power and availability of fiber. In order to do so, I had
designed an entire database for keeping track of the details of all sites. The auditing process was
also carried out by me. The upgrade and swapping of NE were done from equipments that have
low capacity and was shifted to critical traffic in the later stages. New Fibcom 6350 was installed
in all sites by following a proper standard. NE was added in NMS by NOC. The outage window
was applied after the successful configuration process. After the approval of outage, traffic
migration from existing NE to Fibcom NE was carried out. I had recovered old NE with along
with its related details such as MAC address, NE Id and site ID. There was proper coordination
with other regions that facilitated the splitting of the ring in an effective manner. We were able to
replace the STM-1 ring with two of STM-4 rings by replacing the NE. This project was able to
overcome the constraint of the bandwidth of the existing ring and install new rings in several
geographical locations. We were able to produce a flexible solution with various functionalities.

This project was successful in providing high speed and cost-effective solution by using Fibcom
6350 series. This solution was able to minimize the outage of the mobile site. OSP team was
responsible for providing fiber connectivity. Proper cooperation and coordination with OSP team
helped me to achieve the objectives of this project.
CE 1.5 Project Review
CE 1.5.1 Project Overview
This project was about upgrading existing ring for accomplishing higher bandwidth. This
was done by replacing the existing vendor NE with Fibcom network element, Fibcom 6350
series. Minimization of mobile site outage was one of the main objectives of this project. The
existing ring was Nortel SDH, and it has few limitations such as bandwidth constraint. This
project aimed at resolving this issue by installing and commissioning STM-4 rings. This project
was undertaken by Reliance Integrated Service Pvt Ltd. It began in the month of January of 2008
and ended in July of 2008. One main stage of this project was the recovery of old equipments
and creating documents about it to send it to head office.
CE 1.5.2 My contribution to work
I have contributed throughout the project starting from the planning stage to the final
stage. The management team had considered my experience in the area of telecom transmission
and had appointed me as the MCN in charge of the Hazaribagh Jharkhand location. My audit and
database helped in identifying requirements in an effective manner. I had also applied for outage
window and recovered details of the old NE. My exemplary interpersonal and communication
skills helped in coordinating with the MCN in charge of other regions and successfully
completing ring splitting. I had also well coordinated with OSP team for getting proper fiber

connectivity and achieving project objectives. By the end of July 2008, all NE in Hazaribagh
region was of Fibcom and had higher bandwidth capacity. I was able to achieve given target
within time. My hard work and dedication played a significant role in the success of this project.