Avaya wins MCIT 'Smart Village' Headquarters contract for IT Zones in Egypt

The 'Smart Village' is the first of three information technology (IT) zones planned for Egypt, part of the government's efforts to induce ICT (information communications technology) companies, targeting the Middle East market, to base their operations in Egypt.

Five of the buildings at the 'Smart Village' allocated to MCIT, which will look after the administration and maintenance of the ambitious project, will be connected through Avaya's SYSTIMAX Structured Connectivity Solution (SCS) product suite including the latest addition to the SYSTIMAX family, the GigaSPEED XL Solution.

Avaya's industry-leading structured connectivity solutions enable the provision of data, voice and video services. The MCIT solution will be the first in the Middle East and North Africa to incorporate Avaya's state-of-the-art SYSTIMAX iPatch System, which provides real-time, intelligent patch cord management, thereby reducing the cost of maintaining voice and data networks.

"The village will cater to the specific needs of technology people. To achieve this the ministry needs to be able to effectively and efficiently communicate with the necessary parties," said Mostafa Abdel Wahed, Director of Telecom Strategic & Technical Planning Department, MCIT.

"It is therefore vital that the ICT infrastructure of the MCIT headquarters be able to underpin these endeavours, not just now but in the future. It is with this mind that we have chosen Avaya to design and implement our communications infrastructure.

"Avaya is the international benchmark for connectivity, continually raising the bar in order to ensure the networking of today can support the applications of tomorrow. There is great synergy between the missions of MCIT and Avaya," said Wahed.

Avaya's GigaSPEED XL solution exceeds four-fold the recently internationally-ratified Category 6 standards for network performance in Local Area Networks (LANs), as outlined by the ISO/IEC (Class E) and Telecommunications Industry Association, comfortably supporting Gigabit Ethernet applications. MCIT's infrastructure will also make use of Avaya's OptiSPEED fibre optic cabling solutions, enabling 100 Gb/s connectivity, and its advanced intelligent patching system, the SYSTIMAX iPatch System, which will allow monitoring of all connections within MCIT's five buildings from a central administration point ensuring networking efficiency.

"By integrating hardware and software, the iPatch System will enable MCIT to have real-time, at a glance control of all telecom room connections, minimising trouble-shooting time while increasing network efficiency, security and overall control of the network," said Ehab Kanary, Country Manager, Connectivity Solutions, Avaya.

Traditionally, the only way to check which ports were connected was to physically follow the patch cord from end to end. Using electronic links, Avaya's system equips patch panels with a means to detect when and where connections are made, making it possible to monitor and record the status of port connections real-time.

This real-time port connectivity monitoring and mapping system speeds and improves patch cord implementation and accuracy. The iPatch System will be used to monitor in excess of 450 kms of GigaSPEED XL copper cabling, 4 km of OptiSPEED fibre optic cabling and some 4,000 outlets. When complete, the communications infrastructure will provide the connectivity to support high-speed data, voice and video transmissions critical to MCIT's business.

"MCIT has stressed the need for its communications infrastructure to support the growing demands placed upon it by the evolving and expanding community of 'Smart Village'. Avaya's connectivity solution for its 'Smart Village' facility will have the built in scalability and flexibility to cater to tomorrow's bandwidth intensive applications," concluded Kanary.