Applications

The number of applications used in a metro, light rail and railway environment is significant: various types of voice communications (administrative telephony, help points, emergency phones), public address, radio, SCADA, passenger information systems, access control, train supervision, ticket vending machines, turnstile systems, CCTV for surveillance, etc.

In order to offer a smooth service and maximum security to the passengers, the personnel in the control room relies on quality images, non-stop availability of control signals, and the ability to send real-time information to the various equipment via emergency announcement and signaling systems.

OTN supports this mixture of applications. They are all integrated by means of interfaces into the nodes of a redundant fiber backbone. Many interfaces, many protocols, but one simple system that ensures completely transparent communication, simple to learn, to manage, to maintain and to use. Take a look at the benefits of an OTN.

Worldwide proven experience:

PRASA
Gautrain
Shangai Metro
Docklands Lightrail London
Guangzhou Metro Corporation

The railway infrastructure in most countries was built over a period of decades. The first railway lines in Europe go back to the middle of the 19th century. A small country like Belgium has in the meantime approximately 3,000 km of tracks in operation connecting more than 500 stations.

Needless to say that the communication needs of a modern railway organisation are vast. The networks needs to connect the stations, the control centers, trackside equipment, manned and unmanned stations, signal boxes, traction substations, etc.

With the increasing degree of train automation, security measures and passenger services, the network becomes even more critical.

To cater for the needs of railway organisations, OTN Systems launched its XTran product line in 2014. With XTran on board, modern railway operators are ready to face the future.

Worldwide proven experience
OTN Systems acquired experience in the railway environment in various parts of the world. Initial experience was gained with the OTN product line but today XTran is OTN Systems’ flagship for the railway market.

Real-world implementations have been running continuously for over 15 years. Because of its operational simplicity, the network can be maintained with limited efforts and costs.

Some of the leading national railway operators around the world using our products are:

• Infrabel (Belgium)
• Amtrak (US)
• Ferrovienord (Italy)
• Prasa (South Africa)
• Saudi Rail (Saudi Arabia)
• DSB (Denmark)
• Rhätische Bahn (Switzerland)
• Caucasian Rail (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan)

OTN Systems is convinced that MPLS is the solution for new generation transport networks for Power utilities when it is built around MPLS-TP specifications.

This is because MPLS- TP adds crucial elements to MPLS which make the network a perfect match:

• Transport-centric operational model based on a network management system and not based on an IP control plane: easy configuration resulting in low OPEX

• Protection switching triggered by OAM and not dependent on dynamic signalling or control plane liveliness: this significantly increases availability and predictability

• Comprehensive OAM fault and performance management: ability to ensure that strict timing requirements are met at service level

• A connection-oriented network with bidirectional label-switched and co-routed paths: guaranteed symmetrical delay under all circumstances, which is important for tele-protection applications

• Standard MPLS data paths and pseudowire constructs to allow dedicated programming and transparent connections between two points or multiple points

• Interoperability with Ethernet/IP, guaranteeing data- path interoperability and architectural soundness with IP/MPLS

Modern underground or open-cut mines use fiber optic transmission systems to support their underground and surface services (voice, data, SCADA, LAN and video).

The water, compressed air and electrical reticulations can be monitored and controlled from the surface control room. Safety monitoring and control include detection of fire and gas alarm and seismic activity through geophones. The fiber network combines data from automation solutions with other communication services such as paging, leaky feeder radio communication systems, emergency telephony, PBXs, LANs, video surveillance, etc.

Some of the major hazards of deep-level mining are pressure bursts, falls of ground and heat exhaustion, but also seismic events. Network system responses must therefore be predictable and with guaranteed low delay.
OTN is being used in several mining projects, typically for the interconnection of SCADA control units, data communication between different processes, telephone and radio communication, and the interconnection of LANs and video transmission. The OTN makes sure that all this information reaches its destination in a fast, transparent and reliable way.

Worldwide proven experience:

Palabora Mining Company
Anglo Platinum
Anglo Coal
Impala Platinum
Harmony Coal
De Beers Debswana
Lumwana

There is a trend to building a fiber optic backbone spanning the complete port area and supporting all services to both internal and external customers within the port site. The number of services is extremely high. Some examples: navigation and surveillance system, meteorological sensing, fire alarm system, port communication system, access control systems, port administrative voice and data systems, building climate control and conditioning systems, etc..

The purpose of the OTN network in a port environment can be very different:

as a network for (local) railway operators;
for container terminals: management and control of unmanned container cranes;
as a specific network for the port authorities, e.g. for detection of nuclear material; as a general security network;
as a multi-service network for a large private customer present on the harbor premises, e.g. petrochemical companies. OTN can combine all voice, signaling, CCTV and dispatching information on a single, reliable backbone. Moreover, the guaranteed high availability, the ease of expansions and the robustness (e.g. broad temperature range) make OTN a perfect match in harbors. Take a look at the benefits of an OTN.

Worldwide proven experience:

Tanzania Ports Authority
Authority of Harbour for Spanisch
Pohang Yeongil New Port Corporation
Yangshan Deep Water Harbour

A fiber optic backbone is spanning the complete airport area, supporting all services. The number of services is extremely high. Some examples: air navigation and surveillance system, airfield ground lighting, meteorological sensing, fire alarm system, fuel monitoring and control, airport police communication system, access control systems, airport administrative voice and data systems, building climate control and conditioning systems, etc.. Besides services for internal use, airport tenants, franchisees and concessionaires also need communication services.

The communication network in airports integrates operational needs as well as safety and security applications.

Any communication infrastructure at an airfield needs to be extremely reliable and stable.
Ensuring safe and efficient air traffic management for all aviators is of paramount importance. For this reason all facilities are backed-up with redundant equipment. A network management system monitors everything from the optical fiber connection down to the application interface port, gives an overview and control of the communication network and facilitates maintenance. Auto routing capability ensures self-restoring capabilities. Worldwide proven experience:

Schiphol (Netherlands)
Düsseldorf (Germany)
Cayenne (FG)
ATNS (South Africa)

Various initiatives are taken to increase the road capacity and safety by making the roads “more intelligent” by implementing motorway management systems for routine and unplanned events. Such an ITS system has several components and relies on a high capacity communications backbone for transfer of information to and from individual monitoring devices and sensors.

Typically ITS applications include Variable and Changeable Message Signs (VMS and CMS), Ramp Metering, Traffic Control Signals, Over-Height-Detectors (OHD), CCTV including fixed cameras and Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) cameras, and Emergency phones.

Also in tunnels, a diversity of applications are present, such as CCTV, SCADA, PBX, public addressing, intercom, fire detection and access control.

OTN supports all these applications on a single backbone, with bandwidth ranging from 150 Mbps up to 10Gbps, thereby assuring easy system upgrades taking care of future motorway growth.

Its double ring structure and redundant power and optic modules provide a highly resilient communication system.

Worldwide proven experience:

NovaDutra (Grupo CCR – Brasil)
AutoBAn (Grupo CCR – Brasil)
Whittier Tunnel (Alaska)
NHAI (India)

Worldwide, thousands of kilometers of pipelines are installed for the transport of oil, gas, water, etc.. The length of a pipeline can vary from 100 km up to 1000 km or more. Along a pipeline, various stations are built to control the flow of the liquid, e.g. departure stations, compression stations, block valve stations, pumping stations, etc.. In these substations, various kinds of services have to be available: telephony, public address, data communications (e.g. telecontrol), video surveillance, etc…

They all have mixed communication needs, requiring state of the art communication systems that will keep them going, no matter what.

The OTN is a powerful one-step multiplexer, allowing to connect any electronic device being used in a pipeline environment to a reliable fiber optic backbone, without expensive, hard-to-manage and performance-decreasing converter equipment. The OTN carries the information completely transparently.

The equipment connected can access the network anytime and all users can send their information simultaneously and at different rates avoiding long access times and enabling real time applications.

Integrating all voice, data, LAN and video services into one system avoids the need for an extensive team of specialists, keeping operational and maintenance costs low.

Its scalable architecture, flexible configurations and non-stop operations makes it a perfect match for the oil & gas industry. Take a look at the benefits of an OTN.

Worldwide proven experience:
Sonatrach Pipelines (Algeria)
Caspian Pipeline (Russia, Kazachstan)
GPP5&6 Pipelines (Malaysia)