VoIP services modernized for Poste Italiane

CHALLENGE

Poste Italiane is the largest infrastructure services organisation in Italy. With nationwide branch network, and major investments in technology, Poste Italiane plays a key role in the process of growth and modernisation underway in Italy.
In this logic, Poste Italiane has started the VoIP Infrastructure modernization process.

The initial goal was to renew the internal network in a short time and with minimal impact on the services, in order to manage the obsolescence of network elements from different suppliers; in addition to this, Poste Italiane wanted to create a new network that would allow for further modernizations and to continue the transition from H323 to SIP.

innovative services and functions enabled by infrastructure upgraded using NFV logic

SOLUTION

TIM and Italtel have jointly designed and deployed – within a Raggruppamento Temporaneo di Imprese (temporary group of companies) in which TIM is lead – the evolution of the Voice-over-IP (VoIP) infrastructure of Poste Italiane.

Poste Italiane is the Italian largest company operating in postal delivery, logistics, financial and insurance services, and digital communication, with network capabilities across the country. Poste Italiane's VoIP renewal project was launched with the goal of providing new and improved services to the company's internal users, including about 13,000 post offices across Italy, while reducing infrastructure costs. Overall, the private network of Poste Italiane serves more than 50,000 users, who use various types of devices thanks to TIM’s broadband and ultra broadband connections.

For the modernization of Poste Italiane's network, Italtel has designed a solution based on state-of-the-art technology. More specifically, this a fully virtualized solution, following the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) model, which extends the logic of Cloud Computing - typical of IT contexts - to the telecommunications sector.
The solution adopted by Poste Italiane:
1
benefits from the availability of HW COTS and the best software components on the market (Hypervisor, Carrier Grade Operating Systems, Commercial Database, etc.)
2
adopts the most innovative standards (3GPP, TISPAN, Oasis, IETF, ITUT)
3
replaces some existing network elements with new products

The new infrastructure comprises several Italtel products: the Core and Border IMS/NGN i-MCS suite, the sunscriber data management solution i-TDS, the management element i-NEM, the Session Border Controller NetMatch-S, both as User-Network Interconnection (UNI) and as Network-Network Interconnection (NNI).

BENEFITS

The modernization solution has been specifically designed to enable Poste Italiane to evolve its current platform in an absolutely continuous manner and with minimal impact on its services.
All this thanks to the full compatibility between new and existing products and by leveraging over proven migration operations that provided a smooth transition to the final architecture, with minimal impact on the network configuration and active services, even in terms of user experience.
The most important success was the migration of about 700 GNR H323s (which can provide for several thousand users) and over 20,000 SIP users in a very short time. The project was completed in approximately 2 months, within the deadline requested by the customer.
Moreover, the new solution enables considerable cost reduction by optimizing the centralized infrastructure area within the TIM Data Center by 75%, and by reducing the energy consumption resulting from the activation of one of the largest VoIP platforms in private cloud logic.
Two devices occupying half of the rack are now sufficient to provide the functionalities which in previous solutions required several racks.
All validation, migration and troubleshooting activities were carried out remotely by Italtel test plants in Castelletto di Settimo Milanese (Milan).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The architecture was designed to allow the platform to evolve in an entirely continuous manner within the Poste Italiane IT infrastructure – hosted in TIM’s Data Center – and to enable full VoIP integration with TLC telephone network.
More specifically, the full compatibility between Italtel’s products and the existing infrastructure, the integration capabilities demonstrated by TIM and Italtel in dealing with the complexity of the existing network, and the use of proven migration methods ensured a smooth transition to the final architecture with minimal impact on the network configuration and active services, particularly in terms of user experience.
Poste Italiane’s Italtel-managed network comprises:

  • company offices, spread across Italy, where SIP users are located, which can have up to 3 different kinds of device per location, each one with its own peculiarities (which affected the migration process)
  • executive offices, distribution centers, logistic warehouses and other facilities where H323 users are located
Product replacement has been carried out to ensure the continuity of available services within the existing network configuration (with special focus on routing plans), while also ensuring the availability of evolutionary services and features.

CONCLUSION

Choosing TIM and Italtel, Poste Italiane has benefited from a wide range of skills that have made the migration of active services possible, with minimal operational impact, swift deployment (successfully completed within the requested deadline), and the management of solutions comprising numerous locations across the country.
Italtel offers all its customers, such as Poste Italiane, its wide-ranging product catalog, covering all stages in the life cycle of products and services; it selects and integrates the best technologies and works alongside its customers to meet their specific requirements.

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