At tournament end, converged network built by Avaya scores FIFA World Cup firsts

Businesses all over the world moving to converged networks stand to benefit from the innovative communications technology deployed successfully by Avaya for the 2002 FIFA World Cup recently ended in Korea and Japan.

FIFA had turned to Avaya, a global leader in voice and data networks for businesses, to design, build, provide security for, and operate a converged network the size and complexity of which had not been seen before at a sporting event of the magnitude of the FIFA World Cup.

At the end, Avaya`s converged network had scored a number of firsts, with the tournament being the first to use a single network to provide match statistics and information for populating mission-critical databases, such as FIFAworldcup.com and the Host Broadcast Services television graphics and commentary system, which produced the television images and transmitted them to the world.

Previously, TV broadcasters had been unwilling to trust their business to a third-party network, relying instead on their own network. About 1.5 billion people watched the final match between Brazil and Germany. The network - used for vital applications including accreditation, logistics management for the 32 teams, match statistics and information for FIFAworldcup.com and TV broadcasters - recorded the highest traffic levels in the history of the FIFA World Cup.

Between 31 May and 30 June, the network carried 12 030 400 000 000 bytes or 12.03 terabytes of data, which is the equivalent to more than half of the 24 million volumes of books, photographs, recordings and other information available at the United States` Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. A terabyte is a measure of computer storage capacity, and represents a thousand billion bytes (1 000GB).

"As a leader in convergence technology, Avaya demonstrated to the world, on the most visible platform we could find, just how reliable and secure our technology is and our ability to help FIFA efficiently manage a project of such scale and complexity," said Don Peterson, chairman and CEO of Avaya. "FIFA, Avaya and integrators worked together to bring the FIFA World Cup to the estimated 40 billion cumulative TV viewers who watched the matches. It`s exciting to imagine how Avaya`s technology and services can also be used to transform businesses around the globe."

The 2002 tournament was the first time FIFA entrusted its mission-critical operations to a "converged network," where both telephony and data traffic are transmitted over a single infrastructure. On match days, an average of 100 000 Internet Protocol (IP) calls alone were going over the network and a total of approximately 3.2 million IP and analogue calls combined were made during the 31 days of the tournament. Throughout the tournament, the telephony, data and wireless networks performed at 99.999% reliability.

Another significant first for FIFA was the use of IP telephony, which enabled telephone calls between venues in Japan to be routed over FIFA`s private computer network instead of over the public telephone system. This reduced FIFA`s telephone bill and networking costs by hundreds of thousands of US dollars for a cost savings conservatively estimated at more than $200 000 over the month-long event; simplified network administration; and enabled people to work more flexibly. In addition, Avaya staff with the appropriate Avaya IP Softphone software on their laptops or PDAs used their computers or handheld devices to make calls while accessing e-mails, all without having to pay expensive hotel long distance calls charges.

The size and scale of the project has given rise to some network firsts and notable network statistics:

* The 2002 FIFA World Cup communications network was the largest ever built for a sporting event. Linking 20 stadia in two countries, International Media Centres (IMCs) in Seoul and Yokohama and FIFA headquarter hotels in Seoul and Tokyo, Avaya and its BusinessPartners built the network in only four months. Typically, a network of this size would take 12 months to build. More than 250 staff members from Avaya offices located on five continents and in 18 countries worked on the FIFA World Cup project, as did local BusinessPartners in Korea and Japan.

* Avaya deployed more than 8 000km (about 5 100 miles) of structured SYSTIMAX cabling within the stadiums and IMCs, which is approximately the distance between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Chicago, Illinois.

* The network is believed to be the fastest and most efficient network ever built for a sporting event.

* More traffic passed through the network in a single day than at any previous FIFA World Cup. Peak days for traffic were 15 June at 550GB, which was the first day of the second round final 16 play-offs (Germany vs Paraguay and Denmark vs England), and 16 June at 506GB, which was the second day of the final 16 play-offs (Sweden vs Senegal, and Spain vs Ireland). On these days, the volume was five times the traffic a typical Fortune 500 company would experience. On average, a large banking institution would transmit 100-200GB daily through its entire Asia Pacific network.

* It was the first FIFA World Cup to make available wireless high speed Internet access to more than 500 FIFA officials, journalists and photographers on the field where the matches were played. Using Avaya wireless local area network (LAN) technologies, news agencies received pictures in record time. Using a secure 128-bit encryption Avaya wireless card plugged into a laptop PC, pictures were e-mailed from the field to photo agencies at speeds 30 times faster than if using normal dial-up Internet access. Avaya also supplied its Avaya Wireless technology to more than 100 US soccer team players, coaches and family members in Seoul, Korea, to help them stay in touch with family and friends back home.

* It was the first FIFA World Cup tournament to feature remote monitoring of the hundreds of switches, routers and other devices by engineers located in another continent. As well as onsite monitoring in Seoul and Tokyo, Avaya engineers at sites in Singapore, Dallas, Denver and St Petersburg, Florida, provided `out of hours` support. Engineers at those sites constantly monitored the network for any sign of a fault, and 97.8% of all fault alarms generated were detected and resolved remotely by Avaya without having to dispatch a services technician.

* Three times more Web visitors visited FIFAworldcup.com in one day than the total number of visitors to the official Web site for France98. The total number of page hits for the fifaworldcup.com Web site during the event was 1.75 billion, with the busiest day Tuesday, 18 June, when Korea played Italy and Japan played Turkey. Forty FIFAworldcup.com Web editors relied on match information fed by the Avaya network, which helped to make it one of the sports world`s most popular Web sites.

More than 160 000 people were accredited using the Avaya data network. This is more than any other previous FIFA World Cup and enough to fill the stadium in Yokohama two times.

"There can be no doubt that this has been the most challenging and complex FIFA World Cup IT project that we`ve ever faced. Avaya hit the ground running and within a few short months built an international team and a secure, reliable and quality network that surpassed my expectations," said Gerard Gouillou, head of IT for FIFA. "I am convinced that converged communications networks and wireless technologies are the way forward for future FIFA World Cup tournaments. Whilst cost savings are an obvious benefit, a single network helped us to communicate seamlessly with a multitude of stakeholders in an efficient, reliable and consistent manner."

Within 48 hours of the trophy being awarded to the team from Brazil, all the network equipment was removed from all 20 stadiums. The hundreds of servers, switches, routers and other equipment have gone to a central repository at warehouses in Seoul and Tokyo. Some of this equipment will be used next year at the FIFA Women`s World Cup 2003, which will take place in five stadiums in China.

Other equipment will be used at Avaya`s customer briefing centers. An IP-enabled Avaya DEFINITY Enterprise Class Communications server will be installed within the German Local Organizing Committee`s (LOC) new headquarters in Frankfurt, where it will form the backbone of its call handling and communications system.

Avaya has advanced design specifications for the 12 stadiums for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and is working closely with the German LOC and stadia owners. The 2006 tournament will feature a state-of-the-art converged communications network with IP telephony as the de facto standard. This network represents an ideal platform for demonstrating Avaya`s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, contact centre technologies and messaging applications.

" What we`ve learned not only holds us in good stead for 2003 and 2006, but also gives us a massive competitive edge to compete for other commercial sporting and event-based communications systems," said Paul Myer, vice president, marketing, FIFA World Cup Project, Avaya. "It`s not just a case of having the best technology, you need the know-how and the team to make it work. The best plaudit we have is that the focus of the world has been on the football not the network that underpinned it. Excellent communications was a given and failure not an option."