INTERNSHIP REPORT

SUBMITTED BY:

Muhammad ZainUl Abideen

Submitted To:

Sir EhsanurRehman

Submitted On:

October 2, 2014

Switching Department

National Telecom Corporation

Islamabad

Acknowledgment

In the Name of ALLAH, the Most Beneficent and Most Merciful

“We rise in degree of rank that so ever we pleased; and our every pressure of knowledge is one, most knowing”. (AL-QURAN)

I am also heartily thankful to the National Telecommunication Corporation which gave me a competitive environment for the better use of our practical skills by working with its well-mannered and cooperative staff.

Specially, I am very thankful to ADE Ehsan Ur Rehman, who helped me a lot at every step and polish my skills and tell me the right direction. And I am also thankful to all the staff of switching department who is very cooperative.

Preface

The purpose of this report is to explain what I did andlearned during my internship period with the ntc. . The report focuses primarily on the assignments handled, working environment, successes and short comings that the intern did encounter when handling various tasks assigned to her by the supervisor.

Because the various parts of the report reflect the intern’s shortcomings, successes, observations and comments, it would be imperative that the recommendations are also given. Therefore the report gives a number of comments and recommendations on the internship program.

It is hoped that this report would serve as a cardinal vehicle to the improvement of the internship program.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

NATIONAL TELECOM CORPORATION

Progress from Start to Date

Departments of NTC

Services

CHAPTER 2

EWSD, Digital Telephony and NGN

CHAPTER 1 NATIONAL TELECOM CORPORATION

The new era of telecommunication in Pakistan has brought several challenges with it, despite of the advantages it has made visible for the consumers. The most important being the challenge to keep intact the security requirements of the Government of Pakistan and to protect the new players in this field from the conventional practices of the incumbent operators to protect their market share. To overcome these challenges GoP established National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) in January 1996 under the Telecom Reorganization Act 1996. The main objective was to have an infrastructure independent of all other operators that can be used for the purpose of government communication and as an alternative support for the operators entering the market.

Progress from Start to Date

The ongoing infrastructure development journey for NTC began in 1996 when it was created with few local exchanges and analog microwave. However, today NTC has developed its own infrastructure to an extent where it can be called an independent IT and telecom operator capable of meeting the challenges of the deregulated environment and meeting the objectives for which it was created.

NTC started its operations in 1996 with only 5 local exchanges all over Pakistan and an analog microwave link not capable of supporting the digital transmission. To carry out its operations, it was mainly dependent on PTC infrastructure and used its transit network, international gateways, transmission network, IN platform etc. to carry out its operations. The copper network in the access provided to NTC was not sufficient to cater for its subscriber base and meet the required quality of service parameters. NTC had no arrangements for direct interconnect with cellular operators as a result it had to pay substantial part of its revenues to PTCL for 3rd party termination. Data services being essential demand of NTC customers could not be met due to non availability of infrastructure. Billing of NTC customers was carried out through PTC initially and through Pakistan Computer Bureau. The main challenge for NTC at that time was to reduce this dependency on other operators to minimum as soon as possible to fulfill its obligations and to sustain itself in the deregulated environment in which PTC was to be privatized.The main focus in the initial years was to develop its own basic infrastructure that included optical fiber transmission backbone, transit network, billing system and multi services data network (MSDN) beside expansion of its switching network to un-served areas to cover as much of its subscriber base as possible. It purchased 2 fibers from PTC in the main optical fiber backbone and equipped it with 622 Mbps SDH systems. It expanded its exchanges in different cities to gain access to its customers along with lying of copper cable. These exchanges were converted into transit exchanges to provision long distance services on NTC network and to have direct interconnects with cellular and other operators. The establishment of NTC MSDN was a major milestone, achieved in 2001 which enabled NTC to provide multiple data services such as dial- up, DSL, Web hosting and internet etc. to its customers. Another milestone achievement in National history is in placement of Pakistan education & Research Network (PERN) project. The project is providing 155 Mbps international connectivity to 59 universities connected all over Pakistan. The billing system was developed in first 4 years which made it possible for NTC to do its own billing.

Departments of NTC:

The different departments in NTC are as follows:-

I&RA

Finance

Budget

Internal Audit

Store

Civil

Security

Accounts

Network & System Engineering

Procurement

R&I

IT

Transmission

DWDM

Defense

Revenue

Human Resources

Data Communication

P & D

Admin

Switching

PP&F

Services:

NTC is offering a bunch of services to its valued customers. Those are:-

Telephonic Services

Internet

Intranet

Web Hosting

Video Conferencing

Call Booking

Leased Line

Wireless Local Loop

Co-location

The services that are being offered at NTC are:-

Telephone

Basic Telephony

Calling Card

ISDN-Integrated Service Digital Network

BRI-Basic Rate Interface

PRI-Primary Rate Interface

Supplementary Services

Network Solutions for valued

Multi-Services Data Network

Web hosting facility

Electronic mail platform

Dialup Internet Access, DDP, ISDN

Co-Location

Virtual Private Networking

Video Conferencing facility

Broad Band Internet Access

Intranet Solutions

Radio/Wireless Networking Solution

Lease Line Services

Customized Data Solutions

Transmission Services

Dark Fiber

Media (Junction)

Co-Location

Space, Dishes/Antennas, Power Supply

Servers

Future Thoughts:

Being aware of the new technologies, demand for new services and converged network NTC is in the process of upgrading and expanding its network. Migration from conventional TDM network to IP based Next Generation Network has been planned and being implemented. The 622 Mbps optical fiber backbone not able to meet the requirement of bandwidth hungry applications is being upgraded to 10 Gbps DWDM based technology. To improve the efficiency ERP solution has been planned and under process of implementation. To gain access to NTC users efforts are being made for frequency allocation and as a stop gap arrangement virtual WLL connections are being provided to NTC subscribers. To provide value added service from its own platform NTC is planning its own IN platform. Very soon NTC subscribers will be hearing NTC operators for customer relations, call booking and complaints through its state-of-the-art call center. Multi services access network has been planned to be as close to the user on fiber as possible to extend multiple services from a single platform.  Plan for replacing analog microwave with digital is being made so that NTC can meet the requirements in case of disasters and can provide an alternate to optical fiber backbone. The co-location facilities are being planned to facilitate new entrants in performing their operations. NTC has traveled a long way in developing its infrastructure in lines with the technological and market trends. NTC is determined to provide an infrastructure required to meet its objectives and to support the nation and GoP in achieving its objectives.

Chapter 2

EWSD, Digital Telephony and NGN

EWSD:

EWSD (Elektronisches Wählsystem Digital in German, Electronic Digital Switching System/Electronic World Switch

Digital[1] in English) is one of the most widely installed telephone exchange systems in the world. EWSD can work as a local or

tandem switch or combined local/tandem, and for landline or mobile phones. It is manufactured by Siemens AG, who claims

that EWSD switches perform switching for over 160 million subscriber lines in more than 100 countries.

DeTeWe bought its first EWSD under license in 1985 for remote switching. Bosch built its first EWSD as a local exchange in

1986. Deutsche Telekom, formerly Deutsche Bundespost, the largest German telephone company, uses EWSD and System 12

(Alcatel), the former more than the latter.

Software:

The software of EWSD is called APS (Automatic Program System). The APS is on a hard drive and includes the operating system, developed by Siemens in cooperation with Bosch. It is predominantly written in the CHILL language. Application software is switch specific and serves among other things traffic management, path search, and call charging. Support software serves translating programs, binding modules as well as administration of libraries for generating data. Operating and data communication software serve for co-operation of maintenance centers and switching centers.

Technical Data:

Number of access lines: to 250,000

Number of feeder lines: 240,000

Traffic connection: 25,200

Call attempts in busy hour: 10 million

Operating voltages: -48V -60V -90V

Rate zones: 127, for each zone of 6 tariffs

Tariff change-over at 15 minute intervals

Space requirement with 10,000 access lines: 35 square meters

Digital Telephony:

It is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is intimately linked to the invention and development of the telephone.

Telephony is commonly referred to as the construction or operation of telephones and telephonic systems and as a system of telecommunications in which telephonic equipment is employed in the transmission of speech or other sound between points, with or without the use of wires.The term is also used frequently to refer to computer hardware, software, and computer network systems that perform functions traditionally performed by telephone equipment. In this context the technology is specifically referred to as Internet telephony, or voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Next Generation Network (NGN):

KEY DRIVERS OF NGN DEVELOPMENT

NGN CHARACTERISTICS:

Packet-based transfer

Broadband capabilities with end-to-end QoS and transparency

Interworking with legacy networks via open interfaces generalized mobility

Unrestricted access by users to different service providers

WHY Next Generation Network?

Factors play an important role while selecting NGN, such as:Lower port costOpen platformReduced space and power requirementsNew revenue streamsImproved competitive positionLower operating costs

Architecture of NGN:

Soft Switch

SOFTX 3000:

• In the NGN solution , Soft Switch acts as the brain of NGN, interworking with other NGN components through the open network adopting distributed standard protocols.

• Soft Switch is also know as the Media Gateway Controller

• The Soft Switch functions at the control layer of NGN .

• Soft Switch acts as a generic Call Controller in the packet-switched network and handles all types of signaling which includes SS7, H.323, H.248, SIP, M2UA and M3UA ,PRI,BRI,R2 etc

Universal Media Gateway

UMG 8900:

• A Media Gateway is located on the edge access layer of the NGN.

• It interfaces the conventional PSTN network with NGN network and passes PSTN services to the NGN.

• A Media Gateway serves as media access layer equipment in the NGN. It converts service stream formats and bearer modes from the PSTN to packet networks and supports various voice services and narrowband data services.

• The UMG8900 supports bearer conversion from TDM to IP/ATM packet networks using Real Time Protocol (RTP).

• It supports following voice codec:

• G.711

• G.723

• G.726

• G.729

• The UMG transports the control information using Embedded M2UA signaling.

Access GATEWAY

• An AG is located on the edge access layer of NGN which provides access for various types of services and supports voice services.

• It can connects Analog Subscribers with traditional such as Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and V5 access network.

• An AG serves as media access layer equipment in the NGN. It processes narrowband voice or data stream formats and converts them into the information formats transferred on IP packet networks by adaptation.

• AG uses H.248 & RTP for transport of control information & voice respectively.

NGN Billing – iGWB

The iGWB is the gateway equipment placed between the SoftX3000 and the billing center, used to implement the CDR receiving, pre-processing, buffering, and billing interfacing functions.

CDRs are stored in:

o Active iGWB

o Standby iGWB

o Emergency Workstation

Comparison of NGN and EWSD

The End