The Demand

Macomnet Telecommunication company was established in November 1991 as a Joint Venture of Moscow Metro and Andrew Corporation (USA). It's the first among operators which constructed its own fiber-optic network in Moscow and started provision of telecommunication services, and is also the first in developing of technology of telecommunication network construction in Metro underground structure. Macomnet is also the first operator in Russia and Eastern Europe which constructed an extensive network based on SDH and ATM technologies.

Most of Macomnet Metro network sites and switching equipments are placed underground and therefore the space for these equipments is limited. Macomnet faced a problem in that the last-mile converter chassis switches occupied too much place, used too many power lines, and emitted too much heat. In addition, the existing switching infrastructure cannot monitor and control the last-mile equipments (e.g. media convertors) unless technicians are sent to visit on site which are a waste time and burden on human resources.

Network Solution

To solve the problem, Macomnet needs Metro access optical switches with higher ports-per-chassis density, high manageability and easy maintenance by minimal staff. Edge-Core's partner in Russia, Falcon-s, proposed Edge-Core Carrier-grade Metro WDM Switch ES3528-WDM, which provides high density, excellent reliability, and the required switching capacity. After Macomnet performed a series of tests on ES3528-WDM, they are confident that the switch meets all their requirements. So one unit of ES3528-WDM is put in pre-production, and the pilot was successful. And the installation of ES3528-WDM is started to the network sites for last-mile converter chassis replacement.