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Railways - High Indian Railways is one of the biggest enterprise when it comes to procuring ICT applications and solutions and most of the ICT vendors are targeting this big enterprise with their focused strategy

10 | March 2012

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eeping in mind the sheer size and nature of operations that the Indian Railways goes through on a daily basis, it is surely one of the biggest enterprise when it comes to buying IT and telecommunications products and solutions.

The vision of Indian railways is to tap revenue generation potential in the telecom and IT sector, using the its 64,000-km long 'right of way' for laying optic fibres, signalling towers and other infrastructure assets that Indian Railways already owns. This is likely to be done in collaboration between the RailTel Corporation and private sector companies in a transparent framework.

Three proposals are under consideration of ICT expert Committee headed by Sam Pitroda for expanding the RailTel business. These are:(a) Provision of OFC on balance 15,000 Rkms of Indian Railway network. (b) Provision of Broadband connectivity to 50,000 Panchayats using RailTel’s existing OFC network. (c) Provision of Broadband services to public on RailTel OFC network on PPP basis.

Provision of OFC on balance 15000 Rkms is expected to be completed by 2014. Broadband connectivity to 50000 Panchayats is likely to take off by March 2011 for completion by 2015.

Vendors targeting Indian Railways According to Puneet Saxena, DGM Sales, Huawei Enterprise, at present Government of India is investing heavily in Indian Railways for upgrading their Signal and Telecom Networks Infrastructure. “Keeping this in mind, Huawei Enterprise is targeting Indian Railways in a big way for providing MOBILITY

E2E communications solutions to carry voice, video & data traffic in a seamless manner. This high speed communication network will provide a common pipe for transmission of information relating to all IT, voice & video applications. RAILTEL is considered to be strategic account for Huawei because we believe that Huawei has capability to create transport network for RAILTEL based on SDH, DWDM, IP technology. Huawei is also positioning them to participate in big revenue projects from RAILTEL which includes Broadband connectivity to 50000 Panchayats for catering Broadband services. As far as Huawei enterprise group is concerned, Indian Railways is a strategic and key account and we are looking forward to big business opportunity coming from this sector,” he explained.

Speaking about the Railways opportunity, Nafis Kazim, Senior Vice President, Shyam Networks say that everything about Indian Railways is special.

“Indian Railways is a special enterprise. The sheer size of this government organisation makes it important and critical for the country. Actually, the Indian Railways' contribution to national growth has been unparalleled. It has knitted together the country, by connecting all the regions, geographies, and almost all the states, in a fabric of single transport network. So whether it is procuring IT infrastructure or networking focused solutions, this huge enterprise has always been on the trend setter mode and creates bigger opportunities for technology innovation and implementation at the national level.

We are ideally poised to cater to the technology oriented networking needs for the Railways. Shyam is a globally recognised manufacturer of both GSM & Non-GSM products. We are positioning a big portion of our Non-GSM products www.mobilityindia.com

towards the Indian Railways so this enterprise holds big potential for us,” he is quick to add on.

And as Hemal Patel, CEO, Elitecore Technologies puts it Indian Railways is a huge enterprise opportunity and holds tremendous potential. “We would obviously be looking at Railways opportunity through our prism. Indian Railways uses Internet for Online Booking.

But apart from that, it is using Internet for its back-end office management and administration. So, it will be needing a Firewall, Application and Content Filtering and Intrusion Prevention Systems.

Cyberoam's Unified Threat Management (UTM) appliances provide Firewalls and IPS protects IR from any unauthorized incursion attempts and DDoS attacks originating outside and inside the network.

Application and Content Filtering are necessary to restrict employees from accessing any objectionable application or content. Cyberoam's recent security feature - Web Application Firewall is a Solution that can help IR protect its Web servers from external attacksdefacements, SQL injection attacks and more,” he adds on.

What Railways Want?

In today’s scenario, Indian Railways is all fired up when it comes to incorporating cutting edge technology and communications solutions and it is this technologically progressive environment within the Railways that is attracting global vendors to eye this market opportunity.

“We have world-proven solution for Railways sector which are working successfully across the globe. Huawei has complete product portfolio which includes Transmission products (SDH, CWDM, DWDM), IP products (Routers and Switches), and Datacenters infrastructure March 2012 | 11

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Secondly, we have Cyberoam Central Console - appliances that offer flexibility of hardware CCC appliances and virtual CCC appliances to provide centralized security management across distributed Cyberoam UTM appliances, enabling high levels of security for MSSPs and large enterprises.

And thirdly, we are positioning Cyberoam IView Appliances- which offers centralized logging and reporting of network and user activity over multiple devices across distributed locations, providing real-time and historical information of security events to MSSPs and large enterprises.

Available as an open source solution and as a dedicated appliance, it offers intelligent logging and reporting with Layer 8 Identity-based visibility,” he explains.

Talking about Shyam Network’s offering targeted towards Indian Railways, Nafis Kazim says that with its unique mantra to locally manufacture, globally recognised telecom products and solutions, Shyam is offering a wide range of solutions directed towards the burgeoning enterprise segment and tap the Indian Railways opportunity. Looking at special requirements coming from big segments like the Indian Railways, Shyam is positioning a wide range of Data products, which can deliver integrated technology solutions that will go on to improve safety and security, comply with i n d u s t r y standards, and minimize operating expenses as well. Delivering an unparalleled competitive “Keeping this in mind, Huawei turf, Shyam Enterprise is targeting Indian products and Railways in a big way for solutions are locally providing E2E communications manufactured solutions to carry voice, video in India and are & data traffic in a seamless built to perform manner. This high speed communication in extreme environmental network will provide a common pipe for conditions. These products transmission of information relating enable secure and reliable to all IT, voice & video applications. Wireless Connectivity, Remote Monitoring, Physical Security, RAILTEL is considered to be strategic Sensors, and Video Surveillance, account for Huawei because we believe supported by a single wireless that Huawei has capability to create communication platform that transport network for RAILTEL based on fulfills all security requirements in a cost-effective manner. This SDH, DWDM, IP technology." is a biggest advantage that Puneet Saxena, DGM Sales, Shyam Networks brings with all Huawei Enterprise its product range.

solutions. Huawei has developed the intelligent railway solution including GSM-R, Surveillance Centre, Dispatching Center, PIS (Passenger Information System), AFC (Auto Fare Collection), HRC (High Speed Railway Communication), Recording Center and OA (Office Assistant), Railway Video Surveillance, Data Network Services, Transmission Network solution, Unified communication and collaboration solution, Video Conference and Telepresence solution.

All of these solutions, are directed towards streamlining the operation, keeping the services running safely, enhancing passengers and cargos safety, and improving travelers’ satisfaction.

These solutions are also directed towards helping Railways build a safe, efficient and passenger satisfied intelligent Railway communications infrastructure,” Puneet Saxena from Huawei confirms.

Targeting Railways for its various products and solutions, Hemal Patel from Elitecore says that Elitecore is eyeing the Railways opportunity with a three pronged approach.

“Firstly, we have Cyberoam UTMCyberoam Unified Threat Management appliances that offer comprehensive security to organizations ranging from large enterprises to small and branch offices.

Multiple security features integrated over a single, Layer 8 Identity-based platform make security simple, yet highly effective. Cyberoam, with its Extensible Security Architecture (ESA) and multi-core technology carries the ability to combat future threats to organizations' security.

12 | March 2012

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Shyam’s product basket offers following solutions: 1) E1 Wireless ISM Band Radios for providing redundant connectivity when Fibre cuts down.

2) Complete range of CCTV & Surveillance Solution including Cameras, VMS & Video Analytics.

3) Wide range of Repeaters for providing limitless connectivity.

4) L2 Switches for networking.

5) Wireless ADSL Routers for having WiFi connectivity.

Technology Trends in Railways As Puneet Saxena from Huawei Enterprise puts it, telecommunication is an essential input for operating a rail transport system efficiently and Indian Railways is investing heavily in signaling and telecom infrastructure to put the Indian Railways at par with International Rail networks.

“The voice network of Railways will be migrated to IP using Voice over IP (VOIP) technologies. This will provide the advantage of communication from anywhere to anywhere in a seamless manner. Implementation of High speed rail communication is also on the discussions which puts the Indian railways at par with International rail network. If it happens it requires lot of wireless and wire line communication network which will become the gold mine for all the major players in this field,” he affirms.

Stressing the fact that Indian Railways is all about connecting common people, Nafis Kazim from Shyam Networks states that as an organisation that is built for the common people of the country, Indian Railways has a huge focus towards making sure the safety & security of the passengers. “In this regard, market for CCTV & Surveillance along with Integrated Security System has a vast potential in the near future. Similarly E1 Wireless links hold big potential for Railways where network is needed to be redundant both in Wireline as well as Wireless. This is where the Indian Railways is moving to,” he adds on.

The Road Ahead With global vendors setting their eye closely on this burgeoning segment called Railways, the future surely looks bright and sunny. Technology is sure to be right at the helm of activities for Indian Railways and become a great enabler as far as taking Railways services to the common masses is concerned. And as a big positive Indian government has shown great commitment MOBILITY

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and promise towards making sure that the Indian Railways surges ahead on technology wheels and deliver more value for its end customers.

Railways at a Glance Railways Signalling Systems to be Modernized to the Full Signalling system on Indian Railways is set to get an injection of will be modernization with the provisioning of advanced technological features. These would include Panel/ Route Relay Interlocking covering 700 more stations by 2014 thereby completing 5500 out of the required 6200 stations; Interlocking of more than 1500 level crossing gates in addition to the 10000 already interlocked, leaving a balance of 250; complete track circuiting at 1250 out of 6200 identified stations, installation of axle counters at 3000 more stations and provision of isolation at the remaining 625 stations.

The erstwhile Minister of Railways Dinesh Trivedi introducing the Railway Budget for 2012-13 in Parliament has already said, one of the significant advancement would be the provisioning of Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS), which ensures automatic application of brakes whenever a driver over-shoots a signal at danger, thereby eliminating chances of collision of trains.

He has said that the Railways is taking necessary action to ensure that TPWS technology is suitably adapted to Indian conditions. Besides the efforts to develop TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System) integrating features of different technologies will be continued by RDSO. These would also be a pre-requisite to increase speed of passenger trains to 160 kmph.

Panel Mulls Rs. 8 trillion Railways modernisation plan A high-level panel on railway modernisation, headed by technocrat Sam Pitroda, has suggested a total funding of over Rs. 8 trillion (or Rs. 800,000 crore) for revamping the Indian Railways network in the next five years.

It may be recalled that the expert group was formed September last year to recommend ways and means to modernise Indian Railways so it is able to meet the challenges of economic growth, aspirations of the common man, new technology and an expanding market while focusing on social and strategic requirements of the country.

Among the major recommendations MOBILITY

of the report are “We would obviously modernisation of 19,000 be looking at Railways km out of the total 64,000 km of existing opportunity through our track, strengthening prism. Indian Railways of 11,250 bridges to uses Internet for Online sustain higher load Booking. But apart at higher speed and from that, it is using eliminating all level crossings.

Internet for its back-end The panel has office management and also suggested administration.

So, it will be needing implementation of automatic a Firewall, Application and Content block signalling, deployment of on board train protection Filtering and Intrusion Prevention system with cab signalling on all Systems. Cyberoam's Unified Threat other routes and introduction of Management (UTM) appliances provide GSM based mobile train control Firewalls and IPS protects IR from any communication system. unauthorized incursion attempts and In order to attract private investment, the panel suggested DDoS attacks originating outside and development of public private inside the network. " partnership PPP models and Hemal Patel, CEO, policies in various areas to Elitecore Technologies augment core capabilities such as stations and terminals, high functional at 76 stations by 31st March speed railway lines, elevated rail corridor, private freight terminals, 2012 and at remaining stations in 2012leasing of wagons, locomotive and coach 13. The CCTV System will be installed in manufacturing, captive power generation the stations area in such a manner that it covers the entire station premises including and renewable energy projects. concourse, waiting halls, platforms, overRailways plans integrated security at bridges.

The CCTV system will be internet 202 stations Indian Railways is implementing protocol IP based and will have important Integrated Security System at 202 video analytics which will give automatic important and sensitive stations of the signals in case of suspected baggage, excessive crowd, intrusion by unauthorized country.

The persons.

'Integrated Baggage screening of the passengers Security System' will be done through large size X-Ray provides multiple machines. Bomb Detection & Disposal screening and System will be available with latest checking of equipment at important stations. passengers right from the point of entry.

Comprising of “Indian Railways is a special latest machines enterprise. The sheer size of and software, it this government organisation will supplement makes it important and critical conventional for the country. Actually, methods of security which the Indian Railways' contribution to are also being strengthened. national growth has been unparalleled.

There will be dedicated It has knitted together the country, by control rooms at strategic connecting all the regions, geographies, locations for round the clock monitoring through the Close and almost all the states, in a fabric of Circuit TV (CCTV) based single transport network." surveillance system.

Nafis Kazim, Senior Vice President, Shyam Out of these 202 stations, the Networks system is scheduled to become www.mobilityindia.com

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