The Republic of South Sudan’s administration has selected Vizada Networks to provide interim internet connectivity and voice services for domestic and international official use. The interim connectivity is for 3 months and was agreed on February 24th 2012 with service delivery starting during March 2012.

Our delivery will be based on the Viznet Broadband service, providing the South-Sudan Ministry of  Telecom and postal services officials with capacity of 2mbps uplink and 4mbps downlink. A 7.3m C-band. VSAT antenna already in place at the Ministry of  Telecom premises will be utilised for the transmission, whilst a WiMAX solution will be established by Vizada Networks’ established local partner, Unitel Communications Ltd, to further distribute the service to administration offices in Juba.
To view this Press Release in full click here.

In addition to providing the best balanced value/technical proposal, the RFP required the supplier to have the logistical and technical presence in theatre to guarantee Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) of less than 4 hours for any electrical part (BUC, LNB, control units, fibre conversion units etc) of the VCAS, when applicable spare parts and personal are available.

To view this Press Release in full click here.

Three layers

At Vizada Networks we focus on the bottom three layers of the model. Layer one is the physical medium. On top of this is layer two, the data Link layer where the data communication takes place and where problems on layer one may sometimes be resolved. And then you have the third layer, the network Layer that performs the network routing functions, where Vizada Networks services are, where the IP packets are actually transported.

“With monitoring based on these three layers we can be re-active and pro-active in our approach to fixing issues and in many cases are able to solve a problem before the customer sees any symptoms,” says Morten Karlsen, Technical Engineer, Vizada Networks. “This approach to monitoring is an improvement over previous methods, and we are able to quickly and easily gather data on the network and services we supply to customers.”

Transparent services

The data that Vizada Networks collects from its new monitoring systems is used internally, to enable a pro-active approach to fixing issues and for customers, to provide a transparent view into the services that they are receiving. 

“We are keen to ensure that customers get a clear view of all the information about their systems,” explains Morten. “It’s not a sales tool – our monitoring systems take data directly from the network and present it to the customer in order for them to see if they are getting what they paid for. We find this kind of transparency very important to our business, and welcome the communication from customers if they want us to act on any of the data they have available, whilst taking pro-active measures when see issues arising in the data.”

New technology 

According to Morten, another aspect of Vizada Networks’ new approach to monitoring is the fact that the system is set-up to ensure that it is compatible with new technology: “Technology is moving very fast. New boxes replace old boxes all the time so we have ensured that we are able to integrate the new tech into the monitoring system. I believe we are at the forefront of monitoring technology in this regard.”

“Our new direction means that not only can we offer highly trained and skilled people to manage Vizada Networks systems at our customers’ sites throughout the world, we are also ready to provide our clients with high quality personnel to fill vital roles that they require,” says Craig Harrison Business Development Manager, Vizada Networks. “This is a natural extension of our outsourcing and consultancy operations for customers using Vizada Networks and will allow our customers’ organisations to source the best personnel, on very short notice.”

Read the full press release here.

Detailed training

The iDirect Network Design Class (iNDC) covers in-depth the iDirect Intelligent Platform, Evolution DVB-S2 and iNFINITI products and topologies, iVantage NMS and SatManage solutions, and complex network design issues.

The training enables technical personnel to design a wide range of networks solutions including enterprise networks, DVB-S2/ACM networks, large and secure networks for government and military contracts in addition to designing group QoS on iDirect platforms.

Participants in the class analyze customer application characteristics, IP traffic and bandwidth assumptions, IP QoS and service level objectives and map them to the appropriate advanced product capabilities. This ensures that technical personnel can design the exact network to meet their customers’ requirements.

Positive feedback

The feedback on the training from the Vizada Networks technical staff who took part was very positive.

Marek Bachar, Project Engineer, Defense Division said: “I now have a better understanding of how to design network solutions using iDirect tools (iNPT tool) and understand more about the hardware, especially for government solutions.”

Ragnar Garli, a Vizada Networks System Engineer added: “The flexibility of the system is one of the most important things that we learned during the training. It gives us a wide range of possibilities in network design.”

Whilst Jon Thoresen, a Vizada Networks System Engineer concluded: “We learnt a lot about iDirect network design, with examples and case studies that really supported the knowledge. It will now be easier to know the possibilities when designing a network and I also have a better understanding of how to set up the bandwidth allocation to create a cost effective and reliable system.”

Vizada Networks is committed to ensuring that its personnel are highly trained and technically competent, and this training is just one aspect of our approach to ensuring that our service offerings, and indeed network design is able to meet the exact requirements of our customers.

• Firewalling, NATVPN, both IPSec and SSL
• Antivirus/Antispyware/Antimalware
• Application control
• Web content filtering
• Anti-spam

A virtual instance of the system is dedicated for each customer and creates complete isolation, similar to VLAN on Ethernet. The virtual device can either be managed by Vizada Networks or directly by the customer using a sophisticated GUI (encrypted access using web-browser) or command-line (encrypted using SSH).

The service can be combined with both closed network and Internet services. Typically one or more sites will be assigned to one group, and this group of sites can be controlled using a single virtual system. The big advantage is that it is not necessary to host and manage dedicated hardware at Vizada Network Teleports to use the supported services

We have configured a server in Dar es Salaam for our customers in Tanzania and the east coast of Africa to test service speeds. Just visit http://vizada.speedtest.net to get an accurate depiction of the speeds you are currently receiving on your Vizada Networks services.

Vizada Networks provides the only speedtest.net server in Tanzania. Typically, internet speed tests measure the user’s internet connection speed and quality to various internet sites. However, when the geographically closest server is selected, users get a much more realistic picture of their connectivity. The Vizada Networks speed test application measures download and upload speed and also ping response, which shows the delay between the user and test server. The application is not only available for computers, but also for mobile platforms like iPhone, Android and others.

“We have made this service available so that our customers can always check their service performance, and make sure that Vizada Networks is delivering the premium Internet services with guaranteed bandwidth that we offer,” says Milos Halan, Technical Director at Vizada Networks Ltd, in Tanzania. “We chose to use the world’s most popular and trusted bandwidth measurement tool so that our customers can see that we stand behind and deliver on our promises. But beyond that, we want to serve the existing internet community in Tanzania and help all internet users to verify they are getting what they are paying for. And if they don’t, we’re happy to help them with our service offerings.”

PRT Logar is part of the International Security Assistance Force. The Czech deployment consists of 286 troops and 12 civilians (as of February 2010). Its purpose is to contribute to the development of Logar province, strengthen the role of Afghan government and enable the people to take a greater role in their everyday lives.

PRT Logar supports the local populace in areas including security and governance, infrastructure, water sources and irrigation, agriculture, health care, education, women’s rights and the media. The civilian team consists of experts whose skills range from civil engineering, agriculture and veterinary medicine to security and the media. The team’s overall responsibility lies in the implementation of its own projects in close coordination with major provincial players and in line with the national development strategy.

PRT Logar leaflet – the full leaflet in PDF can be downloaded on the PRT Logar website here

The place – Logar, Afghanistan

The Eastern Afghanistan Logar Province is one of 34 Afghanistan provinces. Although the word ‘Logar’ is made from two Pashto words: Loy (لوى ‘great’) and Ghar (غر ‘mountain’), Logar is a relatively flat river valley in the north and central regions, surrounded by rugged mountains to the east, south, and southwest. It has long been known among Afghans as باب الجهاد ‘Bab al-Jihad’, or ‘the Gates of Jihad’, because of the fierce fighting that took place there between Mujahideen groups and the Soviet army. It is a harsh environment, with natural challenges such as flooding and man made religious and political challenges, making life in the villages and towns far from easy.

In realising reconstruction projects, PRT Logar focuses on:

• Sustainability – the capacity of local communities to manage projects built by PRT Logar
• Participation of local communities – respect the local social structure
• Cooperation with provincial authorities – to strengthen the legitimacy of the local government
• Needs assessment – research in the communities
• Long-term effect – permanent as opposed to temporary structures
• Transparency – in selecting and awarding contracts
• Local companies and materials – encourage the local economy.

An ability to adapt was needed to provide a working system to PRT Logar

 Previously, PRT Logar used a dedicated JanUX-based service. In 2010, the customer decided on a shared access link – TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and increase transmit capacity as this would provide a more cost-effective connection. This posed a challenge as the location did not have the coverage required for a standard TDMA system. However, the service was moved to Vizada Networks’ iDirect based service, Viznet Dynamic, (shared access solution) on the Eutelsat W7 satellite.

Two layers of sophisticated QoS and bandwidth management

One of the benefits of the Viznet Dynamic service is its QoS. iDirect already offers high quality Group QoS, however, Vizada Networks has developed further QoS technology and bandwidth management that is added to the already advanced iDirect QoS. It features a very accurate QoS engine that provides close to 100% link utilisation so PRT Logar can be confident that the link will always be available when they need it. Other features of the enhanced QoS in Viznet Dynamic include:

• Very accurate policy enforcement. Granularity in capacity allocation is as low as the size of a single IP packet
• Traffic smoothing, avoids packet drops and re-transmissions for consistent low latency independently on network load
• Fairness between connections enforces priority for low speed interactive applications
• Enforced Constant Bit Rate per session, reduces jitter, essential for VoIP and Video
• Powerful web-based reporting and monitoring system.

 Governmental organisations choose Vizada Networks for warzones

Vizada Networks provides NATO with satellite communications and customers like PRT Logar benefit from the skills and experience we offer in technology, service and operating in theatre. Viznet Dynamic, iDirect and the Eutelsat W7 satellite is a powerful combination for users in Afghanistan. Technical benefits include sophisticated session QoS including constant Round Trip Delay and ensuring sensitive and critical applications are prioritised.

The advantages of the technical solution can also be expanded with the Platinum SLA option offering permanent service readiness or stand-by in critical locations for specific requirements/solutions and a possibility of modular service extension, for example voice services, mobile satellite telephony, etc.

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RELATED LINKS:

PRT Logar – website

It is now possible for us to connect all customers to the global IPv6 network. IPv6 can be provided over any of the terrestrial or satellite-based communication services offered by Vizada Networks, with dynamic routing and IPv6 BGP is also supported.

“The launch of our new iDirect based services in Tanzania was a successful event, so we are confident that customers will take us up on our new offering of highly reliable and cost effective connectivity,” states Stefano Vittor, CEO of Vizada Networks. “With our new infrastructure in place, we really can offer a level of service and availability not before seen in Tanzania and the East Coast of Africa and believe that businesses and organisations in the region will be keen to try it for themselves.”

Read the full press release here.