Multinet taps TIP for home region firsts in optical, Open Wi-Fi deployments | Computer Weekly

A founding principal of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) was to help providers looking to open up networks from the RAN to the core through the rapid adoption of open and disaggregated products and offerings across the telecom ecosystem, and in the latest part of this strategy, business communications company Multinet Pakistan has announced two significant uses of TIP’s technology across its optical and Wi-Fi networks.

Multinet Pakistan offers connectivity services and managed services on its 14,000km-long self-healing and scalable optical fibre network, covering more than 120 cities across the country and supporting more than 150 million people in the region. Multinet’s nationwide long-haul network is complemented with international POPs and terrestrial extension into neighbouring countries.

Multinet also provides specialised offerings to their customers ranging from single/multi-site local or international data offerings, internet connectivity and IP transit services, backhauling services, cloud computing and datacentre services, managed IT and security services, enterprise voice and video conferencing, and virtualisation and VSAT.

In the new deployment, Multinet is upgrading its optical transport network with 3.2 Tbps capacity using the TIP Open Optical framework. The network upgrade project represents an aim to be the world’s largest Open Optical framework implementation, and is designed to enable Multinet to bring agility and hyper scalability to the immensely growing bandwidth demand in Pakistan – adding more cities and towns to Multinet’s fibre network, and hugely increasing the data and internet access capacity across Pakistan.

Multinet’s long-haul network infrastructure deployment features software and hardware from TIP’s open optical ecosystem and industry-leading players, including Edgecore, IP Infusion, SmartOptics, as well as its local system integrator partner in Pakistan, Starcom Technologies (Pvt) Limited.

Multinet’s upgrade incorporates Cassini, TIP’s disaggregated coherent switch and open packet transponder built by Edgecore Networks, and IP Infusion’s OcNOS network OS for white box disaggregated network services, which provides the scalable transition to open and agile networks.

The operator is also deploying TIP’s OpenWiFi technology to power Wi-Fi networks across the country, providing connectivity for public, hospitality, sports and entertainment, and retail enterprise customers. Multinet is the first managed service provider in the region to deploy OpenWiFi’s technology stack with the aim of providing fast and affordable connectivity.

Multinet is also using Edgecore APs integrated with its ecOpen Cloud Controller technology for its OpenWiFi network and hotspots backhauled with high-speed optical fibre infrastructure.

“Our singular mission is to deliver superior connectivity solutions for Pakistan,” said Multinet Pakistan chief operating officer Hayat Zaidi. “By using open and disaggregated technology with TIP, we will continue to lead the market with innovation that delivers exceptional service, quality and reliability for the public, our customers and stakeholders.

“This will greatly scale up our footprint and reach, with superior scalability,” he said. “Open networks, like this deployment, will streamline operations and accelerate innovation.”