Irish bandwidth demand shows massive increase

Wider availability of broadband, the growth in Internet accessible devices like the smartphone and tablet, combined with the popularity of high bandwidth applications such as on-demand TV and video, has resulted in peak Internet traffic on eircom's core network growing from 1 Gbps in 2005 to more than 50 Gbps today.

As might be expected this explosive Fixed and Mobile growth placed huge demands on our existing infrastructure. We knew a major improvement in the national network was required, and in 2006 began planning the construction of the NGN.

In 2007 we commenced the first phase of the NGN with the build of the Next Generation Core Network.

Ireland's smart economy is based on bandwidth

Inter-regional competition in today's global economy means that data centre connectivity and network infrastructure are increasingly important factors in attracting regional investment, making Next Generation Network connectivity critical to the future attraction and retention of our multinational base and the competitiveness of indigenous Irish enterprises.

High quality affordable ICT infrastructure enabled by the NGN will enable Ireland to develop a true knowledge-based economy, where first-class business ideas can be executed over first-class network infrastructure.

Of course the benefits of a national NGN are not just limited to commerce. Once complete many areas of Irish life including the public services, primary, secondary and tertiary education, entertainment and social interaction, will all have the necessary infrastructure in place to radically transform their delivery.

NGN: helping all service providers meet the bandwidth challenge

Our vision for the NGN is to create an all-IP broadband centred network that enables service providers to deliver hugely improved speeds to consumers and businesses as well as delivering a more reliable and cost-effective network. We're building the NGN as an open-access wholesale network to ensure that all service providers can meet bandwidth demand, without wasteful duplication in infrastructure build.

There are 3 key elements to the National NGN rollout.

(i) The National Fibre Network: An extensive fibre network is important to the NGN programme because it is the high capacity fibre optic layer which carries the NGN traffic at ultra high speed. The eircom national fibre backbone is the most extensive on the island, by far, connecting over 500 cities, towns and villages.

The NFN covers over 12,000 route kilometres and contains over 400,000 kms of fibre – enough to run around the circumference of the earth 10 times over – and we've overlaid the fibre network with WDM technology to increase throughput.

WDM, or Wave Division Multiplexing, is the technology that allows us to send dozens of gigabit or 10-gigabit signals down a single pair of fibres. We've built 50 high-capacity WDM systems nationally, which resiliently connect over 140 eircom core sites around the country.

(ii) Next Generation Core: This new high capacity IP transport network is a more flexible, resilient and higher-capacity network than previous. When complete almost every town with over 5,000 population will form part of the NGN Core network, including towns like Listowel, Mallow, and Tuam. The NGN core has enabled broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps) for small and medium sized enterprises within reach of an NGN node.

The core rollout is a key enabler of a successful Fixed and Mobile Next Generation Access network's because it puts a distribution mechanism for ultrahigh speed broadband right into the local exchange: this means access links covering the last mile to the premises and to Mobile Base Stations will be shorter, more resilient and more cost-effective to develop.

(iii) Next Generation Access (NGA) is the final step and covers the last mile, rolling out capacity direct to local homes, businesses, Mobile Base Stations or neighbourhood telecoms cabinets. We are piloting NGA Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) in Wexford and Sandyford, in conjunction with service providers, who will be able to deliver speeds of 150 Mbps to local consumers and businesses. We are also piloting Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) in Dundrum and Priory Park to offer users speeds of up to 50 Mbps.