End User Case Study :

Making sense of cabling

Structured Cabling System Project

at RTA New Head Quarters
Jaiwanth Kumar
Senior Project Manager
IT Infrastructure Management

Roads & Transport Authority

Agenda :

‰ Project Brief

‰ Approach and Technology Implemented

‰ Architecture & Design

‰ Project Management

‰ Challenges

‰ Recommendations

‰ Business Benefits Realized

Project Brief:

AT GARHOUD DUBAI
Project Brief:

Program Name: RTA NEW HQ PROGRAM

Program Value: $3.6m
Program Duration: Sep 2009 to March 2010

Background:
‰RTA acquired a new Multi-Tenant Building near Festival City in the Garhoud Area of Dubai.
‰Was initially built for a multi tenant configuration with individual Customer Premises Equipment (CPE),
facility in all floors

Business Requirement:
‰Head Quarters for RTA with an office space for 3000 employees projected up to year 2012
‰Convert this Multi-Tenant facility into a RTA Corporate Office Environment
‰In house – Architect, Design, Implement and Sustain Structured Cabling, Network & Wireless & Voice
Infrastructure
‰Move all dispersed RTA Agencies to this New Facility.
Project Brief: Building Structure
¾ L shape building ( 3 wings A, B & C)
¾ 2B + G + 10 Floors
¾ G,1, 2, 7, 8 floors has interconnectivity between Wings
¾ The approx Built Up Area is 40,000sq.m
¾ 27 floors spread across 3 wings A10, B7, C10 floors respectively
¾ Cable Riser in Telecom Room in each floor
¾ CP in each office per floor
¾ Single Mode Fiber between Service Provider Room and Individual CP
¾ Horizontal Cabling between CP and Floor Boxes
¾ Entire office area has 19 CM Raised Flooring

A B C

Etisalat Fiber Termination Point

Single mode Fiber Telecom Room
Horizontal Cabling MDF Room
CPE
Approach & Technology Implemented:

Approach:
¾ Priority of Connectivity of this new facility with the existing RTA
Datacenter at Umm Ramool
¾ Identify location and number of MDF’s required
¾ Redundant paths for fiber and service provider entry
¾ Identify connectivity of service provider entrances to MDF’s
¾ Redundant connectivity from MDF to IDF’s across all floors
and all wings
¾ Completion of floor by floor for ease of migration of users

Architecture:
¾ The architecture was designed for a minimum of 16,000 outlets which is further scalable.
¾ This design is fully redundant with multipath cabling architecture with the right mix of fiber and
copper.
¾ The cabling technology utilized is capable to cater power over Ethernet (POE) and is a ready
infrastructure for a future converged network i.e. voice, video and integrated data.
¾ The architecture caters for operational efficiency by using color codes and proper labeling schema
.i.e. white – security devices, blue – data and red – voice.
¾ Various cabling solutions were reviewed and the best cabling solution suited RTA requirements
technically and most importantly the timelines for completion.
Architecture & Design:
Concept of Consolidation Points:
¾The architecture included the concept of Consolidation Point which caters for future addition of data and
voice sockets to the end user with minimum cost and time.
¾Each consolidation point consists of 6 data and 6 voice ports which are pre-terminated and in ready for
use state.
¾This consolidation points were placed strategically in areas where there is potential growth in future.
¾The advantage of having a consolidation point is to ensure faster delivery of data and voice sockets to
the user while catering to urgent business needs.
¾In other words better operational efficiency and faster service delivery to the end user.
Architecture & Design:
¾Each Wing has its own vertical riser

¾Two entrance facilities by Service Provider

on Ground Floor
¾Multi-pair and Fiber connectivity from
Entrance Facility to both MDF’s

¾Fiber connectivity coming to each MDF

through two different routes from RTA Datacenter at Umm Ramool

¾Wing A and Wing B has one IDF and Wing C has two IDF’s connected to both MDF’s independently
¾Each IDF room has redundant connections to both the MDF’s (MDF A, MDF C)
¾Each floor box has two Telecom Outlets (data & voice)
¾Two TCO’s per 7.5sq.m was standard calculation (can change as per requirement).
¾Dual Path Connectivity from IDF to both MDF’s
¾ Multimode Fiber Back Bone from MDF1A to all IDF
¾ Multimode Fiber Back Bone from MDF1C to all IDF
Architecture & Design:
¾Multimode Fiber Back Bone between both MDF’s

¾Single Mode Fiber Back Bone between both MDF’s

¾Single Mode Fiber Backbone between Entrance Facility

and MDF’s individually

¾Multipair Backbone between Entrance Facility and MDF’s

individually

¾IDF to MDF Multipair Back Bone

¾MDF to MDF Multi Pair Back Bone

¾Cat 3 100 Multipair cable from MDF to all IDF’s

¾Closed Frame Cabinets to be used in IDF’s for better cable management and dust free cable environment

¾Closed Cabinets 48U – 800x1000mm used in MDF’s

¾No. of cabinets in each floor starting from 2 to 3 depending on the no. of TCO’s.

¾20% of TCO’s considered for adds, moves and changes for 2 yrs.

¾Wireless Access points & Access Control, printers, fax machines etc was also considered in the design.
Architecture & Design:
Risers in the Building
Architecture & Design:
Multi Mode Fiber Back Bone from MDF A to all IDF’s
Architecture & Design:
Multi Mode Fiber Back Bone from MDF C to all IDF’s
C
Architecture & Design:
Multipair Back Bone from MDF to all IDF’s
Architecture & Design:
Project Management:
¾ Full cycle of RTA project management methodology was used in this program

¾ Project was in line with Company’s Operation Plan and linked to the strategic objectives

¾ RTA Project Management Activities are grouped into 6 groups as follows:

¾ Pre-Initiation
¾ Initiation
¾ Planning
¾ Execution
¾ Monitoring and Controlling
¾ Closing
Project Management:
Pre-Initiation
In Pre-initiation, a new project is defined and a project request form is prepared
And submitted to Strategy and Excellence Dept. for project authorization.

Initiation
During Initiation, the nature and scope of the project are determined. An
Understanding of the business environment is needed to ensure that the project
will be successful in meeting its business’ needs.

Planning
Project planning primarily focuses on how to establish the total scope of the effort,
define and refine the objectives, and develop the course of action required to
attain those objectives.

Execution
Project Execution covers the processes performed to complete the planned work to satisfy the project specifications.
Project execution activities should be part of the detailed Project Management methodology created by each
Agency/Sector.

Monitoring and Controlling

Project Monitoring and controlling covers the processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and
performance of the project along with identifying any areas in which changes to the plan are required and initiate the
corresponding changes.

Closure
Closure includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative activities include the archiving
of the files, documenting lessons learned, and releasing the project team.
Challenges:

Like every project implementation, we faced multiple issues and

challenges, a notable few are:

¾ The biggest challenge of timelines to implement the project was

overcome by RTA IT even though the project faced multiple risks and
issues from various stakeholders.

¾ Risks and Issues were identified and successfully mitigated by following

RTA’s project management methodology.

¾ Meet the timelines set by business to leverage the business advantage of

having all RTA agencies under one roof.

¾ Tough co-ordination with multiple parties involved to complete the dependencies like
containment system, utility power, MDF, IDF, Service Provider Facility readiness etc.
Recommendations:
¾Careful and detailed planning is required in the initial stages of the project
leads to a successful project implementation.

¾Anticipate risks up ahead and have a plan in pace to mitigate them

when they surface.

¾Proactive approach should be employed to manage the risks due

to delays.

¾Trained and experienced resources can cope better with the

demands of the project and can deliver projects under tight deadlines.

¾Careful monitoring and good coordination ensures that there are

no slip ups.

¾Even seemingly impossible goals can be achieved with close

coordination and proper resource allocations.

¾Involvement of principal vendors is recommended in large

installations to ensure correct design and BOQ.

¾Dealing with well established and professional companies with prior

experience with large projects is helpful in ensuring successful implementation.

¾Installation of equipment should be undertaken only when the IDF environment meets the desired standards and
readiness else failure of equipment due to dust and heat etc, becomes a reality.

¾If environment in the MDF/ IDF rooms are not satisfactory (in terms of being dust free, properly cooled, stable power),
then one should plan for dealing with higher level of failures and all possible notifications should be proactively enabled to
avoid delays in problem identification.
Business Benefits:
The cost spending for leased and rented office spaces was
not needed as the users moved to the new RTA HQ Building.

Cost savings through containing the recurring cost of having

high speed communication links for connecting users to
corporate IT services.

These links were not required anymore as the users moved

within RTA Datacenter premises i.e. only LAN connection.

Increased employee productivity was achieved as the

Connection to the Corporate IT Services was faster and
Efficient (1Gig LAN connection to user and 2 x 10Gig back bone connection).

The architecture, design, RfP preparation and project mgt by using in house expertise, resulted in
decreased spending on external consultancy and project management services.

Operational Efficiency was incorporated into the solution through proper labeling schema, color coding
and support for adds, moves and changes catering to future growth. This reduced time and effort to
deliver business requirements efficiently.
In summary, RTA’s Business requirements of “get it done now”, and RTA IT’s
simple response is “got it done yesterday”.
 Thank Q

Jaiwanth Kumar
Roads & Transport Authority