INTRODUCTION

RailTel Corporation of India Limited (RCIL), formed in September 2000, is a Public

Sector Unit (PSU) under the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

RailTel is a leading Telecom Service Provider all over India. RailTel enterprise
Portfolio includes Transmisssion Network, Broadband Services, data and Internet
Services.

RailTel has successfully created the State-of-the-Art Telecom Network using

SDH/DWDM-based Transmission systems and MPLS-IP network.

As one of the primary objectives, RailTel also provides Railways Communication

requirement for administration, passenger information system , ticketing, train
operations and control for efficient Railway operations.

Objective:-

• To create a nation-wide Broadband Telecom and Multimedia Network.

• To modernize Train Control Operations and Safety System of Indian

Railways

• To significantly contribute to the realization of goals and objectives of the

National Telecom Policy, 1999.

Offices:-

The corporate office is in New Delhi. Regional offices are:

• Northern region:- Jaipur, Lucknow, New Delhi, Chandigarh

• Eastern region:- Kolkata, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar

• Southern region:- Cochin, Bangalore, Secundrabad, Chennai

• Western Region:- Ahemdabad, Mumbai, Bhopal.

Services:-

RailTel Corporation of India Ltd is a telecom company and a managed service

provider.

• It offers IP based infrastructural solutions to its customers.

• It manages multi location wide area networks for various industry

requirements; including Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Telecom,
Manufacturing, Logistics, Media, Retail, IT, Consulting, Education, Health
Care and Government.

• It has deployed a country wide network using wireless connectivity in

some parts of India.

• It offers end-to-end fiber connectivity in all large metros of India. It

provides end-to-end connectivity service which includes network
integeration, bandwidth as well as managed services.

• The major types of services are:

DEPARTMENTS
The three main departments are:

• Project Management

• Marketing

• Infrastructure team

Project management

The project management department looks after the work programmes, plans
for the next year on the basis of the funds available. The work flow for any
project in the company is as follows:-

• Works Programme: Laying of OFC along all the tracks in India of base
levels STM1- base level, STM16- top level and 40XS running along fibres.
Replacements of the existing assets with the newer ones, technological
improvements and upgradation of assets as well as the creation of the
new assets.

• Abstract Estimates: Stores Portion supply the power and OFC. Labour
Portion takes care of who lays the cable and transportation. Fixed charges
are 2% administration and 6% construction.

• Sanctioned Work list: The different authorities and criteria’s are Board
of Directors, Managing Directors, Railway Pink book works, Railway lump
sum works and out of turn works.

• Detailed Estimates: They perform the survey and decide the design;
bridges, distance etc. Estimate the preparation under the LAR and PO’s;
Last Accepted Rates and Purchase Orders.

• Manpower planning: This is done at the head quarters and survey is

done for any outdoor work of 200 kms.

• Tendering process: Preparing the tender document based on the

schedule, specs, and qualifying criteria. General conditions of contract are
Open which anybody can buy and take, Limited which is given to
shortlisted vendors and Quoted which is done on nomination of tenders
basis.

Finalisation of tenders is done by the executives of finance and systems

department. Issuing the LOA and PO’s.

• Project Monitoring: They have to monitor the work and give Weekly
Progress Reports, Periodical Reviews of project teams and vendors. Keep
the payment and work register up to date. Perform joint inspections and
rectify the deficiencies.

• Testing and Commissioning: Vendor and the Railways both do the

inspection, commission the projects and put them to use. They give the
provisional acceptance and then the final acceptance and final payment.
 • Handing Over: After the joint inspections the as build documents and
details of the assets at each end terminals are handed over.

• Completion Report: Comparing estimate and the actual expenditure

and producing the revised estimate, wherein up to 10% tolerance is
allowed. After its sanction, no claim certificate and FAC are generated.

Infrastructure team

This team is responsible for creation and management of the basic infrastructure
of the networks.

Basic infrastructure of RAILTEL NETWORKS

RailTel has about 36,000 Route Km of Optical Fiber Cable running along Indian
Railway Track in many part of the country. RailTel is having fibers at every
station enroute, spaced at 8-10 Kms to meet Railway operations. RailTel is laying
fibers in uncovered sections.

This network is designed in Layers for its efficient utilization and management.
The three layers viz. Access Layer, Edge Layer & Backbone layer enables
required capacity with desired granuality. Access layer provides STM-1
(155Mbps) capacity at stations. The traffic from access layer is aggregated on to
the Edge layer having STM-16 connectivity, which is available in important
locations at every 50-60 Kms. Collecting the traffic from edge layer is finally
aggregated on to the Backbone layer with DWDM/STM-16/64 available in big
cities/towns situated at every 60-70 Kms.
 LEARNINGS RELATED TO SUBJECT
This industry visit greatly helped us understand the different concepts we have
been studying in our subject of DCN.
1. Provision of internet services – The main Google server is located in US.
Large kilometres of optic fibre lines are laid, and travel through the sea.
This provides the service to TATA services in India which transmit them to
the major regional offices in the northern, southern, western and eastern
regions. The ISPs then provide the IP addresses to other offices. These
then provide the services to various clients and customers by creating
networks using various hardwares.

2. IP addresses – These are of two types: private and public. For using the
data globally, public IP address is needed, which is provided by the ISP.
For example, in NIFT, there is a limited no. of public IP address being
provided by the ISP. To access internet, a proxy server is used which
converts private IPs to public IPs.

3. Management of networks and rectification of errors – The use of NMS

helps in this regard.

4. Quality of connectivity – It depends on the bandwidth of the connection

and traffic in the transmission path. The higher the bandwidth, better is
the connectivity. Also, traffic in the network results in slow transmission.

5. Network structure for NIFT Internet services –

NDL
MUM CHN

SC

Nortel Switch

SC STM 4

Tejas

Sdh Cloud

Andhra Bank Cyber Towers

 Router Nift

Media Converter
Switch & Lan

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE:-

The software being used is NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NMS). The server
in which this software is installed has a Graphical User Interface.

This software shows the major networks and networking stations, as well as the
spots where the services are being provided. Whenever there is an error along
any path, an error message is reported. The colour also changes for the
transmission line which has an error. Until the error is rectified, the transmission
happens through the backup paths, which are comparatively longer. After the
errors are corrected, that transmission line is removed from the list of errored
lines.This software thus allows Railtel in immediate and easy detection of faults
and their location. Thus, these problems can be solved in an efficient manner
and trouble free services are provided to the customers.

HARDWARE:-

• Optical fibre cables (OFC) / Dark Fibres:-

Features:-

 Secured Right of Way along Railway Track

 Less Susceptible to Cuts

 Options of Swapping

 Effective data transmission over long distances

 Higher speed.

• Tower Rental Service:-

These are used for Co- location services. Example- Last Mile Radio, BTS,
FM radios and other microwave equipments. Railtel provides tower space
for antennae for the above mentioned services.
• SDH optical transmission equipment

It is used for passing signals across two stations through a route. It works
by add-drop multiplexing. It acts as a carrier of signals. The capacity is 2.5
Gbps. It also assists in reporter and signal connection.

• DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexer)

It is the basic backbone of the networks. The wavelength lies from 40 –

1500 lamda. It is capable of transferring large volumes of data. Its speed
is 400 Gbps. Many SDH are connected to DWDM.

• EOW (Engineering Ordered Wire)

• Servers for NMS

The software NMS is installed into main servers, which have a GUI.

• Ethernet

It includes switches and hubs. Category 5 cables are also there, available
in 1-5 categories. Their speeds vary:

 Cat 5 – 100 Mbps

 Cat 6 – 1 Gbps

 Cat 6E – 10 Gbps

• Routers

These equipments are used for connectivity along the network. These help
in distribution of signals. MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switch) is used.
 CONCLUSION
Networking is an integral part of all businesses today. In this era of globalization,
data and information sharing are of utmost importance. Internet services have
revolutionised the way data is obtained and transferred. It has made our lives
easier.

These networks are widespread and complex. Optical fibres lines are laid across
large distances for transmission of information. A large number of hardware
equipments like routers, hubs, switches, etc. are used.

The softwares like NMS have made the job of monitoring and managing the
networks much easier and efficient. The modern technologies allow the Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) to provide good services to their customers.

The internet which provides us lots of information regarding any topic, which
allows us to communicate with people across the globe and lets us transfer and
receive huge volumes of data in fraction of seconds is a result of such high end,
extensive use of technology, software and hardware.

This industry visit has proved to be highly beneficial for better understanding of
our subject, DCN.