| Huawei's mature integrated mobile softswitch solution helped STC successfully survive the world's most heavy traffic during the Hajj for the two consecutive years As the world's largest pilgrimage, the Hajj draws millions of Muslims from all over the world to Mecca in Saudi Arabia every year for the annual holy ceremony. Around three million people, including approximately two million mobile subscribers, would be gathering within an area of 10 square kilometers in Mecca. Over a five-day period, this area has one of the highest mobile traffic densities in the world, creating some unique network challenges for operators such as Saudi Telecom Corporation (STC), the largest telecom operator in Saudi Arabia. For years, STC had tried some core network equipment from a number of leading vendors in the industry, but their core network systems all broke down during the annual ceremony since both their core network equipment and network scheduling fall short of heavy traffic needs. The problem was not resolved until 2005 when STC chose Huawei's mobile softswitch system to construct a new core network covering all Hajj holy sites including Mecca. In 2006, thanks to Huawei's robust mobile softswitch solution that possesses large capacity and high processing capabilities, STC witnessed its network run stably with no interruption throughout the Hajj for the first time. In 2007, despite a further rise in traffic volume, STC again handled the Hajj challenge with flying colors. On January 3, 2007, the last day of the Hajj when three million Muslims finished their last round of worship and left Mecca, STC declared that the Huawei-supplied core network within the Hajj area successfully survived the extremely heavy traffic without any discontinuity or failure for a second straight year. According to STC, during the Hajj the maximum BHCA (Busy Hour Call Attempt) in a single end office was as much as 2800K, 38 times of the usual amount. International calls soared to four million per hour, while the number of short messages and handovers increased by 137 and 118 times respectively. Challenges So what exactly are the challenges STC faced during the Hajj? With millions of people gathering in Mecca during the Hajj, the operator's network undoubtedly is standing up to a severe test. Big surge in traffic peaks: During the Hajj, millions of subscribers switch off and then on their cell phones, calling or sending messages almost at the same time. This concurrent action by such a massive number of subscribers results in traffic peaks one hundred times heavier than usual. The network, in other words, is flooded with heavy traffic over a long time. Network load multiples: In response to the excessive concentration of crowds, the mobile cells split and the area of each cell shrinks, thus causing an exponential increase in the number of downlink pages, location updates and handovers. Even if the mobile split with each cell reaches its maximum capacity, the cell capacity still falls far behind the subscriber base within the cells. As a result, large numbers of call attempts fail or repeat, causing a sharp increase in call attempts. Disproportionate distribution of traffic: During most of the Hajj, millions of subscribers are connected to only one or two MSCs and at the same time they are moving along the same route, which causes huge amounts of location updates and handovers. As a result traffic load is disproportionately distributed across the network. Avalanche on network: Since the network is heavily but quite disproportionately loaded and the load varies over time, the whole system including NEs (network element) and links, is at a critical point. If one NE breaks down, other NEs will be loaded with a heavier traffic burden, causing other NEs to avalanche and finally the system to go down. Huawei solutions The success of STC in overcoming the traffic peaks during the Hajj lies on Huawei's mature and reliable equipment and solution as well as the company's professional services. High capacity and reliability: When networking as a mobile end office, the system needs only three cabinets to support a capacity of 1.8 million subscribers, strong enough to suit any networking requirements around the world. Mecca's mobile core network is by far the largest VMSC in the world, and it is the key to the successful handling of Hajj peak traffic. All components in the softswitch are based on 1+1 or N+1 backup mechanism, and have passed tests in a variety of extreme environments with an availability rate of over 99.999% or even higher, far exceeding the carrier class level. This explains why the Huawei mobile softswitch can successfully stand the test of the Hajj two years in a row. End-to-end control solution: During the Hajj, influenced by the explosive increase of subscribers within every single wireless cell, it's difficult to support the pressure of call attempt and paging for STC's BSC system, and the call completion rate approached zero. Huawei mobile softswitch applied the unique end-to-end service control mechanism in time to revive BSC. First it temporarily canceled the signals unrelated to calls to improve the efficiency of down-link signaling and to decrease the pressure of call attempts. Then it enabled the enhanced multi-level flow control mechanism, with different control system to different direction in network according to the specific spot requirements, to build up the self-protection capability of network. Network resource balance solution: The solution supports the system to adjust the user homing and network allocation to balance traffic pressure on every softswitch equipment in the whole network when the millions of pilgrims are moving. Real-time monitoring solution: The solution displays the operating condition of the entire system clearly and supports fast information collection and analysis of various data and KPIs in real-time, including CPU usage, link load, and call completion rate, to ensure that traffic risks can be located and prevented in time during the Hajj. Safe Hajj season With Huawei's specialized network services and its sophisticated softswitch equipment, STC received a great deal of benefit in 2007, with its revenues increasing by 30% during the Hajj, compared with the same period of 2006. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction has also been greatly enhanced due to the smooth operation of STC's mobile network and the provision of high-quality telecom services, which allowed Mecca pilgrims from all over the world to freely contact their family and friends during the Hajj. STC's shining performance in communications supports during the Hajj season not only provided great support to the Saudi Arabian Government in securing the Hajj activities, but also increased its competitiveness to meet the intense competition on the country's mobile market. For more information, please visit www.huawei.com |
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