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consortium were provided hands on training on POI as well NGN technologies. The final acceptance testing of the system was completed on the 22 of June 2006 & the POI was commissioned for commercial usage.

5.6. IP-POI Chittagong - Salient features

The Interconnectivity diagram & the equipped capacity of the POI is shown at Annexure-A.

The salient features of this project are given in the table below

   
1. Softswitch U-SYS Soft X 3000 - Huawei
2. Media Gateway U-SYS UMG8900 - Huawei
3. NMS I manager N 2000 - Huawei
4. BHCA capacity 3 million
5. Media Gateways capacity 576 E1s
6. Private operators connectivity 180 E1s
7. BTTB connectivity 150 E1s
8. Initial daily traffic exchanged 0.35 million call attempts
9. Approximate system cost 1.0 million US dollar

5.7. The Implementation Phases of the project can be summarized as below:

  1. Detailed analysis of present and future interconnect requirement of various operators.

  2. Formation of a consortium of interested operators to fund and operate Interconnect Exchange.

  3. Signing of MOU between the concerned partners under regulatory supervision including commercial terms and conditions.

  4. Determining the final hardware/software and interface requirements.

  5. Procurement of the system.

  6. Installation, commissioning, testing of the system and training of staff.

 

  
  1. Operation and Management of Interconnect Exchange.

The exchange has already started handling about 3.5 lakhs calls attempts daily from different operators networks and its capacity utilization is of the order of 2% only.

5.8. Existing Road blocks

One of the major problems being faced for the effectiveness of the interconnect exchange is the availability of E1s from the incumbent operator BT&T Board who has so far provided only 38 E1s, though as per agreement they are supposed to provide 150 E1s initially. This was due to the delay in their upgradation program of the old exchanges at Chittagaong which is now underway.

6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

This case study have demonstrated that it is possible to combine the strengths of new technologies and a forward looking regulatory approach to find innovative Solution to a complex problem of interconnection and heralding a nation into NGN era. For making tile system more effective the partners including BTTB have to terminate the requisite E1s as well as transit their maximum traffic through this platform. Also the new operators who are getting licenses currently should be encouraged to join the consortium and transit their traffic through this exchange. Hands-on training should be provided to more staff of partners so that there is a trained pool of manpower in NGN technologies, so that the expertise gained can be used in other networks as well. Also the experience gained through this pilot project could be used to solve interconnect problems at other locations in the country.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to BTRC, UNDP, ITU for providing the opportunity to work on this exciting project dealing with emerging technology as well as innovative regulatory approach to find the solution for the complex interconnection problem. Our sincere thanks are also due to the staff of project of BTRC Capacity Building.