Nortel Network Infrastructure Enhanced CYG 2008 Experience

The Commonwealth Youth Games 2008, recently held in Pune, ran on a next-generation data network infrastructure set up by Nortel.

The highly available network supporting 1,000 users, ran multimedia applications including real-time schedule updating, statistical analysis, resource co-ordination and media coverage helping ensure the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008 (CYG 2008) ran smoothly.

The CYG 2008 Committee chose Nortel because of its track record of being selected as the Official Converged Network Equipment Supplier for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the Official Network Infrastructure Partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In addition, the company deployed the communications networks for the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games and the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Ireland in 2003. One of the key selection criteria for technology vendors for the CYG 2008 Pune was to have provided IT solutions for at least one Olympic, Asian or Commonwealth Games in the last five years.

“Nortel came with great references as it has been chosen to provide the networking infrastructure for the upcoming two Olympic Games. In addition, Nortel’s past experience supporting the sporting events at Turin and Ireland was a major reason for us to select them for the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008,” says Vijay Gautam, IT Secretary, government of India.

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CYG 2008 Pune included 1,300 athletes and 350 officials from 71 countries. The Games were held on a campus spread over 200 acres, housing nearly 30 buildings.

“We needed the ability to share information instantly in a manner that united many different applications across many different devices for many different users. To make this a reality, we required a highly reliable network that would work across the campus, and be flexible to the users wherever they were,” says Rohit Srivastawa, director Technology, CYG 2008 Pune. “With the Nortel solution and design, we did not see any downtime. And that helped us make the CYG 2008 Pune a huge success.”

Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director, Nortel India, says, “It was a very complex design, which our team worked hard to simplify. With our next-generation switches, the business of conducting this mega sporting event became simple.”

The CYG 2008 Pune network was running several online software applications to track the various events. The gaming statistics software ran on the network to capture all current action and produce accurate results of each event, real-time event analyses and comparative information on records established.

Hundreds of volunteers were deployed to assist in the various events of CYG 2008 Pune. The Nortel network running the software co-ordinated the movements of these volunteers on a real-time basis. Various media teams covering the CYG 2008 used the network to compile reports and send them to their broadcasting teams. Online broadcast of the schedule of events and the participants was also updated on a real-time basis over the Nortel network.