Tellabs Inspire Magazine: Mrs Gets On Track

article reprint — TELLABS INSPIRE june 2008

MRS Gets on Track For one Brazilian railroad, telecom means more than just fiber and copper buried alongside the tracks. By Raymond Conway

Decio Tomaz, chief information officer for MRS Logistica.

Telecom network upgrades are often described as “challenging.” Now add to the mix the overhaul and modernization of a railroad system, coupled with the demanding and strict regulation of safety and business practices, and “daunting” would be more accurate. That’s precisely the uphill battle that faced Brazilian company MRS Logistica when it privatized the South American nation’s government-run railroad system in the mid-1990s. MRS inherited a business operation and infrastructure — including a TDM-based network — that was in near total disrepair following years of neglect and lack of investment. The company initiated a massive reconstruction effort that remains a work in progress today. Already there are radical improvements in the physical condition, safety, efficiency and overall vitality of much of the railroad system. During the restoration project, tracks were rerouted or completely rebuilt in areas where environmental forces such as landslides had rendered them unsafe or completely useless. In some cases, people living along the tracks had to be relocated to allow for rebuilding and expansion. Old, junk-filled train yards were cleaned up and modernized. Now MRS, which began its new life as a private company in 1996, is on track for growth. About 75 percent of its business is derived from the transportation of iron ore from mining sites to steel mills and to coastal ports for export. The other 25 percent of the system’s traffic hauls other products such as cement, grains, containers, etc. In the future, MRS plans to add more locomotives and rail cars and decrease the distance between trains. The latter is where telecom comes into play.

Safety concerns prompted MRS to relocate people living near existing train tracks.

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article reprint — MRS Gets on track

For years, a TDM-based network that runs alongside the railroad’s rights-of-way has connected train drivers to a central operations location. That network, managed by a large incumbent telephone company, also controls the signaling for gates and lights at every railroad crossing. Traditionally, train engineers have determined the spacing between trains. But MRS is migrating toward a centralized management system for much the same reason that telecom networks have NOCs. “If I can fully control communications, I can stop trains if there is a problem and send information to other trains,” said Decio Tomaz, chief information officer for MRS Logistica, during a recent visit to the United States. “This is a big project, but IT will be the thing that makes the difference.”

For MRS, the telecom network upgrade is the equivalent of the wholesale railroad makeover that MRS has been tackling for the past several years, but on a tighter schedule; much of the new telecom network should be in place by late next year. The undertaking is all the more ambitious considering that telecom is not MRS’ core business. Early on, the company recognized the need for a capable, knowledgeable and trustworthy telecom technology partner. It chose Tellabs from among a number of possible vendors. Although Tellabs typically works with service providers and other traditional network operators, the railroad company’s size and the scope of its mission made for a good fit. “They really are building the first converged network of its kind in Brazil,” said Armando Camargo, sales director at Tellabs. “MRS is like a huge enterprise network in a way.” Tarcisio Ribeiro, vice president of Latin America operations for Tellabs, added: “When a company like MRS introduces new technology into its network, it is not just technology for technology’s sake. There is a new business case behind it, and new ways they want to use it.” MRS selected the Tellabs® 8100 Managed Access System and has deployed several elements of the Tellabs® 8600 Managed Edge System (MES), including the Tellabs® 8660 Edge Switches, Tellabs® 8630 Access Switches and Tellabs® 8620 Access Switches.

Most of MRS’ business is transporting iron ore from mining sites around Brazil.

From Trains to Telecom To increase the railroad’s volume and efficiency — and increase revenue and profit potential in the process — MRS requires a modern, reliable and equally efficient communications network. The goal is to deliver a clear and dependable exchange of information between trains and operations centers, as well as between the trains themselves. MRS also intends to use the network to upgrade its overall voice, data and video communications platforms in order to increase the use of applications such as videoconferencing between MRS offices in different cities, Tomaz said. For VoIP and video conferencing, new technology reduces the current delivery delay from about 400 milliseconds using TDM network facilities to less than 100 milliseconds. With so many offices, trains and train yards spread all over the country, MRS is looking toward a network architecture that leverages IP-based H-VPLS. “With IP technology, you can do a lot of things that TDM doesn’t support,” Tomaz said. “It’s far more flexible, scalable and now provides the reliability we’re used to with TDM.”

“It’s well known that the Tellabs 8600 MES is the best you can get for its management and usage capabilities,” said Tomaz, referring to the Tellabs 8600 MES’ flexibility in managing multiple network elements.

I need to know that we are increasing the business and strengthening the company. Decio Tomaz, CIO for MRS Logistica

Tellabs’ Camargo added: “The equipment is reliable in facing all of the environmental conditions of Brazil, and the management system puts MRS in control of the network. The flexibility of offering various interfaces for legacy and new services is another key advantage.” MRS will also use the Tellabs® 8830 Multiservice Router to support H-VPLS services. “These systems allow me to put legacy traffic and new traffic on a converged network, while being able to introduce new services over it,” Tomaz said.

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article reprint — MRS Gets on track

New Market Opportunities Both Tellabs and MRS were entering somewhat uncharted territory. For Tellabs, the MRS contract represented a step forward in terms of diversifying both the geography and type of customer it serves. The MRS project enhances Tellabs’ profile in Brazil (where the company has maintained offices for the past 10 years) by demonstrating an ability to work with clients outside the carrier industry. “Because MRS is not a traditional telecom customer, there were some differences in the approach we took,” said Fernando Capella, executive account manager at Tellabs. “Carriers know exactly what they want, but MRS required additional consultative support from our side.” It was that support, as much as Tellabs’ product suite, that enabled MRS to pull off its expensive bet on telecom. “When I buy something and make a big change in the technology, I am looking to support our business. I am not investing money, energy and development resources just for technology; I need to know that we are increasing the business and strengthening the company,” Tomaz said of his role at MRS. “I feel, very personally, that Tellabs supports me with the technology and systems knowledge needed to succeed, and I trust their people.” For companies in a position similar to MRS’, choosing the right partner often instills the confidence necessary to deliver on ambitious technology initiatives. “MRS will place its bet on IT,” Tomaz said. “We have always planned on that, and now we are making that plan happen.”

Previously unusable stretches of rail have been overhauled.

Acronym H-VPLS Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Services NOC Network Operations Center TDM Time Division Multiplexing

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