URL: www.kt.co.kr
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Industry: Telecommunications service provider
Challenges
Demand for advanced, high-speed Internet services necessitated an upgrade of KT’s existing KORNET metro Ethernet network.
Solution
The carrier-class ST200, an edge routing solution from ECI Telecom.
Results
The ST200 allows KT to deliver next-generation high-speed Internet services with the wire-speed performance and security required to bring advanced services to its customers.
As Korea's largest telecommunications provider, KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom) aims to emerge as one of the world's leading companies in the 21st century. Since its inception in 1981, KT has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure equipment—installing over a million lines each year to make Korea the second largest telecommunications presence in Asia and the tenth largest in the world. With a strong commitment to maximizing customer value, KT is focused on continually adopting advanced technologies to support new, sophisticated services.
When demand for advanced, high-speed Internet services necessitated an upgrade of its KORNET metro Ethernet network, KT turned to ECI Telecom. ECI's ST200 Service Edge Router enabled KT to provide business customers in 14 cities with a high speed upgrade path from TDM-based DS-3 circuits to 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps Ethernet connectivity. Using the ST200, KT began offering Internet services with BGP peering as well as an optional service to block undesirable websites as specified by its customers.
“With its carrier-class flexibility, scalability and reliability, the ST200 has proven to be an ideal solution for Asia's leading service providers,” said Rafael Francis, AVP Product Management, Data Platforms, ECI Telecom. “We are delighted that KT is using our ST200 to deliver advanced, high-speed Internet services to large numbers of subscribers throughout South Korea.”
A Winning Performance
For the KORNET network bid process, KT elected to take a decidedly unique approach. Rather than selecting a vendor based on price alone as is typical in some telecoms equipment markets, KT developed a competitive benchmark test (BMT) that included thorough testing of IP routing, forwarding performance, QoS and security — including denial of service prevention.
KT chose ECI after the ST200 won its extensive benchmark test. “The ST200 Service Edge Router proved to be more than capable of supporting KT's next-generation high-speed Internet services with the wire-speed performance and security we required to deliver advanced services to our customers,” said Y.G. Jeoung, Senior Manager, KT. “Beyond its complete IP routing support, the ST200 alone has the architectural flexibility and scalability that allows us to cost effectively turn on a range of sophisticated services as our needs evolve over time.”
ECI's ST200 delivers services with unmatched performance, flexibility and scalability to support KT's current and future requirements. The ST200's distributed architecture ensures wire-speed performance even with all services and features enabled and thousands of customers connected. A highly scalable Internet-class routing engine supports a feature-rich suite of routing protocols and ensures reliable end-to-end service delivery that scales to meet demand. Granular QoS and traffic management capabilities guarantee dependable, predictable performance for data, voice and video traffic. And robust security features provide protection against denial of service attacks—a critical component of the KT benchmark test.
“ECI's selection by KT is the latest proof that our ST200 is the highest performing and most feature-rich edge router in the industry,” said Mr. Francis. “As Korea's largest telecommunications provider, KT requires advanced features and sophisticated services delivered to large numbers of customers without compromise. The results of the benchmark testing and ultimate selection by KT demonstrate that the ST200 delivers.”
Future Deployments Planned
In addition to the current 14-city deployment, KT is planning further deployments of the ST200 in points of presence throughout South Korea's major business centers. ECI couldn't be more pleased. “Korea is an early adopter of many of the cutting-edge technologies that will shape the future and KT is at the forefront of this movement,” said Mr. Francis. “We're pleased that KT has chosen our ST200 to deliver these next-generation services to its valued customers.”
About KT
Established in1981 and privatized in 2002, KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom) is Korea's top integrated wired/wireless communications service provider. KT has been Korea's leader in the development of the information and communications business for the last 26 years. In that time, KT has helped turn Korea into an IT powerhouse with the world's leading technology in the operation of broadband service.