The 6th International conference “Transport Networks Russia 2015 – Transport Telecommunications Networks Development in Russia and CIS”(TransNet 2015) was held in Moscow and attracted more than 350 representatives of leading players and experts in the transport communications market.
On 26 and 27 March, the participants of the COMNEWS conference discussed the new possibilities and key prospects of backbone network development in Russia, in the CIS countries and around the world.
The platinum sponsor of the conference was the leading world vendor Huawei, the gold sponsor – one of the biggest Russian communications companies, TransTeleCom (TTK), the bronze sponsors – the vendors Infinera, Alcatel-Lucent and JDSU, the sessions were sponsored by the largest Russian traffic exchange point MSK-IX and the Russian vendor T8; MegaFon was the partner of the conference. The participants of the conference were the companies Level 3 Communications and Xtera Communications. The general exhibitors were Interoute, TCM Kommunikation Ges.m.b.H and Genie Networks.
The conference was supported by the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz), the FTTH Council Europe, the Association of Regional Telecom Operators (ARTO), the International Academy of Communications (IAC), the Association of Strategic Outsourcing ASTRA, the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), Global CIO, the GLONASS/GNSS-Forum Association, and the Moscow Centre of International Business Assistance (MCIBA). More than 30 specialized sector’s mass media provided the informational support of the conference.
The opening speech of the conference was made by Deputy Head of Rossvyaz Igor Chursin; he emphasized the scope and the quality of preparation for TransNet 2015, which allowed market players to discuss all the urgent issues on the highest level.
The programme started with a round table “Trends in the Backbone Market – Software Defined Future of Transport Networks”. Its participants paid extra attention to the prospects of SDN (Software Defined Network) launch. The round table was attended by Olga Makarova, Director of Internet and Channel Resources Department, Carrier Business Development Unit, Corporate Center, MTS Group; Alexey Sokolov, Director of the Network Infrastructure Development at Yandex; Maarten Vissers, Technical Director European R&D Centre, Huawei; Andrey Podkolzin, Director of Clients Connection Department, TTK; Shamil Gabitov, Head Representative, China Unicom (Europe) Representative Office in Russia; as well as Andrey Pruglo, Director of Transport Networks Department, MGTS. The experts mentioned a data transfer network, where the network control layer is separated from data transmitters and software-implemented. They highlighted that there was no doubt that such a network could create a range of competitive advantages for operators, which would be able to render services to clients efficiently.
The key session of TransNet 2015 “Expansion of Transport Networks” was mostly comprised of reports made by the representatives of backbone operators. Vitaly Shub, Adviser to the President of TTK, spoke about the opportunities of further modernization of backbone networks 100G DWDM ULH. Maarten Vissers, Technical Director European R&D Centre at Huawei, presented a visionary report “SDN outside Data Centre”. Dmitry Shemyakin, Senior Systems Engineer, Russia & CIS at Infinera, provided information about the evolution of the intelligent transport network to the next generation. Semen Kogan, Head of OPTICs tendering and consulting engineering department in Russia and CIS at Alcatel-Lucent, spoke about new converged optical transport solutions for promising cloud networks. The effective method of SLA KPI testing based on RFC-6349 TrueSpeed (Virtual TrueSpeed) was introduced by Mikhail Nikolaev, Technical Director at JDSU Russia. There was also on analytical report on the possibility of traffic transit between Europe and Asia using the communication networks on the Russian territory, it was made by Alexander Kotov, Solution Consultant at the largest mobile company Vodafone. Oksana Maguliy, Head of International Telecom Operators Interaction at MegaFon, provided relevant information on the new MegaFon’s border crossing between Georgia and Russia. The capacity of the Russian 100G DWDM-equipment “Volga” and the prospects for import substitution were explained by Vladimir Treshikov, General Director at T8. The question on how to maximize the capacity of long-distance underwater and overland optical communication networks was answered by Massimo Leo, Director of Technical Sales at EMEA, Xtera Communications, Inc. Andrey Ermurak, Account Director at the largest world operator Level 3 Communications, spoke about the new commercial opportunities of international traffic transit.
In the end of the first day, TransNet 2015 hosted a session “IX: Traffic Exchanges Turning into Trendsetters in the Backbone Market”. The representatives of traffic exchange points who spoke during the session included Mauro Magrassi, Service Development Manager at MIX s.r.l. (Italy); Noriyuki Arai, Engineer at BBIX, Inc. (Japan); Aydin Yildiz, Business Development Director at ECIX; Radu Ghidiceanu, Chief Technology Officer, RoNIX Manager, ANISP/RoNIX (Romania); Franck Simon, Managing Director at France-IX (France), and Evgeny Morozov, Director of Sales at MSK-IX. The session also included a report made by Alexey Kipchatov, Marketing Director at RETnNet. The participants of the session touched upon the aspects and transformation if IX business on the modern stage. The round table “New Role of Traffic Exchanges in the Market” was a platform for the representatives of Internet Exchange to discuss the issues regarding collaboration and competition between IX and backbone operators, interest of large content providers towards IX, the interaction of IX and data centers, etc.
The second day of TransNet 2015 was opened with a session “Expansion of Transport Networks: New Tech Specs, Manufacturing and Routes”, which investigated the main topics of the previous day. There was a report on the evolution of fiber-optic communication lines in telecommunications, presented by Aleksey Sechkin, Carrier Product and Strategy Consultant at the international operator Verizon. The report “SDN-Based IP & Optical Synergy” was made by Igor Pavlov, Leader of Chief Engineer Office at Huawei. The development prospects of the largest network in Europe were shown by Alexander Vlasov, Head of Global Capacity Sales at Deutsche Telekom.
The session finished with a round table “Barriers and Drivers in the Market of Transport Networks”, which was attended by Igor Norveyshis, Deputy General Director for Corporate Issues at Power Grid Optical Networks Engineering; Alexey Ivanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors at PTM-Telecom; Vladimir Valkovich, Head of Technical Development and Operation Department at Orange Business Services in Russia and CIS; Alexander Vlasov, Head of Global Capacity Sales at Deutsche Telekom; Andrey Nikolaev, CEO at Fiber Optic Systems, and Sergey Akopov, Technical Director at Corning CIS. The participants discussed the ways to improve the interconnectivity of Russian companies with the largest global telecommunication nodes, as well as the necessity of Tier-1 carrier in Russia, the difficulties and the opportunities of sharing the active infrastructure of transport networks, the issues regarding the efficiency of outsourcing network construction and maintenance of transport networks, the forecasts about the order volumes of fiber optic cables in 2015-2016 in Russia, and etc.
The round table “Infrastructure of Departmental and Corporate Networks” was devoted to departmental and corporate networks accessing the commercial market and interacting with traditional operators. Among the topics of the round table were the conditions of using departmental and corporate infrastructure by the carriers, the variety of services provided by departmental operators on the commercial market, the joint construction of fiber optic lines by departmental and commercial operators. It was considered if departmental operators were ready to outsource communications services and to let the telecom infrastructure be serviced by third-party organizations. The experts of the round table were Vitaly Shub (TTK), Konstantin Marchenko (T8), Igor Norveyshis (Power Grid Optical Networks Engineering) and Alexey Ivanov (PTM-Telecom).
The conference resumed with a discussion “Dark Fiber”, dealing with different aspects of building fiber optic systems for further sale and lease of fibers to fixed-line and mobile service providers. The round table was attended by Radivoje Trandafir, Regional Director CEE at the Interoute company; Michael Galushka, Director of the Commercial Department, Latvian State Radio and Television Centre; Andrey Obukhov, CEO at Northern Fiber; Alexey Klushin, CEO at Milecom, and Sergey Fomichev, Director of Business Development at Mastertel.
During the reports and backstage conversations, the participants often highlighted that TransNet played an important role in the market and had a relevant programme, as well as top-level speakers; they also noted that the round tables and discussions were well-prepared and well-orchestrated.
The common opinion of the participants was expressed by Vitaly Shub, Adviser to the President of TTK Company and moderator of the round table “Infrastructure of Departmental and Corporate Networks”. He said, “It was one of the most famous and important conferences for Russian communications companies on the new and complicated stage of market development, and it became intense, relevant and practical. During TransNet 2015, the leading players of the Russian and global ICT community shared a lot of valuable business and technology-related information, which is critically important for the future development of the enterprises in the sector.”
