Case Study
GBM helps Bahrain Internet
Exchange in national project
From left to right: Mohamed E. Al-Thawadi, Executive Director, BIX and Abdulla Ishaq,
Country General Manager, GBM.
Executive Summary Challenge
The mission and objectives of Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX) are:
Customer Name  To reduce international internet connectivity rates borne by ISPs and customers.
Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX)  To provide high speed internet at low-cost.
 To enhance the broadband services in the Kingdom.
Industry  To increase the local internet websites.
Government. Follows Ministry of  Enhancing the telecom infrastructure to a great extent.
Transportation.  Enhancing the country’s broadband infrastructure in line with the national
transformational plan to invest in a high speed and cost effective broadband
Location network that addresses the specific needs of key sectors.
Bahrain
 To increase the quality of the internet connection in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Number of Employees
55
Solution
In order to meet the mission and objectives of the BIX, GBM and Cisco® proposed a
Challenge solution to build the National Broadband Network (NBN) for BIX to cover the Kingdom
 Enhance and Increase the Internet of Bahrain. This is made up of an IPoDWDM solution which is comprised by IP
Bandwidth Components, and DWDM components, in addition to the Network Management
 Develop service enabled Solution through Cisco Transport Manager and Cisco IP Solution Center.
Infrastructure
 Reduce the cost of the Internet The National Broadband Network (NBN) is the Government of Bahrain Initiative which
and International connectivity will be available on an open access basis, at fair and reasonable prices, capacity on the
fiber-optic network of the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) utilising those fibers
Solution that are in access of the direct needs to the EWA in order to increase Government
 Cisco IPoDWDM effectiveness and assist in accelerating economic diversification.
 Cisco Network and Management
Solutions
The project scope is to provide design, installation, and implementation support
 Metro Ethernet Switches
services for BIX National Broadband Network (NBN) related to the following three
Results technologies: Infrastructure IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS), Optical
 Enhance Telecom Infrastructure Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), and Network Management Systems (NMS).
 Develop and leverage eService on
the national level Infrastructure Scope will cover the design, site preparation, installation preparation,
 Enhance the link bandwidth and migration planning and implementation support services for two Aggregation Services
reliability Routers (ASR 1001), two Carrier Routing System (CRS -16), 13 Aggregation Services
Routers (ASR 9K), and six ME3600 platforms.
Optical Scope will cover the design, site preparation, installation preparation, and
implementation support services for 24 x ONS 15454 PP platforms.
1

Case Study
“GBM’s partnership Network Management System (NMS) Scope will cover the design and implementation
support services for Cisco IP Solution Center (ISC), Ciscoworks LAN Management
throughout Solution (CWLMS) and Cisco Transport Manager.
this project was
This project will be deployed on 13 main sites covering the Kingdom of Bahrain. The
instrumental for main solutions deployed include Cisco Network Management System (NMS),
BIX to achieve the Ciscoworks LAN Management Solution (CWLMS) and Cisco Transport Manager. The
strategic goals for project time scale started in July 2011, and is set to end in December 2012.
the NBN initiative. We The NBN will involve the laying of fibre optic cabling of Bahrain homes, schools and
will count on businesses, providing highspeed broadband network using Cisco’s IPoDWDM
technology which will deliver the service flexibility, scalability and increased resilience
their professional team to enable carriers to capitalise on increasingly bandwidth intensive and complex
and support applications in the Kingdom.
to continue to deliver
Results
our services to  Enhanced Bahrain Telecom infrastructure by deploying High Bandwidth and DWDM
our customers and Components over IP/MPLS
 Enhanced wide-spread e-services starting with e-Government, e-Education, e-
citizens across the Health, advanced e-Business, e-Banking, e-Payment, etc.
Kingdom.”  Reliable and high bandwidth network hub to connect the Kingdom to the other
region’s telecom network
Mohamed E. Al-Thawadi -
 Enable Bahrain carriers to capitalize on increasingly bandwidth-intensive and
Executive Director, BIX
complex applications in the Kingdom.
For more information
To learn more about the solutions mentioned in this case study, please go to:
www.gbm4ibm.com
Product & Technology List
Cisco Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS) and Aggregation Service Routers (ASR) core routers
Cisco ONS Multiplexers
Optical Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
Cisco Metro Ethernet Switches – ME3600 Platforms
Cisco Network Management Software (NMS)
Infrastructure IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS)
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