MELBOURNE, Australia-Australian telecommunications giant Telstra has significantly boosted the capacity of its mobile telephone networks to cater to the large influx of visitors to Sydney, Australia, for the Olympic Games. Telstra has the exclusive task of handling all communications for the Sydney 2000 Games.
According to Telstra, several layers of coverage have been deployed for the network with regular macro base station transmitters being supplemented by a number of micro and pico cells, primarily located in spectator seating areas.
Around 60 micro cells, with a range of tens of meters, have been installed with about 140 pico cells targeting high traffic areas, such as the Olympics’ main press center and function rooms.
Telstra has also created portable microcells known as “quickcells,” which will be used for short-duration events such as the start and end of the marathons, triathlons and so on, or where high-capacity spot coverage is needed. Telstra will also operate dedicated mobile data, paging and private mobile radio (PMR) networks. About 12,000 trunked mobile services will be made available for organizers, officials and security staff.
The result of the network upgrade means, on average, mobile-phone capacity around Sydney Olympic Park, Darling Harbour and other game venues will be tripled during the games. Some 85 venues, as well as transport interchange points, hotels and Olympic entertainment spots will benefit from substantially upgraded mobile coverage.
“Down at Sydney’s Olympic Park, you will have the world’s densest cellular coverage,” said Anthony Goonan, regional general manager New South Wales and Australian capital territory for Telstra OnAir, the company’s mobile division.
During a recent trial at a rugby international between Australia and New Zealand, the network was able to handle 250,000 calls during a five-hour period.
“In the area of the Olympic stadium, roughly 300 meters by 200 meters, we have 25 cells providing coverage whereas normally we would have just one,” Goonan said.
The main stadium at Olympic Park holds in excess of 100,000 spectators. Telstra expects there to be peak periods of phone use when spectators arrive and leave competition venues, during opening and closing ceremonies, or perhaps when Australia wins a gold medal.
Telstra expects the extra mobile network coverage will accommodate up to 500,000 users on its GSM 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and CDMA 800 MHz networks. However, it still does not rule out short delays during peak times.
Telstra technicians have developed a technology that enables multiple callers to share one frequency. To be used for the first time at the Sydney Olympics, the technology will augment capacity. The system uses directional antennas from Argus installed in the stadium’s curved roof and focused to boost coverage to small sections of the crowd.
“Within Stadium Australia, Telstra has developed world-leading radio network design techniques to cater for the peak demands anticipated in the main seating areas, function rooms, catering areas and under stadium service facilities,” said Telstra OnAir’s General Manager Kevin Phillips. “A particular challenge has been developing systems to deliver high network capacity for visiting members of the media.”
In addition, Goonan said Telstra would use a technique that allows the mobile network to be dynamically controlled with capacity able to be shifted about the Olympic site as crowds move or where demand surges.
“To manage the expected heavy network demand and as the need for mobile-phone capacity fluctuates, Telstra has installed technology which enables mobile network capacity to be moved around Sydney Olympic Park as people move from venue to venue, into the common domain and onto the train station,” Goonan said.
At the center of this new process is a real-time traffic monitoring system from New Zealand company Compudigm, immediately feeding back levels of network demand to operators.
“As network load approaches high levels, Telstra can allocate additional capacity to high load areas to reduce the level of disruption to customers,” Goonan said. “Telstra will be able to draw on data from key elements of the network to provide visualized reports of network traffic in real time, as well as for analysis after the event.
“From this information, the operations team will be able to see the status of the mobile network and focus their attention on relevant detail, as it changes, making decisions on how to reconfigure and optimize the network.”
The mobile-phone upgrade is a key part of what Telstra has grandly dubbed its “Millennium Network.” It has taken Telstra nine years to plan and develop the network in readiness for competition. For the 60 days spanning the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the network will provide uninterrupted service to more than 35 competition and 50 noncompetition venues, three Olympic villages, press and technology command centers, an international broadcast center (IBC) for some 190 broadcasters, as well as many training venues.
The network comprises 1.5 million kilometers of optic fiber, enough to gird the planet 37 times over. About 6,000 kilometers of fiber have been newly installed for the Olympics. More than 4,800 kilometers of fiber will be used to link Olympic sporting venues and the international media center.
This will provide about 30,000 phone and fax lines for the Olympic village and media center. Another 150 high-speed ISDN lines will connect into Sydney’s major hotels, and some 4000 desktop pay phones will be available, primarily for the media.
Sporting venues will also feed 280 video and 3,200 audio links into the IBC. Sixty private cable television channels will supply action to the IBC and Olympic venues. About 250 data links are to be used for timing and scorekeeping.
About 14,000 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones will also be used to deliver scores to spectators. Audiences around the world will receive footage via links to 11 satellites and submarine cables.
More than 10,000 athletes and 5,000 officials from 200 countries are expected to participate in 28 sports. About 15,000 media will provide television, print and radio coverage for a worldwide audience of more than 3.5 billion people.
