Zuid-Limburg Isilinx Fiber Optic Named Top Project
in “Geospatial Communications” Category
EXTON, Pa. – Nacap Telecom BV, a leading Dutch company specializing in the rollout of broadband services, has won a 2007 BE Award in the “Geospatial Communications” category for its Zuid-Limburg Isilinx Fiber Optic project. The project involved the delivery of broadband services to metropolitan areas in the Southern Netherlands. Nacap Telecom’s use of Bentley software and services to facilitate this work resulted in an investment payback of roughly half a year.
“Because Bentley software allowed us to do more work with fewer people, we were able to complete the design of the network with just two engineers, instead of the 10 we originally thought we would need,” said Julien Beenakkers, manager of operations for Nacap Telecom.
In addition to handling all of the network design and installation work, Nacap Telecom was awarded a five-year contract to manage and maintain the network. Said Beenakkers, “From our initial Isilinx network design efforts to our ongoing maintenance tasks, Bentley has consistently enhanced our professional reputation as well as our ability to secure future projects.”
The Isilinx project was initiated in May 2005 by the municipality of Heerlen, Leeuwenborgh Opleidingen polytechnic school, Licom training academy, Zuyd University, and Arcus College. The goal was to build the technology infrastructure needed to provide a better business climate and to improve the region’s image as an innovation center. Employing an innovative business model, the five organizations incorporated themselves as Isidoor and commissioned the 145-kilometer Isilinx fiber optic ring network.
The network connects the cities of Heerlen, Sittard-Geleen, and Maastricht in Zuid Limburg and currently serves more than 100 sites, including city governments, colleges, hospitals, and police and fire departments. It was designed and installed by Nacap Telecom in about a year using MicroStation and Bentley Fiber.
The network can be provisioned to deliver integrated high-speed Internet, telephone, television services, and other customized IT services on a regional basis. The fiber network’s ring topology was based on the open network model, which allows new participants to join the network and sign on for just the services they need.
The initial backbone ring was routed to link the three metropolitan areas in south Limburg, and sub-rings in each city were routed to connect new participants in the Isidoor initiative. The first phase, which was completed in May 2006, connected 56 sites to the network. Since then, more than 50 additional sites have been connected.
Anticipating a continually expanding customer base, Nacap Telecom determined early in the project that designing flexibility into the ring network was of paramount importance. The company used Bentley solutions to automate the design process, delivering exceptional efficiency and superior quality control. To ensure a high quality of service throughout the network, the design minimized the distance of connector locations from the main ring.
Building out the Isilinx network required close coordination among all project participants. The open network model consists of three layers operated by different parties. The Isidoor corporation is responsible for the service layer while Isilinx, a technology infrastructure corporation, manages the active and physical layers. The active layer includes the equipment for provisioning and maintaining the network and the physical layer includes the fibers, cables, and connectors.
Though Isidoor and Isilinx are affiliated, Nacap Telecom was responsible for designing the dark fiber network for Isilinx. Bentley’s comprehensive solution for designing, documenting, and maintaining the fiber network enabled Nacap Telecom to connect the different types of layers within the network, and to connect the specific data about each layer at a detailed level. A collaborative working environment guaranteed a fully coordinated and integrated design.
For more information about Nacap Telecom’s winning project and all of the other 2007 BE Award projects, visit www.be.org/awards. For more information about the Bentley products used in this project, visit www.bentley.com/communications.
About the BE Awards of Excellence
The BE Awards of Excellence, which are judged by an independent panel of industry experts and presented at an evening ceremony during the annual BE Conference (www.be.org), honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world’s infrastructure. These projects set benchmarks for their industries and showcase the imagination and technical mastery of the organizations that created them.
About Nacap Telecom BV
Headquartered in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, Nacap Telecom BV offers a complete portfolio of services to telecommunications infrastructure owners. Working with fixed and mobile network operators, CATV operators, dark fiber, xDSL and FTTx initiatives, the firm designs, builds, and maintains infrastructure.
Nacap operates worldwide as a managing contractor, providing a wide range of multidisciplinary solutions for the transport of oil, gas, water, electricity, and data. It employs about 3000 people worldwide and achieves a yearly turnover of approximately 700 million euros. For more information about Nacap Telecom, visit www.nacaptelecom.nl.
About Bentley
Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world’s infrastructure. The company’s comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial verticals spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With revenues now surpassing $400 million annually, and more than 2400 colleagues globally, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Top Design Firms and major owner-operators and was named the world’s No. 2 provider of GIS/geospatial software solutions in a recent Daratech research study.
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