1. Case Study
1
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:
 To reduce international internet connectivity rates borne by ISPs and customers.
 To provide high speed internet at low-cost.
 To enhance the broadband services in the Kingdom.
 To increase the local internet websites.
 Enhancing the telecom infrastructure to a great extent.
 Enhancing the country’s broadband infrastructure in line with the national
transformational plan to invest in a high speed and cost effective broadband
network that addresses the specific needs of key sectors.
 To increase the quality of the internet connection in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Solution
In order to meet the mission and objectives of the BIX, GBM and Cisco® proposed a
solution to build the National Broadband Network (NBN) for BIX to cover the Kingdom
of Bahrain. This is made up of an IPoDWDM solution which is comprised by IP
Components, and DWDM components, in addition to the Network Management
Solution through Cisco Transport Manager and Cisco IP Solution Center.
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is the Government of Bahrain Initiative which
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
that are in excess of the direct needs to the EWA in order to increase Government
effectiveness and assist in accelerating economic diversification.
The project scope is to provide design, installation, and implementation support
services for BIX National Broadband Network (NBN) related to the following three
technologies: Infrastructure IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS), Optical
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), and Network Management Systems (NMS).
Infrastructure Scope will cover the design, site preparation, installation preparation,
migration planning and implementation support services for two Aggregation Services
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.
Customer Name
Bahrain Internet Exchange (BIX)
Industry
Government. Follows Ministry of
Transportation.
Location
Bahrain
Number of Employees
55
Challenge
 Enhance and Increase the Internet
Bandwidth
 Develop service enabled
Infrastructure
 Reduce the cost of the Internet
and International connectivity
Solution
 Cisco IPoDWDM
 Cisco Network and Management
Solutions
 Metro Ethernet Switches
Results
 Enhance Telecom Infrastructure
 Develop and leverage eService on
the national level
 Enhance the link bandwidth and
reliability

2. Case Study
© 2012 Gulf Business Machines. All rights reserved. GBM, the GBM logo are trademarks of Gulf Business Machines. Cisco is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc.
and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries.
2
“GBM’s partnership
throughout
this project was
instrumental for
BIX to achieve the
strategic goals for
the NBN initiative. We
will count on
their professional team
and support
to continue to deliver
our services to
our customers and
citizens across the
Kingdom.”
Mohamed E. Al-Thawadi -
Executive Director, BIX
Network Management System (NMS) Scope will cover the design and implementation
support services for Cisco IP Solution Center (ISC), Ciscoworks LAN Management
Solution (CWLMS) and Cisco Transport Manager.
This project will be deployed on 13 main sites covering the Kingdom of Bahrain. The
main solutions deployed include Cisco Network Management System (NMS),
Ciscoworks LAN Management Solution (CWLMS) and Cisco Transport Manager. The
project time scale started in July 2011, and is set to end in December 2012.
The NBN will involve the laying of fibre optic cabling of Bahrain homes, schools and
businesses, providing highspeed broadband network using Cisco’s IPoDWDM
technology which will deliver the service flexibility, scalability and increased resilience
to enable carriers to capitalise on increasingly bandwidth intensive and complex
applications in the Kingdom.
Results
 Enhanced Bahrain Telecom infrastructure by deploying High Bandwidth and DWDM
Components over IP/MPLS
 Enhanced wide-spread e-services starting with e-Government, e-Education, e-
Health, advanced e-Business, e-Banking, e-Payment, etc.
 Reliable and high bandwidth network hub to connect the Kingdom to the other
region’s telecom network
 Enable Bahrain carriers to capitalize on increasingly bandwidth-intensive and
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)