Zain KSA continues to advance its award-winning 5G network and associated services, in the pursuit of best-in-class customer experiences for individuals and businesses, by partnering with Huawei to build the region’s first intelligent IP transport.
With the massive roll out of 5G in the Kingdom and adoption of cloud technologies across various Industry verticals, SLA requirements for connectivity have gone beyond traditional connectivity services, as users expect a full package of end-to-end digital services and applications incorporated into their daily activities and business functions to support them in keeping up with the rapid digital transformation reshaping industries.
Commenting on this project, chief technology officer at Zain KSA, Eng. Abdulrahman Al-Mufadda, said, “Zain KSA is leading the deployment of next generation technologies and 5G services in the Kingdom, and has built the most advanced IP Transport in the region that can guarantee the best-in-class SLA and also cater to all future requirements of 5G and cloud Era. This achievement also marks an important milestone towards mobile private network to supply artificial intelligence/video surveillance in universities, enterprise campus and automated guided vehicle systems in manufacturing plants.”
He added, “For delivering the best customer service experience, networks should guarantee capacity, latency and reliability. To achieve this target, Zain KSA has partnered with Huawei Technologies, one of the largest telecommunication network equipment vendors in the world and deployed the region's first Intelligent IP transport featuring SRv6 with SDN technology and ready for network slicing.”
With network slicing, Zain can guarantee any required traffic profile while SRv6, the next generation protocol with SDN technology, ensures optimal path across the IP transport network. The protocol facilitates quick deployment of end-to-end optimized traffic paths and also eliminates complex layers involved in traditional IP MPLS thereby enhancing the O&M efficiency.
Management of IPWDM transport has become more efficient with software defined networking (SDN) framework that combines advanced capabilities of analytics and intelligent optimization of IP Transport.
Owing to its significant strides within Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry, Zain KSA has accomplished numerous accolades and recognitions, including ranking first in “Meqyas” Q3 2021 report, issued by the communications and information technology commission (CITC), with the fastest mobile 5G average download speed and the biggest 5G coverage in Riyadh. Ranking first in 10 out of 13 regions, Zain KSA also topped the list in terms of 5G deployment across the Kingdom. In the first half of 2021, Zain KSA won the Speedtest award for the Kingdom’s “fastest fixed network” from Ookla for the third consecutive time, and was recognized as the provider of the best 5G network and data performance in Riyadh by this year’s report from umlaut.
