The vendor deployed over 500 switches for voice and data communications during construction of the 57km Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps.
The network will serve as the basis for vital logistics, monitoring, telephony and personnel management during the construction phase of the project and upon its completion, which is due in December 2016.
The installation of the network was undertaken by Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise's business partner ALPIQ-InTec.
“The new tunnel is already the longest railway tunnel in the world at 57km, but for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, the total tunnel system length is actually 152km when you include things such as access tunnels and cross passages,” said Bruno Kolmann, channel sales manager at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Switzerland.
“It is really a fantastic challenge to cover such an area with a fixed network. For this project we have managed to create a state-of-the-art network which has both the robustness to withstand the environmental and physical demands, and is flexible enough to be adapted and extended to fulfil present and future needs.”
