By Oystein Bergmann, Bureau Chief, Scandinavia

Nokia has been selected by illwerke vkw AG, a leading power utility and telecom service provider in Vorarlberg, Austria to deploy an optical transport solution to illwerke vkw’s business customers. The deployment, which is expected to be completed by late 2024, will provide illwerke vkw AG with a new, resilient and modernized optical network capable of supporting 400G wavelengths and beyond.

illwerke vkw AG is the leading energy service provider in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, generating its power exclusively from renewable sources. The company supplies energy to around 200,000 customers and offers telecom services to mobile network providers (MNOs). Faced with rapidly growing capacity demand, illwerke vkw AG chose to evolve its existing network to a modern infrastructure leveraging Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and high-performance Nokia Photonic Service Engine (PSE) technology capable of increasing network scale, optimizing performance and ensuring sustainable growth.

The new optical network from Nokia will span 15 sites in Vorarlberg providing 10G, 25G and 100G mobile backhaul and fronthaul transport services to connect MNO cell sites and central offices. Illwerke vkw AG will also provide optical transport services for other business customers in the region.

Featuring Nokia’s 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS), the new network will allow illwerke vkw AG to efficiently manage wavelengths at the photonic layer. It will also include Optical Channel Protection for the highest resiliency of services and support for all fronthaul protocols, making the network ready to support multi-generation radios (3G/4G/5G). This includes support of high-performance synchronization distribution (frequency/time/phase) meeting strict (ITU-T G.8273.2 Class B and C) timing requirements for backhaul and fronthaul services as enabled through the 1830 PSS and 1830 Time-sensitive Packet Switch (TPS), respectively.

The new optical network also employs the Nokia WaveSuite Network Operations Center (WS-NOC) providing unified end-to-end optical management and support functions including service provisioning and service assurance.

Head of IT at illwerke vkw AG, Christoph Märk said: “We are excited to work with Nokia to evolve our existing network infrastructure. The new optical network will enable us to meet the growing capacity demands and provide high-quality telecom services to mobile service providers and business customers in Vorarlberg.”

Senior Vice President and Head of Europe for Network Infrastructure Business at Nokia, Matthieu Bourguignon said: “As a premier energy service provider in Austria, illwerke vkw AG stands out by harnessing renewable energy and extending its network and expertise to offer telecommunications services to mobile network operators. Like its global counterparts in the energy and telecom sectors, our customer is facing unrelenting demand for capacity which requires significant network modernization. Nokia will provide a resilient and superior optical transport network capable of supporting 400G wavelengths and beyond, which will serve the present and future requirements of illwerke vkw AG’s customers.”