Avaya is putting the final touches on the network infrastructure it has built for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The network is capable of handling up to 54Tbps of traffic, which is significantly larger than the 4Tbps capacity used at the 2010 games in Vancouver.

When the games commence on February 7^th, the network will serve 30,000 athletes, administrators and staff, media, IOC officials and volunteers with data, voice, video, and full internet access at each site of the games. However, BYOD for 30,000 people creates extraordinary network demands. “We expect these people to be carrying and using multiple wireless devices,” says Dean Frohwerk, Avaya’s chief network architect. “In Vancouver, we only had to provision one device per user. This means that we really have to have the capability to support up to 120,000 users on the Sochi Wi-Fi network, without issues or interruptions.”

The Wi-Fi network will be split into five virtual SSID-based networks: one for the athletes, two for media (one free, one paid), one for Olympics staff, and one for dignitaries. Each group will have its own access password, and extra layers of password protection if needed. The Wi-Fi traffic will be distributed using about 2,000 802.11n access points across the Olympics Game sites including – for the first time ever – inside the stands.

The network will be headquartered in a primary Technical Operations Center (TOC) in Adler, alongside the Primary Data Center. The secondary TOC and Data Center will be at the Sochi Olympic Park, located 10 miles northwest at the games site. “We have built the TOCs in separate locations to ensure redundancy in the case of a natural disaster or man-made incident,” says Frohwerk. “Should the Adler TOC go down, we would simply send the next shift to the Sochi TOC and carry on.” While one TOC is in use, the other will be kept in standby mode. Each TOC will be connected to the outside world by 10GB pipelines provided by Rostelecom, Russia’s national telecom operator.

Avaya is training 170 Russian technicians to provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 network support during the games. A 30-person team from Avaya Global Support Services will provide Tier 3/4 support from Sochi’s TOC, supported by Avaya R&D staff around the world.

“We are doing our best to be well-prepared for whatever the games throw at us,” Frohwerk says. Avaya’s outdoor systems are designed to handle extreme weather: “We’re not worried if it snows,” he says. “In fact, we hope it does, because these are the Winter Games, after all.”

After the games end on February 23^rd, much of Avaya’s infrastructure will be removed, but the telecom facilities it has built for the games will remain. The Olympics skiing venue in the Caucasus, where a new resort town is being erected, will continue to use the telephone and IP networking.

Avaya will also be assisting with the development of telecom facilities for the 2014 Grand Prix auto races and 2018 World Cup soccer matches taking place later on in Sochi.

“We will be leaving behind quite a legacy telecom system when we leave Sochi,” says Frohwerk.