NETSCOUT Called on by MTN South Africa for Service Assurance of GPRS and IP/MPLS Core Network

27 Apr 2010

Ability to Provide Critical Insight into High-Speed Mobile and IP/MPLS Network Performance and Quality of Service Key to Decision

WESTFORD, Mass., Apr 27, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --NetScout Systems, Inc., today announced that MTN South Africa, a leading mobile operator within the MTN Group, a multinational telecommunications group operating in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has deployed the nGenius(R) Service Assurance Solution to provide comprehensive service assurance, capacity planning, and enhanced optimization of its network resources. As of early 2009, MTN delivered mobile services to more than 90 million subscribers across its operations.

MTN's vision is to be the leader in telecommunications in emerging markets and it continues to develop innovative products and solutions and evolve its business model to help make this vision a reality. As part of this process, MTN determined that the Packet Switched Core network required additional management and traffic reporting capabilities. MTN reached out to NetScout to provide increased visibility into the Gi, Gn and Gp interfaces, which provide critical access points within the operator's General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system and connection to external operators' IP networks, as well as between its Provider Edge (PE) and Provider (P) routers in the core of its converged IP/MPLS backbone.

"A key area of focus for MTN South Africa is network roll out, particularly in terms of improving quality of service, capacity and self-provisioning. 3G has been deployed in all the high-density areas, and MTN South Africa is currently rolling out 3G in other parts of the country at a rapid pace," explained Devan Chetty, general manager, IP and Core Planning at MTN. "The high speed data network is extremely important to MTN as well as its customers, and as such, we selected NetScout to provide the critical visibility into service delivery required to meet the company's and our subscribers' performance expectations."

By installing NetScout solutions onto the 3G Packet Switched Core and leveraging NetScout for performance monitoring, MTN has gained critical insight into the performance and quality of service of its network. The nGenius Service Assurance solution can detect network performance anomalies before they disrupt operations and help protect subscribers from performance issues and service outages. MTN network managers can now identify, diagnose, and resolve subscriber problems faster than ever, while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction. In one example, SIGTRAN diagnosis has been reduced from hours to minutes, enhancing overall operational efficiencies while protecting subscriber service levels.

The traffic reporting capabilities of the nGenius solution have also been an extremely important element of MTN's network operations and capacity planning activities. MTN utilizes leading-edge Internet Protocol over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (IPoDWDM) technology on its self-provided optical fibre backbone, which transports all voice, data and signaling on a fully converged network. By providing accurate traffic reporting across the backbone, the nGenius solution enables MTN to optimize its use of the IPoDWDM resources, and monitor network performance of its IP traffic across its DWDM backbone.

MTN has adopted the nGenius Solution as the standard for IP/MPLS and Packet Switched Core management. In addition to the mobile packet network, MTN has installed nGenius InfiniStream(R) 10Gigabit appliances in its MPLS Core Network, enabling them to manage the network for application performance and capacity management per Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF). The flexibility of the solution gives MTN the power to efficiently increase its use of nGenius solution footprint as network as traffic requirements dictate.

"Mobile operators are asking their networks to do new and exciting things in response to subscriber demands, but at the same time, the added network complexity has the real potential to adversely impact network performance and service delivery," said Steven Shalita, vice president, marketing at NetScout. "By deploying nGenius Performance Manager, operators such as MTN are given the deep visibility into network and service performance that mitigates the effect of network complexity and ensures peak performance of important subscriber services."

About NetScout Systems, Inc.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) is the market leader in Unified Service Delivery Management enabling comprehensive end-to-end network and application assurance. For 25 years, NetScout has delivered breakthrough packet-flow technology that provides trusted and comprehensive real-time network and application performance intelligence enabling unified assurance of the network, applications and users. These solutions enable IT staff to predict, preempt and resolve network and service delivery problems while facilitating the optimization and capacity planning of the network infrastructure. NetScout nGenius(R) and Sniffer(R) solutions are deployed at more than 20,000 of the world's largest enterprises, government agencies, and service providers, on over 740,000 network segments to assure the network, applications, and service delivery to their users and customers. More information about NetScout Systems, Inc. is available at http://www.netscout.com.

NetScout, nGenius, InfiniStream and Sniffer are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc.

SOURCE: NetScout Systems, Inc.

NetScout Systems, Inc.
Stephanie Xavier, 408-571-5343
Senior Public and Analyst Relations Manager
stephanie.xavier@netscout.com
or
Davies Murphy Group, Inc.
Rob Morton, 781-418-2460
netscout@daviesmurphy.com