Telent Awarded Contract To Upgrade And Extend Dockland Light Railway's Local Area Network

The network expansion project will see the size of the DLR’s Local Area Network (LAN) double to encompass 46 stations and 26 power substations, and the entire network will be faster, more resilient and scaleable. telent will undertake the detailed network design and carry out full network configuration, testing and verification.

This latest project award cements telent’s relationship with Serco Docklands, following telent’s successful design and delivery earlier this year of award-winning high-performance LAN infrastructure, including an innovative Public Address (PA) system currently operating at 32 DLR stations, including Canary Wharf and Poplar. The new PA system, known as iPAM, is the first IP-based application to operate on the LAN.

As part of the new network extension project, telent will equip a further 14 DLR stations with the proven PA system; integrate Help Points at all DLR stations (46); and implement industrial LAN products, such as the new CISCO IE3000 industrial switch to integrate SCADA at all locations. In addition, a new stand-by control centre at Beckton station, together with the existing control centre at Poplar station, will be integrated into the upgraded network.

Mike Evans, Serco Docklands’ Communications Engineer, commented: “Following their successful delivery of communications systems that significantly enhance DLR passengers’ access to real-time travel information, we are pleased to have selected telent to further expand and enhance the LAN network. telent and Serco Docklands already work well together to maintain, monitor and manage the existing network, and we look forward to the company’s support and expertise in completing this important next phase of the network’s development in the run up to the Olympics.”

Steve Pears, Director of telent’s Rail business, added: “We are delighted that Serco Docklands has once again shown its confidence in telent’s capabilities through this latest contract award. Our experience in the rail and metro sectors, combined with IT and acoustics consultancy expertise, stand telent in good stead to deliver the quality, high-performance network infrastructure required by Serco Docklands as well as the DLR’s travelling public.”