Background
Tulip IT Services, one of India's top four network integrators, provides reliable point-to-point, as well as point-to-multi-point, VPN connectivity to create secure and managed data networks for customer's branches, dealers, vendors and clearing and forwarding agents through one of the largest MPLS networks in India. The company provides data backbone for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and core banking in stocks, manufacturing, banking, telemedicine, education and rural connectivity.

Recently, Tulip initiated a major expansion increasing the company's network to 800 cities from 540 with a direct presence in 70 cities and increasing the number of employees to 1,400 from 850. The company also plans to launch new services such as videoconferencing, bandwidth-on-demand and disaster recovery, which require a more reliable edge network.

Technology Solution
To expand its data communication services, Tulip needed to develop a large number of edge routers. Huawei-3Com mapped a complete network topology and installed nearly 1,500 devices including AR18-31 and AR18-31E series access routers across the Tulip network. The AR18-31 series routers offer excellent value, abundant features and high configurability to meet bandwidth demands in widely dispersed branch networks. The AR18 routers provide Tulip with abundant uplink interface types: serial, XDSL, Ethernet, and ISDN and supports numerous VPN solutions such as dynamic VPN, L2TP, GRE, IPSec, and IKE. With the Huawei-3Com network management system, Tulip can enjoy conveniently deployed and centralized network management.

To meet Tulip's stringent security requirements, Huawei-3Com's solution needed to protect the data transmitted on its VPN from being intercepted or tampered with, while preventing illegal access to network resources or private information. In the Tulip MPLS VPN, packets are forwarded in the label mode, which has the same security level as ATM/FR virtual circuits, ensuring general data security.

Why Huawei-3Com?
Huawei-3Com's AR18-31 series routers have provided Tulip with a total WAN port solution that has reduced operating costs and provides an advanced data network to support the company's existing customers and the deployment of new services. The skilled Huawei-3Com technical and sales teams offered a quick response and sufficient pre- and post-sales technical support during the installation.

Benefits
Huawei-3Com provided Tulip IT Services with a tailored, cost-effective solution based on its broad product portfolio and supported by an extensive service support offering. After strict onsite testing, Tulip has been highly satisfied with the AR18's performance. The AR18 series routers are being used in Intranet and Access VPNs to greatly reduce customer's costs.

With its newly deployed edge router solution, Tulip's nationwide network can offer its customers stronger security and availability, higher operational efficiency, greater consolidation and scalability and the lowest total cost of ownership.