Pinnacle, South Africa’s leading ICT distributor and authorised distributor of Huawei Technologies Enterprise products in South Africa and Africa, is set to revolutionise the local hospitality sector with Huawei’s POL Hotel solution.

Fred Saayman, Pinnacle’s Huawei business unit executive, notes that smart hotels’ demand for new services such as 4K HD videos requires higher bandwidths plus anywhere, anytime Internet access. “In addition to conventional services such as telephone and TV services, hotel networks will gradually begin to carry full services (such as video surveillance, Wi-Fi, smart control over guest rooms and environment perception). Seamless Wi-Fi connections are required for places such as guest rooms, corridors, halls, dining rooms and meeting rooms. These full services are diverse, intelligent and mobile,” says Saayman.

He emphasises that abundant value-added services such as video on demand and smart control over guest rooms must also be supported. “Economical operation is crucial as hotels require networks which are easy to deploy and maintain because, with larger establishments, there will be many guest rooms distributed across wide areas. Huawei’s AgilePOL solution meets all requirements for developing services including wireless access, wired access, video, voice and guest room surveillance. Huawei has come up with the idea of building all-optical smart hotels, and creating a model of “one room, one line and ‘N’ services” for hotels. The solution satisfies the mounting demands on hotel information systems, and simplifies networking and management,” he says.

Saayman expands on the one room, one fibre concept. “One room has one fibre that supports three wavelengths and bears full services (including voice, data and video) only one ONT per room and one network covers all areas in the hotel and satisfies demands of all access scenarios.”

Customer benefits

Saayman says the customer benefits gained through Huawei’s AgilePOL network are that all services for guest rooms can be carried uniformly, and new services can be deployed quickly. “The strategy of ‘one room, one fibre’ accelerates network deployment and maintenance, and reduces cable routing space in equipment rooms.

Dynamic bandwidth allocation and hierarchical quality of service (HQoS) enables flexible configuration of user bandwidths, simpler network management, and better user experiences,” he notes.

He confirms the solution is already deployed around the world and cites the 5-star Madinat Jumeirah luxury hotel in Dubai as just one example of a successful implementation. “This 5-star luxury hotel needed a premium ICT network to meet users’ increasingly high demands and improve their experience. It needed to simplify cable routing in guest rooms, in particular. Also, it required plans to decrease network failure rates and improve O&M efficiency.

“Huawei’s Agile POL solution supports fibre to the room, which simplifies network structures and reduces maintenance costs. Each guest room has an ONT, which supports the access of multiple services, such as voice, broadband and video. Instead of deploying various systems, this hotel can use only one fibre to bear all services.

Moreover, public areas have full Wi-Fi coverage. A GPON network bears all services, including video surveillance, information release and POS card-swiping. GPON type B dual-homing protection can also improve network reliability. The end result is a hugely efficient smart hotel leading to richer customer experiences for guests,” concludes Saayman.

About Pinnacle
Pinnacle is South Africa’s leading ICT distribution company built on the foundation of entrepreneurial spirit. We offer our clients a broad range of world-class technology products seamlessly delivered across an expansive footprint. Everything we do is underpinned by our technical expertise, drive and determination — we call it delivering the exceptional. Pinnacle is an authorised and exclusive distributor for many leading vendors, allowing us to be the first to market the latest technology and ideas available. For more information visit: www.pinnacle.co.za.