The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) needed to upgrade its aging communications network to support its growing transit system. It selected Fujitsu and partner JM Fiber Optics to design and deploy a new carrier-class network using Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE 4500 platform. The new network provided scalability, flexibility, and 99.999% uptime to support Metro's voice, data, and video applications. Metro's manager praised the plug-and-play system for allowing staff to focus on customer service instead of communications issues. The project was a success due to Fujitsu's high-quality equipment and JM Fiber Optics' expertise in transit networks and certification in Fujitsu technologies

1. Case study Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Page 1 www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom
The Customer
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is
unique among the nation’s transportation agencies. Metro serves as
transportation planner, coordinator, designer, builder and operator
for one of the country’s largest, most populous counties. More than
9.6 million people—nearly one-third of California’s residents—live,
work, and play within its 1,433-square-mile service area.
Metro is a multimodal transportation agency that consists of three
companies in one:
■ A major operator with a fleet of 2,000 clean air buses and six rail
lines that transports approximately 1.5 million passengers on an
average weekday
■ A major construction agency that oversees numerous bus, rail,
highway, and other mobility-related building projects
■ The lead transportation planning, and programming agency for
Los Angeles County
The Challenge: Creating a Master Expansion Plan
In 2007, Metro recognized the need to upgrade its wayside
communications system to support a 24/7/365 operating
environment. The agency aimed to ensure that communications-
related delays never prevent passengers from reaching their
destinations on time.
The wayside communication system’s network was a patchwork
of segmented SONET, TDM and Layer 2 Ethernet technologies
with disparate equipment from multiple vendors. There was no
master plan to expand the system to support Metro’s ever-growing
bandwidth and performance demands.
The Vision: A Carrier-Class Technology Platform
Dan Lindstrom, manager of wayside systems and communication,
had a vision of a single “carrier-class” technology platform. This
platform would be engineered to support Metro’s current voice
and data traffic, while simultaneously providing the flexibility and
scalability to meet Metro’s future network needs.
To serve the critical communications needs of this large
transportation agency, the network would need to support voice,
data, and video applications such as customer relations, message
boards, radio communications, and video surveillance. Moreover,
the network would have to operate on a 24x7x365 basis in a rugged
environment typical of a transit agency network.
The Goals
Three goals were set for the project:
■ Create a carrier-class network platform across the entire Metro
transit system with 50 ms, self-healing redundancy
■ Offer a counter-rotating dual-loop capability that is expandable
to provide more bandwidth that can support various subsystems
across Metro’s network
■ Deliver OPEX savings
Case Study:
Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (Metro)
“…we’ve been able to focus on delivering a better customer
experience for our passengers…”
— Dan Lindstrom, Manager of Wayside Systems and Communication, Metro
Fiber Optics, Inc.

2. Case study Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Page 2 www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom
© Copyright 2014 Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc.
FLASHWAVE®
and NETSMART®
are trademarks of Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc.
(USA). FUJITSU (and design)®
and “shaping tomorrow with you” are trademarks of Fujitsu
Limited in the United States and other countries. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. Configuration requirements for certain uses
are described in the product documentation. Features and specifications subject to
change without notice.
Contact
Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc.
2801 Telecom Parkway,
Richardson, TX 75082
Phone: 888.362.7763
www.us.fujitsu.com/telecom
Selecting the Right Partner to Meet the Challenge
Fujitsu teamed up with its certified local partner, JM Fiber Optics, to
design and deploy the network. The two partners designed a network
consisting of the Fujitsu FLASHWAVE®
4500 Multiservice Provisioning
Platform (MSPP) with NETSMART®
1500 network management
software. The result was an
integrated system of technologies
and equipment that has the
flexibility to accommodate
multiple types and streams of
communications traffic, and the
scalability to support the needs of
a rapidly growing transit agency.
“The key drivers of Metro’s
decision to award the project to
the Fujitsu/JM Fiber Optics team were Fujitsu’s carrier-class, plug and
play equipment that enabled us to just plug it in and forget about it,”
said Lindstrom. “As a result, we’ve been able to focus on delivering a
better customer experience for our passengers. Since deploying the
single Fujitsu technology platform in 2008, there has never been a
communications-related failure that has delayed the movement of
passengers.”
The biggest key to the success of the project was having a strong local
partner in JM Fiber Optics. This partner not only offers extensive depth
of experience in the transportation industry, it is also a Fujitsu-certified,
trained partner. Throughout the project, Lindstrom viewed JM Fiber
Optics as “Fujitsu’s greatest asset, providing incredible support and
great response any time, day or
night.”
JM Fiber Optics President and CEO
Kenneth Rivera added, “The key
differentiating factor is that Fujitsu
does not utilize any reseller that
comes around, but focuses on
selecting partners that will take the
time required to train and certify
their staff on Fujitsu’s technology.”
Planning for the Future
Looking forward, Metro recognizes that upgrading its network is
vital to its future success. It is critical for transportation agencies to
evaluate their current networks and determine how best to provide
high-bandwidth communications and security services. With the Fujitsu
technology platform at the core, Metro’s transit system continues to
evolve to fulfill the needs of passengers, such as providing on-board
broadband Internet access to ensure people stay connected while they
travel.
“Fujitsu does not utilize any reseller that comes
around, but focuses on selecting partners that
will take the time required to train and certify
their staff…”
— Kenneth Rivera, President and CEO, JM Fiber Optics