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Waterfall, we knew we needed to get has been mitigated by ensuring extensive planning to ensure that the
involved with urban planning from that redundancy of the network has network remains online regardless
day one, which is exactly what we did. been considered from the start. For of external factors,” he adds.
Treating connectivity infrastructure example, parallel streams of physical
in the same way as that of water, network infrastructure have been MOBILE FLEXIBILITY
electricity, and sanitation, means the installed, so that if a trench is dug and During the last decade, sufficient cell
fibre optic network is completely a fibre cable is broken, there is another phone masts have been installed
integrated into the Waterfall backup fibre cable to which Internet to cater for the growth of Waterfall.
environment,” says Govender. and voice traffic can be redirected. These masts have been strategically
placed and adhere to all the regulatory,
This has empowered WAN to design “We have mitigated all possible environmental, health and safety
and implement fibre optic trenches connectivity risks from the first day of protocols, and WAN has ensured fibre
and cable networks as a core part planning. Our mindset is one where connectivity to each of the masts.
of the design process of Waterfall, we want to have a level of integrity Today, there are 33 masts on Waterfall,
whereas a traditional environment in the network so that we proactively however, more will be added as
would see connectivity only being manage any challenges instead of additional developments are built.
thought of once houses or office being reactive,” says Govender.
blocks have been built. The latter Beyond this, WAN also provides
would then require breaking walls This also extends to the ongoing residential and business users with
and making other infrastructure scourge of load-shedding. two Metro Ethernet Forum-certified
changes before fibre connectivity Redundancy is critical when it variants of wired access – Gigabit
can be delivered. Within Waterfall, comes to generators as well. For Passive Optical Networks (GPON)
this is not the case. “Connectivity is WAN, this has meant installing and Active Ethernet (AE). The former
treated the same as any utility. We backup generators to provide has limits on the size of data packets,
ensure that all the points are installed backup to primary generators. while the latter is aligned to point-
upfront and that urban city planning to-point enterprise service.
is done, keeping the core network “We have done exceptionally well to
technologies and access layer networks mitigate all the risks around network “While 5G is a great technology, its
firmly in mind,” adds Govender. infrastructure. Additionally, we are success depends on the requirements of
running our entire connectivity layer the user. In a commercial environment
NETWORK REDUNDANCY on DC power, which completely like Waterfall City, customers demand
ABOVE ALL removes the risks associated with guaranteed uptime Service Level
When it comes to fibre, disruption power spikes from Eskom. Working Agreements (SLAs), which one can
of the network can sometimes be with the Waterfall Management only deliver on fixed line networks. At
a challenge. At Waterfall, this risk Company and Attacq, we have done Waterfall, the comprehensive urban

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