Mexico's CENACE Builds an Agile, High-Capacity Network with Huawei's High-Quality 10 Gbps Smart Power Campus Solution

Mexico is one of the largest countries in Central America. As one of the cradles of ancient civilization, Mexico is the birthplace of famous cultures, such as the Maya, Olmec, Toltec and Aztec. In the present, it is one of the main open economies in Latin America and the world.

The National Energy Control Center, CENACE, is a decentralized public agency of the Mexican government. After the 2013 Constitutional Amendment on energy matters, it was separated from the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, a state-owned electricity company. CENACE's main responsibilities include operating and controlling the National Electricity System, operating and managing the national electricity market, and creating plans for the expansion and modernization of energy transmission and distribution networks throughout the nation. CENACE is committed to becoming an intelligent energy operator at the forefront of technological advancement. It is dedicated to exploring new opportunities to improve the quality of its operations and services. "The human factor, together with technological progress, motivates us to build a vision that develops an operating organization of excellence. We are aware that our country demands this every day by requiring a reliable, continuous and safe supply 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Mr. Ricardo Octavio Arturo Mota Palomino, Managing Director at CENACE.

Campus Network Optimization Is Top Priority

The use of ICT to boost business development and improve service quality is not new to the energy industry. Over the past two years, CENACE has worked hard to improve its operating environment and modernize its grid infrastructure. It has invested in enhancing its communications systems and energy services as well as building a smart grid to meet the growing demand for electricity in Mexico.

The CENACE is made up of 11 work centers located throughout the country, eight of which form the Regional Control Divisions, followed by the Alternate Center Division and the National Center Division, which is the head of the operational control from Mexico City together with the corporate offices. "For CENACE, it was crucial to have a high-speed network that could withstand failures in the interconnection between Regional Control Divisions and National Data Centers," said Mr. Luis Carlos Molina Félix, Head of the Information and Communications Technologies Division at CENACE. "For us, as the ICT team at CENACE, sharing critical data in real time is paramount for the decision making of our colleagues working in the operational and substantive areas of the organization, since it allows them to operate the National Electricity System and the Wholesale Electricity Market in an efficient, safe and reliable way."

To create an intelligent network, the CENACE needed to change their original Gigabit network into a 10GE campus network. This would implement intelligent management and upgrade the communications infrastructure, which was essential to energy supply and supervision. It was also necessary in order to implement accurate and fast fault detection and perform the necessary remote operation and maintenance tasks.

"With the new 10GE campus network, user connectivity needs are met, information transfer becomes faster and network infrastructure failures are also decreased," added Mr. Molina.

Huawei's High-Quality 10 Gbps Smart Power Campus Solution Delivers Intelligent Interconnection

The CENACE used Huawei's wireless controller AirEngine 9700-M1 and AirEngine Wi-Fi APs to build a High-Quality 10 Gbps Smart Power Campus network. APs are deployed in corridors and conference rooms in workplaces across eight regions. The WLAN Planer tool uses 3D simulation to achieve comprehensive wireless coverage and zero packet loss so users can move around with no connectivity issues.

In the fixed office and device access areas, the CENACE uses Huawei's high-performance multi-rate CloudEngine S5732 switches to provide 10GE access to terminals. The core layer uses CloudEngine S12700E switches to provide 100GE interface switching capabilities. This solution meets the quality-of-service requirements for high-bandwidth and low-latency services like multimedia, HD video streams, and cloud applications.

To solve the problem of isolated sites, Huawei also provides the branch interconnection solution. Intelligent traffic steering selects the optimal network path for user traffic, thereby improving user experience. In addition, Huawei dynamically encrypts data between sites via IPsec tunnels to ensure its security. The branch interconnection network and campus network use iMaster-NCE management platform for simplified, integrated LAN/WAN management.

Furthermore, Huawei's iMaster-NCE CampusInsight can quickly and accurately identify potential faults and threats and support remote O&M.

New Power Supply Management Mode

Huawei’s High-Quality 10 Gbps Smart Power Campus Solution implements intelligent electrical power operation, which greatly improves the speed, quality, security and reliability of CENACE's services.

"The new campus network allows the CENACE to achieve important objectives in terms of connectivity, speed, reliability and security. This has been consequently reflected in the improvement of our operations efficiency, increased user productivity and preparation for future connectivity needs," said Mr. Jonathan Rosas Ruiz, engineer in charge of Infrastructure and Communications Subdirectorate at CENACE.

Finally, according to Mr. Mota Palomino, the organization's Managing Director, "Having a technological infrastructure that meets our operational needs, which are somewhat complex as we are the only system operator in our country that carries out this strategic activity, provides certainty in our daily work and confidence to our (internal and external) users".