Vipin Tyagi: Director, C-DOT

Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) was started in 1984 with the objective of building a Center of Excellence in the telecom technology.

The organization soon developed the Rural Automatic Exchanges (RAX) which revolutionized the rural telecommunication field. This year marks the completion of 25 years of this technology. C-DOT plans to celebrate the occasion by upgrading all of its 30,000 RAX installed in the country to the Next-Generation Networks (NGN).

Light Reading India spoke to C-DOT's Director, Vipin Tyagi about the organization's plans to upgrade RAX to NGN, the challenges it faces in the telecom landscape and C-DOT's future plans. Here are the excerpts of the interview:

Light Reading India: Congratulations on RAX completing 25 years. What does this mean for C-DOT?

Vipin Tyagi: This moment is very special for us. C-DOT was formed with the motto of transforming the country using telecommunications. We developed a new culture [called the C-DOT way], lots of youngsters joined us and all this resulted in a tremendous amount of success using switching systems.

The first product we came out with was the Rural Automatic Exchange. This is an access network product with very simple interfaces and was designed to work in the most hostile environments. The hallmarks of RAX were a simple design and thermal engineering. Today 30,000 RAX are deployed and was instrumental in taking telecommunications to the hinterland.

Light Reading India: What is the road ahead for RAX now that the market is moving towards data?

Vipin Tyagi: Earlier, services did not reach the rural people because of ROI [Return on Investment] considerations - the economic level in the villages and the per capita income are considerably low. This divide has to be bridged through technologythere is no other way. So for this reason, we are upgrading our technology, especially the RAX to Next-Generation Network. It is an IP-packet-based technology that carries voice, video and data from all those remote corners and brings them a minimal set of the switching centers. So we will be able to manage the services much better. We will achieve operational efficiency, better ROI and only minimal hardware will go to the villages. That is what NGN transition is all about.

Our desire is to convert all C-DOT RAX to NGN in the next couple of years. But we are not a service provider and we have to work with our service providers - Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL).

Light Reading India: C-DOT has been working for the rural segment from the beginning. NGN is mainly for data so will illiteracy in the rural areas be a big roadblock in increasing the data usage?

Vipin Tyagi: People who are not formally educated require a method through which they can interact. The interface has to be very easy so we have created DRAX (Data Rural Application Exchange) which runs on broadband. Through it, you can get all the information on a television set - the only input required is a camera and the output is on the television. The barrier is not intelligence or in the form of understanding, the barrier is the English-language-based keyboard. We are keeping this as a flexible platform for a region so that we can model more services on this, based on the need of a particular region. Hardware and software remains the same. It is the simplest machine. DRAX can work on any broadband network. We are trying to fuse it with the communication infrastructure so that cost and power consumption come down.

Light Reading India: Besides RAX, what are the other focus areas for C-DOT?

Vipin Tyagi: We are constantly working to bring new technologies and upgrading them. Almost every quarter, there is a new release. We understand that wireless broadband is round the corner, there will be infrastructure sharing, connectivity will reach the rural areas and that video usage will increase. Consequently, we would be coming out with a Shared Radio Access Network called SGRAN, where three operators can share the infrastructure. It will be particularly useful in the rural segment where backhaul connectivity can be provided over fiber and the front-end can be shared.

The second product we are working on is increasing our PON family. We are also likely to address the GPON-based backhaul and focus on security issues as well.

Light Reading India: Do you see C-DOT playing a catalyst's role in the growth of indigenous manufacturing?

Vipin Tyagi: RAX actually started a wave of manufacturing in India but unfortunately, we were unable to sustain it due to various confusions and the market play. We will play a catalyst's role in providing technology to the country. We feel it is important that new policies are seen in the positive light by everybody in the industry.

Light Reading India: Do you see C-DOT working with private operators in the country?

Vipin Tyagi: I not only see it but I think it will happen. It is just a matter of time and policy. There are a whole lot of issues which are being talked about like finance, import issues, business issues which they have with each other. Once the policy is clear that 30-percent has to be from India [Indian manufacturers], we are very confident that C-DOT equipment will be used.

We are now reaching out to everybody [operators] and telling them to come and look at what we are doing. Not only that, we are asking them to compare us with the best and decide on their own. This process is going on and I am getting very positive vibes from the industry and through our manufacturers as well. We have not reached out in the past so we have to do that now. We also have to adapt to the new business styles.

We are looking at collaborating with other vendors too and we see some movement in that direction.

We have forgotten to respect domestic innovation for some reason, and we have forgotten to respect our roots which were based on knowledge. The younger generation has to decide what is good in the long-term and short-term. What is good in short-term might not be good in long-term.

Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India