Genova

After the training sessions, there has been some spare time to walk around in the city. Here are some pictures from Genova downtown:

SDH training in Genova

This week I'm attending a training in Genova. The training is about Network Design and Operation and Maintenance of Ericsson's STM-16 SDH Add&Drop Multiplexers, which are be the Core transmission nodes in the Saudi Railway project. There are around 40 STM-16 ADM's, linking another 140 STM-1 and 20 STM-4 ADM's. Here's a picture of our training room:

FAT in Seoul - Some Pictures

Seoul is South Korea's capital and largest city, with a population of over 10 million. The Seoul Capital Area has 24 millions inhabitants and is the world's second largest metropolitan area. Hereby, I leave you some pictures of my brief visit to downtown Seoul, in between arrival and the factory tests:

Old and new coexist in a harmonious fashion

A typical market...the most weird looking food was on sale here, and people seemed to enjoy it!Lunch with my Korean, Spanish and Portuguese collegues, at a very typical restuarant. I tried almost everything...most of it tasted well (although I prefer not knowing what it actually was) but some stuff was....ARGH!!!!

Busy street downtownOpen air exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean war (1950-1953). This is where I actually spent the most time:)

FAT in Seoul

As I wrote in my last post, last Tuesday we had another FAT, this time in Seoul, South Korea, on the Optical Junction boxes, used to accomodate the optical splices. These boxes have to comply to a series of standards and requirements, as they accomodate very sensitive material (a fiber is thinner than human hair) in a very harsh environment, the Saudi Arabian desert. Everything went smoothfully and the FAT was approved.

Yes, I'm still here

The 3 weeks absence from this blog was due to my 2 week vacation in Brazil. I'm now back in Saudi but just for a couple of days. Tomorrow I'm heading to Seoul, South Korea for another Factory Acceptance Test, this time on the Optical Junctions Boxes, used to accomodate the fiber optics splices, which I will report in my next post. This was just a 'keep alive' post, a very quick one, just before departure.

Karting

This weekend, we discovered a karting track in Riyadh. We were 18 people, did qualifying and a 20 minutes race. Definitely going again!!

Cool dogs

Picture taken recently, somewhere on the highway outside of Riyadh. If the picture is not funny enough on its own, I can add that it was taken while the pick-up was overtaking us driving on the left emergency lane (which is actually no lane) at at least 160km/h. And this was just the first time we were able to capture it on camera, it's far from being the first time we see such maneuvers. And the dogs, comfortable as they look, must also have seen it before...:)

Hannover - Factory Acceptance Test SDH

After a week in Portugal and 3 days in Germany, I'm now back to Saudi, where the temperatures are perfect now, which feels great after 3 days in snowing Germany.

In Hanover, we ran a series of tests in the premises of the SDH equipment manufacturer (which I cannot name for confidentiality reasons), with the purpose of validating a number of technical requirements. Our final customer (Saudi Railway) sent a delegation to witness the tests and I represented Thales.

The SDH network is the core network, the network over which all other systems/networks of this new railway will run, and is the system I am responsible for. SDH stands for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and is a circuit switched approach to networking, opposite to IP which is packet switched. SDH is widely used in mission critical applications, such as railway signalling, power utilities, etc. In total, more than 200 SDH ADM's (Add&Drop Multiplexers) will be deployed in this network, over an extent of 2400km using fiber optics, providing STM-16 (2,5Gbps) to the other 15 systems and sub-systems in this project.

The tests ran smoothly and were all approved by Thales and, more importantly, by Saudi Railways.

Camels

Today, weekend in Saudi, we went for another trip to the desert. We went to the Red Sand Dunes area, 80km West of Riyadh, where we were told we could rent quads to have some quad-fun in the dunes. We couldn't find the place though and, after riding circles, we ended up in a bedouin camp where we stopped to ask for directions. They couldn't help us, but were very friendly and invited us to stay for a while, showed us their camels, let us take pictures, gave us camel milk to drink, and gave us their e-mail to send the pictures to. Yes, they have e-mail!!! And mobile phones too!!

The quads will have to wait for next time...and who knows, stop by at our new friends...

The weather is perfect now...

I'm back in Saudi Arabia since the 9th, after 3 fantastic weeks in Portugal. Trying to get back to normal here. Lots of work was awaiting me and haven't had much time to be writing here. At least the weather is great compared to Europe. January and February are the coldest months here, but the temperatures are still in the 20's during the day...perfect spring weather!!! Today, weekend here in Saudi, my housemates and I had lunch by our pool and invited some other colleagues too.