Overview
“45,000m², 900 exhibitors, 28,000 visitors, 3 days. These are the key figures that characterize GITEX Africa 2023,” says Nourredine Chikhaoui, Commercial Director of 3GCOM. “And, as this is a show dedicated to IT technologies, the communication infrastructure had to be exemplary!”
GITEX is one of the largest technology events in the world, held annually in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Welcoming an average of nearly 170,000 visitors from all over the world, this show presents a summary of the most advanced technologies in the fields of 5G, artificial intelligence, cloud, cybersecurity, FinTech, blockchain, data analysis and even smart cities.
Challenge
The connectivity of exhibitors and visitors to a show of this magnitude presents a challenge on several levels. To ensure correct Internet access to all terminals, the backbone established by the Telecom operator must provide very high speed. The large surface area and the temporary nature of the exhibition halls (ephemeral in this case) require a cabling infrastructure that will allow reliable distribution of network to the various equipment. Finally, the very high density of users is a point to be particularly considered.
With more than 28,000 visitors for its 1st edition, GITEX Africa consolidates the place of the technological hub of Morocco, and its strategic position at the hinge of Africa and Europe. Overcoming the performance and budget challenges imposed by the organizer of this premier event, 3GCOM has confirmed that Cambium Networks solutions offer unrivaled high user density handling capability, combined with performance and top-notch stability.
Solution
Based in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, 3GCOM is one of the leading system integrators for IT and telecommunications solutions in North Africa. It provides its customers with innovative end-to-end solutions and services in all major business sectors and collaborates with industry leaders who guarantee the best support and the respect of high standards in terms of quality and competence. 3GCOM is one of the leading partners of Cambium Networks in North Africa.
“Of course, the deployment of a Wi-Fi infrastructure was immediately selected,” says Nourredine. “However, to lighten its load and guarantee a stable flow to exhibitors, a wired connection was brought to each stand. We thus deployed more than 10kms of Cat6 cable and 2500m of optical fiber.”
To address the wireless connectivity challenges in the living rooms, 3GCOM turned to Cambium Networks solutions. “We are familiar with the performance of Cambium Networks Wi- Fi access points, and in particular their ability to support high terminal densities,” says Nourredine. “Beyond performance, we also needed reliability and stability to guarantee satisfactory access to the 8,000 daily visitors.
Faced with these requirements, the integrator naturally opted for Wi-Fi 6 technology. Their teams deployed 60 XV2-2 indoor Wi-Fi access points and 10 XV2-2T0 outdoor Wi-Fi access points, taking care to limit the coverage to the desired areas while ensuring efficient roaming on all the
tents. The mission of managing the simultaneous connection of 5,000 terminals was fulfilled.