November / December 2005
Profile: ORION's Engineering Team
One of the ORION network's greatest strengths is the knowledge and experience of its engineering team.
The team has drawn kudos for the design, building and deployment of one of the world's largest and most advanced R&E optical network infrastructures, and it continues to innovate and advance the development of leading-edge network design and capabilities.
"We may be a small team of only six people but we are still among the most capable engineering departments in the country," says ORION's Senior Director of Engineering and Operations, Sam Mokbel.
Sam has been with ORION from the start, when he joined the network in 2002 as Project Director, responsible for network design and operations. A previous Chief of Engineering at ONet Networking, the precursor to ORION, Sam brings extensive operational and academic experience in all aspects of digital networking, with senior positions with various Canadian and American companies, Sam leads a team that designs the network and monitors and responds to network management issues 24/7.
ORION's Senior IP Engineer Shahid Ajaz led the IP Network design and implementation during the construction phase of ORION. His main responsibilities are the design and configuration of the IP layer with an eye on new technologies and protocols to keep ORION on the leading edge. He joined the organization from Group Telecom where he was Network Core Engineer, responsible for data network routing design. A graduate of Electronics Engineering Technology, Shahid has worked in data communication engineering for AT&T Canada and Metronet Communications.
Ron Neil is Project Manager, responsible for the deployment of the network throughout Ontario, and is the front-line resource when organizations need to initially consult with ORION on how best to connect to the network. Also joining ORION from Group Telecom, Ron has worked with Sprint Canada and Shaw Fiberlink and brings significant on-the-ground knowledge and expertise of the telecom marketplace.
As Senior Network Analyst, Nadeem Junejo, also joining from Group Telecom, is responsible for all aspects of the optical transport network design, configuration and PoP deployment. He is currently engaged with CANARIE in the design of the next generation optical network. A graduate in electrical engineering, Nadeem worked in data communication engineering for over 11 years with different carriers and service providers, prior to joining ORION.
Tyson Vickers, ORION's Technical Support Specialist, provides a critical network engineering support role. Responsible for corporate IT, he assists with the installation of equipment and often called upon to deal with urgent network management issues. Among his areas of expertise is the use of advanced videoconference technologies. Tyson is currently leading ORION's involvement in the new ePresence consortium.
Janira Sanz first joined ORION in 2004 as student-in-training. She has over nine years of expertise in designing and deploying optical transport networks. As Network Analyst and a valuable member of the team, Janira has worked on network management and operations, and more recently, on network monitoring processes, leading ORION's recent in-sourcing of its NOC. She is also helping ORION contribute to the new ePresence consortium.
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