There will be plenty of action in the data centers, too: The World Cup will run its first-ever integrated voice and data network, straddling Japan and Korea. It's the first time the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup has been held in two countries, and building the network meant melding two systems: the Japanese portion of the network is an ATM WAN, and the Korean, frame relay.

But from the opening whistle, the network got off to a slow start. In 2001, the Swiss firm that owned the marketing rights to the World Cup went bankrupt, which delayed the contracts for the network. That left FIFA and Avaya, the lead vendor and architect, with only about 10 months--half the time it usually takes--to build the network for the 40,000 users at the event.

Not surprisingly, the network won't be flaunting much bleeding-edge technology. "We won't be going for very innovative because of the time pressure," says Gerard Gouillou, head of IT projects, World Cup/Internet. "We are trying to stay with proven technology."

That means there won't be any IP video, for instance. But there will be VoIP (voice over IP) calls on the network within Japan, then from Japan to Korea over a 4.2-Mbps link. Once the voice traffic hits the Korean frame relay backbone in Seoul, though, it gets converted to the public switched network. KT Corp., Korea's main service provider, is instead offering traditional telephone service, which officials say was more a political than technical decision. The exception is within the international media center in Korea, which has its own VoIP phones.

This World Cup will be played amid unprecedented security, too. The South Korean air force will be flying over the stadiums during games, and missiles will be poised on the ground. FIFA is keeping the locations of the main data centers secret, and every official, participant and volunteer, and all the estimated 12,000 media representatives, will have to scan their badges with FIFA's accreditation system running on the network when they enter and leave the stadiums, media centers and other official venues.

The network runs the obligatory firewalls, and there's a separate IP connection to the Internet. FIFA's internal network isn't connected to the World Cup network, either, but FIFA's World Cup site, www.fifaworldcup.com, will be available via the Internet connection. Other security precautions may be taken, like masking IP addresses so a hacker can't ping the network, and at press time security experts from SchulmbergerSema Network Solutions were about to do a security evaluation of the network, including some deliberate hacking.

Aside from the obvious logistical challenges of building and running a network that spans two countries, the biggest hurdle is making two networks appear as one. "It's like doing two World Cups" at once, says Doug Gardner, regional manager for the World Cup program at Avaya. Early on during the installation, the WAN connections between the Avaya PSAX ATM routers and AccessPoint frame relay routers failed, and Avaya, NTT and KT had to collaborate to get the links and routers to shuttle traffic properly. "One of our challenges is to make the network look, feel and operate the same way in both countries," he says.

The stadiums are also equipped with 802.11 wireless LANs, as well as 100-Mbps Ethernet. The wireless LANs are mainly for photojournalists to upload their digital photos right from the field, so a shot of a goal can be sent directly to the Web or over the network. Match officials, meanwhile, will be using the hardwired Ethernet LANs from the sidelines for recording statistics.

For Avaya, which is coming off a sluggish second quarter and a round of layoffs, the project is huge, mainly for brand recognition. Gardner won't disclose the value of the deal but says Avaya has invested more than $100 million in cash, equipment, services and marketing, including for the 2003 Women's World Cup, in China, and the next men's World Cup, in 2006. Avaya is providing the routers, switches, firewalls, cabling, VPN, VoIP switches and phones, and management equipment. NTT of Japan and KT of Korea are offering the WAN and Internet services, and other technology partners include Fuji Xerox and American Power Conversions.