Tom Porter and Doug Gardner intensely watch the green numbers scrolling quickly down a 42-inch plasma monitor, making sure information flowing over the World Cup's computer networks moves as smoothly as Brazil's offense.

They are part of a team whose efforts, if successful, won't be noticed by the millions of fans watching the monthlong tournament on television or visiting its Web site for game updates.

They are part of the team that Avaya Inc., a Lucent Technologies Inc. spinoff, has deployed to keep the World Cup linked across Germany so that information such as travel schedules and the latest red cards can be immediately gathered, filed and sent out to commentators, coaches, reporters and FIFA's World Cup Web site.

But it is more than just real-time statistics ¡ª the network operation center also ensures that team buses are coordinated for games, hotels are booked for players, and officials ¡ª from upper level executives to the thousands of volunteers ¡ª are properly credentialed.

"From a network operations point of view, it's gone very well," Gardner said during a visit to the hub, which is based in the sprawling Munich convention center. "The main problem was power fluctuations and power outages in the stadiums, but we've gotten on top of all those and we have not had to replace anything."

It's a familiar situation for Gardner, who oversaw the running of the operations center in 2002 when the World Cup was played in Japan and South Korea.

At the International Broadcast Center's IT command center there are four plasma screens that provide real-time analysis of the systems and monitor the security of the hundreds of miles of cables, switches and routers as well as multiple PCs, laptops and an array of phones ¡ª cellular and wired.

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