As communications networks expand and proliferate, the ability to deploy, make the networks available and guarantee their reliability and overall network 'health' assumes a new urgency. Operators such as regional Bell companies and competing local exchange carriers (CLECs) demand network reliability so that they can reduce implementation costs and compete effectively in meeting critical service level agreements. Their system suppliers want reliable technology and components so that they can meet carrier requirements. They need products that reduce the time and cost of service deployment, prevent quality of service interruptions and downtime, and enable rapid recovery if failures occur or networks degrade.
To meet these demands, a technology leader such as Intel must provide the hardware, software and services that guarantee availability and reliability in the emerging generations of multi-service networks.
Intel has emerged as a leader in communications silicon components, providing performance and diagnostic capability to ensure both quality and network reliability. Its T1/E1 solutions are designed to reduce time and cost of deployment, eliminate downtime and service degradation, and restore services quickly through the integration of enabling capabilities.
Ease of Deployment. Integrated components that meet stringent performance conditions are mandatory. Line Interface Units, framers and other T1/E1 devices must reduce or eliminate wander or jitter in either long haul or broadband systems. They also must work in DSL or broadband conditions that are not always optimal. They are vital for cost-effective and timely deployment.
So is reliable bit error rate testing -
BERT. Intel is now incorporating Bit Error Rate Tester capability, which reduces the need for independent test equipment for bi-directional testing. Exhaustive, customizable BERT is a key element in reducing deployment barriers; Intel bit error rate testers are programmable, offering a wide choice of patterns.
Pulse Template Conformity. T1/E1 deployment success has been largely due to the existence of well-established international standards. Stringent jitter performance and pulse shape requirements have been defined by ETSI, ANSI, other regulatory committees, and Bellcore. Pulse template conformity is subject to protection circuit PCB and backplane variations. Pulse template matching software is now available in all new Intel® LIUs. The software allows the pulse shape to be automatically recalibrated within the template, during design, production or the deployment phase, thereby insuring network compliance and increasing the designer's confidence.
Design Assistant. Board and device design can be cut by weeks or months using the Design Assistant, which incorporates a new application programming interface (API). The API reduces time and the cost of development while adding a level of confidence in the OEM design's stability, which in turn creates a high level of network reliability.
Preventing Downtime. To keep degradation at bay, equipment manufacturers require redundancy, usually 1+1 protection, in the form of one backup board for each primary board. Most systems use mechanical relays to move backup into place when needed. The price: The relays are large, and bit errors emerge when it takes more than a few microseconds to complete a switch.
Another Intel innovation - Hitless Protection Switching - supplies the critical redundancy that maintains service without inviting bit errors. HPS eliminates the delays in switching by using fast tristate drivers instead of relays, providing extensive system monitoring and insuring against frame or synchronization loss. HPS now provides the industry's highest level of protection for T1/E1.
Using the BERT, HPS and PTM technologies in its rapidly expanding family of integrated TI/E1/J1 LIU/framers, transceivers, and other devices, Intel is dedicated to providing a complete environment to assure network reliability for both OEMs and their customers. The new on-chip tools provide the end customer with the highest level of control over the network, delivering a complete 'network reliability architecture' that enables fast initial deployment and more rapid recovery if and when failures occur.
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