networkZONE Products for the week of March 24, 2003
Agere Says . . .
Equal Access - Agere's New SONET/SDH Mapper And T/E
Framer Target Access Networks With Industry-Standard Interfaces And SONET/PDH
Bridging
Agere Systems Inc. has introduced two new members to its families of high-performance, multi-use SONET/SDH mapper and T/E carrier framer chips, which offer higher performance and industry-standard interfaces, while lowering development costs and power, over competitive products. Designated UltramapperFT and Ultraframer, the chips enable network equipment makers, for the first time, to increase capacity and number of ports in their systems using industry-standard line interface units (LIU), versus limiting proprietary technology. The new devices target wired and wireless access network applications including multi-service access systems, 3G wireless network controllers, access concentrators, high-density interfaces for multiplexers, switches, routers and voice gateways. Agere is now shipping volume quantities of both.
SONET/SDH mappers are integrated circuits (ICs) that prepare and label data from T/E carrier lines for transmission through higher-speed digital optical networks. T/E framers are ICs that provide framing, error detection and performance monitoring in accordance with AT&T, ANSI, ITU-T and ETSI standards.
Agere's single-chip Ultramapper FT integrates an add-drop multiplexer (ADM), while the Ultraframer offers 84-channels to support the industry's highest number of user connections. These systems-on-chip (SoCs) extend Agere's market-leading Supermapper, Ultramapperand Superframerproducts, making Agere the industry's premier, one-stop shop for mappers and framers.
Ultramapper-FT provides three times the capability of Supermapper, tripling the number and density of T1/E1 ports from 28 T1 or 21 E1 ports, to 84 T1s to 63 E1s, and the lowest latency over competitive offerings, while Ultraframer offers three times the performance of Agere's Superframer.
Together with Agere's MARS(Multi-Application And Rate Solutions) family of multi-use framers, the new chips comprise a complete offering that fully addresses network access and transport functionality, and provides high-density interfaces from DS0/E0, T1/E1/J1 and T3/E3 to OC-192, for a wide variety of design needs and applications at the industry's most cost-effective price points.
"There is a critical need in today's cost-driven network markets for flexible, highly compact equipment that can smoothly handle increasing volumes of phone lines, users and bandwidths, while maximizing existing infrastructure," said Mark Granahan, vice president of Agere's Access and Transport division. " The aggregation of voice and data from phone lines onto high-speed fiber optic SONET/SDH links, and the delivery of increasing volumes of voice and data from the edge of the network to the core, are key vendor strategies to meet this need. Agere is the only supplier with a proven family of integrated, scalable, compatible chip solutions that can support multi-channel OC-n terminations down to DS0/E0."
According to CIBC World Markets, the overall market size for mapper devices is over $300 million in 2002, and will grow to over $600 million by 2006. Market indicators point to a growing demand for higher-density equipment, the ability to migrate from OC-12 to OC-48, support for more DS3 trans-multiplexing (allowing DS1s to be mapped using virtual tributaries [VT] or tributary units [TU]), DS3/E3 clear channel capabilities and direct DS3 to STS1 mapping.
"Ultramapper FT is one of the first STS3/STM1 devices to support the need for higher-density DS1/E1 and DS3/E3 mapping functions and DS3/E3 trans-multiplexing capabilities," said Granahan. "Both Ultramapper FT and Ultraframer simplify the task of upgrading and increasing capacity, speed, performance and density by decreasing devices and power needed per card. They also speed time-to-market by eliminating costly software development in favor of turnkey, plug-and-play solutions."
Technical background for Ultramapper FT
Agere designed the feature-rich Ultramapper FT specifically to make system development simpler, easier and faster. An enhanced version of Agere's market-leading Ultramapper, Ultramapper FT groups together voice and data from regular phone lines for transmission across higher capacity fiber optic networks and vice versa, at the lowest cost per port, and using the smallest number of devices and lowest power consumption per user with performance monitoring. It integrates the functions of path protection switching, on-chip cross connect and synchronous byte mapping/GR303 support. Ultramapper FT can map, multiplex, and demultiplex one STS-3, or AU-4, three STS-1 or AU3, inputs to any valid combination of 84 DS-1 or 63 E1 signals, or six DS3 or E3. The use of four UM-FT devices allows termination of 336 DS-1 or 252 E1, or a full STS12/STM4s payload of T1/E1 Ultramapper. Key features and capabilities of the Ultramapper FT include:
Technical background for Ultraframer
The Ultraframer combines DS3/E3, DS1/E1/J1 framing and T1 to T3 multiplexing and E1 to E3 multiplexing into a single chip. Ultraframer offers full 84-channel T/E framing capability, high-speed interfacing, seamless connections to industry-standard LIUs and time slot interchangers (TSI). It also handles the spectrum of PDH design from DS0 up to DS3. Key features of the Ultraframer include:
Both Ultramapper FT and Ultraframer are register-compatible and interoperable
with Agere's MARSfamily of framers, the industry's most integrated and versatile
SONET/SDH framers, as well as Agere's entire portfolio of line card solutions
for multi-service metropolitan and access networks.
analogZONE Says . . .
There are lots of excellent framer/mapper products out on the market today because of the resurgence of interest in SONET/SDH networks. And it's no wonder that Agere is using its long-time expertise in this area to roll out a series of products intended to cut parts count and increase flexibility in metro access equipment. They also understand that despite the beginning of all-Ethernet metro networks, and DSL-based access, the majority of commercial data connections are still based on the ubiquitous T1/E1-T3/E3 connections. That's why Agere is rolling out a series of mappers and framers to help access equipment wring every last cent of value from an STS3/STM-1 line. These chips stand out in their field because of the almost-infinite configuration flexibility they offer, and because they use an industry-standard client-side (PDH) DS/T3/E3 interface that lets them hook up to any one of several company's LIU chips - including Exar and Level One.
Both mappers can fully terminate an STS-3/STM-1 connection, but the Ultramapper can break channels down to the DS0 level, while the UltramapperFT only goes down to the DS-1. This allows you to mix and match any combination of T1 and T3 streams to fill a STS-3 pipe, as well as up-mux individual T1s into to T3 streams. And if you're doing business in Asia and Europe, the device has a separate mux block that handles E1-to-E2 and-E-3 muxing, plus similar capabilities for J1/J3 streams.
One of the most interesting things about these chips is that they can interface to a much faster STS-12 stream and strip off an STS-3 for processing, or fold one back into the STS-12. If you need to fully terminate a full STS-12 stream, you can actually gang together four Ultramappers using the "Mate Interconnect logic" block provided in the devices. This "glueless" interface allows you to pass the STS-12 stream through up to four devices, allowing each one to grab a different STS-3 stream. And, if all your traffic is all T3/E3, the over-provision in the mapping logic and cross-connects allows you to terminate an STS-12 with only two mappers.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Ultramapper is that it can serve as a flexible bridge between PDH traffic used in customer-side for low-bandwidth PCM systems and SONET/SDH traffic, used in metro and wide-area networks. A good part of this capability seems to arise from Agere's decision to install a separate internal cross-connects for PDH and SONET/SDH traffic. This is especially good for applications such as multi-service platforms where voice and data services share a single access connection.
Also of note is the integral digital jitter attenuator (a synchronized buffer of sorts) that can be used to synchronize interfaces to both clear-channel DS-3 streams as well as DS-1 connections. Agere claims that this is an industry first where subscribers can get a full, unframed pipe without the normal DS-1 delineation overhead.
All these features help you design equipment that lets carriers leverage both existing SONET/SDH and T1/E1 infrastructures to make them more flexible, i.e. more profitable services. I expect the UltraMappers and companion framers will find many applications in access equipment such as access concentrators for wireless and DSL equipment. The mappers should also be a good choice for voice/media gateways which strip out data traffic from CO equipment to offload the existing networks. But while we can expect Ultra-mapper-powered multi-service platforms, you'll have to find another chip to support EoS applications as it does not have the new encapsulation protocols or LCAS capabilities. I figure that's a small price to pay for all the other features on the chip.
|