Telecom Platform Deployment Featured Article

PT, a supplier of advanced network communications around the world, has just launched a newly created open-standards NEBS compliant solution set named Monterey.

Monterey is an enhanced application-ready system that is fully compatible with the most up-to-date MicroTCA (News - Alert).4 standard, with various extensions that include increased backplane performance and a higher available power budget. According to a press release, the Monterey architecture utilizes high-density computing and high speed fabrics in a space-efficient model that works perfectly as the foundation for multiple next-generation network communications and services applications.

"Industry observers predict a quadrupling of data traffic within four years due to increased mobile location-based services, and the explosive growth of smart phones and Internet connected tablets," said John Grana, senior vice president of products and technology for PT in a statement. "In anticipation of such huge demands for capacity, PT designed Monterey to fill a gap in the ecosystem. It is a compact powerhouse that meets the stringent NEBS and ETSI (News - Alert) requirements for telecommunications central offices, as well as those of demanding data and military communications environments. In fact, we architected the backplane to support an unprecedented 40GbE to each slot." PT projects Monterey to be commercially available in September 2011 accompanied by a planned product launch and branding campaign.

Monterey will work as a complementary solution to the AdvancedTCA (News - Alert) (ATCA)-based system. This single application-ready platform is the first of its kind and comes complete with pre-integrated hardware, middleware, and software. Due to these options, designers can now greatly reduce development costs and increase time-to-market. The new product is smaller in size than the ATCA, but allows developers to personalize the solution to best fit their application needs. In addition, the new MicroTCA.4 double-wide form factor, Monterey also supports single width Advanced Mezzanine Card(TM) (AMC) modules, the release stated.

 "Monterey is the latest edition in PT's history of developing innovative, cost savings solutions to fulfill the requirements of applications developers," said John Slusser, president and CEO of PT. "In fact, PT's particular forte lies in the enhancement of industry standards, as demonstrated by the CompactPCI (News - Alert) 2.16 and VME64 protocols. With Monterey we successfully bridge gaps -- between AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA, between legacy and IP networks. It is a modular, cost-effective platform for telecommunication equipment manufacturers developing high performance, long lifecycle solutions for service providers. In addition, the efficiency of PT's COTS-based solution makes it ideal for industrial control applications like smart grids, and military and aerospace communication applications such as data acquisition and analysis, and control systems."