April 2002

CompactPCI Enables the Converged Network

BY DENNIS LILES

The network of today still has mostly parallel access networks for voice and data services. This historical emphasis on dual networks has been costly and inefficient. As the network evolves, the challenge is to converge voice and broadband services in a cost efficient manner. From a service provider standpoint, the demand for broadband is increasing, but the majority of revenue is still driven by voice services. What was missing in the marketplace was a product that allowed voice services over broadband so that carriers could maximize revenue streams from data and voice services.

A VoDSL company needed a platform to deliver this voice over broadband capability. It had to perform all the functions necessary to deliver thousands of subscriber lines over a broadband access network. Moreover, it had to be compatible with an immense array of access equipment including Class V switches.

Their challenge was to find an off-the-shelf, NEBS compliant, scalable carrier-grade platform and blade technology designed to meet five-nines availability, and that could meet their time-to-market and technology requirements. Network interface requirements included ATM, DS3, and OC-3 ingress and H248/MGCP egress.

The Solution
In order to meet these time-to-market and technology needs, the company selected Motorola Computer Group�s CPX8000 series CompactPCI platform and network blades. CompactPCI technology was chosen because of its reliability and serviceability aspects. The system needed to perform circuit to packet conversion in a cost efficient, reliable and efficient manner.

The CPX8000 system chosen features redundant PowerPC compatible host slot controllers, peripheral slot controllers, as well as redundant power and cooling. It also provides enhanced capabilities such as hot swap, hot software upgrade and hot growth.

Within the system, the host slot CPU, running the Lynx operating system, performs the actual call processing. The peripheral slot controller running a Windows operating system provides provisioning and system management as well as the GUI user interface. Also in the system are redundant ATM interface cards for packet conversion and T1 cards to interface to the Class 5 switch.

System reliability was an absolute requirement due to the high system call traffic. A typical system can support 1,024 simultaneous business quality phone calls. Dropped calls means loss of revenue and adverse customer reaction. CompactPCI supports this requirement with hot swap capability, policy based fail over to standby cards, and fast mean time to repair that enables the customer to achieve the uptime required for this application.

The Value Of CompactPCI
Deploying a standard, off-the-shelf CompactPCI platform from Motorola allowed the start-up to concentrate on their value-add instead of building and integrating disparate technologies as well as providing a scalable solution that could be upgraded as their needs changed.

With the Motorola platform as an enabling technology, the customer�s solution becomes a key component of the evolving broadband access network. With a solution that handles both voice and data needs, the system helps to reduce network complexity and cost.

Dennis Liles is senior product manager, Motorola Computer Group. Please visit Motorola�s Web site at www.mcg.mot.com.

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