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A few months ago in this column we discussed Advanced Telecommunications
Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA, or ATCA). I subsequently received a few
reader e-mails and also engaged with industry colleagues in some intense
discussions on this subject. Having always planned to do a follow-up
article, I’ve decided now is the time after a recent industry event where I
met a reader who wanted to talk to me about “that ABCTA thing.”
To recap, ATCA, developed by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturer’s
Group (PICMG), is targeted as a way to define a standards-based,
high-availability platform for hosting carrier-grade telecommunications
applications. This means good targets for ATCA product lines will be those
that require things like faster and more capable silicon, increased I/O
throughput, better cooling, increased availability, and faster internal
routing. You can learn more about ATCA and the specs in my September 2002 column
or by visiting either the PICMG Web
site or the Intel
Web site.
An issue readers had with my original ATCA article was how I could write
about something that didn’t yet exist. To me, that is not an issue. Yo --
the name of this column is “Industry Insight!” One of its charters is to
prepare you for the future. Writing about an important industry initiative
like ATCA, which is relevant to Internet telephony, certainly fits into that
mission. In the past I have written about SIP and MGCP in the same way.
Besides, the ATCA specification is now ratified (which it wasn’t last time
we discussed it -- hence the objection). There have been, and continue to
be, interoperability workshops among the PICMG members developing ATCA
products. There have been three ATCA plug fests, with another planned for
May 19 through 23 in Las Vegas. Press will be invited to that one, so I
expect you’ll soon be hearing more public pronouncements from firms
developing ATCA products.
What I always wanted to follow up on, and what the fellow at the tradeshow
wanted to talk to me about, was that he “just didn’t get it” about ATCA, as
he put it. He didn’t understand the need for a standard to supplant
CompactPCI.
This is a common misconception because, in my opinion, the ATCA standard
doesn’t supplant CompactPCI. It’s there to address a different market
segment. Many readers of this magazine are comfortable with -- and support
-- a standards-based computer telephony integration (CTI) world in which
Internet telephony now plays a big part. But in the world of
DSL/cable/wireless/PSTN central office communications, most equipment is
still proprietary. ATCA addresses that market segment by using
standards-based building blocks instead of the existing
vertically-integrated equipment. And, based on experience in the computing
and CTI worlds, this approach in a market segment proves over time to drive
several major benefits.
The first key benefit of using standards-based building blocks is that it
drives lower-cost price structures as ecosystems develop based on
price/performance. Also, when vertically-integrated systems are built with
standards-based building blocks, they do not need to be rearchitected every
time a change is required. Only part of the architecture needs to be
reintegrated, which improves time to market and provides greater flexibility
to deliver service offerings. This model has proven successful in other
market segments; it will ultimately prove successful in these new market
segments.
Another benefit of ATCA for Internet Telephony® readers is that it
inherently supports packet-based infrastructure from the ground up. That is,
Internet telephony is inherently easier -- and will actually be the norm --
for these systems, since they are packet-based to begin with, with special
techniques required to deal with TDM (time division multiplexing), a common
method of traditional voice traffic.
One example of this I wrote about in the first ACTA column was ITDM. That’s
IP telephony progress: a developer now has to go out of his way not to deal
with packet telephony. Why? Because the backplane options are all
packet-based. As such, packet-based infrastructure equipment (like equipment
handling ATM traffic and Ethernet) makes ideal solution set targets. This
would point to such infrastructure as 3G RNC (Radio Network Controller), 2.x
G BSC (Base Station Controller), and xGSN (GPRS Support Node) in the
wireless segment; multi-service switches in the routing segments; media
gateways and softswitches in the voice traffic segments; CMTS (Cable Modem
Termination Server) in the cable segment; and storage controllers in -- you
guessed it -- the storage segment.
I’m sure this article addressed some lingering ATCA questions. But I’m
equally sure it created new ones. If so, I’ve done my job. Because that’s
what this column is all about.
Jim Machi is director, Product Management for the Network Processing
Division of the Intel Communications Group. Intel, the world’s largest
chipmaker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking, and
communications products. For more information, visit
www.intel.com.
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