networkZONE Products for the week of January 19, 2004
Agilent Says . . .
Agilent Technologies First to Offer High- & Low-Order
LCAS Emulation For Testing Next-Generation SONET/SDH MSPPs
Company Also Introduces Support for Next-Generation SONET/SDH
Technologies
at 10 Gbit/s Rate
Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced support for SONET/SDH Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) at both high- and low-order virtual concatenation levels for its OmniBER OTN J7232A 2.5 Gb/s analyzer. Along with its Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) encapsulation support and high- and low-order virtual concatenation, the J7232A gives designers and verification engineers of SONET/SDH multi-service provisioning platform (MSPP) equipment the ability to fully check design conformance to industry standards, thereby ensuring full interoperability of next-generation data services across vendor platforms. LCAS is a key enabler of flexibility in next-generation SONET/SDH data services by providing dynamically variable transport bandwidth to end-users.
In addition, the new OmniBER OTN J7230B product is the first to offer the complete next-generation SONET/SDH test portfolio (including data mappings, GFP encapsulation, high- and low-order virtual concatenation and LCAS) at the 10 Gb/s rates of OC-192 and STM-64. Equipment manufacturers and service providers are driving the introduction of next-generation SONET/SDH capability at 10 Gb/s in support of flexible Gigabit Ethernet and high-speed fiber channel data applications (including storage area networks). The J7230B also offers support for ITU-T G.709 Optical Channel and all legacy SONET/SDH standards.
Next-generation SONET/SDH is the term applied to recent enhancements
and additions to SONET/SDH standards and equipment that enable data services
to be carried more efficiently and flexibly. Three new technologies are
key to next-generation SONET/SDH:
GFP encapsulation adapts Ethernet, fiber channel and other data traffic
for suitability to a constant bit-rate carrier.
Virtual concatenation enables SONET/SDH transport pipes to be filled more efficiently with data services by grouping individual SONET/SDH containers into a virtual high-bandwidth "link," matched to the required service bandwidth. High-order virtual concatenation containers (55 Mb/s and 155 Mb/s) are grouped when transporting high-speed data services such as Gigabit Ethernet and fiber channel. Low-order containers (1.5 Mb/s or 2 Mb/s) are used for low-speed data services such as 10 Mb/s or 100Mb/s Ethernet.
LCAS further enhances the flexibility of SONET/SDH virtual concatenation transport by enabling the addition and removal of virtual link containers in response to an identified change in service bandwidth requirement, or in response to a fault condition in an existing container.
"LCAS is the latest significant building block in the provisioning
of next-generation data services by SONET/SDH," said Richard Deboer,
CEO of Galazar Networks, a fabless semiconductor company that delivers Ethernet
and multi-service framers. "LCAS is the most complex, in terms of the
protocol 'hand-shaking' between source and destination equipment, therefore
stringent interoperability testing was required before our customers could
be selected as preferred suppliers for next-generation networks. With the
ability to fully emulate the operation of a SONET/SDH LCAS terminal, the
OmniBER OTN provides an independent validation of MSPP design conformance
to industry standards, highlighting at an early development stage any possible
interoperability issues."
analogZONE Says . . .
LCAS and its associated protocols are an important part of squeezing more bandwidth out of SONET/SDH systems. Equally important, it allows SONET/SDH to to support near-native Ethernet services that can be efficiently distributed in smaller, more manageable "retail" chunks that are more appropriate for smaller enterprise access markets. And even if all-IP networks can equal the manageability, reliability, and QoS of legacy TDM systems, the Billions of dollars in existing SONET infrastructure will not be going away any time soon.
And while LCAS will fix many of the inefficiencies inherent to the SONET protocol, there is a real possibility that it will take some time for interoperability between equipment, and even chipsets from different manufacturers to become as matter-of-fact as it is in Ethernet networks. That's why I'm so pleased to see Agilent addressing the problem with its J7232A 2.5- Gbit/s analyzer. Based on my limited experience with their other network and protocol analysis equipment, I expect that Agilent will provide the necessary tools to track down the subtle, and not-so-subtle disconnects that arise due to different interpretations and implementations of a complex standard like LCAS.
While it's just as pricey as Agilent gear is usually wont to be, you not only get a test box for your LCAS needs, but a great general-purpose networking analysis tool that can serve many other missions. What's more, you get Agilent's 3+ decades of experience in networking to fall back on when tackling a really thorny problem.
And since Galazar is mentioned in the release, I'd like to use the opportunity to acknowledge them as one of the big forces behind the LCAS standard within the IC world. The fact that they have found Agilent's analysis tools so useful is a greater testament to their value than anything I can say myself. Galazar's innovative and incredibly versatile MSF250 2.5-Gbit/s Multi Service Framer that I reviewed back in late 2002 was the first, and remains one of the best devices of its type. If I'd had a chance (my fault, not theirs) to review their newer DSF250 and MSF15 framers this year, they would have been a shoe-in for one of our 2003 Product Of The Year Awards. Hopefully, I'll have another chance when they roll out their next generation of products later this year.
The Agilent OmniBER OTN J7232A 2.5 Gbit/s analyzer has a base price of $55,000. The J7232A with options for Ethernet mappings, GFP and virtual concatenation is priced at approximately $104,000 with current delivery at eight weeks. An LCAS firmware upgrade can also be ordered now for approximately $5000 with delivery in Q2 of 2004. The OmniBER OTN J7230B 10 Gbit/s analyzer has a base price of $106,000. The J7230B loaded with Ethernet mappings, GFP, virtual concatenation and LCAS is approximately $155,000 for delivery in Q2 of 2004.
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