ATM
Termination
-------------
ACE-101

Features

• THIS UNIT IS BEING REPLACED BY THE ACE-202 or ACE-2002

• Creates a demarcation point between private networks and public ATM networks

• Allows service providers to offer LAN connectivity, data and voice/TDM services over WAN ATM networks

• Traffic management includes fault localization, traffic monitoring and policing

• Offers multiple-class traffic shaping for enhanced ATM uplink utilization

• Provides management and control up to the customer premises

• Implements ITU-T I.610 OAM (Operation, Administration and Maintenance) standard providing end-to-end ATM service control

• Media and rate conversion

• Supports CBR, VBR (rt and nrt) and UBR

• Supports VPC/VCC connections

• UNI (user or network) interfaces supported:

  • 155 Mbps Single Mode Long-Haul and Short-Haul

  • 155 Mbps Single Mode Short-Haul over single fiber (WDM)

  • 155 Mbps Multimode

  • 155 Mbps over UTP and coax

  • E3/T3 over coax and fiber

  • 4 x E1/T1 IMA

  • E1/T1 over coax/UTP

• Interworking interfaces:

  • Ethernet / Fast Ethernet

  • E1/T1 CES

  • 4 x E1/T1 CES

  • E3/T3 CES

  • Frame Forwarding

• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can be guaranteed by events and statistics collection

• In-band and out-of-band SNMP management and software download

• RADview HPOV Network Management Application (UNIX-based)

• Local or remote control (PPP for SNMP) via the control port (terminal or dial-up)

• Synchronization to the network or user clock

• Redundant network interfaces and power supplies (optional) for improved resilience

• Compact, 1U high suitable for mounting in 19'' racks

Description

• ACE-101 can be used as an ATM NTU (Network Termination Unit) for native ATM or as a multiservice access concentrator (MSAC). Located at the customer premises, it can be controlled by an ATM service provider, or it can be used as part of a corporate ATM-based WAN.

• As an A-NTU, ACE-101 enables a smooth and flexible connectivity between user network and public network. It allows carriers to guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS), by collecting and measuring localized and segment parameters. Thus, detailed performance information and end-to-end network control are provided.

• As a multi-service access concentrator, ACE-101 offers ATM QoS-based WAN services. Traditional services, such as LAN and voice, can be consolidated over statistically multiplexed links, at high rates. The built-in traffic management features contribute to the efficiency and quality of these services.

• ACE-101 has one user interface and two network interfaces. The user interface is used either in native ATM or legacy services, e.g. Ethernet / Fast Ethernet and voice. The network interfaces are connected via one or two ATM links, thus providing protected ATM service.

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

• ACE-101 controls the user ingress traffic transmitted to the public ATM network. It monitors or polices (cell tagging or cell discarding) transmitted traffic in order to protect the public ATM network from service agreement violation. Single and dual leaky bucket is used for UPC (Usage Parameter Control) measurements. This mechanism is applied per each open connection (VPC/VCC). Traffic Management also includes the support of AAL5 Partial Packet Discard (PPD), CLP dropping and Early Forward Congestion Identification (EFCI) marking.

TRAFFIC SHAPING

• An optional traffic shaping feature, with up to 148,000 cells buffer, adds to ACE-101 user's traffic assurance. ACE-101 as an A-NTU and MSAC, helps users to better utilize their ATM services.

• Both customers and ATM service providers enjoy an improved service, since bursty traffic is smoothed. Shaping of VBR to CBR is also possible. This is a significant benefit, especially at low speed ATM links. For the private ATM or legacy services user, traffic shaping allows flexible, yet accurate, traffic adaptation to the required service. ATM service providers benefit from the shaping at the customer premises, as it smoothes ingress traffic. Thus, public network congestion is prevented, while increased network utilization is accomplished.

• ACE-101 supports both single VPC/VCC shaping and group shaping for aggregate shaping.

FAULT LOCALIZATION AND END-TO-END ATM SERVICE MONITORING

• The ATM layer F4/F5 segment or end-to-end OAM protocol is performed between any two ACE-101 units located at the network edges, in compliance with the latest ITU-T I.610 standard. This configuration enables end-to-end measurement of QoS parameters, such as connectivity, delay, error rate and cell loss ratio - all of which describe the Quality of Service supported by the public network. ACE-101 also enables diagnostics and localization of faults throughout the public ATM network.

• ATM NTUs improve service reliability significantly. Fault management capabilities of these units enable the verification of end-to-end ATM connectivity. OAM fault management includes alarm surveillance (AIS, RDI) and continuity checks, supported for all VPCs/VCCs. ACE-101 also monitors Performance Management (PM), by checking whether all the conformant data transmitted to the network has reached its destination with no errors on the way. Performance management is supported for up to 15 bi-directional VPCs/VCCs (or 31 unidirectional VPCs/VCCs). In addition, ACE-101 generates F4/F5 loopback cells (LB) on up to 32 VPCs/VCCs. This enables fault localization and measurements of the ATM network delays, including minimum, maximum, average delay and delay variation. Additionally, loopback cells can be sent with source and destination addresses. These loopback cells may be looped at any network element that was pre-assigned with a loopback point address.

• The PHY layer F1-F3 OAM protocol is also supported by ACE-101, enabling performance monitoring and fault localization on the user and network physical links.

RATE CONVERSION

• Extracting ATM cells from one interface and sending them over to the other interface performs rate conversion between dissimilar interfaces. A 6000-cell buffer with four levels of priority queues is used to convert between the two interfaces, while preserving the VP/VC traffic characteristics.

CLOCK SYNCHRONIZATION

• In most applications, ACE-101 enables synchronization to one of the following options: network, user or internal clocking. ACE-101 synchronizes the user interface to the recovered network clock. In case of signal loss on the network interface, a local clock is used to generate the data.

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) SUPPORT

• SLA support requires elaborate collection of various parameters. ACE-101 processes these parameters in real-time into statistic figures. Statistics gathered by ACE-101 are collected at 15-minute intervals and stored for a period of 24 hours (96 intervals). This includes PHY layer faults, F4/F5 OAM events and traffic statistics. These statistics can be used to analyze the ATM network behavior and detect service degradation or generate billing information.

• ACE-101 maintains an event log file. All detected events are logged and time-stamped in a non-volatile memory that also maintains a list of active alarms.

MANAGEMENT

• ACE-101 supports up to 8 VCCs for in-band management and software download. This enables creation of redundant network management topologies by the public network administrator, as well as management from the user side. In-band communication is implemented according to RFC 1483 (routed PDU).

• ACE-101 allows full configuration and management tasks by using Telnet.

• The RADview HPOV network management application provides management at all levels: physical and ATM layers, and per VP/VC analysis. It allows the user to activate and efficiently administrate all the functions of the device. The user can configure the polling time and the date and time (default is local) of all the managed ACE-101 devices. In addition, as local time of all ACE-101 units is synchronized, the 15-minute intervals are synchronized to this local time. The status is reported using a detailed user graphical interface, and is registered in the log file. Each device is concurrently monitored by the management application, which receives traps, allows configuration, traffic and fault management, performance monitoring, and loopback test activation per VP/VC or interface.

• In order to ease field installation and management of ACE-101, two features are offered:

  • Plug & play, enables operators to install ACE-101 without configuration at the customer premises. Later, via a predefined ATM connection, a configuration file can be downloaded.

  • Preconfigured, enables downloading of the configuration file to other devices in the field.