What is the OMX?
The OMX is a new generation optical transport switch
for the metro network. It provides a comprehensive and
flexible set of bandwidth and service management features
to support DS1/VT1.5 and STS-1/STS-Nc grooming and switching
without compromising the performance, cost, scale, or
carrier-class availability demanded by today's service
providers.
How does the OMX reduce
costs and maximize profitability for service providers?
The OMX saves money for service providers by lowering
the CAPEX and OPEX of the network. The savings come
from reducing equipment cost and footprint, cutting
power consumption and enhancing overall serviceability
and manageability.
What are the critical
functions of a DCS?
The critical functions of a DCS are wideband and broadband
switching and grooming, a comprehensive set of optical
and electrical interfaces, and extensive OAM&P over
a scalable and carrier-class platform. In addition,
the DCS should also support GMPLS-based intelligent
networking to allow increased automation of provisioning,
seamless multi-vendor interoperability, and a smooth
migration to mesh-based network topologies.
How do you support
both broadband and wideband?
The basic switching and grooming granularity of the
switch fabric is at the VT1.5/DS1 wideband level. By
bundling the time-slot processing of multiple internal
switch fabric signals together, the same switch fabric
becomes broadband capable. The switch fabric of the
OMX supports both DS1/VT1.5 (WB) and STS-1/STS-Nc (BB)
switching and grooming where N can be 3,12, and 48.
Can it support GBE
over SONET?
The OMX supports a GbE over SONET interface conforming
to the Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) mapping standards
including the support of virtual concatenation.
What are the key differentiators
of the Polaris solution compared to its competitors?
Why is it so unique?
The three key differentiators of the Polaris solution
compared to its competitors are scalability, extensive
bandwidth management granularity, and a GMPLS based
control plane. The OMX can scale from a 240 Gbps single
chassis to a 2 Tbps multi-chassis configuration without
interrupting services. Its custom ASIC-based switch
architecture can switch all traffic types natively,
including TDM, packets and cells, and supports grooming
granularity from VT1.5/DS1 to STS-1/STS-Nc including
transmuxing of M13 traffic. The GMPLS based control
plane allows provisioning functions to be performed
automatically outside the data and management planes
of the OMX. This approach enables the infrastructure
for intelligent networking such as end-to-end provisioning
over an OMX network and seamless multi-vendor interoperability
that is compatible to the ITU's ASON architecture.
What is VT1.5 grooming
and why is it important?
VT1.5 or DS1 grooming is a time-slot interchange capability
that can be used to improve the bandwidth utilization
of I/O ports of a network element running at STS-1,
DS3 or higher rates. It is an important feature because
the traffic feeding the metro/core networks from existing
access networks today is still predominantly DS1 based
circuits. Given the robust, growth projection of DS1
private leased line growth in the future, the VT1.5
grooming capability is a critical requirement to reduce
networks costs and maximizing profitability.
Why is VT1.5 grooming
scalability so important as opposed to the distributed
VT1.5 grooming supported by other new generation ADM/MSPPs?
The distributed VT1.5 grooming supported by new generation
ADM/MSPP does not offer a scalable solution. As the
number of network nodes increases, the network connectivity
grows exponentially making the distributed grooming
approach unmanageable. A centralized, highly scalable
solution is more efficient for bandwidth and service
management, minimizing network connectivity, operations,
as well as simplifying network management.
How does the OMX scale
from 240Gbps to 2Tbps without disruption?
The OMX switch architecture was designed to support
a capacity growth from a 240 Gbps single chassis to
a 2 Tbps multi-chassis configuration. The upgrade procedure
from single chassis without disruption is accomplished
by gracefully migrating the redundant 240 Gbps switch
fabric from the single chassis to a dedicated 1 Tbps
Switch Matrix Chassis (SMC) to support four 240 Gbps
service interface chasses. By duplicating this migration
procedure for a dual SMC configuration, the switching
capacity of the system can effectively double to 2 Tbps
capacity.
What is an OSI/IP
DCC Gateway?
An OSI/IP DCC gateway is a Gateway Network Element (GNE)
that can communicate with remote network elements supporting
OSI over DCC as well as network elements supporting
IP over DCC. The OSI/IP gateway has the ability to provide
protocol conversions between OSI-based messages, popular
with legacy equipment, and TCP/IP based messages, popular
with new generation equipment.
Why is it so important
to be compatible with the Present Method of Operations?
It is important to be compatible with the PMO not only
to preserve the capital investment of a service provider
but also to enable a seamless migration from the PMO
to a new generation, OMX-based network architecture.
How does GMPLS automate
provisioning of services?
GMPLS automates end-to-end provisioning of services
by managing the data-path resources in the network through
RSVP-TE, OSPF and LMP protocols. It uses OSPF to obtain
information about the network topology and RSVP-TE and
LMP to reserve and achieve end-to-end provision of services.
The signal and routing of GMPLS of the OMX is supported
either through in-band DCC or GRE tunnels using an out-of-fiber
scheme.
What is IntellOp?
The
IntelliOp Management Solution consists of 3 elements.
IntelliOp Center is the element management system of
the OMX; IntelliOp Gateway is a flexible TMF814-compliant
CORBA gateway enabling easy integration of the IntelliOp
Center with any higher-level OSS; and IntelliOp Planner
is used to automate the planning and design of OMX networks.
What
is so unique about IntelliOp? IntelliOp is unique because it can support the largest,
most high-performance networks using a fully distributed,
client-server architecture featuring multi-user, multi-platform
access. It allows service set-up and reconfiguration
in a fraction of the time compared to current solutions.
It uses an open standards-based architecture with Java,
CORBA, and XML-based interfaces.
What is IntelliOp
Center?
IntelliOp Center is a powerful, carrier-class Element
Management system (EMS), engineered to enable rapid
provisioning to accelerate service rollout. Significant
design time and optimizations were incorporated into
the IntelliOp Center EMS, allowing service set-up and
reconfiguration in a fraction of the time compared to
existing solutions, thereby reducing a service provider's
OPEX. Also, the IntelliOp Center EMS incorporates all
the latest standards and interfaces, including Java,
CORBA, and XML, to enable seamless integration into
high-level NMS/OSS systems, allowing end-to-end management
across a service provider's entire network.
What are the key
benefits of supporting a CORBA management interface?
The key benefits of supporting a CORBA management interface
come from its open standards that facilitate seamless
integration and interoperability with a CORBA compliant
higher level OSS.
Does CORBA replace
TL1?
No, CORBA will not replace the Telcordia TL1 language.
CORBA is typically supported as a northbound interface
between the element management system and the network
management system to support interoperability, whereas
the TL1 capability is typically supported as a local
or remote craft interface on the network element. Since
legacy OSSs, such as Telcordia's NMA system used by
ILECs, speak TL1 to the NEs, TL1 will not soon from
the network.
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