ACE-3600 RNC-Site Carrier Class Gateway from RAD
ACE-3600 RNC-Site Carrier Class Gateway from RAD
ACE-3600 is an advanced carrier-class gateway, designed for cost-effective backhauling of 3G voice
and HSDPA data traffic over next-generation core PSNs (packet-switched networks), including
Layer-2, MPLS or IP. Typically located at the 3G RNC site, the unit interconnects with the RNC and
converts up to four STM-1/OC-3c (ATM) links to virtual pseudowire (PW) connections that are
established over a packet-switched network, using its Gigabit Ethernet interface.
ACE-3600 ATM over Packet Capabilities:
ACE-3600 from RAD allows up to 1024 pseudowire (PW) connections to be established over a packet-switched
network. The following encapsulation methods are supported according to RFC 4717:
1:1 VC/VP Each VCC/VPC is mapped to a single pseudowire (PW) connection
N:1 VC/VP Several VCs or VPs can be incapsulated to a single PW connection.
ACE-3600 allows single or multiple ATM cells to be encapsulated per Ethernet frame.
Over L2, L3 and MPLS networks, ACE-3600 from RAD uses various encapsulation types: VLANs (virtual LANs),
dynamic and static MPLS label assignment, and MPLS in IP.
ACE-3600 ATM Switching Capabilities
ACE-3600 supports up to 1024 ATM connections with full UNI/NNI VPI and VCI ranges. Operators can
assign each virtual connection (VC) or virtual path (VP) to a service class, define the QoS parameters
and shape the ATM egress traffic according to CBR, VBR, UBR and UBR+. This assures QoS in delay
sensitive voice/video applications.
ACE-3600 RNC-Site Carrier Class Gateway Quality of Service (QoS) over PSN
Over packet-switched networks, QoS is provided according to the network type:
L2 network outgoing pseudowire packets are assigned a dedicated VLAN ID according to 802.1Q
and marked for priority using 802.1p bits
MPLS network outgoing pseudowire packets are assigned to a specific MPLS
tunnel and marked for priority using EXP bits
IP network outgoing pseudowire packets are marked for priority using ToS or DSCP bits.
System Timing of ACE-3600 RNC-Site Carrier Class Gateway
ACE-3600 provides a high accuracy clock and flexible timing modes. The Reference
timing mode is supported for its ATM UNI interfaces. In this mode, timing is derived from the receive
clock of the dedicated station clock port or any of the unit's STM-1/OC-3c ports.
Over the packet-switched network,
ACE-3600 supports:
Unicast clock distribution the master clock is distributed with a dedicated stream towards up to
512 remote devices (peers)
Multicast clock distribution The master clock is distributed towards the PSN using a single IP
multicast clock stream (IGMPv2 host).
STM-1/OC-3c and Gigabit Ethernet Interfaces with RAD ACE-3600 RNC-Site
Carrier Class Gateway
ACE-3600 includes up to two interface modules, each including up to four STM-1/OC-3c UNI interfaces and one Gigabit Ethernet interface. The STM-1/OC-3c interfaces map physical layer and ATM cells into STM-1/OC-3c according to ITU I.432. The Gigabit Ethernet interface is used for packet-switched link (PW) connection and inband management access. Both the GbE and STM-1/OC-3c interfaces utilize industry-standard hot-swappable SFP transceivers that allow using different fiber optic port types.
ACE-3600 Interface Module Redundancy
The two interface modules support Automatic Protection Switching (APS) according to G.841 Annex B, to ensure a fail-safe, continuous operation of the STM-1/OC-3c and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
When two interface modules are installed, the second module operates as the redundant module.
OAM and Diagnostics of the ACE-3600 from RAD
Comprehensive monitoring and diagnostic capabilities include:
Pseudowire connectivity check
External and internal physical loopbacks on STM-1/OC-3c ports
Cell test towards the ATM connections.
ACE-3600 periodically verifies the connectivity status of pseudowire connections, using VCCV-BFD messages according to the 'draft-ietf-bfd-base' requirements. If a failure is detected, a
notification is sent to both the remote peer and the ATM connection of the specific PW. This allows complete monitoring over the pseudowire connections in real-time.
ATM and PSN port alarms are forwarded over the packet-switched network from end to end. This includes the mapping of:
Packet-switched network alarms to ATM alarms
ATM alarms over the PSN to the remote customer equipment (CE)
Physical failures of ATM ports, over the packet-switched network towards both the local and remote CE.
For conventional ATM cross-connects (XCs), OAM is supported according to ITU I.610 requirements:
F4 and F5 OAM support
Configurable OAM mode per connection point
Segment/intermediate mode for user connections and end-to-end mode for the management connection
AIS and RDI cell detection and generation upon physical layer and ATM layer failures
CC cell generation and LOC state detection per VP/VC
Loopback location ID and configurable loopback source ID per device.
For diagnostics purposes, ACE-3600 maintains a cyclic event log file that stores up to 4096 time-stamped events. Performance monitoring is provided by Ethernet and IP-layer network condition statistics, such as packet sequence errors (loss or misorder) and packet delay variation (jitter), which are monitored and stored by the device. ACE-3600 collects statistics per physical port and per VCC for 15-minute intervals. Statistics for the last 6 hours are stored in the device and can be retrieved at the network management station.
RAD ACE-3600 Management
ACE-3600 can be managed using different access methods, via:
Dedicated RS-232 or 10/100BaseT ports (out-of-band management)
Dedicated ATM VC defined on an STM-1/OC-3c ATM port
Gigabit Ethernet uplink port (inband management).
The unit can be managed by and report to up to 16 different managers simultaneously. This enables viewing the network status from different locations.
The following applications can be used for
management:
Menu-driven terminal utility via an ASCII terminal connection
Telnet via an IP-based connection
ConfiguRAD, Web-based element management tool via an IP-based connection
RADview-Lite, RADs SNMP-based management access system.
Software upgrades and configuration files can be downloaded/uploaded to/from ACE-3600 via TFTP or XMODEM.
Modular Architecture of the Carrier Class ACE-3600
The modular architecture of ACE-3600 allows hot-swappable modules to be replaced in the field while maintaining uninterrupted service. The unit is also fully accessible from the front panel. The unit's full hardware redundancy features (fans, power supplies, modules) ensure a fail-safe, continuous operation, making ACE-3600 ideal for carriers and service providers.
ACE-3600 Key Features
Pseudowire emulation of up to four protected STM-1/OC-3c (ATM) links over Gigabit Ethernet
Advanced pseudowire connectivity verification using VCCV-BFD messages
End-to-end fault propagation between legacy and packet-switched networks
Full ATM switching, scheduling and shaping for separation of HSDPA and voice services
Full system redundancy and modular hot-swappable architecture for replacing the interface, power and main modules while maintaining service continuity
ACE-3600 RNC-Site Carrier Class Gateway
from RAD data sheet (pdf)
