Norsk Telefoningeniørmøte 1992 - Telenor

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This wide range of synchronous products
allows to build up complete local regional
and backbone transmission
networks.
These systems are compatible with their
plesiochronous counterparts and are initially
introduced into networks for handling
narrowband traffic. At a further
stage, when broadband services are gradually
introduced, the same synchronous
infrastructure will be able to handle a
mix of narrow and broadband traffic.
The Alcatel 1190 MAN
The first step in the introduction of
broadband switching is the Alcatel
MAN. The MAN is a typical data communication
product.
It is a high speed communications
network able to handle both connectionless
service and isochronous traffic (e.g.
voice, video). Its operation is based on a
distributed switch architecture developed
by QPSX in Australia and sold and further
developed by Alcatel under license.
Its major initial application is for interconnection
of LANs of the Ethernet and
Token Ring type. Also FDDI, Frame
Relay and X.25 interfaces are being offered.
For metropolitan areas, normally looped
configurations are used which allow for
self-healing rings in case of fault. Transmission
interfaces to the network may
operate at 34, 45, 140 and 155 Mbit/s.
In Europe alone, Alcatel so far has
handed over or is in the process of delivering
Alcatel 1190’s to 10 customers in 7
countries. A total of 118 nodes are
involved spread over 11 MAN networks.
Transmission speeds used are 34 and 140
Mbit/s. The interfaces provided are predominantly
for Ethernet, Token Ring and
2 Mb/s isochronous traffic. Apart from
the LAN traffic, applications include file
transfer, 2 Mb/s video, linking of a university
computer network, access to supercomputers,
medical X-ray image transfer,
medical database access, CAD, full
motion video for tele-education, banking
applications and PABX interconnect.
ATM Based Switching Products
In a second step Alcatel is introducing
two products which are also aimed at
data communications applications but
provide the necessary elements for gra-
dual evolution from initial to full fledged
broadband networks. These are the
A1010 ATM virtual path switch and the
A1191 connectionless server.
The Alcatel 1010
Virtual Path Switch
The A1010 comes in three configurations:
service multiplexers, network multiplexers
and ATM cross connects.
These configurations allow the multiplexing
of various services on semi-permanent
ATM virtual paths. A1010
networks provide dedicated lines for
business networks, with the ability to
handle speeds ranging from a few bits up
to several hundreds of Mbit/s.
The Alcatel 1191
Connectionless Server
The A1191 provides connectionless high
speed packet service over a connectionoriented
ATM network. Two important
standards for connectionless service are
SMDS (Bellcore) and its European
counterpart CBDS (ETSI). The A1191
provides SMDS and CBDS service with
interfaces for IEEE 802.6 MAN and
ATM.
The Alcatel 1000
ATM Switching Unit
The move from the present narrowband
digital switches to broadband switches is
also covered by our product plans.
The A1000 ATM Switching unit is an
actual broadband exchange providing
switched service on a per call basis. It
may be deployed as either a standalone
ATM switch for initial ATM broadband
networks or as a broadband extension to
the A1000 E10 and A1000 S12 narrowband
switches.
Broadband user access in the A1000 may
be provided at either 150 or 600 Mbit/s
independent for each direction to and
from the user. The following services
are provided by the A1000 at this time:
- High speed data switching (LAN interconnection)
- High quality video-telephony
- TV distribution
- Standard narrowband ISDN services
- Interconnection to the narrow and
public network voice, ISDN.
The functionality of the A1000 ATM
switching unit will evolve to include progressively
narrowband functionality so as
to be able to offer a broadband exchange
which will also be competitive for
narrowband services.
The Alcatel 1570
Fibre in the Loop (FITL) System
Fibre in the Loop is a difficult problem
from many points of view. First of all it
is clear that from an economic point of
view introducing Fibre in the Loop for
residential subscribers is only interesting
if one can combine telephony and CATV
on a single cable. Due to regulatory
constraints this scenario is at this
moment impossible to realise in a
number of countries. As a consequence
tendencies exist to introduce Fibre in the
Loop for telephony only. To reduce the
cost however tendencies exist to use
network architectures which are not
future safe i.e. which do not permit a
long evolution to integrated broadband
networks. This choice between short
term cost and long term network strategy
obviously also affects the developments
of suppliers. Alcatel is introducing a first
product for Fibre in the Loop called the
A1570.
The A1570 consists of a number of
optical fibre-based product configurations
which may be used as access
network between a telecom wire centre
or CATV distribution centre (or a
combination of both) and the end users.
FITL is a generic name for a number of
different configurations, viz. FTTC
(Fibre to the Curb), FTTB (Fibre to the
Building) and FTTH (Fibre to the
Home). Because of the economics of
some of the componentry involved,
FTTC and FTTB will be the first ones to
be deployed. In these configurations, the
last part of the path to the end user, i.e.
from the so-called Optical Network Termination
(ONT) to the end user equipment
consists of twisted pair copper
cable for telecom services and coaxial
cable for TV/HIFI distribution.
The part of the access network between
the wire centre and/or distribution centre
and the ONT consists of a Passive
Optical Network (PON), involving only
fibre and passive optical splitters. This
limits the need for electrical power to
both end points of the PON, i.e. the
wire/distribution centre and the ONT. In