Multiservice Access Concentrator and ATM NTU

RAD’s ACE-202 multiservice access concentrator and ATM network termination unit is customer located equipment (CLE) that delivers Ethernet and TDM services over ATM transport. Incorporating various interfaces including ATM UNI/IMA, CES and Ethernet/Fast Ethernet, the ACE-202 multiservice access unit can be used as a corporate concentrator connected to the public ATM network.

Alternatively, the ACE-202 is used as a carrier-owned demarcation device, featuring advanced traffic management and OAM capabilities for end-to-end Quality of Service and SLA enforcement.

• Allows service providers to offer LAN, ATM and voice/TDM services over ATM networks, or terminate ATM services

• Enables optimization of public ATM services for transporting diverse corporate traffic

• Extends QoS to the customer premises and supports events and statistics collection, enabling providers to manage service legal agreements

• Provides end-to-end ATM QoS control, fault localization, delay measurements and performance monitoring

• Allows multiple traffic management options, including traffic monitoring, policing and shaping

The ACE-202 is used as a corporate concentrator, connecting small and medium businesses to the public ATM network. Alternatively, it is used as a carrier owned demarcation device for native ATM traffic or for a combination of legacy services such as voice, LAN and ATM.

As a demarcation device, the ACE-202 enables carriers and service providers to define the boundary between their ATM based public services and the customer private network. A clear demarcation point at the customer premises increases the service reliability, improves network efficiency and ensures end-to-end QoS support.

The ACE-202 multiservice access concentrator has built-in features that enable the extension of ATM network facilities up to the customer premises. These features support various ATM services, such as advanced traffic management (policing, scheduling and shaping) and full OAM (Operation, Administration and Maintenance) flow support. In addition, service offering flexibility is further enhanced with a wide range of ATM modules.

When used as an interworking device, the ACE-202 dedicated multiservice access concentrator and ATM NTU enables smooth migration of legacy equipment such as PBXs and routers operating over ATM networks. The unit enables the most efficient utilization of public ATM services for transporting different types of corporate traffic including ATM.

The ACE-202 supports up to 256 connections (VPC and/or VCC), enabling both NNI and UNI addressing with full bit range of VPI/VCI fields. In addition, full switching capability is available for each VC or VP (from either the user or the network) to obtain maximum flexibility in connection assignment.

To enhance carriers’ service offerings, the ACE-202 also supports VP tunneling. This enables bundling multiple VCCs into a single VPC, while maintaining all the VCC QoS characteristics and OAM capabilities at F4 and F5 layers. Each tunnel can be shaped as a CBR connection. It can be defined with end-to-end OAM flows and act as a regular VP connection in the public network.

The ACE-202 supports hierarchical traffic scheduling, with layers set per VC, per VP or VP tunnel or per network interface. In these cases, ACE-202 dedicated multiservice access concentrator schedules the traffic to meet pre-defined traffic thresholds. This ensures fair bandwidth sharing between different connections while preserving the requirements of the individual connections.

The ACE-202 can be equipped with two plug-in ACE-M modules for network and user interfaces, and two optional built-in user interfaces. The LAN module performs bridging and routing (RFC 1483/2684) with IP ToS and 802.1D priority support. In addition, multiple VLANs can be configured to optimize the unit for IP access applications.

The ACE-202 multiservice access concentrator is available in a 1U-high enclosure, suitable for mounting in a 19" rack