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system
Staffan Blau and Jan Rooth
The AXD 301 is a new, general-purpose, high-performance ATM switch from ity of 10 Gbit/s. The subrack can be con-
Ericsson that can be used in several positions in a network. In its initial figured as a full-fledged, stand-alone
release, the AXD 301 is scaleable from 10 Gbit/s—in one subrack—up to switching system with complete duplica-
160 Gbit/s. The AXD 301 supports every service category defined for ATM, tion of all key components.
including ABR. An advanced buffering mechanism allows services to be Because the single-subrack system is
actually half a 20-Gbit/s system, two
mixed without compromising quality.
10-Gbit/s subracks can be interconnected to
Designed for non-stop operation, the AXD 301 incorporates duplicate hard- form a non-blocking 20-Gbit/s system.
ware and software modularity, which enables individual modules to be For switching capacities greater than
upgraded without disturbing traffic. The switching system, which supports 20 Gbit/s, a central, fully non-blocking
both ATM Forum and ITU-T signaling, is easily managed using an embedded 160-Gbit/s switch matrix is introduced. Re-
Web-based management system. gardless of capacity, all installed equipment
The authors describe the basic 10- and 20-Gbit/s systems as well as the can be used together with the central ma-
160-Gbit/s system. They also touch upon product structure, the control sys- trix. Capacity is extended by adding access
tem and call handling. subracks and switch boards in the central
switch-matrix subrack. Thus, scaleability is
achieved in a linear fashion.
Linear scaleability also applies to func-
tions; for example, to call control and man-
agement. As more switching capacity is
The AXD 301 is a new asynchronous trans- added, more processors can be introduced,
fer mode (ATM) switching system from thereby increasing processing capacity in
Ericsson. Combining features associated what becomes a fully distributed control
with data communication, such as com- system.
pactness and high functionality, with fea-
tures from telecommunications, such as ro- Non-stop operation
bustness and scaleability, the AXD 301 is a The AXD 301 system is designed for non-
very flexible system that can be used in sev- stop operation. Duplicated hardware mini-
eral positions in a network. mizes the impact of equipment failure on
traffic. Furthermore, protection-switching
Compactness and scaleability and equipment-protection options can be
The basic AXD 301 module is contained in applied to external interfaces. Hardware can
a single subrack and has a switching capac- be inserted or removed without interrupt-
ing service. The software, which is modu-
lar, has been structured to facilitate the in-
troduction of new functionality without dis-
Figure 1
A complete 10-Gbit/s system in one subrack. turbing traffic.
The system is highly robust, with ad-
vanced functions for capturing software
faults, isolating hardware faults, and pro-
tecting against overload.
Functionality
The AXD 301 supports all standardized
ATM service categories, including con-
stant bit rate (CBR), variable bit rate
(VBR), unspecified bit rate (UBR) and
available bit rate (ABR). The system sup-
ports ITU-T and ATM Forum signaling
specifications. The signaling protocols
allow operators to build a network that
combines plug-and-play functionality
with network control and advanced fea-
tures. Signaling protocols include the user
network interface (UNI 4.0), private net-
work-network interface (PNNI 1.0) and
the broadband ISUP (B-ISUP).
The internal structure of the AXD 301
facilitates extensions and upgrades, and
Low-cost operation
The AXD 301, which has an embedded
Web-based element-management system,
is designed to accommodate local and re-
mote management using a Web browser on
an ordinary personal computer or worksta-
tion. The element manager can be used for
local and remote management. Similarly,
the system can be managed remotely via the Figure 2
simple network management protocol The ATM terminiation board handles all ATM functions.
(SNMP). Support is provided for all rele-
vant, standardized management informa-
tion bases (MIB).
Network management can be provided
using Ericsson’s management system for
multiservice ATM networks, which man-
ages not only AXD 301 switches but also
edge switches, concentrators and other ac-
Box A
Abbreviations
ABR Available bit rate ILMI Integrated local-management interface SC Switch core module
ATB ATM termination board IP Internet protocol SNMP Simple network management
ATM Asynchronous transfer mode ISDN Integrated services digital network protocol
BICI Broadband intercarrier interface ITU-T International Telecommunication SPVC Soft permanent virtual connection
B-ISUP Broadband ISDN signaling user Union – Telecommunications Stan- STM Synchronous transfer mode
part dardization Sector STM-1 Synchronous transfer mode,
CBR Constant bit rate LIFO Last in, first out 155 Mbit/s link
CLP Cell loss priority MIB Management information base STM-4 Synchronous transfer mode,
E1 A physical 2-Mbit/s link MPLS Multiprotocol label switching 622 Mbit/s link
E3 A physical 34-Mbit/s link NEBS Network equipment building system STM-16 Synchronous transfer mode,
EFCI Explicit forward-connection indica- NPC Network parameter control 2400 Mbit/s link
tion OC-3 Optical carrier, 155 Mbit/s link T1 A physical 1.5 Mbit/s link
ET Exchange terminal OC-12 Optical carrier, 622 Mbit/s link T3 A physical 45 Mbit/s link
ETSI European Telecommunications Stan- OTP Open telecom platform UBR Unspecified bit rate
dards Institute PNNI Private network-network interface UNI User network interface
HCI Half-call interface PVC Permanent virtual connection UPC User parameter control
HTTP Hypertext transfer protocol QoS Quality of service VBR Variable bit rate
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force RM Resource management VC Virtual channel
Front Rear
board board
Control processor
Control processor
415 mm
Switch core
Switch core
External
cabling
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
225 mm 175 mm
Figure 3
Mid-plane cabling
Physical outline of the 10-Gbit/s system. for 20 Gbit/s switch
Figure 4 cess devices that make up the multiservice switch core is implemented on one board per
Two 10-Gbit/s systems can be directly inter- ATM network solution. switch plane. The corresponding rear boards
connected, forming a 20-Gbit/s system.
are used for the clock system and network
Basic 10- and 20-Gbit/s synchronization. The ATM switch fabric
can be divided into five major functional
systems blocks (Figure 5).
The 10-Gbit/s ATM switching system is
contained in a single ETSI subrack. Its phys- Transmission and line-termination
ical dimensions, including the fan unit are: functions
Width 450 mm The line-interface boards terminate the
Depth 400 mm physical layers and provide transmission-
Height 700 mm related functions. Support is provided for
The subrack fits into any ETSI cabinet physical interfaces ranging from E1 up to
or network-equipment building-system- STM-4.
compliant (NEBS) equipment frame.
The 10-Gbit/s switch system (Figure 3) ATM layer functions
includes two control processors, two switch ATM layer functions handle every aspect of
planes, 16 exchange terminals, and fans. The the ATM layer, buffering, and congestion.
subrack is divided internally into a front part Buffering is handled in virtual channel
and a rear part, with a mid-plane separating (VC) queues. Each ATB card can buffer up
the two. All external cabling is handled via to 64,000 cells. The early packet discard and
connection boards in the rear part. tail-packet discard functions maximize the
The exchange terminals (ET) consist of number of complete packets that are trans-
two boards: an ATM-termination board mitted. Cell-loss priority (CLP) can be used
(ATB) at the front of the subrack, with a for discarding cells.
switch-port capacity of 622 Mbit/s; and a ATM layer functions support every ATM
corresponding line-termination board at the service class defined by the ITU-T and ATM
rear. In its initial release, the AXD 301 sup- Forum, including available bit rate. ABR is
ports the following line-termination boards: supported with explicit-rate feedback,
• 16 x 2 Mbit/s (E1) with circuit emulation; where the allowed cell rate is inserted into
• 8 x 34 Mbit/s (E3); the returning resource-management (RM)
• 8 x 45 Mbit/s (T3); cells. To ensure that the AXD 301 can be
• 4 x 155 Mbit/s (STM-1/OC-3), electrical evolved to fulfill future requirements, its in-
and optical; ternal implementation supports 16 quality-
• 1 x 622 Mbit/s (STM-4/OC-12), optical. of-service (QoS) classes with subclasses.
Two 10-Gbit/s subracks can be directly con- Peak and sustainable cell rates are policed
nected with cabling between the back- through monitoring, tagging or discarding
planes. This gives a fully non-blocking cells.
20-Gbit/s switching system.
Switch-core-interface functions
Switch fabric The switch-core-interface functions adapt
In 10- and 20-Gbit/s configurations, the cells to the internal cell format and insert
PNNI
The AXD 301 base system product provides
AVS
ILMI
BICI
UNI
Add-on 160G switch
modules core module functionality for a cross-connect ATM
switching system. Add-on modules provide
Basic further service capabilities. The add-on soft-
modules Basic ATM
connection
Basic 10G ware modules available in the first release
switch module
control services
Operation provide:
and
ET2CE • basic signaling support, including UNI
maintenance
ET 35 signaling;
ET 45
Switching
Control processing ET155 • ILMI signaling for UNI;
control
service ET622 • PNNI signaling;
• BICI (B-ISUP) signaling;
Figure 8 • multiprotocol label switching (MPLS);
The AXD 301 product structure. • support for allowing AXE 10 to control
voice connections over an ATM network;
• wide-area data services (WADS).
IOB
CPB handling CPB maintenance standby for its counterpart. In the event that
one of the processors should fail or be taken
out of operation, the system automatically
switches over to single-processor mode.
DP DP DP
SP SP Data persistency and backup
An internal, distributed, real-time
database-management system copies data to
each control processor, ensuring that con-
DP DP figuration data and all data relating to
SP SP operator-ordered connection setup is pro-
tected from processor failure.
LIB ATB SCB ATB LIB
The database-management system also
maintains continuous backup on each
Optional
service modules HCI (half-call interface)
UNI 'proxy'signalling API
Common call control services API
Control of permanent connections
API
Figure 11 ANA
UNICC
The call-control architecture allows many
concurrent service applications in the switch.
Signaling