Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Agere Systems | Subject: TrueAdvantage
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 05 April 2005
Network processors promise an advantage
New access solutions aim to allow wireline and wireless service providers to expand their product offerings, generate more revenues and reduce their costs.
Agere Systems has announced a portfolio of access solutions - featuring two new processor chips - it reckons will allow wireline and wireless service providers to expand their product offerings, generate more revenues and reduce their costs in the global market battle to provide converged access services to consumers Called TrueAdvantage, these solutions also allow the wireline and wireless access equipment industry to reduce product development costs by at least $120 million, while accelerating equipment deliveries supporting new services by up to two years
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 3 May 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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A launching pad for producing more intelligent converged access networks and services, TrueAdvantage access solutions consist of five critical and interrelated elements: feature-rich networking chips; robust software development tools; integrated hardware development systems; proven reference designs developed with global access equipment manufacturers; and turnkey application software.
The Advanced PayloadPlus 300 (APP300) network processor chip and link layer processor (LLP) chip are new networking devices that are the first of the family of TrueAdvantage solution elements to be unveiled in detail.
These two chips are central drivers for fuelling higher performance, lower cost converged access equipment and services.
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Used in access equipment, these devices can reduce software application code sise by 30 times and save up to eight staff years of engineering resources.
These resulting applications can support delivery of new and improved revenue-generating services such as higher quality standard and high-definition Internet protocol television (IPTV); mission-critical high-speed data services; voice services transported over the Internet (VoIP); and multimedia mobile services.
"The keys to unlocking the value of converged access services are multi-protocol processing and quality of service capabilities combined with faster application deployment", said Denis Regimbal, Vice President with Agere's Telecom Division.
"Through their proven benefits of lowering costs and improving performance, these new processors enable access equipment manufacturers, and ultimately service providers, to derive more revenues from these services and accelerate the speed at which they are delivered to customers".
Corecess, a pioneer and major provider of Internet protocol digital subscriber line access multiplexer (IP DSLAM) equipment, has already chosen Agere's APP300 to enable its equipment to deliver a comprehensive offering of "triple play" services: voice, data and video.
APP300 comes with field-proven application software that allows equipment manufacturers such as Corecess to quickly create flexible, reusable application software on multiple types of equipment, dramatically minimising the amount of software they need to develop.
Agere estimates its APP300 and complementary TrueAdvantage solutions can save project leaders developing converged access equipment at least $2.5 million per project largely because they minimise the amount of software they need to write.
"Network processor software is the largest contributor to product lifetime system cost, development time, and reliability", said Jeremy Ha, CEO of Corecess.
"The Agere APP300 will allow Corecess to efficiently increase the horsepower of our Internet protocol IP DSLAM platform and to economically evolve it once it is deployed".
The APP300 addresses several different carrier access applications, offering a level of processing performance typically associated with higher-end network processors while delivering significantly lower cost and power consumption.
Adaptable for use in Internet protocol (IP), Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Ethernet, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and multiservice (the simultaneous combination of protocols) applications, the chip supports all prevalent integrated network interfaces required for access applications and offers as much as twice the traffic processing power as competing products.
This makes the chip ideal for use in equipment such as DSLAMs, multiservice access nodes (MSANs), wireless Node B/base transceiver station (BTS) systems, wireless radio network controllers (RNCs), media gateways and access routers.
"Agere's APP300 series offers the best of both worlds, a high speed network processor at prices affordable for use in cost-competitive wireline and wireless access equipment", said Sanjay Iyer, Senior Analyst with The Linley Group, a technology research company.
"Agere's APP300 devices deliver the best price/performance and power consumption/performance ratio compared with leading alternatives".
The APP300 delivers Agere's fine grained traffic processing capabilities to the access space.
In wireless, where backhaul bandwidth is limited, traffic processing delivers increased link efficiency.
In wireline, advanced access services such as IPTV, voice and video conferencing are also made possible by this capability.
To ensure an acceptable user experience, each of these services requires a unique combination of network attributes, such as security, latency, resiliency, packet loss and throughput.
The APP300 enables these requirements to be met, ensuring a satisfying user experience and making possible the vision of a fully connected home in which, for instance, one member is watching an HDTV programme while reading e-mail, another is on a VoIP call, and yet others are engaged in video chat sessions with their friends.
The APP300 series targets a diverse range of access applications, enabling uplink rates that range from a few hundred megabits per second up to 2Gbit/s, whereas the company's APP500 series chips are widely used in 2.5 to 5Gbit/s edge applications.
Because both use the same portable software, equipment manufacturers are able to leverage development efforts across their access platforms.
This benefit is a major reason why wireless equipment manufacturers have elected to use Agere's APP550 for their radio network controller and then the APP300 for their Node B.
Agere's LLP ranks as the world's first to offer a solution for fully terminating and aggregating packet and ATM protocols in a single device.
A packet aggregation and line interface processor, LLP offers equipment manufacturers and their customers a swift realisation of any service to any network, by consolidating five different functions into one chip: HDLC; ML-MC/PPP (multilink, multiclass, point-to-point protocol); ATM TC/IMA (ATM transmission convergence and inverse multiplexing for ATM); AAL1 (ATM Adaptation Layer 1); and T1/E1 line framing.
All primary competitors require at least three separate chips to perform all five functions at the channel densities that LLP supports.
Agere's high level of integration lowers system line card costs for manufacturers by approximately 40% and power consumption by 50%, down to as low as 2.8W.
The ATM and IP integration simplifies system design and engineering, as well as allows customers to economically and easily migrate from traditional ATM networks to newer IP networks with minimal or no equipment hardware changes.
Processing ATM cells and IP packets at speeds ranging from 8 to 155Mbit/s, the chip broadens Agere's multiservice and wireless chip solutions by targeting applications such as wireless 3G Node B/BTS basestations, wireless radio network controllers (RNCs), basestation controllers (BSCs), media gateways, multiservice access nodes and access/edge routers.
The level of integration of the device, coupled with the standard software interface for all applications, lowers product development costs for manufacturers.
"It seems that Agere is turning the momentum it gained from capturing more network processor market share from 2003 to 2004 into a deeper commitment with the introduction of two new major products that are members of the TrueAdvantage suite of converged access solutions", said Eric Mantion, Senior Analyst with In-Stat.
"This announcement today builds on the company's already well established leadership position in traffic management chips, which are crucial engines for driving faster and smarter access networks".
"It shows the company is investing in the access and network processor markets for the long term and taking bold steps to remain a devoted player".
Agere's APP300 and LLP families include multiple product versions and are scheduled to sample in this year's second quarter.
APP300 devices range in price from $35 to $200 in volume quantities.
The LLP-W, designed for the wireless market, ranges in price from $50 to $150 in volume quantities; the LLP devices, targeted at higher capacity, multiservice switching/routing segment, are priced from $150 to $400.
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