Product category:
CompactPCI Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Pigeon Point Systems | Subject: Pigeon Point Shelf Manager
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 28 December 2006
Upgrade for shelf management software
Pigeon Point Systems announces availability of release 2.4.0 of its market-leading Pigeon Point Shelf Manager, including several features requested by major customers.
Pigeon Point Systems announces availability of release 2.4.0 of its market-leading Pigeon Point Shelf Manager, including several features requested by major customers These features include: hardening of the Shelf Manager to denial of service (DoS) attacks via the Ethernet interfaces used by the overall System Manager; and provisions for the Shelf Manager's Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to be automatically configured based on the location of a shelf (the "shelf address")
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 18 Oct 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Plug-in aids hardware management
Pigeon Point has created a Pigeon Point plug-in that is tuned and validated with the Pigeon Point Shelf Manager and complies with the SAF HPI-to-ATCA Mapping specification.
Upgrade for cPCI shelf management
Pigeon Point Systems has released the next generation of its successful IPM Sentry Shelf Management Mezzanine (ShMM) product line.
These features have already been tested in the labs of major telecomms equipment manufacturers (TEMs) and their suppliers.
The new release 2.4.0 will be available to upgrade any of the thousands of Pigeon Point Shelf Management Mezzanines (especially the second generation Pigeon Point ShMM-500) that manage the majority of the world's AdvancedTCA shelves.
In many AdvancedTCA system configurations, the dual redundant Shelf Managers can be accessed through the Ethernet links implemented via dual redundant Ethernet switches installed in the shelf.
Further reading
Design puts H8 to work on shelf management
The IPM Sentry line of AdvancedTCA board management reference designs now supports Renesas Technology's H8S/2168 series of microcontrollers.
Firmware upgrades shelf management
New IPM Sentry Shelf Manager firmware provides full support for Pigeon Point Systems' high performance IPM Sentry ShMM-500 and its popular predecessor, the ShMM-300.
Designs bring system management to AdvancedMC
Pigeon Point Systems has released a range of complete, fully compliant solutions for management controllers on AdvancedMC (AMC) carriers and modules.
In such configurations, the Shelf Managers may be accessible to any board in the shelf and possibly to shelf-external entities.
Either intentionally or unintentionally, it is possible for the Shelf Managers to receive a very high level of Ethernet messages (say, a flood of 250,000 ARP packets per second).
It is critical in such circumstances that the Shelf Manager continue to fulfill its shelf monitoring functions.
Release 2.4.0 of the Pigeon Point Shelf Manager incorporates significant improvements in the underlying Linux Ethernet driver to make it resistant to such floods.
In a large AdvancedTCA system with many shelves (possibly thousands in a major installation), one of the many logistic challenges is managing the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used by system entities to contact the Shelf Managers.
A pair of Pigeon Point Shelf Managers can have up to six IP addresses.
One attractive approach for many TEMs is to assign such addresses based on the geographic location of a shelf and the functional role of a given address.
With this approach, any specific shelf installed at that geographic location will get the same IP addresses for each specific function.
One or more appropriately configured Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers can provide these addresses when Shelf Managers come on line, even when Shelf Managers, switches and shelves anywhere in the system are replaced or upgraded.
Release 2.4.0 of the Pigeon Point Shelf Manager can acquire its IP addresses via DHCP and those DHCP requests can include an AdvancedTCA-defined shelf address to identify the location of the shelf with a text string established during shelf provisioning.
In addition, with release 2.4.0, the Pigeon Point Shelf Manager user documentation has been extensively restructured for better usability and is now posted on the library page of the Pigeon Point website.
Also accessible via that page are useful articles and newly updated tutorials on hardware platform management, recently presented by Pigeon Point at the AdvancedTCA Summit in Santa Clara, and the PICMG China Tech-Forum in Shanghai, China.
• Pigeon Point Systems: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
