Chip reduces number of routers in the metro

The PM5383 S/UNI-12xJET from PMC-Sierra is a complete physical layer solution for the aggregation, transport and termination of up to 12-channels of DS3/E3 and J2 protocols.

The PM5383 S/UNI-12xJET from PMC-Sierra is a complete physical layer solution for the aggregation, transport and termination of up to 12-channels of DS3/E3 and J2 protocols.

The S/UNI-12xJET replaces up to four discrete devices, enabling cost-effective DS3 services to be deployed in both new and existing platforms.

DS3/E3 is one of the most widely used physical interfaces used to connect metropolitan area network equipment, including add/drop multiplexers (ADMs), multiservice provisioning platforms (MSPPs) and edge aggregation routers and switches.

The S/UNI-12xJET is the industry's only single-chip solution for terminating packet/cell traffic for a single OC-12 down to the DS3/E3 level.

Densely channelised OC-12 (CHOC-12) line cards, which are enabled by the S/UNI-12xJET, are becoming enormously popular at the edge of networks as carriers backhaul all their traffic to an access point-of-presence (POP) where they will terminate the customer traffic in an edge router or multi service switch before firing it out onto the Internet SONET/SDH backbones.

This results in a reduction in the number of routers required in the metro, providing equipment savings as well as reducing ongoing operating expenditures.

In addition, when combined with PMC-Sierra's TEMUX and FREEDM product families, the S/UNI-12xJET can perform deeper channelisation, enabling OEMs to build one line card that can terminate OC-12c POS/ATM down to any legal mix of OC-3c POS/ATM, DS3/E3 bit-HDLC/ATM and DS1/DS0 HDLC.

"DS3/E3 continues to be a highly in-demand physical interface technology offering a migration path from existing T1/E1 services", said Jeremey Donovan, vice president and chief analyst, Gartner Dataquest.

As enterprise demand for higher bandwidth services continues to grow, sub-rate DS3 and DS3 continue to gain momentum as a replacement for T1/E1 leased line services.

The introduction of the S/UNI-12xJET complements PMC-Sierra's recent announcement of the ARROW-2xGE which uses emerging virtual concatenation (VC) and generic framing procedure (GFP) standards to efficiently map Gigabit Ethernet frames into SONET/SDH transport networks.

With devices such as these, PMC-Sierra provides system vendors with the flexibility to support multiple architecture options that can be used to upgrade T1/E1.

These options include transporting Gigabit Ethernet directly over SONET/SDH-based for low cost, reliable and scalable data services or using DS3/E3 to provide high quality of service (QoS) required for supporting simultaneous internet access, corporate wide area networking as well as delay sensitive applications such as voice and video conferencing.

"PMC-Sierra's existing DS3 solutions have captured a significant portion of the total DS3 router and multi service switch ports market.

The S/UNI-12xJET allows our customers to leverage our strong track record of success to deliver new, multi service platforms", said Steve Perna, vice president and general manager of PMC-Sierra's optical networking division.

"The S/UNI-12xJET enhances our broad portfolio of metro optical networking solutions by supporting increased density for existing technologies such as T1 via multilink PPP/FR, subrate DS3 and DS3.

In addition, it complements our emerging Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH metro solutions such as the Arrow-2xGE".

The S/UNI-12xJET integrates 12 DS3/E3 mappers/framers, with corresponding desynchronisers and a STS-12 SONET/SDH framer, to support DS3/E3 mapping into SONET/SDH on a channel-by-channel basis.

This allows ADMs and MSPPs to deploy a single line card that supports the simultaneous mapping and transport of both DS3 and E3, which is significant for European and Asian carriers as their networks have a mix of DS3 and E3 that must be transported across their SDH infrastructure.

A single multimode card greatly simplifies system provisioning and maintenance resulting in reduced capital and operational expenses.

The S/UNI-12xJET provides a unique feature of combining both DS3/E3 transport and data termination functions in a single device, which allow MSPP vendors to provide converged multi service cards.

The S/UNI-12xJET can be used in both next generation equipment as well as line card upgrades to in-field systems.

The device incorporates flexible system interfaces to support cell/packet termination into an industry standard system bus POS-PHY level 2 (PL2), POS-PHY level 3 (PL3), Utopia level 3 (UL2), or Utopia level 2 (UL2).

With the standard POS-PHY level 3 system interface, the S/UNI-12xJET adds DS3/E3 and J2 support to the industry's broadest PL3 PHY family.

PMC-Sierra's PL3 family is based on a common system interface to deliver a wide range of line interfaces including single channel OC-48, high-density dual-port Gigabit Ethernet, OC-12, OC-3, DS3, E3, J2 as well as channelised ATM, POS and DS3.

The PM5383 S/UNI-12xJET is sampling now.

The S/UNI-12xJET is packaged in a 35 x 35mm, 580-pin TSBGA, rated for industrial temperature range operation (-40 to +85C) and fabricated using low-power, 0.18-micron CMOS process.

The S/UNI-12xJET is extremely power efficient at less than 0.2W/port which offers up to a 50% power savings over competing solutions that require discrete aggregation, transport and termination devices.

The device is also software compatible with PMC-Sierra's existing quad-channel DS3/E3 ATM PHY device, the PM7346 S/UNI-QJET, enabling a smooth upgrade path for the large base of existing designs.

A comprehensive support package including datasheets, software drivers, user manual, hardware reference designs, and device models are currently available.

Back to top