Number 01 - October
2001 - Trend Communications Limited
www.trendcomms.com
@
AuroraTango: ADSL roll out at your fingertips
@
New Victoria STM16/OC48
BARCELONA,
September 24, 2001-- Trend's Victoria STM16/OC48 hand-held test
set, first presented to the world by Agilent Technologies in ATLANTA (Georgia)
at Supercom 2001 for the America's market, is now announced as available
to the rest of the world. The Victoria provides a comprehensive tool set
that allows field installation and maintenance technicians to analyse and
evaluate SDH, SONET, PDH and T-Carrier network services and equipment,
at line rates up to OC-48, all from a single test unit. 
The battery powered test
set can be used for bit error rate analysis, error and alarm testing and
automated network performance evaluation against numerous industry standards
(G.821, G.826, M.2100 and M.2101). Built-in interfaces allow field
personnel to test multiple network topologies
This full featured instrument
provides all the functionality including TCM, APS, G.783 pointer sequences,
M/N alarm generation, transparency test on OH channels, G.832 over 34Mbit/s,
BER in the Overhead Channels, RTD and the general test capabilities of
portable instruments.
§ See Press
Release
§ Get
brochure
@ Liberalizing
the Local.Loop
HIGH WYCOMBE,
August 2001 -- The liberalisation of telecommunications has not meant a
massive appearance of alternative infrastructures that would let the new
operators equally compete with the dominant heirs of a past monopoly. Such
alternatives as fibre or wireless have proven to be more expensive than
expected. This way, the copper local loop continues to be the only access
technology employed extensively with the capacity to provide both narrow
and broadband services.
In this situation, the European
Commission, with the objective of creating a true competitive market, approved
the regulation for the unbundled access to the local loop (ULL) that would
reduce the cost of services like voice or internet access and would also
deploy such new applications as e-commerce and multimedia. The ULL has
been applicable in the EU since January 1st, 2001.
Several solutions have been
implemented in each of the 17 European countries. They are based on three
models:
-
Bit stream services, where the
Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) provides access through the copper
loop and its own backbone in order to link customers with the Competitive
Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) applications.
-
Unbundling the copper wire,
while the ILEC rents all the frequencies to the CLEC.
-
Line sharing, where the ILEC
keeps the voice band services and lets the CLEC use the ADSL frequencies
ones.
Business Opportunities
The new regulatory conditions,
technical information and key applications are the key to reach the original
unbundling objectives of fair competition. The CLEC needs the topology
information to evaluate the size of the market, the quality of the copper
and the service availability, to calculate the costs and the revenue of
the xDSL/ATM/IP roll out. The CLEC must be aware of its opportunities,
as not all the installed base is profitable, and past experience proves
that only 25% of the local exchanges are cost-effective for the new entrants.
Once the physical characteristics
have been determined, it is necessary to specify the transmission characteristics
by qualifying the electrical parameters of the metallic pair such as:
-
Attenuation: The main
factor that limits the wire length and it depends on the frequency. For
high frequencies attenuation is higher than for low frequencies and produces
distortion.
-
Longitudinal balance:
The measure of the tolerance to external electromagnetic fields.
-
Noise: Quantified either
by its power spectrum or by its RMS value, if the power spectrum is constant
over all the frequencies of interest.
-
Return loss: The
measure of the capacity of a line to absorb the power supplied by a generator.
This qualification of the installation,
independent of the signal travelling in the pairs, can be provided by the
ILECs who probably have recent reports which include this information.
Alternatively, it is possible
to program a period of trials, observed by the CLECs, the ILECs and the
manufacturers, with the aim of describing the installations by performing
these tests on a representative part of them.
§ get the
application note
xDSL
Service Integration (32 pages, 487 kbytes)
§ link
to the Telecommunications
International article
@
Free training in xDSL.Copper.Qualification
 Free
training is being held in some of the main cities in Europe during October
and November 2001. xDSL roll out and unbundling of the local loop are placing
increasing demands on telecomms and datacomms professionals to extract
ever higher performance, and higher value services, from the last mile
of copper. The mysterious world of transmission line theory and practise
is no longer the domain of a small group of telephony specialists. Engineers
and technicians who are involved in digital service provision now need
an appreciation of the properties of the copper over which their services
have to run, and a knowledge of the effects of these properties and how
to test them.
Trend Communications is holding
a series of free seminars which will enable such professionals to gain
the skills they need to qualify their copper. The training will cover
-
The changing environment
of the local loop
-
The need to qualify the
copper
-
Transmission line properties
-
Environmental Influences
-
Logistics of copper testing
-
Practical examples of
qualification techniques
-
Demonstrations of some
of the available test tools
The practical examples will
be enhanced with the display of actual instruments in test situations.
§
Email
Hannah
Perrett for details of the training programme and dates. Cannot attend? Then ask about obtaining the seminar handbook
@
The Latest.Version of AuroraExpert
HIGH WYCOMBE, October 1st,
2001 --AuroraExpert
provides users of Trend testers with a powerful yet simple to use PC based
protocol analysis tool. AuroraExpert
provides support for WAN and LAN based protocols and includes powerful
filtering and analysis features, on-line protocol training and application
information.
Supported protocols include:
|
Application
|
Protocol
|
| National Systems |
DASS2 (UK)
VN (France)
1TR6 (Germany)
TPH1856 / THP1962
(Australia)
Nortel (USA)
N.I. (USA)
AT&T (4ESS/5ESS
– USA) |
| International |
DSS1 (ETSI / Q.931) |
| Private Systems |
CorNet N/T, TS, NQ
(Siemens)
TN1R6 N/T (Bosch)
Q.SIG
DPNSS |
| Access Network |
V5.1 &V5.2
X.25 D (X.31), X.25
B (LAPB)
PPP (LCP, CCP, PAP,
CHAP, BAP, BACP, IPCP, OSINLCP, ATCP plus decoding of RFC1700
PPP headers)
IP, ICMP, IGMP, UDP,
TCP, Van Jacobson, DNS |
| Frame Relay |
ITU-T Q.933 Annex
A, ANSI T1.617 Annex D, “Gang of Four” LMI (Original LMI, FRF LMI). |
Application 1: Voice over DSL
Voice Over DSL deploying a PSTN
gateway based on V5.2 access technology is a common configuration for this
growth technology. The V5 access is employed over E1 interfaces for non-North
American configurations. AuroraExpert
along with an AuroraTempo,
AuroraSonata
or AuroraDuet
tester provides a powerful diagnostic and troubleshooting tool.
Application 1: ISDN access to Internet Service
Provider
The main problems encountered
by users of the Internet connecting via ISDN lines are associated with
authentication at the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) level or IP routing.
ISP connections take place over the ISDN bearer channels (B-channel). With
the AuroraDuet
or AuroraTempo
it is possible to capture this B-channel traffic and export it to AuroraExpert
for analysis.
§
Protocol
Analyzer - download
your Free Evaluation Copy of AuroraExpert
v.2.30
@ AuroraForte
& AuroraPresto
success.story
HIGH WYCOMBE,
September 3rd, 2001 -- Interest in AuroraForte
and AuroraPresto
has received a boost in recent weeks due to releases of new software that
significantly extends the ATM testing capabilities of both products.
Earlier this year QoS (ITU-T O.191) measurement and SVC signalling functions
were released along with new ATM BERT features. The latest release
upgrades the ATM OAM functions to provide F4 (VPC) and F5 (VCC) alarm capabilites,
the use of Location IDs to trace ATM routes through the network, and an
English language OAM cell decode in real time or from a history buffer.
Satisfied Customers Around the World
Recent satisfied customers include
important domestic network equipment installers, major network operators,
Government data networks and network equipment developers.
Key Features and Benefits
-
IP Ping over ATM:
Prove that LAN service is routed correctly on ATM & IP layers.
-
ATM BERT: Prove that
ATM routing is correct and bandwidth reliable.
-
Physical BERT: E1 circuit
emulation tested after transport on ATM network.
-
multi-interfaces: ease
of testing on different interfaces on the same network.
-
SVC ability: Easy to
use application for proving signalling services.
-
QoS application: Measures
all key ATM parameters like ATM RTD from the CTD figure.
-
ATM BERT and IP Ping on DSL
network with
AuroraPresto:
proves physical, ATM and IP layers across the DSLAM.
AuroraPresto,
the ADSL tester from Trend Communications, has also benefited from enhanced
OAM functions such that the two products working together provide an unmatched
capability for testing ADSL networks during installation or maintenance.
For one customer the ability to comprehensively test either side of the
DSL network from ADSL termination to ATM network interface was unbeatable.
The customer requirement
was to test the installation and provisioning of the DSLAM. The customer
needed to be able to test from the Customer Premise to the Broadband
ATM network. Trend proposed the AuroraPresto
ADSL service tester and AuroraForte
ATM tester as a comprehensive test solution for ADSL CPE and DSLAM  installation
and troubleshooting.
The following features on
the AuroraPresto
have been key to this application:
-
Support for ADSL over POTS and
ADSL over ISDN band plans
-
Full ATM layer stream handling
capability for comprehensive transport layer testing
-
End-to-end BERT testing between
AuroraForte
and AuroraPresto
(using optional ATM-25 card if required)
-
IP Ping originated over Ethernet
(AuroraPresto
configured as DTE) or over ADSL (AuroraPresto
configured as ATU-R) to AuroraForte
for connectivity testing
-
PPPoA and PPPoE provide higher
layer support and allow real login to authentication services
The AuroraPresto
and AuroraForte
have been recommended as the standard for testing ADSL to the National
Regulator.
§ further
information www.trendcomms.com/auroraforte
§ further
information www.trendcomms.com/aurorapresto
@
Offers.&.Information
Copper Test Handbook
If you would like to receive
your 130 page handbook covering the theory and practice of copper
qualification and troubleshooting that accompanies the Copper Test Seminars
detailed above then contact Hannah (see below)
Free training and Information
CD
Trend have produced a CDRom
which includes downloadable on-line training courses, and all available
Product Information.To receive a copy contact Hannah
§ please email
your name and mailing address to Hannah
Perrett
POTS
¦
xDSL ¦ PDH
¦
ISDN ¦ Frame Relay¦
SDH ¦ SONET
¦ ATM ¦ VoIP
¦ IP ¦ DataCom
|
© Trend Communications
Limited |
