TraceSpan Participates in FSAN’s G-PON Interoperability Event
Provides troubleshooting services with its GPON Xpert Protocol Analyzer
Ra’anana, Israel – November 10, 2008 – TraceSpan Communications, a leader in broadband analysis and monitoring solutions, has participated in FSAN’s seventh G-PON Interoperability Test Event with its GPON Xpert Protocol Analyzer. TraceSpan provided its product’s analysis capabilities to the test event participants as a free service to further interoperability and expedite problem resolution. The GPON Xpert passively records the communication between the OLT (Optical Line Termination) and ONTs (Optical Network Terminals) and analyzes it according to the G-PON Standard. GPON Xpert does not contain a G-PON protocol chipset and therefore it analyzes the data independently, without being biased or limited by any of the existing G-PON chipsets on the market. The system records the communication, and then displays the content of data packets, commands, and signaling, as well as indicates deviations from the G-PON standard.
The event was organized by Telcordia in cooperation with FSAN (an affiliation of international network operators and telecom vendors), Corning Cable Systems and TraceSpan Communications. The event allows vendors to verify their understanding of the relevant industry specifications and to validate implementations early in the development process; thereby avoiding costly changes later in a GPON product’s commercial life. In all, 13 system and device vendors participated, interconnecting GPON products and reference designs at Telcordia to test interoperability.
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“We are very satisfied with the success of this test event, which shows that plug and play GPON interoperability will soon become a reality and demonstrates the maturity GPON technology. This success has been achieved thanks to the excellent preparation of Telcordia and the close collaboration of all participating GPON system and device vendors” said Regis Coat of France Telecom, co-chair of the FSAN Interoperability Task Group.
“FSAN is currently working to unify OMCI-related service provisioning interoperability methods. The progress made at the Telcordia-hosted test event was a major step in demonstrating that the GPON standard (ITU-T G.984) allows full OMCI interoperability across a wide range of GPON implementations,” added Paolo Solina of Telecom Italia, co-chair of the FSAN Interoperability Task Group.
"Telcordia continues to demonstrate our commitment to facilitating the FSAN operator and vendor community’s goal of providing a rich marketplace of interoperable GPON solutions in an environment that helps minimize the risks investment for the operator community,” said Rudi Schubert, Director, Telcordia Network Product Integrity. “The continued growth in participating companies is an excellent indicator of the importance of not only GPON technology but also interoperable GPON solutions to the broadband access marketplace.”
The event involved 13 GPON equipment and integrated circuit device vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, BroadLight, Cambridge Industries Group, Conexant Systems, Inc., Freescale, Hitachi Communication Technologies, Inc, Huawei, Ikanos Communications, Motorola, PMC-Sierra, RAD Data Communications, TXP Corp., and ZTE.
The main goal of Test Event was to demonstrate GPON equipment management interoperability via the ONT Management & Control Interface (OMCI), with focus on best practices documented in the draft ITU-T G-PON G.984.4 Implementers’ Guide (G.984.4impl). The ITU G.984 GPON standard enables line rates of 2.5 Gbps in the downstream direction (central office to customer) and 1.2 Gbps in the upstream direction (customer to central office). Detailed test cases were carried out to verify the ONT equipment management, including OMCC establishment, Management Information Base (MIB) synchronization operations, ONT capability discover, and ONT software image updating.
“As the industry continues to move toward IP service creation and delivery, interoperable GPON equipment is critical to enabling cost reductions through volume production and increased market competition, thereby helping to increase the availability of high capacity, fully converged, IP service networks,” said Schubert.