AdvancedTCA: Major step forward for telecom

NEW DELHI, INDIA: As the telecommunications field becomes increasingly competitive and a greater breadth of next-generation services is demanded—from smart phones to VoIP, and video to wireless broadband and other high-bandwidth services—both network equipment providers (NEPs) and telecom carriers look for faster, more flexible, and more cost-effective means of competing effectively and meeting market needs.

As a result, in order to reduce capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX), narrow proprietary systems are being abandoned in favor of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems.

Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA or AdvancedTCA) is a major step forward for telecom in this direction. Integrating highly available digital data processing and data-transport infrastructures, ATCA is the first open industry specification for carrier-grade equipment incorporating high-speed switched fabric technology.

By delivering open, multivendor platform architecture for carrier-grade telecom applications, ATCA ushers in a new era of time and cost efficiencies for the telecommunications industry. Supporting use of multiple, high-performance processors and high-speed interconnect technologies in a highly dense blade system, ATCA provides the headroom needed for next-generation data services by overcoming the limitations of previous PICMG standards.

Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture

Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture, known also as AdvancedTCA or ATCA, is PICMG 3.0 and its derived specifications —the largest specification effort in the history of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers’ Group (PICMG).

With over 100 companies participating, including Sun, Intel, and Motorola—among many—ATCA is gaining wide acceptance as the new industry standard. ATCA is built on the input and feedback of a community of developers and experts, rather than the assumptions of a single proprietary interest. ATCA takes the already pervasive Compact PCI standard to the next level, reducing space needs, enhancing performance, and improving energy efficiency—thereby improving businesses’ return on investment.

Key advancements of ATCA include the following:

• A high-capacity (up to 2.5 terabits), packet-based backplane coupled with low latency enables ATCA systems to process workloads more quickly.

• A highly scalable, switched fabric architecture—initially based on Gigabit Ethernet and eventually accommodating InfiniBand, StarFabric, and PCI Express interconnects—overcomes the I/O bottlenecks created by conventional bus-based architectures.

• Support for up to 200 watts per board and as many as 16 boards per shelf significantly increases performance density, enabling each blade to have two or more high-end processors through improved heat dissipation.

• At least two power modules and two power rails to each slot provide hardware redundancy, reducing single points of failure.
• Support for carrier-grade features such as NEBS and ETSI drive availability up to 99.999 percent.

Until recently, NEPs have had no alternative but to purchase or vertically develop in-house proprietary hardware and software to meet the demands of telecom and its high service level requirements. As traffic grows in both traditional and wireless networks, carriers require higher capacities—in the face of rising costs. As a result, both NEPs and carriers are moving away from proprietary solutions toward open standards-based, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software and hardware.

NEPs will increasingly implement transport, control, and service network elements on ATCA platforms, particularly in 3G and above wireless infrastructures that demand greater I/O and compute capacity. The AdvancedTCA standards and other affiliated guidelines are predicted to exceed $3 billion of the total merchant market, growing at a rate in excess of 140 percent per year for the near future—displacing proprietary solutions and accelerating time to market.

ATCA is intended to meet the demands of a wide range of communications applications, as it uses common backplane architecture to support multiple switch fabric technologies and new blade and chassis form factors optimized for communications. This architecture enables systems to change with users’ needs and with the growth of new technologies. It is a new series of industry-standard specifications aimed at carrier-grade communications equipment, providing improved reliability, manageability, and serviceability as it incorporates the latest processors and high-speed interconnect technologies.

With ATCA’s reduced development costs and faster time to market—but with no loss in terms of performance or quality— companies are able to focus their attention on developing business advantages for their products and services rather than “reinventing the wheel.” Components built to the specifications of ATCA are scalable, cost-effective, minimize the system footprint, and deliver top performance with streamlined system management.

AdvancedTCA specifies connectors, mechanics, power distribution, blade dimensions, and system management that are robust and independent of the switch fabric link technology used. The architecture provides wider vendor and product choice and flexibility, promotes interoperability as hardware vendors develop blades, chassis, and backplanes that are integrateable.

As a result, ATCA protects existing IT investments, reduces acquisition costs, and assists the migration toward COTS components for the telecom IT infrastructure.

And because of wider choice and interoperability, ATCA enables enterprises to access an expanded support infrastructure and pool of expertise, rather than relying on locked-in vendors or in-house development for support. Under ATCA, NEPs are able to lower development costs and speed time to market by replacing proprietary solution components with modular, carrier-grade COTS products that adhere to the new specifications.

Designed specifically to address growth issues within the telecom industry, ATCA includes specifications for power and performance density. ATCA supports up to 200 watts per blade and a maximum of 16 blades per chassis, with superior cooling to allow each blade to use multiple high-end processors. The specifications also support a minimum of two power modules and two power rails in each slot, to reduce single points of failure and provide hardware redundancy.

ATCA also includes specifications for electronic keying, comprehensive system management, and a packet-based backplane with a capacity of up to 2.5 terabits, as well as low latency, for faster workload processing. A dual redundant management infrastructure, designed to resist service failures, is also specified by ATCA.

AdvancedTCA provides standardized platform architecture for carrier-grade telecommunication applications, with support for carrier-grade features such as NEBS and ETSI to enable 99.999 percent availability. ATCA is a plug-and-play architecture— multiple vendors’ components interoperate seamlessly.

Improved choice in products and vendors, reduced acquisition costs, interoperability, broader support infrastructure and pool of expertise—ATCA leverages all of these factors, eliminating marginalization and vendor lock-in, to lower TCO.

ATCA platform applications include core telecom network elements such as Gateway GPRS Support Nodes (GGSNs) and Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSNs), Voice over IP (VoIP), Radio Network Controllers (RNCs), IMS, softswitch, data encryption, streaming data technologies, smartphones, cellphones, and 3G and above wireless infrastructures demanding increased compute capacity and I/O. ATCA is expected to serve as the chief standard of the telecommunications industry until 2012 at the earliest, guaranteeing long-term value and avoiding obsolescence.

A simplified system diagram showing an ATCA system for data and voice services

The telecommunications industry is one of the world’s most dynamic fields in new technological growth and development, and the specifications of ATCA enable NEPs and service providers to meet its demands in a standardized, streamlined manner. . According to IDC’s study, ‘ATCA Opportunity: Adoption of Computing Architectures in Network Equipment’, the NEP community is very supportive of the goals of ATCA and COTS technology and sees the value in having a common platform that meets their specific needs.

The NEPs see the benefits in terms of lower hardcore costs, reduced maintenance, ability to leverage third-party boards, and, most important, the ability to lock-in on their equipment and application servers due to the ability to move to other vendors’ implementations of the same core standards-based components.
The study predicts more than 900 percent growth in ATCA adoption with revenue increasing from USD 790 million in 2007 to USD 8.6 billion in 2011.

In spite of its growth opportunities ATCA faces a number if challenges in its widespread adoption. IDC said the technology needs to prove itself in terms of reliability, scalability, and performance. The ATCA community needs to prove its products will adhere to standards and will be truly interoperable. ATCA board and chassis volumes need to ramp up to provide expected cost benefits.

Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture, was one of the telecom industry's most awaited and hyped concepts entering 2007. Inspite of its adoption rates not meeting expecations, the concept has huge potential. All said and done, the benefits of AdvancedTCA is driving the industry toward new economies and new innovations.