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LINE SERVER UNIT PLUS
Technical Description
Connnections
The LSU+ connects to the Telecom equipments with PCM E1/T1 configurable
interfaces, with selectable synchronisation source. The system is provided
with a suite of 256 SCCs (Serial Communication Controller) with separately
configurable speed (8-2048Kb/s).
These channels constitute the basic elements on which most of the features
of the system are built; they can be employed either in HDLC (packet mode)
or in transparent mode. The system has four analog connections for phone
handsets complete with CODECs (D-phone). A switch matrix, with 256
x 256 channels, entirely configurable, allows the PCM line timeslots, the
SCC, and the D-phone to be connected. The switch matrix logic allows some
extra features, as real time sampling of any channel and the fixed pattern
forcing.
The LSU+ can monitor signalling channels, simulate protocol stacks,
generate network traffic and add asynchronous events representing either
failures or abnormal conditions, both for physical interfaces and protocols.
Hardware Architecture
The Line Server Unit Plus (LSU+) is built on top of an high performance
hardware architecture.
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Multi-processor system (3 CPU Pentium III);
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Internal Fast Ethernet connection (100 Mb/s);
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High performance PCI cards (Musycc) specifically designed to handle 256
serial channels;
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16 PCM E1/T1 lines at 2Mb/s;
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MVIP bus;
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Distributed real time operating system (QNX).
The CPU cards use Pentium III processors.
The SCCs are implemented in a PCI card, which is based on the Musycc
IC (Bt8474), designed and produced by PRISMA Engineering S.r.l.
The MVIP bus interconnects data flows between the different cards (16
2Mb/s lines and 2 SCC cards with 128 channels each).
The LSU+ is a multiprocessor system with three CPUs: the Main Processing
Unit (MPU), that manages the console, the mass storage and external
LAN, and two Protocol Processing Units (PPUs, that are diskless
unit equipped with the PCI Musycc card), linked together by an internal
Fast Ethernet (100 Mb/s).
Both the MVIP bus and the distributed switch matrix circuits allow the
connection of channel with a capacity multiple of 64 Kb/s (without restrictions
about the PCM line timeslots), of the Musycc card serial channels and of
the D-Phone resources. The system can be equipped with E1 and T1 PCM lines
at the same time.
The entire equipment is managed by the QNX operating system, which in
particular hadles the communication between the different processes running
on the three CPUs, creating an homogeneous pool of resources that can be
used transparently through Posix primitives.
The most demanding software packages were developed using the Pentium
III processor's MMX functions.
The user can work directly on the system console with the graphic Photon
interface, or the system can be controlled from remote in one of the different
ways QNX supports (e.g.: Telnet, Ditto, Photon client on a Windows host,
etc.).
MPU (Main processing unit)
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4 Line interface cards, each one providing 2 E1/T1
PCM, a D-Phone codec, MVIP bus;
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Processor card based on a PENTIUM III at a minimum
clock frequency of 400 MHz;
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Fast Ethernet PCI interface card Hard disk, 17” Monitor
and keyboard.
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PPU (Protocol processing unit)
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Processor card based on a PENTIUM III at a minimum
clock frequency of 400 MHz;
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Fast Ethernet PCI interface card;
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High Performance multi-channel protocol controller
PCI card (Musycc), with 128 channels, in packet mode (HDLC) or transparent
mode (i.e. Pcu/TRAU Frames, V.110) with a transfer rate of up to 2048 Kb/sec
and MVIP bus.
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The system is contained in a 19” rack container with two handles for
easy transportation.
The front cover hosts the keyboard.
The system is shipped complete of a 17"monitor.
Software Architecture
The LSU+ basically handles the hardware interfaces and the low level
communication protocols and allows other hosts to operate at higher level
through appropriate communication primitives. The communication between
LSU+ and its clients is based on Ethernet, TCP/IP and sockets. Each LSU+
service access point corresponds to a predefined port number. Each protocol
server supports a set of primitives in terms of messages and codes that
is compliant to what defined in the ETSI/ITU/GSM specifications.
Modularity
The LSU+ has a very modular structure, both from the hardware and from
the software point of view: 3 standard hardware versions are available
for applications ranging from the "personal" instrument to the multi-user
server, to the load & stress equipment.
From the software point of view this equipment is entirely modular:
the basic software included consists of configuration and managing modules
and some general functions. All the other software functions are supplied
as add in modules.
The basic software includes:
The modules listed below can be used to reach the different test
configuration the LSU+ supports:
The development activity of new software modules is in continual. New modules
will be available soon and others are due within the end of this year:
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Update of existing GSM/GPRS Modules to the latest version of the specification
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GPRS Mobile commander
(Multiple RS-232, GSM 07.07, PPP)
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H.323 Basic Module (Frame Relay or ATM or Ethernet, UDP/IP, H.225.0, RTP,
RTCP)
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UMTS UTRAN Iub Interface: Signalling transport Module (ATM, AAL5, SSCOP,
SSCF-UNI)
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UMTS UTRAN Iub Interface: Transport management signalling Module (ATM,
AAL5, SSCOP, SSCF-UNI, Q.2150.2, ALCAP)
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UMTS UTRAN Iu/Iur Interface (CS): Signalling transport Module (ATM,
AAL5, SSCOP, SSCF-NNI, MTP3-b, SCCP)
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UMTS UTRAN Iu/Iur Interface (PS): Signalling transport Module (ATM, AAL5,
UDP/IP, SCTP, ITUN, SCCP)
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UMTS UTRAN Iu/Iur Interface (CS): Transport management signalling Module
(ATM, AAL5, SSCOP, SSCF-NNI, MTP3-b, Q.2150.1, ALCAP)
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UMTS UTRAN CS-Domain User Plane Data Module (ATM, AAL2, Transparent/Support
Mode)
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UMTS UTRAN PS-Domain User Plane Data Module (ATM, AAL5, IP, UDP, GTP-U,
Transparent/Support mode)
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UMTS UTRAN User Plane Data Application Module (Uplink-Downlink Loop, Test
patterns player/recorder)
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H.323 Application specific Modules.
The release of a new line interface card at 51/155 Ms/s for ATM and UMTS
applications is planned.
In the following pages you can find the list of the available software
modules ans some examples of common applications.
Info: lsu@prisma-eng.it
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