| 1. |
How can I serve my Multi-Dwelling Units with ESON? |
| A. |
ESON is ideal for MDUs. If, as is often the case, a CAT-5 riser exists in a
building, then placing a AS5000 inside that building allows for a 100 Mbps
signal to interconnect with a PG1000 in an individual unit up to 100 meters
away. If the building is outfitted with fiber, then the maximum 40km reach
between the AS5000 and the PG1000 applies. |
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| 2. |
What about security in my access infrastructure? |
| A. |
Security is only as sound as the weakest link in the network connection between
two points, and the access infrastructure is often that link. Clearly fiber has
certain physical advantages over copper in this area - eliminating the ability
to tap or otherwise eavesdrop by proximal contact with the access medium. The
fundamental choice of the fiber topology can also eliminate a significant
degree of vulnerability. Something as simple as eliminating a "broadcast and
select" network architecture can go a long way in addressing security concerns. |
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| 3. |
How does your system inhibit or prevent the stealing of services and
content? |
| A. |
The QoStream system guards against theft of service on several levels:
-
VLANs may be assigned to separate services and/or service providers into
service VLANs. To prevent unauthorized access to the services, end users are
connected only to the service VLANs to which they subscribe.
-
For higher level security a VLANS may also be assigned to specific end users to
create an isolated layer
2 connection or network.
-
The network switches traffic to endpoints based on destination MAC addresses
and not to endpoints with other MAC addresses. MAC addresses are inserted into
network elements at manufacture and learned by the network at network element
boot up time. These MAC destination addresses are known by the network elements
and QoStream Director, but are not visible at other network nodes, which
receive traffic based only on their own MAC addresses.
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| 4. |
What should I look for in an FTTP solution for my business markets? |
| A. |
Certainly flexibility will be important. Deploying too much capacity upfront
can be an expensive option - and likely to force you into a less competitive
position with respect to service prices. But engineering at lower bandwidth
without the option to efficiently increase that bandwidth (without
re-engineering the network!) can lead to an equally dismal outcome.
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| 5. |
How important is LAN interconnect for the businesses segments? |
| A. |
According to The Yankee Group, about 55 percent of large businesses that have
Ethernet service use it to connect offices in the same city or metro network,
and about 40 percent use Ethernet to connect offices between cities. But this
is not just a large business service. Eighty-two percent of all American
business establishments are associated with companies with less than 100
employees. Most (63%) are companies with fewer than 9 employees. Yet these
establishments increasingly have increasing amounts of bandwidth requirements
for triple play services. Their data is often distributed among servers located
in different building and often includes video based information. This is
particularly the case in the health-related or educational-related sectors.
Also, video surveillance cameras are becoming a common office fixture in all
sectors, and that data is often accessed remotely. |
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| 6. |
What is the expected Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for the QoStream
products? |
| A. |
The AS5000 Aggregator Switch has primary and backup power and redundant
circulation fans that is designed for 99.99% (four nines) availability,
assuming a one hour repair time. The AS5000 dissipates less than 130 watts
fully equipped and maximally active, requiring no supplementary air
conditioning in a stack mounted on a 19" or 23" rack.
The PG1000 Premises Gateway has primary and backup power, and it is designed
for 99.99% (four nines) availability, assuming a one hour repair time. The
PG1000 dissipates less than 24 watts, requiring no fans. |
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| 7. |
What is the ability to manage network faults? |
| A. |
Each of the QoStream network elements detect internal failures and
incoming signal failures and reports these in band over the network. For the
AS5000 information is reported to the QoStream Director out
of band via a Data Communication Network. The QoStream Director performs alarm
correlation and maps the failure to the node or to the fiber and produces a
trouble ticket for the NOC. On clearing of the alarms, the QoStream Director
sees the cleared alarms in the network and enables the trouble ticket closure. |
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| 8. |
What is the craft interface capability? |
| A. |
Each QoStream Network Element supports SERVICE ports (RJ-45 connector for
PG1000, RJ-45 and RS-232 connectors for AS5000) for craft or
installer interface using an IOS Command Line Interface or SNMP. Alternatively,
the craft/installer can access a SERVICE port at the AS5000 and
access the other NEs in band over the network. Functionality at SERVICE ports
include:
-
Security privileges, including login/password support and read/write and
read-only user options.
- Immediate termination of the local craft session when the laptop is physically
disconnected from the SERVICE connector.
-
A super-user procedure at the QoStream Director to force a logout of a local
craft session
-
No SERVICE port read or write transaction causes bit errors or other
performance degradation to the traffic traversing the NE.
-
All NE traffic analysis results and performance monitoring results at any data
plane termination are available to the NE SERVICE port.
-
The NE SERVICE ports shall provide access to the event log for diagnostic or
troubleshooting purposes, including events such as configuration changes,
security logons and logouts, failures and restorals, debug queries, and system
operations (e.g. boots).
-
Software download using the service port is a configurable option with the
default being to allow software download from the SERVICE port.
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| 9.
|
Technology "bias" aside, what are the critical characteristics of a vendor
/ partner that we should seek-out? |
| A. |
At the top of the list are low cost / high value, standards-based solutions,
turn-key capabilities, and an experienced team. At least that's our perspective
and how we try to create differentiation.
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| 10.
|
Is your solution "open platform"? |
| A. |
The QoStream System is a completely Open Systems Architecture adhering to the
OSI model and using only standards-based protocols.
The Management Plane uses the QoStreamT Director to support the element
management layer 1, the network management layers 2 and 3, and extensions to
services management layer 4. These extensions to layer 4 support deployment of
higher level customer NMSs and third party solutions at that layer. The
QoStream Director provides generic northbound adaptors to allow the QoStream
Director to interface with customer Service Management or Business Management
layers.
One such adaptor, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)
adaptor, is based on Common Object Model and IDL standardized in the
TeleManagement Forum (e.g. Connection and Service Management Information Model
CORBA IDL Solution Set v1.5 - TMF.807). Another such adaptor is an SNMP version
3 northbound interface.
The Control Plane links the processing configurations of the network elements
to the QoStream Director by means of an SNMP version 3 interface southbound
from the Management Plane to the network elements. The network elements employ
industry standard operating systems, drivers, and tools.
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| 11.
|
Are you a member of any industry associations? |
| A. |
Amedia Networks is actively engaged in the FTTH Council, United States
Telecommunications Association, Telecommunications Industry Association and several others. See the "affiliations" menu of our website. |
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| 12. |
PON? ESON? Which is the right FTTP solution? |
| A. |
Many of the current A/BPON systems were deployed prior to a standard for ESON
and may have been selected for their compatibility with ATM. With the adoption
of a standard for switched Ethernet, and the migration to IP/Ethernet Metro
facilities, those justifications evaporate. More recently, network providers
have begun to recalibrate the bandwidth requirements of their subscribers in
the "HDTV era" and find the PON-based approaches coming up short.
While we'd like to tell you that ESON is always the right solution, the reality
is that this is not an easy question to answer. But to succeed in answering it,
you'll need facts - not assumptions. We'd be glad to provide you with the
information about ESON that you'll need to evaluate the right solution for your
very specific requirements. |
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