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networkZONE Products for the week of February 18, 2008
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation Says…
10G ENET/OTN Framer/Mapper/PHY PEMAQUID Device Enables Metro Ethernet Equipment to Connect Directly to 10GbE Optical Networks
The PEMAQUID (S19258) is optimally designed for line cards in carrier-grade switches/routers, 10GbE/OC-192 MSPPs and OTU2 DWDM networks
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC), has announced PEMAQUID, a XAUI-to-XFI 10G LAN/WAN/OTN Framer/Mapper/PHY device for 10GbE, 10G Fibre Channel, WIS (OC-192/STM-64) and OTU2 network applications.
The PEMAQUID (S19258) represents AMCC's first device in its MEtrON (Metro Ethernet Optical Networks) product family that is designed for Metro Ethernet and Carrier Grade Ethernet solutions systems. PEMAQUID enables cost-effective Carrier Ethernet solutions for the Metro WDM Transport Network.
Carrier service providers' desire to migrate from traditional SONET/SDH transmission equipment to Carrier-Grade Ethernet equipment and 10GbE/OTN services requires new cost effective silicon. PEMAQUID is the first physical layer device on the market today that truly enables this Ethernet to OTN convergence. Prior to the availability of PEMAQUID, service providers had to back-end Carrier Ethernet and Switch Router platforms with DWDM equipment to enter/exit Optical Transport Networks.
PEMAQUID, with its integrated 10GbE to OTU-2 mapping modes, EDC, FEC, and XAUI and serial 10G Interfaces, is an optimally designed product for this migration. PEMAQUID enables the direct connection between 10G MACs, Network Processors, or 10GbE Switches, and XFP/SFP+ optical modules. A single PEMAQUID can take the place of up to three devices, an FEC/Framer/Mapper device, an SFI4.1 to Serial 10G Physical layer device, and a bridge device to connect the 10G MAC to the FEC/FRAMER/Mapper.
The PEMAQUID is ideal for Metro-Ethernet Switch/Router and DWDM systems. The highly integrated device supports pure 10GbE LAN Metro-Ethernet networks, as well as WAN and OTN networks via its rich suite of 10GbE over WAN and OTN mapping modes. With its integrated serial 10G PHY XFI/SFI interface and provisional G.709 GFEC/EFEC features, it provides a seamless interface to XFP and SFP+ optical modules. It is ideally suited for carrier-grade Metro-Ethernet switch/router cards, OTU2 DWDM client tributary and line cards, and 10GbE/OC-192 multi-service provisioning platform (MSPP) client tributary and line cards.
"In addressing the emerging Metro-Ethernet network, there is a desire to leverage as many aspects of the low-cost enterprise Ethernet infrastructure as possible," said Neal Neslusan, Director of Transport Marketing at AMCC.
"PEMAQUID is ideally suited to enable this capability as it facilitates a direct connection between 10G MACs, switches, and Network/Packet Processors commonly used in all enterprise Ethernet equipment to the OTN network. AMCC's technology portfolio enabled us to rapidly deliver this highly integrated leadership product to market. We are seeing an incredible traction in the marketplace for this device with its rich feature set, and several customer platforms are already in advanced design phases."
"AMCC's PEMAQUID device is a major step forward in the integration of 10G I/O technology and 10GbE framing/mapping services," noted Michael Howard, Principal Analyst and Co-Founder at Infonetics Research. "The S19258 increases the efficiency and lowers the cost of equipment for 10GbE over Optical Transport Networks (OTN), as well as 10GbE LAN and WAN networks. PEMAQUID hits the design mark as a 10G Framer/Mapper/Phy solution for next generation Packet Optical Transport Systems."
By leveraging the 10G Mapper/OTN/FEC functionality from AMCC's very successful Rubicon product family and integrating 10G PHY and XAUI interfaces from AMCC's world class QT2x25 PHY product line, the company has created a highly integrated solution that provides dramatic savings in terms of cost, power and space. With its integrated FRACn synthesizer, only one low cost external reference oscillator is required to enable PEMAQUID to support 10G line rates from 9.954Gbits/s up to 11.32Gbits/s, while meeting SONET/SDH and OTN jitter requirements. In addition to this timing flexibility, the PEMAQUID device supports seven 10GbE mapping modes, including: Bit Transparent Mapping, GFP mapping, WIS framing, and 10GbE LAN pass-thru modes.
Also, with integrated ITU G.709 FEC, and AMCC's Enhanced FEC (ITU G.975.1.I4), PEMAQUID enables Metro and Long Haul transmission of 10GbE over OTN networks in low OSNR environments. In addition, the GFEC and Enhanced FEC also compensates for nonlinear inter-channel impairments, which allows for a narrow channel spacing of 25Ghz for DWDM systems.
EN-Genius Says…
It’s difficult to know exactly how the migration to all-IP WAN infrastructures is going to play out but, whatever standards end up delivering Ethernet across the backbone, it looks like the AMCC S19258 PEMAQUID 10G framer/mapper/PHY has got it covered. Targeted for Carrier Ethernet and Metro WDM transport networks (also known as Metro Ethernet), the device is able to take 10G worth of LAN traffic and connect it directly neatly to any packet-over-SONET access technology currently available, as well several flavors of the OTN framing structure (defined by ITU-G.872, G.709 and G.795 specifications). AMCC takes it even further by incorporating the digital forward error correction and analog electronic dispersion compensation function required to drive Metro and long-haul links.
Normally, I’d be a bit suspicious of such an ambitious chip but most of the framing, mapping and PHY elements have appeared elsewhere in other AMCC products. For example, it borrows much of its carrier-grade Ethernet mapping and GFP encapsulation capabilities from the earlier Rubicon series (introduced in June 2007), but then adds a XAUI interface, several new framing and overhead processing features and a very flexible CDR/retimer circuit that allows it to match up a 10GbE LAN connection at nearly any of the many 10G WAN clock rates. It also incorporates the analog EDC function previously handled by their S3394 device. Even though this EDC capability has turned up on a few of their other products, I’m still very impressed at how well AMCC has managed to make use of the technology they picked up with the acquisition of Quake a couple of years ago that allows them to integrate such a tricky analog function on standard CMOS.
 Pemaquid’s flexible framing and mapping functions, its OTN & SONET/SDH monitoring and drop/insert capabilities and continuous-rate CDR allow it to support seven different ways to map your 10GbE stream for transport, as well as a LAN pass-through mode. Rather than risk loss in translation, I’ll simply quote the AMCC literature descriptions of the modes here:
- LAN Mode – converts XAUI into 10GE serial LAN – 10.3 Gbit/s
- WIS/WAN Mode- for EoS apps – converts 10GELAN into SONET/SDH – This method allows for the 10GELAN signal to be mapped into a frame format (SONET/SDH) that is suitable for grooming in an STS based cross-connect (10.3 Gbit/s into 9.95 Gbit/s)
- WIS/WAN over OTU2 - 10GELAN into SONET/SDH into OTU2– This method allows for the 10GELAN signal to be mapped into a frame format (SONET/SDH) that is suitable for grooming in an STS based cross-connect. Converts 10.3 Gbit/s into 9.95 Gbit/s into 10.709 Gbit/s – used for G.709 connections
- Bit Transparent Mode - 10GELAN direct map into OTU2 – This yields a full rate, fully transparent 10GELAN signal into a 11.1 GHz “OTU2-like” frame – Most popular these days but requires more expensive optics module
- 10GELAN into GFP into OTU2 – The first GFP method uses a regular pre-emptive flow control method to guarantee correct encapsulation into an OTU2 at 10.7 GHz
- 10GELAN into GFP into OTU2 – The second GFP method enables flow control by allowing a user-definable FIFO-fill line indicator to be placed on the ingress FIFO to control the flow control command regularity
- 10GELAN GFP mapped into OTU2 using unused OTN OH – In this method the Pemaquid uses unused OTN OH bytes to map the excess 10GELAN payload into a 10.7 GHz OTN frame. (This is a proprietary method of mapping designed to preserve the preamble frame. Some companies use 4 out of 8 byte for CDL (serial channel data link). In this mode they use some of the unused OTN overhead to maintain the CDL and flow control is not needed, even for jumbo frames.)
 This wide range of operating configurations allows the S19258 to support interface functions as varied as a WAN access line card, an Ethernet-based uplink switch card, and a low-cost, low-power EFEC regenerator in OTN networks. Given its versatility, low power and sub-$100 price tag, it should help accelerate the transition to an Ethernet-based carrier infrastructure while making it much less painful for both designers and end-users.
The S19258/PEMAQUID is available in a small 19x19 mm package and consumes a typical 2.5 W. It is sampling now to alpha customers with general availability scheduled for March 2008. Pricing will be $95 in 10-k piece lots.
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