The Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA), (
www.cp-ta.org), an association of communications platform and building block providers, today announced the release of two documents that enable next-generation network
and wireless vendors to build interoperable systems for faster deployments.
The documents consist of the Interoperability Compliance Document (ICD) 1
.0 and Test Procedure Manual (TPM) 1.0. The ICD defines a set of interoperability requirements to build interoperable communications platforms. The TPM defines test procedures for those requirements. Together, these two documents allow vendors to design and deliver interoperable open specifications-based products.
The ICD is available for download at
www.cp-ta.org/certification. The TPM will be available for download on February 19, 2007.
Rohit Chhabra, CP-TA vice chairman, said: “The CP-TA was officially launched in April 2006 with about 20 members, and we now have a roster of 30 companies. We want our standards technologies to get into the mainstream. These are open specifications. To put it even more succinctly, our target is to formulate a consensus set of standards relating to AdvancedTCA (
News -
Alert) [ATCA] form factor for computers, AMC [AdvancedTCA Mezzanine Cards], MicroTCA
, the Service Availability Forum’s (SAF’s) Hardware Platform Interface (HPI (
News -
Alert)) specification (that defines the interface between high availability middleware
and the underlying hardware and operating system) and the SAF’s higher level Application Interface Specification (AIS), as well as carrier-grade and enterprise Linux from the new core Linux Foundation.”
“We are announcing our first major deliverable documents today — the ICD and TPM —since our formation and launch,” Chhabra said. “We have a tremendous amount of momentum and endorsement from our customers, and even our customers’ customers, for getting to certified interoperability, and creating a compliance program to verify compliance to that interoperability-base set. This will be crucial to the success of ATCA.”
What’s the value proposition of all this and how do they quantify it?
“With true mainstream adoption and true standardization that we will achieve in the market,” Chhabra said, “we believe that the value proposition is very similar to what you’d get out of a standard off-the-shelf ‘buffet’ or menu of products, basically that you can quickly and seamlessly integrate them to achieve a faster-time-to-market, and it gives you flexibility and alternate sourcing and product choice as a true plug-and-play standard provides. And because of the nature of ‘economies of scale’ you get to mainstream adoption and true ports advantage at that point. Also, in the custom space, none of those variables exist and you have to wait for your ‘food’ to come to you, and you have to wait for that to be integrated into a ‘full meal’. It takes you much longer to actually get that if you were to take it off the ‘buffet.’
“The ICD and TPM provide the blueprints for interoperability compliance for modular communications platform building blocks,” added Shlomo Pri-Tal, CP-TA chairman. “We’ve overcome the first hurdle to achieving our vision of multi-vendor interoperable building blocks by enabling vendors to design and build interoperability into their products. This release addresses interoperability for AdvancedTCA and is aligned to the system-level profile developed by SCOPE.”
“The community of organizations that are working to make AdvancedTCA the platform of choice for next generation telecom networks continues to grow and it is important that these organizations work together,” said Joe Pavlat, PICMG president. “PICMG and CP-TA are working cooperatively to improve the interoperability landscape for equipment providers and carriers and the new CP-TA documents are an important addition to that landscape.”
“Thermal interoperability of AdvancedTCA Shelves and Boards is a critical factor for true plug-and-play” said Eike Waltz, technology consultant. “CP-TA has established a measurement methodology to characterize Shelf airflow and Board impedance to eliminate multiple interpretations of the thermal section of PICMG 3.0 specification. By defining a single, thermal measurement methodology and the appropriate test tools, CP-TA is providing for repeatable test methods and thermal performance classes to be met. CP-TA thermal methodology provides critical information for the designer, the integrator and end user alike.”
CP-TA members will be able to conduct self-testing in the first half of 2007 with plans for a third party interoperability lab to be running in Q4 2007. Products that pass third party certification will be labeled CP-TA certified.
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Richard Grigonis is an internationally-known technology editor and writer. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert), he was the Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine from its founding in 2003 to August 2006. He also served as the Chief Technical Editor of CMP Media’s Computer Telephony magazine (later called Communications Convergence (News - Alert)) from its first year of operation in 1994 until 2003. In addition, he has written five books on computers and telecom (including the Computer Telephony Encyclopedia and Dictionary of IP Communications). To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
