[c-nsp] ONS 15454 and GigE

[Bill Wichers]

> An interesting situation has arisen where we might be able to get a type
> of OC-48 for not much more than a point-to-point OC-3. Our provider
> already has an ONS 15454 on-site and they would want to hand off the
> OC-48 to us. We don't have the hardware to terminate an OC-48 but it
> does appear that the 15454 can hand off GigE to us. It looks to me like
> a card is available that, in effect, "bridges" the OC side to the GigE
> side. Is that true?

Yes, there are Ethernet cards available for the '454 boxes. They map
Ethernet frames into SONET (more complicated than just 'bridging') to
allow for Ethernet transport over existing SONET networks. It's not very
efficient bandwidth-wise, but it can be economical if the SONET gear is
already in place.

> Regardless, is it overly complicated to take in an OC-48 on one side
> and hand that off via GigE on the customer side?

You'd need something that can map Ethernet into SONET on both ends of the
link. The only things I know of with that ability are the 15454's and the
Fujitsu flashwave. There are probably others out there, but those two are
the only ones I've every worked with.

It might be easier to check and see if there is something like a FlexWAN
for the 65xx that could handle OC48. I'm not sure if such a thing exists
though...

> It should be apparent that I know nearly nothing about the ONS 15454,
> so be gentle. :-)

The 15454 is a big blue box that makes lots of money for Cisco :-) Really,
it's a combination SONET ADM and TDM ADM and is quite flexible for
transport of SONET and TDM services. There are some physically smaller
versions that might be a good choice for you if you need to just handle a
single circuit on one end of your OC48.

     -Bill


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Waveform Technology
Systems Engineer