Breaking away from the traditional ...

Breaking away from the traditional bourns of transmission and protocol analyzers, the HP E5200A broadband service analyzer redefines the way in which the interactions between protocol layers at multiple points in the network are analyzed and not absented leading to the new universal of service analysis.

The HP E5200A broadband service analyzer (Fig. 1) is Hewlett-Packard's third generation of ATM proof equipment, focusing in particular upon the analysis needs of ATM service deployment

[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

HP's first-generation tester was called the Series 90 It combined extensive SDH/SONET transmission standard capability with the world's first ATM proof capability. The addition of higher-layer protocol testing and more web ATM conformance testing resulted in the second-generation HP tester called the Broadband Series example System (BSTS). The BSTS has been involved in almost each major ATM field trial around the world.

Now that ATM is progressing from the early field trial phase into the deployment of return generating services, the requirements for ATM ordeal equipment have changed. To fitting these requirements, HP's Australian Telecommunications Operation has cause to growed the concept of service analysis. The HP E5200A broadband service analyzer implements the service analysis universal incorporating hardware, software, and usability advances aimed specifically at testing ATM services.

Market Evolution in ATM Testing

HP has been developing ordeal equipment for ATM sine technology first started to gain acceptance in Europe in the mid-1980s (see Fig. 2) It was at this point that the industry started to behold the potential for an integrated public broadband network infrastructure, the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN).

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HP first became involved in ATM testing in 1988 when a team from the HP Queensferry Telecommunications Division (QTD) in Scotland joined a European Community research program called RACE (Research into Advanced Communications in Europe) The team joined a RACE brew called PARASOL, which was a precompetitive collaboration between HP and research teams from a number of other European organizations. These organizations included a cros section of public telephone service providers, network equipment manufacturers, universities, and specialist software houses. The primary goal of the shoot forward was to research the standard and measurement requirements of B-ISDN equipment and networks being exhibited by other RACE projects, and bring to maturity a test tool to support this work and verify its operation. A great deal of knowledge and experience was gained on all parties and a prototype production fulfilling these needs was bring outed and used successfully.

By the period of the PARASOL project in 1992 however, it had become obvious that ATM was gaining worldwide acceptance. The ATM Forum was forming and a competitive ATM marketplace was taking shape. This made continued collaboration unfeasible for HR Therefore, in late 1992 HP's Australian Telecom Operation (ATO) launched the world's first commercial ATM proof equipment, the HP 75000 ATM Series 90 This tester was based forward the highly successful Series 90 SONET/SDH R&D tester and primarily allowed physical layer and ATM layer testing at OC-3/STM-1 rates, followed quick after by DS3. The Series 90 is essentially a transmission connected view tester with detailed SDH/SONET overhead exhibition features. Subsequent ATM developments added concatenated payload capability at OC-12c/STM-4c rates and, more lately OC-48c/STM-16c rates, making the ATM Series 90 the world's simply real-time ATM tester at 2488 Gbits/s.

The ATM Series 90 was a great succes helping HP to build able global relationships with key ATM customers. It at so early an hour became clear, however, that with the spe of technological evolutions in ATM, there was a hardy requirement for features beyond those that the Series 90 could support. HP's Idacom Telecom Operation (ITO) in Canada had been developing WAN tester for the X25 Frame Relay, and SMD standards. With ATM also being their nearest step, it was decided to combine ITO's higher-layer protocol expertise with ATO's expertise in ATM transport and cause to grow a dedicated and extremely powerful ATM tester The resultant Broadband Series proof System (BSTS) was a succes in the R&D ATM trial market from late 1993, gaining universal acceptance as the respect tester for ATM developments with almost each telecom operator and network equipment manufacturer from one extremity to the other of the world. Today, the BST continues to lead the way in R&D ATM proof with support added for conformance criterion suites and now MPEG-2 video through ATM.

With ATM starting to stir out of the R&D lab to early field trials and carriers quite through the world announcing plans for commercial ATM deployment HP again saw the ne to perform the operations indicated in test equipment targeted directly at this just discovered phase of the ATM life revolution of time ATM features have been added by way of the HP Queensferry Telecom Operation (QTO) and the HP Cerjac Telecom Operation (CTO) to their transmission proof instruments for use in installation and maintenance of the core network infrastructure, and the HP Colorado Communications Operation (CCO) has added ATM to their advisors for LAN/WAN interworking.