CopperCom's CSX Softswitch Brings 5-9s Reliability to Next-Gen Telephony

The CopperCom CSX 1100 softswitch with integrated NetGuardian 832A remote telemetry unit.

In 2000, switch manufacturer CopperCom was planning to take its CSX softswitch to a larger market. The CSX had launched as an Internet offload switch for ISPs — CopperCom now saw a new opportunity to sell the CSX to independent telcos as a Class 4/Class 5 switch for both traditional voice telephony and VoIP.

The Challenge: To enter the telecom equipment market, the CSX had to meet federal regulations for alarm monitoring capability, including monitoring external equipment and environmental factors.

The Solution: CopperCom added external alarm monitoring capabilities by integrating the DPS Telecom NetGuardian 832A remote telemetry unit.

The Result: The CSX is now listed by the Rural Utilities Service as Acceptable for Use, and CopperCom has a robust, NEBS-certified product poised to compete successfully in the CLEC and rural IOC sectors.

Stephen Cannon CopperCom Director of Product Development

The CSX Softswitch: Circuit switching and VoIP on one platform

CopperCom's CSX (or Converged Switching Exchange) consists of two elements: a hardware media gateway that interconnects with the physical network and provides traditional circuit switching; and a hardware/software application server that supports software-based services.

According to Stephen Cannon, CopperCom's director of product management, the CSX offers competitive and operational benefits to local exchange carriers:

• Small footprint: "With one rack of equipment, I can replace a central office that used to take six racks, and that means lower real estate costs, lower power costs, lower HVAC costs," said Cannon.
• VoIP: "VoIP lowers the cost of infrastructure, because you can go to a converged network for voice, data and video services, instead of separate overlinked networks. And we're making VoIP quality-of-service enabled, to allow real-time voice traffic with the same voice quality customers expect," Cannon said.
• Circuit switching and VoIP on one platform: "On the CSX, we integrate traditional telephony services, we introduce VoIP services, and we do it all on one platform."
• Value-added services: "The CSX provides software-based value-added services, like virtual PBX, remote presence and location services—you can move from one place to another, and automatically be discovered and get your profile and your services moved."
• Web-managed services: "You can manage the CSX's value-added services from a Web portal. The telco can rapidly customize the switch and define new features, whereas on the old-generation switches, you'd have to ask the switch manufacturer for new features, with a one or two-year lead time.
  
  "The telco's customers, the end users, can also manage their own services over the Web, for greater ease of use and lower operational expenses," Cannon said.
• Support for legacy services: "Our customers can move to next-generation technology while still providing support for legacy services: support for rotary dial telephones, party line service, operator service, billing. IP telephony and Web integration are important new revenue sources, but you've still got to support your existing customers."

"We're aggressively pursing the companies that serve rural America"

The CSX's combination of advanced technology and legacy services makes it a practical switch unit for small telcos, especially in rural areas, Cannon said.

"We have two sizes of systems. The CSX 1100 is targeted for the Class 5 local exchange market. It supports up to 25,000 telephone lines, and it's optimized for the small independent operating companies that typically serve rural America. We also have another switching system called the CSX 2100, which can provide a larger local exchange or a tandem exchange application," said Cannon.

"The market we're aggressively pursuing are these independent operating companies, which largely serve rural America," Cannon said.

Challenge: Alarm monitoring was essential for an RUS listing

CopperCom's push into rural markets is one reason why the CSX needed more alarm capabilities. To get into these markets, the CSX had to be listed by the Rural Utility Service (RUS) , a USDA agency that provides assistance to rural telecommunications providers. And to get an RUS listing, the CSX needed to monitor external alarms.

"When the CSX was targeted to ISPs, we only needed to manage the switch itself, which we did with its own built-in alarm capability, which the user could manage with a Web portal," said Cannon.

"But as we moved into IOC market, the requirement was to manage not just the switch, but the whole central office. We needed to collect alarms from electrical equipment, the power equipment—our customers expect us to provide one consolidated report for all the components of the central office. And from a regulatory view we need to meet the requirements of the Rural Utilities Service. So we rely on the NetGuardian to meet those requirements," Cannon said.

Alarms from the NetGuardian are reported directly to the CSX software's SNMP manager

Solution: NetGuardian SNMP RTU easily integrates with the CSX's alarm system

CopperCom chose the NetGuardian for its small footprint, expansion capabilities and SNMP alarm reporting, which allowed the NetGuardian to be directly integrated with the CSX's internal alarm system.

"The NetGuardian had the right combination of form, fit and function," said Cannon. "It provided a solution for our need to collect external alarms, and it gave us the option of a small footprint base unit or expansion capabilities, if needed. And the NetGuardian is a nice on-unit system that meets our requirements to fit the whole switch in a single rack with low power consumption."

"Integrating the NetGuardian to the CSX was very simple, because of the NetGuardian's SNMP base," Cannon added. "The SNMP interface provides a nice intelligent signal that not only collects the alarm, it tells you a bit of information about it."

In the CSX-NetGuardian implementation, the NetGuardian reports external equipment alarms to the CSX as SNMP traps with alarm descriptions. The CSX collates and prioritizes the NetGuardian external alarms with its own internal alarms, and displays all alarm information on the its own Web interface.

DPS' Building Status Unit provides remote audiovisual notification

RUS regulations also required CopperCom to provide audible and visual alarm notification. CopperCom meets that requirement with the DPS Telecom Building Status Unit (BSU).

"We're required to display the alarm status from the central office at remote locations visually and audibly. So what we do to achieve that requirement is connect an output relay from the NetGuardian to the BSU, either a single BSU or several BSUs, which can provide notification within the same building or at a remote location," said Cannon.

NEBS-certified components for 5-9s reliability

Another plus to the NetGuardian is its NEBS Level III certification, which conforms to the standards of the CSX's NEBS-certified components.

"In a telephone network, you've got to make sure you're reliable 99.999%. You need a very reliable product," said Cannon.

"Our media gateway, designed and developed by CopperCom, is a NEBS carrier-grade platform, and so is our application server, which is built upon a Sun Microsystems processor. The NetGuardian is also NEBS-certified, so we are meeting all our regulatory requirements," said Cannon.

"DPS support is a key component to our success"

Cannon added that DPS Telecom support helped make the CSX-NetGuardian integration successful.

"There's two aspects of the this deal, the product itself, and the service and support we get from DPS, which is first class. The support we get is a key component to our success. From the person at the reception desk to [DPS Executive VP] Eric Storm, I'm very pleased with DPS customer service," Cannon said.

Result: Increasing market acceptance of CopperCom's next-generation technology

Fully prepared for carrier-grade use, the CSX softswitch is now deployed by several local exchange carriers, and it's winning market acceptance for the initially unfamiliar softswitch technology, Cannon said.

"The central office market has been in a state of uncertainty for the past couple of years—the traditional telephone operators know they need to replace their legacy equipment, but they're unfamiliar with the new technology," Cannon said.

"But now in 2004, we're starting to see an acceptance and a deployment of softswitch technology. The CSX meets the telcos' requirements, both for moving to the new technology and supporting their legacy services."

And if the market develops as CopperCom hopes, the softswitch will become a significant part of North America's telecom infrastructure.

"Depending on whether you include Canada or not, there's 1,200 to 1,400 independent operating companies. They traditionally have a smaller footprint than the RBOCs, but there's a lot of them—that's about 10,000 switching elements, and that's the market we're going after," Cannon said.

(For more information about CopperCom's CSX 1100 and CSX 2100 switching systems, visit http://www.coppercom.com/solutions/csx.asp)

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