A925 Transcoder Product Description
A925 Transcoder Product Description
Product Description
SCOPE
The EVOLIUM™ A925 Transcoder is an integral part of the Alcatel GSM 900/1800/1900 BSS. This
document provides a detailed overview of the technical realization. It describes the functional
behavior of the various components and gives a complete overview of the product characteristics.
This document contains a detailed description of the complete product range. Its content does not
reflect system capabilities for a particular delivery date or software release!
This document contains proprietary technical information belonging to Alcatel. By accepting this
material, the recipient agrees that this material will neither be reproduced nor used in whole or in part
except as otherwise agreed in writing between Alcatel and the recipient.
CONTENTS
The EVOLIUM™ A925 TC is the latest transcoding equipment of the field proven and worldwide
successful EVOLIUM™ family. It has been designed in a modular way, permitting flexible extensions.
Investment can therefore be optimised by purchasing and deploying the configuration, best suited to
the network topology.
It provides speech transcoding between GSM and 64-kbit/s PCM coding laws, and data-rate
adaptation in the BSS. Submultiplexing on the Ater interface between TC and BSC is standard in all
configurations and reduces transmission needs or requirements on the Ater interface by up to 75 %.
The EVOLIUM™ A925 Transcoder contains powerful digital signal-processing devices, sufficient to
handle all the different available speech coding algorithms and several rate-adaptation techniques.
Capacity
Sized to your current need with support for more capacity as your network grows,
192 A interfaces capacity, i.e. up to 5600 Erlang.
Compactness
Flexibility
Future proof
2. GENERALITIES
The Transcoder is connected to other network elements via the following interfaces:
- The A-ter interface directly towards the BSC or via the MFS (Multi BSS Fast packet Server),
- The A interface towards the MSC.
OMC-R
SGSN
MFS Gb
Abis (PCU)
MSC
BTS Abis BSC TC
Ater Ater A
LMT
2.2 Functions
The functions performed by the transcoder are speech transcoding and rate adaptation together with
related O&M functions. The basic functions are:
- Speech-service functions
- Conversion of vocoder blocks (TRAU frames 320 bits) into 160 A-law PCM samples of
eight bits and vice versa
- Framing and synchronization of vocoder blocks
- Adjustment of the phase of blocks in the downlink direction for minimum delay
- Discontinuous-Transmission (DTX) functions:
- Data-services functions
- Data-rate adaptation for V.110 formats with intermediate rates of 8 kbit/s or 16 kbit/s
- Framing and synchronization of the data blocks
3. PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE
The new transcoder generation is based on state of the art Digital Signal Processor (DSP) devices
allowing multi-codec, multi-channels implementation and enabling an optimzed solution for
transcoding functions.
- New transcoding board: MT120, also compatible with EVOLIUM™ TC G2 equipment. The
MT120 module provides interfaces for 1 Ater trunk (towards BSC) and up to 4 A trunks
(towards MSC).
- New equipment practice, common for A925 and A935 products. The A925 cabinet, is provided
with a high capacity of 48 Ater interfaces and 192 A interfaces (i.e. 48 MT120 boards).
A925 TC
MT120
Ater itf trunk
Four Aitf trunks
G.703
G.703
MT120
Ater itf trunk
Four Aitf trunks
G.703
G.703
Up to 48 boards
MT120
Ater itf trunk
Four Aitf trunks
G.703
G.703
The new equipment practice is based on a standard 19” rack with external dimensions of 2000 mm
height, 600 mm width and 600 mm depth ; it contains four shelves (7U height), each with its three
fans cassette units (identical to those included in A9100 BTS). The Top Rack Unit (TRU), in charge
of secondary power supply distribution and protection, is located on top of the rack (2U height). A
free space is available at the bottom of the rack for an additional fifth subrack. This subrack will be
used for example to house some adaptation boards necessary for IP BSS introduction (ref 3G
Alcatel’s strategy).
TRU 2U
7U
FANU FANU FANU
40U
FANU FANU FANU
Stand (100mm)
A TC Rack sharing notion is introduced at rack and subrack level: one MT120 board in any slot of
any subrack can be allocated to any BSC. This is a static allocation, the board is attached to the BSC
at installation (commissioning phase).
Thanks to its high capacity, the A925 TC will then serve several BSCs, possibly controlled by
different OMC-R, up to 24 BSCs (taken into account as minimum 2 MT120 per BSC).
A BSC can also be connected to several A925 TC racks (on a per cluster basis – see 3.1.2). This
offers full flexibility and scalability as the network capacity evolves.
%6&
20&
20&
A group or cluster of up to 6 MT120 is allocated to one BSC rack (a G2 BSC is made of several
racks, 1 to 4 depending on configurations). The two first MT120 of the cluster are the Masters
(active/standby mode) and manage the Qmux interface (used for remote control of the transcoder) ;
the other MT120 of the clusters are “attached” to the Masters during installation/commissioning
activation phase.
A cluster is viewed from the BSC (TSC: O&M controller) as a TC G2 logical rack, means a group of 6
Ater interfaces. The TSC of the BSC rack is in charge to supervise the corresponding cluster.
Cluster 1
BSC Rack
Int
MT120
ern
O&M
al
Controler
Mu
lti
O&M
Controler
O&
Cluster 2
M
bu
BSC Rack
s
MT120
O&M
Controler
Ater mux interfaces
Cluster 3
The MT120 master board is in charge to forward the supervision/configuration messages received
from the BSC to the concerned MT120 via the internal O&M bus.
- the BSS identity identifying the BSC to which the board is connected.
- the number of the corresponding Ater interfaces.
O&M bus
This duplicated bus is the internal link between all MT120 modules, used for internal communication
such as forwarding of configuration from BSC, downloading from TC terminal, alarms sending to
BSC via MT120 having Qmux connection, etc… The bus is distributed within the rack among the four
subracks by backpanels strip lines and cables.
A High Speed Interface (HSI) is provided but is not used in releases B5, B6 and B7 ; it is a hardware
provision for future evolutions such as IP introduction in BSS (3G evolution). This interface allows all
traffic capacity to be routed off of the board in both directions towards an other module for dedicated
processing (IP interface board for example), and can support both TDM and packet data interfaces.
The A925 TC is connected to BSC or MFS via Ater interfaces and to MSC via A interfaces. The
Figure 6 gives the different connection configurations. In case of connection to MFS, the Ater
interface possibly conveys the N*64 kbit/s Gb interface ; in this case the N*64 kbit/s channels go
transparently through the TC.
1 The list of the BSS identities already attached to the Transcoder will be provided on the Local terminal.
A interface
Ater mux interface
(3:1 or 4:1 Mapping scheme)
SM
MT120
(ASMB)
DTC
SM MT120
(ASMB)
DTC
- go transparently through the MT120, (e.g. SS7, OMC_R X.25, Gb interface or any other
O&M link) placed at same or different position on Ater and A interfaces.
- or are added/dropped at MT120 (only true for 64 kbit/s channels)
The 8 & 16 kbit/s HR, FR, EFR or AMR traffic channels conveyed on 16 kbit/s bearer channels
are processed in MT120.
Both 4:1 and 3:1 submultiplexing schemes on Ater interface are supported.
The main function of the submultiplexing on the A-ter interface is to submultiplex four
(case 4:1) or three (case 3:1) 16 kbit/s TCH into one PCM channel. With a maximum of
four (case 4:1) or three (case 3:1) PCM trunks (30 TCH each) mapped to one PCM
trunk a maximum of 120 TCH (case 4:1) or 90 TCH (case 3:1) are possible. Depending
on the amount of #7 or X.25 signalling links configured, the number of TCH per PCM
trunk may be reduced (i.e. 116 with 1 #7).
O&M access ( mainly configuration and supervision of the board MT120 ) is performed by the BSC
via the support of the Qmux bus ; this solution permits to achieve compatibility with the current TC
G2 solution.
A synchronous interface (subset of X.21) for termination of OMC-R X.25 connection is provided on
each MT120. It allows the connection of transmit and receive data signals of an X.21 interface to a
64 kbit/s timeslot of the Ater interface.
4. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
The MT120 is on double Europe format card 6U: 233.4 mm (high) x 280 mm (depth) x 30 mm
(width). The same module is used in both TC G2 and A925 TC racks.
RI
X21 - 64k
Qmux logic OBC Fans alarms
64k Add/Drop Controller
O&M Bus
A interfaces
Synchro
G703/4
Ater interfaces
DC/DC
HIS 1 and 2
12
HSI DSP DSP
4.1.2 Synchronisation
Each MT120 synchronises itself on one reference clock selected out of the followings possibilities ;
each clock input can be enabled/disabled by software.
- one of the two HSI interface clocks,
- the extracted clock of one among its four A interfaces,
- the local oscillator.
Two redundant power lines inputs are provided by A925 cabinet ; two circuit breakers (one per
branch) are provided per subrack. BATR, BAT0 and BAT1 signals are individually filtered, BATR is
common to both distribution branches.
The Top Rack Unit (TRU) is in charge of secondary power supply distribution and protection inside
the rack. 10 circuit breakers are mounted on the TRU. Each one corresponds to one subrack and to
one distribution branch.
The internal secondary power distribution is made, according to the following figure, by:
- 16 mm2 section power cables from the EMC filters to the TRU,
- ALBAC cables from the TRU to each subrack (dual 4 mm2 section conductor cable with a T
fast-on connector at both ends).
EMC filters
16 mm² 16 mm² 16 mm²
bleue black bleue
JSTRU
ALBAC
Cables
JSTC
JSTC
BAT1 BAT0
Distribution Distribution
JSTC
JSTC
When the so-called "2-wire" connection mode is required, a strap connects the BATR signal to the
Rack protective ground terminals outside the EMC enclosure.
Each MT120 is powered from two separate DC power supply lines with a nominal value of -48 or -60
Volts as provided by the backpanel. The on-board DC/DC converter operates within the static input
voltage range of 38.4 V to 72 V.
Current estimation on MT120 is maximum 50 Watts. As a consequence the total power consumption
of full A925 TC configuration is lower than 2500 Watts.
4.2.3 Cooling
So high compactness in such equipment with powerful DSPs requires a forced cooling based on
fans. Each subrack is equipped (when MT120 is present) with 3 fans cassettes (FANU: identical to
those used in A9100 BTS).
Top and bottom plates as well as front and rear doors are perforated to provide sufficient air flow
inside the rack for the cooling.
Each MT120 is equipped with a sensor for permanent temperature measurements. Three thresholds
are defined:
- If the low threshold is reached, MT120 sends an alarm to the BSC. This does not impact the
traffic.
- If the medium threshold is reached, the MT120 stops some DSPs and sends to the BSC
alarms on these channels for blocking. These channels are no more available for traffic.
- If the high threshold is reached, MT120 sends to BSC alarm and goes to out of order state.
MT120 is no more available for traffic ; but automatic restart is performed when temperature
decreases.
The fans speed is software controlled to reduce at maximum the noise level. Each MT120 controls
the fan of the same subrack ; the fans speed depends on the highest MT120 temperature in the rack
(for cooling efficiency, all fans in the rack have the same speed).
Cabling
Cables with eight pairs (either Flex 3 for 75 Ohms coaxial or L 907 for 120 Ohms pair) are
used for connection to the customer Distribution frame (DDF) . This cabling can be done from
bottom or from top of the rack.
This cabling is offered on subrack granularity.
External alarms
Weight
EMC Protection
5. OPERATIONAL ASPECTS
Thanks to high processing power of the DSPs, it is possible to transfer channel processing task from
one DSP in failure to the 11 others. This recovery mechanism is performed autonomously by the
MT120 board and keeps call transmission ressources in usage.
The recovery mechanism can only apply in case of a single DSP failure (failure on a second DSP
requires the blocking of the corresponding traffic channel).
A non urgent alarm will be reported on MT120 in case of the first DSP failure: MT120 replacement
can be grouped or phased with other on site intervention. An urgent alarm will be reported in case of
second DSP failure.
Hardware failure
Functional MTBF
The A925 TC products provides the central software downloading feature: all the software of all
MT120 modules are downloaded from a central local point, i.e. one MT120 connected to the local
terminal.
This feature reduces drastically the software download phase (more than a factor 10 gain: from
10mn per Ater in TC G2 to only less than 1mn per Ater in A925 TC).
The MT120 board provides the memory capacity to store two software versions: if the download or
activation fails, the module switches back to the previous SW.
- Pre-loading of the software: during this phase the telecom functions remain fully operationnal,
- Software activation, the traffic outage is limited to this phase.
A925 TC supports the remote inventory (RI) feature that simplifies logistic. Manufacturing and
maintenance information, production date, serial number...of MT120 board, rack and fans modules
are stored and are available at local terminal.
The MT120 RI is stored in a dedicated EPROM, whereas the rack and fans RI are stored in each
MT120 in flash memory. The rack and fans RI are entered by local terminal which guarantees the
consistency of these informations, in particular, at MT120 extension (same rack and fans RI value is
sent to this MT120 by TC terminal).
Reduced number of modules reduces logistic costs. With A925, Alcatel offers the most efficient
transcoder: only one new module type is introduced with this new TC generation (MT120 module) ;
the fans cassettes (FANU) are identical to those used in A9100 BTS equipment.
Furthermore, there is only one variant module for 75 and 120 Ohms (E1 version) ; impedance is
software controlled.
The MT120 has 8 monocolour LEDs. In operational state, the LED1 to LED4 are used for A itf PCM
links status, LED5 for Ater PCM link, LED6 for power supply, LED7 for traffic indication and LED8 is
used for MT120 hardware faults status.
Besides the LEDs, the front panel is equipped with following interfaces:
MT120 and FANU modules supports the hot insertion / extraction feature.
Depending on the TC site configuration, one or several EVOLIUM™ A925 TC cabinets can be used
and can be bolted together to form a suite. The cabinet is designed for commercial buildings with a
minimum ceiling height of 2.5 meters. Reinforcement of the floor is not necessary due to the
lightweight design of the cabinets.
Sufficient clearance must be allowed for handling, maintenance and inspection procedures, and for
equipment cooling purposes. In particular, front and rear access to the cabinets must be provided
(access by locked doors).
1000 mm
600 mm
700 mm 600 mm
1000 mm
Top or bottom cable entry is offered depending on customer request or site constraint ; configuration
is done on site during installation.
V
V
VV
VV V
VV V
VV V
VV V
VV V
VV V
VV V
VV V
VV V
Cable
EMC gasket
The A925 racks are fixed and stand on adjustable lifting screws. An optional earthquake protection
kit can be offered.
The following figure shows the installation and cabling of a site composed of one EVOLIUM™ A925
TC (cables access from bottom), one AC to DC Power Equipment Rack, one digital distribution
frame (DDF), one modem, one Local Maintenance Terminal PC and a ground plate.
It is possible to put any MT120 in any position in the four subracks ; however for easy operationnal
procedures the simplest filling rule has been adopted: the rack is filled on a MT120 modularity
(beyond the 2 first for each BSC) from left to right, and from bottom to top (see Figure 15 left) if
cabling is performed from bottom or from top to bottom (see Figure 15 right) if cabling is performed
from top.
TRU TRU
The connection information (it means which BSC connected to which MT120) is available via the
Maintenance Terminal.
The new transcoder generation offers full flexibility in terms of network dimensioning and
configurations with the multi-BSCs feature.
Only the two following rules have to be considered to determine the possible A925 TC configurations:
- Each BSC rack (a G2 BSC is made of several racks, 1 to 4 depending on configurations) has
to be connected to a single A925 rack: it means that the connections of BSC configuration 4 (2
racks) towards TC can be splited between two A925 racks (see following figure). This rule is
explained in the chapter 3.1.2 (cluster notion paragraph).
B B
S S Legend
C C
B B
S S BSCmade of
2 BSCracks
T T C C
C C
B
S BSCRack
C
MSC T
A925 TC Rack
C
The simplest situation can be summarized in the following figure: A925 TC connection with different
BSC racks.
B B B B
S S S S
C C C C
T
C
MSC
The number of BSC it is possible to connect per A925 rack depends on network topology, BSC
configuration and A interfaces dimensioning per BSC. This question has to be carefully studied when
dimensioning the network. Indeed sufficient capacity margin has to be taken at initial phase to avoid
recabling during extension phases.
A minimum of 2 Ater interfaces is requested per BSC: thus a maximum of 24 BSCs can be
connected to one single A925 rack. However if the traffic grows (more TRX connected and more
traffic per TRX, for each BSC rack), 2 Ater interfaces may be not sufficient and thus, no more free
slot in the TC rack leads to a recabling (to transfer some BSC-TC Ater PCMs to another TC rack).
In the other extreme case, maximum 6 Ater interfaces can be connected per G2 BSC rack: thus at
minimum 8 BSC racks can be connected per A925 rack. However, in many networks 6 Ater per BSC
rack is over-dimensioned: in an optimised network, 6.5 or 7 TRXs can be assumed per A itf ; taking
108 TRXs connected per BSC rack, it leads to roughly 4 Ater interfaces and thus 12 BSC racks per
A925 rack.
Of course, G2 BSC extension (additional rack) can be achieved with additional A925 rack (paragraph
6.2).
As explained in the previous paragraph, some BSC rack extension will require A925 rack extension.
B B B B B
S S S S S
C C C C C
T T
C C
MSC
In the previous figure, a BSC G2 extension from configuration 4 (2 racks) to configuration 6 (3 racks)
may require a new A925 TC rack if the first one is already filled.
Seismic conditions
• ETS 30019-2-3 Amendment 1 June 1997
Immunity (*)
EN 300386-2 (1997)
(*) including ESD, radiated immunity, fast transients, surges, radio frequency conducted
immunity
CE marking
CE marking
Low voltage
Directive 73/23/EC, amendment 93/68/EEC
Power Supply
Installation
Acoustic
9. ABBREVIATIONS
End of Document