Industry-managed standards

AdvancedTCA

The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) is a series of PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group (PICMG) specifications, targeted to meet the requirements for carrier grade communications equipment. This series of specifications incorporates the latest trends in high speed interconnect technologies, next generation processors and improved reliability, manageability and serviceability.

AdvancedMC

The PICMG Advanced Mezzanine Card specification defines the base-level requirements for a wide-range of high-speed mezzanine cards optimized for, but not limited to, AdvancedTCA Carriers. AdvancedMC enhances AdvancedTCA’s flexibility by extending its high-bandwidth, multi-protocol interface to individual hot-swappable modules.

MicroTCA

This PICMG specification provides a framework for combining AdvancedMC modules directly, without the need for an AdvancedTCA or custom carrier. MicroTCA is aimed at smaller equipment – such as wireless base stations, Wi-Fi and WiMAX radios, and VoIP access gateways where small physical size low entry cost, and scalability are key requirements.

Carrier Grade Linux

An enhanced version of Linux for use in a highly available, secure, scalable, and maintainable carrier grade system. The specification is managed by the CGL Working Group of the Open Source Development Labs.

HPI and AIS

These Service Availability Forum (SA Forum) specifications define standard interfaces for telecom platform management and high-availability software.

The Hardware Platform Interface (HPI) specification defines the interface between high availability middleware and the underlying hardware and operating system.

At a higher layer than HPI, the Application Interface Specification (AIS) defines the application programming interface between the high availability middleware and the application. AIS allows an application to run on multiple computing modules, and applications that support AIS can migrate more easily between computing platforms from different manufacturers that support the standard.

In addition to the standards development organizations mentioned above, four industry associations / vendor alliance programs are playing key roles in the development of the communications server ecosystem.