HP E6270A OAM Protocol Tester

The HP E6270A is a powerful dedicated module for the verification of the ATM Operations and Maintenance (OAM) protocol. It can generate OAM cells and user traffic on up to 124 channels. It supports automatic OAM cell generation and will generate on each enabled transmitter channel, up to 124 channels, to OAM cells such as AIS/RDI, Continuity Check Cells, and Forward Performance Monitoring Cells.

The ATM Operations and Maintenance (OAM) protocol offers a powerful tool for standardized "in-service" fault detection, fault localization and performance monitoring. OAM's standardized data elements provide key network management data, including Quality of Service (QoS) related measurements, for every virtual path (VP) or virtual circuit (VC) connection, supplying invaluable information for network operators.

At the same time, OAM is a complicated protocol, requiring careful implementation and a dedicated test solution to ensure conformance with relevant ITU-T and Bellcore specifications. HP has delivered the industry's first real time test solution for OAM.

The HP E6270A fully leverages the features of OAM to verify OAM protocol implementations and support in-service fault detection, fault-localization and performance monitoring.

For OAM destination response, the HP E6270A will emulate AIS State, OAM loop back, Activation and Deactivation. OAM cell flows are monitored with Fault Management States and Performance Statistics extracted. Using the information extracted from the performance statistics, the HP E6270A can automatically generate F4 and F5 backwards reporting PM cells.

[ Features ]

Powerful 124 channel traffic generator
Two channel receiver which allows simultaneous OAM F4 and F5 testing
Automatic generation of F4 and F5 OAM cells
Simulate block impairments
Generate OAM source requests and report request outcome
Emulate OAM destination responses and monitor OAM cell flows
Compact single-slot VXIbus module
Works with existing BSTS line interfaces (LIFs) and the cell protocol processor (CPP)
Intuitive user interface
On-line help system

[ Specifications ]

OAM Source Behavior
Loopback and activation/deactivation requests may be made under user 
control on all defined channels.


OAM Destination Behavior
The OPT will emulate the following destination responses on up to 124 
channels:

AIS State: The OPT will automatically generate end-to-end RDI 
cells in response to AIS cells.

OAM Loopback: The OTP will generate loopback response cells in 
response to loopback requests. The response cell can be automatically 
generated or it may contain user-defined information.

Activation/Deactivation: The OPT will generate activation/
deactivation confirmed or denied responses (configured under user 
control) in response to activation/deactivation requests.


Receiver
The module's two-channel receiver allows two flows to be simultaneously 
monitored.

All measurements and statistics are reported in real-time, via an 
intuitive graphical user interface. The OPT measuresand presents a 
wide array of OAM performance statistics to assist in evaluating QoS 
performance levels. These can be displayed using numeric or graphical 
viewers. Users can specify the interval at which statistics are 
updated, selecting from a range of 1 second to 72 hours.


Statistics
The following statistics are collected and displayed for up to two 
selected connections:

Fault Management:
Fault management states 
AIS, loss of continuity (LOC) and RDI 

Performance Statistics:
OAM cell counts 
Received and lost PM cells

Impaired cell blocks
User cell blocks with CLP0 and CLP0+1 loss
CLP0+1 misinsertions 
CLP0+1 errors 
Total impaired cell blocks

Severely errored cell blocks (SECB)
CLP0 and CLP0+1 loss
CLP0+1 misinsertions
CLP0+1 errors
Total severely errored cell blocks

User cell errors
Errored and misinserted cells
Number of lost user cells
Total number of lost user cells (including those lost in severly errored 
cell blocks)

User cell counts
Lost PM cells
Received PM cells
Total CLP0 and CLP0+1 cells
Minimum number of cells tagged during transmission

OAM cell delays
Minimum 
Average 
Minimum - maximum
Number of cells with transmission delay in excess of user-defined 
delay threshold


Error Simulation
Simulate one of the following network events within user and forward 
monitoring PM cells:
Lost PM cell
Lost user cells
Tagged cells
Mis-inserted cells
Errored cells

These errors may be inserted once, or periodically. Error simulation 
allows stress testing of an OAM implementation. Verification of the 
robustness of an implementation by subjecting it to real-world 
conditions in the lab can avoid costly rework during field trials.


Applicable Standards

ITU-T Recommendation I.610,  B-ISDN Operation and 
Maintenance Principles and Functions. December, 1995

Bellcore GR-1248-CORE, Generic Requirements for 
Operations of ATM Network Elements, Issue 2, September 1995

[ Ordering ]

HP E6270A     OAM Protocol Tester



Requirements:

Base system requirement:
HP E4200A/B    HP Broadband Series Test System Form 7 Transportable Base
or
HP E4210A/B    HP Broadband Series Test System Form 13 Mainframe Base

HP BSTS software of 3.08 or higher

The HP E6270A works with the following BSTS line interfaces:
HP E4201A      2.048 Mb/s (E1) Line Interface
HP E1610A      34 Mb/s (E3) Line Interface
HP E1613A      6.3 Mb/s (J2) Electrical Line Interface
HP E1614A      6.3 Mb/s (J2) Optical Line Interface
HP E1695A      45 Mb/s (T3) Line Interface
HP E1616A      1.5/45 Mb/s (T1/T3) Line Interface
HP E1619A      25.6 Mb/s (4B/5B) Line Interface
HP E1617A      52 Mb/s (OC-1) Line Interface
HP E1698A      100-140 Mb/s (TAXI 4B/5B) Line Interface
HP E1697A      155 Mb/s (SONET/SDH OC-3) Optical Line Interface
HP E1612A      155 Mb/s (SONET/SDH STM-1/STS-3c) Electrical Line Interface
HP E4205A      155 Mb/s (UTP-5) Line Interface

[ Key Literature ]