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| Telecom Solutions Phoenix’s firmware solutions for the telecom/datacom market have been used in a wide range of products. At the top of the scale, Phoenix’s BIOS solutions run on Cisco’s high-end switch fabrics. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Apple licenses Phoenix’s firmware for its AirPort wireless hub. Phoenix BIOS solutions run on most of the telecommunications hardware infrastructure available today, including Cisco, Alcatel, Nortel, Lucent, Nokia, Apple, and more. Examples of some of Phoenix’s BIOS implementations include: | |
| | Carrier Grade Servers | | Switches/Routers | | Gateway | | MAN |
|  | Carrier Grade Servers (CGSs) uniquely focus on supporting computing applications in the communications market. Originally, only the domain of common carriers, central offices are now distributed and voice is merging with data, making it essential that CGSs be employed at locations emanating outward from the core of the communications infrastructure. Today, CGSs can be found in central and local communications switch offices, as well as corporate call centers and even medium to large-scale business communications networks.
The single most important factor in CGS designs is availability. CGS devices incorporate redundancies at many levels, including power supplies, buses, fail-over blades, and other components to minimize downtime. Phoenix BIOS allows the flexibility to build “perfect fit” BIOSes that eliminate traditional IT-type features, keeping the points of failure at a minimum and the focus on performance.
In addition, Phoenix offers high availability solutions including Firmbase® Technology-based firmware application called High Availability Monitor that can look at all of the operating system’s processes, the hardware’s buses, and measured properties (such as fan speeds, thermal monitors, and voltages) independently of the operating system.
| Switches and routers provide the high-speed packet switching required by data networks. At the most fundamental level, switches are specialized computing engines with fixed control policy; they do not run user applications. OEMs can customize the design for optimal switching performance and functionality.
In order to support a wide range of switching solutions, OEMs may need to draw on multiple silicon technologies spanning multiple silicon vendors. Phoenix’s Embedded BIOS® with StrongFrame® Technology provides the build framework that makes it possible to maintain multiple versions of each product SKU, all sharing a common set of versioned silicon and board support modules.
| Gateways are fundamentally switches that provide security (i.e., NAT) and dissimilar network connectivity (i.e., fiber to Ethernet, or Ethernet to Wireless). Commonly, gateways also implement services as added value, such as DHCP for SOHO networks. Any property not shared by two networks connected by a gateway is a potential issue for the gateway to manage, and a potential user requirement.
Attributes that make gateways desirable are: ease of use, configurability, and reliability. Phoenix can bring its BIOS solutions to bear on gateway design problems, minimizing BOM by reducing the size of the firmware, adding value-add features and configurability as necessary, with its industry-leading quick boot capabilities.
| The Internet involving packet switching over POTS phone lines ten years ago has been replaced by connected metropolitan area networks (MAN). At the MAN level, availability and performance are primary concerns. Because the system may involve so many system components at the board-level, health monitoring, and early warnings become critical for maintaining the overall well-being of the city network.
Phoenix Technologies provides firmware in MAN-class switches for DWDM, CWDM, and ROADM networks—today’s contemporary standards, including Mahi Network’s TRANSITION™ optical switches.
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