To all, I found an article on HLIT,wow! Maybe this is their big PR news coming out of Santa Clara!
Harmonic Lightwaves Readies Net Management
By LESLIE ELLIS
Harmonic Lightwaves Inc. is moving forward with plans to develop a
network management system that meets early Cable Television Laboratories
specifications.
This week, Harmonic is unveiling two new products designed for each end
of a hybrid fiber-coax sytem -- an element management that works with
other SNMP (simple network management protocol) systems, and a
transponder that slips into power supplies, amplifiers and line
extenders to handle network management.
"The fact is that operators aren't in a position to wait for customers
to notify them of network problems," said Guy Sucharczuk, product
manager of network management systems for Harmonic Lightwaves.
Last year, Tele-Communications Inc. spearheaded the project with
Harmonic, saying it wanted a $30 device that it could install in all
network actives so that network management took a proactive, instead of
the traditional reactive, stance.
Harmonic's new "NMT 5000" is the outgrowth of that idea, said
Sucharczuk. With a size roughly equivalent to a deck of playing cards,
the transponder doesn't immediately fit TCI's $30 wish, but does shave
50 percent off the cost of similar existing units, which cost about
$300, Sucharczuk said.
Plus, it meets the electromechanical specifications outlined by
CableLabs' Outside Plant project.
That group met on May 2 to hone the specifications, confirmed Pam
Anderson, project manager of enterprise management technologies for
CableLabs.
Called the "HFC Outside Plant Management," the spec aims to define the
underpinnings of the transponders, which plug into plant actives to
discern problems. It also addresses the software layers that run on the
transponders, Anderson said.
The group will meet one or two more times to finalize the spec, so that
vendors can start designing it into their wares, she said.
On the software end, Sucharczuk called the company's new "NetWatch MEM
5000" the first to manage multiple element managers -- including
competing vendors -- from any headend.
It costs about $100,000, he said, and will be available in September.
The transponder is also a September deliverable, he said. Harmonic is
showing both products for the first time at next week's Cable Tec-Expo
in Orlando.
John Dahlquist, vice president of marketing, said that the two new
products create a "truly intelligent" network.
"All systems in a region or even nationally can be monitored through a
single user interface, allowing for central management of an operator's
entire group of networks, from the headend to the last active element,"
Dahlquist said.
It looks good to me,any comments? Eric? |
