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Interview with Mark Leal, Product Line Manager

Q. What is a service line card? A. A service line card (SLC) is an intelligent demarcation device used in service provider networking.  The SLC allows the service provider to deploy a service-oriented piece of equipment that will deliver service connectivity (voice, data, video) to an end users location, typically a business. Because the SLC is owned by the service provider, it allows the service provider to utilize remote

Q. What are the differences between the R861 and the earlier R821 and R851?

A. The R821, R851 and R861 all can be classified as SLC’s and boast features such as remote management, 802.3ah OAM, L2 switching capabilities/advanced services and loopback.

The R861, however, as the latest product to be introduced into the SLC family also takes advantage of additional features not supported in earlier legacy chipsets that were used on the R821 and R851.  The additional features are ITU-T Y.1731 and IEEE 802.1ag CFM, ingress and egress rate limiting in 1Mbps increments up to 1Gbps, jumbo frame support up to 10K and a Layer 2 MAC based logical services loopback capability.

Q. How is the R861 managed?

A. A significant value add for the R861 SLC solution is the multi-level management options available for convenience, scalability and enhanced security/DOS prevention measures. 

Proxy management via WebBeacon allows the complete remote management and monitoring of the R861 by utilizing a single IP address that has been configured in the R502-M SNMP management module in the Metrobility R5000 chassis.  The R5000 chassis also houses an R861 which is remotely connected to its counterpart at the customer premise. Both are The R861’s viewable from the single R502-M IP address.

The R861 can also be directly managed via SNMP v1/v2c/v3 by configuring an IP address directly on the device itself.

Q. What are the advantages of the Service Line Card?

A. The SLC supports a wide range of directly supported features, including:

• Jumbo frame support
• Granular ingress/egress rate limiting
• CoS/QoS
• Multi-level management options
• Tri-speed copper/dual-speed fiber
• SFP fiber support
• Integrated copper TDR tester

However, physical form factor adds another advantage typically overlooked. 

At 2U high, but 1 inch wide modular, the SLC can be used in all Metrobility chassis options offered by Telco Systems.  For a production network that already has many R5000 multi-slot chassis and R200/R400 CPE chassis deployed, the R861 offers an easy service upgrade option for existing customers that may be using legacy Metrobility media converters. In addition, for new deployments the SLC allows for simple inventory control since the R861 supports 10Mbps, 100Mbps or Gigabit services on the same device.

Q. The R851 and R821 were both certified to MEF-9. Has the R861 passed any MEF certifications?

A. The R861 has passed MEF-9 certification and MEF-14 certification is almost complete

Q. What OAM capabilities are available?

802.3ah:

OAM Function/Messaging Method

• Remote Fault – Receive Path Failure (RPF)
• P2P Link/OAM Peer and MAC
• Dying Gasp
• Loopback
• RMON Group 1 statistics
• Errored frame seconds, period, seconds summary
• Vendor extensions
  • Remote proxy-management
  • Equipment monitoring (temperature and voltage)
  • SFP optical power monitoring

802.1ag CFM:

OAM Function/Messaging Method

• Fault Detection/CCM (100ms cycle rate)
• Fault verification-loopback/LBM-LBR

Y.1731

OAM Function/Messaging Method

• Fault Notification/AIS-RDI
• Frame Loss/statistics-based
• Frame Delay/LB-based two-way
• Frame Delay variation/LB-based two-way