Nortel Products

Nortel uses SA Forum specifications in the VSE (Versatile Service Engine) AdvancedTCA-based platform.  This platform is used internally by Nortel Products to host a variety of Carrier Grade Applications. Currently shipping Nortel products using this platform are:

• GSM/UMTS MSC
• GSM/UMTS HLR
• IMS CSCF (Proxy, Serving, Interrogating, and Breakout CSCF services)
• CDMA MTX

Nortel currently supports HPI B.01.01 and AIS B.01.01 in our shipping products. Nortel has also implemented JAVA to AIS adapters to allow JAVA access to the AIS "C" based API.

Nortel Versatile Service Engine Platform
Features & Benefits

• Faster time-to-market
• Carrier-grade robustness
• Lower operating cost
• Higher density
• Higher overall scalability
• Superior manageability
• Assured compliance with industry standards
• Foundation for new services

Faster Time-to-Market
Nortel can now integrate best-in-class ATCA hardware and software products from a growing number of suppliers into its products. Nortel R&D investments can now focus on creating value-added IMS capabilities for customers. For service providers, this means faster delivery of new platforms and services.

Carrier-Grade Robustness
Both the ATCA specification and the Nortel mission require that products deliver premium uptime and stable quality of service under a broad range of operating conditions.

Lower Operating Cost
The Versatile Service Engine requires only a handful of module types, configurable by software to handle a multitude of network roles. This commonality means service providers save money on spares inventory, training and operating costs.

Higher Density
The Versatile Service Engine dramatically reduces the footprint of network core components, compared with previous generations of ATCA. First-generation ATCA solutions can offer two shelves per frame, while Nortel's next-generation ATCA solution increases this by up to 50 percent to three shelves per frame. The solution is now far more scalable in the same space.

Higher Overall Scalability
A modular hardware architecture and decoupled software architecture enable you to deploy IMS services on a very small scale (a single node) or very large scale (a multi-node, high-capacity system). Various dimensions that govern system capacity (such as provisioning, database, transactions and signaling) can all scale separately, so you can apply investments very efficiently.

Superior Manageability
The Versatile Service Engine is designed for ease of management. For example, software updates can be applied without interrupting service. Highly granular views of system operation make it easy to isolate faults and determine root cause.

A “flight recorder” capability enables system restoration while preserving the data needed for root-cause analysis.

Assured Compliance with Industry Standards
Nortel supplies proven solutions to wireless (GSM/UMTS, CDMA), wireline and cable providers. So, in addition to the ATCA standard, our solutions naturally meet the major IMS standards for those network environments, such as 3GPP IMS, 3GPP2 MMD, PacketCable and TISPAN. The VSE Platform is Carrier Grade Linux based and is compliant with the Service Availability Forum HPI B.01.01 and AIS B.01.01 standards.

Foundation for New Services
The service control framework enables many new services, such as integrating IMS and Web domains, with proper billing and quality-of-service control. Service control features accelerate and simplify the deployment of new services. Aligning policy and charging control also simplifies network and service design.

For more information on the Nortel VSE Platform, please refer to the Nortel web site by clicking on: Nortel VSE Product Information