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UnitedLinux Pushes Into Telecom Market
An anonymous reader writes "It would seem that UnitedLinux is pushing into the telecomms market according to this article at ITWorld. Is this the first market they are trying to meander into? I perticularly like this quote: 'Telecommunications grade servers must meet specific standards regarding electromagnetic interference, electrostatic discharge, corrosion, grounding and seismic durability.' Hmmmm."
...that you perticularly like that quote.
one, two (looks interesting), three (looks interesting and authoritative).
See what I've been reading.
Aparently Linux vendors see "Phase 3 style" profit in carrier grade linux. Even Red Hat is getting into this. Lets hope it works out better than embedded linux.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
all of the equipment my isp uses must meet all of these. kinda picky but gets the exact performance we want.
;)
its cool to have 6.5L chevy diesel engines running your power backup
Get paid to code OSS
I know that Linux has better stability, eager support community, consistent development, excellent growth potential among others.
I fail to see what the hell has Linux got to do with tolerance of interference, electrostatic discharge, corrosion, grounding and seismic durability... Last I check those features weren't built into the kernel.
That has more to do with how and where you put the servers than what OS those servers where running.
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
NEBS certification (to which your favorite quote refers) is a hardware standard pretty much required for most telecom installations. I have no clue why a Linux distribution representative is talking about hardware, unless they plan on selling compact-PCI or VME-bus hardware with UnitedLinux pre-installed.
Anyway, the NEBS certification requires testing for the amount of time the hardware smokes after being set on fire, how well it withstands water damage, and such. This is the kind of hardware you buy when five nines just aren't enough.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
CGW (Carrier Grade Windows)
As it is UL being pulled into the markets. And though the article has a couple instances where UL is being brought in as test servers, there is no evidence of a wide-scale demand for Linux to replace existing telecom servers.
Linux has always been a small-scale server OS, best used for printer sharing, file sharing, and web serving. It can be loaded onto big iron without much trouble, but it still suffers performance (in the general sense of the word, not just speedwise) issues compared to commercial big iron Unix.
I have been pwned because my
I mean, I think that UnitedLinux may have chosen this route not because it's the sort of thing they're aiming for in particular, but that they believe it's a market where Linux may be one of the best available solutions. If this is the case, however, shouldn't they perhaps be aiming to establish themselves in a "core" market first, before aiming at something like this?
Then again, perhaps they have a bit of time and effort to burn, and if they do succeed then things may work out very well for UnitedLinux in other areas.
OR, OTOH perhaps this is one of the markets they've had in mind for a while and just haven't made that information public before. If they'd let everyone know ages ago that this was what they were looking at, then some other vendor may have beat them to it. (Just a suggestion - I don't think this is actually the case)
This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
Who's got the whiteout?
GNU/AT&T
It would be prudent to make sure that the server can withstand a building falling on top of it, no?
I have been pwned because my
I've used Sun carrier grade hardware, don't know of any Intel based. Does any exist?
I can't see why anyone would be upset about this (like some of the previous posers^H^H^H^H^Hposters), unless, of course, they are part of the Microsloth FUD patrol...
I would rather have a Linux cluster running my VOIP network than the alternatives. At least I would be able to fix the damn thing in under 4 hours.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
I can definitely envision a scenario like this: Space Robot Bonanza
.
IBM, AMD Become Part of UnitedLinux
This should have been somewhere on Slashdot...
And you've got a CLEC in a box. Stable OS, hardened hardware, and a kick-ass piece of application software.
Frankly Telco Central offices are some of the most *NIX friendly environment because reliability is more important than beauty. Many telcos staved off the insurgence of Window's dominance in the corporate world and continued with using *NIX.
So this is one territory which Linux can move into more easily because it can show clear functional improvement paths and will be less resistance because they were already using *NIX
What!?! You obviously aren't a case-modder, are you?
.oggs).
My case is made of titanium alloys and packaging foam. I can drop it from a plane (while it's running) and the only thing that happens is that the CD-Audio skips (hang on a second, I listen to
In fact, my computer works best when it's being dropped out of planes or having buildings land on it.
Besides, it's probably cheaper to case-mod each PC than to maintain the structural safety of the building. Now if those damned employees would only get titanium bones and exo-skeletons...
This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
Who's got the whiteout?
I used to install TOLD systems in Bell South's COs and all electicity coming into those places gets converted to DC, run through a boatload of WWII style Sub batteries and converted back to AC where need for some of the more modern equipment, but not much. (I tried to steer clear of the rapidly bubbling batteries). Anyway this is a server enviroment that is built on the military and technology requirements of the WWII era, and hasn't changed since then. Heck 4 years ago they were just upgrading from AT&T/Lucent 3B24s to 3B25s (yes AT&T/Lucent still make a unix box they just call it a 5ESS switch, it's real time too).. What was the big difference, they were moving from reel to reel to 5mm DATs. Heck one place I was at they were just finishing the replacement of a 1A1 switch which used punchcards and rotary switches.
It's not so much that the OS needs to be approved of those requiremnts as it is the hardware. Problem is Bell South's thinking when it comes to this stuff is so stuck in a time warp they can't separate the two. Pretty good move actually because once they approve of something it usually takes them between 25 - 50 years to end of life stuff. Can you say support contract boys and girls? There you go good!
On the one hand, a telecom server is an excellent place to put Linux -- Linux is stable, fast, powerful, remotely accessable, and flexible, just what is needed in a piece of equipment that ought to sit and do its thing for months on end without human supervision*.
On the other hand, there really is not much of a telecom market these days. Why go after a business that is rapidly shrinking?
*And, in a telecom server, few users will be irritated by the hideous screen fonts that plague most distros.
The phone company I am doing work for is eliminating most of their standards on grounding, electrostatic discharge, EMI, and the like. Maybe a little too late?
Actually they can. I live in the natural world (as opposed to a hypothetical supernatural world) and I have seen automobiles with my own eyes on multiple occassions. I have never see the space shuttle, though there is indeed much corroborative evidence that it does exist in the natural world. I can personally vouch for Perl, and can arrange a demonstration should you request one. Snackie cakes do indeed exist, much to my waistline's sorrow.
So, what was your point?
Shed their proprietary hardware and OS
Maintained 5 9's reliability
Tripled their call handling capability and dramatically increased the number of endpoints they could handle
In fact, with a single pair of low cost (compared to their old proprietary processors) S8700 Linux based servers, an Avaya IP PBX can handle more endpoints and calls per hour than eight (8!!!) of their competitors' NT based telephony servers, all while providing higher reliability on an OPEN infrastructure...
Think outside the... Hey, where'd the friggin' box go?
It's good to see Linux expanding into the telco enviroment. There is a local group of hams here in northwest washington that have a small tcp/ip network using packet radio that I am a part of. All of the machines are old dell p133 boxes bought from boeing surplus running suse linux, uptimes have been as long as 3 years. I'm sure windows machines wouldn't be able to run that long. I have never been able to get NT to have uptimes of more that 2 or 3 months without having to reboot for one reason or another...
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
I work for a fairly well-known telecommunications equipment company, and I can say that we have more than one product that is based on Linux.
Rather than use any of the off-the-shelf solutions however, we basically rolled our own distribution, including userspace and kernel mods (yes, we ship the source for the mods to GPL'd code) as well as totally custom software to provide the real "carrier-grade" touches.
The "seismic durability" thing just means that all equipment used must be able to withstand certain specified vibration levels for certain amounts of time. This is most likely part of the whole NEBS compliance issue, which most telcos require (and is legislated in many places).
Our setup uses compactPCI blades with a gig or more of RAM and GHz+ processors. Not what most people think of when they think "embedded linux", but its fun to play with.
So you think that's funny. Then you should try working in the defence industry. I used to think that MIL standards where funny ( particularly the one about fungus ) until I saw what was required to simply make a box to put something in
* MIL-STD-2073 DOD Standard Practice for Military Packaging
* MIL-STD-794 Parts and Equipment, Procedures for Packaging and Packing
* MIL-P-116 Preservation Methods
* MIL-STD-648 Design Criteria for Specialized Shipping Containers
* MIL-HDBK-304 Military Standardization Handbook, Package Cushioning Design
* MIL-C-4150J Transit and Storage, Waterproof and Water-Vaporproof
* MIL-T-21200 Test Equipment for use with Electronic and Electrical Equipment
* MIL-T-28800 Test Equipment for use with Electrical and Electronic Equipment
* MIL-T-4734 Transit Cases for Ground Electronics Equipment (USAF)
* MIL-STD-454 Standard General Requirements for Electronic Equipment
* MIL-STD-810 Environmental Test Methods and Engineering Guidelines
* FTMS-101 Federal Test Method Standard, Test Procedures for Packaging Materials
* MIL-STD-130 Identification Marking of US Military Property
* MIL-STD-1472 Human Engineering Design Criteria for Military Systems, Equipment and Facilities
* MIL-I-45208 Inspection System Requirements
Can someone please explain what "carrier grade" linux is? I work for a company that uses standard RH 6.2 for PBXs that can push 300,000 busy calls an hour, basically a mini ESS. The servers seem to be doing fine without any special modifications. Plus I finally get to spend my day working in a mainly Linux environment ;-)
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
The quote, is not UnitedLinux's issue to worry about. Software has nothing to do with electromagnetic interference or any of that. They need to worry more about making linux suitable for my grandma than seismic activity in hardware.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
What about the POSIX committees? They're supposedly "standardizing" the *nices. Also, GNU/Linux is a kernel, not an OS! This sounds like the Microshaftation of "Linux" into some perverse Frankenstein with potential closed-source, IP, patent and other GNU scoffing uses for corporate gain. "Leverage" the Linux community w/o contributing anything. End-of-rant.
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
Sounds to me as if they've identified one of Suns niches which is quite lucrative, and want it...
Why's Sun so successful there?
1) Hardware stability. Those things are built like german tanks. Good quality disks and memory, none of the cost cutting the mass market demands on their servers.
2) Realtime kernel/scheduling. Hardware timers at nanosecond accuracy.
Ok, the 1st is one of those things which do exist nowadays, but the big PCs makers haven't really identified that niche yet. So you'll probably end up with too much hardware for the stablitity it provides (a web server box for a small telecomms app).
The second is one of those things which bites at the name UnitedLinux. People love the linux kernel, because it is fair scheduling. They don't like the idea that one process can get _all_ the cpu, and its up to the code writer to make sure it doesn't. There are patches to the linux kernel such as rtlinux and rtai which provide this, but across the board?
Strikes me as if united linux would have to be less united than it should be...
Generally when people refer to the "Natural World" they exclude man made product. I think what your referring to is "Reality".
On the other hand you could say that Snakie Cakes are a by product of human existance, and therefor are natural. Bees manufacture honey, so why is honey natural, but anything Humans manufacture considered not natural. Sounds bias to me.
Only religionists and other fruitcakes believe that humanity is the product of some supernatural event, and therefor is not part of the natural world.
Even then, everything else in the universe supposedly was also, but still retains its natural condition, go figure, eh?
Philosophically, if something isn't natural, it can only be supernatural. A condition, trait or phenomena that no one has ever found actual evidence for. Possibly some rare events in physics experiments qualify, depending on how you stretch the definition.
Even so, humans are not excluded from the natural word, nor is there any compelling reason to do so. As such, I don't believe I was being unfair in any of what I said. While I don't really know all the formal names for fallacies and debating cheats, I do recognize that people who use the same tone of words as me, often take an irrelevant detail and distract listeners from the real point. I was not trying to do so, and I feel completely justified when the parent poster rests his case on a foundation that anything made by man is unnatural. It is patently false, and the lie should be corrected where ever and whenever you hear it.
If I remember correctly, it wasn't until we sold to PacBell (as they were called then) in California that IBM actually went through that test.
These servers were dual everything. One of the regression tests was to start them processing phone calls (about 50/sec), walk behind them, and pull out a NIC card. You weren't allowed to loose any calls.
I remember doing some testing with IBM, and I remember the drop tests for computers was off a 30 inch desktop. Just slide it off the desk.
Now I know some former AT&T engineers who used the third floor window as their drop test level. Now thats rugged!