Siemens plans AdvancedTCA telecom architecture with Intel

From the 3GSM Congress in Cannes this week, Siemens Information and Communications Mobile Group introduced its plans for developing an entire infrastructure based on the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA) standard.

The hardware platform supporting the new infrastructure will be based on Intel applications and network processors. It also will use carrier-grade Linux and application interface specifications from the Service Availability Forum for high availability middleware. Siemens will run its own TSP7000 middleware on top of the AdvancedTCA platform.

Specific hardware platforms have not been announced. "Siemens may make different hardware choices over time, but the important thing is they have agreed on the fundamental underlying standard and to use Intel silicon with their software above it," said Ron Peck, director of platform and solutions marketing in Intel's Communications Infrastructure Group. "And we will work with them as close as we can to make sure everything snaps together cleanly."

Siemens expects to bring the first network applications based on the new architecture to market within two years. The company is calling it the Next Generation Telecom Architecture. Although other equipment manufacturers have adopted AdvancedTCA for certain point solutions, Siemens is the first major telecom equipment provider to say it would change its entire architecture to AdvancedTCA.

AdvancedTCA is an open standard developed in 2002 by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG.) It is a modular design intended to advance interoperability and the implementation of scalable hardware platforms.

Intel introduced its modular communications platforms at Supercomm last year along with server partners such as Alcatel and HP. It also introduced its own carrier-grade telecom server platform. Both are based on AdvancedTCA. "We are very bullish on this modular platform we have created and are bullish on working with people like Siemens, particularly given the breadth of adoption they are talking about," Peck said.

The SA Forum was formed in December 2002 by GoAhead and other mostly hardware companies such as HP, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, Intel, Radisys and Force Computer. The group delivered its first Hardware Platform Interface in October of last year. The group was formed to create standards for equipment manufacturers to meet carrier-grade requirements based on interoperable hardware and software building blocks.