Overview of the TransPath System

The Sun Ultra/Netra server is a UNIX computing platform designed for complex application software. It can be equipped with one or two RISC processors operating at speeds of up to 300 MHz, running the Sun Solaris 2.5.1 operating system. The hardware architecture incorporates a proprietary motherboard that uses dual RS-232 ports and four S-Bus standard card slots.

The role of the MUX or digital cross connect in a TransPath system installation is to facilitate grooming of the control channels from the appropriate timeslot of the interconnected DS1 facilities and to incorporate all such control channels into the timeslots (typically used for bearer channels in traditional use of DS1 facilities) in the E1 facilities that are connected to the I/O cards in the host computer.

Two I/O cards transport the control channels (groomed from the "through" E1s by the MUX or digital cross connect unit) between the unit and the Sun. The motherboard based RS-232 ports provide the host computer with asynchronous serial support for interconnection between the Sun and a terminal as well as between the Sun and the Alarm Relay Unit. A third RS232 asynchronous connection is obtained from a serial port extender.

The schematics on the following pages depict the hardware components, and their respective interconnection relationships, associated with the configurations supported by this release of the TransPath system software.

The illustrated configurations support "through" connection for seven (7) E1s, representing 210 bearer channels. While this would be well within the capability of a single I/O card on the host computer terminal, two are illustrated to permit splitting between two devices to avoid a single point of failure.