Table of Contents
Overview of the MGX 8260 Media Gateway
The MGX 8260 Media Gateway is a full-scale, carrier-grade platform with high-performance, high-density termination and switching of voice, and data traffic over circuit or packet based WANs. With a modular architecture and interfaces that are compatible with a wide range of access and backbone network types, the MGX 8260 Media Gateway accommodates a diverse and changing communications network.
The MGX 8260 incorporates multi-path switching intelligence, a speedy edge switch, and ease of operation. The following list briefly highlights the features of the Cisco MGX 8260 Media Gateway.
- Offload Dial Traffic and Increase Profitability
- The Cisco MGX 8260 is a high-density, carrier-class gateway that intelligently switches TDM and voice over IP (VoIP) traffic across packet networks to significantly reduce costs, improve availability, and manage escalating demand. The MGX 8260 can offload TDM and VoIP traffic across a range of interfaces and backbone networks:
- Voice services across circuit-switched networks (PSTN/SS7)
- Dial traffic offloaded for cost-effective wholesale delivery to Internet service providers
- TDM to VoIP gateway
- By offloading dial traffic directly to network access servers, the MGX 8260 eliminates long hold-time calls from your TDM network, thereby freeing costly TDM ports for voice calls. The MGX 8260 maximizes revenue-generating TDM services, reduces total cost of ownership by improving data transport efficiency, and lays the foundation for a New World IP+ATM infrastructure that delivers tomorrow's value-added services.
- Leverage High Density and High Performance
- With the highest density in the industry, the MGX 8260 media gateway scales from 192 ports to more than 70,000 TDM ports in a seven-foot telco rack. More than 20 racks of traditional circuit switching equipment would be required to provision the same number of ports as one MGX 8260 gateway. The MGX 8260 scales up as necessary, when necessary, for rapid time to revenue.
- By using advanced digital signal processing (DSP) design, RISC processing, and patented technology for pipe- lining voice packets, the MGX 8260 also delivers unmatched gateway performance. Choose from 5 Gbps to 15 Gbps of switching power with the system's interchangeable switch fabrics. At the same time, ensure the lowest possible network delay. The MGX 8260 limits delay to 40 milliseconds (between two MGX 8260 gateways) for VoIP packetization/ de-packetization.
- Maximize Service Availability
- The MGX 8260 provides the industry's highest availability---99.999 percent---to ensure that your customers enjoy always-on service. A redundant architecture and hot-swappable modules eliminate single points of failure. The MGX 8260 provides built-in 1:1 redundancy on all high-speed modules and interfaces, as well as 1:N redundancy for narrowband and DSP resources. The MGX 8260 platform also incorporates a redundant, high-speed hybrid bus design for switching between TDM and packet services. With no single point of failure, calls in progress are maintained even if the switch or line cards fail---a significant advantage over TDM switches.
- Excellent serviceability also maximizes platform reliability. Technicians have quick and easy access to the platform via a passive rear panel where network connections attach to physical interface cards. Seamless software upgrades ensure that new features are added without downtime or service disruptions.
- Based on the Cisco Open Packet Telephony framework, the MGX 8260 interoperates with your existing technology and transitions smoothly to emerging value-added services. The Open Packet Telephony framework, an industry-standard open interface, separates the call control layer from the switching fabric. This open interface integrates the MGX 8260 with your operations support systems, service creation environments, and media gateway controllers based on the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP).
- The MGX 8260's open interfaces enable you to quickly and cost-effectively develop and deploy new revenue- generating services. And by moving data streams onto a packet network you not only add a revenue source, you also are positioned to support New World value-added services---the cornerstone of future profitability. As new industry-standard networking capabilities emerge, you will be able to leverage them.
You can manage the MGX 8260 from any of the following interfaces:
- WebViewer
- SNMP
- Command line interface
The MGX 8260 gateway offers multiple levels of security access, including viewing, configuration, system administration, and super-user control. It also supports configuration file backup and restore, as well as software upgrades. The following diagram shows the management interfaces and the internal databases they control (see Figure 5-1).
Figure 5-1: MGX 8260 Management Architecture
The WebViewer controls and monitors all MGX 8260 parameters, and typically performs the following operations:
- Configuration
- Alarm management
- Statistics generation
- Diagnosis
- Real-time monitoring
With SNMP you can integrate the MGX 8260 with existing NMS management, provisioning, and OSS platforms. All system attributes are accessible through SNMP, and the MGX 8260 generates trap messages to an event collector.
An SNMP manager has all WebViewer functionality, plus the following additional operations:
- Viewing network map
- Managing traps
- All MGX 8260 functions and features are available at the command line interface. During initial system configuration you can only use the command line interface via the console port. Some configuration tasks can only be performed from the command line interface.
The MGX Media Gateway has four types of cards, with the following indicator groups (see Figure 5-2).
- SCC (System Controller Card)---Displays trunk and system indicator groups
- NSC (Narrowband Service Card)---Displays DS1 line group
- BSC (Broadband Service Card)---Displays DS3 line group
- DMC (Distribution Matrix Card)---Displays DS3 line group
Figure 5-2: Front Panel Indicators
The SCC has the system indicators.
Table 5-1: System Indicators
| LED
| Indication
| Status
|
|---|
LINE
| off
| management interface failure
|
green
| management Ethernet up (LAN1 or LAN2)
|
ACT
| flashing green
| management Ethernet data activity (LAN1 or LAN2)
|
ALMC
| green
| no current alarm
|
yellow
| minor alarm
|
red
| major alarm
|
ALMH
| green
| no alarm history
|
yellow
| minor alarm, history
|
red
| major alarm, history
|
DISK
| flashing green
| hard disk access
|
PWR A/B
| off
| power interruption
|
green
| normal power
|
yellow
| low or high voltage warning
|
red
| low or high voltage alarm
|
The trunk indicators consist of a pair of LEDs for each Fast Ethernet that indicate trunk configuration, activity, and status.
Table 5-2: Trunk Group Indicators
| LED
| Indication
| Status
|
|---|
FDX
| off
| Half duplex operation
|
green
| Full duplex operation
|
ACT
| off
| Ethernet disconnected
|
green
| Ethernet signal connected and up
|
flashing green
| Ethernet data activity
|
The NSC, BSC, and DMC line cards have the following indicators:
Table 5-3: Card and Line Indicators
| LED
| Card or Line
| Indication
| Status
|
|---|
CARD
| SCC
| green
| card active
|
yellow
| standby (protection mode)
|
flashing yellow
| file download
|
red
| card failure
|
flashing red
| card boot or mismatch
|
BSC, NSC, and DMC
| green
| card active
|
yellow
| standby (protection mode)
|
red
| card fail
|
LINE
| DS1 and DS3
| green
| normal operation
|
flashing green
| bert test active
|
yellow
| minor alarm
|
flashing yellow
| loopback active
|
red
| major alarm
|
Fast Ethernet
| green
| link up
|
yellow
| link down in inactive mode
|
red
| link down in active mode
|
The SCC card has two buttons:
- CLR---clears the alarm history
- The ALMC and ALMH indicators display the current and historical alarm severity, respectively. Pressing this button clears the historical alarms. For example, if ALMC is yellow and ALMH is red, the CLR button changes the ALMH indication from red to yellow.
- You can configure the MGX 8260 to report alarm conditions through contact closures that activate audible or visual alarms. The ACO button stops these alarm indication by releasing the alarm relays.
Posted: Tue Apr 4 12:12:59 PDT 2000
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