Calnex Solutions and Chronos Technology collaborate to provide joined up sync testing in Next Generation Networks

February 2008

Calnex Solutions today announced a partnership with Chronos Technology to jointly develop the market for synchronisation testing in Next Generation Networks (NGNs).

As NGNs evolve, certain services will become highly susceptible to variable latency experienced by packet network traffic. For example, as Mobile Backhaul networks migrate to IP/Ethernet, the operation of Base Station (BTS) and

Node-B equipment can be severely impacted without accurate synchronisation. This variable latency or Packet Delay Variation (PDV) can now be measured and modelled using Calnex's innovative Paragon platform.

The Paragon In-line Impairment Generator can capture a network PDV signature and then reproduce it in a test bed for type-approval and immunity testing of network elements to assess network timing performance degradation under different impairment scenarios.

In a lab test environment, the Chronos SyncWatch probe detects the Time

Interval Error (TIE) of an E1 signal and evaluates the bit rate timing stability using the Maximum Time Interval Error (MTIE) metric as defined in the ITU standards on a 24x7 basis.

The combination of the Calnex In-line Impairment Generator and the Chronos SyncWatch probe ensures that packet delay and bit rate time errors may be simultaneously monitored and correlated to packet delay variation signatures in order to enable applications and network equipment to be fully evaluated so that they may be deployed in existing networks as they migrate to NGN architecture.

Tommy Cook, CEO of Calnex said "The solutions offered by Calnex and Chronos complement one another and provide the complete solution required to stress-test and measure the performance of packet networks being used to transport services to PDV variations. The combined solutions, for the first time, offers design and evaluation teams the ability to test with real-world PDV patterns in a controlled and repeatable environment to high accuracy, and produce quantitative results that can be used to assess the equipment's readiness for deployment. "

Charles Curry, Managing Director of Chronos said "We are very excited about this collaboration with Calnex which means that for the first time mobile and fixed line operators can identify the link between packet delay and time errors in the bit stream thus enabling them to fully type approve existing equipment in their networks when connected to an IP based transmission path."

Calnex was founded by Tommy Cook, who spent 20 years with global electronics firm Agilent. Calnex's devices will enable manufacturers of telecoms equipment to test, verify and validate their products' compliance with international standards.