Specialist FPGA solutions for OTN, SONET/SDH and PDH networks
Wednesday 8th February 2012
Role Description:
Salary: Competitive
To apply for this role, email your CV to jobs@aliathon.com
We are a self funded, sustainable and profitable organization delivering well packaged, efficient and cost effective FPGA solutions to network equipment manufacturers.
We achieve this by;
Our people are motivated self starters who learn from & drive each other. In other words we don’t carry passengers… We thrive on the challenges that our business presents, take pride in our work and make sure we enjoy the journey.
Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements…..
Overview
When the OTN emerged in the late 1990's as the natural successor to SONET/SDH the smallest container envisaged by the network architects was OTU1 (~2.5G/bps). At this time the method for mapping 1GbE clients in to this container was GFP*. While this method is perfectly valid, it has the side affect of wasting 50% of the available bandwidth of the OTU1 payload (when carrying only 1 x 1GbE client) or losing supervision / management control when multiplexing 2 x 1GbE clients in to the OTU1 payload (GFP linear extension). Using GFP at this level also means that timing is difficult to maintain which is a real problem for packet networks relying on synchronous Ethernet.
These mapping inefficiencies and timing problems combined with the convergence of packet / TDM networks has forced the ITU-T to standardize a new container to efficiently carry 1GbE clients across the OTN. This container is called ODU0. ODU0 has been defined with a payload of 1.238G/bps which is perfectly sized to minimize bandwidth wastage when carrying 1 or multiple 1GbE clients across the network. The introduction of a new sub 2.5Gb ODU container also introduces a much smaller granularity of switching in the OTN than was available before, allowing the Network operators to maximize their revenues.
While ODU0 solves the problem of efficiently carrying 1GbE clients over the OTN, there are a constant stream of packet clients that demand the same attention (FibreChannel, native video etc). To accommodate all current and future clients the ITU-T defined ODUflex. Flex differs from the ODU0 mapping shown above in that it allows the client payload size to vary. This flexibility allows the ODUk/OPUk overhead to wrap tightly around the client, thereby maximizing bandwidth usage. The use of BMP* and GMP* allows both client & container rates to vary.
See the diagram opposite to understand how these next generation clients are mapped in to the OTUx payload.
GFP* (Generic Framing Procedure).
GMP* (Generic Mapping Procedure).
AMP* (Asynchronous Mapping Procedure).
BMP* (Bit Synchronous Mapping Procedure).
Aliathon Solution
Aliathon OTN products can be tailored to support the latest derivatives of the G.709 standard, including ODU0 & ODUflex. Applications for this exciting new technology includes but is not limited to the following;
We are expert at delivering the perfect mix of features, performance, flexibility, power and cost for your current and future needs. Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements...
References
Overview
In the Optical Transport Network forward error correction (FEC) is used as a tool to control error's on data links where the transmitter adds systematically generated error-correcting codes (ECC) to each frame.
These extra codes allows the receiver to detect / correct a number of errors and avoid forcing the transmitter to resend the frame. While this feature helps to make the data link more robust and resilient, it also reduces the payload bandwidth (as a percentage of the overall transmitted frame). As a result, FEC is only used in applications where the resending of the frame is either impossible of prohibitive in terms of cost.
FEC solutions are typically described in terms of Net Electrical Coding Gain (NECG*) performance and the percentage of the frame overhead that can be made available for the task.
Aliathon Solution
Aliathon offer's a range of ITU-T standard and proprietary FEC solutions all of which are tightly integrated with our OTN framer technology and fall within the categories shown below;
* FEC performance can be measured in terms of coding gain or the effective improvement in the electrical signal-to-noise ratio (ESNR) at the receiver with the FEC employed. The ITU-T G.975 recommendation, originally developed for submarine fiber-optic transmission, calls for a Reed-Solomon (RS) block code. This RS(255,239) code provides a net electrical coding gain (NECG) of 6.3 dB at 1E-15 corrected bit-error rate (BER) and is currently incorporated into most long-haul fiber transmissions (commonly referred to as Generic FEC or GFEC). As the OTN / ITU-T standard evolves to higher data rates, stronger FEC schemes (commonly referred to as Enhanced FEC or EFEC) have begun to become standardized alongside traditional GFEC (as shown in the table above).
We are expert at delivering the perfect mix of features, performance, flexibility, power and cost for your current and future needs. Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements…..
References
If you are the sort of individual who thrives in a supportive and collaborative environment, is a self starter and would like to work in a place where opinions are valued then we may be the company for you.
We offer competitive compensation packages, flexible working hours and the opportunity to travel on company business.
We current have the following position open within our organization. Click on the link to read more...
Product Briefs
Aliathon’s Packet/Cell products integrate seamlessly with our TDM products to form legacy and next-generation packet transport solutions.
The Cores support multiple paths and are available in channelized and non-channelized variants. This fine-grained flexibility supports a wide range of mappings to carry packets over any TDM based network.
Please click on any of the products below for more information.
Ethernet MAC, contact us for product brief
Aliathon’s PDH products support popular legacy PDH line rates, such as E1,T1, E3 and DS3.
The cores process multiple asynchronous paths and are available in channelized and non-channelized payload variants. This flexibility allows support for all types of PDH applications, such as Line Interfaces, Add/Drop Muxes and Circuit Emulation interfaces.
Please click on any of the products below for more info on our offering.
E3/T3 LIU/Framer, contact us for product brief
Thank you, your registration has been saved, we will be in touch shortly once your membership has been approved.
To download documents or files from our website you need to be a registered member, you can login or register.
If you've forgotten your password, just enter your email address you registered with and you will receive an email with instructions for resetting your Password.
Please follow the instructions below to register.......
Note: We only accept recognized commercial company email address (not personal email addresses like Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail etc...).
Thank you.
Aliathon’s SONET/SDH products enable high bandwidth, deeply channelized solutions that support all SONET/SDH line rates and mapping paths, including full Higher Order and Lower Order Path Processing and PDH Tributary mapping and framing.
The cores support multiple asynchronous line interfaces, and are available in channelized and non-channelized variants. Fine-grained flexibility allows support for all types of client signal, from traditional TDM and PDH to ATM, GFP and POS interfaces.
Read our SONET/SDH apps note or click on any of the products below for more information.
SONET/SDH Framer
E3/T3 Mapper/Framer, contact us for product brief
Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) is the pioneer of programmable logic solutions, enabling system and semiconductor companies to rapidly and cost effectively innovate, differentiate, and win in their markets. Altera offers FPGAs, CPLDs, and ASICs in combination with software tools, intellectual property, and customer support to provide high-value programmable solutions to over 12,000 customers worldwide. Altera was founded in 1983 and has annual revenues in 2009 of US$1.20 billion. Altera is headquartered in San Jose, California, and employs approximately 2,600 people in 19 countries.
For more information, visit www.altera.com
Xilinx is the world’s leading provider of programmable platforms. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Xilinx invented the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and fulfills more than half of the demand for these devices today. Xilinx programmable logic provides revolutionary alternative to custom logic chips that require weeks or months of design time as a "fabless" semiconductor company.
Mentor Graphics® is a leader in electronic design automation. We enable companies to develop better electronic products faster and more cost-effectively. Our innovative products and solutions help engineers conquer design challenges in the increasingly complex worlds of board and chip design. Precise-IP is a Precision Synthesis tool that generates vendor-independent HDL for commonly used IP building blocks. With an ever-increasing library, the easy-to-use wizard guides users to create widely used IP cores such as memories and arithmetic functions for easy re-use. These cores are optimized to provide the best quality of results across FPGA families
Founded by a core team of telecommunications systems specialists, Aliathon, from day one, have been delivering single chip FPGA solutions to meet our clients unique needs.
Our engineering team have a long association with FPGA technology and have become expert in the art of making best use of all commercially available silicon.
With a combined total of 60+ years experience delivering complex FPGA based systems you can use our team as extension of your own, allowing you to concentrate on your core technology competencies.
With a significant background in software design, our team delivers tightly integrated VHDL based designs that take advantage of the most complex features of the language.
Our deep FPGA architectural knowledge results in small, efficient code, balanced designs, with no timing closure issues. This also means minimal VHDL code footprint which is directly related to quick compile times and repeatable results.
We are expert at delivering the perfect mix of features, performance, flexibility, power and cost for your current and future needs. Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements…..
According to Wikipedia an ASSP is a product designed to appeal to a mass market. But what happens if the clients in that market want something a little different? What happens if standards change and evolve?
These are only 2 of the many issues associated with ASSPs; technology whose features and benefits are often best-guess based on old data.
Have you considered using ASSP technology, and if you have, do any of these issues sound familiar?
We are expert at delivering the perfect mix of features, performance, flexibility, power and cost for your current and future needs. Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements…..
Steve founded Aliathon in April 2001 with Jed Martens and is Aliathon’s resident expert in Forward Error Correction as it relates to the Optical Transport Network.
Prior to founding Aliathon, Steve spent 3 years employed by Agilent Technologies in South Queensferry, Scotland, working in their Error Rate test group as an FPGA architect. During this time Steve designed FPGA systems that processed payloads up to and including OTU3 rates.
Before joining Agilent Technologies, Steve had a distinguished career in the high technology sector in Scotland, holding senior management positions with companies in the Security, Industrial and ePOS market places.
Jed founded Aliathon in April 2001 with Steve McDonald and is Aliathon’s resident expert in the areas of channelized and unchannelized SONET/SDH and PDH systems.
Prior to founding Aliathon, Jed spent 2 years employed by Agilent Technologies in South Queensferry, Scotland, working in their channelized network analytics product group as an FPGA architect.
Jed is a native New Zealander, where he graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Computing & Mathematical Sciences. He also completed post-graduate research in the area of Passive Network Monitoring, as well as lecturing in Telecommunications Studies.
Ulises joined Aliathon in August 2003 as a Senior Design Engineer, since then he has been involved in the development of many successful FPGA based solutions for the telecommunications market working closely with many of our Tier 1/2/3 customers. Over these years he has acquired a very broad range of skills, both generic and specialist, in communication protocols, standards and encryption including OTN, SDH, SONET, PDH, ATM, AAL2/5, HDLC, GFP, POS, FEC and Ethernet.
Prior to joining Aliathon, Ulises worked at Hewlett-Packard/Agilent Technologies. Starting in 2000 as a research and development engineer, he was involved in developing the FPGA architecture of 155Mbps-10Gbps data communications test equipment.
Ulises was born in Logroño, Spain, in 1975 and holds a Master of Science degree with Honours in Electronics Engineering from University of Zaragoza. He also completed his Master Thesis in Zaragoza developing an state of the art FPGA based codec in 1999.
Alan joined Aliathon in May 2010 having spent 15 years in the high tech semiconductor arena. He has responsibility for sales / new business development, marketing and operations.
Prior to joining Aliathon, Alan spent 10 years in the Altera Corporation European sales team. In this time, Alan served the company as a Snr. Field Applications Engineer (FAE) and most recently as FAE Manager for Northern Europe.
In this managerial position Alan lead his team to deliver year on year revenue and design commit growth for the company, outstripping regional targets and the industries compound annual growth predictions (CAGR) for FPGA technology. He achieved this by delivering compelling & innovative solutions as well as a high quality of service to Altera's target customers which included some of the worlds largest telecommunications companies.
Mike MacGillis joined Aliathon in July 2011 as an FPGA Design Engineer.
Prior to joining Aliathon, Mike worked as an ASIC/FPGA and Embedded software design engineer with a number of electronics companies in England and Scotland including Cadence Design Systems, ARC Cores, STMicroelectronics and Aircraft Medical Ltd. Mike is a Canadian who holds an Electrical Engineering Degree. He is currently working towards an MSc in Advanced Microelectronics.
At Aliathon we understand that the demands of complex projects don’t just end at the delivery stage. Factors such as bug fixes, changing customer requirements , unforeseen market trends and disruptive technology from your competitors can continue to consume bandwidth within your engineering teams. Today’s climate of cost control often means stretching resources across existing projects and important new developments.
Aliathon’s support contracts are designed to help you deal with this problem. We help you to quickly meet the evolving and dynamic needs of existing products already in the market place, freeing up your precious engineering resource to work on next generation applications.
We have developed a range of support packages that provide you with a continuation of our professional and timely assistance, allowing you to control costs in the latter stages of your project.
These contracts can be activated after the initial 12 months of the engagement and guarantee a smooth continuation of the high quality support you are receiving from our engineering team.
Cumbernauld United 2002's
Team Sponsor 2012
Carnegie Cyclones
Club Sponsor 2012
Our business model is designed to support your project from early concept all the way through to production and beyond (including in-field upgrades).
We offer a commercially compelling alternative to fixed-function ASSPs as well as other IP providers.
We give you cost, power and real-estate savings while at the same time delivering the flexibility and reliability that your products need.
We are expert at delivering the perfect mix of these features for your current and future needs. Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements...
Aliathon’s clients range from global telecommunications market makers to niche and bespoke communication solution providers.
Although the majority of Aliathon’s clients remain anonymous via NDA’s, we are able to show a small selection through more specific cooperative marketing agreements.
Click on the individual logo's below to view our clients web sites.
Empirix is a market leader of service quality assurance solutions for comprehensive customer experience management and end-to-end communication analysis of mobile broadband and IP-based communications systems. The company offers a complete suite of products and services designed to address the quality and interoperability challenges posed by the increased use of mobile broadband, LTE, converged voice and unified communications in both IT and Telecom Environments. The world's largest communication service providers and enterprises depend on Empirix's proactive and predictive correlation solutions to assure the quality of their business-critical communication networks, resulting in greatly improved customer loyalty. Empirix is privately held and headquartered in Bedford, MA.
CommProve is focused on creating real customer value for mobile operators with advanced solutions for real-time monitoring of 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless networks. With CommProve Complete™, we offer the industry’s only combined Business Performance Optimization and trouble-shooting/trouble-resolution platform aimed at improving wireless telecom operator’s profit and cash flow. Typical application contexts are Roaming Revenue Assurance, Interconnect Traffic Management, RAN Congestion Steering and Policy Control, Mobile Broadband Traffic Management, Mobile Broadband Customer Analytics, and Customer Experience Management.
Founded in 1996, CommProve is a privately held company with headquarters in Ireland and offices in the UK, Italy, Brazil, Dubai and USA.
Transmode is a leading provider of optical networking solutions for transport of data, voice and video traffic, based on CWDM and DWDM technology (Coarse/Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing).
Transmode's unique Intelligent WDM (iWDM™) approach has lead to widespread deployment of over 10000 systems in a customer base consisting of more than 250 fixed and mobile network operators, service providers, large enterprises and public institutions across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Endace are world leaders in network traffic capture and analysis, focusing on high speed and ultra high speed networks. You’ll find our technology all over the world monitoring, measuring and protecting some of the largest and most complex networks known to man. Over the last ten years we have developed solutions for all standard LAN/WAN interfaces right up to 40Gb/s.
iSLI sits at the critical interface between the academic and commercial engineering worlds. The Institute is focused on knowledge transfer in enabling technologies, our vision being to increase the value and extent of company engagements in high level R&D. We strive directly to bridge the research exploitation gap, encompassing Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 3 to 6, by engaging both industry and academia individually and in common projects. The enabling technology, on which we focus, is applied across a very wide range of end applications.
Optos is an innovative retinal imaging company with a vision to be recognised as the leading provider of retinal diagnostics.
Optos designs, develops, manufactures and markets retinal imaging devices that create optomap images. The optomap is the only image that provides an ultra-widefield, 82% view of the retina . A simple optomap scan is an important tool for the screening, early detection and diagnosis of eye problems, such as retinal detachment, glaucoma, cataracts, retinal holes/retinal tears and age-related macular degeneration. It can also indicate evidence of non-eye diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers. Many of these conditions can be seen in the periphery of the retina as well as in the central pole which is why widefield imaging is so important. Optos believes that its technology provides an unequalled combination of widefield retinal imaging, speed and convenience for both the practitioner and patient.
Aliathon’s OTN solutions support all line rates, ODU containers and mapping schemes. Their fine-grained flexibility allows support for all types of clients from traditional TDM to 8B10B streams and packet interfaces (see ODU0 / ODUflex). We support single and multi-channel options, spanning client rates from 1Gb -> 100Gbps with OTN line rates from OTU1 -> OTU4.
To learn more about these solutions please click on one of the links below;
100G
40G
10G
Alternatively click on one of our product briefs below to learn about the individual building blocks used in the designs;
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
ODU Mux, contact us for product brief
GMP (Generic Mapping Procedure), contact us for product brief
At Aliathon we strongly believe in the benefits of partnerships and have taken steps to ensure we offer our customers a solid, reliable and robust service in this regard.
We achieve this in two distinct ways;
FPGA & EDA Alliances
We maintain close working relationships with the major FPGA silicon and EDA tools providers. This guarantees that our innovative solutions take advantage of the latest silicon architecture and tools methodology advances.
Strategic Client Partnerships
With our strategic clients we adopt a full-disclosure approach allowing Aliathon to fully understand the technical and commercial challenges our customers face. Our unique solutions are designs to help our clients meet their projects critical success factors ensuring a win-win scenario for both parties.
Aliathon’s market solutions are built on a foundation of highly efficient, functionally balanced VHDL IP blocks. Our cores are designed to comply with the relevant telecom (ITU) standards and have been used in 100’s of designs shipping in 100,000’s of clients products to date.
These blocks are designed to seamlessly interact and form complex data paths to solve our clients unique requirements. For more details of the markets we target / address follow the link to our markets section.
While we recommend that our clients engage with Aliathon at system level and collaborate with our team to deliver a complete solution, in some cases our cores can also be taken individually and integrated in to your own design.
Our integrated solutions & lower level building blocks are divided in to their relevant technology areas and can be viewed by clicking the links below;
Optical Transport Network
Below is a list of our latest news:
The flexible and scalable nature of Aliathon’s products lends itself to a vast array of market segments and applications. See below a list of the main applications utilizing our technology today.
Aliathon’s solutions deliver technical innovation, commercial flexibility and professional reliability on any of today’s commercially available FPGA’s.
Click on the links below to learn more about our market specific solutions:
If you have an enquiry we can assist you with, or you require further information on our range of services, contact us on:
Aliathon Ltd
Evans Business Centre
Pitreavie Court
Dunfermline
Fife KY11 8UU
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 1383 737736
Fax: +44 1383 749501
Aliathon Ltd is registered in Scotland - SC21613710 Craighouse Place, Saline, Fife, Scotland, KY12 9TQ
Customer Service: click here.
Investor Relations: click here.
We develop innovative FPGA based solutions to help our customers process, terminate, generate, inspect, multiplex and attenuate every frame or packet carried on their OTN, SONET/SDH & PDH networks.
We blend our TDM (framing, mapping, muxing) and packet solutions with your unique systems requirements to deliver the perfect fit for your project needs.
Since 2001 we have been providing our clients with cost effective and resource efficient FPGA designs. Our client base is world wide, ranging from multi-national tier 1 communication network equipment providers to smaller, innovative suppliers of bespoke communications products.
Our solutions live at the core of 100s of active client designs shipping in 100,000s of products today.
Aliathon have been a member of the Altera & Xilinx partnerships since 2004 and have experience of delivering our solutions across all mainstream families from both companies.
We know that our unique value makes us stand out from the crowd… we can help to make your products do the same…
We are expert at delivering the perfect mix of features, performance, flexibility, power and cost for your current and future needs. Click here to contact us and discuss your project requirements…