Providing Open Architecture High Availability Solutions

• Out-of-band communications

• Inventory management through FRU information

• On-line firmware/software upgrades

• Notification services for service personnel, including remote access to annunciation devices

such as LEDs

• Asynchronous notification of platform events

• Logging of platform events for fault diagnosis

8.5.2 CompactPCI

The PCI Industrial Computing Manufacturers Group (PICMG) has developed, and is continuing to

develop a family of specifications which target hardware technologies for high availability

systems. Of particular interest for consideration in high availability systems are:

• CompactPCI Core Specification (PICMG 2.0)

• CompactPCI Hot-Swap (PICMG 2.1)

• CompactPCI System Management (PICMG 2.9)

• CompactPCI Power Interface (PICMG 2.11)

• CompactPCI Redundant System Slot (PICMG 2.13, draft in committee)

• CompactPCI Packet Switched Backplanes (PICMG 2.16, draft in committee)

There are also two specifications that may be of interest to designers of high availability systems,

but are focused on software rather than hardware capabilities. These are:

• CompactPCI Hot-Swap Infrastructure Interface (PICMG 2.12)

• CompactPCI Multi-Computing Specification (PICMG 2.14, draft in committee)

8.5.3 Open Standards for Platform Alarming

In some segments of the telecommunications industry, due to the large concentrations of complex

equipment in, for example, telephone central offices, standards for platform alarming are

considered critical and already well developed. A comprehensive compilation of requirements and

objectives for the telecommunications industry is defined in two documents, which contain

Bellcore’s and ITU’s views to meet typical Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) operator service

requirements and ensure system availability. Maintenance requirements include trouble detection,

service recovery, notification, verification, isolation, repair, and human-machine interfaces for

monitoring system status and initiating maintenance functions.

The Bellcore maintenance requirements are defined in Section 9 of Telcordia’s Operator Services

System Generic Requirements (OSSGR), available as specification TR-NWT-001148. This is

generally accepted as the North American Standard for this class of equipment.

Internationally marketed products tend to follow ITU publications. The ITU, International

Communications Union, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland is the international organization

within which governments and the private sector coordinate global telecom networks and services.

ITU-T Recommendation X.733 defines the alarm reporting function, which is largely similar to

Bellcore’s. ITU-T Rec. Q.821 (03/93) – documents the stage 2 and stage 3 description for the Q3

software interface – alarm surveillance, notification and actions. The Q3 object model is also an

IEEE standard.