Telecom topology-mapping, event correlation and root cause analysis software provider Systems Management ARTS Inc., or SMARTS, will unveil a new ATM and frame relay product for its InCharge service assurance software suite at SUPERCOMM in Atlanta next week, hoping to allay perceptions that its product line addresses only IP technologies.
Infonet Services Corp., a provider of IP VPN, managed security and other communications and professional services to multinational enterprises, and system integrator and IT outsourcer Computer Sciences Corp. will be among the first customers to deploy the new modules, which are designed to “stitch together” a single network topology database and data model from multiple network domains, including ATM, frame relay, IP, Ethernet and FDDI devices and routes.
“This is targeted to service providers and large enterprises with disjointed silos of element management and network management data based on ATM or IP in the core backbone with ATM, frame relay or IP in the edge access network,” product line manager Edmond Baydian says. “Through our automated discovery of all private virtual circuits in the network, some without termination points, one service provider was able to recover $1 million in annualized, stranded frame relay assets in the first few days of implementation.”
Specifically, InCharge can now model and monitor not only routers, servers and other devices and links at the IP layer, but also ATM and frame relay switches including Cisco Systems Inc.’s BPX 8600, IGX 8400 and MGX 8XXX switches; Lucent Technologies Inc.’s PacketStart, CBX-500 and BSTDX switches, and Nortel Networks Ltd.’s PRESIDE platforms.
In addition to “interrogating” those Layer 2 devices individually and directly, InCharge ATM/Frame Relay Availability Manager can interface with the element management system or network management system associated with each product. Over the next four quarters, SMARTS expects to add interfaces to ATM and frame relay products from Alcatel Alsthom, Ericsson and Redback Communications, and it has begun work on interfaces to SONET and wave division multiplexing devices and managers.
According to Roman Pacewicz, vice president of business development for the managed services unit of AT&T Business Services, which uses the InCharge software as the core topology, polling and fault management component of the carrier’s Integrated Global Enterprise Management System, SMARTS’ ability to provide “an end-to-end view of transactions traversing the infrastructure, rather than viewing a series of disconnected technology domains” contributed to AT&T’s decision to integrate InCharge.
