Trunks Integrated Record Keeping System (TIRKS) is an operations support system from Telcordia Technologies (since acquired by Ericsson, Inc.), originally developed by the Bell System during the late 1970s. It was developed for inventory and order control management of interoffice trunk circuits that interconnect telephone switches. It grew to encompass and automate many functions required to build the ever-expanding data transport network. Supporting circuits from POTS and 150 baud modems up through T1, DS3, SONET and DWDM, it continues to evolve today, and unlike many software technologies today, provides complete backward compatibility. TIRKS was recently updated with a Java GUI, XML API, and WORD Sketch, which provides graphical views of the TIRKS Work Order Record and Details Document as well as SONET and DWDM networks. When TIRKS became a registered trademark in 1987, it became technically improper to use it as an acronym. TIRKS was one of many OSS technologies transferred to Bell Communications Research as part of the Modification of Final Judgment related to the AT&T divestiture on January 1, 1984. In the 1990s, the Facility and Equipment Planning System (FEPS) and Planning Workstation System (PWS) products were incorporated into the Telcordia TIRKS CE System. TIRKS is still in use at AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink/Lumen Technologies, and altafiber.
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Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a telecommunications standard defined by the American National Standards Institute and ITU-T for digital transmission of multiple types of traffic. ATM was developed to meet the needs of the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network as defined in the late 1980s, and designed to integrate telecommunication networks. It can handle both traditional high-throughput data traffic and real-time, low-latency content such as telephony (voice) and video. ATM provides functionality that uses features of circuit switching and packet switching networks by using asynchronous time-division multiplexing.
Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) are standardized protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams synchronously over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). At low transmission rates data can also be transferred via an electrical interface. The method was developed to replace the plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH) system for transporting large amounts of telephone calls and data traffic over the same fiber without the problems of synchronization.
Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a method of transmitting and receiving independent signals over a common signal path by means of synchronized switches at each end of the transmission line so that each signal appears on the line only a fraction of time in an alternating pattern. It can be used when the bit rate of the transmission medium exceeds that of the signal to be transmitted. This form of signal multiplexing was developed in telecommunications for telegraphy systems in the late 19th century, but found its most common application in digital telephony in the second half of the 20th century.
In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths of laser light. This technique enables bidirectional communications over a single strand of fiber, also called wavelength-division duplexing, as well as multiplication of capacity.
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The network consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables interconnected by switching centers, such as central offices, network tandems, and international gateways, which allow telephone users to communicate with each other.
Abilene Network was a high-performance backbone network created by the Internet2 community in the late 1990s. In 2007 the Abilene Network was retired and the upgraded network became known as the "Internet2 Network".
Transaction Language 1 (TL1) is a widely used management protocol in telecommunications. It is a cross-vendor, cross-technology man-machine language, and is widely used to manage optical (SONET) and broadband access infrastructure in North America. TL1 is used in the input and output messages that pass between Operations Support Systems (OSSs) and Network Elements (NEs). Operations domains such as surveillance, memory administration, and access and testing define and use TL1 messages to accomplish specific functions between the OS and the NE. TL1 is defined in Telcordia Technologies Generic Requirements document GR-831-CORE.
Switched Multi-megabit Data Service (SMDS) was a connectionless service used to connect LANs, MANs and WANs to exchange data, in early 1990s. In Europe, the service was known as Connectionless Broadband Data Service (CBDS).
A passive optical network (PON) is a fiber-optic telecommunications technology for delivering broadband network access to end-customers. Its architecture implements a point-to-multipoint topology in which a single optical fiber serves multiple endpoints by using unpowered (passive) fiber optic splitters to divide the fiber bandwidth among the endpoints. Passive optical networks are often referred to as the last mile between an Internet service provider (ISP) and its customers. Many fiber ISPs prefer this technology.
Many services running on modern digital telecommunications networks require accurate synchronization for correct operation. For example, if telephone exchanges are not synchronized, then bit slips will occur and degrade performance. Telecommunication networks rely on the use of highly accurate primary reference clocks which are distributed network-wide using synchronization links and synchronization supply units.
Telecom Valley was an area located in Sonoma County, California specifically the Redwood Business Park of Petaluma, California.
The Service Evaluation System (SES) was an operations support system developed by Bell Laboratories and used by telephone companies beginning in the late 1960s. Many local, long distance, and operator circuit-switching systems provided special dedicated circuits to the SES to monitor the quality of customer connections during the call setup process. Calls were selected at random by switching systems and one-way voice connections were established to the SES monitoring center.
The Switching Control Center System was an operations support system developed by Bell Laboratories and deployed during the early 1970s. This computer system was first based on the PDP-11 product line from Digital Equipment Corporation and used the CB Unix operating system and custom application software and device drivers that were developed and maintained by Bell Labs in Columbus, Ohio USA. SCCS was ported to the AT&T 3B20 and 3B5 computers running UNIX System V Release 2 in the early 1980s.
Terminal Identifier – Address Resolution Protocol (TARP) is a protocol defined in Telcordia Technologies Generic Requirements document GR-253-CORE for SONET and used in OSS to resolve a TL1 TID to a CLNP address (NSAP) of a Network Element (NE). The protocol is used in a number of network devices. Steven R. Kim originally developed the protocol while working for Fujitsu Network Systems.
IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM) is a technology used in telecommunications networks to integrate IP routers and network switches in the OTN . A true IPoDWDM solution is implemented only when the IP Routers and Switches support ITU-T G.709. In this way IP devices can monitor the optical path and implement the transport functionality as FEC specified by ITU-T G.709/Y.1331 or Super FEC functionality defined in ITU-T G.975.1.
An optical mesh network is a type of optical telecommunications network employing wired fiber-optic communication or wireless free-space optical communication in a mesh network architecture.
Operations support systems (OSS), operational support systems in British usage, or Operation System (OpS) in NTT, are computer systems used by telecommunications service providers to manage their networks. They support management functions such as network inventory, service provisioning, network configuration and fault management.
Path protection in telecommunications is an end-to-end protection scheme used in connection oriented circuits in different network architectures to protect against inevitable failures on service providers’ network that might affect the services offered to end customers. Any failure occurred at any point along the path of a circuit will cause the end nodes to move/pick the traffic to/from a new route. Finding paths with protection, especially in elastic optical networks, was considered a difficult problem, but an efficient and optimal algorithm was proposed.
Jules A. Bellisio is the Principal of his own consulting practice, Telemediators, LLC. Previously, he was Chief Scientist and Executive Director of Emerging Networks Research at Telcordia Technologies, where he remains a Telcordia Fellow. Currently, he consults on the system and physical layer aspects of digital communications and related emerging technologies with a focus on mobility and wireless.
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