Even as useful as modern telecommunications equipment is, weather can still wreak havoc with connectivity. Even a year after Hurricane Sandy knocked out phone networks up and down the East Coast, a lot of equipment remains vulnerable to the weather. Telco Systems, a subsidiary of BATM, is trying to change that with its new T-MARC WD, a weatherproof service demarcation point for mobile backhaul and business Ethernet.
“Telco Systems’ (News - Alert) T-Marc Weatherproof Demarcation solution series helps operators to eliminate the associated costs of in-house design or third party enclosures, which not only dramatically reduces operating expenses and total cost of ownership, but also makes the service reachable anywhere,” Aviv Miller, lead product line Manager for Telco Systems’ T-Marc WD family, said. “Due to the significant growth of wireless bandwidth, there was a tremendous need for us to develop a weatherproof, high density T-Marc in order to support the serviceability of high bandwidths in Greenfield deployments and existing backhaul installations around the world.”
A demarcation point is the point where a building’s phone wiring ends and the carrier’s wiring begins. What’s special about Telco Systems’ demarcation point is that it’s been designed to withstand extreme weather conditions. It supports operating temperatures as low as 40 degrees and as high as 149 degrees Fahrenheit.
The switch modules can be upgraded and repaired without replacing the entire unit. It also includes four-hour battery backup when the power is out, and can kick in after 50 milliseconds over Ethernet or MPLS.
“The product is built with flexibility in mind,” Aviv said, “where components can be easily upgraded, removed or added to meet the unique needs and requirements of applications or operators, without having to pay for unnecessary hardware. This flexibility also allows for very simple installation and maintenance for the service technician, making it a very unique product.
It supports all four MEF (News - Alert) CE 2.0 services and can integrate with EdgeGenie to provide more intelligent service monitoring. It can also be upgraded to serve as part of an SDN for added flexibility. The T-Marc HD also supports Synchronous Ethernet and transparent TDM traffic across circuit-switched networks.
Edited by Blaise McNamee