TimeHub 5500

Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS) for high QoS delivery of NGN applications and content over carrier networks

TimeHub® 5500 is an NGN-ready platform designed to meet all traditional central office synchronization and timing requirements, and to provide next generation PackeTime® solutions critical to advanced service offerings such as IPTV. Designed to meet synchronization requirements for today’s demanding video and data applications, Microchip”s TimeHub 5500 is the next generation BITS. It is a modular, fully redundant timing distribution system that tracks incoming timing references and qualifies the signals against network timing standards. It then filters and distributes precise timing to all equipment in the central office. Already deployed as the workhorse for major fiber deployments in North America, the TimeHub 5500 is the platform of choice for delivery of carrier grade Network Timing Protocol required to assure high QoS delivery of NGN applications and content.

Output Capacity

The TimeHub 5500 main shelf provides up to 160 1+1 protected outputs. If more outputs are required, up to four expansion shelves can be connected to the main shelf, increasing the capacity to over 1,400 fully protected 1+1 ports per system.

Accuracy, Protection and Scalability for NGN Applications

TimeHub’s carrier class NTP cards provide unsurpassed accuracy, protection, and scalability to drive NGN applications. Using advanced hardware-based time stamping to provide 10-nanosecond accuracy, the TimeHub 5500 provides accuracy orders of magnitude better than enterprise class NTP servers. The flexible architecture allows for 1:1 protected NTP cards to be installed in any open main or expansion shelf output slot. NTP cards are locked to the TimeHub master clock, taking full advantage of PRS traceability, and redundant holdover protection.

Massively Scalable For High Capacity Applications

Each dual port NTP card supports up to 2000 transactions per second for high capacity loading applications. The system scales up for mass deployment scenarios with an additional 2000 NTP transaction per second for each additional NTP card.

Input and Clock Cards

The Input and Clock cards are combined in a single card with a highly stable clock engine. Each card accepts four DS1 inputs and one selectable 5 or 10 MHz input, plus four additional DS1 inputs for monitoring purposes only. The cards are available in either rubidium or quartz versions. The Stratum 2 and Stratum 3E clocks exceed the minimum specification requirements during holdover.

Integration with Legacy Equipment

To ensure that legacy BITS meet carrier class standards for reliability and compatibility with existing central office equipment, TimeHub 5500 delivers the ability to monitor multiple inputs and conduct performance measurement of existing local and remote BITS or any DS1 line. Up to eight DS1 and one 5 or 10 MHz inputs can be monitored simultaneously and their results sent to the NOC.

SmartClock Technology Delivers Superior Synchronization and Timing

Using intelligent firmware algorithms, SmartClock® “learns”  the effects of aging and temperature on the clock while it is locked to the reference signal and stores this information. When the incoming reference signals are lost or disqualified, SmartClock uses the stored data to compensate for frequency changes during holdover. The system will continue to distribute highly stable synchronization signals while predicting and correcting the behavior of the oscillators until input reference signals are restored.

Protected Outputs for Uninterrupted Service

TimeHub 5500 1+1 is a truly hitless protection scheme in which both output cards remain active. If a card fails or is removed, the mate card is already providing a signal to the network elements. No time is lost waiting for a stand-by card to recognize a failure before it becomes active. The result is a clean, hitless timing signal no other protection scheme can offer.

Management and Alarm Collection

As an intelligent network element, TimeHub 5500 provides full visibility and manageability of all input and output ports and all cards on the main and expansion shelves. System parameters can be modified and controlled through any of its multiple interfaces-serial and Ethernet.

Carrier-grade NTP Server

NTP requirements in telecommunication networks have rapidly evolved from a “best effort” utility to mission critical. With high performance NTP server cards, the TimeHub 5500 platform delivers carrier-grade NTP to meet demanding next generation network requirements. The NTP server cards provide the performance, scale, availability and security that assure high QoS delivery of advanced services such as IPTV, multimedia content delivery and residential small cells, as well as distributed BSS/OSS operations.

PTP Grandmaster Card

With high-performance IEEE 1588-2008 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Grandmaster server cards, the TimeHub 5500 platform delivers carrier-grade PTP to meet demanding NGN packet timing requirements. IEEE 1588 cards provide the performance, scale, availability and security to deliver carrier-grade synchronization to remote PTP clients over Ethernet networks.