Large communications company
Impact ES–Rhode Island was contracted to design the electronics and software for an Ethernet-managed optical amplifier, with the goal of producing intelligent prototypes for use in a field trial.
The client required external electronic and firmware design services to develop a functional set of intelligent optical amplifier prototypes. These prototypes would be evaluated during a field trial conducted by a major Telco customer. A key goal of the trial was to validate the ability to geographically extend the client’s existing fiber optic network to more remote locations using amplification.
Impact ES–Rhode Island designed electronics based on the Freescale Coldfire microcontroller, enabling amplification, monitoring, and diagnostics for two fiber optic interfaces (upstream and downstream). The design included flash memory and supported both Ethernet and serial interfaces for device control.
The internal CAD layout applied careful signal quality practices, as several subsystems required very low noise for proper operation.
The firmware solution used a cooperative multitasking kernel and included:
Support for 1+1 redundancy
Integration of the Light Weight Internet Protocol stack (LWIP), originally authored by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, with SNMP and DHCP capabilities
Support for NetBSD’s TFTP client
Flash memory management
Ethernet and serial interface drivers
Impact ES–Rhode Island successfully delivered working prototypes meeting the client’s functional and performance requirements, enabling participation in the Telco field trial and supporting the goal of fiber network expansion to remote areas.
