Call out for any requirements for Network Management Systems cables
In addition to satisfying world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies, @YellowsBestLtd also seeks out peripheral items such as Network Management System (NMS) cables.
These items may be minor in nature and originally low-cost, but they are vital for continued use and configuration of transmission nodes via management systems which evolved way before modern wireless technologies and smart phone ‘app’ based tools. Such specialist cables are becoming increasingly hard to find, since once used and damaged, they are likely to be disposed of rather than refurbished, and no new replacements are being produced.
However, in the absence of surplus stocks, it is possible for us to arrange for the manufacture of specialist cabling products including those for NMS. Due to the particular nature of the connectors utilised, these have to be specially sourced, but the cable materials themselves can be specified and applied accordingly. However, it is the orginal design information that is most critical to obtain the right functionality and compatibility.
Whatever your requirements, if you are seeking equipment or cabling for new or legacy systems, then please let us know as we can usually assist. We look forward to hearing from you.
Call out for any stocks of Keymile’s Dual Power Input Modules (DUPI4)
@YellowsBestLtd we satisfy world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies from a wide range of Original Equipment Manufacturers (O.E.M.s).
In particular, we have stocks of surplus and refurbished products from the Keymile UMUX range which we are able to supply to assist customers in maintaining their operational networks.
However, one item not in our stocks that is of immediate interest to several of our clients is the Dual Power Input Modules (DUPI4).
We are urgently seeking supply; if you can assist, please get in touch!
These items provide the ultimate power protection upgrade:
Unit centralises alarm functionality and power input control
Delivers built-in redundancy
Power protection for both sub rack and fan unit
Increased the VDC availability
The DUPI4 acts as a dual input power decoupler that selects between two independent VDC power feeds and delivers them directly to the sub rack’s power input. Thus, the DUPI4 ensures uninterrupted service delivery since the power feed change over is instantaneous.
‘Legacy’ telecoms history
The UMUX SDH product portfolio was originally launched 1991 by Ascom, which subsequently became Keymile. Keymile was sold to ABB in 2017 when the UMUX range was discontinued, and then was acquired in 2019 by DZS.
Comprehensive Functionality
The UMUX platform provides carrier-grade reliable multi-service multiplexing and aggregation functions over copper and fibre networks. A variety of voice (POTS, FSX, FSO, ISDN) and data (e.g. G.703, V.11, V,24, V,35) interfaces, SHDSL and Ethernet (including PoE+ and EoS) services are available.
UMUX module range
The modular and flexible housing provided by the UMUX 1500 (8U, 21-slot) and UMUX 1200 (4U, 8-slot) 19” subracks provide the perfect solution for all applications and locations, offering redundant controller and power supplies.
Spares for continuing to provide operational service
The UMUX, together with the UNEM network management system and ‘sister’ LINERUNNER and MILEGATE products, continues to provide operational service with various global Operator, Utilities and Transport companies.
@YellowsBestLtd supports requirements to maintain these networks by supplying various spare part items from refurbished and surplus stocks in perfect working order.
For many years, the ‘Dynanet’ family of PDH Transmission telecoms products have well served Public Operator and Private Network Customers across the Telecoms, Utilities, Transport and Public Safety markets with high availability mission critical infrastructure, and indeed some networks are continuing to provide good operational service.
They were first introduced by Nokia over 20 years ago, and were continued in recent years by DNWP. Production of the majority of the product range was ceased in 2019.
Spare parts for continued operational service
@YellowsBestLtd satisfies world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies from a wide range of Original Equipment Manufacturers (O.E.M.s).
In particular, we are able to supply products from the ‘Dynanet’ range, given that we have a significant amount of refurbished and surplus equipment items in stock for immediate delivery. Hence there continues to be spares support for current and even increased deployed networks.
Comprehensive Stocklist of ‘Dynanet’ Spares
Whereas the ‘Dynanet’ family contained a wide range of products produced and supplied over many years, some of which are relatively obscure and unlikely to be needed, there are a number of core items that have proved to be always in demand by Customers. Consequently, we have endeavoured to create a comprehensive stock list, containing part numbers, product codes and descriptions and images which is presented here, and would welcome any enquiries you have for spares requirements that we can fulfil. If however, you are seeking something more unusual, then please let us know as we can usually assist. We look forward to hearing from you.
The XMP1 product is multi-service access / transmission node equipment capable of PDH data rates of 8Kbps to 34Mbps and SDH STM-1 or STM-4. Originally manufactured by Marconi, the range was taken over in later years by Keymile and Bosch before being discontinued.
The system is still in service, customers include Utilities and Transport organisations, and typically deployed as a terminal multiplexer or as an ADM (Add-Drop-Mux). It can provide point to point or leased line in a corporate network for POTS, data, LAN, IDSN etc.
The building blocks of the system are the central unit which provides control and management, the SDH cards for STM-1 and STM-4 aggregation and the line units which provide uplink in the form of E1, E3 or SHDSL which can be copper or optical. 8 and 16 Slot versions were available as well as an SL (slimline) variant.
Spares and Repairs for continued long-term operation and maintenance
Whereas these products are no longer manufactured, @YellowsBestLtd is able to supply a limited amount of spare parts and/or offer repair services in order to aid customers in keeping their networks operational. There follows a non-exhaustive list of typical parts that can be supplied, we would be very pleased to receive specific requests for items that are needed.
A205HAT00080AAB
05HAT00080AAB
XMP (MK2) POWER SUPPLY 48/60V
AN00059057
62.7026.353.00-A001
PORT HDB3 (2)
AN00098224
62.7040.405.00-A001
MODUL V.11
AN00114784
62.7040.303.00-A001
ETHERNET ADAPTER
AN00118106
62.7006.430.00-A002
POWER SUPPLY 48-60V
A2AN00034165
Cable Clamp
A2AN00086011
CABLE CLAMP PANEL 1 HU
A2AN00086013
PATCH PANEL V.11
A2AN00102460
CCU-CENTRAL UNIT CC WITH QD2
A2AN00102463
SUBRACK XMP1 (16)
A2AN00109256
FRONTPANEL BLUE
A2AN00116240
Connecting Cable 2m
A2AN00214510
Connecting Cable Central Unit Protection
A2AN00214511
Ethernet Cable (5m)
A2AN0022815
DSK MODULAR
A2AN00274356
Input/Output Alarm Cable(2 O/P,3 I/P)
A2AN00276278
Connecting Cable 6m (Port HDB3) coax
A2AN00276281
Connecting Cable 20m (Port HDB2) coax
A2AN0034165
Cable Clamp
A2AN00702802
Mounting element
A205HAN00499AAC
XMP1-SL CROSS CONNECT
XMP1 spares
@YellowsBestLtd our mission is in “Keeping Customers Operational”. We’re always keen to enhance our range of #business services, increase the #enterprise infrastructure we support and expand our mix of #sustainable solutions we offer for supply and maintenance of new and legacy #technologies and products for our customers.
Please help us understand your management services or solutions requirements, whether you’re implementing new systems or maintaining existing infrastructure networks to serve your operational business needs.
In order to accomplish our mission of “Keeping Customers Operational”, we often assist with the repair of parts for infrastructure systems, which are typically established, long-standing and therefore proven and fit-for-purpose. It makes sense to maintain and extend the life of these systems, as wholesale replacements will be costly and disruptive. This is particularly applicable when the service requirements have not changed, so functionality upgrades are not necessary.
Often, new product spares are expensive, difficult to source with long lead times, or no longer manufactured due to the product range having been discontinued and/or the original vendor having ceased business. In such circumstances, it becomes even more important to restore existing parts to working condition, tested and warrantied.
Available hardware services vary depending on the wide range of deployed technologies, and sometimes repairs are not possible due to component shortages or poor condition of the parts (e.g. suffering from water damage). But often both ‘legacy’ and newer items can be refurbished. Rebuild and recovery of software configurations can also be required and performed.
@Yellowsbestltd would be keen to hear from you should you have any repairs requirements. We would welcome receiving any defective items you have in order to perform a no-cost assessment to establish the feasibility and likely cost of restoration. Please get in touch to let us know how we can help.
By example, there follows a list of a few recent requests we have been able to assist with. We look forward to hearing from you with any feedback you may have.
The Sagem ADR product range was an SDH Add-drop Multiplexer (ADM) product family designed as a flexible platform for Metro Access and Metro Core, backhauling, microwave radio and Utilities infrastructure networks.
ADR155c
The family included ADR155c and ADR622, STM-1/STM-4 ADM, and ADR2500 ‘eXtra’ and ADR10000, STM-16/STM-64 multi-service NG SDH. This range was managed by the IONOS Network Management System (NMS) which also managed Sagem Primary Multiplexers, PDH and SDH microwave radio and DWDM systems.
ADR622
The ADR family was deployed worldwide with more than 60,000 units over 5 years.
Comprehensive Functionality
ADR2500 ‘eXtra’
The ADR platform offers a large variety of interfaces from E1 and E3, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, enabling the provision of a wide range of end Customer services. Transmission protection for guaranteed QoS is provided with SNCP, MSP, MS-SPRing as well as common unit and tributary protection.
The STM-16 network units can be used for multi STM-1 or STM-4 and local-cross connect functionality thanks to a fully non-blocking switch matrix.
The modular and flexible housing provided by the ADR155c (2U), ADR622 (6U) and ADR2500 ‘eXtra’ (14U) 19” and ETSI subracks provide a flexible mix of office, street cabinet and equipment room deployment.
ADR10000
Continuing to provide operational service
The ADR family of SDH products continues to provide operational service with various global Operator, Utilities and Transport companies.
@YellowsBestLtd supports requirements to maintain these networks by supplying various spare part items from refurbished and surplus stocks in perfect working order.
There follows a list of the main elements that are typically provided, though other items can be provided. Please let us know of any specific requirements you may have. We look forward to being of assistance.
It can make perfect sense to continue to run existing reliable and proven systems, especially if operational requirements have not changed. Alas, the developing nature of technology means that from time-to-time, issues arise.
Changes to email encyption protocols
Modern computer communication services support the Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption protocol. This aims to protect the information sent and received over a standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) connection between two computers while ensuring that they both agree and understand the method of data transfer.
However, the earlier versions of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 have been deemed by the industry to be not secure enough and have been superseded by versions 1.2 and 1.3. You and/or your service provider may have already transitioned to the latest protocols. However, if you have old hardware running legacy software, as support from service providers is withdrawn, you may find your email stops working.
How you can tell if it’s an issue
If you’re using an Apple Mac then the Safari Browser has supported TLS 1.2 for web traffic protection since version 7 in 2013. However, if you’re still running ‘El Capitan’ OSX 10.11 with Apple Mail 9.3, it won’t support TLS 1.2 for email. Other computer hardware and software combinations may also run into problems.
Most browsers including Safari ended support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in March 2020, and various service providers have either already dropped or soon will withdraw operation of the older TLS protocols.
For instance, one.com will stop support of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 on 17th August 2021. Other service providers may have different end of life dates. If you’re using the one.com service then there’s an easy way to check:
Other service providers may have similar methods of verifying the protocols, so it’s worth checking with them. Failing that, you may be able to examine the headers of your emails, to look for something like this:
To ensuring your email continues to function, the options include:
Updating your operating system. In the case of Apple Mail on Mac computers, this means moving to ‘Sierra’ OSX 10.12 as Mail cannot be separately upgraded.
Using a different email client with TLS 1.2 support, e.g. Mozilla Thunderbird.
Using a browser based solution for your email
Changing your settings to send and receive email without encryption (not recommended)
Balancing New Requirements and Legacy Support
If you want to stick with your current hardware and software choices, this does present a problem, particularly if you’re otherwise happy with your setup and are unable to upgrade.
Alas if you want full compatibility (and security) with the latest industry supported functionality, whilst retaining operation of other legacy applications, consideration has to be made to invest in new hardware to run in parallel with older systems, which continue to be maintained to perform dedicated compatibility functions.
YellowsBest: Keeping Customers Operational
If you have similar or other new requirements and legacy maintenance needs, please get in touch to discuss how we may be of assistance to keep you operational.
A long time ago, great “Dinosaur beasts” of Mobile Communications were supreme. The beginnings were in the 1970’s with the launch of a Motorola handset weighing 2kg. This was followed by other barely portable products with huge batteries such as the Nokia Talkman. Only for the ‘new adopters’ who had to be in touch all the time.
Then came the ‘Bricks’
From these humble beginnings, soon a range of solid, reliable but ‘bricklike’ big and heavy phones appeared, like the Nokia 2110 and the Motorola Dynatac 8000X, as featured in the 1987 movie “Wall Street”. Designed for upwardly mobile business people.
Diverse expansion
Then came a period of rapid expansion with a diverse range of more affordable products to suit wide consumer tastes. Various forms, colours and accessories became more and more important, with slide phones like the Nokia 8110 as featured in the 1999 film “The Matrix” and flip phones like the Motorola Razr, providing a ‘Star Trek’ appeal.
Feature explosion
An expansion of more and more features to make mobiles do more fuelled the explosion of product ranges. Cameras and music players were added to increase the functionality of these increasingly sophisticated and compact pocket-sized devices, such as the Nokia 6230.
Nokia 6230
A glance at the 2004 Carphone Warehouse catalogue shows how varied mobiles had become, with the top 10 dominated by Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Siemens and Motorola as the biggest manufacturers of the time.
2004 Carphone Warehouse “Top 10”
‘Tyrannosaurus’ functionality heavyweights
For a while, the king of the land was the bulky, terrifyingly expensive but impressive (for its time) Nokia Communicator, offering phone, text, email and even fax. Opening up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, the range started with the 9000 which appeared in the 1997 film “The Saint” and had evolved by 2007 into the even more powerful E90.
Nokia E90 Communicator
Extinction Event: The Death of the incumbents
But then came biggest shock to the world of mobile communications: the launch of the first Apple iPhone on 9th January 2007.
Like a meteorite striking the earth, this shock spelt the end for many mobile types which couldn’t compete with the sudden demand for ‘touch-screen’ devices using apps.
Indeed companies like Nokia, once the biggest of them all, couldn’t adapt and died a death, as well documented in the BBC documentary “The Rise and Fall of Nokia”
Survival of the fittest
The ‘smartphones’ from Apple and later Android-based from the likes of Samsung became an increasing hit, wiping out much diversity and seeing a seismic shift away from many form factors to the now standard “slate” style of device.
Apple iPhone 4
Some ‘featurephones’ as they came to be known have lingered on, and in recent years companies like HMD global, who under licence have taken some iconic Nokia designs such as the 3310 and made a successful relaunch. Diversity is now finally creeping back with new variants such as the ‘folding’ Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2.
Your Paradigm shifts
Any memories or stories to tell? @YellowsBestLtd would be keen to hear your thoughts and experiences of sudden technology ‘paradigm shifts’. Let us know if we can be of any assistance with your future solution or services requirements.
It’s almost difficult to believe that not so very long ago (ok, going back maybe more than 50 years) there were no optical fibre or digital transmission paths of any flavour of technology providing our communications infrastructure.
Analogue FDM
From early to mid 20th Century, an extensive core copper cable network was rolled out, based on analogue FDM (frequency Division Multiplexing) over coaxial pairs, with the valve-based technologies occupying a lot of space and consuming much power.
Digital PCM
The late 1960s saw the introduction of digital PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) sampling at 8kHz. The ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union – then known as CCITT) standardised 30-channels at 64kbit/s in a 2.048Mbit/s multiplexing system, using 8-bit A-law algorithm (the USA adopted 24-channel 1.544Mbit/s with μ-law algorithm).
Problems with high bit-rates
The higher bit rates gave rise to crosstalk interference problems on many existing cables. Also, data signals transmitted as voltage levels in unipolar NRZ (Non-Return to Zero) format are not self clocking and have a significant DC component, wasting power. Bipolar RZ (Return-to-Zero) type AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion) coding prevents the build up of the DC-component for longer distance and addresses the issue of data containing multiple ones. However, long sequences of zeros still present problems with a lack of transitions causing difficulties maintaining synchronisation.
Introduction of Line Codes
Line Coding of the format mB-nB was introduced to overcome these issues. Initially 4B3T (four Binary, three Ternary) was used. This encodes each 4-bit input group into a 3 symbol output using the three states of positive, negative and no pulses.
e.g. ‘0000’ is coded as ‘+0-‘
This improved efficiency in terms of bit per symbol over AMI, which itself is an example of a 1B1T code. Improvements in transverse screened cables were also made. However, transmission problems with high-speed digital data were still encountered due to unsuitable copper cabling which needed to be addressed.
PDH Higher Order Multiplexing
By the late 1970s, the UK had adopted the ITU-T recommended PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy) of E-carrier higher-order multiplexing at 8Mbit/s, 34Mbit/s (in the US, T-carrier at 6Mbit/s, 45Mbit/s) and 140Mbit/s.
The lower rates of the E-carrier system adopted HDB3 coding, which replaces 4 ‘0’s with ‘000V’ or ‘B00V’ (or in the US for T1, B8ZS coding which replaces 8 ‘0’s with ‘000VB0VB’).
CMI (Coded Mark Inversion) was included in the ITU-T standards for higher-order PDH at 140Mbit/s PCM (as well as SDH at 155Mbit/s electrical STM-1). This is a 1B2B type of NRZ coding where a ‘0’ is represented by ’01’ and a ‘1’ as an alternatively ’00’ and ’11’, with +V and -V representing the coding levels.
The advantage of the coding is it makes clock recovery by the receiver simple and for maintaining synchronisation alignment with a long sequence of ‘0’s or ‘1’s.
Line Coding examples
Optical fibre systems
From the beginning of the 1980s, early optical-fibre multi-mode systems operating at 850nm were deployed, and later single mode at 1300nm, using the PDH multiplexing capacities.
Typical of long-haul PDH optical-fibre systems, the 2 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s and 34 Mbit/s ‘Dynanet’ products from Nokia have ITU-T G.703 compliant digital interfaces using the HDB3 code, but using an optical transmission Line Code of 5B6B. This is another type of mB-nB code, where in this case 5 bit data words are coded using 6-digit code words
e.g. ‘00000’ being represented as ‘100111’.
As well as its use on electrical systems, CMI Line Coding has also been popular for use on short-haul optical-fibre transmission such as ’tactical’ fibre optical systems operating at 2 Mbit/s.
SDH / SONET – A different approach
For optical SDH systems, STM-1 and above, scrambling is employed instead of line codes to ensure the incoming bit stream contains sufficient transitions for maintaining synchronisation. This works by combining the data signal with a pseudo-random bit sequence generated by a scrambler polynomial generator.
i.e. with a sequence of length of 127, the generating polynomial is 1+x6+x7 , leading to input data ‘00000000001111111111’ being scrambled as ‘11111110000001000001’.
Optical PDH still serving
In most cases higher-order optical PDH has been decommissioned, but optical transmission at 2Mbit/s is still in operation for many low-data rate applications, where costly replacement with SDH, WDM or carrier Ethernet would bring no advantage. An example product is the Nokia DF2-8 which continues to offer reliable access services, particularly in the Utilities and Transportation industries.
DF2-8 – TA 21518
Copper systems still in operation
Though core copper electrical transmission systems have now been discontinued, much of ‘last mile’ telephony and related broadband connections are still copper access. For extended data transmission applications, copper systems are still deployed and maintained. Such products include the Nokia DSL2i copper line equipment (including power feeding repeaters) using SHDSL (Single-pair High-speed Digital Subscriber Line). This uses TC-PAM (Trellis-Coded Pulse-Amplitude Modulation) which is a 4B1H Line Coding, since translates 4 binary digits into 1 Hexadecimal (16) levels. It improves range, especially when used with regenerative repeaters, and improved ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) compatibility.
ACL2i PF GEN – T65580
Feedback and assistance
This has been a necessarily very brief run-through of legacy transmission and some of the Line Codes employed. @YellowsBestLtd would be keen to hear your experiences and knowledge of transmission systems and performance of Line Codes. If we can be of any assistance with your solution requirements, including both new and legacy technologies, then please get in touch.
For many years, the ‘Dynanet’ family of PDH Transmission telecoms products have well served Public Operator and Private Network Customers across the Telecoms, Utilities, Transport and Public Safety markets with high availability mission critical infrastructure, and indeed some networks are continuing to provide good operational service.
They were first introduced by Nokia over 20 years ago, and were continued in recent years by DNWP. Production of the majority of the product range was ceased in 2019.
Spare parts for continued operational service
@YellowsBestLtd satisfies world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies from a wide range of Original Equipment Manufacturers (O.E.M.s).
For the ‘Dynanet’ range, we have recently obtained of a number of additional refurbished and surplus equipment items. Hence, for those customers continuing to maintain their networks, there now exists the opportunity to increase stocks of spare parts to take advantage of the current availability.
Stocklist of items for immediate supply
Here is a list of the main items currently in stock, though there may be a few additional parts that can be supplied. Hence, please check and if you do have any requirements, please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you.
Part Number
Description
CC 24002
DB2 2×2 Mb/s Branching Unit (B2), 75ohm
DB2 B2 – CC 24002
Part Number
Description
CC 24011
DB2 2 Mb/s Switching Unit (X2), 75ohm
DB2 X2 – CC 24011
Part Number
Description
CC 24101
DN2 2×2 Mb/s Interface Unit (IU2), 75ohm
DN2 IU2 – CC 24101
Part Number
Description
CC 24111
DN2 Control Unit (CU), 75 ohm
CG 24170
DN2 Bus Power Unit (BPU)
CG 24171
DN2 Extended Bus Power Unit (EBPU)
CU 24013
Data Interface Unit (DIU) 2M, nx64k: G.703/704, 75ohm
DIU nx64k – CU 24013
Part Number
Description
D-21470
Euro Connector, 3×7
Connector 3×7 – D-21470
Part Number
Description
D-24204
Optical Teleprotection Interface Unit, C37.94
C37.94 – D-21470
Part Number
Description
T31094.01
DCN Adapter C4.0
DCN Adapter C4.0 – T31094.01
Part Number
Description
T37870.01
NDM 19in 17-slot Subrack
19in Subrack – T37870.01
Part Number
Description
T37871.01
NDM DN2 19in 17-Slot Subrack
T37882.02
NDM DC Unit (NDUe)
NDUe – T37882.02
Part Number
Description
T37885.01
NDM Ring Generator
Ring Generator – T37885.01
Part Number
Description
T37885.02
NDM Ring Generator + DC/DC converter
Ring Generator – T37885.02
Part Number
Description
T37889.01
NDM Backup Unit (NBU)
NDM Backup Unit – T37889.01
Part Number
Description
T65580.01
ACL2i PF GEN Line Terminal Card
ACL2i PF GEN – T65580
Part Number
Description
TA 21513
Optical Line Terminal Repeater (DF2-8), 1300 nm LED MM/SM
TA 21516
Optical Line Terminal Repeater (DF2-8), 1300 nm LASER SM
TA 21518
Optical Line Terminal Repeater (DF2-8), 1300 nm LASER LP
DF2-8 – TA 21518
Part Number
Description
TC 21101
DM2 Multiplexing Unit, 75ohm
DM2 – TC 21101
Part Number
Description
TC 21301
DM8 Multiplex Equipment, 75ohm
TC 21705
Supervisory Substation
TC 21710.01
TMS Adapter
TU 21122.5
Data Interface Unit (DIU) 48..64k, V.11, 10ch
TU 21124
Data Interface Unit (DIU) nx64k, V.11/V.35/X.21, 2ch
TU 21124.05
Data Interface Unit (DIU) nx64k, V.11/V.35/X.21, sync
