Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: hui@joplin.mpr.ca (Michael Hui) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: What is SONET? Message-ID: Date: 22 Oct 89 19:44:15 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: "Michael M.Y. Hui" Lines: 35 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 469, message 3 of 11 I was on the hardware design team of NT's new SONET product line. I designed two ASICs for that product, both involved intimately with the SONET protocol. Currently I am _not_ with Bell-Northern Research anymore. BNR was the R&D arm of NT that actually did the product development. In order to keep myself out of hot water, please only ask (if you want) questions of a nonproprietary nature. This much I will share with you all: The NT offering implements nearly EVERYTHING in the SONET standard. It is very unlikely that it won't be able to work with any other manufacturer's equipment. Yes, it was designed by a very competent team of engineers. It's also very unlikely that we have overlooked subtleties in the standard. The system was subject to extensive chip level, multi-chip level, system level simulation, using our mainframes and Zycad hardware simulation engine. There were still changes to the standard during our development time frame. Most of those have been incorporated into the hardware. The inclination is strong at this point for other telecom engineers to come on stream and debat how/whether/what parts of the standard we implemented. Please keep in mind the proprietary nature of your company's projects, as well as my former employer's rights to their trade secrets. If you really want to know the whole story, please apply for a job in the SONET development group at BNR. It's a good company to work for. I heartily recommend it. Now, if only I could get my hands on the silly sales brochure ...