In
telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
, a "carrier grade" or "carrier class" refers to a
system
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...
, or a
hardware or
software
Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications.
The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
component that is extremely reliable, well tested and proven in its capabilities. Carrier grade systems are tested and engineered to meet or exceed
"five nines" high availability
High availability (HA) is a characteristic of a system that aims to ensure an agreed level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period.
There is now more dependence on these systems as a result of modernization ...
standards, and provide very fast
fault recovery through redundancy (normally less than 50 milliseconds).
"Carrier grade" is not a standard or very clearly defined term but, rather, a set of features and qualities that make the product acceptable by a carrier. The feature set that enables the carrier to utilize the business with use of that equipment are: high quality and very good
MTBF (some requirements are stated in TR-144 chapter 7.17), redundancy (if one part goes down, there is an alternative), easy and cost-efficient operations and maintenance (O&M), all of which are standardized as much as possible.
See also
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Real-time computing
Real-time computing (RTC) is the computer science term for Computer hardware, hardware and software systems subject to a "real-time constraint", for example from Event (synchronization primitive), event to Event (computing), system response. Rea ...
*
Redundancy (engineering)
In engineering and systems theory, redundancy is the intentional duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the goal of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the form of a backup or fail-safe, or to improve a ...
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Carrier system
A carrier system is a transmission system that transmission (telecommunications), transmits information, such as the voice signals of a telephone call and the video signals of television, by modulation of one or multiple carrier signals above the ...
*
High availability
High availability (HA) is a characteristic of a system that aims to ensure an agreed level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period.
There is now more dependence on these systems as a result of modernization ...
External links
What's all the fuss about network resiliency?(link no longer available)
Carrier Ethernet Ready for Prime Time: Five Things to Consider
Telecommunications engineering
Reliability engineering
English words and phrases
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