CP-TA Releases Interoperability Compliance Levels for AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA and AMC Building Blocks

Business Wire,  June 16, 2008  

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Compliance Levels Allow Network Equipment Providers and Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturers to Compare Performance against a Common Validation Tool and Test Report

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA) today announced the release of its interoperability compliance level definitions for modular communication building blocks tested with CP-TA validated tools. The release of the compliance levels and their corresponding criteria is a key milestone in advancing CP-TA's goal of providing freedom of choice to Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) and Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) via an ecosystem of interoperable commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) building blocks. The definitions also provide the industry a standardized lexicon of interoperability levels that enable building block consumers (NEPs or TEMs) to gauge interoperability and maturity.

The three compliance levels for interoperability developed by CP-TA are categorized as Tested, Compliant and Certified.

"The release of the CP-TA compliance levels is a very important deliverable from CP-TA," said Nirlay Kundu, CP-TA Compliance Work Group chair. "When NEPs and TEMs source AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA and AMC building blocks, they now have a way to gauge how well those products will interoperate with one another. These products are built on open standards, and when you factor in the testing guidelines and tools that CP-TA has validated, the result can be a significant savings in integration time and cost."

CP-TA recently completed a proof of concept demonstration, integrating CP-TA Tested building blocks for an IPTV system in one quarter the time it took to integrate non-CP-TA Tested building blocks for the same system configuration. For more information on this proof of concept, please download the white paper at http://www.cp-ta.org/news/white_papers/.

The CP-TA testing guidelines and approved test tools are based on PICMG specifications and NEP profiles released by the SCOPE Alliance.

"The release of these compliance levels will enhance an ecosystem of building block providers that is already very robust," said Sven Freudenfeld, CP-TA vice chair. "Choice drives cost savings and innovation in the market and the more choices the ecosystem can offer the NEPs and TEMs, the better."

The compliance levels and corresponding criteria are based on version 1.1 of the CP-TA Test Procedure Manual (TPM) and Interoperability Compliance Document (ICD). They are the following:

* Tested to CP-TA v1.1

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* Compliant to CP-TA v1.1

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* Certified to CP-TA v1.1

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All levels require that the building block providers have the CP-TA standardized test report completed with testing results. The TPM and ICD are both available for download at www.cp-ta.org. For more information on the interoperability compliance levels, please contact the CP-TA Administrator at admin@cp-ta.org.

About the Communications Platforms Trade Association

The Communications Platforms Trade Association is a global organization of communications platform and building block providers whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of SIG-governed, open specification based communication platforms by certifying interoperable building blocks. For more information about CP-TA, visit www.cp-ta.org.

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