Avara Technologies

Avara Technologies create highly available, mission-critical communications for global dedicated networks in electricity, rail, air traffic control, emergency services and mining industries, developing and delivering secure, reliable, and effective products and solutions, for an evolution from traditional time division multiplex (TDM) to IP networks.

The company’s flexible and reliable multi-service platform, DynaFlex, supports mission-critical applications. These require the co-existence of dedicated network critical services, based on TDM and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) / plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH) technologies, as well as Ethernet / IP-based technologies.

Avara Technologies is driven by technological innovation, and a commitment to delivering high-quality products, exceptional support and value to its customers. Their solution is also unique in the market, being the only solution offering card-level compatibility with existing Nokia Dynanet networks and Node level compatibility with Siemens FMX networks to extend the life of existing network assets while introducing IP-based technologies.

DynaFlex is a modular and fully flexible multiservice platform that supports ethernet, TDM and SDH/PDH technologies natively in a single subrack.

The compact EM and DFX series of terminal multiplexer nodes with multiservice capabilities provides the ideal solution for remote sites with limited port count flexibility needs.

EDFA and RAMAN-based optical booster and pre-amplifiers, together with dispersion compensation and FEC units, provide efficient, cost-effective and reliable ways to support long-haul PDH, SDH and gigabit ethernet transmission networks

The ASPeCT Management System is a centralised, user-friendly solution that contains the features and functionality required to manage Avara devices.

Our products offer a wide range of voice and data interfaces with a particular focus on ethernet / IP services with integrated SDH / PDH / GigabitEth transport capabilities and protection for high-availability networks.

Multi-service technology for critical railway communications

Avara Technologies products are flexible, fully featured, multi-service provisioning platforms with powerful cross-connect and protection capabilities.

Designed to operate in adverse railway environments, the company’s industrial-grade solutions provide teleprotection, signalling and communication support for various applications, such as trackside detectors (hot wheels, lateral wind, vehicle drop), voice handset systems, wheel counter systems, signalling control, overhead line equipment control, access control and train-to-ground communications backhaul.

Mitigating network risk

DynaFlex ensures that mission-critical services can be maintained on a deterministic network layer, with known latency, low jitter and symmetric communication performance. This ensures that signalling and control services are isolated from IP bandwidth, commonly shared across lower priority services.

Cyber security is further enhanced by the support of the ever-growing array of IP security services at the network management and element management layers.

Integrated transport over copper, radio and optical fibre links

Avara nodes can be connected in high-bandwidth point-to-point, linear or loop topologies over EMC-resilient optical fibre communications links using SDH or Gigabit Ethernet technologies. When used in protected architectures, sub-50ms service restoration is supported for all interface types, including Ethernet / IP, ensuring deterministic operations with known network latencies.

Additional capabilities can also be realised over existing copper networks, with SHDSL transport also provided as an integration option.

Modularity and interface types

Avara nodes are modular in design, hot pluggable and can be installed in 19in configurations, as well as stand-alone units. Cards can also be placed in existing Nokia Dynanet installations, replacing existing units to free up rack-real-estate for introducing IP functionality.

A broad range of voice, TDM data and Ethernet / IP interface types are supported to facilitate interfacing to trackside and station equipment. Fully integrated SDH / PDH / Gigabit Ethernet transport interfaces can be used to connect to higher order SDH or multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) based transport networks.

Protection for fault-tolerant rail solutions

To ensure optimal service availability, Avara’s products provide protection features to support link, interface and card failure cases. The DynaFlex node in particular has been designed to support multiple power supply units, multiplexer units and transport units within the single 19in subrack.

It also supports protection switchover to an alternate port upon interface failure, as well as full end-to-end path protection down to a 64K timeslot level. These features allow railway operators to engineer fault-tolerant solutions for maximum system availability.

Transitioning from TDM and interoperability

The DynaFlex Multiservice Platform is the suitable technology of choice for aiming to transition from heritage TDM-only solutions to a network that can support Ethernet / IP, while maintaining support for TDM applications natively for key services, such as emergency telephone, announcements, alarms and access control.

DynaFlex has been extensively tested for full interoperability with the widely deployed Nokia Dynanet and Siemens FMX-2 Multiplexers, including E1, FXS, FXO, VF 2 / 4-Wire E&M, V.24, X.21 and G.703-64K.

The Avara Technologies DynaFlex node will communicate seamlessly with a Dynanet or FMX node: a DynaFlex FXS port will communicate with Dynanet / FMX-2 FXO port, and a DynaFlex V.24 port will interoperate with a Dynanet / FMX-2 V.24 port.

When migrating a network from Dynanet / FMX-2 systems, the upgrade can be performed node-by-node as each DynaFlex node will completely interoperate with Dynanet / FMX-2 at all levels, minimising network downtime and facilitating the deployment / upgrade process.