In this section:

Note

Unless otherwise specified in this guide, DSC SWe - vSP2000refers to both the the virtual Signaling Platform 2000 (vSP2000) on the MA-RMS.

The DSC SWe - vSP2000 application is deployed in a virtual machine (VM) running on top of a Virtual Host Environment (VHE) on a Multi-Application Rack Mount Server (MA-RMS). The I/O hardware connects to the DSC SWe - vSP2000 system by creating a pci-net interface on the host system. The host system is then attached to a softswitch to communicate with VMs. 

The following is a high-level overview of the MA-RMS configuration for a host system:

  • Two Time-division Multiplex (TDM) I/O cards (PCE382) are installed on the host system MA-RMS. This is done during manufacturing.
  • A PCI-NET driver is installed as the VHE OS to communicate with the PCE382 cards.  Each PCI-NET network interface is associated with a specific PCE382.

  • Each PCI-NET network interface interacts with the DSC SWe HA softswitch on the VM host.

    Note

    The VM is the sum total of all VMs for the SWe (default is two) plus all of the TDM boards.

  • A utility script (dscvm_io_mgmt) is provided to facilitate the configuration of the DSC SWe - vSP2000 on the MA-RMS.

The MA-RMS host system, which includes the PCI-NET drivers and PCE382 cards, is ordered from Ribbon Communications and installed by a Ribbon technician. 

VM Deployment View

The following diagram shows a single deployment of the VMs on the MA-RMS server. The VMs can either be in a cloud deployment or physically installed on the VHE host. 

  • A VM must have a unique VM Name and virtual slot identifier (for example, virtual slot 1 or virtual slot 2) to distinguish from other VMs deployed in a system. Routing and Management VMs are defined in virtual slot 1 and virtual slot 2. Additional, routing VMs and all I/O card slot numbers are assigned during the initial configuration of the installation. 
  • A system must have a minimum of two VMs available.

VMs on a MA-RMS Deployment


Note

For more information on the network and deployment configurations, refer to Verify the VHE Host Configuration.

Hardware View in the Web UI

Once the VM is set-up, the PCE382 cards appear as network-attached I/O cards on the Web UI.


A user can click the Hardware tab for the PCE382 card to configure the following channels:

  • LSL Channels
  • LSL and HSL AnnexA Channels
  • HSL AnnexA Channels
  • LSL and HSL ATM Channels
  • HSL AnnexA and HSL ATM Channels
  • HSL ATM Channels
Note

For more information about configuring the preceding channels, refer to appropriate sections in the SS7 Application Guide 1.

Benefits of the Additional I/O Cards


With the addition of the I/O hardware cards, the DSC SWe - vSP2000 (on MA-RMS) provides the following benefits:

  • Provides network-accessible I/O hardware to the DSC SWe - vSP2000 system to provide LSL, Annex A HSL, and ATM HSL connectivity.  It does not provide connectivity for other hardware transports. 
  • Extends a DSC - SP2000 system by providing I/O hardware that interfaces with the MTP3 application.  It does not provide generic SS7 level 2 function and does not function without the DSC SWe - vSP2000 MTP3 application.
  • Presents I/O hardware to the HA0 subnet of the DSC SWe - vSP2000, which is considered internal to the system.  It is not intended to be exposed to the external network.