Oki Network Technologies lands leading US ILEC as customer for new robotic telephony main distribution frame

Citation

(2003), "Oki Network Technologies lands leading US ILEC as customer for new robotic telephony main distribution frame", Industrial Robot, Vol. 30 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2003.04930cab.004

Oki Network Technologies lands leading US ILEC as customer for new robotic telephony main distribution frame

Oki Network Technologies lands leading US ILEC as customer for new robotic telephony main distribution frame

Keywords: Communications, Robots

Oki Network Technologies, a division of Oki America Inc., has announced that one of the largest US ILECs has agreed to purchase from an Oki OEM partner Oki’s Smart-MDF (main distribution frame) as part of a multi-year purchase plan with an initial deployment of over 100 units and an additional 2,000-3,500 units to be purchased over the next several years. This announcement marks a significant milestone for Oki to have a leading US ILEC purchase and implement Oki’s Smart-MDF units – an industry first-of-its-kind robotic telephony switching infrastructure solution.

Oki smart-MDF

Oki’s Smart-MDF is a compact, fully robotic unit that replaces the traditional main distribution frame of a carrier’s network. A typical main distribution frame is a room-sized array of telephony switches and central office devices that terminate external trunk cables and cross-connects them to user subscriber lines.

Historically, when a customer (commercial or residential) requested a subscriber line, such as a DSL or ISDN line, the carrier would send a technician to the nearest main distribution frame to manually connect lines, perform line tests, and report the service information back to the carrier’s network operation center (NOC).

With Oki’s Smart-MDF, robotic arms on multiple matrix boards can be programmed to automatically connect and disconnect lines. Unlike traditional main distribution frames that have bulky wires strewn around, the Smart-MDF uses an advanced design that eliminates wiring dreadlocks to create a nearly wireless environment. This increases system reliability while minimizing space requirements.

Cost savings

By leveraging the robotic design of Oki’s Smart-MDF, carriers should realize significant savings related to management and operations of their main distribution frames. Because the robotic arms provides subscriber line requests automatically, the frequency of truck rolls – sending field technicians to main distribution frames – can be almost completely eliminated.

Furthermore, Oki’s Smart-MDF can perform line tests directly at the main distribution frame. Again, this saves the carrier from having to send service technicians to check and maintain lines. Lastly, because of Smart-MDF’s modular design, carriers can scale and modify the system to meet any variety of requirements, including any-to-any (non-blocking) connections.

Service abilities

Oki’s Smart-MDF also provides significant service improvements. What sometimes took weeks to do, Smart-MDF’s remote controlled robots can connect or release subscriber lines within 90 s. This dramatically improves time to market for xDSL services.

For further details visit Web site: http://www.okint.com/