The subrack holds one MCU-x and up to 16 ULAF+ plug-in units. Cascading of up to 4 subracks is possible to manage up to 64 plug-in units with one controller card.
Backplane access to the line cards' E1 and Ethernet interfaces minimizes costly cabling where MCU's Ethernet concentration or TDM over Ethernet functionality is needed. Management communication between line cards and the MCU is done over a high performance backplane bus.
As demand for Ethernet services increases and network technologies accelerate towards packet-based protocols, a huge installed base of classical TDM equipment still exists at carrier and customer sites. Offering a platform for both future-proof Ethernet and legacy TDM services, ULAF+ now provides a flexible solution for a smooth migration to packetbased networks: the new management and concentrator plug-in «MCU». In addition to its operation and maintenance features, this plug-in card is designed to concentrate and carry both Ethernet and 2 Mbit/s leased-line traffic over packet-based networks.