Advanced TCA CHASSIS

Over recent years the Telecom market has opened up more and has become highly competitive; prices for the various services have been significantly reduced and the Operators have been forced to put pressure on the equipment constructors for greater volumes at reduced costs.

This has led to a growing need for a “standardization” process, also appropriate in the field of telecommunications, as VME (Versa Module Eurocard bus) and CPCI (Compact PCI) standards for other applications.

The new ATCA standard offers an excellent solution to everyone, allowing, at low cost, extensive fields of application, high density of functions and interchangeability between suppliers.

STANDARD SOLUTIONS

Thanks to the experience gained over the years in the field of interconnection solutions for the Telecommunications market and in assembly and testing activity of Back Panels (more than 300,000 pieces supplied since 1989) and thanks to the competence acquired in mechanical and electronic design (completed with specific tools for thermal and EMC analysis), COMPEL GROUP has developed its own solution for an ATCA chassis which is in total compliance with the Reference Standards and, where possible, foresees further improvement from the point of view of mechanical and electronic aspects.

Following the trend of the telecommunications market, which is moving from the “in-house” design to outsourced design, COMPEL GROUP, with its very skilled R&D teams, offers its customers all complete solutions.

In particular, using as base the ATCA and ATCA300 specifications, COMPEL GROUP has all capabilities and knowledge to meet the market tendencies in this sector.

These are the services offered by COMPEL GROUP: Shelf design, standard or customized solutions Racks and Cabinets design Line cards and Back Panels design Fibers / Cables management Thermal simulations EMC simulations Racks / Cabinets electromechanical assembly Shelves assembly Printed boards and Back Panels assembly Testing

CUSTOMIZED ATCA

Why a customized design

The 14 slots ATCA shelf is designed to be installed in 19” cabinets, even if, with suitable adapters, it can be mounted in the ETSI racks or cabinets. The 16 slots one is foreseen for the 600 x600 ETSI racks or cabinets.
The ATCA shelves design is based on cabinets which have front and rear access.
Nevertheless, customized solutions, both for mechanical or functional electronic performances, are currently rising.
Also in this specialized sector, a “niche“ compared to Standard ATCA market, COMPEL GROUP plays its role .
In fact, COMPEL GROUP has designed, for a primary European TLC equipment maker, a customized solution on which front units, RTM boards, Back Panel zone 1 and 2 are in according to ATCA specification, but with the shelves designed in order to have front access only, for a wall mounting cabinet utilizations.
This solution is very useful and appreciated when the cabinet installation is made outside of the traditional telecom centers.
Following these needs it is possible to go ahead reducing the cabinet depth in order to get more flexibility and a better footprint optimization in the ETSI field.
For example, as far as standard blades for 600 mm shelves are concerned, the advantage of the customized ATCA solution becomes apparent, because it is possible to install two ATCA front access shelves 950 mm high in a cabinet of 600 W x 375 D x 2200 H, saving also enough room for the Top Rack Unit.

* n. 2 cabinets of 375 mm back to back