All of the telecommunications equipment required to recover a destroyed AT&T Central Office is transported to a recovery site in specially-designed technology trailers. Each trailer has self-contained or dedicated power and environmental capabilities and each houses a component of the network technology that would normally be part of a permanent office. Once on site, the individual components are interconnected to match the unique configuration of a heavily damaged or destroyed central office.

Network Disaster Recovery's mobile recovery equipment includes:

5ESS Switch Recovery

Switch recovery is provided by a single 5ESS trailer or by a three-trailer set. Each trailer solution is capable of recovering over 60,000 lines/trunks. The newer, single-trailer switch uses a Lucent Technologies 5ESS 2000 switch core and five Switch Module 2000 (SM2000) growth units. Incorporating the new Communication Module Model 3 (CM3) technology, this 5ESS trailer maximizes the recovery capabilities within a single container. It also uses the latest packet signaling technologies, eliminating the previous ring node architecture.

Access Trailers

Access trailers provide points where access vendors can connect their equipment to the AT&T Network.

AGN

AGN (AT&T Global Network) element recovery is provided with "fly-in" disaster recovery containers staged in Europe and in the United States. The containers support AT&T Global Network (AGN) Tier 1, 2 and 3 POPs for our globally deployed services. They use Cisco routers, ATM switches, Catalyst switches, GIG-E switches, MSP interfaces and a CI IOS switch. AT&T has an AGN presence in over 130 cities worldwide. With the Fly In recovery containers, AT&T can support the recovery of "In-Country" AGN architecture.

ATM Switch

ATM Switch trailer equipped with Lucent ATM switches. In their current configuration, the switches can handle circuits from T1 up to OC-12, with a net capacity equivalent to over 900 T3s. The trailer is pre-wired to nearly double this capacity with additional plug-ins and switches. AT&T's NDR Team recently completed the installation of three new ATM Switches, providing the NDR team with the ability to exactly replicate the switching equipment configuration for any central office within AT&T's ATM Network.

Cellular (Wireless) Network Recovery

AT&T deploys mobile cellular equipment to recover network capacity or to increase network capacity following a disaster. The mobile equipment provides a self-sufficient cell site that can be used while a damaged site is repaired or replaced. In disaster recovery deployments, COLTs and COWs can be used to provide wireless communications capabilities to support the recovery efforts of first responder organizations, local Emergency Operations Centers, government agencies and our customer network. Some COLTs can connect to the AT&T Network via a satellite link allowing them to establish cellular communications in areas where all local telecommunications infrastructure has been destroyed or is otherwise unavailable.

CNI Hub

CNI Hub trailer with the ability to recover offices with a Core Director Intelligent Optical Switch (IOS) and offices with MSPs for both inter-city and intra-city service applications. Key technology benefits are fast point and click provisioning and improved restoration performance via IOS mesh restoration. The IOS has a circuit capacity of over 12,000 DS3s. The trailer is equipped with 24 shelves of MSP, each of which has a circuit capacity of 1344 T1s.

DACS

DACS (Digital Access Cross-Connect Systems) trailers provide a junction point for telecommunications signals. The DACS trailers are used for signal grooming and interface to the optical systems that transport the service into the network.

Digital Radio

Digital Radio trailers contain all of the equipment needed to recover a digital radio site.

DMS Switch

DMS Switch trailer set using a Nortel Networks DMS500 switch. This trailer set supports DMS500 and DMS250 switches for AT&T inter-city and intra-city networks. The DMS trailer set, using Spectrum Peripheral Modules, can recover up to 56,000 line/trunks and Extended Subscriber Modules up to 240 DS1s.

DTMS/FASTAR

DTMS/FASTAR trailers link a recovery site, by satellite, to the AT&T Network Operations Center to allow remote testing. These trailers also support the FASTAR system to allow optimum routing of service through the site. AT&T's Frame Relay NDR Team has recently completed the construction of two 40-foot long Frame Relay NDR trailers. Each houses numerous MGX-8850, MGX-45, and BPX switches. Since the inception of Frame Relay DR Program, NDR has been able to triple the switching capacity in each of our trailers.

Frame Relay Switch

Frame Relay Switch trailers each contain several MGX-1, MGX-45 and BPX-8620 switches. As a result of recent trailer upgrades, each trailer has the switching potential to restore more than 48,000 DSOs. Each of our Frame NDR trailers have been routinely field tested to an A-Level Certification since their introduction in late 2000.

Inter-city Network Services

Inter-city Network Services trailer include switching and transport for DCS3/1, DCS 1/0, SONET Lightguide, and OC3/OC12/OC48/OC192 multiplexor network elements used by AT&T to provide intra-city network services. AT&T NDR has developed a trailerized solution to support optical deployment of MSPs (Multi-Services Platform) that connect to AT&T's DWDM backbone network.

IP Recovery

IP Recovery trailer packed with large-capacity routers by Cisco, Avici and Juniper. These routers' net switching capacity is well into the terabit range (over 1000 Gigabits/second). When fully supplied with plug-ins, the trailer can scale up to over 10,000 T3s of capacity and support recovery of circuits as large as OC-192. With a single trailer, NDR can recover thousands of circuits at speeds up to 10Gbps. Working with AT&T Labs, NDR has developed a design that can recover the largest AT&T common backbone sites using half the number of routers

Lightwave

Lightwave trailers convert local electronic signals to optical signals for transmission over AT&T's fiber optic, lightguide network.

Portable Radio Towers

Portable Radio Towers are used to establish microwave repeater or terminal sites for locations where cable cannot be used.

Regen Trailers

Regen trailers amplify or regenerate lightguide signals.