In telecommunication

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

, a "carrier grade" or "carrier class" refers to a system

System

System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....

, or a hardware

Hardware

Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....

 or software component that is extremely reliable, well tested and proven in its capabilities. Carrier grade systems are tested and engineered to meet or exceed "five nines" high availability

High availability

High availability is a system design approach and associated service implementation that ensures a prearranged level of operational performance will be met during a contractual measurement period....

 standards, and provide very fast fault recovery

Fault-tolerant system

Fault-tolerance or graceful degradation is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of some of its components. A newer approach is progressive enhancement...

 through redundancy (normally less than 50 milliseconds).

See also

• Carrier Grade Linux
  Carrier Grade Linux
  Carrier Grade Linux is a set of specifications which detail standards of availability, scalability, manageability, and service response characteristics which must be met in order for Linux to be considered "carrier grade"...
  
  
• Real-time computing
  Real-time computing
  In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
  
  
• Redundancy (engineering)
  Redundancy (engineering)
  In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe....
  
  
• Carrier system
  Carrier system
  In telecommunication, a carrier system is a multichannel telecommunications system in which a number of individual channels are multiplexed for transmission...
  
  
• High availability
  High availability
  High availability is a system design approach and associated service implementation that ensures a prearranged level of operational performance will be met during a contractual measurement period....
  
  

External links

• ZDNet Definition for: Carrier Class
• What's all the fuss about network resiliency?
• Carrier Ethernet Ready for Prime Time: Five Things to Consider