Trillium digital systems
Encyclopedia
Trillium Digital Systems, developed and licensed standards-based communications source code
software to telecommunications equipment manufacturers for the wireless
, broadband
, Internet
and telephone
network infrastructure. Trillium became one of the early pioneers to license source code. The Trillium Digital Systems business entity no longer exists, but the Trillium communications software is still developed and licensed by Continuous Computing
. Trillium software is used in the network
infrastructure as well as associated service platforms, clients and devices.
, California
. The co-founders were Jeff Lawrence
and Larisa Chistyakov. The initial capitalization of Trillium when it was incorporated was $1,000. The name Trillium came about because of a mistake. Jeff and Larisa asked for company name suggestions from family and friends. Someone suggested a character named Trillian
from the book “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
. They thought the suggestion was supposed to be trillium
, a flower in the lily family. They liked the sound and symbolism of the name Trillium so they used it as the name of their new company.
Trillium was started as a consulting company. Its first consulting jobs were to develop communications software for bisynchronous, asynchronous and multiprotocol PAD
products. Consulting continued through the end of 1990. While consulting, the co-founders decided there was an opportunity to develop and license portable source code
software for communications protocols. Towards the end of 1990 Trillium became focused on developing its own products.
Source code
is a symbolic language (e.g., the C programming language) which is run through a compiler
to generate binary
code which can run on a particular microprocessor
. Communications systems have a variety of hardware
and software
architectures, use a variety of microprocessors and use a variety of software development environments. It wasn’t technically possible to develop a single piece of binary code that could run on many different systems. Source code, if properly designed and supported, can provide a highly leveragable solution that can be integrated and used in many different systems. The proper way to test source code is to compile it for all possible environments it might run in and then run and test it in those environments. There were as many environments as there were pieces of communications equipment. That testing approach was difficult. To overcome this difficulty Trillium developed an operating system
called the Multiprocessor Operating System (MOS) that could run under commercially available operating systems such as DOS
, Windows
, Solaris and Linux
and provide a simulation and testing environment for its software products.
Trillium's first software product supported the X.25
communications protocol. Subsequent products were developed for a number of data communications and voice communications
protocols. Trillium's primary focus in its early years was on control plane
and signalling plane
protocols. In later years Trillium also developed some data plane
protocols. A more comprehensive list of the software products developed by Trillium is listed in the Product History section. Trillium is currently developing software products to support the Femtocell
communications protocols. Throughout its history Trillium was also very active in standards setting bodies including the CCITT/ITU
, IETF, ATM Forum
, Frame Relay Forum and others.
Trillium software products were used in communications and networking products designed for the PDN
, PSTN, Internet
, enterprise networks and home network
s.
Trillium's evolution and development, paralleled the evolution and development of the communications industry. In 1988 there were less than 1/2 million Internet users, about 4 million cell phone users and no broadband (DSL, cable) users. The industry went through significant transitions from the mid-1980s through the early-2000s as described in the Market History section. By 2008 there were over 1.4 billion Internet
users, almost 3.3 billion mobile phone
users and over 1 billion broadband
users.
During this period, communications equipment manufacturers licensed source code software to reduce their time to market, decrease their development risk and reduce their costs. By 1999 many companies offered source code software products. Some of these included:
Trillium was funded entirely by its cash flow from its founding through 1999. In late 1998, Trillium decided that to provide liquidity for its shareholders and accelerate its growth it should raise money through an initial public offering
. After discussions with investment bankers, it was decided that to improve its initial public offering valuation
, it would be necessary to first raise some private equity
money to fund organizational expansion, revenue growth and revenue rebalancing. In early 1999, Trillium entered discussions with various venture capital
and private equity firms. It closed two private equity deals, one with Rader Reinfrank & Co. in July 1999 for $10 million and the other with Intel Capital and its Intel Communications Fund in September 1999 for $4 million. Rader Reinfrank & Co. was the lead investor and Intel Capital was a co-investor. Trillium used the funds to accelerate the growth of its organization and product line in preparation for a planned initial public offering in either 2000 or 2001. Trillium received ISO 9001 certification in February 2000 and SEI
-CMM
Level 2 certification in December 2001.
In March 2000, following a number of inquiries from potential acquirers, Trillium decided to explore its possible sale. Trillium created a list of potential acquirers that included communications equipment manufacturers, communications semiconductor companies and a few other companies. Intel Corporation was part of this list since they were already an investor in Trillium. Craig Barrett, the CEO of Intel, felt it was important for Intel to be involved in the communications and networking business. Starting in 1997, and over a 5 year period, Intel spent over $10 billion acquiring communications chip, hardware and software companies. Intel acquired Trillium in a deal for $300 million that closed on August 24, 2000. Intel’s objectives in acquiring Trillium were to expand the networking software available to its network processor
, establish a viable entry into the networking software business to complement the network processor business as they moved to sell platform level solutions, and validate and optimize software designs to address high growth communications market segments including voice over IP
and wireless
.
As part of the closing, Intel certified there were no Material Adverse Effects; any changes reasonably likely in the future to be materially adverse on the operations, assets, liabilities or earnings of Intel. On August 28, 2000 Intel stopped selling and recalled its Pentium III
due to design defects and performance problems, on September 21, 2000 it issued an earnings warning and on September 28 it cancelled its Timna chip and delayed its Pentium 4
and Itanium chips due to design defects and performance problems. In just a little over a month (from August 24, 2000 to September 29, 2000) Intel stock plummeted from over $70 per share to $40 per share.
Trillium became a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel. It was renamed for external purposes as “Trillium, an Intel Company” and for internal purposes as the "Networking Software Division (NSD)". In 2002, NSD was renamed as the “Control Plane
Processing Division (CPPD)”. The division was initially part of Intel's Network Communications Group, which later became the Intel Communications Group. One of the co-founders moved into Intel when the deal closed, and the other stayed with Trillium. The functional integration of Trillium into Intel was considered successful, but the strategic and value integration was considered less successful. After the deal closed Trillium continued to focus on offering its communications software products and professional services to external customers and also started to develop cross divisional and business group customers within Intel. Trillium focused significant resources on integrating its software products into Intel network processors and related products.
The co-founders of Trillium left Intel in March and September 2002. Larisa died on December 22, 2008.
, based in San Diego, California
, acquired Trillium's intellectual property
, customers and also hired some Trillium engineering, sales and marketing staff from Intel in February 2003.
Continuous Computing continues to license Trillium software, develop additional software Trillium software products and also bundle the software with its high availability and other hardware solutions for network equipment providers. Trillium software products celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2008.
(NASDAQ:RSYS), which provides hardware and software for Internet-based telecommunications, announced on May 3, 2011 that it was going to acquire Continuous Computing and its Trillium software products in a deal valued at $120 million. RadiSys and Continuous Computing are focused on complementary areas of networking technology.
, processor
, operating system
and architecture. Each software product is provided as C source code and has four programming interfaces: the system services interface, the layer management interface, the upper interface and the lower interface. TAPA describes the parameters and expected behavior across each interface.
Individual Trillium software products consist of 10,000’s to 100,000’s lines of source code. Each Trillium software product could be used separately, or in conjunction with other software products to build complete protocol stacks. Trillium software products were also able to support different national and industry variants of specific protocols. In later years, as the different network infrastructure technologies converged, Trillium software products were able to support interworking and translation between the different network infrastructure technologies (e.g. telephony to Internet Protocols). They were used in a wide range of network equipment, products and devices.
), national (e.g. ANSI
) and industry (e.g. IETF) standards. These products are licensed primarily to telecommunications equipment manufacturers and include:
Trillium software has been used in over 500 communications and networking products.
"Trillium Digital Systems Case Study: 1996–2003". Jeff Lawrence, 2004.
"Trillium Digital Systems, An Intel Company. A Case Study & An Analysis of the Protocols in the Voice Over IP Arena". Shramik Jyothula and Sridhar Dronamraju. http://ise.gmu.edu/~eschneid/infs612/projects/trillium.pdf
"Roadmap to Entrepreneurial Success". Robert W. Price, AMACOM, 2004. http://books.google.com/books?id=q7UzNoWdGAkC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=trillium+digital+systems+raises+14+million&source=web&ots=uPDpnBgmEo&sig=Ce6cNfopaPc4VvbE0xu2R5GVfPs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result
"How You Can Become Ma Bell". Karen Kaplan. Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1996.
"Growing Lean". Douglas Young. Los Angeles Business Journal, December 2, 1996.
"Network Broker". Communications News. October 1998.
"Preparation Counts More Than Luck". Juan Hovey. Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1999.
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
software to telecommunications equipment manufacturers for the wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
, broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
, Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and telephone
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
network infrastructure. Trillium became one of the early pioneers to license source code. The Trillium Digital Systems business entity no longer exists, but the Trillium communications software is still developed and licensed by Continuous Computing
Continuous Computing
Founded in 1998, “Continuous Computing” is a privately held company based in San Diego that provides telecom systems made up of telecom platforms and Trillium software, including protocol software stacks for femtocells and 4G wireless / Long Term Evolution . The company also sells standalone...
. Trillium software is used in the network
Telecommunications network
A telecommunications network is a collection of terminals, links and nodes which connect together to enable telecommunication between users of the terminals. Networks may use circuit switching or message switching. Each terminal in the network must have a unique address so messages or connections...
infrastructure as well as associated service platforms, clients and devices.
Trillium
Trillium was founded in February 1988 in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The co-founders were Jeff Lawrence
Jeff Lawrence (entrepreneur)
Jeff Lawrence is an entrepreneur, technologist and philanthropist.-Early life:Jeff was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was Ray Lawrence and his mother was Grace Lawrence. He lived in New York, New York briefly and grew up in Van Nuys, California and Studio City, California. He was very...
and Larisa Chistyakov. The initial capitalization of Trillium when it was incorporated was $1,000. The name Trillium came about because of a mistake. Jeff and Larisa asked for company name suggestions from family and friends. Someone suggested a character named Trillian
Trillian (character)
Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian Astra, is a fictional character from Douglas Adams' series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She is most commonly referred to simply as "Trillian", a modification of her birth name, which she adopted because it sounded more "space-like". According to the...
from the book “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
. They thought the suggestion was supposed to be trillium
Trillium
Trillium is a genus of about 40–50 species of spring ephemeral perennials, native to temperate regions of North America and Asia....
, a flower in the lily family. They liked the sound and symbolism of the name Trillium so they used it as the name of their new company.
Trillium was started as a consulting company. Its first consulting jobs were to develop communications software for bisynchronous, asynchronous and multiprotocol PAD
Packet Assembler/Disassembler
A packet assembler/disassembler, abbreviated PAD is a communications device which provides multiple asynchronous terminal connectivity to an X.25 network or host computer. It collects data from a group of terminals and places the data into X.25 packets...
products. Consulting continued through the end of 1990. While consulting, the co-founders decided there was an opportunity to develop and license portable source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
software for communications protocols. Towards the end of 1990 Trillium became focused on developing its own products.
Source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
is a symbolic language (e.g., the C programming language) which is run through a compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
to generate binary
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
code which can run on a particular microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
. Communications systems have a variety of hardware
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
and software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
architectures, use a variety of microprocessors and use a variety of software development environments. It wasn’t technically possible to develop a single piece of binary code that could run on many different systems. Source code, if properly designed and supported, can provide a highly leveragable solution that can be integrated and used in many different systems. The proper way to test source code is to compile it for all possible environments it might run in and then run and test it in those environments. There were as many environments as there were pieces of communications equipment. That testing approach was difficult. To overcome this difficulty Trillium developed an operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
called the Multiprocessor Operating System (MOS) that could run under commercially available operating systems such as DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Solaris and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and provide a simulation and testing environment for its software products.
Trillium's first software product supported the X.25
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
communications protocol. Subsequent products were developed for a number of data communications and voice communications
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
protocols. Trillium's primary focus in its early years was on control plane
Control plane
In routing, the control plane is the part of the router architecture that is concerned with drawing the network map, or the information in a routing table that defines what to do with incoming packets. Control plane functions, such as participating in routing protocols, run in the architectural...
and signalling plane
Signalling (telecommunications)
In telecommunication, signaling has the following meanings:*the use of signals for controlling communications...
protocols. In later years Trillium also developed some data plane
Forwarding plane
In routing, the forwarding plane, sometimes called the data plane, defines the part of the router architecture that decides what to do with packets arriving on an inbound interface...
protocols. A more comprehensive list of the software products developed by Trillium is listed in the Product History section. Trillium is currently developing software products to support the Femtocell
Femtocell
In telecommunications, a femtocell is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in a home or small business. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband ; current designs typically support 2 to 4 active mobile phones in a residential setting, and 8 to 16 active...
communications protocols. Throughout its history Trillium was also very active in standards setting bodies including the CCITT/ITU
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....
, IETF, ATM Forum
ATM Forum
The ATM Forum was founded in 1991 to be the industry consortium to promote Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology used in telecommunication networks. It was a non-profit international organization. The ATM Forum created over 200 implementation agreements....
, Frame Relay Forum and others.
Trillium software products were used in communications and networking products designed for the PDN
Public Data Network
A public data network is a network established and operated by a telecommunications administration, or a recognized private operating agency, for the specific purpose of providing data transmission services for the public....
, PSTN, Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, enterprise networks and home network
Home network
A home network or home area network is a residential local area network . It is used for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories, such as printers and mobile computing devices...
s.
Trillium's evolution and development, paralleled the evolution and development of the communications industry. In 1988 there were less than 1/2 million Internet users, about 4 million cell phone users and no broadband (DSL, cable) users. The industry went through significant transitions from the mid-1980s through the early-2000s as described in the Market History section. By 2008 there were over 1.4 billion Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
users, almost 3.3 billion mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
users and over 1 billion broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
users.
During this period, communications equipment manufacturers licensed source code software to reduce their time to market, decrease their development risk and reduce their costs. By 1999 many companies offered source code software products. Some of these included:
| Company | Location | Products |
|---|---|---|
| Trillium Digital Systems | US | SS7, ATM, IP, Interworking, High Availability, ISDN, Frame Relay, V5, X.25/X.75, Professional Services |
| ADC Newnet | US | SS7, High Availability, Professional Services |
| Data Connection Limited | England | ATM, IP, High Availability |
| Data Kinetics | England | SS7 |
| DGM&S Telecommunications (SignalSoft) | US | SS7, Interworking, High Availability |
| DynamicSoft | US | IP |
| Ficon Technology | US | ATM, IP |
| Future Software | India | ATM |
| Harris & Jeffries (NetPlane) | US | ATM, High Availability |
| Hughes Software Systems | India | SS7, ATM, IP, Interworking, High Availability, Frame Relay, V5, Professional Services |
| Inverness | Israel | ATM |
| Omnitel | France | ISDN, V5 |
| RADvision | Israel | IP |
| TDSoft | Israel | V5 |
| Telenetworks | US | ATM, Interworking, ISDN, Frame Relay, X.25/X.75 |
| Telesoft International | US | SIP, ISDN, T1 RBS, CAS E1 R2, Frame Relay and Multi-Link Frame Relay, PPP and ML-PPP, X.25/X.75, interworking, white-label softphone, white-label VoIP-PSTN gateway, High-Availability, Professional Services |
Trillium was funded entirely by its cash flow from its founding through 1999. In late 1998, Trillium decided that to provide liquidity for its shareholders and accelerate its growth it should raise money through an initial public offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
. After discussions with investment bankers, it was decided that to improve its initial public offering valuation
Valuation (finance)
In finance, valuation is the process of estimating what something is worth. Items that are usually valued are a financial asset or liability. Valuations can be done on assets or on liabilities...
, it would be necessary to first raise some private equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
money to fund organizational expansion, revenue growth and revenue rebalancing. In early 1999, Trillium entered discussions with various venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
and private equity firms. It closed two private equity deals, one with Rader Reinfrank & Co. in July 1999 for $10 million and the other with Intel Capital and its Intel Communications Fund in September 1999 for $4 million. Rader Reinfrank & Co. was the lead investor and Intel Capital was a co-investor. Trillium used the funds to accelerate the growth of its organization and product line in preparation for a planned initial public offering in either 2000 or 2001. Trillium received ISO 9001 certification in February 2000 and SEI
Software Engineering Institute
The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center headquartered on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. SEI also has offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Frankfurt, Germany. The SEI operates...
-CMM
Capability Maturity Model
The Capability Maturity Model is a development model that was created after study of data collected from organizations that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. This model became the foundation from which CMU created the Software Engineering Institute...
Level 2 certification in December 2001.
Trillium, an Intel Company
Between 1995 and 2000 more than 1,100 technology companies went public. There were over 350 technology initial public offerings in 1999 alone. The first day returns of those initial public offerings in 1999 averaged over 90%. During 1999 and 2000, a number of Trillium's competitors either went public, or were acquired.| Company | Event | Valuation | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HotHaus | Acquired by public company | VoIP software | $280 million | March 1999 |
| Telogy | Acquired by public company | VoIP software | $457 million | June 1999 |
| Ficon Technology | Acquired by public company | IP, ATM software | $90 million | January 2000 |
| RadVision | Initial public offering | IP software | Priced at $20.00 share | March 2000 |
| Inverness | Acquired by public company | IP and MPLS software | $115 million | March 2000 |
| NetPlane (Harris & Jeffries) | Acquired by public company | IP, ATM, Frame Relay software | $140 million | July 2000 |
| SignalSoft (DGM&S) | Initial public offering | SS7 software | Priced at $17.00 share | August 2000 |
| DynamicSoft | Acquired by public company | SIP software | $55 million | July 2004 |
In March 2000, following a number of inquiries from potential acquirers, Trillium decided to explore its possible sale. Trillium created a list of potential acquirers that included communications equipment manufacturers, communications semiconductor companies and a few other companies. Intel Corporation was part of this list since they were already an investor in Trillium. Craig Barrett, the CEO of Intel, felt it was important for Intel to be involved in the communications and networking business. Starting in 1997, and over a 5 year period, Intel spent over $10 billion acquiring communications chip, hardware and software companies. Intel acquired Trillium in a deal for $300 million that closed on August 24, 2000. Intel’s objectives in acquiring Trillium were to expand the networking software available to its network processor
Network processor
A network processor is an integrated circuit which has a feature set specifically targeted at the networking application domain.Network processors are typically software programmable devices and would have generic characteristics similar to general purpose central processing units that are commonly...
, establish a viable entry into the networking software business to complement the network processor business as they moved to sell platform level solutions, and validate and optimize software designs to address high growth communications market segments including voice over IP
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
and wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
.
As part of the closing, Intel certified there were no Material Adverse Effects; any changes reasonably likely in the future to be materially adverse on the operations, assets, liabilities or earnings of Intel. On August 28, 2000 Intel stopped selling and recalled its Pentium III
Pentium III
The Pentium III brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile microprocessors based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 26, 1999. The brand's initial processors were very similar to the earlier Pentium II-branded microprocessors...
due to design defects and performance problems, on September 21, 2000 it issued an earnings warning and on September 28 it cancelled its Timna chip and delayed its Pentium 4
Pentium 4
Pentium 4 was a line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units , introduced by Intel on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had a 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since the introduction of the...
and Itanium chips due to design defects and performance problems. In just a little over a month (from August 24, 2000 to September 29, 2000) Intel stock plummeted from over $70 per share to $40 per share.
Trillium became a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel. It was renamed for external purposes as “Trillium, an Intel Company” and for internal purposes as the "Networking Software Division (NSD)". In 2002, NSD was renamed as the “Control Plane
Control plane
In routing, the control plane is the part of the router architecture that is concerned with drawing the network map, or the information in a routing table that defines what to do with incoming packets. Control plane functions, such as participating in routing protocols, run in the architectural...
Processing Division (CPPD)”. The division was initially part of Intel's Network Communications Group, which later became the Intel Communications Group. One of the co-founders moved into Intel when the deal closed, and the other stayed with Trillium. The functional integration of Trillium into Intel was considered successful, but the strategic and value integration was considered less successful. After the deal closed Trillium continued to focus on offering its communications software products and professional services to external customers and also started to develop cross divisional and business group customers within Intel. Trillium focused significant resources on integrating its software products into Intel network processors and related products.
The co-founders of Trillium left Intel in March and September 2002. Larisa died on December 22, 2008.
Continuous Computing, Trillium Software
As the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and 2001, Intel started selling many of its communications businesses. Continuous ComputingContinuous Computing
Founded in 1998, “Continuous Computing” is a privately held company based in San Diego that provides telecom systems made up of telecom platforms and Trillium software, including protocol software stacks for femtocells and 4G wireless / Long Term Evolution . The company also sells standalone...
, based in San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, acquired Trillium's intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, customers and also hired some Trillium engineering, sales and marketing staff from Intel in February 2003.
Continuous Computing continues to license Trillium software, develop additional software Trillium software products and also bundle the software with its high availability and other hardware solutions for network equipment providers. Trillium software products celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2008.
RadiSys, Trillium Software
RadiSysRadiSys
RadiSys Corporation is publicly traded company that makes embedded systems and related technology, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1987 in Oregon by former employees of Intel, the company went public in 1995...
(NASDAQ:RSYS), which provides hardware and software for Internet-based telecommunications, announced on May 3, 2011 that it was going to acquire Continuous Computing and its Trillium software products in a deal valued at $120 million. RadiSys and Continuous Computing are focused on complementary areas of networking technology.
Market History
There were a number of regulatory, financial and technology events that drove the telecommunications industry, and subsequently drove Trillium's growth and development.- General network infrastructure moved from time division multiplexingTime-division multiplexingTime-division multiplexing is a type of digital multiplexing in which two or more bit streams or signals are transferred apparently simultaneously as sub-channels in one communication channel, but are physically taking turns on the channel. The time domain is divided into several recurrent...
to statistical multiplexingStatistical multiplexingStatistical multiplexing is a type of communication link sharing, very similar to dynamic bandwidth allocation . In statistical multiplexing, a communication channel is divided into an arbitrary number of variable bit-rate digital channels or data streams. The link sharing is adapted to the...
and from character based communications to packet basedPacket switchingPacket switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data – regardless of content, type, or structure – into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams over a shared network...
communications.
- Work on the OSI reference model was initiated in 1977. The OSI reference model is an abstract description for layered communications and computer network protocol design.
- Telephone network infrastructure moved from In-band signalling to out-of-band signalling.
- Computing and communications moved from closed and proprietary mainframeMainframe computerMainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
based systems to open systemsOpen system (computing)Open systems are computer systems that provide some combination of interoperability, portability, and open software standards. The term was popularized in the early 1980s, mainly to describe systems based on Unix,...
.
- Equipment manufacturers moved from in-house technology development to buying or licensing hardware and software technology from other technology providers.
- Different voice, data and video networking technologies convergedConvergence (telecommunications)Telecommunications convergence, network convergence or simply convergence are broad terms used to describe emerging telecommunications technologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network...
.
- Equipment manufacturers moved from using proprietary softwareProprietary softwareProprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
solutions to open source softwareOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
solutions.
- The break up of AT&T was initiated in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice antitrustAntitrustThe United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
suit against the telephone company's monopolyMonopolyA monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
. In 1982, AT&T agreed to break itself up into several firms in 1984. The breakup of the AT&T's monopoly led to a surge of competition in the long distance telecommunications market as new carriers came into existence. It also improved the ability of other companies to sell their equipment to the regional Bell operating companies.
- The first TCP/IP based wide area network became operational in 1983. The Internet was opened to commercial interests in 1988 and was initially used for e-mail, file transfer and other applications.
- The first release of the Mosaic Web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
was in late 1994.
- The stock market crashed in 1987. A recessionRecessionIn economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
followed, starting in mid-1990 and ending in 1991.
- Software bugSoftware bugA software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
s in the switching systems of the core network caused massive failures in the telephone networks of AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
in 1990 and Bell Atlantic and Pacific BellPacific BellThe Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
in 1991. These network crashes shutdown telephone service for large portions of the United States and prompted Congressional investigations into the reliability of the telephone network.
- The U.S. Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) started competitive wireless spectrum auctionSpectrum auctionA spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction format used, a spectrum auction can last from a single...
s in 1994.
- The Telecommunications Act of 1996Telecommunications Act of 1996The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. This Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, was a major stepping stone towards the future of telecommunications, since this was the...
was signed into law in early-1996. It deregulated portions of the telecommunications industry and led to a surge of competition in the in local access, wireless and other markets. Other countries also started deregulating their telecommunications industries.
- The Asian financial crisis erupted in mid-1997 as poor fundamentals, structural weaknesses and a shift in investor sentiments caused liquidity problems in the financial systems of a number of Asian countries. The crisis stabilized by the beginning of 1999.
- The dot com bubbleDot-com bubbleThe dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
started growing in the mid to late 1990s and burst in 2000. The bubble was driven by a large increase in Internet access, large increase in wireless handset availability, and a belief that data intensive applications were going to drive the next generation network. The network was moving from being voice centric to data centric, from narrowband technologies to broadband technologies and from 2nd generation wireless to 3rd generation wireless technologies to accommodate real and perceived demand. Data bandwidth needs were doubling every 3 – 4 months. As the bubble burst, network operators, service providers, equipment manufacturers and others suffered huge losses. Over $2 trillion in market capitalization evaporated in less than 12 months and over 500,000 jobs were lost. Over 60 telecommunications carriers in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy between 2000 and 2002. By the end of 2000, it was difficult for companies to raise money through private equity funding or initial public offerings.
Product Technology
All Trillium products are based on the Trillium Advanced Portability Architecture (TAPA), a set of architectural and coding standards designed to ensure that the individual source code software products are portable and independent of the target system's compilerCompiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
, processor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
, operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
and architecture. Each software product is provided as C source code and has four programming interfaces: the system services interface, the layer management interface, the upper interface and the lower interface. TAPA describes the parameters and expected behavior across each interface.
Individual Trillium software products consist of 10,000’s to 100,000’s lines of source code. Each Trillium software product could be used separately, or in conjunction with other software products to build complete protocol stacks. Trillium software products were also able to support different national and industry variants of specific protocols. In later years, as the different network infrastructure technologies converged, Trillium software products were able to support interworking and translation between the different network infrastructure technologies (e.g. telephony to Internet Protocols). They were used in a wide range of network equipment, products and devices.
| Clients & Devices | Infrastructure | Service Platforms, Servers, Storage | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Core network A core network, or network core, is the central part of a telecommunication network that provides various services to customers who are connected by the access network. One of the main functions is to route telephone calls across the PSTN.... |
Access Access network An access network is that part of a telecommunications network which connects subscribers to their immediate service provider. It is contrasted with the core network, which connects local providers to each other... |
Enterprise | Home Home network A home network or home area network is a residential local area network . It is used for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories, such as printers and mobile computing devices... |
||||||
| Narrowband Narrowband In radio, narrowband describes a channel in which the bandwidth of the message does not significantly exceed the channel's coherence bandwidth. It is a common misconception that narrowband refers to a channel which occupies only a "small" amount of space on the radio spectrum.The opposite of... |
Broadband Broadband The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times... |
Mobile Wireless | Fixed Wireless Fixed wireless Fixed wireless is the operation of wireless devices or systems used to connect two fixed locations with a radio or other wireless link, such as laser bridge. Usually, fixed wireless is part of a wireless LAN infrastructure. The purpose of a fixed wireless link is to enable data communications... |
||||||
| Type of Network | Enterprise, home | Public | Public | Public | Public | Public | Private, enterprise | Home | Not applicable |
| Sub-type of network | Not applicable | Core transport, metro transport, access | Narrowband access, remote access, aggregation | Broadband access, aggregation | Wireless access, aggregation | Wireless access, aggregation | Enterprise, SOHO, VSO, LAN, SAN, key system, PBX, iPBX | Home, SOHO | Not applicable |
| Product solutions | Audio / screen / video IP phone, 2G / WAP / GPRS / 3G / 4G wireless handset, TV, DVR, PC, game console, tablet, PDA, laptop, consumer device, sensor | Core switch / router, edge switch / router, metro switch / router, multi service switch, media gateway controller / softswitch, optical cross connect, optical add/drop mux, signalling gateway, trunking media gateway, service node, service platform, test and monitoring, content switch, application / control / directory server, storage | Access switch, multi service switch, media gateway controller / softswitch, access gateway, residential gateway, remote access server, test and monitoring, cache server, storage | DSLAM, CMTS, multi service switch, media gateway controller / softswitch, access gateway, residential gateway, test and monitoring, content switch, cache server, storage | Base station controller, base transceiver station, radio network controller, node b, serving GPRS support node, gateway GPRS support node, location register, authentication center, equipment id register, media gateway controller/ softswitch, test and monitoring, content switch, cache server, storage | Base station, multi service switch, media gateway controller / softswitch, access gateway, residential gateway, test and monitoring, content switch, cache server, storage | Business gateway, integrated access device, router, network interface card, wireless LAN, firewall and intrusion detection, application server, web server, storage, workgroup switch / router, backbone switch / router, server switch, content switch, IP PBX, web server, media server, dbase server, storage, test and monitoring, mux, femtocell base station | Residential gateway, settop box, cable modem, DSL modem, router, network interface card, wireless LAN, femtocell base station | Service platform, service node, content / server switch, application / control / media / directory / security / dbase / web server, content processing, storage, media gateway controller / softswitch, location register, authentication center, equipment id register, position determining entity |
Product History
During its history, Trillium has developed over 150 software products, which parallel the evolution and development of the network infrastructure. These software products support communications protocols specified in international (e.g. ITUItu
Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...
), national (e.g. ANSI
Ansi
Ansi is a village in Kaarma Parish, Saare County, on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia....
) and industry (e.g. IETF) standards. These products are licensed primarily to telecommunications equipment manufacturers and include:
| Technology | Description | Products | First Customer Ship |
|---|---|---|---|
| X.25 X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links... , X.75 X.75 X.75 is an International Telecommunication Union standard specifying the interface for interconnecting two X.25 networks. X.75 is almost identical to X.25... |
Connection oriented protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to provide data communications over the packet switched Packet switched network A packet-switched network is a digital communications network that groups all transmitted data, irrespective of content, type, or structure into suitably sized blocks, called packets... wide area network Wide area network A wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations... (WAN). |
X.25 X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links... , X.75 X.75 X.75 is an International Telecommunication Union standard specifying the interface for interconnecting two X.25 networks. X.75 is almost identical to X.25... , LAPB LAPB Link Access Procedure, Balanced implements the data link layer as defined in the X.25 protocol suite. LAPB is a bit-oriented protocol derived from HDLC that ensures that frames are error free and in the right sequence. LAPB is specified in and ISO/IEC 7776... |
June 1990 |
| ISDN | Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support integrated voice and data communications over a phone line. Uses a circuit-switched Circuit switching Circuit switching is a methodology of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full bandwidth of the channel and remains connected for the... telephone Telephone The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other... network Computer network A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.... system, that also provides access to the packet switched Packet switched network A packet-switched network is a digital communications network that groups all transmitted data, irrespective of content, type, or structure into suitably sized blocks, called packets... wide area network Wide area network A wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations... (WAN). |
Q.930/Q.931, LAPD Link Access Procedures, D channel Link Access Procedures on the D channel , specified in ITU-T Q.920 and ITU-T Q.921, is the second layer protocol on the ISDN protocol stack in the D channel.It is heavily based on HDLC.-External links:*http://www.protocols.com/pbook/pdf/isdn.pdf... |
December 1990 |
| Frame Relay Frame relay Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology... |
Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support data communications between local area network Local area network A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building... s (LANs) and end-points over a packet switched Packet switched network A packet-switched network is a digital communications network that groups all transmitted data, irrespective of content, type, or structure into suitably sized blocks, called packets... wide area network Wide area network A wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations... (WAN). |
Q.933/LMI | November 1991 |
| SS7, SIGTRAN SIGTRAN SIGTRAN is the name, derived from signaling transport, of the former Internet Engineering Task Force working group that produced specifications for a family of protocols that provide reliable datagram service and user layer adaptations for Signaling System 7 and ISDN communications protocols.... |
Telephony Telephony In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other.... signaling protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s used to set up and tear down Clearing (telecommunications) Clearing, in telecommunications means:* A sequence of events used to disconnect a call and return to the ready state. It is sometimes, particularly in the context of common channel signaling, called teardown.... telephone call Telephone call A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.-Information transmission:A telephone call may carry ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, data transmission when the calling party and called party are using modems, or facsimile... s on the public switched telephone network Public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by... . |
MTP 2 Message Transfer Part The Message Transfer Part is part of the Signaling System 7 used for communication in Public Switched Telephone Networks. MTP is responsible for reliable, unduplicated and in-sequence transport of SS7 messages between communication partners.... , MTP 3 Message Transfer Part The Message Transfer Part is part of the Signaling System 7 used for communication in Public Switched Telephone Networks. MTP is responsible for reliable, unduplicated and in-sequence transport of SS7 messages between communication partners.... , SCCP, TCAP Transaction Capabilities Application Part Transaction Capabilities Application Part, from ITU-T recommendations Q.771-Q.775 or ANSI T1.114 is a protocol for Signalling System 7 networks. Its primary purpose is to facilitate multiple concurrent dialogs between the same sub-systems on the same machines, using Transaction IDs to differentiate... , ISUP ISDN User Part The ISDN User Part or ISUP is part of the Signaling System #7 which is used to set up telephone calls in Public Switched Telephone Networks... , MAP Mobile Application Part The Mobile Application Part is an SS7 protocol which provides an application layer for the various nodes in GSM and UMTS mobile core networks and GPRS core networks to communicate with each other in order to provide services to mobile phone users... 3G 3G 3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union... , MAP Mobile Application Part The Mobile Application Part is an SS7 protocol which provides an application layer for the various nodes in GSM and UMTS mobile core networks and GPRS core networks to communicate with each other in order to provide services to mobile phone users... IS-41 IS-41 IS-41, also known as ANSI-41, is a mobile, cellular telecommunications system standard to support mobility management by enabling the networking of switches. ANSI-41 is the standard now approved for use as the network-side companion to the wireless-side AMPS , IS-136 , cdmaOne, and CDMA2000 networks... , INAP INAP The Intelligent Network Application Part is a signalling protocol used in the intelligent network architecture. It is part of the SS7 protocol suite, typically layered on top of TCAP.It can also be termed as logic for controlling telecommunication services migrated from traditional switching... , CAP Camel Application Part The CAMEL Application Part is a signalling protocol used in the Intelligent Network architecture. CAP is a Remote Operations Service Element user protocol, and as such is layered on top of the Transaction Capabilities Application Part of the SS#7 protocol suite... , MTP 3B, Q.2140, DUA, IUA, M2PA, M2UA, M3UA M3UA M3UA stands for MTP Level 3 User Adaptation Layer as defined by the IETF SIGTRAN working group in RFC 4666 . M3UA enables the SS7 protocol's User Parts to run over IP instead of telephony equipment like ISDN and PSTN... , SCTP, SUA, V5UA |
March 1992 |
| ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that... |
Connection oriented protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support the transmission of data, voice and video communications over cell based networks |
AAL2 Signalling, Q.SAAL | November 1993 |
| V5 V5 interface V5 is a family of telephone network protocols defined by ETSI which allow communications between the telephone exchange, also known in the specifications as the local exchange , and the local loop... |
Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage communications between the telephone exchange Telephone exchange In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls... and the local loop Local loop In telephony, the local loop is the physical link or circuit that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the carrier or telecommunications service provider's network... . |
Envelope Function, LAPV, Layer 3 | February 1996 |
| Interworking | Protocols to manage and support interworking, conversion and translation between different control and signalling protocols. | Protocol Specific Functions | April 1997 |
| Fault tolerance, 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.... |
Software to manage and support load distribution across multiple processor configuations and/or fault tolerant active/standby processor configurations. | DFT/HA Core, Load Distribution Functions | June 1998 |
| VoIP | Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support the transmission of voice through the Internet Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide... or other packet-switched networks Computer network A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.... . |
H.323 H.323 H.323 is a recommendation from the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network... , SIP Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions... , MGCP, H.248/MEGACO Megaco Megaco is a gateway control protocol. and an implementation of the Media Gateway Control Protocol architecture for controlling media gateways in Internet Protocol networks and the public switched telephone network... , RTP Real-time Transport Protocol The Real-time Transport Protocol defines a standardized packet format for delivering audio and video over IP networks. RTP is used extensively in communication and entertainment systems that involve streaming media, such as telephony, video teleconference applications, television services and... /RTCP/SRTP Secure Real-time Transport Protocol The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol defines a profile of RTP , intended to provide encryption, message authentication and integrity, and replay protection to the RTP data in both unicast and multicast applications... |
March 1999 |
| Wireless Wireless Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications... |
Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support the transmission of voice, data and video over wireless networks. |
2G 2G 2G is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. Second generation 2G cellular telecom networks were commercially launched on the GSM standard in Finland by Radiolinja in 1991... – MAP Mobile Application Part The Mobile Application Part is an SS7 protocol which provides an application layer for the various nodes in GSM and UMTS mobile core networks and GPRS core networks to communicate with each other in order to provide services to mobile phone users... IS-41 IS-41 IS-41, also known as ANSI-41, is a mobile, cellular telecommunications system standard to support mobility management by enabling the networking of switches. ANSI-41 is the standard now approved for use as the network-side companion to the wireless-side AMPS , IS-136 , cdmaOne, and CDMA2000 networks... , SS7; 2.5G – BSSGP BSSGP Base Station System GPRS Protocol. Information between SGSN and BSS. This protocol provides radio related Quality of Service and routing information that is required to transmit user data between a BSS and an SGSN. It does not carry out any form of error correction.... , CAP Camel Application Part The CAMEL Application Part is a signalling protocol used in the Intelligent Network architecture. CAP is a Remote Operations Service Element user protocol, and as such is layered on top of the Transaction Capabilities Application Part of the SS#7 protocol suite... , GMM/SM, GTP GPRS Tunnelling Protocol GPRS Tunneling Protocol is a group of IP-based communications protocols used to carry General Packet Radio Service within GSM, UMTS and LTE networks. In 3GPP architectures, GTP and Proxy Mobile IPv6 based interfaces are specified on various interface points.GTP can be decomposed into separate... , LLC Logical Link Control The logical link control data communication protocol layer is the upper sub-layer of the data link layer in the seven-layer OSI reference model... , MAP 3G, NS, RLC/MAC SNDCP; 3G 3G 3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union... – ALCAP, CAP FP, GMM/SM, GTP, lu UP, MAC 3G, MAP 3G, NBAP NBAP In the 3GPP UTRAN architecture, NBAP is the signalling protocol responsible for the control of the Node B by the RNC. NBAP is subdivided into Common and Dedicated NBAP , where Common NBAP controls overall Node B functionality, and Dedicated NBAP controls radio links to specific user equipment... , PDCP PDCP PDCP is an abbreviation for Packet Data Convergence Protocol. It is one of the layers of the Radio Traffic Stack in UMTS and performs IP header compression and decompression, transfer of user data and maintenance of sequence numbers for Radio Bearers which are configured for lossless serving radio... , RANAP RANAP RANAP protocol is used in UMTS signaling between the Core Network, which can be a MSC or SGSN, and the UTRAN. RANAP is carried over Iu-interface.... , RLC 3G, RNSAP RNSAP RNSAP is a 3GPP signalling protocol responsible for communications between Radio Network Controllers. It is carried on the lur interface and provides functionality needed for soft handovers and Save & Restore Network Configuration relocation.... , RRC, SIGTRAN SIGTRAN SIGTRAN is the name, derived from signaling transport, of the former Internet Engineering Task Force working group that produced specifications for a family of protocols that provide reliable datagram service and user layer adaptations for Signaling System 7 and ISDN communications protocols.... |
March 1999 |
| IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem The IP Multimedia Subsystem or IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem is an architectural framework for delivering Internet Protocol multimedia services. It was originally designed by the wireless standards body 3rd Generation Partnership Project , as a part of the vision for evolving mobile... |
Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support the transmission of Internet Protocol Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite... (IP) multimedia Multimedia Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or... to mobile users on wireless networks. |
AAL5, COPS Common Open Policy Service The Common Open Policy Service Protocol is part of the internet protocol suite as defined by the IETF's RFC 2748. COPS specifies a simple client/server model for supporting policy control over Quality of Service signaling protocols... , Diameter, ISUP, MAP 3G, M3UA, MTP 2, MTP 3, MTP 3B, Q.2140, SCCOP, SCCP, SCTP, SIP, TCAP, TUCL |
|
| Femtocell Femtocell In telecommunications, a femtocell is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in a home or small business. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband ; current designs typically support 2 to 4 active mobile phones in a residential setting, and 8 to 16 active... |
Protocol Communications protocol A communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications... s to manage and support the transmission of voice, data and video over wireless networks using small residential or business base station Base station The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS... s. |
RRC Radio Resource Control The Radio Resource Control protocol belongs to the UMTS WCDMA protocol stack and handles the control plane signalling of Layer 3 between the UEs and the UTRAN... , PDCP, RLC 3G, MAC 3G, MAC-hs, MAC-c, MAC-es, RANAP RANAP RANAP protocol is used in UMTS signaling between the Core Network, which can be a MSC or SGSN, and the UTRAN. RANAP is carried over Iu-interface.... , SCCP, SUA, M3UA, SCTP, lu UP, GTP GPRS Tunnelling Protocol GPRS Tunneling Protocol is a group of IP-based communications protocols used to carry General Packet Radio Service within GSM, UMTS and LTE networks. In 3GPP architectures, GTP and Proxy Mobile IPv6 based interfaces are specified on various interface points.GTP can be decomposed into separate... , lu-h, UMA Client, Diameter, GMM/SM, SIP, FP, NBAP, SCTP, TR-069 |
Trillium software has been used in over 500 communications and networking products.
Trillium Poster
Trillium conceived of, and published a poster that provided detailed technical information about the network infrastructure and protocols in an attractive format that was easy to understand. It became an indispensable tool for the communications industry and it was displayed on the office walls and conference rooms of tens of thousands of engineers, venture capitalists and financial analysts around the world. The poster is periodically updated to reflect changes in the network infrastructure and protocols. The 1st generation poster was published in 1997 and was inspired by the "ISO and CCITT Data Communication Standards" poster published by Retix. The 5th generation of the poster was published in 2008.Further reading
"Trillium Digital Systems Case Study: 1988–1995". Jeff Lawrence, 2004. http://www.cliviasystems.com/general/trilliumCaseStudy95.pdf"Trillium Digital Systems Case Study: 1996–2003". Jeff Lawrence, 2004.
"Trillium Digital Systems, An Intel Company. A Case Study & An Analysis of the Protocols in the Voice Over IP Arena". Shramik Jyothula and Sridhar Dronamraju. http://ise.gmu.edu/~eschneid/infs612/projects/trillium.pdf
"Roadmap to Entrepreneurial Success". Robert W. Price, AMACOM, 2004. http://books.google.com/books?id=q7UzNoWdGAkC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=trillium+digital+systems+raises+14+million&source=web&ots=uPDpnBgmEo&sig=Ce6cNfopaPc4VvbE0xu2R5GVfPs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result
"How You Can Become Ma Bell". Karen Kaplan. Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1996.
"Growing Lean". Douglas Young. Los Angeles Business Journal, December 2, 1996.
"Network Broker". Communications News. October 1998.
"Preparation Counts More Than Luck". Juan Hovey. Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1999.