Products & Services

DACS – Docsis Auto Configuration System

 top

DACS overview

• DACS = DOCSIS Auto Configuration Server
• DACS provides a centralized and automated platform for cable service providers to control and configure subscriber devices in DOCSIS based access networks
• DACS is a scalable, distributed software platform that helps to enable automated flow-through provisioning of subscriber services and management of subscriber devices
• DACS supports multiple service and device types, as well as multiple class of services and dynamically creates and generates device configuration files in order to activate convergerd broadband services (TV+Internet+Telephone).
• DACS provides a single device management platform to support multiple technologies including DOCSIS®, PacketCable™, CableHome™, which are basically Cable Modems and the IP devices behind the gateways (VoIP Gateways, STBs, etc.)
• DACS is designed for use by cable service providers seeking an automated means of provisioning and managing subscriber devices supporting various industry standards (legacy protocols -> TRxx)

Why DACS?

• Reliability: DACS provides high reliability and high availability supporting autonomous, as well as multiple distributed nodes, each of which may includes its own data-caching repository, a TFTP, ToD and DNS servers
• Scalability and performance: DACS can support millions of devices in single or distributed deployments. DACS uses multiple distributed device management and caching engines to balance processing of device requests. A single node can support as many as 500K devices. Single DACS node can be deployed in cluster configuration in order to provide redundancy and load sharing
• Easy integration with current systems: DACS integrates with existing service provider systems, such as billing systems, operations support systems (OSSs), and other customer management systems (CRM, etc.), through comprehensive Web Service API. It can also notify interested applications of certain events within the system through an event-notification registration procedure
• Extendable technology support: DACS supports DOCSIS cable modems and set-top boxes for high-speed data provisioning, PacketCable voice provisioning of media termination adapters (MTAs), DOCSIS cable modems, CableHome devices, SIP ATAs, and SIP voice gateways. It also can be extended to support other Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)–based devices (support for TR-069 protocol will be added to DACS in Q2 2012)

DACS Features

• Advanced IP address management (groups/classes/tags)
• Subscriber centric CPE management (system is aware of relations between all CPE devices located at single subscriber's location, such as cable modem, PCs, STB, etc.)
• Support for fully zero-touch CPEs activation
• Dynamic configuration files generation (per subscriber custom “granular” configuration)
• Advanced and flexible configuration template engine
• Automatic DOCSIS configuration file generation (binary format)
• Comprehensive data model/Embedded high-performance database
• Distributed architecture (with shared IP ranges between nodes to preserve IP address space)
• Comprehensive provisioning API (NBI Interface)
• High availability
• Scalability for cost-effective growth
• DOCSIS 3.0 support
• TR-069 support (Q2 2012)

DACS Architecture & System Components

• DHCP server: High performance multi threaded DHCP core engine
• DACS DB: Central database store (PostgreSQL)
• DACS GUI: Quick access and administration of operational and configuration parameters
• NBI API: All configuration methods and action triggers are exposed to Web Service API
• Device Connectors: Enables legacy protocol actions (SNMP, Telnet, SSH,...)
• TFTP server: High performance TFTP with advanced caching mechanism
• Message Bus: Inter-component communication and process orchestration
• Auxiliary modules:
• ToD server
• DDNS update
• DNS server

DACS Provisioning Flow

• Provision your subscriber devices with the up-to-date data using DACS ability to automatically retrieve or receive subscriber data, subscriber device data (MAC address, maximum number of CPEs, voice line confi guration, call agent), and service options (speed, quality of service) from OSS/BSS systems.
• Minimize the effort required in manually creating service-specific configuration files for device activation requests with dynamically generated configuration files.
• To quickly provision end-user devices at the user’s request, DACS dynamically generates device configuration files and caches last version on TFTP server until change in configuration is needed.

DACS Requirements

Minimum System requirements*:

• CPU: Intel Xeon DualCore 2.0 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• Disk Space: 146 GB

* Single server deployment/Dependent on customer deployment size

Operating Systems Requirements:

• Red Hat RHEL
• CentOS

Recommanded HA configuration:

• 4 x Server (CPU: Intel Xeon QuadCore 2.0 GHz); RAM: 4 GB; Disk Space: 146 GB
• SAS/SATA Storage; 500 GB

 top