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This chapter gives an overview of Cisco Broadband Access Center (Cisco BAC), and describes the factors that you must consider before you install Cisco BAC.
This chapter details:
•Operating System Requirements
•Minimum Hardware Requirements
Cisco BAC is a distributed and scalable application that automates the tasks of provisioning and managing the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) in a broadband service provider network. It enables secure provisioning and management of CPE by using the Broadband Forum's CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP), a standard defined in the TR-069 specification.
Based on open standards, Cisco BAC provides a simple and easy way to deploy high-speed data and voice technology.
Cisco BAC can be scaled to suit networks of virtually any size. It also offers high availability, made possible by the product's distributed architecture with centralized management.
You must install Cisco BAC on Sun SPARC computers that run the Solaris 10 operating system.
Ensure that you have the latest Solaris patch bundle for the operating system installed in your system before you install Cisco BAC. We recommend Solaris 10 05/08 for Solaris 10 operating system.
Note Before you install Cisco BAC, download and install the recommended patch bundle from the Sun Microsystems support website and then restart your computer.
A Cisco BAC installation requires:
•A Regional Distribution Unit (RDU).
The RDU is the primary server in a Cisco BAC deployment. It contains the central Cisco BAC database and is the sole entry point for processing requests from the application programming interface (API).
•One or more Device Provisioning Engines (DPEs).
A DPE caches provisioning information and configuration requests, including the transfer of configuration files to devices. It is the major component of the provisioning group, handling all device interactions with the RDU.
•Cisco Network Registrar extensions (CNR extensions)
The CNR extensions are the links between Cisco BAC and Cisco Network Registrar. You should install this component on all Cisco Network Registrar servers in your Cisco BAC environment. If you are deploying Cisco BAC in a failover environment, ensure that you install the extensions on the fail-over servers also.
Note You must install the Cisco BAC CNR extensions on a server running Cisco Network Registrar 7.2. If you do not want to install these extensions, you are not required to install Cisco Network Registrar.
•Cisco Access Registrar extensions (CAR extensions)
The CAR extensions are the links between Cisco BAC and Cisco Access Registrar. You should install this component on all Cisco Access Registrar servers in your Cisco BAC environment. If you are deploying Cisco BAC in a failover environment, ensure that you install the extensions on the fail-over servers also.
Note You must install the Cisco BAC CAR extensions on a server running Cisco Access Registrar 5.0.0.3 or later. If you do not want to install these extensions, you are not required to install Cisco Access Registrar.
•SSL Accelerator and Load Balancer.
SSL Accelerator and Load Balancer manage the traffic from the CPE to DPEs. The SSL accelerator and the Load Balancer enable you to effectively deploy the various hardware devices in the provisioning group.
Note We recommend that you use the Cisco ACE 4710 as SSL accelerator and load balancer.
Table 1-1 lists the minimum hardware requirements for the various Cisco BAC components.
Table 1-1 Minimum Hardware Requirements
This section details the minimum hardware requirements that you need to successfully deploy Cisco BAC in your environment. This section contains:
•Smallest Fully Redundant Deployment
A smallest fully redundant deployment of about 500,000 devices can be configured with one provisioning group that has two DPEs. This setup requires:
•Two RDU servers
•One RAID unit
•Two DPE servers
•Two Cisco ACE units
•Two Cisco Network Registrar servers
For every additional 500,000 devices that you add, you need two DPEs configured in a new provisioning group. A single deployment can handle up to eight million devices.
Note A single pair of load balancers can handle DPEs in multiple provisioning groups. We recommend that you determine the number of load balancers based on the network configuration of your service provider.
This section describes how to install individual Cisco BAC components. The installation program enables you to install one or all the components of Cisco BAC—RDU, DPE, CNR Extension Points and CAR Extension Points.
Note This release does not feature a lab installation, but you can perform its equivalent by installing all components on a single machine. To perform the activity, we recommend that you have atleast 350MB of disk space available.
You can install RDU, DPE, Cisco Network Registrar and Cisco Access Registrar through the CLI. For details on component installation, see the Installing Cisco BAC, page 3-2.
Before you install Cisco BAC, familiarize yourself with the installation startup processes and checklists described in Before Installing Broadband Access Center, page 2-1.
See the Installation Worksheet, for information on Cisco BAC installation parameters.