Client Services Technical Training

CRAIG A. TATE

*** ********* ***

Forked River

New Jersey 08731

Cell: 848-***-****

Email: ***********@*****.***

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

From 8/23/2023 to Present.

Company: AT&T Research & Development (Externetworks)

Position: Senior Transport Engineer/ Systems Certification Engineering DSL Lab

Responsibilities: Responsibilities: Evaluate/test/ certify equipment that will replace existing legacy DS1/DS3/DACs/ SONET Multiplexer equipment used for client services in the Metro & Long-Haul MPLS, GigE, DWDM network access infrastructure. The objective is to decommission legacy access equipment and replace it with a new access product to reduce actual C/O (central office) hardware footprint, reduce power requirements (Carbon Footprint) too meet today’s (Green Technology Solution’s). Additionally, by selecting a new NE (Network Equipment) technology we also eliminate the on-going equipment shortage associated with equipment spares associated for equipment that lived its life cycle and spares are no longer available or manufactured.

Product Evaluation: Systems Integration Testing, Systems Certification Testing, Systems Acceptance Testing of Cisco NCS4200 and Ciena 3926 products that provide a pathway to future evolving technology trends such as: Smaller Footprint, lower power, faster processing, much greater interconnectivity 10Gbps to 100Gbps ethernet uplinks, CEM (Circuit Emulation) Electrical and Optical services such as: DS1/DS3/DACs/SONET/DWDM/MPLS/Ethernet. Clients can still use existing legacy technologies such as: DS1/DS3/DACs/SONET legacy services. Client legacy services will be interconnected via a new network equipment (NE) device the Cisco NCS4200 either as LTE (Line Terminating Equipment) or PTE (Path Terminating Equipment). The next generation NE will provide an integrated DS1/DS3/SONET over Ethernet solution utilizing CEM (Circuit Emulation Technology) for legacy DS1/DS3/SONET over a integrated MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Swapping) service providing a (VPN) Virtual Private Network over as a MPLS PE (Provider Edge) interconnected to a G.709 ODU/OTU DWDM Transponders, thru an Open-ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) using CDC-F (Colorless, Directionless, Contention-less, Flex Grid) technologies over DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) Ciena 6500 backbone network infrastructure transparently.

Certifications Testing Required: G.709 compliance (ODU/OTU, Alarm (defects) & ( Anomalies ) exchange Upstream & Downstream), MPLS Compliance (CE & PE, LIB/FIB/MIB, LDP, LSR) Ethernet layer-2, MPLS layer-2.5 (Shim Functionality) Layer-3/4 MPLS TCP exchange, GR253 SONET (STS-1 through OC-192, DS1 VT1.5 & DS3, Protection switching: UPSR & Linear5 APS, (PM) Performance Monitoring, GR 499 TSGR (Transport Systems Generic Requirements), In-service software upgrades, soak testing. DWDM CDC-F interoperation testing, RFC4553 SatOps & CEM-Ops, MPLS-VC/EVC over Pseudowire tunnels leveraging GigE 10/100/400 ethernet services and Applicable MEF performance Standards. Systems Integration Testing (SIT), Systems Certification Testing SCT), Systems Acceptance Testing (FAT), Test Plan development, findings documentation, debugging & logging bugs, JIRA, and MR tracking, presenting results.

From 3/14/2022 to 8/23/23:

Company: Nokia/Bell labs

Position: Senior Systems Test Certification Engineer

Responsibilities: Provide detailed system level testing and systems certification support on the Nokia PSS1830 (36/32/24/12/8/16) Packet Optical Switching Systems. Certification testing of all OT (Optical Transponders). Support our Global engineering testbed and simulation for engineering systems requiring hardware and software setup, test, and reconfiguration. Detailed testing of 10,40,100,200,400, 600 800Gbe,,1.6 Terabit, OTU/ODU/OPU via OTN G.709, 802.3Bj, 802.3bs compliant services. Broad spectrum of service providers technologies in transport engineering such as: Metro/ Long haul products and services utilizing a variety of technologies ranging from: ADSL, VDSL, DOCSIS, DS0, DS1/DS3/SONET,GFP, Frame Relay, ATM, GPON, DWDM, G.709, OTN, Routing, Switching (VPLS/VPN) services. Specific expertise in DWDM technologies using modulation schemes such as QAM/4QAM/BPSK/PAM4/16QPSK/64QPSK utilizing a variety of Pluggable SR/LR/ER for SFP/QSP28LR/QSP56/LR/QSFP-DD/OSFP/CFP/CFP4/FR1/FR2 optical interfaces. System software apps: Microsoft, EPT, CLI, TL1, Python test scripts, JIRA engineering tracking tools, CLI command line, GUI user interfaces, Microsoft office, Debug, and Engineering Provisioning Tools (EPT) using ASON & GMPLS-TE and Wavelength Tracker tools. Testing of IROADMs, ROADMs, TOADM s, FOADMs (2,4,8,16,32 degrees). Flex Grid/Fixed Grid DWDM Colorless/Directionless/Contentionless (CDC) compliant network testing/development and design. Protection switching: OPSA (Line) OPSB (Client) OPSFlex (ROADM/FLEX Grid) compliant. Error Correction algorithms: RSFEC, SDFEC, GDFEC. Line Amplimers: EDFA/RAMAN. Analyzers GigE and OTN: EXFO, VIAVI,/JDSU, OSA, Hewlett Packard, Digital Lightwave,Ixia, Hitachi, data analyzers, Frequency Meters, Power Meters, OSNR Analyzer, EXFO and Viavi variable (VOA) attenuators OTDR Viavi/Exfo.

From: 1/5/2017 to 3/14/2022

Sabbatical: Medica;/family Leave

From: 6/4/2015 to 1/5/2017

Company: NIIT Global Systems

Position: Senior Technical Training Engineer

Responsibilities: Provide extensive training to Alcatel Lucent global customers on Fiber Optic solutions within the EMEA (European/Middle East/Africa) theater of operations which included Belgium, Amsterdam, Bulgaria, Rwanda, Uganda, India, and Canada. Activities included traveling to customer sites globally, setting up their equipment on-site, provide training on how to use and deploy the Fiber Optic infrastructure equipment, and implement new customer services for the service provider. Technologies included L2 & L3 routing and switching, VoIp services, Video on demand.

From: 12/10/2012 to 1/14/2014

Company: CHR Solutions, 4424 West Sam Houston Parkway North, Suite 420, Houston, Texas 77041

Position: Staff Engineer/Client Consultant

Responsibilities: Engineering consultant assigned to support, design, and develop an implementation plan for numerous ILEC’s throughout the plain states for delivering 4:1 (4 Mega-bytes down, 1 Mega-byte up) broadband services as part of the Broadband America Act. Each ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier) must file their 5 year broadband plan with the (Federal Communications Commission) by 7/1/2013 to qualify as a ETC (Eligible Telecommunications Company) and remain eligible to continue to receive F-USF (Federal Universal Services Funds) over the next 5 years.

CHR Solutions has been retained by several ILECs to document their existing network, network capabilities, network boundaries, and development a strategic roll-out plan for delivering (4:1) services to meet the required objectives of the Broadband America Act in order to remain eligible to continue to receive F-USF funds moving forward.

As a Staff Engineer, I was involved in all facets of the project ranging from pre-sales, project kick-off, lead engineer, in assuring the project deliverables are met, and the final product is delivered to the customer, and registered to the FCC on or before 7/1/2013.

Enabling Technologies ADSL2+, VDSL2+, GFP, GigE, 10GigE, 40Gig, 100Gig Services, Local Loop Access Design, Metro Access, Core Access, Flood Tracing analysis via Cad/Cam, PON/EPON/GPON.

Optical skills include OTN, SONET, SDH, SDN, Multi-Degree ROADM’s, for fixed grid today. Presently I am studying applications involving Multi Degree ROADM’s (M*N) using FlexGrid, 2-D MEM’s,and LcoS, over Fixed and FlexGrid architectures, providing super channels (contiguous & non-contiguous), over next generation WDM networks capable of providing 400G and beyond super channel rates with integrated but separate SDN control and data planes using CDC-F networking.

Routing & switching, VLANS, BGP-4, OSPF, MPLS, IS-IS, GMPLS, DWDM, CWDM. IpV6, IpV4, DHCP, DNS, NAT.

From: 9/10/2011 to 10/1/2012

Company: Sovernet Communications, 5 Canal Street, Bellows Falls, Vermont

Position: Contractor: Senior Optical Network Consultant

Sovernet Communications, owns and operates a high-capacity fiber-optic network throughout Vermont that connects the largest markets in the state that directly support networks covering Federal Agencies, State Agencies, Local Municipalities, Homeland Security, First Responders, Public Schools, and Libraries.

Responsibilities: Assessment of backbone network needs, customer access needs, network design, network maintenance, writing RFP’s, reviewing RFP responses, selecting vendors, writing system certification acceptance test plans, implementing system certification test plans, vendor selection for backbone transport network equipment, customer access equipment, and network test equipment needed to provision and maintain customers access leveraging GigE services with transparent NID capabilities that support Y.1731, RFC2544 (Performance Verification), RFC 1564 (SLA-CIR/EIR/CBR/EBR), RFC 6349 ((layer-4 Monitoring), Y.1731 (client end to end), 802.1ag MEP/MIP, 802.1ah MEP/MIP functionalities across a DWDM, OTN, 1/10/100G ROADM 2-to-8 degree (Gen 1 through 4 ROADM Technologies) based optical backbone network utilizing both EDFA, and RAMAN amplifiers and incorporating FEC, and FlexGrid technologies.

Project: The Vermont B-TOP (Broadband Telecommunications Opportunity Program) is federally funded project from the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Association, Broadband Telecommunications Opportunity Program (NTIA / BTOP) in excess of 48 million dollars. These funds are from the national stimulus package in an effort to modernize the telecommunications infrastructure in rural America, create jobs, and stimulate production of US made products throughout the United States through July of 2013.

The scope of Vermont project is to build a fully integrated state of the art, statewide telecommunications network interconnecting thousands of local, state and federal offices over a next generation shared optical transport network utilizing multi-degree, passive, ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical add/drop Multiplexing) DWDM colorless backbone transport services that support GigE customer access arrangements, while integrating legacy OC-N SONET/POS, legacy DS3 services, ADSL/DSL services, Ethernet over GFP/VCAT, and legacy protection switching: LAPS/UPSR/BLSR services. The new network will be a true OTS (optical transport system) providing client GPON services over colorless, directionless, OTN compliant, MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum ) standards. All client access services will be ITU 802.1ag/802.1ag MIP/MEP, Y.1731, RFC2544, RFC6349, and RFC1634 compliant. All client access arrangements will support either ITU 8031/ITU 8032 protection switching standards, or legacy LAPS/UPSR or BLSR protection switching.

The core transport network design is based on the Ciena OME 6500 MSPP platform as the backbone optical transport infrastructure with Ciena 5150 feeder/concentrators providing uplinks from customer based Ciena 39xx CESD (NIDS) and Huawei 3600 series MSPP. All transport DWDM wavelengths will be compliant with the ITU- Grid for C-band (Blue and Red) with 50 GHz, or 100 GHz channel spacing either through transponders and muxponders over EDFA line amplifiers.

Equipment Knowledge: Ciena OME 6500, Ciena 5150, Ciena 39xx products, JDSU 8000, JDSU 6000/4000 systems for fiber characterizations, fiber scopes, fiber light sources, fiber cleaners, Summitomo single and mass fusion splicer’s, fiber distribution panels, equipment racks, fuse panels, fiber jumpers, tracers, station clocks (BITS), EXFO power meters/light sources/OSA, SunRise Telecom test equipment, digital scopes for optical eye pattern characterization, SFP’s, XFP’s, OWL Power meters and light sources, Noyes power meters/scopes/light sources, JDSU 5800 ( 1Gig through 100Gig) analyzers, JDSU OSA inband/out of band OSNR test equipment, fiber characterization testing PMD/CD/ORL/IL optical line testing. Lucent legacy WavesStar products, Huawei 3600 MSPP, Calix C7, Cisco ONS 15454, Cyan Z33 & Z77, Adtran, Cisco Switches, Accedian NIDs, Fujitsu DWDM systems, Tellabs DWDM systems, Alcatel/Lucent 1830 system. Protocols eBGP, iBGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS.

Special Skills: System test, systems integration, systems installation, system provisioning, pre and post sales support, project management, network engineering, systems engineering, network operations, fiber splicing, fiber optic characterization testing, system installations, pre & post sales network engineering, RFP/RFQ writing, customer presentations, statistical analysis of network performance.

Career Sabbatical: From 2004 through 2010

Attended Penn State, Seton Hall, and Rutgers Universities while pursuing a new degree in Biological Sciences with a special emphasis in genetics. Additionally, while attending classes part time, I also worked as a substitute teacher for the Middlesex County Vocational Technical school district, Rues Lane, East Brunswick, NJ.

SPIDER NETWORK SYSTEMS, INC., 106 Apple Street, Tinton Falls, NJ

10/03-10/04

Co-founder: Chief Technical Officer

Built the company from the bottom floor up, hired 10 additional employees’s, and designed a Next Generation, SONET based, Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP).

Responsibilities included writing business plans, presenting the business plan, executing against the business plan, managing the companies CAPEX & OPEX budgets, purchasing, payroll, marketing, margin analysis, competitive analysis, providing a long term vision for the company, providing executive leadership, and negotiating terms and conditions of contracts with employee, investors, and vendors.

As chief technical officer my responsibilities included the hiring of strategic engineering disciplines defining the product from conceptualization (design of our BlackWidow/1000, Next Generation, Multi Service Provisioning Platform. Other responsibilities included: writing the products functional requirements documents, product development schedules, determining the cost of goods (COGs), creating the bill of materials (BOMs), and overseeing and reviewing the systems Gerber’s. Additional responsibilities included managing the efforts of the R&D engineering team, defining and developing the products differentiating factors, trade marking, and patent filing.

Presently I hold the pending patent for the Programmable Fabric Management Protocol (PFMP) created and written by Craig Tate and intended for use between Next Generation, SONET, MSPP platforms across an all Optical Network. PFMP is an algorithm, which automatically adapts and adjusts to users on demand needs for throughput capacity across networks, creating flexible throughput capacity on demand through constant negotiation between interconnected MSPP platforms.

Special Skills: SDH & SONET OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, OC-192, DS3, DS1, ISDN, TCP/IP, ATM. OSPF, MPLS, BGP-4, IS-IS, GFP/VCAT-LCAS, G.709 Wave Wrapper, H323, G.711,G.703, G.704 G.732, G.733, G,736, Lap-D signaling, DWDM & CWDM.

Test Equipment: All W&G/Acterna Optical/SONET analyzers, TTC SONET/Optical Analyzers, All Agilent SONET/Optical Analyzers, CAT-3 & CAT-5 Wiring Standards, Digital Lightwave Analyzers, extensive Parametric Conformance test equipment, optical light meters, etc.

CORIOLIS NETWORKS, INC., Codman Hill Road, Boxboro, Massachusetts 03/03-10/03

Contractor: Senior Embedded System Engineer

Embedded system testing, compliance testing, system certification, and system quality assurance (SQA), of their Multi Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) family of products. Each Coriolis product was tested against the new ITU G.7041 Generic Framing Protocol (GFP/VCAT), ITU G.7042 Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) standards.

Products were tested against AT&T’s existing performance standards such as: AT&T internal standards, Belcore GR-XXX, and applicable international ITU SDH-XXX specifications. All equipment was thoroughly tested for non-disruptive services, backwards compliance to existing infrastructure, transport service standards, and enterprise applications. Other responsibilities included writing detailed test plans, reviewing test plans, executing test plan, and reviewing the results with senior Coriolis management.

Tekmark Global/AT&T Contractor, Middletown, NJ

03/02-03/03

AT&T Contractor: Systems Certification Test Engineering Group (DSL-Lab)

Responsibilities included compliance testing, system certification, system quality assurance (SQA), of all vendors Multi Service Platform (MSP’s) equipment sponsored by AT&T for evaluation. Each vendor’s equipment was tested against AT&T’s performance standards such as AT&T internal standards, Belcore GR-XXX, and internal standards ITU SDH G.XXX specifications. All equipment was thoroughly tested for non-disruptive services, backwards compliance to existing infrastructure, transport service standards, and enterprise applications.

Wrote, reviewed and executed test plans, and reviewed the results with AT&T marketing vendors, and AT&T senior management.

Worked in the AT&T DSL (Digital Subscriber Lab) in Middletown, NJ performing Next Generation Network testing and certification on multiple vendors’ equipment (Lucent DWDM 80G & 160G, Cisco ONS15454, Nortel). Our function as a group is to define the future technologies, which will be rolled out into the AT&T network infrastructure over the next 6 to 12 months. Very detailed test procedures are written to certify each product for compliance to the following specifications; Jitter Tolerance, Jitter Transfer, Jitter Generation, SONET OC-3 though OC-768 compliance testing, SONET Parametric Conformance testing, and SONET performance monitoring compliance testing. All vendors are put through a very thorough evaluation period and tested against all applicable SONET and DWDM Telcordia (GR-253, GR-499, GR-1244, GR-1230, GR-1400 Series of network Specifications.

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Holmdel, New Jersey

10/98-03/02

Title: MTS-2

Optical Networking Group, Systems Certification Engineering Group (400G DWDM System)

Provided customer tier-3/4 technical support (PI) for the 400g DWDM systems.

Supported AT&T directly with the certification testing of Lucent LCT SONET multiplex equipment as an LTE, the Lucent DDM1000/2000 as an LTE and the Lucent 40g & 400g DWDM ultra long haul optical transport systems. All products were tested and certified against Telcordia GR-253, GR-499, GR-1230 (BLSR), GR-1400 (UPSR), GR-1244 (Synchronization), and ANSI T1.105, ANSI T1.231. All products were tested for compliance using Hewlett Packard OmniBer 718, OmniBer 719, HP- CERJAC SONET Test Set, W&G ANT-20E SONET analyzers and TTC 310m SONET analyzers

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Holmdel, New Jersey

10/98 to 03/02

Title: MTS-2

Optical Networking Group: Systems Certification Test Engineering

Tested Optical and SONET network configurations. Tested new 400g DWDM hardware, Bandwidth Manager (BWM) hardware 2.5g and 10g (OC-192).

Provided trade show support, customer demo's and wrote equipment certification test plans for SONET against Belcore GR-253/ANSI T1.105 specifications and DWDM.

Wrote customer acceptance test plans, performing customer acceptance testing, re-certification of existing feature sets of Optical Networking Group (ONG) products.

Tested for compatibility between Lucent products and competitive equipment, such as Cisco, Alcatel, Nortel, and Ciena.

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Holmdel, New Jersey

10/98 to 03/02

Title: MTS-2

Systems Certification Test Engineering Group:

IP6400 Project (Router)

Wrote test plans for the IP6400 OC-3, OC-12, and OC-48c interfaces.

Wrote system requirements for hardware engineers to develop the SONET interfaces. Was instrumental in selecting specific chips sets for the IP6400 router SONET card, (SER/DES), SONET Framers, and SONET Transceivers.

Worked collaboratively with the developmental engineers to test POS card, IP over ATM card, and wrote the APS (1:1, 1:N, UPSR, BLSR) requirements document for the SONET interfaces for the IP6400. Worked on developing and specifying a mesh topology configuration restoration technique for the IP/6400 IP/64000 using PNNI in the SONET over head bytes (B4 through B12).

Identified product problems, wrote ECO's, and tracked problems through Lucent MR system.

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Holmdel, New Jersey

10/98 to 03/02

Title: MTS-2

System Certification Test Engineering Group (ATM Switch)

Tested ATM (UNI & PNNI), POS, services, and provided Tier 4 customer support.

Performed SONET certification testing, synchronization certification testing, and PNNI & UNI testing. Developed ATM training course, taught ATM & MX/1000 to Lucent Tier 3 support groups

OC-3 through OC-48

CABLETRON SYSTEMS, New York, New York 9/97-8/98

Post Sales Engineering Regional Manager

Successfully managed 30 Tier 3 post-sales support engineers. Responsible for over 120 million dollars in annual corporate revenue and provided support to Fortune 100 companies in the metropolitan area.

Demonstrated record of achievement for extensive personnel management, customer satisfaction, departmental budgeting, and forecasting.

Customers included: Chase, JP-Morgan, NY/NJ Port Authority, NYC Mass Transit, Columbia University, NYU, NYSE,

BELL ATLANTIC NETWORK INTEGRATION (BANI)

Edison, New Jersey

09/95-9/97

Positions: Senior Network Consultant/

Regional Operations Manager

Acting Regional Director of Operations

Daily management of the day-to-day business of running a 6-million-dollar network integration division and managed engineers and network buildouts from Main to Virginia

Functioned as senior consultant overseeing the design and implementation of the statewide Interactive Distant Learning Subscriber Loop (IDSL) network, numerous banking networks, GM’s Research and Development Fiber Optic design and buildout in its Michigan R&D Center.

DIGITAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANTS, INC.

Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey

1994-1995

Position: President and Founder

Designed and implemented automatic, interactive, distance learning systems for educational purposes in the State of New Jersey.

Coordinated and piloted the state's first tri-county interactive distance learning seminar for over 600 school principals and superintendents from the various school districts. The project received statewide recognition and was acknowledged by the media in several local and statewide newspapers as "Network 2000, the Wave of the Future."

NETWORK EQUIPMENT TECHNOLOGIES (NET),

Iselin, New Jersey

1993-1994

Position: Senior Consultant

Provided pre and post sales support.

Responsible for the design, sale, and project management of MCI's internal and customer backbone network.

TELEOS COMMUNICATIONS, Eatontown, New Jersey 1991-1993

Position: Pre & Post Sales Support Engineer

Pre and Post-sales support of ISDN PRI and ISDN BRI CPE equipment.

Designed and installed customer networks such as, Smith Kline Beechem, Unisys Systems, and AT&T's video conferencing bridging centers.

MCI, Piscataway, New Jersey ( Now Verizon Long Distance Services)

1989 to1991

Network Infrastructure Engineer 4

Designed and implemented ISDN, and SS7 network services throughout the United States.

Designed and built international fiber gateways for TAT-8 and PTAT.

TIMEPLEX, Woodcliff Lakes, New Jersey 1982 to 1989

Pre & Post Sales Senior Consultant

R&D development on the Link/1 and Link/2 products. Wrote the requirements document for the Timeplex channelized

T-1 processor modules, and the requirements for the Timeplex Strattum-3 distributed clocking module.

Provided both pre and post-sales support. Received three presidential awards from Timeplex for achieving 100% of sales quota objectives. Additionally received two special technical recognition awards for identifying the need for a channelized services/processor module, and writing the functional requirements documents to support the development of this technology, and the LFM.9 special stratum clock distribution module necessary for synchronizing the NE devices to the core transport network.

Education: Middlesex County College, Edison, New Jersey, electrical engineering technology program (ASET), Farleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey, electrical engineering technology program in pursuit of BSET degree. Penn State On-line undergraduate course work, Seton Hall University, NJ Biological Sciences program, Rutgers University, Newark New Jersey Biological Science.

Note: All credits are being transferred in 2012 to Thomas Edison College, NJ, for final BS degree.

Additional Industry relevant education:

Advanced telecommunications training; Lucent SONET Training, Lucent Optical Networking Training, Lucent TCP/IP Training, Lucent DWDM Training, CISCO ICRC Training, Timeplex T1, T3, Voice, Compressed Voice, NMS, EMS Training. Verizon, Project management training program, Cabletron Systems, Router University Training Program. JDSU 4000, 6000, & 8000 training, Summitomo splicing training, Ciena 6500 training (in-house).

Professional Memberships

IEEE Member, New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC)

Awards:

Received the Peoples Choice Award at the NJTC venture fair in 2004 with Spider Network Systems, as Co-Founder/Chief Technology Officer for the most innovative new technology in the telecom sector.

References: Available upon request

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