Monday, January 6, 2003

P-Com and Telaxis Terminate Merger Agreement

P-Com and Telaxis mutually terminated their planned merger.
http://www.tlxs.com
http://www.p-com.com
  • On September 10, P-Com and Telaxis agreed to merge in a stock-swap deal that would have combined P-Com's point-to-point, spread spectrum, and point-to-multipoint broadband wireless products with Telaxis' FiberLeap products, which also provide wireless extensions for fiber networks. The combined company was be headquartered in Campbell, California and was expected to have more than 250 employees. Together, P-Com and Telaxis have more than 150,000 radios installed around the world.

Dell Configures PC for DSL from SBC, Verizon and BellSouth

Dell will begin offering consumers the option of purchasing DSL from SBC, Verizon or BellSouth when they order a new PC. Currently, Dell offers a $50 cash rebate to new customers who order DSL through the program.
http://www.dell4me.com/broadband

Apple Releases 802.11g Access Point

Apple introduced a 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme access point based on the 802.11g draft specification. The base station can serve up to 50 Mac and Windows users simultaneously. Pricing starts at $199.
http://www.apple.com/airport/

Linksys Rolls Out Low-Cost Layer 2/3 Switches

Linksys rolled out a new line of full-featured Layer 2 and Layer 3 Ethernet and Gigabit managed switches aimed at small to medium-sized businesses. Pricing starts at $500 for a Layer 3 Management 4-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch that provides 8Gbps non-blocking switching performance and supports up to 256 port-based VLANs.
http://www.linksys.com

Marconi to Offer DeepNine's Wireless Security Solutions

Marconi's wireless business unit will market DeepNines' Sleuth9 Security System, a network attack mitigation and intrusion prevention solution for wireless service providers and infrastructure vendors. DeepNines provides a new front line of defense that prevents DoS, DDoS, Port Scans, Trojan horses, propagating worms and viruses, as well as other cyber attacks. The solution is located in front of the router and evaluates all network traffic at the packet level, both ingress and egress, to determine what is valid and what is malicious. Sleuth9 combines signature, protocol and traffic anomaly detection into an integrated solution and utilizes heuristics and proprietary behavior monitoring to block malicious traffic, while allowing good traffic to pass.
http://www.deepnines.com
http://www.marconi.com

WaveSmith Networks Expands Management Team

WaveSmith Networks announced several changes to its management team:

  • Robert O'Neil joins as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. He previously served with Cascade Communications and Aptis Communications/Nortel Networks.


  • Michael Regan joins the company as Vice President of Engineering. He previously served with Octave Communications, Unisphere Networks, Cascade Communications, Cabletron Systems, and was a co-founder of Castle Networks.


  • Gregg Savage joins WaveSmith as Chief Financial Officer. He previously served with Appian Communications, New Oak Communications/Nortel Networks, and Wellfleet Communications.


  • John Burnham has been named WaveSmith's Vice President of Marketing. Prior to WaveSmith, John was Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Unisphere Networks and held senior-level marketing positions at C-Port/Motorola, New Oak Communications/Nortel Networks, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Cabletron Systems.


  • Company co-founder Robert Dalias will serve as an outside consultant to WaveSmith. He also remains as a member of WaveSmith's Board of Directors.


  • In addition, a number of the original management team members also remain with the company, including Pam Nelson, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Bob Doucette, Vice President of Manufacturing, and Frank Fiorillo, Vice President of Customer Support.
    http://www.wavesmithnetworks.com
    • In November 2002, WaveSmith Networks named Thomas Burkardt as its new Chairman and CEO, succeeding founding President and CEO, Robert Dalias. Prior to joining WaveSmith, Burkardt was chief operating officer and executive vice president of Unisphere Networks, which was acquired by Juniper Networks. Before Unisphere, he was co-founder and president of Castle Networks, where he was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of the company by Siemens. Burkardt previously served as director of Cascade Communications' xDSL business unit, and created and managed Cabletron's IBM connectivity business unit.


    • In October 2002, WaveSmith closed $30 million in third round financing for its DN multiservice switching product family. WaveSmith has raised $84.5 million to date. WaveSmith's DN multiservice platform combines ATM, Frame Relay, TDM/Circuit Emulation Services (TDM/CES) and IP/MPLS services in a compact form factor.

TI and Microsoft Show Real-Time, Broadcast-Quality, Embedded WM9 Encoding

Microsoft and Texas Instruments demonstrated a real-time, broadcast-quality, main profile embedded Windows Media Series 9 video encoding solution on TI's software-programmable 600 MHz digital signal processor (DSP). The WM9 encoding solution delivers real-time, full D1 (720 x 480) resolution at 30 frames-per-second. It could be used in high-end digital media centers for digital media compression, streaming video transmission, and HDD storage. Future plans include support for high-definition Windows Media Series 9 codec technology.
http://www.ti.com

Ecuador's ANDINATEL Selects Zhone's Single Line Multi-Service Architecture

The Ecuadorian Telecommunications Service Provider ANDINATEL S.A. has selected Zhone's Single Line Multi-Service architecture to provide a multi-service DSL end-to-end solution. The newly deployed architecture allows ANDINATEL to simultaneously offer high-speed data as well as traditional POTS services over its existing local loop. The implementation will use Zhone's Broadband Access Node next-generation services delivery platform in conjunction with Zhone's Multi-Access Line Concentrator. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.andinanet.nethttp://www.zhone.com

Next Level Supplies TV over DSL for Carolina-based Telcos

Next Level Communications is supplying equipment to three local exchange carriers in South Carolina for delivering digital TV, high-speed Internet and telephone services. The three customers are West Carolina Rural Telephone Coop., Home Telephone Co., and PBT Communications. Next Level said its Full Service Access Platform has now been deployed in more than 135 cities and towns in 38 states. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.nlc.com

Acterna Delivers 40G Optical Tester to Lucent

Acterna delivered its first ANT-40G advanced network tester to Lucent Technologies' research facility in Nuernberg, Germany. Lucent will be using the portable Acterna ANT-40G during the hardware engineering and system integration phases of its product development and analysis, and to test components.
http://www.acterna.com

Alcatel IP Core Router Chosen for National Network in Poland

The Poznañ Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) selected the Alcatel 7770 OBX (Optical Broadband Exchange) for its PIONIER 5,000-km network that will connect all academic optical metropolitan area networks in Poland. The Alcatel 7770 OBX will be deployed as the IP backbone of PIONIER, as well as the peering point into the pan-European research network GÉANT, which connects 32 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.alcatel.com
  • The Alcatel 7770 Optical Broadband Exchange (OBX), which replaces the existing 7770 Routing Core Platform (RCP), features an ASIC-driven distributed switching fabric and scales from 100 Gbps to 1.9 Tbps of line card capacity. The 7770 OBX features the Alcatel Carrier Environment Internet Systems (ACEIS) to address both the high-cost of current core routing deployments as well as reliability concerns with exiting routers. The control plane, forwarding plane and management plane are completely separate. ACESIS provides “non-stop�? routing software for BGP-4, OSPF and IS-IS. Alcatel supports in-service software upgrades and selective re-starts. The new 7770 OBX features a standard, half-height rack mountable chassis, compared to a proprietary form factor in the prior system. Various expansion line-card shelves can be located up to 100 meters away from the switching shelf and connected via optical cable. Alcatel is offering dual stack IPv4/IPv6 as well as tunneling support for IPv6 over IPv4. The 7770 OBX also uses a new generation of network processors on each line card.

FatPipe Networks Awarded Router Clustering Patent

FatPipe Networks of Salt Lake City was awarded a third patent for its router clustering technology. The patent covers the principal technology it calls RAIL (Redundant Array of Independent lines), which bonds multiple DS3, T1, DSL, Cable, ISDN and/or wireless connections over private or public wide area networks, resulting in greater bandwidth and redundancy.
http://www.fatpipeinc.com

IP Infusion Enhances its Routing Suite with IS-ISv6 and CSPF Extensions for IS-ISv4

IP Infusion released version 5.2 of its ZebOS Advanced Routing Suite featuring new support for Intermediate Systems-to-Intermediate-Systems for IPv6 (IS-ISv6), as well as Constraint-based Shortest Path First (CSPF) for IS-ISv4 support. The IPv6 Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-ISv6) Module is based on link-state technology with two levels of hierarchy. It stores information about the state of links and uses that data to select paths. IS-ISv6 forwards packets directly over the underlying link-layer protocols using the Dijkstra algorithm to find the shortest path to the destination. The IS-ISv4 Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) extensions calculate an optimum explicit route (ER) based on the specified constraints, using Traffic Engineering Database (TED) and pre-existing LSPs. The resulting ER is used by a signaling protocol, such as RSVP-TE, to setup LSPs.
http://www.ipinfusion.com

Foundry Adds New 100BaseFX Ethernet Interface Modules

Foundry Networks announced new interface modules that provide high density 100 Mbps Ethernet connectivity over multi-mode and single mode optical fiber for its BigIron Layer 3 Switches, FastIron Layer 2/3 Switches, and NetIron Metro Routers. The new interface modules are powered by Foundry's third-generation JetCore ASICs and offer advanced features including Quality of Service (QoS), wire-speed extended Access Control Lists, hardware-based sFlow for wire-speed network monitoring and rich bandwidth management features. Foundry is introducing the following three new JetCore 100BaseFX modules for different distance requirements: 100BaseFX over multi-mode fiber for 2 km; 100BaseFX-SR over single mode fiber for 15 km; and 100BaseFX-IR over single mode fiber for 40 km.
http://www.foundrynetworks.com/

Turin Supplies Ethernet/SONET Transport for Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) has deployed Turin Networks' Traverse optical transport platform for connecting its Internet2 GigaPoP with the Terascale Computing System (TCS) housed at the Westinghouse Electric Company using leased dark fiber. Turin's Traverse Platform provides an Ethernet over SONET/SDH, integrating the functions of a next-generation SONET add-drop multiplexer (ADM) and digital cross-connect system (DCS) with an Ethernet aggregation switch in a single compact shelf. The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is using the platform for multiple wire-speed Gigabit Ethernet connections over their leased fiber. Advanced VLAN and rate-limiting features will also allow them to support per-port or per traffic-class bandwidth SLAs in the future. One application benefiting from the high-speed connection is a Tele-Immersion project involving researchers at PSC, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and University of Pennsylvania.
http://www.turinnetworks.com

Electric Lightwave Selects White Rock for OC-192c Carrier to Carrier Service

Electric Lightwave (ELI) has deployed White Rock's OC-192 SONET ADM for OC-192c carrier to carrier service delivery. White Rock's VLX2020 provides SONET performance monitoring, a customer demarcation point and remote provisioning and loopback testing functions. It offers auto-provisioning features and measures two rack units (3.5 inches) in height, about one-fifth the space or less of other vendors' SONET equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.whiterock.com
  • In December 2002, White Rock Networks announce the closing of $42 million in fourth-round venture funding for its next-generation optical transport systems for the local metro transport market. White Rock is focused on the Multi-service Provision Platform (MSPP) market as well next-generation SONET. White Rock has taken a unique approach to the MSPP problem by breaking it into pieces - modular, stackable product elements. White Rock also features a software-based control plane that transforms their modular "building-blocks" into a single network element. White Rock Networks has raised $144 million since its inception in 1999.


  • In June 2002, Citizens Communications acquired Electric Lightwave, a facilities-based carrier headquartered in Vancouver, Washington.

Microsoft Xbox Live Subscriptions Reach 250,000, Heavy Use Reported

In less than 60 days, Microsoft has sold 250,000 starter kits for its Xbox Live online gaming service, more than double its original sales expectation. Gamers are spending an average of 2.5 hours per day playing online. Microsoft will launch the Xbox Live service in Japan on January 16, followed by a launch in Europe in mid-March.
http://www.microsoft.com

VocalTec Supplies Additional VoIP Equipment to Deutsche Telekom

VocalTec Communications announced new $6.2 million deal to supply additional VoIP equipment and maintenance services to T-Systems International Carrier Sales and Services (ICSS), a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. The contract represents the second major expansion of T-Systems ICSS' Jules VoIP Platform and reflects an ongoing commitment to meet increasing market demand for wholesale international services. T-Systems ICSS provides its carrier customers with global coverage, full SS7 interconnectivity and guaranteed network quality and reliability. VocalTec expects the equipment portion of this deal to be fulfilled by the end of Q1.
http://www.t-systems.com/icsshttp://www.vocaltec.com

India's Data Access Plans Aggressive VoIP Network Expansion

Data Access, Ltd., one of India's leading long distance carriers, plans to purchase $8 million in VocalTec equipment and related services over the next 15 months as part of a major VoIP network expansion. Data Access' planned expansion will support up to 20 million minutes per day, a significant increase from the network's current capacity of four million minutes per day. Data Access has a total of eight switch centers and network operating centers (NOCs) -- five located within India with overseas centers in New York, London, and Hong Kong. The company has an additional 20 points of interconnect (POI) to link to other carrier networks. Data Access is presently using VocalTec's packet tandem switching platform to carry approximately 3.5 million minutes per day of ILD traffic, representing an estimated 30% share of total international long distance call traffic in India.
http://www.dataaccessindia.com
http://www.vocaltec.com

SOFTBANK Selects Harmonic for TV over DSL

SOFTBANK Broadmedia Corporation chose a Harmonic digital television headend solution for what is expected to be the world's largest TV over DSL service. Harmonic's DiviCom video compression systems will enable broadcast quality digital TV over DSL to be offered to more than one million Yahoo! BB subscribers. The service, which provides multi-channel broadcast television as well as video-on-demand (VOD), was launched in Tokyo at the end of 2002 and will be extended to other cities in Japan this year. The Harmonic equipment is used primarily for the real time encoding of broadcast channels. The systems will also be used for pre-encoding content, which is then stored on a video server, to support SOFTBANK's VOD service. The systems can compress video to bit-rates as low as 2 Mbps while maintaining a broadcast quality picture. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.harmonicinc.com

IBM and Cisco Team on Storage Networking

IBM and Cisco Systems announced a global agreement for storage networking solutions under which IBM will offer its customers Cisco's MDS 9000 Family products, beginning with the Cisco MDS 9509 Multilayer Director, Cisco MDS 9216 Multilayer Fabric Switch, and associated modules. The alliance pairs IBM's storage systems with Cisco's SAN products. IBM is the first vendor to enter into a reseller agreement for Cisco's new multiprotocol SAN switches.
http://www.cisco.com
http://www.ibm.com

Verizon Claims Third Largest Market Share in Long Distance Voice

Verizon has passed Sprint to become the third largest long-distance provider in the US behind AT&T and MCI/WorldCom, according to surveys by the Yankee Group and TNS Telecoms. Verizon now has 10 million long distance customers.
http://www.verizon.com/news