iBasis Carries Five Billionth Minute of VoIP Traffic

iBasis recently carried its five billionth minute of VoIP traffic. The iBasis network first entered service in 1998. In 2002, iBasis completed deployment of a "switchless" architecture, leveraging its existing Cisco AS5000 gateways and SC 2200 SS7 technology as well as proprietary technology for quality management and advanced routing.
http://www.ibasis.net

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Andrew to Acquire Allen Telecom in $500 Million Stock Swap

Andrew Corporation agreed to acquire Allen Telecom in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $500 million. Both companies are suppliers of wireless infrastructure subsystems. Andrew said the acquisition will make it the number one global supplier of coaxial cables, RF power amplifiers, terrestrial microwave antennas, network geolocation solutions, repeaters and in-building systems; and the number two global merchant provider of filters and base station antennas. Furthermore, the combined company can deliver an integrated offering of active components -- filters and RF power amplifiers. Under the deal, Allen shareholders will receive 1.775 shares of newly-issued Andrew stock for each Allen share that they currently own. This represents a 21% premium over Allen's share price on 14-February-2003.
http://www.andrew.com
http://www.allentele.com

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D-Link Offers $99 WLAN Repeater

D-Link introduced an 802.11b+ 22Mbps Wireless Range Extender and Access Point with an MSRP of $99. The device provides a repeater function to increase the wireless range in large homes and buildings by up to 50%.
http://www.dlink.com

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Network Instruments Ships Wireless Analyzer With Dual 802.11a/b

Network Instruments introduced a wireless analyzer with dual 802.11a/b connectivity. The dual a/b support is provided through a partnership with Atheros.
http://www.networkinstruments.com

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Spirent Tunes its Avalanche Line for Microsoft Media Stream Testing

Spirent Communications released new software for its Avalanche/2200 and Avalanche/SmartBits systems that enables Microsoft streaming media testing, in addition to existing support for QuickTime and Real Streaming testing. The 5.0 software release adds support for Microsoft Windows Media 8 Series and 9 Series over multiple transports: HTTP, TCP and UDP. The Avalanche system enables users to analyze their network streaming infrastructures including devices such as streaming servers, caches, and content-sensitive switches.
http://www.spirentcom.com/L4-7

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Verizon Purchases Spirent's Broadband Test Solution to Support DSL Rollout

Verizon will use Spirent's PPP over Ethernet over ATM (PPPoEoA) test application for the AX/4000 Broadband Test System to verify performance, reliability and scalability of the carrier's broadband access routers before they are deployed into a live network. PPPoEoA and PPPoA are common forms of the PPP implemented in broadband networks that leverage ATM as their underlying transport. Over the past year, network equipment manufacturers have been developing access routers that boast improved feature sets, including increased reliability and scalability, to support as many as 200,000 or more subscribers (PPP sessions) per device. Spirent said its AX/4000 test solution supports 32,000 sessions per port, or 256,000 subscribers per chassis, and a session setup rate as high as 400 subscribers per second per port or 3,200 sessions per second per chassis. The Spirent AX/4000's session scalability, along with its support for QoS testing of bi-directional data over the PPP sessions, enables broadband access testing in the lab so that carriers can confirm how many subscribers each device can realistically accommodate prior to actual deployment.
http://www.spirentcom.com

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Alloptic Enhances Element Management System to Gigabit PON

Alloptic introduced a new element management system for its Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (ePON) platform. In addition to fault management functions, the Alloptic EMS provides flow-through provisioning and line test facilities.
http://www.alloptic.com

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Microsoft's Enterprise Engineering Center Deploys Extreme Networks

Microsoft's Enterprise Engineering Center (EEC), which provides a test bed for Microsoft's next-generation of IT software, is deploying Extreme Networks' multi-layer Ethernet switching solutions. The EEC provides a setting where Microsoft's platforms are validated with large enterprise customer environments. Customers hosted in the EEC meet directly with developers and program managers, as well as provide direct feedback on pre-release versions of Microsoft products. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.extremenetworks.com

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T-Systems Leases Additional Wavelengths from 360networks

360networks signed a multi-year contract extension with T-Systems Inc., the North American subsidiary of T- Systems International, Deutsche Telekom's global IT and network services division. T-Systems will initially lease additional 2.5 Gbps optical wavelengths and protected OC-n services, as well as collocation capacity and has the option to upgrade to 10 Gbps wavelengths. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.360.net

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Korea's LG Selects Equant to Link 84 Offices Worldwide

Equant was awarded a new three-year contract to continue providing Frame Relay and Private IP dial services to LG, the third-largest Korean conglomerate, consisting of 50 affiliated companies. The new contract covers 84 key business centers in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
http://www.equant.com

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Tellabs Ships Dense SDH 4/4/1 Cross-Connect

Tellabs began shipping a next-generation SDH switch node that it describes as the world's most dense 4/4/1 digital cross-connect. The Tellabs 6350 switch node is a scalable, high-density multiservice platform that handles voice traffic from 2 Mbps, higher speed leased line services and data services, including high-speed Ethernet. It has 138 Gbps of switch capacity and interfaces for direct integration with Ethernet, SDH and DWDM networks. When deployed in distributed network architectures, the Tellabs 6350 switch node provides efficient grooming with reduced back-hauling of network traffic, which leads to better network economics. Tellabs said it has received more than 30 orders for the product.
http://www.tellabs.com

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Magis Awarded US Patent for 5 GHz Antenna Design, WLAN Security

Magis Networks, a start-up based in San Diego developing WLAN chipsets, was awarded several patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the areas of 5 GHz antenna design and 5 GHz wireless local area network security. Three of the patents cover the use of multiple antennas to overcome multipath issues in an indoor WLAN. Multipath issues occur when a radio frequency (RF) signal travels over multiple propagation paths from a transmitter to a receiver. These signals are reflected by various objects in the home or office causing them to arrive at the receiver at different times, thereby resulting in constructive and destructive interference. Magis also received a patent for enhanced security technology that employs a form of sophisticated waveform encoding of the 5 GHz transmitted signal.
http://www.magisnetworks.com

• Magis is developing its Air5 chipsets for wireless connectivity of consumer video and data devices. The Magis technology takes advantage of the high data rates of the 5 GHz frequency band to enable distribution of multiple streams of video, data, and audio at rates of 40 Mbps.

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SMC Launches 802.11g Products

SMC Networks introduced its new family of draft 802.11g-compliant high-speed wireless networking products, including a 2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router and access point (MSRP of $139.99), a PCI card adapter (MSRP of $79.99) and Wireless CardBus Adapter (MSRP is $89.99).
http://www.smc.com

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NTT/VERIO Deploys Juniper's T-Series Routers

NTT Communications has deployed Juniper Networks T-series platform in its NTT/VERIO Global IP Network covering Asia, Japan, North America, and Europe. The installation uses JUNOS IP/MPLS service capabilities, enabling NTT to provide its Global IP Transit Service, co-location connectivity service, smart content delivery, a global IP security gateway service, and an IPv6 gateway service. The network currently has 13 Gbps of bandwidth capacity between Japan and the US and 5 Gbps in Asia.
http://www.ntt.nethttp://www.juniper.net

• In September 2002, Foundry Networks announced that VERIO had deployed its 10-Gigabit Ethernet solution in VERIO Web hosting facilities and backbone aggregation POPs in the US and Japan.

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Nortel Networks to Build Embedded Switches for IBM BladeCenter

Nortel Networks intends to build advanced LAN (local area network) switches for the IBM eServer BladeCenter chassis. The embedded LAN switch will consolidate numerous switches, routers and appliances that provide traffic management into a single blade. The IBM eServer BladeCenter is expected to be one of the first modular server platforms to offer an advanced LAN switch in the blade server chassis. The embedded LAN switch is also expected to provide security differentiation to the IBM eServer BladeCenter.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
http://www.ibm.com

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Packet Design Spin-Offs Focus on Control Plane, High-Speed I/O

Packet Design, the Silicon Valley network incubator founded by Judy Estrin and Bill Carrico, has spun off two new companies to further develop and market its networking technologies. The first company, which will use the Packet Design name, will offer a family of network appliances that extends the routing control plane of IP networks. The company's initial product is the Route Explorer announced last year, which provides visibility, analysis and diagnosis of an enterprise or service provider's IP network. The company will be headed by CEO Douglas Brent and has begun raising venture funding. Approximately 25 of the parent company's 41 employees will move to this spin-off.

The second spin off company, Precision I/O, will commercialize a new high-speed networking architecture that allows servers to take full advantage of rapidly increasing networking speeds, including 10 Gigabit Ethernet and beyond. The company plans to offer both hardware (chip- and board-level) and software products, the first of which will be announced later this year. Eleven of the parent company's employees will move to Precision I/O, which will be led by Judy Estrin while a permanent CEO is sought. Estrin will be chairman of both new companies.
http://www.packetdesign.com

• In November 2002, Packet Design introduced a new BGP Scalable Transport (BST) protocol designed to address security and reliability issues. Packet Design said the crux of BGP's problem is that TCP is inadequate as a transport method in networks exceeding 10 to 20 routers in size because it is inefficient and because during peering it exposes routing services and leaves the network routers vulnerable to attacks. Rather than TCP's point-to-point communications, Packet Design's BST transmits information using a technique known as "flooding." Instead of a message being sent from an originating router to every other router in the network, it is sent only to the first router's immediate "neighbor" routers, which in turn sends it to their neighbors, and so on. Packet Design said its new protocol also addresses BGP's vulnerability to malicious "spoofing" - the illicit interception and alteration of messages as they move between peers.



• In May 2002, Packet Design introduced a Layer 3 Diagnosis/Visualization tool that allows network operators to look into the IP network "cloud" and see the actual routing paths being traversed by traffic. Packet Design's Route Explorer is a layer 3 visualization, diagnostic and analysis tool that uses routing protocols to gather and display information on end-to-end routing paths, both on-line and historically. The tool lets operators view the details (e.g., link state, link metrics, router parameters) of the routers along a specific route. The system provides an animated historical playback and analysis feature that can diagnose intermittent router failures known as "route flaps." It can also import customer-collected time series data (e.g., information on MPLS tunnels or traffic data collected with an application such as MRTG) and correlate it with the accumulated topology history.



• Packet Design (the parent company) was founded in May 2000 by husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Judy Estrin and Bill Carrico. The pair founded Bridge Communications in 1981, Network Computing Devices in 1988 and Precept Software in 1995 (acquired by Cisco in 1998). Packet Design has raised $29 million in private funding from Foundation Capital, Sun Microsystems and individual investors, including former Netscape CEO James Barksdale and Sun Microsystems Chief Scientist Bill Joy.

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ADC Selects Metalink Chipset for HDSLx Platforms

ADC will use chipsets developed by Metalink in its Soneplex/HiGain HDSL2 and HDSL4 products. The companies said all five RBOCs currently have ADC HDSLx offerings deployed in their networks and several are evaluating ADC's products using the new Metalink chipset.
http://www.metalinkDSL.com

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CoManage Launches Flow-through Reconciliation

CoManage has enhanced its advanced network service discovery and reconciliation system with new tools for synchronizing carrier inventory and asset management databases with the network. CoManage's TrueSource 3.5 features a multi-technology Discovery Engine and a flexible Reconciliation Engine that accelerate cleansing and updating of network resource management systems. A "Flow-Through Reconciliation" feature provides the ability to detect, analyze and reconcile discrepancies between the network and database with an automatic process. The system works by periodically "sweeping" the network and the inventory database and then sorting the discrepancies according to severity and potential impact on processes. CoManage estimates its system reduces database reconciliation by up to 90% compared to manual reconciliation processes. The TrueSource 3.5 software also ties the database discrepancies to services, thereby identifying misdirected, misallocated and incomplete service connections. Also with this release of TrueSource, CoManage expands on its multi-layer discovery capabilities. Devices supported by TrueSource's Discovery Engine include SONET ADMs, TDM DACS and DWDM devices; ATM, Frame Relay and Ethernet switches; DSL devices; and IP routers.
http://www.comanage.net

• CoManage's TrueSource software system combines three key data integrity functions:

• Parallel discovery, for automatically finding network equipment and connection components making up logical services;



• Assimilation, for automatically assembling connection components into end-to-end service views and identifying stranded connection resources; and



• Reconciliation, for automatically identifying discrepancies between the network and various OSSs, including the inventory system.

• In August 2002, MetaSolv Software and CoManage announced an agreement to offer a network inventory reconciliation solution to address the problem of “dirty data�? inaccuracies common in current network inventories.

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Cisco Advances Its Integrated Security Portfolio

Cisco Systems announced several new intrusion protection and firewall extensions for its security portfolio. The product rollout includes release Version 4.0 of Cisco IDS Software, new Cisco Threat Response (CTR) technology, the Cisco IDS 4250-XL Sensor and a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Intrusion Detection System services module. The new Cisco Threat Response Technology (CTR) automates the traditionally manual process of intrusion investigation and claims to reduce false alarms by up to 95%.
http://www.cisco.com

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Cisco Systems Kicks Off $150 Million Advertising Campaign

Cisco Systems launched a marketing and advertising campaign featuring special 8-page inserts in major newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and others. The advertising centers on the theme of "The Power of a Network." The campaign, which is under the direction of advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, will be expanded over the coming months to France, Germany, UK, Italy, Canada, China and Japan. It will also include advertising on prime time programs on national TV such as 24, West Wing, Law & Order, 60 minutes, CSI, and programs on cable networks such as CNN, Discovery, ESPN and History Channel. Cisco is budgeting up to $150 million over a 12 month period.
http://www.cisco.com

• In a quarterly conference call earlier this month, Cisco executives confirmed plans to launch a $150 million marketing campaign as a means of breaking away from competitors.

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BCE Calls on Canadian Regulators to Lift Foreign Ownership Caps

Michael Sabia, CEO of BCE, Canada's largest communications company, called on Canadian regulatory authorities to raise foreign ownership restrictions from the current 33% to 49%. In a presentation to Canada's Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Sabia said greater flow of capital is always a positive move and the complete removal of ownership restrictions is likely inevitable given the globalization of the world's economies. He noted the regulatory focus on facilities-based competition has been instrumental in making Canada one of the few countries in the world which is "successfully managing the transition from a monopoly environment to a competitive one." BCE is against licensing and tiering proposals on the grounds that they are arbitrary, discriminatory and would diminish further investments in networks.
http://www.bce.ca/en/news/

• Notes from Michael Sabia's Presentation

• Canada has 5 national wireline networks and four national wireless networks



• Canada has residential rates that are 25% lower than the U.S.; business rates are almost half



• Canada has the second highest broadband penetration rate in the world; double the penetration rate in the U.S.

• BCE, Canada's largest communications company, encompasses wireline, wireless, data/Internet and satellite network interests as well as content creation businesses, including CTV (Canada's leading private broadcaster), The Globe and Mail (newspaper), and Sympatico-Lycos (ISP/portal). In June 2002, SBC Communications agreed to sell its 20% stake in Bell Canada back to BCE Inc. for CDN$6.32 billion.

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Zhone Acquires NEC Eluminant for its Optical Access Technology

Zhone Technologies acquired NEC Eluminant Technologies, a developer of optical access products, for an undisclosed sum. Products included in the acquisition include eLUMINANT's ISC-303 digital loop carrier, the VISTA Access SONET ADM, the RC-28D and RC-28E M13 multiplexers and the FD-6 fiber access multiplexer. NEC retains the rights to the FiberSLAM product and intellectual property associated with the passive optical networking (PON) system. Zhone said the deal expands its full-scale delivery of access solutions for voice, data, video and content to service providers. The deal also expands Zhone's customer base with the addition of some of the world's largest carriers.
http://www.zhone.com
http://www.eluminant.com

• eLUMINANT was spun off from NEC America, Inc. in 1998. The company has raised $31 million in funding from ITOCHU Corporation, NEC USA, and Yasuda Enterprise Development Co., one of Japan's largest venture capital companies. eLUMINANT is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia and operates a research and development center in Portland, Oregon.

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Nortel Networks Introduces Succession VoIP VPN Service

Nortel Networks introduced its Succession VoIP VPNs for service providers wishing to offer outsourced, enterprise voice networks using their IP infrastructure. At the heart of the Succession VoIP VPN service offering are Nortel Networks' Succession Communication Server 2000 and Succession Communication Server 2000-Compact "superclass" softswitches. The company defines a "superclass softswitch" as one that provides local, tandem and long distance capability on a single platform; full business and residential telephony service sets; regulatory features like 'Lawful Intercept' and 'Number Portability;' and carrier-grade reliability and scalability. Service offerings that have now been defined for these platforms include:

• Succession Centrex and Succession Centrex IP -- a "low risk, low cost" evolution to packet with line-by-line migration and more than 200 business features.


• Succession Personal Communications Manager -- provides web-based, end-user programmable, call screening, routing and call management capabilities.


• Succession Multimedia and Collaboration -- combines voice, video, and text media in a single communication session. Services include web-based video calling, instant video conferencing, and presence-based collaboration capabilities.


• Succession Internet Voice -- provides voice over broadband, soft second line voice service that can be augmented with both the Succession Personal Communications Manager and Succession Multimedia and Collaboration services for enhanced communications.


• Succession Primary Voice -- provides a regulatory-compliant primary voice service set for new market entry and competitive service differentiation, including the full set of class 5 residential voice services.

In addition, Nortel Networks announced several VoIP product enhancements, including:

• new H.323 interfaces to Succession softswitches to support direct packet interworking with H.323 IP PBX systems and gateways.


• expanding support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) on Succession softswitches to support direct packet interworking with SIP-based enterprise PBXs or gateways.


• expanding support for SIP on Succession softswitches to encompass both SIP and SIP-T on the trunk side. This extends the interworking capabilities of Succession softswitches to third party application servers, enabling carriers to offer a wider range of new services.


• adding SIP extensions that uniquely integrate Succession softswitches and Succession Interactive Multimedia Server (IMS) to enhance the multimedia feature set that carriers can deliver to existing phones.


• adding SIP proxy capability to Succession softswitches to allow multimedia traffic to cross enterprise and PSTN domains and carrier boundaries more efficiently.

Nortel Networks also said it would expand its co-marketing programs to help carriers strengthen business planning and pricing analysis for introducing new services.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

• Nortel Networks noted that it has deployed softswitches and gateways in 38 service provider networks across 22 countries, and has announced Succession portfolio contracts collectively estimated at approximately US$2 billion.



• In July 2002, Verizon confirmed the installation of Nortel Networks' packet-switching equipment in large Verizon switching centers in Newark, New Jersey and Tampa, Florida in a voice-over-packet trunking application. Specifically, Verizon is using voice trunking over ATM switches, or VtoA, to increase the efficiency of existing transmission capacity and lines. During the initial Verizon VToA deployment, voice calls are being transmitted through major regional call- and data-switching centers known as tandems. Equipment used includes Nortel Network's Succession Communication Server 2000 softswitches, Succession Multi-service Gateway 4000 and Passport 15000 Multiservice Switches for ATM transport.



• In November 2001, Sprint announced that Nortel Networks would provide products and services for the conversion of Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division network from digital circuit-switched to next generation packet-switched. The transition was scheduled to begin in January 2003. The conversion consists of an entire network evolution including both Class 4 and Class 5 components to packet utilizing subscriber line over ATM (SloA) technology. Nortel Networks was awarded a supply and services agreement estimated to be worth approximately US$1.1 billion over four years. Key elements of the deployment include Nortel Networks Succession Communication Server 2000 softswitches, MG 4000 trunking gateways, MG 9000 access gateways, and Nortel Networks Passport 15000 Multiservice Switches.

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Ikanos Closes $30 Million, Expects 1 Million VDSL port Shipments by Mid-Year

Ikanos Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, closed $30 million in series D funding to support volume shipments of its programmable, integrated, broadband chipsets. Ikanos chipsets support multiple international standards of the Very High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber Line-Discrete Multi-Tone (VDSL-DMT) as well as ATM and Ethernet protocols, symmetric and asymmetric applications, and scalable speeds up to 100 Mbps over copper pairs. Ikanos said VDSL deployments were gathering steam, especially in Korea and Japan. The company has shipped over 200,000 VDSL-DMT ports to date and it anticipates shipping 1,000,000 ports by the middle of the year. . The new funding was led by Sequoia Capital and include Greylock Partners, Intel Capital, JPMorgan Partners, Presidio Venture Partners, Ridgewood Capital, Telesoft Partners, VentureTech Alliance (an affiliate of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), and Walden International. Total funding secured to date is more than $82 million. TSMC provides foundry services to Ikanos.
http://www.ikanos.com

• Ikanos has disclosed design wins with ZyXEL (Taiwan), Hyundai Networks (Korea), Samsung (Korea), NEC (Japan) and Sumitomo Electric Industries (Japan).
  

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Albert Einstein Institute Chooses Force10 10 Gigabit Ethernet

The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, better known as the Albert Einstein Institute, will use Force10 Networks' E-Series switch/routers as the central interconnection facility for a new, high-performance computing cluster. The network will be used for on-going research on black holes, gravitational waves and other phenomena predicted by Einstein. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.force10networks.comSome other research center customers announced by Force10 Networks:

• The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which is using Force10 Networks 10 GigE switch/routers to connect its Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) to the National Science Foundations' TeraGrid project, which is the world's largest supercomputing grid.
  



• the National Center For Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)



• the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC)



• the University of Amsterdam, which is a member of DataGrid, a project funded by the European Union working towards the creation of a next-generation computing infrastructure providing intensive computation and analysis of shared large-scale databases across widely distributed scientific communities.
  

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