07/01/03 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Tuesday, July 1, 2003

PowerCOM to Distribute Octasic's Voice Processors in Korea

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Silicon

PowerCOM, Korea's leading semiconductor distributor, will begin offering Octasic's voice processing chips to equipment manufacturers in Korea. Octasic's product line includes echo cancellation and voice quality enhancement chips, which support from 128 to 672 voice channels in a single chip; a 1023 channel full-duplex packetization engine for VoIP and VoAAL2 applications; and a 255 channel ADPCM compression device.
http://www.octasic.com

China Netcom chooses Alcatel 7770

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Optical

China Netcom selected the Alcatel 7770 Optical Broadband Exchange (OBX) and the Alcatel 5620 Network Manager for the core of its IP network in Zhejiang province. The network will support value-added services such as video on demand, Internet access, video conferencing and MPLS-VPNs. The contract with Zhejiang Communication Company, a China Netcom subsidiary, was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.alcatel.com

ETSI's VDSL Standard Allows for Either QAM or DMT Line Coding

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Regulatory

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI's) TM6 sub committee has decided to support both Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) line coding in its VDSL standard. The decision to support dual line coding enables European service providers to choose for themselves which form of modulation they want for their VDSL network deployments. Infineon Technologies, which offers a QAM-based VDSL chip, said "the best way to accelerate VDSL deployment is to encourage true competition, in which component choice is based on price, performance, silicon size, and vendor reputation." Infineon claims to have shipped over 4 million QAM-VDSL ports, representing more than 2.5 million active lines.

The contribution in support of dual line code for VDSL can be found at the following URL:
ftp://ftp.t1.org/T1E1/E1.4/DIR2003/3E141761.pdf
http://www.etsi.orghttp://www.infineon.com

Last month, the T1E1.4 committee, which is part of The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), decided to specify only Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) line coding in its American National Standard (ANS) for VDSL. The DMT modulation method will be specified in the American National Standard, and the Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) method will be specified in a Committee T1 Technical Requirement (TRQ). The decision followed the release of data from the "VDSL Olympics," a series of performance tests conducted by Telcordia Technologies and BT.
Separately, the IEEE's 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) Task Force selected DMT as its worldwide line-coding standard for VDSL.

China Railcom Selects Nortel for Packet Network

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Packet Systems

China Railcom named Nortel Networks as its exclusive supplier of packet voice equipment for Chongqing Municipal City. The carrier plans to use Nortel Networks Interactive Multimedia Server (IMS), Succession Communication Server 2000-Compact superclass softswitches, and Passport Packet Voice Gateways (PVG) to deliver converged voice/data services over twisted pair lines, ADSL, HFC, Ethernet or wireless. The contract follows a one-year trial that included extensive field testing under the close supervision of technical experts from China Railcom and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). China Railcom is a fully licensed operator in China and its fixed-line network registered a capacity of over 15 million lines at the end of 2002. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

CIENA Tunes its MetroDirector K2 for Ethernet

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Optical

CIENA released new features that enable its MetroDirector K2 platform to deliver Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet enterprise services directly over existing service provider networks. The MetroDirector K2 combines the functionality of add/drop multiplexers, digital cross-connects, ATM switches and 10/100/1000 Ethernet switches in a single platform. New Fast Ethernet Bridging (FEB) and Gigabit Ethernet Bridging (GEB) cards for the K2 enable a suite of new enterprise services, including Guaranteed Ethernet Private Lines (from 50 Mbps up to full line rate), Shared Ethernet Private Lines (securely combines traffic from multiple customers on one SONET/SDH channel with standardized VLAN tags), and Switched Ethernet (a shared multi-point service).

CIENA also announced the availability of E1 support on MetroDirector K2 in SDH environments, enhancing its range from DS-1/E1 to OC-192/STM-64.
http://www.ciena.com

Cisco Builds Network Test Lab in Singapore

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Packet Systems

Cisco Systems has established a Networked Solutions Integration Test Engineering (NSITE) lab in Singapore to help customers test complex IP networking solutions in real world conditions. The other NSITE labs are located in North Carolina and California in the US, and in the UK, Belgium and Italy in Europe. The new Singapore lab is testing solutions for customers such as China Unicom, Japan's NTT and SingTel.
http://www.cisco.com

Spirent Introduces Dual-Media Gigabit Ethernet Test System

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Packet Systems

Spirent Communications introduced its SmartBits TeraMetrics XD Gigabit test family, a platform that allows users to evaluate and test both copper and fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet implementations. Spirent's SmartBits TeraMetrics XD scales to 768 ports and supports four dual-media test ports for both fiber and copper. Users can connect 10/100/1000Mbps copper -- or one Gigabit Ethernet fiber -- on each port.

Spirent's SmartBits TeraMetrics XD uses Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGAs. Spirent also used Xilinx Design Services for development of the product.
http://www.spirentcom.com/http://www.xilinx.com

Level 3 Prices $325 Million in New Bonds

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Financial

Level 3 Communications has priced the offering of $325 million aggregate principal amount of its 2.875% Convertible Senior Notes due 2010 in an underwritten public offering. The underwriters (Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley) also have an option to purchase up to an additional $48.75 million aggregate principal amount of the notes solely to cover over-allotments. Level 3 said the money would be used for working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes, including new product development, debt repurchases and acquisitions.
http://www.Level3.com

Siemens Supplies Brasil Telecom with Juniper's E-series Routers

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Packet Systems

Brasil Telecom has deployed Juniper Networks' E-series platform for its Vetor Project throughout Brazil. Siemens' Fixed Telephony Division is the consultant and system integrator for Brasil Telecom. Vetor, which provides advanced services over broadband access, is already available in Brasil Telecom's entire concession area in the South and Center West, and in the states of Acre, Rondonia and Tocantins.
http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.siemens.com

Scandinavian Airlines Signs on for Connexion by Boeing

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Service Providers

Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) plans to equip eleven of its long-haul aircraft for providing Connexion by Boeing's passenger Internet access service. SAS passengers will have the ability to use Wi-Fi enabled laptops or personal electronic devices for Internet access, email and VPNs. An undisclosed number of options for expansion of the service onto additional SAS aircraft also are part of the agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.boeing.com/connexion

Verio Introduces Jitter Service Level Agreement, Tightens Other SLAs

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Service Providers

Verio introduced a jitter service level agreement (SLA) for North American dedicated access customers on the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network. Network jitter is the variation of latency over time and is critical to customers who use real-time applications, including content delivery networks, IP videoconferencing and VoIP. Verio is offering a performance guarantee of average jitter of 0.5 milliseconds and maximum jitter of 10 milliseconds.

In addition, Verio is reinforcing its performance guarantees on packet loss, improving its service level agreements on intra-US, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic traffic to 0.1%. Verio has also lowered its latency guarantees, ensuring that customers' North American roundtrip transport will not exceed 55 milliseconds. For trans-Atlantic traffic, Verio guarantees that transport times will not exceed 90 milliseconds, and trans-Pacific will not exceed 130 milliseconds. Verio also offers a goal of 100% availability on all of the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network for North American, trans-Atlantic, and trans-Pacific traffic.
http://www.verio.com/sla

Nokia Extends High-End of its Security Appliance Portfolio

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Packet Systems

Nokia unveiled a high-availability network security platform specifically designed to provide intrusion protection and robust firewall and VPN traffic performance. The Nokia IP1260 integrates Check Point Software's VPN-1/FireWall-1 Next Generation with Application Intelligence, which defeats and prevents both network-level and application-level attacks. Together, the companies are ensuring the Nokia IP1260 meets the demanding Internet traffic mix needs of today and tomorrow. The Nokia IP1260 supports 7,400 connections per second and will deliver 30,000 connections per second once a software upgrade is release in September 2003. Other product specifics:

4.2 Gbps of large packet firewall throughput
400 Mbps of small packet firewall throughput
1 million simultaneous firewall connections
800 Mbps of large packet VPN throughput
Support for up to 12 10/100 Ethernet Ports and 8 Gigabit Ethernet Ports.

http://www.nokia.com

ITC^DeltaCom and BTI to Merge, Creating Largest CLEC in Southeast

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Financial

ITC^DeltaCom and BTI Telecom Corp. agreed to merge in a transaction that will establish the combined company as the largest CLEC in the southeastern U.S. Entering into 2004, the combined company, which will retain the name ITC^DeltaCom, is expected to have a total revenue run-rate of approximately $630 to $660 million and an improved free cash flow positive position. The combined company will maintain branch offices in approximately 40 markets in the southern U.S. and will serve more than 50,000 customers. At the merger closing, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (Welsh Carson) will invest $35 million in the company. Welsh Carson currently is a significant stockholder in ITC^DeltaCom and a majority stockholder in BTI.
http://www.itcdeltacom.com

BTI Telecom is a privately-held company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It owns and operates a network covering 4,400 route miles of lit fiber for extensive regional penetration, with 14 Lucent Technologies 5E 2000 digital local switches to serve local markets, as well as four network operations centers with Alcatel 600E digital long distance switches. BTI claims 32,000 customers.
ITC^DeltaCom is a public company based in West Point, Georgia. It operates 35 branch offices in nine states, and its 10-state fiber optic network of approximately 10,088 miles reaches approximately 188 POPs. ITC^DeltaCom claims 20,000 customers and reported 2002 revenues of $415 million.

D-Link Delivers One-Port Wireless Print Server

Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Wi-Fi

D-Link introduced an 802.11b Wireless Print Server that connects any standard parallel- port printer into a WLAN. The device features integrated 64/128-bit WEP encryption and has an MSRP of $149.99.
http://www.dlink.com