Thomson Expands its Focus in North America

Thomson announced an expanded commitment to expand its telecommunications activities for North America. In 2003, Thomson combined its DSL (digital subscriber line), IP Video set top boxes and telecom and residential telephones into a new Thomson Telecom Group. The renewed effort will include a range of DSL, IP Video, VoIP products and telephony products aimed at telco triple play deployments.



During Supercomm, Thomson displayed its SpeedTouch 585 residential wireless gateway, which integrates 802.1 g/a home networking and is compatible with ADSL2 and ADSL2+ standards.



Thomson is the market leader in DSL customer premise equipment in Europe, with nearly 40% share according to the company. http://www.thomson.net

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SupporSoft Secures Patent for Customer Service Connectivity Technique

SupporSoft was awarded a U.S. patent for a "secure computer support system" that enables the delivery of customer service and technology support through a network gateway to overcome problems with connectivity whether for home or business computing use. SupportSoft's Nexus software is principally used to facilitate secure connections between customer service representatives or technical support analysts and the computing end-users they support. The patented technique helps to overcome obstacles that may include un-routable network calls (due to network address translation or other IP masking), while providing a secure communication link without requiring inbound holes through firewalls. http://www.supportsoft.com /

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Xilinx Shows 10Gbps Serial Signaling over ATCA

Xilinx demonstrated a 10Gbps AdvancedTCA ("ATCA") backplane powered by its flagship Virtex-II Pro X FPGAs. This represents a four-fold performance boost for the existing ATCA serial backplane architecture based on the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) 3.0 specification.



Xilinx said network equipment designers will be able to rapidly build fully scalable systems to 10Gbps on a low cost ATCA-standard platform.



In a related announcement, Xilinx bolstered its 10Gbps solutions for serial backplanes by extending its Aurora lightweight link-layer protocol to enable custom data transport up to 10Gbps. Additionally, Xilinx introduced a new Fibre Channel (FC) media access controller (MAC) solution. http://www.xilinx.com

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NTIA Works on New Spectrum Policy

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) released two reports on its Spectrum Policy for the 21st Century, which includes the establishment of an innovation test-bed for increased sharing between federal and non-federal spectrum users. One of the 24 recommendations included in the reports is the establishment of a spectrum test-bed for innovative new technologies that will enable increased sharing between federal and non-federal users. The report recommends that the FCC and the NTIA should each identify approximately 10 MHz of spectrum to be made available for this program. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/

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Marconi Selected for Telstra's NGN Transport

Telstra named Marconi as sole supplier for its next generation transport network. Under the contract, Marconi will supply SDH, WDM, CWDM, Radio and next-generation SDH requirements (Multi Service Provisioning Platform - MSPP). The enhancements to the Telstra network will cover its access layer, core transport layer, its metropolitan and regional networks, and associated network management systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.



This contract follows on from Telstra's decision to award Marconi a contract for the supply of 10GB transmission equipment in February 2003. http://www.marconi.com

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AudioCodes Announces AdvancedTCA Line

AudioCodes announced the evolution of its VoIPerfect architecture to comply with AdvancedTCA (ATCA) specifications. This new product line leverages AudioCodes 2000 LBR-channel TPM-6300 Voice over Packet Media gateway module. The ATCA board, which will offer a high channel density of up to 2016 LBR VoIP channels, is planned for availability by the end of Q3 2004. http://www.audiocodes.com/

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Convedia Enhances its Media Servers

Convedia is adding a number of new video and audio features to its IP Media Servers. The enhancements provide specialized, DSP-intensive media processing required for desktop video conferencing, mobile video messaging, video branding and multi-user online gaming. These include:

• Voice activated video switching - a multi-party conferencing technique which is ideally suited for use with small display 3G mobile phones and in cost sensitive residential video phone applications. Unlike traditional multiparty video conferencing, only one participant is seen on the screen at any time and the video image switches based on who is currently speaking.



• VoiceXML based video recording and playback - required in both video mail and multimedia conferencing applications, this feature allows video content to be recorded to 3rd party off-the-shelf NFS and HTTP servers providing a seamlessly integrated, cost effective and highly scalable video archiving and playback system.



• Quad split and advanced continuous presence displays - commonly used in traditional video conferencing services, this feature allows Convedia's Media Servers to act as an MCU in H.323 and SIP based video conferencing systems. Multiple conference sites are displayed concurrently on one screen in a variety of flexible layouts.



• Video transcoding and rate matching - enables mobile video phones and fixed line video terminals to communicate with one another independent of the capabilities (video codec, video frame size and bitrate) supported by each terminal.



• Fully programmable audio conference mixers

The new functionality, which is being delivered through a series of software-only upgrades to Convedia's CMS-6000 and CMS-1000 IP Media Server platforms, will begin to rollout next month with additional functionality being added throughout the remainder of 2004. http://www.convedia.com

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Ethernet in the First Mile Standard Approved

The IEEE 802.3ah specification for Ethernet in the First Mile was unanimously approved as an IEEE standard by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board. The process included specifying new interface types for Ethernet over fiber optic and copper media along with new OAM mechanisms for managing Ethernet subscriber networks.



The Ethernet in the First Mile project had perhaps the largest scope of any IEEE 802 standard ever undertaken, according to the Ethernet in the First Mile Alliance (EFMA), which promotes the technology.



The ratification of the IEEE 802.3ah standard came in conjunction with the first ever interoperability demonstration of EFM technologies by EFMA member companies at SUPERCOMM 2004 in Chicago. The EFMA demo showcased technologies from the four EFM sub-task areas, including:

• Point-to-point copper


• Point-to-point fiber


• Point-to-multipoint fiber (EPON)


• Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM)

http://www.ieee802.org/3/efm/index.htmlhttp://www.efmalliance.org

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Narad Networks Announces New CEO

Narad Networks named James D. Norrod as its new CEO. Norrod previously worked for Telebit Corporation, a public company that manufactured and distributed high-end data communication equipment to enterprise markets. Narad's technology utilizes the previously unusable frequency spectrum above 860MHz to overlay switched Ethernet capabilities onto existing HFC networks. http://www.naradnetworks.com

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Vonage Releases Xten's SoftPhone for Mac OS X

Vonage and Xten have completed interoperability testing of SIP SoftPhone for Mac-based Vonage subscribers. http://www.xten.com/http://www.vonage.com/

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Kerry Outlines Broadband Ideas

Speaking in San Jose, California, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry outlined plans to spur the adoption of broadband and encourage innovation. Citing the same statistic that America has slipped from 4th to 10th in adoption of broadband, Kerry called for greater investments in research and development. Kerry said his plan would "eliminate capital gains taxes for long-term investments in small businesses, and reform or eliminate regulations that impede America's high-tech competitiveness." He would ensure universal broadband for first responders by the end of 2006 and would provide broad-based increases in government-funded research at universities. Kerry said he would pay for these programs by accelerating the transition to digital television and thereby raising $30 billion at public auction to fund science and technology innovation. He would also expand the spectrum that is available for unlicensed wireless broadband.

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Bush Renews Call for Broadband

In his second such public address in the past few weeks, President George Bush renewed his call to make broadband available to all Americans by 2007. At an event hosted by the Department of Commerce, Bush noted that the U.S. now has some 28 million broadband subscribers, ranking 10th in per capita terms in the industrialized world. Bush said an important policy goal should be to make sure that broadband access is affordable and, therefore, it should not be taxed. He said government should remove burdensome regulations that would otherwise slow the spread of Internet technologies. Bush has signed orders to reduce the regulatory red tape for laying fiber optic cables and putting up transmission towers on federal lands.



Bush expressed support for broadband over powerline technology -- the Commerce Department is developing technical standards that will make sure that broadband can go across power lines without unnecessary interference.



Bush also said that a better wireless spectrum policy could help the economy grow and that Congress needs to make the spectrum available. Specifically, he voiced support for the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act, which would take spectrum that is currently allocated to the government and auction it off to the private sector.

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Court Overturns FCC Media Ownership Rules

In a blow to FCC Chairman Michael Powell and large broadcasters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia overturned the loosened media ownership rules adopted by the FCC in June 2003.



In a statement, Powell said the ruling has "created a clouded and confused state of media law."



However, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, welcomed the ruling, saying "the rush to media consolidation approved by the FCC last June was wrong as a matter of law and policy. The Commission has a second chance to do the right thing. We must immediately move forward and redesign our media policy.

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IBM And Motorola Collaborate on Telecom Platforms

IBM and Motorola Computer Group will collaborate to promote highly integrated, standards-based telecom platforms based on IBM's eServer BladeCenter system and Motorola's Application-Enabling Platform. IBM plans to incorporate Motorola's Service Availability Forum (SAF) Application Interface Specification (AIS) compliant high availability software in a future version of the recently announced IBM eServer Integrated Platform for Telecommunications (IP-T).



The partnership seeks to provide the first "from enterprise to the network edge" computing solutions. Both companies are committed to the new Open Communications Architecture Forum (OCAF), Carrier Grade Operating Environment (CGOE) and Linux operating system. http://www.motorola.com/computerhttp://www.ibm.com

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Motorola Unveils AdvancedTCA Application-Enabling Platform

Motorola's Computer Group introduced an Application-Enabling Platform built on the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA) and designed to speed time-to-market and lower both manufacturing and life cycle costs for telecom equipment manufacturers.



Motorola's AXP Basic Integrated Platform is a pre-integrated and validated solution with an operating environment. The NEBS- and ETSI-compliant platform integrates Open Source Distribution Labs (OSDL)-compliant Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) with software components that enable Service Availability Forum (SAF)-compliant OpenHPI, blade management, blade hardware functions, base and data fabric management, and interfaces to network management systems. It also features several AdvancedTCA payload blade options, including a new combined switching and control blade, and payload blades with a choice of processors (Intel Architecture processors and PowerPC architecture processors).



Availability is expected in Q1. Later this year, Motorola expects to detail a complete SAF-compliant operating environment for telecom equipment, including protocol support and integrated protocol services. http://www.motorola.com/computer

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Nortel to Integrate Global IP Sound into VoIP Solutions

Under a newly expanded licensing agreement Nortel Networks will integrate Global IP Sound's (GIPS') VoiceEngine and SoundWare suite of voice processing software into various Nortel Networks IP-centric communications systems, including the Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5100 and 5200 platforms.



GIPS SoundWare provides better than PSTN voice quality and fidelity in end-to-end IP communications with robustness against packet loss.



Global IP Sound, which is based in Stockholm, also supplies its voice quality software to Skype, Ericsson and others. http://www.globalipsound.com

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Alcatel and Shanghai Media Group to integrate Video/3G/DSL

Alcatel and Shanghai Media Group signed an agreement to integrate SMG's TV and video content with Alcatel's 3G networking solutions. The deal is described as the first of its kind in China between a media group and an end-to-end 3G solutions provider. 3G users would be able to access SMG's live TV, video streaming, and video-on-demand programs at up to 384 kbps. In addition, the companies agreed to integrate TV programs into Alcatel's DSL solution so as to drive broadband video streaming applications in China. This content deal also complements Alcatel's Open Media Suite portfolio, a middleware solution for triple play service (voice, data, video). http://www.alcatel.com

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