Liberty Alliance Releases Identity-based Web Services Specs

Liberty Alliance, a global consortium for open federated identity standards and identity-based Web services, released interface specifications that support presence, contact book and geo-location Web services. Deployable on Liberty's Identity Web Services Framework (ID-WSF), these specifications offer new application functionality to enterprises and service providers, as well as privacy, personalization and security benefits to users.

• Contact Book Service Interface: A common method for users to manage and share personal or business contacts regardless of contact book provider, enabling service providers to access or automatically update, at the user's request, information like billing or shipping address.



• Geo-location Service Interface: An interoperable way to automatically identify a person's location, at the user's request, to provide services like weather, news, travel or currency updates or directions to a chosen location.



• Presence Service Interface: A common way for users to share presence information, such as whether they are online, offline, on the phone or in a meeting, with any service provider for the purpose of communicating availability.

The three service interfaces are designed to function individually or in a seamless unified fashion. As with ID Personal Profile and ID Employee Profile, previously released service interfaces available with the first version of ID- WSF, each has been created to enhance user control of invoked Web services, in a privacy-respecting manner. Each has been created to enhance user control of invoked Web services, in a privacy-respecting manner.


The three service interface specifications are currently available in draft form. http://www.projectliberty.org/

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SwitchCore Targets IP DSLAMs with Xpeedium2pro

SwitchCore AB unveiled Xpeedium2pro Ethernet switching chip targeted at IP DSLAMs and other next-generation access equipment.


The Xpeedium2pro, which builds on SwitchCore's design experience for enterprise Ethernet switches, is positioned as a drop-in replacement from ATM-based DSLAMs. Xpeedium2pro supports up to 4,000 subscribers per device. This provides "color-aware" DiffServ bandwidth management with three different services for up to 4,000 subscribers.


The Xpeedium2pro offers 28 ports of wire-speed Gigabit Ethernet switching and routing; VLAN support (VLAN swapping and forwarding, double tagging); Layer-3 forwarding, including IP-multicast support and ECMP. SwitchCore uses CAM-based forwarding databases for deterministic performance. The switching fabric also features a shared memory architecture to eliminate head-of-line blocking.


Xpeedium2pro will be available in Q2 2005.


SwitchCore has also entered into a partnership with PMC-Sierra focused on IP DSLAMs. The companies are supporting a major mutual customer.
http://www.switchcore.com

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Mindspeed Announces VoIP-over-Cable Software

Mindspeed Technologies announced a suite of VoIP-over-Cable software for its Comcerto VoIP processor family. The new software combined with Comcerto Series processors support CableLabs' PacketCable initiative for advanced, real-time digital multimedia services over two-way cable plant.


Mindspeed's Comcerto system-on-chip (SoC) hardware and software solution combines digital signal processing (DSP) cores and a packet-processing engine with streaming packet interfaces. The feature set incorporates the full range of PacketCable codecs including G.711, G.728, iLBC, G.729e and T.38 Fax relay along with support for, TTY/TTD, RTCP and G.168-2002-compliant echo cancellation. The software suite also includes Mindspeed's proprietary zero-delay implementation of the G.711 Appendix 1 PLC, and an adaptive jitter buffer for optimized performance. All codecs include Mindspeed's voice activity detector, which includes the company's proprietary music detection algorithm to further improve performance. http://www.mindspeed.com

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TeraChip Raises $7.2 Million for Silicon Switch Fabrics

TeraChip, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California with R&D in Israel, raised $7.2 million for its next-gen switching fabrics. The funding was led by Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital.


TeraChip offers a series of fully scalable silicon solutions that provide network vendors the highest available bandwidth density on a single chip. The shared-memory switch fabrics support line card designs ranging from 10 to 40 Gbps, and offers rich QoS and multicast capabilities.


TeraChip also appointed Rod Kay as President and CEO, replacing Micha Zeiger, TeraChip's founding CEO, who has been appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors and CTO. Prior to joining TeraChip, Kay served as Vice President of Marketing at Ardent Communications, a voice-over-packet startup acquired by Cisco Systems in 1997. Following the acquisition by Cisco, Kay held executive marketing and business development positions in Cisco's Enterprise and Service Provider business segments.

http://www.tera-chip.com

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Yipes Raises $24 Million for Ethernet Services

Yipes Enterprise Services raised $24 million in series C round funding led by San Francisco-based Crosslink Capital, along with existing Yipes' investors Norwest Venture Partners, JPMorgan Partners, LLC and Sprout Group, a venture capital affiliate of Credit Suisse First Boston.


Yipes said the new round of funding exceeds its financial requirements to reach positive cash flow in 2006. In total, Yipes has raised nearly $94 million since July 2002.


Yipes provides uniquely scalable Ethernet services in the major metros in the U.S. and U.K. Additionally, Yipes has interconnected its metros using its MPLS-enable backbone to offer national and global area network services.


During the past two years, Yipes has tripled its customer base to more than 600 customers. http://www.yipes.com

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SEC Concludes Global Crossing Investigation

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded its investigation of Global Crossing's reciprocal purchases and sales of telecommunications capacity with other carriers and related matters. The investigation, which was launched in February 2002, found that Global Crossing did not comply with certain reporting obligations under the securities laws and requires the company to cease and desist from committing any future violations. No fines or penalties were assessed against the company, and the order does not include a finding of fraud. The company neither admitted nor denied the SEC's findings.


"We're happy to have reached a settlement with the SEC and that we can put these issues solidly behind us without a finding of fraud or a financial penalty against the company," said Global Crossing CEO John Legere.
http://www.globalcrossing.com
http://www.sec.gov

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SEVEN Acquires Smartner for Mobile Email

SEVEN has acquired Smartner, a leader supplier of mobile email solutions, for an undisclosed sum. The combined company will operate under SEVEN's brand, with headquarters in Redwood City, CA, USA and regional headquarters in Cambridge, UK; Helsinki, Finland; Singapore; and Tokyo, Japan.


Seven said the acquisition extends its market lead in the mobile email sector. SEVEN now has a leading customer base consisting of 45 operator customers across 30 countries, with a combined total addressable market of over 360 million mobile subscribers. It also has licensing agreements with the top five handset manufacturers -- Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Siemens.
http://www.seven.com/

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Redback Accepted for USDA RUS Listing

Redback Networks has received USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) listing, which includes its SmartEdge 400 and 800 product family and its NetOp Policy Manager. The RUS listing enables independent operating companies (IOCs) and rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) to obtain RUS broadband loan and grant programs. A total of $2.157 billion is available this year for loans and loan guarantees under the Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program.


Separately, Redback announced that Golden Belt Telephone Association, Inc., a local exchange cooperative representing the "golden belt" region of Kansas, has selected its SmartEdge Service Gateway platform for deploying broadcast video services. Redback is working with integrator Millennium Networks to provide the next-generation network. The Smart Broadband Network, based on SmartEdge Service Gateway systems deployed in 18 POPs, is new infrastructure for Golden Belt rather than an upgrade or expansion of an existing network. The SmartEdge Service Gateway systems will perform all video multicast replication, subscriber and session management, integrated QoS and high-performance edge routing. They will connect directly with DSLAMs in each POP. The systems will accommodate both DSL and WiFi access.
http://www.redback.com

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Huawei Selects BroadLight's PON Chips

Huawei Technologies is using BroadLight's end-to-end PON chips for its optical access gear. The selection includes BroadLight's ITU-T PON controllers, transceivers and software for use in new Huawei PON products that are expected to ship in volume throughout the world. BroadLight's products include:

• ITU-T PON Controllers for OLT and ONTs -- supporting the nominal and enhanced (G.983, 1.25 Gbps downstream, 155 Mbps upstream) BPON standard rates and provide framing, media access, SERDES, CDR, cell and packet transmission, queue management, DBA, traffic protection, and out-of-band management functions.



• Transceivers -- the PON transceiver product line addresses OLT and ONT applications with two or three wavelength services with industrial temperature range capability. BroadLight's three wavelength ONT transceiver is equipped with an embedded CATV receiver offering exceptional optical and RF performance.



• Software Stack -- BroadLight's software packages enable a variety of PON functions and features from low-level drivers, communications and management protocols to dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms, traffic protection, and more.

"This is not only a major win for BroadLight, but also for the ITU-T standard which is expected to become mainstream in Asia," said Andy Vought, CEO of BroadLight. "We are excited about working with Huawei and leveraging our extensive experience in PON so that Huawei can be successful with their customers."http://www.broadlight.com

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Vitesse Names VP for Ethernet Business

Vitesse Semiconductor appointed Martyn Humphries as general manager and vice president of its Ethernet Products Division. Most recently, Humphries was vice president of marketing for NetLogic Microsystems where he developed the company's business strategies and partnerships for a new category of products used in high-end enterprise and carrier Ethernet system designs. Prior to NetLogic, Martyn Humphries was senior director of Broadcom Corporation's Small Medium Business (SMB) Switching Line. http://www.vitesse.com

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Disney Online to Expand Broadband Portfolio

Disney Online, part of the Walt Disney Internet Group, announced an expansion of its broadband content portfolio. Disney Online has begun development of "Playhouse Disney Preschool Time Online," a learning-based broadband service for preschool-age children.
http://www.disney.com

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Agere Drives EDGE Into the U.S. Market

Agere Systems began shipping its Sceptre HPE silicon and software in volume for an advanced multimedia-capable EDGE wireless phone from Samsung currently being offered in the U.S. by Cingular. Samsung's SGH-P777 is the first EDGE phone from an Asia-based manufacturer in production for the U.S. market. EDGE phones are capable of downloading data at speeds of more than 220 kbps and uploading data at more than 100 kbps.

http://www.agere.com

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VeriSign Offers VoIP for Financial Services Industry

VeriSign announced that a specialized version of its Managed VoIP service, PBX IP Connect, for companies in the financial services industry. The service enables financial services institutions, buyers and sellers to interconnect their "Ringdown" voice networks over IP.


VeriSign also announced the first alliance partner to develop a VoIP-based Trader Voice service. KGM Circuit Solutions, a provider of managed private line services, will utilize the VeriSign service for its financial services customers.
http://www.verisign.com

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ARRIS to Market Amedia's Triple Play Solutions

ARRIS has agreed to resell Amedia's QoStream product family on a global basis as an integral component of its Ethernet optical access network product offering. The companies have also agreed to develop joint technical and commercial initiatives.


Amedia product line includes the QoStream Premises Gateway, which enables carriers to offer VoIP services to their subscribers without any need for those subscribers to change their existing telephone sets. In addition to VoIP and multiple Ethernet ports, an optional 802.11 WiFi access point is available. Traffic can be allocated in 1 Mbps blocks up to 100 Mbps, and assigned to multiple VLANs -- each with multiple classes of service.
http://www.amedia.com

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