PMC-Sierra Offers SIP-based Analog Telephone Adapter Solution

PMC-Sierra announced the availability of a VoIP Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) platform solution, its first in a family of turnkey designs for residential Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). PMC-Sierra is providing a complete Analog Telephone Adapter solution including a MIPS-Powered VoIP processor, voice processing firmware and Codecs, SIP signaling protocol stack, telephony and management applications, and complete hardware design.


The platform supports up to 200Mbps of data throughput and can handle up to two channels of VoIP with QoS prioritization of voice processing over data throughput. Other features include secure signaling and voice channel encryption with DES, 3DES and AES; a Web-based GUI for local or remote system management; and Fax relay support with T.38 compliance.


PMC-Sierra said voice quality measurement results for the platform show a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.1 for a voice channel using a G.729 encoder. Enhanced packet-loss concealment algorithms and adaptive jitter buffers provide high voice quality (audio quality and low latency) in the event of network impairment, which can be typical of broadband Internet services. Connection set-up and reliability is addressed with the use of a fully standards compliant SIP protocol suite which PMC-Sierra is actively conformance testing against media gateway systems.


The platform is based on PMC-Sierra's MSP2015 VoIP processor or PMC-Sierra's MSP2020 VoIP processor with security engine. The MSP2015 and MSP2020 Multi Service Processors utilize a MIPS processor core. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling is used for call set-up and management. In addition, the MSP2020 offers secure data encryption for the voice channels without affecting voice quality or performance.


The software environment uses Linux, enabling ODMs and OEMs with special requirements to extend the telephony and management applications. In addition, PMC-Sierra's Open Source-based platform provides a flexible solution for a broad range of third party vendors to offer key enhancements to functionality and features such as VoIP security, advanced QoS, and advanced telephony features.
http://www.pmc-sierra.com/voip

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TranSwitch Introduces Ethernet Processing Chips

TranSwitch introduced a single-chip ATM-to-Ethernet interworking processor and traffic manager, and an Ethernet-based switch processor and traffic manager for Ethernet in the last mile and access applications. The new devices allow efficient connectivity to ATM physical layer framers and Ethernet PHYs, providing a packet processing and traffic management solution for converging network applications. The devices are targeted at wireline and wireless platforms such as IP DSLAM, next-generation digital loop carrier (NG-DLC), APON/BPON/EPON optical line terminal/optical network terminal (OLT/ONT), 3G radio network controller (RNC) or Base Station Controller (BSC), and wireless backhaul RNC/BSC applications.


The devices incorporate TranSwitch's high performance eNPU (embedded Network Processing Unit) technology for packet processing and switching, which is centered around an array of RISC processors with hardware accelerators for specific functions.


In conjunction with the embedded firmware, the eNPU engine performs filtering, classification, header manipulation, forwarding, security features and maintenance of statistics.


TranSwitch said its new chips are easy to program, ensuring adaptability to evolutionary changes in industry standards and value-added customization. Additionally, TranSwitch provides a comprehensive device driver to control all aspects of operation including initialization, configuration, fault management, performance monitoring, debug and diagnostics. The device driver conforms to NPF (Network Processing Forum) guidelines.


In addition to the eNPU packet processing engine, Diplomat-A includes AAL5 SAR (Segmentation and Reassembly) and an integrated traffic manager providing Class of Service (CoS) based queuing, scheduling, and congestion control using cost effective DDR SDRAM. The multi-mode Priority Deficit Round Robin (PDRR) scheduler offers configurable weights between the traffic queues for efficient service differentiation. Complementing the packet scheduler is a novel high performance multicast engine offering wire-rate performance for IPTV applications. The optimal partitioning between firmware and hardware enables throughput of up to 2,000 Mbps yet provides flexibility to adapt to evolving standards and value-add customizations. Diplomat-A features a UTOPIA Level-2 interface on the subscriber side and two 10/100/1,000 Ethernet ports on the uplink side. Diplomat-A comes bundled with TranSwitch's royalty-free "AERIS" firmware (ATM-to-Ethernet Interworking Software) which features standards-compliant PPPoEoA interworking and OAM/AAL0/AAL2 tunneling.


Diplomat-E offers the same packet processing and traffic management functions as Diplomat-A, but is Ethernet-centric. Diplomat-E contains 24 Fast Ethernet (FE) subscriber interfaces and two 10/100/1,000 Ethernet ports on the uplink side. It comes bundled with TranSwitch's royalty-free "EASEL" firmware (Ethernet Access and Switching in the Last mile) which features standards-compliant PPPoE bridging and Ethernet OAM.
http://www.transwitch.com

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Redback and ZTE Supply Triple Play in India

Redback Networks announced that its SmartEdge Service Gateway systems have been selected by Atlas Interactive for an initial rollout of triple play services in Delhi, later expanding nationwide. Redback is working with ZTE, which is the lead integrator in the project.


On a state visit by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to India in April, China's ZTE inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) pledging US$1 billion to support an advanced IP network rollout by Atlas Interactive, an Indian telecom group. The deal includes a sales contract valued at US$208 million for the supply of 500,000 lines of ADSL equipment and other gear by ZTE.


Atlas Interactive's forthcoming "netTV" will deliver video on demand, broadcast TV, music, video conferencing, SMS, email web, and high speed broadband over DSL. In 2004, ZTE delivered to Atlas Interactive an initial 50,000 ports ADSL system. This will be expanded by 500,000 lines. ZTE may also supply WiMax equipment.


Atlas also intends to acquire unified access licenses for GSM and CDMA & fixed line deployment in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, UP (East), UP (West), West Bengal, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
http://www.atlasgroup.bmhttp://www.redback.com

• Atlas Interactive has an alliance with Indian telco BSNL covering IPTV.



• TANDBERG Television has delivered IPTV video head-end to Atlas Interactive for its multimedia broadband deployment over the Indian telephone network. The Atlas netTV project will launch services to an initial 50,000 subscribers in the National Capital Region of Delhi in 2005. TANDBERG Television is supplying a range of equipment for the project, including its TT1260 professional receivers that feed the video streams to the TANDBERG IP Streamer. Each IP Streamer in the system includes TANDBERG Television encoders to allow for bit-rate reduction of the streams to meet the low bandwidth capacity of the ADSL network. All parts of the system have full redundancy and are controlled by the nCompass management system, with monitoring based on the TANDBERG TT1260 with integrated IP input and the TANDBERG TT4010 transport stream analyser. The video head-end is being installed and integrated by TANDBERG Television's long-standing Indian business partner, Horizon Broadcast Electronics Pvt. Ltd.



• Atlas has also selected BitBand's Maestro content distribution and server management suite and BitBand Vision server for its IPTV network.

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Juniper Hires Executives from Cisco, 3Com

Juniper Networks announced the appointments of Hitesh Sheth to the position of vice president, Enterprise Products and Solutions and Liam Kiely to the position of vice president of Engineering, for Juniper's Infrastructure Products Group (IPG).


Sheth joins Juniper Networks from Cisco Systems, where he led a strategic cross-company initiative to establish Cisco in the Metro Ethernet market. During his seven year tenure at Cisco, he held a number of senior management positions in marketing, business development and general management. Prior to Cisco, Hitesh held executive positions at Liberate Technologies, Oracle Corporation and The Santa Cruz Operation.


Kiely previously served as vice president of Engineering at 3Com, where he led a global team of engineers with responsibility for overall product design and sourcing. Previously, Kiely held a number of key executive and engineering positions at Nortel, including that of vice president, Business Management for Optical Packet Interworking and the IP Infrastructure Division.

http://www.juniper.net

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Yahoo! Messenger Offers Worldwide Calling, Interactive Features

Yahoo! launched a public beta for its next generation instant messenger service, offering free PC-to-PC calls, photo sharing, better tools to expand friends' lists, increased spam protection, better integration with online games and other features. It does not provide direct PSTN connections.


The free worldwide calling feature to other Yahoo! Messenger users also integrates with Yahoo!'s voice mail service. Voicemail messages can be left for friends who are away from their desks or offline, and can be retrieved through a call history log that displays all voicemail messages, as well as in-bound and out-bound calls. To further personalize the PC-to-PC calling experience, people can customize ring tones for their friends.


The new Messenger client also adds a prominent search field in the conversation window to retrieve relevant Web search information from Yahoo! Search.


The next generation Yahoo! Messenger is launching simultaneously in 18 localized versions around the world including: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Germany, Korea, Mexico, Spain, South Asia, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States and Yahoo! en Espanol.

Currently, there are about 65 million Yahoo! Messenger users.


Skype has been downloaded more than 100 million times and has delivered over 8.1 billion minutes of talk time.http://messenger.yahoo.com

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Motorola Authorizes $4.0 Billion, 36-Month Stock Repurchase

Motorola's Board of Directors has authorized the company to repurchase up to $4.0 billion of its outstanding shares of common stock over the next 36 months, subject to market conditions. Based on Motorola's current stock price, $4.0 billion represents approximately 10% of the company's total market capitalization. As of April 2, 2005, Motorola had approximately 2.45 billion shares of common stock outstanding.
http://www.motorola.com

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Marconi and Laurel Networks Reaffirm OEM Agreement

Following the announcement that ECI Telecom will acquire Laurel Networks, Laurel and ECI reaffirmed their commitment to an OEM relationship with Marconi.


Marconi and Laurel Networks will continue to supply IP-based, multi-service edge routing technology through their existing worldwide relationship. The partnership has been active since early 2003 and has recorded multiple customer deployments. To date, this has included multiple wins for Marconi with US Federal Government and EMEA customers. The two companies will continue to pursue opportunities in the US Federal market, enterprise customers worldwide, as well as service providers where appropriate.
http://www.laurelnetworks.com
http://www.marconi.com

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Occam Ramps Up Revenues with 13 New Customers in Q1

Occam Networks reported quarterly revenue of $6.9 million, setting a new company record for the third consecutive quarter. The company also added 13 new customers during the quarter.


During the first quarter of 2005, Occam signed a strategic alliance with Tellabs, which opened up market opportunities with large North American Local Exchange Carriers for Occam's IP-based loop carrier equipment. As part of the agreement, Tellabs also licensed Occam's Ethernet transport technologies for integration into Tellabs FiberDirect portfolio. Occam gained access to Tellabs' cabinet products, enabling Occam to provide new and existing IOC customers with more deployment options. The company also completed the private placement portion of its Series A-2 Preferred Stock Financing, which resulted in cash proceeds of $10.6 million.
http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Marconi Confirms Its SoftSwitch Commitment

Marconi reconfirmed plans for its next-generation Impact SoftSwitch, which will be targeted at operators such as alternative carriers, ISPs, cable TV providers, metro city carriers, international PTTs and local loop unbundlers.


Marconi's Impact SoftSwitch is a carrier-class, next-generation switching solution that integrates voice and data services into a single converged packet network. It provides a full range of both traditional and new services across a variety of protocols, including Media Gateway Control Protocol, H.323, H.248 and SIP. It supports Class 4, Class 5 and IP Centrex on a single platform. A distributed architecture allows carriers to migrate from traditional voice-only networks to new packet-based, multimedia access and switching infrastructures.


Under a revised development program, Marconi engineers will integrate new features and applications designed to broaden SoftSwitch's market appeal, including support for enhanced SIP features and real-time charging. These additions complement recently added localisation support for a number of key markets and an already comprehensive set of Impact SoftSwitch features and capabilities that help both alternative carriers and incumbents focus on service innovation and costs.


Gamma Telecom, the UK's fastest growing alternative service provider, bought the Impact SoftSwitch in January to replace its existing TDM infrastructure and deliver IP-based services. http://www.marconi.com

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Symbian Appoints new CEO

Symbian named Nigel Clifford as its new CEO, replacing David Levin, who left Symbian in March 2005 to take up the post of Chief Executive of United Business Media Plc. Clifford previously served as Chief Executive of Tertio Telecoms, an international software product and services company that was acquired by Evolving Systems in November 2004. Before Tertio Telecoms, Clifford spent two years as Senior Vice President, Service Delivery with Cable & Wireless.
http://www.symbian.com

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KT Selects Sun for Operations Infrastructure and Services

KT selected Sun Microsystems' Client Solutions organization to design an Operations Support Systems through Java solution running on Sun Fire servers powered with SPARC and AMD Opteron processors. Specifically, Sun will work with KT Operations Labs to develop a Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) network management system. Financial terms were not disclosed.


With Sun's OSS through Java solutions and services, KT will be able to implement new operations solutions and integrate with multiple legacy systems, as well as support web-based, customer-centric service management for BcN services and networks.


As part of the deal, KT also selected Sun Fire Enterprise 25K, Enterprise 4900, Enterprise 6900 and Sun Fire V40z servers, the Java Enterprise System and the Solaris Operating System.http://sun.com/

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palmOne Includes Wi-Fi & Bluetooth in Latest PDA

palmOne introduced its "LifeDrive" mobile manager PDA featuring a 4GB hard drive (3.85GB user available), a large 320x480 high-resolution color screen, and wireless access through built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The handheld device uses the 416MHz Intel XScale processor.


Devicescape Software provided the Wi-Fi client software for the LifeDrive.


palmOne is working with T-Mobile to ensure a "good experience" on the carrier's public Wi-Fi network. T-Mobile is providing a free 30-day trial offer for LifeDrive owners.


RealNetworks is giving LifeDrive customers free access to its Rhapsody client, which they can use to manage their personal music collections. RealNetworks is also offering a 30-day free trial of its Rhapsody music service.
http://www.palmone.com

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Western Digital Ships SATA Hard Drives with 300 MB/s Performance

Western Digital began shipping in volume hard drives offering Serial ATA (SATA) interface with 300 MB/s burst data transfer rate. The new WD Caviar SE16 hard drives feature 16 MB cache -- 2 to 8 times the cache size of standard desktop-class hard drives. The 300 MB/s performance is up to 3 times faster than previous EIDE-versions of the WD drive. Suggested retail pricing is $199 USD for WD Caviar SE16 with 250 GB capacity.
http://www.westerndigital.com

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Florida Municipality Awards Video Franchise to Verizon

The city of Temple Terrace, Florida, which has a population of 23,000, is the first municipality in the state to award a video franchise to Verizon for its FiOS TV product, to be delivered via its new, all-fiber network.


Verizon's Temple Terrace franchise will provide an unrivaled video service to its residents. Under the agreement, which covers 15 years and includes a $35,000 grant, Verizon will provide service to all of Temple Terrace once the company's fiber network is completely built out. In addition, the agreement contains provisions for the network's future growth; financial support and capacity for educational and governmental access channels; support for a future institutional network (I-NET) that can link schools, libraries and other institutions; cable service to government buildings at no cost; and other important protections including insurance, indemnification and enforcement protections.


Verizon has also received video franchises in the Texas communities of Keller, Wylie, Sachse and Westlake, as well as in Beaumont, California.
http://www.verizon.com/news

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