ECI Telecom Delivers Optimized Transport for Utilities

ECI Telecom announced an optimized optical transport solution for the utilities industry based in its XDM product line. The platform enables utilities to support their internal networking needs and legacy services such as SCADA, voice circuit telephony and power system protection, and then migrate to broadband applications and value-added commercial service offerings such as LAN/WAN, L2/L3 VPN, VoIP, video surveillance, IP-Based SCADA and Storage Area Networking (SAN).


ECI said that unlike other platforms that require a specific chassis and network element for each transport technology, its XDM converged solution supports all transport technologies: DWDM, CWDM, SDH/SONET, PDH/Async and Ethernet, including Fast Ethernet and GigE. The company noted that its XDM platform has been deployed by utility companies worldwide, including, among others, Banverket in Sweden, REN in Portugal, JEA in the United States, Tata Power in India, and China State Power. http://www.ecitele.com

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Siemens Enters BPON Market

Siemens Communications is entering the FTTP market with a new family of standards-based broadband passive optical network (BPON) products, including optical network terminals (ONTs) and optical network units (ONUs). The Siemens BPON family supports multiple environments such as single-family residences, businesses and multi-dwelling housing units.


Other Siemens BPON family features include:

• Throughput of up to 100 Mbps on an Ethernet port and up to 622 Mbps over a full service access network (FSAN)-compatible fiber connection.



• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) capable to support current and next-generation network requirements.



• Integrated radio frequency (RF) return channel for integration with subscriber facilities.



• Power management lifeline services via battery backup and battery monitoring.



• Hardened enclosure for outdoor environments.

http://www.usa.siemens.com

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BroadLight Unveils 2.5 Gbps GPONs, 1:64 Split

BroadLight unveiled its end-to-end solution for gigabit-capacity, passive optical networks (GPONs). The end-to-end GPON (E2E GPON) features Broadlight's BL2000 GPON System-on-Chip (SoC) for cost-focused ONT applications and also includes PONmaker software, OLT MAC, OLT and ONT transceivers. Key features will include 2.5 Gbps PON performance, 1:64 split ratio, and native transport of both Ethernet and TDM, which is delivered at up to 155 Mbps using GPON Encapsulated Mode (GEM).


"BroadLight is 100% focused on PON and has been extensively involved with the FSAN ITU-T initiatives for developing GPON," said Didi Ivancovsky, founder and VP of Products for BroadLight.


The company anticipates the BL2000 family will be less than $20 for high volume quantities. E2E GPON products will be available for sample by December 2005.


About E2E GPON

• BL3000 family of OLT MAC FPGAs with interfaces to support GEM based transport of Gigabit Ethernet and TDM. Features include: configurable AES, Forward Error Correction (FEC) and Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA).



• PONmaker ITU-T G.984 software stacks for OLT and ONT provides control and management of the PON.



• OLT Transceivers designed with a glueless interface to BroadLight's GPON MAC.



• ONT SFF MSA compliant Transceivers with 2 wavelengths for all IP services and a 3-wavelength Transceiver module with embedded RF video receiver based on BroadLight's proven CATV over PON technology.



• BL2000 family of ONT SoC ASIC for SFU to MxU ONT applications.



• NT TDM GEM FPGA for T1/E1/J1 services.

About the BL2000 family of GPON SoC:

• The BL2000 is an application optimized, completely integrated solution for customers designing ITU-T G.984 compliant ONT equipment.
  
  
• GPON ITU-T G.984 MAC using GEM adaptation for packet and TDM services.



• 1.25 and 2.5 Gbps SerDes and CDR circuitry enables glueless interfacing with low-cost GPON 2 and 3-wavelength transceivers.



• High-performance, packet processor for wire-speed data path classification and filtering with the bandwidth and processing power required by IPTV applications.



• 10/100/1000 Ethernet MACs.



• TDM GEM interface for the companion TDM GEM FPGA.



• Embedded CPU for a versatile and effective signaling and control plane platform.



• Comprehensive software solution that includes BSP for the leading OSs, low level drivers, boot code and packet bridging.

http://www.broadlight.com

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Conexant Offers 802.11g Chip for Mobile Devices

Conexant Systems announced a low-power, small form factor 802.11g radio chip for embedded mobile applications. The single-chip device is targeted at high performance, battery operated mobile devices such as multimedia cellular phones, enterprise handsets, PDAs, and digital cameras. The chip is shipping in volume quantities to customers now, and has been designed into several handset models by one the world's largest cellular telephone manufacturers. A hardware and software reference design is also available to enable manufacturers and system integrators to rapidly integrate wireless connectivity into mobile platforms.


Conexant's standards-compliant chip is a fully integrated wireless radio that includes a zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) transceiver, radio frequency (RF) synthesizer/voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), high-speed data converters, ARM9-based media access controller (MAC), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing/complementary code key (OFDM/CCK) digital baseband processor, and a complete power management unit (PMU). Host control is provided by a flexible serial peripheral interface (SPI) supporting bit rates of 48 Mbps. http://www.conexant.com

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PRIMUS Deploys Veraz to Migrate Clearinghouse Traffic

PRIMUS Telecommunications has migrated its Open Settlement Protocol (OSP) traffic from existing H.323 Gateways to the Veraz platform. An OSP client that interfaces with external OSP servers was added into the programmable service logic of Veraz ControlSwitch, in order to seamlessly integrate both PRIMUS' core global infrastructure and VoIP clearinghouse traffic onto a unified next generation network.


Prior to the migration, PRIMUS had two linked networks: traditional circuit-switched long distance (TDM) and an OSP VoIP network. Veraz enabled PRIMUS to further converge their existing infrastructure, while migrating to a unified Next-Generation network. It is now more scaleable; with core LD infrastructure traffic more seamlessly integrated, fewer protocol conversions needed, and now provides interconnections to both SIP and H.323.


Veraz said PRIMUS can now easily add services for its LD and global VoIP network by leveraging the Veraz Services Framework. Additionally, the "services silos" for TDM and VOIP have been eliminated, which adds to the efficiency of introducing new services. The Services Framework also enables services convergence among multiple networks: leveraging the multiple business units present across business infrastructures, and even leveraging external systems for authorization.
http://www.veraznetworks.com

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Ixia Announces Triple Play Test Toolset

Ixia introduced a testing toolset designed to accurately verify performance and scalability of triple play services including the transport data and control planes, the content servers delivering these services, and the subscriber edge, where realistic emulation of hundreds of thousands of subscribers is essential to accurately derive real-world performance metrics.


Ixia said its solution can be used to test the full range of Triple Play signaling and data protocols in any combination, including when under denial of service attack. Signaling protocols include IGMP, MLD, SIP, MGCP and RTSP. Streaming protocols include RTP and UDP multicast and unicast. The Ixia video solutions can emulate MPEG2, MPEG4, Media9, and other codecs in both high definition and standard definition formats. Signaling and data traffic may be run over multiple interfaces including GigE, 10GigE, and ATM.


The Ixia Triple Play toolset provides specific capabilities for subscriber edge testing that both traditional edge network equipment manufacturers and their carrier customers are utilizing. Key test metrics include subscriber scalability (PPP), video channel change latency (IGMP/MLD join/leave), IP address management (DHCP scalability), QoS policy marking, authentication scalability, and VoIP signaling scalability. Targeted Ixia solutions for executing such testing include IxExplorer, Ixia's flagship traffic generation interface for IGMP emulation and DHCPv4 & v6 server testing; IxRouter for multicast routing emulation; IxLoad for PPP & IGMP join/leave validation; IxScriptMate for automated multicast testing; as well as a range of customized test scripts from Ixia's Custom Engineering team, such as:

• DHCP server test scripts that stress edge routers by transmitting a large number of subscribers requesting IP addresses at the same time, simulating an access device coming back online



• Home Gateway testers, which simulate a large number of subscribers "channel surfing"



• Join/Leave test scripts for measuring the join & leave latency and also the received data rates, latency, latency distribution, sequence errors, etc.

http://www.ixiacom.com/solutions/triple_play_testing/

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Pace Unveils Hardware H.264 IPTV Set-Top Box

Pace Micro Technology introduced a hardware H.264 decode set-top box for the IPTV market. The new IP215 provides MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression decoding hardware, replacing more expensive software based solutions.



The company said its IP215 provides an impressive aggregated 490 MIPs processing power and will support all popular conditional access (CA) providers, including NDS and Widevine. As well as working with key system integrators, including Siemens and Alcatel, the IP215 will be equipped with user interfaces through its integration with ANT Galio and Espial's Evo middleware and application framework.

"For operators looking to deploy their service in volume on a national level, the IP215 could even represent a sub-$100 set-top box solution, thanks to the modular way the technology has been designed," stated David Gillies, Director of Technology at Pace.
http://www.pacemicro.com

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Greece's Tellas Launches Video Call Service

Tellas, the leading wireline alternative operator in Greece, has selected Ericsson for its Video Call Service offering to fixed subscribers.


The Video Call Service, which is available to all subscribers of Tellas fixed telephony services, uses a SIP-enabled video-phone terminal. Tellas subscribers are able to make and receive both normal voice calls as well as video calls simply by using their existing telephone connection. The Video Call Service is currently offered over normal PSTN or ISDN lines.


Ericsson has integrated the solution into the existing TDM and IP network of Tellas. The offered solution is part of Ericsson's total offering for a full-fledged multimedia service platform, including future broadband IP applications.

http://www.ericsson.com

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McLeodUSA's Lenders Extend Forebearance Period

McLeodUSA, one of the nation's largest independent, competitive telecommunications services providers, and its lenders have agreed to the extension of the forbearance agreement initially entered into on March 16, 2005. In light of McLeodUSA's continuing pursuit of strategic alternatives and / or a financial restructuring the parties agreed to extend the forbearance agreement through July 21, 2005.


McLeodUSA's lenders continue to agree not to take any action as a result of non-payment by the company of certain principal and interest payments due in March and June of 2005 and any related events of default through July 21, 2005. http://www.mcleodusa.com

• As of March 31, 2005, McLeodUSA had 38 ATM switches, 39 voice switches, 699 collocations, 432 DSLAMs and approximately 2,300 employees.



• Forstmann Little & Co. is a 58% shareholder in the company.

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AT&T Supplies 300-site IP VPN for ABC Supply

AT&T was awarded an $8.5 million networking contract from ABC Supply Company, one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing and siding materials in the U.S., to provide an IP VPN integrating more than 300 ABC Supply locations across the country. The solution will streamline processes such as credit card transactions, online product ordering and inventory management, and will allow ABC Supply to expand its online product offerings. AT&T will also host the ABC Supply Web servers at its Chicago-area Internet Data Center (IDC).
http://www.att.com

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Atheros Offers Radio-on-Chip for Mobiles

Atheros introduced its first Radio-on-Chip WLAN solution for mobile devices such as dual-mode cellular phones, VoIP handsets, MP3 portable media players, digital still/video cameras, and gaming consoles.

Atheros' new ROCm family includes single- and dual-band chips, both of which provide 54 Mbps connectivity. The chips minimize power consumption through the use of techniques such as automatic power save delivery (APSD) along with an extremely low-power sleep mode. Atheros estimates the design improves the energy efficiency of WLAN operations by as much as six times compared to conventional WLAN chips, with a corresponding improvement in battery life. The chips also offer capabilities such as easy network setup and configuration, full-speed hardware-based security, and support for both prioritized and polled QoS. http://www.atheros.com

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DIRECTV 8 Satellite Successfully Launched

DIRECTV 8, a high-power Ku/Ka-band, direct broadcast satellite built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton M/Breeze M launch vehicle provided by International Launch Services (ILS).


The satellite will provide selectable medium- and high-power Ku-band broadcast services to the U.S. on up to 16 high-power transponders. The Ka-band payload will use the full 1,000 MHz of Ka-band communications bandwidth available to link DIRECTV facilities as part of DIRECTV's infrastructure development for the upcoming launch of local digital and high-definition services in the Ka-band.
http://www.ssloral.com/http://www.directv.com

• Sea Launch successfully delivered DIRECTV's Spaceway F1 satellite to orbit, completing the launch of the heaviest commercial satellite to date. Spaceway F1 is capable of delivering hundreds of HD signals to DIRECTV customers and the first of four next-generation satellites. Spaceway F1 is the first of two Ka-band satellites in this series. Spaceway F2 is slated to launch in June. The four satellites will provide the capacity to deliver more than 1,500 local HD and more than 150 national HD channels and other advanced programming services to consumers.

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LSI Logic Names Intel Exec as New CEO

LSI Logic appointed Abhi Y. Talwalkar as its president and CEO, succeeding Wilfred J. Corrigan, LSI Logic's founder. Talwalkar, 41, joins LSI Logic from Intel, where he served as vice president and co-general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, which is comprised of Intel's Business Client, Server, Storage and Communications businesses.
http://www.lsilogic.com

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JDS Uniphase to Acquire Acterna for $760 Million

JDS Uniphase agreed to acquire Acterna, a privately-held supplier of broadband and optical test & management (T&M) equipment, for $760 million, comprising $450 million in cash and $310 million in JDS Uniphase's common stock, subject to adjustments.


Acterna supplies test solutions for both service providers and network equipment vendors. It portfolio includes test instruments, systems, software and services for optical networks, data/IP, cable (HFC), access and wireless. The company is based in Germantown, Maryland, with European and Asia-Pacific operations based in Eningen, Germany and Hong Kong.


JDS Uniphase said the acquisition would accelerate its return to profitability. Acterna will be immediately financially accretive to JDS Uniphase. Based on preliminary results for fiscal year ended March 2005, Acterna's revenue exceeded $440 million, its non-GAAP gross margins exceeded 50%, and its non-GAAP earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) exceeded 11% of revenues.
http://www.jdsu.com/http://www.acterna.com

• Acterna was formed in 2000 through the merger of TTC and Wavetek Wandel Goltermann, whose roots go back to 1923.



• In October 2003, Acterna emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Under the terms of Acterna's Plan of Reorganization, senior secured debt holders received 100% of the company's equity through a debt-for-equity swap. Acterna emerged as a privately held company with long-term debt of approximately $190 million. Unsecured creditors received a cash distribution of approximately 10% of their claims.

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SyChip Implements LSI Logic for VoIP Mobile Phone

SyChip, a supplier of radio frequency chip scale modules/system in package modules, has selected LSI Logic's Z.Voice processor for use in its wireless VoIP connectivity module for next-generation dual-mode mobile phones. The chip offers power control modes of idle, sleep, halt and PLL Bypass with the low energy consumption of 0.33mW/MHz during active mode for longer battery life in end products.
http://www.lsilogic.com/

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Caspian Raises $55 Million for Flow-state Routers

Caspian Networks secured an additional $55 million in venture funding for its flow-state routers. The new round of funding includes existing investors Oak Investment Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Alloy Ventures and ABN-AMRO. http://www.caspian.com

• In March 205, Caspian Networks introduced a smaller version of its flow-state router designed for broadband aggregation and peering applications. The new 50 Gbps A50 flow-state router uses the same ASICs, software and line cards as the existing Caspian router, but in a single 6-RU shelf capable of aggregating up to 40 Gigabit Ethernet connections, four 10 Gbps trunks or other combination of interfaces.



• In February 2005, Caspian announced that it had been selected by South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to co-develop advanced IP flow state solutions for the nation's Broadband convergence Network (BcN). The project will combine Caspian's flow state technology with ETRI's technical expertise in network control and simplified multi-protocol labeling switching (sMPLS).



• In January 2005, Northrop Grumman awarded a multi-year contract to Caspian Networks for joint development of a critical element of the space communications system payload for the Air Force's Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) Space Segment.

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Redback Quadruples Performance of its SmartEdge

Redback Networks introduced the next-generation version of its flagship SmartEdge Service Gateway platform, featuring four times the performance of its current generation system and the capability for much higher density Ethernet aggregation. The enhanced performance is delivered via new 10 GigE and 10-port and 20-port GigE cards, along with a new software release.


The new linecards are powered by Redback's new Broadband IP Engine processing chip, which enables the integration of Ethernet aggregation with advanced IP routing, and subscriber and session management. Redback is also introducing Multicast Level Reliability, which extends the current capability of Session Level Reliability to ensure that all multicast video traffic can seamlessly failover to a redundant card without interruption.


Redback said the new features enable the SmartEdge Service Gateway to scale for future demands of high definition television, IP telephony, next-generation gaming, video calls, video email, and other applications.
http://www.redback.com

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ANDA Networks Debuts EtherDAX for Large Scale Aggregation

ANDA Networks introduced a new central office Ethernet aggregation and transport product designed to handle large-scale Ethernet service delivery requirements for major carriers. The new EtherDAX 6000 is designed for the aggregation and cross connect of a larger number of ANDA Networks' EtherReach devices, or third party devices, to support and centrally manage thousands of subscribers from a single device in the central office.



Significantly, MCI recently selected ANDA for a key part of its Converged Packet Access (CPA) network, which is being deployed in major cities across the U.S. ANDA said its Ethernet access and aggregation equipment is now in deployments in many large carrier networks worldwide both because of its feature set and because of its aggressive pricing. The company is based in Sunnyvale, California but maintains a majority of its engineering staff in Wuhan, China.


The new EtherDAX 6000 scales up to 120 Gbps and will support traditional SDH/PDH interfaces from DS3/E3 up to OC-192 and next-gen interfaces from GigE, 10GigE Ethernet or potentially C/DWDM uplinks. The product provides TDM-to-packet, packet-to-packet, and packet-to-optical aggregation and forwarding to enable flexible service delivery options for the evolution to converged networks and optical Ethernet networks. The platform is a 12-slot, carrier-grade chassis with a 48 Gbps Ethernet switch fabric with MPLS support.
Modules are independent from the CPUs.


Key capabilities of ANDA's new product includes secure layer 2 transport/layer 3-aware networking capabilities, which could be used by carriers to backhaul traffic to the network core without needing additional deployments of service edge routers or switches. Carriers would then aggregate and backhaul as much traffic as possible to existing SONET/SDH nodes or IP based switch/routers to achieve lower overall network costs -- basically, "backhaul where you can' (over existing transport), and switch when you must."


ANDA is also positioning the EtherDAX 6000 to aid migrations from TDM-based Frame and private line network technologies via Ethernet over SONET usingX.86/GFP and/or emerging Pseudo-wire emulation standards (PWE3). The EtherDAX 6000 could be used in large CO based carrier deployments for metro Ethernet business class services. Future releases will include high-density channelized OC-3/STM-1 (DS1) and channelized OC-48/STM-16 (OC-3).


ANDA existing "EtherTone" portfolio includes:

• EtherEdge 4000 Series -- a multi-tenant unit and CO/PoP Ethernet access platform terminating up to 24 Ethernet/TDM/Frame Relay interfaces.


• EtherReach 3000 Series -- fixed configuration platforms for multi-tenant unit deployments with Ethernet and TDM interfaces for transport across SONET/SDH networks.


• EtherReach 2000 Series -- single customer, carrier managed NCTE devices that provide Ethernet and TDM services via copper and/or fiber facilities at a carrier price of $1,000 to $2,000.

http://www.andanetworks.com

• ANDA Networks was founded in 1998 by Wufu Chen and prominent network technology entrepreneurs from Cisco, Motorola, Alcatel, Nortel, Ericsson and HP. The company raised approximately $100 million in funding, developing a Universal Access Platform. When the telecom downturn hit, ANDA moved a majority of its R&D to China, a move that the company said enables it to develop new products at one-tenth the cost of its previous operating model.



• ANDA Networks is headed by Charles R. Kenmore. Prior to joining ANDA Networks, Mr. Kenmore's most recent responsibilities included president of ADC International; vice president and general manager of the international division of the information systems group at Motorola; founding head of Sprint International; and vice-president and general manager of the international systems integration division at Comsat.

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