Monday, November 7, 2005

Spirent Enhances ThreatEx Network Security Test Tool

Spirent Communications has enhanced its "ThreatEx", a network test tool capable of replicating sophisticated digital attacks. Spirent's ThreatEx simulates network attacks by creating data packets that mimic the behaviour of viruses and worms, and can be used to evaluate Firewalls and Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS).


For companies that have limited resources, Spirent's Global Services team can use ThreatEx to perform security audits and supplements internal capabilities with test methodology expertise so that customers can focus on their core business.


Spirent has also created a ThreatEx Knowledge Base -- a web-based subscription service that hosts a dynamically updated library of known attacks. This enables organisations to keep their tests current, thus minimizing risk and maximizing ROI.


In addition to the cache of existing ThreatEx attacks that include Denial of Service, port scanning, port corruption, buffer overflows, packet floods, redirection, tunneling and fragmentation attacks, Spirent has added the following capabilities to the ThreatEx arsenal in the latest release:

  • Attacks specific for VoIP testing - SIP, Skinny and H.323

  • Protocol Fuzzing - enables users to "fuzz" any protocol created by ThreatEx for corner case tests and extensive negative traffic permutation

  • 150 protocol shells for ThreatEx Designer - allows any threat to be created via a point and click environment

  • Expanded performance assessment - in addition to SNMP traps, ThreatEx now includes session latency, service assessment and exploit ratio


  • In addition, to simulate real-life traffic with negative traffic, ThreatEx can be combined with Spirent's Avalanche to reveal how network performance degenerates when under attack.
    http://www.spirentcom.com

Sonus Quarterly Revenue Falls to $45.7 Million

Sonus Networks reported Q3 revenues of $45.7 million compared with $58.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2005 and $46.8 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2004. Net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2005 was $2.7 million or $0.01 per diluted share compared with net income of $9.7 million or $0.04 per diluted share for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, and compared with net income of $10.3 million or $0.04 per diluted share for the third quarter of fiscal 2004.


Third quarter revenue and earnings per share were lowered by $4.7 million and approximately 2 cents per diluted share respectively, as a consequence of the accounting treatment required for the renegotiation of certain customers' bundled maintenance and support arrangements in the quarter. This revenue will be recognized in subsequent periods as service revenue.


"While our reported financial results were lowered by the deferral of revenue related to two of our Tier 1 customers based on our accounting policies, our business in the third quarter expanded in several important ways," said Hassan Ahmed, chairman and CEO, Sonus Networks.
http://www.sonusnet.com

SureWest Leverages BigBand for HDTV over IP

SureWest Communications has expanded its use of the BigBand BMR(Broadband Multimedia-Service Router) to facilitate the delivery of HDTV over its IP-based FTTP network.


SureWest currently utilizes the BigBand BMR to enable over 240 channels of live video and music programs, pay-per-view, and conversion of multimedia content for IP distribution. SureWest leverages functionality that controls channel line-ups, enhances video quality and boosts bandwidth efficiency.


The BigBand BMR receives separate variable bit rate satellite video feeds combined within a multi- program transport stream with control over each one's carriage on the operator's network. Each program is adjusted to a constant bit rate, re- multiplexed and encapsulated within a UDP-IP stream for delivery over an IP network. This functionality is designed to assure efficient, reliable and jitter-free video transport within available bandwidth in compliance with access network and subscriber device tolerances and protocols.
http://www.bigbandnet.com

DIRECTV and NBC Universal Announce VOD Deal

DIRECTV reached a deal with NBC Universal to offer consumers access to the top programs of NBC and its cable entertainment networks, USA, SCI FI and Bravo, within hours after they air, commercial free, for 99 cents. The programs will be available on demand through the new DIRECTV Plus interactive DVR.


This multi-year agreement will give the primetime on demand rights to NBC Universal TV programs, such as "Law & Order: SVU," "Law & Order: CI," "The Office," "Monk," "Surface" and "Battlestar Galactica." The programs will be available until the following week's episode airs. NBC Universal's movies and TV events will also be available through DIRECTV Plus, and on pay-per-view (PPV).


"The way people are consuming content is changing," said David Zaslav, President, NBC Universal Cable.
http://www.directv.com

Comcast Reaches VOD Deal with CBS

Comcast reached a deal with CBS under which four of the broadcaster's leading prime-time entertainment series will be available via VOD. Beginning in January, Comcast Digital Cable customers in markets served by CBS owned-and-operated television stations (including the top 7 US markets) will be able to view episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race on Comcast's ON DEMAND service. The on-demand programs will be available as early as midnight following their broadcast on the CBS television network. Each episode will cost 99 cents, and customers will be able to view the episodes anytime they want for up to 24 hours from the time they order them. Certain Comcast systems also may make CSI and NCIS available ON DEMAND in high-definition for customers with HD-enabled Comcast digital cable set-top boxes.


The companies said their announcement marks a new phase for video on demand and further emphasizes the changing landscape of providing prime-time content to viewers whenever they choose.


CBS, in partnership with Comcast, is the first broadcast network to offer its most coveted primetime programming through VOD with a cable provider.


"Video on demand has fundamentally changed the way people watch TV, and now for the first time the most popular prime-time CBS programming will be available to our customers," said Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation. "CBS has taken a giant step forward in experimenting with prime- time video on demand. Comcast's ON DEMAND service has been tremendously successful, with more than one billion program views so far this year."


Comcast's ON DEMAND service offers a growing library of more than 3,800 programs. Nearly 95% of ON DEMAND programs are available at no additional charge.
http://www.comcast.com

Kasenna Scales VOD with 12-Node Linux Server Cluster

Kasenna is using mainstream, web-farm style clustering technologies to scale its VOD server to power a half-million subscriber deployment from a single video head office (VHO) using MPEG-4 (AVC) streams encoded at 2.3 Mbps.





Kasenna has tested a cluster that used 12 dual processor servers with 64-bit Intel Xeon 3.5 GHZ processors. The servers were powered by Kasenna MediaBase version 8.1 software that incorporates hybrid RAM/Disk streaming. The cluster achieved 135 Gbps of streaming capacity, which equated to 57,600 MPEG-4 streams at 2.3 Mbps per stream and 36,000 MPEG-2 streams using 3.75 Mbps encoding (Cable Labs specification).


The benchmark was observed under real-world demand conditions using actual traffic from a VOD deployment and all mainstream components -- loosely coupled (web-farm style) Linux servers, standard file systems, standard Gigabit Ethernet for intra-server interconnects, etc.


Kasenna's "Stream Clustering" technology incorporates a number of different algorithms for pre-caching, hot-spot measurements, load averaging and request arrival predictions. This provided the load balancing among the cluster.


"While other IPTV solution vendors focus on specialized hardware designs or very high server counts when attempting to deliver metro-class performance, Kasenna's vision has always been to use software intelligence and a distributed architecture to enable a high-performance, more cost-effective, and scalable solution," said Dr. Satish Menon, Chief Technology Officer of Kasenna.
http://www.kasenna.com

Inmarsat-4 Satellite Launched, Will Support Broadband Global Area Network

The Inmarsat-4 communications satellite was successfully launched in geosynchronous transfer orbit by a Zenit-3SL rocket from the Sea Launch Odyssey platform in the Pacific.


Inmarsat-4 is among the largest communications satellites ever launched -- 5,958 kg (13,108 lb). It is designed to provide high-speed mobile service to people throughout the Americas during its 13-year service life. It is one in a series of satellites designed to support the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) for high-speed delivery of Internet and intranet content and solutions, video-on-demand, videoconferencing, fax, e-mail, phone and LAN access.


One of a family of three similar spacecraft, this Inmarsat-4 F2 satellite carries a single global beam that covers up to a third of the Earth's surface, 19 wide spot beams and 228 narrow spot beams. It has a total end-of-life power of 13kW.


The first Inmarsat-4 was launched in March 2005 and is already in commercial service above the Indian Ocean. Together, the two I-4 satellites will be able to deliver Inmarsat's new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service to 85% of the world's landmass.


BGAN will deliver Internet and intranet content and solutions, video-on-demand, videoconferencing, fax, e-mail, phone and LAN access at speeds of up to 492 kbps.
http://www.inmarsat.com
http://www.sea-launch.com/
  • Inmarsat's I-4 satellites are built by EADS Astrium and are part of an eight-year, US$1.5 billion development of Inmarsat's next-generation satellite network.

Motorola Invests in Tekion for Micro Fuel Cells

Motorola Ventures has made a strategic investment in Tekion, a start-up developing micro fuel cells for mobile products. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Tekion, which has operations in both Champaign, Illinois and Burnaby, British Columbia, is integrating advanced battery technology with a unique micro fuel cell technology to create a new "personal power source", known as the "Formira" Power Pack, that will fit inside mobile products and enable consumers to stay connected for as long as needed. It will operate in the power range of milliwatts to 50 watts and energy range of 10 to 100 watt-hours. Several products and markets fall within these power and energy levels including: industrial handheld computers, satellite communication devices, notebook PCs, and other mobile products.
http://www.tekion.com/http://www.motorola.com/ventures

GigaBeam Raises $18.9 Million for "WiFiber"

GigaBeam, a start-up based in Herndon, Virginia, announced the private placement of $18.9 million stated value of the company's Series B convertible preferred stock and common stock purchase warrants to purchase approximately 1,302,200 shares of common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $18.9 million to a limited number of institutional investors. The conversion price of the preferred stock and the exercise price of the warrants are approximately $7.62 and $7.98 respectively.


GigaBeam WiFiber operates in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz radio spectrum bands. This portion of the radio frequency spectrum has been authorized by the FCC for wireless point-to-point commercial use. Use of these frequency bands for commercial use was pioneered by GigaBeam's founders.


GigaBeam's technology, utilizing these large blocks of authorized contiguous spectrum, enable multi Gigabit-per-second wireless communications using Gigabit Ethernet. The current speed achieved by GigaBeam's WiFiber 2 and anticipated WiFiber G Series product lines is one Gbps. GigaBeam also plans deployment of future products capable of 10 Gbps.
http://www.gigabeam.com

BellSouth Selects Lucent for IMS

BellSouth has selected elements from Lucent's IMS-based (IP Multimedia Subsystem) solution, including network integration and technical support, to be the platform for BellSouth's VoIP service for residential customers in its nine-state territory.


Under the multiyear agreement, BellSouth will deploy components of the Lucent IMS portfolio, including the Lucent Network Controller, a softswitch technology-based product that provides the media gateway control functions traditionally found in a softswitch, to enable consumer VoIP services. In addition, BellSouth will deploy the Lucent Network Gateway, which provides the media gateway function and permits seamless interaction between IP networks and both traditional wireline and wireless networks. The Lucent Network Controller and the Lucent Network Gateway are elements of Lucent's IMS-based solution that integrate into an IMS architecture.


Lucent Worldwide Services will provide end-to-end multivendor network integration services, including network and security design, installation and engineering, and program management. Lucent also will provide multivendor maintenance services, including multivendor technical support. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Lucent's solution lays a foundation for BellSouth's IMS architecture, paving the way for BellSouth to develop, integrate and roll out new, powerful and personalized services, delivering anytime, anywhere access to a "grand slam" of next-generation IP-based services.


"BellSouth's new consumer VoIP capability is a critical component leading to a comprehensive experience that integrates voice, data and video in a way that best meets the needs of the individual customer, helping open the door to a whole new level of personalized services," said Bill Smith, chief technology officer for BellSouth.
http://www.lucent.com
http://www.bellsouth.com
  • In October 2005, Lucent announced IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) contracts with Cingular Wireless and SBC Communications.


    For SBC, the Lucent IMS platform, consisting of an array of IMS-related hardware and software products and applications, will enable it to share next-generation customizable IP-based services and applications across different consumer devices. SBC expects to begin introducing services enabled by the IMS platform in late 2006 or early 2007.


    For Cingular Wireless, Lucent was awarded a four-year contract to supply a comprehensive IMS-based solution that will enable Cingular to rapidly develop and launch a broad range of new personalized voice, video, data and multimedia services. Cingular will deploy components of Lucent's Accelerate Next Generation Communications Solutions portfolio, which includes the Lucent Session Manager with service broker function, the new Lucent Feature Server with support for mobile roaming using dual-mode devices, Lucent Unified Subscriber Data Server for wireless and wireline customers, Lucent Network Controller, Lucent Network Gateway, Lucent Communication Manager with next generation features, Lucent Active PhoneBook and Lucent MiLife Application Server.






















Using
the IMS Architecture for Service Enabling Next Generation Networks
To
stave off competition, customer churn, and rebound from the decreasing
rates for local and long distance service, service providers are looking
to evolve or overlay their current networks to enable new revenue
generating converged and next-generation services. The IMS architecture
supports a wide range of services enabled by the flexibility of Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP). It can support multiple application servers
providing traditional telephony services and non-telephony services such
as instant messaging, push-to-talk, video streaming, multimedia
messaging, etc. Here is an overview.

Broadbus Enhances its Video Server

Broadbus Technologies, a start-up based in Boxborough, Massachusetts, announced version 3.0 of its B-1 Video Server with Stream Commander, which uses DRAM-based streaming server technology to scale to 80 Gbps of output. Broadbus said its design can produce nearly 20,000 streams per chassis and offer virtually unlimited ingest capabilities. The B-1 can ingest hundreds of live and pre-recorded programs simultaneously, enabling television on-demand (TOD) and network PVR (nPVR) applications.


The Broadbus Stream Commander) management application is designed to configure, coordinate and monitor up to 256 networked B-1 video servers via a web-based graphical user interface. The software manages all ingest, storage and streaming activities and maintains an active database of configuration profiles and status, alarm, stream and content statistics. It also manages the propagation of content to and from near-term storage libraries virtually eliminating content replication.


Broadbus said that by separating DRAM video streaming and RAID content storage structures, its B-1 server permits independent configuration and low-cost upgradeability for additional streams and storage. The decoupled design means that stream counts and storage modules can scale to meet the exact needs of service providers and that modules can be hot-swapped.


New enhancements included in version 3.0 of the B-1 and Stream Commander include hot-swappable blades with full failover capability, hot-swappable, redundant Fibre Channel controllers, improved diagnostics, application and process-level resiliency, and the ability to stream live television within five seconds of ingest.
http://www.broadbus.com

Samsung Presents its Latest Mobile Phone Designs

Samsung Electronics introduced 5 new mobile phones for the European market. The average of the newly unveiled phones are under 15mm and offer the latest multimedia features, such as music playback capability, megapixel camera and Bluetooth connectivity. The lineups include two 3G phones, two slide-up GSM/GPRS phones, and a credit-card size mobile phone.





Samsung said the current trend in mobile phone design is moving towards "slim & wide" design. The "slim & wide" design concept offers better portability with its light weight and thinness, and enriches multimedia features in a mobile environment with larger screens.
http://www.samsung.com

Alcatel Supplies WLAN to State of Kansas

Alcatel will supply its OmniAccess wireless LAN (WLAN) switch family to the State of Kansas for use at government sites and schools. The State of Kansas plans to deploy its Alcatel wireless networks across the state with the first deployment in the Topeka state capitol campus followed by the Department of Transportation. The contract also allows any public entity in Kansas to buy under the terms of this contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.alcatel.com