Spirent Opens "Proof of Concept" Lab for Developers of 10 GigE

Spirent Communications is launching a "Proof of Concept" lab to assist network equipment manufacturers in the design and development of 10GigE switches and routers. Development teams can use the lab to validate product design viability prior to large scale investment in system development, manufacturing and testing.



The lab, located in Spirent's Sunnyvale, California office, features 64 ports of 10GigE with the latest Spirent TestCenter software. Spirent TestCenter offers test cases for switches/routers. The company also announced a new 2-port 10GigE Multi-MSA Test Module for the Spirent TestCenter system. This will allow users to scale to more than 100 test ports in a single rack, providing a high density 10GigE port test bed.



The Spirent Proof of Conceptlab offers integrated testing of scalability, quality of service and layer 2/3 security, which provides more realistic results compared with serial testing.



The Proof of Concept lab uses full line rate 10GigE Network Emulators from Anue Systems. Spirent has partnered with Anue Systems to offer customers the ability to precisely emulate delays and impairments found on a wide variety of live networks.

http://www.spirentcom.com

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AT&T Outlines 2006 Global Network Expansion Plans

AT&T outlined its 2006 plans to expand its international network to better serve its multinational customers. Highlight include:

• Extended dedicated MPLS-based IP access capabilities, giving service nodes in 127 countries,



• Integration of more than 1,000 Frame Relay/ATM nodes in the legacy SBC 13-state region into the AT&T backbone network,



• Installing seven AT&T Global Network nodes in Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.
  
  
• Commissioning 16 additional network interconnections in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Russia, Vietnam, India, Japan, Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador and Dominican Republic giving greater in-depth country coverage.
  
  
• More than doubling DSL broadband capabilities via alliance agreements with local carriers, in Finland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan and Singapore. Plans call for DSL broadband access in up to 27 countries by year-end 2006.
  
  
• Additional Ethernet connectivity in Canada, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, India, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia targeting up to 20 countries by year-end 2006.
  
  
• Additional satellite coverage in Afghanistan, Burkina-Faso, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Nepal, Brunei and Sri Lanka which will provide access from a total of 20 countries worldwide.
  
  
• Expanding Wi-Fi capabilities through alliances, including providing access to AT&T Remote Access customers from more than 6,000 McDonald's locations across the United States; and an agreement with WeRoam and enabling 5,500 additional locations in countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The AT&T Wi-Fi footprint now includes to a total of more than 24,000 locations in 52 countries for these customers.

The international expansion is part of the new AT&T's previously announced $8 billion to $8.5 billion expected capital investment in 2006.

http://www.att.com

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BT Deploys MPLS-based VoIP Network

BT announced a £12 million program that will see its current legacy TDM network replaced by an MPLS-based network across more than 30 countries. The project, part of BT's 21CN initiative, is due to be completed in March 2008.



BT said the new MPLS network will provide it with an increased capability to handle larger volumes of traffic and provide additional functionalities and enhanced features such as the ease of integration with any existing servers, standard interface for multiple applications, and the ability to deploy more integrated multimedia services such as audio and video conferencing, and video streaming.



The first phase of the program has already been delivered, offering services over the new platform in 12 countries. The new platform will be rolled out to three new countries per quarter while the legacy platform will be withdrawn in 2008.



"A single integrated voice platform with MPLS enables customers to leverage the true benefits of globalization, avoiding the complexities and overheads of a patch-worked networking environment. The investment also allows BT to easily integrate all of its global networks to achieve improved cost control and customer integration to convergence, said Tom Craig, president, IP Networking, BT Global Services.

http://www.btplc.com

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City of London Chooses The Cloud for Wi-Fi

The City of London Corporation selected The Cloud, Europe's largest WiFi network operator, to install and manage a Wi-Fi network serving London's Square Mile. Expected to go live in the next few months with virtually all the City covered within six months, the WiFi network will be installed in existing street furniture including lamp posts and street signs, allowing City workers and visitors with WiFi-enabled devices to access the internet on streets and in open spaces.

http://www.thecloud.net

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National LambdaRail Reaches Fully Operational Status

National LambdaRail (NLR) has reached fully-operational status, providing advanced optical, Ethernet and IP connectivity over more than 15,000 miles of fiber across the United States.



The infrastructure provides researchers control over a nationwide network with up to 40 individual lightpaths running at 10 Gbps. The project is the result of over three years of work and nearly $100 million in funding by members.



NLR's WaveNet, FrameNet, and PacketNet services are already in use by more than a dozen research projects, including the National Science Foundation-supported Extensible Terascale Facility and OptIPuter projects; the U.S. Department of Energy's UltraScience Net project; CENIC and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop's Pacific Wave project; the CAMERA project led by CalIT2, the Venter Institute and UCSD's CEOA; the University of Virginia-led CHEETAH project; as well as Internet2's Hybrid Optical Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) project.



"The fully operational National LambdaRail infrastructure marks an unprecedented milestone for the U.S. research community," said Tracy Futhey, NLR Board Chair. "For the first time, a nationwide networking infrastructure is owned and operated by the research and education community, giving scientists flexible access to advanced networking capabilities and enabling experiments and collaborations across geographic barriers."http://www.nlr.net

• National LambdaRail (NLR) is a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies.



• NLR has deployed nine Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing Systems across the country. The project is also using Cisco Systems' 15808 and 15454 optical transmission platforms.

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EarthLink Partners with EchoStar and DIRECTV

EarthLink announced separate partnerships with EchoStar Communications and DIRECTV to offer satellite TV service.



EarthLink will begin reselling the EchoStar's DISH service by the end of the first quarter of 2006 in select parts of the country. EarthLink will be responsible for marketing, account management, and billing inquiries. DISH Network will provide programming, installation, and technical support.



In other markets, EarthLink will offer a bundled package of DIRECTV service and EarthLink Internet services. This arrangement will also start by the end of the first quarter of 2006.



"EarthLink continues to evolve with the changing communications and entertainment needs of our customers," said Gary Sonnier, EarthLink vice president of consumer access products.

http://www.earthlink.nethttp://www.dishnetwork.com

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Ikanos Closes Acquisition of Analog's Broadband Line

Ikanos Communications completed the acquisition of the network processor and ADSL ASIC product lines from Analog Devices. The deal was valued at $31 million.



The acquisition provides Ikanos with Analog's "Fusiv" line of residential gateway processors and "Eagle" line of ADSL2+ modem products, along with associated product development and support teams. In addition, Ikanos plans to offer VDSL-based residential gateway solutions that integrate the Fusiv processor with its "CleverConnect" and FxS VDSL2 products.

http://www.ikanos.com

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