03/08/06 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Optibase CEO Steps Down

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Financial

Uzi Breier has resigned his position as CEO of Optibase following a management dispute at the company. Tom Wyler, Executive Chairman and President of Optibase, will assume the role of interim CEO until a replacement is found.

Optibase provides professional encoding, decoding, video server upload and streaming solutions.

http://www.optibase.com

Conexant Offers Designs for Next Gen Satellite PC TV Boxes

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Silicon

Conexant Systems announced a satellite television receiver card reference platform based on the industry's newest digital video broadcast standard, DVB-S2, for personal computers (PCs). It is targeted at manufacturers developing products that allow subscribers to watch, record and replay satellite broadcast programs on their PC.

The new solution is based on two Conexant set-top box (STB) solutions and one PC video device. These include a digital video broadcast DVB-S2 demodulator and forward error correction (FEC) decoder, a third-generation 8PSK satellite tuner, and a PCI audio/video (AV) broadcast decoder. The two STB devices enable the capture and processing of satellite broadcast programming, and the AV decoder converts and transports the video stream so it can be viewed on a PC.

The reference design is backward-compatible with the previous DVB-S and DSS standards. http://www.conexant.com

Sprint Launches Hosted Business VoIP Service with Broadsoft/Lucent

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 PacketVoice

Sprint launched a new hosted enterprise VoIP service aimed at businesses with dispersed workforces.

Sprint IP Voice Connect provides network-based hosted telephony with local and long distance services as well as PBX and traditional Centrex features over Sprint's Dedicated IP or Global MPLS network.

Sprint's secure carrier-grade service is enabled by Lucent Technologies' Hosted VoIP Solution for Enterprises through its Global Network Operations Centers. It can replace or integrate with customer premises-based telephony systems.

The service is available in most major metropolitan areas, specifically 251 MSAs in 47 states.

Sprint offers service level agreements (SLA) for all critical metrics for voice over IP quality items such as jitter, delay and packet loss. Sprint also offers SLAs for site implementation, mean time to repair and proactive outage notification. Sprint IP Voice Connect is a carrier grade service built with internal survivability (multiple connections between partners along with redundant data centers). http://www.sprint.comhttp://www.lucent.com

QUALCOMM Signs Licensing Deal with 4G Systems GmbH

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 BroadbandWireless

QUALCOMM and 4G Systems GmbH, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, today announced that the companies have signed a commercial WCDMA and TD-SCDMA modem card and router license agreement. Under the terms of the worldwide, royalty-bearing agreement, QUALCOMM has granted 4G Systems a patent license to develop, manufacture and sell WCDMA and TD-SCDMA modem card and router products (including HSDPA products). The royalties payable by 4G Systems are at QUALCOMM's standard rates and are the same irrespective of the CDMA standard implemented by the modem card or router products.

http://www.qualcomm.com

HD Audio-Video Network Alliance Expands Membership

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 StandardsWatch

The High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA), a cross-industry collaboration of members addressing the end-to-end needs of connected, high-definition, home entertainment products and services, has added Warner Bros. Technical Operations Inc. and Texas Instruments (TI) as promoter members. Other promoter members include Charter Communications, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., JVC, NBC Universal, Samsung and Sun Microsystems as promoter members in the organization. AMD, Digeo, Marvell, NDS, Oxford Semiconductor, TC Applied Technologies, Vidiom Systems, Accelerated Technology and VividLogic have also joined the alliance. Along with current contributor members ARM, Freescale Semiconductor and Pulse~LINK, HANA has reached the milestone of 20 membershttp://www.hanaalliance.org

Raytheon Announces Satellite Communications Breakthrough

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Satellite

Raytheon announced a milestone in satellite communications technology -- the company's Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical -- Terminal (SMART-T) Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), a mobile ground satellite communications terminal developed for the U.S. Army, is the achieved in-orbit acquisition and data transfer with the U.S. Milstar satellite constellation. This demonstrates backward compatibility of the Defense Department's (DoD) AEHF satellite system terminals with legacy Milstar Army, Navy and Air Force terminals using the critical new security technology.

Raytheon said this milestone is an important first step in putting the full power of AEHF communication capability in the hands of Army, Navy, Air Force and AEHF International Partner Nation warfighters. With AEHF, warfighters will have dramatically expanded data throughput for time-critical missions and will be provided with assured interoperability between AEHF International Partner nations conducting operations with the U.S.
http://www.raytheon.com

ECI Telecom Enhances its MSPPs for Cellular Operators

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Service Providers

ECI Telecom released and enhanced version of its Multi Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) targeted at mobile network operators. The XDM platform, which is powered by a unique 120 Gbps switching fabric and high-density service cards, allows cellular operators to cost-effectively deploy and grow 3G networks and to efficiently aggregate traffic from the edge to the core. The new feature set makes the XDM the first platform to optimally combine next-generation SDH with OTN networking. It provides advanced software configurable SDH/OTN interfaces that eliminate the need for OTN transponders, thereby reducing capital expenditure by the carrier.
http://www.ecitele.com

Audiocodes Adds Wideband Vocoding to its DSP software

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Silicon

AudioCodes announced the addition of Wideband Vocoding to its "VoIPerfect" DSP software, offering enhanced voice quality for VoIP Media Gateways, IP PBXs, IP phones, Residential Gateways and ATA products.

The traditional PSTN is limited to 300-3400 Hz for narrowband speech. Voice signals are sampled at a rate of 8 kHz, causing limitations to communication quality and comprehension. Wideband telephony refers to transmitting speech signals with bandwidth ranging between 50-7000 Hz, while the voice signals are sampled at a rate of 16 kHz. This effectively doubles the narrowband speech signal bandwidth and offers the caller "true voice" conversation. Compared to narrowband telephony, wideband contributes a sense of presence, enabling a natural and comfortable conversation. Usage of Wideband Vocoding also increases the complexity of other related VoIP algorithms such as Echo Cancellation, Tone detection and generation and more. AudioCodes VoP processors perform all these tasks, together with all other VoIP tasks, such as Jitter buffer, T.38 fax, etc., to provide significantly better voice quality than what exists in the marketplace today.

Audiocodes said the integration of Wideband Vocoding into its VoIPerfect DSP software allows OEMs and ODMs using the AC49x Family of chips and the Tulip AC494 ATA, to provide state of the art products for next-generation telephony systems, focusing on high voice quality utilizing the increased bandwidth.

http://www.audiocodes.com

Lucent Opens Office in Vietnam

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Financial

Lucent Technologies opened an office in Hanoi, Vietnam. Quyen Ngo, general director, Lucent Technologies Vietnam Co., Ltd. will head this office. Ngo has more than 17 years experience with Lucent. He started his career in the switching group at Bell Labs, the company's world-renowned R&D organization. He has been working in the Asia Pacific region for nine years, having worked in Indonesia and Singapore and has been involved in Vietnam business development since 2003.

http://www.lucent.com

Actelis Launches Ethernet Access Device

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Packet Systems

Actelis Networks launched its new ML600 Ethernet Access Device (EAD) to enhance the delivery of Carrier Ethernet services. The product combines Actelis' "EFMplus" Ethernet in the First Mile copper transmission capabilities with Carrier Ethernet service delivery features. It delivers up to 45 Mbps of symmetrical Ethernet services over up to eight pairs of existing copper, and up to 400 Mbps over fiber infrastructure. The ML600 EAD can be deployed in a Point-to-Point configuration or as the CPE in a Point-to-Multi-Point configuration with Actelis' EFM switches.

http://www.actelis.com

Verimatrix Deployed for Telecom Italia AliceBox IPTV in France

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 TTP

Verimatrix Deployed for Telecom Italia France's AliceBox IPTV
Telecom Italia France has selected the Verimatrix Content Authority System (VCAS) for its AliceBox triple play service. AliceBox, which offers unlimited calls to France and Italy, a minimum of 6 Mbps and up to 100 broadcast channels over the DSL network, was officially launched on 1 January 2006.

The service is using Sagem's set-top boxes supporting both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC video compression. The VCAS software will protect premium content from TPS and Canal+.

The Verimatrix software uses Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and X.509 digital certification to ensure the most robust and secure service possible.

http://www.verimatrix.com

U.S. Passes 41 Million Broadband User Milestone

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Wi-Fi

The U.S. broadband market has grown explosively, from 4.5 million subscribers in 2000 to 41.2 million subscribers in 2005 according to the newly released TIA's 2006 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast.

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). is forecasting that the broadband market will grow an additional 28 million to 69.2 million by 2009, a 13.8 percent compound annual increase.

For the first time in 2005, more new broadband subscribers signed up for DSL than for cable. Total DSL and cable modem subscribers reached 17 million and 22.5 million respectively in 2005. By 2009, there will be an estimated 23.8 million DSL subscribers, up 8.8 percent on a compound annual basis from 2005. Cable modem subscribers are expected to total 35.9 million that same year, up 12.4 percent on a compound annual basis from 2005.

TIA is also predicting that total broadband access revenue will increase from $20.2 billion in 2005 to $30.2 billion in 2009, growing at a 10.6 percent compound annual rate. Total Internet access revenue, including dial-up, will reach $34.8 billion in 2009, up 5.3 percent compounded annually from $28.3 billion in 2005.

http://www.tiaonline.org

Alvarion Introduces 3.6GHZ WiMAX Platform