NTT Develops IP Optical Traffic Engineering Server

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) announced the development of an IP optical traffic engineering (TE) server for an IP optical backbone network composed of IP routers and optical crossconnects (OXCs).



The IP optical TE server controls the IP optical backbone network using an original traffic control algorithm that applies to both IP routers and OXCs. NTT said its TE server responds flexibly to unexpected changes in traffic demand, and could be used to restore operations quickly in the event of system failures or natural disasters.



NTT will be giving presentations related to this technology at the iPOP2006 international conference to be held next week at the Meiji Kinenkan complex in Tokyo. http://www.ntt.co.jp

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HP Unveils BladeSystem for Data Centers

HP unveiled its BladeSystem c-Class architecture that aims to deliver significant improvements in virtualization, power and cooling, and system management capabilities that can reduce both operational and capital expenditure costs by 46% in a typical data center implementation.




The modular HP BladeSystem c-Class allows businesses to start with HP ProLiant and Integrity servers, HP StorageWorks storage offerings as well as client blades and then flexibly add applications and third-party products to expand their data centers as needed.



The HP Virtual Connect Architecture enables server administrators to manage resources on the fly via virtualized Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections, saving hours or days of administrative "wait time."



The virtualization is coupled with a fast midplane and five terabits per second of aggregate throughput.



In addition, HP BladeSystem c-Class and StorageWorks Storage Area Networks (SANs) simplify IT consolidation by integrating the server-to-storage interface. The new HP BladeSystem 4 Gbps Fibre Channel SAN switches and the industry's first redundant, embedded 4 Gbps Fibre Channel HBA reduce the cost of SAN connectivity to HP BladeSystem by more than 40% while providing highly available, redundant connection to existing SANs. The switches also reduce the number of Fibre Channel cables required by up to 60%.



Other improvements include an ultra-efficient HP Active Cool Fan that cuts server airflow by 30% and energy consumption by 50% compared to traditional fans, and HP Insight Control Management software that achieves a 200:1 device-to-administrator ratio -- a tenfold improvement for many IT tasks .



HP also plans to build out an BladeSystem ecosystem of independent software and hardware vendors, systems integrators and value-added resellers. Some of the application and hardware partners involved in the launch of c-Class include: AMD, Blade Network Technologies, Brocade, Cisco Systems, Citrix, Emulex, Intel, Mellanox, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, PolyServe, QLogic, Red Hat, SAP, VMware and Voltaire.



http://www.hp.com

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India's Tata Group Selects Alcatel for Optical Expansion

India's Tata Group awarded a US$20 million project to Alcatel to expand its existing optical multi-service network to additional regions in the country. The deployment will enable Tata to further enhance the roll out of CDMA mobile services, as well as to support new broadband services and Ethernet applications throughout the states of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Additionally, it will provide a highly efficient and reliable platform for the backhaul of traffic over Tata's existing mobile network.



The expanded optical transport network will meet 70% of the transmission requirements of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) - the leading private telecom operator in India, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) - India's leading international telecommunications service provider and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML), the leading telecom services provider in Maharashtra. TTSL, VSNL and TTML are all part of the Tata Group.



The award follows the contracts signed in 2004 for the deployment of the existing optical transport network.



Alcatel's optical networking solution include its data-aware Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems and 1696 MS DWDM equipment, both managed by the 1350 management suite. Alcatel will be also responsible for the complete project management, engineering, installation, service activation and commissioning.

http://www.alctel.com

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VeriSign to Power Text Message Alerts for eBay

eBay will use VeriSign's Intelligent Messaging Network to deliver mobile alerts to its users within the U.S. The two types of alerts being offered are outbid notifications and end-of-auction alerts. The outbid alerts are interactive and allow users to re-bid directly from mobile handsets. Once a new bid is received and processed by eBay, a confirmation message gets sent to the user confirming they are the current highest bidder.



The VeriSign Intelligent Messaging Network will deliver the time- critical, application-specific messages across all major domestic wireless operators in the U.S.

http://www.verisign.com

• VeriSign said it is currently delivering more than three billion SMS messages each month.

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NYT: Hiding in Plain Site, Google Seeks More Power

Currently, Google is operating an estimated 450,000 servers spread over 25 locations worldwide, according to a feature article in The New York Times that tracks the company's ambitious effort to build its next generation data center. The centerpiece of the Google plan is a huge complex being built in The Dalles, Oregon -- providing access to cheap electricity generated by the Columbia river and fiber access to its global network.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

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Ember Raises $12 Million for ZigBee

Ember, a start-up based in Boston with R&D in Cambridge, England, closed an additional $12 million in funding for its ZigBee networking solutions.



Ember is seeking to promote 802.15.4/ZigBee technology to create an "Internet of things" by enabling billions of devices to support low-cost, low-power sensor and control applications, such as home and building automation, industrial controls, inventory management, automatic meter reading (AMR) and environmental monitoring. The market for 802.15.4/ZigBee devices is expected to reach $1 billion between 2008 and 2010, according to two research firms, In-Stat and Northern Sky Research.



Polaris Venture Partners, GrandBanks Capital, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital (the investment group of Microsoft's Paul G. Allen), DFJ ePlanet Ventures, DFJ New England, WestLB Mellon Asset Management (formerly West AM) and strategic partners such as ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures participated in the round.



Ember has raised $65 million to date.

http://www.embercorp.com

• Earlier this month, Ember announced the availability of its EM260 ZigBee co-processor with a new flexible, open source interface, called EZSP, that makes it easy to integrate ZigBee networking capabilities with any vendor's microcontroller, including those from STMicroelectronics, Atmel, Texas Instruments, Renesas, Freescale, NEC, Intel, Infineon, Microchip, Philips, Samsung, Toshiba and others. The EM260 integrates an IEEE 802.15.4 radio, network processor and onboard memory to run a full ZigBee network protocol stack.



• In April 2006, Ember named Robert LeFort as its new CEO, taking over from Bob Metcalfe, who has served as interim CEO since June 2005 and continues as chairman. Metcalfe is a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners, a lead investor in Ember. LeFort joins Ember from Infineon, where he served as president of North American operations.

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Korea's Dreamline Selects ECI Telecom to Upgrade Optical Network

Dreamline, a leading cellular and broadband service provider in South Korea, has selected ECI's optical solutions for the upgrade and expansion of its nationwide network to support next generation services. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Dreamline's network expected to reach approximately 10,000 km throughout the country. The two companies have been working together successfully since 1998 and as a result, Dreamline already has thousands of ECI's platforms installed in their network.



ECI's XDM-50 optical platform carries voice and data services over Ethernet, SDH/SONET and CWDM. http://www.ecitele.com

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Narus and Pen-Link Partner on VOIP CALEA

Narus and Pen-Link announced a strategic agreement to jointly market a lawful intercept solution that is fully compliant with the CALEA T1.678 VoIP standard in the United States, as well as the European ETSI TS 102 232/233/234 standards for Internet access and e-mail.



The solution combines the NarusInsight Intercept Suite (NIS) software with Pen-Link's LINCOLN 2 intercept collection and reporting tool. Additionally, completed interoperability testing of the solution will ensure seamless integration and easy implementation for carriers -- paramount as they strive to meet their respective government's regulatory requirements.



NarusInsight is a carrier-class IP traffic processing system that provides real-time network visibility essential to secure, manage and deliver Services over IP (SoIP). NarusInsight provides the ability to deep packet inspection from layer 3 to layer 7 and complete correlation across every link and element on the network.



Pen-Link, a U.S. company that operates primarily from its corporate headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska, provides Law Enforcement and Intelligence agencies with software and systems for the collection, storage, and analysis of call detail data and call content associated with all forms of telecommunication intercepts.

http://www.narus.comhttp://www.penlink.com

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Qpixel Raises $25 Million for Video Compression Chip

Qpixel Technology International, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, raised $25 million in second round funding for its low-power digital video and audio encoder/decoder solutions.



Qpixel's low latency, high quality H.264-based video and audio encoder/decoder technology is being developed for the digital consumer electronics and digital video communication industries. The company said its patent-pending video compression algorithms enable a highly optimized implementation of H.264 technology for subjective video quality enhancement and computational complexity reduction. Target applications include digital camcorders, digital still cameras, set top boxes, video phones, IPTV and DVRs.



The new funding was led by venture capitalist Bandel Carano, the financing comes from a combination of sources including Oak Investment Partners, Technology Associates Management Company (TAMC), Acorn Campus and iD SoftCapital Group. In conjunction with this investment, Brian Hinman will join Qpixel's board of directors representing Oak Investment Partners.

http://www.qpixeltech.com

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Metalink Demos 802.11n HDTV Streaming with LG STB

Metalink's WLANPlus chipset has been integrated into an LG set top box. The STB provides wireless delivery of multiple high-definition video streams in the home.



"LG believes that 802.11n based technology will be widely used in the near future to provide multiple High-Definition video streams throughout the home," said Dr. Taekil Cho, vice president at LG DTV.

http://www.metalinkbb.com

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AT&T Announces $100 million "AccessAll" Program

AT&T will launch a three-year, $100 million program to provide in-home Internet and technology access to benefit low-income families and underserved communities across the country.



AT&T Foundation, which is the company's philanthropic arm, will provide technology packages, including Internet access, to 50,000 low-income families through a unique collaboration with One Economy Corporation, Habitat for Humanity affiliates and other low-income housing providers.



In addition, AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre will pledge that, provided the company's merger with BellSouth closes this year, AT&T will increase its spending with minority-, women- and disabled veteran-owned businesses by $250 million in the coming year.



Other partners who have joined the program to contribute in the outreach effort include Dell, Siemens, Intel, and the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps*VISTA).



The program is expected to launch in the coming weeks in several communities across the country.

http://www.att.com

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