Cisco Upgrades ONS 15454 Optical Platform

Cisco announced significant hardware and software upgrades to its Cisco ONS optical networking platform, including a new 40-channel, mesh reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) supporting from 2 to 8-degrees of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) traffic, Ethernet Xponder and Cisco Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP)-on-a-blade.



Cisco said its mesh ROADM now supports a service provider's migration from ring-based DWDM topologies to more fiber-efficient mesh DWDM topologies.



The new Cisco Ethernet Xponder provides aggregation of 1-Mbps up to 1-Gbps Ethernet into G.709, 10-Gbps wavelengths for delivery to Cisco routers such as the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System-based IP-over-DWDM solution. This enables service providers who have already deployed the Cisco ONS 15454 platform for other services to add a blade to provide Ethernet aggregation services in remote central offices.



The Cisco MSPP on a blade enables full MSPP Synchronous Optical Network (SONET)/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) functionality to reside on a single card inside a Cisco MSTP DWDM chassis.

Cisco noted that more than 75,000 Cisco ONS 15454 systems have been deployed.

http://www.cisco.com

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MSF Broadens Scope to Include Web Services

The MultiService Forum (MSF) is extending the scope of its activity to address broader aspects of "making NGN's work" in its technical program for 2007. Whereas the MSF's Release 3 architecture focused on communications via Parlay and Parlay-X services, the new focus will be on next gen web-based and traditional web services and other components, including non-trusted third-party applications.



Key elements in this program will be the extension of MSF architecture to embrace web services and the launching of an interoperability testing framework that includes the industry's first NGN/IMS Certification Program.



The MSF announced five additional goals of the MSF's 2007/8 work program:

• 1) Extension of the MSF architecture from its communications network focus to include integration of web services;



• 2) A unified approach to QoS to minimize and contain differences in practical implementation;



• 3) Evaluation of NGN interconnect scenarios and development of fully specified NNI interconnect points;



• 4) Specification of a coherent approach to achieving resilience to overload in highly distributed and dynamic NGN implementations; and



• 5) Initiation of an MSF NGN certification program with a Pilot Program focused on delivering certifiable specifications based on MSF Implementation Agreements

The new MSF NGN certification program will focus on delivering certifiable specifications based on MSF Implementation Agreements. The MSF has set April 2007 as the target launch date, and the first round of certification testing could begin by the third quarter and be completed early in 2008.



The MSF said it is also exploring a permanent interoperability test bed to augment the large-scale test bed created to support GMI test events. This test bed would enable the industry to keep pace with current innovation and provide a less formal test facility that can leverage accelerating development schedules as the market moves toward NGN architectures.



http://www.msforum.org

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MetaSwitch Introduces Web 2.0 Portal for Communication Services

MetaSwitch released a communications Web portal that enables its service provider customers to deliver dynamic Web controls to their subscribers.



The new CommPortal leverages Web 2.0 standards to provide a tightly integrated user interface to a wide range of services delivered from the company's UC9000 unified communications platform, as well as calling features provided by the MetaSwitch Call Agent, including Visual Voicemail, Recent Calls List, Contact Management, Find Me / Follow Me, Call Forwarding and Selective Call Screening.



With CommPortal installed, both residential and business end users can self-subscribe to various managed services offered by their provider, eliminating the need for time consuming and costly site visits for new service activation.



http://www.metaswitch.com

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UTStarcom to Deploy 1.3 Million ADSL2+ Lines for India's BSNL

UTStarcom announced a contract with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for the deployment of 1.3 million lines of its iAN8K B1000 IP DSLAM solution in approximately 900 cities throughout India. UTStarcom will be the turnkey provider for this deployment, with full responsibility for the network design and planning, deployment, and service roll out and maintenance of the network. Additionally, UTStarcom will also supply its NetRing 10000 optical transport solution for the aggregation of DSL traffic in BSNL's network. http://www.utstar.com

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2Wire Integrates 3G/UMTS and CDMA into Residential Gateways

2Wire announced plans to include femtocell functionality in its DSL residential gateways for enabling fixed-mobile convergence (FMC).



A femtocell is a miniature cellular base station specifically designed for use in the home, vastly improving cellular voice and data coverage and quality throughout the home.



2Wire said its HomePortal BaseStation will provide whole-home coverage for both UMTS 3G voice and data (HSPA) services and CDMA-2000 EVDO 3G services. Backwards compatibility with GSM/GPRS/EDGE and IS-95/1xRTT will also be provided.

The HomePortal BaseStation will add to 2Wire's existing portfolio of broadband voice products and services, which includes the HomePortal 2700HGV, with built-in VoIP capability and differentiated QoS functionality. Sold in conjunction with the BT Fusion service, the HomePortal 2700HGV delivers dual-mode phone service with mobile and Wi-Fi calling capabilities from the same cellular device.



2Wire will be launching two new families of femtocell products in early 2008, including femtocells that connect with residential gateways via Ethernet, and the HomePortal BaseStation, which fully integrates the femtocell into the residential gateway itself. The HomePortal BaseStation will provide complete femtocell functionality while retaining the form and functionality of traditional HomePortal residential gateways, including full TR-069 standards compliance, a high performance ADSL or VDSL modem, a high-speed router, professional-grade firewall, integrated voice over IP, remote access capabilities, and flexible home networking options.
http://www.2Wire.com

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Motorola Cuts Guidance, Names President and Replaces CFO

Citing lower than anticipated sales and operating earnings for its Mobile Devices business, Motorola cut its first quarter 2007 guidance and provided a revised perspective on the full year. Motorola's Network & Enterprise and Connected Home Solutions businesses continue to perform in line with the company's expectations.



Motorola now expects sales for the first quarter of 2007 to be in the range of $9.2 to $9.3 billion. First quarter GAAP results are expected to be a loss in the range of $0.07 to $0.09 per share, including charges of approximately $0.09 from special items.



Greg Brown, President of the Company's Networks and Enterprise business, has been named President & Chief Operating Officer of Motorola, effective immediately. Brown will be responsible for overseeing Motorola's Mobile Devices, Networks & Enterprise, Connected Home Solutions businesses and supply-chain operations. In this new role, Brown will report to Ed Zander, Chairman and CEO. Prior to joining Motorola in 2003, Brown was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Micromuse.



Motorola named Thomas J. Meredith as acting Chief Financial Officer. He will replace David Devonshire, 61, who is retiring. Meredith is a general partner of Meritage Capital, L.P., an investment management firm specializing in multi-manager hedge funds that he co-founded. He is also chief executive officer of MFI Capital.

http://www.motorola.com

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Pulver Launches 'Video on the Net Alliance', Files FCC Petition

Jeff Pulver is launching a "Video on the Net Alliance" to advocate on behalf of the Internet video industry, focusing on educating the industry, users and government about the promise of Internet video and the best policy framework to foster innovation and evolution of Internet video.



"It is essential that we, the members of the Internet video community, dive into the political and policy debates shaping the future of the Internet, video, media and entertainment," said Jonathan Askin, cofounder and Executive Director of the Alliance. "If we don't engage government, rules will be established by those without all the necessary information and without the best interests of the Internet video industry and users."



Separately, Pulver's Network2.tv company filed a petition with the FCC seeking a declaratory ruling that Internet Video is not subject to regulation under Title III or Title VI of the Communications Act.



"Internet Video shares none of the conditions that provided the basis for traditional broadcast and cable regulation. From a technical standpoint, Internet Video is simply a piece of code, a software application riding over the Internet Protocol. Internet Video is not tied to underlying network infrastructure in the same ways that cable and broadcast-based video content currently is tethered," said Jeff Pulver.

http://www.pulver.com

• In February 2004, the FCC voted 4-to-1 to approve a Declaratory Ruling that pulver.com's Free World Dialup (FWD) service is neither a “telecommunications service�? nor “telecommunications,�? and therefore not subject to traditional telephone regulation. The FCC also declared FWD to be an unregulated information service that is subject to federal jurisdiction. Pulver's FWD allowed users of broadband Internet access services to make VoIP or other types of peer-to-peer communications directly to other FWD members, without charge.



• The Pulver VoIP ruling was seen as formalizing the Commission's policy of "non-regulation" of the Internet and, in so doing, preserves the Internet as a free and open platform for innovation.

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AT&T: The Network of the Future

AT&T is busy building out a Common Architecture for Real-Time Services (CART), its next generation network that uses IMS but is not IMS, said Siroos Afshar, Senior Technical Consultant at AT&T Labs, speaking at the VON conference in San Jose.



The goal is to decouple the company's various access networks from the services delivered to the customer, enabling any application to be easily delivered to any device. In AT&T's vision, the network retains the intelligence of current services, user preferences, device capabilities, and user availability/presence on every access network. This will require the network to maintain a database of device profiles and user preferences. Applications need only worry about their own service logic and not network status or user presence.



AT&T has developed its own Service Logic Execution Environment (SLEE) based on SIP servlets that defines how application run. This includes both AT&T and non-AT&T applications. SLEE overcomes the need for deploying lots of application servers every time a need service is introduced to the network.



AT&T has written a 180-page document describing how CARTs runs over its converged IP/MPLS backbone. The document is being circulated amongst equipment suppliers under NDA.

http://www.att.com

http://www.von.com

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