Hammerhead Announces "Multiclass" VPLS Support

Hammerhead Systems has enhanced its HSX 6000 platform with "Multi-Class" capabilities, enabling up to 6 different classes of service from a single customer VLAN attachment. Hammerhead's VPLS with Multi-Class is able to provide hierarchical QoS enforcement for segregating services. This enables service providers to more optimally match application requirements to pricing options at a fine-grained level.



Service Providers can roll-out VPLS with Multi-Class on the HSX 6000 to offer a multi-point to multi-point Business Ethernet service on a regional, nationwide, or global basis.



The HSX 6000 offers dense Ethernet aggregation for both E-Line and E-LAN Services, MPLS Pseudowire termination, VPLS, Leased Line IP Aggregation, Frame Relay and ATM/IMA support, and Any-to-Any Service Interworking.



The HSX features a Bandwidth Pooling architecture to enable edge aggregation and a hierarchical QoS implementation that enables segregation and SLA assurance of diverse data, video, and packet voice services feeding a common IP/MPLS core.



Hammerhead said a Tier 1 customer is using the capabilities to roll out nationwide Virtual Private LAN Service with multi-point to multi-point Ethernet connectivity.



EVPL is available now and VPLS is available this month.

http://www.hammerheadsystems.com

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Hammerhead Develops PBT Service Gateway

Hammerhead System is developing a PBT (Provider Backbone Transport) Service Gateway software capability for its HSX 6000 Layer 2.5 Aggregation Switch that will enable service providers to interwork PBT deployments with their MPLS backbones and growing VPLS installed base.



Hammerhead's HSX 6000 is a Layer 2.5 Aggregation Switch that features MPLS Pseudowire technology and VPLS capabilities. It provides dense Ethernet aggregation, Pseudowire termination, legacy Frame Relay and ATM support, and Service Interworking. It features a "Layer 2.5" edge aggregation approach designed to integrate access services (wireline, broadband, broadband fixed wireless and 3G) that are typically based on Layer 2 connection-oriented technologies with new services that are based on Layer 3. Hammerhead already offers Service Agile Ports on the HSX 6000 that enable flexible software provisioning of any physical port for a variety of services and data rates.



Using its on-board network processors and the new software, Hammerhead's HSX 6000 will be able to transparently interwork PBT and MPLS using its Any-to-Any Service Interworking Engine.



The new PBT Service Gateway capabilities, which Hammerhead said were developed in direct response to specific customer demand, will enable service providers to introduce PBT in areas of their networks where previously it may not have been considered as an intended direction. Whereas many service providers currently perceive that they are facing an architectural choice of PBT or MPLS, the PBT Service Gateway would enable the coexistence of the two technologies.


http://www.hammerheadsystems.com/

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Neuf Cegetel selects Alcatel-Lucent's Open Services Platform

Neuf Cegetel, France's leading alternative service provider, has deployed Alcatel-Lucent's open services platform for the delivery of Intelligent Network (IN) services. Alcatel-Lucent is also providing integration services to support the project.



The Alcatel-Lucent open services platform, integrated with Neuf Cegetel's service platform, enables a range of services, including: free of charge waiting time for the hotline, split charging and premium rate services, outsourced call center, personal universal telephony and Internet callback. Neuf Cegetel customers have been enjoying free of charge waiting time on the operator's hotline since February 2007.



As a result of the deployment, Neuf Cegetel will also be able to transfer its existing traditional services (freephone number/free calling, universal access and premium rate services) to a single open services platform. It will also support an evolution to new NGN/IMS multimedia services.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

http://www.neuf.com

• Beginning this month, Neuf Cegetel is launching a FTTx service in Paris priced at EUR 29.90 (including VAT) per month. Like the company's "100% Neuf Box ADSL package", the new offer will include the phone line, unlimited calls to landline numbers in France and over 30 countries, a television bouquet, access to video on demand, and the Neuf Giga online storage service.
  
  
  
  The Neuf FTTx service will deliver dynamic bandwidth of 50 Mbps (both uplink and downlinks at up to 50 Mbps). Neuf is also planning to offer a 100 Mbps premium service.
  
  Neuf, which began its fiber rollout in December 2006, is planning to pass one million homes by end of 2009. Coverage areas will include Paris and its suburbs, districts of other major cities, and other areas selected on the basis of rollout costs and opportunities to increase market share.

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NTT DoCoMo Develops High-Quality Speech Coding for Mobiles

NTT DoCoMo has developed speech coding technology that provides exceptionally high-quality voice for mobile phones. The technology uses a wide frequency range of 50Hz - 16kHz, which is approximately the full range of the human voice. By comparison, the frequency range of legacy telephony services is limited to 300Hz - 3.4kHz.



The speech compression is matched to the specific characteristics of human auditory perception, such as the fact that distortion in loud sounds is relatively imperceptible.



NTT DoCoMo said the resulting voice quality is so realistic that conversations via mobile phones sound as if the other person were in the same room. The technology will be especially helpful in mobile applications where voice quality is particularly critical, such as teleconferencing and remote education.



DoCoMo is demonstrating the technology using its "hTc Z" handset.



http://www.nttdocomo.com

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BT to Supply Internet Access for European Commission

The European Commission's Directorate General Information Technology (DIGIT) selected BT for the supply and management of Internet access services. The contract was won following an invitation to tender and covers a minimum term of 4 years, which may be extended to 8 years, with a budget that may go up to EUR 22.5 million.



BT will provide Internet access from at least 17 sites in Europe, Wi-Fi access, anti-spam filtering, protection against Denial of Service attacks, the registration of domain names and support with distribution of content over the Internet.



In addition to the European Commission, more than ten European Union institutions and organisations, including the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, will receive Internet services from BT through this inter-institutional- framework contract.

http://www.btplc.com

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Level 3 Acquires Metro Fiber Divestiture Assets from AT&T

Level 3 Communications has purchased certain metro fiber assets from AT&T that were ordered divested as a result of the merger between AT&T and SBC Communications. These assets consist of indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) for dark fiber connections to over 200 buildings and more than 1,600 metro fiber route miles in six of the 11 markets where AT&T was required to divest certain assets.



Specifically, Level 3 will acquire the divested fiber assets in Detroit, Hartford, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Francisco and St. Louis. Under the terms of the agreement, Level 3 retains intermediate splice rights, which will enable it to add new buildings to the acquired assets.

http://www.level3.com

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Packeteer Trims Q1 Expectations

Packeteer expects to report disappointing net revenues for the first quarter 2007. Current estimates indicate revenues of between $31 million and $33 million, which would reflect a sequential decrease of approximately 25% from the fourth quarter 2006. The Company had previously provided guidance for the first quarter of flat to slightly higher revenues compared with those reported in the fourth quarter 2006.



Packeteer also announced that Arturo Cazares has resigned as Vice- President, Worldwide Sales after slightly more than three years at the company. http://www.packeteer.com

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AboveNet Acquires Metro Fiber from AT&T and Verizon

AboveNet has acquired IRUs indefeasible rights of use) in, or service agreements for, 60 building access fiber connections held by AT&T in Los Angeles and Chicago as well as 180 building access fiber connections held by Verizon in New York, Washington/Baltimore and Philadelphia.



AboveNet said it acquired these assets in competitive bid processes that AT&T and Verizon separately conducted to divest certain assets pursuant to Consent Decrees with the U.S. Department of Justice entered into in connection with the merger of SBC and AT&T, and Verizon and MCI, respectively.


The services currently provided to AT&T's and Verizon's existing customers will not be affected by these transactions.

http://www.abovenet.com

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Eagle Broadband Wins $6.4M Contract to Supply IPTV STBs for Hotels

Eagle Broadband announced a contract with a leading hospitality solutions provider under which a series of purchase orders are scheduled to be placed for its MediaPro IP3000HD, the newest offering in Eagle Broadband's line of IPTV set-top boxes. The contract is valued at $6.4 million over a thirteen-month period. This same customer purchased 500 IP3000HD units earlier this year.



The MediaPro IP3000HD is an MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and MPEG-2 set-top box with a compact footprint and quiet, fan-less design supporting both NTSC and PAL broadcast standards. It uses an advanced system-on-chip architecture including an integrated graphics accelerator and dedicated multimedia engines executing in parallel to deliver the high performance 2D, 3D graphics and video capabilities with motion compensation for video playback. It supports a variety of leading middleware and video-on-demand systems.

http://www.eaglebroadband.com

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Harmonic Adds Forward Error Correction to IP Streaming Platform

Harmonic has enhanced its ProStream 1000 stream processing platform with forward error correction (FEC) support.



Harmonic's FEC engine supports ProMPEG FEC COP3 transmission and reception of up to 128 services in a one rack-unit (RU) platform, helping to minimize problems such as packet drops and reordering.



The ProStream is a multi-functional stream processing system capable of being configured to support FEC, multiplexing, "DiviTrackIP" statistical multiplexing, "ProCipher" scrambling and descrambling, "Mentor" re-encoding and single frequency network (SFN) transmission over IP.

The ProStream 1000 with FEC support is used in conjunction with Harmonic's family of DiviCom high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and MPEG-2 encoders. The compact and scalable 1-RU ProStream can transmit and receive up to 128 single program transport streams (SPTS) or eight multiple program transport streams (MPTS) with forward error correction.

http://www.harmonicinc.com

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Motorola Ships One Millionth IP Set-Top Box

Motorola has shipped its one millionth Internet Protocol (IP) set-top box. The 1 millionth set-top -- the VIP1510 -- represents a significant advance from the first IP set top shipped in May 2001. It is part of a portfolio that includes a range of IP set-top series with support for a hard drive for DVR functionality and personal video storage as well as the ability to process MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/AVC in standard definition and high definition. There are also hybrid models for combining IPTV with digital terrestrial broadcasts.
http://www.motorola.com

• In October 2006, Motorola Connected Home Solutions shipped its 50 millionth digital cable set-top box.

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Ciena's CFO to Step Down By the End of Calendar 2007

Ciena announced that Joseph Chinnici, senior vice president, finance and chief financial officer, will resign from his position by the end of the current calendar year. http://www.ciena.com

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TranSwitch Announces Optimized Ethernet Gigabit PHY IP Core

TranSwitch released its optimized Ethernet Gigabit PHY intellectual property core -- MystiPHY1011 -- supporting 10Base-T, 100Base-TX and 1000Base-T. The optimized Ethernet Gigabit PHY IP core is a standard PHY that is compliant with the IEEE 802.3 specifications.



TranSwitch said the PHY's small size, low power, multiple MAC interfaces and other unique features make it attractive for many applications such as Gigabit switches, network interface cards, LOM (LAN on Motherboard), home gateway, printers, and testing equipment.



TranSwitch obtained the Gigabit technology when they acquired Mysticom Ltd.

http://www.transwitch.com

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