Agilent and Net-O2 Announce CFM Test Suite for Carrier Ethernet

Agilent Technologies and Net-O2, a developer of automated communications testing software, have integrated Net-O2's ATTEST Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) protocol conformance test suite into Agilent's N2X multiservices test solution. Network equipment manufacturers and service providers can use N2X to ensure their Carrier Ethernet switches and routers implementing the CFM mechanisms conform to the relevant IEEE and ITU-T standards.



Defined currently in IEEE 802.1ag draft 8.0, CFM provides end-to-end Carrier Ethernet diagnostic capabilities that allow service providers to rapidly detect and locate faults, ensuring the reliable delivery of delay-sensitive triple play services.



The companies said the IEEE CFM mechanisms are very similar to those in the ITU-T Y.1731 standard. The tight alignment between these two influential standards bodies attests to the relevance of CFM to the industry. The Agilent N2X CFM test suite provides the industry's first solution for validating CFM standards compliance.

http://www.agilent.com

http://ww.net-o2.com

Read More

Jangl Assigns a Phone Number to Every Email Address

Jangl, a start-up based in Pleasanton, California, unveiled a service that lets consumers call anyone using only their email address. The new Jangl service, which is available in 31 countries, builds on the social networking phenomenon.



Jangl Service Highlights:

• Call anyone: Connect via your mobile phone simply by knowing someone's email address.



• Keep your real phone numbers private at all times.



• Want to be called? Add a simple Jangl web address to your email signature to let people connect with you even when you're not online, or post a customized Jangl widget to your online profile.



• Control your phone access and manage Jangl voicemails, numbers and relationships online.



• Use any of your personal phones to connect -- mobile, landline or VoIP.

Jangl works by matching email addresses to phone numbers. To make a call, you begin by enter someone's email address at Jangl's homepage to get connected. You'll be given a phone number -- local to you -- to call them. During the first call, you'll leave a voicemail, which Jangl then delivers via email. Once they receive that message, the recipient receives instructions to get a number -- local to them -- to call you back. This service still keeps your personal number safe, enables text messaging via SMS and the exchange of voicemails.

http://www.jangl.com

Read More

Skype Chooses VSNL's Teleglobe for VoIP Call Termination

Skype has selected Teleglobe voice termination services to provide call termination for SkypeOut. Skype connects to VSNL's international global network via the Teleglobe VoIPLink service, which exchanges VoIP traffic worldwide. SkypeOut is then terminated using the Teleglobe Voice Termination Service (VTS).



"We chose to partner with VSNL for international voice termination services because their services allow us to quickly connect to a true global network without the operational burden and the expenses associated with interoperability requirements," said Scott Bagby, Skype's vice president for new markets."http://www.vsnlinternational.com

• India's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) acquired Teleglobe International in 2005. Telegloge was once the international carrier for Bell Canada. Following a split from Bell Canada Enterprises in 2002 and a subsequent bankruptcy, Teleglobe was relaunched in June 2003 as a provider of international voice, wireless roaming, data and Internet services. Teleglobe later acquired ITXC, one of the first large providers of international VoIP wholesale services.

Read More

QUALCOMM Ventures Expands Into Europe, Invests in Streamezzo

QUALCOMM plans to invest EUR 100 million in European companies offering innovative technologies and services that enhance the global wireless communications ecosystem. The company said its investment strategy will focus on European small- to medium-sized enterprises and startups that can serve the 3G (WCDMA) business case in Europe through innovation in the following sectors: mobile application/platform software developers, handset components, network infrastructure and core technologies providers.



QUALCOMM Ventures' first direct equity investment in Europe is in Streamezzo, a leading provider of rich media solutions, platforms and service for mobile communications. http://www.qualcomm.com

http://www.streamezzo.com

Read More

Asia Netcom Offers Country-Specific Route Service

Asia Netcom has begun offering a new Country-Specific Route (CSR) IP Transit Service that provides a corresponding set of performance guarantees for a given route. In its initial phase, the service is available to ISPs/CSPs from Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia, on the following routes: China, Japan, Greater China, Australia, and Taiwan.



"By creating dedicated and direct routes within its backbone, Asia Netcom's CSR service effectively allows ISPs and CSPs to access a fast lane on the Internet," said Mark Simpson, Chief Operating Officer, Asia Netcom.



Asia Netcom's Country-Specific Route IP Transit service uses virtual-route-forwarding (VRF) tables to separate different routes into different VRF routing tables. The country routes are distributed to country- specific routers. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) communities are then used to control the routing between the main Internet routes, and different country VRF routes. The result is a service that ensures performance between different countries, allowing ISPs/CSPs to ensure the optimal user experience for their subscribers.

http://www.asianetcom.com

Read More

KeyEye and Methode to Jointly Develop 10GBASE-T Copper Modules

KeyEye Communications, which develops low-power semiconductor transceivers for 10 Gbps copper-media communications, and Methode Electronics will to jointly develop the industry's first 10 GbE copper MSA pluggable modules compatible with the short-reach, low-power mode of the IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T standard.



The companies said that while demand is rapidly growing to deploy field-configurable 10Gb servers and switches, building MSA pluggable modules that enable application-specific configurability presents major power dissipation, footprint and cost challenges. First-generation 100-meter 10GBASE-T ICs typically consume in excess of 10 Watts, offer inadequate signal margin, employ packaging that exceeds the industry-standard module footprint, and are only available at costs rivaling optical devices.
http://www.keyeye.nethttp://www.methode.com/

Read More

Chelsio Delivers Unified Wire for Gigabit Ethernet

Chelsio Communications, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, introduced a family of Unified Wire Adapters that enable the convergence of storage, clustering and server networking applications onto a single unified fabric. This would allow the replacement of disparate fabric technologies such as Fibre Channel and InfiniBand in a wide range of applications, including Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Filers, Storage Area Network (SAN) Arrays, Server Adapters, High Performance Cluster Computing, Blade Servers, Video Servers, Application Servers and Web Accelerators.

http://www.chelsio.com

Read More

Internet2 and Microsoft to Extend Shibboleth for Windows CardSpace

The Internet2 consortium will develop new extensions to Shibboleth to support Microsoft's Windows CardSpace and other compatible identity selectors.



Shibboleth, a SAML-based software suite, provides Web Single Sign On (SSO) capability and a secure attribute exchange framework to enable individual access to an unlimited number of online resource providers. Shibboleth leverages an institution's existing sign-on and directory system to authenticate users and then passes only relevant identity information to the provider. The system removes the need for universities to set up multiple passwords and accounts for each online resource.



Adding information card support to Shibboleth would enable interoperability with Windows CardSpace which provides critical support for secure user-centric authentication and identity information exchange for web-based applications.

http://shibboleth.internet2.eduhttp://www.microsoft.com

Read More

New Zealand's National Electricity Grid Deploys Alcatel-Lucent

Transpower, which owns and operates New Zealand's high-voltage electricity transmission network, selected Alcatel-Lucent to deliver, operate and maintain a new IP-based private communications network connecting 192 sites across New Zealand. Financial terms were not disclosed.



As part of the proposed five-year contract, Alcatel-Lucent will be responsible for Transpower's overall life cycle management including project management, network design and integration, procurement, deployment, operations, and maintenance of the multivendor network. The architecture will be based on Alcatel-Lucent's service routing and optical networking portfolios including the 7710 SR, 5620 Service Aware manager and Optical Multi-Service Node systems. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

KPN Selects Amdocs and Huawei OSS

KPN, the largest service provider in the Netherlands, has licensed solutions from Cramer, Amdocs OSS Division for end-to-end triple play fulfillment. Additionally, KPN is among the first service providers to deploy broadband access services that support triple play solutions using Multi-Technology Operations System Interface (MTOSI), the industry standard developed by the TeleManagement Forum. The solutions will be implemented by Amdocs Cramer Global Services and will be ready for deployment by July 2007. Financial terms were not disclosed.



KPN has selected several products from the Amdocs Cramer OSS Portfolio, including Activation Engine, Automation and Activation Packs for the rollout of residential broadband services.



Cramer, Amdocs OSS Division is working with Huawei Technologies to deliver the solution. Amdocs Cramer Activation and Automation Packs have been integrated as part of Huawei's U2900 OSS solution to deliver an integrated fulfillment solution for triple play services. The companies said their combined solution uses a preliminary version of the TeleManagement Forum's MTOSI Release 2 interface for activationhttp://www.amdocs.com

http://www.huawei.com

Read More

BT Builds MPLS VPN for Nestle

Nestle awarded a new global services agreement to deliver and manage an MPLS-based VPN connecting more than 1,000 sites worldwide. The service includes multimedia voice and video running across the network as well as the roll out of managed audio conferencing services. The agreement also covers the management of secure inbound and outbound internet traffic using BT's Managed Firewall service. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.btplc.com

Read More

Tellabs 1134 Access Platform Supports VDSL2 and GPON

Tellabs introduced its new 1134 multiservice access platform for supporting a variety of last mile services, including VDSL2 and GPON. The Tellabs 1134 is designed to combine the functions of a broadband digital loop carrier and an IP DSLAM.



The Tellabs 1134 platform, which is part of the company's "DynamicHome" solution, measures seven inches of rack space (7U) and can be deployed in existing Tellabs or third-party cabinets in FTTN, FTTC or FTTP topologies. It features an IP/Ethernet packet architecture and offers 24 Gbps to 200 Gbps of switching fabric options. Other key features include:

• Multiple 1 GbE and 10 GbE interfaces



• Distributed IGMP design for deterministic IPTV services



• IGMPv2/v3 transparent snooping with proxy reporting



• Supports 16 GPON OLT ports, 96 xDSL circuits, and 16 point-to-point GbE-fed ONUs



• Supports interface to Tellabs 1000 Voice Gateway and facilitates migration to a softswitch.

http://www.tellabs.com

Read More

Motorola Builds IMS Ecosystem of Partners

Motorola is building an IMS ecosystem of partners as part of its strategy to offer its customers a best-of-the-best approach to IMS across multiple technologies, including WiMAX. Within its ecosystem, Motorola builds the IMS control server that provides the call session control function (CSCF) and mobility/call continuity seamless mobility application servers, forming the heart of the entire ecosystem.



Motorola's third-party solution providers include:

• Acme Packet


• Apertio


• Colibria


• Iperia


• IP Unity Glenayre


• jNetX


• NetNumber


• OpenCloud


• RadiSys


• Sonus Networks


• Sylantro Systems


• Ubiquity Software.

These companies provide Motorola's convergent ecosystem with key standards-defined functionality such as session border control function, home subscriber servers, presence server, unified IP messaging, application feature servers for voice, meet-me conferencing application servers, media server and media resource function, media gateways and media gateway control function.



In addition to WiMAX, other IMS applications offered by Motorola include OMA PoC (open mobile alliance -- push-to-talk-over-cellular), PTX (push to X includes push-to-view, push-to-video, push-to-hear, push-to-ask, push-to-play, etc.) and IPTV.

http://www.motorola.com

Read More

Telefonica Picks Narrowstep OS for TV-over-IP

Telefonica is testing Narrowstep's proprietary "telvOS" to deliver TV over IP channels. Specifically, Telefonica has been trailing two broadband TV channels, Terra TV Spain (www.terra.ES) and Terra TV Peru (www.terra.com.PE). Narrowstep said the early results indicate the broadband channels have been experiencing massive success.



The broadband TV offerings are the fastest growing features on the portals with Terra TV Spain attracting more than 300,000 unique viewers in March this year and click through rates consistently measuring higher than any other offering on the portal. Terra TV Peru is also attracting thousands of unique viewers and is converting 10 percent of its portal visitors to TV viewers.

http://www.narrowstep.com

Read More

PCCW and Bharti Announce MPLS VPN Agreement

Hong Kong-based PCCW Global announced a partnership arrangement with India's Bharti Airtel. Bharti currently owns 102 MPLS points of presence (PoPs) in India covering every one of the nation's 23 telecoms circles.



In addition, PCCW Global has announced expanded coverage to Middle Eastern markets, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, plus Turkey, where Europe meets Asia.
http://www.bhartiairtel.in/http://www.pccwglobal.com/

Read More