Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Nokia Siemens Networks Tests LTE at 173 Mbps

Nokia Siemens Networks, in partnership with the Heinrich Hertz Institut (HHI), reported mobile data rates up to 173 Mbps in a multi-user field trial of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in an urban environment using the 2.6 GHz spectrum band.



During the trial, an LTE base station was installed at the top of the Heinrich Hertz Institut building in the center of Berlin. Cars with LTE test terminals were driven up to 1km away from the base station to measure the LTE cell's coverage and throughput.



Nokia Siemens Networks said the test confirms that LTE performance requirements can be met using 3GPP standardized technologies and it realized data rates of more than 100 Mega bits per second over distances of several hundred meters, while maintaining excellent throughput at the edge of typical urban mobile radio cells.



It also proves that LTE makes optimum use of the OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) and adaptive multi antenna technologies, as well as the intelligent algorithms used to schedule user traffic to the radio resources in multi-user environments. This enables substantial optimization of network capacity and, in combination with a scalable flat network architecture, this will provide substantial benefits for operators offering mobile broadband connectivity.



"As the world continues to move closer to our vision of 5 billion people connected by 2015, mobile operators will need to use all of the available spectrum with minimum network complexity and maximum cost efficiency to handle a 100 fold increase in traffic," says Stephan Scholz, CTO of Nokia Siemens Networks. "This field trial is an important initial proof of concept for LTE."http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
  • In May 2007, a group of leading telecom technology manufacturers and network operators comprised of Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, France Telecom/Orange, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, T-Mobile, and Vodafone, launched a joint initiative aimed at driving high performance mobile broadband networks based on 3GPP Release 8 "Long Term Evolution / System Architecture Evolution" (LTE/SAE) specifications.



    The LTE/SAE Trial Initiative targets mobile broadband peak data rates exceeding 100 Mbps. In line with 3GPP requirements, LTE/SAE aims to provide a mobile broadband service that outperforms both 3GPP Release 6 HSPA, as well as current fixed line DSL data rates while maintaining and extending the highly successful mobility and coverage benefits of 3GPP networks such as GSM.

BT's CEO Received Honorary Knighthood

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen has been made an honorary knight

of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth. Verwaayen, a Dutch national, will receive his Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire from a cabinet minister early in the New Year.

http://www.btplc.com

CableLabs Awards DOCSIS 3.0 Qualifications

CableLabs awarded the firs qualification status certifications for DOCSIS 3.0 products.



Casa Systems received "silver" qualification while Arris and Cisco received "bronze" qualification for their cable modem termination systems (CMTS) headend gear. The headends were tested under a tiered program that was created as a way to encourage CMTS makers to submit gear for testing earlier than they otherwise might. CableLabs also offered suppliers numerous informal interoperability events where vendors work together in CableLabs' facilities to test and evaluate their implementations of the specifications.



DOCSIS 3.0 specifications enable downstream data rates of 160 Mbps or higher and upstream data rates of 120 Mbps or higher. To achieve these higher data rates DOCSIS 3.0 describes a methodology for channel bonding in both the upstream and downstream directions. A minimum of four channels, each with throughput of 40 Mbps, is specified.



"This technological achievement is a great step for our industry," said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corp., and Chairman of the CableLabs Board of Directors. "CableLabs rapid certification effort will enable companies to begin to develop products that will support the rapid deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 services in 2008."



CableLabs noted that its three-tiered program for CMTS qualification waived some of the more long-term DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS requirements. DOCSIS 3.0 modem testing was unchanged, with only one level of certification that is representative of compliance with the completed DOCSIS modem specification. DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS qualifications were Bronze, Silver and Full. Full DOCSIS 3.0 compliance ultimately will be the sole certification level for CMTS vendors since the two lower levels of qualification will be phased out as the full suite of criteria are made available by vendors.

http://www.cablelabs.com

VSNL Plans 1.28 Tbps TGN Eurasia Cable System

VSNL outlined its plans for the new TGN Eurasia Cable System linking Mumbai directly to Europe via Egypt.


The new cable system is being built in partnership with SEACOM and Telecom Egypt (TE), and will provide VSNL with 1.28 Tbps of new capacity on this route during 2009. It will also support future options for additional connectivity in the Gulf region as well as multiple locations in Europe.

"The plans to build the TGN Eurasia Cable System coupled with our recent announcement to build the TGN-Intra Asia Cable System is a major step towards VSNL's vision to offer seamless global connectivity at affordable prices," said Mr. Vinod Kumar, President, Global Data Solutions, VSNL.

http://www.vsnlinternational.com

Personeta Adds Voice Call Continuity

Personeta announced the general availability of a software module for voice call continuity (VCC) applications.



The new "My VCC" module, which is part of the company's "Converged Life" converged communication suite for consumers, allows users to make and receive calls on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks using a dual-mode handset and supports handoffs between networks for calls in progress, without any service interruption or degradation. Following the 3GPP standard for VCC, My VCC uses SIP to communicate with dual-mode handsets and has been certified with a number of third-party clients.



Personeta said its software has been tested by several operators, both in Europe and North America, using a variety of switching and signaling infrastructures. Because of its unique call-anchoring functionality, My VCC is particularly well-suited for service providers without cellular plants such as Mobile Virtual Network Operators and Internet Service Providers.

http://www.personeta.com

Qwest Wins $8.3 Million Contract at DoE Headquarters

Qwest Communications was awarded an $8.3 million contract from Energy Enterprise Solutions (EES) to upgrade the voice network at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). EES is the principal Information Technology support services provider for DOE headquarters facilities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.



Under the project, Qwest will transition the DoE's existing voice switch to a Nortel Communications Server 2100. The contract also includes a Qwest QWave network solution to be deployed between the two DOE headquarter locations in the area. QWave is a fully managed, private, point-to-point service delivered over a 10 Gbps DWDM network. In addition to DOE headquarters, Qwest has installed and provisioned voice network modernizations at the department's major facilities in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Los Alamos, N.M.; and Richland, Washington.

http://www.qwest.com

http://www.gsanetworx.com

Global Crossing Deploys Ekinops Metro DWDM in US

Global Crossing has selected the Ekinops 360 optical transport platform to support its metro networks in the U.S. Specifically, Global Crossing is using the Ekinops 360 platform in metro DWDM optical networks in most major U.S. cities to transport high-capacity traffic at speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The platform connects metropolitan network nodes to long-haul networks and enables Global Crossing to provide Ethernet, SONET, and Wavelength services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.ekinops.net

3Com Posts Lower Quarterly Revenue, Higher Margins

3Com reported financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter, which ended November 30, 2007. Revenue in the quarter was $317.8 million compared to revenue of $333.0 million in the corresponding period in fiscal 2007, a 4.6 percent decrease. Net loss in the quarter was $35.6 million, or $0.09 per share, compared with a net loss of $3.5 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter of fiscal year 2007.



3com said this net loss increase was primarily a result of purchase accounting related to the acquisition of Huawei's 49 percent ownership of H3C. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $13.0 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, compared with net income of $7.8 million, or $0.02 per share, for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007.



"We made progress in several areas of the business in the second quarter," said Edgar Masri, 3Com President and CEO. "While our overall revenue was lower than we anticipated, our gross margins were the highest they've been in recent history; we once again generated cash from operations; and we recorded our fifth consecutive quarter of non-GAAP operating profit. I also am very pleased with the progress of our Europe, Middle East and Africa region, which continued its rebound with strong top- and bottom-line improvements."http://www.3com.com

Ericsson Names Business Unit Global Services

Ericsson has appointed Jan Frykhammar as head of its Business Unit Global Services, effective as of January 1, 2008. Jan Frykhammar is presently Vice President, Head of Sales and Business Control within Global Services. In his new position, he will be a member of the Group Management Team.

http://www.ericsson.com

PAETEC and Alcatel-Lucent Team on VoIP Resiliency

PAETEC and Alcatel-Lucent announced the first deployment of a new Geographic Redundancy solution that increases the reliability of PAETEC's VoIP network.



PAETEC said this deployment in its network, which already operated at "Five 9s" reliability, further minimizes the down time that may be caused by a catastrophic incident, such as a hurricane's direct hit on a central office. In such a situation, restoration could take minutes or hours in the most extreme of circumstances.



Geographic redundancy means that call-control components of the central office are deployed in two geographically disparate locations. One is "live", and the other is on "stand- by."



PAETEC's network has already been architected in a way that allows existing calls to remain connected without disruption in a scenario where the call-control component of the network becomes unavailable. In such a scenario, standing call traffic would continue to be routed over PAETEC's MPLS-enabled, IP network. With the implementation of geographic redundancy, the network can recognize an interruption and engage the back-up network controller or signaling gateway to also allow for the initiation and reception of new voice calls almost immediately.



PAETEC has deployed the Alcatel-Lucent back-up in Illinois and New York. The platform consists of the Alcatel-Lucent Network Controller, Signaling Gateway (SG) and Network Gateway (NG). This solution allows PAETEC to activate the back-up signaling gateway or network controller without dropping existing calls. The transitions to a geographically redundant component can either be automated or performed manually by an administrator when necessary.

http://www.paetec.com

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

GainSpan Secures $20 Million for Wi-Fi Sensor Networks

GainSpan, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, raised $20 million in series B funding for its Wi-Fi sensor network technology.



Incubated in Intel's New Business Initiatives (NBI) Group in 2004, GainSpan Corporation was founded in September 2006.



The company said its Wi-Fi semiconductor and software solutions provide years of battery life for sensors and other connected devices. GainSpan claims its approach enables Wi-Fi devices to run up to 10 years on a single AA battery.



The funding round is being led by Opus Capital with participation from returning investors including Intel Capital, New Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. Opus General Partner Carl Showalter will join the GainSpan board of directors.

http://www.gainspan.com/

India's BSNL Launches Multiplay over ADSL 2+ with UTStarcom

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has launched its multiplay broadband

Internet services in India using an ADSL 2+ network supplied by UTStarcom. In March, UTStarcom was awarded a contract from BSNL for the deployment of 1.3 million lines of UTStarcom's iAN-8000 multiservice access node (MSAN) solution in approximately 900 cities throughout India.

UTStarcom said it has served as 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. UTStarcom has also deployed its NetRing 10000 optical transport solution in support of this service for the aggregation of DSL traffic in BSNL's network.

http://www.utstar.com

http://www.bsnl.co.in/

EMCORE to acquire Intel's Optical Division for $85 Million

EMCORE agreed to acquire the telecom--related portion of Intel's Optical Platform Division for $85 million.



The telecom assets to be acquired include intellectual property, assets and technology relating to tunable lasers, tunable transponders, 300--pin transponders and integrable tunable laser assemblies. The companies expect the deal to close in Q1 2008.



EMCORE offers compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite and terrestrial solar power markets. Its Fiber Optics segment offers optical components, subsystems and systems that enable the transmission of video, voice and data over fiber for telecommunications, cable television (CATV) and FTTP networks. EMCORE's Photovoltaics segment provides solar products for satellite and terrestrial applications.



Intel said the sale will help focus its investments on core communications and embedded market segments in line with its platform strategies. In addition to this announced transaction, Intel is currently exploring strategic alternatives regarding the enterprise-focused portion of its Optical Platform Division.



"The optical telecom components business continues to be an attractive market opportunity, but we believe this business and its assets are an optimal fit with EMCORE," said Doug Davis, vice president, Intel Digital Enterprise Group, and general manager, Embedded and Communications Group.

http://www.emcore.com

http://www.intel.com