Comcast Conducts 100G Live Trial with Nortel

Comcast will conduct a test of Nortel's 100 Gbps line rate optical transmission solution at the 71st meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference, which it is hosting this week in Philadelphia.


The 100G solution runs over Comcast's existing fiber network. The test network is comprised of Comcast's existing Common Photonic Layer DWDM solution with 50GHz enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (eROADM) and photonic components, augmented with prototype 100G interfaces installed in Nortel's Optical Multiservice Edge 6500. The 100G cards utilize Nortel's 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine, with integrated dispersion compensation and dual-polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation, the same technology used in Nortel's present 40G solution. The 100G trial runs from Philadelphia to McLean (Virginia), traversing Comcast's metro and long-haul fibers.


The companies said Comcast's network trial will be first time real traffic is run over a 100G wavelength on its existing network. The network also carrying live 10G and 40G links. The trial will run in parallel over the same optical infrastructure that supports a combination of high definition or HD video, Internet and voice traffic on Comcast's 40G national backbone network.


"Testing an interoperable multi-vendor 100G solution will help provide us with important information about how new solutions will support a next generation of high bandwidth services for the digital generation of consumers," said John Schanz, EVP National Engineering and Technical Operations for Comcast.http://www.nortel.comhttp://www.comcast.com

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Force10 Appoints VP of Worldwide Systems Engineering

Force10 Networks named Frank Kilpatrick vice president of worldwide systems engineering and Andrew Stewart vice president of worldwide channel operations. Previously. Kilpatrick was vice president of U.S. enterprise systems engineering at Juniper Networks. Earlier at Extreme Networks, he served as the worldwide director of systems engineering sales. Frank also held senior level engineering and customer service management positions with Foundry Networks, Jetstream Communications and 3Com.


Prior to joining Force10, Stewart managed sales operations, field marketing and inside sales programs as vice president of worldwide operations for NeoScale Systems. Earlier, he was director of EMEA indirect channel sales at Computer Associates, where he focused on developing partner relationships in key markets. http://www.force10networks.com

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Nortel Introduces 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine

Nortel introduced its 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine for enabling both 40Gbps and 100Gbps transmission over existing fiber infrastructures.


The foundation of the Nortel 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine relies on several innovations. Nortel said Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulation with coherent detection enables 40G transmission over a cost-effective 10G network design, and provides similar benefits even for 100G transmission. The solution also employs advanced digital signal processing that removes all compensation requirements from the network, along with their associated capital and operational expenditures.


Nortel said its approach allows upgrades from existing 10G networks to a 40G solution through simple plug-and-play technology components. The solution is built on Nortel's Optical Multiservice Edge 6500, which combines next-generation SDH/SONET and metro DWDM capabilities, and Nortel's Common Photonic Layer transport architecture.


Two customers - Denmark's TDC and the UK's Neos Networks - have selected the new Nortel solution and trials with other carriers are currently underway globally.
http://www.nortel.com

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Hong Kong's PCCW Employs Harmonic's H.264 Encoders for HD IPTV

PCCW, the incumbent operator in Hong Kong, has deployed Harmonic's DiviCom Electra 7000 high definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders to power its HD channel service. PCCW also utilizes Harmonic's standard definition (SD) encoders to deliver its full lineup of more than 150 broadcast channels, as well as Harmonic's video-on-demand (VOD) servers and software. Financial terms were not disclosed.


PCCW's IPTV service currently serves over 882,000 subscribers.


Harmonic's multi-service Electra 7000 encoder delivers up to four channels of full resolution video alongside four simultaneous low resolution outputs for applications such as picture-in-picture and multi-channel mosaics.http://www.harmonicinc.com

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Veraz Announces Network-Adaptive Session Border Controllers (SBCs)

Veraz Networks announced the availability of its Network-adaptive Border Controller, a next generation Session Border Controllers (SBC) designed to provide security for multimedia sessions and network interconnections.


The company said that its new Network-adaptive Border Controller overcomes the shortcomings of first generations SBCs, which provided simple interconnection and security between IP networks, required separate management interfaces, did not provide visibility to the other end of the connection, and incurred high operating and management costs. Veraz's Network-adaptive Border Controller reduces OPEX costs by providing centralized management and control of distributed SBCs so that carriers have one routing interface, one billing record, and one source of FCAPs information.


Veraz will offer different scalable hardware configurations, depending on the number of sessions required at each gateway location. Volume production shipments began in Q407, with over 100,000 sessions shipped to date.http://www.veraznetworks.com/

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BigBand Appoints New CFO

BigBand Networks has appointed Maurice "Moe" Castonguay as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Previously, he spent more than 11 years as CFO of multiple publicly-traded high-tech companies, including Xylogics, Inc. (acquired by Bay Networks), Stratus Computer (acquired by Ascend Communications) and MatrixOne, which he led through an initial public offering. He has also served as CFO for a number of private technology companies, including Acopia Networks (recently acquired by F5 Networks) and video-on-demand specialist Broadbus Technologies,(acquired by Motorola,).http://www.www.bigbandnet.com

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Ericsson Readies Mobile Broadband Solutions for US 700 MHz Deployments

Ericsson is ready to supply mobile broadband solutions to the winners of the FCC's ongoing auctions for 700 MHz spectrum. The company said its solutions will allow the US 700 MHz auction winners to deliver ubiquitous mobile data and enriched multimedia experiences to demanding customers at broadband speeds. The Ericsson mobile broadband solution will offer a full suite of infrastructure, device platforms, applications and services.


Ericsson's 700 MHz solutions will leverage Ericsson's existing support for HSPA and LTE. The company'sLTE chipset and software solution for 700 MHz devices is already in development and will be available in mid-2009.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Motorola Invests in INVIDI for Addressable TV Advertising

Motorola Ventures has made a strategic investment in INVIDI Technologies, a start-up focused on addressable advertising solutions for the television industry. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. The companies said INVIDI's proprietary technology has the ability to accurately identify viewers' age, gender, location and other characteristics for greater personalization while maintaining privacy and confidentiality.


INVIDI Technologies was founded in 2000 and is based in Princeton, New Jersey.http://www.motorola.comhttp://www.invidi.com/

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Ciena Employs EZchip's Network Processors for Carrier Ethernet Switching

EZchip Technologies is supplying its NP-2 network processors to Ciena for use in Ethernet aggregation and switching modules for its CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform family. The new CN 4200 modules utilizing NP-2, called the G10 and G10X Ethernet service modules, were announced by Ciena earlier this year.
http://www.ezchip.com

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Telenor Selects Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi for IPTV in Sweden

Telenor's Bredbandsbolaget division has selected Ruckus Wireless' Smart Wi-Fi 802.11g systems for the wireless distribution of its IPTV service to subscriber homes throughout Sweden. The Ruckus MediaFlex systems are being made available to consumers in Sweden through Telenor retail outlets, and can be self-installed by subscribers.


Bredbandsbolaget is a leading provider of broadband services in Sweden with over 450,000 broadband customers. The company operates an all-IP network providing customers with LAN access of up to 100 Mbps and DSL access up to 24 Mbps. It provides a wide range of digital media services such as video on demand, IPTV, music downloads, virtual storage, security services, gaming services, etc. Telenor currently offers standard definition IPTV channels, each with a data rate of approximately 3.5 Mbps. A single Ruckus MediaFlex system can support five or more MPEG-4 standard definition multicast IPTV streams simultaneously being transmitted to different TVs within the home. The Ruckus MediaFlex 802.11g system will also support two HD (MPEG-4) IPTV streams concurrently.
http://www.ruckuswireless.com/http://www.bredbandsbolaget.se

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Motorola Introduces Tri-Radio 802.11n Access Poin

Motorola's Enterprise Mobility business introduced a tri-radio 802.11n access point (AP) featuring Motorola's new adaptive AP architecture. The unique tri-radio design integrates three 802.11n radios that simultaneously support high-speed client access, mesh backhaul and dedicated dual-band intrusion protection for enabling the all-wireless enterprise. Using an expansion slot, the third radio can be field upgraded to enable 3G/4G technologies like WiMAX for primary or redundant WAN connectivity.


The AP-7131 also features advanced intrusion protection capabilities. Motorola said traditional solutions time-slice the radio for both access and intrusion protection, limiting 802.11n performance and security capabilities. The new AP-7131 with the third radio eliminates the need for time-slicing or the need for a dedicated sensor AP for security thus reducing the cost of secure and manageable deployments. The AP uses a fully Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS2)-compliant chipset, a fast MIPS network processor with hardware-accelerated encryption and dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.http://www.motorola.com/AP7131

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YouTube Opens APIs, TiVo Announces Support

YouTube introduced new APIs aimed at opening its platform and network to developers for building new video-sharing websites and communities.

The new YouTube capabilities build on the exisiting APIs for querying the YouTube library and playing embedded YouTube videos. Specific capabilities include:

• Upload videos and video responses to YouTube


• Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)


• Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales


• Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales


• Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software.

Separately, TiVo announced plans to offer access to YouTube videos directly from the TV via a TiVo DVR. The service will be available later this year to broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3 DVRs, including the new TiVo HD.http://www.youtube.com

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AT&T Announces $20 Million Networx-Related Contract

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has awarded a task order worth up to $20 million to AT&T provide voice networking solutions for the agency. CBP is responsible for protecting the country's borders at and between the official ports of entry. The contract was awarded via the General Services Administration's (GSA) Networx Universal program. AT&T will serve as the primary network voice services provider to CBP and its 47,000 employees throughout the country. http://www.att.com

• In March 2007, The General Services Administration (GSA), which is the central procurement agency for the U.S. government, awarded a set of contracts under its "Networx" program valued at an estimated $20 billion over 10 years -- believed to be the largest networking contracts ever issued. Contract award recipients include AT&T, Verizon Business Services (MCI), and Qwest Government Services.

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Deutsche Telekom Selects JDSU's IPTV Test Solution

Deutsche Telekom has selected JDSU's service assurance test solutions to support its IPTV service. Specifically, JDSU's NetComplete service assurance system and associated IP test probes will be deployed in Deutsche Telekom's network. The NetComplete solution also includes software that enables monitoring of service quality from central network operations centers, increasing efficiency and reducing the need to deploy technicians to the field. It ensures early recognition of changes in the quality of the streaming video signals, including any decrease in signal strength, prioritizes issues based on alarm levels, identifies the cause of service quality problems and provides reporting tools. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.jdsu.com/

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Time Warner Telecom to Change Name to tw telecom

Time Warner Telecom, which provides managed voice, Internet and data networking solutions for businesses across the U.S., will change its name to tw telecom inc., effective July 1, 2008. In the interim, Time Warner Telecom will co-brand with the tw telecom name while completing necessary legal and regulatory requirements and marketing and communications activities.


"The time is right to focus our brand around the tw telecom name and a vision, a set of values and a brand promise that we have built over the past decade," said Larissa Herda, Time Warner Telecom's Chairman, President, and CEO.http://www.twtelecom.com/

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