NSN Demonstrates First Circuit Switched over HSPA Call (CSoHSPA)

Finnish operator Elisa and Nokia Siemens Networks have successfully demonstrated the world's first circuit switched call over a high speed packet access network (CSoHSPA). The company said this new technology allows operators to simply and cost effectively increase voice capacity of their 3G networks, potentially up to 100%. The trial call was conducted in Elisa's live 3G network using R&D prototype devices supplied by Nokia.


Mobile systems such as GSM carry each voice call via a dedicated voice channel -- that is, circuit switching. The CS over HSPA feature carries voice calls over HSPA's packet-based transport channels instead.


While mobile users would see no difference in their voice service, the CSoHSPA technique, when supported by the continuous packet connectivity (CPC) features of 3GPP Release 7, requires far less handset battery power, providing a significant, potentially up to 50% increase in talk time.


The efficiency of CSoHSPA also means call setup times can be cut in half and operators benefit from much higher voice capacity per carrier, making it feasible for both consumers and operators to use 3G as the preferred network for making voice calls.


Nokia Siemens Networks said that to enable the technique in existing 3G networks, no changes are necessary to the core network and only a simple software upgrade is required in the radio access network.


"HSPA+ features are a needed and excellent step forward from current HSPA on the way to LTE. This demonstration of CSoHSPA shows one of the ways that consumer experience can be improved and makes 3G more attractive to consumers. Simultaneously operators need to ensure that they make most out of investments in traditional circuit switched networks, while embracing the advantages of HSPA evolution", said Keith Sutton, Head of the WCDMA/HSPA business in Nokia Siemens Networks.
http://www.nsn.com

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Quantenna Names David French as New CEO

Quantenna Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, named David French as its new CEO, succeeding Dr. Behrooz Rezvani, who will continue his role as president of Quantenna and chairman of the Board of Directors.
French brings more than three decades of semiconductor experience to Quantenna. Most recently, he was president and CEO of Cirrus Logic Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor public company. Under French's leadership, Cirrus Logic emerged as a world leader in audio integrated circuits, such as audio converters and audio digital signal processors, as well as industrial mixed-signal and embedded ICs. Prior to Cirrus Logic, French was the vice president and general manager at Analog Devices Inc.


Quantenna recently announced $13.85 million in Series C funding for its 4X4 MIMO 802.11n chipsets designed for next gen home networking applications. Quantenna leverages dynamic digital beamforming to deliver very high-speed wireless coverage throughout the whole home for sharing high definition (HD) video and multimedia content between home gateways and TVs. Quantenna's silicon is targeted at devices such as home residential gateways, set-top boxes, routers, HDTVs and consumer electronic devices, which all require high bandwidth and reliability to support whole home HD video distribution and networking over standard Wi-Fi networks.
http://www.quantenna.com

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Aruba Networks Builds a Virtual Branch Network with Wireless CPE

Aruba Networks introduced a Virtual Branch Network (VBN) solution that leverages low-cost, easy-to-deploy CPE to connect remote users with enterprise applications and network policies.


Whereas current branch office networking solutions replicate routing, switching, firewall, and other services at each remote location using various appliances, Aruba's concept is to use a single, secure wireless router to tunnel back to an Aruba wireless LAN controller. Instead of replicating complexity at each remote location, Aruba's VBN solution virtualizes complex tasks at data center controllers and pushes them to inexpensive RAPs and BOCs for execution. A centrally controlled, policy enforcement firewall in the data center controller governs user access to the network and its resources by pushing policies to dissolvable firewall agents in every RAP and BOC. These agents automatically enforce the policies for every user and service.


The VBN solution includes new software for data center-based Aruba Controllers, as well as three new families of wired and wireless Remote Access Points (RAPs) and Branch Office Controllers (BOCs). One of the new RAPs, the RAP-2, has a U.S. list price of just $99, making it the least expensive, centrally managed enterprise branch networking solution on the market.

The RAPs and BOCs are centrally managed and automatically disseminated, enabling secure one-click installation at the remote location. The CPE is transport-independent, and work with virtually any wide-area network - including 3G cellular.


"Taking a page from the application virtualization playbook, we are bringing the cost-saving and security benefits of centralized control and management to remote networking. One button installation, zero-touch IT involvement in simple deployments, and a range of elegantly simple and remarkably inexpensive RAPs and BOCs - these are the remedies for the pain points users experience with remote networking today," said Keerti Melkote, Aruba's co-founder and chief technology officer.
http://www.arubanetworks.com

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Covad Names Aamir Hussain Chief Technology Officer

Covad Communications named Aamir Hussain as its new Chief Technology Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Hussain comes to Covad from Telus, where he served as Vice President, National Planning, Engineering and Capital Management. Prior to Telus, Mr. Hussain held senior-level positions for numerous companies, including Qwest Communications, AT&T, Samsung Telecommunications, and Motorola.
http://www.covad.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Launches 'Broadband for All' Program in US

Alcatel-Lucent has kicked off a "Broadband for All" program in the United States to provide advisory services to telecommunications companies, municipalities and developers interested in applying for broadband stimulus funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act (ARRA) of 2009. The Act provides more than $7 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees to unserved and underserved rural areas, offering them broadband access and services that have been previously limited or unavailable.


More than 6,200 small service providers, municipalities, utilities and developers provide communications services to residents of rural areas throughout the United States. Alcatel-Lucent's "Broadband for All" program offers telecom providers a turnkey service to apply for government funding including grant application assistance, as well as technology solutions to enable them to upgrade their voice, video and data services for the 21st century. The ARRA of 2009 represents the government's largest commitment to accelerate the availability of broadband technology for the rural and underserved markets, as well as public safety.


Alcatel-Lucent said its team of specialists are able to support rural service providers, municipal customers, and private developers by offering:

• Funding application preparation and follow-up



• Advocacy with the key stakeholders and agencies (National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) which are administering the funds)



• Technology consulting and solutions



• Regional seminars and webinars to educate customers and consultants about the funding and application process

"The stimulus bill offers a unique opportunity for service providers, municipalities and developers to upgrade their networks for decades to come with technology that supports broadband access and services," said Rich Wonders, Vice President of Strategic Marketing for Alcatel-Lucent's Americas region.


"Not only is this a chance to offer their customers the kinds of broadband access enjoyed in more densely populated areas, but this represents a significant opportunity to create jobs throughout the U.S. The single largest cost component of deploying rural broadband is in the physical construction and deployment of the network, so these projects will create jobs as well as result in much better communications services for the residences and businesses in those communities."


With a proven track record of working with telecommunications providers in rural areas, Alcatel-Lucent has one of the broadest portfolios of products granted Rural Development Acceptance and/or Buy American status by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development agency for deployment under the Rural Development Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Program. Alcatel-Lucent has more than 20,000 U.S.-based employees and includes the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry.
http://www.broadband4all.com/aluhttp://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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AT&T Boosts is European Disaster Recovery Resources

AT&T is expanding its pan-European Disaster Recovery resources with the addition of increased technology, equipment and manpower. Currently, the company's disaster recovery resources in EMEA include a dedicated 650 square meter warehouse located in the UK, a 14-meter articulated trailer, a custom-built flatbed truck to house two fly-away disaster recovery units and a new control and command centre. The NDR technology trailers and containers are specially designed to mimic the technologies present in the AT&T network. AT&T plans to add a third fly-away unit later this year in EMEA. The latest enhancements to AT&T's resources in EMEA will allow the NDR team to deploy recovery equipment within 24 hours.


With its planned investment this year, AT&T said it will have invested $7.5 million since 2006 to extend its disaster recovery resources in the EMEA region.
http://www.att.com

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Juniper Deliver EX8216 Ethernet Switch for High-Performance Clouds

Juniper Networks released a new 16-slot EX8216 Ethernet platform boasting a switch fabric capacity of up to 12.4 terabits and optimized for high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) data center and cloud computing environments. The modular EX8216 switch delivers wire-rate performance, low latency and carrier-class reliability.


The EX8200 line, which also includes the eight-slot EX8208, features a per-slot capacity of 320 Gbps and delivers up to two billion packets per second (pps) performance. It also offers a built-in migration path to 100 GbE.


The EX Series, along with other Juniper routers and its security services gateways, run on JUNOS Software. In addition, Juniper's Network and Security Manager (NSM) provides a unified device management solution for the EX Series, as well as Juniper routers and security devices.


Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, one of the world's foremost applied research organizations, is one of the first customers to deploy the EX8200 line of switches in their production network.


'The new EX8216 switch can deliver twice the performance while consuming one-third less power and one-sixth less space than the leading competitor,' said Hitesh Sheth, executive vice president and general manager of the Ethernet Platforms Business Group at Juniper Networks. 'With the rest of Juniper's portfolio, the EX8216 enables new data center and cloud computing architectures that lower complexity, deliver increased functionality and reduce overall total cost of ownership through innovative system designs that can lower both capital and operating expenses.'http://www.juniper.net

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Cisco Outlines Unified Service Delivery Foundation for Cloud Services

Cisco outlined a Unified Service Delivery framework to help service providers build a foundation for cloud services.


The aim is to combine Cisco's data center portfolio and Unified Computing architecture with the capabilities of its Internet Protocol Next-Generation Networks (IP NGNs) solutions. More specifically, Cisco's Unified Service Delivery would enable a service provider to deliver video, data and video services from the data center, enabling it to substantially optimize resources, assure quality, significantly reduce operational costs, and deliver a better, more expansive and more secure virtual experience for their customers. Unified Service Delivery is a critical step in the company's service provider Data Center 3.0 strategy.


In terms of implementation, Cisco's Unified Service Delivery incorporates products such as the Cisco Unified Computing System and the Cisco Nexus Switch with a new data-center optimized configuration of Cisco's flagship router, the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, and Cisco's IP NGN products. This is accomplished with two new Cisco 10-gigabit modules and a Cisco 40-gigabit forwarding processor for the flagship Cisco CRS-1 platform.


The modules are designed specifically to extend virtualization from the data center through the IP NGN core and to address the needs of peering and interconnect applications for a service provider's data centers. The Cisco CRS-1 platform and its new modules permit providers to virtualize traffic and network operations on a per-service or per-customer basis with a smaller Cisco CRS-1 footprint.


The Cisco Nexus 7000 Switch meanwhile serves as the company's flagship data-center-class switching platform, combining Ethernet, IP and storage capabilities across one unified network fabric. The Cisco Unified Computing System unites compute, network, storage access and virtualization resources in a single energy efficient system.


Cisco said its Unified Service Delivery solution is optimized to enable virtualization within the data center, between data centers and across the IP NGN.
http://www.cisco.com

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