Reliance Globalcom Extends VPLS Capabilities to 17 Countries

Reliance Globalcom has extended its Enterprise Global Ethernet services to 17 countries, enabling point-to-point and fully-meshed connectivity for multinational customers. The carrier operates an Ethernet network that employs VPLS over a MPLS platform.


Additionally, Reliance Globalcom's Ethernet services reach 36 countries through a combination of owned-assets and strategic carrier alliances, and encompass Reliance Communications' 176 points of presence (PoPs) across all major Indian cities.


Reliance Globalcom said key benefits of its Enterprise Global Ethernet include:

• A fully-managed service with end-to-end performance SLAs



• Global reach into high-demand destinations in both developed and developing countries, enabling customers with the agility to capitalize on high-growth opportunities, rapidly increasing talent pools and cost-savings in emerging markets



• Significantly improved performance and speed for mid-size to large enterprises



• Business critical support for bandwidth intensive and latency sensitive enterprise applications such as video conferencing, CRM, ERP, storage and disaster recovery -- as well as content delivery initiatives.

Reliance Globalcom's fully managed infrastructure is further extended through its 65,000 kilometers (km) of undersea cable assets, more than 21 network-to-network interface (NNI) agreements with key partners and more than 750 carrier relationships in developing and emerging markets around the world.


http://www.relianceglobalcom.com

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Ethernet Alliance Adds AT&T, Verizon as Interest in 40G Serial Optics Grows

The Ethernet Alliance has added AT&T, Cadence, Dell, FCI USA, NetApp and Verizon as member companies. The Alliance notes a growing interest in starting a standards effort to support 40 Gigabit Ethernet using a serial -- or single-lane -- physical layer optics device. Currently, IEEE P802.3ba Draft 2.0 supports 40 Gigabit Ethernet with a 4-lane parallel fiber approach for up to 100 m and with a 4-lambda wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) approach for up to 10 km.


Carriers and service providers have expressed a strong interest in a single-lane serial approach to permit them to more easily interface with their existing OTN and SONET/SDH network infrastructure. AT&T and Verizon have joined the Ethernet Alliance to help foster the incubation effort with Ethernet Alliance members. The Ethernet Alliance invites others in the industry with similar interests to contact the Ethernet Alliance to join this effort.


'As a technology leader, Verizon recognizes the value the Ethernet Alliance brings to the standards community and fully supports their efforts to progress 40 Gigabit serial Ethernet standardization in conjunction with the IEEE,' said Martin Carroll, distinguished member of the Verizon Technology staff.
http://www.ethernetalliance.org

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Clearwire Selects Cisco for Core, Mobile WiMAX Devices

Clearwire has selected Cisco as its national Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) core infrastructure provider. Specifically, Cisco will be the primary IP network solution provider for Clearwire's 4G network. Clearwire has selected and is in the process of the testing and certification of a Cisco IP NGN architecture that includes Cisco 7600 Series Internet routers, Cisco ONS 15454 and Cisco ONS 15310 platforms, Cisco ASA Firewalls, and the Cisco Service and Application Module for IP (SAMI) Home Agent.

In addition, Cisco will build new mobile WiMAX devices for the CLEAR 4G mobile WiMAX service for the consumer, small office or home office (SOHO), and small- and medium-sized business (SMB) markets.


As part of a multi-year network build-out plan with Cisco, the CLEAR 4G mobile WiMAX service will be available in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Clearwire currently provides mobile WiMAX services in Baltimore, Md., and in Portland, Ore., and plans to bring its CLEAR 4G service to more than 80 markets across the United States by the end of 2010.


Cisco is aiming to introduce its first mobile WiMAX device later this year.


Clearwire and Cisco also recently announced their involvement in forming the WiMAX Innovation Network for developers, which will initially cover more than 20 square miles in Silicon Valley. Service is expected to be available to developers by late summer of this year, giving them a head start on the Bay Area's commercial service launch, which is planned for 2010.
http://newsroom.cisco.com
http://www.clearwire.com

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Ethos Networks Reveals Mobile Backhaul Transport Solution

Ethos Networks announced its new E-240 switch designed to serve as a mobile backhaul transport solution. The switch offers QoS and traffic engineering capabilities based on standardized Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and PBB -- Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE), a.k.a. IEEE 802.1ah and 802.1Qay. It is optimized to address Ethernet service delivery with high scalability of up to 240Gbps coupled with service assurance supporting bound delay and jitter and sub-50ms restoration time essential to the delivery of real-time applications and timing information in the mobile backhaul environment. It also supports IEEE-1588v2 and Synchronous Ethernet based on G.8261 and G.8262 to address timing and synchronization issues found in mobile backhaul.
http://www.ethos-networks.com

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Sprint Offers Novatel's MiFi Mobile Hotspot

Sprint plans to launch the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 intelligent mobile hotspot device for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year service agreement (excluding taxes). The MiFi 2200 allows up to 5 WiFi devices to connect to the Internet over the EVDO Rev A Sprint Mobile Broadband Network. Sprint will launch the service under the Sprint Mobile Hotspot name.


Sprint will also support MiFi's GPS capabilities, allowing users to take advantage of select location and mapping applications.


Business and consumer customers may choose from the following service plans for the MiFi 2200:

• $59.99 per month mobile broadband only plan (excluding taxes and surcharges)



• $149.99 per month Simply Everything Plan + Mobile Broadband (phone plus device connectivity -- excluding taxes and surcharges)

Both plans include up to 5 GB per month and 5 cents per megabyte overage for the MiFi 2200.
http://www.sprint.com

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AT&T's 2009 Supplier Award Winners

AT&T recognized a handful of suppliers who best supported its operations over the past year. AT&T uses more than 5,000 companies as major suppliers for materials and services. As part of the annual program, the company took out a half-page ad in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal to publicly thank the selected companies.


AT&T 2009 Supplier Award Winners

• Cisco Systems


• Javelin Direct Inc.


• Juniper Networks


• Samsung Telecommunications America


• Southwest Research Institute


• Telamon Corporation

http://www.att.com

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Verizon Wireless Selects G&D Smart Cards for LTE Launch

Verizon Wireless has selected Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) to provide special Java based SIM smart cards for its upcoming Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband network. The LTE supporting SIM cards will help Verizon Wireless provide data services to its subscriber base on its 4G LTE wireless broadband network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Dr. Klaus Vedder, head of telecommunications at G&D, said, "G&D developed the first SIM cards over 20 years ago and actively led the advancement of card technology for each generation since. We are excited to work with Verizon Wireless to bring this new fourth generation of network services to its subscribers."http://www.gdai.com
http://www.verizonwireless.com

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Oracle Acquires Virtual Iron for Data Center Management

Oracle has agreed to acquire Virtual Iron Software, a start-up specializing in server virtualization management software that enables dynamic resource and capacity management in virtualized data centers. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.


Oracle said the combination of Virtual Iron's technology and Oracle VM's server virtualization product will provide more comprehensive and dynamic resource management across the full software stack.


Virtual Iron, which is based in Lowell, MA, is backed by Highland Capital, Matrix Partners, Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital and SAP Ventures. http://www.virtualiron.com
http://www.oracle.com/

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IBM Ushers In Era of Stream Computing

IBM introduced a new concept of "stream computing", where software enables massive amounts of data to be analyzed in real time for smarter business decision-making.


The new software, called IBM System S., is designed for perpetual analytics. It uses a new streaming architecture and proprietary mathematical algorithms to create a forward-looking analysis of data from any source. For example, IBM said its System S can analyze hundreds or thousands of simultaneous streams of unstructured data -- stock prices, retail sales, weather reports, etc. -- and deliver nearly instantaneous analysis.


IBM believes that as the world becomes increasingly interconnected and instrumented, the amount of data will skyrocket - not just structured information found in databases - but unstructured, incompatible data captured from electronic sensors, web pages, email, blogs and video. By 2010, the amount of digital information is expected to reach 988 exabytes, roughly the equivalent of a stack of books from the Sun to Pluto and back.


IBM also announced today the opening of the IBM European Stream Computing Center, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland that will serve as a hub of research, customer support and advanced testing for what is expected to be a growing base of European clients who wish to apply stream computing to their most challenging business problems.

Additionally, IBM is making System S trial code available at no cost to help clients better understand the software's capabilities and how they can take advantage of it for their business. This trial code includes developer tools, adapters and software to test applications.
http://www.ibm.com

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Level 3 Launches High-Speed Content Upload with Aspera's Transfer Technology

Level 3 Communications introduced a new High-Speed Content Upload service for its Content Delivery Network (CDN) customers. The service uses Aspera's "fasp" transport technology to enable rapid uploading of multimedia content to the Level 3 Origin Storage Platform.


The service facilitates the upload and delivery of large files at speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Level 3 said that with a single 1 Gbps bandwidth connection, its CDN customers can move a terabyte of data -- equivalent to approximately 1,000 full-length feature movies -- from New York to Los Angeles in just over two hours. Level 3 is the first CDN provider to fully deploy Aspera's high-speed file transfer technology solution.


Aspera claims its fasp transfer technology eliminates the fundamental bottlenecks of conventional file transfer technologies such as FTP, HTTP, and Windows CIFS. Throughput is enhanced even under difficult network conditions with latency along the path and packet loss.
http://www.level3.com/http://www.asperasoft.com

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Building the World's Largest 10Gb Ethernet Cluster

Purdue University has chosen Chelsio Communications to supply more than 1000 of its Unified Wire 10Gb Ethernet adapters to build-out of its high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, including its large scale "Coates Cluster." Tapped as the world's largest 10Gb Ethernet cluster, the Coates Cluster is expected to be fully operational by the end of July.


Some of the networking requirements for the Coates Cluster include:

• only two cables connecting to each server (one power cable, and one network cable)



• standards-compliant Ethernet RDMA clustering performance comparable to Infiniband



• enable fabric convergence of storage, networking, clustering, management and boot traffic on one wire



• support Linux and Windows operating systems

http://www.chelsio.com

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ADVA Introduces Synchronous Ethernet Access for Mobile Backhaul

ADVA Optical Networking introduced an demarcation device that enables Ethernet and synchronization to be delivered over fiber-based Ethernet transport.


The ADVA FSP 150CC-GE206 is designed for service providers looking to deploy an Ethernet service optimized for mobile backhaul applications. It enables synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) to replace traditional T1/E1-based synchronization in the delivery of Ethernet services. Additionally, the service intelligence of the latest Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) standards such as 802.1ag, Y.1731 and RFC 2544 are all critical to guaranteeing that mobile Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met.


Circuit emulation is used to enable standard T1/Ei service delivery over a pure Ethernet network. In addition, ADVA notes that network-based synchronization of radio equipment allows wireless operators to save the expense of external reference clocks. Sync-E also enables extremely accurate delay/jitter SLA measurement, surpassing requirements imposed by wireless operators on access vendors. Optional Wide Area Network (WAN) protection, redundant power supplies and temperature hardening ensure high service availability. An in-service SLA monitoring capability is also supported.


'With recent advances in synchronous Ethernet ('SyncE') standards, the Ethernet protocol can now support mobile base station synchronization needs, and is also backwards compatible with 2G and 3G services,' explained Christoph Glingener, chief technology officer at ADVA Optical Networking. 'This new product expands our Ethernet access family of products in a way that supports the cost-effective delivery of new Ethernet services.'


The ADVA FSP 150CC-GE206 is currently in operator tests.
http://www.advaoptical.com

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Verizon to Divest Wireline Businesses in 14 States, Focus on Wireless

Verizon will divest its local wireline operations serving residential and small-business customers in predominantly rural areas in 14 states by selling these operations to Frontier Communications. The deal includes switched and special access lines, as well as its Internet service and long-distance voice accounts. Also included are fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) assets deployed by Verizon in 41 local franchises and the state of Indiana. The deal does not include services, offerings or assets of Verizon Wireless or Verizon Business (former MCI).


The rural landline divestiture will further accelerate Verizon's focus on wireless, broadband and global IP. After the sale is completed, Verizon will generate approximately 62% of its revenue from wireless.


The transaction is expected to return a total value of $8.6 billion to Verizon and its shareholders.


The operations Frontier will acquire include all of Verizon's local wireline operating territories in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In addition, the transaction will include a small number of Verizon's exchanges in California, including those bordering Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. As of year-end 2008, these operations served approximately 4.8 million local access lines; 2.2 million long-distance customers; 1.0 million high-speed data customers, including approximately 110,000 FiOS Internet customers; and 69,000 FiOS TV customers. Approximately 11,000 Verizon company employees -- those who primarily support the local phone business that is being acquired -- will continue employment with Frontier after the merger.


Frontier said the acquisition will bolster its position as a premier rural communications provider. Frontier, which had previously acquired landline assets from Verizon between 1993 and 2000, currently has approximately 2.3 million access lines in 24 states, providing an array of services, including local and long-distance voice, broadband data, and video.


"This transaction is an attractive way to add value through a special distribution to our shareholders. Longer term, this transaction is part of our multiyear effort to transform our growth profile and asset base to focus on wireless, FiOS fiber-optic services and other broadband development, and global IP. All of Verizon's remaining local landline operations have high concentrations of FiOS in more densely populated markets. We believe our focus on reshaping our asset base will drive higher growth over time and improve long-term returns," stated Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Verizon.


Barclays Capital Inc. and JP Morgan Securities Inc. advised Verizon in the transaction.
http://www.verizon.com

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Application-Assured VPNs

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Alcatel-Lucent Develops Application-based VPNs on IP/MPLS Routers

Alcatel-Lucent delivers next stage in business VPNs, enabling service providers to deliver assured quality and performance for enterprise applications


Alcatel-Lucent introduced a new means for Service Providers to offer business virtual private networks (VPNs) by leveraging their IP/MPLS infrastructure rather than customer premise appliances at each enterprise location. Alcatel-Lucent's new Application-Assured VPN offering enables VPN services to be offered using a "cloud-based" model, but with the performance, security, privacy and quality of service previously only available with a premises-based solution.


The new capabilities are enabled by adding AA-VPN blades into Alcatel-Lucent's Service Routers. The service cards, along with and reporting and analysis software, identify and then prioritize specific voice, video and business data applications, such as SAP, Citrix, email, voice over IP (VoIP), videoconferencing, Instant Messaging and NetMeeting. Service providers are able to offer enterprises the option to monitor their network traffic -- by application -- at an extremely granular level via a dedicated Web Portal that provides visibility across the service provider's network. Using the portal, enterprises also can manage application prioritization and bandwidth optimization, enabling significant improvements in network planning, usage and application performance.


'We continue to work closely with our customers to help them maximize the return on their network and strategically expand their service offerings into areas that provide new kinds of value-added revenue opportunities,' said Basil Alwan, president of IP activities at Alcatel-Lucent. 'These new capabilities will enhance their existing VPN portfolios, allowing them to expand their addressable market with higher value services.'http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/AAVPN

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