Huawei and Telefónica O2 UK Demo LTE Speeds of 150 Mbps

Telefónica O2 UK has achieved LTE downlink speeds of 150 Mbps during technology trials conducted with Huawei Technologies.


During the trial, a cell peak downlink rate of 150 Mbps was achieved in the Slough area, the headquarters of O2 in the UK.


Huawei claims to be the first of Telefonica's trial LTE vendors to have successfully implemented a live trial LTE network. Huawei's end-to-end LTE/SAE solution provides an All-IP, high speed, low latency and highly spectrum efficient mobile network, which greatly enhances the experience of mobile multimedia services.


Huawei also noted that it has now deployed 25 LTE/SAE networks with tier one operators located in Europe, North Amercia, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
http://www.huawei.com

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FCC Outlines Framework of National Broadband Plan

Encouragement of competition will be a guiding principle of the FCC's forthcoming National Broadband Plan, which is scheduled for delivery to Congress in February 2010. According to an interim report released this week, the FCC plan may recommend changes in the law in some cases, but those changes are likely to be limited in number.


The interim report focused on policy recommendations in ten key areas: Universal Service, infrastructure access, spectrum, Tribal lands, set-top boxes, consumer information, media, adoption of broadband, accessibility for people with disabilities, and public safety. Other areas that are to be addressed by the plan, including education, energy, health care, civic participation and others, will be addressed further in January.


Some of the proposals being considered for the National Broadband Plan include:


USF -- Cutting inefficient spending in the High-Cost fund to free up funds for broadband while removing barriers to use of E-Rate-funded connections in schools for adoption and community use. Consider a comprehensive overhaul of USF in conjunction with other proceedings, such as intercarrier compensation and special access.


Infrastructure -- Setting uniform and fair rental rate for pole attachments. Adopting rules that reduce costs and increase speed of access to poles, ducts, conduits and rights-of way


Spectrum -- A large, new spectrum allocation is essential to improving broadband competition. Resolve pending proceedings such as Advanced Wireless Services-3 (AWS-3) and Wireless Communications Services (WCS). Apply market forces to all bands while taking into consideration other policy objectives in allocation decisions.

Set-Top Boxes -- Address current shortfalls in implementation of CableCard to help create an open device market. Require video services providers to supply a small, low-cost, network-interface device whose only function is to bridge proprietary network elements with retail navigation devices.
http://www.fcc.govhttp://www.broadband.gov

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Texas A&M University Upgrades with ADVA's FSP 3000

Texas A&M University has installed a new Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) using ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 platform, replacing defunct Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) equipment previously operated by the university. The new DWDM deployment is immediately capable of supporting 40 wavelengths and is expandable to 80 wavelengths. It can support 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps transponders as well as Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) up to 8 degrees when needed.


The MAN includes four nodes deployed in a ring connecting locations on the Texas A&M campus, within the university's data centers and elsewhere within the city. Off the ring, there are two independent spurs reaching other remote offices in the College Station area. Portions of the fiber making up the network are owned by the university while other sections belong to the city of College Station.


Texas A&M's MAN provides voice, video and data transmission in support of the university's administration along with research-related activities on and around the main campus at College Station, Texas. This includes Internet access and core campus applications. It also provides connectivity for partner organizations including local government agencies, school districts and other educational entities associated with the university.
http://www.advaoptical.com
http://www.tamu.edu/

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Vietnam's CMC Selects Alcatel-Lucent for GPON

Vietnam's CMC Telecom Infrastructure Corporation (CMC TI) has selected Alcatel-Lucent for a GPON project to new residential developments and SMEs. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU), the company's flagship GPON solution for the delivery of ultra-high-speed services to residential and business users. The GPON platform will be complemented by the Alcatel-Lucent 5520 Access Management System (AMS) -- Alcatel-Lucent's next-generation element management system that covers the entire ISAM product portfolio, encompassing DSL as well as fiber-based access.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.cmc.com.vn

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Bell Labs to Open Research Center in Korea

Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, will open a new facility in Korea in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Korea University. The facility will be called Bell Labs Seoul and is expected to focus its efforts from the outset on broadband and mobile applications and services and their enabling sciences and technologies.


Located in the Digital Media City (DMC) at Seoul's Sangam District, Bell Labs Seoul will operate using a highly collaborative open innovation model that complements the efforts of research staff by engaging partners from academia, government, and industry who will work together in solving complex problems and conceiving innovative solutions that benefit customers and society.


The opening of Bell Labs in Seoul brings to eight the number of Bell Labs research facilities maintained worldwide. Other locations include Belgium, Germany, China, India, France, Ireland, and the U.S.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Intune Selects Aricent to Optical Burst Switching System

Intune Networks, an Ireland-based telecom company delivering next generation platforms based on ultra-fast dynamic optical technologies, has selected Aricent to co-develop a highly advanced Optical Packet Switch and Transport networking platform for next generation Metro Networks.


Intune Networks uniquely solves switching bottlenecks by virtualizing physical networks through a distributed Layer 2 switch. The company says the advantage of its collapsed layer network design is a highly simplified network with predictability and quality of performance guaranteed.


In conjunction with Aricent's Intelligent Switching Solution (ISS) software, Intune Networks' OPST technology is currently in trials as part of Ireland's Exemplar Smart Network.


Intune is leveraging Aricent's optimized ISS framework, which is a feature-rich software framework for developing a wide range of Intelligent Ethernet switching solutions. Aricent ISS key features include:

• Advanced Layer 2 Switching


• IPv4 and IPv6 Unicast and Multicast Routing


• MPLS


• VPN


• Chassis and Redundancy Management

http://www.aricent.com/Products/IntelligentEthernetSwitching.aspxhttp://www.intunenetworks.com

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Lightower Completes 100G Optical Trial with Nortel

Lightower Fiber Networks, which operates a metro fiber network in the northeastern U.S., has completed a series of 100G trials using Nortel's optical transmission platform


Over a four day period, Lightower send production network traffic error-free over a 600km 100G link from New York to Boston. As an existing Nortel optical customer with 10G and 40G already running on their network, the in-service trial demonstrated the ability of evolving from 10G to 40G to 100G with Nortel's solution. It also shows that Nortel's solution allows 10G, 40G and 100G wavelengths to be sent over the same fiber and network infrastructure. Lightower already has 2,000 km of fiber upgraded to 40G. As with Lightower's existing 40G network, the 100G trial was powered by Nortel's OME 6500 along with its 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine technology.
http://www.nortel.com
http://www.lightower.com

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NTT Com Opens IP-VPN POP in Chennai, Enhances Service in NZ

NTT Communications is preparing to open a point of presence (POP) for its Arcstar Global IP-VPN managed network service in Chennai, India. The new POP, established in cooperation with Tata Communications, in Chennai will enable NTT Com to offer high-quality IP-VPN services at affordable prices in the area surrounding this southern Indian city, where Japanese and other multinational companies are increasingly establishing a business presence. NTT Com already offers POPs in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi in cooperation with Tata Communications.

NTT Com is also enhancing the interconnection of Arcstar Global IP-VPN with the IP-VPN service of TNZ, New Zealand's largest telecommunications company. Previously, customers were required to use access lines from an NTT Com POP located outside of the country.
http://www.ntt.com

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Quantenna Opens Taiwan Office

Quantenna Communications has opened an office in Taiwan to accelerate volume production and global delivery of its Full-11n chipsets for ultra-reliable Wi-Fi networking, including full HDTV quality with 1080p video resolution. The company plans to expand its current staff of 60, worldwide, in the coming year, including adding significant headcount in the Asia region.
http://www.quantenna.com

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Sierra Wireless Releases M2M Studio Environment

Sierra Wireless announced a new major release of M2M Studio, its development environment for embedded machine-to-machine (M2M) software.


The new release includes a software redistribution feature which enables developers to create their own embedded software plug-ins and make them accessible to other M2M Studio users.


"Since its initial release in January 2009, M2M Studio has proved its appeal to developers of a wide range of innovative M2M applications, including home security systems, asset tracking devices, in-vehicle fleet management, smart utility meters, and fixed wireless telephones," says Didier Dutronc, Senior Vice President, Marketing at Sierra Wireless. "This new release of M2M Studio enables even more creativity and freedom to users when developing and customizing embedded software applications."http://sierrawireless.com
http://www.wavecom.com/m2mstudio

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JDSU Adds Capture/Decode Features for 10 Gbps Ethernet Testing

JDSU has added a T-BERD/MTS capture/decode feature set to capture traffic on 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces, J-Mentor utilizes standard .pcap formatted capture files to identify common problems that impact SLAs such as half duplex ports, excessive TCP retransmissions and top IP talkers that may excessively use network bandwidth.


JDSU said its J-Mentor expedites Carrier Ethernet troubleshooting in the network by building on the capture/decode feature set. Traditionally, a technician with advanced IP troubleshooting skill is dispatched to a location with test equipment and a PC for analysis in order to resolve a problem. With JDSU capture/decode, the same technician can perform a packet capture and then analyze the file on the test set itself.
http://www.jdsu.com

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IBM Builds Cloud Computing Platform for SK Telecom

IBM has build a Cloud Computing platform for SK Telecom, which serves 24 million mobile customers in South Korea. The cloud environment provides developers with the necessary software and hardware to develop applications that will allow SK Telecom to offer up to 20 new services to their customers by the end of 2009, such as sports news feeds and a photo service.


IBM said that putting all the servers, storage and middleware required for application development into a secure cloud environment lowers the risk and the cost of new application development for the network operator.


For this project IBM Korea worked jointly with SK Telecom to develop the entire cloud environment - from concept planning to hardware and software selection and implementation. The cloud includes 80 systems, comprised of both System x and blade servers, Xen virtualization technology and IBM middleware and service management technology. Service management is performed using IBM's Tivoli Service Automation Manager to enable software to be leased and installed seamlessly, and virtual machines provisioned accordingly. In planning the cloud architecture, SK Telecom also utilized implementation services and operation process consulting from IBM Global Technology Services. through to implementation services and operation process consulting.
http://www.ibm.com

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Atheros Completes Acquisition of Intellon for Powerline Chips

Atheros Communications completed its acquisition of Intellon Corporation. With this acquisition, Atheros enhances its networking technology portfolio to include Intellon's powerline communications (PLC) solutions for home networking, networked entertainment, broadband-over-powerline (BPL) access, Ethernet-over- Coax (EoC) and smart grid management applications.


Intellon, which is based in Orlando, Florida, specializes in powerline communications, providing HomePlug compliant and other powerline integrated circuits for home networking, networked entertainment, BPL access, Ethernet-over-Coax (EoC), smart grid management and other commercial applications. Intellon created and patented the baseline technology for HomePlug 1.0, and is a major contributor to the baseline technology for the 200-Mbps PHY-rate HomePlug AV powerline standard and the draft IEEE P1901 powerline standard. The company has sold more than 34 million HomePlug-based ICs to date.
http://www.atheros.com

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