Vitesse Outlines Ethernet Chip Roadmap for 2010

After 18 months of restrained capital expenditure, Vitesse Semiconductor believes carrier and data center markets are poised for significant growth in 2010 and beyond. During the downturn, Vitesse has boosted its research and development staff by 15 percent. In its product pipeline is a suite of more than 30 products bringing higher performance to the Enterprise and new carrier features to the public network.


Product introductions planned in 2010 include:

• High-density PHYs for 10G/40G/100G optical and backplane applications;


• High-density 10G OTN Mappers/PHYs for the Carrier wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) Metro and Core;


• 40G/100G FEC devices for the Carrier Core;


• 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Carrier Ethernet switches and MACs for carrier and metro aggregation including wireless backhaul;


• GbE Carrier Ethernet access switches for wireless/microwave backhaul edge applications and base stations;


• 12/24-port GbE Enterprise Layer 2 switches for small-medium enterprise (SME)/small-medium business (SMB);


• Energy-Efficient Ethernet physical-layer PHYs for copper and fiber

Vitesse also noted that it is implementing stringent network timing features based on Synchronous Ethernet and the IEEE-1588 Precision Timing Protocol in its Media Access Controllers (MACs), switches, and physical layer (PHY) products.
http://www.vitesse.com

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New EBIF Specification Enables TV Widgets, Time-Shifting

CableLabs and Canoe Ventures releases a new EBIF (Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format) specification (version I06) that features functionality to support interactive television.


EBIF I06 can be implemented on digital set-top boxes. It also is part of the OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform) specification, so EBIF-compliant advertising and programming applications can run on OCAP devices enabled with an EBIF user agent.


EBIF I06's key additions are:

• Support for "unbound" applications, such as TV widgets that enable Caller ID on TV and sports/news tickers, and new customer service and Guide extension applications;



• Support for time-shifted applications, such as the ability to set recording/reminders via the MSO Guide, and the ability for an EBIF application to understand if the viewer is watching live or time-shifted programming;



• Support for addressability based on customer or device data stored in the set-top box, which allows an EBIF application to make decisions and alter its behavior based on that data, so it can deliver different ads to different demographic groups, while preserving customers' privacy



• Other I06 additions include support for animation features, new audio resources, selector widget enhancements, application permissions and resource management for well-behaved applications.

"We are very pleased to see this latest version of the EBIF specification completed and released to the MSOs, Canoe and the rest of the industry," said Arthur Orduña, Chief Technology Officer of Canoe Ventures. "I06 adds critical functionality that enriches the value and revenue-generating potential of both bound and unbound iTV applications. This is a significant step in helping us meet our goal of enabling national enhanced and interactive advertising for MSOs, programmers, agencies and advertisers."http://www.cablelabs.com

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DragonWave Launches its Horizon Quantum in Europe

DragonWave introduced its Horizon Quantum in Europe, positioning the platform for the rollout of LTE services.




The DragonWave solution features a native Ethernet implementation and sub-0.1-millisecond latencies. DragonWave's Quantum packet radio leverages several innovations, including a unique "Bandwidth Accelerator" technology that allows it to achieve superior spectral efficiency. Depending on traffic type, the company said its Bandwidth Accelerator can deliver up to 5 times improvement in spectral efficiency with versus first generation microwave radios.


The half-rack-unit device incorporates key nodal-intelligence features and integrated switching capability. This enables Horizon Quantum to perform aggregation and serve as a switch for ring and mesh network architectures.


The Horizon Quantum -- scheduled to ship by the end of 2009 -- delivers interference-free performance in both licensed and unlicensed radio frequencies in the 6-to-38-GHz range. The carrier-grade DragonWave solution enables 99.999-percent service reliability, delivers advanced security and encryption and fully supports SynchE and other critical Ethernet data transport capabilities such as virtual local area network (VLAN) queuing/prioritization, flow control and jumbo packets. Its pseudowire capability enables Ethernet and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) traffic to be collapsed on a single, packet-based network. The Horizon Quantum is easy to install, configure and maintain and can be remotely managed.
http://www.dragonwaveinc.com

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NTT America Teams with Vmware for Worldwide Virtualization Services

NTT America, in partnership with VMware, is launching new Virtualization Services across its data centers and dedicated hosting platforms. The new Virtualization Services combine NTT America's secure hosting infrastructure with VMware's virtualization platform to deliver a flexible foundation for hosted IT infrastructures.


NTT America's Virtualization Services are available now in its premier data centers located in San Jose, CA and Sterling, VA.


Through a globally unified capability designed by NTT Communications, NTT America is also offering virtualized hosting services in premier data centers located in London and Hong Kong, and later this year in Singapore.
http://www.nttamerica.com

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Ericsson Appoints Heads for N.E. Asia and N. America

Ericsson announced the appointment of two regional heads to its Executive Leadership Team: Mats H Olsson for North East Asia and Angel Ruiz for North America.


Mats H Olsson began his career at Ericsson in 1982. He was posted in Asia in 1984 where he founded Ericsson's wholly-owned offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Indonesia, respectively. During his career in Asia, Mats has been president of Ericsson's operations in Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia. In 2004, he was appointed president of Ericsson Greater China with overall responsibility for Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, leading a regional team of more than 9,000 employees.


Angel Ruiz joined Ericsson in 1990 and has held a variety of sales and managerial positions within the company, including heading up the global account teams for Cingular/SBC/BellSouth (now AT&T). He was also involved in project and product management and worked in customer support assignments in Mexico, Venezuela and Sweden. Before joining Ericsson, Angel Ruiz held various positions with Sprint, AT&T and Bell Atlantic. In 2001, he was appointed president of Ericsson North America. http://www.ericsson.com

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Ikanos Reports Revenue of $58.2 million

Ikanos Communications reported Q4 2009 revenue of $58.2 million compared with revenue of $29.3 million for the third quarter of 2009 and revenue of $22.8 million for the year ago period. Revenue for the year ended January 3, 2010 was $130.7 million compared with the $106.5 million reported for the year ended December 28, 2008.


GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $9.1 million, or $0.17 per share, on 53.9 million weighted average shares. This compares with a net loss of $15.5 million, or $0.40 per share, on 38.8 million weighted average shares in the third quarter of 2009 and with a net loss of $5.7 million, or $0.20 per share, on 28.9 million weighted average shares in the fourth quarter of 2008.


Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $1.5 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, on 56.1 million weighted average shares. This compares with non-GAAP net loss of $4.5 million, or $0.12 per share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2009, and with a non-GAAP net loss of $2.4 million, or $0.08 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2008.


"Ikanos delivered record revenue and returned to profitability on a non-GAAP basis in the fourth quarter," said Michael Gulett, president and CEO of Ikanos. "We completed our first full quarter since the acquisition of the Conexant broadband business and effectively executed our business plan. We grew and diversified our revenue base across multiple regions, customers and product lines, we consolidated development efforts and reduced operating expenses, and we were able to begin redirecting engineering investments towards new markets for future growth."http://www.ikanos.com

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Broadcom Introduces 65nm 3G HSPA Chipset

Broadcom introduced a new single-chip HSPA baseband processor and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver solution for 3G smartphones. The new device is the first to provide extremely high-speed cellular connectivity with advanced, built-in graphics capabilities, for HSUPA (high speed upstream packet access) applications. The RF transceiver solution complements the advanced HSUPA processor to provide support for all global frequency combinations covering the latest 3G-enabled devices. It is implemented using 65 nanometer CMOS.


The Broadcom BCM21553 baseband processor supports 3GPP releases 6 and 7, which provide up to 5.8 Mbps of upstream connectivity, 7.2 Mbps of downstream connectivity and support next generation CS (circuit switches) over HSPA services.
http://www.broadcom.com

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EXFO Adds LTE Test Functionality

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering has added active and passive LTE monitoring functionality to its Brix System for network service assurance. The distributed LTE monitoring solution focuses on end-to-end QoS and QoE monitoring enabling service providers to monitor their LTE network at multiple service delivery layers including control plane, data plane and service plane.
http://www.EXFO.com

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Novatel Wireless Completes its First LTE Call

Novatel Wireless completed is first data transmission call using LTE technology. The company plans to launch its first commercial data devices in late 2010.


"We are pleased to achieve these important first data transmission milestones on next generation technologies, last week with dual carrier HSPA+, and now with LTE, and we expect to leverage our industry-leading position to offer 4G wireless data products to our customers," said Dr. Slim Souissi, CTO, Novatel Wireless. "We believe our aggressive development efforts will enable us to deliver these innovative solutions with the fastest possible time to market."http://www.novatelwireless.com

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Ericsson Expands Packet + Optical Transport Portfolio

Ericsson has expanded its OMS 1400 converged transport (packet + optical) portfolio with a new, higher capacity platform offering up to 320 Gbps of switching performance. The OMS series features a dual TDM and Ethernet switching architecture that enables operators to evolve their current TDM networks to high capacity and lower cost packet-based networks. The OMS is specifically optimized for the metro packet transport. Significantly, the platform supports WDM and next gen standards for OTN and MPLS-TP architecture. Ericsson will also support new Ethernet Ring Protection (ERP).


Ericsson's OMS 1400 products can be configured for pure TDM, pure Ethernet optical transport or a combination or the two. This enables carriers to migrate off their legacy networks. The Ethernet Layer 2 switch is based on the latest IEEE standards for Provider Bridging (PB) supporting E-Line, E-LAN and E-Tree services (MEF 9 and 14 certified).


The OMS 1460, which will be commercially available within a year, is an 8RU chassis with 16-slots. It joins the existing 2RU OMS 1410, which was launched over a year ago, and which offers 6-slots. They share a common set of interchangeable traffic modules, including 10/100 Ethernet, 1GE, 10Gb Ethernet and native TDM interfaces E1, T1, E3, T3, OC-3 and STM-1/4/16. The larger OMS 1460 additionally supports STM-64 all with SFP/XFP based interfaces. The OMS 1460 provides enhanced support for 10GE client traffic with the 2x10GE traffic module
enabling up to 32 10GE ports per OMS 1460 shelf.


"Just as mobility and the Internet are converging at a rapid rate, so will packet and optical networks," said Vinai Sirkay, Head of Product Line Optical & Metro at Ericsson. "We are putting forth a pragmatic approach to packet transport by introducing a scalable and flexible family of products capable of adapting to different applications. The OMS 1460 will play a transformational role in allowing operators to meet the growing demand for consumer and business broadband services while simplifying operations and lowering costs.
http://www.ericsson.com

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ARRIS Shows DOCSIS 3.0 at 320 Mbps Down, 100 Mbps Up

ARRIS is preparing to launch DOCSIS 3.0 upstream and downstream channel bonding capabilities that deliver data speeds in excess of 100 Mbps upstream and 320 Mbps downstream. The company will demonstrate these capabilities on it C4 CMTS at the KCTA Show in Korea next month.

ARRIS will also show its optical access and transport solutions, the CHP (Converged Head End Platform) with CORWave multi wavelength transmitters, CORView Element Management Systems, Opti Max 3100 and 4100 1 GHz segmentable nodes. Also on the agenda are new optical products designed for hybrid and fiber-deep architectures,
including CORWave II multi wavelength transmitters supporting up to 16 independent 1 GHz transport streams and reaches of up to 65 km; as well as the FTTMax RFoG Optical Network Units and FTTMax E-PON Optical Line Terminals and Optical Network Units.
http://www.arrisi.com/

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