Sunday, May 9, 2010

Aruba Acquires Azalea Networks for Outdoor Mesh Networking

Aruba Networks will acquire Azalea Networks, a supplier of outdoor mesh networks based in China, for approximately $27 million in stock subject to certain adjustments and up to $13,500,000 in cash over two years.


Azalea Networks specializes in Wi-Fi mesh networks for outdoor industrial applications, such as the oil and gas, logistics, manufacturing, mining, petrochemical, public safety, smart grid, and transportation sectors. Its mesh technology allows it to also carry latency-sensitive video and voice traffic, with full fidelity, over long distances. The company's wireless systems were used during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which 600 mesh nodes provided voice, video, and Wi-Fi access over 19 square miles (50 square kilometers) of the city.


The acquisition includes an operations center in Beijing, staffed by world-class engineers, which will complement Aruba's existing R&D centers in Bangalore and Silicon Valley. To date Azalea has shipped over 25,000 mesh nodes worldwide.


Aruba said the acquisition extends its solution set to outdoor networks, gives it new sales channels in China and elsewhere, and enhances its engineering capabilities.


"This acquisition brings our customers and prospects innovative new solutions for real-time outdoor applications like video surveillance," said Hitesh Sheth, Aruba's Chief Operating Officer.
http://www.arubanetworks.com/

Infonetics: Rapid Uptake in 10G, 40G, 100G IP Ports

Spending on 40G ports on IP edge routers increased 125% despite the market's weak overall conditions last year, according to Infonetics Research's first edition of its 2010 biannual 10G/40G/100G Networking Ports report. A similar trend is playing out in other routing and switching segments and in the optical network hardware space.


Infonetics believes this spending reflects an urgency amongst service providers to handle skyrocketing traffic.


Some highlights of the Infonetics report:

  • Uptake in high-speed (10G, 40G, and soon 100G) optical and Ethernet ports on enterprise and service provider equipment continues unabated, even in the face of global economic difficulties, driven by unrelenting network traffic increases


  • Annual port shipments of 10G and 40G enterprise and service provider ports jumped 38% in 2009


  • Worldwide revenue from 10G and 40G ports on enterprise and service provider equipment totaled $11.1 billion in 2009


  • The number of 40G ports shipped on enterprise and service provider equipment doubled in 2009


  • Strong growth in the high-speed port market is forecast by Infonetics to continue, with 10G, 40G, and 100G port shipments together increasing 10-fold from 2009 to 2014
.
http://www.infonetics.com

Motorola Supplies DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS in Taiwan

Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC), a leading multi-system cable operator in Taiwan, is deploying Motorola's DOCSIS 3.0-qualified integrated Cable Modem Termination System (I-CMTS). The new contract follows Taiwan Broadband's first deployment of Motorola's I-CMTS last year. TBC plans to deliver ultra-broadband Internet access services to subscribers at 100Mbps and above.


The contract includes the deployment of Motorola's BSR 64000 I-CMTS/Edge Routing platform which includes high-density integrated downstream capability, the TX32 Decoupled Downstream Module. It also supports load sharing across existing downstream modules and system redundancy, which ensures stable and reliable broadband and VoIP services over TBC's large-scale, high-speed network. The deployment is expected to be completed in Q4 2010.
http://www.motorola.com

AppliedMicro Readies New Energy-Efficient Processors for Consumer Devices

AppliedMicro introduced a new line energy-efficient embedded processors for consumer devices ranging from gateways, control panels and energy meters to network attached storage systems, Wi-Fi access points, IP phones, residential gateways, etc. The AppliedMicro APM8018x family supports CPU frequencies up to 800 MHz. High-speed interfaces include PCIe, SATA, GigE, SDIO, TDM and USB 2.0. Estimated performance is 912 Dhrystone MIPS and typical power consumption is 0.3 Watts in standby mode, and up to 1.5 Watts at 600 MHz.


The AppliedMicro APM8018x family will come in three variants: 8018x-400, the 8018x-600, and 8018x-800 and will be available in two different packages in 10x10-mm BGA and 14x14-mm BGA. Samples of the processor are expected in June 2010 and full production quantities are scheduled for the third quarter. Pricing is under $10 for 10,000-unit quantities.
http://www.appliedmicro.com

Infineta Unveils Massively Parallel Data Reduction at 10 Gbps

Infineta, a start-up based in San Jose, California, unveiled a unique, massively parallel data reduction technology that operates at up to 10 Gbps, enabling hardware-based data reduction in data center-to-data center traffic.


Infineta implements its "Velocity Dedupe Engine" in programmable logic, providing high throughput while incurring extremely low latencies and maintaining very high data reduction efficiency. The system achieves 5x or more data reduction on high-speed network traffic. Distributed processing is performed using specialized components, each dedicated to performing essential pipelined functions that execute millions of packet processing decisions simultaneously. Infineta's massively parallel design also provides non-sequential packet analysis combined with multi-stage redundancy removal.


In addition to data center back-up traffic, Infineta's dedupe can also be applied to virtualized data center-to-data center traffic, including VMware environments.


The company also announced that it has closed a $15 million Series A round of venture capital funding with backing from Alloy Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.
http://www.infineta.comhttp://
  • Infineta was co-founded by Raj Kanaya (CEO) and Dr. K.V.S. Ramarao (CTO). Kanaya previously was VP of product strategy and alliances for the Application Networking Group at Citrix Systems. He joined Citrix though its acquisition of NetScaler where he served as VP of product management. Dr. Ramarao previously served as Chief Platform Architect for the Application Oriented Networking BU at Cisco Systems. Before that, he was founder and CTO of both Conformative Systems (acquired by Intel) and Sariga Networks.

Ciena Adopts 40G Coherent Technology from Nortel

Ciena has integrated native 40G coherent and Adaptive Optical Engine technology into a new module for its CN 4200 RS FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform. Ciena said it is the first vendor to commercialize this technology, underscoring its commitment to adopt technology from the recently acquired Nortel Metro Ethernet Networks assets. Ciena's global footprint of CN 4200 customers includes numerous network operators for metro and regional infrastructures, managed service providers as well as government and enterprise users.


The module's advanced signal processing technologies includes Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DP QPSK) modulation, coherent detection and electronic dispersion compensation. This allows 40 Gbps transmission even over impaired fiber that cannot be used for 10Gbps without the need for separate optical Chromatic Dispersion (CD) and Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) compensators. With an in-service upgrade, existing CN 4200 customers can obtain a four-fold increase in capacity with existing ROADM schemes, enhancing equipment scalability and avoiding network re-design.


Ciena is also integrating its 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine technology into a new FlexSelect Optical Shelf for the CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System as a value-added solution for the installed base. This new feature provides existing CoreStream customers -- which include numerous Tier 1 global network operators -- with the option to offer fully-managed, end-to-end 40G/100G wavelengths on their network across 10G-engineered links, allowing seamless and cost-efficient capacity upgrades in support of surging traffic demands on core networks while maintaining signal reach and performance.


The 40G coherent upgrade offering on CN 4200 and related network management functionality enhancements are expected in the second half of calendar 2010. The optical integration of 40G coherent capabilities on CoreStream is already complete, and the full solution entered into lab and field trials this month.
http://www.ciena.com

Nortel Develops New SIP Engine for Communication Server 2000

Nortel Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) unveiled a new centralized SIP engine capability to its Communication Server 2000 (CS 2000) carrier VoIP and multimedia softswitch and Adaptive Application Engine.


The new centralized SIP engine allows service providers to deliver SIP services and applications to subscribers, including services such as unified communications (UC), web-based UC collaboration, video and multimedia conferencing, hosted call center and other services that improve the way people communicate and conduct business.


Nortel said competitive standalone application servers can only serve SIP subscribers without support for legacy lines/trunks or services interworking, while its new engine delivers SIP and non SIP communication capabilities across the entire network using one Adaptive Application Engine. The new capability can be deployed at a single CS 2000 node to extend SIP services to additional CS 2000 nodes in a service provider's network. The capability also offers full interworking with legacy lines which means that any SIP device can seamlessly interwork with legacy services.


The enhancements are expected to be available in the second half of 2010 and are supported by the latest release of Nortel CVAS' CS 2000 IP Multimedia softswitch and Adaptive Application Engine software (CVM release 15/A2E8.0).
http://www.nortel.com

MRV Posts Q1 Revenue of $109 Million

MRV Communications reported Q1 2010 revenue of $109.1 million, compared with revenue of $124.4 million in the preceding quarter and $103.6 million in the first quarter of the prior year. The sequential decline in revenue is due primarily to normal seasonality. First quarter 2010 gross margin was 36 percent, compared with 33 percent in the prior quarter and 20 percent reported in the first quarter of 2009.
Net income from continuing operations attributed to MRV stockholders of $3.6 million in the first quarter of 2010, or $0.02 per diluted share, which included share-based compensation charges of $0.4 million, and depreciation and amortization of $2.4 million.


The Network Equipment group reported revenue of $30.0 million, compared with $29.7 million in the prior quarter and $24.9 million in the first quarter of 2009.


The Network Integration group reported revenue of $32.7 million, compared with $41.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, and $33.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.


The Optical Components group, consisting primarily of Source Photonics, Inc., reported revenue of $49.5 million in the first quarter 2010, compared with $56.6 million in the prior quarter and $48.1 million in the first quarter of 2009. http://www.mrv.com
http://www.sourcephotonics.com

U.S. Cellular Appoints Mary N. Dillon as CEO

U.S. Cellular has appointed Mary N. Dillon as president and chief executive officer (CEO), replacing retiring president and CEO John E. Rooney, and will join the U.S. Cellular board. Dillon, 48, joins U.S. Cellular from McDonald's Corporation, where she was global chief marketing officer and executive vice president, with responsibility for worldwide marketing efforts and global brand strategy.http://uscellular.com

OIF Approves 100G Coherent Receiver

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has approved an implementation agreement (IA) for the 100G Integrated Polarization Intradyne Coherent Receiver.


The implementation agreement specifies key aspects of integrated receivers for coherent DWDM applications. The IA supports DP-QPSK modulation as specified in the OIF's 100G Framework Document and also specifies operating rates up to 32GBd.


The OIF said its implementation agreement strives to remain modulation format and data rate agnostic to maximize applicability to potential future applications.


"Many vendors are currently developing coherent receivers based on the OIF's 100G receiver IA and their availability is already having a significant impact on the design of next generation of DWDM hardware," said Jeff Hutchins, CoreOptics and OIF Board member.


In addition, the OIF has completed a Forward Error Correction (FEC) whitepaper summarizes its investigation of FEC for use with 100G DP-QPSK transmission in long distance DWDM communications. The paper examines the propagation challenges and suggests an upper bound for spectral coding overhead for the OIF's integrated photonics projects. The whitepaper complements and supports the work already underway defining 100G Ethernet in the IEEE and the OTU4 of the Optical Transport Hierarchy (OTH) in the ITU-T.
http://www.oiforum.com/public/impagreements.html

PMC-Sierra to Acquire Adaptec's Channel Storage Business

PMC-Sierra has agreed to acquire Adaptec's channel storage business, which includes its RAID storage product line, a well-established global value added reseller customer base, board logistics capabilities, and leading SSD cache performance solutions. PMC-Sierra will pay approximately $34 million in cash for the acquisition and assume certain liabilities related to the business. PMC-Sierra expects to employ approximately 90 individuals from Adaptec located in seven different geographies, with the majority of the personnel located in California.


PMC-Sierra said the deal will strengthen its existing enterprise storage business by accelerating access to channel customers. The company is committed to delivering and developing high-performance, reliable RAID solutions for OEM and channel storage customers from SAS-1 to SAS-3. Based on industry data, PMC-Sierra estimates total channel revenues for x86 RAID products to be approximately $200 million. Adaptec is the second largest supplier of x86 RAID products through the channel.
http://www.pmc-sierra.com
http://www.adaptec.com

Wi-Fi + WiGig Pushes 7 Gbps in 60 GHz Band

Wi-Fi operation in the 60 GHz frequency band could push data transfer rates up to 7 Gbps, more than 10 times faster than the highest 802.11n rate while maintaining compatibility with existing Wi-Fi devices. It is expected that a new class of tri-band devices will offer multi-gigabit wireless speeds while helping to ensure backward compatibility.


The Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig Alliance) have agreed to collaborate on a next-generation Wi-Fi Alliance certification program supporting Wi-Fi operation in the 60 GHz frequency band. This agreement further encourages the development of products supporting 60 GHz technology to expand existing Wi-Fi capabilities.


The WiGig Alliance has just published its unified wireless specification and kicked off an early adopter program for developers. The new WiGig spec supplements and extends the 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. It offers support for beamforming, enabling robust communication at distances beyond 10 meters and a low-power mode is also supported. In addition, protocol adaptation layers are being developed to support specific system interfaces including data buses for PC peripherals and display interfaces for HDTVs, monitors and projectors.


Cisco has joined the WiGig Alliance Board of Directors, and Harman International, Peraso Technologies and Samsung Electro-Mechanics have also joined WiGig as contributing members.


"60 GHz device connectivity will be an exciting enhancement to the capabilities of today's Wi-Fi technologies. It will expand the utility of Wi-Fi, used by hundreds of millions of people every day," said Wi-Fi Alliance chief executive officer Edgar Figueroa. "From its inception, the WiGig specification was designed to work on a wide variety of devices, making it a compelling input as we begin to define our certification program for 60 GHz wireless."


"Now that our specification is complete and published, it's time to set our sights on driving a great user experience through interoperability and certification," said Dr. Ali Sadri, president and chairman of the WiGig Alliance. "We are happy to work with the Wi-Fi Alliance to extend multi-gigabit capabilities to the Wi-Fi technology portfolio."http://www.wi-fi.orghttp://www.wigig.org