IP Infusion Releases its ZebOS Network Platform 7.8

IP Infusion released its ZebOS Network Platform version 7.8 software, adding support for Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS), Data Center Bridging, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) resiliency for wireless backhaul and Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) implementations required for Carrier Ethernet deployments.


GMPLS support delivers seamless control plane and network management capabilities for next generation packet-based optical networks. This enables automated interface-independent provisioning, simplified network administration and IP/MPLS end-to-end networks. GMPLS. ZebOS 7.8 embraces GMPLS support features and subsequent releases of the ZebOS Network Platform will continue to enhance this support.


Data Center Bridging is a unifying Ethernet-based technology for switch fabrics in the data center. Converged single technology switch fabrics in the data center can optimize traffic for cloud computing while reducing costs, power and space requirements.


The new wireless access/backhaul capabilities of ZebOS 7.8 leverage MPLS reliability features, such as Virtual Circuit Connectivity Verification (VCCV), Bi-Directional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for MPLS LSPs, and BFD for VCCV. In addition to maintaining the features of ZebOS 7.7, ZebOS 7.8 also includes:

• MEF specifications (MEF-2,9,11,16,13,17,19,20)


• BGP Multipath Routing


• Policy Based Routing

http://www.ipinfusion.com

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NSN to Resell Nakina's Network Integrity Solution

Nakina Systems, which specializes in carrier grade management and network integrity solutions, has signed a global partnership agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks. Specifically, the Nakina Network Integrity product suite has been added to the Identity and Access Management offering of Nokia Siemens Networks to provide additional functionality that includes secure access, single sign on and security configuration audits. Both companies will support with these joint solutions their worldwide carrier customers.
http://www.nakinasystems.com
http://www.ns.com

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Opnext Cites Supply Constraints for 10G

Opnext reported revenue of $76.8 million for the quarter ended 31-March-2010, down 1% compared to $76.1 million for the preceding quarter. Gross margin was 18.8% compared to 15.9% for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Non-GAAP gross margin was 20.9% for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, compared to 18.7% for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Net loss was $18.3 million, or $(0.20) per fully diluted share, for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, compared to a net loss of $18.6 million, or $(0.21) per fully diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Non-GAAP net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 was $14.5 million, or $(0.16) per fully diluted share, compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $12.7 million, or $(0.14) per fully diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.


Revenue from sales of 10Gbps and below products decreased $6.2 million, or 11%, to $48.9 million, primarily as a result of lower sales of 300 Pin Tunable products and X2 modules. 40Gbps and above revenue increased $5.1 million, or 30%, to $21.8 million, driven by growth in 40Gbps modules and research and development contract revenues.


Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks each represented 10% or more of total revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Combined, these customers represented approximately 42% of total revenues for each of the quarters ended March 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009.


"During the quarter we experienced improved demand for our products that translated into strong revenue growth in our 40G and above and industrial and commercial businesses," said Gilles Bouchard, the company's President and CEO. "Unfortunately, supply constraints contributed significantly to a decrease in our 10G and below revenue compared to the December quarter. Looking ahead to our first fiscal quarter ending in June 2010, we expect 10G and below revenue to rebound based on anticipated customer demand. While we expect sales of 40G and 100G modules to also show strong growth, we expect 40G subsystems sales to be weak, resulting in lower overall 40G and above revenue relative to the March quarter."http://www.opnext.com

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Unified Communications Interoperability Forum Launches

A new Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) has been established by leading technology vendors with the goal of promoting standards-based, inter-vendor unified communications (UC) interoperability.


The UCIF will identify common customer scenarios and leverage existing industry standards to resolve the interoperability issues that have stalled broad adoption and deployment of higher-productivity communications.
Specifically, the UCIF will develop verifiable interoperability testing and certification of UC products to ease customer integration and increase adoption.


The UCIF will focus its initial interoperability efforts on managing the escalating diversity of video and telepresence solutions. Guided by customer feedback, the forum will place specific emphasis on signaling planes, video codecs and protocols, endpoint configurations, and firewall traversal technologies, thereby facilitating broader video adoption and communication across multiple organizations and between platforms.


Founding members include HP, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Logitech / LifeSize, and Polycom. Additional members include Acme Packet, Aspect, AudioCodes, Broadcom, BroadSoft, Brocade, ClearOne, Jabra, Plantronics, RADVISION, Siemens Enterprise Communications, and Teliris.
http://www.ucif.org

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Icera Raises $45 Million for Mobile Broadband Chips

Icera, a start-up based in Bristol, England, raised US$45 million in new funding for its mobile broadband semiconductors.


Icera supplies chipsets for mobile broadband devices, such as USB modem sticks and embedded modules for notebooks, netbooks, tablets and other emerging devices. Its "Adaptive Wireless" modem technology supports 3G (HSPA+, HSPA) and 2G (GSM, GPRS, EDGE) cellular voice and data. Support for LTE scheduled in the near future. Adaptive Wireless executes the entire modem in software on an Icera high performance processor.


The new funding round was supported by all existing preferred shareholders, including Accel Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners, Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital and DFJ Esprit.
http://www.icerasemi.com

• Icera was founded in 2002. The company is headed by Stan Boland. Prior to founding Icera, he was VP and GM of the DSL business unit of Broadcom. He assumed this role following the sale to Broadcom of Element 14, a start-up DSL silicon company, which Broadcom acquired for $640M in late 2000. At Element 14, Stan was founder, President & CEO.

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Symantec to Acquire VeriSign Security for $1.28 Billion

Symantec agreed to acquire VeriSign's identity and authentication business, which includes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, the VeriSign Trust Services and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service, for approximately $1.28 billion in cash.


Symantec's current portfolio and along with assets from VeriSign provide the depth and breadth of technologies to make identity-based security of information more universal and part of a comprehensive security solution. By combining VeriSign's SSL Certificate Services with Symantec Critical System Protection or Protection Suite for Servers, Symantec will help organizations ensure a higher level of security on their web servers as well as verify that security, providing users with the trust and confidence necessary to do business online.


VeriSign helps organizations validate the identity of users through its VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) user authentication service that complements the existing Identity Safe capabilities within the Norton products. The cloud-based VIP service helps organizations doing business online confirm the identities of their customers, employees and partners through user-owned digital certificates that reside on a card, token or other device such as a mobile phone, ensuring that they are giving only legitimate users access to their information. VeriSign has already issued more than two million VIP credentials to individuals and has a network of hundreds of merchants.


Symantec said the combination of these businesses with its security expertise enables it to deliver on its vision "of a world where people have simple and secure access to their information from anywhere."


"With the anonymity of the Internet and the evolving threat landscape, people and organizations are struggling to maintain confidence in the security of their interactions, information and identities online. At the same time, people's personal and professional lives have converged and they want to use their various digital devices to access information wherever they are without jeopardizing their privacy," said Enrique Salem, president and CEO, Symantec. "At the same time, IT is faced with the challenge of giving users the appropriate access, while ensuring that corporate data is not at risk. We believe the solution to this dilemma lies in the ubiquity of identity-based security."http://www.symantec.com
http://www.verisign.com

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Europe's Digital Agenda Seeks Universal Broadband at 30+ Mbps

The European Commission outlined its Digital Agenda for the next decade, including seven goals aimed at promoting economic growth and spreading the benefits of the digital era to all sections of society. These seven goals are: (1) creating a digital Single Market, (2) greater interoperability, (3)boosting Internet trust and security, (4) much faster Internet access, (5) more investment in research and development, (6) enhancing digital literacy skills and inclusion, and (7) applying information and communications technologies to address challenges facing society like climate change and the ageing population.


Commissioners said the need for a single Digital Market is brought on by the observation that Europe is still a patchwork of national online markets, making it difficult for eCommerce to be conducted across borders. For instance, there are four times as many music downloads in the US as in the EU because of the lack of legal offers and fragmented markets. The plan would address this by simplifying copyright clearance, management and
licensing, and ensuring a single market for online payments.


To ensure cybersecurity, the Digital Agenda proposes to set up a European rapid response system to cyber-attacks, including a network of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). It proposes a reinforced role for the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), along with tougher laws to combat cyber attacks against information systems. By 2013, the plan call for related rules on jurisdiction in cyberspace at European and international levels.


On high-speed access, the EU aims to bring basic broadband to all Europeans by 2013 and to
ensure that, by 2020, all Europeans have access to speeds 30 Mbps and above, with 50% or more of European households subscribing to Internet access above 100 Mbps. To reach this goal, two parallel paths are recommended: on the one hand, to guarantee universal broadband coverage (combining fixed and wireless) with
Internet speeds gradually increasing up to 30 Mbps and above. On the other hand, the goal is, over time, to foster the deployment and take-up of next generation access networks (NGA) at 100 Mbps and above.

The Digital Agenda plan also proposes a European Spectrum Policy Programme in 2010 for decision by the European Parliament and the Council that will create a co-ordinated and strategic spectrum policy at EU level in order increase the efficiency of radio spectrum management and maximise the benefits for consumers and industry

More detail of these and other initiatives in the plan are online.http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htmhttp://www.europa.eu

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India Raises US$15 Billion in 3G Spectrum Auction

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Reliance Communications were major winners in the 3G spectrum auction that was just concluded by India's Ministry of Communications & Information Technology. After 183 rounds of bidding in 34 days, the auction raised approximately Rs 67,719 crore (US$15 billion) in commitments from the carriers. Pundits had predicted between Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore in auction proceeds for the spectrum, indicating fierce bidding as the number of mobile users across the country continues to soar.


The 3G auction offered 3 or 4 blocks of 2x5MHz in the 2.1GHz band in 22 service areas, or circles, across India. BSNL and MTNL received spectrum outside auction process, but at a market price to be determined by the auction. The bidding was conducted over a secure website.


Bharti and Reliance Communications each secured spectrum in 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, where bidding was fierce. Vodafone secured 3G spectrum in 9 circles, providing a strategic footprint covering 66% of Vodafone Essar's current revenue base.


A new auction for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum is expected to begin within days. This new BWA auction will offer 2 blocks of 20MHz in the 2.3GHz band across the same 22 service areas.
http://www.dot.gov.in/

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Google Releases Free WebM Video Codec as Alternative to H.264

Google released WebM, a high-quality video + audio codec, under a BSD-style, 100% royalty-free license. WebM is positioned as a new media format for the open web and as an alternative to H.264.


The WebM uses the VP8 video codec and is capable of adapting to the varying processing and bandwidth conditions of the Web. It also uses the Vorbis audio codec. The WebM file structure is based on the Matroska container. The developers said the relative simplicity of the codec will make it easy to integrate into video projects.


Aside from Google and its Chrome browser, other backers include Adobe, Mozilla (Firefox), Opera, ARM, Brightcove, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Skype, Sorenson, and Texas Instruments, amongst others.
http://www.webmproject.org/http://www.google.com

• The VP8 video compression technology was developed by On2 Technologies, which Google acquired in February 2010 for approximately $106.5 million. On2's video compression codecs are used in a range of desktop and mobile applications and devices. On2 customers include Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Infineon, Sun Microsystems, Mediatek, Sony, Brightcove, and Move Networks. The company is based in Clifton Park, New York.

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