eircom Announces FTTH Trials

eircom is preparing to launch two open access FTTH trial for up to 10,000 residential and business customers in Wexford town and Sandyford, Co. Dublin. The FTTH will offer broadband speeds of up to 150 Mbps. Open access will be provided by eircom to any other operator who wishes to participate in the project.


eircomm plans to invest up to EUR 20 million in the project. Work is already underway with tenders issued to suppliers for a number of elements of the project. It is hoped that the first customers will be connected by early Spring 2011.
http://www.eircom.ie

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Tellabs 7100 Optical Transport System Gains RUS Acceptance

The Tellabs 7100 Optical Transport System (OTS) and its smaller version, the Tellabs 7100 Nano Optical Transport System, have gained RUS (Rural Utilities Service) acceptance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This clears the products for use on projects funded by the Rural Telecom Infrastructure and by the Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Programs. In addition to the Tellabs 7100 OTS, the Tellabs 1000 and 1100 Multiservice Access Series and the Tellabs 8800 Multiservice Router also have RUS acceptance.
http://www.tellabs.com

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Huawei Launches New Metropolitan 40/100G OTN Platform

Huawei Technologies introduced its OSN8800 T16, a next-generation metropolitan OTN system with 640 Gbps system capacity and designed for efficient wavelength utilization in the transport of bandwidth-heavy services such as data, video, and storage.


The OSN8800 T16 offers 40G/100G transport with full-service cross-connection capabilities of ODUk wavelength and packet connections. The system capacity is upgradeable to 1.6 Tbps. Maintenance and service provisioning are similar to SDH. Additionally, the OSN8800 T16 is designed with photonics integrated device (PID) technology, achieving 120 Gbps capacity per card while significantly reducing power consumption and space requirements.


Christian Chua, President of Transport Network Product Line, Huawei, said, "Operators worldwide are focusing on how to achieve fast service rollouts for metropolitan transport, while coping with the impact of high traffic on their live networks. As part of Huawei' s All-IP convergence strategy, our OSN8800 T16 addresses these challenges with its advanced features and promises long-term customer benefits with its future-proof designs."http://www.huawei.com

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WiMAX Forum Publishes Femtocell Standard

The WiMAX Forum and the Femto Forum have published the first WiMAX femtocell standard. The specifications incorporate a security framework that allows WiMAX networks to support a large number of access points via standard commercial IPSec based security gateways. This phase of specifications also contains simple Self Organizing Network (SON) capabilities to allow automatic configuration of large numbers of femtocells. Future revisions will further enhance the SON capabilities to standardize automatic interference management between femtocells and macro base stations.


The standard also incorporates support for three usage models to support different deployment scenarios such as residential, enterprise and outdoor environments. The 'Open Model' allows the femtocell to operate like a normal WiMAX base station by allowing anyone to use the service; 'Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) Closed' allows a limited number of pre-allocated subscribers to use the femtocell. The 'Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) Open' extends the previous model to allow the subscriber to add users themselves.


The groups said the new standard will impact all elements of the WiMAX femtocell network including: the MS (Mobile Station), WFAP (WiMAX Femtocell Access Point), Security Gateway, Femto Gateway, SON Server, AAA Server, WFAP Management Server and other Core Service Network (CSN) functions.
http://www.wimaxforum.orghttp://www.femtoforum.org

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BridgeWave Partners with Provigent on SoC for 4G Backhaul in 70/80 GHz

BridgeWave Communications is collaborating with Provigent, a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designer, to develop a chipset that provides increased spectral efficiencies supporting multi-gigabit rates in up to 1 GHz RF channel bandwidth.


As part of this strategic cooperation BridgeWave will pay Non Recurring Engineering (NRE) to Provigent and Provigent will grant BridgeWave favorable terms.


The companies said this partnership supports Provigent's mission to provide advanced chipsets to the broadband wireless market and BridgeWave's mission to offer a complete set of backhaul solutions including edge and aggregation, utilizing the 70/80 GHz spectrum.
http://www.bridgewave.com
http://www.provigent.com

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RadiSys Extends Convedia Media Servers with RFC 4117 SIP

RadiSys announced support of RFC 4117, a SIP-based interface for real-time transcoding services control, for the RadiSys' Convedia Media Server product family. RFC 4117 defines transcoding services between two SIP User Agents (UAs) using Third Party Call Control (3PCC), resulting in a simple yet effective interface for rapid transcoding application development.


In addition, RadiSys also announced a new Transcoding Processor Card (TPC-I) for the RadiSys Convedia CMS-9000 media server. The new Transcoding Processor Card (TPC-I) blade is hosted in a RadiSys Convedia CMS-9000 media server, and can work side-by-side in fully redundant configurations with existing media processing cards and system control cards in a CMS-9000 chassis.
http://www.radisys.com

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Level 3 Offers Enhanced End-to-End Service Level Agreements

Level 3 Communications is now offering enhanced end-to-end service level agreements (SLAs) that simplify the contract process and provide a more complete performance guarantee. The company said its approach addresses the complex nature of SLAs in an environment where various fiber-optic network segments are often operated by multiple.


"We have seen strong customer demand for simpler end-to-end service level agreements, and this new initiative enables us to provide a complete solution to meet this demand," said Jeff Tench, president of Business Markets for Level 3.
http://www.level3.com

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JDSU Adds OTN to 100GE Test Suite

JDSU has added Optical Transport Network (OTN) capabilities to its 100GE test suite. The test platform now offers OTU3 (43GE) and OTU4 (112GE) test features to help transport Ethernet over longer distances for high speed networks.

Optical Transport Networks running on OTU3/4 add the framing, management layer and forward error correction (FEC) on top of Ethernet that is needed for longer distance transmission and for OTN management in a carrier network.


JDSU's fully comprehensive OTU3/4 feature set:

• Provides overhead and payload manipulation as well as monitoring;


• Complements the 40GE/100GE product lines to give complete test coverage;


• Supports comprehensive test features for the new OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) layer; and;


• Aligns with JDSU's existing, industry leading OTU1/2/3 products so customers can easily migrate to the faster speeds.

http://www.jdsu.com

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BT Signs 5-Year 21CN Contract with Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent signed a major five-year agreement with BT for an evolution of its 21st Century Network (21CN) that leverages the Alcatel-Lucent High Leverage Network (HLN) architecture. Specifically, Alcatel-Lucent will provide an end-to-end transport solution which tightly integrates IP and optical transport resources along with professional services such as project management, design, installation and commissioning, repair and return and software updates. Financial terms were not disclosed.


As part of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will enhance its existing 7750 Service Router, which has been previously supplied to BT for its Etherflow service, to provide Broadband Subscriber Management in a distributed architecture. The contract also covers the deployment of the 1830 Photonic Service Switch. Additionally, the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 Transport Service Switch will be implemented for multiple traffic aggregation. The contract also leverages Alcatel-Lucent's professional services including performance management, design, network integration, installation and commissioning, repair and return and software updates.


BT is also evolving its residential IP service delivery architecture. Broadband Network Gateways (BNGs), previously centralized and becoming an increasing bottleneck in the network, will be distributed closer to subscribers using next generation service routers. This will result in an increase in capacity and performance creating a better end-user experience. Additionally, as the BNG function runs on the same routing platform as BT's business services, operations are streamlined and simplified for the operator.


"21CN is a huge transformational programme. It's about providing a network for the future which requires a game-changing approach," said George Nazi, managing director, BT 21CN Core Convergence.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In September 2009, Alcatel-Lucent outlined its Converged Backbone Transformation solution aimed at relieving the strain on service providers' core networks by optimizing the routing of IP packets over optical transport. Dramatic growth in Internet video traffic, along with a growing flood of IP-based business services, are increasing the strain on core routers -- through which nearly all traffic passes. Continually adding core router capacity is expensive, and as a result the network backbone is becoming a significant cost center.
  
  
  Alcatel-Lucent said its new Converged Backbone Transformation solution solves this problem by more tightly integrating IP and optical transport resources. This integration reduces the number of required network elements, improves efficiencies in power and rack space, simplifies network provisioning and fault management, and minimizes latency. Alcatel-Lucent accomplishes this by means of an intelligent control plane between the optical and IP layers, leveraging ASON and GMPLS technologies. The goal is to handle traffic at lowest layer via flexible grooming & IP offloading options. This enables IP packets to stay at the photonic layer for as long as possible throughout the transit to their destination, rather than being processed by intermediate core routers. Management Plane Integration across IP & optical domains would enable seamless network visibility and provisioning.

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FCC Seeks Public Input on Regulatory Framework

The FCC voted 3-to-2 to open a new proceeding to identify the legal approach it should follow in regulating broadband. The Notice of Inquiry seeks public input to the challenge created by the Comcast court case. Options include pursuing a Title I regulatory path, a full Title II path, and a middle-ground solution -- the Third Way approach proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.


Specifically, the Notice of Inquiry asks the public to consider:

• Whether the Commission's "information service" classification of broadband Internet service
  remains legally sound and adequate to support effective performance of the Commission's
  responsibilities;



• The legal and practical consequences of classifying broadband Internet connectivity as a
  "telecommunications service" to which all the requirements of Title II of the Communications
  Act would apply; and



• A "third way" under which the Commission would reaffirm that Internet content and applications
  remain generally unregulated under Title I of the Communications Act; identify the Internet
  connectivity service that is offered as part of wired broadband Internet service as a
  telecommunications service; and forbear under Section 10 of the Act from applying all provisions
  of Title II other than the small number that are needed to implement fundamental universal
  service, competition and market entry, and consumer protection policies.

The Notice also seeks comment on the appropriate classification of terrestrial wireless and satellite
broadband Internet services, as well other issues.


FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski stated "While the term 'Third Way' may be new to this debate, the model on which it is based is familiar. The Third Way is modeled on the highly successful deregulatory approach that the FCC has
2 used for almost 20 years for mobile voice services: application of a small number of Title II provisions,
with broad and reliable forbearance from all other provisions."


In rebuttal, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell state: "I disagree with the premise of this proceeding. Not only is the idea of classifying broadband Internet access as common carriage under Title II unnecessary, already it
has caused harm in the marketplace. As a threshold matter, classifying broadband as a Title II service is not necessary to implement the recommendations of the National Broadband Plan. The Comcast decision certainly does not affect our ability to reallocate spectrum, one of the central pillars of the Plan. Nor does the decision undermine our authority to reform our Universal Service program, the other major component of the Plan."http://www.fcc.gov

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Telegent appoints Ford Tamer as CEO

Telegent Systems, which supplies silicon solutions for mobile TV devices, appointed Dr. Ford Tamer as its new CEO, replacing co-founder Samuel Sheng , who will resume his position of chief technology officer.


Tamer most recently has been a partner at Khosla Ventures, where he expanded the firm's cleantech efficiency practice. Prior to Khosla, Tamer served as senior vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Infrastructure Networking Group, which he grew to $1.2 billion in revenue in five years. Prior to Broadcom, Tamer was CEO and co-founder of Agere, a networking semiconductor company that was acquired by Lucent before being spun out as Agere Systems, where he served as vice president.


Telegent has shipped more than 80 million units of its mobile TV receiver for handsets since first introducing its technology in mid-2007.
http://www.telegent.com

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