Ericsson Selects GoAhead's OpenSAFfire

Ericsson has selected GoAhead Software's OpenSAFfire source code for use in high availability platforms.
The OpenSAFfire product is GoAhead's commercial distribution of the OpenSAF open source high availability software project.


"Aligned with our strategy for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software, we are selecting third party products to strengthen the establishment of an ecosystem around standardized SA Forum-based middleware," said Graham Osborne, Head of Development Unit Core & IMS at Ericsson.


In March, GoAhead announced its move to OpenSAF-based solutions and the simultaneous acquisition of the Avantellis product line from Emerson Network Power. The company's experience in high availability and the new capabilities acquired in the Avantellis deal give it a powerful combination of assets for building market-leading high availability open source solutions.


"This is a major milestone for GoAhead," said Asif Naseem, President and COO of GoAhead Software. "We look forward to providing Ericsson with a world-class high availability solution."http://www.goahead.com

• In July, OpenSAF announced the public availability of Release 4.0 of its high availability (HA) middleware platform. OpenSAF Release 4.0 implements all major functions of the Service Availability Forum Application Interface Specification and includes important enhancements to improve scalability as well as hardware and software management.
  
  
  "With Release 4.0, OpenSAF has reached a level of maturity that will broaden its reach and cross-industry impact," said Monica Hatlen of Ericsson, President of the OpenSAF Foundation. "Release 4.0 in many ways fulfills the vision of the initial OpenSAF community when the project was created, and we are proud to offer it to the world. It delivers a cost-effective, standards-based way to create highly available and reliable networks, and its new management features take a big step toward solving larger problems, including network saturation from increased smartphone use. Consumers also will reap this benefit as mobile traffic continues to grow."

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WSJ: Corporate America Adopting Apple's iPad

Apple's iPad is finding a quick welcome in corporate America, according to The Wall Street Journal. While many companies have policies restricting the use of personal or consumer devices on the networks, the article cites several factors that have made the iPad an exception, including over 500 iPad business applications on iTunes.
http://www.wsj.com

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Telecom Italia Tests LTE in Turin

Telecom Italia has kicked off the second phase of LTE testing using 17 sites in the center of Turin. Italy's Ministry of Economic Development authorized the use of two 20 MHz blocks in 2500-2690 MHz frequency band.


major technology partners involved in Telecom Italia's test include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks.


Nokia Siemens Networks confirmed that it supplied its Flexi Multiradio Base Station, as well as its Evolved Packet Core (EPC) technology, which consists of the highly-scalable Flexi NG (Network Gateway) and Flexi NS (Network Server), for the test.

"We want TIM's mobile network to remain the best in terms of quality and performance. That is why we are continuing to invest in technology and services," said Oscar Cicchetti, Director Technology & Operations, Telecom Italia. "LTE represents a major step forward enabling us to provide 100 Mbit/s connections, but progresses in 3G technology will already allow us to offer our mobile Internet customers higher speeds over the coming months."http://www.telecomitalia.com
http://www.nsn.com

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West Africa Cable System Plans UK Extension, 40 Gbps

Alcatel-Lucent has been selected to build an extension of the West Africa Cable System (WACS) from Portugal to the UK. The leg will span 2,000 km and operate at 40 Gbps. Under the contract extension, WACS will also deploy GMPLS capabilities providing dynamic and automated service provisioning for highest quality of service.


This extension follows the recent successful field trial with Alcatel-Lucent of 40G solution, which also leverages next-generation coherent technology, and will further bolster connectivity along the Africa-Europe route.


The WACS consortium is composed of 12 parties: Angola Cables, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, Congo Telecom, MTN, Office Congolais des Postes et Télécommunications,Portugal Telecom / Cabo Verde Telecom, Tata Communications / Neotel, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.


With commercial service expected by 2011, WACS will provide Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo and the Republic of Congo with the first direct access to the global submarine cable communication network. It will connect South Africa to the UK with landings in Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, and Portugal.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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DISH Network Launches Online Video Portal with Live TV

DISH Network introduced online video portal for its satellite TV customers that integrates live and recorded TV with more than 150,000 popular movies, TV shows, clips and trailers into one easy-to-use interface.


DISHOnline.com enables customers to watch their live TV, all of their DVR recordings, and instantly view thousands of movies, TV shows, clips and more from programmers such as Food Network, Discovery Channel, MTV, EPIX, Starz and Encore. There is no additional cost above Dish's normal, monthly paid-subscription fee.


DISHOnline.com is also open to non-DISH Network customers, who have access to thousands of free video selections available for instant streaming. Those with a DISH Network subscription can enjoy the enhanced features of DISHOnline.com by logging in with their existing DISH Network online account information. Live and recorded TV viewing is enabled for customers with a ViP 922 SlingLoaded DVR or the upcoming Sling Adapter.
http://www.DISHOnline.com

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Juniper Releases Media Flow Engine Appliances

Juniper Networks released a line of high-performance content delivery appliances designed to maximize the scale and reliability of its Media Flow converged content delivery and caching solution for service providers.



The Juniper VXA Series Media Flow Engines appliances, which leverage technology originally developed by Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper earlier this year), are aimed at optimizing content delivery networks (CDNs). Juniper's Media Flow Solution can cache and deliver content closer to the edge of service providers' networks, which can reduce transit traffic and lower CapEx and OpEx. Content publishers can deploy Media Flow as a next-generation origin cache, where its high scalability enables server consolidation, reducing costs associated with power, space and cooling. The Media Flow uses adaptive streaming technology to ensure a TV-like viewing experience even as network conditions fluctuate. Users also enjoy improved response times since content is served more locally.


The foundation of the Media Flow Solution is Juniper Networks Media Flow Controller, a hierarchical caching software appliance that provides an awareness of content requirements, network conditions and storage infrastructure for optimal caching efficiency and performance. The Media Flow Solution also includes Juniper Networks Media Flow Manager, an element management application and the newly available VXA Series Media Flow Engines.


Media Flow Controller can be deployed on the VXA Series Media Flow Engines or on general purpose x86 servers.


Newly announced CDN customers for Juniper include Demand Media, Break Media and BitGravity.


"The market has experienced exponential growth in online video traffic over the past few years, often doubling every six months according to leading analysts," said Manoj Leelanivas, executive vice president and general manager of Junos Ready Software at Juniper Networks. "Our customers are looking for ways to improve their scale, drive down costs and grow revenue at the same time, and the Media Flow Solution allows them achieve all three. It improves the efficiency of content delivery, while opening up the potential for new revenue-generating services."http://www.juniper.net

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Applied Materials' Flowable CVD Offers New Chip Process Technology

Applied Materials announced a breakthrough film deposition technology capable of electrically isolating the densely-packed transistors in 20nm-and-below memory and logic chips. The company describes its Eterna FCVD (Flowable Chemical Vapor Deposition) system as a "game changer" that solvesthe most critical challenges in scaling Moore's Law -- 3D isolation of gates at tight geometries and thermal budgets with high density designs.


The Eterna FCVD process leverages a bottoms-up deposition technique to deliver a dense, carbon-free dielectric film at up to half the cost of spin-on deposition methods. The process results in a liquid-like film that flows freely into virtually any structure shape to provide a bottom up, void-free fill.


The Eterna FCVD system is installed at six customer sites for DRAM, Flash and Logic applications, where it is integrated on Applied's benchmark Producer platform.


"The need to fill smaller and deeper structures in advanced chip designs creates a physical roadblock for existing deposition technologies. Applied has broken through this barrier today with the introduction of its new Eterna FCVD system -- delivering the disruptive technology that can enable the continued progress of Moore's Law," said Bill McClintock, vice president and general manager of Applied's DSM/ CMP2 Business Unit. "With the Eterna FCVD system, Applied continues its decade-long leadership in gap-fill technology, providing a unique, simplified and cost-effective solution for customers to meet the challenges of multiple new chip generations."http://www.appliedmaterials.com

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Huawei Partners with Amerilink Telecom for US Strategy

Huawei reportedly has formed a partnership with Amerilink Telecom, a new company based in Overland Park, Kansas, to help its entry into the North American market.


Amerilink Telecom is headed by Kevin Packingham (CEO), who until recently was the Senior Vice President of Product and Technology Development for Sprint Nextel. Its management team includes Admiral (ret.) William Owens (former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CEO of Nortel and Teledesic); Mark Kenyon (Principal), formerly at Sprint and Embarq; Alan Pritchard (Principal), formerly at Nortel; Jeff Lynch (Principal), formerly at Sprint and Embarq; and George Finn (Principal), formerly at AT&T, Sprint, and Embarq. http://amerilinktel.com/http://www.huawei.com

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Allied Telesis Switch Cuts Power Consumption with Firmware Upgrade

Allied Telesis announced a firmware upgrade for its range of AT-9000 series eco-friendly Gigabit Layer-2 switches that cuts power consumption by 6% on average, enabling the switch to run cooler, reducing the need for air conditioning, and lowering utility bills. Allied Telesis has achieved even higher-power efficiency with the firmware upgrade for its AT-9000/28 port switch. Maximum power consumption is reduced by 7.5 percent to 29.5 watts and regular power consumption is reduced by 6.1 percent to 27.7 watts.


The AT-S100 v2.0 firmware upgrade also improves security by adding IEEE 802.1x support, allowing the new switch to be installed in networks where IT managers employ user authentication, higher security is required, and software such as Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) or Symantec Network Access Control (SNAC) is deployed. http://www.allied-telesis.com

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Intel and Nokia Open Lab at the University of Oulu

Intel and Nokia have established a Joint Innovation Center at the University of Oulu in Finland. Initially the focus of the lab will be on mobile user experiences, including the creation of interfaces that are more natural and intuitive, in the same way that modern games and movies are more immersive through the use of realistic 3-D graphics.


The new lab is well aligned with the MeeGo open source platform recently launched by Intel and Nokia. The companies are planning to enable 3-D experience with MeeGo.
http://www.intel.com
http://www.oulu.fi/english/news/2010/Intel-Nokia.html

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AT&T Adds VoIP Service to Enterprise VPN Service

AT&T began offering a VoIP service to its virtual private network (VPN) customers. The converged solution will enable customers to consolidate their separate voice and data networks, reduce equipment and maintenance costs, and simplify migrating these complimentary capabilities to a common, secure infrastructure.


The AT&T VoIP portfolio is also certified for interoperability with leading industry providers of IP-PBX systems, such as SIP Trunking services qualified for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, providing support for businesses planning to incorporate a comprehensive unified communications solution in the future.
http://www.att.com

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NTELOS Selects ADTRAN for FTTH

NTELOS, which operates primarily in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, has selected ADTRAN's flagship Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform (MSAP) and Total Access 300 Series ONTs for its 9,000 home GPON deployment funded by the Broadband Stimulus program.

NTELOS will use ADTRAN's Total Access 5000 to deliver FTTH and Broadband DLC services. In addition to this award, NTELOS will also deploy the platform for GPON and Broadband DLC applications throughout its serving areas.http://www.adtran.com

• In July 2010, NTELOS announced plans to acquire One Communications' FiberNet business for approximately $170 million in cash. The FiberNet fiber optic network of approximately 3,500 route miles covers all of West Virginia and extends into surrounding areas in Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. FiberNet service revenues and adjusted EBITDA for 2009 were approximately $76 million and $25 million, respectively. Capital expenditures for 2009 were approximately $13 million.

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Virgin Mobile USA Offers $40 Unlimited Prepaid Mobile Broadband

Virgin Mobile USA, which is now one of Sprint's prepaid brands, introduced a $40 unlimited mobile broadband plan. Available tomorrow online and rolling out at retail in the coming weeks, the new offer replaces the previous $20, $40 and $60 plans. The $40 plan provides unlimited usage for one month. A lower tier $10 for 100MB of prepaid mobile broadband over 10 days is also available. The service operates over Sprint's Nationwide Network and customers need their own modem.


"Many unlimited broadband offerings require a contract or are on networks with limited range, so they don't meet the need for flexibility or true mobility," said Neil Lindsay, chief marketing officer, Virgin Mobile USA. "The introduction of Virgin Mobile's prepaid unlimited broadband for $40 a month will provide the access you need on a nationwide network without a contract."http://www.virginmobileusa.com

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Arista Offers Visibility into VMWare Switch Virtualization

Arista Networks has updated its EOS (Extensible Operating System) software capabilities with a new "Arista VM Tracer" capability that uniquely bridges the gap between the physical and virtual networks by providing new levels of visibility into the virtualization layer while enabling VMware administrators to have seamless control through the VMware vSphere interface.


Arista said its goal is to make it operationally simple to converge the management of physical and virtual networks, thus facilitating departmental cooperation. Arista's VM Tracer automatically creates, prunes, and opens VLANs (Virtual LANs) across the network infrastructure as new virtual machines are added, moved, or changed. The Arista Cloud Network works in close concert with the VMware vSphere vNetwork virtual networking technology to always keep the network stable, support multi-tenancy, and react in real-time to changes.


"VMware's vision of the private cloud enables customers increased levels of control and efficiency while simplifying management," said Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware. "An important ingredient of this vision is ensuring the different teams in the IT department have the information and control they need. Arista VM Tracer, which complements VMware vSphere4 vNetwork Distributed switch technology, bridges the divide between the network and server teams, helping streamline their cloud deployments."


VM Tracer is available immediately as a software license within Arista EOS 4.5 and higher, and is priced according to the switching platform on which it is operating.
http://www.aristanetworks.com

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VSS Monitoring Raises $20 Million for its Distributed Taps

VSS Monitoring, a start-up based in Burlingame, California, secured $20 million in venture funding for its distributed traffic capture system for network and security monitoring. The company's Distributed Traffic Capture Systems provide an intelligent and robust platform for centralized monitoring, tool optimization, and scalability for the network monitoring and security infrastructure.


VSS Monitoring said its business is experiencing strong growth due to several trends, including the increased virtualization of data centers, the flattening of next generation networks, and the proliferation of IP based service in mobile networks. Its customer based includes more than 1,000 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world.


For 4G/LTE networks, VSS Monitoring is developing a hierarchical framework capable of providing a network-wide view of traffic in real-time as well as packet-level visibility at any network node. The company said its "Network Monitoring 2.0" adopts a systems approach with no single point of failure. The system promises low-latency and scales to a worldwide distributed network. Essentially, by decoupling the monitoring infrastructure from the core network, the traffic capture system can act as a universal access layer for all monitoring tools. The traffic capture layer is possible because the network taps are distributed and intelligent.


The funding, which came from Battery Ventures, represents the first institutional round of financing for VSS. The company was founded in 2003 and has been self-funded since then. It now has about 90 employees and is planning to expand.


"Our business is experiencing tremendous momentum at a time when the network performance and operations management market is about to explode," said Martin Breslin, VSS Monitoring founder and CEO. "Partnering with Battery will help VSS continue to develop and deliver highly innovative solutions. Battery's already proven success in the networking sector made the firm a natural fit and we believe their domain expertise will be invaluable to us."http://www.vssmonitoring.com

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