Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Broadband Forum: Fiber Work Advances as Copper "Still in the Game"



An interview with Tom Starr, President and Chairman, Broadband Forumhttp://www.convergedigest.com

Bell Labs Partners with Belgium's IBBT

Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs and Belgian research institute IBBT are establishing a joint research lab to focus on video communications. The joint lab aims to efficiently integrate fundamental and applied research in order to unlock the value of these new dimensions of video communications within the marketplace. Specifically, the joint lab expects to introduce capabilities imbued with "intelligence" to analyze the content of a video transmission as well as understand user preferences in order to create a viewer experience that is more relevant, more valuable, and more compelling. A complementary initiative will introduce a capability for high-speed access networks to accommodate this information when deciding the optimal means for delivering that content, adapting as conditions and requirements change.


"Engaging in collaborative programs with other research institutions is essential to the Bell Labs research model and an area in which we have extensive experience," said Danny Goderis, vice-president, Bell Labs. "We look forward to employing our competencies in forming such collaborations in order to make the joint research lab with IBBT a true success story."http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.ibbt.be

euNetworks Builds Low-Latency London to Stockholm Route

euNetworks launched a new ultra low latency route from London to Stockholm dedicated to the financial services community. euNetworks has reduced the previous leading latency on the London to Stockholm route by 12%. This new straight point-to-point route offers a round trip time of 22.4 milliseconds.

The company noted high demand for new low-latency routes introduced in Q3 linking Slough to London and London to Frankfurt.
http://www.eunetworks.com

RadiSys Trims Guidance

RadiSys anticipates its Q4 2010 revenue and earnings to be lower than its previously stated guidance, or between $62 and $64 million, down from the previous guidance of $68 to $72 million. The company expects a GAAP fourth quarter net loss of between $0.15 and $0.20 per share, down from the prior guidance of breakeven to net income of $0.05 per diluted share.


"While much of our business is performing well relative to our original fourth quarter guidance, we recently received news that our projected fourth quarter revenue with a large North America media server end customer is expected to be significantly lower. Specifically, our end customer reprioritized their capital expenditures in the quarter and removed a planned set of media server feature enhancements from their fourth quarter deployment programs. We have a long term deployment history with this end customer and expect that both feature and capacity upgrades will continue to be a key part of their plans going into 2011 and beyond," stated Scott Grout, RadiSys President and CEO.

http://www.radisys.com

SFR Deploys its First 100G Link with Cisco and Ciena

SFR has established its first 100 Gbps backbone line between Paris and Bordeaux using equipment from Ciena and Cisco.


SFR also confirmed its first 42 Mbps HSPA+ connections on the 3G mobile network at a trial site in Lyon. The company also noted that customers in Paris, Lyon and Marseille can already enjoy mobile broadband at up to 21 Mbps with 300 sites connected to its network in late 2010.
http://www.sfr.com

Canada's Barrett Xplore Selects Ciena's Carrier Ethernet for 4G Backhaul

Barrett Xplore, which is deploying a 4G network for rural Canada, has selected Ciena's ActivEdge 3920 Service Delivery Switch for Ethernet-based backhaul. The deployment marks Ciena's first, major nationwide deployment of its Carrier Ethernet Services Delivery (CESD) in Canada.


Ciena noted that its CESD portfolio has been deployed by more than 100 carriers, wireless service providers, cable operators and new entrants in 25 countries, primarily for mobile backhaul and business services.
http://www.ciena.com
http://www.xplornet.com

Bridgewater Signs 4-Year, $56M Deal with Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless awarded a new four-year framework contract to Bridgewater Systems signed for products and services supporting its network expansion. The contract was valued at approximately US$ 56 million.


Under the agreement, Bridgewater will provide mobile control solutions as well as maintenance and support services for all current and future 3G solutions. In addition, the agreement provides the framework for Bridgewater to deliver new products and services to support Verizon Wireless' ongoing network expansion across multiple access networks.
http://www.bridgewatersystems.com

Blue Coat Names Steve Daheb as CMO

Blue Coat Systems has appointed Steve Daheb as chief marketing officer (CMO) and senior vice president. Mr. Daheb was most recently the chief marketing officer for Emulex Corporation. He previously served in a number of executive sales, marketing and business development roles for a variety of networking companies, including BlueArc, Tasman Networks, Brocade and Lucent/Ascend. His http://www.bluecoat.com

Deutsche Telekom Extends 5-Year Contract with René Obermann

The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom has extended René Obermann's contract as Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG by a further five years. His current contract expires on October 31, 2011. The new contract will run until the end of October 2016.
http://www.telekom.de

IMEWE Submarine Cable Enters Service

The new India Middle East Western Europe (IMEWE) submarine cable linking eight countries has entered commercial service. The 13,000-km cable, which has a potential capacity of 3.84 Tbps, serves eight countries: India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Italy and France. Carrier partners include France Telecom-Orange, Bharti, Etisalat, Ogero, Pakistan Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telecom Italia Sparkle and Tata Communications. The project represents a total investment of around US$480 million, about US$60 million of which came from France Telecom-Orange.
http://www.francetelecom.com

Nokia Files Additional Patent Claims Against Apple

Nokia filed claims in the UK High Court, Dusseldorf and Mannheim District Courts in Germany and the District Court of the Hague, Netherlands, alleging that Apple infringes Nokia patents in many of its products sold in these countries, including iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.


"These actions add 13 further Nokia patents to the 24 already asserted against Apple in the US International Trade Commission and the Delaware and Wisconsin Federal courts," said Paul Melin, vice president, Intellectual Property at Nokia. "The Nokia inventions protected by these patents include several which enable compelling user experiences. For example, using a wiping gesture on a touch screen to navigate content, or enabling access to constantly changing services with an on-device app store, both filed more than ten years before the launch of the iPhone."
http://www.nokia.com

NDTV: Raids in India's 2G Spectrum Scandal

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids on homes and offices of prominent figures linked to the 2G spectrum licensing scandal. Targets included Niira Radia, a prominent lobbyist associated with Tata and Radiance, and Pradip Baijal, who served as chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from 2003 to 2006 and who later joined Radia's firm.


http://www.ndtv.com

Broadband Forum Charts Progress in 2010 -- Resurgence in Activity as Industry Looks to Hybrid Fiber/Copper

At its quarterly meeting last week in San Francisco, The Broadband Forum approved a record eleven new technical reports, released a new white paper on Unified MPLS, and appointed a new Technical Chairman. The meeting also drew the highest attendance of members and guests in recent years. The Forum noted an unprecedented level of contributions for technical reports, white papers and tutorials -- all indications of a resurgence in activity as the industry looks to next gen broadband access solutions.


The newly approved specifications ranged from IPv6 to TR-069 Software Module Management to DSL Quality Management.


New work items for the Forum include hybrid fiber-copper solutions for 4th Generation Broadband (4GBB).


The Forum has appointed Christophe Alter of France Telecom Orange to serve as its Technical Chairman, replacing Gavin Young of C&W, who has held the position since 1998. Christophe is responsible for France Telecom Orange Group' strategy regarding broadband networks standards. Since he first joined the Broadband Forum in December 2004, Christophe Alter has been a main contributor in the End to End Architecture Working Group and in the Fiber Access Network Working Group and has served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2008.


Among its accomplishments for 2010, the Broadband Forum noted its collaboration with the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) to expedite GPON deployments, enhance multi-vendor interoperability and enable better broadband network fiber integration globally. A joint initiative with the HomeGrid Forum was also announced, with the aim of delivering a global compliance and interoperability testing program for products using G.hn technology -- ITU-T's unified wired home networking standard. And another strategic relationship forged was with 3GPP focused on broadband convergence specifications and multi-service architecture developments.


"I am delighted to be taking over as Technical Chair at such a busy and positive time for the Broadband Forum," said Christophe Alter. "As a member I have watched the Forum grow in stature and authority but also increase enormously the number of technical reports, the range of topics in our scope and the intensity of our relationships with other organizations. It will be part of my role to manage this growth and to co-ordinate the groups so that they are able to deliver a comprehensive body of standards from over 1500 contributions we receive from members each year."http://www.broadband-forum.org