ZTE Announces CDMA/LTE Dual-Mode, 4T4R Base Station

ZTE announced the launch of the first CDMA/LTE dual-mode distributed NodeB system with four transmitters and four receivers (4T4R).



Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology supports two 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO configurations, allowing an increased number of simultaneous data streams, maintenance of coverage over greater distances and faster downloading of data. ZTE said this MIMO feature helps carriers significantly enhance cell coverage and capacity by improving spectral efficiency, accelerating network deployment and decreasing network construction costs.



The new distributed NodeB system uses ZTE's Soft Defined Radio (SDR) platform to support CDMA2000 1X, EV-DO and LTE.



The company noted that it has rolled out 15 LTE commercial networks and 65 LTE trials throughout the world. As of the first quarter of 2011, ZTE has shipped over 310,000 CDMA NodeBs, topping the global CDMA market with a 32.5% market share, according to the company.http://www.zte.com.cn

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Amdocs to Acquire Bridgewater for 3G/4G Control Plane

Amdocs agreed to acquire Bridgewater Systems for C$8.20 per share in cash, valuing the company at approximately C$211 million. The offer represents an implied premium of 30% to Bridgewater's closing share price of C$6.33 and an implied premium of 33% to the 20-day volume weighted average trading price of C$6.17 on the Toronto Stock Exchange as at June 16, 2011.



Bridgewater Systems provides pre-integrated solutions for mobile and converged operators. Its portfolio includes Service Controller (AAA), Policy Controller (PCRF) and Home Subscriber Server (HSS), anchored by a common identity and device management system.



Amdocs offers business and operational support systems, service delivery platforms, and professional services for network operators. The company generated approximately $3.0 billion in revenue in fiscal 2010, Amdocs has over 19,000 employees and serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide.



"Becoming part of Amdocs would enable us to accelerate our corporate growth strategy, centered around global expansion, enabling the transformation to next generation converged networks, portfolio and solution innovation, and leveraging our installed base," said Ed Ogonek, President and CEO, Bridgewater. "The natural synergies between the Bridgewater and Amdocs product and solution portfolios, coupled with Amdocs' extensive tier 1 customer base and global presence, would unleash innovative, policy-enabled customer experience solutions to service providers worldwide."



"This acquisition would build on Amdocs' leadership in delivering innovative solutions that change market paradigms. It is a continuation of our strategy to support service providers as they seek to transform their businesses in anticipation of new market opportunities like 4G and machine-to-machine, and in response to clear threats, such as the data explosion," said Amdocs Group President, Brian Shepherd.



The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2011, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of various closing conditions.http://www.amdocs.com http://www.bridgewater.com

• The Bridgewater Home Subscriber Server (HSS) is the master repository in the LTE Evolved Packet Core that contains subscriber and device profile and state information, and supports authentication, authorization and mobility management functions in LTE. The Bridgewater HSS supports broad multi-vendor interoperability using standards-based interfaces with all major network equipment vendors. Fully compliant with 3GPP Release 8 standards, with interfaces and performance requirements designed and tested for multi-vendor environments, it supports standardized LTE and IMS interfaces.




• In December 2010, Verizon Wireless awarded a new four-year framework contract to Bridgewater Systems 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.

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GigOptix Supplies HXT/R4 Chip for 40G Active Optical Cable

GigOptix announced that a Taiwanese optical engine manufacturer has entered production with GigOptix's HXT/R4 chip-set for use in a 40G Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP) Active Optical Cable (AOC) application.



GigOptix's HXT/R4 chip-set has been designed to support multiple applications ranging from 5Gb/s to 10Gb/s per channel.



The company has incorporated features that enable customers to optimize the trade-off between power dissipation and performance of the optical link. This has been successfully demonstrated by transmitting data over a 100m link with less than 100mW total power dissipation.



GigOptix also enables customers to examine the detailed status of their product after the fiber has been attached. This functionality allows customers to more easily test and monitor the operation of the VCSEL and Photo Diode (PD) devices within the optical engine leading to significant cost savings.http://www.gigOptix.com

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BusinessWeek: Skype Fires Executives, Saving Merger Payouts

At least eight senior executives at Skype Technologies SA have been dismissed before the recent acquisition with Microsoft is consummated, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The move is seen as reducing the value of the payout to these employees, as their stock options would have been worth considerably more if they fully vested through the acquisition.http://www.businessweek.com

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CommScope to Acquire Australia's Argus for Antenna Technologies

CommScope has signed an agreement to acquire Argus Technologies, a privately-held company headquartered in Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia, for an undisclosed sum.



Argus Technologies, provides high performance, high technology antennas for base stations, stadiums and venues, and other wireless applications. It was founded in 1994 by Dr. Bevan Jones, John Bonello and Danny Schwotzer.



CommScope said the deal will broaden its portfolio of antennas, strengthen its global market presence and accelerate its growth in the wireless market.



"We are very excited to work with the distinguished team from Argus and look forward to building upon their excellent technology, proven innovation and specialized solutions such as high capacity antennas for large venues," said Paul Bell, senior vice president and general manager, Base Station Antennas and Microwave Products. "Argus will be a strong fit for us as we continue to support wireless operators globally in their evolution to new technologies and their drive to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth needs of consumers and businesses."



CommScope will fund the acquisition from cash on hand and funds available under its revolving credit facility.http://www.commscope.com

• Earlier this month, CommScope acquired LiquidxStream Systems, a start-up developing dense universal edge QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) systems. The company is based in Montreal, Canada. Financial terms were not disclosed.



• In March 2011, CommScope introduced a new corporate identity and branding. The move follows the recent privatization by The Carlyle Group, which acquired all of the outstanding shares of CommScope for $31.50 per share in cash -- a transaction valued at approximately $3.9 billion.
  
  
  
  CommScope, which is based in Hickory, North Carolina, began as a small provider of cabling to the nascent cable TV market in the 1970s. It is now a multi-billion dollar, global infrastructure leader with solutions for wireless, wireline, enterprise and cable television networks.
  
  
  
  The brand makeover is the first for CommScope since the mid-1990s and follows the acquisitions of Avaya's Connectivity Solutions division in 2003 and Andrew Corporation in 2007.

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NSN to Demo "Liquid Telco" Concept at CommunicAsia 2011

At this week's CommunicAsia 2011 show in Singapore, Nokia Siemens Networks is showcasing a theme of "Liquid Telco" built around its Liquid Radio and CEM 2.0 technology. The company will focus on practical solutions for enabling extremely flexible networks that dynamically adjust to changing customer demands. The demonstrations will include LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation, enabling CSPs to utilize multiband frequency with greater efficiency, as well as optical packet transport and the readiness for 400 Gbps DWDM.http://www.nsn.com

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Alcatel-Lucent to Develop LTE Components in Russia

State Corporation Russian Technologies and Alcatel-Lucent announced an expansion of their joint venture, Alcatel-Lucent RT, to develop and manufacture LTE components customized for the Russian market. A new R&D center is to be established in St. Petersburg operated by Alcatel-Lucent RT that will be fully integrated with Alcatel-Lucent's wireless operations. This center will be staffed by Russian experts to ensure a focus on the development of LTE specific features for the Russian market.

Alcatel-Lucent Russian Telecom Equipment Company (RTEC), an affiliate of State Corporation Russian Technologies, will manufacture the telecommunication products developed by the joint R&D Center.

State Corporation Russian Technologies and Alcatel-Lucent have also agreed to explore a closer collaboration in submarine telecommunications networks, where Alcatel-Lucent is a leading provider of end-to-end undersea cable systems.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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BTI Systems to Resell DragonWave's Fusion Wireless Systems

BTI Systems and DragonWave are partnering to address the need for backhaul of mobile broadband data from the tower to the switching center by combining the strengths of their respective packet optical metro networking and high-capacity packet convergence solutions. Specifically, BTI Systems will resell and integrate DragonWave's Fusion portfolio of circuit-over-packet and multi-service access products into the BTI Systems portfolio. By combining the DragonWave Fusion portfolio with BTI Systems' portfolio of packet optical and service delivery solutions for metropolitan networks, BTI Systems is delivering its complete All-Packet Mobile Backhaul network solution that scales to meet the capacity, redundancy, and stringent SLA requirements for backhaul of mobile broadband.

"Service providers require a solution that enables them to immediately deploy Ethernet backhaul in a cost-effective manner while supporting existing traffic as they invest in their 4G and LTE networks," said Alan Solheim, VP Corporate Development for DragonWave. "The BTI Systems and DragonWave integrated approach combines two of the industry's best-in-class technologies into a full, end-to-end, MEF-compliant mobile backhaul solution that can meet customers' requirements to lower cost and increase time to market."http://www.btisystems.com http://www.dragonwaveinc.com

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BTI Systems Introduces All-Packet Mobile Backhaul

BTI Systems introduced its All-Packet Mobile Backhaul Solution for 3G & 4G deployments in metro and regional networks. The Carrier Ethernet-based architecture delivers scalable capacity at the tower using either point-to-point or ring topologies. The solution supports the security, prioritization capabilities and protection strategies to allow various traffic types and multiple wireless operators to transit the same packet connection. Some of the specific capabilities include integrated T1/E1 support, low latency, and end-to-end performance monitoring across both the packet and optical layers.



BTI is introducing resilient fiber ring protection with G.8032 ERPS plus support for duplicate tower, ring interconnect and MSC feeds with cross-module Link Aggregation (LAG). BTI said it is seeing strong interest from mobile carriers for G.8032.



Other distinguishing features include point-and-click network and service management tools, as well as SLA performance monitoring based on Y.1731 Ethernet OAM. Furthermore, BTI Systems' hardware-based Flow Processing Engine in the packet optical core allows embedded processing of Y.1731 messages, removing the need for stacks of NID's typically found at network headends.



In addition, BTI enables clock synchronization transparency, with low-latency delivery of single and multi-clock synchronization throughout the network.



"BTI Systems' focus has always been on providing metro service delivery solutions for our fiber-based service provider customers," said Glenn Thurston, VP of Global Marketing, BTI Systems. "The All-Packet Mobile Backhaul Solution supports both native 4G builds and also helps providers gracefully evolve from 2G TDM backhaul networks to a scalable, fiber-based all-packet network which is a must to meet the massive growth required for 3G & 4G mobile broadband."http://www.btisystems.com

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ZTE's T8000 Passes 100 GigE Testing

ZTE's ZXR10 M6000-16 edge/service router has pass the 100G Ethernet Router Performance and Scalability Independent Test Program, which was organized by the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC).



EANTC validated items such as IPv4 forwarding, IPV4 multicast forwarding, IPv6 forwarding, RSVP-TE, MPLS label forwarding, HQoS, L2VPN, L3VPN, load balancing based on IP routes, load balancing based on Link Aggregation, full-rate forwarding for all packet sizes tested and all-service power consumption and stability.



ZTE said its router supports full-rate forwarding for all packet sizes tested through the 100G port. Single-port multiservice overlay and minimum-byte full-rate forwarding are considered the hardest problems to overcome in router development. The router must deliver over 150M packets-per-second service processing and route forwarding while assuring the required throughput and rate.




ZXR10 M6000-16 edge/service router is based on ZTE's T8000 platform, which uses microprocessors developed by ZTE.
The company has previously expanded the T8000 platform to include a cluster router system designed to serve as an Internet super core. It has also added the M6000-16 MPLS edge/service router and the xGW wireless packet core. In May 2011, EANTC tested the M6000-16 100G system at ZTE's R&D center in Nanjing, China.



The ZXR10 T8000 also employs ZTE-developed forwarding, switching and interface chips for packet receiving and route forwarding and switching, and supports full-rate forwarding, especially in multiservice overlay, so its performance is stable and reliable over a long period of time. Using different software, the M6000-16 router also passed the IPv6 forwarding test, proving its ability to support the transition to an IPv6 data plane.http://www/zte.com.cn

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