ADTRAN Continues Roll -- Sales up 23% to $184 Million

ADTRAN's Q2 sales increased 23% to an all time record level of $184,227,000 for the quarter, compared to $150,361,000 for the second quarter of 2010. Net income increased 33% to $36,943,000 for the quarter, compared to $27,751,000 for the second quarter of 2010. Earnings per share, assuming dilution, increased 27% to $0.56 for the quarter, compared to $0.44 for the second quarter of 2010.


ADTRAN Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton stated, "Our Company had an outstanding quarter reaching new highs on multiple fronts. The performance was led by our growth areas which combined grew 48% over the prior year, now representing 72% of our total company revenue. Moreover, every component of our growth areas, which include Broadband Access, Optical Access and Internetworking, individually attained new revenue highs. Broadband Access grew an impressive 71% over second quarter 2010, driven by the continued success of our Total Access 5000 and Fiber-to-the-Node platforms. Optical Access grew 36% and Internetworking grew 18%. These results allowed the company to achieve its fifth consecutive quarterly revenue record. As demonstrated by our results, we believe our highly differentiated solutions are exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of secular trends occurring in the markets we serve."


ADTRAN's Board of Directors declared a cash dividend for the second quarter of 2011 of $0.09 per common share.
http://www,adtran.com

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Eutelsat's Tooway Signs Partner for Ukraine

Eutelsat Communications announced a distribution agreement for the Tooway broadband satellite service with Eurosat-Ukraine, an affiliate of Altegrosky, a leading provider of satellite-delivered telecoms services in Russia and CIS countries.


The new contract covers distribution to consumers in the Ukraine of the Tooway new generation satellite broadband service, which is delivered via Eutelsat's KA-SAT satellite. The service promises download speeds of up to 10 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 4 Mbps.
http://www.tooway.com
http://www.altegrosky.ru

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Nokia and Siemens Partnership Continues in NSN

Nokia and Siemens have completed a strategic review of their joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, and have decided against pursuing a private equity investment or sale.


"We believe that the current shareholders are in the best position to further enhance the value of the company," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chairman of Nokia Siemens Networks.


The company cited "good progress" in its turnaround plan, with first quarter 2011 results marking a third successive quarter of year-on-year reported net sales growth, as well as a fifth quarter of non-IFRS operating profits since it announced its change in strategy in November 2009.


Nokia Siemens Networks will undertake further steps to improve its efficiency and competitive position, while strengthening its capabilities in mobile broadband, services and customer experience management to drive and support customer roadmaps.


"Nokia and Siemens have reaffirmed their commitment and continue to be strong supporters of Nokia Siemens Networks," said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. "With us, they share the common goal of ensuring that Nokia Siemens Networks will be a sustainable and powerful leader in the industry, benefiting from its strength in innovation."http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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FCC Tightens E911 Location Accuracy Requirements

The FCC took action to strengthen the Enhanced 911 (E911) location accuracy rules for wireless carriers.


Wireless carriers typically provide E911 location using either a "handset-based" method, where location information is generated by GPS or similar technology installed in the caller's handset, or a "network-based" method, where location information is generated by triangulating the caller's wireless signal in relation to nearby cell sites in the carrier's network.


The FCC's rules require wireless carriers to identify the caller's location for a specified percentage
of 911 calls within a range of 50 to 150 meters for carriers that use handset-based technology, and 100 to 300
meters for carriers that use network-based technology.


In September 2010, the Commission adopted benchmarks for wireless carriers to meet these handset- and network-based accuracy thresholds at the county or Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) level for increasing percentages of 911 calls over an eight-year period.


In today's action, the FCC announced that after the conclusion of the eight-year implementation period in early 2019, it will sunset the existing network-based rule and require all wireless carriers to meet the more stringent location accuracy standards in the handset-based rule. The Commission will set a specific sunset date for the network-based standard at a later date, after further notice and comment. The Commission also required new wireless network carriers to meet the handset-based accuracy standard going forward.


The FCC will also require all wireless carriers to test their E911 location accuracy results periodically and to share the results with PSAPs, state 911 offices, and the Commission, subject to confidentiality safeguards. The Commission referred to the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) the task of making recommendations to the Commission in six months on specific, cost effective testing requirements and methodologies.


In addition, the FCC is seeking comment on whether it should apply existing 911 rules that cover two-way interconnected VoIP services to "outbound-only" interconnected VoIP services, which allow users to place outbound telephone calls but not to receive inbound telephone calls. The Commission is also asking for ways it might ensure that all interconnected VoIP providers can provide automatic location information for VoIP 911 calls, rather than relying on the subscriber to register his or her location with the VoIP provider. This includes considering mechanisms that would enable "over-the-top" interconnected VoIP service providers and underlying network access providers to jointly support the provision of location accuracy information to PSAPs.

The Commission is also seeking input on ways that location technologies that are already being developed
for commercial broadband applications might be leveraged to support 911 location determination. Finally,
the Commission is soliciting comment on how to improve location accuracy for 911 calls made from indoors,
including large office buildings where it may be difficult to locate an individual in trouble based only on a
street address, and directed the CSRIC to develop recommendations for cost effective indoor location
accuracy testing." http://www.fcc.gov

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T-Mobile USA Continues Roll Out of HSPA+ 42

T-Mobile USA has expanded portions of its HSPA+ mobile broadband network to support top theoretical peak speeds up to 42 Mbps. The upgraded network is now available to more than 170 million people across the United States. Ericsson is playing a key role in the network upgrade.


T-Mobile's aggressive rollout plan called for doubling its HSPA+ network speeds by mid-2011.


T-Mobile customers now have access to the 42 4G network in Baltimore; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Hartford and New Haven, Conn.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Lancaster, Pa.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Providence, R.I.; and Washington, D.C., among several others.


The company recently introduced the T-Mobile Rocket™ 3.0 laptop stick, its first HSPA+ 42-capable device, offering average download speeds on its HSPA+ 42 network approaching 10 Mbps, with peak speeds of 27 Mbps.


"As we build toward a networked society in which any device that benefits from a connection will have one, faster mobile broadband speeds and more data capacity are essential," said Angel Ruiz, head of Ericsson North America. "With this expansion to HSPA+ 42 Mbps, Ericsson and T-Mobile USA add to the companies' long history of partnership."


"In cooperation with Ericsson, we're now able to provide access to T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 Mbps network to even more customers," said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. "Ericsson is a crucial partner in the expansion of our HSPA+ network, which allows us to offer customers increased 4G speeds, network capacity and reliability." http://www.ericsson.com http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/articles/t-mobile-faster-4g-network

• In May 2011, T-Mobile USA activated HSPA+ with top theoretical downlink speeds of 42 Mbps in 50 markets across the U.S. This is double the top speed previously available from T-Mobile USA.
  
  
  The launch includes major markets such as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco, among others.
  
  
  T-Mobile’s first 42 Mbps-capable product is The Rocket 3.0 laptop stick, manufactured by ZTE.

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Department of Energy Builds National 100GigE Research Net

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Internet2 announced plans to build one of the world's fastest and most advanced scientific networks on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (ESnet).


Berkeley Lab has received $62 million in funding to create the Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI) in order to develop a 100 Gbps prototype network between DOE's supercomputing centers to facilitate research and experimentation around this new technology. The prototype network is a key step to the DOE's vision of an eventual 1 terabit wavelength network to connect DOE facilities. Part of the ANI funding was also used to create a high-performance reconfigurable testbed where researchers and industry can test advanced concepts in networking and develop new protocols.

Under the project, ESnet and Internet2 will build and operate the 100 Gbps ANI prototype network using one of the first national-scale deployments of 100 GigE. Internet2 will use fiber from Level 3 Communications' network. ESnet will also have the option to access 4.4 terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity for the ESnet ANI network using Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform. The ESnet ANI prototype network will initially connect three DOE unclassified supercomputing centers: the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Berkeley Lab, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) in Tennessee, and Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) in Illinois, as well as the Manhattan Landing International Exchange Point (MANLAN) in New York.


During the prototype phase, the network will be used for applications and networking research, including connecting the Magellan cloud computing resources at NERSC to ALCF, and the Acadia project, which will develop network interface controller (NIC) hardware and device-driver/protocol-specific software for host and gateway systems operating at 40 and 100 Gbps. The prototype network will also serve as a platform for building out technologies leading to an eventual 1-terabit per second wavelength network.


"The ANI prototype is a crucial step forward to a future nationwide 100 Gbps production network that will connect DOE scientists with unprecedented network capabilities to conduct data-intensive research and collaborations, bolstering U.S. scientific innovation in areas that will impact society, such as climate studies, clean fuels, particle physics, and genomics," said Steve Cotter, ESnet department head. "The agreement extends a strong working relationship between Internet2 and ESnet to provide the research and education community with the most robust networking resources to meet its current and future needs."


"Science is becoming more data-intensive and remote instruments are producing significantly more data volume than in previous generations. As a result, research network traffic is growing at twice the rate of commercial Internet traffic, and the trend is expected to accelerate as the scope of scientific collaborations increases and scientists around the world draw data from geographically dispersed experimental facilities like the Large Hadron Collider," said Dave Lambert, Internet2 president and CEO, "Increasing the capacity of networks is more important than ever to enable scientists to analyze data, collaborate, and combine data sets in new ways from these experiments." http://www.internet2.eduhttp://www.lbl.gov/

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EZchip Implements OpenFlow 1.1 on its Network Processor

EZchip Semiconductor has implemented the latest OpenFlow spec, version 1.1, on its NP-4 network processor by several independent bodies.


EZchip noted that while the previous version of OpenFlow, version 1.0, has seen multiple silicon-based implementations, the recently released version 1.1 strains silicon implementations by requiring a high degree of packet processing flexibility, in particular performing repetitive nested lookups in various tables.


One of the implementations of OpenFlow 1.1 on the NP-4 was developed by the Telecom Research Team (LTIR Lab) at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), while others are at corporations that prefer confidentiality. The LTIR Research Lab was founded by Professor Omar Cherkaoui who is leading a major project on the virtualization of network equipment called Netvirt.


"EZchip's NP-4 processor provides the flexibility and performance necessary for implementing OF1.1 as well as any future versions of the standard. NP-4's easy programming model enabled the UQAM Netvirt team to realize our OF1.1 full implementation with a high level of flexibility and a full 100 Gigabits. We are very pleased with the outcome," said Prof. Omar Cherkaoui, Université du Québec à Montréal. http://www.ezchip.com

• OpenFlow is a new protocol that is being developed to separate the data plane from the control plane in a switch or router. The goal is to enable software-defined switching architectures. Work is being carried out by the OpenFlow Switch Consortium and Stanford University.

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ZTE Claims 24 x 1.3 Tbps WDM Record

ZTE achieved a signal transmission record of 24 Tbps (24 x 1.3 Tbps) over its WDM platform -- a new world record for optical transmission. The result was published as a Post Deadline Paper (PDP) at the recent Opto-Electronics and Communications Conference (OECC) 2011 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


ZTE said it expects 1 Tbps bit rate per channel to become the industry mainstream after 100 Gbps.


ZTE's record-breaking 24 Tbps WDM system carried 12 C-band signals and 12 L-band signals at the rate of 1.3 Tbps per channel (a net rate of 1 Tbps after eliminating forward error correction or FEC). Each signal is received by using QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) of Polarization Wavelength Division Multiplexing, optical OFDM modulation code format and coherent optical detection. The transmission distance is 2400km standard single mode fiber by using the standard Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFA).


"Over the years, we have always been devoted to 100G and beyond-100G technology researches and committed ourselves to providing 100G solutions for IP network and optical transport networks. In the future, we will invest more resources to bring more of our research results to market with 100G global deployment," said Mr. Fan Xiaobing, general manager of ZTE's bearer network product line. http://www.zte.com.cn

• In March 2011 at Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), ZTE announced the successful transmission of single-channel 10 Tbps optical OFDM signals.

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