Quantenna Collaborates with Samsung Electronics on 4x4 MIMO Wi-Fi

Quantenna Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to develop products based on Quantenna's 4x4 MIMO Wi-Fi technology.


"We believe that Samsung will impact the industry in a number of important ways,�? said Sam Heidari, chief executive officer for Quantenna. “Combining our expertise in high performance 4x4 MIMO Wi-Fi with Samsung's products enhances Quantenna's leadership in whole-home wireless video distribution."http://www.quantenna.com

• Quantenna's current family of Full-11n chipsets uses the company's cost-optimized, third-generation 4x4 MIMO technology to deliver up to 600 Mbps of bandwidth. The chipsets enable manufacturers to build products for delivering IPTV and other video streaming and data distribution services throughout the home over an ultra-reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi connection.



• In September 2010, Quantenna Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, raised $21 million in a Series E round of financing for its 4X4 MIMO 802.11n chipsets designed for next gen home networking applications. The funding was led by new investor DAG Ventures, with participation by each of the company's largest investors including Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross, and Venrock Associates.



• Quantenna leverages dynamic digital beamforming to deliver very high-speed wireless coverage throughout the whole home for sharing high definition (HD) video and multimedia content between home gateways and TVs. Quantenna's silicon is targeted at devices such as home residential gateways, set-top boxes, routers, HDTVs and consumer electronic devices, which all require high bandwidth and reliability to support whole home HD video distribution and networking over standard Wi-Fi networks.

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India's BSNL Disconnects Rivals

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the largest telecom operator in India, disconnected lines serving mobile rivals Airtel, Vodafone and Idea in Haryana circle, leading to disruption in landline and mobile services, according to Press Trust of India. The disconnections, which affect other areas across the country, has resulted in landlines customers being up able to complete calls to the mobile operators. BSNL has cited unpaid dues from other operations as the reason for its actions.


State-owned BSNL has over 90 million mobile customers of its own, and is the largest land line telephone provider in India.
http://www.bsnl.co.inhttp://www.hindustantimes.com

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HP Names Bethany Mayer to Lead Networking Business

HP appointed Bethany Mayer to serve as senior vice president and general manager of the HP Networking business unit. She has served as the unit's interim leader for the past four months, overseeing HP Networking's worldwide operations, reporting to Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager of Enterprise Servers, Storage, Networking and Technology Services at HP. Previously, Mayer was vice president of Marketing for Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking at HP.
http://www.hp.com

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Apple's iPhone 4s -- iMessage Eats into SMS/MMS Revenues

Here is a wrap-up of network related news from Apple's big iPhone event:

• iPhone 5 was not introduced.



• Sprint is a confirmed carrier for the iPhone.



• iPhone 4S uses the dual-core A5 chip for faster processing and 7X faster graphics than predecessor.



• iPhone 4S supports both CDMA and GSM in same device. It does not offer LTE.



• iPhone 4S supports 14.4 Mbps HSPA downlinks, versus 7.2 Mbps in the iPhone 4. In the U.S. market, this provides a speed boost for AT&T, but not for Verizon or Sprint



• iPhone 4S intelligently switches between two antennas for transmit and receive.



• The new Siri personal assistant is a major selling point and will require 3G or Wi-Fi network connectivity. Siri is not supported on earlier iPhones, nor on iPads or iTouches.



• In the U.S.., iPhone 4s is priced at $199 for a 16GB version, $299 for a 32 GB version and $399 for a 64 GB version -- 2 year contract required with AT&T, Verizon Wireless or Sprint.



• iOS 5 is coming October 12



• iOS 5 introduces iMessage, which is a free and unlimited service delivering text messages, photos, videos and contacts between fellow iPhone, iPad and iTouch users with iOS 5. Group messaging is supported. Delivery receipts are provided. It shows when the other party is typing a message to you. iMessages are encrypted. iMessage can reach non iOS 5 users via standard MMS.



• iOS 5 offers integration with Twitter



• Apple will offer a free Find My Friends services for iOS users. This is in addition to Find My Devices.



• iPod Touch is positioned as a communications device with free and unlimited messaging over Wi-Fi



• iCloud launches October 12 with 5GB of free storage, with the option to buy more (pricing not yet disclosed).

http://www.apple.com

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Level 3 Completes Acquisition of Global Crossing

Level 3 Communications completed its previously announced acquisition of Global Crossing Limited. The merger combines Level 3's U.S. and European footprint with Global Crossing's extensive international, intercity network.


Level 3 now will operate a services platform for medium to large enterprise, wholesale, content and government customers, anchored by extensive owned fiber networks on three continents in more than 45 countries as well as substantial undersea facilities. The combined business had pro forma 2010 revenues of $6.2 billion and pro forma 2010 Adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion before synergies and $1.6 billion after expected synergies. Corporate headquarters will remain in Broomfield, Colorado. James Q. Crowe is CEO of the company.


The deal was structured as a tax-free, stock-for-stock exchange. The combined business had pro forma 2010 revenues of $6.2 billion and pro forma 2010 Adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion before synergies and $1.6 billion after expected synergies. Total synergies are expected to be approximately $300 million of run-rate EBITDA, of which the company expects to realize the substantial majority within 18 months.


The company also announced plans to transfer the listing of its common stock to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and expects to begin trading on the NYSE on Oct. 20, 2011, under its current ticker symbol "LVLT". The company will continue to trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market until the transfer is completed. In conjunction with listing on NYSE, the company will affect a 1-for-15 reverse stock split of the Level 3 common stock.


"The integration planning effort has been very productive, and we are ready to begin integrating our operations today," said Jeff Storey, president and chief operating officer of Level 3. "Business remains strong, and we continue to feel confident about the synergy targets we identified when we announced this transaction. Our number one objective is to maintain our focus on providing an industry-leading customer experience, while also achieving our expected synergies."http://www.level3.com/

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Avaya Acquires Sipera for Securing Unified Communications

Avaya has acquired Sipera Systems, a privately-held supplier of Unified Communications (UC) enablement and security solutions, for an undisclosed sum.


Sipera supplies set of fit-for-purpose, enterprise-class SBC capabilities for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking that offers customers and channel partners flexibility, security and value. Sipera provides application-layer security. Security features include a patent-pending remote worker solution that helps deploy VPN-less solutions and advanced toll fraud protection.


"Sipera's broad portfolio of open, enterprise-focused security technologies strongly align with our own Avaya Aura unified communications architecture. Together, we will help customers simplify deployment, management and maintenance of secure, multi-vendor UC and contact center environments while providing them with greater flexibility to support remote and mobile employees using the device that best suits their needs," stated Dr. Alan Baratz, Senior Vice President and President, Global Communications Solutions, Avaya. http://www.avaya.com http://www.sipera.com

• In May 2010, Sipera Systems raised $10 million in venture funding for its real-time Unified Communications (UC) enablement and security solutions. he new funding was led by S3 Ventures, and includes participation by prior investors Austin Ventures, Duchossois Technology Partners (DTEC), Sequoia Capital, and STAR Ventures. This brings Sipera's total funding to $48 million. The company was founded in 2003.
  
  
  Sipera's "Borderless UC" architecture enables enterprise managers to safely extend UC over any network to any device, including office phones, home office phones, remote call center agents, video devices, soft-phones, collaboration tools, and smartphones. The company's portfolio includes its smartphone UC security solutions and UC-Sec enterprise UC security product family. Its UC security appliance protects against signaling and media vulnerabilities while maintaining the highest quality of service (QoS). It terminates encrypted UC traffic, offers fine-grained policy enforcement to apply different security and call routing rules, and solves firewall/NAT traversal among other UC deployment issues.

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AiNET Builds High-Density Fiber Net in Washington D.C.

AiNET has begun constructions of a new state-of-the-art 3-ring, 9,600 fiber-route mile DWDM fiber in Washington, D.C. Areas served by this extensive fiber rollout include: Georgetown, the lower Wisconsin Avenue district, the West End, Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, the K Street corridor, Penn Quarter, and the Central Business District (CBD) – with special focus on high concentrations of Federal office buildings, surrounding the Capital, and south of the National Mall. Notably, the network will be completed underground and offer a high degree of diversity from the fiber routes already in place. http://www.ai.net/

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UNH-IOL Offers Data Center Bridging (DCB) Testing

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is now offering testing of Data Center Bridging (DCB) in accordance with the finalization of all IEEE Data Center Bridging (DCB) standards.


The UNH-IOL notes that membership in its DCB Consortium has doubled over the past 12 months. By providing members with access to the latest DCB testing services, the UNH-IOL is helping members prepare for the next-generation of data center networks.


"UNH-IOL's knowledge of both of the Ethernet and Fibre Channel technologies and how they relate to each other makes UNH-IOL an ideal lab for Fibre Channel plugfests. As noted this is our 7th FCoE plugfest, but UNH-IOL has been handling our Fibre Channel plugfests for years now." http://www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/dcb

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McAfee to Acquire NitroSecurity for Cyber Situational Awareness

Intel's McAfee division plans to acquire NitroSecurity, a privately-held company focused on security information and event management (SIEM) solutions that provide visibility and situational awareness to protect critical information and infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed.


NitroSecurity identifies, correlates and remediates threats to the network. NitroSecurity's SIEM management, which has already passed integration testing with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), gives customers a single security platform for event analysis and management across the environment. The integration expands the capability of the McAfee ePO platform to view events, activity and logs created by networks, databases and applications.


McAfee said NitroSecurity's technology, combined with its own security management capabilities, will give organizations greater visibility into their endpoint assets, underlying network infrastructure, specific security threats and risks and system vulnerabilities across their entire IT environment. http://www.mcafee.com

• NitroSecurity was founded in 1999 and based in Portsmouth, NH.

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IBM Acquires Q1 Labs for Security Analytics

IBM agreed to acquire privately held Q1 Labs, a developer of security intelligence software, for an undisclosed sum.


Q1 Labs, which is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, provides software that collects and analyzes information from hundreds of sources across an organization, such as the network, applications, user activity, mobile endpoints, and physical security devices such as badge readers - including both cloud-based and on-premise sources. Its security information and event management (SIEM) software also helps IT staff and auditors manage the tracking of security incidents and model risk to better protect customers, while giving executives insight into the security and risk posture of the organization. The company cites more than 1,800 clients globally, including healthcare providers, energy firms, retail organizations, utility companies, financial institutions, government agencies, educational institutions, and wireless service providers.


Q1 Labs' advanced analytics and correlation capabilities can automatically detect and flag actions across an enterprise that deviate from prescribed policies and typical behavior to help prevent breaches, such as an employee accessing unauthorized information.


IBM Managed Security Services is already making available to clients a cloud-based service of Q1 Labs' security information and event management offering.


IBM said the acquisition accelerates its efforts to help clients more intelligently secure their enterprises by applying analytics to correlate information from key security domains and creating security dashboards for their organizations. Following the close of the acquisition, Q1 Labs will join the newly-formed IBM Security Systems division. The new division will be led by Brendan Hannigan, the current CEO of Q1 Labs.


IBM sees a $94 billion opportunity in security software and services with a nearly 12 percent compound annual growth rate. Q1 Labs will join the more than 10 strategic security acquisitions IBM has made in the last decade and the more than 25 analytics-related purchases, including the recently announced acquisition of security analytics software firm, i2.


"Since perimeter defense alone is no longer capable of thwarting all threats, IBM is in a unique position to shift security thinking to an integrated, predictive approach," said Brendan Hannigan , CEO of Q1 Labs. "Q1 Labs' security analytics will add greater intelligence to IBM's security portfolio and continue to distinguish IBM from competitors."


IBM's new Security Systems division integrates IBM's Tivoli, Rational and Information Management security software, appliances, lab offerings and services. IBM plans to apply Q1 Labs' analytics to drive greater security intelligence capabilities across its security products and services such as identity and access management, database security, application security, enterprise risk management, intrusion prevention, endpoint management and network security. http://www.ibm.com/securityhttp://q1labs.com/

• Q1 Labs has significant, strategic OEM partnerships with a number of network infrastructure companies, including Juniper Networks and Enterasys.
• In February 2008, Q1 Labs announced $9 million in Series D funding, bringing total equity investment in the company to $43 million. The funding round was led by Globespan Capital Partners and included other existing investors Menlo Ventures, BDC Venture Capital, Polaris Venture Partners, New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation as well as individual investors.
• Q1 Labs was founded in 2001.



• Last year, HP acquired ArcSight, a provider of network security and compliance management company, in a deal valued at $1.5 billion. ArcSight, which is based in Cupertino, California, provides a platform for gaining visibility and critical insights into IT infrastructure across all users, networks, data centers and applications. The company has over 1,000 corporate and government customers.

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