Altair Partners with ZTE on AXGP TDD-LTE Silicon for Japan

Altair Semiconductor has teamed up with ZTE to conduct a joint AXGP trial in Japan. AXGP stands for "Advanced eXtended Global Platform," and is a Japanese 4G standard that is fully compliant with the TD-LTE specification. The trial combines Altair's commercial FourGee LTE chipset and ZTE's infrastructure and is being performed in conjunction with a large Japanese carrier.


Altair is rapidly extending its footprint in the Japanese market, having recently announced that its FourGee chipset, integrated in a commercial USB dongle, was used in Softbank Mobile's 4G press conference AXGP demonstration conducted in Japan on September 29.
http://www.altair-semi.com

• In April, Altair Semiconductor, a start-up based in Israel, completed a $26 million round of funding for its ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance LTE chipsets.



• In February, Altair Semiconductor announced that its TD-LTE chipset, alongside Alcatel-Lucent's LTE infrastructure, has successfully completed interoperability (IOT) testing and will take part in several upcoming TD-LTE field trials in India and China. TD-LTE operates in unpaired spectrum.

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Tennessee's Twin Lakes Picks ADTRAN

Twin Lakes Telephone Cooperative Corp., Tennessee's largest telephone cooperative, has selected ADTRAN's extensive broadband portfolio and Advanced Operational Environment (AOE) services management solution for use throughout its network.


Twin Lakes will use a Broadband Stimulus award to reach over 12,000 business and residential customers with IPTV and high-speed service via Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH). In addition, the service provider is also expanding the use of the ADTRAN solutions for high-bandwidth mobile backhaul applications.
http://www.adtran.com

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F5 Expands its BIG-IP Application Delivery Controllers

F5 Networks has expanded its range of Application Delivery Controller (ADC) solutions with a new BIG-IP 11000 platform specifically designed for high levels of throughput for application acceleration and data center-to-data center replication. The new platform boasts up to 20 Gbps of LAN-side throughput, 16 Gbps of hardware compression, and optional solid-state drives.


F5 is also introducing Federal Information Processing Standard-compliant Hardware Security Module editions of the BIG-IP 11000 and 11050 platforms to help government, healthcare, and financial services organizations meet SSL encryption mandates.


F5 says that managing FIPS security through the BIG-IP system instead of on individual servers yields 25 percent savings on compliance costs. In addition to the new 11000 series releases, F5 is expanding its 6900 series to include the BIG-IP 6900S hardware platform to support applications that require high levels of SSL processing.
http://www.f5.com

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NTT Com Activates Low-Latency POP with Chicago Mercantile Exchange

NTT Com will begin providing its ultra-low latency Arcstar services at the western Chicago suburb co-location data center of the CME Group, which operates large derivatives and futures exchanges in Chicago and New York City, as well as online trading platforms. The CME Group was formed through the merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). NTT Com's service will allow CME Co-Location Services customers premier access to the Asian markets.
http://www.us.ntt.com

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Emerson Wins $100 Million Contract for Australia's NBN

Emerson Network Power has been selected by the National Broadband Network Company (NBNCo) to design, supply, install, and commission 10 network facilities centers across Australia as part of the rollout of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN). The contact is valued in excess of $100 million.


Emerson will supply it full product suite, including high-efficiency power systems (Trinergy and ASCO); Liebert precision cooling systems and SmartAisle optimization; SiteScan infrastructure monitoring and management; and fully integrated, factory-tested modular housing systems. The products are complemented by Emerson's in-house integration expertise, combining solution engineering, end-to-end project management, global supply chain and logistics, and site civil works (via partnerships with Silcar and Greenbox Architecture).


“Our approach reflects a dimension of our business that differentiates us – our ability to create integrated solutions that bring core IT and telecommunications components together,�? said Scott Barbour, business leader for Emerson Network Power. “This capability will deliver tremendous value not only to NBNCo but also to the general public as beneficiaries of the technology, through efficiencies in network rollout and the highest levels of network performance.�?http://www.EmersonNetworkPower.com

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GSMA Sees a US$1.2 Trillion Opportunity for Service Providers with Connected Devices

The GSMA calculates that the number of total connected devices will increase from approximately 9 billion today to more than 24 billion in 2020, and within that, mobile connected devices will grow 100 percent from more than 6 billion today to 12 billion in 2020.


This will create an addressable revenue opportunity for mobile operators of nearly US$1.2 trillion by 2020, a sevenfold increase from expected revenues in 2011, according to the GSMA study, which was backed by AT&T, Deutsche Bank, KT, Telenor Connexion and Vodafone, and developed by Machina Research.


"We are entering the next phase in the development of the mobile industry, one where we will see mobile connect everything in our lives," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA. "In this new Connected Life, mobile will transform society and will have a profound effect on the way we interact not only with each other, but also with our surroundings. However, capitalising on this enormous opportunity requires collaboration across the entire ecosystem to demonstrate how mobile technology in everything from tablet PCs to new healthcare devices can enhance people's personal and business lives."


Jim Morrish, director at Machina Research, commented: "We are moving into a new era in connectivity where we will see the proliferation of billions of connected devices in the world. Most of that growth is coming from machine-to-machine: a new market for communications service providers, and with new dynamics. The way that mobile operators, device vendors, service providers and others in the value chain react to this opportunity will have important implications for their future success. Right now, the mobile industry has a clear opportunity to play a central role in the Connected Life."


Matthew Bloxham, director of telecoms research at Deutsche Bank added: "The growth of connected devices has the potential to offer substantial social, ecological and financial benefits to the world economy. The figures announced today highlight the significant revenue opportunity this space could deliver. However the wider economic impact could be far greater, including indirect benefits to industry such as cost reduction, increased efficiency and the potential for new products and services. We are pleased that many mobile operators are already implementing strategies to tap into this market, although a broad industry-wide approach is essential to realising the full opportunity."http://www.gsmaconnectedlife.com

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BlackBerry Suffers Outage Across Europe, Middle East & Africa

Research In Motion's BlackBerry service suffered a widespread outage affecting millions of users on multiple networks across Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. News reports cited a problem originating at a data center in England. The service was gradually restored after several hours. http://www.rim.com/

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Verizon Wireless to Activate LTE in 22 More Cities on Oct 20

Verizon Wireless will turn on its 4G LTE network in 22 new cities and expand the network in four cities on Oct. 20, and will turn on the 4G LTE network in 13 cities and expand in five cities on Nov. 17. This means the Verizon Wireless LTE network will be in 178 cities across the U.S. by mid-November. Verizon Wireless is now supporting 13 4G LTE-enabled devices.
http://www.verizonwireless.com

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Broadcom Develops 100 Mbps Ethernet PHY for Cars

Broadcom introduced a physical layer transceiver (PHY) for automotive networks. The Broadcom BroadR-Reach BCM89810 PHY is designed for 100 Mbps Ethernet connectivity over unshielded single twisted pair wiring in vehicles. It performs all of the physical layer functions for encoded Ethernet packets over unshielded copper wire and is fully compliant with RGMII and MII interface specifications, providing compatibility with other Ethernet devices within the vehicle.
http://www.broadcom.com

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Huawei Shows 40G PON Prototype with 1:512 Split Ratio

Huawei announced a prototype PON platform that delivers 40 Gbps downstream and 10 Gbps upstream. The system, which has been tested and certified by the China Telecom Beijing Research Institute, supports a 1:512 optical splitting ratio and a transmission reach of 20 kilometers.


“Huawei's 40G PON system is highly compatible with existing GPON and XGPON systems and its transmission convergence layer maximally leverages existing GPON and XGPON structures,�? said Dr. Frank J. Effenberger, Huawei's chief optical access technology expert. “We are pleased to note that Huawei's solution has gained wide-ranging support from international standardization organizations like FSAN and ITU-T.�?http://www.huawei.com

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AT&T Upgrades Manhattan Networks

AT&T added and/or upgraded 130 cell sites across Manhattan this summer, including sites in the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Morningside Heights, East Harlem, Central Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood.


AT&T noted that it also plans to install additional radio carriers at more than 30,000 cell sites nationally this year, enabling new layers of spectrum capacity to carry larger volumes of mobile broadband traffic. http://www.att.com

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MSF: Progress in Voice-over-LTE

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is making progress with multiple vendors now demonstrating interoperable platforms and major carriers demonstrating successful interconnects.


Last month, the MSF (MultiService Forum), backed by the GSMA, hosted a VoLTE Interoperability Event held simultaneously in Dusseldorf, Germany and Beijing, China. VoLTE calls were successfully completed within each host site (including MMTel services) as well as between the host sites to demonstrate network inter-connect. LTE Roaming between host sites was successfully demonstrated, utilizing dynamic policy control between home and visited networks employing DRA's (Diameter Routing Agents). Multi-vendor testing, a key component of all MSF IOT events, was conducted at each site, incorporating interworking between different vendors' UE, eNodeB, SeGW, EPC, IMS/MMTEL, DRA and PCC technology.


The MSF VoLTE interoperability event focused on validating the GSMA VoLTE recommendations for UE to Core Network interoperability, incorporating LTE, EPC, PCC, DRA and IMS core elements in a multi-vendor deployment. Test scenarios included VoLTE basic interoperability, global Roaming and Interconnection as specified by the GSMA.


Vodafone hosted the European event at its Test and Innovation Centre in Dusseldorf, Germany and China Mobile hosted the Asian event at its Research Institute Laboratory in Beijing, China. The Event was sponsored by GENBAND, Huawei, ZTE, Alepo, Bridgewater Systems, Cisco and WiChorus, a Tellabs Company, with participation from Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Codenomicon, D2 Technologies, EXFO, IPneo, JDSU, Metaswitch, Samsung, Stoke, Traffix Systems and VSS Monitoring. Observers included ETRI, ETSI, NCS, NTT, Verizon and Videotron.


"The MSF VoLTE event successfully validated the GSMA VoLTE initiative by demonstrating that an IMS-based solution for Voice over LTE can provide global roaming and interconnect solutions for Operators. We are very pleased to see so many global participants coming together for such an important multi-vendor event. The latest in the series of MSF LTE Testing has surpassed our expectations," said Kyu-Ouk Lee, MSF President, ETRI.


“The completion of successful interoperability testing should give the industry, and in particular GSMA member organisations, the confidence to progress their work on VoLTE deployments as they move forward with their LTE deployment plans. The GSMA thanks the MSF for organizing and administering such a comprehensive event, and we will continue to work together to implement improvements and extend the level of interoperability of VoLTE implementations in the future,�? said Dan Warren, Senior Director of Technology, GSMA.


For its part, GENBAND noted that its A2 Communications Application Server was tested in the role of VoLTE Telephony Application Server (TAS), where it provided Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) services with IMS to LTE mobile devices through 3GPP standard ISC and Ut interfaces. Through the A2, GENBAND tested TAS functions using the ISC interface and successfully executed MMTel services to LTE devices via a third party IMS core. GENBAND also tested the Ut interface directly with the LTE devices for MMTel service configuration.


STOKE, which supplied its high performance Security eXchange gateway, contributed in building and validating practical LTE network use cases such as secure association and encryption of VoLTE traffic from the radio access network to the evolved packet core. Stoke's Security eXchange encrypts user and control plane traffic between LTE base station (eNodeB) devices and the core network at line rate. This allows operators to mitigate the strategic risks inherent in deploying all-IP LTE networks and improves their ability to scale their networks to accommodate growth in traffic and eNodeBs. http://www.msforum.org/interoperability/VoLTE.shtml

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ZTE Wins TDD Contract with Japan's WCP

Wireless City Planning, a new wholesale mobile network operator in Japan led by SOFTBANK, has selected ZTE to supply radio access equipment based on AXGP (Advanced eXtended Global Platform) -- a technology similar to TD-LTE -- to build its next-generation mobile network in Japan. ZTE was chosen by WCP as its primary strategic partner for China Mobile, Hutchison Whampoa and KPN .


We have chosen ZTE, the world's leading telecommunications equipment provider, as our partner to build the world's largest TDD network. We hope that ZTE can maintain its leading innovation capability in mobile communications technologies to help us build the best next generation mobile data network in Japan and even the world.�? said WCP Director and Chief Operating Officer Junichi Miyakawa.


ZTE noted that it has TDD-LTE project underway with China Mobile, Hutchison Whampoa and KPNhttp://www.zte.com.cn

• Earlier this month, , Alcatel-Lucent announced that it was selected by WCP to supply its 7750 Service Router and 7210 Service Access Switch for the backbone of the AXGP network.

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Openreach Selects ADVA FSP 3000

Openreach, the infrastructure division of BT Group, has selected ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 as the foundation for its new Optical Spectrum Access product (OSA) within its Optical Spectrum portfolio. Openreach will use the ADVA FSP 3000 to transport enormous amounts of data throughout the U.K. securely and with the lowest latency possible. Applications include data center connectivity for cloud and virtualized services, business continuity and disaster recovery, financial trading, video conferencing and data backhaul.


The ADVA FSP 3000 is a scalable WDM system offering a modular architecture, rack-mountable shelves, hot-swappable modules, universal cards, transparent interfaces and qualifications with all leading Storage Area Network (SAN) vendors.


“Our relationship with ADVA Optical Networking stretches back many years and has evolved into a strategic partnership mutually benefiting both companies,�? said Jon Hurry, MD, Commercial Portfolio and Policy, Openreach. “We believe that our new OSS solution is critical for UK enterprises as they seek to respond to ever greater business demands both from a fiscal and a competitive standpoint. The ADVA FSP 3000 ensures our customers will be able to scale to meet these challenges, deliver a best in class solution and position themselves well within an increasingly competitive global playing field.�?http://www.advaoptical.com

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Ukraine's Eurotranstelecom Deploys 100G with Ciena

Ukrainian-based Eurotranstelecom has commercially deployed 100G technology in its nationwide backbone network covering the key regions in Ukraine and linking it to Russian, Polish, Hungarian and Slovakian networks. The deployment uses Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors.


The first 100G link is 560 km long and connects the capital Kiev to Kharkov in the northeast of the country. ETT plans to extend its 100G network to major Ukrainian regional centers such as Lvov, Donetsk, Odessa, and Dnepropetrovsk, providing high-speed support for in-transit traffic from European, Ukrainian and Russian operators. http://www.ciena.com

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