Lightower Builds Ultra-low Latency in NY-NJ

Lightower Fiber Networks introduced its Ultra-Low Latency Network across 15 strategic locations in the New York City and New Jersey area, targeting the region's financial markets.

Lightower's all-optical network leverages wavelength technology combined with unique point-to-point fiber routes optimized for the lowest latency. Ultra-low latency services can be custom configured for individual needs and are offered at 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps levels. All Lightower Ultra-Low Latency services are also backed with a strict Latency Service Level Agreement. http://www.lightower.com

• Earlier this year, Lightower completed the acquisition of Long Island-based Open Access Inc. Late last year, Lightower completed the acquisition of New York City-based Lexent Metro Connect. Most recently, the company announced the completion of a new network route across the Hudson River that offers diversity and a shorter route relative to traditional area routes across the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Read More

Huawei Kicks off New Branding Campaign in US

Huawei kicked off a new "Faster to the Future" branding campaign in the U.S. with high-profile, print advertisements in The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. Huawei said its campaign seeks to humanize its brand, "softening the edges of its image, and building positive awareness of Huawei as Visionary, Innovative, and Responsive" by appealing to key customers, partners, government officials/influencers, and business opinion leaders.


http://www.huawei.com

• Huawei has faced numerous obstacles in its attempt to enter the U.S. telecom market. In October, the CIA-based Open Source Center has published a report linking Huawei Technologies with China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) Communications Department, according to The Washington Times. Huawei reportedly received $228.2 million from China's intelligence agency for research and development during the past three years has had close contact through its chairwoman, Sun Yafang. The report also alleges close ties with the People's Liberation Army.

Read More

IBM Deploys Solar Panels for Indian Data Center

IBM is deploying a 50-kilowatt solar panel array over its India Software Lab in Bangalore. The solar-power array designed specifically to run high-voltage data centers, integrating AC- and DC-based servers, water-cooled computing systems and related electronics. The solar system connects directly into the data center's water-cooling and high-voltage DC systems.


IBM said that by employing unique high-voltage DC power conditioning methods – and reducing AC-DC conversion losses – its solution can cut energy consumption of data centers by about 10 percent and tailors solar technology for wider use in industrial IT and electronics installations. The company notes that high-voltage, DC computer servers and water-cooling systems are beginning to replace traditional, AC-powered servers and air-conditioning units in data centers.


"The technology behind solar power has been around for many years, but until now, no one has engineered it for efficient use in IT," said Rod Adkins, senior vice president, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "We've designed a solar solution to bring a new source of clean, reliable and efficient power to energy-intensive, industrial-scale electronics."


IBM plans to make the new solar-power technology available to clients. http://www.ibm.com

Read More

AT&T Offers Free Wi-Fi in NYC Parks

AT&T has begun providing free Wi-Fi at Brooklyn's Prospect Park Picnic House and Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, as well as at Marcus Garvey Park in Manhattan, where thousands of marathoners will run nearby on Sunday. The launch is part of a five-year digital initiative with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City of New York to provide free Wi-Fi at 26 locations in 20 New York City parks across the five boroughs. New Yorkers can now stay connected at more than half of the 20 parks. http://www.att.com

Read More

ADVA Intros 10 Gbps Etherjack Demarcation Device

ADVA Optical Networking introduced an ultra-compact 10 Gbps Ethernet service demarcation and aggregation device that enables the delivery of differentiated Ethernet services up to 10 Gbps with strict service level assurance for carrier and enterprise applications.

The ADVA FSP 150CC-XG210 offers full traffic management and OAM along with the following features:

• Two 10 Gbps network interfaces plus two slots for access interface modules with hot swap support
  
• Variety of service protection options including ITU G.8031 and G.8032 for ring deployments
  
• Standards compliant implementation of IEEE 802.3ah EFM link management, IEEE 802.1ag connectivity fault management, ITU Y.1731 performance monitoring, Y.1564 Ethernet service testing and embedded RFC 2544 service testing.

ADVA noted that its ADVA FSP 150CC-XG210 is the first 10 Gbps device to leverage its Etherjack and Syncjack technology, which provide service monitoring and assurance.

"Based on the product's full set of Etherjack and Syncjack functionalities, the deployment possibilities are manifold," commented Stephan Rettenberger, vice president marketing at ADVA Optical Networking. "The new unit can be used in business services, wholesale services, as well as mobile backhaul. It is a powerful demarcation device for these applications and can also be deployed as an aggregation and ENNI solution further back in the network." http://www.advaoptical.com

Read More

CityFibre Plans £500 million FTTP Expansion in UK

CityFibre, the UK's largest independent provider of fibre in secondary cities, is preparing to invest up to £500 million to build further metro networks and pure Fibre-to-the-Premises networks in towns across the UK. CityFibre
has retained Macquarie Capital, a leader in infrastructure corporate finance, to help advance these plans.


Macquarie Capital is the lead financial advisor to Telstra for the creation of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN Co). The company will now act as financial advisor to CityFibre in raising new capital to realise the company's plans to connect one million homes and 50,000 businesses.


CityFibre said it will partner with leading service providers, technology vendors and construction firms to deliver its networks. Roll out is expected to commence in early 2012. http://www.cityfibreholdings.com

Read More

SK Telecom Tests LTE Smart Cloud Access Network (SCAN)

SK Telecom claims to be the first carrier to test an LTE Smart Cloud Access Network (SCAN) to improve speed and performance. A pilot deployment of smart cloud base stations is currently being tested.


SCAN separates digit signal processing from the base stations and concentrates it in one place, allowing the network to respond to traffic demands in certain locations. Additional antenna radio units can be deployed at a lower cost instead of a full base station. The smart cloud base stations also cooperate with each other to reduce interference, especially in border areas in the network.

http://www.sktelecom.com/

• SK Telecom inaugurated its 4G LTE service in Seoul on July 1, 2011.
  
  
  The network will provide a maximum downlink speed of 75Mbps, which is five times faster than that of its 3G WCDMA network (HSUPA) and 1.9 times faster than Wibro that provides maximum downlink speed of 39.8Mbps and maximum uplink speed of 10Mbps. The network uses the 800 MHz band. The company plans to expand the frequency bandwidth for LTE from one-way 5MHz (at the time of service launch) to 10MHz by the fourth quarter of 2011 to achieve the full downlink potential.
  
  
  The LTE rollout in Seoul was accomplished by building 1,772 Radio Units (RU) and 609 Digital Units (DU). In addition to this, the company will also use its 200,000 existing 800MHz repeaters to offer seamless and flawless 4G LTE service in all areas of Seoul, including underground and indoor areas.
• In January 2011, South Korea's SK Telecom announced the selection of Samsung Electronics, LG-Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks as key equipment suppliers for its LTE network.
  
  
  
  
  Samsung Electronics and LG-Ericsson are supplying switching equipment, while all three companies will provide base station equipment. SK Telecom said it made the selection based on price and compatibility with other suppliers.
  
  
  SK Telecom has adopted its own Smart Cloud Access Network (SCAN) architecture to optimize its rollout. A base station largely consists of Digital Unit (DU) and Radio Unit (RU). With the SCAN architecture, LTE network DUs will be stored together in one area, while Remote Radio Units (RRU) - along with the antenna - will be set up in various locations. The carrier said this cloud-based network design enables multiple RRUs to be installed according to varying network capacity needs of each area.
  
  
  SK Telecom also plans to boost network capacity in small areas by deploying 62,000 Wi-Fi zones and over 10,000 femtocells. This will require the installation of 45,000 Wi-Fi this year, as well as expanding the 1,000 femtocells deployed last year to 10,000 femtocells. Also, SK telecom plans to offer femtocells that can handle voice and data traffic at the same time in small areas. Furthermore, the 6-sector solutions, which can double the capacity of current base stations, will be expanded to 500 base stations this year from 20 base stations beta-tested at the end of last year.

SK Telecom said it expects to attract 300,000 LTE subscribers in 2011, 6 million by 2013, and 10 million by 2015. Eleven 11 devices are expected to be on the market by year's end.


SK Telecom is working on LTE roll-outs in 23 cities including the Seoul Metropolitan area and six metropolitan cities by early next year, and secure national coverage (82 cities) by 2013. SK Telecom also said that the national coverage could become a reality earlier than planned depending on the market situation. Moreover, the company expects to introduce LTE-Advanced, the download speed of which reaches 1Gbps, in around 2013, by upgrading its LTE networks.


In addition, SK Telecom said it is leveraging cloud network technology in its LTE networks to flexibly handle wireless data demand that differs by time and region.


SK Telecom also claims to the first carrier in the world to use Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology to prevent the degradation of data speed coverage in cell boundary areas.

Read More