Amdocs Posts Revenue of $812 Million, North American Outlook Strong, Europe Uncertain

Amdocs posted quarterly revenue of $812.2 million, up 1.3% sequentially from the third fiscal quarter of 2011 and up 6.6% as compared to the same period last year. Net income on a non-GAAP basis was $111.2 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $122.4 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, last year.


“We concluded fiscal 2011 with strong execution, on-going deal momentum in the emerging markets and continued progress in revitalizing our European business. In North America, we continued to see solid demand in 2011 and further extended our market leadership with key competitive wins. Additionally, our profitability improved throughout the year as the investment decisions we made at the beginning of 2011 yielded results,�? said Eli Gelman, chief executive officer of Amdocs Management Limited.


Gelman continued, “Looking ahead to fiscal 2012, we are embarking on many new, industry-leading projects at several of the world's largest operators. Our focused strategy of empowering service providers to support compelling customer experiences while concurrently improving their ability to monetize new data services is resonating in the market. The acquisition of Bridgewater Systems, which closed in the fourth fiscal quarter, further solidifies our position as a leader in driving the data experience. We are, however, approaching the new fiscal year with some level of caution as the macroeconomic outlook remains uncertain, particularly in Europe.�?http://www.amdocs.com

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Amdocs Posts Revenue of $812 Million, North American Outlook Strong, Europe Uncertain

Amdocs posted quarterly revenue of $812.2 million, up 1.3% sequentially from the third fiscal quarter of 2011 and up 6.6% as compared to the same period last year. Net income on a non-GAAP basis was $111.2 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $122.4 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, last year.


“We concluded fiscal 2011 with strong execution, on-going deal momentum in the emerging markets and continued progress in revitalizing our European business. In North America, we continued to see solid demand in 2011 and further extended our market leadership with key competitive wins. Additionally, our profitability improved throughout the year as the investment decisions we made at the beginning of 2011 yielded results,�? said Eli Gelman, chief executive officer of Amdocs Management Limited.


Gelman continued, “Looking ahead to fiscal 2012, we are embarking on many new, industry-leading projects at several of the world's largest operators. Our focused strategy of empowering service providers to support compelling customer experiences while concurrently improving their ability to monetize new data services is resonating in the market. The acquisition of Bridgewater Systems, which closed in the fourth fiscal quarter, further solidifies our position as a leader in driving the data experience. We are, however, approaching the new fiscal year with some level of caution as the macroeconomic outlook remains uncertain, particularly in Europe.�?http://www.amdocs.com

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Qi Wireless Charging Standard Gains Momentum

Huawei and Visteon are the latest companies to join Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), which now has over 100 backers, including notables Energizer, HTC, LG, Verizon, Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, and, Sony-Ericsson.


The Wireless Power Consortium is promoting Qi as the global standard for wireless charging. Qi allows devices to be charged just by placing them on any Qi charging surface without connecting cords or wires.


"Since Qi launched just 15 months ago, our membership has quickly accelerated to 100, with companies introducing new Qi products that have wide-ranging competitive designs and features," said WPC Promotion Work Group Chair Camille Tang. "Consumer and OEM needs for convenience and design flexibility drive Qi's vibrant innovation roadmap, which delivers increasing product choices for people – whether at home, work, in the car, or when traveling at airports." http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/

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Swisscom Begins LTE Pilot Network

Swisscom kicked off an LTE pilot network in Davos, the first of seven tourist regions in Switzerland to be equipped with the technology. A further six regions will follow by the beginning of December. The carrier's full commercial LTE rollout is dependant of the issuing of new licences for mobile frequencies, which is expected to occur in spring 2012. In parallel, Swisscom will be expanding the current HSPA+ network to 42 Mbps. http://www.swisscom.com

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Qualcomm Acquires HaloIPT for Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging

Qualcomm has acquired HaloIPT, a start-up based that is developing Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) technology for the wireless charging of electric cars. The acquisition include substantially all of the technology and other assets of the company and all team members have joined Qualcomm's European Innovation Development group based in the UK. Financial terms were not disclosed.


In addition to the HaloIPT transaction, Qualcomm and Auckland UniServices, the commercialisation company of the University of Auckland, have committed to a long-term research and development arrangement to promote continued innovation in the field of wireless charging for electric road vehicles by way of inductive power transfer.


“Qualcomm has been investing in wireless power for a number of years and the HaloIPT acquisition will further strengthen our technology and patent portfolio,�? said Andrew Gilbert, executive vice president of European Innovation Development for Qualcomm. “Building on 20 years of development and innovation in wireless power at The University of Auckland and its commercialization company Auckland UniServices Ltd, the HaloIPT team, in a relatively short period of the time, had established itself as a leading developer in wireless electric road vehicle charging – with HaloIPT winning industry acclamation and awards.�?



“UniServices is proud to see the development of technology for the wireless charging of electric vehicles become an important area for Qualcomm,�? said Peter Lee, chief executive officer, UniServices. “We believe Qualcomm is well positioned to make available this technology to third parties for the wireless charging of electric road vehicles, and the relationship will provide opportunities for continued research and development of this technology.�?http://www.qualcomm.com http://www.haloipt.com

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Palo Alto Networks Warns that Unknown Malware is Rampant in Enterprises

Palo Alto Networks warned that previously unknown malware is a present danger to enterprise networks.


Using its new WildFire malware analysis engine, the company has uncovered hundreds of unique, previously-unknown malware samples on live networks. In fact, Palo Alto Networks reports that every network tested with WildFire's virtualized sandbox technology uncovered instances of real-world attacks from malware that was previously unknown to the security industry.


"I think we were all a bit surprised by the volume and frequency with which we were finding unknown malware in live networks," said Wade Williamson, Senior Security Analyst at Palo Alto Networks. "Unknown malware often represents the leading edge of an organized attack, so this data really underscores the importance of getting new anti-malware technologies out of the lab and into the hands of IT teams who are on the front lines. The ability to detect, remediate and investigate unknown malware needs to become a practical part of a threat prevention strategy in the same way that IPS and URL filtering are used today."


Some key points:


Phishing campaigns are branching out to new applications, such as web-based file hosting and webmail applications, to deliver their malware.


Over a three month period of analyzing unknown files from the Internet entering enterprise networks, more than 700 unique malware samples were discovered, 57 percent of which had no coverage by any antivirus service or were unknown by Virus Total at the time of discovery. Out of all of the new malware identified, 15 percent also generated malicious or unknown outbound command and control traffic.


Zero-day malware is being distributed by a wide variety of web applications, in addition to the traditional HTTP web-browsing and email traffic commonly associated with malware distribution.
http://www.paloaltonetworks.com

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Shaw Upgrades to 100 Gbps with Alcatel-Lucent

Canada's Shaw Communications has upgraded its inter-city network to 100 Gbps, 10 times faster than before. The launch follows a field trial over a 350-kilometre network between Calgary and Edmonton. The upgrade uses technology from Alcatel-Lucent. http://www.shaw.cahttp://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Hibernia and Huawei Test Coherent 100G Across the Atlantic

Hibernia Atlantic, in conjunction with Huawei Marine, successfully completed a test of coherent 100G connectivity between Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada to Southport, England. The test marks the first 100G trial across the Atlantic.


The companies now plan to move forward with deployments of 100 Gbps connections between Halifax and Montreal and between Amsterdam and London by Q1 2012, followed by other key routes later in the year.


The trial used Huawei's standards compliant 100 Gbps single wavelength coherent technology, which leverages . Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and Forward Error Correction (FEC) enabling high capacity transport across transatlantic distances. In addition to performing across distances greater than 5,000 km, the trial has successfully demonstrated long-term, error-free transmission at 100Gbps. Additionally, transmission with existing Huawei 40 Gbps wavelengths at 50 GHz spacing was achieved, allowing for a smooth and seamless bandwidth upgrade. Huawei also successfully demonstrated co-propagation of 100 Gbps wavelengths at 50 GHz spacing which enables future upgrades of subsea capacities up to 5 Tbps. http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com/http://www.huawei.com

• In January 2011, Hibernia Atlantic announced a $250 million financing commitment for its Project Express, a new, low-latency fiber optic cable system connecting the greater New York City area with London. The new build is expected to be complete in the summer of 2012. Hibernia Atlantic has already secured its first new customers on the cable. The new funding came Huawei Marine Networks Co., which is one of the vendors for the project.



• In December 2008, Huawei Technologies and Global Marine Systems Limited launched a joint venture company to pursue the market for undersea fiber optic cable systems. Huawei Marine Networks is headquartered in Tianjin with R&D institutes and manufacturing bases in Beijing, Shenzhen, and the United Kingdom.

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ECI Converges Layers 0-3 with Apollo OMLT

ECI Telecom is taking the next step beyond packet-optical transport system (P-OTS) with a new modular platform that integrates L0 to L3 functionality with a single management system for all layers.


The Apollo Optimized Multi-Layer Transport system (OMLT) addresses metro core and regional networks for carriers shifting from traditional ring-based architecture to mesh-based and OTN switching architecture. With the OMLT, ECI's aim is to address shortcomings of packet-optical transport system (P-OTS), especially the need to deploy additional Carrier Ethernet platforms with separate management systems to support advanced data services.


ECI said its OMLT reduces infrastructure costs by optimizing the whole (multi-layered) architecture instead of the individual parts (layers), while simplifying the provisioning of new wavelength, private line, L2 or L3 services. The OMLT features a Universal fabric supporting OTN, Ethernet and switching between the two. The control plane uses GMPLS across the data (MPLS-TP) and optical layers.


The Apollo product launch includes six platforms:


Apollo OPT9603 – A compact OMLT system for metro access. It provides cost-effective aggregation of TDM and Ethernet/MPLS over OTN and WDM.


Apollo OPT9604 – Metro-edge OMLT that provides cost-effective aggregation of TDM, Ethernet and IP/MPLS over OTN and WDM. It can be configured as a pure optical networking platform (with OTN, ROADM and high-capacity WDM capabilities), a CESR with 50Gbps packet switching capacity, or an integrated packet-optical solution.


Apollo OPT9608 – Metro-edge OMLT that provides cost-effective aggregation of TDM, Ethernet and IP/MPLS over OTN and WDM. It can be configured as a pure optical networking platform (with OTN, ROADM and high-capacity WDM capabilities), a CESR with 100Gbps packet switching capacity, or an integrated packet-optical solution.


Apollo OPT9624 – OMLT for the metro, metro core and long-haul portions of the network. It provides cost-effective aggregation of TDM, Ethernet and IP/MPLS over OTN and WDM. It can be configured as a pure optical networking platform (with OTN, ROADM and high-capacity WDM capabilities), a multi-terabit ODU cross-connect with full WDM capability, a CESR with 100Gbps and multi-terabit packet switching capacity, or an integrated packet-optical solution.


Apollo OPT9648 – High-capacity OMLT system for the metro core and long-haul portions of the network. It provides cost-effective aggregation of TDM, Ethernet and IP/MPLS over OTN and WDM. It can be configured as a pure optical networking platform (with OTN, ROADM and high-capacity WDM capabilities), a multi-terabit ODU cross-connect with full WDM capability, a CESR with multi-terabit packet switching capacity, or an integrated packet-optical solution.


Artemis 1P/2Pe – Compact passive optical platforms providing a cost-effective solution for passive modules. Artemis platforms are available in different form factors, and accordingly optimized. They can be installed with any Apollo platform or as a standalone on top of any other equipment, to provide a passive WDM solution.


LightSoft unified network management system - Graphical automated end-to-end provisioning and management across network layers and technologies. LightSoft's multi-layer interface allows the user to get multiple physical and logical views of the network, facilitating the visualization of connections and correlations between different network layers. http://www.ecitele.com

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Luxtera Debuts 100 Gbps Silicon Photonic Transceiver

Luxtera introduced its 100 Gbps optical transceiver targeted for 100Gbps Ethernet, OTN and InfiniBand applications as well as emerging OIF (Optical Internetworking Forum) Short Reach (SR) and Very Short Reach (VSR) electrical interconnect to host systems. The device can be socketed directly onto the customers' switch or server boards for both backplane and rack mount connectivity.


Luxtera's single chip opto-electronic transceiver includes four fully integrated 28Gbps transmit and receive channels powered from a single laser for an aggregate unencoded data rate of up to 112Gbps.


Luxtera said its new device leverages mainstream CMOS fabrication processes to deliver on-chip waveguide level modulation and photo-detection along with associated electronics, resulting in a fully-integrated single chip optical transceiver. Light from a single co-packaged laser is used to power multiple optical transmitters on a chip, eliminating the need for multiple lasers and reducing transceiver cost and power consumption. http://www.luxtera.com

• Earlier this year, Luxtera announced a strategic transition from the Active Optical Cable (AOC) business to the semiconductor component business model. The company is introducing its first optical engine chipset supporting InfiniBand, Ethernet, SAS and Fibre Channel connectivity. Luxtera's optical engine chip-set consist of a CMOS opto-electronic transceiver chip and a companion photonic power source. It supports four fully-integrated 14 Gbps opto-electronic transceiver channels on a single CMOS chip. Luxtera's LUX2020A optical engine will be incorporated into the AOC product family recently purchased by Molex Incorporated as part of Luxtera's transition to a fabless semiconductor chip-sets supplier business model.



• Luxtera is based in Carlsbad, California.

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