Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Twilio Raises $17 Million for Cloud Communication APIs

Twilio, a start-up based in San Francisco, has raised $17 million in series C funding for its APIs that help application developers add voice and SMS capabilities. Twilio is a web-service API that uses XML to integrate voice and SMS into applications. Investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures.
http://www.twilio.comTwilio is headed by Jeff Lawson, who previously served as Product Manager for Amazon Web Services, and has held founding executive roles for NineStar, Stubhub.com, and Versity.com.

Juniper and NISSHO Electronics Form Joint Venture

Juniper Networks and NISSHO ELECTRONICS, a subsidiary of Sojitz Corporation, will establish a new NISSHO subsidiary named the J Network Initiative to deliver pre- and post-sales support, consulting and maintenance services for Juniper Networks products to the Japanese enterprise market.


NISSHO has been a distributor of Juniper products since 1998, and since then has established itself as a leading vendor of Juniper Networks products in Japan.
http://www.juniper.net

Nokia Siemens Networks Debuts 6-Pipes TD-LTE Remote Radio Head

Nokia Siemens Networks introduced a Liquid Radio-based "6 pipes" remote radio head promising 80% more capacity, 40% more coverage for TD-LTE compared to traditional 3-sector site designs.


Nokia Siemens Networks’ 6 pipes remote radio head, which is based on the company’s Liquid Radio architecture, leverages a unique 6 pipes beamforming feature that mitigates signal loss due to interference. The company said this is the first implementation of a 6-sector TD-LTE site.


Instead of deploying additional cell sites to handle increased subscriber density, mobile operators can use 6 pipes beamforming to reduce signal loss caused by interference. This yields higher throughput and lower latency, and thus significant capacity and coverage gains.


Nokia Siemens Networks also claims its pipe concept offers a cost-effective, future-proof alternative to the current ‘path’-based approaches, allowing more flexible allocation of sectors, carriers and transmit and receive channels by a base station. It can do multiple configurations, starting with a simple, low-cost, 3-sector site configuration and scaling to a high-capacity, 6-sector site configuration, when needed. Further, a simple software upgrade offers a smooth evolution path to LTE-Advanced.


“Our new, high-capacity 6 pipes remote radio head is a great addition to our TD-LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) portfolio and promises to take the TD-LTE experience to the next level,�? said Tommi Uitto, head of the LTE radio access business line at Nokia Siemens Networks. “In addition to enabling a more flexible approach to TD-LTE, the new product delivers much higher throughput and lower latency than other offerings, to enable higher data speeds. Subscribers can thus enjoy the same level of mobile broadband, anywhere and everywhere, no matter what applications they’re using.�?http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/

NSN Opens Service Delivery Center in Mexico City

Nokia Siemens Networks inaugurated a new service delivery center in Mexico City to provide network planning and optimization services to operators in Latin America and eventually extend these capabilities to other regions. Nokia Siemens Networks currently supports a number of operators with its remote service delivery model.


The new center joins Nokia Siemens Networks’ existing global network of service delivery centers in Chennai and Noida in India, Lisbon in Portugal, and from Shanghai in China.
http://www.nsn.com

Neil Smit Names CEO of Comcast Cable

Neil Smit has been named Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Cable Communications, reporting to Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation.


Mr. Smit, who also serves as President of Comcast Cable and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s cable business, joined Comcast in March 2010. Previously, he served as CEO of Charter Communications from 2005-2010. Prior to Charter, he was President of Time Warner’s America Online Access Business overseeing America Online (AOL), CompuServe and Netscape ISPs. http://

Cisco Names ex-Juniper Exec as CTO for Mobile Internet

Cisco named Paul Mankiewich as chief technology officer (CTO) of its Mobile Internet Technology Group.


Mankiewich previously served at Juniper, where he was responsible for end-to-end network vision and architecture across all of Juniper’s products. He also spent over 10 years in various CTO roles for mobility and service provider at Alcatel-Lucent. He has authored over 100 technical papers related to wireless, networking and devices.
http://www.cisco.com

Michael Copps to Step Down as FCC Commissioner

Michael J. Copps submitted his resignation as FCC Commissioner effective January 1, 2012 -- the end of his second term.


Copp has served as an FCC Commissioner since May 2001. He was nominated for a second term on Nov. 9, 2005, and sworn in January 3, 2006. He was previously assistant secretary of commerce for trade development at the U.S. Department of Commerce,http://www.fcc.gov
  • President Obama nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai as FCC Commissioners. Both nominees are Washington insiders with existing connections to current commissioners.

Twilio Raises $17 Million for Cloud Communication APIs

Twilio, a start-up based in San Francisco, has raised $17 million in series C funding for its APIs that help application developers add voice and SMS capabilities. Twilio is a web-service API that uses XML to integrate voice and SMS into applications. Investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures.
http://www.twilio.comTwilio is headed by Jeff Lawson, who previously served as Product Manager for Amazon Web Services, and has held founding executive roles for NineStar, Stubhub.com, and Versity.com.

Juniper and NISSHO Electronics Form Joint Venture

Juniper Networks and NISSHO ELECTRONICS, a subsidiary of Sojitz Corporation, will establish a new NISSHO subsidiary named the J Network Initiative to deliver pre- and post-sales support, consulting and maintenance services for Juniper Networks products to the Japanese enterprise market.


NISSHO has been a distributor of Juniper products since 1998, and since then has established itself as a leading vendor of Juniper Networks products in Japan.
http://www.juniper.net

Nokia Siemens Networks Debuts 6-Pipes TD-LTE Remote Radio Head

Nokia Siemens Networks introduced a Liquid Radio-based "6 pipes" remote radio head promising 80% more capacity, 40% more coverage for TD-LTE compared to traditional 3-sector site designs.


Nokia Siemens Networks’ 6 pipes remote radio head, which is based on the company’s Liquid Radio architecture, leverages a unique 6 pipes beamforming feature that mitigates signal loss due to interference. The company said this is the first implementation of a 6-sector TD-LTE site.


Instead of deploying additional cell sites to handle increased subscriber density, mobile operators can use 6 pipes beamforming to reduce signal loss caused by interference. This yields higher throughput and lower latency, and thus significant capacity and coverage gains.


Nokia Siemens Networks also claims its pipe concept offers a cost-effective, future-proof alternative to the current ‘path’-based approaches, allowing more flexible allocation of sectors, carriers and transmit and receive channels by a base station. It can do multiple configurations, starting with a simple, low-cost, 3-sector site configuration and scaling to a high-capacity, 6-sector site configuration, when needed. Further, a simple software upgrade offers a smooth evolution path to LTE-Advanced.


“Our new, high-capacity 6 pipes remote radio head is a great addition to our TD-LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) portfolio and promises to take the TD-LTE experience to the next level,�? said Tommi Uitto, head of the LTE radio access business line at Nokia Siemens Networks. “In addition to enabling a more flexible approach to TD-LTE, the new product delivers much higher throughput and lower latency than other offerings, to enable higher data speeds. Subscribers can thus enjoy the same level of mobile broadband, anywhere and everywhere, no matter what applications they’re using.�?http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/

NSN Opens Service Delivery Center in Mexico City

Nokia Siemens Networks inaugurated a new service delivery center in Mexico City to provide network planning and optimization services to operators in Latin America and eventually extend these capabilities to other regions. Nokia Siemens Networks currently supports a number of operators with its remote service delivery model.


The new center joins Nokia Siemens Networks’ existing global network of service delivery centers in Chennai and Noida in India, Lisbon in Portugal, and from Shanghai in China.
http://www.nsn.com

Neil Smit Names CEO of Comcast Cable

Neil Smit has been named Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Cable Communications, reporting to Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation.


Mr. Smit, who also serves as President of Comcast Cable and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s cable business, joined Comcast in March 2010. Previously, he served as CEO of Charter Communications from 2005-2010. Prior to Charter, he was President of Time Warner’s America Online Access Business overseeing America Online (AOL), CompuServe and Netscape ISPs. http://

Cisco Names ex-Juniper Exec as CTO for Mobile Internet

Cisco named Paul Mankiewich as chief technology officer (CTO) of its Mobile Internet Technology Group.


Mankiewich previously served at Juniper, where he was responsible for end-to-end network vision and architecture across all of Juniper’s products. He also spent over 10 years in various CTO roles for mobility and service provider at Alcatel-Lucent. He has authored over 100 technical papers related to wireless, networking and devices.
http://www.cisco.com

Michael Copps to Step Down as FCC Commissioner

Michael J. Copps submitted his resignation as FCC Commissioner effective January 1, 2012 -- the end of his second term.


Copp has served as an FCC Commissioner since May 2001. He was nominated for a second term on Nov. 9, 2005, and sworn in January 3, 2006. He was previously assistant secretary of commerce for trade development at the U.S. Department of Commerce,http://www.fcc.gov
  • President Obama nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai as FCC Commissioners. Both nominees are Washington insiders with existing connections to current commissioners.

Huawei Showcases CDMA + Wi-Fi Small Cell

Huawei demonstrated its CDMA Small Cell solution, integrated with WiFi, at the CDMA Summit 2011 in Hong Kong. The product can be deployed indoors or outdoors and does not require an equipment room. Huawei's CDMA Small Cell solution also can be used without GPS signal, maintaining coverage in areas such as basements, elevators and mines. A variety of access technologies may be used for the backhaul. http://www.huawei.com

OIF Approves OTN-over-Packet-Fabric Protocol Implementation Agreement

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) approved an implementation agreement (IA) for OTN-over-Packet-Fabric Protocol. The IA defines the mapping protocol for converting an OTN stream into packets while preserving its frequency and phase. The protocol can be implemented in ASSP, FPGA or ASIC solutions.


The OIF said its implementation agreement addresses the market need for Packet and Optical convergence and the architectural challenges associated with transporting Packet and OTN traffic on a common packet/cell switching fabric. It was developed with the combined output from leading network service providers, network equipment manufacturers and semiconductor suppliers and is applicable to switches and routers, and to transport equipment alike. The goal of the IA is to reduce the cost and power of network equipment by avoiding the need for dual or hybrid fabrics. http://www.oiforum.com

ViaSat-1 Satellite Nears Service Launch

The newly launched ViaSat-1's was switched on for the first time, enabling the first high-capacity satellite over North America to begin a series of in-orbit tests. Those tests will be followed by a move to its operational orbital location. The 140 Gbps capacity satellite is scheduled to enter service in late December. At that time the initial ViaSat-1 service will launch and then services will sequentially expand across the United States over the following months.


ViaSat has now transmitted the first data over its new high-capacity satellite and the WildBlue high-speed data network. The initial transmissions and receptions were completed the evening of December 2 from a SurfBeam 2 terminal at ViaSat’s Carlsbad campus, through the ViaSat-1 satellite and a gateway located in Milford, Utah. http://www.viasat.com

  • On October 19, International Launch Services successfully launched ViaSat-1, the highest capacity commercial satellite to date with 140 Gbps of capacity. The Ka-band spot beam satellite will include coverage over North America and Hawaii, enabling a variety of new, high-speed broadband services for WildBlue in the U.S. and Xplornet through Telesat in Canada. ViaSat-1 joins WildBlue-1, Anik F2, and AMC-15 as capacity available for provision of WildBlue high-speed Internet access across America.

Sunrise Telecom Adds OTDR and Fiber Inspection Capabilities

Sunrise Telecom has enhanced its RxT Smart Productivity Test Platform with the addition of an RxT-4000 Fiber Optics Toolkit (FOT) and the FiberScope inspection option.


The RxT FOT module can be used for the installation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of Carrier Ethernet and SONET/SDH fiber optic cables. It is available in multiple wavelength combinations for testing single-mode and multi-mode fibers. It features fiber optics characterization which records event location and identity for the fiber under test. The compact platform, which incorporates quad wavelength testing, and auto and manual mode configuration, offers a one-button 'Auto Test Mode' to simplify testing for even the most inexperienced user.


"The addition of the new Fiber Optic Test Toolkit to the growing portfolio of capabilities of our RxT platform enables our customers to efficiently and thoroughly validate next-generation Ethernet and Mobile networks," said Bahaa Moukadam, CEO of Sunrise Telecom. http://www.sunrisetelecom.com

Broadcom Pursues Automotive Ethernet

Broadcom introduced a set of automotive Ethernet solutions aimed at connecting multiple in-vehicle systems, such as infotainment, on-board diagnostics and automated driver assistance over unshielded single twisted pair cable.


Broadcom's BroadR-Reach automotive portfolio aims to reduce in-vehicle connectivity complexity, cost and cabling weight using familiar Ethernet. The company is introducing the first five devices in this portfolio, including three highly integrated switches with embedded PHYs, and two stand-alone PHY solutions. The devices meet in-car EMC requirements and extreme automotive temperature grades.

The new chips:


BCM89500
  • 7-port, layer 2 switch with four integrated BroadR-Reach PHYs

  • Designed to support IEEE 1588 and IEEE 802.1AS timing functions

  • Deep sleep and ultra-low power modes for reduced power consumption
BCM89501
  • 7-port, layer 2 switch with five integrated BroadR-Reach PHYs

  • Designed to support IEEE 1588 and IEEE 802.1AS timing functions

  • Deep sleep and ultra-low power modes for reduced power consumption
BCM89200

  • 4-port, layer 2 switch with two integrated BroadR-Reach PHYs

  • Supports various uplink ports for connectivity to external devices

  • Designed to support IEEE 1588 and IEEE 802.1AS timing functions

  • Deep sleep and ultra-low power modes for reduced power consumption
BCM89610
  • Single-port, 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY

  • Optimized for in-vehicle diagnostic applications for when vehicle is powered off

  • Supports variety of connectivity options for external devices
BCM89810
  • Single-port, 100Mbps BroadR-Reach PHY

  • Optimized for multiple in-car network applications for when vehicle is powered on

  • Supports variety of connectivity options for external devices
http://www.broadcom.com

  • In November, Broadcom, NXP, Freescale, and Harman announced the formation of the OPEN Alliance Special Interest Group, whose mission is to drive wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based automotive connectivity. Jointly developed with founding automotive members BMW and Hyundai Motor Company, the OPEN Alliance (One-Pair Ether-Net) SIG will address industry requirements for improving in-vehicle safety, comfort, and infotainment, while significantly reducing network complexity and cabling costs.