NEC's High-Capacity Microwave Radios Reach 4 Gbps

NEC introduced its new trunk microwave communications systems, the 5000iP Series, featuring 1.6 times the transmission capacity of existing 5000S systems -- equating to as much as 4 Gbps.


To achieve the capacity boost, the system leverages a Cross Polarization Interference Canceller (XPIC. The new system also automatically changes the modulation method and the transmission rate in response to wireless link quality as well as optimizes transmission capacity in response to weather conditions thanks to Adaptive Modulation Radio (AMR) functions that improve throughput.


The new microwave radio supports distances of up to 50km over metropolitan or mountainous terrain.


The new system supports Gigabit Ethernet and features Ethernet protection, which ensures high speed route conversion in the event of an obstruction and Ethernet Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) functions.


Carriers in Zambia and Tanzania have already placed orders for the new systems. NEC aims to sell approximately 10,000 units globally over the next three years.
http://www.nec.co.jp

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Ixia Releases OpenFlow Test Solution

Ixia's IxNetwork and IxANVL test solutions now enable OpenFlow protocol emulation with integrated network traffic and offer a suite of OpenFlow compliance tests. The OpenFlow test solution helps network equipment manufacturers, service providers, and enterprises to verify protocol conformance and tune network designs before deployment.

Among the new capabilities, IxNetwork can now emulate an OpenFlow controller to modify flow table entries and then generate traffic to test the forwarding. For testing switch protocol conformance, IxANVL will have a new suite of OpenFlow v1.0 testing that includes testing cases for Open Networking Foundation (ONF) certification in alignment with the OF-Test 1.0 specification that is currently being finalized. Protocol conformance is important to not only ensure compatibility in a multi-vendor environment, but to pursue ONF certification.

http://www.ixiacom.com

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Intel Debuts is 22nm Ivy Bridge

Intel formally introduced its 3rd generation Core processors, code named Ivy Bridge, which are based on its 22-nanometer (nm) 3-D tri-Gate transistor technology. The 3-D tri-gate transistor technology and architectural enhancements enable the processor to deliver up to double the 3-D graphics and HD media processing performance compared with Intel’s previous generation of chips.


The new processors also add Intel Secure Key and Intel OS Guard security features. Intel Secure Key consists of a digital random number generator to strengthen encryption algorithms. Intel OS Guard helps defend against privilege escalation attacks where a hacker remotely takes over another person's system.
http://www.intel.com

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Motorola Solutions Wins $4M Public Safety LTE Contract in Texas

Motorola Solutions was awarded a $4 million contract to expand the Harris County, Texas Public Safety LTE wide area broadband network. Seven LTE sites will be added to the network for a total of 13 LTE sites delivering enhanced video and data capabilities along with expanded interoperability with Harris County’s existing ASTRO 25 Land Mobile Radio (LMR) system.


The deployment includes Real-Time Video Intelligence (RTVI) software, enabling live fixed or mobile video to be delivered to and from the field, as well as Broadband Push-To-Talk (PTT) software and servers to allow for increased PTT capabilities between LTE and Project 25 (P25) networks.

http://www.motorola.com

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Infonetics: DPI Market Expected to Grow Rapidly

Service provider deep packet inspection (DPI) product revenue grew 29% to over $470 million worldwide in 2011 and is forecast to grow to $2 billion in 2016, according to a new report from Infonetics. The bulk of this increase is expected to come from mobile networks, where DPI is increasingly being incorporated into larger solutions, such as video optimization and mobile offload.


“Though fixed-line operators continue to invest in deep packet inspection solutions for traffic management and to manage the impact of over-the-top (OTT) content on their networks, wireless operators are looking to DPI for more granular traffic management, including prioritization and strategic offload, and are starting to deploy DPI hand-in-hand with their LTE network upgrades," notes Shira Levine, directing analyst for next gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research.
http://www.infonetics.com

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Polaris Wireless Completes Trial with Indian Mobile Operator

Polaris Wireless, which specializes in high-accuracy, software-based wireless location solutions, announced that it has completed a field trial with a major Indian wireless network operator to prove compliance with India’s Department Of Telecommunications (DoT) May 2011 mandate for location-based systems.

The trials were conducted over a period of two weeks in the North East telecom circle of India, at Agartala, to demonstrate the effectiveness of Polaris Wireless Location Signatures (Polaris WLS) in urban, suburban and rural environments and remote areas. WLS is based on the 3GPP standardized RF Pattern Matching (RFPM) approach. A previous trial with another major wireless network operator in Bangalore exceeded the DoT requirements in urban and indoor environments.
http://www.polariswireless.com

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Microsoft and Facebook Strike Patent Deal

Microsoft and Facebook announced a significant patent agreement covering numerous Web technologies.

Microsoft will assign to Facebook the right to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it recently agreed to acquire from AOL Inc. Facebook has agreed to purchase this portion for $550 million in cash.

"Today's agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction," said Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel, Microsoft. "As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio."http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.intel.com

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Texas Instruments Sees Signs of Upturn

Texas Instruments reported $3.12 billion, net income of $265 million and earnings per share of 22 cents. EPS includes 10 cents of charges associated with the company's acquisition of National Semiconductor and restructuring.

"As we expected, our business cycle bottomed in the first quarter, and early signs of growth began to emerge," said Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and CEO. "Orders were up 13 percent, and backlog is growing again. Particularly encouraging is the breadth of increased orders across geographical regions and markets, including the industrial sector.

"Sales in our Analog segment were about level with the prior quarter. We continue to make progress with Silicon Valley Analog, formerly National Semiconductor, as this product line gains traction with customers and holds a strong position in the important industrial market. Sales in Embedded Processing were up 7 percent led by growth in the automotive and communications infrastructure markets. Sales in our Wireless segment declined sharply as we entered the final phase of our exit from baseband products, which were less than 3 percent of total sales in the quarter. We are expanding the reach of our Wireless segment into multiple markets and experiencing strong diversity in our design-ins."http://www.ti.com

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Vodafone Bids for Cable & Wireless

Vodafone has submitted a bid to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04 billion (US$1.7 million).

Established in the 1860s, Cable&Wireless Worldwide owns and operates the UK’s largest fibre network dedicated to business users. It provides nationwide access through a combination of fibre, digital, microwave, radio and leased circuits. The network has presence in over 400 towns and cities in the UK, with more than 864 unbundled exchanges covering 56% of the population. CWW still retains an international cable network spanning approximately 425,000km in length. The company is headquartered in Bracknell, United Kingdom.

Vodafone, based in London, is the world's second-largest measured by subscribers (behind China Mobile), with over 439 million subscribers served by its associated carriers as of December 2011. The acquisition would give an extensive UK fibre network and a large number of business customers. enabling it to deliver unified communications segment for enterprises in UK and internationally. Vodafone also see cost savings potential by using the CWW domestic fibre network for mobile backhaul and the CWW international network as a traffic backbone.

Commenting on the offer, Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group, said: "We are pleased to reach agreement with the Board of Cable & Wireless Worldwide, who unanimously recommend our offer. The acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide creates a leading integrated player in the enterprise segment of the UK communications market and brings
attractive cost savings to our UK and international operations. We look forward to working with the management and employees of Cable & Wireless Worldwide to combine our expertise for the benefit of our customers and shareholders."http://www.vodafone.com

• In 2010, Cable & Wireless Communications plc (LSE: CWC) was de-merged from Cable & Wireless Worldwide. CWC has operations in the Caribbean, Macau, Monaco, Panama and numerous small islands.

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ST-Ericsson Announces new Strategic Direction, Reductions

ST-Ericsson, the joint venture by Ericsson and STMicroelectronics, outlined a new strategy and business model to deliver complete system solutions for smartphones and tablets. The company will offer competitive integrated modem plus application processor solutions (ModAp) differentiating a combined approach of development and alliances.


In order to limit and optimize the R&D effort, ST-Ericsson will look to partnerships and alliances to develop key building blocks, such as application processors, modems, connectivity as well as power, RF, analog and mixed signal.

ST-Ericsson will continue to develop modem IP, a key competitive enabler, sell thin modems and possibly license modem IP to third parties.

The first partnership agreement is with the parent firm, STMicroelectronics. Under this arrangement, ST-Ericsson will transfer its application processor R&D activity and employees to STMicroelectronics and will then integrate the application processor in ModAp platforms for smartphones and tablets under a license agreement from ST. The two companies have entered into a commercial agreement to jointly promote and offer stand-alone processors and thin modems, respectively, to a broader range of customers and applications.

ST-Ericsson foresees a global workforce reduction of 1,700 employees worldwide, including the employees that would be transferred to ST as part of the partnership.
http://www.stericsson.com

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Huawei Sees Strongest Growth in Consumer/Enterprise, While Carrier Sales Grow 3%

Driven by strong growth in its Consumer and Enterprise business groups, Huawei reported FY 2011 sales revenues of RMB 203.9 billion (US$32.396 billion), an 11.7% growth over the previous year, and net profits of RMB 11.6 billion (US$1.850 billion), in line with Huawei's business revenue expectations.


Some highlights from the newly released annual report:

Huawei's Consumer business recorded sales revenues of RMB 44.6 billion, an increase of 44.3% over 2010. In particular, the Consumer business group saw robust growth in the smart devices segment, shipping close to 150 million units last year.

Huawei's Enterprise business group increased sales revenues by 57.1% year-on-year, generating RMB 9.2 billion in its first full year of operation as one of Huawei's core business groups.

Huawei's Carrier Networks business group recorded sales of RMB 150.1 billion, up 3.0% over last year. The Wireless Networks component achieved a sales revenue of RMB 45.911 billion. Sales for Fixed Networks was RMB 49.761 billion in 2011. Revenue from Global Services amounted to RMB 34.705 billion.

Domestic sales amounted to RMB 65.57 billion, up 5.5%

International sales revenues of RMB 138.4 billion, an increase of 14.9%

R&D investments amounted to RMB 23.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.2%. This represents 11.6% of total annual sales revenues.
http://www.huawei.com

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Huawei Adopts a Rotating CEO Structure

Huawei has adopted a rotating CEO model in which which a small group of executives take turns to fulfill CEO duties.


Mr. Ren Zhengfei said a group of rotating and acting CEOs should be more effective, compared to a single CEO, who is otherwise expected to handle multiple affairs each day. The rotating and acting CEOs take turns leading the company for six months. After the rotational period is over, the non-acting rotating CEOs will still be part of the company's decision-making nucleus.
http://www.huawei.com

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