Alcatel-Lucent Wins Biggest Share of China Telecom's OTN Project

Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell has been selected as the top provider of converged optical transport network (OTN) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, winning 70 percent market share in the 10G sector in China Telecom’s most recent central bidding process, its largest such tender to date. Under the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will increase the capacity of China Telecom’s optical transport network, expanding it to reach all of China’s major cities.

Alcatel-Lucent will supply China Telecom with its 100G-ready converged OTN/WDM technology employed in the 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) and the Photonic Service Engine (PSE) chip. With the 1830 PSS, China Telecom will be able to support a mixture of 10G, 40G and 100G channels on the same fiber pair. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The network supports the national "Broadband China" program, which aims to deliver high-speed broadband connections to more than 250 million urban and rural homes by 2015.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In June 2012, Alcatel-Lucent confirmed that China Telecom will deploy its IP/MPLS solution to enable high-bandwidth video and data broadband services under the "Broadband China" project. The project will leverage the Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS 7750 Service Router (SR) portfolio, including the 7750 SR-12 and 7750 SR-7, as the Broadband Network Gateway to deliver high-performance service and subscriber management capabilities. In conjunction with the 7750 SR, the Alcatel-Lucent 7705 Service Aggregation Routers (SAR) (including the 7705 SAR-M, 7705 SAR-8, and 7705 SAR-18) will deliver an optimized IP/MPLS mobile backhaul, leveraging common SR-OS software, to address China Telecom’s 2G, 3G, and future LTE mobile broadband needs.

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GSA: 96 Operators Have Launched LTE

A total of 96 operators have launched commercial LTE services in 46 countries, according to an updated count from the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). The figure reaffirms LTE as the fastest developing mobile system technology ever.

Some additional stats:

• 292 operators have made firm commitments to deploy commercial LTE networks in 93 countries.
• 11 commercial LTE TDD systems have launched in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Oman, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the UK.
• 68 operators have launched commercial LTE services in the past 12 months.
• GSA forecasts there will be 152 commercial LTE networks operating in 65 countries by December 31, 2012.
• LTE in 1800 MHz spectrum is now launched on one third of all commercial LTE networks.

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Broadcom Debuts Octal 10GbE/Dual 40GbE PHY for Data Centers

Broadcom introduced a low power octal 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), dual 40GbE physical layer transceiver (PHY) for data center switches. It includes PHY features such as line and system high-speed equalization to drive SFP+, QSFP+, or KR interfaces, PRBS pattern generators and checkers, loopback functionality, and on-chip AC coupling capacitors to satisfy requirements for higher density switch and server configurations.

Broadcom said the device lowers system costs by integrating optical module control functionality that typically reside in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The device operates at 300mW per full duplex10GbE port -- the lowest in the industry.

http://www.broadcom.com

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Oclaro's 2nd Gen 100G Transceivers are 50% Smaller

Oclaro announced sampling of its second-generation 100G CFP (Centum Gbit/s form-factor pluggable) transceiver and first-generation CFP2 100G transceiver for 10km transmission over standard single-mode fiber.

The new transceivers are designed for 100G core, metro, access, enterprise and datacenter networks. Oclaro said its latest devices achieve new benchmarks for higher densities, lower power consumption and smaller size.

The second-generation CFP delivers a 30-percent reduction in power consumption versus existing Oclaro CFP solutions and provides interoperability with Oclaro's earlier CFP products. It is fully compliant with IEEE 100G Ethernet 802.3ba 100GBASE-LR4 and ITU-T G.959.1 4I1-9D1F standards and benefits from a CMOS gearbox IC that reduces power consumption and lowers cost relative to first-generation CFP designs. While first generation CFP delivered 24W, the second-generation CFP delivers 16W.

The new CFP2 (which is a new form factor recently specified by the CFP MSA) delivers a 50-percent reduction in size over all existing CFP solutions on the market and is the industry-first CFP2 solution to be interoperable with a first-generation CFP product. This increases system front panel port density from 4 ports to 8 ports. The smaller size of the CFP2 transceiver is achieved by reducing the number of electrical lanes from 10 to 4 by applying a 25Gbps electrical interface per channel instead of 10Gbps and hence removing the GearBox from the module.

"Today's announcement is another milestone in the advancement of 100G networks, where Oclaro continues to lead the market with the broadest set of components, modules and subsystems that offer the price, performance and power consumption that customers need for high-volume 100G deployment," said Tadayuki Kanno, Chief Operating Officer, Oclaro Japan Inc., GM, Modules & Devices Business Unit, Oclaro.

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Huawei Bets Big in the UK

In a meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Lord Green, Minister of State for Business, Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei, committed to investing US$1 billion (GBP650 million) and to spend another US$1 billion (GBP650 million) in procurement in the UK over the next five years.

Huawei currently employs over 800 people in the UK and has today committed to increasing its workforce to over 1,500 by 2017. As part of this commitment, Huawei will invest in a number of global centres of technical and financial excellence in the UK. The company is already working wtih all the major telecommunication operators and broadband service providers in the UK.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "The investment announced by Huawei today demonstrates once again that the UK is open for business. I welcome this and I want to see more companies invest in the UK as we work to achieve sustainable and balanced growth within our economy. The British Government values the important relationship with China, both countries have much to offer each other and the business environment we are creating in the UK allows us to maximise this potential."

Ren Zhengfei, Huawei Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: "The UK is one of the most important European markets in which Huawei has invested. Over the past eleven years we have found its Government to be transparent, efficient and practical. The UK is an open market, which welcomes overseas investment, I am therefore very pleased today, to be announcing the US$2 billion investment and procurement plan, promoting the development of openness and free trade."

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Verizon Launches Mobile Security App for Android

Verizon Wireless is releasing a mobile security app for Android smartphones running Android 2.1 or higher that combines the security capabilities of Asurion and McAfee.  Three versions will be offered:

• Verizon Mobile Security Basic – provides antivirus protection, powered by McAfee, to detect viruses and malware, and McAfee SiteAdvisor to identify and warn customers of suspicious websites.  There is no charge to download Verizon Mobile Security Basic, but a Verizon Wireless data plan is required and data usage will apply.
• Verizon Mobile Security Premium – includes the security features of Verizon Mobile Security Basic, as well as McAfee App Alert, which delivers information about which apps have the ability to access, store or transmit data to or from the device.  Available for $1.99/month per line, Verizon Mobile Security Premium also provides recovery features that allow customers to remotely locate, alarm, lock or wipe data from a lost or misplaced device using their My Verizon accounts.
• Verizon Mobile Security Premium with Total Equipment Coverage – Customers with Total Equipment Coverage can add Verizon Mobile Security Premium for $1/month per line.  Total Equipment Coverage combines the benefits of Asurion's Wireless Protection Plan for lost, stolen, and damaged devices, and Verizon Wireless' Extended Warranty for mechanical or electrical defects after the manufacturer's warranty expires.

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Intel Demos SeaCliff Trail - an SDN-enabled Ethernet Switch

Intel is showing a new Ethernet switching chip designed for software defined networking.  At this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the company is showing  a top of rack switch reference design code named Seacliff Trail.  Intel notes that one of the promises of SDN is that network orchestration can be achieved without vendor lock-in, allowing data center operators to pick the best networking equipment for each part of the network.

Intel also announced that the next update to its Xeon processor E5 family, formerly codenamed "Ivy Bridge-EP," will be based on its 22nm manufacturing process that includes the world’s first production 3-D Tri-Gate transistors, and is expected to be in production in 2013.  In addition, the Intel Xeon processor E7 family, formerly codenamed "Ivy Bridge-EX," is expected to be in production in 2013.  It also uses the 22nm technology.  The additional benefits expected with this processor family include increased performance, new advanced reliability features as well as enhanced hardware-based security features such as Intel Secure Key and Intel OS Guard.

http://www.intel.com

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Wind River Develops M2M SDK based on Linux

Wind River, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, introduced a software development environment for M2M applications, based on its embedded Linux operating system and middleware.

The software includes validated and supported middleware stack, including virtual machine, OMA DM, OSGi, TR-069, and home automation. Connectivity options include 3G, Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and Z-Wave across PAN, LAN and WAN networks.

“With the skyrocketing growth of smart connected devices, an interconnected world is becoming a reality. Applications based on systems behavior have become pervasive, and this is the crux of M2M technology,” said Santhosh Nair, general manager of intelligent systems group at Wind River. “Connectivity, security, optimization, and adherence to industry standards are required in order to successfully develop smart connected devices and services, and this is precisely the value that Wind River brings to the table. This platform maximizes the value of M2M technology by building on an integrated foundation of software, middleware, and board support packages with cutting edge tools and development environments.”

http://www.windriver.com

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GTS Central Europe Activate Ethernet-over-Copper with Overture

GTS CE has launched Carrier Ethernet services to both retail and wholesale customers across Central and Eastern Europe using Overture Networks' Carrier Ethernet over Copper (EoC) platforms.  GTS’ services were launched simultaneously in five countries, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Poland.  Overture’s platforms have been deployed at approximately 130 Central Offices (COs) in Central and Eastern Europe for service delivery in the first mile to some 40,000 retail customers.

Beginning with its Tier 1 customers, GTS rolled out services ranging up to 10GbE concurrently throughout its expanding network footprint. The company also supplies wholesale customers with Ethernet services via External Network-Network interfaces (ENNIs) and interconnections with operators in Frankfort and Vienna, with termination points in key metropolitan areas.

Overture said its platforms were chosen for therir ability to deliver high-capacity Ethernet over unbundled copper loops and for ease-of-provisioning.

“At GTS, service delivery to our customer must be seamless in every aspect; they want to know that their service will work the same no matter location or connection type. Configuring our network for uniform service delivery in multiple markets, across an array of access technologies required finding a partner able to provide the best solution at the right cost,” said Ignacio Irurita, CTO, GTS. “The decision to go with Overture has been a very good one; the quality of the product in the field has been excellent – it’s very reliable. We’re provisioning faster, which translates into our being able to present new service offerings more quickly. As a result, our customer numbers are growing significantly day by day.”

GTS Central Europe owns and operates an extensive fiber optic and data center network throughout the region. In the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, the company combines its regional footprint with deep local networks to deliver a broad range of services.

http://www.overturenetworks.com
http://www.gtsce.com

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