Alcatel-Lucent Embeds OTDR Fiber Troubleshooting into Access Platform

Alcatel-Lucent  is adding a fiber troubleshooting capability based on Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) to its access platforms.

The Bell Labs solution plugs into a network’s existing fiber access nodes and is integrated with the Motive Network Analyzer, Alcatel-Lucent’s remote management solution for broadband access networks.

Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) accurately identifies and pinpoints faults or cuts in the fiber. Alcatel-Lucent said this centralized troubleshooting approach will provide a continuous view of PON networks, identifying faults such as damaged splitters, dirty connectors, microbends or crushed fiber, misalignments, rogue ONTs or transceiver malfunctions.

"We have embedded OTDR test functionality into our Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) to make it a very cost-effective solution. Moreover, by integrating OTDR in our Motive Network Analyzer where it is combined with a number of complementary technologies, we can provide a comprehensive and end-to-end view of service providers’ fiber networks," stated Dave Geary, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireline activities.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Microsoft to Acquire StorSimple for Hybrid Cloud Storage

Microsoft agreed to acquire StorSimple, a start-up developing Cloud-integrated Storage (CiS) solutions.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

StorSimple, which is based in Santa Clara, California, offers solutions that combine the data management functions of primary storage, backup, archive and disaster recovery with cloud integration. StorSimple said it can automatically protect and rapidly restore production data using public clouds.

Microsoft said the acquisition will advance Microsoft's Cloud OS vision and help customers more efficiently embrace hybrid cloud computing.

"Customers faced with explosive growth in data are looking to the cloud to help them store, manage and archive that data. But, to be effective, cloud storage needs to integrate with IT's current investments," said Michael Park, corporate vice president, Server and Tools Division for Microsoft. "StorSimple's approach helps customers seamlessly integrate on-premises storage with cloud storage through intelligent automation and management."

"Most StorSimple customers are mainstream IT organizations that have chosen Windows Azure as their primary cloud. We are excited to continue to work with Microsoft and bring the combined benefits of StorSimple and Windows Azure to customers around the world," said Ursheet Parikh, co-founder and CEO, StorSimple.

http://www.storsimple.com
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Oct12/10-16CloudPR.aspx

• StorSimple is headed by Ursheet Parikh, who previously was the Director of product management for Cisco’s WAN optimization and application acceleration business unit.

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Verizon Wireless Buys Plateau Wireless in New Mexico

Verizon Wireless has acquired wireless assets in New Mexico RSA #6, owned by E.N.M.R. Telephone Cooperative and its subsidiary Plateau Telecommunications and operated under the brand name Plateau Wireless.  Financial terms were not disclosed.


The deal includes Plateau Wireless' Cellular, PCS and AWS spectrum covering southeastern New Mexico, as well as customers and related GSM operations.  The licenses and the operating assets being acquired cover a population of 259,000 and approximately 26,100 square miles, including state highways U.S. 285, U.S. 54 and U.S. 70.  Major population centers include Roswell, Carlsbad, Artesia and Hobbs, N.M.

Verizon Wireless plans to convert the Plateau Wireless GSM network to CDMA for voice service; and EV-DO (3G) and 4G LTE for data services.  Verizon Wireless will serve acquired Plateau Wireless customers, using the existing Plateau Wireless brand name, until the network conversion is complete 

http://www.plateautel.com/wireless.asp

http://www.verizonwireless.com

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Space Data Corp. and Lemko Launch Satellite LTE in Alaska

Space Data Corp. and Lemko have deployed a satellite-based commercial LTE network in Atqasuk, Alaska. offering mobile broadband data speeds of over 70Mbps.

Lemko's DiMoWiNe (Distributed Mobile Wireless Network) software is co-located at the eNodeB to optimize the LTE over satellite backhaul.  The company says that by virtualizing the core, all switching and routing in the network is moved to the network's edge, resulting in a LTE solution with greater latency tolerances and the ability to deliver mobile broadband over satellite. Lemko's DiMoWiNe greatly reduces the network's signaling traffic and all backhaul is transported as an "over-the-top" IP application.

"Space Data Corporation commissioned the Lemko LTE solution, staged it at the headquarters in Chandler, AZ and transported it to Alaska where it was deployed in only 48 hours. We are excited to now provide mobile broadband service to this area of Alaska where no economic solution was possible before," said Jerry Knoblach, Chairmen and Chief Executive Officer, Space Data Corporation.

http://www.lemko.com
http://www.spacedata.net

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Interoute Powers 100GigE Services Across Europe with Infinera

Interoute, which operates a pan-European network spanning across 60,000km of lit fiber, has activated 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) services using Infinera's DTN platform -- making it the first to broadly offer 100 GbE services across the continent.

Interoute was among the first in Europe to deploy Infinera’s DTN four years ago.

Interoute said that will carriers and enterprises are already using multiple 10 Gbps) services, which can become complex and expensive, the option of 100 GbE  provides higher bandwidth efficiency, lower cost per Gbps, and greater simplicity.

"Interoute and Infinera have worked together to integrate industry leading technology for a number of years,” said Matthew Finnie, CTO at Interoute. "The ability to adapt our existing Infinera DTN network to 100 GbE next-generation services demonstrates the inherent value of the Infinera architecture. It protects our investment for the future services that we need to provide our customers to stay competitive."

"Interoute’s network is used by major incumbents and service providers throughout Europe," said Chris Champion, vice president, EMEA sales at Infinera. "As one of Infinera’s leading customers worldwide, we are excited to play a key part in not only increasing capacity on Interoute's network but also working closely with Interoute to grow its network footprint with Infinera's solutions. The Infinera DTN has delivered for Interoute a cost-effective, high capacity network for its customers in very short time frames."

http://www.infinera.com/j7/servlet/NewsItem?newsItemID=321

http://www.interoute.com/

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Ericsson Positions SSR 8000 as Broadband Gateway

Ericsson introduced Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) functionality for its SSR 8000 Smart Services Router family.

Ericsson said its next generation Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) supports up to 768,000 subscribers in a single rack with a total power consumption, fully loaded, of 14,000 watts.

The platform can enable the delivery of services targeted at a specific user or session or device. Ericsson BNG on SSR 8000 offers a wide range of interfaces.  This new gateway derives its software technology foundation from Ericsson's Broadband Remote Access Service (BRAS), which has been deployed by more than 360 networks worldwide.

 "Ericsson's BNG on SSR 8000 gives service providers industry-leading subscriber scale - it triples subscriber scalability compared to other industry BNGs. With its time-tested and field-proven software and scale, it sets a new benchmark yet again," stated Jan Häglund, Vice President, Head of IP and Broadband Networks.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/1649297

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Dell Offers OpenStack Cloud Appliance from Morphlabs

Dell is now selling an OpenStack-powered cloud appliance developed by Morphlabs that enables wholesale hosting companies to a private cloud service.

The new Dell mCloud Helix is a PowerEdge C6220 server system with solid state disks (SSD), OpenStack cloud software, and Dell’s Crowbar software framework, along with 24×7 remote management and support services. The solution is able to support 80 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and 3TB in a single 2U C6220 chassis, and all at under 700 watts of power consumption.

 Media Temple, a web hosting and cloud services company, is now offering a private cloud service leveraging the new Dell mCloud Helix Solution.

http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/secure/2012-10-16-dell-mcloud-helix-private-cloud.aspx
http://www.morphlabs.com
http://mediatemple.net/helix/

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Cisco Announces Web Conferencing Solution for Private Clouds

Cisco announced a series of enhancements to its collaboration portfolio, delivered via public, private or hybrid cloud models.

"At Cisco, we're seeing exceptional growth and adoption across our collaboration cloud offerings. Case in point: More than half of the world's leading service providers have adopted Cisco's HCS solution. We feel it's about choice.  And, it's ultimately about providing exceptional end user experiences, regardless of the deployment model," said OJ Winge, senior vice president, Collaboration Technology Group, Cisco .

Some highlights of the announcement:

• Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) - new capabilities for Cisco TelePresence, Customer Collaboration (contact center), Unified Communications and mobility.  These enable wholesale providers and integrators to deliver a collaboration "as-a-service" cloud-based model. Example partners include Damovo, eLoyalty (a TeleTech company), Orange Business Services, NTT Communications, Telefonica and Vodafone.
  
• Cisco WebEx Web Conferencing -- this has been extended to run inside of Private Clouds. Cisco reports a 38% increase year over year in the number of WebEx meetings.  The new capabilities use a Cisco WebEx Meetings Server to function as the "on-premises" conferencing solution housed in the enterprise's own data centers.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1080161

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Russia's MegaFon Tests 100G DWDM with Cisco

The North West Branch of MegaFon, one of the three largest mobile operators in Russia, has tested a 100G DWDM implementation with Cisco.  The tests were conducted based on other vendors’ technologies.

The project was aimed at testing the effectiveness and interworking of Cisco 100G transponders, Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers and the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform (MSTP) at the distance of 140 and 384 kilometers (87 and 239 miles). Additionally the solutions have been tested over "dark fiber" at 60 and 120 kilometers (37 and 74 miles).

Cisco said its ASR 9000 Series routers were used as the network core, as they had been designed as the foundational baseline for next-generation Carrier Ethernet networks. They provide up to 400 Gbps per system and can be scaled up to 6.4 terabits (Tbps), helping ensure the fail-safe delivery of multifunctional applications. 

The 100G services were supported by Cisco DWDM transponders tuned to 192.6 GHz (1556.55 nm). The transponders can operate at a distance well in excess of 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) without signal regeneration, and they feature high performance and port density, thus enabling 100G technologies in networks of any complexity. All parameters of the DWDM network were configured automatically by the smart-management subsystem and optical channel power control tools integrated in the Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP platform. During the test the traffic was transferred at 100 Gbps without failure and degradation of existing 10 Gbps services, showing the investment protection on the installed network and existing fiber plant.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1090380

The Case for the Big GEs... and IP-over-DWDM

Sunday, September 23, 2012    No comments

by Sultan Dawood, Solutions Marketing Manager, SP Marketing Cisco Systems No one knows better than the readers of this publication about the importance of Gigabit networks. The emergence of 10 Gigabit (10 G) links in big networks began more than 10 years ago, and seemed like enough capacity, for a long time. But that was then. In today’s optical conversations, talk tends to center on 40/100 Gig links, all the way up to Terabit advancements....

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ADVA and Corning Achieve 100G Direct Detection over 600km

ADVA Optical Networking and Corning have successfully tested direct-detection 100G technology over  600km of Corning LEAF optical fiber -- the first time that direct-detection 100G technology has been used outside of the metro environment. The test used the ADVA FSP 3000 with inline amplification and Corning LEAF fiber.

ADVA's 100G Metro solution leverages 4x28G direct detection technology. Corning's LEAF fiber requires dispersion compensation modules (DCMs) be used only in the terminals at the ends of the link.

“In the metro environment, enterprises and service providers have been cautious about deploying 100G technology,” said Barry Linchuck, division vice president and director, Worldwide Marketing, Optical Fiber, Corning Incorporated. “They need a 100G solution at the right cost point. With this demonstration, we've clearly shown the tremendous opportunities possible through the complimentary features of ADVA Optical Networking's 100G Metro solution and Corning LEAF fiber.”

http://www.advaoptical.com/

http://www.corning.com/opticalfiber/products/LEAF_fiber.aspx

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Gridstore Raises $12.5 Million for Software-Defined Storage Control

Gridstore, a start-up based in Mountain View, CA, raised $12.5 million in Series A financing for its scale-out grid storage solutions.

Gridstore's  Virtual Controller Technology delivers scalable, software-defined storage via a Microsoft Managment Console (MMC) snap-in that integrates with Active Directory.

The funding round was led by GGV Capital and ONSET Ventures with participation from all existing investors bringing the Company's total venture funding to $15 million. 

“It’s the end of big storage. The dynamics of enterprise storage requirements are changing and 30-year-old legacy technology doesn’t cut it anymore,” said Kelly Murphy, CEO of Gridstore. “Web-scale giants such as Amazon and Google have proven that. Gridstore is delivering the next generation of scale-out storage for the software-defined data center that can deliver the same scalability, performance and affordability to the market. Businesses no longer have to accept monolithical systems that are expensive and can’t scale. We are excited for the support of our new investors and the continued commitment of our existing investors will be instrumental as we enter the next phase of rapid growth and continued product innovation that is changing the dynamics of scale-out storage.”

http://gridstore.com

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Spain's SARENET Selects Overture for Ethernet-over-Copper

SARENET, an Internet service provider based in Spain, has selected Overture's 4000 and 400 platforms as the cornerstone of a new Ethernet-over-Copper deployment.  The service will offer customers up to 20 Mbps  (with capabilities up to 60Mbps) over unbundled local loops.


Overture’s EoC  enables Carrier Ethernet services over existing copper infrastructure. The Overture 400 demarcation device enables service providers and network operators to deliver feature-rich business broadband services to the last-mile, while the 4000 pay-as-you-grow aggregation platform delivers centralized management and switching for up to 120 of the Overture 400s.

“This new EoC deployment was a very heavily vetted product decision for us, as SARENET is extremely dedicated to customer satisfaction,” said Alberto Alvarez, director tecnico at SARENET.  “The Overture Carrier Ethernet solution provides increased bandwidth capability, flexible QoS and superior reliability as well as a number of service management tools that ensure we can deliver on our commitment to our valued customers.”

http://www.overturenetworks.com
http://www.sarenet.es

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Cisco Infographic: The Future and Present of Cloud Collaboration

Cisco reports that its WebEx colloboration solution is generating 428,000 meetings per day -- this equates to 31 million attendees per month.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1080161

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NSN Selects Tail-f to Enhance Multi-vendor Config Mgt

 Nokia Siemens Networks will use Tail-f Systems's NCS multi-vendor configuration management and network automation software in NetAct, NSN's network management system. 

Tail-f’s NCS  is a network abstraction layer that will be integrated into NetAct to manage a wide variety of network equipment common in Service Providers' IP networks, such as Cisco and Juniper switches.  NCS allows services to be modeled and automatically translated into real-time, fine-grained configuration changes. 

"We decided to use Tail-f Systems' NCS software based on the strength and easy scalability of the product,” said Peter Patomella, Head of the OSS Business Line at Nokia Siemens Networks.  “Their model-driven software will enhance NetAct’s ability to manage IP transport networks through one central interface. It will also simplify network operations and lay the foundation for superior end-to-end mobile broadband service management.” 

http://www.tail-f.com

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