Gigamon Showcases 100 Gigabit Ethernet Traffic Visibility Fabric

Gigamon will showcase a 100 Gigabit Ethernet Traffic Visibility Fabric at next week's Supercomputing 2012.

The Gigamon Visibility Fabric is capable of intelligently forwarding network traffic at full line rate between nodes on 100GbE network connections, offering the ability to connect to 100GbE networks and to deliver intelligently aggregated 10GbE connections into a single 100GbE uplink to network monitoring, management and analytic tools.

Gigamon said it has demonstrated the capability to receive, filter, modify and deliver traffic at 100GbE rates on network segments with throughput that expands beyond 2.5 Terabits due to the unique architecture of the GigaVUE-HD8 chassis.

“Since inception of the company, Gigamon’s innovative culture continues to deliver regular industry firsts that address real challenges faced by real customers. With 48 of the top 100 Mobile Service Providers using the Gigamon Visibility Fabric, we are in lockstep with our customer base in understanding the challenges they face deploying 4G, LTE-Advanced & VoLTE architectures,” said Paul Hooper, VP of marketing and product management at Gigamon. “We realized that the move from 10Gb to 40Gb was a short-term step in the upgrading of the core, and that 100Gb was the ultimate medium-term objective for architects and engineers of the most advanced global networks. Our customers will be able to take advantage of our intelligent 100Gb network Visibility Fabric to enable effective monitoring, management and analysis of superior performance carrier-grade networks.”

http://www.gigamon.com/traffic-visibility-fabric

Read More

LINARO -- a Software Ecosystems for ARM Servers

Linaro, a not-for-profit engineering organization developing open source software for the ARM architecture, announced the addition of AMD, Applied Micro Circuits Corporation, Calxeda, Canonical, Cavium, Facebook, HP, Marvell and Red Hat as members. Existing members include ARM, Samsung and ST-Ericsson.

The companies will collaborate on the development of foundational software for ARM Server Linux.  Linaro uses a unique business model where multiple companies jointly invest in a software engineering team that creates core open source software in a collaborative and transparent environment.

“As power and energy become increasing costs to business, there continues to be a need to drive down costs and this means a total reinvention of the server space. There will be a range of server solutions based on ARM technology as the entire business community looks to reduce cost of ownership and achieve energy efficiency. Ultimately, it is the partnership approach which is vital to encourage innovation in this space and we are delighted to see LEG shares this vision. By changing the way we process data, the opportunity for a smarter, more connected future can be truly realized," stated ARM CEO Warren East.

Read More

Equinix Posts Q3 Revenue of $489 Million

Equinix reported revenues from continuing operations of $488.7 million for the third quarter, a 7% increase over the previous quarter and a 20% increase over the same quarter last year.  This result included $16.1 million in revenues from the Company’s Asia Tone and ancotel acquisitions for the quarter and excluded $8.8 million of revenues from discontinued operations.  Recurring revenues, consisting primarily of colocation, interconnection and managed services were $462.8 million for the third quarter, a 7% increase over the previous quarter and a 19% increase over the same quarter last year.  Non-recurring revenues were $25.9 million in the quarter.   

Net income attributable to Equinix for the third quarter was $28.8 million.  This represents a basic net income per share attributable to Equinix of $0.60 and a diluted net income per share attributable to Equinix of $0.58 based on a weighted average share count of 48.4 million and 52.7 million, respectively, for the third quarter of 2012.  

“We delivered solid financial results in the third quarter, driven by continued demand for our services across all three regions,” said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix. “We are executing with discipline and remain focused on profitable growth.  We believe the value of our global interconnection platform and further development of our business ecosystems will underpin our competitive position in support of our long-term opportunity.” 

Read More

Softbank Completes First CSFB Between LTE TDD and UMTS with Huawei

SOFTBANK Japan has completed the first circuit switch fall back (CSFB) voice call between a LTE TDD compatible network and a UMTS network using Huawei's solutions for commercial LTE TDD.

The CSFB voice call was made through Huawei's STREAM 201HW smartphone.  To complete the call, the AXGP (Advanced eXtended Global Platform) network was connected with the UMTS network of SOFTBANK MOBILE. AXGP is a network compatible with the LTE TDD of Wireless City Planning Inc., a SoftBank Group company.  Huawei's STREAM 201HW smartphone, which is currently available through SOFTBANK MOBILE in Japan, uses a customized Qualcomm chip supporting both LTE TDD (AXGP) and UMTS.

Mr. Deng Taihua, Huawei President for LTE TDD/WiMAX/TDS Networks, said: "Huawei is honored to provide SOFTBANK MOBILE with this CSFB solution. Interoperation between GSM/UMTS/LTE networks is always a concern for operators. During trials in India August last year, Huawei completed the world's first multiple live handover scenarios across GSM/UMTS/LTE. We are committed to commercializing LTE TDD key solutions for our customers."

http://www.huawei.com/en/about-huawei/newsroom/press-release/hw-195764-csfblte.htm

Read More

NetScout Acquires ONPATH for Network Monitoring at 10/40/100G

NetScout Systems has acquired privately held ONPATH Technologies, a supplier of calable connectivity and monitoring solutions for an undisclosed sum.

ONPATH, which is based in Marlton, New Jersey, offers a Universal Connectivity System and HorizON Software platform that automates and secures data center and test infrastructure.  The tools help network managers to conserve time, increase utilization, and save money compared to manual patching, static TAPs, SPAN ports, or complex mesh switching architectures. ONPATH claims over one million installed ports throughout Fortune 1,000 and Government customers.

NetScout said the acquisition of ONPATH is a strategic move that expands its position in the network monitoring switch market. NetScout said it will leverage ONPATH’s next generation technology to deliver an extensible modular chassis-based switching product portfolio supporting more than 500 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) per chassis along with market-leading densities for 40 GbE, and future support for 100 GbE interfaces.

“As enterprise and service provider organizations continue to face the challenges of monitoring large, distributed and high volume IP network environments, they need greater density and flexibility to scale their access to packet-flow intelligence,” said Anil Singhal, president and CEO, NetScout.  “Our acquisition of ONPATH significantly extends NetScout’s network monitoring switch position and will enable us to establish ourselves as the technology leader in this segment. We intend to quickly integrate this technology into our packet flow switch product offering to deliver a comprehensive, ultra low latency switch portfolio with industry-leading performance and port densities that will be easier to integrate and simpler to manage. This will enable enterprise and service provider organizations to address a diverse range of deployment requirements to improve the efficiency, control and distribution of valuable network traffic flows and reduce the overall total cost of ownership for network-based monitoring deployments.”

NetScout acquired Simena in November 2011 for its low-latency IP packet flow-based network monitoring switching technology.

http://www.netscout.com
http://live.onpathtech.com

Read More

AT&T Offers 5GB of Consumer Cloud Storage

AT&T introduced a free, consumer cloud service that lets users upload images and video to secure online storage and quickly share on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or e-mail.

AT&T Locker is offering 5 GB of storage for free – enough for up to 5,000 average sized photos, along with apps for iPhone and Android.  Users can choose to upload new photos and video via Wi-Fi, wireless or both.

"Customers use smartphones to capture special moments in their lives.  That's why we designed AT&T Locker to help you store those memories," said Mark Collins, senior vice president, Data and Voice Products, AT&T Mobility. "With Easy Upload, every photo and video is uploaded directly to AT&T's cloud, which can be accessed safely and securely anytime from a customer's smartphone or the Web."

http://www.att.com/locker

Read More

OIF Approves Security IAs and Elects Leaders

The Optical Internetworking Forum approved three security implementation agreements (IAs) and elected several new directors and committee chairs. 

The newly approved IAs include:

Security for Management Interfaces to Network Elements 2.0

Network elements have OAM&P interfaces used for network management, billing andaccounting, configuration, error logging, maintenance and other administrative activities unprotected. This IA defines improved mechanisms for securing and protecting OAM&P interfaces to a network element. 

Security Extension for UNI and E-NNI 2.1

This IA defines and updates common Security Extensions for securing the protocols used in the OIF’s UNI and E-NNI which calls for a complete, unified and simplified approach to security.

OIF Control Plane Logging and Auditing with Syslog Version 1.1
This IA addresses updates for controlling and securing the generation, transport and storage of log data to enable an auditing capability for the OIF’s UNI and E-NNI.

Newly elected to the board of directors are John McDonough of NEC, who will serve a one-year term as vice president of marketing, and David Stauffer of IBM and Hans-Martin Foisel of Deutsche Telekom who will each serve a two-year term as a board member.  

Also newly elected is Joe Whitehouse of Metaswitch Networks, who will serve a one-year term as the Market Awareness& Education co-chair, Networking.

Re-elected to the OIF board of directors are the following;

Ghani Abbas of Ericsson, who will serve a two-year term, was appointed Secretary/Treasurer, and Vishnu Shukla of Verizon, who will extend his term as vice president for one-year.

Re-elected as OIF officers and committee chairs are the following;

Jonathan Sadler of Tellabs as Technical Committee chair, 

Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity as Technical Committee vice-chair, 

Rod Smith of TE Connectivity as Market Awareness & Education co-chair, PLL, and 

Torsten Wuth of Nokia Siemens Networks as the Physical Layer User Group chair.

http://www.oiforum.com/public/impagreements.html

Read More

XO Expects Recovery from Sandy to Take a Week

XO Communications reported on Thursday morning (November 1) that full restoration of network services post Hurricane Sandy should be complete within a week due to ongoing commercial power issues.  In a damage report, the company noted the following activity:

111 8th Avenue, New York – Power has been restored via generator and all systems are operational. Fuel is being delivered twice daily and it is estimated that commercial power will be restored in 3-4 days. XO continues to monitor fuel and generator levels at this site.  On Thursday, the air conditioning system was turned off due to a fuel pumping problem.  Temperatures inside the data center quickly exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.78 C ).  Cooling infrastructure  was restored at around 7pm EST. ConEdison is estimating 3-4 days before full power is restored to the building.

75 N Broad Street, New York – Although this Central Office (“CO”) was impacted by significant flooding it is now operational, running on generator power. XO continues to monitor fuel and generator levels at this site.

60 Hudson, New York & 165 Halsey, New Jersey – These XO sites and all other XO sites in New York City, except as described above, are operating and are fully accessible; all power via generator has been restored in these sites. XO continues to monitor fuel and generator levels at this site. It is estimated that commercial power will be restored in 3-4 days.

974 Marcon (Philadelphia) – Running on generator power. All equipment at the site is operational. XO continues to monitor fuel and generator levels at this site. ETR for commercial power is Sunday.

Philadelphia, PA Fiber Event – XO has determined that there is a fiber cut in the Philadelphia area that is impacting customers. XO dispatched a crew and has determined the area of the cut. XO is waiting on commercial power to be restored prior to repairing damaged fiber. Unfortunately the fiber cut is in a rural area and commercial power may be a lower priority for the power company than other areas.

Cleveland, OH – Recently declared at State of Emergency because of the extent of storm damage. XO will continue to focus on restoration efforts in this area as determined by State of Emergency conditions

http://www.xo.com/information/Pages/Hurricane-Sandy.aspx

Read More

China Unicom Awards B-RAS contract to ZTE

China Unicom  has selected ZTE’s ZXR10 M6000 equipment for new network construction across 15 provinces, including Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Shanxi, Henan, Guangdong and Zhejiang. ZTE has won about 45% share in this part of the project. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.zte.com.cn

Read More

Fujitsu Extends MEF Carrier Ethernet in FLASHWAVE 9500

Fujitsu announced support for MEF CE 2.0-compliant E-Line, E-LAN, E-Tree and E-Access services on its flagship FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet Optical Networking Platform (Packet ONP),  positioning the platform for unified CE 2.0 Ethernet service deliveryover any type of access network. The FLASHWAVE 9500 is widely deployed by major North American carriers.

The FLASHWAVE 9500  integrates Connectionless Ethernet (CLE) capabilities with current Connection-oriented Ethernet (COE), ROADM, DWDM and SONET/SDH technologies.  Fujitsu said its key advantage for Communications Service Providers is enabling legacy traffic to be transported with newer, packet-centric communications over the same network infrastructure. Fujitsu’s customers can realize new revenue generation opportunities of MEF E-Line, E-LAN, E-Tree and E-Access services by leveraging the products’ unique capability to deliver these services over their existing SONET/SDH, T1/T3, copper local loop and fiber infrastructure.  Service providers can deliver wholesale MEF E-Access services on the same infrastructure as their retail MEF Ethernet services.

“The FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet ONP has integrated the many transport technologies deployed in our customers’ networks into one software re-configurable MEF-centric services delivery platform” said James Anthony, Principal Solutions Architect, Packet Optical Networking, Fujitsu Network Communications.  “This unified networking solution is packaged in a single system with a single Element Management System that can provision new Ethernet services in as little as a minute.  With the FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet ONP customers can count on flexibility, reliability and scalability that keep the platform’s total cost of ownership well below the revenue curve.”

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom/technologies/packet-optical-networking.html

Read More

WSJ: Outages Expose Wireless Carriers' Backup Plans

Many people are struggling to get wireless signals in Manhattan three days after the hurricane, according to The Wall Street Journal, in part because cell sites lack sufficient backup generator power for an extended electrical outage and part because of damage to the backhaul network.  On Thursday, the FCC estimated that 19% of cell sites in effected areas still face outages.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203707604578093220126444306.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Read More