Mobile World Congress 2013 Hit Record 72,000 Attendance

The GSMA confirmed a record 72,000 visitors attended this week's 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

“We are thrilled with the record results for Mobile World Congress 2013, in our first year here in Fira Gran Via,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “Mobile is one of the most vibrant and dynamic industries in the world, and the innovation that is powering the sector was clearly evident throughout Mobile World Congress, in the exhibition, the conference, programmes such as App Planet and mPowered Brands and new event initiatives such as the NFC Experience.

There were more than 1,700 exhibiting companies and the show floor covered 94,000 net square meters of exhibition and hospitality space. More than 3,400 international media and industry analysts attended the event .

According to a preliminary independent economic analysis, the 2013 Mobile World Congress will have contributed more than 320 million Euros to the local economy. This represents an increase of approximately 19 million Euros over the economic impact of the 2012 event and is driven by the growth in attendance and number of exhibiting companies, as well as the increased footprint of exhibition and hospitality spaces.

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Huawei's FusionNet for LTE-B Envisions 500% Gains

At Mobile World Congress, Huawei outlined its "FusionNet" next generation network architecture for LTE-B.

The company believes it can improve Cell Edge User (CEU) throughput by at least 500% with a series of multi-RAT, multi-band and multi-layer HetNet enhancements.

Huawei’s FusionNet concept for LTE-B comprises several core technologies, including multi-stream aggregation, interference coordination, traffic adaption and spectrum efficiency optimization. Existing LTE and LTE-A deployments and technologies (including CoMP and carrier aggregation) will be coordinated.

Also at MWC 2013, Huawei unveiled its Ultra Node prototype design for future mobile broadband base stations. Huawei said its Ultra Node enhances the spectrum utilization and overall network efficiency to achieve a 50 Gbps peak data speed in a single node.

Huawei also noted that since 2010 it has contributed 362 LTE, LTE-A and LTE-B proposals for 3GPP LTE standards, accounting for nearly 20% of the global total and more than any other contributor.

http://www.huawei.com

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Telefónica Targets Seamless Wi-Fi + 3G/4G

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telefónica showcased Wi-Fi access working seamlessly with 4G.

Telefónica's vision is to enable smartphone and tablet users to move seamlessly between different wireless access technologies without losing coverage – leading the way to a wide range of next generation multimedia services.  The carrier believes Wi-Fi will prove to be more useful when it is fully integrated with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) based mobile technologies.

Telefónica’s demo at the MWC showcases highly advanced network features enabling seamless handover between Wi-Fi and LTE and also implementing a set of network policies easing the discovery and selection of the network, regardless of the access technology and transparently to the customer.  WiFi and LTE networks in seamless integration enabling communication uninterrupted service sessions during handovers across access technologies.

The company also demoed voice over LTE, which offers approximately 40% improvement on voice quality and the ability to make connections in 0.25 seconds or 20 times faster than a standard 3G call.

Telefonica  said a key advantage of VoLTE is that it can be combined with several enhanced IP-based services such as High Definition Voice, presence, location, and Rich Communication Suite (RCS) additions like instant messaging, video share and enhanced phone books. Moreover, VoLTE enables prioritization over other data streams to deliver consistently high quality service levels.

http://www.telefonica.com

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Telefónica Sees Growth in Mobile Data (+12.8%), Latin America (+5.5%)

Thanks to growth in Latin America and mobile data services, Telefónica achieved a 2012 EUR 62.356 billion.

Mobile data revenues were up +12.8% year on year while revenues from Latin America rose +5.5%.  Telefónica’s consolidated OIBDA grew by +5.1% in reported terms to EUR 21,231 billion , which places the OIBDA margin at 34% (+1.9 p.p.).

Some 2012 highlights:

Telefónica ended 2012 with a customer base that grew by +3% to 316 million accesses.

Mobile customers totalled 247 million accesses at close of 2012 (+4%), with growth rates of +7% in the contract segment.

At the end of December, Telefónica had 52.8 million mobile broadband customers (+38%) and had 18.6 million retail fixed broadband
accesses (+3%).

Between January and December, Telefónica reduced its financial debt by over EUR 5 billion to EUR 51.259 billion, which means that the net financial debt to OIBDA ratio is 2.36 times.

During financial year 2012, Telefónica invested EUR 9,458 billion, i.e. 14.2% of its revenue (excluding investments in spectrum). 81% of that investment was earmarked for growth and transformation projects.

http://www.telefonica.com

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SFR Picks Cisco for Elastic Packet Core

SFR, which serves more than 20 million mobile customers across France, has selected Cisco to expand and enhance its mobile Internet network in order to accelerate the deployment of LTE services.

SFR will leverage Cisco's next-generation Internet architecture, including elastic packet core, mobile backhaul, and service provider Wi-Fi solutions, t odeploy the widest range of heterogeneous radio networks (2G/3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi), capture new business opportunities, foster new business models and meet rapidly growing network demands.

The Cisco Elastic Packet Core will provide 4G LTE Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (SGW), Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), 2G/3G GGSN and SGSN applications. The MME is critical to the network function of the 4G LTE network. The Cisco MME manages multiple back-end functions, including authentication, paging, mobility with 3GPP 2G and 3G nodes, roaming and other functions. The Cisco Serving Gateway (SGW) and the Cisco Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) are two essential elements to SFR’s 4G LTE mobile network. The Cisco SGW provides superior throughput and processing, while the Cisco PGW acts as policy enforcement, managing quality of service (QoS).

SFR is also deploying the Cisco ASR 901 and Cisco ASR 903 mobile backhaul solutions.

In addition to SFR’s 4G deployment, Cisco will also support the service provider’s 2G and 3G cellular networks with its Cisco Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) and Cisco Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN).

http://www.cisco.com

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NSN Announces LTE Wins in Germany and New Zealand

Germany’s E-Plus Group has selected Nokia Siemens Networks as a partner for its LTE rollout.  Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will expand E-Plus’ current HSPA+ capacity in the 2100 MHz band while modernizing its GSM network. NSN will supply its high-capacity Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and its Liquid Radio GSM software suite, which enables operators to free GSM spectrum for LTE. Nokia Siemens Networks will also expand the capabilities of its NetAct network management system and deliver various services such as installation and integration, network optimization and build. Financials terms were not disclosed.

Separately, Nokia Siemens Networks confirmed that Vodafone New Zealand selected it to deploy an LTE network in the 1800 MHz spectrum band across the country. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks in partnership with Vodafone New Zealand upgraded Vodafone’s 2G and 3G networks to ensure improved coverage and speed for subscribers. They also jointly completed GSM and LTE refarming so that part of the GSM spectrum can be re-used for LTE. This leads to enhanced speed and coverage, as well as a gain in capacity by up to 50 percent.

"The launch of the country’s first commercial 4G network is a major milestone for New Zealand. We’ve now joined other countries around the world which are already seeing the benefits of the increased speed and performance with 4G, and we’re delighted to lead the rollout of 4G service in New Zealand with Nokia Siemens Networks. With so much of our lives being driven now by the desire and ability to be connected to data wherever we are, this major network investment by Vodafone is really important,” Russell Stanners, CEO of Vodafone New Zealand.

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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MedNautilus Deploys Infinera's DTN-X for 100G Services

MedNautilus, the Mediterranean operations of the Telecom Italia Sparkle Group, has deployed the Infinera DTN-X platform to boost its subsea network and deliver up to 100 Gbps international connectivity services.

MedNautilus operates the largest protected submarine cable network in the Mediterranean connecting Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Cyprus, and serves the growing capacity needs of the region.

“Mednautilus now operates the first submarine cable network in Europe able to provide up to 100 Gbps  international connectivity services with a solution that ensures top quality and efficiency standards,” said Mario Pirro, Sparkle’s EVP Technology. “The market in the region is demanding faster and more advanced services and with the Infinera DTN-X solution for the provision of 100Gb/s services, we are able to provide the capacity we need in order to meet the fast growing requirements of our customers throughout the markets covered by our backbone.”

http://www.infinera.com

http://www.mednautilus.com

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Procera Selected by Orange Switzerland & U.S. Tier One

Orange Switzerland has placed an initial order for Procera Networks' Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions.

Procera's PL8820 PacketLogic Intelligence Center (PIC) and the PacketLogic Subscriber Manager (PSM) will be deployed throughout Orange's network as a replacement for an existing solution. Procera's solutions will be used to allow Orange to offer high value subscriber services. Procera expects to recognize most of the revenue related to this order in the first half of 2013.

Separately, Procera Networks also confirmed an initial order from a top five North American DSL operator. The carrier selected Procera's Intelligent Policy Enforcement systems to support detailed subscriber-aware traffic analysis and reporting across its fixed-line broadband network and for sophisticated network and subscriber analytics across its deployment footprint. Procera recognized revenue from this initial order in the fourth quarter of 2012.

http://www.proceranetworks.com

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Commscope Offers Combined Fiber/Copper in Single Cable

Commscope introduced a new cable design to help MSOs incorporate fiber deeper into their plant as a bridge from HFC (Hybrid Fiber-Coax) networks to a fiber rich network.

CommScope’s E2O (Electrical to Optical) is a combination of the company's coaxial/fiber product lines that merges microducts and microcables, along with fiber and coaxial cable, in one sheath versus multiple sheaths.

“Because of this single sheath, E2O can help mitigate current and future installation costs while ensuring future migration strategies including PON, RFoG and other FTTx technologies. Whether an operator needs to reconfigure, maintain or replace their HFC residential services, deploying E2O helps ‘future proof’ their network for when fiber is eventually needed. If their strategy is to install coaxial cable integrated with fiber or conduit for future fiber blow-in, or both, operators can once again minimize expenses by installing all under one sheath at the same time," said Doug Wells, vice president, Outside Plant Solutions, Broadband, CommScope.

http://www.commscope.com

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Saudi Telecom Names ZTE as a Preferred Vendor

The STC Group, the largest telecom provider in the Middle East & North Africa, named ZTE as one its preferred global vendors.

The agreement between ZTE and STC Group, announced at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, will allow ZTE to offer its portfolio of network infrastructure equipment through a global price structure based on total business located in Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

http://www.zte.com.cn

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IBM Pushes for Network Core Virtualization

IBM is endorsing the virtualization of network infrastructure to extend the benefits of a cloud delivery model to communications networks.

Under its "Smarter Communications" initiative, IBM is working with business partners, including Connectem Inc., to deliver telecom solutions that run on its elastic, on-demand cloud platforms.

The Virtual Core for Mobile (VCM) is a software solution from Connectem, an IBM Business Partner, which has the potential to deliver higher network performance during peak usage periods, where millions of customers could be accessing a mobile network via smartphones or tablets.

A virtualized solution can rapidly switch computing resources to deliver incremental capacity on-demand. As a result, customers experience lower network latency even during periods of peak network activity. The Connectem VCM software running on IBM PureFlex platform is a part of a key initiative that can dramatically reduce the time to deploy new services as software applications on general-purpose computing platforms.

The Australian mobile carrier Optus recently tested a new mobile network capacity solution from Connectem Inc. running on IBM PureFlex. The IBM PureSystems family offers carriers an alternative to current enterprise computing models, where multiple and disparate systems require significant resources to set up and maintain.

"The IBM PureFlex platform is uniquely suited to enable virtualization of network functions that are implemented as software applications running on elastic, on-demand infrastructure in 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi wireless networks," said Jacqueline Woods, global vice president of Systems Software & Growth Initiatives, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "We continue to support our partners as they develop and bring to market innovative solutions on the PureFlex platform."

http://www.ibm.com/press/pure

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DOCOMO's Mobile Base Station Hits 10 Gbps Uplink

NTT DOCOMO and the Tokyo Institute of Technology achieved an uplink rate of approximately 10 Gbps during a field experiment.

In the experiment, a 400 MHz bandwidth in the 11 GHz spectrum was transmitted from a mobile station moving at approximately 9 km/h. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology was used to spatially multiplex different data streams using 8 transmitting antennas and 16 receiving antennas on the same frequency.

In light of the squeeze on remaining frequencies as mobile data traffic continues to increase, DOCOMO aims to achieve a transmission speed of more than 10 Gbps using super-high-frequency bands exceeding 5 GHz. Such high frequencies have been difficult to use for mobile networks due to the limited distances their waves are able to travel, especially along indirect paths such as around buildings.

NTT DOCOMO said the technologies also are applicable to downlink packet transmissions, suggesting that it should be possible to achieve a 10 Gbps downlink.

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NTT DOCOMO Selects NEC Base Stations for Proposed C-RAN Architecture

NEC confirmed that NTT Docomo has selected it to develop LTE-Advanced base stations for its new C-RAN architecture.

NTT Docomo is proposing a new Advanced C-RAN architecture that uses small "add-on" cells for localized coverage that act in concert with macro cells in HetNet fashion.  Deep integration is achieved using carrier aggregation technology, one of the main LTE-Advanced technologies standardized by 3GPP.

Under the Advanced C-RAN architecture, high-capacity base stations utilizing advanced C-RAN architecture will serve as master base stations both for multiple macro cells covering broad areas and for add-on cells in smaller, high-traffic areas. The base stations will accommodate up to 48 macro and add-on cells at launch and even more later. Carrier aggregation will be supported for cells served by the same base station, enabling the flexible deployment of add-on cells. In addition, maximum downlink throughput will be extendible to 3Gbps, as specified by 3GPP standards.

Carrier aggregation is expected to yield 3 Gbps maximum throughput by aggregating multiple carriers of up to 100 MHz of carrier bandwidth.

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/2013/02/21_00.html

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DOCOMO, China Mobile and KT Announce Wi-Fi Roaming Deal

NTT DOCOMO,China Mobile International and KT agreed to lay out a joint Wi-Fi inbound roaming scheme covering Japan, China and Korea.

The new arrangement will allow international mobile and/or Wi-Fi operators to roam into Wi-Fi hotspots in Japan, China and Korea through a single contract and a one-stop connection realized by hubs supported by the scheme.

China Mobile International is named to be one of the hub operators. The companies hope to launch in Q2 2013.

The three carriers also agreed to adopt EAP-SIM authentication technology to eliminate the need for customers to enter user IDs and passwords when accessing Wi-Fi hotspots, leading to improved convenience and experiences.

Separately, the three carriers have also agreed on handset and service requirements needed to realize NFC international roaming services, or NFC service roaming, between the three countries and for the rest of Asia. The companies have been exploring opportunities for NFC service roaming since January 2011, and from April 2012, efforts have focused on developing common requirements.

http://www.ntt.co.jp

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Gigamon Turns Big Data into Manageable Data for Mobile Carriers

Gigamon is developing an innovative approach for dealing with the problems that Big Data creates for network visibility in the networks of mobile operators.  The aim is to deliver a cost-effective solution for connecting single or multiple 40Gb and 100Gb pipes to 10Gb and 1Gb analytic tools.

Gigamon's technology essentially takes the network traffic flowing through the large pipes, and controls the volume of data being forwarded to the tools.  The concept is being showcased at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The company said this approach will faithfully reproduce the data on a smaller scale, retaining its stateful condition with session awareness. Single tools can then effectively process throughput of what was originally 100Gb or 40Gb traffic flows.

When commercially available, this new innovation will work in tandem with Gigamon’s Flow Mapping and GigaSMART applications technologies. Flow Mapping enables advanced filtering of individual network traffic packets that are forwarded according to a set of user-defined rules that are optimized to provide customers with unique granularity and scalability.

GigaSMART applications modify, manipulate, transform and transport packets, along with the information they carry, in order to enhance and improve the value of the network traffic before delivering it to the appropriate management, monitoring and security tools.


“Gigamon was the first to recognize that the flow of data rushing through mobile carrier pipes has scaled to such levels that no technology out there can sufficiently filter and process it all, so we decided to design an entirely new approach,” said Andy Huckridge, director of service provider solutions at Gigamon. “For the first time, the industry as a whole has a real way to tackle the issues associated with Big Data. Through this new concept we hope to alleviate much of the data running through 40Gb and 100Gb pipes, allowing it to fit into smaller existing pipes and saving the carrier from drowning under the massive flow of data and resulting greater tooling costs.”

http://www.gigamon.com

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Huawei Shows SDN-based Mobile Backhaul

Huawei introduced an SDN-based mobile backhaul solution that simplifies the operation and maintenance (O&M) and management of mobile backhaul networks and shortens the time to market (TTM) of new services. The solution helps operators resolve network issues during the evolution to LTE networks.

Huawei said three large gaps persist in backhaul networks that operators must leap over during the evolution to LTE and LTE-A networks.

First, a large gap exists between massive LTE hotspots and limited hotspot backhaul sites. The LTEHaul solution extends the traditional backhaul network downwards to form a fronthaul, facilitating the management and maintenance of massive hotspot backhaul nodes.

A second large gap is present between the vast increase in the LTE bandwidth and the limited bandwidth on the traditional backhaul network.

Third, there is a large gap between the traditional backhaul and core networks. The LTEHaul solution stretches the traditional backhaul network upwards to achieve end-to-end fast service provisioning, protection switching, and fault locating from eNodeBs to evolved packet cores (EPCs).

http://www.huawei.com

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Ericsson Highlights SDN for Mobile Operators

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ericsson is highlighting its vision for how software defined networking (SDN) vision will transfer Service Provider infrastructure.
Ericsson said its Service Provider SDN vision expands the industry definition in three important ways to open new revenue opportunities and costs saving for network operators:

Integrated network control, extending SDN control from the data center into the wide area network, all the way to the radio access network

Orchestrated network and cloud management bringing both legacy network management and new management system together in a unified control plane
Service exposure opening network interfaces to applications developers

At Mobile World Congress, Ericsson also announced its commitment to deliver the first commercial Service Provider SDN application in the fourth quarter of 2013. That initial application will be Service Chaining running in the SSR 8000 family of Smart Service Routers.

http://www.ericsson.com

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KPN Awards Five-year Managed Services Deal to ALU

KPN awarded a five-year managed services agreement to Alcatel-Lucent for the transformation of KPN’s fixed network in The Netherlands. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of KPN’s network, Alcatel-Lucent will migrate existing Voice and Transport networks to next-gen Alcatel-Lucent technology.

Under the deal, Alcatel-Lucent will plan, design and implement an end-to-end solution to provide KPN’s network with increased capacity, upgraded equipment, and best-in-class customer service processes. Alcatel-Lucent also will help KPN transform its existing multi-vendor voice and core networks enabling its customers to access and share multimedia content from wherever they are or using the device of their choice be it smartphone, computer or tablet.

As part of the network upgrade, Alcatel-Lucent will migrate KPN’s core network to next-gen Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technology, move KPN’s VoIP service to Alcatel-Lucent’s IMS platform and provide WLAN and security gateway for Wi-Fi networks, as well as Professional Services.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Ixia Introduces GTP-Session Awareness Visibility

Ixia introduced a network visibility solution to help mobile operators gain better insight and control over individual user sessions in order to increase customers’ quality of experience.

Highlights of the Ixia Anue GSC include:

• GTP-session awareness -- Offloads GTP session correlation from monitoring tools while keeping GTP sessions together across multiple probes. The Anue GSC understands GTP protocol and can deliver all packets from a single subscriber to a single tool as well as send GTP-session and non-GTP, non-session traffic to different pools of probes.
• A scalable load balancing solution -- Distributes millions of subscriber sessions to tools in a 32-port configuration, doubling the number of ports for twice the performance in a 2RU chassis.
• Carrier-grade robustness — NEBS Level 1 certified, including high-availability features such as redundant management ports, power supplies and fan trays.

http://www.ixiacom.com

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Meru Expects $12 Million in Secondary Offering

Meru Networks announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,000,000 shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $4.00 per share. Gross proceeds, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Meru, are expected to be approximately $12 million. http://www.merunetworks.com

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Mobile World Congress Award Winners

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA announced the following winners of its 18th Annual Global Mobile awards:

Best Smartphone
Samsung Galaxy S3

Best Feature phone or entry level phone
Nokia Asha 305

Device Manufacturer of the Year
Samsung

Best Mobile Tablet
Google and Asus for Nexus 7

Best Mobile Infrastructure
Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks

Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough
Accuris Networks for AccuROAM Wi-Fi: Making Wi-Fi a carrier driven extension of GSM for Offload and Roaming

Best Cloud Based Technology for Mobile
Jasper Wireless cloud-based connected devices platform for machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer electronics

Best Mobile Safeguard & Security Products and Services
AdaptiveMobile and Syniverse for Messaging Trust

Outstanding LTE Contribution
SK Telecom for 4G LTE with PETA Solution

Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTO's choice
Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks

Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award
Government of New Zealand

The full list of winners and finalist for the 2013 Global Mobile Awards is here:

http://www.globalmobileawards.com/winners-2013

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Telstra Picks Ericsson for Optical Backbone Upgrade

Telstra has selected Ericsson to upgrade its national optical transport to 100 Gbps technology.  Specifically, Ericsson will provide its SPO 1400 metro optical family and the MHL3000 for long-haul applications, including support for 100Gbps services.

Ericsson's next generation optical network solution includes the latest in 100Gbps transmission, ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) and DWDM technology with Multiservice DWDM and Packet Optical Transport Platform (POTP) equipment.

In addition, Telstra and Ericsson announced the renewal of their longstanding strategic partnership. The agreement includes an expansion of Telstra's LTE network across Australia, as well as a program of advanced technology trials - of LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation, LTE heterogeneous networks and LTE Broadcast.

David Thodey, Chief Executive Officer of Telstra, says: "Telstra is very proud of the work that we are undertaking with Ericsson to ensure Australia remains at the forefront of mobile connectivity. We believe these initiatives are a way of efficiently maintaining our high quality network and meeting sustained, growing customer demand." - The LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation trial will combine the 1800MHz and 900MHz bands. Telstra will also test Ericsson's coordinated solution for small cells in heterogeneous networks ensures high-quality capacity and connectivity in even the most densely populated city areas. In the third trial for 2013, for the LTE Broadcast solution, Ericsson will deploy Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) technology into Telstra's live network. As part of the trial, premium video and file-based content will be broadcast over the LTE network to test how video and other content can be more efficiently delivered through application of dynamic offload, particularly in dense consumption scenarios. Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg says: "Under this agreement, Ericsson continues as Telstra's prime vendor of 3G and 4G RAN technology. The trials for Telstra will provide insights applicable not only on the Australian market but also globally. For example, the heterogeneous networks trial will be of interest to operators around the world who want to ensure capacity and connectivity in densely populated city areas. And the LTE Broadcast trial will show how Ericsson technology can deliver media content efficiently over LTE."
http://www.ericsson.com/press

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F5 Builds SDN into Mobile Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller

F5 Networks is enhancing its Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller (SDC) product is optimized for software defined networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architectures.

Specifically, throught a new software release F5 delivers Diameter and control plane solutions that have the ability to run in virtualized environments with increased programmability and integration with network orchestration systems.

F5 noted that a new standards group for virtualization of network functions has been formed as a part of ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute).

"F5’s Traffix SDC solutions have been deployed at more than 25 locations—including tier 1 carriers and service providers—because customers demand the reliability and performance of a mature and proven Diameter product,” said Ben Volkow, VP of Product Development at F5. "In addition, the Traffix SDC now offers service providers the ability to automate and program the network dynamically and realize NFV capabilities to bring network elements to x86-based server infrastructures. Service providers can now leverage our SDN/NFV-ready SDC signaling solution to benefit from simpler and faster network changes, reduced complexity and costs, and maximum business agility."

Key SDN/NFV-ready features include:

• Support for the leading servers on the market, enabling operators to leverage the same infrastructure for multiple network services. The platform is virtualization-ready with the ability to run on both VMware ESX and KVM hypervisors.
  
• A unique scripting capability and a new API to enable operators to program and automate policy-based configuration changes based upon the changing signaling and network conditions. This allows them to abstract the business logic from the device configuration in a programmatic manner.

http://www.f5.com

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Huawei's Single Radio Controller Supports 120Gbps, Multi-RATs

Huawei launched a Single Radio Controller (SRC) solution that supports a maximum data traffic capacity of 120 Gbps while offering multi-RAT network synergy.

Huawei's SRC handles the centralized coordination of network resources for multi-band control. The solution includes Huawei's high-capacity, multi-RAT controller platform for GSM, UMTS, LTE FDD, LTE TDD and Wi-Fi networks.  Its signaling processing capacity supports 64 million busy hour call attempts (BHCA), more than five times the industry average.  The solution enables centralized LTE network cell management, significantly reducing interference and enhancing cell-edge user throughput by 200% via scheduling of resources between cells.

http://www.huawei.com

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Small Cell Forum launches Release One

The Small Cell Forum announced Release One with a focus on providing operators with all the information they need to successfully launch small cells in the home. Release One also contains significant advanced work on future releases, including enterprise, metro, and rural small cells.

Release One provides mobile operators with business case analysis for deploying small cells , including recommended equipment specifications for RFPs, together with best practice from the operators which have successfully deployed femtocells in scale.

http://www.scf.io

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Ericsson and SAP Target Cloud-Based Machine-to-Machine Solutions

Ericsson and SAP will jointly market and sell cloud-based, machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions and services to enterprises via operators around the globe.  The solutions will be based on a combined software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering from Ericsson and SAP within M2M.

The alliance combines Ericsson's Device Connection Platform & Service Enablement Platform with enterprise business solutions powered by the SAP HANA platform.  Ericsson will also provide its consulting, systems integration and managed services, and complementary device and applications testing, as well as verification services to facilitate a faster time-to-market, efficient use of mobile network resources and an optimized user experience.

"Today's announcement is a first step toward delivering on a shared vision that SAP and Ericsson have for co-innovating with our customers worldwide to help them deliver on the promise of M2M. Together, we will break down the barriers that prevent customer adoption of M2M solutions by delivering a simple, affordable and fast-to-implement solution.  Enterprises will benefit from an offering that provides them with everything they need to connect to machines, and helps turn high volumes of data into real-time knowledge and decision-making," stated Jim Hagemann Snabe, Co-CEO of SAP AG.

http://www.sap.com/news-reader/index.epx?articleID=20468
http://www.ericsson.com

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Ericsson and China Mobile Complete Dual Mode HD Voice over LTE Call

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, China Mobile in demonstrating the world's first dual mode HD voice over LTE (VoLTE) call between TD-LTE and LTE FDD based on ST-Ericsson's multimode modem and Renesas Mobile' quad-mode chipsets.

Ericsson supported the demonstration by supplying its LTE TDD/FDD converged radio solution and IMS platform.

The companies said the demonstration further paves the way for the ultimate commercial launch of Voice over TD-LTE.  The demonstration also achieved HD quality TD-LTE voice service.   As of January 2013, operators in 45 countries have launched HD voice over WCDMA/GSM/LTE in 61 live networks, supported by mainstream devices.

http://www.ericsson.com

• In December 2012, Ericsson assisted China Mobile Hong Kong in demonstrating the world's first live, seamless, bi-directional LTE TDD/FDD interworking on the converged LTE TDD/FDD network.The launch of this converged network architecture, based on the recognized 3GPP standard, combines the power of both networks to benefit both China Mobile Hong Kong and its subscribers and the industry as a whole.

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P&T Luxembourg Tests Alcatel-Lucent’s Zero-Touch Vectoring

P&T Luxembourg is testing Alcatel-Lucent's Zero-Touch Vectoring to evaluate how the technology can help the operator meet the national government’s "Ultra High BroadBand" plan - which aims at providing all Luxembourg residents with broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream by 2015.

VDSL2 Vectoring is a noise-cancelling technology that removes the interference between the multiple VDSL2 lines, so that each VDSL2 line can operate at its best and deliver higher data transmission speeds. P&T Luxembourg is already deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON and P2P-based fiber access solution. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

In October 2012, Alcatel-Lucent introduced new signal processing software developed by Bell Labs that promises to shake up the business model for VDSL2.

The new ‘Zero Touch Vectoring’capability eliminates the need to upgrade every CPE in a copper node whenever the first customer opts for faster broadband access delivered over a VDSL2 vectored line.  Previously, a carrier choosing to deploy VDSL2 Vectoring was required to upgrade every modem on the network in order to properly handle the crosstalk elimination.

Alcatel-Lucent introduced the first commercial VDSL2 Vectoring solution in September 2011, delivering 100 Mbps over existing copper loop lengths of 400 meters.  VDSL2 vectoring uses digital signal processing to remove crosstalk between copper pairs in a bundle, similar to noise cancellation in headphones. From line cards at the central office or DSLAM, the system measures the crosstalk from all the lines in the bundle and then generates an anti-phase signal to cancel out the noise.  Alcatel-Lucent developed its own chipset and software.  The VDSL2 vectoring is delivered via  a 48-port Board Level Vectoring card, a 48-port System Level Vectoring card, and a Vector Processing card supporting up to 384 ports.

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P&T Luxembourg Tests ALU's Vectoring

P&T Luxembourg is testing Alcate-Lucent's Zero-Touch Vectoring innovations to help meet the government's "Ultra High BroadBand", which aims at providing all Luxembourg residents with broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream.

P&T Luxembourg is already deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON and P2P-based fiber access solution, and is now investigating how to leverage its existing DSL infrastructure to reach the government’s 100 Mbps target faster – through the use of VDSL2 Bonding and Vectoring.

VDSL2 Vectoring is a noise-cancelling technology that removes the interference between the multiple VDSL2 lines, so that each VDSL2 line can operate at its best and deliver higher data transmission speeds. In combination with VDSL2 Bonding, which takes two copper-based VDSL2 lines per subscriber and aggregates them, speeds of 100 Mbps can be achieved at distances up to 800m.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

In October, lcatel-Lucent introduced new signal processing software developed by Bell Labs that promises to shake up the business model for VDSL2.

The new ‘Zero Touch Vectoring’capability eliminates the need to upgrade every CPE in a copper node whenever the first customer opts for faster broadband access delivered over a VDSL2 vectored line.  Previously, a carrier choosing to deploy VDSL2 Vectoring was required to upgrade every modem on the network in order to properly handle the crosstalk elimination.

Alcatel-Lucent introduced the first commercial VDSL2 Vectoring solution in September 2011, delivering 100 Mbps over existing copper loop lengths of 400 meters.  VDSL2 vectoring uses digital signal processing to remove crosstalk between copper pairs in a bundle, similar to noise cancellation in headphones. From line cards at the central office or DSLAM, the system measures the crosstalk from all the lines in the bundle and then generates an anti-phase signal to cancel out the noise.  Alcatel-Lucent developed its own chipset and software.  The VDSL2 vectoring is delivered via  a 48-port Board Level Vectoring card, a 48-port System Level Vectoring card, and a Vector Processing card supporting up to 384 ports.

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Narus: Time to Out Innovate Cyber Attackers with Cyber 3.0

Narus, which develops big data analytics for cyber security, is setting its sights on Cyber 3.0 -- a new approach to cyber security whereby machine learning serves as the foundation of next-generation security products that protects devices, organizations and people.

Narus, which is a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of Boeing, said a new approach to cyber security is made possible by the semantic web.  Instead of just reacting to new cyber security attacks, the industry must leverage the power of the predictive web to get ahead of the threat and out-innovate the adversaries.

The company defines Cyber 3.0 as "the intersection of the semantic Web and cyber." Because of the massive volume of data, the new security framework relies on machine-to-machine learning that enables the collection, extraction, fusion, analysis and connection of information. Ultimately, it provides the visibility, control and context required to protect organizations in today's environment. Cyber 3.0 will be the foundation for a future in which machines drive decision-making.

Narus has filed or been awarded 32 patents related to cyber security. The company is announcing the following products at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco.

• Narus nSystem: New big data analytics solution leverages machine learning and automated continuous learning to achieve incisive intelligence for protection of critical assets. The system processes 100 percent of network packets to discover, analyze and understand every cyber interaction, and deliver the visibility, control and context required. The result is the Narus nSystem, which can scan millions of pieces of data and metadata; aggregate data about users, communities, devices and applications; and then delve into the traffic as well as the content behind network behavior. Narus said its solution ensures that every interaction is contextualized to help users draw conclusions about patterns and relationships. And semantic analysis provides clear insight into details about location, demographics, topics, interests, roles, personal information, relationships and more. Users can then discover unknown relationships and contextualize all interactions to gain incisive intelligence based on learned relationships, and predict threats and protect critical assets.

• Narus Application Whitelisting Technology: A breakthrough application classification technology that automates the formerly manual process of generating application signatures, and identifies them in real time. This new technology replaces any human intervention in the reverse-engineering process. Patented algorithms automatically identify the presence of unknown applications and generate their corresponding signatures and labels in seconds.
• Narus N10: Cloud-based information security software that provides complete document control using a secure, cloud-based environment, proprietary encryption, and rigorous authentication and authorization.

"Narus is a pioneer in cyber security and Cyber 3.0, having put new ideas and concepts into practice to keep pace with the constant evolution of the cyber world," said John Trobough, president, Narus. "Armed with innovative and patented technology, revolutionary new solutions, and strategic partnerships, Narus will continue to help the world's organizations protect their critical assets in this increasingly hyper-connected world.”

http://www.narus.com

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IBM and Nokia Siemens Networks Develop Mobile Edge Computing Platform

Nokia Siemens Networks and IBM are developing a mobile edge computing platform that can run applications directly within a mobile base station. The idea is to accelerate application performance and rich media services by running directly at the base station, driving down latency.

Nokia Siemens Networks Liquid Applications and IBM’s WebSphere Application Service Platform for Networks (ASPN) together a solution for running applications at the mobile edge. Liquid Applications is part of Nokia Siemens Networks Liquid Broadband framework enabling a unique interaction between a mobile subscriber’s smart device, their applications and the mobile network. The company’s Radio Applications Cloud Server (RACS) is fully integrated with the Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Multiradio Base Station and features access to real-time network data that has never been exploited before. RACS integrates IBM’s ASPN platform and provides a standards-based cloud runtime environment, and is designed to allow mobile operators to deploy, run and integrate applications to the mobile edge.

“Pushing applications, processing and storage to the edge of the mobile network allows large complex problems to be distributed into many smaller and more manageable pieces and to be physically located at the source of the information it needs to work on,” said Phil Buckellew, vice president, IBM Mobile Enterprise. “This enables a huge amount of rich data to be processed in real time that would be prohibitively complex and costly to deliver on a traditional centralized cloud.”

http://www.nsn.com
http://www.ibm.com

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Altera to Build Next FPGAs on Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate

Altera's next generation FPGAs will be based on Intel’s 14 nm tri-gate transistor technology. These next-generation products target ultra high-performance systems for military, wireline communications, cloud networking, and compute and storage applications.

Under a partnership deal announced by the firms, Altera’s next-generation products will now include 14 nm, in addition to previously announced 20 nm technologies.

"Altera’s FPGAs using Intel 14 nm technology will enable customers to design with the most advanced, highest-performing FPGAs in the industry,” said John Daane, president, CEO and chairman of Altera. “In addition, Altera gains a tremendous competitive advantage at the high end in that we are the only major FPGA company with access to this technology."

http://blogs.intel.com

http://www.altera.com

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Telefónica Pursues Firefox OS

The first Telefonica Firefox OS devices are expected to launch in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Venezuela during mid- 2013 with initial launch devices from Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE.

Telefónica is pursuing Firefox OS, the new, open mobile operating system from Mozilla. 

The first Firefox OS handsets to launch in these initial markets will be manufactured by Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE, featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. 

Telefónica said the new Firefox OS marks a significant milestone for the mobile industry, enabling for the first time devices to be manufactured to totally open web standards. It provides an alternative to current, closed mobile ecosystems that lock consumers in.

“2013 marks the start of a new phase in our industry, one that will be characterized by open standards,” said César Alierta, Chairman & CEO of Telefónica. “For Telefónica and the telco sector as a whole, Firefox OS is a hugely important strategic initiative to change the prevailing value chain in the digital world. It is a major step to bring balance back to the telco sector, an initiative with strong cross-industry support. I am very pleased that our customers in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Venezuela will be amongst the first in the world to experience Firefox OS and I look forward to making it available to all Telefónica customers globally.”

http://www.telefonica.com

In July 2012, Mozilla plans to launch a new fully open mobile ecosystem based on HTML5 has gained the backing of some leading mobile operators, including Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Telenor.

The idea is an open mobile OS and device architecture where every phone feature (calling, messaging, games, etc.) is an HTML5 application. The Firefox OS for mobile devices is built on Mozilla’s “Boot to Gecko project”.

TCL Communication Technology (under the Alcatel One Touch brand) and ZTE have announced their intentions to manufacture the first devices to feature the new Firefox OS, using Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm. The first Firefox OS powered devices are expected to launch commercially in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefónica’s commercial brand, Vivo.

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Bharti Airtel to offer GSM Voice Services to LTE Customers

Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to launch voice services for its TD-LTE customers in Pune, India, through its existing GSM network.

Specifically, Bharti Airtel has selected NSN to deploy its Circuit Switched FallBack (CSFB) voice solution in the operator’s live TD-LTE network in the city. With CSFB, the network can transfer customers to GSM platform to make and receive voice calls and access voicemails while retaining the experience of ultra-fast data services on 4G smartphones.

Thorsten Robrecht, head of Mobile Broadband portfolio management at Nokia Siemens Networks, said, “This achievement of enabling world-first voice call fallback from TD-LTE to GSM in live network is yet another milestone in our efforts to strengthen the commercialization and deployment of TD-LTE technology globally. Our CSFB assures a successful and reliable mechanism for voice services alongside any LTE data service.”

Nokia Siemens Networks deployed its radio network elements in addition to its voice core and packet core network elements, including its Flexi Multiradio Base Station, its Mobile Softswitching (MSS) systems and its Liquid Core-based Evolved Packet Core (EPC) platform, including Flexi NS (Network Server) and Flexi NG (Network Gateway). Nokia Siemens Networks’ network management system NetAct has been implemented to monitor, manage and optimize the whole network.

http://www.nsn.com

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KDDI Picks Cisco ASR 5500 for Mobile Multimedia Core

KDDI of Japan has selected the Cisco ASR 5500 mobile multimedia core platform as a core element of its mobile Internet network.

The Cisco ASR 5500 will be a foundational element for KDDI’s LTE network.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cisco noted that its ASR 5500 provides intra-chassis virtualization capable of allocating resources on-demand across transactions, throughput and sessions over heterogeneous networks to support multiple control and bearer functions and services, such as policy charging and rules function (PCRF) and deep packet inspection (DPI), with high-reliability and high-availability.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1146506

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Octasic Intros Industry’s First Dual-Mode Small Cell Platform

Octasic introduced its newest Small Cell platform, the SDR4000, supporting simultaneous multi-standard operation over a cell range of 20 km.

Octasic's OEM-ready platform includes baseband hardware and software, three RF front ends, and an application processor.  It enables simultaneous 2G, 3G, and 4G operation in a compact (170x170 mm) form factor that can be powered over Ethernet with passive cooling. Capacity ranges from 16 to 100 active users across multiple cellular standards.

A key feature is that the SDR4000’s dynamically re-programmable radios can operate from 700 MHz to 2.7 GHz with bandwidth from 200 kHz to 20 MHz. The same platform can be used in all operator networks worldwide or for custom waveforms and frequency bands.

Octasic’s flexiPHY software offers 3GPP compliant physical layers for GSM, UMTS, and LTE, eliminating the need for OEMs to develop the baseband portion of
the design.  In addition, Octasic's Opus Studion development toolset lets OEMs enhance the flexiPHY software or enable them to develop their own proprietary PHY.

The design features three radio front-ends, enabling it to support continuously active network listen during cellular operation. This enables advanced Radio Resource
Management (RRM) strategies for powerful Self Organizing Network (SON) capabiliti

For the application processor, Octasic has selected the Intel Atom processor.  Specifically, Octasic is using the Intel Atom processor N2600. A single processor can run the UMTS RNC stack as well as the LTE Layer 2 and 3, supporting 100 active users. Furthermore, Intel QuickAssist Technology provides easy-to-use software for data-plane acceleration, while supporting migration across Intel-based devices.

“Small Cell technology is creating disruption in the conventional basestation landscape as well as enabling innovative new applications. Vendors are moving very quickly to stake claims in these new markets,” said Fabio Gambacorta, VP Sales and Business Development at Octasic.

http://www.octasic.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile Co-Develop lightRadio Metro Radio

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile are jointly developing a lightRadio Metro Radio designed for deployment in China.

Available now for large-scale commercial deployment in China Mobile’s first trial TD-LTE network, which spans 13 cities in China, lightRadio Metro Radio will bring 4G services to residents in densely populated areas of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao.

In China, lightRadio Metro Radio will be deployed in busy indoor and outdoor locations, such as shopping malls and stadiums where coverage can suffer either from the large number of consumers trying to access a network, or because the density of buildings impedes the radio signal.

China Mobile currently has over 722 million subscribers - over half of the total mobile subscriptions in the country.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile signed a co-creation agreement in January 2012 to conduct joint development and test activities on a series of lightRadio TD-LTE projects to speed the deployment of LTE in China. TD-LTE is the 4G standard developed for use across China, and it is now being adopted by operators across the globe. lightRadio Metro Radio houses two lightRadio cubes, fully integrated with a directional antennae, allowing it to provide the coverage normally associated with a much bulkier, heavier remote radio unit linked to an external antenna via an RF coaxial cable.

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Ericsson to provide UK 4G/LTE network for O2

O2, a Telefónica brand serving 23 million mobile subscribers in the UK, named Ericsson as sole supplier to provide an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) for its LTE network.  In addition, Ericsson will transform 50 percent of its nationwide network by supplying and deploying the latest RBS 6000 multi-standard radio base stations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deployment includes Ericsson's Evolved Packet Gateway on the SSR 8000 Smart Services Router family and SGSN-MME on the Ericsson Blade System. It also include customer support services.

Ericsson has now signed 130 LTE/EPC contracts in 51 countries on six continents.

http://www.ericsson.com

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Nokia Siemens Networks Appoints Eva Elmstedt to Head Services Business

Eva Elmstedt has been appointed to lead the services business at Nokia Siemens Networks. She has also been chosen to join the company’s executive board. Elmstedt joins Nokia Siemens Networks from Ericsson, where she recently held the role of Vice President, Product Related Services responsible for network implementation, care services and optimization services. In this role she was responsible for a significant portion of Ericsson’s revenue, managed a large, global organization, and drove significantly improved revenue and profitability. Before that role, Elmstedt held a number of other senior roles at Ericsson and was responsible for Customer Support and IT Service Delivery. She has also held leadership roles on the operator side, including chief information officer of 3 Scandinavia. Before that, she spent many years in the IT sector including ten years with IBM where she held several senior positions in consulting and management. http://www.nsn.com

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Symantec at Mobile World Congress and RSA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjkQEUjVtDU

This Google Hangout covers:

0:00 -- Trusted Network Services -- Paul Shaneck, Global Business Development Director, Symantec

1:42 -- Next Generation Network Protection -- Jason Blackwell, Senior Principal Telco Architect, NGNP Solutions, Symantec

2:43 - Telco Business Models -- Ray Greenan, Global Marketing Director, Symantec

4:50 - Value-Added Information Protection, Frank Bunn, Global Marketing Director, Symantec

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Nokia Siemens Networks' MWC13 Focuses on Flexi Zone, Small Cells, VoLTE

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia Siemens Networks is launching a series of new products, upgrades and services for mobile broadband operators.  Areas of focus include its new Flexi Zone architecture for addressing street level small cell deployment challenges.

Also as part of its small cells offering, Nokia Siemens Networks will exhibit its new indoor enterprise and public HSPA+ and LTE Femtocells.

Qualcomm and Nokia Siemens Networks will be showcasing how operators can get more out of their 900 MHz re-farmed GSM spectrum with Dual Band-Dual Cell HSPA+ that enables higher data rates of up to 42 Mbps.

Nokia Siemens Networks will also be showing a VoLTE call running both on a commercially available network and on a virtualized IMS and TAS (telecommunication application server).

NSN will demonstrate how the SON (self organizing network) Operations Manager provides detailed views, control, coordination and prioritization for all simultaneously active SON functions while protecting packet core network from load peaks and potentially saving up to 30% in total cost of ownership expenditure.

In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks will demonstrate content delivery network (CSN) capabilities for its mobile base stations.

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Symmetricom Positions Edge Master Clocks for Small Cells and LTE Ne

Symmetricom introduced a set of Edge Master Clocks for delivering precise time at the network edge, especially in 3G and 4G/LTE small cell deployments.

The TimeProvider 2700 and 2300 Edge Master Clocks are IEEE 1588 (PTP) synchronization solutions.

In addition to locating a grandmaster clock at or near the edge, the platforms can be used to overlay the network with advanced boundary clocks at specific locations. Support covers both LTE-TDD and LTE-A, which have stringent requirements for frequency and phase synchronization.

In frequency synchronized networks (LTE-FDD, as well as 2G/3G), Edge Master Clocks can be deployed to eliminate timing issues caused by the backhaul network and high packet delay (PDV) environments inherent in Carrier Ethernet networks.

Multi-sync capability ensures service continuity in the event of loss of one or more of the primary sync signals or the GNSS signal is compromised.

The solution is also optimized for deployment in small to large networks with license options supporting between 8 and 64 base stations and/or small cells, allowing for network scalability.

“Small cells synchronization is a multi-faceted challenge and requires an innovative approach,” said Manish Gupta, vice president of marketing and business development for Symmetricom.  The TimeProvider 2700 and 2300 Edge Master Clocks are specifically designed to meet the
scalability, performance, reliability and cost requirements for synchronizing small cells at the
edge of the mobile network.”

“Small cells are necessary to increase capacity and coverage required by data hungry customers who continue to consume data as a part of their mobile lifestyles,” said Dror Nemirovsky, Head of Packet Networks, Nokia Siemens Networks. “The Symmetricom Edge Master Clocks complement the investment our customers have made in the TimeProvider 5000 and enable Nokia Siemens Networks to serve operator requirements for increased network performance as they deploy LTE.”

http://www.symmetricom.com

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Fujitsu Ships Multimode, Multiband LTE Transceiver, Plans LTE-Advanced Single IC

Fujitsu Semiconductor Wireless Products has begun commercial shipment of its second LTE multimode product -- a 2G/3G/4G transceiver.

The single chip multiband, multimode transceiver supports all wireless communication modes including LTE (FDD & TDD), HSPA+, DC-HSPA, WCDMA, GSM, EDGE, CDMA and TD-SCDMA. The transceiver incorporates envelope tracking (ET) and antenna tuning (AT).

Fujitsu's LTE-focused multiband transceivers have been certified in multiple regions with multiple operators. These transceivers are deployed by multiple baseband providers worldwide, because  they support the entire frequency range of 700 to 2700 MHz, function in all modes of operation, and support a high number of simultaneous bands and modes in a single product configuration, covering almost any operator's needs for domestic use and global roaming.

http://us.fujitsu.com/semi-wireless

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Qualcomm's New RF Front End Chips Target LTE Band Proliferation

Qualcomm introduced a silicon Front End Solution that addresses cellular radio frequency band fragmentation.  The goal is to create a single, global 4G LTE design for mobile devices.

Qualcomm calls band fragmentation the biggest obstacle to designing global LTE devices.  There are some 40 cellular radio bands worldwide.

The Qualcomm RF front end solution seeks to mitigate this problem while improving RF performance and helping OEMs more easily develop multiband, multimode mobile devices supporting all seven cellular modes, including LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE.

Qualcomm's RF front end solution includes the first envelope power tracker for 3G/4G LTE mobile devices, a dynamic antenna matching tuner, an integrated power amplifier-antenna switch, and 3D-RF packaging incorporating key front end components.

“The wide range of radio frequencies used to implement 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks globally presents an ongoing challenge for mobile device designers. Where 2G and 3G technologies each have been implemented on four to five different RF bands globally, the inclusion of LTE brings the total number of cellular bands to approximately 40,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our new RF devices are tightly integrated and will allow us the flexibility and scalability to supply OEMs of all types, from those requiring only a region-specific LTE solution, to those needing LTE global roaming support.”

http://www.qualcomm.com

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Huawei and Qualcomm Demo Scalable UMTS

At Mobile World Congress, Huawei and Qualcomm will demonstrate a Scalable UMTS solution that improves spectrum utilization by using a half bandwidth channel. Many mobile operators are looking to re-farm their GSM 900MHz spectrum.  However, more than half of these operators own less than 5 MHz bandwidth of contiguous spectrum.

Huawei and Qualcomm said their Scalable UMTS helps this movement to spectrum re-farming.

Huawei and Qualcomm have successfully completed end-to-end testing of a Scalable UMTS prototype in November 2012 at Huawei’s Shanghai laboratory facilities. The testing showed that Scalable UMTS in a half-bandwidth channel provides the same spectral efficiency as normal UMTS.

“We are working with Huawei to drive the UMTS/HSPA evolution and commercial deployment of Scalable UMTS,” said Samir Soliman, Vice President of Technology at Qualcomm Research, Qualcomm Technologies’ R&D division. “As part of Qualcomm’s 1000x initiative to address the wireless industry’s unprecedented data demand, Scalable UMTS was designed to help operators maximize the data capacity and value of their existing spectrum. With varied use cases of Scalable UMTS, this band-agnostic technology is beneficial to both emerging and developed regions. In emerging regions of the world, Scalable UMTS can accelerate GSM re-farming, whereas in developed regions, the technology enables efficient utilization of spectrum resources.”
 
Scalable UMTS is currently a 3GPP Release 12 study item and will be commercially available from Huawei.

http://www.huawei.com

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Cambium Networks Deploys IP Wireless GIGATOWER with 1 Gbps Capacity

Cambium Networks introduced its "GIGATOWER" wireless broadband access solution for enterprise and triple-play service deployments.

Based on the Canopy point-to-multipoint (PMP) 450 platform, the GIGATOWER enables service providers to further expand capacity to existing customers and offer high capacity broadband to new customers in urban, suburban and rural environments.  The PMP 450's modular design allows the GIGATOWER to provide more than 1 gigabit of broadband capacity and extend coverage area to more than 75 square miles (120 square kilometers).

Canopy, which was originally developed under Motorola, has an installed base of four million modules worldwide.

"The PMP 450 and new GIGATOWER offer the ability to deploy in greenfield locations or to overlay existing DSL footprint with a solution that delivers HD video and IPTV, voice and data services at a cost point that truly changes broadband economics," said Jay Hilbert, senior vice president of Global Sales, Cambium Networks. "We are also introducing an entirely new architecture, the PTP-C ™, (Point-to-Point Cluster) for small cell backhaul among other applications. It's our more than 10 years' experience as the wireless IP market leader and our deep engineering expertise in NLoS and interference mitigation that have enabled us to redefine the function and form factor that will revolutionize how small cell backhaul will be deployed in years to come."

http://www.cambiumnetworks.com

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