Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Vertical Systems: Rapid Growth in U.S. Business Ethernet Service Ports

The U.S. market for retail Ethernet ports grew 24% in 2012 as the rankings of top providers shifted amidst increased price competition and network expansion, according to Vertical Systems' newly released U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard.

"The U.S. market for retail Ethernet ports rose 24% in 2012. The year was characterized by major backbone upgrades, new market rollouts, price wars and channel expansion. Ethernet access to IP VPNs and Cloud connectivity were the fastest growing applications," said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. "Position changes on our Leaderboard include Level 3 moving up two spots, jumping ahead of XO and Time Warner Cable. AT&T and Verizon remain the top two providers, but not without challenges. AT&T experienced slower overall growth in Ethernet - especially in the second half of the year - and derived more Ethernet sales from wholesale partners. Verizon remained number two on our Leaderboard despite a challenging fourth quarter which resulted in loss of market share."

The top Business Ethernet providers, in rank order based on port share as of the end of 2012: AT&T, Verizon, tw telecom, CenturyLink, Cox, Level 3, XO, and Time Warner Cable. Port shares were calculated using the base of enterprise installations of Ethernet services, plus input from Vertical's independent surveys of Ethernet providers. The Leaderboard threshold is four percent (4%) or more of billable port installations.

Other providers selling Ethernet services in the U.S. are segmented into two tiers as measured by port share. The first or Challenge Tier for 2012 includes the following eight companies (listed here in alphabetical order): Charter Business, Cogent, Comcast Business, Integra, Lightpath, Reliance Globalcom, Windstream (includes Paetec) and Zayo Group (includes AboveNet).

The second or Market Player tier covers other providers offering Ethernet services in the U.S. The Market Player tier includes the following companies (listed in alphabetical order): Alpheus Communications, American Telesis, Bright House Networks, BT Global, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, EarthLink Business, Expedient, FairPoint, FiberLight, Fibertech, Frontier, Hawaiian Telecom, IP Networks, Lightower, LS Networks, Lumos Networks, Masergy, Megapath, NTT America, Orange Business, Sidera Networks, Spirit, Sprint, SuddenLink, TDS, US Signal, Virtela and others.

http://www.verticalsystems.com/prarticles/stat-flash-YE_2012_US_Leaderboard.html

Cisco Unified Access Switches Leverages New ASIC for SDN Programmability

Cisco introduced two Unified Access networking products featuring a new Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) ASIC designed to terminate wired and wireless traffic.  The UADP ASIC features a programmable data plane specifically for software-defined networking services.  Cisco said its new ASIC also provides a foundation for converged APIs across wired and wireless.

The new products are:

  • Cisco Catalyst 3850 Unified Access Switch with built-in wireless LAN (WLAN) controller functionality.   The Catalyst 3850 offers 24/48 GE switch ports, 480 Gbps of stacking, Power over Ethernet Plus, Energy Efficient Ethernet, 10G uplinks, and Flexible NetFlow on all ports.   It provides built-in wireless controller capabilities with 40 G wireless throughput, support for 50 access points and 2000 wireless clients per switch or stack, and support for 802.11ac.  Cisco said the programmable features of the ASIC make the Catalyst 3850 the foundation of converged wired/wireless SDN deployments.
  • Cisco 5760 Unified Access WLAN Controller appliance featuring IOS-based software and 60 Gbps performance. It is designed for 802.11a in mid-to-large campus deployments. It can support up to 1000 access points and 12,000 clients per controller. Other features include Flexible NetFlow, Advanced QoS, and downloadable access control lists.

Cisco said its strategy for Unified Access is to bring wired, wireless and virtual private networks (VPNs) into a single, highly secure network infrastructure based on one policy source and one management solution for the entire campus network. The company is releasing onePK,  a developer toolkit that allows applications to receive information from Cisco switches and routers with a programmable data plane.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1132715

OIF Looks to 400G Modules, Transport SDN, E-NNI Neighbor Discovery


At its meeting last week in New Orleans, the Optical Internetworking Forum approved an implementation agreement for RSVP Extensions for User Network Interface (UNI) 2.0 Signaling Specification Release 2. OIF members also evaluated the need for technology-focused projects on 400G Modules, carrier requirements for Transport Software-Defined Networking, and Neighbor Discovery for E-NNI. Specifically,

  • The Physical and Link Layer Working Group started a new project to define a module interface Implementation Agreement targeting 400G long-haul transmission.
  • The Carrier Working Group members agreed to provide Carrier requirements on Transport SDN, detailing transport functions for SDN use cases.
  • A project on OIF Neighbor Discovery plans to identify discovery requirements by OIF Carriers and expedite the deployments of OIF E-NNI and UNI standards in carrier optical transport networks. The OIF previous OIF Global E-NNI Interoperability Tests and carrier E-NNI field trials, have shown that manual configuration of E-NNI adjacency is a time-consuming and error-prone process.

In addition, Hans-Martin Foisel of Deutsche Telekom was re-elected as the Carrier Working Group chair and will serve a two-year term; and with a Board seat opening due to a resignation, Vishnu Shukla of Verizon will move to the role of president and Dave Brown of Alcatel-Lucent will serve the remainder of the board term vacated.

http://www.oiforum.com

América Móvil Builds 100G Submarine Cable with ALU


América Móvil has selected Alcatel-Lucent to build a 17,500-km submarine cable linking the Americas.

The AMX-1 System will connect seven countries with eleven landing points: Miami and Jacksonville (United States), Barranquilla and Cartagena (Colombia), Fortaleza, Salvador & Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), Cancun (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Puerto Barrios (Guatemala). The system is optimized for 100G wavelengths and an ultimate carrying capacity of 50 Tbps. Construction is underway and activation is expected in late 2013.

Alcatel-Lucent is supplying OALC-4 cable optimized with coherent submarine fiber (CSF), repeaters, branching units and the 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal equipped with Advanced Coherent technology.

América Móvil and its affiliates currently serve 256 million wireless subscribers and 62 million fixed lines.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.americamovil.com

Interoute Builds a CloudStore with Virtual Appliances

Interoute, which operates a pan-European fiber network, 9 hosting data centers, 32 collocation data centers and a cloud services platform, launched CloudStore, an online marketplace aimed at accelerating ICT service delivery.

Interoute CloudStore hosts the full spectrum of core ICT infrastructure, network, computing, communication and storage services needed to build sophisticated platforms. Enterprise IT departments, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) developers, and even the largest websites can purchase Interoute’s network and infrastructure as a service through the CloudStore.

Interoute CloudStore also offers access to trusted appliance vendors, including Stonesoft and Riverbed, offering the cloud virtual equivalent of a firewall or load balancer.

Interoute VDC is built into Interoute’s pan-European MPLS/IP network.

"Interoute CloudStore is a game changer. It is the next generation of cloud computing; one that doesn’t compromise on data sovereignty, privacy concerns or performance. It essentially combines a seriously scalable integrated network, compute and storage infrastructure with all the appliances you need to run an IT environment. The difference with CloudStore is in the delivery. If you buy and run an enterprise application without the right platform and SLAs to support it, you are effectively placing the productivity and security of your business data in the wild. Appliance marketplaces perfectly complement the platform and are the future of the ICT purchasing model, but it is important for enterprises to understand what sits beneath them," stated Matthew Finnie, Interoute CTO.

Danaher Acquires Navman Wireless for Fleet Management


Danaher Corporation agreed to acquire Navman Wireless, a provider of GPS-based fleet and asset management technology, for an undisclosed sum.

Navman's technology currently monitors more than 175,000 vehicles owned by over 14,000 organisations on five continents, making Navman Wireless one of the world's largest fleet management providers. The company reports five successive years of revenue and installed base growth.

Danaher plans to operate Navman as a standalone company, retaining its brand, facilities and personnel. Navman is based in Glenview, IL.

http://www.navmanwireless.com
http://www.danaher.com


  • Some of Danaher's previous acquisitions in the networking field include: VSS Monitoring, Arbor Networks, Tektronix, Visual Networks, and Fluke.

Xilinx Nears 20nm Milestones

 Xilinx announced three milestones in the development of its next generation 20nm All Programmable Devices:
  • First Design Tools for 20nm -- the Xilinx Vivado Design Suite will support initial 20nm devices in March 2013.
  • First 20nm Product Tape Out -- Xilinx expects to tape out its first 20nm product on TSMC's 20SoC manufacturing process during Q2 2013. Device samples are expected this year for strategic customers.
  • First Ten Early Access Customers -- Xilinx is now engaging with the first ten customers on 20nm architecture evaluations and implementation activities. 
Xilinx said its 20nm All Programmable portfolio is optimized for bandwidth-intensive systems in wired and wireless networks, data centers, vision based systems, and other high performance applications.

http://www.xilinx.com/about/generation-ahead-20nm/index.htm.

Cisco to Acquire Cognitive Security for Behavioral Analytics


Cisco agreed to acquire Cognitive Security (COSE), a start-up focused on applying artificial intelligence techniques to detect advanced cyber threats.

COSE leverages NetFlow/IPFIX inputs and Network Behavior Analysis in order fight against Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), exploit kits, zero-day attacks, molymorphic malware or trojans inside the client's network. COSE line of products integrate statistical analysis, autonomic/agent-based computing, ensemble classification, and game-theory techniques.

COSE is based in Prague, Czech Republic.

http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac0/ac1/ac259/cognitivesecurity.html

Sprint Supports LTE Acceleration Lab in Tel Aviv

Sprint announced its support for an LTE acceleration lab in Tel Aviv in collaboration with the Israel Mobile & Media Association (IMA).  The idea is to add significant momentum to the Israeli-based ecosystem of startups and developers by providing access to innovate on Sprint’s LTE network.

"As a complement to our efforts to unlock innovation in the United States, this Sprint-sponsored LTE acceleration lab will allow startups and developers in Israel valuable access to dramatically speed up their time to market," said Stephen Bye, Sprint chief technology officer.

http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2507

http://www.imaworld.org/

Qualcomm Hits Revenue of $6.02 billion, up 29% YoY

Qualcomm reported revenue of $6.02 billion for the quarter ending 30-December-2012, up 29 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) and 24 percent sequentially. Net income was $2.20 billion, up 32 percent y-o-y and 42 percent sequentially.

"We are pleased to report record quarterly revenues, Non-GAAP EPS and MSM chip shipments, driven by the growing global demand for smartphones and our industry-leading portfolio of 3G/LTE chipsets," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.  "Our broad licensing partnerships and extensive chipset roadmap, including our recently announced best-in-class Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 600 processors, position us well for strong growth, and we are pleased to be raising our revenue and earnings guidance for fiscal 2013."

During the quarter, MSM chip shipments reached 182 million units, up 17 percent y-o-y and 29 percent sequentially.

Broadcom Reports Q4 Revenue of $2.08B, up 14% YoY

Broadcom reported net revenue of $2.08 billion for Q4 2012, a decrease of 2.3% compared with the $2.13 billion reported for the third quarter of 2012 and an increase of 14.3% compared with the $1.82 billion reported for the fourth quarter of 2011. Net income (GAAP) was $251 million, or $.43 per share (diluted), compared with GAAP net income of $220 million, or $.38 per share (diluted), for the third quarter of 2012 and GAAP net income of $254 million, or $.45 per share (diluted), for the fourth quarter of 2011.

"Broadcom delivered record revenue in each of our three business groups and record cash flow from operations in 2012, reflecting our continued market share growth and strong economics." said Scott McGregor, Broadcom's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Based upon these results, Broadcom's Board of Directors today announced a ten percent increase in our dividend, consistent with our commitment to enhancing shareholder value."

http://www.broadcom.com