China's CERNET Deploys Compass-EOS Router for Peering

The China Education and Research Network (CERNET) has deployed Compass-EOS r10004 modular routers with multi 100Gbe and 10GbE links in its production next-generation exchange point (CNGI-6IX) connecting universities and institutes across China and to link to the global Internet.


CERNET is funded by the Chinese government and connects more than 2,000 universities with more than 20 million users.

“The Compass-EOS r10004 routers bring high capacity at a small form factor and fit well with the CERNET next generation network architecture,” said Xing Li, Deputy Director of CERNET Center. “We are pleased to work together with Compass-EOS on our planned software-defined networking applications that aim at simplifying network design, deployment and operation.”

http://compass-eos.com/

• Earlier this year, Compass-EOS introduced its silicon-to-photonics router that essentially leverages an on-chip optical mesh and electronics to route high-densities of 100GbE and 10GbE. The company's first product, r10004, is a carrier-grade, modular platform offering 800 Gbps Capacity in a 6U enclosure.  It offers 2 x 100G ports or 20 x 10G ports with full Layer 3 routing functionality for core, peering or aggregation deployments.
  
• The company's silicon-to-photonics implementation, which it calls icPhotonics, simplifies router design by bringing the entire backplane on-chip, thereby enabling petabit-class scalability, significantly smaller footprint and power consumption, and easier implementation of software-defined networking capabilities.  The on–chip optical integration ensures QoS routing at high utilization rates and congestion-free multicast packet handling. Compass-EOS said it is also able to ensure maximum router protection from DDoS attacks at maximum capacity.
  
• In April 2013, Compass-EOS confirmed that NTT Communications has selected its new r10004 core-grade modular routers for use in its high-capacity transpacific network. 

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Huawei Releases Source Code for its Protocol-Oblivious Forwarding

Huawei is releasing the source code for its Protocol-Oblivious Forwarding (POF) technology, which is a software-defined networking (SDN) forwarding implementation. Users can freely download and run the software, modify the source code, or develop new features.

Huawei said the goal of its Protocol-Oblivious Forwarding is to evolve the Open Networking Foundation's OpenFlow protocol towards a more flexible programming model where forwarding devices are no longer limited by pre-defined packet protocols or forwarding rules.  Data plane hardware is not limited by hard­-wired protocol implementations.

The open-source project provides source code and documents for POF Controller and POF Switch prototypes. The POF Controller is a BSD/Apache-licensed and Java-based OpenFlow controller. It provides a GUI for switch control and configuration. The POF Switch is a BSD-licensed and Linux C-based virtual switch.

"We believe carriers and users of networks can benefit from more flexible switches and reduce the total cost of ownership by focusing on building simpler, fit-for-purpose networks where only the required forwarding behaviors need to be programmed in each switch. Such forwarding plane evolution technologies help remove protocol dependency in forwarding devices and can ultimately enable support of any existing/customized packet-based protocols via generic instructions. We believe that openness and software-based programmability of forwarding devices can help increase the adoption of OpenFlow, particularly in the carrier space where we see a huge potential for simplification." said Dr. Justin Joubine Dustzadeh, VP of Technology Strategy & CTO of Networks at Huawei Technologies.

http://www.huawei.com
http://www.poforwarding.org/

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Wind River Targets Open Virtualization Profile for NFV

Wind River is developing Open Virtualization Profile software for implementing high performance, open-source, real-time kernel virtualization in next generation telecommunications equipment as well as network functions virtualization (NFV) and cloud environments.

Open Virtualization Profile is a high value add-on software profile for Wind River Linux developed by optimizing open source Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology. This allows the deployment of network services on virtual machines without the performance loss associated with using traditional, propriety IT-like virtualization products.

Key features include:

• Real-time high performance; extremely low latency measuring as low as under 3 microseconds
• Flexible provisioning of virtual machines
• Live migration of virtual machines
• CPU isolation
• Open source-based; compatible with frameworks such as the Yocto Project™, oVirt and others
• Broad support for a variety of guest operating systems

The first release is expected in Q3 2013.

"As networks are pushed to their limits, virtualization is becoming an increasingly important approach. Operators are looking toward NFV to support the transition to scalable platforms that enable flexible deployment of network services," said Jim Douglas, senior vice president of marketing at Wind River. "With Wind River Open Virtualization Profile, we are delivering a real-time virtualization solution to support the rigorous SLAs of a carrier network and enable them to gain the flexibility, scalability, and cost and energy benefits cloud data centers already enjoy."

http://www.windriver.com/announces/open_virtualization_profile/

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NSN Hits 56 Mbps Uploads with TD-LTE in 20 MHz Carrier

Nokia Siemens Networks achieved a record 56 Mbps peak upload throughput in a TD-LTE network using its commercial 4G base station with multiple antenna technology and a single 20 MHz carrier.

The company set this record in a test network in Hangzhou, China, using its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and Single User Multiple Input Multiple Output (SU-MIMO) technology.

Nokia Siemens Networks claims uplink records for both SU-MIMO and Multi User-Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) technologies.

“We are witnessing a mobile data traffic boom with users downloading – and increasingly also uploading – huge files”, said Tero Peltola, vice president, LTE at Nokia Siemens Networks. “Nokia Siemens Networks is proud to be at the forefront of TD-LTE innovation, helping operators increase data throughput in their networks and provide superior customer experience for tomorrow’s smartphone users. Today’s download speeds will be tomorrow’s upload speeds.”

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nokia-siemens-networks-breaks-yet-another-record-for-td-lte-peak-upload-throughput

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PLUMgrid Debuts Virtualization Platform for Cloud Data Centers

PLUMgrid, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, released its PLUMgrid Platform, an infrastructure virtualization solution that enables the creation of on-demand programmable networks, which the company calls Virtual Domains. The goal its to allow administrators to create, copy and deploy secure multi-tenant virtual networks in seconds.

The PLUMgrid Platform integrates security, operations and maintenance tools, and network visibility and analytics.  It runs on existing standard-based x86 servers to deliver dynamic and scalable virtual data center networks. The company says network services can be added or removed in seconds, without network disruption or downtime.

PLUMgrid is building an ecosystem of industry partners, including A10 Networks, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Cavium, Check Point Software Technologies, Citrix, Cumulus Networks, F5 Networks, Ixia, Mellanox Technologies, Palo Alto Networks, Silver Peak and Zerto.

“The PLUMgrid Platform has been deployed and tested at the AT&T Foundry in Palo Alto after being one of the top presentations at a Fast Pitch earlier this year,” said Abhi Ingle, Vice President, Ecosystem and Innovation, AT&T. “The technology has important implications for cloud operators as they seek to deliver cost-optimized and differentiated services.”

“The PLUMgrid Platform was two years in the making, and our goal was to make networks as simple as a click,” said Awais Nemat, Co-founder and CEO, PLUMgrid. “We listened very closely to our customers, and today we’re bringing to market a comprehensive, extensible and open platform that enables them to quickly respond to business needs, and offer customized services that drive new revenue opportunities.”

http://plumgrid.com/

PLUMgrid was founded in 2011 and is backed by US Venture Partners and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

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O3B's First Four Satellites Successfully Launched by Arianespace

O3b’s first four satellites were successfully launched by an Arianespace Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center.

O3b is deploying a network of 12 satellites to deliver broadband connectivity to billions of people across emerging markets who have never had access to this level of connectivity before. 

Thales Alenia Space produced the Ka-band relay platform.

A second group of four O3b satellites will be launched in September, completing the first phase in O3b’s constellation and ahead of the launch of the company's service later in the year.

O3b Networks’ investors include SES, Google, Liberty Global, HSBC Principal Investments, Northbridge Venture Partners, Allen & Company, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Sofina, Satya Capital and Luxempart. O3b Networks is headquartered in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands.

http://www.o3bnetworks.com

This mission marked the fifth Soyuz launch from the Guiana Space Center (CSG).

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Sprint Shareholders Vote for Softbank Deal

Sprint shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of Softbank's acquisition proposal.  The deal still requires FCC approval.  The companies anticipate the merger will be consummated in early July 2013.

“Today is a historic day for our company, and I want to thank our shareholders for approving this transformative merger agreement,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. “The transaction with SoftBank should enhance Sprint’s long-term value and competitive position by creating a company with greater financial flexibility.”

http://www.sprint.com

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OpenDaylight Project Adds Members

The OpenDaylight Project, a collaborative open source project to advance Software-Defined Networking (SDN), now has a total of 27 members.  The latest companies to join are ADVA Optical Networking, Ciena, Guavus and Versa Networks.

OpenDaylight has been able to make the base controller architecture available within 60 days of the project’s launch and is now actively building the merged controller, as well as a Virtual Tenant Network (VTN) application. 

OpenDaylight is an open source Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. 

http://www.opendaylight.org/

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Allot Confirms Orders from 3 Top-Tier Mobile Operators

Allot Communications has secured orders from three of the world’s top ten telecommunication operators to assist in their LTE network rollouts. All three orders are from existing customers, including two in Europe and one in the United States. These operators will use the Allot Service Gateway as part of their initial LTE deployments.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Allot recently announced availability of its pure-play, 3GPP-compliant Traffic Detection Function (TDF) for LTE networks for helping operators analyze subscriber behavior and monetize their broadband networks.

TDF - part of the 3GPP Release 11 LTE standard - provides network visibility to better analyze and respond to broadband traffic. Allot said its TDF-enabled Allot Service Gateway can be used by operators to monetize OTT traffic by leveraging application awareness and transaction information in order to deploy innovative pricing plans, drive new service revenues and increase customer loyalty.  

“TDF brings with it the opportunity for carriers to implement business intelligence analytics and application-specific charging policies. This type of dedicated functionality is critical for carriers looking to add value to OTT providers like Facebook and Skype,” said Andrei Elefant, VP Marketing & Product Management of Allot Communications. “Allot is a market leader in TDF, and we are leading the change in standardizing this important technology to simplify operator networks and bring our customers the most powerful analytics tools available.”

http://www.allot.com

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Vitesse Raises $40.2 Million in Public Offering

Vitesse Semiconductor closed $40.2 million through a public offering for 18,720,000 shares of its common stock, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option, at a per share price to the public of $2.15.

Vitesse will receive net proceeds of approximately $37.5 million after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses. Certain officers and directors of Vitesse participated in the offering.

http://investor.vitesse.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=773688

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Compass-EOS Integrates McObject’s High Availability Database

Compass-EOS is using McObject's eXtremeDB High Availability database in its new r10004 core router.

Specifically, the Compass-EOS r10004 router relies on eXtremeDB High Availability’s replication features to maintain two fully synchronized copies of the control plane database, on active and standby controller cards. If the main database instance becomes inoperable due to hardware or software failure, its responsibilities are immediately assumed by the standby. This enables Compass-EOS’s core router to offer non-stop forwarding (NSF), protecting users against unplanned downtime.

http://www.mcobject.com

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AT&T Opens Innovation Centers in Atlanta, Plano

AT&T is launching new Innovation Centers in Atlanta and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas to speed up innovation in Digital Life, connected car, connected devices, home entertainment and machine-to-machine technologies.

The AT&T Foundry in Atlanta, which is adjacent to Georgia Tech, will test and develop products and services for Digital Life, AT&T’s recently-launched home security and automation service. The team will also create new apps and services related to the “connected car,” mobility, emerging devices, and AT&T U-verse. Cisco will be host sponsor and will help identify key third-party developers, startups, investors, inventors and other entrepreneurs to bring into the facility.

The new AT&T Foundry Machine-to-Machine and Connected Device (M2M/CD) center in Plano, Texas will focus on platforms, infrastructure and tools for M2M.

“Since its founding three years ago, the mission of the AT&T Foundry® has been to identify great ideas, put the right people and technology ecosystem around them and move them quickly to market,” said John Donovan, Senior Executive Vice President of AT&T Technology and Network Operations, AT&T Inc.  “As a result, our customers are benefitting from great products and services that set the pace for innovation and our company is realizing more enhanced efficiencies internally.

The AT&T Foundry program was launched in 2010 to identify solutions both inside and outside of AT&T to some of the most pressing needs facing the company and the industry. Some innovations that have resulted include the broad deployment of Self-Optimizing Network (SON) technology throughout the AT&T network through a collaboration Intucell.  The idea was first introduced to AT&T via a "fast pitch" in collaboration with Amdocs and then honed at the AT&T Foundry.  Another innovation is Remote Patient Monitoring (doctors and other caregivers remotely  monitoring a patient’s pulse rate, weight and other parameters over an LTE connection) and SafeCell (an app for fleet managers to monitor and restrict drivers’ use of mobile devices while behind the wheel).

http://www.att.com

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