Sunday, June 1, 2014

Video: Getting to 400 GbE

An official IEEE P802.3bs Task Force has been formed to develop a 400 Gbp Ethernet standard for 100m over multimode fiber, as well as 500m, 2km, and 10km over singlemode fiber.

A number of technical and architectural issues, as described in this video, are up for discussion in the Task Force.

John D'Ambrosia, Chairman of the Ethernet Alliance and Chief Ethernet Evangelist at Dell, is looking for ratification in early 2017.


See video:  http://youtu.be/_iUoYwohzeM



SingTel Launches 300 Mbps LTE-A

SingTel is launching a 4G mobile broadband service boasting data speeds of up to 300Mbps, double the speeds of currently available 4G services in Singapore.

SingTel's 300 Mbps uses LTE-Advanced technology from Ericsson.

SingTel is using LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) carrier aggregation to combine 20 MHz bandwidth each of its 1800MHz and 2600MHz spectrum bands.

 The first live site at Singapore Expo is now ready for service.  By the end of the year, more than half of the island will be covered, including areas such as the CBD, Changi Airport and popular shopping malls. Customers can look forward to nationwide coverage by the end of 2015.

The first compatible device, the Huawei E5786 MiFi dongle, will be available from SingTel in mid-July. Smartphones and tablets are expected to be available soon after.

Mr Johan Buse, SingTel’s Vice President of Consumer Marketing, said: "The fastest network is now even faster. At SingTel, we are constantly upgrading our networks with the latest technologies and pushing the boundaries of innovation. Our customers are seeking higher speeds for their increasingly bandwidth-hungry multimedia applications. Last year, we were the first to launch nationwide dual-band 150Mbps 4G, and we are now excited to raise the bar to 300Mbps."

SingTel also announced 4G data roaming in China through its partnership with China Mobile.

http://info.singtel.com
http://www.ericsson.com

Dell'Oro: Ethernet Switch Market Drops Close to $1B in Revenue in 1Q14

The Layer 2-3 Ethernet Switch market declined nearly $1 billion sequentially in the first quarter 2014 to just over $5 billion, according to a new report by Dell'Oro Group.

"Several factors caused 1Q14 to deliver the second worst first quarter on record for the Ethernet Switch market," said Alan Weckel, Vice President of Ethernet Switch market research at Dell'Oro Group.  "Campus switching continues to struggle as many customers look towards wireless connectivity; data center switching paused as Cisco's Nexus 9000 product transition continued; and stronger than usual seasonality all caused the market to weaken," Weckel explained.

"Despite the steep decline, white box switching continued to gain momentum in 1Q14, outpacing the overall market.  As we look towards the rest of 2014, the market will be most impacted by two factors: Cloud providers' continued and increasing need for networking equipment, and how China selects the vendors it will allow to sell into each part of its network," stated Weckel.

The report also indicates that 40 Gigabit Ethernet and 100 Gigabit Ethernet both grew in the first quarter, contributing more than five percent of the total market revenue.  Of the vendors broken out in the report, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networks all grew their 40 Gigabit Ethernet port shipments sequentially.

http://www.delloro.com/news/ethernet-switch-market-loses-close-to-1-billion-in-revenue-in-first-quarter-2014

Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks Form Cyber Defense Consortium

Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks are leading the foundation of a new cyber defense consortium whose mission is to drive a coordinated industry effort against cybercrime and cyber criminals through deep collaboration on threat intelligence and sharing of preventative measures.

1. Better cross-industry, cross-vendor threat intelligence
2. Better coordination of incident response
3. Better prevention of cyber attacks using advanced malware

“At Fortinet we look forward to collaborating with Palo Alto Networks to continue to improve network security,” said Ken Xie, Fortinet’s Chairman and CEO. “We look forward to combining our threat resources to offer customers innovative ways to more comprehensively combat modern day dynamic, sophisticated threats.”

“We are pleased to work with another respected innovator like Fortinet to join forces in the ongoing battle against the rapidly evolving threats stemming from advanced malware and APTs,” said Mark McLaughlin, Chairman, President and CEO of Palo Alto Networks. “The consortium is a clear response to the demands from the industry for a coordinated response from their technology vendors.”

http://www.cyberconsortium.org

IBM Patents Cloud-based Fraud Detection Technique

IBM was awarded a U.S. patent for a technique that helps online and cloud-based businesses improve their ability to eliminate fraud by analyzing browsing behavior.

IBM received U.S. Patent #8,650,080 - "User-browser interaction-based fraud detection system" - for the technique, which could be used by web site operators, cloud service providers and mobile application developers to detect and deal with threats by using analytics to thwart fraudsters.

"Our invention improves the effectiveness of authentication and security systems with insights derived from real-time data analytics," said Keith Walker, IBM Master Inventor and co-inventor on the patent. "For example, if an individual suddenly changes how they interact with an online bank or store, such as due to a broken hand or using a tablet instead of a desktop computer, I want these web sites to detect the change, and then ask for extra identity confirmation before accepting a transaction.  Our experience developing and testing a prototype, which flawlessly confirmed identities, shows that such a change would more likely be due to fraud, and we all want these sites to provide more protection while simultaneously processing our transactions quickly."

http://www.ibm.com

ViaSat Readies L-band Managed Service for M2M

ViaSat is launching a new worldwide, L-band network service for the machine to machine (M2M) market.

The ViaSat L-band Managed Service will introduce an innovative new waveform optimized for M2M that leverages ViaSat's extensive experience in serving U.S. government customers with highly secure, reliable, and rugged satellite-based global services.

ViaSat said its new service will operate over the highest performance L-band satellites using new technology to manage the satellite bandwidth more efficiently and support a number of performance differentiators.  The company is targeting M2M applications for the energy, utilities, logistics, and enterprise sectors.

"The agreements we've just completed with LightSquared and Thuraya signal the launch of our worldwide MSS services," said Phil Berry, VP MSS at ViaSat. "In the same way that we transformed satellite broadband, we're bringing innovation to this market with a focus on constantly improving system economics while enabling an order of magnitude performance improvement over comparable M2M legacy systems. We are developing a range of fixed and mobile devices to deliver the service for a variety of applications."

https://www.viasat.com/news/viasat-brings-innovation-satellite-machine-machine-communications

Infoblox Posts Revenue of $61M, CEO to Step Down

Infoblox reported revenue of $61 million for its third fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2014.  Net revenue was up 5% on a year-over-year basis but on the low-end of company guidance. There was a GAAP net loss of $7.4 million, or $0.14 loss per fully diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2014, compared with a net loss of $0.3 million, or $0.01 loss per fully diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2013.

“Revenue for the third quarter was $61 million, which was at the low-end of our guidance range of $61 million to $62 million,” said Robert Thomas, president and chief executive officer. “While we made progress in a few areas of the company, we again experienced challenges in closing seven-figure transactions. Clearly, our top priority is to reaccelerate top-line growth and we are taking actions to improve sales execution. Importantly, we believe our competitive position continues to be strong and our addressable market is growing, and we are optimistic about the opportunities before us.”

In addition, Infoblox announced that Robert Thomas has decided to step down as the company’s president and CEO pending the appointment of a successor. Thomas joined Infoblox in September 2004 as director, president and chief executive officer.

“We have accomplished a tremendous amount over the past ten years, and I am very proud of our entire team,” said Robert Thomas, president and chief executive officer. “Today, we have strong customer relationships, leading technologies and deep management talent. I am confident the board will select a world-class leader to continue to grow the company, and build on the strong base we have in place today. I remain fully committed to leading Infoblox and ensuring the succession process is seamless.”

http://www.infoblox.com