ON.Lab's Open SDN Project Adds SK Tel and Cisco as Members

Cisco and SK Telecom will join ON.Lab's Open Source SDN Network Operating System (ONOS) for service providers. Founding members of the community include AT&T, NTT Communications, Ciena, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel and NEC.  Additional contributing members include ONF, Infoblox, SRI, Black Duck, Internet2, GARR, CNIT and Create-Net.

ONOS is a carrier-grade SDN network operating system for service provider networks architected to provide high availability, scalability, performance, and rich northbound and southbound abstractions. Cisco and SK Telecom join founding members who are funding and contributing to the ONOS initiative including:

"The successful launch of ONOS marks an important milestone in the ongoing transformation of the network infrastructure with SDN," said Guru Parulkar, Executive Director of ON.Lab. "Adding Cisco and SK Telecom as contributing partners significantly strengthens the ONOS community and drives our ongoing mission to bring openness and innovation to the Internet and Cloud for the public good."

"We encourage the increased adoption of open source SDN solutions with developers and end-customers, and are supportive of industry initiatives that promote an open environment," said David Ward, CTO of Engineering and Chief Architect at Cisco. "We are focused on collaborating with the ONOS community, to foster more innovation and advances in networking application platforms to grow the developer community for networking."

"SDN and network virtualization hold great promise for mobile carriers," said Alex Jinsung Choi, CTO and Executive Vice President at SK Telecom. "As mobile subscribers tend to be younger and have always-on access to their devices, we often see the demand for new use cases and services come from mobile markets first, creating vast business opportunities. The promise of open source SDN to deliver true cloud-like benefits to the network such as scale, automation, programmability, flexibility and service agility will enable us to meet the rapidly evolving demands of this sector."

ON.Lab also disclosed another significant milestone: 1,000 software downloads globally since its code was made publicly available on December 5, 2014.

http://www.onosproject.org
http://onlab.us




  

Read More

OIF's FlexEthernet Aims for Incremental Speeds

The Optical Internetworking Forum has launched a FlexEthernet project that will pave the way for Ethernet to more efficiently use optical link bandwidth.

FlexEthernet will support Ethernet speeds in between and beyond the fixed speeds currently defined.  It will do so by building upon the OIF’s multi-link gearbox (MLG) work that addresses multi-lane configuration.

A new FlexEthernet toolkit provides channelization, bonding and sub-rate functionality to connect one or more Ethernet MACs using standard Ethernet PMDs between equipment, either directly or through transport links.

“Ethernet connections between routers or transport gear needs to be flexible by providing incremental increases in bandwidth,” said Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity and the OIF’s Technical Committee chair.  “The proposed FlexEthernet toolkit bridges the gap between previous, current and next-gen rates.

The OIF said its recent quarterly meeting also brought progress on its SDN Framework, a technical white paper identifying components and interfaces requiring standardization to provide a cohesive SDN app development framework designed around Web 2.0 technologies. Members also made progress on developing implementation agreements for SDN APIs addressing Topology, Service Request, Connection Request and Path Computation.

“The OIF is ahead of the industry in identifying specific work that needs to be done to bring SDN to fruition,” said Jonathan Sadler, Coriant and the OIF’s Technical Committee vice chair.   “The API documents are the outcome of the prototype SDN demonstration that took place late last year.  We have motivated, enthusiastic members working hard to finalize these APIs for service provider deployment.”

Members of the Physical and Link Layer Working group held a one-day interim meeting in addition to their usual three-day meeting discussing PAM4 and NRZ specifications as they continued work on the multiple CEI-56G projects.   The CEI-56G development work will increase the data rates by a factor of two over the data rate of CEI-28G while also defining new application spaces.  The group will hold another interim meeting before the Q2 meeting in April.

http://www.oiforum.com/technical-work/current-oif-work/
http://www.oiforum.com/oif-tackles-incremental-bandwidth-increases-with-flexethernet/

Read More

Bell Labs Quantifies Benefits of IP/Optical Control Integration

Network operators who use converged IP and optical transport technologies can significantly ease the burden being placed on their infrastructure by demands for capacity caused by the explosion of bandwidth-hungry applications, according to a study by Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent.

The study found that by converging routing and optical transport technologies operators can meet the same requirements for service availability while using up to 40% less network resources, such as 100G router ports and optical transponders.

Some key findings:

• An integrated resiliency strategy saves costs while still guaranteeing network and service availability
• Introducing protection for the optical layer based on GMPLS (Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching) allows service providers to meet the same availability levels achieved by routing protection methods based on MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), with total savings up to 40% on router ports and optical transponders over a five year period.
• The combination of IP and optical transport layer protection with a GMPLS user network interface (UNI) allows service providers to accelerate these savings by freeing up a third of deployed network capacity and provide headroom for two years of traffic growth.

The key recommendations for service providers:

• Introduce an Agile Optical Network with a dynamic GMPLS control plane
• Extend optical transport layer control to the IP routing layer with GMPLS UNI
• Provide open, programmable Software Defined Network (SDN) interfaces based on open standards

"We know network traffic continues to increase exponentially, especially with new Cloud applications and ‘the rise of the machines’ on the horizon. This study provides the foundation for what will be a deep look into new optimized, network architectures and infrastructure,” stated Ben Tang, a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2015/bell-labs-study-reveals-how-integrating-ip-and-optical-technologies-can-ease-network-capacity
http://www2.alcatel-lucent.com/techzine/quantifying-ipoptical-integration-synergies/

Read More

Level 3 Offers DDoS Mitigation Service with 4.5 Tbps Ingest

Level 3 Communications introduced a new DDoS Mitigation Service that provides protection closer to the network edge.

The Level 3 DDoS Mitigation Service leverages the carrier's vast DDoS ingest capacity, 4.5 terabits per second, to predict and detect malicious attacks, alert customers and quickly re-route traffic to defend their critical data infrastructures. Infected packets are routed to one of Level 3's globally located scrubbing centers before being returned via a private connection or the public Internet. The global service provides enhanced network routing, rate limiting and IP filtering alongside a network-based detection and mitigation scrubbing solution.

Level 3 said the combination of its expansive network, which provides extensive attack traffic visibility, and the service's ability to work on both Level 3 and on third-party networks provides a clear differentiator in the marketplace for customers. The vast level of visibility comes from the company's Content Delivery Network (CDN), IP and Domain Name System (DNS) networks. The addition of Level 3's threat analysis capabilities and managed security services enable it to assist enterprises in building a strong security posture to address today's complex threat landscape.

"Throughout my tenure in the cybersecurity business, I have never seen such an accelerated and sophisticated cyber threat landscape – and attacks will only continue to grow in frequency, size and complexity," said Chris Richter, senior vice president of managed security services at Level 3. "Level 3 has leveraged its global network infrastructure and managed security services with leading detection and mitigation technologies to provide our customers with a truly advanced layer of defense against these evolving exploits."

http://www.level3.com

Read More

Alcatel-Lucent Intros 10G TWDM-PON

Alcatel-Lucent is looking to bring down the cost of TWDM-PON (Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Networks) by allowing different types of optics to be used.  Currently, TWDM-PON requires new optics capable of providing four tunable 10 Gbps wavelengths.

Alcatel-Lucent's new ‘Universal TWDM’ solution enables operators to initially deploy one non-tunable 10 Gbps wavelength and easily add more pluggable as demand grows, providing a smooth upgrade to full TWDM without the need to replace network components, evaluate new technology, or reconfigure operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS).

"The primary obstacle for deploying new ultra-broadband infrastructure and services is the business case. Universal TWDM is Alcatel-Lucent’s innovative solution to this challenge. We are enabling operators to build upon their existing fiber investments while bringing down the total cost of ownership of TWDM technology. This means they can immediately address new high-revenue opportunities for gigabit services while knowing that their investment is future-proof,” stated Federico Guillén, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Fixed Access Business Line.

The company noted that Universal TWDM and full TWDM-PON can co-exist with current PON technology. Alcaltel-Lucent also estimates that Universal TWDM will have a similar cost as established 10 Gbps technologies, such as XG-PON.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2015/alcatel-lucents-universal-twdm-technology-accelerate-deployment-superfast-gigabit-ultra-broadband

• In October 2014, Alcatel-Lucent introduced the industry’s first TWDM-PON (Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Networks), a new fixed, ultra-broadband access technology for scaling the capacity of existing fiber networks. TWDM-PON uses four wavelengths per fiber, giving a total capacity of 40 Gbps. An operator can choose to deliver different services over each wavelength, enabling residential, business and mobile backhaul services to be carried over a single fiber. TWDM-PON technology is supported by Alcatel-Lucent‘s 7360 Intelligent Services Access Manager FX solution.  The company is introducing a new 4-port TWDM-PON line card and optical network unit supporting 10Gbps symmetrical bitrate. Products will be available in the first quarter of 2015.  Alcatel-Lucent and Vodafone have been co-developing TWDM-PON since 2010 as a potential successor to GPON. During this time, the companies have contributed to its standardization and completed a successful trial. Significantly, TWDM-PON can co-exist with current PON systems.

Read More

Alcatel-Lucent: Mobile Infection Rate at 0.68% Worldwide

An estimated 16 million mobile devices worldwide have been infected by malware, according to a new study from Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive Security Labs.

The Motive Security Labs report – which looked at all popular mobile device platforms - found that such malware infections in mobile devices increased 25% in 2014, compared to a 20% increase in 2013. Android devices have now caught up with Windows laptops, which had been the primary workhorse of cybercrime, with infection rates between Android and Windows devices split 50/50 in 2014. While less than 1% of infections come from iPhone and Blackberry smartphones, new vulnerabilities emerged last year to show they are not immune to malware threats.

Some highlights of the Motive Security Lab:

• The mobile infection rate in 2014 is 0.68%. Based on this Alcatel-Lucent estimates that worldwide, about 16 million mobile devices are infected by malware.
• Mobile malware is increasing in sophistication with more robust command and control protocols
• Mobile spyware, used to spy on a phone’s owner, is also on the increase. It tracks the phone’s location, monitors ingoing and outgoing calls, text messages, e-mail and tracks web browsing.
• The overall monthly infection rate in residential fixed broadband networks is just under 14%. This is up substantially from the 9% seen in 2013. This is mostly attributable to an increase in infections by moderate threat level adware.
• High-level threats such as ‘bots’, ‘rootkits’, and ‘banking trojans’ remain steady at around 5%.
• The Motive Security Labs report also noted in 2014 an increase in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks using network infrastructure components such as home routers, DSL modems, cable modems, mobile WiFi™ hotspots, DNS servers and NTP servers. Additionally, the first DDOS attacks launched from mobile phones took place, suggesting how so-called ‘hactivism’ movements against the mobile infrastructure might be launched in the future.

“With malware attacks on devices steadily rising with consumer ultra-broadband usage, the impact on customer experience becomes a primary concern for service providers,” said Patrick Tan, General Manager of Network Intelligence at Alcatel-Lucent. “As a result, we’re seeing more operators take a proactive approach to this problem by providing services that alert subscribers to malware on their devices along with self-help instructions for removing it.”

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

Facebook Brings Free Mobile Data Services to India's Reliance Subscribers

Facebook will make available free basic mobile data connectivity in India to mobile subscribers of Reliance Communications.

Reliance customers in six Indian states (Tamil Nadu, Mahararashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Telangana) will now have access to more than three dozen services ranging from news, maternal health, travel, local jobs, sports, communication, and local government information via the Internet.org Android app.

Some of the services include:

• Aaj Tak: Read news in Hindi
• AccuWeather: Get updated weather information
• amarujala.com: Read news in Hindi
• AP Speaks: Engage with local government
• Babajob: Search for jobs
• BabyCenter & MAMA: Learn about pregnancy and childcare
• BBC News: Read news from around the world
• Bing Search: Find information
• Cleartrip: Check train and flight schedules & buy tickets
• Facebook: Communicate with friends and family
• Internet Basics: Learn about the basics of the Internet
• Messenger: Send messages to friends and family
• NDTV: Read news
• TimesJobs: Search for jobs
• Translator: Translate words and phrases
• Wikipedia: Find information

http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/02/internet-org-app-now-available-in-india/

Read More

Nokia Networks and Coriant Team on Mobile Backhaul Demo

Nokia Networks and Coriant are teaming up at Mobile World Congress to demonstrate a mobile backhaul Proof of Concept that combines advanced analytics and software defined networking (SDN).  The goal is to create programmable, self-aware networks that assure an optimal service experience end-to-end by automatically adapting the network to the traffic. The companies estimate that the same level of experience can be achieved with 20% less transport infrastructure than is needed in today’s networks.

The demo will feature:

• Nokia’s SON technology
• Coriant 8600 Smart Routers
• Coriant SDN controller
• Nokia LTE base stations
• Nokia System Architecture Evolution (SAE) gateway

“This Proof of Concept is the first of its kind to provide a fully automated capability for self-configuration and self-optimization of multi-vendor mobile backhaul networks using SDN as the management layer. It is a major step towards teaching networks to be self-aware and realizing our Technology Vision 2020. It also reduces total cost of transmitting each bit by making transport networks intelligent enough to take network planning and daily operational decisions in the most cost-effective way on their own,” stated Hossein Moiin, Executive Vice President and CTO at Nokia Networks.

http://networks.nokia.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nokia-networks-coriant-first-to-extend-self-organizing-networks-to-mobile-backhaul-mwc1

Read More

Broadband Forum Hosts G.fast Plugfest at UNH-IOL

The Broadband Forum hosted seven companies implementing chipsets based on the ITU-T’s new G.fast specifications at the first industry G.fast plug-fest, which was conducted at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) on January 26-30.

The ITU-T’s G.9701 (G.fast) specification was approved this past December, designed to provide broadband connection speeds of up to 1Gbps over a single twisted pair cable, meeting the ever increasing demands of applications in the home and business around the world.

The plugfest marked the first time implementations of the ITU-T specification came together to test with one another, to ensure deployed products will be interoperable from “day one.” Broadcom, HiSilicon, Ikanos, Lantiq, Metanoia, Realtek, and Sckipio all participated in the event with their chipset platforms. Sparnex Instruments also participated in the event, providing a G.fast copper loop simulator.

https://www.iol.unh.edu/news/2015/02/12/broadband-forum-holds-industry%E2%80%99s-first-gfast-plugfest

Read More