KT Conducts First eMTC Field Trial with Nokia

KT and Nokia announced the industry's first eMTC field trial, marking an important milestone for the Internet of Things, allowing for coexistence with the existing LTE network as well as providing extended coverage.

eMTC, which is also referred to as LTE-M with 1.4MHz bandwidth, is a feature that will be fully standardized with 3GPP Release 13, the first evolution step of LTE-Advanced to LTE-Advanced Pro. eMTC will provide data rates of up to 1Mbps and up to four times better coverage, while reducing device complexity by up to 80%, in comparison to conventional LTE. This allows for cost-effective connectivity of more data-rich sensors, such as environmental monitoring or building surveillance, on existing LTE networks located in rural areas and buildings.

The test was conducted on KT's LTE network using Nokia's Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station. eMTC utilized only 1.4MHz of the full 20 MHz LTE system, leaving the remaining spectrum free for normal LTE traffic.

Chang Seok Seo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Strategy Unit, KT, said: "This trial, a world-first, offers a solid platform to promote the widespread application of services powered by IoT technology by addressing limitations that are hampering its spread and reach. Together with Nokia, we will play a pivotal role in pioneering the emergence of IoT as the first-choice technology in Korea and beyond."

Andrew Cope, Head of Korea, Nokia, said: "This project underlines our position as a driving force behind the creation of a programmable world, where close to 50bn devices* will be connected in 2025. With this trial, we have successfully demonstrated the capabilities of LTE as a veritable backbone for a growing range of IoT use cases."

http://www.nokia.com

Blueprint: 2016 Predictions -- Big Guns and Long Tails

Monday, January 18, 2016  #cloud, #IoT, 3.5 GHz, 5G, Blueprint, Nokia, Predictions  1 comment

by Michael Murphy, CTO for North America, Nokia Networks In 2014, I suggested that 2015 would be an inflection point due to the start of serious 5G activity and the start of cloud based deployments , which together had the potential to fundamentally change the telecom industry. So what really happened and what’s up for 2016? Retrospection 5G did of course progress throughout the year, but perhaps the biggest news came in September. At the CTIA...

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IHS:Downtime Costs $700 Billion a Year for U.S. Businesses

Information and communication technology (ICT) downtime is costing North American organizations $700 billion per year, according to a new study from IHS.

Some highlights:

• Network interruptions are the biggest culprit of downtime and have far-reaching consequences: applications, servers and devices may all be working fine, but they can’t communicate with each other when the network is down
• On average, survey respondents experience 5 downtime events per month, and 27 hours of downtime per month
• Organizations are making changes to reduce the impact of downtime, from investing in early-detection capabilities to improving redundancy, training and hiring new people, and implementing backup processes that don’t rely on ICT systems

“Our research found that the cost of ICT downtime is substantial, from $1 million a year for a typical mid-size company to over $60 million for a large enterprise,” said Matthias Machowinski, research director for enterprise networks and video at IHS.

http://www.ihs.com

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Vendors Call of Overhaul of Federal Process to Approve Cloud Vendors

An industry advocacy group is calling on the U.S. government to overhaul the process it uses to grant FedRAMP Authority To Operate (ATO) to Cloud Service Providers.

The group says that it typically takes two years and $4 million to $5 million for industry to obtain a FedRAMP ATO . Both government agencies and CSPs have voiced concerns about the efficiency of the process, as well as its lack of transparency.

“For Uncle Sam to break with the expensive and dysfunctional legacy addiction, we need a FedRAMP Fix,” said Steve O’Keeffe, founder, MeriTalk. “Fix the program or it’ll fall under its own weight. We can’t afford to wait – it’s time for action on FedRAMP 2.0.”

FedRAMP Fast Forward is a not-for-profit industry advocacy group created to provide perspective from Federal IT providers to support, inform, and accelerate FedRAMP and broader cloud adoption across government.

http://www.fedrampfastforward.org/

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DragonWave Unveils Ultra-high capacity, Multi-service Microwave System

DragonWave introduced its Harmony Enhanced MC, an ultra-high capacity, multi-service microwave system operating in the 6-42 GHz spectrum bands that provides dual channel support and extended reach.

The company said its Harmony Enhanced MC delivers a true all-outdoor, Ethernet solution with unmatched system gain and spectral efficiency. It features integrated dual carrier and fully integrated XPIC capabilities in a single Outdoor Unit (ODU) antenna configuration. It unit boasts an integrated switch with the industry’s first 10GE port on a wireless backhaul radio.

With integrated 112 MHz channel support, 4096QAM capability, Bandwidth Accelerator+ and MIMO, Harmony Enhanced MC delivers over 4 Gbps in a single radio, with scalability to deliver 8Gbps on a single antenna.

The Harmony Enhanced MC also provides the highest systems gain in an all-outdoor microwave system, leveraging the latest RF ASIC technology to increase reach by more than 30% reducing tower costs.

DragonWave also noted that its Harmony Enhanced MC system is hardware ready to support Software Defined Networking (SDN), effectively enabling end-to-end network intelligence. Additionally, integrated Ethernet switching with a 10GE port, Carrier Ethernet services support, and upgradability to MPLS-TP, and Software Defined Networking (SDN), enables end-to-end network intelligence that doesn’t require an additional indoor switching unit.

“Through close work with operators, we understand their concerns regarding how best to cope with a growing subscriber base and the ever-increasing capacity demands on their backhaul networks,” said Greg Friesen, vice president, Product Management, DragonWave. “Harmony Enhanced MC is an important addition to the Harmony family and comes at an ideal time to help operators deploy affordable, highly scalable microwave solutions quickly, and that offer the ability to continue to meet customers’ expectations long-term.”

http://www.dragonwaveinc.com/

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Dell'Oro: Mobile Backhaul Transport Rising to $5.3 Billion Annually

The Mobile Backhaul Transport market, comprising of wireless and fiber/copper backhaul systems, is forecast to drive $5.3 billion annually over the next five years as a near term rise in wireless backhaul equipment will energize the Microwave Transmission equipment market, according to a new report by Dell'Oro Group.

Some highlights:

• Small cell backhaul is forecast to contribute approximately 25 percent of the Mobile Backhaul Transport revenue by 2020.
• Demand for Microwave Transmission radio transceivers, used in a number of applications including mobile radios, is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 8 percent through 2020.

"Much of the expansion in mobile backhaul is behind us," said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group.  "While we do not envision topline market expansion in the next five years, we do believe a few dynamics are underway.  Most notably, small cells have finally started to rollout, and though most are indoor units, we think operators will steadily raise deployments of outdoor small cells requiring additional backhaul links.  Another dynamic underway is a slight mix shift to wireless backhaul from fiber/copper in the near term, which should propel microwave equipment purchases for the next three years," Yu added.

http://www.delloro.com

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Western Digital Acquires 100+ Patents from IBM

Western Digital has acquired more than 100 patent assets from IBM in distributed storage, object storage, and emerging non-volatile memory. The companies also entered into a patent cross-license agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"This agreement reflects our continued focus on innovation and sets the stage for even more rapid advancement and commercialization of new data storage solutions," said Mike Cordano, president and chief operating officer, Western Digital. "We are building on Western Digital and IBM's long-standing relationship and look forward to future collaborations and business opportunities."

http://www.ibm.com
http://www.wd.com

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mPrest Raises $20 Million for IoT Monitoring

mPrest, a start-up based in Israel, raised $20 million in Series A funding for its monitoring and control software for the Internet of Things (IoT).

mPrest is an established player in the monitoring and control software industry serving essential sectors, including defense and security bodies, electric and water utilities, smart cities and buildings, fleet management companies and other large organizations around the world. For the past six years, mPrest has been a strategic partner with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to supply the command and control system for the renowned Iron Dome air-defense system, as well as many other large projects.

The round was led by GE Ventures, the venture arm of GE, and OurCrowd, one of the world's leading equity crowdfunding platforms.

“The enormous promise of the IoT relies on smoothly integrating disparate systems, sensors and disciplines while managing the exponential growth of connected devices,” said Natan Barak, CEO and founder of mPrest. “We built mPrest’s product-based platform to empower industrial and commercial organizations to autonomously adapt to these changes to strengthen performance and drive operational efficiency and cost reductions. Together with our new and existing partners we are committed to growing into a world leader in technology for the increasingly connected industrial world."

http://www.mPrest.com

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AT&T Delivers for AutoZone

AT&T landed a new multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement to provide networking services to AutoZone, the leading retailer and a leading distributor of auto parts and accessories in the U.S..

AT&T will provide a suite of mobile and broadband solutions at 5,000 AutoZone locations in the United States, its call centers, and back-end offices.  AT&T will deliver seamless connectivity with voice, Internet and mobility solutions.

"The old ways of doing business are changing, especially in the retail space.  More industry leaders, like AutoZone, are using our integrated solutions to remain competitive," said Cathy Martine, president, AT&T Enterprise Business Solutions. "Our job is to deliver solutions that are tailored to the needs of our customers and effortless for them to use."

http://www.att.com

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F5 Names Mike Convertino as Chief Information Security Officer

F5 Networks named Mike Convertino as its first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Prior to joining F5, Convertino was previously the Chief Information Security Officer at CrowdStrike, where he was responsible for the security of both CrowdStrike’s corporate network and its product platform. He established the CrowdStrike Security Operations Center and developed new security technologies to meld the best of traditional IT security with the latest security in DevOps models for cloud environments. Before CrowdStrike, Convertino was the senior director of network security at Microsoft, where he was responsible for protecting the company’s networks from intrusion and exploitation.

http://www.f5.com

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