Thursday, March 3, 2005

Infinera to Present 10x40 Gbps Photonic Integrated Circuits

At next week's OFC/NFOEC 2005 conference in Anaheim, California, Infinera will present four papers including a paper describing technical results of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) capable of carrying 400 Gbps of telecommunications traffic per chip.


In May 2004, Infinera introduced the first commercial, large-scale PICs, which integrate over 50 photonic devices on a chip and support 100 Gbps of Wave Division Multiplexing transmission. The devices, which serve as the heart of the Infinera DTN digital optical networking system, are now carrying live telecom traffic in multiple networks.


Infinera said the R&D results to be presented at OFC/NFOEC on a next-generation 400 Gbps PIC demonstrate the scalability of PIC technology to greater data rates and capabilities, in this case delivering a 4x increase in capacity compared to first-generation PICs and 40x capacity over other integrated components.
http://www.infinera.com
  • In October 2004, Infinera, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, raised $52 million in new funding for its Photonic Integrated Circuit technology. The company has raised $205 million to date. Strategic investors in this round include UTStarcom and CTC (Itochu Techno-Science Corporation), both of which are collaborating with Infinera to provide optical networking solutions in Asia.


  • Infinera is offering an optical transport platform based on its Photonic Integrated Circuits. The Infinera DTN supports 400 Gbps, i.e., forty 10 Gbps channels in a half rack, and 800Gbps (eighty 10 Gbps channels) in a full rack.. 100 Gbps line cards support a variety of hot-swappable client interfaces including OC-192/STM-64, OC-48/STM-16, 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY and WAN PHY, and Gigabit Ethernet. The platform runs Infinera's IQ Network Operating System to automate network discovery, configuration, and provisioning via GMPLS.

  • Unlike conventional optical systems, which use analog optical devices for key networking functions, the Infinera DTN uses digital technology. Its photonic integrated circuits convert all traffic from optical to electronic signals, allowing the DTN to add and drop, multiplex, groom, and protect circuits digitally rather than optically. Infinera's Photonic Integrated Circuits include a 100 Gbps transmitter, which integrates ten lasers, ten 10 Gbps modulators, and an optical multiplexer; as well as a 100 Gbps receiver, which integrates an optical demultiplexer and ten photodiodes. Each enables low-cost optical-electrical conversion on a semiconductor chip.





CoreOptics and Fujitsu Team on 40 Gbps Integrated Circuits

CoreOptics and Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe announced an agreement to provide a complete set of 40 Gbps Integrated Circuit solutions for applications in the high capacity DWDM optical transport, IP Networking as well as test and measurement industries.


"The general availability of these complete and ready-to-use 40 Gb/s building blocks signifies the emergence of the third generation of cost effective and fully integrated 40 Gb/s client and line solutions for our industry," said Achim Herzberger, CoreOptics Co-founder and Vice President of Product Management. "Through our agreement with Fujitsu, we are now offering the complete chip set (43 Gbps Ultra-FEC, 40G Mux/DeMux for 4x10G client signals and Interface Converter supporting SFI-5s, SFI-4, XFI) and Transponder modules (300 pin 40 Gbps Single Channel Short Reach and 40/43G DWDM) to enable building of 40 Gbps Open Tolerant Networks."


"CoreOptics has demonstrated a strong leadership in providing innovative solutions in the 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps subsystems to our shared customers globally," said Dirk Weinsziehr, Senior Director of Marketing at Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe. Our exclusive relationship for the distribution of Fujitsu Microelectronics 40G ASICs through CoreOptics will further enable our customers to benefit from the full set of best-in-class solutions available from CoreOptics."http://www.CoreOptics.com

VocalTec Receives NASDAQ Notification

VocalTec received a notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market of its non compliance with the $10 million minimum stockholders' equity requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq National Market. In response, VocalTec has submitted to Nasdaq a plan to achieve and sustain compliance with all Nasdaq National Market listing requirements, including the minimum stockholders' equity standard. If Nasdaq does not accept the plan, it may issue a delisting notice and in such event the company will consider other alternatives, including listing on the Nasdaq Small Cap Market. http://www.vocaltec.com

Comcast Provides Monthly Activity Reports to VOD Content Providers

Comcast will begin making monthly on-demand reports available for no charge to participating video on demand content providers. Comcast said it is its using Rentrak's OnDemand Essentials measurement system to provide anonymous, non-personally identifiable information about how customers are using VOD. The availability of timely reports is important for VOD programmers and advertisers.


The new reporting activity This extends an earlier agreement for Comcast to use Rentrak's OnDemand Essentials system to internally analyze data across four standardized metrics: the number of VOD-enabled set-top boxes in a Designated Market Area; total views by program per month; the number of unique set-top boxes viewing a program by month; and the total minutes viewed by program per month. Each content provider will only receive program-specific reports for their own content.


"Our ON DEMAND business is on track to reach more than one billion views in 2005, and accurate and timely measurement is the next step in the evolution of VOD," said Page Thompson, Vice President and General Manager of Comcast ON DEMAND. "We're pleased to continue our work with Rentrak to launch a reporting system across all of our Comcast ON DEMAND markets, which will help make VOD one of the most accurately measured media available."http://www.comcast.com
http://www.rentrak.comIn 2004, Comcast Digital Cable customers viewed 567 million ON DEMAND programs, and the average household now uses ON DEMAND 23 times a month.

Comcast ON DEMAND is available to nearly 85% of the company's customers. Comcast currently has more than 3,000 titles in its VOD library. The company said more than 95% of programs on Comcast ON DEMAND are available at no additional charge.

Vonage Suffers Widespread Outage

Vonage suffered a widespread network outage on March 4 at 2:45 EST affecting nearly half its 500,000 customers across the U.S. Both inbound and outbound calling via its VoIP service, as well as its website and voicemail system, were down periodically throughout the afternoon. Vonage attributed the outage to a glitch in a software upgrade to its network. http://www.vonage.com

OCP Introduces 1.3 micron VCSEL-Based GigE Transceivers

Optical Communication Products introduced its Gigabit Ethernet extended reach (XR) pluggable transceivers. The 1.3 micron VCSEL-based product line increases the effective transmission distance of a Gigabit Ethernet link over legacy multimode fiber (MMF) to 2,000m. It is available in SFP and GBIC form factors.


The XR product family utilizes a 1.3 micron VCSEL as its laser source with an optical link budget of 8.5dB to achieve the 2km transmission distance over legacy multimode fiber.

http://www.ocp-inc.com

Nortel Appoints Former Cisco Exec as New President

Nortel Networks announced the following senior management changes:

  • Bill Owens, currently president and CEO, will become the vice chairman and CEO.


  • Gary Daichendt has been appointed to the position of president and chief operating officer (COO) reporting to Owens. Daichendt was previously executive vice president, Worldwide Operations, Cisco Systems. In his new role Daichendt will be responsible for leading Nortel's carrier and enterprise businesses, research and development, services and supply chain functions and global sales and operations.


  • Peter Currie, who was appointed CFO effective February 14, 2005, will become executive vice president and CFO.


  • Pascal Debon, currently president, Carrier Networks, will assume the role of special advisor to the vice chairman and CEO.
http://www.nortel.com

New MSA for Multi-Standard Quad SFP Optical Transceivers

Nine leading networking component suppliers agreed to jointly create a new Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) for an integrated multi-standard Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP) transceiver to support Ethernet, Fibre Channel and SONET/SDH with data rates of up to 4.25 Gbps.

The QSFP MSA defines a transceiver module mechanical form-factor with latching mechanism and a host board SFP-like electrical edge connector and cage. The hot-pluggable module integrates four transmit and four receive channels with a standard MPO parallel optical connector. The QSFP device features digital optical diagnostic capability to monitor the link performance. The MSA will also define a multi-cage stacking configuration for increased density applications.

This highly integrated transceiver module will enable network equipment manufacturers to increase port density and system data throughput and consequently reduce costs per Gb/s significantly.

The QSFP MSA group will make details of the specification available to the industry, so that other optical transceiver manufacturers can produce compatible products. Various companies expect to begin shipping QSFP transceivers in the first half of 2006.

Participating companies include Agilent Technologies, Applied Micro Circuits Corp., Hitachi-Cable America, Infineon Technologies Fiber Optics, JDS Uniphase, Molex, Optical Communication Products, Picolight and Tyco Electronics.
http://www.qsfpmsa.org

NuVox Deploys Acme Packet's Session Border Controllers

NuVox Communications, an integrated communications provider serving business customers in the southeastern and midwestern U.S., will deploy Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers for its hosted business VoIP offering beginning in the second quarter of 2005. The Net-Net products are satisfying the security, service level agreement assurance, service reach and regulatory requirements for the delivery of premium IP services, such as VoIP. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.acmepacket.com
  • NuVox is using the Sonus Insignus platform in its long distance network.

Sun Microsytems Installs 10 GigE/Copper from SYSTIMAX

Sun Microsystems is installing a 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper/UTP cabling solution from SYSTIMAXinto a major operational hub in the United Kingdom. SYSTIMAX Solutions believes it is the first vendor to provide a complete UTP solution that complies with the latest IEEE 802.3an task force guidelines for 10GBASE-T. http://www.systimax.com

Verizon Wireless Completes Purchase of Qwest Spectrum

Verizon Wireless completed its purchase Qwest Wireless' spectrum licenses and certain network assets for $418 million. The deal was first announced in July 2004.


The agreement includes spectrum licenses in 62 markets in 14 western and mid-western states, covering a population of 30.8 million people. These licenses, all in the 1900 MHz PCS frequency range, average nearly 10 MHz per market. The transaction also includes Qwest Wireless' network switching centers, cell sites and related network equipment, which operate on the CDMA standard, the same as the Verizon Wireless network.


Fifty-four of the licenses are in markets where Verizon Wireless already operates its network, and will be used to expand capacity to meet growing demand for voice and data services. The deal does not include
http://www.verizonwireless.com

Verizon Raises Quarterly Dividend 5.2%

Verizon Communications declared a quarterly dividend of 40.5 cents per outstanding share, an increase of 2 cents, or 5.2%, from the previous quarter. The dividend is payable on May 2, 2005, to Verizon Communications shareowners of record at the close of business April 8.

Verizon has approximately 2.7 million shareowners and approximately 2.8 billion shares of common stock outstanding. In 2004, the company made $4.3 billion in dividend payments.
http://www.verizon.com/

Wednesday, March 2, 2005

Fujitsu Captures 75% Global Market Share in Metro ROADMs

Fujitsu Network Communications has attained over 75% market share for Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs), according to figures from RHK cited by the company. The product category is defined as a platform that offers single wavelength granularity, optical layer protection with sub-50 ms switching times, automated per-channel dynamic gain equalization, and favorable engineering rules that let carriers shrink network Capital Expense (CAPEX) requirements. The market is being driven by metro WDM builds, including metro core/regional interoffice capacity adds, triple play services, video distribution, broadband and mobile backhaul, and enterprise applications such as business continuity and storage. The early adopter market for ROADMs has been fueled largely by North American-based Multiple System Operators (MSOs) looking to support cable TV broadcast distribution, Video on Demand (VoD) and data services. RHK forecasts that sales of current, third-generation ROADM-based metro Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) products will grow steadily to account for over 40% of the total $1.6B metro WDM market by 2009.


Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE 7500 platform has been deployed by North American MSOs and Japanese carriers. The FLASHWAVE 7500 metro WDM portfolio comprises three configurations:

  • The FLASHWAVE 7500 Core System is an all-optical ROADM designed for large metropolitan networks that require up to 40 wavelengths of 10 Gbps capacity per wavelength to satisfy existing traffic demands and provide plenty of capacity for future network growth.


  • The FLASHWAVE 7500 Small System offers the added flexibility of deployment with or without the ROADM switch fabric. Available in a 16- or 32-channel version, the FLASHWAVE 7500 Small System is a low cost way for carriers in small- to medium-sized cities to converge existing networks, while offering the scalability to accommodate future growth.


  • The FLASHWAVE 7500 Extension System provides a compact and lowest cost solution for delivering the benefits of DWDM transport to the edge of large networks. As a stand-alone platform or extension from a larger network, the system can be cost-justified with just a few wavelengths.
http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom

TI Tests DSL Gateways with KTL

Texas Instruments (TI) will cooperate with KTL, an independent testing laboratory (ITL) officially recognized by the DSL Forum, to provide more extensive interoperability testing of TI´s residential gateway products. TI said this collaboration should ultimately allow its customers to reach the market faster and more cost-effectively with leading DSL, wireless and voice products. http://www.ti.com

Alcatel Ships 19.6 Million DSL ports in 2004

Alcatel's DSL port shipments increased strongly in 2004, reaching 19.6 million ports for the full year, a 24 percent increase over 2003. Citing Q4 data from the Dell'Oro Group, Alcatel said its cumulative global market share has increased to 37.8% with a total of more than 58 million cumulative DSL lines shipped. The figure is more than four times the cumulative global DSL line volume of any other supplier.
http://www.alcatel.com

KPN Upgrades to ADSL2+ with Alcatel

Alcatel announced contract with KPN for the upgrade of its existing DSL infrastructure in The Netherlands to ADSL2+. This contract involves the upgrade of all current DSLAMs, which were installed and implemented by Alcatel in previous years. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.alcatel.com

Wireless USB Specification Nears Completion

The Wireless USB specification is expected to be completed at the end of March and the Multi-band OFDM Alliance (MBOA) medium access controller (MAC) is scheduled to be completed by midyear, according to an update from Intel provided at its Intel Developer's Forum in San Francisco.


Wireless USB will be one of the technology implementations that will use UWB as the radio technology. The goal of Wireless USB is to deliver the same ease of use and high speeds associated with USB 2.0, but without wires. To maintain the same usage and architecture as wired USB, the Wireless USB Promoter Group, of which Intel is a leading member, is defining the wireless USB specification. Intel said the first version of this specification will be completed by the end of this month. UWB is designed to transmit data within short range (up to 10 meters) at very high bandwidths (up to 480Mbps) while using little power. One of the main advantages of UWB is it does not interfere with other wireless technologies already in use, such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and cellular wide-area communications.


The MBOA's MAC layer specification v1.0 is expected to be finalized by the end of June.http://developer.intel.com


SBC Signs Wi-Fi Roaming Pacts with Boingo, Airpath

SBC Communications announced Wi-Fi roaming agreements with Airpath Wireless and Boingo Wireless. The agreement with Airpath adds 3,300 nationwide and international locations - making more than 4,000 total roaming hot spots available to SBC Wi-Fi customers. In addition, SBC hot spots will be available to thousands of Airpath mobile computer users.


The agreement with Boingo will bring increased traffic to the SBC FreedomLink network from Boingo customers and from worldwide subscribers of Boingo's Platform Services partners. For Boingo, the agreement increases the company's U.S. hot spot density with more than 3,400 SBC Wi-Fi locations, adding key airports and other locations that are important to business travelers.


SBC also has agreements with GoRemote, iPass and Syniverse Technologies that provide it with revenue when their customers roam on the SBC Wi-Fi network. SBC companies also have agreements with Wayport Inc. and Sprint that provide SBC Wi-Fi customers with roaming access at more than 700 nationwide hot spots including several major airports and hotels. Other deals with Concourse Communications and Wise Technologies will further expand the SBC FreedomLink roaming network once activated. Also, SBC companies have a reciprocal roaming relationship with Telmex, its first international roaming agreement.


The roaming locations are in addition to the more than 6,400 nationwide hot spots available to SBC Wi-Fi customers, including select McDonald's restaurants, Barnes & Noble bookstores, Caribou Coffee shops and The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. locations. http://www.sbc.com

KT Deploys Cisco's ONS 15454 MSPP

KT recently has started offering Triple Play service in the Seoul area supported by the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP).


KT selected Cisco as its strategic vendor for its new optical backbone plan on December 2004. As part of the initial deployment of the network, Cisco has completed the first service trial of KT's 2.5-Gbps/10-Gbps MSPP project, which is a part of a new 5-year plan to deploy an optical transport system infrastructure to service KT's customer base with multiple advanced services. This service trial involved deploying Cisco ONS 15454 SDH to cover regional nodes in the Seoul metropolitan area and international nodes for this multiservice integrated transport network project. Millinet, one of Cisco's system integration partners, has been a key contributor for this project. Financial terms were not disclosed.


http://www.cisco.com

WiMedia and MultiBand OFDM Groups to Merge

The WiMedia Alliance and the MultiBand OFDM Alliance Special Interest Group (MBOA-SIG) have merged into a single organization. Operating as the WiMedia Alliance, the combined organization continues to drive the standardization and adoption of ultra wideband (UWB) for high-speed wireless, multimedia-capable personal area connectivity.


The WiMedia-MBOA said it is conducting an intellectual property review of the MBOA-SIG's physical (PHY) layer specification, which has already been distributed to MBOA-SIG members who are building products. The organization is also finalizing the MBOA-SIG's medium access control (MAC) layer specification. Applications such as Wireless USB, Wireless 1394 and wireless IP will use the WiMedia-MBOA's common radio platform based on the MBOA-SIG's PHY and MAC specifications.


Concurrent efforts include developing application profiles for UPnP/IP technologies as well as completing specifications such as the WiMedia convergence architecture (WiMCA) and the WiMedia network protocol adaptation (WiNet) layer. Lastly, the WiMedia-MBOA has begun defining its certification and interoperability program: testing suites will address WiMedia-MBOA specification usage in Wireless USB and Wireless 1394 applications in addition to the total wireless IP UWB technology stack.


The WiMedia Alliance also announced its newly elected officers:

  • President: Stephen R. Wood, Intel


  • Vice President: Kursat Kimyacioglu, Philips


  • Vice President: Jon Rosdahl, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.


  • Secretary: Roberto Aiello, Staccato Communications


  • Treasurer: Mark Fidler, HP
http://www.wimedia.org