Sensory Networks Expands North American Sales Force

Sensory Networks, a start-up based offering acceleration technology for network security applications, announced that security industry veterans Burt Hadlock and Greg Gavalakis have joined their US sales team.



Burt Hadlock has been appointed Senior Director for North American Sales, responsible for OEM sales and channel management in North America. Hadlock previously held sales management positions at Tundra Semiconductor, Vitesse Semiconductor, and LSI Logic.



Greg Gavalakis has been appointed Director for Strategic Sales, responsible for supporting customers in the western half of the US, and has worked for leading security and computer companies Safenet, Raytheon, TI and IBM. http://www.sensorynetworks.com

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UTStarcom Launches New WiFi Handset

UTStarcom announced the global launch of its newest portable WiFi handset - the F3000. Measuring 85 x 43 x 22mm and weighing approximately 90g, the F3000 features a full-color, 1.8" (45.7mm) LCD screen, polyphonic ringtones, text messaging capability and talk-time of up to three hours and stand-by time of approximately 75 hours.



The phone supports a range of voice protocols, including SIP, SDP, RTP/RTCP and RFC 2833/inband DTMF, and utilizes ITU codecs G.711 and G.729. It operates at WiFi 802.11b/g 2.4GHz and supports WiFi security WEP64/128 and WPA. The F3000 also supports a variety of user interface languages, including English, French, Spanish and Chinese, and standard PSTN features, such as call waiting and three-way calling, are also available. It is easily configured, supporting auto-provisioning and remote software upgrades.



Additionally, UTStarcom's F3000 features an Auto-Search capability, enabling users to locate WiFi networks within range and store these profiles for later use. Moreover, the handset can be programmed with three separate SIP accounts, providing both service provider and access point flexibility for the end user.

http://www.utstar.com

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Cisco Introduces Integrated Branch-Office Solution

Cisco Systems introduced a branch- office solution that combines WAN Optimization, Application Acceleration and Wide-Area File Services (WAFS) capabilities. Cisco said its branch office solution combined with Cisco Application Networking Services could scale to support thousands of branch offices and up to millions of TCP connections with up to 16 Gbps performance in a fully load-balanced deployment.



Cisco also introduced a network module for running WAAS software on the Cisco integrated services router (ISR), of which more than one million units are deployed worldwide. The Cisco WAAS solution is also offered as a stand-alone appliance.



The WAAS solution is a part of Cisco's Application Networking Services, a portfolio of application-aware networking products, which includes:

• the Application Control Engine (ACE), which integrates server load balancing, application security and unique virtual partitioning capabilities



• the Application Velocity System (AVS), which accelerates and secures Internet-facing applications



• the Application and Content Networking System (ACNS), which effectively delivers video to remote branches

Cisco WAAS solution includes the Cisco WAAS software and the Cisco Wide-Area Application Engine (WAE) appliance family as well as new network modules (WAE-NM) that integrate with Cisco's 2800, 3700 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers. http://www.cisco.com

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Cisco Debuts Four-slot CRS-1, 40 Gbps-Per-Slot Routing System

Cisco Systems introduced a compact version of its CRS-1 Carrier Routing System designed for deployment at regional Points of Presence (POPs), MSO hub locations and data center peering sites. The new platform is especially aimed at broadcast IPTV services and offers a multistage switch fabric with native multicast capabilities.



The four-slot CRS-1 joins the 16-slot platform (1.2 terabits-per-second (Tbps)) and the eight-slot platform (640 Gbps), all of which feature cross-slot-compatibility.



Key features of the Cisco CRS-1 include:

• 40 Gbps routing in all form factors, supporting scaling from 320 Gbps to 92 Tbps of throughput



• 100 Gbps ready



• Intelligent video distribution with fabric-based IP multicast replication



• Secure Virtualization using Secure Domain Routers (SDRs) to segregate and deliver advanced IP services on a common routing infrastructure to simplify network operations and reduce costs



• 40 Gbps and 10 Gbps IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM) Architecture for enhanced scale and efficiency



• 10 Gbps Ethernet density, supporting from eight to 9,216 ports on a single system



• I/O modules and forwarding engines can be shared across the entire CRS-1 product family and SPA compatibility with Cisco 12000, 7600 and 7300 platforms

BT tested a four-slot single chassis CRS-1 Cisco CRS-1 earlier this year. In the test, three Secure Domain Routers (SDRs) were established in-service on a single CRS-1 multi-chassis system for broadcast TV, video-on-demand and core applications. The test showed support for 400,000 simultaneous unique multicast streams, and support for priority queuing and traffic shaping, protecting important video or VoIP traffic from increases in latency and packet loss caused by oversubscription in lower traffic classes.



The CRS-1 four-slot single-shelf system will be available in November. The starting system list price is US$160,000.



Cisco also announced a major new customer -- KT has selected the CRS-1 for its KORNET backbone network. In addition, Sprint has been evaluating the CRS-1 since 2004 and will deploy it beginning in CYQ4 2006. National LambdaRail, a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies, has been using the CRS-1 for more than a year and is evaluating the new four-slot platform.

http://www.cisco.com

• Publicly announced CRS-1 customers include BT, Cable & Wireless, Comcast, China Telecom (ChinaNet), China Education and Research Network (CERNET), Easynet, the National Institute of Informatics' SuperSINET research network in Japan, National LambdaRail, MTS Allstream, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), SaskTel, Softbank Yahoo! BB, Strato Medien AG, Swisscom, Shanghai Telecom, Telstra and VTR.

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AP-AOL Video Survey Tracks US Trends

More than half (54 percent) of all U.S. Internet users have watched or downloaded a video clip or full-length program from the Web, according to a newly released AP-AOL Video survey of 1,347 online users. Some other key findings:

• Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of online video users would prefer to watch an ad before a video in order to watch the video for free, while 23 percent say they'd rather pay for ad-free videos.



• More than two-thirds (69 percent) of online video viewers say they find videos they want to watch by browsing the Web. Meanwhile, 61 percent hear about videos from friends and 58 percent regularly visit a roster of favorite video sites. Thirty-seven percent use search engines to find videos and 36 percent learn about videos from magazines or TV.



• Those with a high-speed Internet connection are more likely than dial-up access users to watch video online (46 percent vs. 22 percent).



• Men (48 percent vs. 32 percent of women), adults ages 18-34 (48 percent) and urbanites (46 percent) are most likely to watch video online at least once a week.



• Women over age 45 are more likely to watch more video today than they were one year ago as compared to men of the same age (32 percent vs. 20 percent). At the same time, online video users under age 35 are more likely to watch more video today than those over age 35 (38 percent vs. 28 percent).



• More than half (54 percent) of online video viewers prefer to watch their videos on their computer monitor, while 37 percent say they would rather watch online videos on a television connected to their computer.



• Nearly ten percent (7 percent) of online video users prefer to watch videos on a portable device, such as a PDA or mp3 player. Fully 13 percent of adults ages 18-29 favor watching videos on a portable device, more than any other age category.



• One in ten online video users say that now that they can watch video online, they watch less television. Eighty-seven percent of online video viewers say their television viewing habits remain unchanged by the proliferation of online video.

http://www.aol.com

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Teknovus Cites GEPON FTTH Deployments in China

Teknovus announced that its GEPON chipsets are currently being used in more than 20 Chinese provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan; representing three of China's four largest municipalities. Other significant deployments include the province of Shanxi and the city of Fuzhou in the province of Fujian. Carrier wins include Beijing Netcom, Beijing Telecom, Shanghai Telecom, Wuhan Telecom, Hangzhou Telecom, Fuzhou Telecom, Shanxi Taiyuan Netcom, Shanxi Mobile, Yunnan Telecom, Guizhou Telecom and Hubei Netcom.
http://www.teknovus.com

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HP and Intel Launch IPTV Test Centers

HP and Intel opened two IPTV test centers to help carriers and broadband providers take advantage of the opportunities of the emerging technology. At the two facilities, located in Grenoble, France, and Richardson, Texas, the companies have created state-of-the-art working environments where carriers and broadband providers can develop and model the infrastructure they need to deliver an IPTV service. The facilities allow for performance and scalability evaluation, characterization, sizing, full proof-of-concept testing, and integration of IPTV solutions into the network and the operational and business support systems.



The centers feature HP ProLiant servers and server blades with the recently announced Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor series, as well as HP Integrity servers with Intel Itanium 2 processors. The centers also provide access to HP professional services, HP service management solutions for IPTV, and HP content management and distribution expertise. The centers also will include Intel technologies such as virtualization, active management and input/output acceleration.



HP and Intel have defined six areas where they will help carriers and broadband providers enhance their IPTV offerings:

• Infrastructure - Deploy an end-to-end IPTV environment, including head-end for content import and ingest, video servers, IPTV middleware, content protection, and digital home environment. Define and characterize baseline architecture for IPTV ecosystems for centralized and distributed environments, including guidelines for hardware configurations and integration points.



• Video server reference architecture - Optimize video streaming capability with minimal server resources, based on network capacity and topology, streaming capacity and subscriber density, and storage of movie catalog and consumption patterns.



• IT service management - Define standard management processes for handling incidents, problems, changes and configurations, and overall service levels.



• Service assurance - Define requirements for comprehensive quality of service and management of distributed IPTV applications. Document guidelines for implementation of HP service assurance tools in IPTV environment.



• Content distribution - Define, test and document managed content delivery network overlay to the underlying, physical telecom network.



• Service provisioning - Prepare content for distribution by IPTV service. Define head-end workflow for content import, channel line-up, and catalog management.

http://www.hp.com/go/iptvhttp://www.intel.com

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Eagle Broadband Selects Latens IPTV Conditional Access

Eagle Broadband, a supplier of IP set-top boxes and turn-key IP video services, has selected the Latens IP CAS Conditional Access solution to secure its IPTV services. Eagle will offer its subscribers more than 200 channels of secured video services that include Pay-TV, high-definition (HD), personal-video-recording (PVR), video-on-demand (VOD) and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD).



http://www.latens.comhttp://www.eaglebroadband.com

	Enabling Innovation in IPTV through the Multi-vendor Approach
There are many arguments in favor of multi-vendor over single-vendor, including those for flexibility and increased price competition. However, perhaps the single most important reason for choosing the multi-vendor approach is that this is the only route that enables the operator to ensure that it can choose innovative solutions that fit its requirements, both now and in the future.

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Vonage Reaches 2 Million Subscribers

Vonage reached the milestone of 2 million lines in service.

http://www.vonage.com

• Vonage ended Q2 2006 with over 1,853,000 total subscriber lines, an increase of 16% from the prior quarter and 119% above the year-ago level. Marketing costs per gross subscriber line addition were $239 for the second quarter 2006. The comparable amount for the year-ago quarter was $236.

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Flextronics to Acquire International DisplayWorks

Flextronics agreed to acquire International DisplayWorks, which specializes in the manufacture and design of high quality small form factor liquid crystal displays ("LCDs"), modules and assemblies for a variety of applications including cell phones, MP3 players, industrial and commercial products, and eventually digital cameras. The stock- for-stock merger has an aggregate value of approximately $300 million.



Flextronics said the acquisitions augments its strategy of providing vertically integrated solutions by adding LCD design and manufacturing capabilities.

http://www.flextronics.comhttp://www.idwk.com

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RADCOM Offers IPTV Performance Monitoring Solution

RADCOM is introducing an end-to-end IPTV monitoring and troubleshooting solution. The company said its Omni-Q for IPTV gives operators full visibility into subscriber service requests and their propagation into IPTV network elements such as middleware. It allows them to examine the performance of Video On Demand (VOD) and other application servers. The system solution monitors network and media KPIs (key performance indicators) regarding application performance, DVB Transport stream, network transmission (jitter, delay and packet loss), service usage and availability as well as specific subscriber transactions.



RADCOM's Omni-Q for IPTV extracts and calculates critical performance metrics throughout the delivery chain. It monitors the quality of thousands of video streams simultaneously, providing a MOS score for each. It provides MPEG-Transport Stream analysis with MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.263 support.

http://www.radcom-inc.com

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Global Crossing Extends VoIP Outbound Service

Global Crossing expanded its VoIP Outbound Service in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in eight new European countries. The company also has enhanced the service to offer intra-country dialing to enterprise customers in five more European countries.



In the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions, Global Crossing has extended availability of VoIP Outbound Service to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong and Singapore.



In Europe, Global Crossing VoIP Outbound Service now is available in Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia. VoIP Outbound Service had already been available in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as well as in Canada and the United States.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

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NETGEAR Ships SSL VPN Concentrator for SMB

NETGEAR began shipping an SSL VPN solution for small- and mid-sized businesses under 100 users. The ProSafe SSL VPN Concentrator 25 (SSL312) provides secure access to the corporate network from any standard Web browser. The platform ensures data privacy with SSLv3 and TLSv1.0 with AES-256, cryptographic hash algorithms such as MD5 and SHA-1 and optional automatic cache cleanup after session termination to ensure privacy of data, supports 25 concurrent remote users to securely access resources using standard web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari. In addition to integrating with user repositories, such as Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, and RADIUS, for user authentication, the SSL312 interoperates with standard based firewalls including NETGEAR's ProSafe line of VPN Firewall Routers to provide a complete security solution. The list price is $545.

http://www.netgear.com

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Deutsche Telekom Outlines Seven-Point Strategy

Deutsche Telekom's Supervisory Board has given the go-ahead for changes in DT's management structure, in line with a new, 7-point program called "Telekom 2010."



T-Systems CEO Lothar Pauly will head the areas Networks, IT and Purchasing worldwide, while T-Mobile CEO Rene Obermann will be responsible for over-the-counter sales in Germany. Kai-Uwe Ricke will assume responsibility for advertising budgets, media planning and media coordination along with global brand-management.



The Telekom 2010 Plan



1. Germany -- DT aims to safeguard current earnings on a sustained basis, thereby securing its future in the long run. It plans to defend market share with attractive package deals and excellent service.



2. Europe -- In the European markets, the objective is to sustainably increase revenue market share by 2010.



3. USA -- DT seeks to maximize its revenue market share and develop T-Mobile USA into the Group's largest business unit in the consumer area.



4. Business customers -- In the European business customer market, Deutsche Telekom intends to achieve a market position among the Top 3 across all customer segments.



5. Innovation -- DT is concentrating on IPTV, mobile Internet and ICT services.



6. Service -- DT aims to achieve a first-done rate of around 80 percent. In 2007, the company will continue existing programs, such as integrating its customer database and CRM.



7. Efficiency -- DT seeks to become the strongest company in terms of earnings in the European industry by the year 2010. Measures in this area are IP-based infrastructure, IT architecture as well as enhanced sales and marketing efficiency.

http://www.telekom.de

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Huawei to Supply UMTS for Uruguay's ANTEL

Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones ("ANTEL"), the leading telecom operator in Uruguay has selected Huawei Technologies for its UMTS network. Huawei is supplying the HSDPA-based end-to-end UMTS solution for ANTEL. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Huawei's UMTS solution encompasses its HSDPA-based series NodeB, compatible mobile Softswitch core network for GSM/GPRS/3GPP R99/3GPP R4, open intelligent network and mobile data platform, uniform network management solution and operating support system.



Huawei said it has now secured 31 UMTS/HSDPA commercial contracts to date.

http://www.huawei.comhttp://www.antel.com.uy

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Amino Announces Internet-TV Set-top Box

Amino has entered the Internet TV market with a new set-top box designed for Web-based video services.



The AmiNET125i is a multi-codec unit, designed to deliver Windows Media 9 and MPEG-4 video streams to a TV. The product features a low-cost digital signal processor (DSP) supporting a range of decoders which are widespread in the world of Internet-based content. There is also a host processor to ensure the user experience is on a par with that of a PC-based web portal.



In anticipation of DRM issues, the AmiNET125i supports Microsoft Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10 (WM DRM10). The unit will also integrate an embedded HTML 4 browser providing JavaScript. This allows content to be resized to fit the larger TV screen, regardless of its dimensions, ensuring the best possible user experience.



Amino is partnering with Narrowstep, a provider of IP-delivered video content, to bring true Internet TV to the living room.

http://www.aminocom.com

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BT Anticipates First Live Customer Upgrades to 21CN in November

BT announced details of the first steps it will take to transition customers in the UK to its 21st century network (21CN). Starting in late November this year, BT, working closely with other communications providers, will begin the planned upgrade of customers and their voice and broadband services, in Cardiff and the surrounding area.



The first stage of the new network will be delivered in three phases, increasing in scale with each phase. Phase one, to run from November this year until March 2007, will see the upgrade of voice services to some 10 percent of customer lines in Cardiff and the surrounding area. Phase two, from April to mid May 2007, will deliver a further 10 percent of upgraded lines.



By the end of Phase 3 in the summer of 2007, BT will have upgraded all 350,000 customer lines. 90,000 of these lines also support broadband and ISDN2 and ISDN30 services. Private circuit-based services, which typically support business-critical corporate applications, will not be migrated on to the new network until much later in the programme.



At the end of the final stage of the Cardiff upgrade, BT and other communications providers will begin an in-depth review before moving to the planned national upgrade of all remaining customers across the UK, some 30 million lines supported from over 5,500 telephone exchanges, from January 2008.http:///www.btplc.com

• In July 2006, BT announced that its trial 21st Century Network (21CN) was currently handling more than 625,000 live customer calls per day and more than 23 million customer calls had been completed to date. The trial involves the use of an IP link to carry voice calls between two major network nodes at Cambridge and Woolwich.
  
  
  
  
  BT said the success of its trial represents a significant step towards the creation of its next generation network. It builds on the previous trial which ran from October to December 2005 where fourteen million calls were successfully carried on the IP network and voice quality monitoring carried out.
  
  
  
  Multi service access nodes or MSANs from Huawei and Fujitsu are already in use, carrying voice services onto the core network from trial customer lines. This equipment is being installed at 18 exchanges in South East London, Kent and East Anglia.
  
  
  
  For this stage of the trial, BT has also newly introduced Cisco's media gateway; Ericsson's call server and a Cisco Catalyst Switch. Other key technology components are Alcatel's LAN switch and Siemens/Juniper routers used in a previous 21CN voice trial.

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Working Prototype of Prototype of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Receiver Developed

STMicroelectronics, in cooperation with Kenwood and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Fraunhofer IIS), presented a fully working prototype of a "Digital Radio Mondiale" (DRM) receiver at last week's IFA Consumer Electronics trade fair in Berlin. The prototype could pave the way to the development of a low-power Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for DRM applications such as fixed and portable radios, car receivers, software receivers, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).



Standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Digital Radio Mondiale is a universal, open standard digital radio system with FM-like sound quality available to markets worldwide for long-wave (LW), medium-wave (MW), and short-wave (SW) frequencies. In addition to providing substantially better audio quality and interference-free reception, the DRM system benefits listeners with new multimedia content such as track title, artist, and station name, which can be displayed on DRM receivers to enhance the listening experience.



Unlike digital radio systems that require a new frequency allocation, DRM just uses more efficiently the existing Amplitude Modulation (AM) broadcast frequency bands (below 30MHz). The DRM signal fits into the AM broadcast-band plan and could be carried by many existing AM transmitters.

http://www.drm.org

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Broadcom's Antitrust Complaint Against QUALCOMM Dismissed

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey has dismissed Broadcom's antitrust complaint against QUALCOMM in its entirety. Originally filed in July of 2005 and later amended, the complaint alleged a variety of purported antitrust violations by QUALCOMM, each of which was rejected by the District Court.



"QUALCOMM is pleased by the Court's thoughtful and comprehensive ruling dismissing all of Broadcom's claims," said Steve Altman, president, QUALCOMM. "Our business model is built upon making our innovations available to the entire wireless industry through the widespread licensing of our intellectual property and the creation and supply of advanced chipsets and software solutions.

http://www.qualcomm.com

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RadiSys Completes Convedia Acquisition

RadiSys Corporation completed its previously-announced acquisition of Convedia, a leading supplier of IP media processing technologies and IP media server products.




RadiSys paid $105 million in cash at closing. RadiSys could pay up to an additional $10 million in cash determined by a contingent formula tied to achieving certain profitability goals during the twelve-month period beginning October 1, 2006.

http://www.radisys.comhttp://www.convedia.com

• Convedia's family of media servers enable fixed, mobile and cable service providers to deliver processed media streams for IMS and pre-IMS services. Convedia media servers also support media-rich applications and services on converged enterprise networks. In addition, Convedia's eXMP technology delivers a common set of IP media processing features, control and management interfaces, and can be deployed on third-party Linux-based servers, embedded in third-party proprietary platforms such as routers, switches, and gateways and deployed on purpose-built, highly-optimized IP Media Server platforms. Convedia is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.



• RadiSys is a leading provider of advanced embedded solutions for the communications networking and commercial systems markets. The company helps OEMs bring better products to market faster and more economically. Its products include embedded boards, platforms and systems. RadiSys is headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon.

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