Qualcomm Sharpens IZat Location platform

Qualcomm Atheros rolled out a number of enhancements to its "IZat" location platform to bring precise indoor positioning capabilities to mobile phones, tablets and network infrastructure. The company has formed a strategic relationship with Cisco, which is working to optimize the indoor positioning capabilities of its Mobility Services Engine to enhance service discovery and location-based apps in public venues such as shopping malls, retail chains, hotels, airports, hospitals, college campuses, entertainment destinations and enterprises.

The goal of IZat indoor location is to deliver new and compelling consumer experiences in public places and help open revenue streams in the retail, travel, entertainment and hospitality industries.

IZat is based on multiple Qualcomm technologies, including cellular, global navigation satellite system (GNSS), Wi-Fi, sensor and cloud-based assistance solutions, as well as the industry’s most widely deployed location core, already found in more than one billion devices on mobile networks worldwide.

The new enhancements provide indoor location capabilities on a large number of mobile devices. The company said it can achieve more precise positioning (within 3-5 meters) inside buildings.

The Qualcomm IZat Indoor Positioning Software debuted on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processors, including the MSM8960 Pro and APQ8064 coupled with the MDM9x15.

“By coupling the industry’s leading mobile platform with enterprise-class Wi-Fi networking capabilities, Qualcomm is providing a solution that addresses the entire end-to-end indoor location framework. We are delivering the key elements of the indoor location ecosystem in collaboration with other technology leaders to offer more compelling mobile experiences for consumers and businesses alike," said Amir Faintuch, senior vice president and general manager, consumer business unit, Qualcomm Atheros.

http://www.qualcomm.com
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Huawei Confirms Role in Telcel's LTE Launch in Mexico

Huawei confirmed that América Móvil has deployed its LTE equipment in the network of Telcel Mexico.

Telcel is using Huawei's SingleRAN LTE solution to build a Heterogenous Network (HetNet), which will greatly enhance network spectrum utilization and end-user data transfer speeds.  During the launch ceremony earlier this month, Huawei's Ascend P1 smartphone and Huawei's LTE broadband modem E397 device were also displayed.

Telcel's initial rollout covers parts of nine cities, with plans to expand to 26 markets next year to reach 65% of the country's population.

http://www.huawei.com
http://www.telcel.com

Telcel's LTE service officially launched on 06-November-2012 in Mexico DF, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Querétaro, Puebla, Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, Hermosillo and Mérida. Ericsson is the key LTE supplier for the Telcel network in Mexico.  Ericsson's contract covers deployment of RBS6000 base stations for LTE in multiple bands.  The deal also includes the Evolved Packet Core with Home Subscriber Server (HSS) for user data management and SGSN-MME as the mobility management entity that handles control signaling and traffic and can be used for all three generations of mobile data services. Ericsson will also deliver Operating Support Systems (OSS).

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NGNCo Begins Rollout in Western Australia

NBN Co has begun installing fibre in Western Australia for its new access network.  The first installation in this part of the country is occurring in Geraldton, a port city about 400km north of Perth.

In addition to Geraldton, work is under planning or construction in the following suburbs: Beachlands, West End, Rangeway, Mount Tarcoola, Karloo, Deepdale, Utakarra, Wonthella, Beresford, Webberton, Strathalbyn, Bluff Point, Woorree and Spalding.

NBN Co is aiming for construction in these suburbs to be completed throughout 2013.


"Access to high speed broadband can help to breakdown the tyranny of distance for Australian's living and working in the largest state. It has the potential to re-energise rural and remote communities and regional cities by allowing people to access new business markets, education options, cultural opportunities and a world of new entertainment right from their lounge rooms or offices," stated NBN Co spokesperson Trent Williams.

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Cisco to Acquire Cloupia for Cloud Automation Software

Cisco agreed to acquire Cloupia, a start-up focused on Cloud Automation and Management Software, for approximately $125 million in cash and retention-based incentives.

Cloupia, which is based in Santa Clara, California, provides tools to automate converged data center infrastructure.  The Cloupia Unified Infrastructure Controller (CUIC) is a vendor-neutral, multi-hypervisor and multi-cloud provisioning and management solution that provides physical and virtual infrastructure control, management and monitoring via single pane of glass.  The company said this enables organizations to build their own internal private clouds as well as manage public clouds.

Cisco said Cloupia’s software enhances its own Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and Nexus switching portfolio with this single pane-of-glass view into the automation of compute, network, storage, virtual machine, and operating system resources.  Cloupia's employees will be integrated into Cisco's Data Center Group.

“Cisco’s data center strategy is based on the premise of making it easier for customers to deploy a unified and integrated infrastructure that is efficient, fast, and flexible,” said David Yen, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Data Center Business Group. “This strategy involves the delivery of the industry’s most comprehensive data center networking portfolio, which includes physical and virtual products that support multiple hypervisors and storage stacks. The addition of Cloupia’s automation software enhances the efficiency of such unified data center infrastructures, helping to accelerate the transition from physical to cloud environments more quickly and effectively.”

http://newsroom.cisco.com/release/1104940

• Cloupia was founded in 2009 by Raju Datla (CEO), who was previously the founder of Jahi Networks (also acquired by Cisco), and Raju Penmetsa (CTO), Bhaskar Krishnamsetty (SVP of Products & Marketing), Murali Alapati (VP of Engineering), and Kevin S. Lim (VP of User Experience).

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Smile Picks Alcatel-Lucent for LTE in Uganda

Smile has selected Alcatel-Lucent to deploy LTE in Uganda.  Earlier this year, Smile selected Alcatel-Lucent for LTE in Tanzania.

Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its end-to-end 4G LTE network operating in the 800 MHz frequency band. Alcatel-Lucent will provide its leading services expertise including integration of its 4G LTE equipment with other vendor’s existing network equipment and network maintenance.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

http://www.smile.co.tz

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MetroPCS Deploys Acme Packet to Scale VoLTE and RCS

MetroPCS has installed Acme Packet's Net-Net Session Director session border controller to support its VoLTE and Rich Communications Services.  

Acme Packet's Net-Net Session Director provides SIP normalization, mediation, and interworking functions that enable operators to integrate network elements supplied by multiple vendors.  Specifically, the company said its solution protects and controls SIP sessions between the MetroPCS service core and LTE endpoints, and provides the Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) in the IMS network. 

Acme Packet noted that these VoLTE and RCS initiatives extend its relationship with MetroPCS, which started with the management of SIP interconnects with other service providers.

http://www.acmepacket.com

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Telstra Hires Ex Vodafone Exec

Telstra has appointed Karsten Wildberger as Group Managing Director, Consumer.

Mr Wildberger was most recently partner and managing director of The Boston Consulting Group in Germany and a core member of the Telecoms, Media and High Tech Practice. He previously served as Chief Commercial Officer for Vodafone in Romania whilst also acting as interim CEO at Vodafone.

Mr Wildberger’s experience also extends to Deutsche Telekom in Germany where he was Executive Vice President, Channel Management, T-Mobile Germany.

http://www.telstra.com.au

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DANTE Builds Terabit GÉANT Network with Infinera and Juniper

GÉANT, the pan-European research and education network, confirmed that Infinera and Juniper Networks are key suppliers for upgrading its 50,000km backbone.

Specifically, GÉANT is using Infinera’s DTN-X optical transmission platform and Juniper Networks MX Series 3D Universal Routers with 100Gbps capability

“After an extensive procurement process Infinera and Juniper demonstrated the best match for our stringent criteria, combining leading edge technology with ease of use and a vision for the future that matches our needs moving forward. We look forward to working closely with them to deliver the benefits of this highly advanced network to GÉANT’s 40 million plus users across Europe,” stated Michael Enrico, CTO, DANTE.

DANTE is the organisation that on behalf of Europe’s national research and education networks (NRENs) has built and operates the GÉANT network.

http://www.geant.net
http://www.dante.net

Earlier, GÉANT announced that Hungary's Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest will host CERN’s new remote data center and will process and store data from CERN for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).   The centre will be connected with multiple 100G links.

NIIF/Hungarnet, the Hungarian National Research and Education Network (NREN) has a central role to play in providing extreme high speed connectivity for data communication between the GÉANT Point of Presence in Budapest and the Wigner site hosting CERN’s remote centre.

In a joint statement, Matthew Scott and Niels Hersoug, joint General Managers of DANTE, the organisation which on behalf of Europe’s NRENs has built and operates the GÉANT network, said, “We’re delighted that CERN value the substantial benefits offered by the GÉANT network and services, and are continuing the long-standing and successful relationship that has seen GÉANT at the centre of the LHC data needs for many years. The Wigner data centre is exactly the kind of power user that the upgraded network will continue to support, and we look forward to working with all the partners involved to ensure the continued success of the LHC research.”

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See Blueprint column from Infinera on 

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Telefónica Digital Selects Microsoft Mediaroom for Global Video Platform

Telefónica Digital has selected Microsoft's Mediaroom for its new Global Video Platform (GVP) for all video entertainment services across Telefónica’s Operating Businesses.

Telefónica's GVP is an IPTV-based pay-TV subscription service --  including DVR, video on-demand and and other applications -- that can be delivered either on the carrier's own access network or as an over-the-top offering.  It supports a range of devices inside and outside the home, including set top boxes, Xbox 360s, tablets and smartphones.  

Launches are already underway in Brazil (Vivo TV Fibra), Chile (Movistar IPTV) and Spain (Movistar Imagenio on Xbox 360).  The service is Spain provides subscribers with 12 linear channels focused on sports including the Spanish First Soccer League (Liga BBVA) under Canal+ Liga Channel.

“This new agreement focused on Telefónica’s GVP further extends our alliance in the world of TV and video entertainment to a range of screens throughout the home and on the go, and the benefits will be enjoyed by many millions of people globally. Through its use of IP-based broadband networks and the Microsoft Mediaroom platform, Telefónica’s next-generation TV services are poised to delight and entertain millions of consumers across their markets in Europe and Latin America," stated Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president, Operator TV Business, Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com

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CenturyLink Upgrades to 100G

CenturyLink, the third largest telecommunications company in the U.S., completed a 100 Gbps upgrade of its nationwide network.  The carrier can now deliver dedicated 100 Gigabit Ethernet Optical Wavelength Service to enterprise and wholesale businesses in more than 50 metropolitan locations across the United States. CenturyLink also recently deployed 100 Gbps in Singapore and London, with more international cities planned for early 2013.

CenturyLink said it plans additional network capabilities to be deployed in early 2013, including connectivity to Savvis cloud, hosting and colocation services, data centers and customer business locations. Savvis, which is a CenturyLink company, provides cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises.

"Responding to the increasing broadband demands and supporting new business applications is a priority for us, which is why we began the transition to 100 Gbps a couple of years ago," said Pieter Poll, CenturyLink senior vice president of national and international network planning, engineering and construction. "These speed and capacity improvements will provide customer services that deliver fully managed, end-to-end optical networks designed to meet the specific needs of banks and financial institutions, government agencies, enterprises, carriers and Internet service providers."

http://www.centurylink.com

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GSA: 42 Mobile Operators using 1800 MHz for LTE

The most widely used band for 4G/LTE to date is the 1800 MHz band, according to GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), which counts 42 active LTE deployments using this spectrum.  The second most popular band in which LTE systems are deployed is 2.6 GHz, followed by 700 MHz.

Commercial LTE1800 services are currently available in 29 countries and there are more than 130 LTE devices on the market suporting this band.

GSA notes that in most cases the 1800 MHz spectrum has been refarmed from its original use as a 2G/GSM band.  

http://www.gsacom.com/lte1800

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LSI Debuts Syncro Storage Architecture

LSI introduced Syncro, a new storage architecture that enhances direct-attached storage (DAS) with advanced sharing capabilities in multi-server data center applications.

The first member of the Syncro product family, the Syncro MX-B Boot Appliance, is a standalone, pre-configured, 1U form factor rack boot device for as many as 48 servers.  It eliminates boot drives, helping to reduce the overall system and maintenance costs for the largest cloud and mega-datacenter environments.

“The Syncro architecture is the result of customer requests to increase data protection across multiple server and storage systems by enabling levels of enterprise-class availability and flexibility never before offered for DAS,” said Bill Wuertz, senior vice president and general manager, RAID Storage Division, LSI. “The new Syncro architecture and product family demonstrate LSI’s long, proven commitment to delivering the most innovative and productive solutions for next-generation server and storage systems.”

http://www.lsi.com

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AT&T Donates to Telecoms Sans Frontieres

AT&T made a donation of $150,000 to Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), an NGO focused on emergency telecommunications NGO.

TSF can deploy anywhere in the world within 24 hours to help reinstate telecommunications channels, assist rescue operations and help disaster victims to reach family and friends.  TSF is currently operating in Syria and North Mali, providing critical communications helping civilians and relief organizations tackle deteriorating security situations.

AT&T noted that it has give $800,000 to TGF over the past decade.

http://www.att.com
http://www.tsfi.org

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Texas Instruments Cuts 1,700 Jobs and Refocuses Wireless Business

Texas Instruments (TI) is cutting 1,700 jobs worldwide and refocusing its  Wireless business on embedded markets "with greater potential for sustainable growth."

Instead of pursuing the market for mobile devices, Texas Instruments said it will focus its OMAP processors and wireless connectivity solutions on a broader set of embedded applications with long life cycles.

"We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets. Momentum is already building with new embedded applications and a broad set of customers, and we are accelerating our efforts in these areas," said Greg Delagi, senior vice president of Embedded Processing. "These job reductions are something we do with a heavy heart because they impact people we care deeply about. We will work closely with all employees affected by these changes to provide a range of assistance related to compensation, benefits and job search."

http://www.ti.com 

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Symmetricom and Cavium Partner on IEEE 1588 Synchronization

Symmetricom and Cavium announced a collaboration for delivering synchronization for 3G and 4G/LTE equipment.

Symmetricom's SoftClock fully supports both the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) standard as well as the Network Time Protocol (NTP) and has now been certified for operation on Cavium's OCTEON Fusion base station-on-a-chip products.

http://www.cavium.com
http://www.symmetricom.com

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Dell'Oro: LTE RAN Sales up in Q3, NSN Gains Share

Sales of LTE radio access network equipment increased almost 3X in 3Q12 over a year earlier but this was not enough to offset lower carrier spending on 2G/3G gear, according to a recently published report from Dell'Oro Group.  The report finds that the total mobile RAN market declined 11 percent in 3Q12, and that Ericsson maintained its leadership position in LTE while Nokia Siemens Networks passed Alcatel-Lucent to become the number two LTE vendor.  Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent shared the third spot with approximately 15 percent of LTE RAN revenue shares respectively.

"This is the fourth straight quarter that total mobile RAN revenues have suffered double-digit declines year over year,” said Stefan Pongratz, analyst with Dell’Oro Group. “The good news is that we are seeing operators increasingly putting an emphasis on network coverage, performance, and quality, in the hope of differentiating their networks. They know that once they fall behind on LTE coverage/performance, it will become increasingly challenging to generate net adds. This is spurring LTE spending/commitments not only in the US, Japan, and Korea, but now also in Russia, Brazil, and even the UK and France,” continued Pongratz.

http://www.delloro.com/news/2012/Mob111312.htm

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GÉANT’s Brings High Capacity Network to Hungary

Hungary's Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest will host CERN’s new remote data center and will process and store data from CERN for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).   The centre will be connected with multiple 100G links.

NIIF/Hungarnet, the Hungarian National Research and Education Network (NREN) has a central role to play in providing extreme high speed connectivity for data communication between the GÉANT Point of Presence in Budapest and the Wigner site hosting CERN’s remote centre.

In a joint statement, Matthew Scott and Niels Hersoug, joint General Managers of DANTE, the organisation which on behalf of Europe’s NRENs has built and operates the GÉANT network, said, “We’re delighted that CERN value the substantial benefits offered by the GÉANT network and services, and are continuing the long-standing and successful relationship that has seen GÉANT at the centre of the LHC data needs for many years. The Wigner data centre is exactly the kind of power user that the upgraded network will continue to support, and we look forward to working with all the partners involved to ensure the continued success of the LHC research.”

http://www.geant.net/Media_Centre/News/Pages/CERN_first_user_of_GEANT_terabit_network.aspx

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Extreme Debuts 100 & 40 GbE Modules for BlackDiamond

Extreme Networks introduced new 4 port 100GbE and 12 port 40GbE modules for its BlackDiamond X8 Open Fabric switch.


The new 100/40GbE XL modules, which are designed for highly virtualized multi-tenant cloud data centers, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and data center core deployments, support up to a million routes, Virtual Machines (VMs) and flow entries in the network.   The modules support 100GbE & 40GbE with non-blocking, wire-speed performance of Layer 2/3 services,  Layer 2/3 ACLs and flow flexibility with support of 100G-SR (100m) and 100G-OR (10Km) optics, a boost in scale of tables supported via an upgraded TCAM, and fault tolerance and redundancy with N+1 power support.  


Customer trials of the 12-port 40 and 4 port 100GbE XL modules begin in CY'13.  NTE list pricing includes: 40GbE 12 port XL module at US $6,000.00 per port; 100GbE 4 port XL module at US $35,000 per port.

Extreme Networks also announced support of Big Switch Networks Software Defined Networking (SDN) applications providing progressive and centralized methods to achieve network monitoring and virtualize networks. Specifically, Extreme is supporting Big Switch's Big Tap for traffic monitoring and dynamic network visibility with flow filtering.  Extreme is also supporting the Big Virtual Switch application, which virtualizes the network by provisioning the physical network into multiple logical networks across the stack, from Layer 2 to 7.



http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Ciena Announces Another 100G Customer - CENIC

The Pacific Wave international network peering facility, which connects research and education (R&E) networks in 40 Pacific Rim countries, was recently upgraded with Ciena’s6500 Packet-Optical Platform and 100G interfaces.

The 100G backbone brings Pacific Wave in line with the recent Internet2 and the US Department of Energy (ESnet) 100G backbone upgrades.

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) operate the Pacific Wave facility, which is a distributed peering fabric with nodes in five locations in three cities: Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, and Seattle.

http://www.ciena.com

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EMerge Alliance Sets Standard for Hybrid AC and DC in Data Centers

The EMerge Alliance, an open industry association developing standards leading to the rapid adoption of DC power distribution in commercial buildings, has completed its namesake standard for facilitating the hybrid use of AC and DC power within data centers and telecommunications central offices.

The EMerge Alliance Data/Telecom Standard creates an integrated, open platform for power, infrastructure, peripheral device and control applications using AC and DC power.  This change in power distribution architecture involves making a single conversion of the incoming line of AC voltage to 380VDC, and then distributing it directly to rack-mounted ICT equipment, simplifying the otherwise unnecessarily complex power management provisions generally used in today's AC-powered data centers.


"The benefits are clear. By requiring fewer components and conversions than their AC counterparts, DC power systems in data centers suffer fewer heat related failures and require less space, energy, and maintenance to operate," said Dennis Symanski, senior project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and chair of the Alliance's technical standard committee. "DC power collection and distribution systems also simplify the use of locally generated power, providing an effective integration of on-site energy generation and storage with direct delivery of controlled power."

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