IBM Extends its Push into Hybrid Clouds

IBM announced new hybrid cloud technology and investments to help its clients extend control, visibility, security and governance as they integrate existing applications, data and services across a multitude of traditional systems and clouds.

New tools to increase workload portability and control include:

• IBM Enterprise Containers: Help developers rapidly build and deliver applications by extending native Linux containers with Docker APIs to provide enterprise –class visibility, control and security as well as an added level of automation. Solutions developed in a cloud environment could be brought to on-premises systems for execution, allowing many of the benefits of cloud computing to be realized for data that cannot be moved to cloud for processing for reasons of data sensitivity, size, or performance.
• IBM DataWorks: New, intuitive tooling and experience to find, refine, enrich and deliver trusted data. This allows developers to subdivide and manipulate data sets from the treasure trove of public and private data.
• Collaborative Operations: Enhanced visibility and control of clients' hybrid environments with a single, end-to-end view.
• Orchestration: Available as a service enabling management across hybrid environments that is the largest federated orchestration library in the industry.
• Security: New features that protect the most vital data and applications using analytics across the enterprise, public and private clouds and mobile devices.
• Secure Passport Gateway: Allows self-service to developers to securely connect data and services to Bluemix in minutes through a simple Passport service that keeps IT in control.
• API Harmony: Find a perfect API match for a client's application using the world's largest knowledge base of APIs; easily expose and manage APIs.
• Bluemix Local: Extends Bluemix into a company's data center with borderless visibility and management across Bluemix environments (public, dedicated, and local)

IBM said it is dedicating the talents of more than half its cloud development team to hybrid cloud innovations, including hundreds of developers working on open cloud standards.

"Today, we are launching a new class of hybrid cloud innovations that extend open standards capabilities for the enterprise. This will help break down the barriers between clouds and on premise IT systems, providing clients with control, visibility and security as they utilize the public and private clouds," said Robert LeBlanc, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud. "Data location across an ever growing number of clouds is an increasing concern for customers and we are unveiling new portability and developer services to make this easier to manage."

IBM also unveiled the Watson Zone, a new resource center on Bluemix that brings together Watson APIs, sample code, training resources and use cases to help inspire and guide users to build a new class of hybrid cloud applications infused with cognitive computing capabilities. In addition, a new Watson Personality Insights service will allow developers to integrate new capabilities to analyze trends and patterns in diverse, high volume social media and other public data streams. The commercial launch follows the addition of five new betas Watson services to Bluemix including Speech to Text, Text to Speech, Visual Recognition, Concept Insights and Tradeoff Analytics.

http://www.ibm.com/press/interconnect2015

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T-Mobile US Looks to LTE-U in Nokia's Flexi Zone Small Cells

T-Mobile US plans to accelerate its deployment of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) (also referred to as LTE-U).

At the upcoming Mobile World Congress, Nokia Networks will demonstrate the capabilities of LAA, using its award-winning Nokia Flexi Zone small cells technology, currently deployed by T-Mobile to enhance the mobile broadband capacity of its rapidly growing 4G LTE network. The demonstration will include carrier aggregation between LTE in licensed and unlicensed spectrum and the technology's co-existence with Wi-Fi.

Nokia said the 5 GHz frequency band, typically used for Wi-Fi today, can uniquely complement licensed LTE bands, while LTE can provide better spectrum efficiency than current technologies on that band. Additionally, LAA brings all of LTE's efficiencies and seamless mobility to the unlicensed band while ensuring smooth co-existence with Wi-Fi services. Carrier aggregation between LTE in licensed and unlicensed spectrum provides customers guaranteed service quality and boosts overall performance where needed.

LAA is planned for 3GPP industry standardization in mid-2016. Nokia Networks plans to integrate LAA capabilities into its small cell portfolio at the end of 2015.

"LAA is an attractive solution to tap the unused potential of the 5 GHz band to give our customers LTE efficiencies and smooth co-existence with Wi-Fi. Nokia Networks' early demo not only shows the next generation of small cells, but is a critical first step to staying ahead of the increasing LTE capacity demand. Our mission is giving our customers better mobile performance and capacity when and where they need it the most. This demo is a testament to Nokia's ability to innovate quickly and bring products to market when we need them," stated Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer, T-Mobile.

Ricky Corker, Executive Vice President of North America, Nokia Networks, said: "We're delighted to contribute to the standardization of this technology and, at the same time, innovate by building LAA readiness into our Flexi Zone small cell technology. Our demonstration proves Nokia Networks' ability to collaborate with industry innovators like T-Mobile to bring breakthrough technology quickly to market to address real world network challenges."

http://company.nokia.com/

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Bridge Alliance Picks Ericsson for Internet of Things

Bridge Alliance, composed of 36 mobile operators from Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, will deploy the Ericsson Device Connectivity Platform (DCP) multi-domestic solution for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Bridge Alliance will allow device manufacturers, enterprises or service providers to deploy their IoT services in multiple countries with the benefits of a domestic quality of service and commercial conditions. This includes a single global SIM card, harmonized service levels and business processes. They can also leverage access to DCP consumer services to manage new B2B2C business models.

Ericsson said its solution significantly reduces barriers to deployment for these enterprises, keeping total cost of ownership low while maximizing quality of service.

"The partnership with the Bridge Alliance members to deploy the Ericsson DCP is a critical milestone to make the adoption of cellular services in IoT devices economically viable for device OEM and enterprises," stated Anders Lindblad, Senior Vice President, Business Unit Cloud & IP, Ericsson.

Alessandro Adriani, CEO of Bridge Alliance, says: "The combination of Ericsson's technology leadership in IoT connectivity and Bridge Alliance's geographical coverage is an unmatched vehicle for any device original equipment manufacturer or enterprise looking to propel its business. Offering this unified experience requires more than just harmonizing interfaces across mobile operators. We have done more with Ericsson, including standardizing our footprint on a common core network. This will truly guarantee harmonized sets of features and service levels within the footprint to our customers."

http://www.ericsson.com
http://www.bridgealliance.com/

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Apple to Build State-of-the-art Data Centers in Ireland and Denmark

Apple will spend EUR 1.7 billion to build and operate two new data centers in Ireland and Denmark to power its iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe.

The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will use 100% renewable energy. Each will measure 166,000 square metres and expected to begin operations in 2017.

Apple noted that it now directly employs 18,300 people across 19 European countries and has added over 2,000 jobs in the last 12 months.  Last year, Apple spent more than €7.8 billion with European companies.  Apple also cited a number of ecological steps it will take to mitigate the impact of its new data centers, including helping to restore native trees to Derrydonnell Forest in Ireland and contributing excess heat from the new building in Denmark to a district heating system in the local community.

https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/02/23Apple-to-Invest-1-7-Billion-in-New-European-Data-Centres.html

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HP Teams with Accton and Cumulus on Open Network Switches

HP is teaming with Accton Technology and Cumulus Networks to launch a new line of open network switches for web-scale data centers -- a new category of branded white box switches that HP calls "brite box switches."

HP will provide dedicated sales teams, choice of hardware and software, and branded switches that are backed by worldwide local support and services through HP Technology Services, enabling customers to streamline operations and reduce supply chain risk. HP said this brite box approach enables it to provide a differentiated solution from original design manufacturers.  HP can de-risk supply chain concerns, provide global presence in over 160 countries and deliver a wide range of high value support and consulting services.

The first products are two open network switches that enable 10G/40G spine and 10G leaf data center deployments. Both switches will be available with Cumulus Linux OS and offer zero-touch OS installation using an open network install environment loader. In the second half of 2015, HP will expand the line to include 25G/50G/100G switches for higher performance Web scale data centers and 1G switches to address unique customer needs. HP will also expand the hardware and OS software choices to meet emerging customer requirements. The expanded offerings will enhance customers' ability to tailor their networking infrastructure to meet the specific applications and workload requirements.

"The complexity of Web-scale workloads and increasing customer demands for network services are challenging the scalability and agility of cloud data centers," said Antonio Neri, senior vice president and general manager, HP Enterprise Group. "Today's announcement underpins our commitment to accelerate the adoption of open networks and provide offerings optimized for web-scale deployments that enable faster time to service."

"Web scale data centers are a growing market segment with distinct needs for high scalability and network flexibility," said George Tchaparian, general manager of data center networks, Accton Technology. "This joint venture will build on the expertise of both organizations to provide global customers with a unique disaggregated networking solution built on new HP-branded open network switches and choice of networking operating system software."

"Modern data centers need great physical networking using layer 2, layer 3 and overlay architectures that are optimized for higher scalability, faster service delivery, and backed by a robust ecosystem," said JR Rivers, co-founder and CEO, Cumulus Networks. "This open networking approach to web scale data center networks empowers customers and gives web-scale IT the opportunity to serve the business better."

http://www.hp.com
http://cumulusnetworks.com/

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EZchip's TILE-Mx100 Processors Targets 100 64-bit ARM CPU Cores

EZchip Semiconductor announced plans for a TILE-Mx multicore processor that will integrate one hundred ARMv8-A 64-bit cores, a highly efficient mesh for linear scaling of the interconnected cores, and accelerators for packet processing on a single chip.  The company aims to sample the TILE-Mx in the second half of 2016.  Smaller versions with 64 and 36 cores will also be offered.

The new processor, which leverages technology acquired from Tilera, is being designed for high-performance network applications and network functions virtualization (NFV). EZChip said its TILE-Mx will use a unique mesh architecture with coherent cache and massive bandwidth that provides linear scaling of application performance. EZchip's hardware-based accelerators include a traffic manager featuring 256K queues with traffic shaping, policing and SLA (Service Level Agreements) enforcement, hardware accelerated packet classification and table lookups for millions of flows, statistics updating for millions of counters, pattern matching, cryptography and public-key acceleration. In addition, the chip will boast an optimized memory architecture with extremely high bandwidth to both the internal and external memories, and numerous interfaces for 1GE, 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbE, 50GbE and 100-Gigabit Ethernet as well as PCI-Express.

"We are bringing to the market a new type of highly differentiated multicore processor, leveraging the best from EZchip's and Tilera's technologies, and specifically architected to address the next generation of high-performance data center, cloud and carrier networks," said Eli Fruchter, CEO of EZchip. "The combination of EZchip's and Tilera's market-proven leading technologies enables us to develop a new multicore processors family that uniquely integrate powerful networking capabilities together with the highest number of processor cores to address a wide range of applications and market segments. While our NPU portfolio and, in particular, the new NPS is the highest performance merchant NPU, we expect the TILE-Mx to be the highest performance multicore CPU. As we have accomplished in the NPU market, we believe that through the strongly differentiated technology that we are now developing we will dramatically increase our share in the multicore market in coming years and become a leader in the multicore CPU market."


http://www.ezchip.com/News/PressRelease/?ezchip=97

In July 2014, EZchip Semiconductor agreed to acquire Tilera Corporation, a developer of high-performance multi-core processors, up to $130 million in cash.  The deal includes $50 million at closing and up to an additional $80 million is payable subject to the attainment of certain future performance milestones.

Tilera, which is based in San Jose, California, offers a line of multi-core processors, network interface cards and white-box appliances for data center networking equipment.

At the high end, Tilera's TILE-Gx8072 Processor includes 72 identical processor cores (tiles) interconnected with the company's iMesh on-chip network. Each tile consists of a 64-bit processor core as well as L1 and L2 cache and a non-blocking Terabit/sec switch that connects the tiles to the mesh and provides full cache coherence among all the cores. The company offers smaller versions with 9- 16, and 36-cores. Tilera offers its own line of accelerator cards based on its processors, as well as two 1RU appliances.

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Xilinx Outlines its 16nm UltraScale+ Family of FPGAs

Xilinx introduced its next-generation 16nm UltraScale+ family of FPGAs, featuring new memory, 3D-on-3D and multi-processing SoC (MPSoC) technologies.

The UltraScale+ family also includes a new interconnect optimization technology and will leverage TSMC's 16FF+ FinFET 3D transistors.

Xilinx estimates the UltraScale+ family will deliver 2–5X greater system level performance/watt over 28nm devices. Key applications are expected to include LTE Advanced and early 5G wireless, terabit wired communications, automotive ADAS, and industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT).

Some highlights:

• Memory Enhanced Programmable Devices: UltraRAM attacks one of the largest bottlenecks affecting FPGA- and SoC-based system performance and power by enabling SRAM integration. The new on-chip memory could be used for deep packet and video buffering. UltraRAM scales up to 432 Mbits in a variety of configurations.
• SmartConnect Technology: Interconnect optimization technology for FPGAs. It provides additional 20-30 percent performance, area, and power advantages through intelligent system-wide interconnect optimization. While the UltraScale architecture attacks the silicon-level interconnect bottleneck through re-architected routing, clocking, and logic fabric, SmartConnect applies interconnect topology optimizations to match design-specific throughput and latency requirements while reducing interconnect logic area. 
• 3D-on-3D Technology: The high end of the UltraScale+ portfolio leverages the combined power of 3D transistors and third generation of Xilinx 3D ICs. Just as FinFETs enable a non-linear improvement in performance/watt over planar transistors, 3D ICs enable a non-linear improvement in systems integration and bandwidth/watt over monolithic devices.   
• Heterogeneous Multi-processing Technology: The new Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoCs include all of the aforementioned FPGA technologies with an unprecedented level of heterogeneous multi-processing, deploying the "the right engines for the right tasks." These new devices deliver approximately 5X system level performance/watt relative to previous alternatives.  At the center of the processing-subsystem is the 64-bit quad-core ARM® Cortex®-A53 processor, capable of hardware virtualization, asymmetric processing, and full ARM TrustZone® technology support.

"Xilinx is delivering a generation ahead of value with 16nm FinFET FPGAs and MPSoCs to a variety of next generation applications," said Victor Peng, executive vice president and general manager of the Programmable Products Group at Xilinx.  "Our new UltraScale+ 16nm portfolio delivers 2-5X higher system performance-per-watt, a dramatic leap in system integration and intelligence, and the highest level of security and safety required by our customers. These capabilities enable Xilinx to significantly expand its available market."

Early customer engagements are in process for the UltraScale+ families. First tape out and early access release of the design tools are scheduled for the second calendar quarter of 2015.

http://www.xilinx.com/products/technology/ultrascale.html

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MWC15 Features Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi by Cisco, Accuris

The upcoming GSMA Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona will feature Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint technologies.  The network, which will also be supported by the Wi-Fi Alliance, will allow attendees using Passpoint-enabled iOS and Android from participating mobile operators to automatically roam onto the network using secure credentials and also benefit from a secure Wi-Fi connection in the main hallways and reception area (the exhibition floor uses vendor Wi-Fi at the stands).

Cisco is supplying the Wi-Fi platform. Additional technology partners include Accuris Networks, BSG Wireless, CableLabs, Front Porch, Spirent and Syniverse.

Participating operators include 2 Degrees, AIS Thailand, AT&T, Bell Mobility, Boingo Wireless, BT, China Mobile, Comcast, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), Fon, Idea Cellular, KT, Linktel Corp, Mobily, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, Mobilink, MTN Nigeria, NTT DOCOMO, Omantel, Orange, HKT, Portugal Telecom, Telkom Indonesia, SK Telecom, Sprint, Swisscom, Shaw Communications, Telstra, TELUS, Towerstream, True Corporation Plc. and Videotron.

#MWC15 visitors wishing to use their SIM credentials to automatically connect via Hotspot 2.0 need to configure their devices by installing the correct profile for their carrier. Intstructions are online.

http://www.hotspot2experience.com/

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Deutsche Bank Awards 5-Year Contract to Vodafone

Deutsche Bank awarded a five and a half year agreement to Vodafone to serve as its global strategic telecommunications partner.

Under the contract, Vodafone will take over the delivery and support of fixed and mobile voice services across 28 countries.  Vodafone will also establish a number of centralised services for the Bank including ordering and billing.

Vodafone Global Enterprise Chief Executive, Jan Geldmacher, said: “This is a great opportunity for Deutsche Bank to bring all its communications needs under one umbrella.  Creating global standards and common practices will make the Bank more efficient and help to support its future plans.”

http://www.vodafone.com

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Telstra Appoints New CEO

Telstra has appointed Andrew Penn as its the new CEO, effective 1 May 2015, replacing David Thodey who announced his retirement after almost six years as CEO.

Penn, 51, is Telstra’s Chief Financial Officer and Group Executive International.  He previously served as Group CEO of AXA Asia Pacific, where he has been responsible for Telstra’s strategy, mergers and acquisitions, treasury, internal audit, risk management, tax, corporate planning, reporting and analysis, external reporting and investor relations as well as expanding Telstra's operations outside of Australia.

http://www.telstra.com.au/

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NTT's NetroSphere Concept Pushes NFV to Next Level

NTT outlined its work developing the “NetroSphere concept” -- a new way build carrier network infrastructure that differs from other NFV approaches by taking the decoupled software/hardware paradigm all the way down to the component level.

NTT said its approach promises enhanced flexibility and elasticity while also drastically reducing costs. Breaking up the functions of conventional large-scale equipment into modules will enable a greater diversity of suppliers to participate in the market and hence widen the selection of available products.

Instead of using conventional purpose-built high-functionality equipment, NetroSphere aims to divide them into small modular components, and flexibly assemble those components at will.  NetroSphere will not limited to decoupling software components from equipment. It pursues modularization as much as possible, ultimately at the sub-device level such as the CPU and memory. These modules will be distributed in locations that are optimal for each type of them, and prepared to be used as resource pool. Then, they will be virtually assembled to form a virtual system to provide required functions.

There are two components to the NetroSpher concept:  (1) Multi-Service Fabric (MSF), an architectural design of carrier network in which functions are achieved using simple general-purpose servers and switches, and (2) New Server Architecture (MAGONIA).

NTT plans to open its work on “MAGONIA” and “Multi-Service Fabric (MSF)” to other carriers and vendors.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2015/1502e/150219a.html

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ALU's Latest eNodeB Boosts Densities, Paves Way for C-RAN

Alcatel-Lucent introduced a new portfolio of LTE radio access portfolio designed for making the transition to 5G while leveraging Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technology.

The rollout features the new Alcatel-Lucent new 9926 eNodeB – comprising a digital baseband unit and radio frequency (RF) platform.

Alcatel-Lucent said its new digital baseband unit (BBU) will consume 50% less energy and almost tripling existing capacity - supporting up to 24 radio cells and 16,000 users in one unit. It supports both LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD and can be deployed with existing BBUs.  Significantly, it will also support centralized network architecture, including the implementation of virtualized RAN  - or vRAN infrastructure - as well as the eventual launch of 5G networks.

The portfolio’s RF platform uses a modular design optimized in terms of size, power, bandwidth, performance and reliability. Using common hardware and software assets across spectrum bands, it allows for simple adaptation to meet specific customer needs, reducing time-to-market and leveraging innovation developed for other bands or configurations. Wideband capabilities allow operators to utilize fragmented spectrum, covering entire bands with one radio, while remote software configuration of transmission modes means it can easily and quickly be adapted in the field to meet changing market demands and traffic patterns.

Glenn Booth, Senior Vice President and General Manger of Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE Business Unit said: “Understanding our customers’ biggest challenges and delivering solutions to meet them better than anyone else is our mission.  Our refreshed RAN portfolio is targeted to meet exactly those challenges by addressing LTE networks densification particularly in urban environments in a sustainable and cost effective way.  This new platform also sets the stage for a smooth transition to a virtualized RAN and, ultimately, to a 5G family of solutions.”

Alcatel-Lucent 9926 eNodeB Technical Highlights

The Digital Baseband Unit (BBU):

• Two new boards are introduced, both based on Freescale’s® QorIQ Qonverge™ B4860 base station-on-chip SoC.
• No compromise in performance - BBU supports up to 24 cells (fully loaded at 20MHz) in a compact d2U chassis
• Increases capacity of previous generation BBUs by 260%, while consuming up to 50% less power
• Supports RAN sharing business models
• Optimized for LTE-A, supporting carrier aggregation across FDD and TDD modes
• Backwards-compatible with Alcatel-Lucent’s existing BBU chassis and current generation boards
• Forwards-compatible with virtualized RAN architectures and BBU pooling
• The new digital BBU is already deployed in a large-scale commercial TDD network application.

The Radio Frequency (RF) Platform:

• Common building block assets across the TDD and the FDD Radio Units allows faster time-to-market
• New power amplifier and filter technology designed to fit common interfaces allowing rapid development of new frequencies and band retuning
• Small form factor, standardized interfaces across radios and reduced weight making it easy to install on site
• Wideband/dual band capabilities provide support for multi-carrier or multi-band deployments in a single unit.
• Remote software configuration of transmission modes (2T2R, 4T4R, 8T8R) enables operators to meet changing market demands.
• The high output power (up to 160W) and wide bandwidth supported (up to 194MHz) greatly increases deployment flexibility
• PIM-free blind mate connections allow operators to easily mix and match radios to support different active antenna configurations.
• Cost-effective support for optimized low power RF interfaces to Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS)
• Reliability/Fail Safe – provides soft fail redundancy in the power amplifier (PA) in the event that one fails
• Supports RAN sharing business models
• The TDD platform is already commercially deployed and the FDD platform will be made commercially available during Q1 2015.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/products/9926-enodeb

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NBN Co Selects ARRIS for New Australian HFC network

NBN Co has selected ARRIS to build a next-generation Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) network for Australia's broadband network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

NBN Co expects that using HFC technology will yield significant cost savings for Australian tax-payers over its previous FTTH network design.

ARRIS said its platform will allow NBN Co to enhance and manage its cable access network while providing a roadmap for possible future migration to DOCSIS 3.1 architecture. The initiative involves its flagship E6000TM CER (Converged Edge Router) along with a number of additional ARRIS product lines, including: ARRIS Access Technologies and Supplies (ATS) products (CORWave forward path transmitters and OM4100 optical receivers) and Assurance solutions for service assurance. Additionally, ARRIS's Global Services was selected for the full deployment and network integration of this national broadband service. In addition, ARRIS Global Services group will assist NBN Co in managing and supporting its network and customers.

NBN Co CTO, Dennis Steiger, said: "An HFC network represents the fastest and most cost-effective way to deliver it to consumers and businesses in the existing HFC network areas. Our goal is to achieve high-speed broadband as quickly possible, with an eye on future technologies that will secure our place as a global technology leader." Steiger continued: "Significant investments are being made in HFC broadband technology on a global scale, and we are committed to ensuring that Australia is at the forefront of this movement."

Bruce McClelland, President of Network & Cloud and Global Services at ARRIS added: "ARRIS is honored to be selected by NBN Co for this exciting project and whole-heartedly endorses the use of HFC technology to proliferate Broadband across Australia. The ARRIS portfolio of Products and Services are at the heart of many Broadband networks around the world, and we look forward to expanding our presence in the Asia Pacific region. We are delighted to be working with NBN Co at such an important stage in this initiative."

http://ir.arrisi.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=87823&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2018745


In December 2014, Australia's NBN Co announced a new national rollout plan for the National Broadband Network (NBN) based on a multi-technology access strategy, including fiber to the premise (FTTP), fiber to the node (FTTN), wireless and upgraded HFC. 

Areas where NBN FTTP has been deployed or is in advanced stages of being built will likely remain part of the FTTP rollout, while areas served by the Optus or Telstra Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) cable networks will likely receive fast broadband over an upgraded HFC network.

The plan covers the next 1.9 million homes and businesses by mid-2016 across more than 400 cities, suburbs and towns, on the path to achieving 8 million connections to the NBN by 2020.

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Nokia to Showcase LTE-M for Automotive, Wearables and Smart Grid

Nokia Networks will showcase LTE for machine-to-machine communications (LTE-M) for automotive, wearables and smart grid connectivity in a joint demonstration with Korea Telecom at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The pre-5G LTE-M prototype aims to connect an extreme number of sensors and other devices even in remote or low-coverage locations beyond the range of traditional shares. LTE-M will also be optimized for extremely low power utilization in the device.  Nokia said the goal is to achieve a battery life of more than 10 years with four times more coverage than conventional LTE.

Kathrin Buvac, Vice President Strategy at Nokia Networks, said: "The Internet of Things, a driver for what we call the Programmable World, opens tremendous potential to expand the human possibilities of technology. Within the next ten years, we will see 50 billion things connected, enabling industries to become more efficient and helping people to improve their daily lives. At Nokia Networks, we are already demonstrating key technologies like 5G that will make mobile networks the natural choice for bringing these possibilities to reality."

Some other areas of innovation being showcased by Nokia include:

• Prototype 5G mm and cm wave radio systems that use advanced antennas and operate in the 3.5 - 70 GHz bands for extreme throughput and ultra low latency
• Extended Nokia Mobile Guard to detect malware or abnormal IoT device behavior via device profiling. When an IoT device is hacked and its processor or Internet connection is used for fraud and other attacks, Mobile Guard recognizes these devices and takes actions for mitigation.            

http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2015/02/19/nokia-networks-to-power-internet-of-things-with-5g-connectivity-and-network-security-mwc15

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Freescale and Bell Labs Extend Collaboration in Wireless

Freescale Semiconductor and Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs agreed to expand a long-term partnership in both commercial and research endeavors, pairing Freescale’s networking silicon and software with Bell Labs’ systems knowledge.  The companies are collaborating on a range of new initiatives intended to drive further innovation for the world’s increasingly virtualized networks. Specifically, the companies will collaborate to create an industry-first universal access device that can flexibly be used for any combination of wireline and wireless connections.

“The longstanding partnership between Freescale and Alcatel-Lucent has produced novel solutions that help leading mobile operators differentiate and win with base station deployments offering exceptional throughput, optimal user density and outstanding power efficiency,” said Tom Deitrich, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Digital Networking group. “As the Internet of Tomorrow grows the number of network endpoints, boosting throughput and enhancing quality of service become even more important. This is where we intend to focus moving forward, as we continue our fruitful partnership with Alcatel-Lucent and Bell Labs.”

http://otp.investis.com/clients/us/free_scale/usn/usnews-story.aspx?cid=896&newsid=28654

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Dell'Oro. WDM Market Grew 7% to $9.5 Billion in 2014

The total Wavelength Division Multiplexer or WDM market, comprising long haul and metro applications, grew seven percent in 2014, reaching almost $9.5 billion, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

“It was another strong year for optical WDM equipment,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Optical Transport research at Dell’Oro Group. “The majority of market growth for the year came from heightened demand in China where all service providers are shifting from rolling out 40 Gbps wavelengths to 100 Gbps wavelengths. As a result, we calculate that the global shipments of 100 Gbps wavelengths doubled in 2014, contributing nearly half the total market revenue for the year,” added Mr. Yu.

Regional growth rates and WDM Equipment market share leaders for full year 2014 are listed in the table below.

http://www.delloro.com/news/total-optical-wdm-equipment-market-exceeds-9-billion-2014-according-delloro-group

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Video: Dell'Oro's Optical Transmission Outlook

Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Optical Transport Research at Dell'Oro Group, discusses key trends including a return to growth for DWDM and optical packet transport.  The video also explores market traction for speeds beyond 100 and the impact of SDN on optical transport sales.

http://youtu.be/68zXHuFIN3A

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Telekom Austria's Serbian Subsidiary Demos vEPC with Connectem and Partners

Telekom Austria Group’s Serbian subsidiary, Vip mobile, demonstrated a fully virtualized LTE stack in a live network delivering data, voice and IMS services.

Connectem provided the virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC). Metaswitch provided its virtualized Clearwater IMS Solution and OpenCloud provided the virtualized VoLTE functionality.

Connectem’s Vip mobile Ecosystem Partners include:

VMware -- Connectem and VMware collaborated to bring VMware vSphere to the VCM solution.  Telekom Austria Group undertook numerous tests to experience the resilience of Connectem VCM across VMware vSphere to understand the long-term implications of running a vEPC in a virtualized infrastructure.

Procera -- Within the Connectem VCM, essential DPI functionality enabling application detection and content optimization is provided by Procera’s NAVL DPI engine. Procera’s software-based DPI technology is well suited to fit within the scalable dataplane of the VCM.  Procera NAVL allows Connectem to integrate this vital traffic treatment function without the performance degradation typically generated by traditional DPI solutions.

Red Hat -- The combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, including the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor, and Connectem’s Virtual Core for Mobile (VCM) creates an NFV environment providing a high-performance, cost-effective OpenStack managed NFV implementation that can help to increase infrastructure flexibility and that can be scaled up or down to accommodate the needs of the network.

Guenther Ottendorfer, CTO Telekom Austria Group, said, “NFV is a paradigm shift for the global Telecom industry but also shows that there are many innovations on the horizon which will further enhance the customer’s experience and the operator’s ability to meet the customer’s changing expectations. NFV signals a new optimism within our industry, with the potential of offering huge opportunities to reengineer and optimize network infrastructure and deliver better service for our customers.”

http://www.telekomaustria.com
http://www.connectem.net

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SpiderCloud Supplies Small Cells for Pakistan's Warid

Pakistan's Warid Telecom, has started deployments of scalable small cell systems from SpiderCloud Wireless, with Emtel Communications.

SpiderCloud said the first deployments are targeted for hundreds of different locations in the major cities of Pakistan with 4G Radio Nodes providing access using band 3* and Services Nodes that are securely connected to Warid Telecom’s core network.

SpiderCloud’s system includes a Services Node (SCSN) that controls up to 100 self-organizing, multi-access 3G and 4G small cells, providing reliable coverage and capacity for enterprise and venues of up to 1.5 million square feet. A system can be installed in just days using an enterprise Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) as a managed service by a mobile operator’s network.

SpiderCloud has a portfolio of Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) Radio Nodes operating in 3G (single band), and dual-band 3G+4G and 4G+4G small cells as part of the system.

“This is the first commercial deployment of SpiderCloud in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Michael Gallagher, CEO with SpiderCloud Wireless. “We’re pleased to work with Emtel Communications as our system integrator partner in Pakistan to deliver scalable small cell systems to Warid Telecom and its customers.”

http://spidercloud.com/news/press-release/warid-telecom-first-offer-businesses-and-consumers-pakistan-4g-small-cell-systems

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Ericsson Debuts Next Gen Radio System, Backhaul Routers

Ericsson introduced its next generation Radio System modular architecture, aiming to provide greater flexibility in how mobile networks are built and operated.
Ericsson Radio System features multi-standard, multi-band and multi-layer technology. It delivers three times the capacity density with 50 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to current systems. It is fully backward-compatible with Ericsson's existing RBS 6000 portfolio and offers the ability for network operators to upgrade their current sites with a simple "one-bolt" installation an zero floor footprint. The radio modules can be mounted vertically or horizontally on a rail, flat on a cable ladder or behind an antenna. Thanks to a 5-time reduction potential in wind load, the equipment is lighter and more durable for tower deployment.

The new Ericsson Radio System brings an upgraded and powerful baseband unit (Baseband 5216). On one board, it is able to handle twice as many cells as existing baseband units; supports both LTE FDD and TDD modes simultaneously; and supports up to 80,000 subscribers.

Ericsson anticipates first deployments during Q3 201. The new system will run Ericsson Networks Software 15B. Twice-annual software updates simplify the upgrade process and the entire system is run by a common management system, Ericsson Network Manager.

Ericsson also took the wraps off its new Router 6000 series advanced radio integrated transport for high-performance backhaul with precise synchronization required LTE Advanced, 5G and M2M.

The new Router 6000 series is a key element in Ericsson's next-generation portfolio, a comprehensive suite of platforms running one network operating system (IPOS), spanning from cell-site routers to edge, mobile core and data centers. The architecture will integrate SDN capabilities and, when matched with the new Ericsson Virtual Router, will enable distributed cloud applications. New Ericsson Network Manager capabilities will bring application aware traffic engineering with plug-and-play installation.

"The Ericsson Router 6000 series is a game changer since it responds directly to operators' challenges of  dramatic increase in the number of connected devices, and the video explosion driving the demand for traffic scale and higher quality of experience," said Anders Lindblad, Senior Vice President, Head of Business Unit Cloud and IP at Ericsson.

Some highlights of the Ericsson Router 6000 series:

• Integrated into the new Ericsson Radio System that supports a multi-standard, multi-band, multi-layer architecture
• Series consists of the Router 6672 for access, the Router 6675 for pre-aggregation and the Router 6274 for metro aggregation.
• First access router with 100GE interfaces in a single Rack Unit (RU) -- more capacity and higher density of 10GE/100GE interfaces in a compact form factor.
• Support for Segment Routing provides an evolutionary migration from IP/MPLS to SDN, offering user-defined policy routing, faster roll out of revenue generating services and optimal usage of network resources.

http://www.ericsson.com

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