Ericsson Confirms Role in Singtel LTE Upgrade

Ericsson confirmed its role in SingTel's LTE transformation.  

SingTel's 4G/LTE is using both the 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands.  The carrier plans 80 percent coverage by the end of this year and full island wide coverage by early 2013.  SingTel will also deploy heterogeneous networks, including small cells in high-traffic areas. SingTel's 3G network has also been upgraded to peak rates of 42 Mbps, using Dual Carrier technology (DC-HSPA). 

For the SingTel network, Ericsson supplied its multi-standard RBS 6000 and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) with Evolved Packet Gateway (EPG) based on SSR 8000 Smart Services Router and SGSN-MME, together with self-organizing networks (SON) features to speed up deployment, and network management with Ericsson's Operation Support System for Radio & Core (OSS RC). 

Ericsson said the network is easily upgradeable via software to support LTE-Advanced. 

Ericsson noted that it has now signed 88 LTE/EPC contracts in 38 countries.

http://www.ericsson.com

• SingTel first launched commercial LTE services in December 2011.

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Infinera and Verizon Test PMD Tolerance of 500G Coherent Optical Modem

Infinera published a technical paper detailing the results of a record breaking achievement for real-time polarization mode dispersion (PMD) performance of its coherent optical transmission technology.

The IEEE paper presents results of testing conducted with Verizon that measured PMD tolerance of  Infinera’s coherent optical transmission based on its 500 Gbps photonic integrated circuits (PICs).

“Our team, with Verizon, was able to demonstrate a coherent optical transmission that can handle large PMD values with our commercially available 500 Gb/s PIC,” said Dave Welch, Infinera Co-founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Infinera. “System vendors in the industry today are having a difficult time achieving this. Not all coherent systems are the same. This paper illustrates the robustness of our optical solution and is a tribute to our brilliant teams here in Sunnyvale and in our Ottawa Design Center, developing the algorithms to make this possible."

http://www.infinera.com

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6235966

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Azteca Comunicaciones Colombia Selects Alcatel-Lucent

Azteca Comunicaciones Colombia is deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s point-to-point fiber broadband access technology and a combination of optical transport and Internet Protocol (IP) routing solutions under Colombia's national broadband initiative. The networking infrastructure being deployed by Alcatel-Lucent for Azteca Comunicaciones Colombia will connect in 216 municipalities throughout the country.

Alcatel-Lucent confirmed that it is supplying its 7330 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) FTTN supporting point-to-point fiber access, its IP/MPLS solution, based on its 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR), and its 100G next-generation coherent technology, supported by the 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS).  In addition, Alcatel-Lucent will provide services such as installation, project management and technical support for 2 years as well as operation and maintenance of the network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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ZyXEL Offers LTE Home Gateway

ZyXEL Communications unveiled its LTE512x gateway offering 802.11n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, VoIP ports and support for smart home services like home automation and monitoring.

ZyXEL's LTE512x uses a high performance LTE module and a MIMO antenna array to support up to 100 Mbps (downlink) and 50 Mbps (uplink) connectivity.  The LTE512x series includes the LTE5121 supporting Band 4/17 and the LTE5122 supporting Band 13.  The unit is targeted for North America.

http://www.zyxel.com

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Tekelec Takes Policy “Everywhere” with Three New Products

Tekelec is introducing a "Policy Everywhere" framework that enables network operators to support  subsidized or “toll-free” data, opt-in mobile advertising, customer loyalty/rewards programs, and application-based service plans.  These capabilities are supported through three new Tekelec products: Mobile Policy Gateway, Application Manager, and Policy Analytics Platform.

Tekelec said its goal is to extend the reach of policy management to smart devices.  The framework could also be used to provide intelligent Wi-Fi offload, manage chatty applications, improve device security, and give subscribers greater control over their applications.

• Mobile Policy Gateway (MPG) -- extends policy directly to the device. The MPG combines a standards-compliant Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) with dynamic network and subscriber aware policy management. It turns smart devices into policy enforcement points, reducing the need for costly deep packet inspection (DPI) and policy enforcement (PCEF) functions in the network core.
• Application Manager -- allows service providers to securely expose network APIs, policies and subscriber data to OTT, on-deck, and service delivery platforms (SDPs). By converting web-based protocols (LDAP, SOAP, XML, HTTP, etc.) to Diameter, it creates a single point of control for two-sided business models with application providers.
• Policy Analytics Platform - unlocks network intelligence buried in millions of policy event records. The data give network operations, IT and marketing departments granular business and network insight about how subscribers use and access services and applications.This allows service providers to see how policies impact subscribers’ behavior and network resource allocation so they can create targeted tariff plans based on subscribers’ usage, pricing and quality of service preferences. 

“Policy is the ‘everywhere’ technology that will transform service provider business models,” said Houck Reed, vice president of product management and marketing at Tekelec. “As billions of smart devices become policy enforcement points and new features extend policy and analytics to over-the-top applications and mobile advertisers, new business models will emerge that match subscribers to the relevant, timely content they want.”

Tekelec noted that is currently has 58 policy customers, including 43 Tier 1 service providers, in 33 countries.

http://www.tekelec.com

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U.S. Intelligence Committee Investigates Huawei and ZTE

The U.S. House of Representatives'  Committee on Intelligence held an open hearing in Washington, D.C. to question Huawei and ZTE about possible threats they pose to national security.

Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said he called the hearing because "Huawei and ZTE provide a wealth of opportunities for Chinese intelligence agencies to insert malicious hardware or software implants into critical telecommunications components and systems.  And under Chinese law, ZTE and Huawei would likely be required to cooperate with any request by the Chinese government to use their systems or access for malicious purposes."

Charles Ding, Corporate Senior Vice President, Huawei, said that cyber security is a global issue for the the whole industry and denied any involvement from the Chinese government in Huawei's products or operations.

Zhu Jinyun, ZTE’s Senior Vice President for North America and Europe, also testified that China's government has never made a request to access ZTE's telecom infrastructure equipment for a cyber attack, and that the operations of ZTE USA are bound by U.S. law.

Prepared testimony is online.

http://intelligence.house.gov/hearing/investigation-security-threat-posed-chinese-telecommunications-companies-huawei-and-zte-0

http://www.huawei.com

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NeoPhotonics Optimizes GPON Transceiver for 1:128 Split

NeoPhotonics introduced a multiport Mode Coupling Receiver (MCR) optical line terminal (OLT) transceiver for gigabit passive optical networks (GPON) in an SFP form factor and for use in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks.  The new devices allows FTTH operators to optimize GPON bandwidth utilization.

NeoPhotonics said its platform PIC technology enables an economical SFP form factor, which is compatible with the installed base of GPON OLT line cards.  The first version is a 4-port MCR GPON Class B+ OLT in a pluggable SFP form factor, which is designed to increase the split ratio in a standard PON from 1:32 to 1:128 while maintaining the original link budget and reach. This module features a connector with 4 fiber outputs where each individual fiber corresponds to the output of a conventional GPON OLT SFP compliant with ITU-T 984 standards.

http://www.neophotonics.com

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Huawei Updates its SingleFAN Access Platform for 10G PON, Copper Vectoring

Huawei announced its new generation multi-mode & dual-core MxU with support for PON/10G-PON multi-mode uplink and Vectoring downlinks over copper access at up to 100 Mbps.  Huawei's MxU is the key processing module in its SingleFAN solution, which is the company's unified platform for PON, P2P, DSL, coax, E1, and other network access infrastructure.

The upgraded MxU now leverages dual-core CPUs to improves processing speed and enable better system reliability, as timely protection switching will occur when a CPU subsystem is faulty.  Huawei's new MxU also features dual-BIOS technology, enabling automatic restoration should an error occur because of an upgrade failure or similar fault.  The MxU adopts an intelligent architecture that integrates path protection, remote monitoring, web-based management, VPN functions, and hardware support for Y.1731. This simplifies network performance monitoring and better caters to the needs of various service scenarios. The MxU also supports intelligent fault detection over PONs and real-time fault detection for voice services, shortening troubleshooting time.

http://www.huawei.com

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Huawei Wins Big Managed Services Deal with VimpelCom Russia

VimpelCom Russia, one of the world's largest integrated telecom operators, awarded a five year contract to Huawei to manage its integrated telecommunications network. VimpelCom will transfer an estimated 1,300 employees to Huawei, which will then take complete responsibility for the multi-vendor, multi-technology fixed and mobile networks, which cover the Volga and the Far East. The scope of work includes end-to-end network management, including multi-vendor operations and maintenance, field operations, 24/7 network assurance and spare parts management. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"By transferring the network operation and exploitation to the Huawei, with its considerable experience and expertise, VimpelCom will achieve several important targets. The first is increasing efficiency and quality of network management, which will improve the service level for end-users in the mass market, as well as in the business segment. The second is optimizing business-processes and cost savings through the realization of the projects such as this partnership with Huawei, part of our strategic program to increase operational efficiency. The business-model of transferring network operation and exploitation to a third party is a common global trend today and we are glad that we are leading the Russian market in this sphere. We are certain that this large-scale cooperation with Huawei will strengthen our position and help us to achieve our targets," said Anton Kudryashov, Head of the Russia business unit and General Director of OJSC VimpelCom.

Huawei described the contract as a important milestone on the development of its Managed Services business.  The company noted other recent Managed Services contracts it was won across many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Indonesia, and Singapore. Huawei now has more than 240 managed services contracts in over 60 countries around the world, with a compound growth rate of more than 70% for the past six consecutive years.

http://www.vimplecom.com

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Huawei's Ren Zhengfei Meets with the President of the European Council

Huawei CEO and Founder, Mr. RenZhengfei met with the President of the European Council, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy at the council's headquarters in Brussels to discuss the development of the economy and the ICT industry in both China and Europe.

Mr. Ren said that mutual trust-based collaboration and investment between China and Europe in the ICT industry will drive the acceleration of technological innovation and support the openness of the markets.

http://www.huawei.com

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AEPONyX Unveils 40-Channel Metro Ethernet DWDM-PON

AEPONyX will be unveiling the world's first single fiber 40-channel Metro Ethernet Access WDM-PON platform. The AEPONyX platform enables the wholesale of Metro Access and Metro Transport through the cross-connection of Dense and Coarse WDM-PON wavelengths at the Ethernet level. The company claims a reach of 60 km.

AEPONyX's flagship MxC-80 product contains 80 SFP ports in a single 3U carrier class -48V DC shelf, and is designed to enable 40 wirespeed Active Ethernet Passive Optical Network (AEPON) channels. Each AEPON channel contains a DWDM-side outside plant access component and a CWDM-side network-to-network interface (NNI) and enables 40 circuits to be multiplexed onto one outside plant fiber and 16 circuits to be multiplexed onto one NNI fiber.

Francois Menard, CTO & Co-Founder of AEPONyX, explains, "Our customers are welcoming our solution because they can multiplex 40 circuits onto a single fiber, yet retain the robustness of a dedicated port with the full functionality of a Carrier Ethernet network-to-network interface for each circuit they wholesale." Further, they can bridge any customer premise to any datacenter across their metro markets, all from a single location, leveraging an entirely passive 60 km outside plant," he adds.

http://www.aeponyx.com

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T-Mobile USA Picks Tekelec for LTE Buildout

Tekelec will supply its Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) for the buildout of T-Mobile USA's LTE network, which will launch in 2013.  Tekelec's platform is a central control point to route policy, charging and subscriber messages.  Financial terms were not disclosed. 

Tekelec said its DSR will help T-Mobile to:

• Cost-effectively scale the LTE network. A centralized Diameter network eliminates the need to update all network elements when adding new equipment or when adding new roaming interconnections, thus controlling costs as the LTE network and interconnections grows.
• Intelligently route Diameter messages and avoid signaling storms. The DSR transmits signaling messages based on real-time network conditions. For example, the system avoids sending messages to congested equipment by spreading the signaling volume across multiple network elements such as charging systems, policy servers and subscriber databases. This eliminates ‘signaling storms’ which can cause congestion and service disruptions.

“T-Mobile’s innovation and modernization of our 4G network encompasses the entire infrastructure – from the core out to 37,000 cell sites, providing subscribers with a fast and dependable 4G experience,” said Abdul Saad, senior vice president of Network Technology, T-Mobile USA. “Tekelec’s Diameter Signaling Router provides us with the network architecture and scalability we require in order to deliver innovative mobile data services that meet the needs of our customers today and in the future.”

“T-Mobile is stepping on the LTE accelerator to launch new services next year,” said Doug Suriano, CTO of Tekelec. “By implementing a new LTE Diameter Network from the start, T-Mobile will be able to scale and rapidly add LTE subscribers, devices, applications and service tiers.”

http://www.tekelec.com

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Telefónica Secures US$1.2 Billion in Loans from China

Telefónica secured US$1.2 billion in credit with China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. BBVA acted as Facility Agent for the ten year loan.

Telefónica said the purpose of the credit is for the purchasing of products and solutions by Telefónica group worldwide.

http://www.telefonica.com

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AT&T's Website Offline for Hours Ahead of iPhone 5

AT&T took its entire U.S. website offline hours ahead of the midnight (PT) commencement of iPhone 5 sales.  Customers log-in to existing accounts remained open.

The online Apple store also went offline ahead of the launch.

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ADVA Optical Networking Joins ONF

ADVA Optical Networking has joined the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) to help drive the development and standardization of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and OpenFlow protocols.

"SDN presents the networking industry with a real opportunity to drive radical new efficiencies," said Christoph Glingener, CTO at ADVA Optical Networking. "SDN and OpenFlow are already proving themselves inside the data center. By extending SDN beyond physical data center boundaries into the optical networking domain you can effectively automate your entire cloud networking infrastructure including the transport equipment interconnecting different sites. This type of holistic network virtualization is exciting; it’s something we've already demonstrated with our OpenFlow technology. Our partnership with the ONF will only accelerate our work here."

http://www.advaoptical.com

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Altera Announces 100G OTN Chip

Altera announced a single-chip, multi-rate OTN (optical transport network) muxponder solution for 100G network aggregation.

The new device is based on Altera’s 28-nm high-performance Stratix V FPGA, which enables developers to integrate emerging client types into their networks, such as 16G Fibre Channel.

The proliferation of 10G ports and the acceleration of networks from 40G towards 100G is driving operators to look for ways to minimize operational complexity by aggregating both legacy clients as well as 10G and 40G feeder networks into 100G for high-capacity transport.

Altera said its multi-rate muxponder solution addresses both data center and transport aggregation by flexibly supporting emerging clients, such as 16G Fibre Channel and 40G Ethernet along with various 10G clients.

"Altera's comprehensive portfolio of FPGA-based OTN solutions have been selected by eight of the top ten optical OEMs," said Dan Mansur, director of Altera’s communications division. “With our latest multi-rate muxponder IP solution, customers can customize their systems and target FPGA architectures that are optimized for their specific design requirements."

http://www.altera.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Wins Network Management Contract with Telefónica

Telefónica has awarded a landmark contract to Alcatel-Lucent to overhaul the operator’s network management systems – enabling it to streamline its operations, improve the quality of services for its customers and optimize costs, while leveraging the capacities developed by Telefónica. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will combine the network management systems at the core of Telefonica’s operational support systems into a single, global software platform. Currently, Telefónica uses different operational processes in the many countries in which it operates. Alcatel-Lucent will help standardize both software and procedures for network management across Telefonica’s fixed and mobile networks.

Federico Guillén, President Alcatel-Lucent Spain and Global Account Manager for Telefónica said: “We are proud of the trust that Telefónica has placed in us to help transform their operations and improve their services to customers. We bring a great deal of experience to this challenge and are excited to have the opportunity to work with Telefónica to identify and implement the best possible processes and to industrialize this know-how across the globe."

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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AT&T Mobility Reaches Labor Deal Covering 40,000 Workers

AT&T Mobility announced a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in benefits negotiations covering more than 40,000 employees nationwide.

Some key points of the four-year tentative agreement:

• For employees hired on or before Dec. 31, 2012, monthly premiums for individual coverage would be $38 for 2013, $61 for 2014, $69 for 2015 and $82 for 2016. For these same employees, monthly premiums for family coverage would be $81 for 2013, $127 for 2014, $142 for 2015 and$169 for 2016.  New hires would pay a higher premium.  Deductibles for network care would be$500 for individual coverage and $1,000 for family coverage in each year of the contract
  .
• Establishment of a new Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) for qualified employees hired on or before Dec. 31, 2012. The company would provide $500 contributions into each of these employee's HRAs in 2013 and 2014.
  
• In the third year of the agreement, a Success Sharing Plan tied to AT&T stock would allow employees an opportunity to share in the company's success.

http://www.att.com

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Intel Developer Forum --"Connecting to the Future"

Intel is developing an all-digital radio that follows Moore’s Law by scaling in area and energy efficiency with such digital chip processes as Intel’s latest 22nm tri-gate technology. The all digital Wi-Fi radio system-on-chip designs targets smartphones, tablets and new wearable devices.

Some other areas highlighted in the Intel Developer Forum 2012 keynote by Justin Rattner, Director, Intel Labs and Intel Chief Technology Officer:

WiGig -- 60 GHz wireless technology capable of 5 Gbps performance

Intel Smart Connect technology -- wakes up an Ultrabook just long enough to receive the incoming packet traffic and then it goes back into standby mode to ensure long battery life.

Client Based Authentication Technology - using biometrics via a smartphone to provide network access.

C-RAN -- Intel Labs is collaborating with China Mobile to design and prototype a full-scale Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN).Dr. Chih-Lin I, chief scientist at the China Mobile Research Institute in Beijing, explained that C-RAN technology could reduce both capital and operational expenses for wireless service providers while providing superior levels of wireless services to users with fewer dropped connections during periods of peak demand.

VWN -- Intel Labs is engaged in another project Video Aware Wireless Network (VAWN), where both service providers and end users will benefit from the latest wireless research. VAWN aims to increase the streaming video capacity of wireless networks while improving the viewing experience by optimizing network performance on an end-to-end basis. Cisco and Verizon are partners with Intel of the VAWN project.

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LANautilus Undersea Upgrades to 40G with Ciena

The Latin American Nautilus (LANautilus) undersea cable system, which links stations in South, Central and North America with Telecom Italia’s Sparkle Global Backbone, has been upgraded with Ciena’s coherent 40G optical networking solutions. The upgrade effectively quadruples the capacity along this key undersea cable.
LANautilus is part of the Telecom Italia Sparkle Group and operates as a wholesale telecommunications service provider that delivers managed bandwidth, Internet/IP transit and co-location services to carrier and enterprise customers across its 30,000 km fiber optic ring.

LANautilus is using Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical line interfaces. Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System will deliver seamless end-to-end management across the 6500 and Common Photonic Layer (CPL) platforms providing LANautilus with all the tools needed for efficient multi-layer service activation, assurance, SLA monitoring, and accurate management of the dynamic nature of an intelligent network.

http://www.ciena.com

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