WCA Takes Position on Net Neutrality

The Wireless Communications Association International (WCA) has joined NetCompetition.org http://www.netcompetition.org/ -- an e-forum to promote a debate on the merits of net neutrality regulation.



"With spectrum a scarce and expensive resource, it is imperative that wireless broadband providers remain free to manage their own networks," commented WCA President Andrew Kreig. "Net neutrality regulation would discourage innovation and investment in more competitive broadband choices to all Americans. Our member companies are investing heavily in WiMAX or other '4G' types of next generation broadband competitive alternatives. Our companies are part of the competitive solution, not part of the regulatory problem."http://www.wcai.com

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BridgeCo Raises $23 million for Digital Home

BridgeCo, a developer of digital home networking products, raised $23 million in series D venture financing. The company recently opened a new headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of El Segundo. The bulk of BridgeCo's engineering and development team will continue to be located in Zurich, Switzerland. BridgeCo also maintains sales and marketing offices in London, Taipei and Tokyo, and satellite development teams in Moscow and Bangalore.



"The US consumers are a major driver of the emerging digital home market," said Gene Sheridan, CEO of BridgeCo. "Our new LA business HQ gives BridgeCo a front row seat in this important market, and enhances our relationships with key global companies that are at the forefront of content creation and technology development across the PC and CE markets."



The financing round was led by Advent Venture Partners and Wellington Partners, who were joined by all of BridgeCo's Series C investors: Benchmark Capital, Cipio Partners (formerly Infineon Ventures), Earlybird Venture Capital, Fidelity Ventures and Intel Capital.

http://www.bridgeco.net

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EdenTree Targets Automated Network Lab Testing

EdenTree Technologies introduced a re-architected version of its network lab automation software, an open "lab operating system" that works with any kind of network equipment, managing physical layer infrastructure to which test equipment and devices under test are connected. Instead of manual patch panels linking network test equipment to targeted switched and routers, EdenTree provides a software-controlled lab environment with drag-and-drop interfaces for connecting equipment and scheduling tests. The EdenTree system provides an ability to share expensive test equipment among multiple users and multiple test beds. Its queue-based scheduler enables a test to be queued to run at the earliest available time based on equipment availability.







EdenTree, which has been shipping its "Layer 1" lab automation solution since 2003, supports interfaces for switches from 15 manufacturers. Customers have included Spirent, Tekelec, Cisco, Juniper, Hitachi Data Systems, McData, AT&T, BellSouth, Comcast and Verizon, amongst others.



EdenTree's new Lab Manager 5.0 release is significantly enhanced with an SQL database and XML interface to be more open, scalable, and modular, and includes new features such as event-based scheduling, a Web interface, and integrated power control.



Also new to Lab Manager 5.0 is integration with power controllers allowing test engineers to control power cycling and system rebooting directly from Lab Manager, integrated with the GUI or script control of test topologies. The software supports power controllers from leading vendors, including APC, Cyberswitching Inc., MRV Communications, Server Technology and WTI.

http://www.edentreetech.com/

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Network Processing Forum Merges with OIF, Completes Six IAs

The Network Processing Forum completed its merger with the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) and announced the completion of six new implementation agreements (IAs) covering software and benchmarking specifications.



The NPF's latest technical work includes the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Accelerator Service IA, which specifies a set of Services APIs for hardware that offloads and accelerates the processing of SSL. The NPF membership also approved the Switch Address Generator ATM Logical Functional Block (LFB) and Functional API IA. This, combined with 2 additional ATM IAs released earlier this year, complete a suite of 14 NPF software ATM APIs for supporting the implementation of ATM interfaces on network processing elements.

http://www.oiforum.com

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European Commission Urges Germany to Spur Fixed Telephony Competition

The European Commission is urging the German regulator, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), to impose more effective competition remedies for fixed telephony.



In December 2005, Deutsche Telekom AG was found by BNetzA to have significant market power on the retail access market and on the market for local and national calls. The current notification covers the remedies that BNetzA intends to impose on DTAG in the access market and in the market for national calls as a follow-up to the December findings.



In line with the EU telecom rules, the European Commission is reminding BNetzA that carrier (pre-)selection services which allow the end-user to select a carrier of its choice for all, certain or individual calls, must be provided at a price that is based on actual costs and that direct charges to subscribers must not act as a disincentive for the use of such facilities.



"In Europe's telecom markets, remedies need to be clear and effective in order to improve the competitive situation and to safeguard the interests of consumers", said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "I am determined to ensure a high degree of coherence and effectiveness of regulatory remedies throughout the European Union. This includes remedies at the retail level in cases where measures at the wholesale level have not resulted in a satisfactory degree of competition".http://europa.eu.int/

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FLO Forum Adopts Service and Technical Specifications

The FLO Forum, a multi-company initiative led by QUALCOMM and dedicated to the global standardization of FLO (Forward Link Only) technology, ratified and adopted three cornerstone technical specifications: the Service Information Specification, the FLO Services and Use Cases Specification and updated versions of the FLO Device and Transmitter Minimum Performance specifications.



The System Information Specification defines the functions and structure of the system information (SI) associated with real-time and non-real-time broadcast and multicast services in FLO Networks. The SI in this specification provides users with the advance information needed to make service subscription and service selection decisions.



The FLO Services and Content Committee's Service Descriptions and Usage Flows Specification presents a set of use cases and service models for FLO services which are used to derive requirements for other FLO technical specifications.



The updated FLO Minimum Performance Specifications for both the Device and Transmitter provide refined performance guidelines based on the most up-to-date testing of commercial-grade FLO devices and transmitters.



In addition, announced 11 new members, bringing its total membership to 44 companies. The new members are Axcera, DTVinteractive Co., , Envio Networks, Motorola, Nagravision, PacketVideo, Penthera Technologies, Spirent Communications, Telephia, Terayon Communication Systems, and Wireless Test Systems.

http://www.floforum.org

• FLO technology is a new air interface originally developed by QUALCOMM with multicasting capabilities designed to increase capacity and reduce content delivery costs to mobile handsets.

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mPhase Enhances its IPTV Software

mPhase Technologies announced several enhancements to its IPTV Software, including:

• the ability to manage multiple set top boxes (STBs) per location



• the ability to manage multiple accounts per subscriber, and



• multiple STB managers that provide scalable failure recovery and load balancing

The new mPhase TV+ System Release 5.0 also includes an enhanced user interface with a new look and advanced program guide searching features. The company also added new language support for Russian, Arabic and Chinese.



mPhase also added features for flexible and secure license management to remotely provision features without complete software upgrades.



Other recent improvements include general availability of an integrated Latens dynamic Conditional Access System, a pure software security solution that protects content and allows telcos to offer revenue rich premium content.

http://www.mphasetech.com

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Internet2 and Level 3 Plan 100 Gbps Nationwide NGN

Internet2 and Level 3 Communications unveiled plans for a new nationwide network that will offer Internet2 members 100 Gbps of capacity, more than 10 times that of the current Internet2 backbone network, and will be designed to easily scale to add capacity as Internet2 members' requirements evolve.



The network will support a full range of production IP services as well as new on-demand, dedicated optical wavelength services.



Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Level 3 will provide dedicated facilities enabling multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths, high-speed IP transit and colocation services with options for private line, metro and long-haul dark fiber services to interconnect the backbone with academic institutions and support growth and changes in member requirements over time.



Level 3 will deploy digital optical technologies for Internet2 to provide multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths and enable rapid bandwidth provisioning across the entire footprint for its members. These new optical services will allow network users to obtain dedicated one Gbps sub-wavelengths or entire 10 Gbps wavelengths through advanced network scheduling or on-demand. It will also enable users to provision circuits dynamically for short or long-term use. Additionally, using this optical system, the new Internet2 network will provide production IP capabilities and bundled access to the Internet.



The new network infrastructure's capabilities build on the successes of Internet2's Hybrid Optical Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) testbed, an initiative examining a hybrid of packet and circuit switched optical infrastructures to understand next generation architectures.



Internet2 said it is working with its members and regional networking organizations to finalize deployment details with the new network becoming operational during 2007. In the interim, Internet2's relationship with Level 3 will enable optical circuit services for the community using Level 3's existing facilities. Internet2 is also working closely with its current network partners and network connectors to ensure a smooth and seamless transition of traffic from its current backbone network onto the new infrastructure.http://networks.internet2.eduhttp://www.level3.com

• The Internet2 Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) is a national network testbed that allows researchers to experiment with new optical technologies, including dynamically provisioned wavelengths, circuit switched environments, and new transport protocols. The HOPI testbed uses facilities from Internet2's Abilene Network, the National Lambda Rail (NLR) network, the MANLAN exchange point, and regional optical networks. Each HOPI node consists of an Ethernet switch with 10GigE capabilities, a fiber cross connect switch, and servers to control HOPI's network infrastructure and measure network performance, all designed to model future optical infrastructures.
  
  
  The HOPI testbed is using HP's ProLiant DL360 G4 servers to provide monitoring and control plane capabilities.
  
  
  Force10 Networks is supplying its Force10 E-Series family of switch/routers for Internet2's Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) project.



• In February 2006, National LambdaRail (NLR), a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies, reached fully-operational status, providing advanced optical, Ethernet and IP connectivity over more than 15,000 miles of fiber across the United States. NLR has deployed nine Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing Systems across the country. The project is also using Cisco Systems' 15808 and 15454 optical transmission platforms.

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Charter Deploys 1 Millionth Cedar Point SAFARI C(Cubed) Line

Cedar Point Communications announced a deployment with Charter Communications that represents the shipment of Cedar Point's one millionth telephony line. The milestone was achieved less than two years after the initial deployment of SAFARI C(Cubed).



Cedar Point's SAFARI C(Cubed) is a carrier class VoIP switch that incorporates all of the components that make up the voice switching infrastructure, providing a seamless evolution to SIP-based features and an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture. SAFARI C(Cubed) is PacketCable-qualified and future-architected to fit within an IMS core network infrastructure. New applications can be integrated into SAFARI C(Cubed), or can be accessed via third-party application servers.

http://www.cedarpointcom.com

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Nokia Supports Celcom in Launching HSDPA in Malaysia

Celcom, a subsidiary of the TM Group, launched High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services in Malaysia offering download speeds up to 3.6 Mbps. Celcom is using Nokia's HSDPA solution. Apart from supplying to Celcom's expanded radio network, Nokia is also supplying the core network equipment to expand Celcom's current 3G network to four new regions.



Under the agreement, Nokia is supplying the Nokia HSDPA solution with 3.6 Mbps capability, a radio access network and transmission from its radio network portfolio. From its Unified Core Networks portfolio, Nokia is providing its MSC Server mobile softswitch, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Flexi Intelligent Service Node (ISN). Financial terms were not disclosed.



In WCDMA 3G, Nokia has 59 customers to date. Nokia's HSDPA is a software upgrade to Nokia WCDMA networks.

http://www.nokia.com

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Verizon: More Than Half of New Broadband Subscribers Now Choose DSL Over Cable

As many as one in seven new Verizon DSL customers who order service online have switched over from cable modem service. Verizon currently serves nearly 6 million wireline broadband customers.



The Leichtman Research Group reports that more than half of all new high-speed Internet customers in the U.S. chose DSL over cable modem service in 2005, and that Verizon netted the most broadband customer additions among all cable and DSL providers in the nation over the past six months ("1Q 2006 Quarterly Notes," Leichtman Research Group Inc.).

http://www.verizon.net

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NTT Develops IP Optical Traffic Engineering Server

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) announced the development of an IP optical traffic engineering (TE) server for an IP optical backbone network composed of IP routers and optical crossconnects (OXCs).



The IP optical TE server controls the IP optical backbone network using an original traffic control algorithm that applies to both IP routers and OXCs. NTT said its TE server responds flexibly to unexpected changes in traffic demand, and could be used to restore operations quickly in the event of system failures or natural disasters.



NTT will be giving presentations related to this technology at the iPOP2006 international conference to be held next week at the Meiji Kinenkan complex in Tokyo. http://www.ntt.co.jp

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HP Unveils BladeSystem for Data Centers

HP unveiled its BladeSystem c-Class architecture that aims to deliver significant improvements in virtualization, power and cooling, and system management capabilities that can reduce both operational and capital expenditure costs by 46% in a typical data center implementation.




The modular HP BladeSystem c-Class allows businesses to start with HP ProLiant and Integrity servers, HP StorageWorks storage offerings as well as client blades and then flexibly add applications and third-party products to expand their data centers as needed.



The HP Virtual Connect Architecture enables server administrators to manage resources on the fly via virtualized Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections, saving hours or days of administrative "wait time."



The virtualization is coupled with a fast midplane and five terabits per second of aggregate throughput.



In addition, HP BladeSystem c-Class and StorageWorks Storage Area Networks (SANs) simplify IT consolidation by integrating the server-to-storage interface. The new HP BladeSystem 4 Gbps Fibre Channel SAN switches and the industry's first redundant, embedded 4 Gbps Fibre Channel HBA reduce the cost of SAN connectivity to HP BladeSystem by more than 40% while providing highly available, redundant connection to existing SANs. The switches also reduce the number of Fibre Channel cables required by up to 60%.



Other improvements include an ultra-efficient HP Active Cool Fan that cuts server airflow by 30% and energy consumption by 50% compared to traditional fans, and HP Insight Control Management software that achieves a 200:1 device-to-administrator ratio -- a tenfold improvement for many IT tasks .



HP also plans to build out an BladeSystem ecosystem of independent software and hardware vendors, systems integrators and value-added resellers. Some of the application and hardware partners involved in the launch of c-Class include: AMD, Blade Network Technologies, Brocade, Cisco Systems, Citrix, Emulex, Intel, Mellanox, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, PolyServe, QLogic, Red Hat, SAP, VMware and Voltaire.



http://www.hp.com

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India's Tata Group Selects Alcatel for Optical Expansion

India's Tata Group awarded a US$20 million project to Alcatel to expand its existing optical multi-service network to additional regions in the country. The deployment will enable Tata to further enhance the roll out of CDMA mobile services, as well as to support new broadband services and Ethernet applications throughout the states of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Additionally, it will provide a highly efficient and reliable platform for the backhaul of traffic over Tata's existing mobile network.



The expanded optical transport network will meet 70% of the transmission requirements of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) - the leading private telecom operator in India, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) - India's leading international telecommunications service provider and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML), the leading telecom services provider in Maharashtra. TTSL, VSNL and TTML are all part of the Tata Group.



The award follows the contracts signed in 2004 for the deployment of the existing optical transport network.



Alcatel's optical networking solution include its data-aware Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems and 1696 MS DWDM equipment, both managed by the 1350 management suite. Alcatel will be also responsible for the complete project management, engineering, installation, service activation and commissioning.

http://www.alctel.com

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VeriSign to Power Text Message Alerts for eBay

eBay will use VeriSign's Intelligent Messaging Network to deliver mobile alerts to its users within the U.S. The two types of alerts being offered are outbid notifications and end-of-auction alerts. The outbid alerts are interactive and allow users to re-bid directly from mobile handsets. Once a new bid is received and processed by eBay, a confirmation message gets sent to the user confirming they are the current highest bidder.



The VeriSign Intelligent Messaging Network will deliver the time- critical, application-specific messages across all major domestic wireless operators in the U.S.

http://www.verisign.com

• VeriSign said it is currently delivering more than three billion SMS messages each month.

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NYT: Hiding in Plain Site, Google Seeks More Power

Currently, Google is operating an estimated 450,000 servers spread over 25 locations worldwide, according to a feature article in The New York Times that tracks the company's ambitious effort to build its next generation data center. The centerpiece of the Google plan is a huge complex being built in The Dalles, Oregon -- providing access to cheap electricity generated by the Columbia river and fiber access to its global network.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

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Ember Raises $12 Million for ZigBee

Ember, a start-up based in Boston with R&D in Cambridge, England, closed an additional $12 million in funding for its ZigBee networking solutions.



Ember is seeking to promote 802.15.4/ZigBee technology to create an "Internet of things" by enabling billions of devices to support low-cost, low-power sensor and control applications, such as home and building automation, industrial controls, inventory management, automatic meter reading (AMR) and environmental monitoring. The market for 802.15.4/ZigBee devices is expected to reach $1 billion between 2008 and 2010, according to two research firms, In-Stat and Northern Sky Research.



Polaris Venture Partners, GrandBanks Capital, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital (the investment group of Microsoft's Paul G. Allen), DFJ ePlanet Ventures, DFJ New England, WestLB Mellon Asset Management (formerly West AM) and strategic partners such as ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures participated in the round.



Ember has raised $65 million to date.

http://www.embercorp.com

• Earlier this month, Ember announced the availability of its EM260 ZigBee co-processor with a new flexible, open source interface, called EZSP, that makes it easy to integrate ZigBee networking capabilities with any vendor's microcontroller, including those from STMicroelectronics, Atmel, Texas Instruments, Renesas, Freescale, NEC, Intel, Infineon, Microchip, Philips, Samsung, Toshiba and others. The EM260 integrates an IEEE 802.15.4 radio, network processor and onboard memory to run a full ZigBee network protocol stack.



• In April 2006, Ember named Robert LeFort as its new CEO, taking over from Bob Metcalfe, who has served as interim CEO since June 2005 and continues as chairman. Metcalfe is a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners, a lead investor in Ember. LeFort joins Ember from Infineon, where he served as president of North American operations.

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Korea's Dreamline Selects ECI Telecom to Upgrade Optical Network

Dreamline, a leading cellular and broadband service provider in South Korea, has selected ECI's optical solutions for the upgrade and expansion of its nationwide network to support next generation services. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Dreamline's network expected to reach approximately 10,000 km throughout the country. The two companies have been working together successfully since 1998 and as a result, Dreamline already has thousands of ECI's platforms installed in their network.



ECI's XDM-50 optical platform carries voice and data services over Ethernet, SDH/SONET and CWDM. http://www.ecitele.com

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Narus and Pen-Link Partner on VOIP CALEA

Narus and Pen-Link announced a strategic agreement to jointly market a lawful intercept solution that is fully compliant with the CALEA T1.678 VoIP standard in the United States, as well as the European ETSI TS 102 232/233/234 standards for Internet access and e-mail.



The solution combines the NarusInsight Intercept Suite (NIS) software with Pen-Link's LINCOLN 2 intercept collection and reporting tool. Additionally, completed interoperability testing of the solution will ensure seamless integration and easy implementation for carriers -- paramount as they strive to meet their respective government's regulatory requirements.



NarusInsight is a carrier-class IP traffic processing system that provides real-time network visibility essential to secure, manage and deliver Services over IP (SoIP). NarusInsight provides the ability to deep packet inspection from layer 3 to layer 7 and complete correlation across every link and element on the network.



Pen-Link, a U.S. company that operates primarily from its corporate headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska, provides Law Enforcement and Intelligence agencies with software and systems for the collection, storage, and analysis of call detail data and call content associated with all forms of telecommunication intercepts.

http://www.narus.comhttp://www.penlink.com

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Qpixel Raises $25 Million for Video Compression Chip

Qpixel Technology International, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, raised $25 million in second round funding for its low-power digital video and audio encoder/decoder solutions.



Qpixel's low latency, high quality H.264-based video and audio encoder/decoder technology is being developed for the digital consumer electronics and digital video communication industries. The company said its patent-pending video compression algorithms enable a highly optimized implementation of H.264 technology for subjective video quality enhancement and computational complexity reduction. Target applications include digital camcorders, digital still cameras, set top boxes, video phones, IPTV and DVRs.



The new funding was led by venture capitalist Bandel Carano, the financing comes from a combination of sources including Oak Investment Partners, Technology Associates Management Company (TAMC), Acorn Campus and iD SoftCapital Group. In conjunction with this investment, Brian Hinman will join Qpixel's board of directors representing Oak Investment Partners.

http://www.qpixeltech.com

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