IBM Commits $100 Million to Big Data R&D

IBM announced a $100 million investment for continued research on technologies and services focused on "big data" -- including massive scale analytics, software, systems and services capabilities. The goal is to enable chief information officers (CIOs) to construct specific, fact-based financial and business models for their IT operations.


IBM is currently rolling out software capabilities to analyze massive volumes of streaming data with sub-millisecond response times and Hadoop-based analytics software to offer scalable storage to handle tens-of-petabytes level data. The company is also introducing a suite of services to infuse predictive analytics throughout their IT operations.
http://www.ibm.com

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Broadcom Announces 40nm Satellite Set-top box Chip

Broadcom announced its next-generation 40nm high definition (HD) satellite set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution. The new device is aimed at low cost HDTV and interactive services to emerging markets such as BRICA (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa). For example, Sky Brazil (offers 25 HD channels), Russia's NTV Plus (offers 8 HD channels) and Dish TV India (offers 35 HD channels). The percentage of satellite STBs shipping that support HD in Brazil, Russia and India will grow from 13 percent in 2010 to 57 percent in 2016, according to ABI Research.


The new Broadcom BCM7358 HD satellite STB SoC is a single-channel, 1080p HD advanced video coding (AVC) satellite receiver chip. It features a high performance CPU and graphics engine, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) connectivity support and advanced security functionality. Sampling is underway.
http://www.broadcom.com

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Brocade Hits Q2 Revenue of $550 Million, up 9.8% YoY

Brocade recorded quarterly revenues of $550 million, representing an increase of 9.8% year-over-year and resulting in diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.06 on a GAAP basis and $0.13 on a non-GAAP basis.


In the quarter, Brocade saw product revenue growth of 17% year-over-year in its storage networking business driven by strong revenues across the product portfolio that included over 20% growth for both backbone/director and Server product revenues.


Brocade also saw its Enterprise and Service Provider Ethernet businesses revenue grow 24% year-over-year led by its EMEA, Americas and Asia Pacific geographies. Overall Ethernet business revenue was up 1% year-over-year as lower Federal Ethernet revenue offset the growth in Enterprise and Service Provider businesses. Brocade exceeded its expectations for non-GAAP EPS and non-GAAP operating margin in the quarter.


"Brocade executed well in Q2 delivering nearly 10 percent growth year-over-year in revenue driven by strong performances in our Ethernet business among enterprises and service providers and stronger-than-expected performance in our SAN business," said Michael Klayko, CEO of Brocade. "We are excited about our opportunities going forward as there is no doubt that the networking industry is in the beginning stages of a new innovation cycle driven by the IT imperatives of virtualization and cloud computing. We believe that Brocade has established a clear leadership position by out-innovating the rest of the industry and delivering purpose-built solutions to customers well-ahead of the competition."http://www.brocade.com

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EU Funded Research Looks for Internet of the Future

The European Commission hosted a "Future Internet week" event in Budapest to review the progress of some 140 "Future Internet" research projects which it supports. These efforts are part of a €600 million "Future Internet" Public-Private Partnership launched earlier this month and aimed at developing new ways of building better services and improving business innovation online.


The partnership will explore eight areas where this data revolution could spur innovation and jobs in the mobile, software and service industries. The European Commission has made available € 300 million in funding over 5 years, with Europe's research organisations, public sector and industry committing an equal.


Examples of EU-funded flagship research projects in the field of the Future Internet include:


2020 3D MEDIA: creating a 3D value chain in the entertainment industry. This project researches how technology can become interoperable to capture, produce, distribute and display three dimensional (3D) sound and images and create a more cost-efficient value chain as the 3D industry expands. http://www.20203dmedia.eu/


SENSEI: integrating the physical world into the digital world. SENSEI creates an open business-driven IT architecture that addresses how globally distributed sensing devices (e.g. public transport sensors) deal with the problem of handling increasing data traffic. "Smart places" can be created by connecting the real and the digital worlds. For instance, by connecting to the Internet some wireless sensors placed on buses, car-poolers can receive a text message when there is a bus nearby, which could get them to their destination more quickly.
http://www.ict-sensei.org/index.php


Internet of Things Architecture: bringing science-fiction into our lives. Different devices and objects communicate via different means (e.g. smart tags (Radio Frequency Identification Devices – RFID) and smart sensors) that do not necessarily support interoperability. Separate data systems can only deal with a limited amount of data growth and inadequately protect privacy and security. This jigsaw puzzle of systems could slow down global solutions for the future Internet of Things.
http://www.future-internet.eu/

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NEC UNIVERGE Certified with Verizon IP Trunking

NEC's UNIVERGE SV8500 Communications Servers are now certified with Verizon's IP Trunking Service.


NEC's UNIVERGE SV8500 and Verizon IP Trunking, now available in the United States and a number countries in Europe, target medium- and large-sized enterprises seeking to deploy advanced IP features, streamline network management and control operational costs. In addition, by adding NEC's unified communications (UC) applications enterprises and vertical businesses, such as healthcare, hospitality, education and government, can streamline processes and improve communications efficiency through enhanced collaboration and mobility.
http://www.necam.com/entcomm

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EU Action Targets Deutsche Telekom

The European Union has taken legal action to oblige the German government to comply with EU law and so not protect Deutsche Telekom from competition on the broadband market.



If applied as originally drafted, a German law would have made it difficult for telecom operators to compete on this market. As Germany has now removed the provision in question, the European Commission has closed the infringement case it had opened against Germany. The case goes back to 2007, when amendments to the German telecoms law provided for an effective exemption of Deutsche Telekom's fast internet access network (VDSL) from any measures taken by the German regulator to promote competition in this area of the telecoms market. In December 2009 the EU's Court of Justice confirmed the Commission's position that the new German law limited the discretionary powers of the national telecoms regulator, in contravention of EU telecoms rules. The Court also confirmed that existing and potential competitors were placed at an unfair advantage by this law.



The European Commission has also closed a second infringement case against Germany concerning restrictions on the technologies allowed to use the 2.6 GHz radio frequency band. Germany's national rules have now been changed, opening the frequencies to all compatible wireless systems that provide telecoms services (i.e. not only mobile but also fixed wireless services). As a result, there is no longer any impediment to the roll-out of EU-wide wireless broadband services in that frequency band and customers stand to have more choice.
http://www.europa.eu

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Georgia Tech Researchers Demo 25 Gbps over Plastic Optical Fiber

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta demonstrated an error-free data transmission over 100 meters of 80 μm-diameter core plastic optical fiber (POF) at record 25 Gbps. The coupling tolerances to reach error-free transmission (defined as a bit error ratio <10-12) were as high as ~35 µm. The tests used and 850 nm VCSEL from VI Systems GmbH.



Optical data transmission of up to 40 Gbps has been realized with high speed photodetectors and transimpendance amplifiers from VI Systems. The V40-850C chip is available in a 250 x 250 µm single die size or as 1x4-channel or 1x12-channel chip array.



The target applications are proprietary optical links and active optical cables at 40 Gbit/s and 100 Gbit/s, Fibre Channel at 14 Gbps and 28 Gbps, and Infiniband FDR (14 Gbps) and EDR (26 Gbps) applications.



Product samples are available now.http://www.v-i-systems.com/

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SURFnet Selects Ciena for Coherent 100G

SURFnet, which operates an advanced research network in The Netherlands, will upgrade its backbone with support for full photonic flexibility and the deployment of 100 Gbps on international links connecting the Netherlands to research communities like CERN in Switzerland.



SURFNet is using Ciena's ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors and ActivSpan Common Photonic Layer. Ciena's ActivFlex 6500 platform, supports both coherent 40G and 100G transmission, allowing SURFnet to gradually scale its network as requirements change. Combined with Ciena's ActivSpan Common Photonic Layer, the solution supports ROADM functionality throughout the network.



SURFnet supports more than one million education and research users across the Netherlands. Its existing mixed 10G/40G optical backbone – built by Ciena – is one of the most advanced networks in the world, enabling a collaborative environment for the Dutch research and education community and its peers worldwide. In December 2010 SURFnet awarded Ciena a contract to continue building the current SURFnet optical network, which will include advanced coherent optical solutions that allow SURFnet to expand and enhance its network by upgrading capacity and adding full photonic flexibility to the core infrastructure.



Ciena noted that it has shipped in excess of 7,000 coherent 40G/100G line interfaces to more than 80 customers across the globe with more than 5.5 million coherent kilometres deployed. Research and education organisations using Ciena equipment include RENATER (France), CANARIE (Canada), Internet2 (US), and JANET (UK).http://www.ciena.com

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ZTE Supplies First CDMA EV-DO Rev.B Phase 2 to India's Sistema Shyam

Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) has awarded the world's first CDMA EV-DO Rev.B Phase 2 commercial contract to ZTE.


Compared to EV-DO Rev.B Phase1, the Phase2 technology can further enhance the BTS cell capacity, spectrum efficiency and peak rate, achieving high speed rate as high as 4.9 Mbps in single frequency carrier and 14.7 Mbps in three frequency carriers bundle.


ZTE also won a CDMA expansion contract and EV-DO upgrade contract for 10 circles of the SSTL network.
http://www.zte.com.cn

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ZTE Develops "CoCloud" Operating System

ZTE is developing a proprietary 'CoCloud' cloud operating system designed to serve traditional telecom applications as well as government and enterprise markets. ZTE has established a Global Cloud Computing Center in Nanjing to spearhead this initiative.


"It is our ambition to use cloud computing to account for a third of ZTE's total revenues," said Mr. Shi Lirong, President of ZTE. The establishment of ZTE's Global Cloud Computing Center in Nanjing, is considered as a significant milestone for ZTE's cloud computing strategy. "Cloud computing has revolutionized the traditional resource provision methods as well as user application methods in most computing aspects. Under the new industrial framework, we are expecting to introduce radical changes in both IT and CT market as for open up new opportunities for industry players."


ZTE said that compared to a traditional OS, its CoCloud cloud operating system accelerates the dynamic transfer of the resources through service process displaying, intelligent resource template suggestions, good adaptation and heterogeneous management of the services.
http://www.zte.com.cn

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Telenor Sweden Outsources with Ericsson

Telenor Sweden awarded a three-year contract to Ericsson for field services, including field maintenance and implementation services across its complete fixed and mobile networks. Forty-four Telenor employees will join Ericsson's Swedish service organization on July 1, 2011, as a result of the strategic managed services partnership. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Ericsson currently provides Telenor with solutions such as IMS, transmission networks and service platforms.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Acme Packet Plans Expansion

Acme Packet plans to expand its Bedford, Massachusetts global headquarters in order to meet a hiring goal of more than 180 new employees in Massachusetts this year.


As of today, 443 of Acme Packet's 679 person global workforce are employed in Bedford. The company has already hired 70 employees at this location this year and plans to add an additional 117 workers in Massachusetts by the end of 2011. All of Acme Packet's research and development, as well as the final test and assembly steps in its manufacturing processes, take place at its Bedford facility.
http://www.acmepacket.com

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Ericsson Appoints Arun Bhikshesvaran as CMO

Ericsson has appointed Arun Bhikshesvaran as Head of marketing and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He previously served as Vice President Strategy and Marketing in region North America at Ericsson. He has been with the company since 1995, serving in a variety of roles. He holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas and has completed Post graduate executive programs in general management and business marketing at Columbia Business School and Kellogg respectively.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Novatel Wireless Embedded LTE Module Gets VZ Certification

Novatel Wireless received technical approval for its Expedite E362 4G LTE embedded module to run on the Verizon Wireless LTE network. This makes Novatel Wireless the first provider to have an embedded LTE solution commercially available and compatible with the Verizon Wireless network. The module could be integrated into high-speed data connectivity into notebooks, netbooks, tablets and other portable entertainment devices.


"We're proud to cross this milestone with our leading next-generation 4G LTE embedded module," says Rob Hadley, CMO of Novatel Wireless. "To meet consumers' desire to be connected anywhere, anytime, we are actively engaged in integrating our 4G embedded modules into platform launches with a number of devices and notebook manufacturers as they roll-out next-generation enabled mobile broadband devices."http://www.novatelwireless.com

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Korea's LG U+ Selects Nokia Siemens Networks for LTE

LG U+ has selected Nokia Siemens Networks for its LTE network rollout in South Korea. Nokia Siemens Networks is deploying its single radio access network (RAN) including its Flexi Multiradio Base Station and NetAct management system to provide consolidated configuration, monitoring and network optimization. The company will also provide network implementation services to ensure a rapid LTE network roll out that will enable LG U+ a faster time to market, expected to provide it with a competitive advantage. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.nsn.com

• Earlier this month, Ericsson confirmed that LG U+, a Korean wireless service provider, has selected it for the Korean LTE network. Specifically, Ericsson will be responsible for building LTE network in Seoul and will supply Evolved Packet Core network, LTE base stations and optical repeaters for access and transmission. The project will start in May this year and be completed in 2012.

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Verizon: Low Latency is Key Driver for LTE

Low latency is what makes new LTE customers say "Wow" -- perhaps even more so than the fast downlink rates, said Tony Melone, EVP and CTO of Verizon, in a keynote address at Telecommunications Industry Association's Inside the Net show in Dallas. Verizon is expanding its LTE network at an aggressive pace and is dedicated to taking a leadership role in the industry through early and large-scale deployments, standards development, and work with device manufacturers. Melone's speech, and follow-up press briefing, touched on network ambitions in both the wireless, FiOs and business domains, as well as where these overlap.



Some highlights:

Verizon Wireless expects to among the first to deploy voice over LTE (VoLTE). A rollout is expected in second half of 2012. Investment in the CDMA network continues and this will serve as a back-up to VoLTE. Melone expects that voLTE will not be positioned as just another voice service, but something clearly beyond current offerings. It will be HD voice and it will integrate new capabilities, such as video and social features.



The recent LTE outage was due to a software error affecting the IMS core. The error condition spiraled out of control taking other systems with it. 3G subscribers were not impacted because they do not register with the IMS core, but 4G subscribers were not able to fallback onto the EVDO network because they do register with the IMS core. Working with its vendors, Verizon implemented a temporary fix and then later a permanent upgrade that solves this issue. Melone described the event as a learning experience that is better to have when they are early in the network rollout rather than when tens of millions of users are on-board.



Verizon Wireless will have 10 LTE devices in its portfolio shortly and this continues to expand.



Verizon Wireless will use Wi-Fi offload opportunistically. In the home, Wi-Fi easily relieves traffic over the 3G/4G network. The company has an ongoing partnership with Boingo. It will also use Wi-Fi in high-traffic areas, such as stadiums, where spectrum is simply not enough.



Verizon Wireless has an LTE Innovation Lab in Massachusetts where device vendors can tune their offerings for LTE. New ideas include an LTE enabled media feed for broadcaster, LTE-enabled kiosks for banks and retailers, and an LTE-enable HD camera for field operations, such as utility personnel. Verizon Wireless will open a new LTE Innovation Lab in San Francisco.



Verizon's FiOS offering is available in 15 million homes and this will expand to 18 million. The top tier service is 150 Mbps downstream and the company is testing 1 Gbps over the same fiber plant.



http://www.verizon.com

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euNetworks to Acquire LambdaNet Deutschland

euNetworks GmbH will acquire LambdaNet Communications Deutschland AG for €25 million in cash (subject to adjustment) plus a payment of principal of €2m on an existing intercompany loan as well as an assumption of certain financial guarantees.



LambdaNet's service portfolio includes Ethernet, Wavelength, Colocation, Internet Protocol (IP) based data services and other transmission services. These are delivered to both carriers and enterprises, primarily throughout Germany. LambdaNet operates in Germany and has network and subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Austria. The business offers services out of 25 data centres across Germany. According to LambdaNet's audited financial results for 2010, the business generated total revenues of €36.8m and EBITDA of €9.7m in the financial year ended 31 December 2010.



euNetworks owns and operates 13 fibre based metropolitan networks across Europe connected with a high capacity intercity backbone. The company offers a portfolio of metro and longhaul Ethernet and Internet Protocol services including Dark Fibre, Dedicated Fibre, Wavelengths, Ethernet, and Internet.http://www.eunetworks.com

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Verizon Wireless Expands LTE Network

Verizon Wireless activated its LTE network in nine additional metropolitan areas, as well as expanding the 4G LTE network in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans and Philadelphia. The new metro areas are: Mobile and Montgomery Ala.; Greater Fairfield and New Haven, Conn.; Gainesville, Pensacola and Tallahassee, Fla.; Fayetteville-Lumberton, N.C.; and Bryan-College Station and Temple-Killeen, Texas.



David Small, chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless, noted, "We're now offering consumers and businesses in 55 metropolitan areas the most advanced 4G wireless network on the planet, while continuing to offer the nation's most reliable 3G network coast to coast. We plan to bring 4G LTE mobile broadband to our entire 3G coverage area by the end of 2013." http://www.verizonwireless.com

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Zain Kuwait Focuses on Customer Experience with NSN

Zain Kuwait is using live network monitoring, reporting and analytics software from Nokia Siemens Networks to focus on the customer experience. Nokia Siemens Networks has developed two new platforms, Serve atOnce Traffica and Serve atOnce Intelligence, to provide improvements in mobile network quality by monitoring network traffic.


Nokia Siemens Networks' Serve atOnce Traffica is used to monitor end-to-end network performance for each service in real time, improving the quality of every voice call and SMS. Switching from traditional network-based alarms to subscriber-based alarms, Zain can prioritize customer problems with its operations department and proactively solve them even before the customer notices that there's an issue. This will help to speed up request and complaint resolution in customer care, boosting operational efficiency.


Zain Kuwait is also deploying Nokia Siemens Networks' reporting and analytics platform, Serve atOnce Intelligence (SAI). Integrated with the existing Nokia Siemens Networks' subscriber data management and device management platforms, SAI draws data from multiple sources and reflects real-time user patterns in dynamic and flexible dashboards that show mobile terminal performance in the network, roaming, international call performance as well as Service Level Agreement reporting for Zain's corporate customers. It is expected to allow Zain to segment customers on the basis of terminal, service, value and use of the platform as well its customer experience, allowing it to sharpen the focus of its marketing campaigns.


The roll-out marks the region's first such extensive customer experience management deployments.


"Improving customer experience is the best way to differentiate from the competition," added Mounzer El-Achmar, head of the Zain Kuwait customer team at Nokia Siemens Networks. "In that respect, Zain has shown great foresight in not just focusing on reactive problem solving in customer care but emphasizing the delivery of an improved customer experience at each stage in the customer journey."http://www.nsn.com

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Clearwire Outsources to Ericsson

Clearwire will transfer the day-to-day management of its 4G network to Ericsson under a seven year managed services agreement.


Ericsson will be responsible for network engineering, operations and maintenance, including field services, 24X7 network monitoring, end-to-end engineering, provisioning and routine maintenance. Clearwire will retain ownership of all network assets and full responsibility for future technology and strategy decisions.


Approximately 700 Clearwire employees are expected to begin performing their network functions as Ericsson employees in locations around the United States before mid-year 2011.
http://www.clearwire.com
http://www.ericsson.com

• Clearwire currently operates a nationwide WiMAX network but has been testing LTE. Specifically, Clearwire has conducted trials with Huawei Technologies and with Samsung Electronics to test multiple coexistence scenarios between LTE and WiMAX radio technologies. Trials in Phoenix used both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) configurations using 40 MHz of spectrum paired in 2 x 20 MHz contiguous channels ("LTE 2X"), and Time Division Duplex (TDD) configurations using 20 MHz of spectrum. The tests confirmed that the company's LTE 2X trial network achieved peak download speeds on commercially available equipment and devices in excess of 90 Mbps and upload speeds of more than 30 Mbps. Clearwire expects to conclude the tests in Q1 2011.



• In 2009, Ericsson entered into a similar network management partnership with Sprint.

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