IBM's Silicon Nanophotonics Integrates 25G Tranceivers in 90nm CMOS

IBM has integrated multiple optical components alongside electrical circuits using 90nm semiconductor process technology.

Essentially, IBM has successfully added a variety of silicon nanophotonics components, such as wavelength division multiplexers (WDM), modulators, and detectors, alongside CMOS electrical circuitry using a conventional semiconductor foundry.

IBM’s CMOS nanophotonics used transceivers exceeding 25 Gbps per channel. IBM said its integration is capable of feeding a number of parallel optical data streams into a single fiber by utilizing compact on-chip wavelength-division multiplexing devices. The ability to multiplex large data streams at high data rates will allow future scaling of optical communications capable of delivering terabytes of data between distant parts of computer systems.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/39641.wss

• In October 2012, IBM announced a breakthrough in building a semiconductor using carbon nanotubes instead of silicon.  IBM researchers created a device consisting of more than ten thousand working transistors made of nano-sized tubes of carbon.  Standard semiconductor processes were used to fabricate the device.  IBM has previously demonstrated that carbon nanotube transistors can operate as excellent switches at molecular dimensions of less than ten nanometers – less than half the size of the leading silicon technology. 

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Cisco Announces CRS-3 and ASR 9000 Deployment with Telefónica

Telefónica Global Solutions will deploy the Cisco CRS-3 and ASR 9000 Series routers for enhanced capacity, high resiliency, and robust IPv6 support. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Telefónica's network connects more than 100 locations in more than 60 cities and 40 countries connecting the main cities of Europe, Latin America, the United States and Asia.

Cisco said its CRS offers the possibility of future upgrading capacity for its core network with upto 400 Gbps per slot capability, high resiliency, and a cost-effective intelligent core solution to improve the return on investment for its core network.

http://www.cisco.com

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ST Exits Wireless Broadband to Focus on Sensors, Embedded Processing

STMicroelectronics unveiled a new corporate strategy under which it will exit the ST-Ericsson partnership and the wireless broadband market, choosing instead to focus on sensors and embedded processing.

“Our new strategy is centered on leadership in sense and power and automotive products, and in embedded-processing solutions. Our specific focus is on five product areas: MEMS and sensors, smart power, automotive products, microcontrollers, and application processors including digital consumer," stated Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of ST.

The company will be organized in two product segments: Sense & Power and Automotive Products; and Embedded Processing Solutions.

Sense & Power includes MEMS and sensors, power discrete and advanced analog products;  as well as Automotive Products, including powertrain, safety, body and infotainment.

In Embedded Processing Solutions the company will focus on the core of the electronics systems rather than on wireless broadband access. The Embedded Processing Solutions segment includes microcontrollers, imaging products, digital consumer products, application processors and digital ASICs.

ST said it expects both product segments to be profitable and to generate cash. In particular, Embedded Processing Solutions will turn to profitability leveraging on a stronger product and technology focus, expanded customer base and manufacturing synergies between microcontrollers and digital products.

For its part, Ericsson said it is negotiating with ST concerning a suitable outcome of their ST-Ericsson joint venture. Ericsson believes that the modem technology, which it originally contributed to the Joint Venture, has a strategic value for the wireless industry, and that a successful market introduction of new LTE modems is needed in the market.

http://www.st.com
http://www.ericsson.com

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Bharti Airtel Installs Huge Video Wall for Network Monitoring

Bharti Airtel has installed a 3600-square-foot video wall powered by Nokia Siemens Networks’ dashboard solution at its new Network Experience Centre in Manesar near Gurgaon, India.

The wall monitors and analyzes the various aspects of the operator’s entire network operations, and presents them in a unified video view.

“As data use continues to surge in India, we have consistently evolved our network to provide the best service quality and customer experience to enrich the lives of millions of people,” said Jagbir Singh, CTO & Director, Network Services Group, Bharti Airtel. “With Nokia Siemens Networks’ dashboard solution for unified network and service operations, our Network Experience Centre has set a new standard in the infrastructure of the South Asian telecom industry to monitor and measure the customer experience across entire GSM, 3G and 4G networks. This new centre, with the world’s biggest video wall, is an important addition to our competitive edge in this data-centric world.”

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Pica 8 Unveils its SDN Architecture

Pica 8, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California and Beijing, China, introduced its SDN reference architecture, including a physical open switch, a hypervisor virtual switch and an SDN controller leveraging the OpenFlow 1.2 standard.

Unlike earlier SDN entries that target enterprise data centers, Pica 8 has set its sights on  data centers for cloud, portal and service providers. Pica8’s PicOS supports OpenFlow 1.2, it also integrates with the Ryu 1.4 OpenFlow controller, designed by NTT Laboratories specifically for SDN applications that service providers need.  The company's first physical switches pack up to 48 port 10 GbE SFP+ ports with four 40 GbE QSFP+ or 16 10 GbE QSFP+ uplink ports.

http://www.pica8.com

• Pica 8 is headed by James Liao, who previously led product strategy for switching and data center products at original device manufacturer Quanta.

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Rio Tinto to Deploy Private LTE Network in Australia with Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent will provide Rio Tinto with an end-to-end private 4G LTE network, comprising radio access network (RAN) products including distributed eNodeB base stations operating at 1800MHz, as well as its Evolved Packet Core and Mobile Backhaul capabilities using the 9500 Microwave Packet Radio.

Alcatel-Lucent is also providing its 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS)and its 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) network management solution, as well as a range of professional services.

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group.  The LTE network will be deployed in the north of Western Australia, where Rio Tinto is engaged in the West Angelas mine in the Pilbara.

Sean O’Halloran, President and Managing Director of Alcatel-Lucent Australia said: “Rio Tinto is at the cutting edge of digital service innovation and deployment, driving new levels of productivity and efficiency. This is the first deployment of its kind and is a result of a collaborative and interactive process with Rio Tinto. It will provide a strong foundation for any future rollouts of private LTE networks to enhance operations at other locations."

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/

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Huawei Builds an R&D Base in Finland

Huawei will invest EUR 70 million over a five-year period to establish a research and development (R&D) center in Helsinki, Finland.  The facility initially will hire 30 employees and target its research on software development for smartphones, tablets and rich-media devices, optimizing the user experience of existing operating systems such as Android and Windows Phone 8.

Huawei already operates a modem and technology design center in Sweden and a user interface research center in the United Kingdom.

http://www.huawei.com

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Juniper Cites Another QFabric Customer

Klarna, a Swedish e-commerce company that provides payment services for online storefronts, has built its new data center based on Juniper Networks' QFabric architecture.

Juniper confirmed that Klarna has deployed a QFX3000-M QFabric System, a high scale network fabric, to ensure the company can manage increased demand for capacity, scalability and flexibility as the volume of online payment data grows by significant amounts each month. The QFX3000-M delivers extremely fast server-to-server speed for Klarna, with 63 percent smaller footprint, 74 percent fewer cables and 57 percent less power consumption than competitive solutions, according to the companies.

Klarna's QFabric-based data center was designed, installed and supported by Juniper Networks' Stockholm-based partner, IPnett, a supplier of communication and security solutions and systems integrator in all the Nordic countries.

http://www.juniper.net

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Cisco Seeks Top IT Vendor Spot : Tomorrow Starts Here

Cisco's ambition is to transform itself from being the top communications provider to the top information technology provider, said John Chambers, speaking at the Cisco Financial Analyst Conference Day in New York. The biggest growth opportunity for Cisco is in  providing complete architectural solutions for intelligent IP networks that meet business requirements. Chambers said the communications industry is at a strategic inflection point and that Cisco is uniquely positioned for unifying the network, compute and storage.

Here are some key points that Chambers made in the presentation:

*On Monday, Cisco is launching a new marketing campaign along the theme "Tomorrow Starts Here".  The new positioning refers to the goal of becoming the world's top IT player.

* The era of client-server is over.... it's more about mobile + cloud going forward.  It's more about selling solutions than selling boxes.

* Out of the company's 28,000 engineers, 25,000 are software engineers.

* Cisco believes it can hold gross margins steady as it makes this transition.  The long-term growth forecast remains in the 5-7% range per year.

*Being in the data center helps "pull through" the communications portfolio.

*Cisco began making its bets in this area 3-5 years ago.  Cisco is right in the middle of of key changes in Intelligent Networks. 

* Cisco's key strategy remains to Build-Buy-Partner.

* Cisco has the mentality of always being No.1 or No. 2 in every market it competes in.  Cisco must target 40% of every market you enter, or, at a minimum, 20%.

* Cisco has been successful in choosing the best partners.  Huawei has not been successful in attracting the best partners.

* Cisco has an ability to know when to stay the course in a product line and to know when to adjust or when to reinvent yourself.

* Compute, storage,  networking and applications will be distributed to every device.

* Cisco's Services have grown consistently for ten years at a 12% rate while maintaining 65% gross margins.

* Most sales in the future will be highly integrated with Services.

* Over the next few years, Services will grow from 20% to 25% of Cisco's overall business with a target of 30%.

* Cisco will base its Intelligent IP Network on ASICS + Hardware + Sofware + Services.

* Cisco believes it is winning the data center fabric race.

* The list of competitors and start-up is always long, but most of the names from 5 years ago have fallen by the wayside. Cisco believes it has blown past Avaya, Dell, HP, Juniper and Huawei this year. Cisco success is due to its ability to anticipate market transitions.

* The growth drivers for Cisco can be broken down as follows:

• Stay the Course strategy -- Cloud, Mobility, Video
• Invest and Adjust for Growth strategy -- Services, Security, Emerging Markets, Software
• Future Growth & Reinvent -- Internet of Everything

* Looking out beyond the five year horizon, Cisco sees the "Internet of Everything" as the Big Play.

* ASIC innovation gives the company strategic differentiation, flexibility and time to market.  In the data center, Cisco's ASIC give it an advantage in low latency.

* Over the next 15 months, Cisco will release between 6 and 8 product groups based on new ASICS.  One of the new ASICS will have over 4 billion transistors.

* Cisco Nexus is in nine of the top ten massively scalable data centers.

* Every element in the network will have intelligence and storage.

* Nine of the ten last acquisitions by Cisco have been cloud or software plays.
The full webcast is online.

http://investor.cisco.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=122378

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U.S. Mobile Operators to Deploy Text-to-9-1-1

The four leading mobile operators agreed to voluntarily offer their subscribers text-based emergency communication services, in accordance with the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) industry standard solution (currently expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013), to requesting public safety answering points (PSAPs).  Participating carriers include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile.

Some key points of the deal include:

1) Text-to-9-1-1 service would be made available by May 15, 2014, although carriers
may choose to implement such a service prior to that date.

2) Beginning no later than July 1, 2013, the four signatory service providers will
voluntarily provide quarterly progress reports to the FCC, NENA, and APCO
summarizing the status of the deployment of a national Text-to-9-1-1 service
capability.

3) The PSAPs will select the format for how messages are to be delivered. Incremental costs for delivery of text messages (e.g. additional trunk groups to the PSAP’s premises required to support TTY delivery) will be the responsibility of the PSAP, as
determined by individual analysis.

4) The signatory service providers will implement a ‘9-1-1’ short code that can be used
by customers to send text messages to 9-1-1.

5) Before the deployment of Text-to-9-1-1, the signatory service providers will
implement a bounce-back (auto-reply) message to alert subscribers attempting to text an emergency message to instead dial 9-1-1 when Text-to-9-1-1 is unavailable in that
area. The signatory service providers will implement the bounce-back (auto-reply)
message by June 30, 2013.

http://www.nena.org/news/110797/Big-4-Wireless-Carriers-Will-Deploy-Text-to-9-1-1-Capabilities-on-their-Networks-in-2014.htm

http://www.fcc.gov

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Indonesia's PT Telkom Deploys 100K Wi-Fi

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia has selected Cisco for the deployment of 100,000 access points across Indonesia to offload mobile data from the macro cellular network, as well as to offer more convenient mobile broadband services in malls, hotels, schools, hotspots and public areas. The companies described the Wi-Fi rollout as the largest such project in Asia. Deployment is underway.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

PT Telekom is looking to both licensed and unlicensed (Wi-Fi) small cells to managing the rapid growth in wireless demand.

The Cisco Visual Networking Index also predicts that mobile data traffic in Indonesia is expected to grow 32 times from 2011 to 2016, with an average per user consumption at 716 megabytes of mobile data traffic per month in 2016, a staggering 2,387 per cent increase from 30 megabytes per month in 2011.

PT Telkom has 8.6 million fixed wire-line customers, 14.2 million fixed wireless customers and 107 million cellular customers.

http://www.cisco.com

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Cisco Backs IDEALondon Incubator in Shoreditch

Cisco, DC Thomson and University College London are teaming up to found a new Innovation and Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEA) to better support Tech City in East London and the contribution of digital enterprise to the UK economy. 

Tech City, which aims to host around 25 digital and media start-up companies, represents over £3.5m of investment by the three partners over the first three years of operation, with additional investment in individual businesses. 

The UK government has committed £50m to regenerate the Old Street roundabout into Europe’s largest indoor civic space, dedicated to start-ups and entrepreneurs in East London. 

http://www.cisco.com
http://www.techcityuk.com

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Napatech Adapters Pumps 100 Gbps throughput with Dell PowerEdge Servers

Napatech, which provides intelligent adapters for network monitoring and analysis, has achieved 100 Gbps throughput on a Dell PowerEdge R720 rack server.

The configuration of the test was:

• Dell PowerEdge R720 with dual hex-core Intel Xeon E5-2600, 2.5 GHz processors
• 5 x Napatech NT20E2 dual port 10 Gbps low-profile adapters
• 10 ports of 10 Gbps traffic was generated and captured using a packet capture application. 

Napatech said the test was run over several hours without the loss of a single packet.
The PowerEdge R720 set-up could be used by OEM vendors of network appliances to analyze up to 10 ports at speeds of 10 Gbps.

“As part of our testing of the latest Dell PowerEdge servers, we were excited to see that the PowerEdge R720 was capable of providing 100 Gbps of throughput, something we have not seen previously,” stated Henrik Brill Jensen, CEO Napatech. “This is a significant milestone and shows the tremendous power that is now available in standard servers.”

http://www.napatech.com

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Egenera Acquires FORT for Cloud Management

Egenera, which provides physical, virtual and cloud management, has acquired Fort Technologies, a cloud lifecycle software provider based in Dublin, Ireland.

Fort’s cloud management capabilities will be added to Egenera's PAN Cloud Director software for enterprises.  The deal also expands Egenera’s sales footprint, partner network and customer base in EMEA. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“The acquisition allows us to help our customers move to the cloud faster and create more enterprise-class, resilient and secure clouds,” said Pete Manca, CEO of Egenera. "Fort Technologies’ distinctive approach to cloud management turns the design, deployment and management of IT services into a simple drag and drop exercise. This enables service providers and enterprises alike to grow and succeed in the cloud."

http://www.egenera.com

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CWA Ratifies Labor Deal with AT&T Southeast Wireline

Members of the Communications Workers of America have voted to ratify a three-year contract for the AT&T Southeast region.  The labor contract covers about 22,000 AT&T wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

AT&T wireline employees represented by the CWA earlier ratified, on Aug. 17, three-year contracts for the Midwest region and AT&T Corp.

http://www.att.com

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Blueprint: The Transport Network Challenge

by Scott Wakelin, Product Line Manager in PMC-Sierra’s Communication Products Division

Optical network operators worldwide are faced with a tremendous challenge – expanding their networks to keep up with massive traffic growth and doing so profitably.

In 2012, Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) projected network traffic would quadruple between 2011 and 2016 to 1.3 zettabytes or 1.3 trillion Gigabytes annually. Video will continue to grow and eventually consume a 55% share of network traffic. Likewise, mobile traffic will grow 18x, driven by the transition to HSPA+, LTE, and LTE-Advanced.

Market research firms project that by 2015, optical spending will increase 25% over the $12B spent in 2010 as carriers prepare to build out their metro and access networks to deal with the massive increase in Ethernet and packet traffic.  

What will the new metro network look like and what capabilities will be required?

Before exploring these questions, let’s review the architecture of today’s typical carrier network.

Today’s Carrier Network

In the access network, TDM services (T1/E1 private line, ISDN, voice, 2G wireless) dominated until only recently. The last few years have seen dramatic changes in the access service landscape with Ethernet replacing T1/E1 for both enterprise and mobile access. At the same time, demand for native Video and Storage Area Network (SAN) transport has accelerated, adding to the service mix that carriers must support.

Meanwhile, outside of China, Layer 1 transport in the metro continues to be largely SONET/SDH based. Today, carriers aggregate client traffic into SONET/SDH (generally at 10G). The resulting OC-192/STM-64 signal is then fed into a transponder which converts the 10G client signal into a 10G wavelength using first generation OTN (ITU-T G.709 Optical Transport Network) equipment. At this point, the signal is ready for transport over the ROADM based DWDM infrastructure.

The access transition to Ethernet coupled with exploding bandwidth demands has exposed three fundamental weaknesses of SONET/SDH based Layer 1 aggregation, which fundamentally limits the ability of carriers to scale their metro networks:

1. Fixed switching granularities which are only a fraction of the 10G line rate
2. Inefficient support for Ethernet without the use of VCAT
3. Little deployment beyond 10G and no roadmap beyond 40G

As a result of these challenges, carriers are preparing to deploy a new metro network. The next section explores the coming Metro Transport Network evolution.

 The New Metro Network

In order to scale their metro networks to handle the growth in access traffic, carriers seek a network technology that:

• Supports the full range of protocols that exist in the metro, including Ethernet, SONET/SDH, SAN, and Video, without the use of Circuit Emulation or Pseudo-wire emulation techniques,
• Supports efficient transport of packet services such as Ethernet
• Is able to scale to 100G and beyond,
• Offers a simple to manage Layer 1 network that extends end-to-end.

Today, carriers have broadly deployed OTN as the basis for their DWDM core networks and it has proven an effective technology in providing both the management, protection, and reach extension required in the core network.  The desire for continuity at layer 1 between the core and metro networks made OTN a primary candidate for the Metro transport network as well.  However, OTN technology, as originally deployed in the core, fell short in terms of efficiency of Ethernet transport, and switchability.  Nevertheless, the G.709 standard has evolved to become a highly efficient transport technology for Metro applications, with the result that OTN is the nearly unanimous choice of carriers globally to base their Metro networks.

PMC refers to this evolved OTN technology as Metro OTN.

Metro OTN

Let’s look more closely at how well OTN meets the needs of the new Metro network. 

Multi-Service Transport

Metro OTN provides standards-based methods to enable full bit and timing transparent transport of Ethernet (1GE, 10GE, 40GE, or 100GE) – which is critical for the growing Ethernet private line services market. In addition, OTN also supports GFP-F mapping of packet based services such as:

• MAC terminated Ethernet
• IP/MPLS
• MPLS-TP

By virtue of this capability, and when coupled with Carrier Ethernet features such as IEEE 1588v2 (Precision Time Protocol) and Synchronous Ethernet, OTN is ideally suited for the quickly growing mobile backhaul market. 

Now, Ethernet is not the only client in the metro. SAN services such as Fiber channel and Infiniband are commonly used for datacenter to datacenter interconnect. Uncompressed HD and SD video streams are increasingly used in video contribution networks due to their superior quality and low latency. Prior to OTN, these bit and timing transparent services would generally be transported directly over DWDM but did so at the expense of reduced or no manageability. OTN provides the bit transparent transport these services require coupled with enhanced end-to-end OAM that includes 6 layers of Tandem Connection Monitoring (vs. the single layer offered by SONET/SDH).

Furthermore, there remains a tremendous installed base of SONET/SDH with new deployments still expected for at least the next 5 years. OTN was designed to accommodate both asynchronous and synchronous mapping of OC48/STM-16 and OC192/STM-64 clients. In this manner, OTN can provide the means for the bit and timing transparent transport of SONET/SDH, whether point to point or ring based – and importantly, without the need for PWE3 or CES.

 Efficient Resource Utilization

The efficiency issues associated with transporting Ethernet over SONET/SDH are well known. But even 1st generation OTN suffered from efficiency issues. Take for instance a GE to be transported over an OTU2 operating at 10 Gbps. First generation OTN equipment either:

1. did not support this capability,
2. did not support it efficiently, or
3. did not support it in an interoperable manner

In contrast, Metro OTN naturally supports Ethernet, and unlike SONET/SDH does so with a single ODU container to provision, switch and manage. This greatly simplifies provisioning and management, ultimately leading to reduced OPEX. Furthermore, as Ethernet scales in the future, so will OTN.

With the development of Metro OTN, carriers can now efficiently map GE into the new ODU0 container operating at 1.25G – right sized for GE. The GE may be mapped in a bit and timing transparent manner for private line service, or may be MAC terminated for managed service delivery. Figure 6 illustrates that in comparison to 1st generation OTN, Metro OTN will double the efficiency of GE transport.

Figure 6 also illustrates how the new variable rate ODUflex container drives efficiency gains for other common metro access clients. Take for instance 3G-SDI. In 1st Generation OTN equipment, this video client was at best 30% efficient when transported using a 10G ODU2 signal. ODUflex enables a container to be assigned that closely matches the client rate. ODUflex can also be used to transport subrate 10GE signals, which has the power to open up new private line service options for enterprises and revenue streams for carriers, while at the same time allowing the carrier to efficiently use its fiber resources. Furthermore, each ODU container contains all of the OAM flexibility that OTN is known for.

The new ODU0 and ODUflex containers are also switchable. Let’s explore the final aspect of Metro OTN: the support for flexible, granular and distributed OTN switching.

Flexible, Granular and Distributed OTN Switching

The vast majority of access services are sub-10G, with GE the access currency of choice for broadband and enterprise access. At the same time, the metro network is generally built around 10G wavelengths, with carriers preparing for broad deployment of 40 and 100G wavelengths in the metro. As a result, the gap between client rate and wavelength bandwidth is increasing.

In recognition of this trend, early OTN deployments were based on muxponders which multiplex client signals into a single outgoing OTU2, OTU3, or OTU4 as shown in figure 5.

Muxponder based compact metro access solutions are ideal for aggregation of mobile, broadband, and enterprise services, and are a growing trend among equipment vendors and carriers alike. In a fiber-rich access network, muxponders can cost-effectively provide bit and timing transparent mapping of SONET/SDH, Ethernet, SAN, and Video into grey or colored OTN signals.

However, when used in multi-slot / multi-wavelength systems deeper in the metro and the core, muxponders and transponders can lead to inefficient wavelength utilization as a full wavelength must be assigned regardless of the total client bandwidth. Client Add / Drop and Continue is also hindered by the inflexible nature of Muxponder/Transponder architectures. Only clients that are physically connected to a particular board can be mapped into that boards specific outgoing wavelength. This leads to a more complicated service provisioning and management model. For example, if a client needs be moved from one muxponder to another (in order to be transmitted on a different wavelength), human intervention is required. This inflexibility leads to increased OPEX for the carrier.

Metro OTN addresses these challenges through the deployment of OTN switching systems.

In comparison to muxponders, the benefits of OTN switching include:

• Efficient grooming of any sub-wavelength client onto any outgoing lambda,
• Maximum wavelength utilization
• The ability to switch an ODU from any outgoing line interface to any outgoing line interface
• The ability deploy remote management, eliminating the need for manual patching,
• Separation of client and line optic interfaces, which enables a carrier to deploy 100G wavelengths as traffic dictates

Unlike SONET/SDH, OTN imposes no limitations on switching granularity. All ODUs may be switched between any ingress and egress line card through a cell, TDM, or off-the-shelf packet fabric using the new OIF OTN over Packet Fabric format.

The deployment of an OTN switching system in the metro is a critical requirement if carriers are to achieve the most efficient use of their network resources at the lowest possible OPEX.  

Silicon Impact of Metro OTN

Just as the metro transport evolution is driving new requirements for OTN equipment vendors, Metro OTN also drives new requirements for silicon vendors. No longer is a simple implementation of G.709 sufficient. The following fundamental features are also required:

• Any-Service, Any-Port, Any-Rate SERDES and mappers  in order to deliver true multiservice capabilities,
• High density deeply channelized OTN framing, mapping, and ODU0/ODUflex granular switching,
• High Density SONET/SDH framing, mapping and switching to enable carriers to transition from SONET/SDH to OTN without stranding their legacy network,
• Onboard Carrier Ethernet PCS and MACs with integrated packet timing capabilities in order to address the requirements of mobile backhaul in the age of LTE,
• Packet and OTN fabric interfaces to enable both packet and OTN switching applications,
• Ability to address OTN, packet and lambda switched deployments with the same device

These features enable the equipment vendor to address all present and future requirements imposed by Metro OTN while minimizing total cost of ownership.

Summary

PMC-Sierra has introduced a new family of OTN products that uniquely delivers on the requirements of Metro OTN enabling OEMs to deliver a new class of transport equipment upon which carriers can build their next generation Metro transport networks which are:

• Multi-service, with seamless transport of Ethernet, Storage, Video, SONET/SDH, and Private Line
• Scalable with the rapid growth in packet traffic
• Switchable, providing fine-grain sub-lambda grooming
• Efficient, especially for the transport of packet centric services
• Compatible with the core network, providing end-to-end Access-Metro-Core continuity for flexibility, protection and management.

With this new class of equipment, carriers can achieve reduction in  OPEX and CAPEX necessary to enable profitable scalability to support the upcoming 4x growth in network traffic. 

About the Author

As a Product Line Manager in PMC-Sierra’s Communication Products Division, Scott Wakelin has helped define some of the industry’s most successful communication semiconductor solutions including PMC’s HyPHY, TEMUX, and FREEDM product families. Currently focused on packet-optical transport solutions, Mr. Wakelin has over 12 years of experience delivering OTN, SONET/SDH, and Ethernet products to market. Mr. Wakelin holds a Master of Applied Science degree in network infrastructure and security.

About the Company

PMC (Nasdaq: PMCS) is the semiconductor innovator transforming networks that connect, move and store big data. Building on a track record of technology leadership, the company is driving innovation across storage, optical and mobile networks. PMC's highly integrated solutions increase performance and enable next-generation services to accelerate the network transformation. For more information visit www.pmcs.com.

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Malaysia Allocates 2600 MHz Band for LTE

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has allocated the 2600 MHz spectrum band for 4G LTE services.

Eight (8) companies will be allowed access to the 2600 MHz spectrum band:

• Celcom Axiata Bhd,
• DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd,
• Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd,
• Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd,
• Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd,
• REDtone Marketing Sdn Bhd,
• U Mobile Sdn Bhd and
• YTL Communications Sdn Bhd.

http://www.skmm.gov.my

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Deutsche Telekom Boosts CAPEX to Accelerate Network Transformation

 Deutsche Telekom will increase its capital expenditures over the three years to around EUR 9 to 10 billion per year.  The focus is on Germany, where DT will accelerate the building out of its LTE network as well as rolling out optical fiber and vectoring technology in the fixed network. On top of that, a hybrid solution is planned for launch that combines LTE and vectoring, thereby increasing bandwidths. In the U.S., T-Mobile USA will roll-out its national LTE network.

T-Mobile USA reached an agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone for the first time.

"Hesitation now means playing catch-up later. We are investing in the future – with resolve and a clear strategy," said René Obermann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom, speaking at the company's Capital Markets Day in Bonn.  "The investment plans we have presented today will lay the foundation for future growth. And it is the people in Germany in particular who will benefit more than ever from the modern infrastructure."

Some key points

• The acceleration of the LTE build-out will bring coverage to 85 percent of the population covered by 2016 with data transmission rates of up to 150 Mbps.
  
• The build-out of the optical fiber network (FTTC) to cover around 65 percent of the population within the same time frame.
  
• Deployment of the new vectoring technology, provided a corresponding regulatory framework is in place, will increase VDSL data transmission rates to up to 100 Mbps.
  
• Hybrid-box technology will feed traffic in both directions via vectoring and LTE. This will make download speeds of up to 200 Mbps possible and upload speeds of up to 90 Mbps.
  
• Investments in Germany from 2014 through 2016 are to increase to EUR 4.1 to 4.5 billion, respectively, compared with an average of EUR 3.6 billion in the preceding three years.
  
• In the United States, capital expenditure of around USD 4.7 billion has been planned for 2013 and around USD 3 billion in each of the two subsequent years compared with USD 2.7 billion per year on average from 2010 to 2012.
  
• DT issued free cash flow guidance for 2013 of around EUR 5 billion from which a dividend of 50 euro cents is to be paid out both in 2013 and in the following year. Free cash flow of around EUR 6 billion is targeted for 2015.
  
• Adjusted EBITDA is forecast to be around EUR 17.4 billion for 2013. 

In addition, T-Systems' newly launched Telekom IT unit, which pools all of the Group's internal IT activities in Germany, is expected to reduce the Group's IT costs by EUR 1 billion by 2015. In external business, T-Systems is focusing even more squarely on cloud-based solutions.

http://www.telekom.com/cmd12

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AT&T Rolls its Content Delivery Network into Akamai

AT&T has formed a strategic alliance with Akamai Technologies to deliver a global suite of content delivery network (CDN) solutions to companies.

Under the deal, Akamai will deploy CDN servers at the edge of AT&T's IP network and in AT&T facilities throughout the United States. AT&T will transfer its existing CDN operations, customers and service to the Akamai platform in 2013.  The companies have also agreed to dedicate shared resources including technical support, customer care, marketing and professional services support.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

The companies said the combination of AT&T's network assets with Akamai's CDN will help enterprises simplify content distribution management and drive higher-performing end user experiences for consumers accessing content on the Internet. They hope to expand their efforts internationally within 12 months.

"The alliance with Akamai positions us perfectly to deliver premier content delivery solutions to our business customers," said Andy Geisse, Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Business Solutions. "By embedding Akamai's technology within AT&T's IP network, our customers now have access to a suite of solutions that more than meet their need for content delivery and support. In an environment where companies and consumers alike are accessing video content and other applications online and from a multitude of devices, I can't think of a better way to address the explosive growth in content that is sweeping across industries like media and retail."

"Aligning Akamai's services with the global reach, scale and product depth of AT&T creates a powerful relationship aimed at helping enterprises optimize their online businesses," said Paul Sagan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Akamai. "Together with AT&T, we share a common goal of developing solutions to maximize the Web and mobile end user experience, while driving down network-related costs and improving network efficiencies. We believe there will be tremendous value to customers in deploying within AT&T's robust IP network, and in jointly going to market with leading content delivery and cloud infrastructure offerings."

Separately, Akamai announced the acquisition of Verivue, a privately-held company based in Westford, Massachusetts that provides licensed content delivery network (CDN) infrastructure solutions for network operators. The combination of the two companies’ technologies and teams is expected to help Akamai accelerate market availability of a comprehensive portfolio of Operator CDN products.

http://www.akamai.com
http://www.att.com

• In November, Akamai announced a partnership with Orange Business Services.  Specifically, Orange will begin selling enterprise content delivery network (CDN) services using Akamai Technologies' optimization and acceleration solution.  Orange Business Services will market these solutions initially in France. The companies have formed an innovation steering committee to identify areas of innovation in the field of CDN solutions.

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Cloudera Lands $65 Million for Big Data Apache Hadoop

Cloudera, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, closed $65 million in new funding  to support its Apache Hadoop-based data management software and services.

Cloudera offers a packaged solution for enterprise customers to ensure production-ready deployment of CDH4, the most widely deployed and proven commercial distribution of Apache Hadoop.

The company cited rapid growth over the past year, both in terms of customers and volume of data under management.  Cloudera's customer base includes more than half of the Fortune 50, and includes companies such as AOL, CBS, EBay, Expedia, Experian, JP Morgan Chase, Monsanto, Morgan Stanley, Network Appliance, Nokia, RIM, and The Walt Disney Company.

The latest funding round led by Accel Partners, with support from Greylock Partners, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel, and Meritech Capital Partners.

"Big Data continues to fuel significant new business opportunities and revenue streams for our enterprise customers, spurring the need for new, large-scale data management solutions that can meet the needs of today's demanding enterprise workloads," said Mike Olson, CEO at Cloudera. "This new investment will speed the expansion of our sales and support operations to meet increasing enterprise demand for our real-time, Hadoop-based platform, as we scale to address the enormity of this global market opportunity."

http://www.cloudera.com/

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