Worldwide IT spending increases were pretty anemic as IT and telecom services spending were seriously curtailed last year. It seems that things are going better. Telecom services spending, which has been curtailed in the past few years, only grew by a tenth of a point in 2012, to $1.661tr, but Gartner projects spending on mobile data services to grow enough to more than compensate for declines in fixed and mobile voice revenues. Infonetics Research Report sees telecom sector growth outpacing GDP growth. Global capital expenditure (capex) by telecommunications service providers is expected to increase at a compounded rate of 1.5% over the next five years, from $207 billion in 2012 to $223.3 billion in 2017, says a new market report from Insight Research Corp.
Europe’s Telco Giants In Talks To Create Pan-European Network. Europe’s largest mobile network operators are considering pooling their resources to create pan-European network infrastructure, the FT is reporting. Mobile network operators are frustrated by a “disjointed European market” that’s making it harder for them to compete.
“Internet of Things” gets new push. Ten Companies (Including Logitech) Team Up To Create The Internet Of Things Consortium article tell that your Internet-connected devices may be getting more cooperative, thanks to group of startups and established players who have come together to create a new nonprofit group called the Internet of Things Consortium.
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications are more and more used. Machine-to-machine technology made great strides in 2012, and I expect an explosion of applications in 2013. Mobile M2M communication offers developers a basis for countless new applications for all manner of industries. Extreme conditions M2M communication article tells that M2M devices often need to function in extreme conditions. According to market analysts at Berg Insight, the number of communicating machines is set to rise to around 270 million by 2015. The booming M2M market is due to unlimited uses for M2M communications. The more and more areas of life and work will rely on M2M.
Car of the future is M2M-ready and has Ethernet. Ethernet has already been widely accepted by the automotive industry as the preferred interface for on-board-diagnostics (OBD). Many cars already feature also Internet connectivity. Many manufacturers taking an additional step to develop vehicle connectivity. One such example is the European Commission’s emergency eCall system, which is on target for installation in every new car by 2015. There is also aim of Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications and Internet connectivity within vehicles is to detect traffic jams promptly and prevent them from getting any worse.
M2M branches beyond one-to-one links article tells that M2M is no longer a one-to-one connection but has evolved to become a system of networks transmitting data to a growing number of personal devices. Today, sophisticated and wireless M2M data modules boast many features.
The Industrial Internet of Things article tells that one of the biggest stories in automation and control for 2013 could be the continuing emergence of what some have called the Internet of Things, or what GE is now marketing as the Industrial Internet. The big question is whether companies will see the payback on the needed investment. And there are many security issues that needs to be carefully weighted out.
Very high speed 60GHz wireless will be talked a lot in 2013. Standards sultan sanctifies 60GHz wireless LAN tech: IEEE blesses WiGig’s HDMI-over-the-air, publishes 802.11ad. WiFi and WiGig Alliances become one, work to promote 60GHz wireless. Wi-Fi, WiGig Alliances to wed, breed 60GHz progeny. WiGig Alliance’s 60GHz “USB/PCI/HDMI/DisplayPort” technology sits on top of the IEEE radio-based communications spec. WiGig’s everything-over-the-air system is expected to deliver up to 7Gbit of data per second, albeit only over a relatively short distance from the wireless access point. Fastest Wi-Fi ever is almost ready for real-world use as WiGig routers, docking stations, laptop, and tablet were shown at CES. It’s possible the next wireless router you buy will use the 60GHz frequency as well as the lower ones typically used in Wi-Fi, allowing for incredibly fast performance when you’re within the same room as the router and normal performance when you’re in a different room.
Communications on power line still gets some interest at least inside house. HomePlug and G.hn are tussling it out to emerge as the de-facto powerline standard, but HomePlug has enjoyed a lot of success as the incumbent.
Silicon photonics ushers in 100G networks article tells that a handful of companies are edging closer to silicon photonics, hoping to enable a future generation of 100 Gbit/s networks.
Now that 100G optical units are entering volume deployment, faster speeds are very clearly on the horizon. The push is on for a 400G Ethernet standard. Looking beyond 100G toward 400G standardization article tells that 400G is very clearly on the horizon. The push is now officially “on” for 400-Gigabit Ethernet standard. The industry is trying to avoid the mistakes made with 40G optics, which lacked any industry standards.
Market for free-space optical wireless systems expanding. Such systems are often positioned as an alternative to fiber-optic cables, particularly when laying such cables would be cost-prohibitive or where permitting presents an insurmountable obstacle. DARPA Begins Work On 100Gbps Wireless Tech With 120-mile Range.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Declassified Documents Prove NSA Is Tapping the Internet
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/nsa-tapping-internet/
U.S. intelligence officials have declassified a secret court opinion that both chastises the National Security Agency for misleading the court and highlights an eavesdropping program in which authorities have direct access to “upstream” internet communications.
The document (.pdf) released today confirms for the first time unofficial leaks and speculation that the federal intelligence community has direct access to telecom companies’ backbones and it scoops up email communications as they go past. Millions are collected each year.
WIRED first reported on such an eavesdropping installation in 2007 when a former AT&T technician provided documents outlining eavesdropping technology used by AT&T.
Today’s revelation follows disclosures by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who highlighted other NSA-backed spy programs, including one called PRISM and another that collects metadata from every phone call made in America.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OIF nails down 100G OTN monitoring for carrier networks, lays foundation for transport SDN
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/oif-100g-otn-sdn.html
The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has completed two critical technical projects that address the increased adoption of optical transport network (OTN) technology for 100G carrier networks, and the use of PCE control technology, as building blocks toward Software Defined Networking (SDN). The OIF says its new Tandem Connection Monitoring (TCM) white paper and the Path Computation Element (PCE) Implementation Agreement will ease deployment of new OTN and PCE technologies and ensure that these meet the goals of service providers.
The OTN TCM white paper provides guidelines on the use of Tandem Connection Monitoring, a way of monitoring performance on segments of an OTN connection.
“The adoption of 100G transport technology produced by the OIF is fueling increased need for and adoption of OTN to efficiently fill 100G pipes,”
“The OIF is working to define a framework for Transport SDN requirements and functions in multi-domain ASON networks, leveraging input from OIF carrier members,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
10G EPON products simultaneously support 10G, 1G speeds on same fiber
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/quatabits-gepon.html
QuantaBits Inc. has introduced a new 10-Gbps GEPON optical line terminal (OLT) and a 10-Gbps optical networking unit (ONU). The company says the new products are aimed at Internet service providers, data center administrators, and telecommunications providers to help them overcome capacity, speed, and quality of service limitations in today’s transport services.
The new equipment can be integrated with existing 1-Gbps technology and operate at 10G and 1G speeds simultaneously on the same fiber, says QuantaBits. The units have the ability to transmit data up to 50 miles and an improved split rate of 64 ONUs per PON port to ensure a quick and efficient deployment.
The equipment also offers software-defined networking (SDN), remote provisioning, and management inside each system, including a web-based graphical user interface, the company adds.
“Our network equipment allows for higher utilization and a quicker return on investment,”
The 1G and 10G products have recently been successfully trialed by one of the largest university systems in the US as well as a Middle Eastern communications agency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei, ZTE win bulk of China Mobile’s $3 billion 4G bonanza: sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/23/us-chinamobile-4g-idUSBRE97M02020130823
China Mobile Ltd has awarded initial 4G contracts worth around 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion), with Chinese firms securing more than half of the biggest prize in the global telecoms industry this year and foreign firms winning about a third, industry sources said.
Telecoms equipment makers, such as global leader Ericsson and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, have been waiting for China Mobile’s 4G tender to lift the fortunes of an industry that has been hit by a lack of spending worldwide.
The development of a 4G network by the carrier, which with more than 700 million mobile customers is the world’s largest by subscribers, is also regarded as key to it clinching an agreement with Apple Inc to carry its blockbuster iPhone.
“This is the tender that global telecom equipment vendors have been vying for this year,” said an industry source.
“Even though we see Huawei and ZTE getting the bulk of the contracts and foreign vendors getting around a third, I’m sure they will keep going back to China Mobile and get a bit more share.”
Shenzhen-based Huawei and crosstown rival ZTE have obtained about 25 percent each of the total 4G procurement in China Mobile’s tender this year, said the sources
European vendors Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent SA and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) have obtained a share of around 10 percent each, the sources said.
“We believe telcos’ capex will be heavily skewed to the second half of 2013, which will refuel ZTE’s carrier networks segment’s momentum,” brokerage CMB International said in a report.
Tomi Engdahl says:
40 Gbits/s over twisted-pair copper cable is on the way
Category 8 cable and 40GBASE-T standards are in process
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Interconnections/Wire_and_Cable/40_Gbits_s_over_twisted-pair_copper_cable_is_on_the_way.aspx
Recently the IEEE P802.3bq Task Force was formed to create a standard for 40-gigabit Ethernet over copper twisted-pair cabling (40GBASE-T). This is the next generation following 10-gigabit Ethernet over copper twisted-pair cabling (10GBASE-T).
There is a distinct tradeoff between the cabling specifications and the equipment specifications. Cables that are easier to design and manufacture tend to have worse performance, requiring more advanced equipment, while more advanced and harder to manufacture cables will likely have better performance, requiring less advanced equipment. The goal of the standards body is to come together and try to find the optimum tradeoffs between these elements to optimize the time to market and power consumption for the user and maintain a broad market potential.
40GBASE-T is a great example where both the equipment vendors and cabling vendors are working together to try and find the optimum scenario.
While there are no official standards yet developed, it is clear that 40GBASE-T will require the most advanced twisted-pair cabling technology yet. It will require a bandwidth of between 1,500 to 2,000 MHz. As a point of reference, 10GBASE-T only requires Category 6A/Class EA components with a bandwidth of 500 MHz. Even the European ISO/IEC standards for Category 7A/Class FA only have a bandwidth of 1,000 MHz.
Another change with 40GBASE-T over traditional BASE-T standards is that the channel length had to be reduced from 100 meters to 30 meters in order to reduce power consumption and equipment complexity.
In order to properly service as broad a market as possible, companies worked to ensure the maximum channel length was at least 30 meters — designed to support both end of row and top of rack topologies and provide data center customers with maximum flexibility. While this length can change since there is no standard published, at this point 30 m is assumed to be the likely maximum cable length
What this highlights is that there are no existing cabling standards that are close to meeting the needs for 40GBASE-T. Cabling companies have been working hard to develop new Category 8 cables and connectors.
It is expected that products will be available in late 2014 to early 2015 when the standards become more developed. At this point the standards are in a state of constant flux so it is still too early to supply products.
Currently, the state of the art for twisted-pair copper cabling is running 10GBASE-T over Category 6A cabling.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
The next generation of 5g networks are designed for full speed, although most have not yet reached even the 4g’s tastes. 5g networks, accelerate the pace of huimaksi, up to a hundred-fold.
Manufacturers of mobile phone networks have already started planning the fifth-generation networks.
Is an ambitious goal: seven years to get the data transfer speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, and, in turn, would decrease delays in milliseconds. Rates, therefore, would increase a hundred fold in the current 4G networks in relation to, and delays in the fall by a tenth of current levels.
No one does not know yet how to 5g networks, finally implemented. Several radio network technologies on the drawing board. The standardization work has begun to the United Nations under the auspices of the ITU standards organization.
“We have looked internally for what is to come 4g’s after. The development has progressed to the point that now we are talking about already internally 5g to “Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) research director Lauri Oksanen says.
The matter has already been in a hurry, because the objective is to decide concept of the 2015 World Radio Conference at the latest. Standardization could start from 2016 to 2017. Thus, 5g technology could be ready in 2020.
It’s fast and lag-free Internet connection is required to increase video traffic in addition to industrial automation. In the future, information on expected passing of millions of machines and robots from.
“In demanding real-time systems, such as cars, need to get a really small delays. Also, the rate of reaction of computers is a micro-second level “, Oksanen says.
“With the growing data requirements need to be addressed by combining a number of radio networks.”
The pressure to increase the speed is so high that consideration is a new model. Until now, wireless broadband is built with a large cell size and low frequencies to increase the coverage area. We are now planning to complete networks, new ways.
One option is to take the wireless networks over the 3-6 GHz frequency bands. This requires a dense base station coverage and free up spectrum for mobile networks.
Soaring 10-gigabit speed to achieve that goal may require even higher frequencies. It could mean It is a build networks in the high frequencies, the so-called ml tube waves in the area, or even the 20-90 gigahertz.
“We are assessing the size of the cells could be built. We are already measurements with the Aalto University “, Oksanen says.
The problem with high frequency has a short range. Oksanen estimates that the millimeter waves networks mainly suitable for indoor use. Even in the case of small cell network, forming the base station might be needed in every room.
Broad coverage in the future will be built at lower frequencies. Future 5g network is thus simultaneously at multiple frequencies, and can combine the capacity between them.
Source: http://www.3t.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/teknologia/ei_toki_enaa_5g_satakertaistaa_vauhdin
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese Internet Hit by Attack Over Weekend
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/08/26/chinese-internet-hit-by-attack-over-weekend/
Part of the Chinese Internet went down early Sunday morning in what the government is calling the largest denial-of-service attack it has ever faced.
The attack, which was aimed at the registry that allows users to access sites with the extension “.cn,” likely shut down the registry for about two to four hours, according to CloudFlare, a company that provides Web performance and security services for more than a million websites. Though the registry was down, many service providers store a record of parts of the registry for a set period of time, meaning that the outage only affected a portion of websites for some users.
Denial-of-service attacks cause disruptions by overwhelming a computer or network with a high level of online activity. Usually the attacks originate from networks of computers that have been hijacked by malware or viruses.
By Monday the problem seemed to have been solved, with Chinese Internet users able to access websites such as Sina Corp.’s social networking site Weibo smoothly.
CloudFlare Chief Executive Matthew Prince said the company observed a 32% drop in traffic for the thousands of Chinese domains on the company’s network during the attack compared with the same time 24 hours earlier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WLAN growth projected to steal revenue share from campus Ethernet switching
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/delloro-wlan-growth.html
A new forecast report by networking and telecommunications industries analyst firm Dell’Oro Group reveals that the Enterprise Edge market is expected to exceed $15 billion in by 2017. Significantly, for the analyst, Enterprise Edge now defines the part of the communications market that includes enterprise-class wireless LAN (WLAN) and campus Ethernet switching equipment and related software. “Enterprises are now emphasizing wireless LAN connectivity as a primary means of connecting workers to the corporation,” asserts Chris DePuy, vice president of Enterprise Edge research at Dell’Oro Group.
The firm’s latest research finds vendors now introducing unified Ethernet/WLAN products to simplify deployment and management of customers’ networks. At the same time, new access networks are being built by new customer types such as retailers and in hospitality markets, and new networks are being built by traditional enterprises as they deploy new buildings
Tomi Engdahl says:
Phone Hack Could Block Messages, Calls on Some Mobile Networks
https://threatpost.com/phone-hack-could-block-messages-calls-on-some-mobile-networks/102090
By tweaking the firmware on certain kinds of phones, a hacker could make it so other phones in the area are unable to receive incoming calls or SMS messages, according to research presented at the USENIX Security Symposium earlier this month.
The hack involves modifying the baseband processor on some Motorola phones and tricking some older 2G GSM networks into not delivering calls and messages. By “watching” the messages sent from phone towers and not delivering them to users, the hack could effectively shut down some small localized mobile networks.
The technique was discussed in detail in a talk at USENIX by Kévin Redon, a Berlin-based telecommunications researcher.
Essentially the hacked firmware – named OsmocomBB – can block some calls and messages – also known as pages- by responding to them before the phones that were initially intended to receive them do, something Redon and company called during their research “the race for the fastest paging response time.”
The paper notes that while 4G has been rolled out en masse in most countries, most of the globe remains at the mercy of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) infrastructure.
GSM had been notoriously difficult to crack in its early days but the group had help thanks to the recent proliferation of cheap tools such as the Universal Software Radio Peripheral, a glorified computer–hosted software radio. In 2004, the source code for the Vitelcom TSM30 phone was leaked as well, which allowed researchers to better manipulate and study GSM stack implementations.
“The results indicate the required resources for a large-scale attack do not extensively exhaust the resources provided by a cell,” the paper says, adding that there “is no technical limitation” when it comes to combining cell phones for an attack.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pew: 30% Of U.S. Adults Don’t Have Broadband; 10% Use Smartphones As Sole Internet Access; 20% Have Zilch
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/26/pew-30-of-u-s-adults-dont-have-broadband-10-use-smartphones-as-sole-internet-access-20-have-zilch/
As Facebook teams up with other tech titans to put more effort into ubiquitous internet access worldwide, Pew Research is today is releasing the results of a survey that shows how one of the more advanced countries in the world, the U.S., is still not quite there in leading by example: 20% of U.S. adults are still without broadband or smartphones for internet access. And 3% of people in the country still using dial-up connections.
The think tank’s most recent survey notes that today 70% of adults in the country reported having broadband access at home as of May 2013, with the proportions of connected individuals increasing in wealthier households, by age and other factors like race.
“Broadband users can consume and create many types of content in ways that dial-up users cannot, and our research has long shown major differences in these two groups’ online behavior,” writes Aaron Smith, a senior researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project and the report’s co-author. “Smartphones may offer an additional avenue for internet access that surpasses the dial-up experience in many ways, but those who rely on them for home internet use may face limitations that are not shared by those with traditional broadband connections.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Q&A: Using existing ducts for new cabling
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-21/issue-8/features/q-a-using-existing-ducts-for-new-cablilng.html
As formerly vacant office space gets occupied by a new tenant, it is worth checking existing pathways to see if they can support new cabling systems.
According to recent data, the nonresidential building construction market in the United States continues on a pace that can be described as soft. Reed Construction Data’s (www.reedconstructiondata.com) Construction Economic Notes for June 2013 stated that nonresidential building construction spending totaled $288.3 billion for the month of April, which was down 1.4 percent from March.
Meanwhile, CBRE (www.cbre.com) issued a report on U.S. office vacancy rates that covered the second quarter of calendar year 2013. The report also referenced first-quarter 2013 vacancy rates. CBRE tracks office vacancy rates in the 13 largest U.S. markets. Of those 13, 10 experienced declines in vacancy rates in Q2 versus Q1.
A practical reality for an organization moving into leased office space is that the space previously has been occupied. Another very real possibility is that the space contains pathways that may be able to house the new structured cabling system the tenant will install. This current state-of-the-market raises the issue for many user organizations of how they might capitalize on existing pathways to gain whatever efficiencies they can as they move into the new premises.
We at Cabling Installation & Maintenance interviewed Legrand’s (www.legrand.us) Hanh Le, product marketing manager and Jim Humphries, senior engineered products consultant on this topic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Survey finds 40/100G network upgrades forcing enterprises to boost firewall security
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/infonetics-firewall-upgrades-survey.html
Infonetics Research recently conducted a survey exploring the drivers, strategies and technology choices that are shaping enterprises’ use of high-end firewalls. The firm says the results indicate that “buyers have a need for speed.” According to the survey, upgrading to high-speed network interfaces on security appliances was named as the number one driver for investing in high-end firewalls by over three-quarters of enterprises surveyed.
“Without a doubt, the move to faster network technologies is forcing enterprises to look at upgrading every moving part of their IT infrastructure, firewalls included,” says Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research. “Many enterprise buyers are eyeing firewall products with 100G-plus aggregate throughput and support for 40G and 100G ports over the next year.”
In the survey, security led the list of criteria for selecting a high-end firewall supplier by a wide margin. 57% of respondents said they plan to spend $500,000 or more on high-end firewalls in 2014, signifying a shift to higher spending categories. Infonetics expects 2013 to bring market share changes as Fortinet, Check Point, Palo Alto, and Dell SonicWALL get their high-end firewall offerings into more data center and large campus deals, while Cisco and Juniper continue to fend off challengers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FTTA system combines power, fiber in one platform
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/ftta-power-fiber.html
One of the nation’s largest distributors of wireless infrastructure, Talley, now offers a fiber-plus-power system that bundles all signal and power cabling elements required for installing a functional FTTA system into a single enclosure.
Utilizing a NEMA 4X-rated fiber + power distribution box and application-specific connectors, the FTTA system is built for harsh conditions.
“The Fiber+Power-to-the-Antenna system was designed to help mobile operators meet the increasing network bandwidth demands, while at the same time simplifying installation and reducing maintenance costs,” says Pat Flynn, vice president of market development for Talley. “The FTTA combination fiber-plus-power distribution solution offers versatility in DC configurations, supporting terminals, breakers and surge protection with DIN rail mounting. The enclosure is smaller, lighter and easier to handle. The complete solution provides for simple sourcing of expansion and replacement components.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
In-depth: NGBASE-T cabling requirements
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/07/ngbaset-indepth.html
A recent technical white paper from CommScope provides an in-depth update on the latest IEEE developments for NGBASE-T and associated cabling specifications in the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in the United States (US), and in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) in support of this application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Industrial Ethernet: factory floor apps aided by new deal
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/fpga-gurus/4419142/Industrial-Ethernet–factory-floor-apps-aided-by-new-deal
Last week, we told you about the ubiquity of 10G Ethernet, as new applications arrive for 10-Gbit speeds in vertical applications. But in the industrial realm, slower Ethernet speeds on the factory floor finally are making inroads into long-standing protocols such as CAN and Fieldbus. At the end of July, Altera Corp reached a deal with the EtherCAT Technology Group and Softing Industrial Automation GmbH of Germany, allowing EtherCAT protocols to be embedded in FPGAs without additional licensing fees for users.
If this sounds a bit familiar, there have been predictions for close to two decades that Ethernet soon would dominate process-control and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) applications in factories. The price of ruggedized Ehternet controllers at 10 and 100 Mbits/sec always was reasonable enough to be considered for SCADA, and in recent years, 1-Gbit controller cards started to be cost-effective. The problem lay in the transition of Layer 2 and 3 protocols. Older networks used simpler control protocols, and those like Softing who developed useful solutions, often priced their licensing too high to make high-volume SCADA a reasonable application.
EtherCAT was developed in the early 2000s by long-time logic controller players like Beckhoff and Hilscher, using elements of Fieldbus physical-layer technology with a slave licensing model adopted from CAN
Major FPGA players realize the necessity of supporting EtherCAT—Xilinx, for example, has worked with Beckhoff on an IP core for a slave interface. The Altera-Softing pact, however, could broaden acceptance of EtherCAT by lowering the price of a network node. The deal will allow designers to develop a range of products such as sensor interfaces, accelerators, and control logic, all based on one reprogrammable FPGA design with embedded EtherCAT IP.
The SCADA and factory-floor markets are notoriously conservative in adopting new protocols, so the Altera-Softing-ETG deal does not guarantee an automatic stampede to real-time Ethernet. But it may hasten the inevitable shift from CAN and Fieldbus to Ethernet everywhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plenty of new activity in a supposedly-aging 10G Ethernet
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/fpga-gurus/4418918/Plenty-of-new-activity-in-a-supposedly-aging-10G-Ethernet
For most of the last decade, network analysts marveled at the longevity of 10G Ethernet, and its slow ramp to full production. There were plenty of lab projects like Interlaken, toying with 40G and 100G follow-ons, but most network managers seemed perfectly happy with 10-Gbit per second interfaces to servers and broadband networks. Part of the problem was related to the double-whammy recessions hitting communications markets in 2000 and 2008. Add to that the slow drop in price of 10G components, and most applications stuck with 1G backbones far longer than networking OEMs hoped.
Since 2010, production-ready cards and switches have arrived for 40G and 100G networks, and prices have stabilized at the 10-Gbit level. One might be tempted to call this market mature. That scarcely means, however, that there is nothing left to see but the commoditization we saw with 100-Mbit and 1-Gbit Ethernet.
Take the realm of Ethernet used as a backplane. People used to think of Ethernet’s Layer 2 framing as causing too much undue overhead to use the protocol as a system backplane. IEEE’s 802 group, however, saw enough nascent interest to create the 10GBASE-KR physical-layer standard for using Ethernet inside the box, as a backplane or midplane packet transfer channel.
On July 25, Xilinx announced that the University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Laboratory had completed testing on the GTH transceiver in the Xilinx 7 FPGA series, for use in 10GBASE-KR applications. Since this IP logic block was the first such approval in the FPGA industry, it indicates that the use of 10G backplanes is still in development stages.
Meanwhile, Altera has been working closely with 10G interface specialist Solarflare Communications and C compiler startup Impulse C. In a blog piece on the financial industry last month, FPGA Gurus told you how Activ Financial had turned to the Solarflare Application Onload Engine (AOE) as a pre-packaged card that combines the Altera Stratix V with Solarflare’s SFC9020X Ethernet MAC.
Granted, 10G Ethernet may look long in the tooth as some of the first dedicated server-cluster networks and switched backbones come out in support of 40G and 100G Ethernet. But the arrival of new tools for backplanes and algorithm compilers shows that 10G Ethernet is only in its adolescence. We’ll be seeing new hardware products and software applications emerging for many years to come.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU telecoms chief drops plan to slash wholesale roaming prices
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/eu-telecoms-costs-idINL6N0GT3RY20130828
EU telecoms chief Neelie Kroes has scrapped a draft proposal to cut wholesale roaming fees by as much as 90 percent, a European Commission document seen by Reuters showed, following criticism from major telecom companies.
The plan, which would have affected the wholesale prices that telecoms operators pay to access their rivals’ networks, was a key element of her efforts to create a single market for telecom services in the 28-country European Union.
People familiar with the matter said the chief executives of Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and a senior official from Deutsche Telekom met Kroes late last month to express their concerns about her plans.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NSA paying U.S. companies for access to communications networks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-paying-us-companies-for-access-to-communications-networks/2013/08/29/5641a4b6-10c2-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html
The National Security Agency is paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year to U.S. companies for clandestine access to their communications networks, filtering vast traffic flows for foreign targets in a process that also sweeps in large volumes of American telephone calls, e-mails and instant messages.
The bulk of the spending, detailed in a multi-volume intelligence budget obtained by The Washington Post, goes to participants in a Corporate Partner Access Project for major U.S. telecommunications providers. The documents open an important window into surveillance operations on U.S. territory that have been the subject of debate since they were revealed by The Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper in June.
New details of the corporate-partner project, which falls under the NSA’s Special Source Operations, confirm that the agency taps into “high volume circuit and packet-switched networks,” according to the spending blueprint for fiscal 2013. The program was expected to cost $278 million in the current fiscal year, down nearly one-third from its peak of $394 million in 2011.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM Buys Sensinode for IoT Software
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319318&itc=eetimes_node_199&cid=NL_EDN_DesignIdeas_20130829&elq=73ef57e77ffc46de8377cfc5199a92b5&elqCampaignId=953
ARM has acquired Sensinode Oy, a 20-person company developing machine-to-machine software based on the 6LoWPAN, which ARM will add to the portfolio of products it licenses. The move is a sign of growing adoption in the emerging Internet of Things sector of the 6LoWPAN standard, roughly based on web standards such as Internet Protocol.
ARM will make the Sensinode code available for evaluation through its so-called mbed project, which lets engineers try out products via an online connection, said John Cornish, general manager of ARM’s System Design Division in an interview.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Some VoIP Providers Think You’re Stupid
Electronics Development Bulletin
https://rapidrequest.emediausa.com/4/Rfi/4105073.EJRGOINN.167330
An unfortunate series of popular VoIP myths — such as no usage costs, free international calling, endless bandwidth, what happens during electical failure, how large your internet network needs to be, zero equipment costs and more — have many providers laughing all the way to the bank with healthcare institutions’ misinvested budget money.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T Partnered With DEA to Provide Access to 26 Years of Phone Records
http://gawker.com/at-t-partnered-with-dea-to-provide-access-to-26-years-o-1237996951
Since at least 2007, DEA agents and local police detectives have had regular access to a gigantic database that contains detailed records of every American phone call that’s passed through an AT&T switch in the past 26 years. The program, named the Hemisphere Project, also pays AT&T employees to work alongside drug-enforcement officers stationed in three states.
According to a report in the New York Times, the Hemisphere Project began in 2007 and has been carried out in secret since. The database goes back to 1987 and includes information about every call that’s gone through an AT&T switch. That information consists of user’s phone numbers, the time and duration of their calls, and their location. About 4 billion new calls are added to the database each day. For comparison, the Patriot Act allows the NSA to store just five years worth of caller information, which can only include phone numbers and the time and duration of calls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wifi pushing into the 900 megahertz
IEEE is preparing a plug-in to 802.11standard. The new ah technology works at 900 MHz band and aims to challenge the ultra low power and low-cost wireless technologies such as home automation and the Internet of Things (Internet of Things) region.
The project is considered to be a special in many ways. WiFi is already taken home entertainment centers as a shortcut to 60 GHz range. In addition, under the gigahertz operates several successful low power consumption technologies, such as ZigBee and Z-Wave. Also, low fuel consumption for bluetooth low energy version wants their share of the home automation market.
The objective is to provide a connection that would transfer one megahertz channel 150 kilobits per second channel and eight megahertz up to 40 megabits per second. Link levying designed distinctly longer than, say, the current n-type connections.
IEEE ah-working group, under the gigahertz range wireless technologies, the problem is fragmentation. There are a dozen different types of connection and protocol, which makes it difficult, for example routers development. The ideal situation would be one of the standardized technology as such by the IEEE ah new version is planning.
The new configuration will host its first vote in late September. Next year is expected to available in the first oh-circuits, even if the standard goes the final completion of the 2016 side.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=297:wifi-tunkee-900-megahertsiin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Technology Demonstration Missions Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Latest News
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/lcrd/index.html#.UiRe0j9sUik
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/releases/2012/12-074.html
The LCRD project is NASA’s first long duration optical communications mission.
Space laser communications technology has the potential to provide 10 to 100 times higher data rates than traditional radio frequency systems for the same mass and power. Alternatively, numerous NASA studies have shown that a laser communications system will use less mass and power than a radio frequency system for the same data rate. “The team was very focused to insure we had addressed every concern about the technological ability to do this mission,” said Michael Weiss, project manager for LCRD. “We are most excited that the review board agreed that we are ready to proceed with preliminary mission design activities.”
When launched, NASA’s technology demonstration payload will be positioned above the equator, a prime location for line-of-sight to other orbiting satellites and ground stations. Positioning LCRD aboard the commercial communication satellite platform is a cost effective approach to place LCRD in orbit. The Loral satellite will provide the right location, space availability, and power systems needed to conduct the space laser communications tests.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New EU rules: Telco only SOMETIMES has to tell you it spaffed your data
Can’t do it immediately? Do it later. Can’t later? Give a, er, ‘reasoned justification’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/02/telecoms_companies_now_subject_to_new_personal_data_breach_notification_rules/
New rules setting out the circumstances in which telecoms companies need to report personal data breaches, as well as the kind of information they need to share in those reports, have come into force.
The EU’s Regulation on the notification of personal data breaches applies to all providers of publicly available electronic communications services, such as internet service providers (ISPs) and other telecoms companies, and sets new rules on notifying both regulators and customers about personal data breaches.
Under the Regulation all providers of publicly available electronic communications services in the EU will have to inform their competent national authority
within 24 hours of detecting that they have experienced a personal data breach.
If all the information that the Regulation states should be provided to regulators is unknown, the companies would be able to submit a partial initial notification within the 24-hour deadline and follow it up with a further notification
The telecoms providers will also generally have to notify individuals affected by a personal data breach “without undue delay” in cases where the breach is “likely to adversely affect the personal data or privacy” of those individuals.
However, telecoms providers would be able to avoid having to notify individuals if they can show regulators to their satisfaction that the use of “technological protection measures” has rendered the breached data “unintelligible to any person who is not authorised to access it”.
At the time the Commission said that the purpose of the new rules was to “ensure all customers receive equivalent treatment across the EU in case of a data breach, and to ensure businesses can take a pan-EU approach to these problems if they operate in more than one country”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eggheads turn Motorola feature phone into CITYWIDE GSM jammer
Innocent mobile turns bad… with good software
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/28/german_boffins_mod_moto_into_citywide_gsm_jammer/
Berlin boffins have spotted a procedural flaw in the long-lived GSM protocol and created an exploit around it which can knock out a mobile network or even target an individual subscriber in the same city.
The exploit, presented at the 22nd USENIX Security Symposium last week, takes advantage of the fact that GSM lets phones establish a radio connection before cryptographically authenticating them. That allows a hacked Motorola C123 to masquerade as any handset, before the real device can get connected, denying service to one customer or a whole network.
The 2G telephony standard embodied in GSM has some serious cryptography behind it. Once a radio connection has been established, a key-exchange protocol identifies the customer and encrypts the communication. Before that, however, the handset has to respond to a paging request and it is this response that the boffins have managed to fake.
Faking the response won’t get you access to the mark’s calls or text messages, but it will prevent them arriving at their intended destination
But denying service is certainly possible, and the team even managed to deny service to a specific number – which is more concerning, as this would be very hard to detect. Cutting off an individual phone could be very helpful in a number of circumstances.
El Reg adds that the encryption level is specified by the network and GSM authentication isn’t mutual, so this technique could be combined with a faked base station (which would specify no encryption) to allow a true man-in-the-middle attack.
Fixing the problem would mean changing the GSM protocol, which isn’t very likely. Operators could also keep track of radio links which failed at the authentication stage, which would enable them to alert a user if it was happening – though not by call or text, obviously.
3G networks do mutually authenticate, though they also establish a radio connection prior to authentication so could be vulnerable to a similar attack – likewise with 4G networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vodafone, can you get a signal at the top of your $130bn Verizon cash pile?
Verizon Wireless stake mega-deal sealed – now what to do with all that dosh
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/03/verizon_spends_130bn_buying_itself/
Verizon will buy out its UK partner Vodafone from their US joint-venture Verizon Wireless for $130bn, as expected.
The deal – one of the biggest in corporate history – will jettison Vodafone from America. But the telco giant was keen to stress that it never considered itself in the US market as it was just an investor in Verizon’s mobile network business – and an investor that has now decided to cash out its 45 per cent ownership into real money and common stock.
Details of Vodafone’s aforementioned multi-billion-pound investment, code-named “Vodafone Spring”, will be outlined this morning as the company speaks to investors. An expansion into mobile payments was hinted along with 4G infrastructure and investment in developing markets, but don’t expect any significant acquisitions or international investments – those have gone quite well, thank you, and Vodafone knows to quit while it’s ahead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chart shows who dominates 1 Gbps FTTP industry
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/fierecetelecom-chart.html?cmpid=EnlCIMSeptember32013
A chart and investigative article from FierceTelecom examines the progress that service providers have made in rolling out 1 Gbps services via FTTP networks in specific U.S. cities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Steady WLAN market gains seen; Cisco, HP lead in enterprise, outdoor wireless
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/delloro-steady-wlan-gains.html
A recently published report by networking and telecommunications industries analyst Dell’Oro Group reveals the Wireless LAN (WLAN) market to have expanded 13 percent in the second quarter 2013, versus the same period from a year ago. For the second quarter in a row, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems gained the most revenue share in the report’s combined enterprise and outdoor wireless LAN segments.
“Similar to recent quarters, two end-markets drove the enterprise-class WLAN market more rapidly than others: service providers and small and medium businesses,” explains Chris DePuy, vice president of Wireless LAN research at Dell’Oro Group. “Vendors have responded to this growth by developing new, specially-designed products that are shaping the WLAN infrastructure market.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
NSN will take the first LTE-Advanced networks in Korea
LTE networks, the building is still all over the stage, but the operators are already looking to move to the next stage of development. Korean SK Telecom, LG U + and Korea Telecom will launch the world’s first commercial LTE-Advanced Networks Nokia Network Solutions and assistance.
As a result, operators’ networks in the maximum data rate increases of up to 150 megabits per second.
A large part of the LTE base stations need to be updated to support, for example the LTE-A contained in the carrier wave combination.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=320:nsn-vie-ensimmaiset-lte-advanced-verkot-koreaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free space equipped with race pace with cloud services
Recording of data is shifting more and more from their own computers with Internet services. Users are lured to an increasingly larger amounts of free storage space. The race has moved hundreds of megabytes in the category of terabytes in the world.
Data volumes have increased since then, but in recent years the growth rate has been peaceful.
Now, the Chinese web services seem to follow Google’s early model. However, the change gigabytes terabytes.
Such a storage space for the user is required a little effort. The Next Web publication, services, registration is complicated. In addition, Baidu will charge the storage space of about ten euro cents registration fee, and requires the user to join its payment system. Thereafter, the user may, however, a terabyte of free storage space.
The huge storage of free provision of facilities it is possible to measure because of their actual availability is low. This is due to online connections speeds.
Many have access to tens or even hundreds of megabits per second speeds have access to broadband connections. Usually the return channel to the Internet, however, a speed of a few megabits per second.
Such speeds of terabytes storage facilities may not be fully rational. Discussions have found many online backup services to users. Computer tens of gigabytes to be secured file transfer web service can easily take weeks or months. Net-sized storage services on a realistic alternative only when the broadband return channel speed increases by tens of megabits category.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/ilmaisen_tilan_varustelukisa_vauhdissa_pilvipalveluissa
Tomi Engdahl says:
The African continent will mainly digital television era as early as 2015. As many as 47 sub-Saharan countries have agreed to the ordination of spectrum so that the digital transition is possible.
According to the ITU African UHF channels are released in June 2015. VHF-in analog TV broadcasts will end in 2020.
As part of the digital switch-over of African countries also intend to release the 700 and 800 MHz ranges for mobile use.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=321:afrikka-siirtyy-digitelevisioon-2015&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Servo Tech Makes For Quiet, Cleaner Factories
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=267377&cid=nl.dn14
In just a few short years, plants have changed completely. Factories are no longer loud, clanging, dirty, and inefficient. New technology has increased the plant’s intelligence, turning gears and cams into software, and greatly lowering energy use and maintenance costs. Computer virtualization now allows plant operators to design and validate plant operations before ordering the machines. A big part of the plant’s transformation comes down to controlling motion.
Running a single network
In the past, plants were run on multiple networks loosely integrated. The need for increased efficiency has pushed plants into creating a single network. “The old network is being replaced by network-based servo motion control on industrial networks to reduce wiring,” said Cromheecke. “That allows the axis to grow without more wiring. It also allows a single programming interface to program multi-axis synchronized programs. You can quickly reconfigure a machine and changeover to reset the machine.”
A single network makes it much easier to shift from one product configuration to another. “One of the other tremendous benefits of a single network is the increase in flexibility for quick changeovers,” said Cromheecke.
Improvements in software and servo systems that run on a single network make it easier for machine builders to customize their products for the individual plant. “You can do motion control and machine control, into one control system. Machine builders are getting smarter about their systems,” said Fritz.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PON management system said to reduce fiber maintenance costs up to 90%
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/pon-mgmt-fiber-maint.html
UTEL, a telecommunications research and development company, says it has developed a complete passive optical network (PON) management system based on its Fast Light technology. The new system will reduce fiber maintenance costs by up to 90%, the company claims.
Launched one year ago, Fast Light is a central office optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) fiber-optic network test system that can reliably detect optical network terminal (ONT) reflections through 128 split PONs without expensive wavelength-dependent reflectors.
In service, the new Fast Light PON management system will eliminate the conventional manual fault finding processes along with the skilled technicians, the truck rolls, and the costly handheld OTDRs that were previously required to troubleshoot PONs, according to UTEL.
“It can find faults before customers detect them and makes sure the entire network is running at optimal levels with fewer expert engineers,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wilocity delivers 4K video over WiGig wireless home networking at blazing speeds
http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/09/wilocity-delivers-wigig-wireless-home-networking-at-7-gigabits-a-second/
Two tech firms are demonstrating that they can deliver 4K video over a wireless network within the home at super-fast speeds.
Wilocity and DisplayLink said they can demonstrate the delivery of 4K video, which has four times more resolution than full high-definition 1080p video, over a WiGig network, which has a short range of around 30 feet but can operate in the 60 gigahertz band of the wireless spectrum. The data can be transferred over the network at a rate of up to 7 gigabits a second.
The demo includes a notebook computer that includes Wilocity chips in it. The notebook computer and a WiGig docking station with a 4K chipset from DisplayLink are able to connect to a 4k resolution monitor.
“Our partnership with DisplayLink to demonstrate wireless 4K graphics and video marks a significant industry milestone, as we are showcasing the ability of WiGig to offer capabilities previously exclusive to wired technologies,” said Jorge Myszne, vice president of products and sales at Wilocity. “It’s an exciting time for Wilocity, as the industry’s first WiGig-enabled products began shipping last February, new platforms launched this summer, and we are now showcasing new, cutting-edge use cases. We look forward to more exciting firsts to come.”
Wilocity uses a tri-band Wi-Fi solution to deliver the WiGig solution. When that solution is used for directional connections, the rate can get up to 7 gigabits a second speed. That helps it avoid interference with other data in the wireless spectrum.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Small mobile networks, so-called cells. femto, pico and micro cells in the world last year was about 4.1 million units. The number is growing by the year 2018, approximately ten-fold to 40 million.
According to Berg Insight, mobile network data traffic will grow by over 50 percent per year from 2012 to 2018 years.
This challenge can be met in many different ways. The operator can buy more spectrum access, the use of advanced radio interface or install the network more by base stations.
Small cells have been available for many years. To this point, operators have used them for example in places where the macrocells installation has been too costly.
Small cells are also becoming a multi-mode type, so the same platform can be used for 3G or 4G connections and WLAN connectivity improvement.
Hardware for Femto-cells and other low-iron is often based on very advanced integrated circuit system.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=329:piensoluja-pian-40-miljoonaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
M2M Meets Web Applications Spawning the Internet of Things
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/103237
The Internet of Things is growing rapidly. Managing the billions of devices is a challenge that must meet the expectations of users who have come to expect rich, graphical human interfaces via web browsers.
With all the talk, and with all the very real activity around the Internet of Things, we hear of numbers like 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. The possible applications are equally vast, targeting such things as efficient building control, industrial controls, military devices, medical instruments, smart consumer applications, transportation, environmental monitoring and more. A large portion of these 50 billion will be small and dedicated to a limited number of functions individually. Collectively, however, they will span huge applications such as those mentioned and generate vast amounts of data that are coming to be known as “Big Data.” That Big Data eventually ends up on servers and server farms in the Cloud where it can be analyzed, combined and used for applications we may not have yet imagined.
What we are really getting with the Internet of Things is the foundation of what is coming to be known as Intelligent Systems, where devices communicate with each other mostly autonomously and yet their functions serve human ends, so human operators and consumers must interact with these systems in some manner. Since that interaction takes place via the Internet, it is natural that they are accessed through browsers. And increasingly, Internet access for things and people takes place with tablets and smartphones with their touch screen browsers. So how does all this work with a universe of small M2M devices that also must offer human access?
It should come as no surprise that humans require more resources to interact with devices and their applications than machines do when they simply communicate with one another. In other words, as Wilfred Nilsen, CEO of Real Time Logic, points out, to have meaningful interaction with an application, you need more than simple access to static pages, which is what you get with a simple web server. A simple web server, such as the well-known Apache, is really just an HTTP protocol stack that can access static, pre-defined web pages. But web servers like Apache can be enhanced with plug-ins and components to add functionality.
Now of course most web sites provide more than just static pages, so there is some underlying application that dynamically creates pages in response to some user input. For embedded devices, that underlying application would mostly be some sort of control program that can execute input commands and return data about the status, etc. And of course, that added functionality requires resources in the form of processor power and memory.
The options for developers, however, should not be a choice between a simple web interface on a resource-limited device or a rich interface on a larger, more powerful device. There are, after all, these millions of small devices that are collectively doing all this important stuff. We want rich interaction with them as well. For interaction with a microcontroller such as an Intel Atom or an ARM Cortex-A4, you certainly can’t embed an application server, but you can rely on a combination of M2M communication among small devices and a small, dedicated server with the resources to run the Barracuda Application Server.
The classic M2M design uses standard SOAP/XML web services. But a SOAP stack with its XML parser is often too big for a microcontroller. Even the HTTP engine required by the web server may be too big for a microcontroller’s internal memory. A microcontroller can communicate with a specialized online web service by using secure communication managed with a TCP/IP stack and a secure socket layer (SSL) client stack
With this approach, small microcontroller-based devices can communicate with each other by simply exchanging data once the connection is established. They can also communicate with the application server running on a small, low-cost but resource richer platform. On the one side they don’t even need to be on the Internet, but simply on a local Ethernet connected to a port on the server device.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Got the CLOUD FEAR? Connected Data has a black ‘n’ blue cone to sell you
Dropbox without all the public cloud malarkey
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/10/wanna_be_in_transports_get_transporter_32/
Connected Data has introduced the second version of its private cloud storage device, Transporter 2, and is hoping to cash in on those users who have been put off by public cloud outages.
This is a file sync ‘n’ share product with a difference; instead of files being copied from your computer to a public cloud service (Box, Dropbox, etc) or to an enterprise’s data centre in a private cloud service (EMC Syncplicity), the Transporter is an on-premise, internet-connected 2TB storage device, peer-to-peer connected to other Transporters, sharing and syncing files between them. There’s no exposure to the public cloud and it can be used by consumers and business users without needing a central data centre.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: 10-GbE price declines drive record data center Ethernet switch market gains
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/crehan-dc-switch-market.html
According to the most recent Data Center Switch Report from Crehan Research, in Q2 of 2013 the data center Ethernet switch market posted record revenue and shipment results. The research finds that 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) price declines drove exceptionally strong growth in the segment, propelling the data center market’s overall growth.
According to the report, 10-GbE pricing within the fixed/top-of-rack switch segment — which accounts for a majority of overall data center switch shipments — is now almost at three times that of 1-GbE.
“Offering ten times the bandwidth for only three times the price of 1-GbE is a key threshold for 10-GbE data center Ethernet switch adoption,” notes Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “This type of pricing should finally drive mainstream 10-GbE data center switch adoption.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The road to 40GBase-T in data center networks
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-21/issue-9/features/the-road-to-40gbase-t-in-data-center-networks.html
The industry must develop cabling systems, networking devices, standards and field-test instruments suitable for the technology.
Data center network infrastructure is witnessing a transformation, driven by growing bandwidth and network-performance demand. 10 Gigabit Ethernet is the de-facto standard in todays’ data center with growing adoption of 40G. While 40G Ethernet standards already exist for singlemode fiber and MPO-based multimode fiber cabling, standards bodies are currently developing 40GBase-T Ethernet over twisted-pair copper cabling systems. Such high networking speed imposes strict performance requirements for cable components and cabling systems. This article examines challenges in ensuring adequate performance of installed cabling, with specific attention to certification testing in the field.
Several 40G physical-layer options already exist, and are briefly described here.
Singlemode fiber–Due to its long reach and superior transmission performance, singlemode fiber is specified for carrying 40-Gbit/sec data up to a distance as long as 10 kilometers, via 40GBase-LR4. The physical layer electronics and optics consist of four channels, each carrying 10-Gbit/sec data with different wavelengths. Singlemode fiber is the preferred option where budget is not a constraint, or when the link distances require it.
Multimode fiber–Multimode fiber with parallel optics and the MPO interface is the most popular medium for 40G Ethernet today, in the form of 40GBase-SR4. The networking hardware is less costly than long-wavelength, singlemode-based options, and it supports all typical link lengths (up to 100 meters for Om3 cabling and 125 meters for Om4 cabling) in a data center network.
Copper twinax–For short- reach channels up to a length of 7 meters, the 40GBase-CR4 standard specifies the use of twinaxial copper cable assemblies. The typical use of 40GBase-CR4 is interconnecting networked devices that are physically located adjacent to each other.
While copper twisted-pair is not an existing 40G option, recent developments suggest that copper structured cabling systems are here to stay, and that 40GBase-T will emerge as an important alternative to fiber links for 40G. Twisted-pair copper cabling is likely to retain its cost advantage over fiber, at least for the next several years. Copper cables are perceived to be easier to install and maintain. Importantly, Base-T networking standards over twisted-pair cabling are backward-compatible with autonegotiation capability. This enables organizations to upgrade to higher speeds incrementally, enabling greater control over capital expenses.
Lessons learned, moving forward
One of the key tasks in defining Ethernet standards is to determine appropriate radio-frequency (RF) bandwidth for communication. For example, 10GBase-T uses 400-MHz bandwidth, which roughly means that every Hz of RF spectrum carries 25 bits of binary data; in other words, channel capacity utilization is 25 bits/Hz. Higher-order and more-complex modulation schemes can increase capacity utilization. There is a maximum limit to channel capacity, known as Shannon Capacity.
The net effects of all these considerations are as follows.
40GBase-T will use bandwidth spectrum from 1 MHz to approximately 1,600 MHz.
The maximum length of cabling will be limited to around 30 meters.
The cabling channel is likely to be specified for two rather than the usual four connections.
The good news is that a large percentage of data center link lengths are well within the 30-meter constraint. Studies have indicated that more than 80 percent of data center links are 30 meters or shorter, and therefore eligible to benefit from 40GBase-T.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Software-defined networking (SDN) market worth > $3.5 billion by 2018
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/08/sdn-market-report.html
The interest in software-defined networking (SDN) will translate into a global market worth $3.52 billion by 2018, says a new study by Transparency Market Research. The increasing need for efficient infrastructure and mobility, as well as the popularity of cloud services, will drive this growth, according to the report. The market research firm predicts SDN spending worldwide will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 61.5% from 2012 to 2018. Transparency Research cites three main markets for SDN: enterprises, cloud services providers, and telecommunications services providers.
Enterprises represented 35% of the SDN market in 2012. However, cloud service providers are expected to be the fastest growing market segment throughout the years the report covers. Transparency Research says that SDN’s ability to reduce opex and capex while enabling the delivery of new services will spearhead its use by cloud service providers.
Cloud provisioning and orchestration products currently dominate the global SDN market, the report states. SDN switching held the second largest revenue share of the SDN market in 2012. SDN products and applications also will be used to design, optimize, secure, and monitor the network, the market research firm predicts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Controlled-impedance flat cable stands up to water submersion, repetitive motion
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/cicoil-controlled-impedance.html?cmpid=$trackid
Cicoil describes its new Controlled Impedance Cable as “a highly flexible cable with individually controlled impedance signals. This 30-AWG cable is offered with 1 to 8 individually shielded 100-ohm pairs, and can be used as a more-reliable and rugged alternative to standard twisted-pair and coaxial cables.” The company adds that the cable’s design can be used in applications requiring submersion in water, repetitive motion and exposure to harsh environments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digi International Deploys 500-Node Internet of Things Network for the Data Sensing Lab at Google I/O
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/103176
Digi International has taken part in deploying over 500 sensor nodes at Google’s recent developer conference. The Data Sensing Lab project demonstrates how real-time machine-to-machine (M2M) data can provide insight into customer behavior and preferences. Utilizing Digi’s XBee ZigBee modules and ConnectPort wireless gateways to connect the nodes, sensor data was then collected and managed via Device Cloud by Etherios, Digi’s platform for managing large populations of devices and connecting devices to applications.
Google used the Internet of Things to get a global view of their entire multimillion dollar event as it played out in real time. They learned where people are going and when, how loud the applause was for each presentation, where it was figuratively hot and where it was literally cool. But the exercise also demonstrated how easy it is to integrate M2M data, via Device Cloud’s APIs, with their own cloud-based business systems. Google and Digi collaborated to create a complete end-to-end solution in just a few weeks, one that was able to hand over 40 million data points.
The sensor network’s 4,000 data streams running over Device Cloud utilized over 500 XBee modules connecting Arduino-based sensors to provide continuous updates on temperature, pressure, light, air quality, motion and noise levels in San Francisco’s Moscone Center during the conference. The Google Cloud Platform team gathered, transformed and analyzed the information and then shared heat maps and other data visualizations in collaboration with the Google Maps team.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT Pros and BYOD Users See Support Much Differently
http://www.cio.com/article/739361/IT_Pros_and_BYOD_Users_See_Support_Much_Differently
When it comes to providing mobile support to BYOD employees, IT and end users have drastically different perspectives. More than half of tech pros recently surveyed would give themselves a grade of A or B. However, most users would give IT a C or worse. Why the disconnect?
A new report suggests IT might be delivering poor mobile support to BYOD employees even though IT pros think they’re doing a good job. In other words, mobility is becoming a major point of contention in the rocky IT-business relationship — and tech leaders aren’t even aware there’s an issue.
BYOD Isn’t Easy
To be fair, IT has a tough job.
For starters, smartphones and tablets have sold largely on their simplicity. It just works, says Apple. This is a hard standard to live up to for an IT department in charge of security and network bandwidth despite dwindling resources.
A whopping 86 percent of BYOD-ers say they access or save work-related information on their mobile device. Some 5 percent of users admitted losing a personal device used for work, either forgetting it somewhere or having it stolen. Given that many users have more than one device, CDW estimates one in 20 of all devices will be lost or stolen.
While this is bad enough, here’s the punch in the gut: 83 percent of lost smartphones are used in attempts to access corporate data, says Symantec.
Moreover, mobile devices put pressure on the corporate network, leading to network latency and scalability problems. Nearly 40 percent of IT pros say they’ve already seen serious issues tied to network performance.
The problem is only going to get worse, too, as IT pros expect the number of personal smartphones and tablets accessing the network to more than double in the next two years.
In order to corral these dangers, CIOs have had to implement strict end-user guidelines and BYOD policies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
European Commission plans net neutrality push
Steely Neelie’s ‘connected continent’ plan to kill off roaming charges from 2014
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/12/european_commission_plans_net_neutrality_push/
The European Commission (EC) has proposed to enshrine net neutrality in its statute books, with President José Manuel Durão Barroso signalling his intention to adopt the “connected continent” agenda proposed by commissioner for the Digital Agenda and veep Neelie Kroes.
Barrosso yesterday delivered the European Union’s State of the Union Address, in which he said the EC will “formally adopt a proposal that gives a push towards a single market for telecoms.”
“We know that in the future, trade will be more and more digital,” Barrosso said. “Isn’t it a paradox that we have an internal market for goods but when it comes to digital market we have 28 national markets?”
The Commission’s answer to that paradox is a single telecoms market, which Kroes thinks is justified because it will give the Union’s economy a boost.
The agenda therefore recommends a ban on charges to receive calls across the EU, plus “New rules that make it easier for operators to work across borders. For example: so they can work in multiple countries – without negotiating separate bureaucracy and seeking separate formal authorisations in each one”. Kroes doesn’t want a single European telecoms regulator but does “… want to ensure national regulators can coordinate more strategically
On net neutrality, Kroes says it’s time it to be enshrined across the continent because “Today, millions of Europeans find services like Skype blocked, or their internet access degraded: my proposal will end those discriminatory practices.” “Extra new ‘specialised services’ (like for IPTV, e-Health, or cloud computing) would be allowed only if they don’t cause general impairment of regular Internet access,” she adds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data Centers is intense race between the two countries
Finland competes with data centers in Sweden in particular, where community service was opened in the summer on a data center. Norway has also more strongly in the race.
Investment in Finland attractive to Invest in Finland in the organization, it is believed that the government’s planned electricity tax reduction is an important factor in obtaining new data center in Finland.
- The biggest Finnish-looking in the direction of a group of U.S. companies. When the company expand its market, the next step is usually to enter the European continent. They consider the whole, says the investment unit of drive Timo Antikainen.
IT giant Microsoft announced last week that the Nokia acquisition will establish a new data center in Finland.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/talous/2013091217478802_ta.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
IETF floats plan to PRISM-proof the Internet
Proposal hopes to ‘resist or prevent all forms of covert intercept capability’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/12/ietf_floats_prismproof_plan_for_harder_internet/
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has posted “PRISM-Proof Security Considerations” aimed at making it much harder for governments to implement programs like the PRISM effort whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed as one of the tools in the NSA’s spookery toolbag.
The proposal has just one author – Phillip Hallam-Baker of the Comodo Group – which makes it a little unusual
The proposal suggests the internet be re-engineered with “a communications architecture that is designed to resist or prevent all forms of covert intercept capability. The concerns to be addressed are not restricted to the specific capabilities known or suspected of being supported by PRISM or the NSA or even the US government and its allies.”
Sadly the paper is a little light on for actual ideas about how the internet can be PRISM-proofed
Tomi Engdahl says:
PRISM-Proof Security Considerations
draft-hallambaker-prismproof-req-00
http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-hallambaker-prismproof-req-00.txt
Tomi Engdahl says:
According to Forward Concepts about fifteen companies currently produce 4g or LTE modems. Growing a 4g phone market of interest to many, but Qualcomm’s position in the market is a strikingly strong.
For example, it is frequency-ie LTE modems FFD variant of sales last year. All in all modems were sold 47 million. This was Qualcomm’s share of 86 per cent.
Only Samsung has been in the region made significant inroads and that too only in our own Galaxy smartphones, thanks. Samsung’s share of the market last year was 9 per cent. For example, last week, Broadcom, Renesas Mobile ownership has ended up listed on the market by one per cent a slice.
Broadcom has said that it would launch Renesas acquired from LTE modem available as a commercial product for early next year.
Ericsson still wants a 4g mobile phones, and expects ST-Ericsson modem could increase the market’s third soon after Qualcomm, and Samsung (but that could be unrealistic).
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=350:modeemikisa-yha-qualcommin-hallussa&catid=13&Itemid=101