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:
Alibaba, Chinese Internet Giant, Plans to Issue I.P.O. in New York
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/alibaba-said-to-shift-target-from-hong-kong-to-u-s-for-i-p-o/
Alibaba is now moving forward with plans for one of the biggest initial public offerings since Facebook’s rocky debut last year — but in New York and not in its home market.
Much is at stake for the Chinese company, as well as its prospective advisers and potential investors. The offering could value Alibaba at more than $75 billion, slightly bigger than eBay and more than twice as large as Yahoo. It is expected to be several orders of magnitude larger than Twitter’s forthcoming public offering, already one of Wall Street’s most anticipated deals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can There Be a Non-US Internet?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/09/25/231220/can-there-be-a-non-us-internet
“After discovering that the US government has been invading the privacy of not just Americans, but also Brazilians, Brazil is showing its teeth. The country responded to the spying revelations by declaring it’ll just have to create its own internet.”
“Brazil and other up-and-coming economies have been pushing to shift the power dynamics of the World Wide Web away from a US-centric model for years.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel says Internet of Things is the next IT game changer
Quark chip means more than smart watches and wearable technology
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2296940/intel-says-internet-of-things-is-the-next-it-game-changer
SAN FRANCISCO: CHIPMAKER Intel expects the Internet of Things to be the next game changer for the IT industry, allowing firms to sift through huge quantities of data via technology such as the chip giant’s upcoming Quark low-power processor.
Doug Fisher, corporate VP and GM of Intel’s Software and Services Group, pictured holding the tiny Quark chip, said that the firm expects to see huge enterprise demand for its Quark processor, although he declined to name specific companies being targeted as customers.
“We’re not doing this out of our own joy,” he said during a media session at the Oracle Openworld show in San Francisco on Monday. “This will be the biggest inflection point for IT for a number of years.”
Fisher said that while technology advancements such as virtualisation and connected computing via networks were important, they were not mission changing, whereas the Internet of Things is a sea change for IT.
Intel unveiled its Quark ultra-small system on chip (SoC) family for wearable technology – which is said to be one fifth of the size of the firm’s current Atom processor and uses a tenth of the power – at its IDF show earlier in September.
The wearable technology aspect – while it has garnered most of the headlines helped by launches such as the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch – forms part of Intel’s plans, but is not the crux of the Quark strategy, said Fisher.
“We’ll innovate around wearable tech. But I’m not worried about hitting every aspect of that, Quark is designed for wearable tech and sensors, for minute types of devices,” Fisher said.
Instead, Intel is much more excited by how the broader internet will be altered by the dominance of sensors, which Fisher said would reach five billion by 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Tools & Learning > Products > Product Brief
M2M development kit speeds prototyping for IoT applications
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4421601/M2M-development-kit-speeds-prototyping-for-IoT-applications
By launching the Cinterion Concept Board for developers, Gemalto aims to simplify Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications and expects to connect more objects under the Internet of Things (IoT) concept.
The IoT gives physical objects the ability to automatically transfer information over a network, which creates a platform for smart decisions, with continuously updated data for improved processes and interactions. The Cinterion Concept Board is designed to speed up the creation of innovative solutions in digital signage, automated building applications, remote monitoring and device control, enabling prototyping within a few hours compared to days or weeks with traditional approaches.
Leveraging Oracle Java ME Embedded, the kit provides Java developers worldwide with an easy and cost-efficient method to engage in the M2M marketplace. Cloud-ready through Gemalto’s SensorLogic application enablement platform
Tomi Engdahl says:
Connected cars: Managing and securing data exchange and processing
http://www.edn.com/design/automotive/4421638/Connected-cars–Managing-and-securing-data-exchange-and-processing
With the rapid growth of cloud, mobile, and social technologies, there has been an explosion in the usage of lightweight web APIs (application programming interfaces) to link applications together across this new world and provide the backend for “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices. This has created an “API economy,” one driven by the demand for access to information – anytime, anywhere.
The automotive sector is making great strides in the IoT space. Cars increasingly include sensors which produce a stream of data, creating a phenomenon called the “connected car,” which uses web APIs to feed information to the consumer and manufacturer. This produces a huge amount of data which must be managed. In addition, APIs are used to control vehicle functionality.
For example, a car owner can use a mobile application to remotely lock/unlock their vehicle and activate the air conditioning five minutes before they get in. This mobile app connects to an API in order to interact with the connected car. In addition, within the transportation industry, an organization can remotely monitor its fleet to ensure its drivers are not driving longer than permitted, potentially falling asleep at the wheel. Car manufacturers such as Ford, Audi, Toyota, and BMW have already jumped on board the connected car trend, and it’s only going to grow as car companies start collaborating with external developers. In fact, cars are on track to soon outnumber mobile apps as API consumers. The sheer amount of data sent to APIs by sensors in cars is staggering.
The rise of the connected car promises a host of benefits, but as with the rise of any new Internet-connected device, data privacy could become a stumbling block to adoption. When it comes to data ownership, the lines between the driver and the manufacturer have the potential to become increasingly blurred.
Currently, there are very few regulations around privacy specifically for the connected car.
In an age of data paranoia, will the current lack of transparency doom the success of the intelligent vehicle? Anything connected to the Internet (including cars) has an “attack surface”, or entry point for malicious activity. Simply trying to keep the system secret is not good enough. An example is Tesla, whose APIs were sniffed and reverse engineered, further demonstrating that you cannot rely on “security through obscurity.”
In a Forbes article earlier this year, reporter Kashmir Hill discussed just how much our cars can know about us.
According to the same article, 85% of new cars have black boxes that capture information about the few seconds before and after a crash. Even the US Department of Transportation wants cars to go wireless so they’ll be able to communicate with each other in order to prevent crashes. All of this communication will be conducted through APIs.
Security expert Bruce Schneier said, “[The Tesla controversy] gives you an idea of the sort of things that will be collected once automobile black boxes become the norm. We’re used to airplane black boxes, which only collected a small amount of data from the minutes just before an incident. But that was back when data was expensive. Now that it’s cheap, expect black boxes to collect everything all the time. And once it’s collected, it’ll be used. By auto manufacturers, by insurance companies, by car rental companies, by marketers. The list will be long.”
“We should think now about who gets access to that data and how they do so, because one day soon, your car is going to be as much of a privacy concern as your smartphone.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telefónica confirms €1.78B UK smart meter deal
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/telef-nica-confirms-178b-uk-smart-meter-deal/2013-09-25?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Telefónica has been officially awarded an €1.78 billion (£1.5 billion) contract to provide smart meter communications services in the UK, confirming a preliminary announcement on the deal in August.
The operator said the 15-year agreement represents the industry’s largest M2M contract to date, and forms part of the Smart Meter Implementation Programme (SMIP) tender that will see 53 million smart meters installed across the UK by 2020.
Telefónica signed the contract with Smart DCC, a part of Capita, which will manage the smart metering service on behalf of its users as well as the data and communications service providers. The DECC said a data and communications contract worth around £175 million over 12 years has been awarded to Smart DCC.
Telefónica said the £11 billion programme is expected to deliver a net benefit to the UK of £6.7 billion through reduced energy consumption and more efficient management and deployment of energy across the country. It is estimated that a smart meter enabled industry could save 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year in 2020.
Tomi says:
Undiscovered Country of HFT: FPGA JIT Ethernet Packet Assembly
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/09/26/1534210/undiscovered-country-of-hft-fpga-jit-ethernet-packet-assembly
“a company called Argon Design has “developed a high performance trading system” that puts an FPGA — and FPGA-based trading algorithms — right in the Ethernet switch.”
“they actually start assembling and sending out the start of an Ethernet packet simultaneously with receiving and decoding incoming price quotation Ethernet packets, and decide on the fly what to put in the outgoing buy/sell Ethernet packet.”
Groundbreaking Results for High Performance Trading with FPGA and x86 Technologies
http://low-latency.com/article/groundbreaking-results-high-performance-trading-fpga-and-x86-technologies#!
Argon Design, a design services company specializing in complex digital systems has developed a high performance trading system using a heterogeneous mix of technologies to minimize trading latency.
Working with Arista Network’s 7124FX Application Switch which includes an Altera FPGA with hardware-level access to 8 of its 24 10Gb Ethernet ports and an x86 domain based on Intel’s Xeon processors and using the test harness developed for the Finteligent Trading Technology Community program, the latency measured was reduced by a factor of 25 over pure x86 designs tested by the program. For the measured leg in the test harness, latency was reduced from a previous best of 4,600ns to 176ns for algorithmically generated trades executed to the simulated market.
The enhancement in performance was achieved by providing a fast-path where trades are executed directly by the FPGA under the control of trigger rules processed by the x86 based functions. The latency is reduced further by two additional techniques in the FPGA – inline parsing and pre-emption.
As market data enters the switch, the Ethernet frame is parsed serially as bits arrive, allowing partial information to be extracted and matched before the whole frame has been received.
Then, instead of waiting until the end of a potential triggering input packet, pre-emption is used to start sending the overhead part of a response which contains the Ethernet, IP, TCP and FIX headers. This allows completion of an outgoing order almost immediately after the end of the triggering market feed packet.
The overall effect is a dramatic reduction in latency to close to the minimum that is theoretically possible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Long live coin cells: Getting years of battery life from small batteries in low power devices
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4421334/Long-Live-Coin-Cells–Getting-years-of-battery-life-from-small-batteries-in-low-power-devices
Imagine a central alarm control system, with tiny wireless alarm sensors sprinkled throughout a home or building reporting open doors and windows, glass vibration, smoke, CO2, etc. Or an HVAC monitoring system, with the sensors sending temperature, humidity, airflow information, with a central processing unit utilizing the information to optimize energy usage. And these are just mainstream applications- how about spooky spy applications like buried perimeter sensors monitoring vibrations caused by trespassers? Or sensors embedded in roadways detecting traffic, noise, or embedded in bridges reporting structural stress?
A large class of the sensors in these systems are “quiet” much of the time, measuring slow processes on a very low duty cycle or exceptional (interrupt-driven) basis. These sensors can operate on extremely low power, utilizing the very low power sleep states available in recently available microcontrollers, awakening and consuming short bursts of power only when a measurement is made and processed, or when the radio is sending data. The microcontrollers can wake in under 20µs, turn on embedded analog and the ADC, make a measurement, provide some processing, and return to sleep mode in a matter of a few hundred microseconds. The averaged power consumption of such units can be less than 1uA
These systems have in common the need for unobtrusive, generally hidden, often inaccessible sensors. And, the sensors are usually tucked away in places where there’s no power- so how to power them? Lately, it’s been fashionable to consider harvested energy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Corning developing multimode assembly for 300-meter 1.6-Terabit transmission
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/corning-siph-mxc.html
Corning Inc. recently introduced a new multimode fiber and connector technology that has been developed for Intel Corporation, to support Intel’s upcoming Intel Silicon Photonics Technology (SPT) products. In a release announcing the technology developments, Corning said, “The resulting combination of the Intel and Corning technologies is expected to help send massive amounts of data—up to 1.6 Terabits per second—at lengths up to 300 meters into and around servers in data centers.” The 1.6-Tbit figure comes from the technology’s ability to support 64-fiber connectivity with each fiber carrying 25G.
The new multimode fiber, of which developmental samples are currently available, is called Corning ClearCurve LX Multimode Fiber. It is designed to enable 25G transmission at 1310 nm, which is the wavelength used in silicon photonic systems, Corning says. The multimode fiber is bend-insensitive, Corning adds.
The fiber and connector will be offered as a complete product, called the Pretium Edge SiPh Cable Assembly, when Intel Silicon Photonics components are available.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WowClowd enables technicians to run cabling tests from a smartphone app
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/wowclowd.html?cmpid=EnlContractorSeptember262013
When brought to market, which the company expects to happen in the first quarter of 2014, the WowClowd tester will use a combination of the test technician’s smart phone, an app for the phone, and cloud storage to provide access to test results, project-management tools and customer floor plans. “The phone app is able to initiate and run tests, allowing onsite technicians to view test progress and results in real-time on their smart phone,” according to WowClowd vice president of product, Carey Gille.
“The WowClowd solution will be an affordable product that will transform the wire and cable testing industry,” Gille added. “This solution also optimizes client retention as clients will now receive test results on paper and at the cloud with full reports and floor plans, influencing them to return to the provider of this solution for future projects.” She added that the tester’s ease of portability is another asset. The main unit weighs approximately 12 ounces, and the remote about half that much.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom fries up ’5G’ Wi-Fi chips to chuck in your connected car
Supports 802.11ac and Bluetooth LE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/27/broadcom_throws_chips_into_infotainment_business/
Broadcom’s latest chippery supports 802.11ac and Bluetooth LE too – which the company reckons is good enough to warrant calling it “5G” and snatching a chunk of the automotive market.
The claim comes because of the Wi-Fi support, which has a theoretical top speed of 1Gb/sec, and despite the fact that this number was once the criteria for “4G” technologies (since scaled back to allow LTE and WiMAX use the term).
But despite the hyperbolic naming, the new silicon does bring an impressive range of standards to a single die.
As well as the requisite Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards, the latter incorporating LE so it can sync with one’s running shoes, the new chips support Miracast (screen echo) and Passpoint (automated hotspot logon) out of the box – and beamforming (directional radio) too.
By 2015, all cars sold in Europe will have to have network connectivity, and once fitted it would be churlish not to use it. Manufacturers are looking at GM’s OnStar and FordSync and wondering how they can generate monthly revenue from customers who used to only pay them once.
Broadcom reckons that by 2025 every car will have embedded connectivity, though that prediction comes from the GSMA [PDF], which as a consortium of big mobile operators is hardly impartial.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Phone boxes converted into national WiFi network
http://www.zdnet.com/phone-boxes-converted-into-national-wifi-network-7000021202/
Summary: What do you do with old public phone boxes hardly anyone uses any more? In New Zealand they are being converted into a national network of WiFi hotspots.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Apple Could Boost Speeds 20 Times on the Next iPhone
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/519646/how-apple-could-boost-speeds-20-times-on-the-next-iphone/
The new iPhone breaks ground by seamlessly sharing Wi-Fi and 4G for Siri. Further tweaks could boost bandwidth 20-fold in some cases.
A wireless networking technology found in Apple’s new operating system could—if tweaked—provide a 10- to 20-fold bandwidth increase in some situations, like on a moving train or in a busy urban environment, new research suggests.
The technology is called multipath TCP. It allows you to use multiple wireless networks—such as 4G and Wi-Fi—at the same time. But Apple isn’t using it fully, nor is it using an advanced version—one that also encodes the data being transmitted in new ways— recently shown to provide those dramatic potential gains.
Right now, as any smartphone owner knows (and often to their chagrin) your phone or tablet will either use Wi-Fi or you use 4G or 3G—not both at the same time. So your streaming video may cut out because the network you were using dropped, even though there’s another signal available.
Multipath TCP could change this by divvying up those video bits across the two or more networks. “Multipath” refers to using more than one wireless route, and TCP refers to the protocols used by most Internet traffic. Then, to use a simplified explanation—all “odd” packets (units of data that make up an Internet transmission) get sent over Wi-Fi and “even” ones over 4G. Then these “odd” and “even” packets get woven back, zipper-like, on the phone.
But in practice, it’s not that simple. The problems start with the fact that data-transmission takes longer from a cell tower than it does from a Wi-Fi router.
Multipath TCP makes up for this by tweaking transmission speeds. But matters get more complicated if you are moving around, meaning those timings are always changing—and worse still, if some packets drop out.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Security guru John McAfee returned to public
“Stop NSA espionage with hundred dolla device”
John McAfee, famous for its security software developer history, many other events and and a man who fled during a murder investigation in Belize, appeared for the first time in his escape after the public on Saturday. He announced the development of the against NSA device.
McAfee electrified the audience by telling the details of its planned device, which can fight off the U.S. national intelligence agency NSA’s widely practiced by phishing.
He said the future for themselves, and which he called the name Decentral, to enter the market of about one hundred dollars.
“The state can not get any to find out who you are or where you are,” McAfee promised. According to him, the state is unable to prevent the ban on the set as he brings it up for sale in England or Asia, where the United States to prohibit it.
Decentral gets its name from the fact that it communicates with smart phones, tablet computers and other devices, and create a decentralized, airborne and mobile local area networks in which government spy agencies are not able to penetrate.
McAfee hopes to have a prototype ready in six months, which has a range of three blocks to the city and 400 meters in rural areas, and that works with both Android and iPhone.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/stoppi_nsa_n_vakoilulle_satasen_laitteella
Tomi Engdahl says:
Austrian trial blasts 400G over single fiber
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/austrian-400g-trial.html
Optical transport systems vendor Coriant and A1, the Austrian subsidiary of Telekom Austria Group, have reportedly wrapped up the first demonstration of space-division multiplexing (SDM) on a live network. The trial saw the two parties jointly transmit 400 Gbps over the operator’s fiber-optic network — which also was a first for Austria, they added.
“This recent field trial highlights the future-proof capability of our backbone network. A capacity of 400 Gbps means that some 5000 users simultaneously watch HDTV or video streaming or use download from the internet via one single fiber,” said Marcus Grausam, CTO of A1. “This trial activity was an important step toward deepening our collaboration with Coriant and facilitating seamless deployment of next-generation technologies.”
The SDM trial leveraged technology developed within the MODE-GAP research project. Coriant is a member of the MODE-GAP consortium. SDM uses multiple parallel WDM transmissions in a single fiber to increase the throughput by activating additional spatial modes. SDM-over-multi-mode fibers offers a promising pathway to network scalability, the project participants believe.
The field trial ran over a 660-km route between Salzburg and Vienna and 8-QAM modulation. Coriant and A1 showed the efficacy of 400G transmission alongside 40G and 100G wavelengths transmitted via Coriant’s hiT 7300 optical transport systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Closet cleanup: Before and after photos
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/slideshow/2013/09/closet-cleanup-before-and-after-photos.html
It took four technicians a full week to straighten out five years’ worth of telecom room neglect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anixter issues step-by-step guide to terminating fiber-optic cable
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/anixter-fo-termination-guide.html
termination process for a no-epoxy, no-polish fiber-optic SC connector.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trends in fiber-optic cabling termination styles
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-19/issue-1/features/trends-in-fiber-optic-cabling-termination-styles.html
Knowing each style’s pros and cons will help you make the right selections for different applications.
In spite of the recession, fiber-optic cabling sales have been on the rise for the past five years. This is due in part to modern-day bandwidth intensive applications, growth of fiber to the premise (FTTP) applications, and the notion of some industry pundits who believe that copper cabling is reaching its limits. In addition, the perception that fiber-optic cabling is too difficult to install or too expensive, has virtually disappeared. Many people–from homeowners to network managers and system engineers–are discovering that fiber-optic cabling and technology are feasible.
Fiber-optic installations will likely continue to proliferate for decades to come. Presently there is a growing need for fiber-optic cabling installations both inside and outside plant, horizontal or vertical. Given the need and the growth of fiber-optic installations, it is important to stay current on trends in fiber-optic cabling termination styles and tools–no matter what segment of the industry you are from. Here is a description of different termination styles.
Heat cure epoxy and polish. This termination style was the original fiber-optic termination, which is still popular with high-volume installation or factory assembly houses due to its low cost, low loss and overall dependable and stable performance. This style is typically too cumbersome for field use
Easy cure epoxy and polish (hot-melt, anaerobic, etc.). This termination style is popular with contractors who have gotten accustomed to this type of termination. While field installable and relatively low cost, low loss, dependable and stable in most environments except those experiencing very hot temperatures, they still require polishing, offer less than 100 percent yield, and are relatively time consuming.
No-epoxy/no-polish connectors (prepolished connectors with mechanical splice).This style of fiber-optic termination is the fastest and easiest to install, making it a popular choice for anyone who needs to terminate optical fiber in the field. Latest advancements in this type of connector have improved yield, and little or no training is required. The downside is that these connectors are relatively expensive, and although no-epoxy/no-polish connectors are dependable, factory-terminated or fusion-splice type connectors are considered to be more robust and dependable.
Fusion splice connectors (no-epoxy/no-polish/fusion splice). This termination style is popular with telcos, long-distance carriers, and the military due to the fact that its performance is as good as a factory preterminated connector with very low back reflection. However, this style requires an expensive fusion splicer that can cost more than $7,000. The connector costs are at a mid-price point.
Fusion splicing of factory preterminated pigtails. Also popular with telcos, long-distance carriers, and the military, this type of termination method offers performance that is as good as a factory preterminated connector with very low back reflection. Again, this termination method requires an expensive fusion splicer, and connector costs are at a mid-price point.
Factory preterminated multifiber assemblies. Popular with end users and installation contractors
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multiple antennas a requirement for new cars
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/automotive-innovation/4421619/Multiple-antennas-a-requirement-for-new-cars
The new features of automotive interiors come at a cost of multiple sets of wireless information and content being delivered transparently to the driver. In the past, this was at most two antennas – AM and FM for the entertainment system. Modern vehicles need a few more antennas, and the count is growing.
A typical high-end car today has AM, FM, Satellite Radio, TPM, Remote Entry, Remote Start, In-Vehicle TV, DAB, GPS, Bluetooth, Collision Avoidance Radar, Parking Assist Radar and Electronic Toll Collection. Next-gen vehicles will add GSM and LTE in addition to Wi-Fi, specialized Car-To-Car Communications and additional systems for automated drivers assist.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scope option aids BroadR-Reach PHY compliance
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4421854/Scope-option-aids-BroadR-Reach-PHY-compliance
Offering a one-box solution for BroadR-Reach physical-layer compliance testing, Option BRR for Tektronix oscilloscopes automates the full range of tests required by the BroadR-Reach Ethernet specification, including power spectral density and return loss measurements.
BroadR-Reach enables 100-Mbps connections over unshielded single twisted-pair cable. It is expected to gain widespread adoption within the automotive industry, helping to improve in-vehicle safety, comfort, and infotainment.
Starting price for Option BRR software-only is $2000.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Equalize data streams to 32Gbps
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4421814/Equalize-data-streams-to-32Gbps
As anyone who attends DesignCon knows, moving the 4x25Gbps (and higher speeds) bits along copper traces is a design challenge. Testing receivers running at those speeds often requires equalization to open the eye diagrams. Tektronix has introduced new products and made enhancements to others that now form a complete test system for the electrical part of 100Gbps for Ethernet OIF-CEI-28G, 100G-KR4 and -CR4, InfiniBand QDR, FDR, and EDR, and Fibre Channel FC16 and FC32.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Latest 100 Gigabit Attack Is One of Internet’s Largest – See more at: http://www.eweek.com/security/latest-100-gigabit-attack-is-one-of-internets-largest.html
Quite possibly, the largest raw packet bandwidth attack in history slams a site for nine hours, but the site under attack stays afloat.
The attack took place on Sept. 24, and to date the victim of the attack is remaining in the shadows, not wanting to be publicly identified. The target Website is protected by cloud security vendor Incapsula, which was able to withstand the massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack and keep the targeted Website up and running.
“The most outstanding thing about this attack is that it did not use any amplification, which means that they had 100 Gigabits of available bandwidth on their own,” Gaffan said. “The attack lasted nine hours, and that type of bandwidth is not cheap or readily available.”
Gaffan added that he was shocked that 100 Gigabits of bandwidth was being used in a targeted attack and—other than Incapsula and its own service providers that were on the receiving end—no one seemed to notice.
“In a typical DDoS, an attacker will turn up the gauges on bandwidth as much as possible until they are able to break down a site,” Gaffan said. “There is no point in throwing 100 Gigabits of traffic against a site that will go down with 10 Gigabits.”
Gaffan’s assumption is that 100 Gigabits of raw bandwidth was the attacker’s own physical limit of capacity. The attack did not start off with 100 Gigabits of traffic, but rather that was the peak bandwidth achieved during the nine-hour attack, he said.
“Our assumption is the attacker realized that they were getting blocked and that there was no point in continuing to throw rocks at a tank if the rocks were just going to bounce off,” Gaffan said.
There are a number of reasons why Incapsula was able to withstand the 100 Gigabit attack. For one, Incapsula has more than 400 Gigabits of capacity that is globally distributed around the world, according to Gaffan. Incapsula also has its own Web application firewall (WAF) and associated DDoS protection technologies to further limit the risk.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Communicate_if_Your_Government_Shuts_Off_Your_Internet
Scenario: Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service.
This is what happened in Egypt Jan. 25 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government cut off approximately 88 percent of the country’s internet access. What do you do without internet? Step 1: Stop crying in the corner. Then start taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you can do to keep the communication flowing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Instant translation’ glasses to come online for 2020 Olympics
Japan’s NTT Docomo plans 5G network 100 times faster than LTE at Tokyo’s games
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/03/ntt_docomo_5g_google_glass_translation/
NTT Docomo has wasted no time ramping up the excitement ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games, in announcing a 5G network 100 times faster than LTE and augmented reality “instant translation” glasses – both of which should be ready by 2020.
Both innovations were unveiled at IT and electronics show CEATEC 2013 in Tokyo this week.
NTT Docomo is hoping to create a super-speedy network 100 times faster and 1,000 times the capacity of LTE.
There’s not much else in the way of detail, apart from the fact the firm is hoping to tap higher frequencies, given that the sub-3GHz space is getting crowded, with small cells used to boost coverage in certain areas.
Although NTT conducted a 10Gbps test back in March, it isn’t the first to announce 5G plans. Huawei already showed its hand back in August, speaking of a similarly uber-fast network, and Samsung has demonstrated 1Gbps wireless technology.
On the other front, NTT Docomo showed off its answer to Google Glass – Intelligent Glasses which can translate text on-the-fly.
A demo seen by the Beeb put translation time for the prototype at a lengthy five seconds, although improved speeds will certainly come as the technology is honed.
They could certainly be popular among tourists to Japan in 2020, although having struggled with hilariously mis-translated menus many times before abroad, those algorithms will have to be spot on for the glasses to be useful.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FAA Panel Endorses Wi-Fi as Safe
Report Suggests Lifting Restrictions on Hand-Held Devices Under 10,000 Feet
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303643304579109881458388274.html
An FAA advisory committee has concluded passengers can safely use hand-held electronic devices, including those connected to onboard Wi-Fi systems, during all portions of flights on nearly all U.S. airliners, according to one of the group’s leaders.
The committee’s report and its more than two dozen recommendations, which haven’t yet been released by the Federal Aviation Administration, go further than industry officials previously suggested in recommending lifting current restrictions on such devices under 10,000 feet.
The panel determined that no matter what applications the devices are running or what wireless-transmission mode they are in, “the vast majority” of aircraft “are going to be just fine” from a safety standpoint, according to a senior Amazon.com Inc. official who headed the group’s technical subcommittee.
Nearly all airline fleets “already have been so dramatically improved and aircraft are so resilient” to electronic interference
Only normal, ground-based cellular connections—whether used for voice or data—should remain off-limits, according to the committee’s recommendations. That isn’t due to safety concerns, but because of long-standing Federal Communications Commission rules prohibiting airborne cellular service. Those rules, in turn, stem from concerns about interfering with communications systems on the ground. Mr. Misener said the committee urged the FAA to work with the FCC to reassess those restrictions.
If the FAA follows the committee’s recommendations, fliers could potentially access email and the Internet during all phases of flight—but only through an airline’s onboard Wi-Fi system, which usually requires a fee to use, and not through their own cellular data service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Test Project, N.S.A. Tracked Cellphone Locations
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/us/nsa-experiment-traced-us-cellphone-locations.html?pagewanted=all
The National Security Agency conducted a secret pilot project in 2010 and 2011 to test the collection of bulk data about the location of Americans’ cellphones, but the agency never moved ahead with such a program, according to intelligence officials.
The existence of the pilot project was reported on Wednesday morning by The New York Times and later confirmed by James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The project used data from cellphone towers to locate people’s cellphones.
In his testimony, Mr. Clapper revealed few details about the project. He said that the N.S.A. does not currently collect locational information under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision the government says is the legal basis for the N.S.A.’s once-secret program under which it collects logs of all domestic calls from telephone companies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
These charts show Comcast acting more and more like a monopolist
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/01/these-charts-show-comcast-acting-more-and-more-like-a-monopolist/?clsrd
In a recent article, I suggested that broadband speeds were stagnating in the United States. Comcast, the nation’s leading broadband provider, begs to differ. And it has helpfully provided charts to illustrate the point.
The charts show that Comcast’s service really has been getting faster. But there’s a striking pattern to Comcast’s upgrades: while every tier of Comcast service is faster than it was a decade ago, the rate of progress has been dramatically higher for customers who pay the most. Comcast’s entry-level “Performance” tier has seen much slower speed increases in recent years than higher tiers.
That seems like a sign of declining competition at the high end of the broadband market. A decade ago, Comcast was competing directly with incumbent phone companies. Their DSL services offered speeds roughly comparable to cable, and they were beginning investments in next-generation fiber infrastructure. That gave cable companies a strong incentive to provide all of their customers with the fastest broadband they could manage.
Today, in contrast, Comcast is the undisputed speed king in many parts of the country. That has freed the cable giant to focus on maximizing its own profits, without worrying very much about improving the experience of the average customer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The First Personal Platform—for Everything
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/first-personal-platform%E2%80%94-everything
Maybe the biggest thing that ever happened to Linux—at least scale-wise—is virtualization. As I recall, virtualization first materialized in a big commercial way with IBM, which started by putting many Linux instances on System z mainframes.
IBM didn’t call those mainframes “clouds”, but that’s what it hosted. Now we have clouds of clouds of Linux all over the place. Nothing could be more widespread and ordinary. (Of Netcraft’s ten most reliable hosting company sites for June of this year, eight are Linux and two are FreeBSD
Now think about the Internet of Things, often abbreviated IoT. It is generally assumed today that the Internet of Things will require embedded smarts. But in fact, any thing can have a cloud, whether the thing has embedded smarts or not.
By abstracting intelligence away from physical things, we can unburden those things of the need to be intelligent in themselves. In fact, we can enlarge to absolute the variety of things that can have intelligence
Likewise, any company (such as Canon, LaCrosse, Sangean and Garmin) can give every product it sells a unique cloud of its own, with its own QR code, and transfer ownership of that cloud to the customer along with the product itself. If the customer welcomes a relationship with the company, and the company agrees to the customer’s terms of engagement (such as, “respect the privacy of this communication channel in the following ways”), the whole “own cycle” of a product becomes a much richer experience for both the customer and the company. The QR code then becomes what’s called a “TalkTag”—meaning that its purpose is to serve as a way for the customer to signal his or her interest in talking to the company.
Once that happens, both sides can learn far more from each other, in far better ways. If the product is the platform for a genuine two-way relationship, both company and customer are in far better positions to learn from each other. Companies can update manuals and provide notices of firmware updates. Customers can tell companies directly what’s working or not working, how the product might be improved and what new products the company might consider making.
The result, if all goes according to plan, is a true Internet of Things and the reframing of business around fully useful relationships between customers and companies—or, for that matter, between anybody and anything.
Tomi Engdahl says:
arkOS: Building the anti-cloud (on a Raspberry Pi)
http://www.techworld.com.au/article/528273/arkos_building_anti-cloud_raspberry_pi_/
arkOS is an open source project designed to let its users take control of their personal data and make running a home server as easy as using a PC
At the start of this year, analyst firm Gartner predicted that over the next four years a total of US$677 would be spent on cloud services. The growth of ‘things-as-a-service’ is upending enterprise IT and creating entirely new, innovative business models. At the same time, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have built massive user bases, and created databases that are home to enormous amounts of information about account holders.
Collectively, all of this means that people’s data, and the services they use with it, are more likely than ever to be found outside of home PCs and other personal devices, housed in servers that they will probably never likely to see let alone touch. But, when everything is delivered as a service, people’s control and even ownership of their data gets hazy to say the least.
Earlier this year NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden offered some insight – in revelations that probably surprised few but still outraged many – into the massive level of data collection and analysis carried out by state actors.
arkOS is not a solution to the surveillance state, but it does offer an alternative to those who would rather exercise some measure of control over their data and, at the very least, not lock away their information in online services where its retrieval and use is at the whim of a corporation, not the user.
Tomi says:
Ask Slashdot: Best Open Source Project For a Router/Wi-Fi Access Point?
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/13/10/05/1548257/ask-slashdot-best-open-source-project-for-a-routerwi-fi-access-point
“My wireless router just died. I have an old netbook lying around that has a wired network interface and a wireless one. The wireless card is supported in master mode by Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. What does Slashdot recommend I use to turn it into a router/wireless access point? DD-WRT? pfSense? Smoothwall? Fedora/Ubuntu/OpenBSD with a manual configuration? I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty and I know what I’m doing, but I want as close to zero maintenance as possible.”
Comments:
If you want something powerful but maintenance free then DD-WRT on dedicated router hardware is the way to go. Running an ARM system-on-chip without active cooling and everything on flash memory is going to be far more reliable than any kind of PC set up. DD-WRT does pretty much anything you want and you can get a root shell if you want.
For what it’s worth I prefer Buffalo hardware. It’s robust and performs well.
A properly configured and set up PC based router with appropriate active or passive cooling will be more reliable than ARM SoC based solutions due to the additional speed providing additional routing capacity. Most SoC solutions ive seen have insufficient power for reliable operation under anything more than a moderate load. Source: I manufacture and install PC based routers in places where ordinary routers are becoming unstable
Tomi says:
Google, BT and Microsoft sign up to Ofcom white space trials
http://www.telecoms.com/185032/google-bt-and-microsoft-sign-up-to-ofcom-white-space-trials/
UK regulator Ofcom has announced that a group of technology firms, including Google, BT and Microsoft, are taking part in what it says is Europe’s first major pilot of white space technology. The regulator said that the UK will be among the first countries in the world to road-test the technology, and that it could help support the next wave of wireless innovation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Europe Aims to Regulate the Cloud
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/business/international/europe-aims-to-regulate-the-cloud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The words “cloud computing” never appeared in a 119-page digital privacy regulation introduced in Europe last year.
They do now.
Even before revelations this summer by Edward J. Snowden on the extent of spying by the National Security Agency on electronic communications, the European Parliament busied itself attaching amendments to its data privacy regulation. Several would change the rules of cloud computing, the technology that enables the sharing of software and files among computers on the Internet.
And since the news broke of widespread monitoring by the United States spy agency, cloud computing has become one of the regulatory flash points in Brussels as a debate ensued over how to protect data from snooping American eyes.
transmitting data among mobile phones, tablet computers and clouds, even while encrypted, makes it more accessible to snooping.
The European Union wants to regulate the cloud even if that makes its use more complicated. One proposed amendment would require “all transfers of data” from a cloud in the European Union to a cloud maintained in the United States or elsewhere to “be accompanied with a notification to the data subject of such transfer and its legal effects.”
Another amendment takes it further, barring such transfers unless several conditions are met. Not only must consent be provided by the subject of the data, but the person must be “informed in clear, unambiguous and warning language through a separate and prominently visible reference” to “the possibility of the personal data being subject to intelligence gathering or surveillance by third-country authorities.”
And there are other potential conflicts between European and American laws. The European Commission is considering imposing sanctions on companies that turn over records to American law enforcement authorities if the move violates European privacy regulations.
While policy-making on cloud computing is proceeding on more than one track in Brussels, the tracks all appear to be heading in the same general direction: a more robust regulatory regime delineating how data is handled and released. Policy makers hope to have a new regulation in place before the European elections next May.
The stances from politicians across the European Union are similar.
“We need to realize that European citizens will not embrace the cloud if they are worried for their privacy or for the security of their data,” said Neelie Kroes, the European Commission vice president in charge of telecommunications and information policy, in a statement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russia to monitor ‘all communications’ at Winter Olympics in Sochi
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/russia-monitor-communications-sochi-winter-olympics
Exclusive: Investigation uncovers FSB surveillance system – branded ‘Prism on steroids’ – to listen to all athletes and visitors
Athletes and spectators attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February will face some of the most invasive and systematic spying and surveillance in the history of the Games, documents shared with the Guardian show.
Russia’s powerful FSB security service plans to ensure that no communication by competitors or spectators goes unmonitored during the event, according to a dossier compiled by a team of Russian investigative journalists looking into preparations for the 2014 Games.
But government procurement documents and tenders from Russian communication companies indicate that newly installed telephone and internet spying capabilities will give the FSB free rein to intercept any telephony or data traffic and even track the use of sensitive words or phrases mentioned in emails, webchats and on social media.
“Even as recently as the Beijing Olympics, the sophistication of surveillance and tracking capabilities were nowhere near where they are today.”
Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, which also co-operated with the research, said: “Since 2008, more people are travelling with smartphones with far more data than back then, so there is more to spy on.”
“Business travellers should be particularly aware that trade secrets, negotiating positions, and other sensitive information may be taken and shared with competitors, counterparts, and/or Russian regulatory and legal entities,” the document reads. The advice contains an extraordinary list of precautions for visitors who wish to ensure safe communications, such as removing batteries from phones when not in use and only travelling with “clean” devices.
In the end, the goal is overarching, but simple, says Soldatov: “Russian authorities want to make sure that every connection and every move made online in Sochi during the Olympics will be absolutely transparent to the secret services of the country.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disruptions: How the F.A.A., Finally, Caught Up to an Always-On Society
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/disruptions-as-society-changes-a-brighter-future-for-devices-on-planes/
“Please power down your electronic devices for takeoff.”
Millions of people have heard this command, but I couldn’t help wondering how a $70 Kindle, which has the electronic innards of a glorified calculator, could make a $100 million plane fall from the sky?
Not long after that flight, I wrote a column with the headline, “Fliers Must Turn Off Devices, but It’s Not Clear Why.” Within minutes, the e-mails questioning the ban on electronics during takeoffs and landings started pouring into my in-box. The column received 257 comments and was shared thousands of times on social media. Other Americans, it seemed, were as perplexed as me.
The New York Times employed EMT Labs, an independent testing facility in Mountain View, Calif., to see if a Kindle actually gave off enough electromagnetic emissions to affect a plane. The findings: An Amazon Kindle emitted less than 30 microvolts per meter when in use. That is only 0.00003 of a volt. A Boeing 747 must withstand 200 volts per square meter. That is millions of Kindles packed into each square meter of the plane. Still, the F.A.A. said “No.”
But then something started to change: society.
we saw how much people had come to depend on electronic devices.
And we also saw how slowly government — comically, at times — adapts to technology.
Last week, a 28-member panel set up last year to revise policies for electronics on airplanes recommended that the F.A.A. change the rule, allowing passengers to use their devices from gate to gate, including takeoff, taxiing and landing. Cellphone calls will still banned. People will probably be asked to turn their gadgets to “airplane mode” when they fly.
“There were a couple of cases decades ago where there were interferences noticed to some avionics, typically very old avionics, from devices like FM radios, or TV receivers with vacuum tubes,” Mr. Misener said. “There were instances where a plane would fly through a radar beam or a TV signal and see interference, and as a result, both the F.A.A. and the international community adopted rules that planes had to be resilient to those interferences.”
As a result, he said, they also unwittingly protected planes from future electronics.
Today’s devices, Mr. Misener said, produce barely external electricity. “The opportunities for interference are tiny,” he said. “Aircraft don’t have avionics that operate on the same bands as portable devices, therefore the equipment is resilient to interference.”
“If people are being told to do things because it keeps the public safe, there needs to be solid scientific data that supports that, and clearly that was not the case with this prohibition,” Ms. McCaskill said.
There is, however, one caveat to all this: people on the committee have warned that the F.A.A. might still take another year or more to carry out the rule.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Government To Build 4G Into UK Rural Broadband Plans
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/10/07/1148216/government-to-build-4g-into-uk-rural-broadband-plans
“The British Government is discussing a role for 4G in the project to extend rural broadband coverage beyond the reach of fiber. There is £250 million of public money to fill in the gaps left by the £530 Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) program”
“hopes to set up a more competitive 4G fill-in effort.”
Tomi says:
The Alliance for Affordable Internet
http://a4ai.org/
…is a new coalition of private sector, public sector, and civil society organizations who have come together to advance the shared aim of affordable access to both mobile and fixed-line Internet in developing countries.
ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE INTERNET LAUNCHES TO
STIMULATE GLOBAL POLICY REFORM TO LOWER ACCESS
COSTS TO USERS
Global sponsors Google, Omidyar Network, UK DFID and USAID joined by a host of governments, tech companies and civil society organisations from developed and developing countries in launch of new initiative, backed by Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech industry-backed Alliance for Affordable Internet aims to bring the developing world online
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/10/07/tech-industry-backed-alliance-for-affordable-internet-aims-to-bring-the-developing-world-online/
The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) is a new technology industry group launched publicly today that aims to make Internet access cheaper and more accessible in developing markets.
The group will focus on emerging technologies such as white space — which Microsoft, Google and others are piloting in Africa — which is seen as key to reducing the cost of Internet access, which could help more of the world’s population to enjoy the benefits of the Web, such as learning and communication.
The A4AI is initially focused on three markets in Africa, but it aims to cover “at least twelve countries” across Asia, Africa and Latin America by the end of 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackers Target AT&T to Vodacom in SIM-Card Scam
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-07/hackers-target-at-t-to-vodacom-in-sim-card-scam.html
At wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc. (T) and South Africa’s Vodacom Group Ltd. (VOD), a new hacking threat has emerged involving the illicit swapping of SIM cards, the plastic chips that authenticate customers on mobile networks. Criminals call users and impersonate the companies to glean personal information, which they use to hijack the chips and customer accounts, paving the way for online banking fraud and international calling theft.
The scam represents a growing threat to the global telecommunications industry, which is projected to lose $46.3 billion to fraud in 2013, or about 2 percent of total revenue, according to the Communications Fraud Control Association. Account takeovers such as SIM-card switches are one of the most common types of fraud, and may rack up $3.6 billion in losses this year, almost triple the amount in 2011, the CFCA estimates.
“Attackers are definitely getting more advanced,” said Lawrence Pingree, a mobile-security researcher at Gartner Inc. “It’s almost like stealing at a bank — going right in and doing it in person. It’s very personal.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alcatel-Lucent to reduced 15 000
French network manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent intends to reduce the 15 000 jobs by 2015. The aim is to focus the company’s resources to IP networks, as well as knowledge of ultra-high-speed broadband connections.
At the same time the number of personnel cuts in other areas, the company plans to hire up to 5,000 new employees in the new core areas.
Alcatel-Lucent has been loss-making for some time now, its second-quarter net profit fell more than EUR 800 million in the red.
News agency Reuters reported in late September, relying on their own to your sources, that Nokia would be considering a purchase of Alcatel-Lucent. Reuters’ sources, Nokia might be particularly interested in Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless technologies business, which the company is in the process of reducing staff.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/alcatellucent+vahentaa+15+000++laihduttaa+nokiaa+varten/a936459
Tomi says:
802.11ac ‘gigabit Wi-Fi’ starts to show potential, limits
Vendor tests, early adopters bring 11ac performance, applications into clearer focus
http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi?pagetosend=/news/2013/100713-gigabit-wifi-274535.html&pagename=/news/2013/100713-gigabit-wifi-274535.html&pageurl=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/100713-gigabit-wifi-274535.html&site=printpage&nsdr=n
Network World – Vendor tests and very early 802.11ac customers provide a reality check on “gigabit Wi-Fi” but also confirm much of its promise.
Vendors have been testing their 11ac products for months, yielding data that show how 11ac performs and what variables can affect performance. Some of the tests are under ideal laboratory-style conditions; others involve actual or simulated production networks. Among the results: consistent 400M to 800Mbps throughput for 11ac clients in best-case situations, higher throughput as range increases compared to 11n, more clients serviced by each access point, and a boost in performance for existing 11n clients.
Wireless LAN vendors are stepping up product introductions, and all of them are coming out with products, among them Aerohive, Aruba Networks, Cisco (including its Meraki cloud-based offering), Meru, Motorola Solutions, Ruckus, Ubiquiti, and Xirrus.
The IEEE 802.11ac standard does several things to triple the throughput of 11n. It builds on some of the technologies introduced in 802.11n; makes mandatory some 11n options; offers several ways to dramatically boost Wi-Fi throughput; and works solely in the under-used 5GHz band.
A long-time Aruba Networks WLAN customer, the university has installed 3,700 of Aruba’s new 11ac access points on campus this summer, in a new engineering building, two new dorms, and some large auditoriums. Currently, there are on average about 80 11ac clients online with a peak of 100, out of some 24,000 Wi-Fi clients on campus.
The 11ac network seems to bear up under load. “In a limited test with an 11ac Macbook Air, I was able to sustain 400Mbps on an 11ac access point that was loaded with over 120 clients at the time,” says Davis. Not all of the clients were “data hungry,” but the results showed “that the new 11ac access points could still supply better-than-11n data rates while servicing more clients than before,” Davis says.
In perfect conditions, close to the access point, a three-stream 11ac radio can achieve the maximum raw data rate of 1.3Gbps. But no users will actually realize that in terms of useable throughput.
“Typically, if the client is close to the access point, you can expect to lose about 40% of the overall raw bit rate due to protocol overhead – acknowledgements, setup, beaconing and so on,”
“A single [11ac] client that’s very close to the access point in ideal conditions gets very good speed,” says Gast. “But that doesn’t reflect reality: you have electronic ‘noise,’ multiple contending clients, the presence of 11n clients. In some cases, the [11ac] speeds might not be much higher than 11n.”
Tests by Broadcom found that a single 11n data stream over a 40 MHz channel can deliver up to 60Mbps. By comparison, single-stream 11ac in an 80 MHz channels is “starting at well over 250Mbps,” says Chris Brown, director of business development for Broadcom’s wireless connectivity unit. Single-stream 11ac will max out at about 433Mbps.
There are still other implications with 11ac. Because of the much higher up and down throughput, 11ac mobile devices get on and off the Wi-Fi channel much faster compared to 11n, drawing less power from the battery. The more efficient network use will mean less “energy per bit,” and better battery life.
A related implication is that because this all happens much faster with 11ac, there’s more time for other clients to access the channel. In other words, network capacity increases by up to six times, according to Broadcom’s Brown. “That frees up time for other clients to transmit and receive,” he says.
That improvement can be used to reduce the number of access points covering a given area
Even 11n clients will see improvement in 11ac networks, as University of Delaware has found.
“The performance of 11n clients on the 11ac APs has probably been the biggest, unexpected benefit,” says Mike Davis. “The 11n clients still make up 80% of the total number of clients and we’ve measured two times the performance of 11n clients on the new 11ac APs over the last generation [11n] APs.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fiber harnesses break out 40/100G to multiple 10G channels
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/leviton-conversion-harnesses.html
Leviton recently announced a new set of conversion fiber harnesses, now available as part of the company’s Opt-X Unity parallel-to-duplex fiber-cable assemblies. “The harnesses are necessary in converting 10G [SFP+ applications] that interface with 40G [QSFP+] or 100G [CFP, CXP] ports,” the company explained. “The harnesses join an MTP connector on one end with 4, 10 or 12 duplex LC connectors on the other end.”
David Mullen, senior product manager for fiber at Leviton, said the new harnesses “provide a simple way to break out 40-GbE or 100-GbE connections into individual 10-GbE channels. It’s a smart way to use the QSFP+, CFP and CXP transceivers as a high-density 10G application.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
PLX, FCI team to demo PCIe data center connectivity over optical cabling
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/pcie-over-optical-cabling.html
PLX Technology (NASDAQ: PLXT), a specialist in PCI Express (PCIe) silicon and software connectivity for enabling emerging data center architectures, and FCI, a manufacturer of connectors and interconnect systems, are collaborating on a live demonstration of PCIe over optical cabling, showcased at the 39th European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) event in London (September 23-25). PLX and FCI are demonstrating the use of FCI’s new mini-SAS high-density (MSHD) active optical cable (AOC) to provide 32Gbps (PCIe Gen3, x4) optical connectivity in a small-form-factor solution.
The demonstration highlights how a PLX PCIe switch card connects to a PLX five-bay PCIe expansion card through the use of a standard MSHD connector and FCI’s new MSHD AOC. The expansion card allows any devices connected (such as PCIe adaptors, solid-state drives and NIC cards) to interact with the main motherboard/server as if it were a device installed inside the chassis. The demonstration platform can be used by those interested in developing system solutions for PCIe over non-standard PCIe cabling.
“We have seen a significant number of customers coming to PLX and asking for high-density, high-performance, low-cost connectivity solutions to expand PCI Express outside the box,” comments Reginald Conley, vice president, applications engineering, PLX. “To be effective and meet the needs of a wide range of PCI Express users, these solutions must possess what we call the ‘triple threat’ connectivity option — copper, optical and AOC. In doing so, the widest range of performance and cost metrics can be met, and Mini-SAS HD has the potential to be one such solution.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Calculating the costs of testing errors
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/testing-error-calculator.html
As part of the research that went into the development and launch of the Versiv cabling-test platform, Fluke Networks gathered a significant amount of information from cabling contractors and test technicians related to, among other things, the efficiency with which the testing process is carried out.
Now Fluke Networks is also putting some of that information to use in other ways. For example, the company recently made available on its website a calculator that enables cabling installers/test technicians to calculate the number of hours lost in a month to inefficiencies in the testing process.
The page boldly states, “Cable installers report losing over $30,000 (USD) per year on certification issues.” It then asks, “How much do these issues cost you?” before enabling users to calculate for themselves. Based on its study of 1,110 cable installers worldwide, Fluke Networks makes the additional statement: “Installers waste, on average, over 56 hours a month dealing with [common testing problems]. That can turn profitable jobs into unprofitable ones.”
Among them are the following.
Copper cables are tested with the wrong limits and have to be retested.
Test results are stored in multiple testers which have to be hunted down and the results consolidated.
Troubleshooting one or more negative loss results.
Misunderstandings with customers about results that are actually OK but have to be explained to them.
Problems setting the fiber reference.
Teams have to consult with technical support from a cable or connector manufacturer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Teletherapy Startup Works to Remove Barriers to Mental Health Care
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2013/10/09/teletherapy-startup-aims-remove-barriers-mental-health-care/?single_page=true
Is the digital age sending the old therapist’s couch the way of the reference librarian, the CD, and the travel agent? Could be: several recent studies have found that therapy via the Internet is just as effective as face-to-face treatment. In 2012, a Veterans Affairs study found that teletherapy reduced patients’ psychiatric hospital admissions by about 25 percent, which means it could produce cost savings as well.
But to get online therapy startup Breakthrough off the ground, CEO and co-founder Mark Goldenson had to overcome two major obstacles. One, convince venture capitalists to invest in healthcare IT. And two, find insurance companies who would be willing to partner with the service and cover their members’ mental healthcare costs.
Goldenson’s first job would be to find investors who could see past the failures in the sector. “Healthcare IT is a bit of a graveyard for Silicon Valley investors,” Goldenson says. “They see it as slow; it requires behavioral change. It’s the opposite of the darling social media companies.” And not all investors are interested in “social good” companies. “They see it as a turnoff. Are you going to have to compete with non-profits? Will you be maximizing profits?” he says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Solutions and Networks and the Juniper Networks expand mobile broadband technology in cooperation with the IP-based networks.
The cooperation covers a wide area of the frame of future networks, radio networks, safety features, including traffic encryption and the ability to block the traffic coming to the 2G, 3G and LTE networks. Developed in co-operation with mobile stations IP-based connectivity and telecom-level network address translation.
Mobile networks are LTE technologies become more common, getting out of the traditional switched telephone network, bringing burdens. They are able to use more and more directly to the dominant IP-based network technology.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/verkko_nokia_ja_juniper_laajentavat_yhteistyota
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dual-band WiFi technology for rugged machine-to-machine connectivity
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/bb-airbornem2m.html
New-generation, dual-band WiFi technology from B&B Electronics, called the Airborne M2M platform, provides “secure, dual-band WiFi connectivity to rugged and mission-critical M2M networks,”
“The WiFi connectivity technology is useful for rugged, mission-critical applications that need both Ethernet connectivity and wireless mobility, such as transportation vehicles [forklifts in warehouse shipping/receiving], mobile printers [rental car companies], medical [hospital patient monitoring systems, nurses’ stations] and more,” B&B said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mini Category 6 trunk promises decreased cable congestion
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/cablexpress-mini-cat6.html
CablExpress says its new mini Category 6 copper trunk has “a significant reduction in diameter” and therefore “decreases cabling congestion and allows for increased airflow in the data center.” The trunk’s bundle has an outside diameter of 0.62 inches, which the company explains is down from its original 1.2-inch size.
Peter Belyea, president of CablExpress, said, “This product will be very beneficial for those looking to create a well-designed structured cabling system that maximizes space in the data center. While the use of fiber cabling has been steadily increasing to keep up with faster network speeds, copper cabling is still a main component in many data center platforms
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moxa rolls out industrial-grade outdoor wireless solution
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/moxa-wap.html
Moxa is meeting the growing need for faster wireless transmission speeds and wider coverage for industrial networks with its new AWK-6232 wireless access point/bridge/client, which allows outdoor networks to scale to higher bandwidth demand while providing maximum availability.
Because industrial and outdoor applications expose network devices to extreme heat and cold, moisture, corrosive liquids, and shock, Moxa housed the AWK-6232 inside an IP68-rated metal enclosure complete with waterproof/dustproof M12 (anti-vibration) RJ45 connectors. This feature set is compliant with the essential sections of EN 50155, covering operating temperature, power input voltage, surge, ESD and vibration resistance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: More mobile operators jumping on Carrier Wi-Fi bandwagon
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/abi-research-carrier-wifi-bandwagon.html
ABI Research forecasts Carrier Wi-Fi access point shipments to reach 9.7 million in 2018, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for 70% of that number. Carrier Wi-Fi technology started to gain momentum in 2013 driven by increasing data demands and new Wi-Fi advancements, notes the analyst firm’s latest report on the technology. Cable operators are reportedly now enthusiastically adopting the technology as an entrance into the wireless market.
The new research describes how, in the U.S., a very successful model has been deployed by Cable WiFi, an alliance formed of five of the biggest cable operators in the country, including Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, and Time Warner Cable. Customers of any of the alliance members can roam seamlessly in the biggest Wi-Fi network in the U.S. with more than 150,000 hotspots.
“While it is a great marketing strategy allowing Cable operators to retain their customers and enhance the service, Cable WiFi also shows that monetization is a possibility for roaming,”
Deploying Carrier Wi-Fi can be more challenging for mobile operators due to the complexities of integrating Wi-Fi with wireless networks, notes ABI.
Both Carrier Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi technology experienced significant technical developments in 2013. The standardization process sponsored by the Wireless Broadband Alliance is gaining more recognition as it finishes its 2nd phase and enters the 3rd phase. The Wi-Fi Alliance has also been very active preparing for Release 2 of Passpoint and announcing new Wi-Fi certification programs, Wi-Fi Certified ac and WiGig Certified. Both programs focus on the provisioning of high data rates; 1.3 Gbps and 7 Gbps respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 key advantages to using DAS
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/6-das-advantages.html
At FierceWireless, Mobile Experts LLC principal analyst Joe Madden discerns 6 key benefits that only distributed antenna systems (DAS) can offer, resulting from how many different parts of the mobile network such deployments generally touch.
1.) DAS can include Wi-Fi.
2.) DAS is preferred by city government.
3.) Small Cells make great signal sources for DAS.
4.) Small Cells can also use DAS as backhaul.
5.) Outdoor DAS is quicker than towers. Outdoor DAS is actually growing faster than indoor DAS in the U.S. market, because LTE roll-out needs to happen quickly and new towers are not quick.
6.) Mobile Operators are spending on DAS.