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:
Survey identifies operators’ LTE deployment challenges
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/lte-deployment-challenges.html
Market research firm Infonetics Research has released highlights from its 2013 LTE Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, for which operators were interviewed about their Long Term Evolution (LTE) network drivers, deployment plans, challenges and service offerings.
The report states that LTE-Advanced technology is gearing up for 4G prime time, with the 1st commercial deployment launched in June 2013 by SK Telecom.
“Installing the access leg of an LTE network or E-UTRAN is going smoothly for many of the operators we interviewed for our latest LTE study, though voice migration to LTE and LTE roaming have emerged as major issues in the core. So don’t expect a massive 2G/3G network shutdown anytime soon,”
However, the survey found that heterogeneous solutions comprising macrocells, microcells, picocells and metrocells are gaining momentum for both 3G and LTE networks. Operator respondents rate Ericsson, Huawei and NSN as the top LTE equipment manufacturers, with Alcatel-Lucent close behind.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Active DAS, in-building wireless market for to exceed $1B by 2013
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2012/08/report–active-das.html
New analysis from ABI Research estimates active DAS (distributed antenna systems) equipment revenues to exceed $1 billion by 2013.
As tallied by ABI, active DAS equipment is mostly made up of headend and remote units, which are used to distribute cellular signals throughout a building. The global market for in-building wireless equipment is estimated to reach $2 billion by 2013, adds the analyst firm, with active DAS contributing 50% of the total revenues. The other half includes passive DAS, repeaters, cabling, and antennas. The overall market for in-building wireless, which includes equipment and service revenues, also known as labor costs, is estimated to reach $3.6 billion by end 2013.
“Active DAS is the fastest growing segment of the market today, as large public and commercial buildings need highly scalable, flexible, high-capacity, multi-technology, and multi-operator solutions,” comments Aditya Kaul, practice director, mobile networks at ABI Research.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HD-PLC baseband IC to enable the smart home
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4422585/HD-PLC-baseband-IC-to-enable-the-smart-home
Rohm has begun development of a baseband IC compliant with HD-PLC Inside, a broadband high-speed power-line communication technology for embedding into home appliances, energy-management systems, and lighting devices to create home networks using existing power lines.
Products based on HD-PLC Inside enable low-cost, low-power, high-speed communications by simply plugging into AC outlets.
In addition to HD-PLC Inside baseband processing, the Rohm device provides an ARM7TDMI core for handling TCP/IP and other protocols
Tomi Engdahl says:
These professionals are screaming for choice – 68% would pay more pay if you find
Service Cloud Technology to develop a report commissioned by Citrix reveals that many constantly available network services providers in the Nordic companies is a shortage of skilled professionals to network management. More than a quarter of the companies said in the report of expert professionals are hard to find.
Up to 57 percent of all online companies offering their services would cost more pay for job seekers, which dominates the multi-service network solutions. Technology and communications services companies among the figure was 68 per cent.
In Finland, the most popular channels in the network management professionals were finding new jobs on LinkedIn, and service. In the future, the need for skilled professionals will only grow.
When companies move their services to the physical form of virtual, they need to find a reliable technologies in order to provide the time and place independent of the services safely and effectively. Therefore, the need for IT experts who are familiar with functional and flexible solutions.
The study involved more than half of the companies offering their services online, either in part or in full. Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents of the Finnish companies operating online. The vast majority, more than 80 per cent of the Finnish companies to rely on an external partner network management, but in most cases only part of the work is outsourced. Only a fifth of outsourcing network management announced its entirety.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/uutisia/naista+ammattilaisista+on+kiljuva+pula++68++maksaisi+enemman+palkkaa+jos+loytaisi/a938146
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unifying Undersea Wireless Communication Using TCP/IP
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/10/15/0310249/unifying-undersea-wireless-communication-using-tcpip
“Wireless and cellular networks cover beaches and extend over the ocean to ships at sea but not, so far, under the ocean. A team of researchers at the University of Buffalo believe they’ve solved at least the technical problem of how to push wireless networking signals for long distances through the deep ocean to connect offshore oil and gas platforms, floating and underwater tsunami sensors and other remote facilities without having to bounce signals off a satellite first. Radio waves tend to be smothered or distorted by travel through water; most ocean-based sensors use acoustic waves instead, which link sensors into underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASN). The team designed a low-power IPv4/IPv6-compatible networking protocol that uses very low power, compresses headers, is tolerant of fragmented data and connection delays, allows bi-directional communication with (and reconfiguration of) existing underwater sensors and is compatible with standard TCP/IP networks and IP router proxies.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Extending the Internet to the Bottom of the Ocean
http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/extending-the-internet-to-the-bottom-of-the-ocean/
Wireless networking vendors have promised (and often delivered) access to the Internet from anywhere.
To technologists, that translates as “anywhere it’s possible to get a wireless signal.” To end users, it translates as “why can’t I get my e-mail from inside this cave?”
That lack of nuance in the expectation of end users has driven corporate technology divisions, wireless equipment vendors and cellular providers to litter Corporate America with repeaters, femtocells, WLAN access points and wireless range extenders that radiate the Internet into almost every train, plane and automobile and every corner of every corporate sub-basement, lunchroom or remote executive retreat.
Wireless and cellular networks cover even vacation beaches and extend over the ocean to ships at sea but not, so far, under the ocean.
Radio waves tend to be smothered or distorted by travel through water; most ocean-based sensors use acoustic waves instead, which link sensors into underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASN).
“A submerged wireless network will give us an unprecedented ability to collect and analyze data from our oceans in real time,” according to Tommaso Melodia, leader of the research team whose paper “The Internet Underwater: An IP-compatible Protocol Stack for Commercial Undersea Modems” will be presented at a conference on underwater networking to be held in Taiwan Nov. 11-13 by the Association for Computing Machinery.
It is possible to tunnel TCP/IP traffic to UWASN devices, but doing so creates overhead, increases what it already an almost unworkable latency due to the slow speed of signals in seawater, and uses extra power from sensor batteries with a lifespan that is already too limited, the paper explains.
Melodia and a team of graduate students from the University of Buffalo designed a low-power IPv4/IPv6-compatible networking protocol that uses very low power, compresses headers, is tolerant of fragmented data and connection delays, allows bi-directional communication with (and reconfiguration of) existing underwater sensors and is compatible with standard TCP/IP networks and IP router proxies.
The approach is more than a simple translation from one networking medium to another. It leaves the higher-level TCP/IP networking protocols intact, but adds an adaptation layer between the data-link layer and network layer that compresses headers, changes packet size, transmission time-out settings and other requirements to be compatible with slower underwater transmissions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Internet Underwater: An IP-compatible Protocol Stack
for Commercial Undersea Modems
http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/wnesl/papers/Yifan_WUWNet2013.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the future, the need for skilled professionals will only grow. Up to 57 percent of the on-line service providing companies would pay more pay for job seekers, which dominates the multi-service network solutions
“User demand 24/7 to reach the services places new demands on businesses. If the cry is not answered, it can affect even the company’s commercial success. Companies should first solve part of the recruiting challenges. Only then is the time to think about what kind of technology allows the network to support the company’s strategic growth, “said Citrix Systems Finland Kim Mashal release.
Quocirca to carry out a survey involving 300 IT professionals from the Nordic countries, the UK and Ireland.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/hallitsetko_verkot_toita_tiedossa
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner’s Dark Vision for Tech, Jobs
http://www.cio.com/article/741312/Gartner_s_Dark_Vision_for_Tech_Jobs?page=1&taxonomyId=3123
Science fiction writers have long told of great upheaval as machines replace people. Now, so is research firm Gartner. The difference is that Gartner, which provides technology advice to many of the world’s largest companies, is putting in dates and recommending immediate courses of action.
- Science fiction writers have long told of great upheaval as machines replace people. Now, so is research firm Gartner. The difference is that Gartner, which provides technology advice to many of the world’s largest companies, is putting in dates and recommending immediate courses of action.
The job impacts from innovation are arriving rapidly, according to Gartner. Unemployment, now at about 8%, will get worse. Occupy Wall Street-type protests will arrive as early as next year as machines increasingly replace middle-class workers in high cost, specialized jobs. In businesses, CIOs in particular, will face quandaries as they confront the social impact of their actions.
the “Digital Industrial Revolution,” as the analyst firm terms it, is attacking jobs at all levels, not just the lower rung. Smart machines, for example, can automate tasks to the point where they become self-learning systems.
Smart machines “are diagnosing cancer, they are prescribing cancer treatments,” said Kenneth Brandt, a Gartner analyst. T
Gartner sees all kinds of jobs being affected: Transportation systems, construction work, mining warehousing, health care, to name a few. With IT costs at 4% of sales for all industries, there’s very little left to cut in IT, but there is a great opportunity to cut labor.
The companies on the leading edge of this trend include Amazon, which spent $775 million last year to acquire Kiva Systems, a company that makes robots used in warehouses. Google is also on the forefront, with its effort to develop driverless cars.
This shift will affect employment, said Brandt, at Gartner’s Symposium ITxpo. “We believe there will be persistent and higher unemployment.”
The broader intent of the research is to get CIOs to consider the impact of smart machines on their organizations,
From 2020 to 2030, “you are going to see the first human-free enterprise — nobody is involved in it, it’s all software, communicating and negotiating with one another,” said Diane Morello, a Gartner analyst, who has looked at how smart machines will reshape employment.
Morello said companies increasingly will recognize that smart machines are part of the workforce. “Human beings are not the only workforce,” she said.
“It’s definitely easy to see a dystopian future,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wind River expands its software development tools to address the Internet of Things
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4422717/Wind-River-expands-its-software-development-tools-to-address-the-Internet-of-Things
Wind River now addresses software development for Internet of Things (IoT) gateways with a its Intelligent Device Platform, a complete software development environment used for building machine-to-machine (M2M) applications and devices that communicate with the cloud.
The platform is a scalable and secure solution that simplifies the development, integration, and deployment of IoT gateways. It is based on Wind River’s operating systems
The Wind River Intelligent Device Platform is optimized for Intel architecture
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Fiber now explicitly permits home servers
Commercial servers still off limits, but a business product is in the works.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/google-fiber-now-explicitly-permits-home-servers/
Google Fiber’s terms of service caused some controversy in July when Google found itself defending the legality of a ban on servers. After a complaint, Google told the Federal Communications Commission that its clause stating that “you should not host any type of server using your Google Fiber connection” did not violate net neutrality rules because it was just “reasonable network management.”
At the time, Google told customers and reporters that its ban only applied to business servers and that the “use of applications such as multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, home security and others which may include server capabilities but are being used for legal and non-commercial purposes are acceptable and encouraged.”
The new terms say that Google Fiber customers are not allowed to “operate servers for commercial purposes. However, personal, non-commercial use of servers that complies with this AUP is acceptable, including using virtual private networks (VPN) to access services in your home and using hardware or applications that include server capabilities for uses like multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, and home security.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slip your SIM into a plastic sheath, WIPE international call charges
Nano, Micro or Mini?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/16/sim_condom_wipes_international_call_charges/
A sticker slapped onto a SIM card can cut international calls by 98 per cent, and guarantee a 50 per cent saving on business spending, without changing numbers or phones.
The sticker comes from BiBiTel, and is really a second SIM which sits between the handset and the operator SIM. Most commands are passed straight through, but international numbers are intercepted and routed through BiBiTel’s service which provides discount calls on a pre-paid basis.
The tariffs are comparable to those offered by calling-card schemes
It’s not the first time an intercept has been slotted between the SIM and the handset. Developers frequently use a ribbon which breaks out SIM communication to a PC – the protocol is serial 9600 baud 8N1, so interception is technically trivial, but other than academic examination or cryptanalysis there’s been little reason to bother.
BiBiTel’s approach is a nice application of the idea, and should worry network operators, which make a lot of money on international calls that customers are too lazy to route elsewhere. Of course one shouldn’t underestimate the laziness of consumers – who might decide that wrapping their SIM in plastic is still too much of a faff
Tomi Engdahl says:
Looking for a free WLAN network? It is soon found on Facebook
Free WLAN network discovery is sometimes a daunting task. A new start-up company aims to help Hotspotio a finding, and aided by the use of social media.
The new Android app allows people to share information with each other in public networks, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. That is baked in a variety of incentive programs.
Users can share information from any network to which they themselves are attached, as long as they know the user name and password – and as long as they have permission to do so.
In practice, Hotspotio replace passwords manually switching networks. “It could be compared to, say, hand-written post-it post-its to change,” Schultz says.
According to him, the service, the iOS version is coming in early 2014.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/etsitko+ilmaista+wlanverkkoa+kohta+sellainen+loytyy+facebookista/a938508
Tomi Engdahl says:
NSN, Juniper Networks expand partnership to deliver new generation of mobile IP solutions
http://nsn.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nsn-juniper-networks-expand-partnership-to-deliver-new-generation-of-mobile-ip-solutions
Nokia Solutions and Networks, a global leader in mobile broadband, and Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), the industry leader in network innovation, today announced the expansion of their long-term partnership. The agreement now covers secure IP connectivity for high-performance mobile broadband networks via jointly-developed solutions that meet the end-to-end needs of operators.
Tomi says:
Ethernet’s 400-Gigabit Challenge Is a Good Problem To Have
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/10/16/1352201/ethernets-400-gigabit-challenge-is-a-good-problem-to-have
“Years ago, birthing a new generation of Ethernet was relatively straightforward: Enterprises wanted faster LANs, vendors figured out ways to achieve that throughput and hashed out a standard, and IT shops bought the speed boost with their next computers and switches. Now it’s more complicated, with carriers, Web 2.0 giants, cloud providers, and enterprises all looking for different speeds and interfaces, some more urgently than others. ..”
Tomi says:
Akamai: Half Of All Internet Connections Now At 4Mbps+, Safari Remains Most Used Mobile Browser
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/16/akamai-half-of-all-internet-connections-now-at-4mbps-safari-remains-most-used-mobile-browser-globally/
The ITU has recently published figures noting 2.7 billion internet connections globally, and today Akamai has released some numbers pointing to how fast those connections actually are. The company, a specialist in traffic optimization, says that we have now reached a tipping point of sorts: half of all connections made to its network are currently running at 4Mbps or higher — a sign that “universal broadband” is finally starting to become not just an ideal, but a reality.
The figures come from the latest installment of Akamai’s State of the Internet report, which crunches numbers based on some 1 billion connections made into Akamai’s traffic optimizing network and also covers other subjects like security trends and mobile internet usage.
Tomi says:
Akamai: Half Of All Internet Connections Now At 4Mbps+, Safari Remains Most Used Mobile Browser
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/16/akamai-half-of-all-internet-connections-now-at-4mbps-safari-remains-most-used-mobile-browser-globally/
Mobile browsers
Akamai tracking of which browsers are being used the most from mobile devices underscores two of the bigger trends in mobile adoption: Android may be the world’s most ubiquitous browser, but Apple’s devices are still more popular in terms of usage overall. Akamai notes that when it looks at access from mobile devices over cellular networks, Android Webkit is just edging out Mobile Safari, with other browsers trailing quite a ways behind. Webkit, it notes, accounted for 38% of requests, while Safari 34%. When usage was tracked across cellular and other networks (for example, broadband via WiFi), Safari shot into the lead, with 54% of all requests and Android Webkit at 27%+. This could partly be attributed to iPad usage; perhaps also just to the fact that while iOS owners may be proportionally smaller than Android device owners, when you take into account all kinds of usage, they are simply just using their devices more.
Akamai also notes that average connection speeds on mobile networks are now ranging from between 9.7Mbps to 0.5Mbps. Akamai doesn’t track this itself but notes that Ericsson says that mobile data traffic volume grew 14% in the last year, while voice traffic was up by only 5%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scratch Wireless Unveils Free ‘Wi-Fi First’ Mobile Service
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425853,00.asp
When you buy a Scratch smartphone, you’ll never have to pay a penny for service. No contracts. No ads. No catch. Just free service, according to the new wireless company.
Sound too good to be true? It is, sort of.
“The world’s first free mobile service for text, data and voice,” Scratch Wireless offers the 4.3-inch, Android-powered Motorola Photon Q, complete with dual cameras, 4G LTE, and a slide-out keyboard for $269.
And as long as you’re able to access a Wi-Fi network, you’re set to make all the calls, send all the messages, and surf all the Web you want. All for free.
When users are away from Wi-Fi, though, Scratch offers pay-as-you-go access to cellular data and voice, but without the usual contract obligations.
Scratch operates on a “Wi-Fi First” motto, aiming to revolutionize the mobile phone industry by providing Internet-based mobile service.
Scratch cited data from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which found that Americans spent an average $83 per month on cell service last year, while many families get locked into two-year contracts and pay upwards of $3,000 annually for mobile service. Meanwhile, consumers are actually using fewer voice minutes each month as people increasingly rely on devices for texting and data.
“We live in a world where many vital technologies — from email to social networking — are free. Why not mobile phone service?” Scratch CEO Alan Berrey said in a statement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Most ‘cloud’ traffic never sees the cloud: Cisco
Bits are stay at home types and find the wide world a scary place
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/17/most_cloud_traffic_never_sees_the_cloud_cisco/
A disconnect seems to be emerging between the technologies vendors believe are important in the cloud, and the way traffic is flowing between cloud data centres.
While much is made of a world in which workloads are so virtualised they float around between data centres like quanta teleporting around the world, most of the world’s traffic leaves a disk, travels a few feet to a server, hops into a virtual machine, gets munched, and returns home to the disk.
Data centre, traffic, in other words, looks rather like road traffic in meatspace: most cars spend most of their time within a few kilometres of their home base.
There’s a growing conviction among vendors that users want their virtual machines to be able to span different data centres – the vendors believe there’s a high demand for the ability to pick up a VM workload in Sydney and move it to, say, San Francisco.
But is this supported by the data? Right now, not much: according to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index available((PDF) here), just seven per cent of cloud traffic is travelling between data centres, and most of that’s for disaster recovery and backup.
Most of the traffic generated by the cloud remains not just in the cloud, but inside single data centres – 76 percent of it, in fact. The remaining 17 per cent of traffic comprises what you and I probably think is the whole point of the cloud: delivering stuff to users.
That puts an interesting cast on the numbers Cisco is presenting for cloud growth. The CAGR of 35 per cent looks relatively muted, even though there are lots of Zettabytes involved – Cisco says the annual 1.8 ZB of cloud data centre traffic predicted for 2013 will grow to 5.3 ZB by 2017. Traffic growth in traditional data centres will be far lower, running at about 12 percent CAGR, Cisco says.
If the distribution of traffic remains unchanged, that extra 3.1 ZB of cloud data centre traffic will contribute just 0.53 ZB to the Internet and private IP WANs.
The Register notes that there’s at least one physical constraint that caps the growth of traffic leaving the DC: the network itself. Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report puts the global average connection speed at just 3.3 Mbps. However, even growth in higher-speed broadband will probably be outpaced by what’s happening inside the data centres.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Screw Internet-of-Things: Boffins build Internet-of-Sound UNDERWATER
Do whale farts cause a 404?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/17/boffins_build_underwater_internet_of_sound/
Scientists at the University of Buffalo (UB) have tested an underwater network that could make internet-like communications across the world’s oceans a possibility.
“A submerged wireless network will give us an unprecedented ability to collect and analyze data from our oceans in real time,” said Tommaso Melodia, UB professor of electrical engineering and the project’s lead researcher. “Making this information available to anyone with a smartphone or computer, especially when a tsunami or other type of disaster occurs, could help save lives.”
Communications networks underwater are nothing new; they use sound instead of radio since radio can only reach puny distances in the deep.
The software stack, which will be presented in a paper titled The Internet Underwater: An IP-compatible Protocol Stack for Commercial Undersea Modems
Tomi Engdahl says:
Most parents allow unsupervised internet access to children at age 8
How old is too young for kids to go online unsupervised? Age 8, according to a Microsoft study.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/parents-allow-unsupervised-access-internet-and-devices-starting-age-8
When you consider all types of devices with online connectivity — mobile phones, gaming consoles, tablets, laptops, PCs, smart TVs, e-readers, etc. — there is a good chance you are online as much, if not more, than you are offline. If you are a parent of a young child, then you probably have purchased techy toys for either fun or for learning; as your child grows, then you must also decide at what age your child can go online, for how long, where, and for what purposes. Microsoft asked 1,000 adults, both parents and non-parents, “How old is too young for kids to go online unsupervised?”
Ninety-four percent of parents said they allow their kids unsupervised access to at least one device or online service like email or social networks. The poll found that most parents allow their kids access to gaming consoles and computers at age eight.
However, when it comes to kids under the age of seven?
41% of parents allow them to use a gaming console unsupervised.
40% allow unsupervised access to a computer.
29% of parents allow their kids under age 7 to use a mobile apps unsupervised.
The poll also asked about teaching online safety to kids. Eighty-nine percent of people without kids and 74% of parents “agree that parents should provide online safety guidance.”
Are you flipping kidding me? If an eight-year-old child is online, unsupervised, without safety guidance, then that seems like a recipe for disaster. And kids installing mobile apps without supervision…does that mean they know all about checking out the permissions that apps ask for and what is and is not acceptable?
Microsoft’s survey found that the average age is between 11 and 12 for kids to start using mobile phones, texting and social networks, which could still potentially be disastrous without some kind of parental online safety guidance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Next-gen intelligent application adapters for 100% network programmability
http://www.edn.com/design/wireless-networking/4422820/Next-gen-intelligent-application-adapters-for-100–network-programmability-
While increased data traffic by itself is applying pressure on networking gear and associated software service providers, the processing overhead associated with the traffic adds to these pressure points.
Driving sophisticated L2-7 programmability to the networking gear slows down performance.
Additionally, the rate of migration of networking and security workloads to the cloud is accelerating, and data centers that were designed to handle enterprise applications and databases face a daunting task. Servers are now expected to process 10G – 100Gbps of Ethernet traffic across millions of flows, perform security, routing, load balancing and other workloads – something for which a standard server was not optimized. Server virtualization, a rapidly growing industry trend that increases the number of virtual machines (VMs) in each physical server, further exacerbates the performance crunch by consuming server resources that are already consumed handling packet flows.
A few industry trends, specifically Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN), are driving the fusion of two programmable frameworks – the network and the server. The convergence of compute and flow processing places new requirements on networking gear, and drives a shift toward the use of standard servers for performing networking functions.
Traditional servers were not designed to handle network-related packet processing functions efficiently, especially across Layers 2-7.
Traditionally, the network interface card catered to a simple function of bridging packets from an Ethernet interface into PCIe transactions to and from host memory with minimal overhead.
It’s no coincidence that a number of industry players like Tilera, Mellanox and Intel, among others, are focusing their energy on this critical component.
From NIC to Intelligent Application Adapter
Given the importance of the processing block that connects a dynamic and high throughput network to a set of VMs running high-performance networking applications, the next-generation NIC must evolve and possess several key characteristics. It must:
Be fully L2-7 programmable
Conform to a standard programming environment (such as C/Linux)
Be open source friendly
Be low power
Perform critical packet processing functions before delivering packets to the host processor
Allow for offload of applications that are tightly coupled with packet flow processing
Scale with I/O capacity to enhance offloading and packet processing capabilities
Should allow for efficient transfer of flows to the host via the PCIe interface
Tomi says:
What Does It Mean for the U.S. to ‘Lose Control of the Internet?’
The NSA revelations have thrown open an Internet governance dispute that seemed resolved. What’s next?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/what-does-it-mean-for-the-us-to-lose-control-of-the-internet/280619/
Is the U.S. losing control of the Internet?
That’s how some are interpreting a statement released in October by 10 organizations central to the Internet’s operation.
“With striking unanimity, the organizations that actually develop and administer Internet standards and resources initiated a break with three decades of U.S. dominance of Internet governance,” writes Milton Mueller, a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies.
“A break” sounds severe—what would that mean? How much of the web does the U.S. control, anyway? And how fast could they lose that control?
Right now, the Internet is governed by a set of organizations with diverging responsibilities. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) helps assign domain names and top-level domains (the letters, like “.com” or “.org,” that come after the dot). Two other groups develop the standards for how information is shared and displayed through the Internet and on the web. And five regional Internet address registries assign IP addresses to Internet-connected devices.
And three bullet points in the statement imply ICANN. Here’s the main one:
[The signatories] called for accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing.
And what is the occasion of this negotiating? It can be found in another bullet:
[The signatories] expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance.
This sentence doesn’t mention the NSA but it’s totally talking about the NSA.
The NSA leaks, says Froomkin, have “become a way for a lot of different agendas to meet.”
“What you’ll notice,” says Froomkin, “is that the resolution is pretty vague about what’s going to replace the U.S. in terms of controls.”
Tomi says:
After Snowden’s leaks, China’s Huawei calls for more transparency in the tech industry
http://qz.com/136689/after-snowdens-leaks-chinas-huawei-calls-for-more-transparency-in-the-tech-industry/
With all of the recent revelations about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, it must be hard for the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei not to gloat a little bit.
After all, the leaks from former contractor Edward Snowden showed that the NSA enlisted US technology companies to enable its snooping on global telecommunications networks—which is exactly what US intelligence officials have accused Huawei of doing on behalf of the Chinese government.
Until now, Huawei has largely declined to directly address Snowden’s leaks and what they might mean for its business—a touchy subject
But with Huawei still largely blocked from operating in the US, and its American competitors facing new challenges in the rest of the world due to the NSA leaks, the company is trying to take the high road by calling for transparency and global standards to restore trust in the industry.
“It is time to press the reset button on the security challenge and ask ourselves if we wish the future to be different from the past, and indeed today, in what way will we work together to define and agree new norms of behavior, new standards, new laws and create a new realism in the balance between privacy and security,” John Suffolk, Huawei’s global cyber security officer, said today in prepared remarks for the Seoul Conference on Cyberspace.
Given the huge levels of disttrust in today’s technology industry, Huawei’s idea of finding common standards that all governments and private sector firms will adhere to is bound to be a Herculean task. Rightly or wrongly, Huawei has become a magnet for Western fears about China’s rapidly growing technology sector, along with its counterparts like ZTE and Lenovo.
Who inspects the inspectors?
Even if the industry adopts Huawei’s stated mantra of “assume nothing, believe no-one and check everything,” and assumes the worst about equipment makers and the governments they may be cooperating with, what then?
Finding intentionally-introduced vulnerabilities in computer hardware is notoriously tricky, since it’s relatively easy to hide them inside vast amounts of computer code and sneak them into a dizzying supply chain that reaches around the globe.
For its part, Huawei has set up a secure center where the British government can inspect the company’s equipment to make sure it doesn’t contain any “back doors” that would allow foreign governments to monitor or interrupt communications.
Tomi says:
SoftBank makes $1.26B investment in wireless distributor Brightstar
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/softbank-makes-126b-investment-wireless-distributor-brightstar/2013-10-18
Sprint (NYSE:S) parent SoftBank said it agreed to take a 57 percent stake in U.S. wireless device distributor Brightstar Corp. for $1.26 billion
Brightstar purchases handsets from more than 100 manufacturers including Apple, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony, and supplies those devices to carriers around the world. Brightstar also handles all trade-in and phone buy-back programs for SoftBank.
It’s unclear how the deal will affect Brightstar’s relationship with other carrier customers, including some that may be direct competitors of Sprint.
“Brightstar has been a model of innovation, transforming from a regional wireless distributor into the world’s leading provider of services to the wireless industry and we are excited about what that will mean for the SoftBank Group.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei blasts 1 Gbps broadband over coaxial cables
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/huawei-gfast-coax-broadband.html
Huawei Technologies has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first G.fast over coax multi-user access prototype, capable of providing an ultrafast broadband access rate of 1 Gbps over coaxial cables. This technology will enable coaxial network users to experience superfast broadband speeds, the company says.
The G.fast over coax multi-user access technology is compatible with cable-TV signals on existing coaxial networks, which serve as a ubiquitous access medium for home networks. By flexibly allocating unoccupied frequency bands (1 GHz maximally) for G.fast access, the technology reportedly provides a 1-Gbps downstream shared bandwidth to serve up to 32 users over coaxial cables.
As an emerging technology for which specifications are now in the development stage within ITU-T, G.fast has been targeted for short-distance twisted copper pairs
Huawei recently conducted a G.fast over copper trial with a European telecom operator that focused on 1-Gbps access. In addition, Huawei has incorporated G.fast technology into its fiber to the door (FTTD) offering, which takes fiber very close to the consumer and then delivers ultrafast broadband access via existing access media such as copper or coaxial cables.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analyst: Small cell ramp won’t happen this year
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/infonetics-small-cell-ramp.html
Telecom market research firm Infonetics Research has released highlights from its latest Small Cell Equipment market size and forecast report, which tracks 3G microcells, picocells, and metrocells and 4G LTE mini eNodeBs and metrocells.
“The large service providers remain committed to their small cell deployment plans, but the pace of deployment is much slower than expected due to a sad reality: Small cell and macrocell rollouts share nothing in common,” reveals Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Unveils Tools to Access Web From Repressive Countries
The tech titan is introducing products to track Internet attacks and aid free expression
http://business.time.com/2013/10/21/google-digital-rebels/
Google Ideas, the New York City-based “think/do tank” run by the Internet search giant, is launching several new technologies designed to highlight hacker attacks around the world and help people in repressive regimes access the Internet. The new products, which are being announced Monday at the Google Ideas Summit in New York City,
“There are billions of people around the world living in environments that severely restrict their free expression,”
“This is a company of activists and white-hat hackers,” Cohen says. “When you work at Google and tell these engineers that their skill-set is relevant to somebody in Iran who doesn’t have access to information in their country or the rest of the world, it really inspires them to want to do something about it. There is a genuine altruism that exists at this company, and that’s why I’m here and not anywhere else.”
The most ambitious product launch is uProxy, a new Web browser extension that uses peer-to-peer technology to let people around the world provide each other with a trusted Internet connection. This product is designed to protect the Internet connection of users in, say, Iran, from state surveillance or filtering. Google Ideas is providing funding and technical assistance for uProxy, which was developed by researchers at the University of Washington and Brave New Software.
UProxy allows users in the U.S. to give their trusted friends in Iran—people they might already be emailing or chatting with—access to the open U.S. Internet.
Google Ideas is also launching Project Shield, which is an initiative designed to help human rights activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), election monitoring groups, and news organizations better protect their websites from “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks.
“But NGOs, independent media outlets, human rights organizations, and election-monitoring organizations don’t have the capacity to protect themselves in the way that we do.”
The third Google Ideas product launch is the Digital Attack Map, which is a live data visualization, built in conjunction with network security firm Arbor Networks, that displays DDoS attacks worldwide in real-time. This online tool shows real-time anonymous traffic data related to DDoS attacks, and also lets users explore historical trends and see related news reports, via Google News, of website outages as they are happening.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Study investigates ‘constant and ongoing demand’ for optical networking technology
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/optical-networking-demand.html
The total worldwide market for optical network equipment is projected to increase from $14 billion this year to $17.25 billion by 2018, a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4%, according to the latest market forecast from ACG Research. Overall, the optical networking equipment market is forecast to deliver 10.1% revenue growth in 2013 and experience slow but steady growth over the forecast period – in contrast to the boom or bust cycles for which optical has been historically known.
From a regional perspective, immediate growth will come from network expansions by incumbent carriers in North America and Asia-Pacific (APAC), driven largely by the uptake in wireless 4G/LTE-based services. This build-out should take a couple years to complete and will also expand to the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) market where it will also fuel revenue growth in the outlying three to five years.
The legacy product segments of long-haul DWDM, metro DWDM and multi-service provisioning platforms (MSPP) will continue to grow at a CAGR of 4.7%, 4.7%, and 4.0%, respectively. These product segments will account for approximately 85% of the total optical network spend during the next five years, largely due to the relationships or dependencies between the product segments. The metro DWDM and MSPP systems provide the edge devices and customer interface to the optical network. Metro DWDM equipment is usually deployed to support Carrier Ethernet-based business services, while MSPPs support legacy voice data and video service offerings.
The deployment of these edge devices drives the need for the long-haul DWDM platforms to interconnect them, a trend that will not abate within this forecast window, says AGC analysts. Most long-haul DWDM vendors are now shipping 100G interfaces and have announced or demonstrated their roadmap to higher rates.
The only product segments forecasted to shrink over the five years are optical cross connects (OXCs) (-6.0% CAGR) and SONET/SDH (-9.1% CAGR), says ACG Research.
The majority of carriers have also stopped spending on legacy SONET/SDH gear as they work to transition their networks to an all-IP packet-based environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Omnitron integrates PoE to directly power small cell equipment
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/omnitron-poe-small-cell.html
Omnitron Systems has launched its GM4-PoE, billed as the first Carrier Ethernet (CE) 2.0 Network Interface Device that integrates up to 60W Power over Ethernet (PoE) to directly power small cell equipment, thereby reducing service providers’ total cost of ownership (TCO).
GM4-PoE NIDs are available in two PoE basic models; GM4-PoE+ and GM4-HPoE. Both models support the 802.3af PoE (15.4W) and 802.3at PoE+ (25.5W) standards per port, while the GM4-HPoE models also provide up to 60W of power per port.
The GM4-PoE NIDs also feature Zero-Touch Provisioning, ITU-T Y.1564 and RFC 2544 Service Activation Testing to simplify and automate large scale small cell deployments. Comprehensive support for ITU-T Y.1731 performance monitoring
IEEE 802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management
“Complexity, power requirements and high backhaul equipment cost have been critical factors slowing down small cell deployments,” comments Rammy Bahalul, Omnitron’s vice president of marketing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Skeleton Crew gets LADEE in Orbit, Checked Out and Fires Revolutionary Laser During Gov’t Shutdown
http://www.universetoday.com/105630/skeleton-crew-gets-ladee-in-orbit-checked-out-and-fires-revolutionary-laser-during-govt-shutdown/
NASA’s new LADEE spacecraft successfully entered lunar orbit, is operating beautifully and has begun shooting its radical laser communications experiment despite having to accomplish a series of absolutely critical do-or-die orbital insertion engine firings with a “skeleton crew ” – all this amidst the NASA and US government shutdown
“LADEE is the first NASA mission with a dedicated laser communications experiment,” said Don Cornwell, mission manager for the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD), NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, during an interview with Universe Today at the LADEE launch.
“With the LLCD experiment, we’ll use laser communications to demonstrate at least six times more data rate from the moon than what we can do with a radio system with half the weight and 25 percent less power,” said Cornwell.
The LLCD will be operated for about 30 days during the time of the commissioning orbit period.
“This is probably our last best chance to study the pristine Moon before there is a lot of human activity there changing things.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Security in the Internet of Things
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4421895/Security-in-the-Internet-of-Things
The ability to connect, communicate with, and remotely manage an incalculable number of networked, automated devices via the Internet is becoming pervasive, from the factory floor to the hospital operating room to the residential basement. The transition from closed networks to enterprise IT networks to the public Internet is accelerating at an alarming pace—and justly raising alarms about security.
As we become increasingly reliant on intelligent, interconnected devices in every aspect of our lives, how do we protect potentially billions of them from intrusions and interference that could compromise personal privacy or threaten public safety?
Tomi Engdahl says:
OFS tightens 50-micron multimode fiber specs for improved data center performance
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/ofs-tightens-fiber-specs.html
OFS recently announced that it has improved several important optical and geometry specifications for its line of 50 µm multimode fibers, including the company’s LaserWave FLEX bend-optimized fiber. The new, tighter specifications can reduce connector loss and improve link system performance in cabled fiber for demanding data center and enterprise applications, contends OFS.
The company says the enhancements can provide extra margin, or “headroom,” in 10, 40 and 100 Gb/s applications, enabling greater network design flexibility and reliability. For its line of 50 µm multimode fibers meeting the OM4, OM3 and OM2 standards, OFS has lowered its 850 nm attenuation specification from ≤ 2.3 dB/km to ≤ 2.2 dB/km, the lowest such spec in the industry, the company claims
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: 100G port revenue to surpass $6B by 2017
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/100g-port-revenue.html?cmpid=$trackid
Infonetics Research has released highlights from its latest 1G/10G/40G/100G Networking Ports report, which explores the demand for 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit, 40 Gigabit, and 100 Gigabit optical and Ethernet ports
“Overall network port shipments and revenue are on a steady upward path as buyers shift to higher bandwidth, but the real action is in high-speed (10G+) port shipments, which we expect to increase almost ten-fold by 2017,” reveals Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.
According to the new report, spending by service providers and enterprises on 1G, 10G, 40G and 100G network ports grew to $37 billion in 2012, up 4% from the previous year. Infonetics forecasts total network port spending to grow to $52 billion in 2017, driven by growing network traffic and the need to constantly upgrade networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
For optical transceivers, 10G equals 10M in 2013
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/lightcounting-q3-2013.html?cmpid=$trackid
When announcing preliminary findings from its most recent quarterly sales database, optical market-research firm LightCounting stated, “While increasing sales of 100G and 40G products dominate the headlines, 10GigE optical transceivers are on target to set a new record in 2013. Very strong demand for short-reach 10GigE optical transceivers will push the total shipments of 10GigE modules above 10 million in 2013—up 40 percent from last year.”
LightCounting further said 2013 will be the first year in which shipments of short-wave (850-nm) 10-GbE modules will exceed those of short-wave 1-GbE modules. “This data confirms that optical connectivity captures a larger share of the market at 10 Gbits/sec,” LightCounting said, “despite reports of increasing sales of 10GBase-T in early 2013.”
The overall Ethernet transceiver market also is being buoyed by increasing shipments of 40- and 100-GbE products, the firm says, adding, “however, the broader market for optical transceivers is likely to be flat in 2013 due to a sharp drop in sales of FTTx products.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oracle Laser Lights Way to Silicon Photonics
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319871&
Oracle Labs is developing a low-power laser it hopes will be a key enabler for silicon photonics. The computer company could announce the status of its work within a few months.
Oracle says silicon photonics will soon be used to link chips in high-end server cards and racks at 25 Gbit/s. It envisions a macrochip, a wafer-scale server motherboard where all major chips on the card are linked via silicon photonics. The technology is critical for plans to get power consumption on petaflop supercomputers down from 556 KW today to about 85 KW.
“Over the next five years, all [server] links will become exclusively photonic at 25G or perhaps slightly faster,” A.V. Krishnamoorthy, a chief technologist for photonics at Oracle, said in a keynote at a server design event
VCSELs are widely used today and will continue to be used, particularly in active optical cables, but “in the end, it will all be silicon photonics simply because of the need for integration and density.”
Oracle worked closely with the component providers Kotura (now part of Mellanox) and Luxtera in a DARPA program on silicon photonics. Over multiple generaitons of designs, it got all the silicon photonics down to a target of 0.7 picojoule/bit, except for the laser, which consumed 1.4 pj/bit by itself
“We are really focused now on getting more efficient silicon-assisted lasers,”
Intel has been developing silicon photonics in its labs for a decade. This year, it said it will soon deliver 100G links for computer servers. Cisco Systems is also in the hunt. It has acquired a silicon photonics startup and has discussed using 2.5-D chip stacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why in-contract price hike controls will likely mean the end of UK handset subsidies
http://gigaom.com/2013/10/23/why-in-contract-price-hike-controls-will-likely-mean-the-end-of-uk-handset-subsidies/
Britain’s telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has told the country’s fixed-line and mobile carriers that they will no longer be allowed to keep customers tied to their monthly contracts if they raise prices before the contract is up.
That means any price hike, no matter how small, or even the lowering of a voice or data allowance mid-contract.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top US Lobbyist Wants Broadband Data Caps
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/10/23/2213237/top-us-lobbyist-wants-broadband-data-caps
“Michael Powell, A former United States FCC chairman, is pushing for ‘usage-based internet access’ which he says is good for consumers who are ‘accustomed to paying for what they use’”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fon finally launches in the US, inviting consumers to share their Wi-Fi
http://gigaom.com/2013/10/23/fon-finally-launches-in-the-u-s-inviting-consumers-to-share-their-wi-fi/
Fon is introducing its community Wi-Fi model to the U.S., selling its $59 router on Amazon. The idea is to create a shared bandwidth network that any Fon member can access for free.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Berners-Lee wants an open web and whistleblowers protected
WWW inventor wants a slightly wilder world wide web
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2302586/tim-berners-lee-wants-an-open-web-and-whistleblowers-protected
WORLD WIDE WEB INVENTOR Sir Tim Berners-Lee has spoken out about the importance of an open web and made the case for a system that fosters whistleblowers.
An obvious hot topic is web privacy, or rather, the lack of privacy on the internet.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) and UK Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) were not named, but Berners-Lee did say that there needs to be a balance between police power and human rights.
Asked whether there should be trade-off between privacy and cybercrime, he said that is “a hard question to answer” as it balances so many important values against each other – police power versus human rights.
“Whenever you have a police force that has strong powers of any sort, you need to have an agency to hold them accountable. The question is who will guard the guards,” he added.
“They must be responsible to the public, to be able to assure people that our human rights are not being violated behind our backs.”
“In the US and the UK the systems of accountability have failed, only one group protects us from abuse and that is whistleblowers,” he observed.
“Whistleblowers need special protection even if they have violated laws. We can’t trust that any system won’t go astray, however much good will, so we have to rely on the whistleblower.”
Unsurprisingly, Berners-Lee wants things to be as open as possible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
North American FTTH drops seen topping 10 million
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/10/ftth-drops-10m.html
The number of homes in North America connected to a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network has passed 10 million for the first time, said Michael Render, owner and chief analyst at RVA LLC, at the recent FTTH Conference (Sep. 30-Oct. 2) in Tampa, FL.
In the U.S., Tier 1 ILECs, led by Verizon, reportedly account for 76.7 of the country’s 9.6 million FTTH connections. Other ILECs have connected 10.4% of the country’s total FTTH subscribers, with municipalities and public utilities combining for another 4.2%. This last group has nearly half of the country’s gigabit networks, 11 of the 26 RVA have identified. Competitive access providers, including Google, account for another nine such networks.
Render also reported that take rates for FTTH networks in the U.S. continue to grow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Specifications and applications mark intelligent building systems
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-21/issue-9/features/specifications-and-applications-mark-intelligent-building-systems.html?cmpid=EnlContractorOctober242013
As the TIA works to revise and rename its standard covering building intelligence, more opportunities arise to use intelligent systems.
Early thoughts
Additionally, the early documentation describes the standard as specifying “a generic cabling system for intelligent building systems that will support a multi-product, multi-vendor environment. It also provides information that may be used for the design of intelligent building system products for enterprises.” It then offers: “Intelligent building systems are typically used for monitoring and controlling building systems such as building automation systems (BAS), security and access control (e.g., closed circuit television, electronic door control), energy management (e.g., HVAC, lighting/power control), and other ‘low voltage systems’ (e.g., audio/video paging, service/equipment alarms, non-voice/data communications).”
If anything similar to that wording makes it into the final standard, it will be clear that building automation systems are recognized as one of many building systems covered–as opposed to BAS’s current status as 862-A’s primary focus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ASHRAE/IES publish first standard focused on buildings systems commissioning process
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/09/ashrae-commissioning-standard.html
A newly published standard focused on the commissioning process for buildings systems technology will help to ensure a fully functional, fine-tuned facility.
ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, identifies the minimum acceptable commissioning process for buildings and systems as described in ASHRAE’s Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process. Standard 202 is ASHRAE’s first standard focused on the commissioning process. The commissioning process as detailed in Standard 202 applies to all construction projects and systems and is an industry consensus document.
“Given the integration and interdependency of facility systems, a performance deficiency in one system can result in less than optimal performance by other systems,” comments Gerald Kettler, P.E., chair of the committee that wrote the standard. “Implementing the Commissioning Process is intended to reduce the project capital cost through the warranty period and also reduce the life-cycle cost of the facility. Using this integrated process results in a fully functional, fine-tuned facility, with complete documentation of its systems and assemblies and trained operations and maintenance personnel.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland shy away from EU communications law
The Government of Finland opposed to many aspects of the European Commission’s September’s proposal for a regulation of the internal market for electronic communications.
The government and the groups consulted scruples, among other things, the spectrum harmonization and centralization of power to the Commission. Then the edge of the large and sparsely populated Finland danger of being boxed in, with specific needs.
The Board of Directors of the objectives of the Digital Single Market, is in itself a very worthwhile. The proposed measures do not only seem to lead to the result sought.
The proposals to improve consumer security Finland is satisfied. Roaming charges removal is supported, as long as it does not lead to national consumer prices.
However, this and the whole package of regulations that the government can not make effect the current deadline of next summer without cutting corners.
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/suomi_vierastaa_eu_n_viestintalakia
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japanese operator license 5g Section of Tokyo Olympic Games
Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo has announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, you have a 5g network.
The promise of a brave, because 5g networks standards is not yet an international agreement.
Mobile networks, is currently undergoing a transition to 3G networks to 4G or LTE networks, but firm in the industry for some time outlined what the next generation might be.
What kind of radio technical solutions to achieve this, it is still open.
NTT Docomo introduced a timetable for the International Conference on Broadband Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam.
South Korea targets are Japaniakin tougher. There, too, will be held in the winter Olympics in 2018, and formed the ground-5g in the Forum’s goal is to introduce some form of 5g’s.
5g of the standard work of the next important milestone is the World Radio Conference in 2015.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/uutisia/japanilaisoperaattori+lupaa+5gta+tokion+olympialaisiin/a941430
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dawn of a New Internet Era
by Akram Atallah on October 23, 2013
http://blog.icann.org/2013/10/dawn-of-a-new-internet-era/
Today marks an historic moment, not only for the New gTLD Program, but for the Internet as a whole. Today, the first new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) from ICANN’s New gTLD Program were delegated, or introduced into the Internet’s Root Zone. What does this mean? Well, it means a few things. From a big picture perspective, it signals the beginning of the largest-ever expansion of the Domain Name System (DNS); a change that promises to promote global innovation, competition and consumer choice. It means you will soon see the Internet grow from the 22 gTLDs that we have now (e.g., .COM, .BIZ, .ORG) to more than 1400 new possibilities.
From a logistics perspective, delegation means that the gTLD Registry can start what is known as a “Sunrise” period.
We’ll see other new gTLDs delegated over the course of the coming months and through 2014.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ofcom: By 2017, even BUMPKINS will have superfast broadband
Um, most of them… most of the time…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/25/ofcom_predicts_near_universal_superfast_broadband_by_2017/
Ofcom’s annual report on the state of Blighty’s infrastructure promises “near universal” superfast broadband by 2017 with only the most gentle of regulatory nudges.
Seventy-three per cent of UK premises are already getting “superfast” broadband, with BT’s Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) available to 57 per cent of UK properties and Virgin’s cables passing almost half of them, we’d be there if the companies didn’t overlap so much.
Of course, BT is happily spending government cash to extend coverage, and 4G is expected to fill the gaps, making for a well-connected Britain come 2017.
We’re starting to use it too, with 22 per cent of broadband connections now falling into the “superfast” category. Ofcom, and the EU, reckons this means 30Mbps download, but BDUK (the body handing government cash to BT) reckons 24Mbps – and then further watered that down to 15Mbps for 90 per cent of the time, as long as it “feels like a 15Mbps connection”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel on Europe: The Internet of Things could SAVE US ALL
Apply clever tech to lift economic gloom, says chip giant labs chief
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/25/intel_smart_cities_and_internet_of_things/
How will Europe lift itself out of current and future economic woes – and help save the planet while it’s about it? According to chip giant Intel, with hi-tech carrots rather than government sticks.
So said the head of Intel’s European R&D operation, Martin Curley, this week at the chip company’s European Research and Innovation Conference – Eric to its friends.
But for once the old notion that the only thing that can solve the world’s problems is technology – on which theme Intel’s “Plan C”, as Curley calls it, is a variation – comes with some positive preliminary results to back it up.
Two of Intel Labs’ key endeavours highlight the way forward, in the company’s view: the move to connect every device into a single, networked data source – the so-called Internet of Things – and the development of the exascale, 1018 floating point operations per second computing capability that’s going to be needed to crunch the many numbers all these devices will generate.
It’s this kind of technology that will enable what Intel calls “Sustainable Intelligent Systems”, setups able to measure the digital consequences of all our lives and able to act upon it intelligently for our benefit and that of the environment. They will operate within the home and the community.
Smart city = sustainable city?
If there’s a sense of “what’s good for Intel is good for Europe” about Curley’s programme, that’s because that is partly what the plan is all about. Intel is in the business of selling processors, and we’re going to need a lot more of them if we’re to equip so many, many more gadgets with the ability to record and transmit data, not to mention to process that data once it’s collected.
Intel’s vision isn’t entirely fuelled by hubris, or by the desire to sell more microprocessors. Curley believes that digital technology can make the world a better place – and not simply by giving the population of rich and developing nations more shiny toys to play with. The application of SISes to establish closed-loop control systems can have a very positive impact on the environment (in its broad sense) in which we live.
Work has already begun exploring how the Internet of Things and Exascale Computing are going to benefit not just society but the individuals who make it up too.
Curley’s an Irishman, so it’s perhaps no surprise that he has helped establish a number of pilot programmes in Dublin – “it’s our our testbed, our petrie dish”, he says – in partnership with the city’s council, the local Trinity College and Irish energy companies. They have worked, for instance, to devise a context-aware e-car system that monitors usage and uses that data to predict EV charging requirements and then align them to grid utilisation.
The upshot: an ability to predict with 90 per cent accuracy when a punter is going to need his or her car, ensuring it is already fully charged and was topped up when power was at its least expensive. It’s about balancing load at home and in the community. Curley claims the results show a clear 44.5 per cent reduction in the cost of charging an e-car for the owner. Battery longevity is increased by 50 per cent.
In-the-pocket savings like these are the carrots Curley thinks will have consumers and city councils queueing up to adopt this kind of technology. A saving of a few percentage points won’t make a difference, he rightly says, but a big saving makes ordinary punters take note.
And not just in Dublin. Intel has been granted £150m to establish similar research in London next year. A trial in and around Hyde Park will follow soon after. Curley says the company is talking to other European cities too.
Naturally there are very real privacy issues that need to be tackled here, but Curley says the Dublin experience shows people have a willingness to engage with this kind of technology for sustainable living and to collaborate to make it work optimally.
Tomi says:
Weightless, the Internet of Things Chip, Becomes Less Vaporware
http://hackaday.com/2013/10/25/weightless-the-internet-of-things-chip-becomes-less-vaporware/
Several months ago, we caught wind of Weightless, a $2 chip that will run for 10 years on a AA battery and communicate to a Weightless base station 10 Km away. Yes, this is the fabled Internet of Things chip that will allow sensors of every type to communicate with servers around the world. It looks like Weightless is becoming less and less vaporware, as evidenced by the Weightless SIG hardware roadmap; Weightless modules might be in the hands of makers and designers in just a few short months.
Weightless is an extremely low-cost wireless module that operates in the radio spectrum previously occupied by analog broadcast television. This is a great place for the Internet of Things, as signals in this spectrum have a lot of range and the ability to go through walls.
Weightless is designed for sensors that only transmit a kilobyte or so a day – medical sensors, irrigation control, and other relatively boring things.
Tomi says:
Nanode Gateway/Remote Tutorial 1
http://blog.wickeddevice.com/?p=440
The Arduino has been a transformational device. It is being used everywhere from art installations to the manufacturing floor. A whole new class of makers have gotten their first taste of micro-controllers using the Arduino. An area of particular interest to me is using Arduinos in distributed computing and more specifically remote sensing and the “Internet of Things.” This series of tutorials will walk you through the basics of connecting one or more remote devices to a central gateway and managing the interactions between those devices. These tutorials will cover everything from collecting remote data, storing collected data in a central repository for online viewing, remote activation of devices, and well who knows…..