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:
Fiber-optic testing standards: Return of the mandrel
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/foa-mandrel.html
“A proposal was created to make EF [encircled flux] only applicable to 850nm testing of 50/125 fiber at <3 dB, a common-sense approach since new multimode fiber of this type is the only fiber intended for the speeds (10 Gb/s) for which EF was intended,” the newsletter says. “Other fibers (62.5/125) and wavelengths (1300nm) will then be covered by a new version of the mandrel wrap mode conditioner that has been around for twenty years or more.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
TIA task group exploring security measures for cabling systems
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/february/tia-cabling-security-specs.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s amazing how mobile devices are finding applications within the Industrial sector. The Smart Factory is definitely alive and well.
ConnectSmart App Monitors Solar Inverters
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=260691
You can expect to see a continuing wave of mobile apps for monitoring all types of industrial equipment over the next couple of years.
One example available now is the Danfoss SolarApp, which lets users directly access live production data (through a smartphone or tablet) for installations of its new DLX UL PV solar inverters.
All the user has to do is connect the inverter to the router in the home. If the app is turned on, users can view performance there, or they can use the free Web portal that connects to a Danfoss hosted service and website in Denmark. Historical information will be stored on that site for 30 years.
“Connections are managed using Danfoss’ Connect Smart technology, which works quickly and simplifies the process and walks the user through the steps to set up remote access to inverter data,” Haug said. “Before, the user had to manually configure the IP addresses to make the connection function properly.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Belgian boffins boast after boosting TCP to 50 Gbps
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/24/multipath_tcp_50_gps/
Belgian researchers at ICTEAM have announced a Multipath TCP (MPTCP) demonstration that’s routed 50 Gbps of traffic across multiple different paths.
The test machines were running Linux and hosting a Multipath TCP implementation created by ICTEAM.
The point of multipath TCP is to make better use of routed links.
unmodified, TCP’s routing protocols decide on the bast path at the beginning of a sessions, and after that, they “aren’t very good” at selecting alternative paths.
As the ICTEAM researchers explain, MPTCP also presents a standard TCP socket API to the application.
While the Belgian demonstration is looking at how MPTCP could be used in data centres, the researchers note other applications of the protocol could include helping 3G-WiFi handover happen without upsetting the applications, or even for assisting Ipv4/v6 coexistence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tellabs outfits Sandia nat’l labs with giant passive optical LAN
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/tellabs-sandia.html
Tellabs announced that it has furnished what it reckons is “the world’s largest passive optical LAN” at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque
The new network now connects about 13,000 workstations in 265 buildings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Study sizes up market potential for passive optical LAN
December 22, 2011
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2011/12/study-sizes-up-passive-optical-lan.html
Over the last couple years Motorola and Tellabs have been selling a singlemode-fiber system using their access network optical network terminal (ONT) as a replacement for the current traditional copper and fiber local area network. The optical fiber LAN system is also called various other names in the marketplace, such as optical LAN solution and optical enterprise solution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CDFP MSA group forms to advance 400G cabling, modules
March 20, 2013
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/cdfp-msa-forms.html
At this week’s OFC/NFOEC 2013, five companies announced that they will enter into a multi-source agreement (MSA) to create the CDFP (400 Gbps form-factor pluggable) industry consortium to define a transceiver module/plug mechanical form factor and a host-board electrical edge connector and cage for the technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet Alliance chair: ‘Bandwidth tsunami is coming’
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/ethernet-alliance-tsunami.html
“A special focus of the Ethernet Alliance demo for this year has been reaching out to the end-user community to hear what their needs are,”
There are instances — right now — where end users are already dealing with Terabit capacities in their networks.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra-high speed optical communications link raises bar on power efficiency
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/ofc-optical-power-record.html
By combining circuits in IBM’s 32-nanometer silicon-on-insulator complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (SOI CMOS) technology with advanced vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and photodetectors fabricated by Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations USA (formerly Emcore), Proesel and his colleagues have created a power-efficient optical communication link operating at 25 gigabits per second using just 24 milliwatts of total wall-plug power, or 1 pJ/bit.
“We’re continuing the push for lower power and higher speed in optical communications. There will always be demand to move more data with less energy, and that’s what we’re working toward.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How M2M, small data will revolutionize the car industry
http://www.eetimes.com/design/automotive-design/4410497/How-M2M–small-data-will-revolutionize-the-auto-industry
The big trend on everyone’s agenda at the moment is big data, but in the world of machine-to-machine communications (M2M) it’s the small data that matters. M2M communications is helping automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) better understand their vehicles’ performance and driving behavior. This enables OEMs to develop and evolve relationships by having informed conversations with their customers (dealers, suppliers and consumers) and deliver new, innovative value added services.
By using an embedded SIM card that transmits data wirelessly via a secure mobile network, M2M can collect important granular pieces of information from a vehicle which be put to a wide variety of useful purposes. David Levine, Global Head of Automotive Business Development, Vodafone explains the potential applications for M2M and the opportunities its adoption presents to automotive software and hardware engineers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ZigBee chip works with Wi-Fi
http://www.eetimes.com/design/microwave-rf-design/4410680/ZigBee-chip-works-with-Wi-Fi?Ecosystem=communications-design
GreenPeak Technologies NV (Utrecht, The Netherlands) has introduced a ZigBee radio transceiver that contains a coexistence scheme that allows Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee chips to work side by side in the same equipment.
ZigBee shares the 2.4-GHz frequency carrier with other Wi-Fi transmissions. The GP501 has an arbitration system to allow coexistence interface to allow co-located ZigBee/Wi-Fi radios to avoid RF interference when operating simultaneously.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU sets out proposals on broadband permits, construction
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=480314
Simplifying and removing local rules for broadband installation will save Europe 60 billion euros ($78 billion), as well as ensure all new buildings have high-speed Internet access, according to the European Commission, which set out new proposals for this area Tuesday.
“Everyone deserves fast broadband…I want to burn the red tape that is stopping us from getting there,” said European Union digital policy commissioner Neelie Kroes. “In most places, today’s rules hurt Europe’s competitiveness.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Startups Are Beating Carriers (Or The Curious Case Of The Premium SMS Horoscope Service & The Lack Of Customer Consent)
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/25/startups-beating-carriers/
Any startups out there seeking to build a business by setting out to confuse as many users as possible with overly complex pricing structures, while tricking those who can’t afford the full-fat service into signing up for ridiculously over-priced rubbish and then making it really hard for them to opt out? If so you’ll want to look to carriers for inspiration.
Carriers becoming ‘dumb pipes’ — or to put it slightly less pejoratively, a utility service, a la water, electricity and gas — seems all but inevitable (not that anyone is going to weep on their behalf). But this outcome is not exclusively the result of faster and more innovative startups. To say so is to gloss over how badly carriers have adapted and evolved their business models — preferring, instead, to try to block upstart rivals in order to milk as much as they can from ailing cash cows, rather than accepting that the technology landscape is shifting — and moving on to pastures new.
Carriers are not service businesses or entertainment businesses, they are tax collectors — putting up as many toll gates and penalty policed speed limits on your use of their roads as they can. Little wonder they are held in near universal contempt by users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Want faster fibre? Get rid of the glass
Hollow fibre propagates optics near speed of light
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/27/fibre_without_glass/
One of the most irritating expressions people can use, “broadband at the speed of light”, is a little closer to coming true thanks to researchers from the University of Southampton, who have demonstrated air-filled fibres with propagation happening at 99.7 percent of c.
In a conventional fibre, the glass acts as a waveguide: the core and its cladding have different refractive indices, which means the optical signal follows the path you want. In the solid core, light can only propagate at roughly 70 percent of the speed of light in a vacuum.
By getting propagation speed up to 99.7 percent from 70 percent of light-speed, the best-case trip from Australia to the US would be cut from about 43 milliseconds to about 30 milliseconds (ignoring router hops and regeneration)
They claim to have achieved 3.5 dB per kilometre loss, and the 160nm wide channel was enough to carry were able to send 37 WDM channels at 40 Gbps each.
Tomi Engdahl says:
T-Mobile drops contract plans, ends phone subsidies
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-tmobile-ends-phone-subsidies-20130325,0,6707508.story
With the move, T-Mobile becomes the first major U.S. carrier to drop smartphone subsidies.
users will be able to purchase phones at their full price, pay in installments or bring their own device and simply pay for the plan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Off-the-shelf optics kit tweaked for bonkers performance
Radio tricks applied to light
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/27/cudos_kudos_blistering_optics_off_the_shelf/
A couple of Australian optics labs have joined up with vendor Finisar to demonstrate an energy-efficient optical system transmitting 10 Tbps over 850 km.
Conventional WDM systems need a guard band between wavelengths, and since today’s photonic systems occupy the 1530–1565 nanometre band, gaps between bands represent wasted capacity
Optical ODFM is a popular research angle at the moment
Getting performance at this level, said Jochen Schroeder of Sydney University’s CUDOS facility, was a three step process: broaden the pulsed laser spectrally (to increase its bandwidth); split the resulting pulse into multiple pulses; and then modulate each of the resulting pulses.
“We use the WSS to perform a special filter function, equivalent to a discrete fourier transform.”
the OFDM is carried out entirely in the optical domain.
“the fourier transform, the parallel-serial conversion, cyclic prefix insertion – we do all this in optics”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM unfurls SDN network manager
If you’ve got it, Big Blue will manage it
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/27/ibm_network_management/
First virtualization chewed up processors and regurgitated them as a pile of fungible compute resources, then it started gobbling storage, and now it’s turned its hungry eye to networks, and IBM wants to help VMware, OpenStack, and others, do the chewing.
IBM gave details on Tuesday of its Software Defined Networking for Virtual Environments management tool, which lets administrators automate and manage virtualized networks.
The SDN VE software makes it easy to provision VMware-virtualised networks, reducing deployment times from “days to hours”, the company said. It dovetails into IBM’s other SDN efforts – OpenFlow-enabled switches, and a Programmable Network Controller (PNC) – to give the company one of the fuller enterprise SDN packages in the market.
Tomi says:
A lightbulb that does IPv6: You know you want it
ZigBee gets ready for the Internet of Stuff
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/29/zigbee_ip/
Mesh-networking standard ZigBee now has support for IP, allowing embedded devices (from ‘leccy meters to lightbulbs) to be directly addressed as long as the addresser is using IPv6.
The new extension to the standard, ZigBee IP, has been created at the behest of utilities and will be integrated into the next version of the ZigBee Smart Energy profile. That profile is already being used by utilities in California and Texas and permits utilities to control energy consumption, but version two will extend those capabilities and, with ZigBee IP, make them internet friendly.
Philips Hue light bulbs use ZigBee, very successfully, though for now only the controlling hub can be addressed with an IP connection – and it’s version four.
ZigBee IP is a version six standard, which is essential if there is really going to be an Internet of Things linking 50 billion devices, which is the number currently being bandied about.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How M2M, small data will revolutionize the car industry
http://www.eetimes.com/design/automotive-design/4410497/How-M2M–small-data-will-revolutionize-the-auto-industry
The big trend on everyone’s agenda at the moment is big data, but in the world of machine-to-machine communications (M2M) it’s the small data that matters. M2M communications is helping automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) better understand their vehicles’ performance and driving behavior. This enables OEMs to develop and evolve relationships by having informed conversations with their customers (dealers, suppliers and consumers) and deliver new, innovative value added services.
By using an embedded SIM card that transmits data wirelessly via a secure mobile network, M2M can collect important granular pieces of information from a vehicle which be put to a wide variety of useful purposes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT and comms power consumption could surge in 2013
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/02/need_a_greener_internet/
An Italian researcher has predicted that the global Internet’s power demands will surge by 19 percent during 2013, compared to 2012 – and that over time, such ballooning electricity demand will become unsustainable.
In a paper published in Science last week, University of Catania researcher Diego Reforgiato urges more attention be paid to reducing unnecessary power consumption. He nominates smarter standby modes, dynamic bandwidth scaling and data centre CPU throttling as offering the most promise
Working with a grant from Telecom Italia on its Green Home Gateway project, Reforgiato says better management of sleep times would dramatically improve the energy efficiency of the millions of home gateways now deployed. At the micro level, he suggests that users in Italy would also save €20 on their power bills annually – something that would be reflected world-wide, since home gateways are all pretty much functionally identical.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BitTorrent opens kimono, gets out one-to-many streaming tool
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/02/bittorrent_live/
BitTorrent’s live streaming protocol has finally emerged into the daylight after years of development. The beta program is now public. You can try it.
The broadcast data is assigned to small groups – “clubs” – which then share the stream with a UDP protocol. Congestion control is added at the last hop.
“So far, the one thing cable infrastructure has managed to still do better [than streaming] is live broadcasting. But the BitTorrent Live technology makes it practical to move that to the internet without being cost prohibitive,” said BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen in an interview with TorrentFreak.
“We plan to shape the future of live broadcasts and want to work with broadcasters to accomplish that.”
Particularly since the potholed public internet isn’t capable of high quality video broadcasting – you need to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network), or even better, own one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT spending will increase this year by 4.1 per cent in the world to 3.8 trillion dollars (about 2.96 trillion Euros) estimates research firm Gartner.
About $ 718 billion (about 560 billion Euros) will go to buy hardware. Growth since 2012 has been about 7.9 per cent.
Trends:
- transition from PC to mobile computers
- from own servers to cloud storage
- from software licenses to cloud services
- from fixed voice and data to mobile data connections
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/itinvestoinnit+eivat+jaady+4/a891119?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-02042013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE Launches 400G Ethernet Standards Process
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/04/02/1236204/ieee-launches-400g-ethernet-standards-process
“The IEEE this week launched a study group to explore development of a 400Gbps Ethernet standard to support booming demand for network bandwidth.”
“Tsunami” of bandwidth demand pushes IEEE 400G Ethernet standards process
Forms study group to go beyond 100G; standard expected in 2017
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/040113-ieee-400g-ethernet-268261.html
Networks will need to support 58% compound annual growth rates in bandwidth on average, the IEEE claims, driven by simultaneous increases in users, access methodologies, access rates and services such as video on demand and social media. Networks would need to support capacity requirements of 1 terabit per second in 2015 and 10 terabit per second by 2020 if current trends continue, the organization says.
Cisco says mobile data traffic alone will increase 13X over the next four years and outpace global fixed data traffic by a factor of three in the 2012-to-2017 time period.
launch a study group to explore development of a 400G Ethernet standard
now is not too soon to get started. The standards work for 100G Ethernet began four years before the standard was finally ratified in 2010.
D’Ambrosia expects a similar timeline for 400G Ethernet: standard ratification in 2017.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Ethernet.
Tomi says:
Cabling crystal ball looks at future technologies
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/future-trends.html
Cloud computing. This topic was a clear favorite as a game-changer. But exactly how it will change the game apparently is up for debate.
“10, 40, 100G networking is driving greater multimode fiber to the rack and that is feeding up the line to high-fiber-count singlemode cabling to the cloud facility.”
“Current industry trends such as cloud computing and server virtualization will have long-term impact on the cabling industry”
Data centers. Going hand-in-hand with cloud computing is the data center environment. As one industry professional noted, “Although cloud computing is the forthcoming industry trend, data center server virtualization seems to be the controllable long-term solution for many firms.”
Wireless.
we also must recognize that wireless LAN technology has been an influence upon the structured cabling industry
“Wireless networking will eliminate the high-density cabling systems currently being designed and delivered to the office environment, as soon as privacy and partitioning are addressed,” as well as, “Wireless continues to erode the wired market.”
“The movement to DAS systems for wireless access”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet switch market posts record 2012
March 7, 2013
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/delloro-ethernet-switch-record.html
According to a recent report by market research firm Dell’Oro Group, the Layer 2-3 Ethernet switch market reached $21 billion in 2012. Almost all of the market’s growth came from data center network deployments, as spending in campus networks reportedly remained weak for most vendors.
In looking forward to 2013, the technology researcher expects the market to grow robustly with strong gains coming from the data center; however, it does not expect sales of modular switches will improve significantly.
“We expected a shift towards fixed [switching] as improved stacking and resiliency in fixed switching helped campus deployments make the shift away from modular, but we believe the lack of spending by the US government, which typically purchases modular, was an additional pressure that caused the 2012 weakness.”
Dell’Oro’s report also shows that fixed top-of-rack (purpose built) 10 Gigabit Ethernet revenues grew over 50% in 2012, with strong demand from both enterprise data center, and especially service provider cloud customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Cryptography Secures the Electrical Grid
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=261288
the intricacy of renewable energy requires sophisticated methods of grid operation for both energy management and security applications.
To safeguard the grid’s management system, scientists hope to employ the latest encrypted data security measure — quantum cryptography.
A team of researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has successfully demonstrated the use of the new technology to safeguard data transmission.
The new technology is based on a recently developed Quantum Cryptography transmitter that supports the advance security measure at a low latency of 120 ms for every 125 km distances. The researchers hope to help energy providers detect any unwanted tampering to the grid’s energy supply, especially with the added complexity of renewable energy management. The team is now in search of funding for a next-gen transmitter designed for mass production.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thingsquare Offers Open-Source Firmware to Enable Internet of Things
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=261493&cid=NL_Newsletters+-+DN+Daily
“The idea behind Thingsquare Mist is to make it easy to connect low-power wireless devices to the Internet, so that they can be connected with smartphone apps or backend databases,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thingsquare Mist
Connect Everything to the Internet
Thingsquare Mist brings resilient wireless mesh networking and true Internet-connectivity to the Internet of Things. The Thingsquare Mist open source firmware is exceptionally lightweight, battle-proven, and works with multiple microcontrollers with a range of radios.
http://thingsquare.com/mist/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet-over-RS485
http://www.pcntechnology.com/ethernet-over-rs485.html
By using the same wiring already in place, PCN’s Ethernet-over-RS485™ products allow customers to rapidly deploy extremely reliable and robust Ethernet/IP networks over “Functional” RS485 serial networks.
“Functioning” RS485 multi-drop serial networks (or other topologies) become the instant infrastructure and backbone for Ethernet/IP networks.
PCN products create two distinct networks on the existing copper wiring already in place, whether twisted or untwisted. Our products allow the infrastructure to be shared – but where both networks remain separate and secure. We do this by managing the physics of the copper and placing the network in the most optimum locations on the existing wiring. PCN products also provide 3X the noise immunity compared to standard DSL technologies so that customers can utilize in harsh energy, industry and heavy commercial environments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WAGO SD Card-Equipped Media Redundancy Controller
http://showcase.designnews.com/content/wago-sd-card-equipped-media-redundancy-controller
The ETHERNET 2.0 750-885 PLC features two redundant networks backed by dual, independent Ethernet interfaces and 1MB of data memory.
Dual LAN, Dual Safety Net:
A dual LAN, 750-885’s two Ethernet ports permit operation over independent networks and paths, which are accessible via different IP addresses and MAC IDs. If Path 1 fails (e.g., broken cable), Path 2 resumes communication. This is critical — and often mandatory — in engine rooms or building security. If redundancy is not required, 750-885 separates data between different networks, e.g., between machine and office.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bringing light to the Internet of Things
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/enlightened-insights—leds/4410242/Bringing-light-to-the-Internet-of-Things
Do you ever wish you had the ability to control the brightness or settings of your home lighting system right from your smartphone? Or have the lights automatically turn off when you are no longer occupying a room? With the ZigBee Light Link standard for wirelessly connected LED lighting, all of this is possible and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook VOICE is what telco barons should fear – not mobes
Just killed a chicken, now your profits are next… bitch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/08/facebook_voip_just_not_yet/
Analysis Facebook disappointed everyone who was expecting a “Facebook phone” to be revealed last week – including me. But device manufacturers and mobile operators should watch their backs: it’s barely the start of what Facebook can achieve.
If you were Facebook, you’d be pretty daft to sit around watching OTT (over the top) upstarts like WhatsApp and Viber capture a huge user base – by mimicking your core communications services.
OTT players are third parties who piggyback the network operating’s mobile data infrastructure to operate a rival service.
Most operators now see the threat, although some also see an opportunity, too.
Facebook’s new Android app centres around chatting – Facebook Messaging.
It pushes Chat into the home screen, and if you want, over every application. So Facebook is already an OTT player. It just doesn’t have a coherent revenue strategy.
It isn’t Google who should be worried by Facebook’s mobile plans. It’s the mobile operators.
They can’t afford to become dumb bit carriers
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Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Ethernet at 40′: Bob Metcalfe settles score with IBM
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/04/bob-metcalfe-ethernet-interview.html
In a provocative interview, the technology legend was asked “what it was that boosted Ethernet past its early competitors such as Token Ring and ARCnet.” In response, Metcalfe held forth on “how Token Ring and ‘IBM’s arrogance’ nearly sank Big Blue,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Study: FTTH drives telecom savings
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/04/ftth-drives-telecom-savings.html
As noted by CI&M’s sister site, Lightwave, Verizon has long touted operational expenditure (opex) savings as a rationale for its FiOS fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments. And as it turns out, smaller carriers have seen similar benefits, according to a recent study by RVA LLC for the Fiber to the Home Council Americas (FTTH Council).
Small and medium-sized carriers in North America say they’ve seen an average opex savings of 20.4% annually, the study reports. The study included input from more than 350 fiber-optic network service providers across North America.
The opex savings likely is one reason that FTTH infrastructure continues to roll out across the continent.
“While it is clear from our survey that many prospective FTTH providers continue to face funding difficulties and regulatory uncertainty, many are still finding ways to upgrade to all-fiber because doing so reduces their maintenance costs and strengthens their opportunities to expand their subscriber base and offer customers more services,” said Michael Render, president of RVA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IP physical security panel to explore ONVIF interoperability
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/03/iscwest-onvif-panel.html
ONVIF, the global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, will host a panel discussion and networking event on Thursday, April 11 at ISC West 2013
Standardization efforts in the security industry continue to move ahead since their introduction five years ago. Per Björkdahl, the Chairman of ONVIF’s Steering Committee, will join security industry experts on a panel to explore the current market impact of ONVIF’s standards initiative, examine possible influences and impacts of standards and look forward to the future of IP interoperability standards deployment in the security industry.
“ONVIF’s rate of adoption over the past five years has been dramatic and we recognize the importance for opportunities for open dialogue with the industry,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How fiber can help make your network “greener”
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-21/issue-4/features/how-fiber-can-help-make-your-network-greener.html?cmpid=$trackid
Lower energy consumption, reduced waste and sustainable architectures are all characteristics that make fiber infrastructure an environmentally advantageous choice.
Increasingly information technology (IT) departments are being asked to make their networks “greener”
Gartner analysts report that IT activity accounts for about 2 percent of total global carbon dioxide emissions–about the same as produced by the entire aviation industry.
While the goal to improve the sustainability of networks is both real and ambitious, when it comes to structured cabling, best practices for achieving sustainable networks are still being defined.
How fiber can help
Optical fiber-based networks work well with the objectives outlined in the STEP program because they have inherent characteristics that support a move toward networks that reduce energy consumption, reduce waste and lower the TCO for a network through longer product lifecycles.
Optical networks lower energy consumption. One of the benefits of deploying an optical network is that they consume less energy than copper-based systems, not just initially, but also over the life of the network. Recent innovations in copper chipsets for 10GBase-T applications have brought power consumption for copper networks down to between 1 and 2 watts over shorter distances and about 3.5W at full 100-meter reach capability. Fiber networks, in comparison, may use less than 1W to transmit the 10-GbE signal over the IEEE specs of 300 meters for Om3 or 400 meters for Om4 fiber. Over time the power savings from a fiber-based network can be meaningful, especially in data center applications where there may be thousands of connections. Lower energy consumption also can help reduce CO2 emissions.
Because fiber networks use less energy to power the signal, they also generate less heat–and therefore require less cooling.
Optical fiber cables typically have a longer infrastructure lifespan, which supports a sustainable installation. The inherently high bandwidth in optical fiber means that once the cable is installed, it has a potential working life of 25-plus years without recabling
FTTE architectures have been deployed in office environments successfully for many years
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stop with that LTE-B nonsense… it’s NOT a thing – mobe standards guardian
4G, dude… as if it weren’t confusing enough
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/10/lte_b_3gpp/
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), global custodian of mobile telephony standards up to and including LTE Advanced, has issued a statement insisting that “Advanced” is as, er, advanced as the naming system will go.
“3GPP reaffirms that the naming for the technology family and its evolution continues to be covered by the term LTE-Advanced”
One part of LTE-A, carrier aggregation, is already being deployed by some networks
Carrier aggregation basically involves using two separate LTE channels as a single data connection (twice the bandwidth in twice the spectrum)
Carrier aggregation gets much more interesting when it uses dispersed carriers, where connectivity is shared between channels at, say, 2.6GHz and 800MHz.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-ceo-50-our-wireless-traffic-video/2013-04-10
Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless’ (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network.
Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam said that the company’s investment in its LTE network is what is making the delivery of that video possible. “With 3G you have video clips but there is buffering. With 4G you can stream video,” he said.
desire to use LTE Broadcast technology to broadcast live events like the 2014 Super Bowl to Verizon’s customers.
McAdam said that he doesn’t plan to replace traditional broadcast TV because the majority of people will want to watch the 2014 Super Bowl in their homes over their existing television. “We don’t want to get in the way of broadcasters,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unlicensed spectrum: Experts examine use cases from M2M to Wi-Fi
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/waveforms/4411652/Unlicensed-spectrum–Experts-examine-use-cases-from-M2M-to-Wi-Fi
The use of unlicensed spectrum and TV White Space is a promising area of research
recent announcements about LTE and Wi-Fi trials over White Space
M2M applications, such as smart meters are a great example of how white space spectrum can be utilized efficiently. Smart meters typically deliver information in short bursts and involve relatively small file transfers. They are fairly delay insensitive and don’t require a report to be delivered exactly at a given hour, minute or second. Because there are minimal timing requirements required for smart meters, this maps very nicely to the nature of white space spectrum due to the fact that sometimes it is available and sometimes it isn’t because of the very nature of temporary primary user interference.
For M2M connections such as smart meters that are not time-sensitive, white space spectrum is the ideal partner.
While M2M applications rely on spectrum opening up to share data, rural applications instead rely on there not being very many people around to get in the way. However, this scenario is not feasible for the launch of a mass market technology, strictly for economic reasons: there aren’t enough critical mass of users to drive technpology in that direction
As companies and researchers continue to explore opportunities with white space spectrum, M2M will be a main focus and has the potential to be an incubation ground for white space. The M2M market is growing at an exponential rate. In 2022, 18 billion M2M connections are expected of which 2.6 billion will be based on mobile technology. At that time, 22 percent of all mobile connections will be M2M compared to the current 2 percent.
For example, the oil and gas industry is already capitalizing from the use of White Space to ensure data from rural areas can get back to company headquarters in a timely manner. Or providing broadband access in underserved markets
Another use case explored was the opportunities for TV White Space in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication for several verticals with distinct requirements. While the majority of the connected home applications don’t need to be secure, some industries such as the utility industry will need very secure implementations. In addition, TV White Space can use lower frequencies and can be ideal for opportunistic low data rate M2M connections that are not time sensitive, even if the spectrum is shared. The longer-range characteristics of TV White Space channels also facilitate data collection and transfer over longer distances.
White Space can provide additional bands and can help significantly enhance the evolution of WiFi and other wireless access technologies’ capabilities and functionality
Tomi Engdahl says:
Synapse
http://www.synapse-wireless.com/
Synapse Wireless is located in Huntsville, Alabama, and provides intelligent, wireless control and monitoring technology based on the Internet-enabled SNAP® network operating system.
Synapse offers a complete line of LED lighting products for the remote monitoring and control of outdoor and indoor lighting systems via cloud services. Synapse Design Services provides custom design and implementation support for OEMs and partners.
Junior Jarecke says:
I don’t agree with a couple of things, however I did liked the content on the whole… The article was in fact suggested to me by a buddy at reddit and this lady was correct. It is such a good read! Thanks for discussing the news along with us.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why is it so hard to make a phone call in emergency situations?
http://boingboing.net/2013/04/17/why-is-it-so-hard-to-make-a-ph.html
the fact that nobody could seem to get a solid cell phone connection. Calls were made, but they got dropped. More often, they were never connected to begin with.
whenever disaster strikes, it becomes difficult to reach the people you care about. Right at the moment when you really need to hear a familiar voice, you often can’t. So what gives?
He says there are some things that can be done to fix this issue, but, ultimately, it’s more complicated than just asking what the technology can and cannot do. In some ways, service failures like this are a price we pay for having a choice and not being subject to a total monopoly.
MKB: What about with cell phones?
In general, though, there are a bunch of different places where congestion can happen. Networks consist of different technologies, and different levels.
Interesting thing is that most people are actually stationary, sitting on their butts. For most people, calls originate from one or two locations and they stay there the whole time. But we have to have this incredibly complicated system to deal with the 5-8% of people who move around. Maybe less than that.
MKB: So what happens when you suddenly get a lot of calls happening within one cell?
BT:They can offload some of that to a macro-cell. When it’s a planned event
they can bring in aditional mobile cells. They park little trucks around the edge of the event. All those radios, though, have to connect back to the radio network controller. If it’s an installed radio it’s probably a wired connection — copper or fiber. But when you can’t get that, then they use point-to-point wireless. Either way, they call that the backhaul.
In different parts of the system different things will get congested. In some cases, the specific cell site might be overloaded and macros are also overloaded. In other cases, it’s the backhaul that gets overloaded. And that doesn’t even have to be an emergency to cause that.
MKB: Yeah. I’ve heard that, when you’re in a situation where lots of people are placing phone calls, it’s often easier to get a text message through. Is this why?
The SMS messages have a relatively light footprint, first of all. The second thing is that they’re asynchronous. If they can’t get through this instant, they keep trying. If it gets over the radio to the cell site, it will get through. Even if it’s delayed for 30 seconds or something. With voice you’re either connected or you’re not
MKB: Are more robust networks something that could be regulated?
BT: I honestly don’t know how you could regulate it to work the way you wanted it to all the time.
For the public, we have to have a trade-off between getting coverage we want and being stuck with a monopoly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Londoners in mass test of telly tech savvy as 4G filters mailed out
Come on granny, you must know where your booster is?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/at800_mailing/
Some 28,000 London suburbanites will have 40 days to fit their free 4G filters, before Freeview television frequencies are swamped with faked 4G networking signals in a mass test of the British public’s ability to plug stuff in.
The filters come from at800, the orgainisation tasked with spending £180m of telco cash to mitigate against the expected interference from 4G networks expected to be switched on come the summer.
The filters are needed because the new 4G networks run at 800MHz, in spectrum formerly used by analogue TV and thus picked up by Freeview TVs and set-top boxes. Interference is only expected where amplifiers (signal boosters) have been fitted
But most of those sets aren’t using amplifiers, so the filters which at800 will be posting out, and many residents will be busy plugging in, will be irrelevant in the majority of cases, though (critically) no-one knows how large a majority.
“If viewers have an amplifier or signal booster the filter needs to be connected between the antenna and the amplifier.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco estimates: Netflix takes more than 10 percent of mobile bandwidth
In addition to routers, Cisco offers almost everything the mobile and data networks needed for construction. “We will do everything except large base stations and mobile phones,” says Korvenmaa.
“Routers bring revenue over ten per cent,” he says.
Cybersecurity constantly expanding bitstream does create a solid base for the future. Cisco believes that the internet is still in its infancy.
Cisco’s slogan is, all things internet, internet of everything.
Cisco predicts the net traffic to increase to 13 times over the next five years.
According to Cisco, in 2017, the number of mobile data is 134 exabytes or 134 billion billion bytes.
“Netflix will take for the current modest content of more than ten per cent of the mobile operators’ bandwidth. Division of labor has to change,” says Korvenmaa.
Mobile operators, the situation is complicated. Pushing into the network all the time Netflix-like content, from which an operator can not get the money.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/cisco+arvioi+netflix+vie+yli+10+prosenttia+mobiilikaistasta/a896137?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-22042013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japanese Police Urge ISPs to Block Tor
http://paritynews.com/government/item/1000-japanese-police-urge-isps-to-block-tor
Authorities in Japan are presumably worried about their inability to tackle cybercrime and, in a bid to stem one of the sources of anonymous traffic, the National Police Agency (NPA) is asking ISPs to block Tor.
Japanese police is having a hard time when it comes to crimes in the cyberspace. Just last year a hacker, going by the name Demon Killer, took remote control of systems across the country and posted death threats on public message boards.
Katayama’s PCs were seized, analysis of which revealed that the 30-year old regularly used Tor to anonymize his online activities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei exec: “We are not interested in the US market anymore”
Chinese firm faced scrutiny from federal regulators over security concerns.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/huawei-exec-we-are-not-interested-in-the-us-market-anymore/
After several months of intense lobbying to break into the US market—and even Congressional hearings over security concerns last year—Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei announced Tuesday that it is giving up.
“We are not interested in the US market anymore,” Eric Xu, the company’s executive vice president, said at the company’s annual analyst summit on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco may collect online jackpots
A huge part of things that could be on the internet, is not yet there. According to Cisco’s untapped potential is valued at 14 400 billion, or $ 14.4 billion. It needs lots of work to turn that potential to money.
Rattling estimate of unused potential value based on the fact that 99 per cent of world affairs is not yet networked. Cisco uses the situation where everything is online, referred to as “all Internet” (Internet of Everything, IOE).
By 2020, the network is calculated to be 2.5 billion new people and 37 billion in new things. This opens up new possibilities for data collection, integration, analysis and exploitation.
“On the Internet gold rush is underway, with the distribution of the sum would lottery jackpot of 10 million each and every week of the next 27 700 years. In addition to the economic benefits of “all things Internet” also offers a socially significant opportunities, such as the opportunity for various civil services in the construction, “said Finland and the Baltic Cisco’s CEO Esa Korvenmaa.
Cisco aims to promote the development of the creation of the “Internet of Things World Forum” event on October
Source: http://www.tietokone.fi/uutiset/cisco_netista_voi_kerata_jattipotteja
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Chinese data center colo market to quadruple within 3 years
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2013/04/chinese-datacenter-colo.html
A new study from Datacenter Dynamics forecasts China’s data center colocation market to grow at a 40 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next few years as companies there look to bypass Internet traffic bottlenecks experienced on traditional interconnection routes.
the inherent complexities involved in network interconnectivity in China has caused a sharp increase in Web traffic bottlenecks which, in turn, has led to increased use of colocation facilities by enterprises wishing to bypass traditional interconnection routes.