In few years there’ll be close to 4bn smartphones on earth. Ericsson’s annual mobility report forecasts increasing mobile subscriptions and connections through 2020.(9.5B Smartphone Subs by 2020 and eight-fold traffic increase). Ericsson’s annual mobility report expects that by 2020 90% of the world’s population over six years old will have a phone. It really talks about the connected world where everyone will have a connection one way or another.
What about the phone systems in use. Now majority of the world operates on GSM and HPSA (3G). Some countries are starting to have good 4G (LTE) coverage, but on average only 20% is covered by LTE. 4G/LTE small cells will grow at 2X the rate for 3G and surpass both 2G and 3G in 2016.
Ericsson expects that 85% of mobile subscriptions in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa will be 3G or 4G by 2020. 75%-80% of North America and Western Europe are expected to be using LTE by 2020. China is by far the biggest smartphone market by current users in the world, and it is rapidly moving into high-speed 4G technology.
The sales of mobile broadband routers and mobile broadband “usb sticks” is expected to continue to drop. In year 2013 those devices were sold 87 million units, and in 2014 sales dropped again 24 per cent. Chinese Huawei is the market leader (45%), so it has most to loose on this.
Small cell backhaul market is expected to grow. ABI Research believes 2015 will now witness meaningful small cell deployments. Millimeter wave technology—thanks to its large bandwidth and NLOS capability—is the fastest growing technology. 4G/LTE small cell solutions will again drive most of the microwave, millimeter wave, and sub 6GHz backhaul growth in metropolitan, urban, and suburban areas. Sub 6GHz technology will capture the largest share of small cell backhaul “last mile” links.
Technology for full duplex operation at one radio frequency has been designed. The new practical circuit, known as a circulator, that lets a radio send and receive data simultaneously over the same frequency could supercharge wireless data transfer, has been designed. The new circuit design avoids magnets, and uses only conventional circuit components. The radio wave circulator utilized in wireless communications to double the bandwidth by enabling full-duplex operation, ie, devices can send and receive signals in the same frequency band simultaneously. Let’s wait to see if this technology turns to be practical.
Broadband connections are finally more popular than traditional wired telephone: In EU by the end of 2014, fixed broadband subscriptions will outnumber traditional circuit-switched fixed lines for the first time.
After six years in the dark, Europe’s telecoms providers see a light at the end of the tunnel. According to a new report commissioned by industry body ETNO, the sector should return to growth in 2016. The projected growth for 2016, however, is small – just 1 per cent.
With headwinds and tailwinds, how high will the cabling market fly? Cabling for enterprise local area networks (LANs) experienced growth of between 1 and 2 percent in 2013, while cabling for data centers grew 3.5 percent, according to BSRIA, for a total global growth of 2 percent. The structured cabling market is facing a turbulent time. Structured cabling in data centers continues to move toward the use of fiber. The number of smaller data centers that will use copper will decline.
Businesses will increasingly shift from buying IT products to purchasing infrastructure-as-a-service and software-as-a-service. Both trends will increase the need for processing and storage capacity in data centers. And we need also fast connections to those data centers. This will cause significant growth in WiFi traffic, which will will mean more structured cabling used to wire access points. Convergence also will result in more cabling needed for Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, building management systems, access controls and other applications. This could mean decrease in the installing of special separate cabling for those applications.
The future of your data center network is a moving target, but one thing is certain: It will be faster. The four developments are in this field are: 40GBase-T, Category 8, 32G and 128G Fibre Channel, and 400GbE.
Ethernet will more and more move away from 10, 100, 1000 speed series as proposals for new speeds are increasingly pushing in. The move beyond gigabit Ethernet is gathering pace, with a cluster of vendors gathering around the IEEE standards effort to help bring 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps speeds to the ubiquitous Cat 5e cable. With the IEEE standardisation process under way, the MGBase-T alliance represents industry’s effort to accelerate 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps speeds to be taken into use for connections to fast WLAN access points. Intense attention is being paid to the development of 25 Gigabit Ethernet (25GbE) and next-generation Ethernet access networks. There is also development of 40GBase-T going on.
Cat 5e vs. Cat 6 vs. Cat 6A – which should you choose? Stop installing Cat 5e cable. “I recommend that you install Cat 6 at a minimum today”. The cable will last much longer and support higher speeds that Cat 5e just cannot support. Category 8 cabling is coming to data centers to support 40GBase-T.
Power over Ethernet plugfest planned to happen in 2015 for testing power over Ethernet products. The plugfest will be focused on IEEE 802.3af and 802.3at standards relevant to IP cameras, wireless access points, automation, and other applications. The Power over Ethernet plugfest will test participants’ devices to the respective IEEE 802.3 PoE specifications, which distinguishes IEEE 802.3-based devices from other non-standards-based PoE solutions.
Gartner expects that wired Ethernet will start to lose it’s position in office in 2015 or in few years after that because of transition to the use of the Internet mainly on smartphones and tablets. The change is significant, because it will break Ethernet long reign in the office. Consumer devices have already moved into wireless and now is the turn to the office. Many factors speak on behalf of the mobile office. Research predicts that by 2018, 40 per cent of enterprises and organizations of various solid defines the WLAN devices by default. Current workstations, desktop phone, the projectors and the like, therefore, be transferred to wireless. Expect the wireless LAN equipment market to accelerate in 2015 as spending by service providers and education comes back, 802.11ac reaches critical mass, and Wave 2 products enter the market.
Scalable and Secure Device Management for Telecom, Network, SDN/NFV and IoT Devices will become standard feature. Whether you are building a high end router or deploying an IoT sensor network, a Device Management Framework including support for new standards such as NETCONF/YANG and Web Technologies such as Representational State Transfer (ReST) are fast becoming standard requirements. Next generation Device Management Frameworks can provide substantial advantages over legacy SNMP and proprietary frameworks.
U.S. regulators resumed consideration of mergers proposed by Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc., suggesting a decision as early as March: Comcast’s $45.2 billion proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable Inc and AT&T’s proposed $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV.
There will be changes in the management of global DNS. U.S. is in the midst of handing over its oversight of ICANN to an international consortium in 2015. The National Telecommunications and Information Association, which oversees ICANN, assured people that the handover would not disrupt the Internet as the public has come to know it. Discussion is going on about what can replace the US government’s current role as IANA contract holder. IANA is the technical body that runs things like the global domain-name system and allocates blocks of IP addresses. Whoever controls it, controls the behind-the-scenes of the internet; today, that’s ICANN, under contract with the US government, but that agreement runs out in September 2015.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Brian Fung / Washington Post:
AT&T is prepared to abide by the new net neutrality rules under the DirecTV deal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/06/02/att-is-prepared-to-abide-by-the-new-net-neutrality-rules-under-the-directv-deal/
In a few weeks, federal regulators are likely to approve AT&T’s $49 billion purchase of DirecTV. To seal the deal, AT&T is expected to make several promises to soothe concerns that the acquisition could hurt consumers.
Among the deal’s so-called conditions is expected to be something fairly simple. AT&T is prepared to accept aspects of the net neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year, according to people familiar with the negotiations, who declined to be named because the deliberations are private.
If AT&T ultimately followed the newer rules for Internet providers, it would be committing to at least three things. It would honor the FCC’s ban on the slowing of Web sites, as well as a ban on blocking Web sites. It would also comply with a ban against taking payments from Web site operators to speed up their content, a practice known as “paid prioritization.”
It is unclear how long AT&T would be required to abide by such a commitment, said the people familiar with the plans.
Analysts predict that the FCC could make a final decision on the AT&T-DirecTV deal by as early as mid-month depending on how the negotiations go, though approval is not guaranteed.
AT&T’s willingness to honor the FCC’s net neutrality rules is not a major surprise. But getting this issue out of the way allows negotiators to focus on some of the remaining — and more controversial — issues in the merger. Here are a few of them.
One of the more contentious proposals is one that would forbid AT&T from charging companies such as Netflix for depositing content at the Internet provider’s doorstep.
Critics of the DirecTV acquisition have asked that, as part of the deal, the FCC require AT&T to route incoming content to consumers without levying a fee on the companies sending the traffic. In reply, AT&T has said that its recent deals with content delivery firms such as Level 3 show that the current system of privately negotiated contracts is working properly.
As part of the DirecTV deal, AT&T is willing to provide an Internet-only product to consumers who don’t want to buy a more traditional television bundle, according to two people familiar with the matter
Should AT&T be allowed to exempt some companies’ data, including music and video, from counting against a subscriber’s monthly data plan?
Opponents have said no, arguing that all content companies should be treated the same and that letting some pay for an advantage would hurt competition.
AT&T argues that its decision to grant exemptions from data caps won’t hurt emerging online services and can in some cases be good for consumers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog television ends
Analog broadcasting will end the International Telecommunications Union, ITU defining 1-region, namely Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia in two weeks. Years ago The deadline for the agreement signed on the 17th day of June.
The ITU organizes milestone in honor of the symposium in Geneva, in which they reiterated the benefits of digital TV broadcasts. There will also be briefings on new technologies, such as UDHD broadcasts.
ITU points out that a large part of the countries have already moved from analogue to digital television broadcasting. Transition also free up spectrum in many countries for other uses, such as mobile networks.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2920:analoginen-televisio-loppuu&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
ONOS Cardinal adds IPv6, MPLS
Switch control more multi-vendor
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/03/onos_cardinal_adds_ipv6_mpls/
The Open Network Operating System (ONOS) has okayed its latest version, Cardinal, for general release.
Top of the list in the latest release, the community says, are enhancements to its Application Intent Framework. This gets MPLS and tunnelling support, which Sheryl Zhang, ON.Labs’ chief of strategy and partnerships, said were high on the service provider request list, along with IPv6 support.
The intent framework also has a new high-availability extension to sense and work around device failures.
Down in the core, Cardinal claims big strides in its ability to handle multivendor OpenFlow builds at the switching layer.
“How we can encourage multi-vendor deployment is a major challenge,” Zhang told The Register’s networking desk, because each vendor – and sometimes different devices within a vendor’s portfolio – has different ways to store packet forwarding information.
The “flow objective” subsystem in Cadinal takes high-level forwarding decisions, she explained: “the subsystem takes that information, and works with the driver underneath it, to translate that to a specific language for a specific device.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft WiFi will offer ‘hassle-free Internet’ to Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Windows Phone users
http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/02/microsoft-wifi-will-offer-hassle-free-internet-to-windows-mac-android-ios-and-windows-phone-users/
Microsoft is working on a new service called Microsoft WiFi, details of which leaked today at microsoftwifi.com. While the website has since been pulled, it described the service as offering “hassle-free Internet access around the world” so users can be “productive on the go.”
“We can confirm that we are working on a new service, called Microsoft WiFi, that will bring hassle-free Wi-Fi to millions,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. “We look forward to sharing additional detail when available.”
Locating Wi-Fi spots near you will apparently be achieved using the app’s “interactive map.” Unfortunately, this service won’t be available to everyone. The webpage also explained that you had to be “eligible” before you could download and use the app, though there will be versions for businesses and individuals alike.
At launch, Microsoft WiFi will only be available to:
Active Skype WiFi subscribers
Employees of organizations with Microsoft Office 365 for Enterprise
Customers who received a special WiFi offer from Microsoft
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cable Companies Hate Cord-Cutting, but It’s Not Going Away (Video)
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/06/02/1828240/cable-companies-hate-cord-cutting-but-its-not-going-away-video
On May 29, Steven J. Vaughan Nichols (known far and wide as SJVN) wrote an article for ZDNet headlined, Now more than ever, the Internet belongs to cord-cutters.
Now more than ever, the Internet belongs to cord-cutters
69 percent of the Internet’s bandwidth goes to entertainment videos at peak hours.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/now-more-than-ever-the-internet-belongs-to-cord-cutters/
When I started using the Internet in the 80s it was all text. Then, along came the Web in 1993 and we got images. Oh boy! Today, as Mary Meeker, a partner at venture firm KIeiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), reported in her annual Internet trends report, 64 percent of all consumer Internet traffic is video. Sandvine, a broadband solution provider and analysis firm, has found that video takes up even more than that in the Internet’s peak hours.
In Sandvine’s latest Global Internet Phenomena Report, the company found that “Real-Time Entertainment [video] is responsible for almost 69 percent of downstream bytes during peak period, a notable increase over the 64 percent … from a year ago.”
The leader of the Internet video pack? It’s Netflix again. “Netflix continues to be the leader in peak period traffic, accounting for 36.5 percent of downstream traffic during our study.” Nothing else comes close. YouTube takes a distant second with 15.6 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson: Average smartphone user to consume 14GB data per month by 2020
70 percent of population will have a smartphone in five years’ time
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2411424/ericsson-average-smartphone-user-to-consume-14gb-data-per-month-by-2020
THE AVERAGE SMARTPHONE USER will plough through 14GB of data each month by the year 2020, according to a new report from Ericsson.
Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report predicts that there will be over six billion smartphones in use across the world by 2020, up from 2.6 billion in 2014.
The company said that such widespread access to mobile network services means that 70 percent of the world’s population will become smartphone owners in five years’ time, while 90 percent will be covered by mobile broadband networks.
Ericsson expects that the biggest growth will be in the Asia Pacific region which will make up 1.9 billion of new smartphone subscriptions, as shown in the chart
With smartphone adoption to soar over the next five years, the Ericsson report said that data use will increase tenfold by 2020, when 80 percent of all mobile data traffic will come from smartphones.
It also expects that the average smartphone user, in North America at least, will eat through an average of 14GB data each month, up from 2.2GB today.
Video traffic will be the primary driver of this, with predicted growth of 55 percent a year until 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTE will catch up with 3G by 2020: Ericsson
M2M? Lots of things with not much to say
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/04/lte_will_catch_up_with_3g_by_2020_ericsson/
Here comes 5G, except for one thing: most of the world will still be on pre-4G by 2020.
That’s the conclusion of research by Ericsson, which finds that today’s 7.1 billion mobile subscriptions are dominated by GSM/Edge services. By 2020, the biggest slice of the world’s 9.2 billion services will be the 3.8 billion WCDMA/GSM services, with LTE close behind at 3.7 billion subscription.
As the research points out, “GSM/Edge remains a viable option for many users in developing markets” because of low cost.
The biggest growth in smartphone subscriptions between now and 2020 will be the Asia-Pacific, which Ericsson reckons will add 1.9 billion new users. The rest of the world will only manage around 1.6 billion new subs in the same period.
The Middle East and Africa is expected to grow by 55 per cent in total mobile subscriptions in the period, but from a low base.
Ericsson’s traffic predictions are broadly in line with those from Cisco in its recent VNI report: monthly mobile data traffic will hit 30.5 exabytes per month, which is a lot more than today’s 3.3 EB/month, but still dwarfed by the 140 EB/month traversing fixed networks.
Like Cisco, the Scandinavian superpower thinks there’ll be lots of Internet of Things devices connected by 2020 – about 26 billion machine-to-machine devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dish Network in Merger Talks With T-Mobile US
Dish and T-Mobile have agreed Charlie Ergen would be chairman and John Legere CEO, sources say
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/dish-network-in-merger-talks-with-t-mobile-us-1433383285-lMyQjAxMTI1MzA3NDEwMjQwWj
Dish Network Corp. is in talks to merge with T-Mobile US Inc., people familiar with the matter said, a deal that would accelerate a wave of consolidation across the U.S. media and communications industries.
If completed, the deal would be the latest multibillion-dollar combination in traditional television and communications industries being upended by the Internet. T-Mobile rival AT&T Inc. is close to wrapping up its $49 billion deal for Dish rival DirecTV that will create the country’s largest pay-TV company. Meanwhile, Charter Communications Inc. recently announced a total of $67 billion in deals that would roll up Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to create the second-largest U.S. cable operator.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elisa believes in programmable cloud networks
Elisa’s Chief Technology Officer Kalle Lehtinen says, that after five years the operator’s existing networks are significantly more flexible and effective. The reason is all over the world started development, will dispose of operators, network and IT infrastructure boundaries by doing everything for programming and virtual.
“The industry is going to a big breakthrough,” Lehtinen says.
Elisa has long studied the dawning of leading technologies. A turning point, for example, joined Monday’s announcement, Nokia Networks, which the company enters the operators of data centers.
Key concepts Elisa and the other operator business with operators in the future sdn and NFV. They are formed from the English words to acronyms, which sdn means of programmable networks and NFV functionalities network virtualization. These technologies are often linked tightly to each other.
“Sdn together and NFV has a key promise that the services can be implemented more efficiently and more flexibly, for example, in a given situation to ensure sufficient capacity for the customer,”
Nowadays, required a lot of pre-planning and manual work capacity to provide a timely manner. The fixed capacity also must be dimensioned according to peak traffic, so most of the time there is lots of unused resources.
“The new solutions will help to use investments more effectively.”
Sdn-NFV-a combination of the big advantage is the possibility to run in the same data center networks so as numerous services to clients.
“It aims that goes on generic hardware and same-infrastructure can take advantage of several needs.”
Elisa Production unit already having close feel of programmability and virtualization.
“We are currently building their own skills SDN and NFV’s point of view, and going on a variety of pilot projects.”
Elisa could in principle already applied to some of the latest fruits of programmability and virtualization. For example, the SMS services are already implemented in the data center-Infra, virtualization, and the change would not be very big.
“Broadly speaking, the solutions are not yet mature enough, even if found in areas in which to move and import of all types of services,” says Lehtinen.
However, he estimates that the development is brisk, and that the missing features will rapidly be made available.
“About five years after the SDN and NFV solutions have everyday life.”
One of the most attractive direction is to provide data center services to businesses.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-06-04/Elisa-uskoo-ohjelmoitaviin-pilviverkkoihin-3322375.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile networks will soon reach all
Mobile broadband networks reach as much as 90 per cent of the world’s population by the year 2020. Ericsson Mobility report also says that in 2020 up to 70 per cent of the world’s population carries with it a smartphone.
This means that smartphone interfaces in 2020 already 6.1 billion. 80 percent of new subscribers will be in Asia during the next few years, the Middle East and Africa.
The number of mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide will grow Ericsson research around 30 per cent a year, which meant around 150 million new subscriptions in just the first quarter of 2015. By the end of 2020 85 per cent of all connections will be mobile broadband subscriptions, so that they are about 7.7 billion.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2926:kannykkaverkot-tavoittavat-pian-kaikki&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The future is now: You may already be using IPv6
http://agiledatacenter.cio.com/future-now-may-already-using-ipv6/
You’ve probably heard about the looming shortage of Internet addresses, even if you’ve never gone looking for one. But depending on what websites you visit and how you get to them, you may be helping to solve it.
If you go to Google or Facebook through a major carrier in the U.S., Germany or France, for example, there’s a decent chance you’re using IPv6 [Internet Protocol, Version 6], the next-generation system that has so many addresses that the world may never use them up. Though it’s pretty much invisible to end users, the new protocol is already making service providers’ networks run better and may be speeding up your connections, too.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much IPv6 there is out there,” said Mat Ford, technical program manager of the Internet Society, the organizer of World IPv6 Launch.
On Tuesday, Ford’s group released its latest monthly figures for IPv6 connectivity. Among the findings: More than 66 percent of connections from Verizon Wireless customers to big Internet companies went over IPv6. At T-Mobile USA, IPv6 traffic exceeded 53 percent.
These are measurements of IPv6 traffic to five big Internet companies that make content available via the new protocol: Google, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Akamai.
Mobile is where IPv6 is catching on first, in many cases, because connecting all those devices requires lots of unique addresses. But some wireline networks are getting into the game, too. More than 46 percent of connections from AT&T’s wired broadband network used the new protocol, as did about one-third of the traffic from Comcast customers. Outside the U.S., Deutsche Telekom and French carrier Free were both around 29 percent IPv6.
This evolution is invisible to most consumers.
All smartphones now ship with IPv6 capability. Some home broadband gateways support the new protocol, and some older models can be upgraded by the service provider.
Though consumers may not notice the shift, it’s expected to be a critical change for the Internet in the coming years.
Most of the Internet is still made up of PCs, Web servers, phones and other devices that identify themselves using IPv4, a system that was first deployed in 1981 and only has 4.3 billion unique addresses. If there are more than 700 million arrangement could run into problems. And it has: The regional organizations that give out fresh IP addresses all say their IPv4 supplies are running low, and the market for unused address space may be heating up.
A world map created by APNIC [Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre] and Google shows IPv6 capability ranging from almost 39 percent in Belgium to zero in many developing countries. While Germany comes in at nearly 20 percent and the U.S. almost 17 percent, few others countries exceed 10 percent.
“It is happening, but it’s still piecemeal,” APNIC Chief Scientist Geoff Huston said via email. “Just 30 ISPs account for most of the visible IPv6 activity. Now, they are big ISPs and they are influential in the industry, but there are still just 30.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Surprise Drive: 3g will be deactivated and 2g is left remaining longer by operator in Norway
Nordic country’s telecom operator Telenor closes the 3G network in 2020. In contrast, slow 2G network will remain active for longer, says Ny Teknik .
Telenor closes the 3G network in Norway before the 2G or GSM network. Third-generation Internet discontinued in 2020, but the 2G network will remain operational until 2025.
All 3g network traffic is transferred after the cessation of 4g network. Already 60 percent of the country of all mobile traffic 4g network passes. At the end of the year 2016 already 99 per cent of Norwegians living in a 4g network.
Slow 2g network will remain in use as a longer time than 3g, because it is important for communication between devices (M2M).
Telenor has not yet taken a decision on a 3G network, the abolition of Sweden.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-06-05/Yll%C3%A4tysveto-3g-poistuu-k%C3%A4yt%C3%B6st%C3%A4-2g-saa-j%C3%A4%C3%A4d%C3%A4-3322609.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
T-Mobile has a network, Dish has spectrum it can’t use. Oh, HELLO
Potential marriage partners look for scale to fight market giants, quad-play
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/04/tmob_and_dish_to_marry/
T-Mobile US and Dish Networks are in talks about joining forces. Consolidation and quad-play are all the rage between mobile networks, and mobile networks and other networks.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the two companies have even decided that Dish boss Charlie Egan would head the beast as Chairman, with the outspoken T-Mobile boss John Legere becoming CEO.
The parties are continuing to argue over money, but both sides need it. T-Mobile is very much in the shadow of AT&T and Verizon. So much so that T-Mobile, along with Sprint, Dish and other smaller networks, have formed an alliance to petition the US government to restrict how much 600MHz radio spectrum it sells to AT&T and Verizon.
Dish is the second-biggest satellite TV network in the US and the deal would be a foil to AT&T’s acquisition of major rival DirecTV.
Given the general industry-wide consolidation and particularly the AT&T deal with DirecTV, there is unlikely to be any major regulatory opposition to a merger between Dish and T-Mobile.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brexit-fearing Vodafone: Of course we’ll make money from 4G
Revenues up 10%, data volumes grow thanks to video
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/20/vodafone_prelim_fy2015_full_year_results/
Vodafone has announced steady-as-she-goes results for the year to 31 March 2015, with group revenue up 10.1 per cent to £42.2bn
Emerging markets saw a six per cent increase, counterbalancing Europe’s 2.4 per cent fall, with the mobile giant arguing that while some countries – notably Italy and Spain – appear weak, when people get 4G they watch videos like crazy.
The average 3G-using Brit goes through 1.6GB a month, while his (or her) 4G equivalent will gobble 3.7GB.
Brits use more data than anyone else, but the picture of 4G users using twice as much data is the same across Europe, except for Germany where moving from WCDMA to LTE handys (mobile phones) only sees a 50 per cent increase in average data volumes.
On average European customers are moving to bigger data bundles, a trend across the board rather than a few customers using lots of data.
Video leads the consumption with Facebook, YouTube and to a lesser extent Netflix generating the most data traffic. However, mobile networks never list porn sites in their statistics, which is odd given that Pornhub claims the majority of its traffic is to mobile devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Lite is an Android app for super-slow internet connections
All the spam, half the calories
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2411856/facebook-lite-is-an-android-app-for-super-slow-internet-connections
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Facebook has launched a stripped-back version of its Android app called Facebook Lite.
Aimed squarely at emerging markets, Facebook Lite tips the scales just at 1MB, which means it will load and update quickly for those with super-slow mobile internet connections.
“More than a billion people around the world access Facebook from a range of mobile devices on varying networks. In many areas, networks can be slow and not able to support all the functionality found in Facebook for Android.
“Facebook Lite was built for these situations, giving people a reliable Facebook experience when bandwidth is at a minimum.
“Facebook Lite is less than 1MB so it is fast to install and quick to load. It includes Facebook’s core experiences like News Feed, status updates, photos, notifications and more.”
The service is rolling out now to parts of Asia, and will arrive in Latin America, Africa and Europe in “the coming weeks”.
Facebook Lite arrives as part of the company’s push to make sure that everybody has access to Facebook the internet, most notably with its Internet.org initiative.
However, the project has faced growing criticism in recent months, many claiming that Internet.org tramples over the principals of net neutrality.
Last month more than 60 firms, including the US Centre for Media Justice and SavetheInternet.in, signed an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg voicing their concerns.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SDN’s dream: Use what you’ve got, not what you’re promised
Hardware acceleration – busted
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/08/sdn_software_management_not_hardware_acceleration/
Is hardware turning soft? Yes, if you listen to IT vendors. Companies such as Oracle are investing in Software Defined Networking (SDN) — turning features that were once hardware into apps or part of the networking layer or running as apps on servers.
I’ve recently written about the problems and promises of SDN and find the subject raises a number of questions that demand greater exploration by someone – anyone – other than networking vendors.
Let’s start by examining the basic understanding of SDN.
There is some confusion about SDN’s value and purpose that might be due to the fact that some pretty basic duties of SDN are neglected in this description.
If you get a real SDN nerd involved they’ll probably tell you that the question is actually asking about Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), not SDN. When SDN was first hyped to everyone, NFV wasn’t a separate buzzword. It was simply seen as an inevitable extension of SDN, and many people still see it that way.
ncreasingly, however, the two are being split as vendors try to carve out niches for themselves and backroom politics plays a bigger role in this increasingly lucrative market.
Yes, the end game for SDN is (sort of) the ability to consume network services such as apps in an app store. This is where NFV comes in to play and in a lot of ways NFV can be seen as the goal of SDN.
The really critical part of SDN, however, has nothing to do with NFV. The critical part of SDN is actually the ability to make all the things on your network know where all the other things on your network are, even though what is where on your network – or even what is on your network – might be changing hundreds of times a second.
Oh, and SDN aims to do that using the cheapest possible hardware, and software that will be priced just enough below the cost of Cisco’s offerings that “open” SDN is an enticing way to go. “Open” in this case meaning adherence to protocols not ruled by Cisco, and where companies owning relevant patents agree not to extort money too overtly.
That’s all a very large and important part of SDN. NFV is more about what you can do with your fancy rapid reconverging network once you’ve built it.
Q: If network functions that were once hardware are turned into apps that means you now have to manage these once hard assets as software … how do you do that? Is anybody doing this (who)?
This is a bit involved. I need to break this up into physical SDN and NFV. Let’s do SDN first.
To explain who’s who in SDN I need to break this down into two “types” of physical SDN software. For no other reason than reader familiarity I am going to call the two types “VMware” and “integrated”. VMware’s NSX is the standard-bearer for VMware-type SDN solutions while “integrated” solutions are either proprietary solution from switch vendors or open source solutions that integrate with open switches.
VMware’s approach to SDN mostly leaves the switches to sort out layer 2 connectivity themselves and focuses on creating an infrastructure for the “apps” portion of the equation. It does this with layer 3 devices such as tunnels, VLANs and some layer 2 extensibility tricks.
Unfortunately, that means that if you want a resilient, adaptable responsive layer 2 network for NSX to live on top of you, you need to build one yourself.
So if you want to play this game with VMware be prepared to set up your own switch fabric using either legacy post-STP fabric protocols like SPB or TRILL, or to set up a layer 2 SDN fabric so you can run your VMware layer 3 SDN on top of it. VMware-style solutions assume everything is virtualised and treat switches as “dumb”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rob Price / Business Insider:
Facebook has scrapped its secret plan to build a $500 million satellite to provide cheap internet in the developing world
Facebook has scrapped its secret plan to build a $500 million satellite to provide cheap internet in the developing world
http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-scraps-secret-plan-to-build-satellite-to-provide-internet-in-developing-world-500-million-2015-6?op=1?r=US
Facebook has scrapped its previously unknown plans to build a satellite, according to a report by Amir Efrati in The Information.
The satellite, had it been built, could have cost an estimated $500 million. The plan was to use it to help provide cheap internet access in the developing world. But this pricetag was apparently prohibitive, and the scheme has since been abandoned — before it was ever even announced.
Facebook has been exploring ways expanding internet access — and along with it, access to its products — in emerging markets. One of the key ways is Internet.org, a Facebook-led initiative involving multiple companies to subsidise data costs in certain countries.
But not all of Facebook’s efforts in the area are related to Internet.org.
For example, it announced Facebook Lite last week, an ultra-lightweight Android app designed to make the social network easier to access on low bandwidth connections. That had nothing to do with Internet.org.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Copper-wire analyzers gain bonded-pair test capabilities
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4439583/Cooper-wire-analyzers-gain-bonded-pair-test-capabilities
Aimed at copper-wire provisioning and maintenance technicians, select models in the HT1000/2 series of handheld wire analyzers from Megger can now perform bonded-pair testing for all DSL services, from ADSL through to vectored VDSL2. Bonded xDSL combines two xDSL lines in order to increase bandwidth potential over a given distance. By using the HT1000/2′s built-in bonded modem, technicians can easily switch between testing bonded and non-bonded service.
The instrument’s spectrum analyzer covers a frequency range of 22 kHz to 33 MHz and noise amplitudes from -90 dBm to +10 dBm, helping technicians find interrupters that cause disruptions to DSL service. A dual-trace time domain reflectometer locates shorts, crosses, opens, and short bridge taps at distances ranging from the end of the test leads to 45,000 ft.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4G testing the market on the rise
TE networks management, monitoring and optimization bodes well for the manufacturers of measuring instruments. ABI Research, the 4G network testing market is growing at more than $ 40 billion over the next five years.
ABI according to the optimization of networks is more important than ever for operators. Fully introduction of IP-based services, as well as new – including unlicensed – spectrum becoming available requires tuning networks.
Test equipment manufacturers are of course ready for future growth
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2939:4g-testauksen-markkina-kasvussa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet governance group pushes on without, er, internet organizations
We’re going to Davos, baby!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/24/internet_governance_group_pushes_forward_without_internet_organizations/
The controversial internet governance group NetMundial has rejected calls to delay the creation of its “coordination council” – and launched without the support of the technical community nor the International Chamber of Commerce.
NetMundial was born out of a meeting in April between the governments of Brazil, Russia, China, India and others, plus ICANN and similar organizations, to discuss the future direction of the internet in the wake of Edward Snowden’s NSA surveillance revelations.
Yesterday, the three organizers of the NetMundial Initiative announced they had selected 20 council members from a pool of 46 as well as given themselves a seat each.
The three organizers – ICANN, Brazilian internet body CGI.br and the World Economic Forum (WEF) – said they would undertake that consultation and chose one of the council’s self-nominations Wolfgang Kleinwachter to act as an “ambassador” for the group in developing those consultations (he was not put on the council).
The launch comes without the support of key organizations in the internet governance world, and in some cases despite their explicit rejection.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brit plods’ post-TETRA radio omnishambles comes home to roost
We won’t say ‘we told you so’ – but we will write it
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/09/police_radio_omnishambles_problems_come_home_to_roost/
The £1.2bn emergency services contract which The Register flagged up as an omnishambles six months ago has now, as we predicted, collapsed.
After a year-long bidding process the government had whittled the tenders down to two companies: EE and O2. Now O2 has pulled out as a result of Telefonica selling the network to Three’s parent Hutchison Whampoa.
The network is supposed to start replacing the creaking Airwave TETRA radio system used by the blue light services next April.
There are huge question marks over the suitability of 4G for this with the necessary standards for device-to-device communication and control of groups still in the planning stages, and even bigger issues over equipping emergency services with mobes that rely on 4G for push-to-talk communications when 4G coverage is so patchy.
This leaves the government the choice between scrapping the whole procurement process and, as we predicted, extending the existing TETRA contract … or pursing a bidding process with only one bidder.
Since that bidder is being bought by BT, it is unlikely to be the most important thing on EE’s current agenda – and while the contract may be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, that’s only a small part of the company’s turnover.
If the emergency services are going to move from TETRA to 4G, coverage will need to be improved from being among the worst in Europe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Use SDN to smash tier one ‘oligarchy’, hacker says
Toss DoS, stem MitM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/09/use_sdn_to_smash_tier_one_oligarchy_hacker_says/
AusCERT IIX security bod David Jorm is urging users and organisations to adopt software-defined networking (SDN) to break up the ‘tier one networking oligarchy’.
The former Red Hat security bod said SDN establishes peer-to-peer interconnects without the expense and complexity of traditional models, using projects including OpenDaylight, ONOS, Cumulus, and the CloudRouter Project on which he works.
In the SDN primer given at the AusCERT conference on the Gold Coast last week Jorm says SDN can increase security postures, provided the SDN controller is properly protected, by eliminating threats such as man-in-the-middle and denial of service attacks.
“You end up with not only the tier one club … which is an oligarchy that you can’t join and are strongly disincentivised to let you join because it undermines their business, but there is nothing stopping you forming your own club,” Jorm says.
“So what are the security benefits of SDN? Yeah it’s cool, it’s lower latency, it’s probably cheaper … but routers could share information on active DDoSes (distributed denial of service attacks) meaning you no longer need volumetric defence.
Jorm says mesh networks are emerging where users are bypassing transit points altogether, and points out that carriers including PacNet are using it for production, while AARNET uses ONOS for its 15,000 route connections to the United States.
The technology separates the data and control network planes that are typically converged in routers such that the latter is factored out so that data plane devices do little else but forward packets.
Jorm’s CloudRouter Project offers a SDN kit launched April catering for Fedora, Docker, and OSv
OpenDaylight and friends spin up ‘CloudRouter Project’
Software-defined buzzword party sees SDN, NFV and DevOps merge to become ‘NetOps’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/01/opendaylight_and_friends_spin_up_cloudrouter_project/
Another day, another waft at the software-defined networking (SDN) and/or network function virtualisation (NFV) market, this time in the form of the new “CloudRouter Project” backed by CloudBees, Cloudius Systems, IIX, NGINX and OpenDaylight.
The latter you probably know – it’s the Linux Foundation’s effort to create a standard SDN and/or NFV stack. Cloudius is an Israeli effort to create a very lightweight OS for bare metal deployment, CloudBees is a continuous integration player, NGINX offers a web server and load balancer while IIX is a global peering company.
The group’s first effort is yours for the downloading here. The tool is based on Fedora and is said to offer the following features:
capability to run on public and private cloud infrastructures at scale with a fully-automated configuration system
container-ready, including support for Docker, Cloudius, OSv and KVM images
secure connectivity using standard-sbased IPSec VPN, SSL or L2TP
monitoring and reporting with integrated network protocol analysis for network detail at a fine-grained level
high availability and system redundancy with failover and synchronization
minimal resource consumption
The group reckons this approach “… provides DevOps for networks (NetOps) with the ability to easily deploy an integrated and hardened stack.”
CloudRouter
https://cloudrouter.org/getting-started/
The CloudRouter project aims to provide a variety of cloud-ready distribution formats, including disk images, Docker images and OSv images. The CloudRouter 1.0 beta release is currently available as a pre-configured disk image. To install it, follow the instructions below.
Two CloudRouter 1.0 Beta images are available: minimal and full. The minimal image is a Fedora Remix, with updates applied and the CloudRouter repo pre-configured. The full image also includes several pre-installed packages to support software-defined interconnect, such as Bird, Quagga, and OpenDaylight.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AmbuLink: Communication System for Doctors and Ambulance Crews
http://www.techbriefs.tv/video/Rice-engineers-design-a-better;RF-Microwave-Electronics
Rice University engineering students are helping a Houston hospital develop a more reliable way to keep in contact with inbound ambulance crews. The AmbuLink team worked closely with Texas Children’s Hospital over the past year on a system that bridges gaps between cellular service signals and streams audio and, when necessary, video, from the ambulance to doctors and dispatchers. The students have assembled laptops, cellular modems, a camera, and wireless headsets into a suite that allows emergency medical technicians to keep their hands free while communicating important information back to base.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless InSite Intro Series: Defining and Placing Receiver Sets
http://www.techbriefs.tv/video/Wireless-InSite-Intro-Series-De;Sponsored-Videos-from-Remcom
This video demonstrates the antenna sets within Wireless InSite and walks users through the available options. Users will also learn how to assemble an antenna set and choose their antenna pattern.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beautiful, Intriguing, and Illegal Ways to Map the Internet
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/mapping-the-internet/
When you hear the word “Internet,” what do you picture in your mind? Is it a series of pipes, or a three-dimensional spacescape, or maybe a browser on your phone’s screen? Visualizing the Internet is tough, perhaps because it’s this weird combination of physical and conceptual things. But that’s also what makes it an appealing endeavor.
There is of course a physical architecture of cables, wires and switches that exists, but these material things are more like a backbone or a substrate that enables the Internet to exist. And while these tangible aspects of the Internet are hard enough to visualize, the conceptual part is a mind bender. People have assigned all sorts of physical descriptors to it, attempts to give it a shape. They call it the inter-tubes or the inter-webs, the information superhighway, or the cloud.
Some of these visualizations focus on websites, some on users, some on connections and some on concepts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 ways to shake broadband provider fiscal chains
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4439634/7-ways-to-shake-broadband-provider-fiscal-chains
I regularly strive to provide a “public service announcement” and remind you that IMHO it makes little to no sense to rent a modem-plus-router combo from your broadband provider, versus buying your own gear outright. The only notable “but” that I can come up with as a counter to this argument is if you’re completely tech un-savvy and therefore want to place the equipment support burden completely on your broadband provider’s shoulders …
Why pay your DSL or cable provider $10 or so a month for the “privilege” of renting equipment
, when for a scant upfront investment you can dispense with rental fees forever via your own broadband modem and standalone router? Note, for example, that state-of-the-art cable modems now regularly sell for less than $50
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson has introduced a network-connected bus stop in the world’s largest public event in Milan UITP Fair. Connected to the network bus stop to take advantage of 3G, LTE or Wi-Fi-small cell technology.
Small cell technology allows public transport companies can gain additional revenue by selling the operators of the bus stop provided additional network capacity. In addition, the bus stop to provide services for the benefit of business travelers, for example.
For example, the network thanks to the bus stop can provide real-time information about the location of buses, interactive maps, local news and information for tourists. In addition, the bus stop is capable to install an emergency button or open up a direct voice connection, for example, the emergency call center, which will help to improve safety.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2949:ericsson-liitti-bussipysakin-verkkoon&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia adds German uni to 5G research ecosystem
Boffins to work on ThingsRM, apparently
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/11/nokia_adds_german_uni_to_5g_research_ecosystem/
That’s something akin to ordering the molecules in an Eton Mess: the 5G world wants to absorb the WiFi of the future, new air interfaces of its own, high bandwidth for mobile video users, zero latency connections for control networks, and support for billions of “Internet of Things” sensors (that last one meaning a good business case for servicing devices that generate very small amounts of billable traffic).
Hence, Nokia says, “5G networks will have to be programmable, software driven, and managed holistically”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G to disrupt the test equipment market
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/test-cafe/4439597/5G-to-disrupt-the-test-equipment-market?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20150611&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20150611&elq=4bde813709ed49a2845b39955b280054&elqCampaignId=23416&elqaid=26402&elqat=1&elqTrackId=6ea96544989b4bc58a4407330b6a011d
The coming 5G wave is set to not only disrupt the communications sector, but also the test equipment that serves it. While some traditional instrument product categories may be utilized in the development of 5G, the real heavy lifting will be performed by instrumentation not yet invented. The combinations of frequency, spectrum width, data rates, and multi-antenna architectures are simply not present in today’s instruments. But one thing is clear: modular instruments will play a primary enabling role for 5G. To explain why, let me first explain what 5G is all about.
Tomi Engdahl says:
M2M Cellular: Long 2G Life Ahead
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326836&
Today, M2M communication traffic represents a small share — less than 1 percent — of total cellular traffic in terms of bytes.
While the cellular wireless market continues to grow through smartphones employing 4G/LTE technology that accommodates big screens and HD video, the world of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology continues to favor lower-bit-rate 2G cellular for many applications. Of course, there are wireless versions of M2M and IoT (Internet of Things) that employ non-cellular connections, but here we address only cellular.
The earliest implementations of M2M employed only the very-low-bit rate GSM (2G) control channel. That was more than adequate to occasionally monitor the level in distant oil tanks in a port city. But, M2M is now employing full 2G (not just the control channel) and increasingly 3G and even 4G/LTE for a few very-high-speed applications. Automotive applications, like commercial vehicle tracking and On-Star in the U.S., are leading the higher-speed applications.
Forward Concepts estimates that there were 166 million cellular M2M subscriptions by the end of 2014, and this number is expected to reach around 441 million by the end of 2019. Currently, almost 77 percent of M2M devices have GSM-only or CDMA-only subscriptions. But that is about to change, with 3G/4G subscriptions expected to exceed 51 percent of active M2M subscriptions by 2019.
Currently in North America, nearly all mobile handsets are 3G or 4G, and the only 2G devices that are left are for M2M. This will also be the case in Western Europe in two to three years’ time. One reason for this is that the cheapest M2M modules are still
GSM-only (or CDMA-only), and its low data speeds are adequate for most applications.
Many M2M applications have long lifecycles. For example, a smart meter device may be intended to last for up to 20 years, in contrast to smartphones, which are typically replaced every 2–3 years. Considering the long lifecycles, the selection of cellular device types (2G, 3G or 4G) for new installations depends on a variety of factors, such as present and future module costs as well as connectivity availability.
Although the number of M2M devices on GSM networks will increase in absolute terms, the share of devices using this technology will decrease to below 48 percent in 2019. In that year, it is expected that 3G/4G will represent over 52 percent of all active M2M cellular subscriptions. LTE M2M device penetration is expected to increase from around 9 percent today to an estimated 22 percent in 2019.
5G M2M subscriptions will become commercially available by 2020 and 5G usage will be driven to a large extent by new M2M use cases that are yet to be developed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full-Duplex Comm Almost Here
Algorithm does full-duplex without multiplex
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326849&
PORTLAND, Ore. — Today 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee and the rest all have a basic flaw that halve their potential bandwidth — they have to use multiplexing (either frequency, time or both) to carry on a two-way communication. Why? Because the transmitter signal is typically much much louder than the receiver signal, swamping it out and making it nearly impossible for both to use the same band without multiplexing. Now Kumu Networks Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) claims to have perfected two-way full-duplex communications over the same band with a combination of hardware modules and software algorithms using ultra-precise step attenuators and phase shifters.
“Our claim to fame are interference-cancellation algorithms that control our full-duplex transceiver,” Joel Brand, vice president of product management at Kumu Networks told EE Times. “At the end of day, hardware is only a part of solution.”
Others have tackled the problem before, such as Columbia University which recently described a chip that works in the lab. However, Kumu claims that the secret sauce is the algorithms that drive a system in order to make it work under real-world conditions, where environmental factors have to be cancelled-out too — and in real time.
“To get reliable full-duplex communications, you have to develop algorithms that control system interference from environment changes too, such as reflections off nearby buildings. The signal has to adapt in real time to any changes the environment too,” Brand told us.
The basic principle behind full-duplex without multiplexing is similar to the concept of noise cancellation in headphones
The biggest problem the algorithms had to overcome is that the received signal is usually just above the noise floor which can be as much as low as -130dB, requiring that the transmitted signal be cancelled out with an accuracy of 90-to-100 parts-per-million (PPM).
“Our system uses hardware, under algorithmic control, to recreate the signal to be cancelled with pristine accuracy,” Brand told us.
So far, Telefonica (Barcelona), SK Telecom (South Korea) and Deutsche Telecom (Germany) have demonstrated full-duplex systems using Kumu’s system for applications as diverse as LTE backhaul and 5G robotics.
Kumu also claims its technology has military applications, such as jamming the cell phone signals used today to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) without disrupting communications among troops.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New record for optical fiber
Fibres is a fixed and a hollow core. In the past it has been believed that the core of the hollow fiber suitable for use as a communication, since it can not be made sufficiently long fibers.
Zepler University of Southampton Institute researchers have succeeded in manufacturing a hollow optical fiber, which is a record length of 11 km. It supports more than 200 nanometer wavelengths and reaches the whole way to 10 Gigabit data rate.
Zeplerin fiber, the signal degrades 5 decibels kilometers when using a 1560-nanometer wavelength. The fiber was prepared optical fibers of standard two-step method, so no special process is not required.
Researchers fiber is produced by so-called microstructured fiber, which is made entirely from a single glass material.
Microstructured fiber core of the surrounding area is full of air holes in the fiber’s entire journey.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2962:uusi-ennatys-valokuidussa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter
Removing the 140 character limit from Direct Messages
https://twittercommunity.com/t/removing-the-140-character-limit-from-direct-messages/41348
We’ve done a lot to improve Direct Messages over the past year and have much more exciting work on the horizon. One change coming in July that we want to make you aware of now (and first!) is the removal of the 140 character limit in Direct Messages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud Computing
VPNs Dissolve National Boundaries Online, for Work and Movie-Watching
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/in-ways-legal-and-illegal-vpn-technology-is-erasing-international-borders/
Rod Drury, an entrepreneur in Auckland, New Zealand, regularly visits the United States. Sometimes there are multiple visits a day.
“People here can’t get Netflix, so they get a VPN that gives them a U.S. I.P. address, and watch Netflix like they’re in America,” he said. “If I want something off iTunes, I buy U.S. cards online.”
Decoding the jargon: Millions of people around the world now pay for virtual private computer networks — a security method that uses encryption to hide Internet traffic — and similar services to hook into a server in the United States. As far as the video and retail services can tell, Mr. Drury is one more American customer.
If the Internet breaks down national boundaries, it may happen from the comfort of our couches. VPNs were originally thought of as a way for companies to guarantee security or dissidents to avoid the prying eyes of their governments. Now they are part of a larger movement for people to work and play anywhere on the planet, at all times.
And if the software can’t come to consumers, the customers use VPN to get to the software.
“Unblock geo-restricted websites and web services like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Skype, and many more!” says the webpage of PureVPN, which charges $45 a year to turn you into a virtual American. You might prefer being Canadian, since Netflix Canada has a bigger selection of films.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson came up with 5G connectivity improvement
Ericsson multipoint connectivity and Distributed MIMO 5G is a first solution that allows the mobile device is connected to more than one cell-5G time. This connection will remain good in the transition to the reach of one cell to another, and at the same time the data transmission capacity may even double.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-06-15/Ericsson-keksi-5G-yhteyksiin-parannuksen-3323735.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Hookway / Wall Street Journal:
Vietnam’s Internet penetration, enabled by smartphones, increased to 44% from 12% a decade ago, enabling a rapid growth of digital businesses — Vietnam’s Mobile Revolution Catapults Millions Into the Digital Age — Smartphone use has dramatically increased Internet penetration and growth in online services
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/vietnams-mobile-revolution-catapults-millions-into-the-digital-age-1434085300-lMyQjAxMTI1MjE2MjgxODI0Wj
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Your ISP Not Following Net Neutrality? The FCC’s Got A Complaint Form For That.
http://consumerist.com/2015/06/12/is-your-isp-not-following-net-neutrality-the-fccs-got-a-complaint-form-for-that/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow
Hooray! Net neutrality is finally, well and truly, the law. The courts did not uphold industry groups’ requests to press pause on the implementation, and so as of right now, ISPs are common carriers under Title II and are not allowed to mess around with your connections.
Does that mean they’ll all behave perfectly well in perpetuity and we can live happily ever after? Well, no. Probably not. That’s not the way the world works, sadly. But it does mean that when someone breaks the rule, you can — and should — file a complaint.
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=38824
Tomi Engdahl says:
Owen Williams / The Next Web:
Skype for Web is now available worldwide, adds Chromebook support
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2015/06/15/skype-for-web-is-now-available-worldwide-adds-chromebook-support/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson snaps shut wallet, damps down acquisition speculation
Sorry, speculators, we’re not buying Juniper or Ciena
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/16/ericsson_damps_down_acquisition_speculation/
Ericsson has decided not to follow the example of Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia, telling Reuters it doesn’t need a big acquisition.
The company’s chief strategy officer, Rima Qureshi told the wire service that the decision to continue going it alone followed a confab of 250 managers earlier this month.
She said that “core development” and organic growth remains the Ericsson strategy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Likes Open Networks
No single standard seen for SDN
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326882&
Networking systems need to be more open both in their underlying hardware and use of open-source code, said a Facebook engineer at the annual Open Networking Summit here (June 15). His talk provided a practical reality check on the state of software-defined networks (SDNs) inside one of the world’s largest global data center networks.
Giant data centers need to solve complex problems by automating processes in software, but they don’t necessarily need a single standard protocol or applications programming interface to do it, said Omar Baldonado, head of the networking software team at Facebook.
“As you work on interfaces for devices, make them as open and low level as possible,” he told a gather of mainly network systems engineers. “Don’t get hung up trying to standardize on one northbound interface — most people have pulled away from that,” he said referring to work at the Open Networking Foundation on an interface for its Openflow protocol.
Network vendors should separate hardware from software to simplify the job of operating increasingly large global networks, said Baldonado.
“We want the flexibility to run whatever software we can develop or get on a box — all the software should not come from the vendor,” he said.
Network switch vendors should even make their hardware designs open source, something Facebook is driving with its own designs unveiled in March. “We hope that’s a trend that continues,” he said, noting Facebook releases schematic and Gerber files of its boards.
“We’ve avoided scaling out the team by automating the network,” he said.
The work started by automating tasks such as re-booting hardware or requesting carrier maintenance calls to deal with some of the 3.37 billion routine network notifications received in a typical month.
“The degree of difficulty of managing network systems often gets overlooked by vendors,” said Baldonado who worked for companies incuding Cisco and Avaya before joining Facebook.
The holy grail of a software-defined network (SDN) is more of a journey than a destination, Baldonado told attendees at the event focused on SDN. Facebook works with multiple versions of systems from different vendors and is now working on a third-generation of its overall data center architecture, he said.
“We don’t have one controller or one central app, but different controllers for diff parts of the network with different versions in flight,”
“For us, SDN isn’t just about having a separate control and data plane separate, its about applying as much automation and software as possible in the network – we’re going to write a lot of software, but I’m not sure what part should be called SDN,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GitHub Seeks Funding At $2 Billion Valuation
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/06/17/038254/github-seeks-funding-at-2-billion-valuation
GitHub, the most popular Git hosting site, is reportedly seeking $200 million in an upcoming private funding round that values the company as high as $2 billion. “GitHub is an interesting company,
“It is partly a hosting service for developers and partly a social media site.” And it’s a great place to recruit developers.
GitHub to Seek $2 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-15/github-said-to-seek-2-billion-valuation-in-latest-financing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:
TWC says it can bring gigabit internet to LA with D3.1 technology, which allows cable operators to deliver multi-gigabit speeds on hybrid fiber/coax networks
TWC ‘Well-Positioned’ to Bring 1-Gig Across L.A.
City Seeking Partners to Deliver 1-Gig, WiFi, Free Internet Tier
http://www.multichannel.com/news/technology/twc-well-positioned-bring-1-gig-across-la/391400
Time Warner Cable said it is “well-positioned” to bring speeds of 1 Gbps across its Los Angeles footprint in the wake of a request for participants (RFP) issued by the city last week.
TWC said it will be able to hit those speeds across the city, rather than just in individual neighborhoods, as DOCSIS 3.1 technology begins to mature. D3.1, which the cable industry is promoting under the “Gigasphere” consumer brand, will enable cable operators to deliver multi-gigabit speeds on their hybrid fiber/coax networks.
- See more at: http://www.multichannel.com/news/technology/twc-well-positioned-bring-1-gig-across-la/391400#sthash.MlJVD6Zn.dpuf
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Early Net-Neutrality Win: Rules Prompt Sprint to Stop Throttling
FCC’s new net-neutrality rules went into effect Friday
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/an-early-net-neutrality-win-rules-prompt-sprint-to-stop-throttling-1434595276-lMyQjAxMTI1MTE0ODcxMzgzWj
The Federal Communications Commission’s new net-neutrality rules are already having an effect.
Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, had been intermittently choking off data speeds for its heaviest wireless Internet users when its network was clogged. But it stopped on Friday, when the government’s new net-neutrality rules went into effect.
The rules, unlike prior attempts by the commission to ensure Internet traffic isn’t blocked or slowed, cover wireless networks like Sprint’s for the first time. That raises the stakes for carriers, whose past policies could in theory run afoul of newly vigilant regulators.
Sprint said it believes its policy would have been allowed under the rules, but dropped it just in case.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeffrey Burt / eWeek:
Cisco to Invest $10 Billion in China Over Next Few Years
http://www.eweek.com/networking/cisco-to-invest-10-billion-in-china-over-next-few-years.html
The initiative comes as China continues to push homegrown tech products and as Cisco reportedly trims its upper executive roster in the country.
Cisco Systems will invest $10 billion to projects in China over the next several years, the latest move by a tech company to expand their presence in the massive and potentially lucrative market.
The vendor’s investments come as Chinese officials continue to push for local businesses to buy technology developed and built by Chinese vendors. China and the United States for several years have traded shots regarding cyber-espionage—as highlighted by the recent hacking of computers of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management allegedly by Chinese interests that compromised the personal data of millions of U.S. government workers—and the use of technology from foreign vendors. U.S. lawmakers have questioned whether technology from such Chinese vendors as Huawei Technologies, ZTE and Lenovo post a national security threat.
Chinese officials have countered that U.S.-based companies like Intel and Cisco pose similar threats.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US FINNISHes Nokia-AlcaLu acquisition waiting period
Serbia and Brazil give acquisition the thumbs’ up too, who’s next?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/18/us_finnishes_nokiaalcalu_acquisition_waiting_period/
The huge Nokia-Alcatel Lucent acquimerger transaction has cleared one of its major hurdles, with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) clearing the merger for takeoff.
Specifically, the two companies have announced – Nokia’s post is here – that the DoJ has granted an early termination to the antitrust waiting period in the US.
Size and footprint means there’s lots of lawyers to be fed in getting the €15.6 billion acquisition through, with regulators all over the world wanting a chance to demonstrate their importance and diligence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Revealed: The Secret Gear Connecting Google’s Online Empire
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/google-reveals-secret-gear-connects-online-empire/
Three-and-a-half years ago, a strange computing device appeared at an office building in the tiny farmland town of Shelby, Iowa.
It was wide and thin and flat, kind of like a pizza box. On one side, there were long rows of holes where you could plug in dozens of cables. On the other, a label read “Pluto Switch.” But no one was quite sure what it was. The cable connectors looked a little strange. The writing on the back was in Finnish.
It was a networking switch, a way of moving digital data across the massive computing centers that underpin the Internet. And it belonged to Google.
Google runs a data center not far from Shelby, and apparently, someone had sent the switch to the wrong place. After putting two and two together, those IT guys shipped it back to Google and promptly vanished from the ‘net. But the information they posted to that online discussion forum, including several photos of the switch, opened a small window into an operation implications for the Internet as a whole—an operation Google had never discussed in public. For several years, rather than buying traditional equipment from the likes of Cisco, Ericsson, Dell, and HP, Google had designed specialized networking gear for the engine room of its rapidly expanding online empire. Photos of the mysterious Pluto Switch provided a glimpse of the company’s handiwork.
Seeing such technology as a competitive advantage, Google continued to keep its wider operation under wraps. But it did reveal how it handled the networking links between its data centers, and now, as part of a larger effort to share its fundamental technologies with the world at large, it’s lifting the curtain inside its data centers as well.
According to Vahdat, Google started designing its own gear in 2004, under the aegis of a project called Firehose, and by 2005 or 2006, it had deployed a version of this hardware in at least a handful of data centers. The company not only designed “top-of-rack switches” along the lines of the Pluto Switch that turned up in Iowa. It created massive “cluster switches” that tied the wider network together. It built specialized “controller” software for running all this hardware. It even built its own routing protocol, dubbed Firehose, for efficiently moving data across the network. “We couldn’t buy the hardware we needed to build a network of the size and speed we needed to build,” Vahdat says. “It just didn’t exist.”
The aim, Vahdat says, was twofold. A decade ago, the company’s network had grown so large, spanning so many machines, it needed a more efficient way of shuttling data between them all. Traditional gear wasn’t up to the task. But it also needed a way of cutting costs. Traditional gear was too expensive. So, rather than construct massively complex switches from scratch, it strung together enormous numbers of cheap commodity chips.
Google’s online empire is unusual. It is likely the largest on earth. But as the rest of the Internet expands, others are facing similar problems. Facebook has designed a similar breed of networking hardware and software. And so many other online operations are moving in a same direction, including Amazon and Microsoft. AT&T, one of the world’s largest Internet providers, is now rebuilding its network in similar ways. “We’re not talking about it,” says Scott Mair, senior vice president of technology planning and engineering at AT&T. “We’re doing it.”
Unlike Google and Facebook, the average online company isn’t likely to build its own hardware and software. But so many startups are now offering commercial technology that mimics The Google Way.
Basically, they’re fashioning software that lets companies build complex networks atop cheap “bare metal” switches, moving the complexity out of the hardware and into the software. People call this software-defined networking, or SDN, and it provides a more nimble way of building, expanding, and reshaping computer networks.
“It gives you agility, and it gives you scale,” says Mark Russinovich, who has helped build similar software at Microsoft. “If you don’t have this, you’re down to programming individual devices—rather than letting a smart controller do it for you.”
It’s a movement that’s overturning the business models of traditional network vendors such as Cisco, Dell, and HP. Vahdat says that Google now designs 100 percent of the networking hardware used inside its data centers, using contract manufacturers in Asia and other locations to build the actual equipment. That means it’s not buying from Cisco, traditionally the world’s largest networking vendor. But for the Ciscos of the world, the bigger threat is that so many others are moving down the same road as Google.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 IoT Test Challenges for Network Providers
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326875&
The Internet of Things holds the potential for us to lead smarter, more productive lives by connecting devices over the familiar internet infrastructure. Wearable or connected computing, ubiquitous networks, real-time network intelligence, and optimum resource utilization are some of the expected virtues of implementing IoT. But as the number of interconnected devices in a network grow dramatically, designing the network service becomes complex. In turn, managing such networks becomes a massive undertaking.
Network service providers need to anticipate the effects of this new evolution and be prepared for the proliferation of connected devices on their networks. Network operators now face a daunting task of monitoring and managing the increased number of devices on their networks. Moreover, ensuring business-class SLAs for their services becomes critical especially since customer loyalty and brand perception are at stake.
Some of the hurdles, service providers see on their journey in adopting IoT are:
Exponential traffic
Scalability
Interoperability
Security
Real-time monitoring
Diagnostics
Intelligent Testing & Monitoring
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet Opens Door to PAM4
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326889&
The relatively new and complex PAM4 modulation scheme has been adopted for some aspects of the 400 Gbit/second Ethernet standard, setting a direction for new silicon development.
Modulation formats have been hotly debated over the last 6-12 months in the IEEE P802.3bs group setting a standard for for 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GbE). Decisions to adopt PAM4 optical modulation schemes at the recent IEEE May meeting will have significant implications on the technology direction of the industry moving forward.
The 400 GbE project includes electrical interfaces to address chip-to-chip and chip-to-module applications as well as optical interfaces for 100 meter multimode fiber (MMF), 500m single-mode fiber (SMF), 2km SMF, and 10km SMF. Initially, the group was able to make fast decisions on some 16-wide interfaces for both electrical and optical MMF, adopting 16×25 Gbit/second with traditional NRZ modulation. These proposals strongly leverage the existing 25 Gbit/s signaling technology developed initially for the 100 GbE market which is seeing wide development and implementation today.
We saw how decisions about electrical and optical solutions could be made separately, however there was clearly strong perception that a common ecosystem could develop if one modulation scheme was adopted. After much debate, the electrical decision was made in March 2015 that a second 8-wide electrical interface would be defined based on 50 Gb/s PAM4 modulation. This was widely supported by many of the major silicon suppliers with test results and simulations showing good performance with known connector and channels.
The decision around the 2km duplex SMF solution remains open as the group continues to study the risks and merits around extending the 4-wide solution or 8-wide PAM4 solution.
The implications of these decisions are significant for the industry. It is expected that a converged solution set will allow developers to focus technology development towards optimizations for this scheme and we see a good balance between the solutions, meaning the industry will be well served in the near term and longer term. While other groups, like the OIF, continue to pursue the definition of 50 Gb/s NRZ interfaces, the market adoption of such efforts is unclear, given the decisions made by the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force. Nonetheless, the technology development will definitely add value into the PAM4 technologies as baud rates rise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Victoria Burnett / New York Times:NEW
Cuba’s state-run telecom, Etecsa, will open 35 public hot spots and reduce the cost of Internet access by half to just over $2 per hour
Cuba Offers Its Citizens Better Access to Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/world/americas/cuba-offers-its-citizens-better-access-to-internet.html
Cuba, one of the Western Hemisphere’s least-wired countries, is poised to expand access to the Internet by introducing about three dozen Wi-Fi hot spots around the island and reducing the steep fees that Cubans pay to spend time online.
The move, announced in Juventud Rebelde, an official newspaper aimed at the island’s youth, came amid new pressures to increase Internet access as the nation edges toward normalizing diplomatic relations with the United States.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Giganto French telco merger: Altice makes eyes at Bouygues
EU and French anti-trust watchdogs play whack-a-mole with merger proposals
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/22/french_telco_consolidation_altice_making_eyes_at_bouygues/
Despite Margrethe Vestager – the EU’s anti-trust supremo – railing against telco mergers earlier this month, French mega-company Altice has made a €10bn bid for the telco part of rival Bouygues.
Altice has made the bid thorough Numericable-SFR, formed when Numerical bought the SFR network from Vivendi last year for €17bn.
A merger between the market’s number two player, Numericable-SFR, and its number three, Bouygues, would see the company leapfrog Orange to become the largest network in France.
The fourth player is Iliad, which entered the market as a disrupter and aggressively drove down prices. A merger between two of the networks is likely to reduce competition and this will cause concern at both a European and French national level.