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:
Hardware for virtualized services:
YMKLOUD MS2900 Web
http://www.kontron.com/products/systems-and-platforms/cloud-computing-platform-solutions-app/symkloud-ms2900-web.html
Designed from the ground up to integrate switching, load balancing and processing in a 3-in-1 modular approach
New modular hardware and software approach to achieve superior cloud computing performance, energy savings, and ease of system management
The SYMKLOUD Series of application-ready cloud platform solutions are designed from the ground up to transform and simplify how network equipment providers and cloud service providers deploy web-based, machine-to-machine (M2M), and mobile applications in cloud infrastructure.
the SYMKLOUD platform, a symbiotic and modular integration of switching, load balancing and processing, all into a superbly low power and compact 2U, 21-inch deep design.
Simplifying 42U rack and cluster configurations, SYMKLOUD requires 2 to 4 times fewer fiber and copper cables with its integrated switching infrastructure.
The first in the series is the Kontron SYMKLOUD MS2900 Web platform ideal for web-based applications in cloud computing environments. Only 2U in height and 21 inches (533.4mm) deep, the MS2900 Web has integrated single or redundant L4 to L7 switching, up to 2 load balancer subsystems, and up to nine independent Intel® Xeon E3-1265 Lv2 Quad-Core processors. All switch, load balance, and processor subsystems are hot-swappable.
Kontron has made sure platform and rack-level software updates are easy as possible, featuring a 1-Click Update Web GUI platform management, integrated BMC (iBMC) with advanced options, support for SNMP and IPMI 2.0, and remote management for diagnostics and provisioning.
Start your NFV / SDN Journey with the Kontron SYMKLOUD MS2910 Converged Modular Server.
» You seek out to deploy new revenue-generating services with cloud-based networks.
» We offer an entirely new way to unleash the true potential of NFV / SDN infrastructure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aaron Smith / Pew Internet:
Survey: 64% of US adults own a smartphone, 10% of whom do not have broadband at home
U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/
The traditional notion of “going online” often evokes images of a desktop or laptop computer with a full complement of features, such as a large screen, mouse, keyboard, wires, and a dedicated high-speed connection. But for many Americans, the reality of the online experience is substantially different. Today nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, and 19% of Americans rely to some degree on a smartphone for accessing online services and information and for staying connected to the world around them — either because they lack broadband at home, or because they have few options for online access other than their cell phone.
Indeed, 7% of Americans own a smartphone but have neither traditional broadband service at home, nor easily available alternatives for going online other than their cell phone. This report documents the unique circumstances of this “smartphone-dependent” population, and also explores the ways in which smartphone owners use their phones to engage in a wide range of activities.
Certain groups of Americans rely on smartphones for online access at elevated levels, in particular:
Younger adults — 15% of Americans ages 18-29 are heavily dependent on a smartphone for online access.
Those with low household incomes and levels of educational attainment — Some 13% of Americans with an annual household income of less than $30,000 per year are smartphone-dependent. Just 1% of Americans from households earning more than $75,000 per year rely on their smartphones to a similar degree for online access.
Non-whites — 12% of African Americans and 13% of Latinos are smartphone-dependent, compared with 4% of whites.
Compared with smartphone owners who are less reliant on their mobile devices, these smartphone-dependent users are less likely to own some other type of computing device, less likely to have a bank account, less likely to be covered by health insurance, and more likely to rent or to live with a friend or family member rather than own their own home.
The connections to online resources that smartphones facilitate are often most tenuous for those users who rely on those connections the most
Users are turning to these mobile devices as they navigate a wide range of life events:
62% of smartphone owners have used their phone in the past year to look up information about a health condition.
57% have used their phone to do online banking.
44% have used their phone to look up real estate listings or other information about a place to live.
43% to look up information about a job.
40% to look up government services or information.
30% to take a class or get educational content.
18% to submit a job application.
Lower-income smartphone owners are especially likely to use their phone during a job search.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stephen Lawson / PC World:
Cisco to buy SDN startup Embrane
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2905072/cisco-to-buy-sdn-startup-embrane.html
Cisco plans to beef up its SDN [software-defined networking] technology by acquiring Embrane, a startup with an architecture for virtualized network appliances.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cisco is already an investor in Embrane, which is based in Santa Clara, California, near Cisco headquarters. The acquisition is expected to close within three months.
Embrane’s Heleos platform can deploy software-based appliances such as firewalls across a pool of commodity servers, using more or less computing power as demands rise and fall. It lets cloud service providers quickly deploy new, differentiated services, the company says. With open APIs, users can integrate Embrane’s technology with third-party billing and orchestration tools.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OIF demonstrates 50 Gbps signals using two modulations
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4439071/OIF-demonstrates-50-Gbps-signals-using-two-modulations?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150402&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150402&elq=cc01d7e98b164c4c974c7c4a9b84e24b&elqCampaignId=22352&elqaid=25126&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e5dd5c3a4ddf4a7e91e29548475c122a
Last week at OFC 2015, the OIF (Optical Internetworking Forum) demonstrated two 50 Gbps transmissions using both PAM4 and NRZ formats. Over the past year, PAM4 has emerged as what appears to be the modulation format of choice for many systems, although NRZ will still have its place.
PAM4, the topic of the Jitter Panel at DesignCon 2015, looks to become the modulation format for LR (long reach) and MR (medium reach) optical links. In particular, PAM4 looks to take over from NRZ for electrical links that lead up to an optical module and across backplanes. For XSR (extra-short reach) applications, NRZ is likely to live on in applications where signal-to-noise ratio is important such as within an optical module or in memory buses.
Molex shows a 50 Gbps PAM4 signal traveling over a 0.54 m Molex backplane.
Silicon that can generate a 56 Gbps data stream using NRZ is available
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Research Director: 5G until after 2020
Nokia Networks, the technology leader Hossein Moiin does not believe 5G technology for rapid entry into the market. For example, 5G suitable frequencies not in use before the year 2019. – Standardisation work would need is just the beginning
The first 5G pre standard test will likely to be already in 2018. – Korean Olympic Winter Games could predict such an event, where the 5G being tested.
Moiinin shows that Europe is a natural location for 5G technology development leader. – European center for GSM and 3G technology, European companies were engines of development.
4G in the US took a spike on the starting commercial services already in 2009, but this was mainly due to practical reasons. – The US has 300 million inhabitants and four operators. Europe, the population is 350 million, and dozens of operators. This fragmentation of the market has slowed down investment in Europe, Moiin explain.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2635:nokian-tutkimusjohtaja-5g-vasta-vuoden-2020-jalkeen&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
CommScope demos 100G wideband multimode fiber benchmark at OFC 2015
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/commscope-wbmmf-demo-ofc.html?cmpid=EnlCIMApril62015
At this week’s OFC 2015 (March 22-26) in Los Angeles, CommScope (NASDAQ: COMM) is demonstrating what it claims is the first known public bandwidth benchmark of 100 Gbps Ethernet applications using short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) over wide band multimode fiber (WBMMF), a breakthrough technology that the company is promoting as a major next-generation connectivity solution for high bandwidth applications in high-performance data centers.
“The LazrSPEED wideband multimode fiber will enable migration from 10 to 40 to even 100 Gigabit speeds over a single fiber pair, as well as provide customers legacy support for existing applications.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
CCCA case studies NYC contractor’s counterfeit cable experience
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/ccca-nyc-contractor.html?cmpid=EnlCIMApril62015
The widespread proliferation of counterfeit and non-compliant cable in the information and communications technologies (ICT) industry is illustrated in the CCCA’s latest case study of a New York City cabling contractor’s encounter.
“Our crews showed up to do the prep work and realized that the cable the customer was supplying was not the well-known brand that had been specified for installation and warranty,” said Rewers. “We examined the box and had never heard of the brand before.”
He added, “We couldn’t find any specifications or verification of the UL number. After a little more research, we realized that the cable was constructed with copper clad aluminum conductors, which is actually banned in New York City for use as communications cable. ”
Rewers informed his customer that the cable they had purchased did not meet code and that they would not receive a warranty.
“Our cable rep found several articles about copper clad aluminum cable from the CCCA, and another online article from a different source indicating that the brand in question was under investigation for UL fraud,” said Rewers. “We provided the information to the customer, and once it reached higher level executives within the company, the customer decided not to use the cable they had purchased.”
“They bought the non-compliant cable, couldn’t use it and couldn’t sell it. They ultimately lost $30,000.”
Report: Routine building materials test uncovers fire hazard in counterfeit cabling tubes
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/counterfeit-cabling-firehazard.html?cmpid=EnlCIMApril62015
SecuringIndustry.com, a journal of supply chain and brand security issues affecting global materials manufacturers, recently published the following report:
A routine building materials sampling test has unearthed a dangerous counterfeit cabling system that could cause entire buildings to catch alight.
purchased a series of cable tubes through a Swedish building materials wholesaler that were approved in accordance with the EN 61386 standard, something that includes tests and requirements for flame resistance
For this [particular tube] the fire did not die out, but instead spread quickly to the rest of the tube, at the same time giving off an extreme amount of heat. Robinson said his team later discovered that it was composed of polypropylene without any form of flame inhibitor.
The cable tubes are used to hold wiring in pipelines and walls. As was explained in the presentation, if fire breaks out in a house, the cable tubes, unless they are fire resistant, can contribute to spreading the fire more rapidly from room to room. At the same time, they also give off poisonous smoke, which is the biggest killer in most fires.
“The common European standards mean that the manufacturers of counterfeit goods enjoy the same advantages as legitimate manufacturers. In other words, only one certificate – which in this case proved to be false – is necessary to gain access to the entire European market,” the CFPA-Europe said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Network cable for nuclear-power facilities
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/comtran-xlink-nuclear-power-network-cable.html?cmpid=EnlCIMApril62015
Comtran Cable recently announced a line of X-Link communications cables designed for use in nuclear power production facilities.
The company adds, “Commercially available off-the-shelf products are insufficient for nuclear environments due to their proximity to machinery, fluids, and hazardous waste.”
“Featuring a shield and a thermoset insulation and jacket”
The X-Link network cables are available in Category 3 (4 through 400 pair), Category 5e, and Category 6 (shown); all are suitable for data communications, security systems, environmental monitoring, supervisory control and data acquisition, as well as certain low-voltage control and instrumentation circuits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet Alliance issues 2015 Ethernet Roadmap at OFC
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/ethernet-roadmap-ofc.html?cmpid=EnlCIMApril62015
At OFC 2015 (March 24-26) in Los Angeles, the Ethernet Alliance released its 2015 Ethernet Roadmap.
Four new speeds – 2.5 Gigabit per second (Gb/s); 5 Gb/s; 25 Gb/s; and 400 Gb/s Ethernet – are currently in development by the IEEE, while the industry is also considering 50Gb/s and 200 Gb/s Ethernet.
The Ethernet Alliance says it developed the 2015 Ethernet Roadmap to bring clarity to this mix of speeds, application spaces, and market drivers in the near-term, as well as explore speeds beyond 2020 which could be 800 Gb/s; 1 Terabyte per second (Tb/s); 1.6 Tb/s; 6.4 Tb/s; and 10 Tb/s Ethernet.
“Ethernet is constantly evolving and diversifying into new markets and application spaces.”
“Today’s Ethernet landscape is vastly different than in years past. Ethernet’s growing diversification is happening from within as people seek to bring the benefits of Ethernet to a multitude of different market spaces. It’s no longer being driven by speed increases in just factors of 10,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EE springs Wi-Fi phone calls on not-spot sufferers, Tube riders
When there’s no signal in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call? Er, anyone you like
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/07/ee_wifi_calling/
EE today said it will be the first UK mobile network to roll out full-blooded next-generation Wi-Fi calling.
Subscribers will not need to install any special apps: their phones should be able to seamlessly and automatically send and receive text messages, and make and receive calls, via wireless networks when there is no cellular network signal. You’re out of luck if there’s no usable Wi-Fi to latch onto, obviously.
This new feature uses part of the LTE spec that’s been a very long time coming: IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which was defined more than a decade ago.
LTE mobile broadband is an all-IP network, meaning calls and texts can go over Wi-Fi if that’s available and VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is implemented. Otherwise, it will drop back to 3G for circuit-switched calls, which is useless if there’s no cellular signal.
EE told us it has been working on the Wi-Fi calling service for three years. It requires support from the handset makers and the operating system builders. Roughly speaking, 4G handhelds that went on sale from mid-2014 can take advantage of the service.
This includes phones powered by Windows Phone 8.1 (such as the Lumia 640), and Android 5 (such as the Samsung Galaxy S6). Apple’s iOS 8.3 can use the service when that upgrade is released to the public, but you’ll need an iPhone 6/6+ or 5S.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenMANO: Telefonica’s slice of NFV goes live
The Chairman Mao of virtualisation
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/07/openmano_telefonicas_slice_of_nfv_goes_live/
Another piece of ETSI’s network function virtualisation (NFV) plans have emerged as code, with Telefonica putting its OpenMANO project up on Github.
ETSI’s MANO (Management and Organisation, with an extra “N” thrown in because otherwise the acronym would be MAO) is the orchestration component of the standards body’s NFV framework. It covers orchestration, virtual network function (VNF) instance management, and virtualised infrastructure management (VIM).
ETSI’s NFV standardisation work got serious last year, with the outfit publishing its first drafts in August.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Plan to Keep You Online All the Time
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/googles-plan-keep-online-time/
Google’s business only works when people are online. It doesn’t care how you get there. But Google has every incentive to make connecting to the internet as easy as possible. And now it’s looking at a few new ways to make access easier than ever.
Last month, the company revealed that it will soon offer its own wireless service. But Google doesn’t seem to be interested in providing standard-issue voice and data services designed to keep you locked into its network. Instead, it wants to move you automatically from its network to whatever offers the best internet on-ramp wherever you happen to be.
To pull off its plan for seamless switching, Google said at the time that it will experiment with technology that would allow phones to more easily move between its networks and available Wi-Fi—perhaps even juggling in-progress calls between the two. Now The Telegraph reports that the company is negotiating deals that would let phones move between its service and various international cellular networks at no extra cost to users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ruggedized GbE switch module supplies 26 ports
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4439095/Ruggedized-GbE-switch-module-supplies-26-ports?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150406&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150406&elq=537f8394bb004ec1ad2d517d78d40d10&elqCampaignId=22415&elqaid=25195&elqat=1&elqTrackId=90d403ae6e3c4230b1d489e15b200257
ntended for industrial, vehicle, and military networked applications, the Epsilon-24000 family of Gigabit Ethernet switches from Diamond Systems offers up to 24 10/100/1000-Mbps copper twisted-pair ports, plus two SFP (small form-factor pluggable) sockets in a compact PC/104 form factor that is just 4.5×3.8 in. (96×116 mm). These rugged Layer 2+ switches are outfitted with an embedded microprocessor that manages all switch functions, allowing standalone operation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
India’s IT plans suffer from power cuts, congestion – and monkeys
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/india-digital-idINKBN0MS5EP20150401
(Reuters) – As India launches an $18 billion plan to spread the information revolution to its provinces, the problems it faces are a holdover from the past – electricity shortages, badly planned, jam-packed cities, and monkeys.
But the monkeys also feast on the fibre-optic cables that are strung along the banks of the Ganges river.
“We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires,” said communications engineer A.P. Srivastava.
Srivastava, who oversees the expansion of new connections in the local district, said his team had to replace the riverside cables when the monkeys chewed them up less than two months after they were installed.
He said his team is now looking for alternatives, but there are few to be found. The city of over 2 million people is impossibly crowded and laying underground cable is out of the question. Chasing away or trapping the monkeys will outrage residents and temple-goers.
A shortage of electricity is further complicating efforts to set up stable Wi-Fi in public places – daily power cuts can last for hours during the sweltering summer in Varanasi and across much of India.
Modi’s government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms (434,960 miles) of broadband cable to connect India’s 250,000 village clusters within three years, build 100 new “Smart Cities” by 2020 and shift more public services like education and health to electronic platforms to improve access and accountability.
Expanding internet connectivity and making access cheaper could add up to 1.6 percentage points, or about $70 billion, to India’s GDP over a four-year period, consultants at McKinsey have estimated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chance Miller / 9to5Google:
Google appears to be developing a teleconferencing tool called GMeet — First noticed by Florian Kiersch on Google+, Google appears to be testing a new meetings service. Google Meetings, also referred to as GMeet, appears to allow users to schedule and join teleconference calls with one click.
Google appears to be developing a teleconferencing tool called GMeet
http://9to5google.com/2015/04/07/google-meetings-screenshots/
First noticed by Florian Kiersch on Google+, Google appears to be testing a new meetings service. Google Meetings, also referred to as GMeet, appears to allow users to schedule and join teleconference calls with one click. Instead of having to dial into a teleconference call, one user could create a meeting topic in GMeet, then invite everyone else to the call. People who received an invite would be able to then join the call with a single click.
More than likely, GMeet uses Google Hangouts as a base for its functionality with additional features added for enterprise customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s fastest M2M module
Swiss company u-blox has introduced the fourth generation of LTE-tax operating in the M2M module, which it praises the fastest in the market. Toby-L280 module supports Class 4 LTE connections in frequency channel 28.
Band 28 -aluetta used for commercial purposes, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, the band is coming soon for use in Asia, Brazil and Argentina.
The module has physical dimensions of 24.8 x 35.6 mm.
Between the two devices as the data can be transferred as many as 150 megabits per second.
Module can transfer data to the HSPA + and – GPRS networks where 4G connection is not available.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2647:maailman-nopein-m2m-mokkula&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
ONOS to SDN world: here’s our numbers, show us yours
Blackbird release touts new performance metrics
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/08/onos_to_sdn_world_heres_our_numbers_show_us_yours/
The ONOS (Open Network Operating System) defined networks project has shipped the second iteration of its code, and with it hopes to encourage the SDN controller sector to start publishing detailed performance metrics.
Prajakta Joshi, director of products at ON.Lab, told The Register that while SDN is seeing strong takeup in the data centre space, service providers are more wary. As the home of six-nines network requirements, telcos need to be able to validate a lot more than the top-line I/O performance provided by tools like Cbench.
In Blackbird, the project has sought to broaden the metrics carriers can measure to describe how quickly the SDN controller is reacting to changes in its environment. These include topology (new links or new switches); the throughput of flow operations (how many flows the controller can handle, how quickly it reacts to changes in flows); “intent” throughput and latency (which I’ll explain in detail below); and the control plane scalability.
https://wiki.onosproject.org/display/ONOS/Release+Notes+-+Blackbird
Tomi Engdahl says:
Customer Data sale can save mobile operator
Mobile operators are in a tight spot in front of the customers’ use of the network is increasingly focused on data calls and text messages is reduced. Customer data to make better use can save, SAP operator business boss believes.
Especially in Finland, a large part of the accession is unlimited, ie the bandwidth to be used at a fixed price as much as a month gets. A recent study by Finnish operators’ customers are world leaders in the data used per group.
Operators of the situation is difficult, as growing data volumes put the capacity of the network hard, but on the other hand the competition is at the same time the use of data driven the price down. Without new sources of income for operators threaten to change the data transmitting dumb pipe.
The software giant SAP sees that one option for the future is to take the clients to finance the accumulating information to good use: customer information can be realized by taking advantage of the competition for new customers or by selling customers the information accumulated from the practice of paying with advertisers.
When customers know more, the crowd is easier to identify smaller sub-groups, which can be done and that they are interesting offers. Data can be collected, for example, billing systems.
“You have to understand our customers’ needs and who they are and to combine information”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uusimmat/149382
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco to acquire SDN data center start-up Embrane
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/04/cisco-acquiring-embrane-sdn.html
On April 1, Cisco announced its intent to acquire the software defined networking (SDN) specialist Embrane (Santa Clara, CA), a provider of a lifecycle management platform for application-centric network services.
“With agility and automation as persistent drivers for IT teams, the need to simplify application deployment and build the cloud is crucial for the data center.”
Romanski continued, “As we continue to drive virtualization and automation, the unique skillset and talent of the Embrane team will allow us to move more quickly to meet customer demands. Together with Cisco’s engineering expertise, the Embrane team will help to expand our strategy of offering freedom of choice to our customers through the Nexus product portfolio and enhance the capabilities of Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mellanox announces commercial deployments of LinkX 100Gb/s active optical and direct attach copper cables
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/mellanox-commercial-100g-linkx.html
At this week’s OFC 2015 (March 22-26) in Los Angeles, Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX), a specialist in high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, announced commercial deployments of its new 100Gb/s LinkX active optical cables (AOCs) and direct attach copper cables (DACs) for data center and high performance computing applications.
The company says its LinkX cables use the high-density, low-power, low-cost QSFP28 form factor, enabling 36 ports in a 1U switch, making 100Gb/s deployments as easy as 10Gb/s.
“Mellanox is the first and only company to offer plug and play 100Gb/s copper, VCSEL and silicon photonics cables in the QSFP28 form factor,”
“Network engineers don’t have to waste time debugging a new installation with untested products,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
CDFP MSA releases Rev. 3.0 specs for 400 Gbps interoperable hot pluggable modules
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/400g-module-specs-ofc.html
At the 2015 Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) exposition in Los Angeles (March 22-26), the CDFP Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) announced the release of Rev. 3.0 of the 400 Gbps (16 x 25 Gbps) pluggable transceiver specification.
According to a press statement, this new release of the specification includes a new Style 3 module intended for applications based on proposed draft specifications from the IEEE P802.3bs 400 Gbps Ethernet task force. The compliant Style 3 module uses the same connectors as Style 1 and Style 2 modules, but the Style 3 module cage is mechanically keyed to prevent mismating with Style 1 and Style 2 modules.
CDFP interface enables data rates of 25 Gbps over 16 lanes for an aggregate of 400 Gbps on a single module
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sumitomo claims highest-density multi-core fiber-optic cable for data center interconnects
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/03/sumitomo-multicore-benchmark.html
At OFC 2015 (Mar. 22-26) in Los Angeles, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. announced that it has developed a multi-core optical fiber including 8 cores in the standard 125-µm cladding suitable for optical data center interconnects, and claims to have realized an ultra-high-density fiber-optic cable with the highest core density ever reported.
We developed, for the first time, an MCF that has a cladding diameter of 125 µm, equivalent to the standard optical fibers and includes 8 cores with low core-to-core crosstalk
The core count of 8 has been desired since full-duplex (2×) 100-Gb/s (4 × 25 Gb/s) signals can be transmitted over one MCF with a transmitting and receiving technology for the conventional 25-Gb/s signals. The realized optical characteristics have a high affinity to silicon photonics technology that realizes highly integrated optical devices operable at 1.3-μm band.
We fabricated a 12-MCF cable using the developed MCFs, in which 96 cores were included within an outer diameter of 3 mm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Several standards activities underway to support high-speed connection needs
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-23/issue-4/several-standards-activities-underway-to-support-high-speed-connection-needs.html?cmpid=EnlDataCentersApril72015
In March Crehan published a regular installment of its data center switch report, which summarized the market’s calendar year 2014. Key points from that study include the following.
40-Gbit/sec Ethernet data center switch shipments more than tripled year-over-year.
10GBase-T data center switching rapidly expanded in 2014, exiting the year with an annual run rate of more than 2 million ports.
Despite steep price declines in some individual data center Ethernet switch market segments, overall market pricing remained relatively stable in 2014 because of greater adoption of higher-speed switches.
Crehan made public the following general findings from its report.
25-Gbit/sec Ethernet is expected to see a strong initial ramp from deployment by cloud providers like Google and Microsoft. That’s an area of the market in which 10-Gbit/sec Ethernet server networking is currently prevalent.
10-Gbit/sec Ethernet is likely to see its third, and largest, adoption phase as the mainstream enterprise market upgrades its mostly 1GBase-T server and server access infrastructure to 10GBase-T.
40-Gbit/sec Ethernet is beginning to ramp significantly, benefitting from a current window of opportunity as the most attractively priced data center Ethernet speed, from a bandwidth perspective.
The 802.3bm 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s Fiber Optic Task Force—The rapid growth of server, network, and internet traffic is driving the need for higher data rate, higher density, and lower cost optical fiber Ethernet solutions, especially in data centers. The 100 Gb/s optical fiber Ethernet applications specified in IEEE 802.3ba include a 10-lane electrical interface (20 fibers total) for operation over multimode optical fiber cabling (100GBase-SR10). Advances in technology support the specification of a new multimode 100 Gb/s physical layer specification with reduced lane count, which will simplify upgrades from 40GBase-SR4 using the existing cabling plant. In addition, this project adds a 40 Gb/s PHY specification for operation over up to 40 km of singlemode optical fiber cabling and two new attachment interfaces supporting 100 Gb/sec transmission in electrical backplanes.
100GBase-SR4 is 100 Gb/s transmission using a 4-lane electrical interface (8 fibers total) for operation over multimode optical fiber cabling and reach up to at least 100 meters. 40GBase-ER4 is 40 Gb/s transmission using four wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) lanes (2 fibers total) for operation over singlemode optical fiber cabling with reach up to at least 40 kilometers.
Draft specifications have Om3 cabling supporting 40GBase-SR4 to 70 meters and Om4 supporting 40GBase-SR4 to 100 meters.
IEEE’s 802.3 bq task force is developing 40GBase-T specifications, and along with them, 25GBase-T
Now for both copper and fiber, 25-Gbit/sec Ethernet standards are in development. The physical setup of connections in data centers is changing, as characteristics such as the number of switching tiers and the number of servers in a virtualized network are reduced.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Rules Bell’s Targeted Ad Program Violates the Law
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/04/07/223241/privacy-commissioner-of-canada-rules-bells-targeted-ad-program-violates-the-law
The Commissioner’s press release soft-pedals the outcome — “Bell advertising program raises privacy concerns” — but the decision is clear: Bell’s so-called relevant ads program violates Canadian privacy law.
News Release
Bell advertising program raises privacy concerns
https://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2015/nr-c_150407_e.asp
The “Relevant Advertising Program” involves tracking the Internet browsing habits of customers, along with their app usage, TV viewing and calling patterns. By combining this information with demographic and account data already collected from customers, Bell can create highly detailed profiles that enable third parties to deliver targeted ads to Bell’s customers for a fee. The program involves combining customer information from several Bell affiliates that offer a range of mobile, home phone, Internet and TV services.
“Bell’s ad program involves the use of vast amounts of its customers’ personal information, some of it highly sensitive,” Commissioner Therrien says.
While the company has agreed to make a number of changes to address privacy concerns raised during the investigation, it has so far refused to implement a key recommendation to obtain express consent from customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet Communication over two-wire cabling
http://w3.siemens.com/mcms/industrial-communication/en/ie/IE_switches_media-converters/scalance-x-300-managed/ie-two-wire/Pages/default.aspx
Use your exiting system cabling for Ethernet communication. Connect remote nodes to Ethernet networks using two-wire cables. Or make it easier to convert from PROFIBUS to PROFINET.
With the MM992-2VD media module (variable distance), which is inserted into a modular SCALANCE X-300 switch or SCALANCE S627-2M security module, any type of two-wire cable can be used for Ethernet connections up to 1000 meters, for example, ground cables, cables through fire barriers or along pipelines that can only be replaced with great difficulty. Or it can be used to establish a PROFINET connection up to 300 meters in length.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comcast customer had trouble cancelling his service even after his house burned to the ground
http://bgr.com/2015/04/08/why-is-comcast-so-bad-45/
As we’ve seen in the past, it can be really, really hard to cancel your Comcast service. TwinCities.com brings us the story of a man from St. Paul, Minnesota whose entire house tragically burned to the ground, leaving nothing behind… except for his Comcast service and the prospect of being billed for it.
After four phone calls, Schmidt gave Comcast an ultimatum: Either cancel her father’s account or send someone out to the wreckage of the house to fix his service. The Comcast customer service rep she spoke with told her that kind of service call was impossible because it’s pretty tough to service a ruined house… and yet they still wouldn’t cancel the account.
On Tuesday, Schmidt got a call from Comcast’s corporate office, which apologized and cancelled her father’s service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fifth-generation mobile networks will be transferring data at very different speeds as of this moment in fastest LTE networks. This is demonstrated in the present demos: Nokia, for example, presents the New York 5G meeting for 10-gigabit data rates.
10 gigabits successful when combined with the massive number of antennas wide channel. Nokia demo, this is done millimeter waves, ie, this time 72 gigahertz. The device is a partner in the demo National Instruments, with which Nokia has already taken 5G demos.
10 Gigabit demo data link is implemented 2×2 MIMO antenna system
The demonstration used the NCP-modulation (null Cyclic Prefix) and one hundred microseconds for the data frame, which was achieved, as well as rapid response and high maximum data rate.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2654:nokia-kiihdytti-5g-datan-10-gigabittiin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU anti-trust watchdog ponders TeliaSonera/Telenor merger
Vestager: Rotten in the state of Denmark? Not on my watch
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/09/eu_competition_watchdog_probes_danish_telco_sandwich/
The European Commission is worried that a proposed merger between TeliaSonera and Telenor would be bad for consumers, and is now pondering whether to approve the deal.
Both companies provide telecoms services in several European countries, but in Denmark the merged entity would face little competition, leaving the public with a choice of only three operators.
“Telecoms constitute an important service in many people’s daily lives. My aim is to make sure that the proposed transaction will not lead to higher prices for Danish consumers and businesses,” said Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, herself from Denmark.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LoRa – the modem killer?
http://embeddedexperience.blogspot.fi/2014/11/lora-modem-killer.html
Internet of Things is at the top Gartner’s hype curve of the year. But how to get the Things into the Internet? – That is the question.
When designing a IoT system, device connectivity is often among the biggest headaches. In case of consumer products, it is usually possible to rely on existing infrastructure, either Wifi Access point or Bluetooth/Smart connectivity of mobile phone. When considering city-wide installation of wireless sensors network or intending to cover a whole industrial plant, those consumer technologies are simply not feasible.
In practice, individual sensors are Today often having a cellular data modem with them, which is totally overkill. Reading a single sensor value every now and then does not need the bandwidth which is good for streaming video. Modem by itself as a component is usually more expensive than rest of the sensor electronics, and it ruins your power budget. Finally but not least, management of SIM subscriptions in global context is a nightmare.
Why there are so many cellular data modems then? Because there has been no other real options available. Low power 2.4 GHz radios like 802.15.4 can only do about 100 meters in open space. Wifi can be extended to some 500 meters, but then power consumption is over battery budget.
LoRA is a long range sub-GHz spread spectrum radio technology from Semtech. LoRa uses proprietary chirp spread spectrum (CSS) modulation
BOM cost of Sub-GHz RF subsystem is less than 5€, which fits into the price range of most IoT sensors. However, having the radio in the sensor node only is not good enough. Also infrastructure is needed.
There are some indications that traditional telecom operators may be interested in introducing IoT networks. It may be considered as direct competitor with existing M2M cellular data business, which may hinder operators interest.
FastNet in South Africa is the first public reference of a telecom operator investing in LoRa-infrastructure to provide IoT communication services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shatter bottlenecks in WLANs and keep legacy infrastructure
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/from-the-edge-/4439145/Shatter-bottlenecks-in-WLANs-and-keep-legacy-infrastructure-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150409&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150409&elq=fb4444feb5e44abd9f6c75715c15c8e5&elqCampaignId=22468&elqaid=25263&elqat=1&elqTrackId=ab1f721aaecf4b1a9ac98476838ddade
Wireless connectivity is transforming enterprise network topology everywhere except in one critical area: the infrastructure carrying wireless traffic from access points to network switches.
In most cases, that infrastructure is dominated by 1-Gigabit per second copper cables that transport access point signals back to Ethernet switches. But connectivity demands and next-wave technology standards require greater bandwidth than 1Gbps.
Enterprise local-area-network (LAN) technology deployed in most offices and campuses around the world has remained static at 1-Gbps transmission speeds for more than a decade. The broad proliferation of mobile devices generating traffic through these networks demands capacity well beyond this rate.
802.11ac Wi-Fi access points (APs), and Wave 2 in particular, demand Ethernet backhaul bandwidth of up to 6.9Gbps on the wired infrastructure side, but the copper cables that connect these WiFi APs to enterprise switches have reached their design limits. The vast majority of these UTP cable connections are either Category 5e or Category 6. Replacing these cables with higher speed 10Gbps links of Category 6a or above is costly, labor intensive, disruptive, and requires a monumental effort to upgrade billions of installed connections.
By employing unique mixed mode signal processing in the physical layer ICs of these network connections, support for speeds up to 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps can be established on the majority of existing cables deployed in the enterprise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trading signal complexity for bandwidth
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-standards/4439141/Trading-signal-complexity-for-bandwidth?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150409&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20150409&elq=fb4444feb5e44abd9f6c75715c15c8e5&elqCampaignId=22468&elqaid=25263&elqat=1&elqTrackId=70874b6ff9854ff9a75aaabe690f3f38
In days of yore, PLLs (phase locked loops) recovered clocks from data signals. Since the clock is embedded in logic transitions, PLL clock-recovery circuits couldn’t handle waveforms with long strings of identical bits. To assure that the clock recovery circuit would never have to face more than five identical bits in a row, we introduced 8B/10B encoding, which dedicated an extra pair of bits to every eight bits of data. The 20% overhead seemed necessary. But technology moves forward.
PLL-based clock-recovery circuits take up too much chip space, use too much power, and engineering innovation waits for nothing. Phase interpolators came along and reproduced PLL performance—more or less—with lower power while taking up less area. Then the phase interpolator evolved into a DLL (delay-locked loop). DLLs can maintain a synchronized data-rate clock signal even with dozens of bits without a transition. Of course, even DLLs need some transitions, so we implemented 64B/66B (100 GbE and FibreChannel) or 128B/130B (PCIe), and chanted, “Halleluyah!” at our gain of nearly 20% bandwidth.
The nearly 20% bandwidth reclaimed by switching from 8B/10B to 64B/66B or 128B/130B wasn’t free.
Who cares about extra low frequency content?
Your equalizer cares and if it cares, than so does your BER (bit error ratio).
The tradeoff in going from 8B/10B to 64B/66B or 128B/130B to reclaim that 20% payload bandwidth is that more sophisticated equalization schemes are required to maintain a low BER.
Once the equalizer is implemented in the serdes, it’s cheap.
Well, not so fast. Don’t forget your looming crosstalk problems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reason: How To Break the Internet (in a Bad Way)
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/04/09/1712257/reason-how-to-break-the-internet-in-a-bad-way
“No decent person,” write Geoffrey Manne and Ben Sperry in a special issue of Reason, “should be *for* net neutrality.” Across the board, the authors write, letting the FCC dictate ISP business practices will result in everything they say they’re trying to avoid.
How to Break the Internet
The biggest threat to the Net isn’t cable companies. It’s government.
http://reason.com/archives/2015/04/09/how-to-break-the-internet/#.7u8xvn:39NQ
“Net neutrality” sounds like a good idea. It isn’t.
As political slogans go, the phrase net neutrality has been enormously effective, riling up the chattering classes and forcing a sea change in the government’s decades-old hands-off approach to regulating the Internet. But as an organizing principle for the Internet, the concept is dangerously misguided. That is especially true of the particular form of net neutrality regulation proposed in February by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler.
Net neutrality backers traffic in fear. Pushing a suite of suggested interventions, they warn of rapacious cable operators who seek to control online media and other content by “picking winners and losers” on the Internet. They proclaim that regulation is the only way to stave off “fast lanes” that would render your favorite website “invisible” unless it’s one of the corporate-favored. They declare that it will shelter startups, guarantee free expression, and preserve the great, egalitarian “openness” of the Internet.
No decent person, in other words, could be against net neutrality.
In truth, this latest campaign to regulate the Internet is an apt illustration of F.A. Hayek’s famous observation that “the curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
Origins of a Regulatory Meme
“Network neutrality” was coined in a 2003 paper by the law professor Tim Wu. A “neutral” Internet, Wu postulated, “is an Internet that does not favor one application (say, the world wide web) over others (say, email).” For Wu, “email, the web, and streaming applications are in a battle for the attention and interest of end-users. It is therefore important that the platform be neutral to ensure the competition remains meritocratic.”
Over time, Wu’s notion has morphed from vague abstraction to regulatory imperative and even article of faith. Net neutrality has come to represent a set of edicts aimed at constraining Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to a specific, static vision of the Internet in which they treat all data equally-not charging differentially (or “discriminating,” in activists’ parlance) by user, content, site, platform, application, type of equipment used, or mode of communication.
Along the way, the movement acquired some radical political baggage: to “get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control,”
But the net neutrality movement has had less to do with class struggle than with the familiar delusion of technocrats everywhere: that government can “design” a better future if only it pulls the right levers. The goal, in theory, is to “save the Internet” from big corporations, ensuring (in Free Press’ words) that “it will remain a medium for free expression, economic opportunity and innovation.”
But even without government’s guiding hand, neutrality has long been an organizing principle of the Net.
Not all bits are created equal, as the designers of those first Internet software protocols recognized. Some bits are more time-sensitive than others. Some bits need to arrive at their destination in sequence, while others can turn up in any order. For instance, live streaming video, interactive gaming, and VoIP calls won’t work if the data arrive out of order or with too much delay between data packets. But email, software updates, and even downloaded videos don’t require such preferential treatment-they work as long as all the bits eventually end up where they’re supposed to go.
Anticipating the needs of future real-time applications, early Internet engineers developed differentiated services (“DiffServ”) and integrated services (“IntServ”) protocols, which have discriminated among types of Internet traffic for decades. The effect on less time-sensitive applications has gone virtually unnoticed. Does anyone really care if their email shows up a few milliseconds “late”?
But these are engineering prioritizations, and they come without an associated price mechanism. As a result, there’s little incentive for anyone to mark these packets accurately: In the face of network congestion, everyone wants the highest priority as long as it’s free.
Here, as throughout the economy, prices would make everyone reveal the value they place on a transaction, thereby allocating scarce resources efficiently. An Internet characterized by business prioritization, offering fast and slow lanes for purchase by end-users or content providers, could make all applications work better, significantly increasing consumer satisfaction while also promoting broadband adoption and deployment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ICANN urges US, Canada: Help us stop the ‘predatory’ monster we created … dot-sucks!
Just give the word if you think gTLD sucks, watchdogs told
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/10/icann_ftc_dot_sucks/
DNS overlord ICANN – which opened the floodgates to waves of new dot-word domains on the internet – says it needs help in killing one of those dot-words: .sucks.
In a letter [PDF] to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Canadian Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA), ICANN claims .sucks domains are being sold to trademark owners in a “predatory” manner.
Apparently, it can’t do anything about that unless laws are being broken, so ICANN wants someone official-looking to knock on doors and find out. And if the law is being violated, ICANN can use that to shutdown the dot-word.
The DNS overlord is upset that Vox Populi, which bought the rights to sell .sucks domains, is charging people $2,500 (£1,700) to defensively register domains before the trolls do. All remaining .sucks domains go on sale to everyone from May 29 this year.
It’s worth repeating that ICANN engineered the dot-word explosion by allowing anyone with enough cash to apply for and create generic top-level domains, from .book to .xyz. Vox Populi paid ICANN $185,000 to apply for .sucks, and won it in a private auction against rival registries.
“ICANN, through its registry agreement, may seek remedies against Vox Populi if the registry’s actions are determined to be illegal,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google tips LTE patents into mostly-public pool
Mountain View offers a fair square of 4G chocolate to the standard
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/13/google_tips_lte_patents_into_via_pool/
The LTE rollout has moved a little closer to avoiding sueball spats that have long plagued the tech biz, with Google tipping a bucket of its IP into Via Licensing.
Via Licensing, set up years ago by Dolby Laboratories, set up an LTE patent pool in 2012, with ten participants including names like AT&T and Clearwire, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom and ZTE.
The Chocolate Factory stirred a large number of LTE patents into its mix when it acquired Motorola, and it retained most of those patents when it sold Moto to Lenovo.
Although that sale saw Lenovo pay US$10 billion less to buy Motorola (along with around 2,000 of Moto’s patents and an arrangement covering the rest) than Google forked out in 2011, Mountain View reckoned the portfolio it kept from the inventor of the cell-phone were worth the balance.
The members of the Via Licensing pool promise each other to stick to the spirit of standards-essential patents and make their technology available to each other under “fair, predictable and cost-effective royalties”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BitTorrent launches its Maelstrom P2P Web Browser in a public beta
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/04/11/bittorrent-launches-its-maelstrom-p2p-web-browser-in-a-public-beta/
Back in December, we reported on the alpha for BitTorrent’s Maelstrom, a browser that uses BitTorrent’s P2P technology in order to place some control of the Web back in users’ hands by eliminating the need for centralized servers.
Along with the beta comes the first set of developer tools for the browser, helping publishers and programmers to build their websites around Maelstrom’s P2P technology
Build the Future of the Internet with Project Maelstrom
http://blog.bittorrent.com/2015/04/10/project-maelstrom-developer-tools/
Today marks the next step toward a distributed web with the beta release of Project Maelstrom. With Project Maelstrom, we aim to deliver technology that can sustain an open internet; one that doesn’t require servers, that allows anyone to publish to a truly open web, and that uses the power of distributed technology to scale efficiently.
Let’s start building the future together. Here’s what’s new since the alpha release:
Improved stability
Support for auto-update
DHT visualization for users when loading torrents
Developer publishing tool
The developer tool for publishing will help you build for Project Maelstrom easily, even from the command line.
Tomi Engdahl says:
French Intelligence Bill: 5 Web Hosting Providers Threaten To Leave the Country
http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/04/12/1343230/french-intelligence-bill-5-web-hosting-providers-threaten-to-leave-the-country
Five popular French web hosting providers, including Gandi and OVH, said on Thursday that the new French intelligence bill might push them to leave the country (French) in order not to lose their customers. The five companies are protesting against the “real-time capture of data connection” and their analysis by the intelligence services using “+black boxes+ with blurred lines”.
French surveillance legislation is off to a bad start
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/infosociety/french-surveillance-legislation-bad-start-313616
The new French Intelligence Bill has provoked concern among many of the country’s lawmakers, as well as international NGOs. According to French Human Rights Defender Jacques Toubon, the legislation contravenes the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. EurActiv France reports.
Despite boasting the support of France’s two major political parties, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the Socialist Party (PS), the Intelligence Bill has come in for some strong criticism in France, and it is now also beginning to raise eyebrows abroad.
“The law should be sufficiently clear and precise to give individuals adequate protection against the risk of abuse from the executive in its use of surveillance techniques,” the Human Rights Defender said.
“Interference with the laws regarding private life is so serious that it should be governed by clear and detailed rules, especially as the technical procedures of surveillance are being diversified and perfected,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Father of radio control is born, April 13, 1888
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4439177/Father-of-radio-control-is-born–April-13–1888?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150413&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150413&elq=f268a4f8a9f042d1bdef2b587b8c168d&elqCampaignId=22514&elqaid=25312&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d9437d6ebd8c47839b32a5be9bcf787a
John Hays Hammond Jr earned the title of father of radio control by developing the radio remote control capabilities now used for modern missile guidance systems.
By the beginning of World War I, he had developed radio remote control.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg Business:
Nokia in advanced talks to acquire Alcatel-Lucent SA wireless assets — Nokia in Advanced Talks to Acquire Alcatel-Lucent Assets — Nokia Oyj is in advanced negotiations to acquire part of Alcatel-Lucent SA to strengthen its telecommunications-equipment business and better compete with Ericsson AB
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-13/nokia-said-in-advanced-talks-to-acquire-alcatel-lucent-assets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jim Puzzanghera / Los Angeles Times:
FCC’s net neutrality rules formally published; US Telecom, a trade group whose members include AT&T and Verizon, files the first lawsuit to challenge rules
Net neutrality rules formally published; first legal challenge filed
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-net-neutrality-federal-register-fcc-20150413-story.html
Tough new net neutrality regulations were published in the Federal Register on Monday, triggering an effective date of June 12 and the first formal legal challenge to the controversial online traffic rules.
US Telecom, a trade group whose members include AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., filed a lawsuit Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to stop the rules.
They change the legal classification of wired and wireless broadband, treating it as a more highly regulated telecommunications service in an attempt to ensure that providers don’t discriminate against any legal content flowing through their networks to consumers.
The 400-page order was made public two weeks after the vote as the FCC posted it on the agency’s website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Four boggling websites we found hidden in the BitTorrent network using the Maelstrom browser
Chromium clone enters beta, plus tools to set up sites
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/14/maelstrom_browser_beta/
BitTorrent has released its Maelstrom combo-browser to all as a beta release.
Maelstrom merges the open-source Chromium web browser with a BitTorrent client, so you can fetch and render regular webpages on the internet, and download stuff from the BitTorrent file-sharing network, all from the same application.
Clicking on a torrent link to, say, a flick distributed over the peer-to-peer network starts playing the video in your browser tab.
More interestingly, though, is the ability to view static websites hosted in the BitTorrent network: there are tools available to create and seed simple pages into the network, which people can find using a torrent link. There’s no central server for the pages – they’re pulled from those seeding the site for you.
Tomi Engdahl says:
14/04/2015 at 9:45
Press speculation Nokia / Alcatel-Lucent speculations Statement
Recently, an outbreak of speculation in the press, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent confirms that the companies are in advanced discussions on a possible merger of the full, to be implemented by Nokia in the public exchange offer by Alcatel-Lucent from. At this stage there is no certainty that the discussions would lead to a contract or transaction.
Source: http://company.nokia.com/fi/uutiset/lehdistotiedotteet/2015/04/14/lehdistossa-esiintyneita-nokiaalcatel-lucent-spekulaatioita-koskeva-lausunto
Tomi Engdahl says:
Now it is confirmed: Nokia to acquire Alcatel-Lucent
Network Device Group, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent have signed a letter of intent, according to which Nokia will acquire all shares of Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia says in a statement.
The transaction will be an exchange of shares.
Completely shares transaction, Alcatel-Lucent, the value of 15.6 billion euros.
Alcatel-Lucent shareholders should, as a result of 33.5 per cent stake in Nokia and Nokia’s 66.5 percent share of the owners.
Nokia’s Chairman of the Board Risto Siilasmaa is planned to continue to trade after the Chairman and Managing Director Rajeev Suri.
Both companies’ boards have approved the proposed deal terms.
The transaction is expected to take place next year in the first half.
Source: http://www.taloussanomat.fi/porssi/2015/04/15/nyt-se-vahvistui-nokia-ostaa-alcatel-lucentin/20154651/170?n=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Talk is FINNISHed: Nokia to buy Alcatel Lucent for €15.6 billion
Finland to be HQ, Bell Labs brand to stay, €900m in savings flagged after share swap deal goes down
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/15/nokia_to_buy_alcatel_lucent_for_156_billion/
Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent have confirmed rumours about a possible merger by saying it will happen, as “The two companies have entered into a memorandum of understanding under which Nokia will make an offer for all of the equity securities issued by Alcatel-Lucent”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
30 – count ‘em – 30 orgs sign up for Cumulus on Dell networking kit
Is this software-defined networking thing hot or not?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/15/30_count_em_30_orgs_sign_up_for_cumulus_on_dell_networking_kit/
January 2014, Dell announced it would make it possible to run Cumulus Networks’ operating system on its networking gear.
15 months later, 30 organisations have done so. As in a three followed by a zero. Worldwide.
So says John McCloskey, executive director for enterprise solutions at Dell Australia and New Zealand. McCloskey’s not worried: he reckons software-defined networking is a very early stage market.
So is Dell in a software-defined networking hole?
VMware has said it’s won 400 VSAN customers worldwide, hardly a sign that software-defined storage is knocking off the array business.
Cisco, meanwhile, says it has over 1,700 customers for its SDN effort, ACI, and that the tally of adherents is growing fast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data virtualized networks at high speed. Comptel’s CEO Juhani Hintikka, the networks will eventually virtualize everything that can be virtualized. – This development is driven by a need to optimize costs and increase network flexibility, Hintikka stresses.
NFV (Network Functions Virtualisation) is a technique which has been talked about for years. In February, the mobile trade show in Barcelona, it was one of the most important topics. However, this is a long process of change that will take years, even decades.
- Virtualization leaves typically issue an IMS core network and packet core components, and these implementations have already been made. The first NFV-pilots are currently running, for example, in the US by the big operators, Hintikka says.
Hintikka sees Comptel a lot of opportunities in the industrial side of the interet.
- We will be the first in the world of IoT suitable solution which was presented to the MWC trade show in Barcelona. It is a cloud-based network failure analysis services, which is also suitable for non-telecom environments. We are looking for on the process of customer feedback and we will do it on the basis of decisions on the future of the product, Hintikka says.
Also, OTT, or over-the-air to bring the pressure. How to make money on services, which only make use of the operator’s data pipe?
- Successful cooperation with the world OTT operators is important. I believe that most of the operators looking for a way to make cooperation with OTT players, also in order to sell their main products, data connections, Hintilla decide.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2693:verkossa-virtualisoidaan-kaikki-mika-voidaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia will increase to the second-largest network technology company
Nokia confirms a letter of intent to acquire a share exchange of Alcatel-Lucent. Nokia’s market share of the new base station equipment will grow by about 35 per cent, or it will grow to challenge the serious Ericsson, which accounted for about 40 per cent.
The companies have a total of 114 000 people.
The transaction is expected to occur summer of next year. The new Nokia has more than 40 000 product developers and the combined R & D investments last year amounted to EUR 4.7 billion. The big question fusion is related to how the company’s various R & D units running.
New Nokia is in a strong financial situation. The cash register is the money a total of 7.4 billion, with more to come HERE to-business selling.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2688:nokia-kasvaa-toiseksi-suurimmaksi&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia, AlcaLu Leapfrog Huawei
Wireless likely target of post-merger layoffs
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326360&
Nokia Corp. bid to acquire Alcatel-Lucent in a $16.6 billion deal that would create the world’s second largest provider of telecommunications systems. With about $28 billion in revenues, the combined companies would leapfrog China’s Huawei, the current second place vendor, but still fall behind Ericsson.
The merger anticipates savings of about a billion dollars a year by 2019. In a conference call, executives said the savings would come in part from eliminating overlapping products, sales and administrative staff and wireless R&D as well as lower real estate costs and better purchasing clout.
“There will be a lot of redundancies on the wireless side from an engineering perspective,” said Stefan Pongratz, a wireless analyst with Dell’Oro Group.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blow To Internet.org As Indian Internet Companies Begin To Withdraw
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/04/15/internetorg-withdrawal_n_7071532.html?utm_hp_ref=india
A day after Flipkart exited from the Airtel Zero platform, Cleartrip, NDTV, Newshunt and the Times Group announced that they are stepping away from Facebook’s internet.org initiative today.
The Times Group will be pulling out TimesJobs and Maharashtra Times from Internet.org, and has committed to withdraw from internet.org if its direct competitors – India Today, NDTV, IBNLive, NewsHunt, and BBC – also pull out.
Prannoy Roy, Co-Founder and Executive Co-Chairperson, NDTV tweeted out that his company is also committed to net neutrality and is therefore exiting from the internet.org initiative.
Facebook partnered with Reliance Communications to launch the app in India in February, the list of services on internet.org, which provides internet access to a limited portion of the internet for free, included a total of 37 websites or apps other than Facebook.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Zuckerberg: Internet.org Can Co-Exist With Net Neutrality
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/04/15/mark-zuckerberg-on-net-neutrality_n_7068862.html
Amid a raging debate on ensuring equal Internet access for all, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg today rejected criticism that his internet.org programme, which has RCom as a partner in India, was against the concept of Net Neutrality.
Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative which states that it aims to bring 5 billion people online in partnership with tech giants like Samsung and Qualcomm.
Facebook’s partnership with Reliance Communications to provide free Internet access to 33 websites as part of its Internet.org initiative has raised quite a few eyebrows with free Internet activists saying that it violates the idea of Net Neutrality.
The debate in India has also been triggered by mobile operator Airtel introducing an open marketing platform ‘Airtel Zero’, and TRAI’s consultation paper on whether telecom firms can be allowed to charge different rates for different uses of Internet data like email, Internet browsing and use of apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Skype.
He said: “For people who are not on the Internet though, having some connectivity and some ability to share is always much better than having no ability to connect and share at all. That’s why programmes like Internet.org are important and can co-exist with net neutrality regulations.”
Zuckerberg said net neutrality is important to “make sure network operators don’t discriminate and limit access to services people want to use, especially in countries where most people are online”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix will stop asking ISPs to exempt its videos from data caps
Netflix regrets striking cap-exempt deal in Australia.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/04/netflix-will-stop-asking-isps-to-exempt-its-videos-from-data-caps/
Netflix says it regrets striking a deal that exempted its videos from data caps imposed by an Internet service provider and will avoid such arrangements in the future.
Netflix has criticized data caps on fixed broadband for years and said that when they are applied, they should be applied equally to all content. But in Australia, where data cap exemption deals are common, the company negotiated with iiNet to exempt Netflix video from the ISPs’ caps.