iamba Networks (www.iamba.com), provider of GPON equipment, has closed a $7 million round of financing. Investing firms in this round include previous investors Pitango Venture Capital, Cedar Fund, Giza Venture Fund, and Kreos Capital. iamba Networks says it will use the funding to enhance its product portfolio, increase its sales and customer support teams, and expand its reach to new regions.
BroadLight (www.broadlight.com), supplier of GPON semiconductors and software, has been awarded patent number 7,327,679 by the U.S. Patent Office for a �Method of providing Quality of Service (QoS) and bandwidth allocation in a point to multi-point network.� The patent applies to optical line terminals (OLTs) for efficiently and fairly allocating system resources, such as upstream bandwidth, while attempting to maintain the QoS that a user has subscribed to in a point-to-multipoint network, say company representatives.
Verizon (www.verizon.com) has announced a capital investment of approximately $86 million in new network technology for Rhode Island in 2008. The plan extends Verizon�s FiOS TV service to an additional 10 communities and expands its Providence-based Fiber Solutions Center, where at least 50 more union-represented technicians and customer service representatives will be hired.
NEC Corp. of America (www.necam.com), together with AT&T Labs, has successfully demonstrated innovative schemes for modulation and transmission of high-speed optical signals at 40- and 100-Gbit/sec data rates. This work was initially described at OFC/NFOEC, Feb. 24�28, 2008. NEC and AT&T say they generated multiple WDM optical signals, each loaded with 114 Gbits/sec within a 25-GHz-wide portion of the optical spectrum. This technique resulted in the highest spectral efficiency ever achieved for long-haul optical transmission, claim the companies.
Fujitsu Network Communications (http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom) is collaborating with Indiana University (IU) on research about the effects that polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) can have on specific wavelengths traveling at 40 Gbits/sec or more. The Global Research Network Operations Center (GRNOC) of IU is providing dark fiber between Indianapolis and Bloomington, IN, plus access to patch panels, electrical power, the Internet, and physical space to conduct the tests. Fujitsu researchers have conducted tests over a seven-month period (with at least five more months of experiments planned), and IU is supporting the configuration changes during the testing phase.
A new social housing development in Belfast is one of the first parts of the UK where residents will be offered a choice of next-generation high-speed broadband services, thanks to an initiative by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), which is responsible for telecommunications policy in Northern Ireland. Following the trial, residents will be offered both high-speed copper-based broadband services and FTTH, say DETI representatives. Virgin Media and Bytel, the service providers, are currently offering 20 Mbits/sec. As a result of the trial, both companies say they plan to offer customers even faster connectivity in the future.
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (www.huawei.com) confirms that it installed a 2,700-km next-generation WDM backbone network for Magyar Telekom in Hungary�in just three months. The backbone, which covers all of the country, including the capital city Budapest, is based on Huawei�s OTN/ASON-based WDM platform and enables Magyar Telekom to migrate from providing traditional voice-oriented services through its previous DWDM system to providing next-generation data-oriented services to its customers.
Railway Telecom Ltd., based in Tblisi, Georgia, has installed BTI Systems� (www.btisystems.com) Netstender 2060 to expand its delivery capacity of wholesale services and international connectivity. BTI�s gear will enable Railway Telecom, a provider of next-generation telecommunications services founded by Georgian Railway Ltd., to increase network capacity for mobile operators, Internet service providers, and telecom carriers.
Cable network provider PrimaCom AG has deployed a DWDM metro optical network in Saxonia, Germany based on OpVista Inc.�s (www.opvista.com) OpVista2000 Optical Transport System. An additional metro optical network, also based on the OpVista2000, was expected to be installed in Thuringia by the end of May. The OpVista2000�s Microwave Photonics technology uses densely packed multiple optical carriers for the highest capacity on existing networks without costly re-engineering, explain OpVista representatives.
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has been chosen by Etisalat, the leading integrated service provider in the Middle East, to build a large-scale commercial FTTH network in the United Arab Emirates. Etisalat has crafted an all-IP strategy to drive business and network transformation, rolling out last-mile connectivity using FTTH to replace the current network with fiber-optic technology. With Huawei�s GPON FTTH system, Etisalat says it can fully meet the current and future demand for ultrahigh bandwidth access while delivering a better service experience for its customers.
Schiphol Telematics (ST), the telecom operator at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, has selected ECI Telecom (www.ecitele.com) to provide a three-year managed service contract for its next-generation networks (NGN). ECI confirms that it will provide a one-stop shop for ST�s optical and access network needs, implementing and managing the entire network, while providing a high-level of service-level agreement (SLA) for all operations within a very secure environment. ECI will supply its XDM and BroadGate multiservice provisioning platforms, its Hi-FOCuS multiservice access node, and the LightSoft network management system.
Alcatel-Lucent (www.alcatel-lucent.com) is upgrading and expanding the existing transport infrastructure of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE SA), Greece�s leading service provider, as part of a project valued at more than �12 million. Alcatel-Lucent says its optical equipment will support OTE�s program to extend the distribution of high-speed services in major urban and regional areas.
Alcatel-Lucent also has been selected by France�s higher education and research community, the Association Réseau Haut Débit du Plateau de Saclay, to deliver a very high-speed network. Connecting leading French engineering and management schools as well as renowned research centers, the turnkey optical network will favor the development of joint research or higher education programs, say Alcatel-Lucent representatives.
The Infinity Consortium has submitted a strong bid to build an FTTH broadband network. The network would be capable of delivering ultrahigh symmetric broadband speeds reaching up to 1 Gbit/sec and beyond. The Infinity Consortium was formed between Hong Kong�s City Telecom (CTI) and Singapore�s M1 and StarHub to jointly bid for Singapore�s Next Generation National Broadband Network�s Network Company.
UTStarcom Inc. (www.utstar.com) says it has been awarded a contract by United Telecoms Ltd. to deliver IPTV, bandwidth-on-demand, and voice-over-IP (VoIP) services in the state of Goa. The end-to-end network will provide more than 100,000 subscribers in Goa with high-speed access to several new services including broadcast-quality IPTV and e-governance applications. The Goa Broadband Network marks the first time UTStarcom�s RollingStream IPTV, GEPON, and mSwitch offerings will be integrated into a single customer network for the delivery of end-to-end, triple play services.
Sterlite Technologies Ltd. (www.sterlitetechnologies.com) plans to expand its fiber-optic cables facilities to an annual manufacturing capacity of 6 million km from its current capacity of 2 million km. This expansion, in conjunction with an optical fiber expansion from 6 to 12 million km, would position Sterlite among the top five global integrated fiber and cable producers, the company asserts.
Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (SEI; www.sei.co.jp) says it has expanded its optical device and optical transceiver manufacturing with the opening of Sumitomo Electric Photo-Electronics Components (Suzhou), Ltd. (SPEC) in China. SEI says the new integrated production site in China adds 155,000 sq. ft. to its existing five optical component/module manufacturing plants.
Network engineers designing look-aside interfaces will want to take a fresh look at the new Serial Look-Aside Interface (SLA) Implementation Agreement (IA) unveiled by the Optical Internetworking Forum (www.oiforum.com), say OIF representatives. The Serial Look-Aside Interface IA, one of two IAs recently published by the OIF�s Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group, gives users the ability to interface Network Processor Element (NPE) to look-aside devices such as co-processors and memories at bandwidth speeds up to 40 Gbits/sec and beyond.
Finisar Corp. (www.finisar.com) and Optium Corp. (www.optium.com) have entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction. The resultant company will reportedly be the world�s largest supplier of optical components, modules, and subsystems for the communications industry. The combined company will leverage Finisar�s position in the storage and data networking industries and Optium�s position in the telecommunications and CATV industries. Both companies also jointly announced that they expect to report new record revenues for their most recent quarters.