IEEE ComSoc Technology Blog

ETSI successfully demonstrated the interoperability of products based on its new M2M standards at the recent ETSI Machine to Machine workshop held in France in October.   Five comprehensive demonstrations, organized by ETSI’s Technical Committee for Machine to Machine communications (TC M2M), showcased how the interoperability of standards-based solutions in M2M products is key to market success.

The event, the first in a series of ETSI activities focused on M2M interoperability, included thirteen diverse organizations and covered a wide cross section of M2M applications. These included Smart Energy, Environmental Sensing, mHealth, Intelligent Transport, Ambient Assisted Living, Personal Robots, Home Automation, Medical Appliances and Smart Metering.

The demonstrations covered architectural components specified in the ETSI M2M standard, including M2M devices, gateways with associated interfaces, applications, access technologies as well as M2M Service Capabilities Layer.

The companies involved included Actility, Cinterion Wireless Modules GmbH, Grid2Home, Intecs, Intel, InterDigital, NEC, OFFIS, Radisys, Sensinode, Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Vodafone D2 Test & Innovation Center.

Olivier Hersent, CEO of Actility, commented: “Our contribution to the ETSI M2M demo focuses on interoperability with indoor area networks, such as ZigBee. The demonstration shows how ETSI M2M enables operators and utilities to massively deploy in-the-cloud applications controlling indoor area networks and leveraging a shared infrastructure. ETSI M2M provides the foundation enabling mission critical Internet of Things applications, such as load shifting and demand response.”

Manfred Kube of Cinterion commented: “Standards are the key ingredient for establishing an ecosystem of interoperable health solutions that empower people and organizations to better manage health and wellness. By stepping up our collaborative efforts, we can accelerate the development and implementation of portable, wireless, medical devices that enable a more effective and patient-centric care model.”

James N. Nolan, Executive Vice President of Research and Development at InterDigital, commented:  “We are grateful for ETSI’s commitment to driving the standardizing of M2M solutions and promoting interoperability across a wide variety of industries and applications, unlocking the true potential of new services around the world. ETSI’s roadmap is well-aligned with InterDigital’s advanced R&D efforts in M2M communications and our vision of tomorrow’s Internet of Things.”

Dr. Heinrich Stüttgen, Vice President of NEC Laboratories Europe, commented: “M2M is an exploding area for new consumer and business services, providing great opportunities for service operators and enterprises.  ETSI M2M standards enable an expanding market and many new opportunities for more intelligent services. At this workshop we showcased heterogeneous M2M devices in an intelligent home with a personal robot and medical devices, interworking to aid the daily live of elderly citizens. Our research activities and our contributions to the ETSI M2M standards as well as our investigations in advanced services areas like Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) or home energy control show NEC’s commitment to advance M2M technology for the benefit of the society.”

Erik Brenneis, Head of M2M, Vodafone commented: “Building on new ETSI specifications, Vodafone and Intel demonstrated a breakthrough ability to use the SIM card to securely deploy new M2M services on remote devices. This opens the door to significant new commercial applications and cost reductions in the operation of M2M services.”

Just this week, Sierra Wireless and IBM formed an M2M Industry Working Group within the open source Eclipse Foundation.   That group aims to define and implement an open standard platform for the development tools for creating M2M applications, and IBM, along with partner Eurotech, has donated the sourcecode of its M2M messaging system to be a cornerstone of the effort. IBM hopes to acelerate the standardization of the MQTT protocol, originally developed by IBM and Eurotech in 1999.

However,  IBM will not have it all its own way, as some parties think HTTP itself should be the standard protocol for M2M. MQTT, say its supporters, is more optimized for the new networks, particularly because it supports ‘publish and subscribe’ activity, which means the two machines do not need to establish a sustained connection to communicate – very important when networks are unreliable or low bandwidth, as the device can publish when it is ready and then power down.

http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2011/11/10/ibm-proposes-m2m-messaging-standard.htm

Observation & Comment: 

Lack of standards has slowed down the M2M growth,   Here are the M2M standards committees we are aware of:

•European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) TC M2M
•China‟s sensor network standards working group under the China National Information Technology Standardization Committee
•Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-50 Smart Device Communications Engineering Committee (United States)

We know of no such comparible M2M standardization effort in the U.S.  THe closest is the TIA TR 50 standards committee on Smart Devices, AKA Internet of Thnigs.   For more info on that activity, see:

http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/committees/committee.cfm?comm=tr-50

Our concern is that M2M standards are needed within the network for the provisioning, billing, maintenance and management systems for all the new smart devices.  Who  is doing that work?  If no one, then each M2M network provider will build their own purpose built M2M platform.

One of the fastest networks ever built is set to come online this month thanks to $62 million in federal stimulus money. The superfast 100-Gbps Ethernet link will run over a span of dark fiber owned by Level 3 Communications and connect Department of Energy research centers in Illinois, California and Tennessee. The network, which will rely on the Internet2 research consortium for connectivity and routers from Alcatel-Lucent subsidiary LGS Innovations, is designed to enable researchers to conduct more accurate real-world simulations of phenomena such as climate change and particle physics.

“Since 1990, our traffic has grown by a factor of 10 every 47 months on average,” explained Steve Cotter, ESnet department head. “We are in the age of observation right now in science. All of these scientific instruments and experiments are collecting significantly more data than they ever have in the past. This data needs to be stored … and moved around. We’ve been using this 10 Gigabit network … but we knew that if we didn’t start planning now for a 100 Gigabit network, the demand would overwhelm us.”

The 100G ESnet upgrade was funded through the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package in February 2009.

“We received stimulus funds to build this 100G network with the intention of doing two things. One was accelerating the deployment of 100G so that the equipment manufacturers didn’t shelve the technology on fears that there wouldn’t be demand. … The other reason they gave us the money was to build a next-generation network test bed and to fund network research,” Cotter said.

Costing an estimated $62 million, the 100G network will link three DOE research centers: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It also will connect with a key Internet exchange point in New York for connecting to research networks overseas.

Read more at:   http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/110111-esnet-100g-ethernet-252623.html

Note:  IEEE ComSocSCV has had 2 meetings on 100G transmission including 40/100G Ethernet in Oct 2010 and 100G Ethernet/OTN/CEI in July 2011.  Presentos may be downloaded free from the Archive section of our web site:  www.comsocscv.org

Introduction

Business customers are buying Ethernet services from legacy and competitive carriers as well as from MSOs.  Cost effective performance, simplicity of operations, scalability and the ability to use the same access technology as in the enterprise LAN are somme of the reasons for this uptake.  In addition to the extra bandwidth and the variety of services Ethernet supports, small- and medium-sized businesses appreciate Ethernet’s flexibility and lower cost.  Carriers and their customers like the fact that Ethernet adapts to their premises based (switch/router) equipment, which helps them to grow their businesses quickly. Wholesalers are doing the same things as their retail counterparts

Why Business Ethernet?

The top three reasons carriers are deploying Business Ethernet are to transport mobile backhaul traffic, to meet the needs of high-end enterprises and to serve businesses with multiple locations.  For many years, Frame Relay service was used for the latter, but being almost 20 years old, Frame Relay has been replaced by “Metro Ethernet” which also goes by the monickers “Carrier Ethernet” and “Business Ethernet.”  Note that Carrier Ethernet is also used by many carriers (e.g. AT&T U-Verse) to transparently deliver IP-TV services to residential customers.  However, that is not the focus of this article.

Ethernet over Fiber or Copper depends on Bandwidth Requirements

To truly realize the potential and power of Metro Ethernet, carriers need to build-out fiber infrastructures closer and closer to their customers.  Optical Ethernet from the customer premises to the carrier’s POP is the best, because it facilitates “liquid bandwidth.”  That means that a business customer can automatically request his Ethernet speed to be increased or decreased without having to add or remove a physical line.  The addition of a new facility involves a truck roll and may take significant time.  This is not necessary with FTTP because of the much higher access bandwidth of fiber, when compared to a repeatered 4 wire copper circuit (e.g. T1/DS1 or T3/DS3) or bonded (2 wire) DSL.

When fiber to commercial buildings is not available or possible,  the fiber is terminated in a network node close to business customers and then extended by copper tail circuits -either bonded DSL or n x T1/DS1.  The Metro Ethernet sweet spot today is somewhere between 10M b/sec and 100 M b/sec- much lower than what many pundits were predicting for 2000 and 2001 – just before the telecom crash.  Those speeds can effectively be met with Ethernet over Copper, which provides reasonably good scalability from 3 – 20 M b/sec.

According to Erin Dunne, Director of Research Services for Vertical Systems Group, just over half of U.S. business Ethernet installations are delivered over Direct Fiber.  Ms Dunne states that “SONET/DWDM is the second most prevalent Ethernet access technology.  Other technology alternatives include TDM, bonded copper, Coax/HFC, FWL and others.  While fiber is the access technology of choice for Ethernet service delivery, alternatives to fill gaps in fiber coverage will be required for many years.  This is good news for vendors of equipment that addresses the flexible access requirements service providers are demanding.”

Comment and Analysis

XO Communications Business Ethernet Services

A survivor of the dot com bust and telecom crash of 2001-2002, XO Communications is quietly making a name for itself in delivering Ethernet services to business customers.  While AT&T, Verizon, and TW Telecom are still the U.S. leaders, according to Vertical Systems Group Mid Year 2011 Leaderboard, XO is in 7th place and moving up fast.  The company sells voice and data services to SMBs and also offers wholesale facilities to other carriers/re-sellers.

The Ethernet services XO offers to business customers include:

• Ethernet Private Line – Point-to-point Ethernet connectivity ideal for businesses looking for dedicated bandwidth between office locations
• Ethernet Hub (previously called Ethernet Virtual Private Line)– Point-to-multipoint Ethernet solution ideal for connecting branches or offices to centralized headquarters or data center
• Ethernet VPLS (previously called Ethernet Private LAN) – Multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet WAN ideal for enterprises to connect key locations, transport special applications with protocol transparency, and maintain separation of different network domains
• Ethernet Access (to an IP WAN) – affordable, scalable Ethernet access to deliver Dedicated Internet Access, VoIP and MPLS IP-VPN services across your enterprise

A complete description of XOs Ethernet Services is described in their  Ethernet Services Overview document.  The company also provides an informative podcast describing why business customers are interested in Ethernet services and how XO meets that need.  To watch that video, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgWLjnYHKZE

According to Don MacNeil, vice president of Carrier Services for XO Communications, Ethernet has been key to the company’s strong growth since its founding in 1996, a trend he foresees continuing in the future.

The XO network can provide Ethernet services to over 10 million U.S. businesses in the metro areas the company serves. This represents the majority of all U.S. businesses and the XO network is present in all top 25 metro markets. XO’s Ethernet-over copper services are now available in 442 central offices in 40 metro markets reaching 1.5 million U.S. businesses.

http://www.carrierethernetnews.com/articles/256186/xo-communications-meteoric-rise-tied-to-ethernet/

For more information on XO’s Business Ethernet offerings as well as other XO telecom services for SMBs, please contact:  Michael E. Weiss,  XO Communications Major Accounts at: michael.e.weiss@xo.com or phone:  510-580-6380.  Mr Weiss attended the Oct 12th IEEE ComSocSCV meeting on cloud networking and talked with attendees during our networking reception.  He also attended our very successful social networking dinner in August.

For more information about ComSocSCV please visit:  www.comsocscv.org, ComSocSCV LInked IN group, Facebook page and the Sept 2010 and Jan 2011 editions of IEEE Global Communications Newsletter (GCN).  There will be another article about ComSocSCV in the Nov 2011 GCN

“Create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.” According to Intel, it is the mission and kind of thinking that has defined and shaped the comapny’s actions for the past four decades.  Intel’ s world class semiconductor processing technology, enables the company to design and build microprocessors that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices.

Intel is dedicated to solving some very complex problems: How do we push transistor technology beyond the seemingly immovable laws of physics? How can we empower people in the remotest villages around the world with tools of the digital age? How will we prepare young people, so they will continue to innovate and solve some of our world’s biggest challenges?

Paul Otellini confronts these issues everyday as President and Chief Executive Officer of Intel Corporation. After being named CEO in 2005, Mr. Otellini has focused on driving the company’s growth and mission to deliver secure, connected, and energy-efficient computing solutions.

On October 6th, Mr. Otellini talked about innovation and Intel’s come from behind strategy to win market share in mobile computing.  The session was moderated by long time SCU EE Prof Cary Yang.

Otellini identified three challenges facing the entire technology industry:

 1.  Everywhere computing-  in phones, cars, media tablets, TVs, shopping in the mall, digital signage, etc

2.  Making the benefits of computing available to people all over the world, especially in developing countries.

 3.  Ensure innovation will continue.  Innovation was said to be “the ultimate driver of progress.”

During his prepared remarks and Q &A, Mr. Otellini made several bold statements.  Here are a few that caught my attention:

“China is more innovative than Japan.”

 “Intel is the 4th largest software company in the world, measured by number of software engineers.”

 “WiMAX was not the winning mobile wireless technology, but it drove 4G, which is LTE.” 

Analysis:  This oft cited comment really means that the pressure WiMAX proponents (like Intel) put on making OFDMA based mobile WiMAX technology available, caused the LTE camp to accelerate their own deployments.  While that is certainly true, it didn’t benefit Intel at all since the company never had an LTE development or ecosystem building program (like they had for mobile WiMAX and WiMAX 2.0).

In answer to a question posed by this author about Intel’s failure to gain market traction in mobile computing, Mr. Otellini replied that “Intel is inside many tablets, but not the iPAD.”  And that they would be announcing several “design wins” in smart phones next Spring.  He referred to a keynote talk he  will make at the January 2012 CES about Intel’s mobile computing initiatives and offered me a free ticket if I wanted to attend!

A video recording of Mr. Otellini’s speech is available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f9eFYlxH3M&noredirect=1

This article was written by Louis Schreier,VP, Portfolio Development and Technology, Products & Innovation, T-Labs US.  The article was edited by Alan J Weissberger.

Having established an Industrial R&D Lab in Palo Alto in 2008, Deutsche Telekom’s (DT) T-Labs has expanded its mission in the Silicon Valley.  T-Labs already has ties to Stanford, UC- Berkeley, UC-Santa Cruz, UIUC, U Michigan and other universities.  The Labs is expanding its activities to focus on four key initiatives:

1.  Transforming its academic and industrially oriented R&D into innovative products;
2.  The integration of start-up technologies into DT’s and T-Mobile’s networks, as well as DT’s Data Centers;
3.  The incubation of promising technologies to the mutual benefit of both the startups and DT; and
4.  Creating open interfaces and APIs that enable 3rd party applications and services to take advantage of Deutsche Telekom and partner networks for consumer oriented applications as well as for B2B, B2C, and B2B2X development.

T-Labs Advanced Technology & Development Center’s internal R&D activities and charter includes Advanced Network Infrastructure, Media and Cloud-based Services, Mobile Client Ecosystem, the Development of Enabling Platforms and APIs, and Technology Integration and Incubation. Within this broad umbrella, T-Labs ATDC is pursuing several areas, including:

-Software Defined Networks (SDN);
-Android-based services and applications for mobile clients.  These include: home, health and fitness, and location-based services;
-Sensor networks and communication supporting geophysical as well as device and connected device applications;
-Media including multi-device and multi-screen video clients; and
-Cloud-based services including video conferencing and telephony services for SMBs.

Here’s a brief overview of a few of T-Labs Advanced Development Center’s activities.

1. Advanced Networking:  Although the trend for Telecommunication Operators is increasingly toward upper layer applications and services, DT and T-Labs Advanced Development Center (T-Labs ATDC) have been at the forefront in developing advanced network architectures and capabilities. As an integral part of the Clean Slate, Software Defined Networking initiative, T-Labs ATDC worked together with Stanford University.  Two T-Labs ATDC Research Scientists collaborated with and contributed to the OpenFlow specification and 1.0 reference implementation.

OpenFlow physically splits the data plane from the control plane, thereby flattening the network.  This allows flow-based monitoring and management of network traffic, which results in better network utilization of resources and more efficient control traffic distribution and dynamic migration. Commercial versions of the OpenFlow stack have been implemented by network equipment vendors, such as NEC, Juniper, and HP among others.  Nicira, and BigSwitch have implemented commercial versions of the OpenFlow controller.

The use of OpenFlow and services on-top of the OpenFlow stack in campus networks and data centers will simplify network complexity at the traffic aggregation and access network layers (L2/L3).  By splitting the control and data planes and employing less expensive hardware at the forwarding/routing layer, OpenFlow also shows promise in reducing capital and operating expenses. T-Labs ATDC is developing data center services on top of OpenFlow that support network advanced monitoring and management.

2. Mobile applications and location-based services: This example combines machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, on-board device management, and location-based services. T-Labs ATDC, together with UC Berkeley, are developing the capability to turn smart phones into a vast sensor network.  It will have the ability to detect and communicate on-board sensor states to networked servers which will provide advanced analysis to earthquake detection and alerting networks.

UC Berkeley’s focus on iOS-based devices and T-Labs ATDC focus on Android-based devices, provides the largest possible set of smart phone devices for this purpose.  The result is a mobile sensor network with the ability to contribute, in a quantifiable way, to a detection event and thereby build a picture of an earthquake’s distribution and path of direction. This is possible because the speed at which an earthquake travels is much slower than the speed of Internet communications.

If a monitoring system could shave tens of seconds to a minute off public alerts, it would provide those in the path of the earthquake and first responders key event and location-based information.  Consequently, first responders could more effectively marshal their response, and potential victims could likewise seek safety. In reality, this application is anything but simple. It involves device and communication management, on-board and server-side analytics to deduplicate, disambiguate, recognize patterns, and validate signals across potentially millions of devices communicating events in real time, in near real time.  Although this application may never be material to DT’s bottom line, its important because it serves the public good.

3.  Cloud-based business services: A final example of work T-Labs ATDC is engaged in is cloud services for SMBs. We’re currently working with two startups and the open source community to develop cloud based communication services for SMBs.  These include: conferencing, advanced PBX and telephony, as well as multiplatform videophone services.

The goal of this activity is to create advanced, and branded, services for our business customers throughout Europe, by taking advantage of innovation and open source software and services in Silicon Valley (and elsewhere). At the same time, the startups with whom we’re working are pursuing other markets and customers through their own channels and business development activities.

In this activity, T-Labs ATDC provides integration support for the core technologies as well as access to DT resources that would be difficult to obtain at so early a stage. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for DT to extend its existing consumer and business portfolio with advanced applications and services and, at the same time, provide start-ups with entry into the European Markets.

It’s important to note that when T-Labs ATDC works with startups, including those for which we provide venture funding, it’s done in a non-exclusive relationship. As a result, everyone wins!

In addition to the above development activities above our charter includes: Software Defined Networking, Middleware and Enabling platforms, OTT media, Cloud-based services for both consumers and businesses, Home technology, including home-hubs, and entertainment, Integration and Incubation.

While T-Labs Advanced Development Center is focused on building and leveraging our own resources and relationships in the valley, we’re international, and collaborate with our Innovation Labs colleagues in Germany, Israel, and our Business Unit partners in Germany and the US.

Summing up, T-Labs Advanced Development Center’s activity and collaboration with startups in the Bay Area has been ongoing for several years. Deutsche Telekom also has Venture Capital, Business Development and Strategic Partnering activities in Silicon Valley as well.

EDITORS NOTE: T-Labs will be co-sponsoring the IEEE ComSocSCV Oct 12 meeting on Cloud Networking along with Juniper Networks.   Representatives from Savvis/Century Link, Juniper, and Arista Networks will be presenting their perspective and opinons about the network that must deliver cloud compute and storage services.

Meeting information and RSVP at:  http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/comsoc/index.php#oct12

Speakers

• Michael Cowburn, Sr. Solutions Architect, Savvis
• Omar Smith, Network Solutions Architect, Savvis
• Anshul Sadana, VP Customer Engineering, Arista Networks
• Colin Constable, VP/CTO Strategic Alliances, Juniper Networks

Session Organizer

Alan J Weissberger, IEEE ComsocSCV Chair and Manager of ComSoc Community web site

Session Chair

MP Divakar, IEEE ComsocSCV Secretary

Introduction:

Global mobile app downloads will reach nearly 18 billion this year with sales of $15.1 billion, nearly triple last year’s revenues, according to Gartner Research.  How much of that $15.1B went into the pocket of carriers (vs Apple and Google)?  We would expect that number to be close to zero!

Having missed the first wave of mobile ecosystem value creation, global telcos are coming to Silicon Valley and SF in droves, looking to partner with entreprenurial companies that are developing innovative technologies that might complement their networks.  15 of those telcos disclosed what they were looking for at the Sept 15, 2011 Telecom Council Carrier Connections (TC3) meeting in Mt. View, CA.  Several of the telcos presenting were paired with partner companies they are doing business with.  This provided the audience with selected case studies of how start-ups could work with carriers to pursue meaningful partnership opportunities.  The TC3 Agenda can be viewed at:

http://telecomcouncil.cvent.com/events/tc3-telecom-council-carrier-connections/agenda-a7f6464b86354e1baa26db81fb621306.aspx

The TC3 conference was moderated by Derek Kerton, whose Kerton Group specializes in telecom strategy, marketing, business development, and consulting services.  Always a very skilled and market savvy moderator, Derek was in top form at this conference. He often asked probing questions that were out of the comfort zone of many of the panelists he was interviewing.  Indeed, the mobile Internet is an area outside of the telco’s domain of expertise and comfort zone.  Their inability to move quickly in this growing market is a primary reason they are seeking relationships with Silicon Valley entrepreneurial companies ((like web software start-ups) that can accelerate time to market for their solutions.

Mr. Kerton pointed out that while the larger telcos have a “long pipeline,” requiring a lot of testing and high reliability for hardware/software (not something web software companies pay much attention to), they offer unmatched leverage and distribution for the small number of companies they partner with.  That represents a huge revenue opportunity!  On the other hand, the smaller telcos (e.g. Jersey Telecom), don’t have the massive distribution network, but they may be a whole lot easier to do business with.  They also may be more nimble and faster to market with a 3rd party solution.

Telcos in the SF Bay Area (Santa Clara County & San Francisco):

The following telcos have established a presence in Silicon Valley (please see next section for a description of selected telco innovation activities noted here):

-Orange-FT has had a research lab in South San Francisco for over 10 years. 

-Sprint has had an M2M Collaboration Center and Advanced Technology Lab in Burlingame that IEEE ComSocSCV visited in March 2011. 
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.sprint.com/m2m

-NTT DoCoMo established its USA Labs in Palo Alto and also has a VC fund- DoCoMo Capital

-KDDI Labs in Palo Alto has expanded their “scouting activities.”

-Swisscom has a small office in Palo Alto and a Venture fund.  They have made a “social community” partnership with Lithium Technologies and are looking for innovation in several new areas. 

-LightSquared has opened a “Developers Sandbox” for innovators in Mt View, in conjuntion with Nokia Siemens Networks.  For more information please refer to this article:

https://techblog.comsoc.org/2011/09/19/lightsquared-announces-opening-of-developer-sandbox-in-mt-view-ca

-Verizon recently opened an Innovation Center in San Francisco (home to many web software companies, including Twitter).  More information at:  www.innovation.verizon.com, www.developer.verizon.com, and www.verizon.com/ventures

-AT&T just opened a Foundry in Palo Alto with Ericsson of Silicon Valley.  This incubation center is focused on consumer technology and products.  It is the third Incubator that AT&T has opened in 2011 (other two are near Tel Aviv, Israel with Amdocs and Plano, TX with Alcatel-Lucent).  The company says, “The AT&T Foundry™ innovation centers represent a $80 million investment from AT&T and technology providers.” 
For more information, please see:  http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=2949

-Comcast has a R & D lab in Sunnyvale.  They presented many interesting areas of innovation they are investigating there. 

-Singtel (did not present at TC3) added a venture capital fund

-Deutsche Telekom (did not present at TC3) has opened a Lab and Advanced Technology Department in Palo Alto

-Vodafone (did not present at TC3) just established a R&D center in Redwood Shores, which it will use as an incubation center for helping local startups develop and test products that operate on its world-wide wireless network.

-China Telecom and NTT also have operations in the South Bay SF Bay Area.

-Other telcos are investigating a presence in Silicon Valley 

In addition to the above mentioned telcos, several smaller (and perhaps more nimble) carriers presented their innovation agendas at TC3.  Three standouts were:  Jersey Telecom (a UK owned island off the coast of France),  Leighton Telecom/NextGen (Australia), and Metro PCS (U.S. 4th largest wireless carrier and first to commercially deploy LTE in the U.S.).

Observation and Reality Check:

We were somewhat surprised that there was no discussion of technologies for some of the hotter areas of telecom research, e.g. For Wireless: nano cells, multi-mode (frequency & RAN) base stations via software defined radio, cognitive radio, self organizing networks, optimized delivery of mobile video, improved microwave backhaul capacity, etc.  For wire-line the list includes: 40G/100G Ethernet switching, Optical Transport Network (OTN) multiplexing, Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexor (ROADM), WDM Passive Optical Network (PON), DWDM fiber backhaul from/to cell towers, All Optical long haul transport (without OEO repeaters), Optical Fault Detection and Restoration, Faster and longer reach ADSL/VDSL, coax cable & twisted pair HANs, BoPL/ EoPL, smart grid networks, etc.

Instead, the telcos seem to be looking for ancillary technologies (e.g. Real Time Data Analytics/ Big Data, Networked Attached Flash Memory Arrays, Touch Screen Keyboards, Community Wide Social Networks, Innovative Mobile Devices & Services, etc) that complement their broadband wireless and wire-line networks. In fact there was nothing specific to either type of network that was described at TC3.

Violin Memory’s flash memory array (networked attached storage replacing hard disk drives) is a  great example of a non-telecom technology being adopted by telcos.  It’s used primarily as a Fiber Channel or SCSI attached “appliance” for virtualized servers (when in an I/O wait state mode) and for real time analytics storage.  Both Singtel and Rogers (Canada) have invested in Violin Memory.  The carriers that are using or plan to use their technology were not disclosed.

Evidently, the telcos still look to their large vendors (Ericsson, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, NSN) for almost all of the network resident technology and equipment they need.  Of course, this is one reason for the dearth in funding of telecom and networking start-ups – the VCs don’t see any opportunity there so don’t invest in those types of companies anymore. The few that are left have to partner with the larger network equipment companies to get any visibility with the telcos.  But that is always a dangerous game, as start-up intellectual property is often at risk.

For more on this dilemma for new telecom technology & networking companies, please see:
http://www.viodi.com/2011/08/14/vc-falling-over-internet-start-ups-telecom-tie-angels-wins-for-smaller-deals/

It sure looks better to be a start-up that creates value (via software) on top of the underlying transport network, or compliments it with non telecom equipment (e.g. array storage) or customer owned devices (e.g. touch screen keyboards, mobile consumer  gadgets) or sensors for M2M communications & Internet of Things.

A longer, more comprehensive version of this article is at: 

http://viodi.com/2011/09/28/global-telcos-come-to-silicon-valley-in-search-of-innovation-and-partnerships/

At Thursday’s Telecom Council’s TC3 Conference, upstart wireless wholesaler LIghtSquared announced the opening of a “Sandbox” or innovation center for 3rd party developers.  Located in Mt View, CA, the Sandbox is being hosted by Nokia Siemens Networks, one of LightSquared’s wireless infrastructure vendors.

This new “playground for developers” was said to be the first to offer three types of radio technologies:

• Proximal (NFC, Bluetooth, WiFi),
• Terrestial (2G, 3G, LTE) and
• Satellite based radio

LightSquared is seeking 3rd party software, hardware, and applications for its combined terrestial- satellite 4G-LTE network. The Sandbox team, led by Moe Motamedi, is looking for innovative solutions in any of the following areas: VoIP, video streaming, multi-player gaming, digital advertising, security, Digital Rights Management (DRM), Smart Grid, M2M communications,telematics, Location Based Services (LBS), mobile health/ telemedicine, cloud server virtualization.

Start-ups, entrepreneurs and other interested parties are invited to test and optimize their solutions for these (and possibly other areas) on LightSquared’s terrestial and satellite network. The proximal wireless technologies are also available for testing of technologies in this Sandbox. LightSquared would like to aggregate APIs from several device companies and make them available to developers of mobile apps and other software that leverage its network.

For more information, please visit: http://www.lightsquared.com/what-we-do/applications-and-services/

Contact: [email protected]

Backgrounder:

On July 28, 2011, LightSquared agreed to pay Sprint $9 billion to build a 4G-LTE network using its L-Band spectrum. That terrestial network will use Sprint’s cell towers and nex-gen, multi-mode Base Stations to be deployed in its “Network Vision” plan. LightSquared also will be able to fallback to Sprint’s EVDO based 3G network in areas where terrestial LTE is not available.  (We wonder how roaming/ handoff will work between satellite-LTE, terrestial-LTE, and terrestial-3G?  And how will it be decided to roam to 3G or satellite based LTE when terrestial LTE isn’t available?).

LightSquared plans to wholesale the combined 4G/3G terrestial network (built and maintained by Sprint) along with its own LTE satellite network.  However, U.S. Federal regulators are hesitant to allow LightSquared to use its satellite-based spectrum, because of claims it interferes with GPS frequencies.  

Proposed tour of Sandbox Facility:

IEEE ComSocSCV is talking with LightSquared management to arrange a tour of their Mt View Sandbox for interested hardware and software developers.  Please contact this author if interested:  [email protected].

References:

https://techblog.comsoc.org/2011/07/29/is-it-lights-out-for-lightsquared-faa-says-revised-plan-to-mitigate-gps-interference-not-good-enough

https://techblog.comsoc.org/2011/03/28/lightsquared-in-contract-talks-aims-to-be-king-of-wireless-wholesale-networks-in-u-s

http://www.lightsquared.com/press-room/press-releases/sprint-nextel-and-lightsquared-announce-spectrum-hosting-and-network-services-agreement/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/lightsquared-sprint-strike-partnership-but-questions-loom/2011/07/28/gIQAHvuleI_blog.html

https://techblog.comsoc.org/2011/08/25/sprint-will-not-abandon-wimax-customers-or-clearwire-after-deploying-lte-but-no-plans-for-4g-apis

http://viodi.com/2011/08/26/fcc-restarts-180-day-clock-on-att-t-mobile-merger-cutting-through-all-the-hype/comment-page-1/

http://wimaxcommunity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sprint-can-support-both-lte

https://techblog.comsoc.org/2011/09/06/what-next-for-sprint-if-att-get-done-4g-strategy-will-be-key

Verizon has announced that it is now running traffic at 100 gigabits per second on a portion of its Chicago-to-New York optical backbone. The mrga-telco, which was the first to trial 100 Gbps in 2007, debuted the technology in Europe on its Paris-to-Frankfurt link using an optical-transport solution from Ciena. Verizon said it plans to expand the technology to more than 10 additional routes by year’s end.

Similar to the routes Verizon has already incorporated–100 Gbps into Europe and in other parts of its U.S. backbone network–the latest 100 Gbps route also leverages the provider’s existing fiber network infrastructure. In addition, Verizon can carry traffic on a single 100 Gbps wavelength versus multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths.

Ihab Tarazi, vice president of global network planning at Verizon, said that their drive to deploy 100 Gbps in the U.S. is a response to “not only growth in traffic, but also in the need for immediacy from our customers that are managing financial transactions, health care data exchange, energy services and entertainment on-the-go.”

Out of the major telcos, Verizon has arguably been one of the most aggressive purveyors of 100 Gbps optical technology.

After initially deploying 100 Gbps in some early trial networks and on two routes in Europe, Verizon has been tactically deploying the technology on segments in the U.S., including segments in Chicago to New York, Sacramento to Los Angeles and Minneapolis to Kansas City.

Veizon is using optical networking gear from long time DWDM leader Ciena (which acquired bankrupt Nortel’s optical network division last year). 

Read more: Verizon to deploy 100 Gbps optical on 10 U.S. routes this year – FierceTelecom http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/verizon-deploy-100-gbps-optical-10-us-routes-year/2011-09-12#ixzz1XtkHc6pw

http://www.fiercetelecom.com/press_releases/verizon-first-global-service-provider-deploy-100g-us-long-haul-network

http://www.multichannel.com/article/473716-Verizon_Claims_To_Light_Up_First_100_Gig_Backbone_Link_In_U_S_.php

Note:  IEEE ComSocSCV’s July 13, 2011 meeting was on 100G bit/sec transmission systems.  THe presento can be downloaded (free) from: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/comsoc/ComSoc_2011_Presentations.php

And you thought Sprint-Nextel was just a wireless carrier?  The company, thought of primarily as a 3G/mobile WiMAX provider, has just announced that it will add Ethernet service to 25 new U.S. markets by the end of 2011 and expand the service into additional global regions next year. The carrier offers Ethernet to businesses and wholesale partners in 40 American markets and 37 countries. Sprint said it recently expanded the service by adding additional speeds, ranging from 2 to 10 Gbps.

Enhanced Ethernet access coverage for Sprint Global MPLS and dedicated internet access provides businesses and wholesale partners to maintain multiple types of technologies. Sprint Ethernet access is offered in 40 markets nationwide and 37 countries globally. Sprint plans to launch domestic markets in existing markets by end of year, as well as expand availability globally next year. Sprint has enhanced its service by adding speeds to current aggregated speeds, with ranges of 2-10 Gbps, subject to market availability. Businesses can select from eighteen aggregated speeds and sixteen dedicated speeds, choosing the port speeds that fit their network needs. Aggregated Ethernet access can provide an alternative to traditional TDM access, while Dedicated Ethernet access expands to meet specific customer bandwidth needs, offering fixed-rate and fractional billing.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/sprint-to-expand-ethernet-access-service-to-65-markets

Comment and Analysis

We expect that Sprint will compete in the U.S. with Comcast Business, Verizon Business, AT&T, Century Link, Megapath and XO Communications.  We’re not sure about who they’ll compete with outside the U.S.

A key issue is whether Sprint will extend its fiber plant to commercial buildings and offer Optical Ethernet.  It’s that techology that offers customers “liquid bandwidth,”  i.e. they can upgrade their access speed without having the carrier deploy a new facility.  For example, a customer could initially order a 10M bit/sec Ethernet Private Line or Virtual Private Line service and then upgrade to 50M or even 100M bit/sec by simply using more of the bandwidth available in the fiber access link.  Of course an automated provisioning/ re-provisioning system is needed to be in place at the carrier’s Central Office (where the Ethernet link access is terminated) to realize such “liquid bandwidth.”  Ethernet over copper (DS1/E1, nx DS1/E1, bonded DSL, etc) can not generally support this capability.

Perhaps, the expansion of Sprint’s metro Ethernet service will provide a lifeline for the company in view of its challenges and difficulties in the 4G market.

https://techblog.comsoc.org/2011/09/06/what-next-for-sprint-if-att-get-done-4g-strategy-will-be-key