Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Great news for ALU: China to require FTTH for new homes


China Daily reports that a new policy from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will mandate that all new residences have a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connection where such broadband access networks are available. 
The policy, which goes into effect April 1 of this year.
Alcatel-Lucent  has been chosen to expand China Telecom’s broadband access network, bringing services such as IPTV, video-on-demand, and voice-over-IP (VoIP) services to millions of homes in China.

Monday, January 14, 2013

2013: The world becomes increasingly connected and mobile, the world becomes increasingly connected and mobile


If the past year could be defined by a few big headlines, one would be “Economic Crunch Hasn’t Slowed Urgency for Network Capacity.” Or how about “Network Players Constantly Evolving Business Models to Support New Era of Connected Living”?
These overarching themes will keep evolving in 2013. As the world becomes increasingly connected and mobile, all of the tech companies that touch the network are pushed to find new ways to remain relevant to survive. They must continue honing their business models and operations for maximum efficiency in an unpredictable economic environment. They must continue building out faster and more flexible networks to support increasing and more random traffic patterns. And they must continue to create innovative products and services that support our need for instant access via new apps and the next shiny and new connected device that captivates us based on increasingly shorter product cycles.
This is not breaking news, but themes that will intensify throughout 2013. Here’s a look at how these themes will play out in various aspects of optical networking.

Network providers rally behind 100G, self-aware networks; 400G on the horizon
To bolster and speed up network infrastructures, network operators began volume implementations of 100G optical equipment in 2012. 100G took off much more quickly than 40G, as all network players bought into to the overarching need for 100G and developed a healthy supply chain with a variety of competing building blocks.
Many experts believe 100G will play a central role in transmission much the way 10G did in the past. 100G creates a new baseline for network performance by using bandwidth in an efficient way; it aligns with 100GbE standards, and today’s 100G technology is expected to serve as the foundation for higher transmission line rates in the future.
With 100G in full swing in 2013, many will look ahead to 400G. Most agree that 400G will be implemented in two forms with either four 100G dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK) modulated wavelengths or two 200-Gbps wavelengths encoded with dual polarization 16QAM. Each approach has its benefits and drawbacks. DP-QPSK modulation provides better performance over long distances but consumes more spectrum within the fiber; 16QAM suffers from shorter reach but offers more efficient spectrum use.
The 16QAM option will likely be a good fit for areas of high population density, such as Europe and the East Coast of the United States, where the end-to-end service distances are shorter. The DP-QPSK option will be necessary where distances between major population centers are greater, such as the rest of North America. Since many of the technologies for 400G are very similar to 100G and exist today, the industry could see initial deployments in late 2013 or early 2014.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Alcatel-Lucent source: Capella’s WSS products are “strategic to our business.”


Alcatel-Lucent acquires Capella for WSS technology
Alcatel-Lucent  has shored up its in-house optical transport expertise with the acquisition of wavelength-selective switch (WSS) developer Capella Intelligent Subsystems Inc. (a.k.a. Capella Photonics).
The privately held Capella was one of the few independent vendors of WSS subsystems for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) in the optical communications market.
ECI Telecom was one of Capella main customers.
The deal was first reported by Ray Le Maistre of Light Reading. In confirming that report, an Alcatel-Lucent source described Capella’s WSS products as “strategic to our business.” The source declined to provide other details of the transaction, other than to say, ”the acquisition was not considered material.”
Capella was founded in 2000. Investors have included Formative Ventures, Levensohn Venture Partners, Lucas Venture Partners, Rustic Canyon Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Saints Capital and Black Diamond Ventures. SingTel Innov8 joined as strategic investor in early 2011. Executives included Larry Schwerin as CEO, Bruce Gray as president, and George Berberis as COO.
The company’s last announced new product was the CR-EX 1x20 WSS subsystem.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

ALU update: Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, has launched marine route survey activities in the United States and Brazil


Seaborn Networks says that its contractor, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, has launched marine route survey activities in the United States and Brazil ahead of the deployment of the Seabras-1 undersea cable project.
 The submarine fiber-optic network will link the two countries with a capacity of 32 Tbps.
In addition to connecting Sao Paolo to New York, Seabras-1 also will have a branch that lands in Fortaleza, Brazil. Tata Communications has raised its hand to be the anchor customer.
Alcatel-Lucent revealed last October that it had won the contract to build the network, including the provision of the company’s 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal equipment.
"We are pleased to announce this important milestone as part of the overall implementation of Seabras-1,” said Larry Schwartz, CEO of Seaborn Networks. “Together with the permit acquisition work currently underway and the completion of the cable route study, the marine surveys represent excellent progress as we maintain the schedule for Seabras-1 to enter service in the first quarter of 2015."