Sunday, September 30, 2012

3G Connected ATM's in India from Cisco

Networking giant Cisco is offering a new technology to help reduce the cost of deploying Automated Teller Machine's in remote regions in India. The 'Connected ATM Solution' makes use of 3G and CMDA networks, instead of the usual VSAT and CMDA options. 

According to Sanjay Kharade, Cisco India and SAARC Senior Vice President, the use of cellular technology provides for a more secure back-up solution in remote sites while bringing down the costs. VSAT powered ATM's cost between 30,000 to 40,000 rupee as compared to the 15,000-20,000 rupee per site for machines relying on 3G and CMDA connectivity.

The cellular technology also provides more bandwidth allowing for more mobile applications to be installed. They are also easier to deploy.

Kharade is hopeful in the next two years Cisco will be powering at least 2o to 30 percent of the new ATM deployments. 

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

SSI: Northwestel broadband proposal “half-cocked”


The SSI Group is asking the CRTC to veto a Northwestel proposal to build 3G/4G wireless broadband services for consumers in Northern Canada. SSI pounted out that Northwestel will be using a public benefits fund to fund said project.

Back in July, Northwestel presented a plan to the CRTC where the Canadian communications company would use $40 million from a “public benefits” fund. The money for that fund would come from Northwestel's parent company, BCE Inc., which also owns Bell Canada.

BEC was proposing to purchase the Astral Media Inc. telecommunications empire for $3.4 billion. CRTC rules specified that BCE needed to create a “public benefits” fund using 10 per cent of the Astral Media purchase price. The public benefits fund would pay for things the free market cannot normally supply.

The SSI Group is a competitor of Northwestel. SSI offers Qiniq, an Internet by satellite and wireless service, in Nunavut. It plans to offer VoIP services to Nunavut in the future. SSI also provides the similar Airware Internet network service in the Northwest Territories.

Earlier this September, SSI accused Northwestel of planning to use the $40 million not for the benefit of the public, but for Northwestel's own benefit and that of Bell Canada.

Dean Proctor, chief development officer of SSI, pointed out to Nunatsiaq News in an interview that it would be unfair for the largest market player to strengthen its assets in the market using money set aside from the public good.

Northwestel told the CRTC that it would use the Astral benefit funds from BCE to help pay for a five-year modernization plan with a $273 million price tag.

Northwestel's plan is to offer either 3G or 4G wireless service to the 96 communities and three territories its serves. Northwestel customers will be able to use Apple or Android OS-powered smart phones and tablet devices.

The plan will also allow Northwestel to bring broadband Internet to 79 under-served communities. Its wireless broadband services will reportedly be capable of download speeds of at least 5 Mps.

SSI countered that BCE and Northwestel have not proven that residents of Northern Canada will be able to afford 3G/4G wireless and broadband Internet services. Calling the Northwestel proposal “half-cocked,” Mr. Proctor said that the real issue in Northern Canada is the cost of satellite transponder space.

Mr. Dean Proctor cited SSI's wireless modems used by Qiniq customers in Nunavut as an example. Those modems can offer up to 6 Mbps in terms of combined download and upload speeds. However, Mr. Proctor noted that Qiniq customers simply could not afford using wireles and satellite broadband for extended periods of time. Customers would likewise find Northwestel's planned services too expensive.

He also pointed out that Bell's proposal did not indicate how it would make satellite costs more affordable. “They don’t have a solution for it,” Mr. Proctor said.

Mr. Proctor likewise scoffed at Northwestel’s 4G plan. Again citing SSI’s existing wireless network service -which Proctor says can provide speeds comparable to 4G,- he says that Nunavut customers will only be able to pay for such services through subsidies provided by the government. According to Mr. Proctor, Bell should instead design an entirely new system.

Finally, Mr. Proctor pointed out that public benefits funds are normally used to pay for things like the production of independent television.

Comba Telecom nabs wireless solution contract with Bangkok Metro Railway


The Bangkok Metro Public Company Limited (BMCL) has tapped Comba Telecom to provide an end-to-end wireless solution for 2G and 3G voice and data communications. Comba's wireless solution will provide coverage for the entire length of the BMCL's underground railway network.

Comba Telecom is known for its multi-operator base station coverage solutions, which cover single and multiple bands. Comba solutions are designed to be rapidly rolled out and ensure high performance while keeping visual perception low.

The Company also offers a versatile ultra-wide band multiple ports solution that allow different systems and different frequency bands to share antenna systems.

The BMCL's Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT) in Bangkok is comprised of 18 stations, concourses, tunnels, platforms, and the concourses' retail stores. It serves more than 240,000 passengers on a daily basis.

BMCL has complete control of all commercial activities and developments on its premises. The Thai company owns and operates its own neutral host network, which it pledged in support of updated wireless telecommunications services.

Comba Telecom will modernize and expand BMCL's legacy 2G system into a multi-system (2G/3G) active distributed antenna system (DAS) solution.

Eric Ng, general manager of Southeast Asia for Comba Telecom, explained that the Company implemented a modular DAS solution for the Bangkok MRT. The scalable system is easily expandable and future proof, allowing BMCL to open up new subway lines or implement 4G technologies according to its future requirements.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Good news for Sepura: FCC supports TETRA in US


The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently ruled in support of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) in the United States. This is great news for digital radio specialist Sepura plc, one of many such companies eyeing a slice of the lucrative US market pie.

Sepura believes that the FCC announcement is good news for numerous organizations in the business, industry, and land transportation sectors. Those organizations have been contemplating switching to TETRA digital radio communications, a standard that has been adopted in more than 125 countries.

TETRA is a spectrally efficient digital technology that accomodates four voice (and data) paths in each 25 kHz channel to achieve 6.25 kHz voice path efficiency. This allowed TETRA to met and exceeded the 12.5 kHz voice path “narrowbanding” efficiency standard set by the FCC for the 450-470 MHz segment of the UHF band requirements. The FCC was also satisfied with TETRA’s interference protection ability.

According to Sepura's CEO, Gordon Watling, the FCC ruling reassures potential US customers regarding the benefits of TETRA digital communication solutions. Sepura, the TETRA+ Critical Communications Association, and its worldwide partners have been offering the proven, open communications standard for global customers. Now the 9 million professional mobile radio users in the US market will also be able to enjoy the same quality of communications and productivity.

In addition to being an expert on the TETRA standard, Sepura offers mobiles/gateways, repeaters, and other wireless communications products, such as its widely-used STP8000 and SRG3000 series. It also offers 3T infrastructure solutions.


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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Globecomm designing broadband wireless infrastructure for Somcable


Globecomm Systems Inc. announced that it will be developing a new broadband wireless infrastructure for Somaliland-based Somcable Limited. The contract is worth $2.7 million.

Somcable aims to create the framework for a carrier class communications service provider in the autonomous region (or sovereign state if you ask them) of Somaliland. It entered a contract with Globecomm for the design, engineering, and provision of a broadband wireless infrastructure that can deliver fiber speeds.


Globecomm will install high speed wireless technology to facilitate the delivery of scalable bandwidth to Somaliland citizens. The company expects to complete these contracts by the end of the third quarter of 2013.

Somcable will use that infrastructure to deliver voice, Internet, TV, and video communication services to its subscribers at minimal entry level cost. Globecomm's design will leave enough leeway to expand Somcable's wireless network in the future.

According to Michael Cothill, Chief Executive of Somcable, a state-of-the-art broadband wireless infrastructure will uplift Somaliland's profile will uplift its profile, allowing the region to participate in world-class multimedia communications.


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Thursday, September 20, 2012

UNSi finishes expanding Midwestern Carrier Ethernet networks, looks to future


Now that it's finished upgrading its Dallas and Denver POPs into full border gateway interconnects (BGI) -not to mention adding a new POP BGI in St. Louis, MO- United Network Services, Inc. is looking to the future of Carrier Ethernet in the Midwestern United States.


UNSi has been expanding all summer. Back in June, in order to strengthen its position in the enterprise and carrier markets, UNSi acquired IPNetZone Communications. That acquisition gives UNSi a total of 18 POPs in the United States, along with more than 150 NNIs and partnerships with almost 2,000 network providers.


UNSi is optimistic about the markets for MPLS and Ethernet services. According to Allan Schwartz, UNSi senior vice president of strategic planning and business development, the company sensed significant opportunity in establishing connection locations throughout the Midwest.


Cell site backhaul has been determined to be a growth market for Carrier Ethernet. Customers have realized how flexible and affordable Ethernet services are, and they're  now demanding Ethernet services starting at 50 Mbps. Most operators are actively rolling out 4G/LTE as fast as they can to keep up with demand.


Mr. Schwartz explained that UNSI's network was built with Carrier Ethernet in mind. Instead of rebuilding TDM networks from scratch, UNSI chose to augment existing networks with next-generation Ethernet and VPLS capabilities.


James Karimi, SVP and CTO, cited future challenges that UNSi would encounter as its networks grew. One of them is simplifying the implementation of OAM (Operations, Administrations, and Maintenance.) The complicated process can be a bother for monitoring services that need to cross carrier networks. And when you're a company like UNSi, who has partnerships with thousands of network operators...

To that end, SVP Karimi was of the opinion that Carrier Ethernet equipment manufacturers should perform RFC 2544 testing all types of switches, be they core switches or premise switches.

Telecommunications port: Australia



The Adelaide teleport is one of two facilities operated by an independent satellite company in Australia. Located in Southern Australia, the facility uplinks to 8 geostationary satellites across both the Ku band and C  band spectrum. Telecommunications port are the crucial earth stations connecting to the satellites and transmitting and receiving signals to end-users using VSAT systems. As such, they are often highly-secured facilities, and in the case of the Adelaide Teleport, considered as Military Accredited Global Access Points.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Radisys debuts 40G solution for Intel Data Plane Development Kit


Radisys Corporation introduced the very first single 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controller solution for the Intel Data Plane Development Kit (Intel DPDK.)

Packet Processing functions often require discrete NPUs, co-processors, FPGAs, and other special-purpose hardware. But a combination of advanced software and improvements made to Intel architecture processors have presented a new alternative to developers.

As a member of the Intel Intelligent Systems Alliance, Radisys provides embedded wireless infrastructure solutions. Its GbE controller allows users to rely on one-blade architecture to consolidate all their Application, Control and Packet Processing workloads on Intel Architecture (IA.)

According to Radisys, its 40G solution offers high throughput that can boost the Intel DPDK to perform beyond its current functionality limit of 10G. Radisys' 40G DPDK solution will allow Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) to considerably decrease their cost-per-bit for Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and security applications.

In addition, TEMs can reduce overall complexity and streamline their development of applications by using native 40G support. This can save up to two years of development time and attached costs.

Andrew Alleman, Vice President, Platform Engineering at Radisys, said that “Our solution provides TEMs with a scalable solution with true 40G performance, making this an ideal solution for a variety of form factors from ATCA, Rackmount Servers and Network Appliances, and even to software.”

Mr. Alleman added that “In addition to enhancing the functionality of the Intel DPDK, we at Radisys eagerly adopted the solution within our own wireless infrastructure platforms – including the RMS-220 network appliance – continuing our focus on simplifying our customers’ development environment.”

Radisys recently debuted the RMS-220 carrier-grade network appliance platform. The solution is a highly scalable design based on server-class Intel processors and innovative next-generation technology. The RMS-220 will help meet increasing demands for Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and networking applications in mobile backhaul networks.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

ORBIT ADAMS communications manager gets certification from Russian authority


In a recent statement, ORBIT Communication Systems announced that its Airborne Digital Audio Management System (ADAMS) has received certification from the Aviation Register of Interstate Aviation Committee (ARIAC), the civil aviation authority in Russia. Armed with ARIAC certification, ORBIT can now install the commercial version of its communications management system onboard the An-148/158 airframes.

ORBIT added that ARIAC's approval helped it secure a major contract from a Russian company shortly after certification. The company expects more Russian orders for its ADAMS communication systems.

ARIAC's certification procedure is a very comprehensive and demanding process. Russian authorities teamed up with Israel's Civil Aviation Authority (CAAI) to certify the ADAMS system.

The Airborne Digital Management Systems manages the complex communications found in medium and large crew aircraft. It can also serve transportation or cargo applications.

ORBIT's modular COTS system supports up to 20 users, 16 radios, 31 receivers, six recording outputs, discrete lines, and configurable internal intercom networks. The ADAMS system can also provided with a PA system.

According to Ofer Greenberger, CEO, ORBIT has achieved significant penetration of the Russian civil aviation market. He noted that additional possible customers have approached ORBIT for orders after the company secured Russian certification. He expects that more and more Russian companies will adopt ORBIT's systems.

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