Miscellaneous news and links:
news.com
Sprint expects a restructuring of ownership interests in its Global One joint venture with France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom by year end.
Global One's partners are weighing the future of the three- year-old venture, which offers voice, fax, and data services to multinational companies, after Deutsche Telecom's unsuccessful bid to buy Telecom Italia last month soured its decade-long partnership with France Telecom.
"Sometime between now and the end of the year, you'll see some type of restructuring at the parent level," Sprint chief executive William Esrey told Bloomberg News in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he's attending Allen & Company's annual media and technology conference.
NN receives award:
Awards were presented in two categories for the ATG customer and partner who demonstrated the most innovative use of the Dynamo product suite. The Dynamo Innovator Customer Award was presented to BMG Direct for their music site, with Newbridge Networks as the runner-up; and the Dynamo Innovator Partner Award for most innovative use of Dynamo in a partner relationship was given to AMS, with Documentum as the runner-up. A panel of judges based its decision on each company's innovative use of ATG's Dynamo Web personalization software to manage customer relationships online.
WCA Directors named:
library.northernlight.com
The proposed directors include representatives from: People's Choice TV Corp., an MMDS and LMDS licensee being acquired by Sprint Corp. thathelped lead the effort to revise MMDS regulations for two-way services; fourmajor manufacturers long associated with LMDS leadership (in alphabetical order, Lucent Technologies, Newbridge Networks, Inc., Nortel Networks, and SpectraPoint Wireless, Inc.); WSNet, the largest distributor of programming and equipment to the wireless and private cable markets; WaveRider Communications, Inc., a manufacturer prominent internationally in advocating use of unlicensed spectrum; and Mobile Systems International, a world leader in software, consulting, training and consulting for services using radio spectrum.
* Bernard Herscovich, Vice President, Wireless Networks, Newbridge Networks, Kanata, Canada (www.newbridge.com).
LMDS links:
belstar.net
LMDS article (good primer)
americasnetwork.com
One can make a strong argument for the efficiency and efficacy of distributed switching. Since channel reuse is virtually complete from site to site, why restrict allocation of spectral resources to a central hub? Why not assign channels on the spot, dispensing with the need for communicating back to a central switch prior to transmission setup? This is the position of Newbridge Networks. The company includes an ATM switch at each subscriber access point.
"It makes for much more effective use of network resources," says Bernard Hercovich, director of wireless infrastructure engineering at Newbridge, "because you?re not always having to backhaul traffic to the hub. It also allows for a close integration between the radio and the switch."
Siemens concurs. "We do the policing and the shaping at the remote site," Tegtmeyer says.
Some equipment manufacturers also claim proprietary methods for implementing ATM over an air link. "We have a unique interpretation of the protocol at the media access layer [MAC]," says Netro?s Stites. "We call it CellMac, and we think it?s the most effective means of providing bandwidth on demand."
ATM networks are theoretically capable of handling all types of traffic simultaneously, including real time video and voice, but such flexibility ultimately depends on the types of devices that will dock with LMDS subscriber network interface. Most systems have ports for a PBX and standard Ethernet local area networks (LANs). Most will integrate with FRADs.
Newbridge Networks? ATM switch is perhaps the most flexible, accepting digital set-top boxes for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video programming, codecs for videoconferencing, fiber connections and digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs). Indeed, Newbridge advocates the use of digital subscriber line (DSL) within the building or the campus as a low-cost means of connecting up a LAN to complement the low-cost metropolitan connection provided by the LMDS network.
List of LMDS articles:
americasnetwork.com
NN's Herscovich quoted:
americasnetwork.com
Wireless Show in San Diego, end of July:
iir-ny.com
CRTC links:
crtc.gc.ca
techweb.com
Other vendors and carriers have launched VC divisions, with a view to using startups as forcing houses for tomorrow's technologies. Deutsche Telekom AG (Bonn, Germany), Ericsson, France Telecom S.A. (Paris), Nokia, and Siemens AG (Munich) are all taking this tack. Siemens plans to follow the example of Newbridge Networks Corp. (Kanata, Ontario), putting money, expert advice, and marketing channels at startups' disposal, according to Vesa Jormakka, director of Venture Nurturing in Siemens' Information and Communication Networks division. Siemens won't acquire startups it invests in, Jormakka adds. "We don't want to be big brother." Newbridge's approach to startups has transformed Kanata into a Canadian Silicon Valley.
techweb.com |
