Next Generation Communications Blog

August 2011

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Alcatel-Lucent, World Education Inc. Launch Program to Provide Life Training Skills to Children in Underserved Communities

By Beecher Tuttle

Telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent is spearheading a $6 million, three-year global initiative to provide digital skills training and other educational opportunities to young people from underserved and disadvantaged communities from around the world.

The program, dubbed ConnectED, was born from a partnership between the company's charitable arm, the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation, and World Education Inc., a U.S. non-profit organization that works to increase educational opportunities for girls and women in more than 50 countries.

ConnectED will fund equivalency programs, literacy courses, and re-entry classes for underserved youth who have dropped out of school.

The Top Bell Labs Innovations - Part I: The Game-Changers

By Peter Bernstein, Senior Editor

This is the third in my four-part series of posts about Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs. As noted previously, focus of this series is not just to introduce you to the world’s most famous research organization, but to provide details and insights on its past, present and future. The first two posts provided an overall view of the Labs, and details on how its philosophy of “Innovating Innovation” is enhancing its preeminent position in the scientific world and allowing it to keep Alcatel-Lucent in market leadership positions. As can be seen in the title, this post details the rich history of the contributions made by Bells Labs in empowering businesses and enriching the lives of people around the world through the development and application of the ingenuity and knowledge of its researchers.

For those of us in the content creation business, there is nothing better than a Top 10 list.

LTE and the Mobile Backhaul Solution

By Michelle Amodio

Last week, we took a look at LTE and traffic, discussing the progression of LTE and mobile transport.

LTE has a tremendous impact on mobility. LTE networks offer the promise of supporting the explosion in traffic arising from a new generation of mobile devices and applications. The introduction of LTE has several implications on the transport network.

Cloud Services Offer Winning Solution for SMBs, Service Providers

By Susan J. Campbell

The buzz throughout the telecommunications and technology space is surrounding cloud computing. Cloud-based services enable service providers to tap into new markets without expanding budgets. On the corporate side, businesses of all sizes can leverage enhanced capability through cloud services that fit within tight budgets.

A recent Alcatel-Lucent Enriching Communications article, Cloud Services: A Strategy and a Framework, explored the potential that cloud services creates for the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) that typically does not have its own IT staff or the capabilities to deploy complex applications to support strategic initiatives.

The Automation in the Driverless Metro Offers a Safe Ride

By Susan J. Campbell

As technology consumers, we have become accustomed to the automation of certain capabilities. Self-service channels, for instance, allow us to handle many of the processes we want to complete without interacting with another human being. We rely on automation to streamline our work processes or make consumables more available. What if this automation were instead in the driver’s seat – literally?

'Innovating Innovation' at Bell Labs

By Peter Bernstein, Senior Editor

This is part two in a four-part look at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs. The first focused at a high level on the context of what made, and continues to make, Bell Labs one of the pre-eminent fundamental and applied research organizations in the world. In fact, Bell Labs as an innovation brand is the most recognizable one globally. 

As promised, focus here is on the ingredients that have created Bell Labs’ world-class culture of continuous scientific exploration and innovation.

Machine-to-Machine Technology Cuts Costs, Streamlines Railway Operations

By Erin Harrison

The subject of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology has drawn much hype in the industry. In essence, M2M allows machines to communicate, and it has evolved into an intelligent way of managing assets. It allows companies to use data in a meaningful manner for pre-emptive repairs and maintenance, reducing the human cost of these processes.

As a recent Alcatel-Lucent TrackTalk article pointed out, M2M communications is expected to become a massive growth market for the communications industry over the next decade, and the increasing availability and capability of these technologies could have a profound impact on the way railways function.

Going Green: Alcatel-Lucent's IMS Solution Improves Eco-Efficiency, Reduces OpEX

By Beecher Tuttle

Alcatel-Lucent's industry-leading IMS End-to-End Solution addresses a number of challenges that operators face today. IMS technologies can help providers reduce operating expenses, minimize their impact on the environment and adapt to new end user behavior, among other benefits.

The innovative products and services that are built into the Alcatel-Lucent IMS solution result in considerable environmental benefits and reduced carbon emissions in both new and existing networks. These benefits are gained from techniques such as smart metering, smart buildings, smart transport and teleworking.

Mobile Internet Enabled through White Spaces

By Susan J. Campbell

Service providers the world over are experiencing continued data traffic growth on their mobile networks. To help offset the strain this traffic is placing on these networks, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken unused wireless TV spectrum (white spaces) and made them available for open, free and unlicensed use.

This regulatory change suggests that anyone can easily become a wireless Internet provider, users will begin to see new and inexpensive or free Wi-Fi-like services emerging, and suppliers will gain new customers from sources other than traditional operator markets.

Gaming Goes Mobile, Multi-player and into the Cloud

Peter Bernstein, Senior Editor

It is not just fun and games in the video gaming market, it is big business. A recent Gartner report estimates that the combined global gaming “ecosystem” (digital console, portable, online and mobile) will exceed $74 billion in 2011. This represents a 10.4 percent increase over the $67 billion in 2010, and  Gartner projects the market to reach $112 billion by 2015. 

Bell Labs: Alcatel-Lucent's Innovation Engine

By Peter Bernstein, Senior Editor

Let’s start with the basics.

The term innovation comes from the Latin innovatus, the noun form of innovare "to renew or change." It refers to the creation of better and/or more effective products, processes, technologies or ideas that impact markets, governments and society as a whole. Today it also connotes an unleashing of ingenuity that results in substantive not incremental positive change — a single word that packs a powerful punch.

In a business context, innovation also represents both current value (in the form of libraries of intellectual property), and the ability to generate incalculable future value. 

Alcatel-Lucent IMS - Eco-Efficiency with New Revenue Opportunities

By Beecher Tuttle

Today's service providers are faced with quite a predicament. Consumers' insatiable demand for innovative, next-generation communication services has put a great deal of pressure on them to build out networks that are capable of handling the load.

Unfortunately, the economic recession has made this process difficult for service providers, which need to minimize their own operating expenses just like every other business. On top of all of this, operators must keep a watchful eye on the negative impact that their technologies can have on the environment.

Mobile Internet: The Opportunity of 'White Spaces'

By Mae Kowalke

After analog TV broadcasting in the U.S. was converted over to digital in 2009 as directed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the freed-up spectrum, referred to as “white spaces” became available for free, unlicensed use.

This change opened up a big opportunity for just about anyone to become a provider of Wi-Fi-like wireless services for commercial and retail customers. Existing operators are likely to face increasing competition from new providers.

Service Provider Solutions: Transforming the Customer Experience

By Mae Kowalke

All service providers know that, ultimately, their success or failure hinges on outstanding service. Keeping customers happy is the first defense against churn. But this is often easier said than done.

Alcatel-Lucent takes a straightforward approach to this challenge, advising that providers should do whatever is takes to make it easy for customers to remain loyal.

Benefit from Converged Wireless IP Management

By Mae Kowalke

It’s no secret that the telecom market is experiencing increasing demand for mobile broadband access that delivers a high quality of service (QoS). To meet this demand while keeping total cost of ownership (TCO) down, many operators are deploying 3G technology in dense urban areas, and complementing that elsewhere with EDGE services using 2G technologies.

As demand continues to grow, however, this approach will no longer be adequate. Bandwidth-hungry services increasingly require higher throughput, requiring IP backhaul via LTE.

A Solution to Rogue Traffic in Your Network

By Mae Kowalke

In recent years, wireless broadband data demand has grown exponentially, driven largely by the introduction of new, smart devices and applications. All this demand is putting a lot of stress on wireless networks – so much so that monitoring and analytics tools designed for legacy systems are not longer suitable.

Advanced tools are needed for intelligent traffic management in an end-to-end wireless IP environment where rogue traffic can be a big issue and where subscriber quality of experience (QoE) is vitally important. 

The Financial Impact of Content Peering on the Internet Economy

By Peter Bernstein

With all of the industry discussion around the coming tsunami of data traffic, particularly video, there has been much global discussion about necessary network build-outs to accommodate what everyone agrees is coming. This includes intense focus on the notion of shared proportionality in terms of cost causers and cost bearers. Given the criticality of the debate/discussion, Alcatel-Lucent thought it would be a good time to look at one critical component of traffic and financial flows, namely CONTENT PEERING. 

Network Security for Smartphones: Psychological and Economic Considerations

By Mae Kowalke

The recent phone hacking scandal in Britain illustrates just how insecure smartphones and other mobile devices can be. The proliferation of smartphone apps available for platforms like Apple’s iOs and the Android OS have opened up gaping network security holes, and hackers have predictably swooped in to take advantage.

Affordable, simple mobile security solutions are desperately needed. This presents a big opportunity for network services providers, especially those getting into the business of cloud services and end-to-end 4G LTE.

How and Why IPv6 Will Be Used in the Future

By Mae Kowalke

Internet Procotol Version 4 (IPv4), the communications protocol used to route data packets across computer networks, remains the foundation of most Internet communications. However, it is steadily being superseded by IPv6, which was published by the Internet Engineering Task Force in 1998.  

IPv6 was developed ostensibly to deal with the problem of IPv4 address exhaustion, but it is also a more robust and flexible protocol better suited for today’s network communications.

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