Broadband

THE SECRET VALUE OF VoLTE - WHAT'S IN IT FOR CONSUMERS

Edited By Peter Bernstein on September 12, 2014

By: Ed Elkin, Director, IP Platforms Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

Today’s consumers want faster mobile broadband, and lots of it. That’s the dominant fact shaping Mobile Service Providers’ competitive strategies. So let’s look at what you can offer these valuable subscribers with voice over LTE (VoLTE).

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, IP Platforms, Next-Generation Communications, VoLTE

Ethernet VPN Brings Distinct Advantages over Its Predecessor

Edited By Peter Bernstein on September 3, 2014

By: Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

Ethernet services delivery based on the control plane approach hasn’t changed for proven solutions such as MPLS/VPLS and PBB. Layer 2 flooding and learning as an approach to build the forwarding database is still necessary, but this has inherent limitations.

A new approach has emerged that brings many benefits over the control plane approach in the form of Ethernet VPN (EVPN). With EVPN, the control plane and data planes are abstracted and separated. A multiprotocol BGP (MP-BGP) control plane protocol carries MAC/IP routing information, and there are several data plane encapsulation choices.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, IP Platforms, IP Routing and Transport, IP/MPLS, Next-Generation Communications

Optical Transport Networks Help Operators Meet Growing Traffic Requirements

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 26, 2014

By: Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

It has been called the “data storm;” due to increased online video usage, the cloud, and mobile devices, bandwidth demand is increasing relentlessly, and operators are straining to keep up.

Research from Bell Labs suggests that from 2013 to 2017, operators will see a 550 percent increase in bandwidth demand due to the shift to cloud and a 720 percent increase in bandwidth to support IP video across fixed and mobile networks. This will result in a 320 percent increase in the amount of traffic in the core network.

“Telecom operators are starting to realize that simply increasing the line rate is no longer sufficient to control the costs associated with increasing bandwidth demands,” noted David Stokes of Alcatel-Lucent in a recent TechZine article, Optical transport networks and bandwidth demand. In fact, we really are seeing exponential traffic growth as recent research from Bell Labs below shows expected traffic growth from 2013 to 2017.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Fiber Optics, Fixed Networks, Next-Generation Communications, Optical Networking, Research

DLNA CVP-2 Will Make Sharing Pay TV Much Easier

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 19, 2014

By: Mae Kowalke, TMCnet.com Contributor

There are two kinds of technology consumers: Those who revel in the technology, and those who just want the benefits of the technology without having to think about tech itself.

While I definitely am someone who enjoys the technological innovation as much as the results of that innovation, most consumers are not. They just want technology that works, i.e., where the proof of the viability of next generation capabilities can be summed up as “seeing is believing.”

One example of this is the increasing popularity of multiscreen entertainment as delivered over a leading-edge multiscreen video platform such as the Alcatel-Lucent one that has become with service providers around the world. Consumers don’t want to have to fiddle with their computer or TV to get their content from one device to the next. They just want it to work; consumers want to be able to walk around the house with their shows or take their entertainment out into the world via their smartphone, not unlike we’ve been able to do with hardbound books for generations.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Cable MSOs, Customer Experience, Next-Generation Communications, Video

Who's Afraid of Interoperability?

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 18, 2014

By: Mike Schabel, VP, Small Cells, Alcatel-Lucent

In our never ending quest to deliver higher capacity networks and more effectively deliver a true broadband experience to wireless consumers, our industry continuously engages in vigorous debates about new technology, architecture, and processes followed by rapid acceptance and adoption.

I only look to small cells as an example, where the industry has quickly evolved from a macro-centric view that small cells were an unnecessary nuisance, to the current view where they are accepted as necessary for scaling the network and create compelling new opportunities for network optimization, efficiency and applications. With the small cell debate behind us, we have turned to new ones: How should we use unlicensed or shared spectrum? How do we enable a centralized SON layer in the field that works across multiple vendors?

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, LTE, Mobile Data, Next-Generation Communications, Small Cells, Wi-Fi, Wireless

Motive Helps Global Service Provider Know When to Upgrade Customers to Ultra-Broadband

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 12, 2014

By: Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

As one of the world’s largest network service providers, Norway’s Telenor must constantly upgrade its systems to stay on top. The company runs networks in 12 countries and operations in 29 more, and it has a market capitalization of roughly $38 billion. But it must keep its operations modern to maintain its position, so last year the company decided to upgrade its access network so it could deliver ultra-broadband services and improve the customer experience with ADSL2+ and VDSL2 technology.

Deployment of the upgrade currently is underway, and Telenor expects to have its 500,000 DSL lines migrated to the new VDSL2 platform by 2015, according to a recent case study, Telenor Achieves Competitive Advantage In Ultra-Broadband, on the rollout.

To efficiently deliver ultra-broadband services, however, Telenor needed a way to determine which of its existing DSL lines could be upgraded to VDSL2 without issue, and which ones needed additional infrastructure changes.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Customer Experience, DSL, Fixed Networks, Next-Generation Communications, VDSL2

How to Speed Small Cell Site Acquisition on a Large Scale

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 8, 2014

By: Jean Jones, Director, Wireless Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

Outdoor small cells are now widely recognized as a great solution for expanding mobile capacity and coverage. And their use is expected to grow sevenfold by 2018.[1] So here’s the next big question: How can you put these cells where they’re needed, faster and at lower cost?

Maybe you’ve already encountered deployment issues, including difficulties with small cell site acquisition. According to an Informa Telecoms & Media survey, nearly 60% of mobile operators say that deployment problems are their biggest small cell challenge.[2] In other words, operators’ top concerns are not about small cell technologies or products. Instead, they’re about the practical aspects of getting these cells up and running on light posts, utility poles, bus stops, buildings and other street locations.

This blog looks at a collaborative approach that makes these deployment processes faster and easier. Alcatel-Lucent adopted these methods for our Metro Cell Express Site Certification Program. And we’re discussing them here, because this business model earned a top award in the small cell innovation leadership category.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Next-Generation Communications, Small Cells, Wireless

We ask the experts: How can exceptional QoE be achieved in VoLTE networks?

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 28, 2014

By: Jean Jones, Director, Wireless Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

What does voice over LTE (VoLTE) offer your subscribers? Better voice quality, including HD voice. Rich communications with messaging and video. And whatever inventive applications you choose to introduce. In other words, VoLTE can provide a superior quality of experience (QoE) for subscribers and give you a competitive edge — particularly when your service operates at its best.

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In my last blog [CCE1] , our experts explained why an end-to-end strategy is the key to maintaining peak VoLTE performance. Now we’ll look at how this strategy gets put into practice to optimize real-world service offerings. The information here is based on interviews with Luis Venerio who works with our VoLTE Readiness Services team. And his observations come straight from his experience on VoLTE deployments that serve millions of subscribers.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Customer Experience, Mobile Data, Next-Generation Communications, VoLTE, Wireless

Network Functions Virtualization: Learnings from an NFV proof-of-concept

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 21, 2014

By: Asaf Peled, Cloud Solution Architect, Alcatel-Lucent's CloudBand activity

We live in exciting times – again. I had been wondering if there was still room for fundamental innovation, for technological disruption – the worn out word. We had the Internet bubble that burst 2001/2002. We had the advent of the smartphone in the recent years. Great innovation, but somehow they reached a plateau. Faster processors, larger screens? It doesn’t seem to make a real difference. Apple’s engine showed the first signs of sputtering.

And yet, there is something brewing behind the scenes that makes the engineer’s heart beat faster: NFV and SDN, a bold new vision about the future of networks (read these blog posts about understanding Network Functions Virtualization and Software Defined Networks). Network functions are to be reduced to pure software - doing away with all the special purpose chips, circuit boards, and cabinets into which we have poured our brains to deliver the ultimate in features, performance, and reliability.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Business Talk, Cloud, NFV, Next-Generation Communications, SDN

200G Optical Networks: What you need to know

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 14, 2014

By: Earl Kennedy, IP Transport Product Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

Optical network operators have already made the move to 100G. But skyrocketing bandwidth demand means many are already pondering what’s next. With a 200G optical solution hitting the market, you probably have questions about when to move to 200G optical – and what you need to know when you make that move.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Fiber Optics, Next-Generation Communications, Optical Networking

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