Networking

Cisco Systems raises dividend 21 percent

March 29, 2013 12:33 pm | by Associated Press | News | Comments

Cisco Systems Inc. is increasing its dividend 21 percent, its second boost in less than a year. The San Jose, California-based technology giant will pay a 17-cent quarterly dividend on April 24 to shareholders of record April 8. That's up 3 cents from the last quarter.

Research: OTN market to hit $13 billion by 2017

March 29, 2013 12:10 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

The optical transport network (OTN) equipment market is well on its way to topping the $13 billion mark by 2017, according to a recent study by Infonetics Research. Last year the OTN transport and switching equipment market grew 8 percent to $7.3 billion with the bulk of that growth coming from the OTN switching segment, which was up 46 percent in 2012 from 2011.

Cisco unveils silicon transciever for 100 G

March 19, 2013 2:43 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | Comments

Cisco’s 100 gigabit CMOS-based transceivers reduce space and power requirements, promising to make 100 Gbps backbones deployable. Cisco says that CPAK reduces space and power requirements by over 70 percent compared with CFP.

Broadpeak ups capacity of cache servers

March 19, 2013 2:20 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | Comments

The company cranks up the streaming capacity of its BkS400 to a new maximum of 30 Gbps. The software upgrade to the company’s BkS400 video cache server and the attendant capacity expansion improves operators’ ability to deliver video content.

Ciena sets up CenturyLink for GigE

March 18, 2013 2:07 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

CenturyLink has upgraded its metro networking capability with packet optical technology from Ciena, in order to target business customers with Gigabit Ethernet access services up to 100G. The upgrade allows CenturyLink to offer a 1GE, 10GE, 100GE and equivalent wavelengths to businesses.

Vandals bedevil Suddenlink in NoCal

March 18, 2013 2:02 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Suddenlink has experience a rash of vandalism that has cut off service in parts of northern California. Local law enforcement believes the same people are responsible for all the crimes, and suspect the the vandals are would-be thieves, looking for copper that could be sold for scrap.

San Jose fires up free Wi-Fi network

March 15, 2013 2:23 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

The city that considers itself the capital of Silicon Valley is offering free connectivity via a network built by SmartWAVE Technologies using 802.11n Wi-Fi products from Ruckus Wireless. San Jose also has one of the best acronyms ever for its metro area network exchange (see story).

Startup debuts radical new router

March 12, 2013 1:55 pm | by Brian Santo | News | Comments

Compass-EOS, which counts Comcast and Cisco among its investors, has announced a new router based on a new, long-hoped for class of ICs that fully integrate electronic and photonic elements on the same die. The company said the system is now shipping, and noted that several of the new routers are already up and running at customer installations.

TiVo Mini hits the market

March 11, 2013 2:26 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | Comments

The unit is not itself a DVR, but used in conjunction with TiVo’s four-tuner DVRs. The TiVo Mini makes use of one of the DVR's tuners to provide viewers with the control and access of content on a TV in another room of the house. Users will even be able to start a show in the living room and finish it on a TiVo Mini in another room.

Chasing big business

March 8, 2013 6:17 pm | by Craig Kuhl, Contributing Editor | Articles | Comments

The lucrative small- to mid-size business (SMB) services market is growing organically to include larger enterprises and is now in phase two as cable operators and related service providers accelerate the expansion of their business services model to include the enterprise market.

Aurora closes $46 million deal with Harmonic

March 7, 2013 12:27 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Aurora Networks has closed its $46 million deal to buy Harmonic’s Cable Access unit that was first announced on Feb. 19. Aurora said the acquisition would increase its market share lead in the optical transport market by significantly increasing its installed base for next-generation service-providing products and create long-term strategic growth opportunities.

New Products: Pasternack, Multicom, Fujitsu

March 6, 2013 6:21 pm | by CED staff | Articles | Comments

Pasternack Enterprises has a new line of 50-watt medium- power attenuators; Multicom has introduced a clear QAM SD/HD video distribution solution that eliminates the need for a set-top box; Fujitsu has announced the a Packet Optical Networking Platform (Packet ONP) for optical transport network (OTN) switching.

Engineering-Wise: The intelligent cable network

March 6, 2013 5:18 pm | by Daniel Howard Senior vice president of engineering and CTO of the SCTE | Articles | Comments

Besides the capacity and robustness improvement, there’s something else about DOCSIS 3.1 and its use of OFDM) that excites me: the network intelligence it enables. We already use DOCSIS devices as network health probes, but OFDM will essentially turn our equipment into multifunction test generators that can be used to measure most of the key RF performance parameters.

Time Warner Cable accelerates IntelligentHome rollouts

March 6, 2013 12:19 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | Comments

Ahead of a nationwide rollout by year’s end, Time Warner Cable has launched its home automation service, which is called IntelligentHome, in all of its Carolinas markets as well as in Kansas City and Maine this week. Time Warner Cable finished up last year with IntelligentHome available in six of its markets.

Harmonic sets up cloud transcoding service

March 5, 2013 2:02 pm | by Brian Santo | Product Releases | Comments

Harmonic has launched a cloud-based transcoding service for professional applications. The service is available through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Content creators, service providers, and media professionals can access the technology to convert broadcast-quality video content to virtually any standard media format.