Stoke enhances SSX with software spanning requirements of 3G and 4G networks

SANTA CLARA, USA: Mobile broadband gateway developer Stoke Inc. introduced a new software release enabling mobile broadband operators to immediately support initial 4G/LTE deployments, while enhancing the profit potential of their current 3G networks.

Based on extensive lab and commercial operator trials, Stoke has enhanced both its StokeOS software and its SSX-3000 platform to address the specific requirements of high availability, reduced operational expense, high performance and end-to-end security in eNodeB aggregation.

Mobile data networks worldwide are buckling under the explosive growth in data traffic, driven by the popularity of data hungry smartphones, iPhones and, above all, Laptops with 3G modems.

StokeOS Version 4.5 offers an innovative platform enabling operators to improve performance, reduce churn and increase profitability from their existing 3G networks while they prepare for investment in 4G/LTE.

Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst, mobile and FMC Infrastructure at international research and consulting firm Infonetics Research commented: "Despite the sophistication of traffic analysis tools as well as the wireline Internet experience, no one was smart enough to foresee the once-in-a-century mobile data traffic tsunami. Consequently, we have reached the point of urgency to develop and implement new tools and techniques that help mobile operators cope with and thrive in this new reality."

New features in StokeOS 4.5 support deployments of all-IP backhaul architect, and allow carriers to leverage lower-cost open IP transport networks at the earliest stages of 4G/LTE. Capabilities in this software version include intra-device resilience, redundancy within individual Stoke SSX-3000 devices to reduce cost, power, and overall footprint, and support both for femtocells and LTE eNodeB base stations.

"Based on extensive customer input as well as our own engineering vision, this release was specifically designed to deliver the security and performance features required by LTE deployments, while providing breakthrough functionality for the pressing needs of today’s 3G architectures," said Michael Homeier, vice president of product management at Stoke.

"StokeOS 4.5 allows us to deliver a truly scalable gateway at home in both 3G and 4G environments, and supports operators’ best-of-breed selection strategy to optimize their LTE investments."

According to recent analyst reports, telecommunications carriers worldwide will be deploying next generation networks for their wireless backhaul starting in 2012 to satisfy surging demand from bandwidth hungry services and devices.

The multitude of radio standards is also putting pressure on vendors to implement reconfigurable software solutions, and on operators to revamp their mobile core networks to an all-IP platform. StokeOS Version 4.5 addresses these requirements for multi-vendor, all-IP environments while supporting both 3G and 4G architectures.

Four main considerations for eNodeB aggregation
Secure Communications: When open IP is used for wired or wireless backhaul, the signaling and subscriber traffic must be secured from the eNodeB to the operator core. The SSX-3000 is a high density, high throughput security gateway, providing line rate, low-latency, encrypted communications.

Tunnel Management: Unlike user to network secure sessions, the interaction between eNodeB and the security aggregator is of "network to network" type, therefore traffic destined for user endpoints as well as to the eNodeB itself must be protected. The gateway must be able to distinguish between traffic to subscribers and traffic destined for the eNodeB in the same encrypted tunnel. StokeOS 4.5 also provides a range of tunnel initialization and recovery options to ensure non-stop operations.

Deployment Flexibility: The gateway must be capable of supporting many types of home, pole-top and macro eNodeB units from a range of eNodeB suppliers to support expected operator LTE radio access network deployment models. It must also support different deployment architectures, providing operators with the freedom to select best-of-breed solutions for 4G, and 3G environments.

Operational Efficiency: In lab and commercial trials, customers identified efficiencies in space and power usage, multiple functionality, high availability and high scalability as key operational metrics.

Highest throughput, lowest cost per subscriber
The SSX-3000 delivers connection and traffic throughput densities from 8,000 to 240,000 connected subscribers, in throughput configurations from 4Gbps to 16Gbps, in a five-rack unit form factor.

Each gateway can support multiple concurrent applications, offering massive capital, energy and operational savings and 7x - 10x improvement in cost per session over traditional solutions, together with strong standards-based authentication and IP security capabilities.

Yankee Group uncovers 4G disconnect

CHICAGO, USA: While 60 percent of users surveyed by Yankee Group say they are interested in mobile Internet access, just 3 percent say they are anxiously awaiting 4G and 43 percent say they have heard the term “4G” but don’'t understand what it means.

That disconnect is just one hurdle service providers must overcome before they can successfully reap the promise of 4G and the mobile Internet.

These are core topics of 4G World and Mobile Internet World, which run through Sept. 18. The events have 7,000 registered attendees, and feature 250 sponsors and exhibitors and 150 speakers, including eight Yankee Group analysts. The report, “Beyond 4G Rhetoric: Capitalizing on the Mobile Internet,” released today spotlights industry challenges:

* Mobile Internet is spawning new, tougher competition. Service providers are not only challenged to transform their businesses for the mobile Internet, but must also keep up with innovative non-carrier competitors, like device makers Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM and Nokia, as well as new entrants in emerging markets.

* High smartphone usage will continue to stress networks. Yankee Group surveys show 60 percent of users are likely or highly likely to purchase a smartphone as their next mobile device. Data traffic is expected to increase by more than 29 times between 2009 and 2015, with most demand coming from smartphones. In fact, the proportion of data traffic coming from smartphones will increase from 18.5 to 56 percent between 2009 and 2015.

* Service providers must overhaul their infrastructure. “In addition to moving to all-IP cores, service providers must adopt holistic strategies to transform their entire network, IT and operational ecosystems,” says Phil Marshall, senior research fellow and author of the report. “Service providers must capitalize on the mobile Internet or perish.”

Hitachi opens new facility for 4G mobile communication systems development

DALLAS, USA: Hitachi Communication Technologies America Inc. (Hitachi-CTA) officially opened a new facility to engage in the development of core network infrastructure equipment for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless networks to address the growing 4th-generation (4G) mobile communications market.

The facility, named the Dallas R&D Center, is located in the “telecom corridor” area of Richardson, Texas. The Dallas R&D Center will focus on the Mobility Management Entity (MME) and other components of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) for LTE.

“I am very pleased to announce the opening of the new Dallas R&D Center in support of Hitachi’s mobile communications business,” said Yoshihiro Kondo, General Manager, Dallas R&D Center, Hitachi-CTA. “This location in Richardson is at the heart of this activity in the United States, and I believe that we can expand our business in the near future.”

Last year, KDDI Corp., a leading Japanese wireless operator, selected Hitachi as the EPC supplier for KDDI’s LTE network. Hitachi partnered with Nortel Networks to provide the MME component of EPC to KDDI.

Hitachi has hired a seasoned staff of key MME/SGSN/mobility architects, R&D and business personnel for the Dallas R&D Center to work on the development and delivery of a market-leading MME and other EPC components for KDDI.

Each R&D staff member brings, on average, over 10 years of experience in developing and supporting MME/SGSN and 3GPP/3GPP2 wireless data products. The work on MME is based on a license under which Nortel has granted to Hitachi the rights to develop and deliver the MME to KDDI.

The Hitachi-CTA Dallas R&D Center further strengthens Hitachi’s ability to provide advanced solutions for communications service providers worldwide.

Teradyne holds majority share in wireless test market

NORTH READING, USA: According to Gartner, Teradyne Inc. holds a 66.5 percent share of the worldwide ATE RF testing market based on revenue in 2008, up from 60 percent in 2007.

Teradyne’s wireless device test solutions, the Gen4 Microwave and UltraWave 12G, cover the broadest range of today’s complex wireless test requirements with the performance headroom for tomorrow.

“From our perspective, Teradyne continues to maintain clear market leadership in RF ATE,” said Ed Paulsen, wireless segment manager at Teradyne. “The Gen4 Microwave instrument for the FLEX test system continues to see wide acceptance having recently shipped its 500th unit to Sigurd Microelectronics.”

Spanning the broadest range of complex RFIC and RFSOC wireless device applications, the UltraWave 12G and Gen4 test devices including, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, set-top box (STB), 3G and 4G cellular, WiMAX and emerging standards like LTE.

Paulsen continued: "The UltraWave 12G has also quickly ramped and sets the bar in terms of RF performance, throughput, parallel test efficiency and ease of use. We can attribute our 6.5 percent growth in wireless market share this year to the broad range of wireless markets our RF test solutions serve as well as the technical and economic requirements our customers realize by working with Teradyne."

Anritsu next generation 4G base station analyzer

MORGAN HILL, USA: Anritsu Co. has introduced the BTS Master MT8221B, a high-performance handheld base station analyzer that has been specifically developed to support emerging 4G standards as well as installed 2G/3G networks.

The MT8221B’s platform provides a 20 MHz demodulation capability to measure technologies such as LTE and WiMAX, and a 30-MHz Zero-Span IF Output for external demodulation of virtually any other wideband signal.

In addition, a Vector Signal Generator option with the flexibility to generate two modulated signals plus noise is available for comprehensive receiver testing.

Senior cell site technicians and RF engineers can use the BTS Master MT8221B to accurately and quickly test and verify the installation and commissioning of base stations and cell sites, for optimal wireless network performance.

It is equally suited for on-going maintenance and troubleshooting to help ensure the operation of wireless network infrastructure. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as dropped calls, call denial, or call blocking rates due to a malfunction at the cell site or interference, can be easily and accurately detected with the BTS Master MT8221B.

Existing 2G/3G networks and 4G networks being rolled out can be tested with the BTS Master MT8221B. The analyzer can measure the RF quality and modulation quality of a wireless signal to verify the performance of virtually every subsystem in a base station’s transmitter. Downlink Over-the-Air (OTA) Quality tests verify the performance of the downlink with the OTA scanners.

The BTS Master comes with Master Software Tools (MST) that allows data acquired by the analyzer to be easily transferred to a computer. MST saves significant time generating reports by utilizing the Trace Rename Utility and Group Edit.

Efficient review of up to a week’s worth of data collected by the BTS Master can be consolidated into one file through MST’s Folder Spectrogram’s 3-D view, which allows users to zoom into acquired data and provides independent 3-axis rotation control.

MST also provides a Remote Access Tool (RAT) to monitor and control the BTS Master remotely over the Internet. With the tool, supervisors can remotely verify measurements that have been taken in the field. RAT also saves cost by creating un-staffed remote listening posts for interference analysis, thus freeing up technicians for other trouble spots.

The BTS Master MT8221B is small (315 x 211 x 94 mm), lightweight (4.9 kg), and battery operated, making it easy for technicians to use it anywhere at a cell site. In less than 5 minutes, measurements can be made.

The analyzer uses the field-proven design of all Anritsu handheld instruments, which means the BTS Master MT8221B will deliver reliable performance in rugged outdoor environments.

All key field measurements can be made with the BTS Master MT8221B. Technicians and engineers can conduct line sweeps, analyze components and antennas, troubleshoot down to a field replaceable unit (FRU) in the base station, verify the performance of the cell site’s backhaul lines, and locate hard-to-find interference problems with the BTS Master MT8221B.

The BTS Master MT8221B has a US starting price of $19,950.00 and delivery is six to eight weeks ARO.