Strategies conference probes packaging's future - Business News - Packaging Strategies Annual Conference and Networking Event, - Calendar

What's going on with mergers and acquisitions? What does it really mean to be a Wal-Mart supplier? How can what goes on in Washington, D.C., help you ... or hurt you?

These questions and many others will be addressed at the Packaging Strategies Annual Conference and Networking Event, to be held March 23-25 at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta, Ga.

This 17th annual conference will help packaging users pinpoint top-line tactics and strategies that will reinvigorate and drive their packaging operations' bottom-line performance.

The line-up of speakers at the Packaging Strategies Annual Conference includes top suppliers, consultants and observers of the packaging field and other important business sectors. The schedule includes

3 p.m.: Welcome and opening remarks by David Luttenberger, director of Packaging Strategies, 4followed by "Packaging by the Numbers." Ken Brooks, Ernst & Young's VP/North American packaging specialist; Jim Peters, principal, J. Peters & Assoc.; and Luttenberger will team up to dissect and tie consumer and retail trends to package technologies and the performance of best-in-class packaging companies.

Wednesday, March 24

8:30 a.m.: Packaging's Economic Equation

"The Manufacturing Economy," Jerry Jasinowski, president, National Association of Manufacturers. Puzzled by recent reports of 20-year highs in manufacturing numbers? Worried about the impact of the migration of product and package manufacturing to China on your business? Hear what the top executive representing 14,000 manufacturers has to say about what's next and what Washington's plans and policies mean to the future of your packaging business.

"Harnessing the Aggression on the Targeted M&A Front," Thomas Blaige, CEO/managing partner, Thomas Blaige & Co. The mergers and acquisitions front is showing aggressive corporate and international commitments to specific lines of business. Tom Blaige shows how to pinpoint and control what that narrowing focus means to packaging and the top and bottom lines.

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Top-Line Tactics That Drive Bottom-Line Preservation and Growth

"The Value Proposition of Outsourced Purchasing," Randy Andonian, vice president, Connell Purchasing Services. Why suppliers and those in the buying trenches are embracing outsourced package purchases as a tactical value proposition.

12:30 p.m.: Networking Luncheon and Presentation

"A Supplier's Guide to Surviving Wal-Mart," Tim Burns, president, Cranial Capital. Relationship with Wal-Mart as a supplier is a topic that few candidly discuss, but Tim Burns is ready to do so.

3-5 p.m.: The Sum of Perceptions and Realities in a New Cost/Price Packaging Equation. A supplier and end-user forum featuring: Bruce Fair, manager, packaging procurement, Hershey Foods; Don Nelson, director of corporate purchasing, Hormel Foods; Brian Chambers, manager, worldwide packaging procurement, Wrigley's; Terry Harper, vice president, technology and support, Printpack; Roger Prevot, president/COO, Graham Packaging; and Brad Ross, vice president/general manager, packaging services, Sonoco.

Thursday, March 25

8:30 a.m.: Chief Executives' Forum. Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G Finanziaria Industriale SpA, will talk on how his billion-dollar company is capitalizing on its blockbuster 2000 acquisition of Shell Chemical's PET resin business. Christel Bories, president/CEO of Alcan Packaging, will talk about the implications of the Pechiney acquisition and what packaging technologies and strategies it will put into play next. Lee Farlander, president of Vitro Packaging, will speak on competing against the Big Three U.S. glass packaging suppliers and how it managed 5% growth last year.

10:30 a.m.: Beyond Wal-Mart: The benefits of RFID for your packaging operationPanelists will describe a unique systems and supply-chain solution that can benefit your operation in five immediate ways, well beyond the Wal-Mart mandates. Panelists: Mark Niemiec, principal, Global Packaging Innovations; Greg Cudahy, global supply chain leader, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young; Tim Chandler, RFID chief architect, Intel Corp

Education, products, networking highlight 2004 ISH North America in Boston

f you've been meaning to brush up on your professional development, stop pondering and start packing for ISH North America. ISH NA, the industry's largest and most comprehensive seminar program and product exposition, takes place October 12 to 16 in Boston. Most events will take place in the new Boston Convention Center.

This third installment of ISH NA is the most expansive yet, with 70 ISH NA seminars, dozens of association sponsored classes, and several technical certification courses available through out the week. Seven distinct seminar tracks are offered through the ISH seminar program: HVAC, Hydronics, Radiant Heating, Environmental Systems, Plumbing, Kitchen & Bath, and Business Management and Marketing.

If tools, software, products, or equipment are your priority, the ISH NA Expo will captivate you as more than 500 exhibitors display their newest offerings during the three expo days (October 14 to 16, Thursday through Saturday). New pavilions and on floor demonstrations will make this year's show floor more engaging. Expo entrance is free to seminar registrants.

Perhaps you looking to network with other pros? Three ISH NA partner associations--American Supply Association (ASA), Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC), and Radiant Panel Association (RPA)--each will hold its annual convention during the week. ISH NA partner Canadian Institute of Plumbing & Heating (CIPH) will host a reception. And at least 20 other endorsing organizations will participate in ISH NA with seminars, courses, and booths in the Expo hall.

The ISH seminar program kicks off at 8 a.m. Thursday morning with a keynote address by hydronics expert Dan Holohan, followed by 11 concurrent seminars at 9 a.m. and nine concurrent seminars at 3 p.m. On Friday, 36 seminars will be presented over the course of three time slots: 8 a.m., 9:45 a.m., and 3 p.m. On Saturday, another 12 concurrent seminars will be presented during one time slot at 9 a.m. Most seminars run 1.5 hours.

The Hydronics Institute Div. of GAMA will present a two-day I=B=R School on October 12 to 13 in Room 103 of the Boston Convention Center. The course will cover hydronic heating system design and installation, heat loss calculations, boiler sizing, pipe sizing, zoning, wiring, circulation selection, and much more. Cost for the school is $395 and includes lunch both days, beverage service, two illustrated textbooks, and certificate of completion. Contact Keri Wrobel of BNP Medi

Personal Networking: Cisco Systems Announces Strategy for Consumer Markets; Alliances, Enabling Technologies Will be Key to Creating `Personal Network

Cisco Systems Inc. Thursday announced its strategy to extend its Internet leadership to the consumer market. The strategy is built around a vision to extend high-speed Internet access from business to the consumer market at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than today's dial-up connections. Cisco also plans to introduce high-speed "personal networks" within the home, connecting individual users to PCs, phones, TVs and other Internet appliances over a single broadband network. Cisco's strategy will be based upon an open Internet platform, in addition to a series of collaborative alliances with service providers, consumer electronic manufacturers, software developers and other companies who choose to play a role in providing Internet-enabled services applications, and devices for consumers. "The Internet revolution was started by big businesses who understood that the Internet had the power to re-define and re-create the competitive landscape. Today, consumers are the driving force in the Internet Revolution," said John T. Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems. "In the Internet Economy, everyone and everything will be connected." Chambers announced that Cisco has formed a Consumer Line of Business to implement its personal networks strategy. It will be headed by Vice President and General Manager Robba Benjamin. "Cisco's consumer strategy will have three key elements," Benjamin said. "First, we will help service providers build high-speed connections to the home and other locations where consumers access the Internet. Second, we will license technology that will help develop network-enabled services and applications that provide unique value to consumers. Finally, we will partner with companies in all sectors of the marketplace." In a related announcement today, Cisco Systems, Inc. and General Instrument Corporation announced that they intend to work with AT&T on a non-exclusive basis to develop and trial a seamless, end-to-end Internet Protocol (IP) solution that would allow AT&T to offer data, voice and video services over the hybrid fiber-coax network now being deployed by AT&T and TCI. The New World network will combine Internet, phone and video services over a single cable line, fundamentally changing the way communications services are delivered to consumers. The network build-out also represents the first major deployment of phone services over an Internet-based infrastructure, using cable lines as the transmission vehicle. Cisco announced broad support for its consumer strategy from more than 30 service providers and consumer electronic companies, each sharing Cisco's vision to extend high-speed Internet access from business to the consumer market. Cisco also announced plans to introduce a new type of 'personalized network' for the home, a sort of plug-and-play local area network, connecting PCs, phones, TVs and other Internet appliances. Cisco also introduced a voice-enabled cable modem at CES, which will allow consumers to get phone service from their cable company, in addition to high-speed Internet access and television service. These personal networks begin to lay the groundwork for Cisco's long-term vision to turn the Internet into the next mass medium, eventually connecting everyone to everything. At CES, Chambers demonstrated a working networked home, using a combination of cable, telephone and wireless solutions. The demonstration featured real examples of broadband consumer products, including a Hitachi set-top box that delivers a standard TV signal with a picture-in-picture Internet connection, a wireless broadband connection from Epigram, connecting a PC and TV for gaming, and Samsung web video phones delivering TV quality service. Chambers also demonstrated a wireless home network using technology from Sharewave, which is up to 400 times faster that a standard modem connection. Cisco's new consumer initiative intends to allow service providers to generate additional revenue from new broadband Internet access services needed for a networked home. At the same time, consumer equipment manufacturers will generate additional revenue through the development of new, high-speed Internet-enabled devices. Cisco will continue to work closely with service providers to facilitate the development of New World data, voice and video services, and also to partner with consumer electronic companies to develop integrated Internet, phone and video devices

Connectivity: more devices for the wired—and not so wired—house - The Wired House - home electronics networking

Home networking proponents have long said that entertainment is the engine that will drive consumers to the connected home. Now those once-futuristic entertainment products and services are starting to stream to stores.

Audio and video servers, for instance, will soon enable homeowners to access music, video, and digital image libraries from connected points in a home. That means that new Diana Krall track you just downloaded from the Web will be able to play on a remote client device in the kitchen--without an expensive custom-installed multi-room audio solution. In some cases, users can even access libraries from another home using the Internet as the bridge.

At the recent International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, consumer electronics companies including Panasonic, Pioneer, and newcomer Moxi were among the exhibitors that announced development of a new type of consumer electronic device: media servers. Media servers are large-volume hard drives that can store music, movies, and digital photos, and distribute them to various points in the house.

Pioneer's AV Client, for example, due out later this year at a price below $1,800, will connect directly to a home A/V system. Add-on devices in other rooms will connect over a network to the main server and play back source material through TVs or music systems in other rooms. The 60-MB hard disk compresses digital audio and video in several ways: by ripping content from a DVD or CD using its internal disc drive, by downloading content from the Web, or by transferring digital audio or video files from a home's connected PC. The system also promises to stream Internet radio stations and video services

Tellabs acquires ONT developer Vinci Systems

Tellabs has acquired Vinci Systems, a privately held developer of optical networking terminals (ONTs) for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) access systems, particularly passive optical networks. Under the terms of the agreement, Tellabs will pay up to $52.5 million in cash and restricted Tellabs stock.

The move brings Tellabs a family of third-generation ONTs that complements the Tellabs FiberDirect solution. Vinci Systems, a start-up based in Vienna, Virginia, was founded in 2002 and has demonstrated interoperability of its ONT products with the offerings of several optical line terminal (OLT) vendors.

Tellabs recently completed the acquisition of AFC, which is supplying FTTH technology to Verizon, among other customers.

"This acquisition further illustrates our commitment to expanding into the growing FTTx market," said Carl DeWilde, executive vice president of access products at Tellabs. "Vinci's ONT technology enables us to deliver a more cost-effective fiber access solution."

Powerline Networking: Not for Everyone?

The choices for home networking have grown wider (and a bit more confusing) with the introduction of the first HomePlug Powerline 1.0–compliant network adapters and bridges.

Powerline networking promises throughput competitive with other wired home-networking technologies (especially HomePNA Phoneline 2.0, which uses your home's existing phone lines to transmit signals) and simple installation. All you have to do is plug an adapter into any AC power outlet in your home to connect to your network.

In typical home settings, Powerline delivers on its promises. We tested four of the first products on the market (two from Linksys and one apiece from Netgear and Phonex). Installation is indeed simple. On our throughput tests, Powerline products were a bit slower than the sample Phoneline adapters we tested for comparison, but the difference wouldn't be noticeable by most people for typical home-network tasks (such as sharing files, a printer, or a fast Internet connection).

But Powerline technology does have limitations that might rule it out for some users. If you have a high concentration of computer and other electronic equipment, for example, throughput is likely to suffer. We also found that one of the outlets in our basement home office—the last one on the circuit, with many other electronic devices between it and the circuit box—was not able to establish a Powerline connection with most of our upstairs locations, although it worked (albeit slowly) with locations in our home office area

Of greater concern, at least in the near term, are the relatively high prices of Powerline networking adapters. True, Powerline is a better alternative for most homeowners than drilling into walls to run Ethernet cable, but with current prices ranging from $130 to $150, these products are roughly twice the cost of Phoneline solutions. And they are even costlier than 802.11b networking kits, which typically deliver much better speed, as well as wireless convenience (a big plus if a laptop PC figures into your mix).

According to the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, an industry consortium (www.homeplug.org), there is a case to be made for Powerline technology. For starters, you don't have to run new wires to set up your network. Also, networking could be built into a range of productivity, security, and entertainment devices for the home; if a device needs to be plugged in, it could be part of your network. So, for instance, a Powerline-aware stereo receiver could receive and play MP3 files stored on your PC.

In addition, Powerline devices are rate-adaptive, dropping to lower rates if interference on the power line from other sources is high. Earlier ventures in networking via home power lines didn't meet with much acceptance, but HomePlug 1.0, which was field-tested in 500 homes last year, was found to be effective on power outlets throughout most homes.

The theoretical maximum data-throughput rate of Powerline networks is 14 Mbps, with an average actual rate of about 6 Mbps. That's competitive with HomePNA, 802.11b Wi-Fi, and HomeRF 2.0 wireless networks. Powerline's proponents also claim that the technology is easier to understand than phone-line networking, avoids the "dead spots" of wireless networking (some places in the home where you cannot get a signal), and is cheaper than wired Ethernet.

The standard Powerline adapter is about the size of an external modem. The adapter typically plugs into a power outlet in your home and then into an Ethernet or USB port on your desktop or notebook PC. Note that you should plug a Powerline adapter directly into an outlet on your wall—not into a surge protector or UPS—because the adapters work via shared bandwidth in the AC power circuitry. Devices that condition or filter power can interfere with Powerline networking, and the adapters have their own internal surge protectors.

In some cases (as with the Netgear and Phonex adapters we tested), you don't even need to install any software on your PC to connect with a network. Assuming your PC has already been configured with TCP/IP and with either fixed IP settings or for DHCP and automatic IP assignments, you can just connect the adapter to your PC, plug it into a power outlet, start the PC, and you'll be ready.

Storage & networking for editors; these solutions are an integral part of the editing environment today, but they weren't so commonplace even just a f

FilmCore (www.filmcore.com) in Santa Monica has been using a network since 1998--early for a creative editing company. Technical director Richard Breniser came to the company from Encore Video, where he had been supporting networked post production systems for feature films. "Some commercial editing houses tried using SANs [Storage Area Networks] for centralized media storage," he recalls. "An early version was based on the SCSI system used on features, but those systems had limited expendability. You couldn't continue to grow."Unity has been very good to us," reports Breniser. "It's totally expandable and flexible. We have a couple of terabytes of storage now and are planning to add more to accommodate our increasing need for space." FilmCore is also using MediaManager, Avid's file management system with a browser-based user interface.

It's essential that FilmCore's editors and assistants have simultaneous access to media assets. "With Unity, assistants work at the same time on the same material--even the same cut--as the editors, pulling and cutting sound effects, doing compositing or visual effects," Breniser notes. "They can send their version to drop into the sequence with no copying, no moving material." A big MSN campaign, out of McCann-Erickson/SF, required five editors to pull from the same source material at the same time, he adds. It consisted of four :30s and five :60s, each of which had 24 versions tailored for different markets.

FilmCore installed Avid's LANShare EX in its San Francisco office. The cost-effective system accommodates up to six Fibre Channel-based workstations (the office currently has five Avid Meridien Media Composers attached via Fibre) but "works and feels like the Unity we have in Santa Monica" where there are nine Meridien Media Composers.

"Tony Cox, my counterpart in San Francisco, and I try to make the two offices appear as one," notes Breniser. "When Doug Walker, who's based in San Francisco, works down here, he logs in as if he were in his home office. Everything he's used to having there, he has here and vice versa."

FilmCore complements its MediaNetwork with a parallel Ethernet infrastructure to maximize workflow. The Ethernet ties in an Apple Xserve rack-optimized server and Xserve RAID data storage, enabling FilmCore editors in Santa Monica or San Francisco to easily mirror and sync up material. "It's a very robust, high-end networking infrastructure that provides support, reliability, ease of configuration and remote access," Breniser says.

Today FilmCore can digitize dailies on the network and copy the media to FireWire so editors can plug into Avid Xpress Pro systems for on-location cutting. Finished sequences can be sent back to the office for further finessing. "Doug Walker took Xpress on a laptop home for the holidays to prep a job for January," he notes.

Editors like Walker can also log on remotely to FilmCore's Internet to access the sound effects library, graphics, titles, and cuts and dailies bins that are stored on the Ethernet. They can also send EDLs and OMF files back to the office. "We're trying to create a facility without walls," says Breniser."Before, editors were always tied to a building. But we don't want to confine them. We want them to have the same functionality they have here anywhere they go.

TCS' SwiftLink sales top 500 systems

TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ:TSYS), a leader in wireless data technology, has announced it has received total orders for over 500 SwiftLink deployable communication systems.

SwiftLink systems continue to assist US Government and commercial organizations to communicate classified and sensitive information via public telecommunications networks. SwiftLink systems are the result of TCS' expertise in integrating commercial communications and networking equipment with various types and levels of encryption. The SwiftLink family of deployable communication systems fills a market need for providing vital and extremely portable secure communication links.

"SwiftLink units have become a de facto standard for customers that demand absolutely secure, reliable and immediate communications," said Steve Anspach, Vice President for TCS' Network Solutions Group. "Whether it's a traveling executive who has a need to maintain corporate document security or a military unit sending super-sensitive intelligence data, TCS customers will find SwiftLink models in sizes designed for their specific needs."

With the introduction of the SwiftLink 1400 earlier this year, the SwiftLink family now includes several distinct sizes ranging from executive briefcases, man-portable back-packs, air travel carry-on luggage, up to larger cases transported over commercial aircraft. SwiftLink is designed to provide users with remote Voiceover-IP (VoIP), video and data communications, and end-to-end encryption via wired and wireless public telecommunications. SwiftLink units vary in configuration, depending on user requirements, and can provide access for one to more than 70 users, depending on user requirements.SwiftLink 1400, the latest model in the SwiftLink suite of products, is a highly portable reach-back communications terminal that provides secure access to classified or sensitive information from the field. It is designed to provide secure interconnectivity to multiple public networks for military and Intelligence personnel, homeland security, law enforcement, emergency response teams, and corporate executives that are highly dependent on immediate, dependable and secure reach-back communications. Earlier SwiftLink models were designed to support secured communications over commercial satellite installations. The SwiftLink 1400 may be configured with a Type 1 or Type 4 Future Narrow-Band Digital Terminal (FNBDT) encryptor. SwiftLink 1400 offers users wireless connectivity over Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Iridium (satellite), or 802.11 Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), plus wireline connectivity over the Public Telephone Network (PTN), in-building Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems, or a Local Area Network (LAN). These six public network choices are selectable through a convenient front panel switch, providing a communication path for any operational scenario. The SwiftLink 1400 has an integrated handset for voice communications, and connects to a laptop or handheld computer through a serial interface

Agere Systems to embed memory in NPUs: popular PayloadPlus network processor family to offer embedded memory - Semiconductors

Agere Systems Inc. is arming itself with embedded memory in an effort to gain share in the OC-48 network processor turf battle. Allentown, Pa.-based Agere is squaring off against Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. -- which have been intensely cutting prices and adding features at the mainstream OC-48 level this spring--and segment pioneer Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC).

Bill Klein, network processor product marketing manager at Agere's Austin site, last week told Electronic News exclusively that the next PayloadPlus network processor would offer serious embedded memory, something the company has not focused on before and something upstarts EZChip and Silicon Access Networks have designed-in from the start.

"Initially, our focus was performance and really doing the things the customer needed to do. Certain feature sets needed to be supported, and there had to be the performance overhead to add more features later," Klein said. "And just due to pure physics, there's certain trade-offs you have to make.

"But memory bandwidth is the big bottleneck in these applications, and we've addressed that in the next set of devices. Our new products are going more that route [of embedding memory]. We're definitely adding some things there," he said. Klein did not want to go into too much detail on the new products before their June introduction. But the quickly added the embedded memory is no panacea In traffic management, which is one of the things we do really well, you have to do a lot of packet buffering," Klein said. "And to do that well, you are going to have to store those packets off-chip. There's no way--I don't care what you do--that you are buffering 64 megabytes of data on-chip."

Not that customers weren't pulling for the earlier Payload Plus NPUs; Agere has clocked 60 PayloadPlus design wins thus far. Today the company will announce that Lucent Technologies Inc. is using Agere components for the first time in its Stinger digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) platform for an IP2000 module that can be added to the platform. The IP2000 add-on allows for the use of Gigabit Ethernet communications to bring video delivery to a DSL system.

Agere is preparing to ship 10Gbit/sec. (OC-192) network processors by the end of this year, Klein said. These will mark the shift of Agere's manufacturing from foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) to internal manufacturing.

Klein said he is not overly concerned about Intel's giant outlay and ambition in the NPU space. He and his team have been hard-pressed to find a specific OEM that has chosen Intel.

Still, every NPU player is rightfully concerned about the wrenching contraction in telecom spending and even the number of telecom companies. Klein said the turmoil is not over in this respect.

"Given carriers' current predictions for spending, the storm is not over," Klein said. "In my mind, that makes it more important than ever to build the right system.

"There's now a lot more focus on which programs OEMs are keeping and if we've got something they are really demanding, versus the old model of, 'We've got a cool idea; let's build it. We think they'll buy it,'" he said. Klein also said that the dust is starting to settle, and what's clear is that support for legacy networks is important, too.

"For awhile people said it's going to be all Ethernet. We had some newer carriers making promises of all-Ethernet. Clearly, that has at least temporarily gone away. What you are left with is the ILECs who need to support the legacy networks. So we need to support interacting with legacy equipment," he said. And that's a positive thing for Agere, as he sees it.

"Frankly for us that's been good; we're hurt less because one of our big strengths is true multiprotocol services, including ATM processing because there are inherent things that are difficult to do in ATM, such as segmentation and reassembly of packets into cells and vice versa," Klein said. He said Agere's NPUs are engineered with that in mind.

Klein said recent pronouncements by analysts that networking gear heavyweights Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc., among a few others, are not giving up their ASIC development in favor of NPUs carry some water

Rackable Systems Increases Server Density

Rackable Systems Inc., which builds high-density rack-optimized server systems through its unique back-to-back mounting design, is rolling out a new systems model that increases the density.

The San Jose, Calif., company on Monday is unveiling its Scale Out Server Series, which can offer greater density through its side-by-side and back-to-back designs and with a cooling design that brings air up through the systems and requires no fans, said CEO Tom Barton.

In addition, the system, which is available now, can run on DC power, which can further reduce the amount of heat generated by the systems.

The half-depth chassis enable densities of up to 92 compute nodes—or up to 184 processors—in a rack, more than five times the CPU density of traditional blade servers, Barton said. The company also offers another 10U (11.75 inches) of traditional 19-inch rack-mount space for networking equipment.

The systems will run a variety of processors—Xeon, 64-bit extended Xeon and 64-bit Itanium 2 chips from Intel Corp., and Opteron from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.—and operating systems, including Linux, Solaris x86 from Sun Microsystems Inc. and Windows from Microsoft Corp. Users also can run a variety of best-of-breed management software, Barton saidThe cooling design enables Rackable Systems to offer half-depth servers that offer a wide range of processors, which increase the amount of heat they generate as their frequencies grow. About 92 percent of the airflow through the chassis is used to cool the processors.

"We didn't want to assume that a one-size-fits-all solution would work in this market," he said.

The company is targeting customers who have large-scale deployments of compute-intensive applications—such as digital content creation and image rendering— to run in a high-performance computing environment, such as oil-and-gas companies as well as government agencies.

David Graziano, general manager at Meer.net LLC, of Mountain View, Calif., said Rackable Systems' focus is on cooling technology.

"They are responding to our concerns about power usage and thermal management," said Graziano, who uses Rackable Systems servers in Meer.net's two data centers. "Those are the biggest challenges to data centers. … You are constantly spending on power. It's all about power these days."

Check out eWEEK.com's Infrastructure Center at http://infrastructure.eweek.com for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.

Tellabs acquires ONT developer Vinci Systems

Tellabs has acquired Vinci Systems, a privately held developer of optical networking terminals (ONTs) for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) access systems, particularly passive optical networks. Under the terms of the agreement, Tellabs will pay up to $52.5 million in cash and restricted Tellabs stock.

The move brings Tellabs a family of third-generation ONTs that complements the Tellabs FiberDirect solution. Vinci Systems, a start-up based in Vienna, Virginia, was founded in 2002 and has demonstrated interoperability of its ONT products with the offerings of several optical line terminal (OLT) vendors.

Tellabs recently completed the acquisition of AFC, which is supplying FTTH technology to Verizon, among other customers.

"This acquisition further illustrates our commitment to expanding into the growing FTTx market," said Carl DeWilde, executive vice president of access products at Tellabs. "Vinci's ONT technology enables us to deliver a more cost-effective fiber access solution."

Software allows remote access to AV systems

SkipJam HomeView(TM) for iMedia lets users watch, monitor, and control AV systems using any broadband connection. HomeView measures available network bandwidth and adjusts signal quality for optimal viewing. Images and sounds are sent through Internet using MPEG-4 compression. Control signals are sent back to SkipJam iMedia Home Network, which emits IR, DLNA, uPnP, or serial commands to attached devices, allowing users to play, pause, and change channels.

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Watch, Monitor and Control Home AV Systems from Anywhere in the World

Patent-Pending Technology Measures Network Bandwidth & Adjusts for Optimal Viewing

January 19, 2005, Port Chester, NY - SkipJam Corp., a leading provider of home media networking solutions, announced today SkipJam HomeView for iMedia. HomeView lets SkipJam iMedia users watch, monitor and control their AV systems from anywhere in the world. Users can access their networked multimedia home through any broadband connection and watch their home TVs, security cameras, PVRs and any other live or recorded media on a "live basis."

SkipJam's HomeView technology offers users remote access and control of their home systems for security monitoring and TV-From-Home applications. HomeView uses SkipJam's patent-pending technology to automatically measure available network bandwidth and adjust signal quality for optimal viewing. Images and sounds are sent through the Internet using cutting-edge MPEG-4 Compression. Control signals are sent back to the SkipJam iMedia Home Network, which emits IR, DLNA, uPnP or serial commands to attached devices, allowing users to play, pause, change channels and directly control the devices they are viewing.

HomeView also automatically converts existing video recordings to a bit rate appropriate for remote viewing so that users can view in real-time recordings made of TV shows or security devices.

"SkipJam's iMedia platform is an extremely powerful and flexible multimedia home control and distribution system," said Michael Spilo, CEO of SkipJam. "Over the next few months we plan to continue to tap this power to provide our users with a variety of useful new features."

SkipJam's HomeView will be available to SkipJam owners at no additional charge. HomeView can be downloaded as an update to existing iMedia installations. SkipJam iMedia is the first ever Network Attached Media solution and first and only high fidelity, all-digital integrated home entertainment system which combines whole house audio and video distribution with digital recording and home control. SkipJam's iMedia system integrates: PVR, DVR, Live Streaming, Universal Remote Control, On-TV PC Access, Analog Device Switching and much more over standard wired or wireless home networks.

Corning Cable Systems and 3Com promote fiber-to-the-desk solution

Corning Cable Systems and 3Com are working together to promote fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD). With Corning Cable Systems' LANscape(R) Optical Connectivity Solutions and 3Com's newly released IntelliJack(TM) Switch NJ240FX, end-users have access to an economical FTTD solution with long-term reliability and future-proof connectivity.

Corning Cable Systems, part of Corning Incorporated's telecommunications segment, and 3Com, a provider of secure, converged voice and data networking solutions, recognize the value that FTTD brings to end-users, including extremely high bandwidth and reliability. By deploying a combination of Corning Cable Systems' LANscape Solutions with 3Com's IntelliJack Switch, end-users can afford these benefits.

Corning Cable Systems' LANscape Solutions includes high-bandwidth optical cable, connectors, and hardware for a variety of environments. 3Com's IntelliJack Switch, a wall-mounted switch with an optical fiber uplink, leverages existing copper connections in desktop devices. By connecting an optical cable to the back of the IntelliJack Switch, end-users can turn a single Ethernet connection into four fully manageable ports, expanding the number of network connections at an end-user location. By using the 3Com(R) device with optical components from Corning Cable Systems, customers have a low-cost, simple method for deploying FTTD

Optical networking equipment market to strengthen

The optical networking (ON) market will see double-digit growth from 2004 through 2006, according to a new study by KMI Research, an optical networking market research company. KMI has released its new report, Optical Networking: Worldwide Equipment Markets Update for 2004. Among its significant findings, the report concludes that through 2009 the ON market will grow with a 12 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). This market, which includes SONET, SDH, DWDM, DXC, and OXC products, was $7.6 billion in 2003 and will reach $15.3 billion in 2009.

KMI's analyses of these ON products include segmentations by vendor and geographic region, and long- vs. short-distance applications. Although metro (short-distance) applications were strong in 2003, the long-distance segment will show a healthy near-term bounce upward for some products, such as DWDM, because systems installed a few years back are filling up. This market growth is driven by bandwidth demand, which is growing at slower rates than in previous years but still fast enough to force new equipment deployments as capacity limits are reached.

Richard Mack, Vice President and General Manager of KMI, said, "With carrier capital spending getting stronger, and with the introduction of increasingly versatile transmission equipment, the optical networking market is returning to annual growth rates in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent. More importantly, we believe that these growth rates are reasonable and 'healthy' or sustainable, given the input we've had about bandwidth requirements and budget expectations."he report is based on a survey of more than 225 individuals with network operations or purchasing responsibilities at telecom carriers, as well as interviews with suppliers and other research.

Other report highlights and key findings include:

- Vendors with a strong foothold in Asia--particularly China--have increased their market share, with Huawei breaking into the top five for 2003, for example.

- This year (2004) will see the resumption of positive growth in long-haul DWDM equipment.

- Ethernet capabilities will show strong growth, with more than half the survey audience indicating that Ethernet will represent more 40 percent of their line-card purchases in 2006.

- Only the OXC product segment saw growth in 2003, while SONET and SDH products maintained their position as the dominant segment in terms of market value.

Internal, External Networking Helps Answer CFO's Questions

You think you have it tough. Imagine going to the CFO and asking for money to build a corporate facility to meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission design criteria. A structure with 8-foot-thick walls. One designed to continue to operate even if a tornado hit head-on.

In other words, a high-reliability data center.

Welcome to the world of Christopher A. Wade, manager, facilities/critical power in the WalMart information systems division. It's a world where the level of redundancy must be balanced against the availability of a mirrored site. A place where 100-year flood plains matter. Where more uptime sounds better to everyone - until they hear the price tag.

And where the reliability of the corporate network may depend to a considerable degree on the quality of the facility executive's network of flesh and blood contacts.

That's not to say numbers don't matter. But consider one question the CFO is sure to ask about a proposed facility: Why isn't the old one good enough any more?

"You have to be able to tell the financial people what the problem is," Wade says. "And it has to be a problem to them. They want to know what the consequences to the business will be if action isn't taken. How much money will we lose?"

That's not a question the facility executive can answer singlehandedly. "Our role in facilities is to provide the facility infrastructure design/build costs," he says. To figure out how much downtime will cost the organization, the facility executive has to tap - or build - an internal network of operating departments.

"I talk to them about scenarios," he says. "If we lose this equipment, what's the impact on the business?"

In those conversations, it's not enough to say that a facility failure will mean the loss of telecommunications capability in a particular area. Instead, the consequences must be put in terms of orders that can't be shipped or credit card transactions that can't be processed. "You have to keep talking until you come to some money," Wade says.

Finding the money is only one example of the networking Wade does before he walks into the CFO's office. He goes to the users of space, for example, to understand their needs. And he assembles a committee of key players from functions like structured cabling, network engineering and telecommunications to identify alternatives, costs, benefits and potential problems.

A LOT TO KNOW

Even as he gathers information from within the company, Wade is calling on another network - facility executives responsible for similar data centers, along with architects and engineers who design data centers - to help determine the life cycle of various data center options.

There's also a wealth of material from the biggest network of all: the Web. "I'm on the Internet all the time," he says. And he turns to yet another sort of network - the one that holds the database for facility maintenance and operating costs - to evaluate and justify recommendations for building materials and systems.

Those benchmarks, whether drawn from internal records or from outside sources, are invaluable. "It's some of the best information you can have," he says.

Armed with documentation gleaned from an array of sources, Wade is ready to make a proposal - or rather, his proposals.

"You have to give them options," he says. "If they don't have any alternatives, an idea is hard to sell." He likes to go into a meeting with three choices - plus the option of doing nothing. That's when the questions begin. What's the business advantage of one level of reliability over another? Why select a new generation of building automation over an old one? At that point, it's crucial to have, not only answers, but sources - "something to back you up," as Wade says.

That's because, when it comes to preparing a presentation for the CFO, the place to start isn't always with numbers. It's often with people. And that point is as valid for a small lighting retrofit as it is for the construction of a five 9s data center.

Population density and wireless networking: reexamining the world of wireless peer-to-peer networking

MANY PEOPLE retain a perception of peer-to-peer networking based on the old Napster model of file sharing. While that model offers the advantage of lots of users, there is no benefit to having lots of users in close proximity (i.e., high population density).

But wireless peer-to-peer networking--networks using devices that serve as both transceivers and routers for other devices--is gaining broad acceptance in many different vertical markets, including public safety, mass transit and intelligent transportation-systems. And, not surprisingly, it is the more densely populated cities in north Asia like Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo that are among the earliest adopters of this technology. Increased bandwidth and decreased deployment costs are the reasons that north Asia is again at the leading edge of a new wireless technology.

How it works

Wireless peer-to-peer networking, sometimes called "fourth generation" (4G) wireless, was originally conceived by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the same organization that developed the wired Internet. It is not surprising, then, that DARPA chose the same distribution architecture for the wireless Internet that had proven so successful in the wired Internet. Peer-to-peer networks eliminate the spoke-and-hub weakness of cellular architectures, because the elimination of a single node does not disable the network--just as the loss of a single router does not disable the wired Internet.

Because users carry much of the network with them, network capacity and coverage are dynamically shifted to accommodate changing user patterns. As people congregate and create pockets of high demand, they also create additional routes for each other, thus enabling additional access to network capacity. Users will automatically hop away from congested routes to less congested routes. This permits the network to dynamically and automatically self-balance capacity, increasing network utilization.

Furthering the economic argument is the 80/20 rule. With traditional wireless networks, about 80 percent of the cost is for site acquisition and installation, and just 20 percent is for the technology. Rising land and labor costs mean installation costs tend to rise over time. With wireless peer-to-peer networking, however, about 80 percent of the cost is the technology and only 20 percent is the installation. Because technology costs tend to decline over time, peer-to-peer networking will become less and less expensive to deploy

Cegetel selects Ciena's next-gen core systems to increase performance for broadband appls

Ciena Corporation (Nasdaq:CIEN) has announced that Cegetel has selected Ciena's next-generation optical transport systems to improve the performance and reliability of the French operator's national long-haul network and to facilitate new revenue opportunities via more efficient broadband service delivery.

Cegetel, France's leading alternative telecommunications carrier, will deploy Ciena's CoreStream Agility for increased capacity and flexibility in its core network to support the adoption of high-capacity services at the network edge. CoreStream mitigates bandwidth obstacles for Cegetel to ease the deployment of high-value services as Cegetel's consumer, enterprise, operator and ISP customers place increasing demands on the network with broadband applications.

"Following a competitive tender process for core infrastructure, we chose to continue our successful relationship with Ciena, whose historical leadership in the fiber optic network market ensures that we generate greater value from our network. The expertise of a partner like Ciena is critical to our success as we continuously evolve to meet customer demand for next-generation services," said Francis Costamania, general manager, Cegetel Network. "In particular, the abundance of broadband and multimedia applications Cegetel offers today means that our core fiber optic network plays a central role in the efficient delivery of services such as DSL, UMTS, voice over IP, Gigabit Ethernet and online storage. Ciena's CoreStream Agility assures us of that."

Building on a working relationship of more than seven years between the two companies, the contract was awarded after an extensive consultation and selection process involving vendors from Europe and Asia in addition to the United States. CoreStream Agility provides Cegetel greater levels of bandwidth and reliability across its core network via WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) and the incorporation of innovative technologies such as tunable lasers, intelligent add and drop systems, and next-generation transponders to offer the most cost-effective, flexible and reliable solution for delivering advanced services.

"This contract with Cegetel reflects our ongoing commitment to the European market and our ability to solve critical network challenges for customers across the region with innovative technologies. It also demonstrates that in addition to Ciena's specialist expertise in other high-growth areas --including broadband access and carrier-class Ethernet--we maintain our strong leadership position and commitment to core networking," said Eric Sele, Ciena's managing director for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa. "We are dedicated to enabling high-value applications while optimizing network performance and economics to help customers like Cegetel deliver a wider range of services through their networks.

West Point unwired: the Military Academy at West Point continues to lead the way in high-tech curriculum with wireless classroom networking - Cover St

When the class of 2007-1,200 first-year cadets--arrives at the Military Academy at West Point in the fall of 2003, one of the first tasks they will do is pick up their "cadet computers." That has been the drill for nearly two decades, but this year's cadet computer will have a new feature that extends West Point's legacy of being at the forefront in leveraging technology in education: wireless networking capability for classroom connectivity to support interactive, student-centered learning.

Having overcome serious concerns about the security issues surrounding wireless networking, West Point is ready to leverage a powerful educational resource that fully integrates the use of students' notebook computers into the in-class curriculum.

Not at all new to the value of computers in education, West Point has been issuing PCs, termed cadet computers, to incoming first-year cadets since 1986, and its curriculum has included Internet access since 1987. Upgrading is a constant at West Point--each student's workstation area in the barracks has been wired for local area and broadband networking since 1987. In 2002, those connections were upgraded to 100 Mbps, and the cabling that makes up the network includes a future-ready fiber-optic strand, so that taking it to the next level--Gigabit connectivity to each barracks workstation--will be easy

Col. Donald Welch, West Point's associate dean for information and educational technology, and a team of IT managers experimented with wireless networking for five years before they embarked on a project to deploy it Academy-wide. Topping the list of concerns that needed to be overcome before deployment could even be considered was security.

SOFTWARE SOLVES SECURITY CONCERN

Welch's team needed to find a wireless architecture that met the Academy's mission-critical security requirements: they found that in the WirelessWall Software Suite from Cranite Systems. "We spent two years, and looked at about seven different solutions before we chose Cranite," says Welch.

"Cranite was the most secure. It offers a firewall between the wireless and wired network enclaves; it provides mutual authentication that prevents rogue access points; it encrypts the data and IP headers using FIPS-140 certified encryption (AES); and it provides strong cryptographic integrity protection using a FIPS-140 certified algorithm.

"We found that the solution also put less strain on our client CPUs because it employs the AES FIPS-140 encryption algorithm, which is more efficient than the alternative 3DES," adds Welch. "In the end, it was the most economical solution of those that met our minimum security requirements."

Once it had settled on the wireless firewall solution, Welch's team continued to pursue wireless classroom connectivity by evaluating 802.11a wireless networking products from vendors in a series of tests that looked at bandwidth, latency and signal propagation. After the testing phase, West Point determined that SMC Network's 802.11a wireless access points and adapters met the Military Academy's requirements.

West Point considered all of the options for wireless networking: 802.11a, 802.11b and the draft 802.11g, before deciding on an 802.11a solution. The 802.11a option won out because it provides greater bandwidth in two ways: more band-width per access point and closer grouping of access points, so fewer students share a given chunk of bandwidth.

Smaller cells with more access points in a given area and the greater number of channels available on 802.11 a--eight vs. the three for 802.11b--all make for a more efficient network. 802.11g had two key deficits: the standard was not ready, and it carries the inherent disadvantages of 802.11b with respect to the number of non-overlapping channels.

BANDWIDTH A PRIORITY

Welch says that 802.11a matched requirements for a wireless solution in security, range and speed. "Since we're using this as an active part of classroom learning, we need bandwidth," he says. "One thousand cadets starting English classes at 7:30 each morning will all connect at the same time to access the same activities and information from multiple classrooms. 802.11a provides more bandwidth per access point than 802.11b, and its smaller cells means that we can effectively divide access, roughly by classroom. There's less overlap."

In choosing a specific 802.11a solution, West Point evaluated products from several vendors. In addition to testing bandwidth, latency and signal propagation in varied locations around campus, including some especially odd-shaped rooms, West Point's evaluation also tested the products for ease of setup and maintenance. The final considerations were price and supportability.

The price range was huge--the most expensive solution carried a price tag five times that of the least expensive. SMC's products were ultimately installed because their performance equaled or bettered all of the others, according to Welch, and due to supportability, as well as initial cost, were the economical choice

Cable-free: home networking goes wireless

It took awhile to get used to the idea, but home builders have started to embrace structured wiring as more than just a passing fad. Roughly half of new homes built today boast structured wiring, bundles of high-bandwidth video and data cable that homerun to a centralized location in the home and make possible home computer networks and whole-house video systems.

But no matter how much a homeowner tries to anticipate technology needs, there are nooks in the home where wire just won't go. And more and more, consumers want to tap into the Internet from wherever they are. They don't want to be tethered to a cable in a corner of the room when they can surf the Net from the patio or the living room couch. Despite the best-laid plans, a nursery later becomes a home office or someone wants to answer e-mails in bed where no data jack is available. That's where wireless networking comes in.

The primary draw for a home network today is to share a broadband Interact connection. People use the Internet for everything from finding directions to downloading music. They don't want to have to go into the office to look up a movie schedule. Most laptops these days come network-ready thanks to the Centrino chip found in PCs, and for older models a networking card is an easy add-on. Consumers want the same flexibility to jump on the Web wirelessly from home that they have at the local Starbucks.

"We do lots of wireless networking," says Ray Lepper, president of Home Media Stores in Richmond, Va. "We show it to people as an accessory to their wired network, not as the network."

Wired is always the medium of choice for networking because of the security and reliability a hard-wired connection delivers. Wireless transmission can't promise either. The most prevalent wireless networking technologies, 802.11 b and g, operate over the 2.4-GHz band of the radio spectrum where their signals compete with 2.4-GHz cordless phones, microwave ovens, and other common household devices. Building materials can also impede the performance of a wireless network. Steel, concrete, and wire mesh all can stop the transmission of radio signals from one side of the house to the other.

Because of the uncertainty of a wireless connection, custom electronics professionals reserve wireless as an extension of Internet access, not for serious computing or streaming of audio and video. "Speed and security issues are the compromises you experience with wireless versus wired systems," says Michael Tangora, president of Tangora Technologies in Delmar, N.Y. "I see wireless as merely a convenience issue over hard-wired networks. The capacity of wired over wireless is absolutely twofold, so in both speed and reliability they really don't compare."

Entertainment services such as video networking of TiVo recorded TV programs or distribution of music from a PC hard drive to other rooms in the house is typically done via wired networks which offer the higher speeds necessary for larger file transfer.

Still, many installers encourage clients to combine wired and wireless networking. "If they already have networks for a digital music server, TiVo server, and computer, we say to clients, 'Why don't we put in a wireless access point and wireless router, and then when you bring your laptop home from work you can just sit in the family room or out on the deck and answer those e-mails while you're sipping a beer,'" Lepper says. "People think that's cool."

Cost is one of the misconceptions homeowners have regarding wireless versus wired networks. "People think that going wireless is a way to save money," Lepper explains. "Not exactly. They think they're going to save labor." To a degree, that's true when it comes to places where it's difficult to run wire. If wiring is in and someone decides after the fact to add the kitchen to a network, a wireless add-on is the only option. "But I don't see wireless as a replacement for wired. I see it as part of the network," he adds.

Wireless networks carry a degree of vulnerability if people don't use encryption to protect their networks from outside intrusion. Most wireless routers, which serve as home base for a wireless network, come with protective encryption turned off because encryption makes it more difficult to add other products to the network. It's a dilemma, Lepper notes, and it leaves consumers confused.

"People are both under-secured and over-paranoid about wireless networks," he says. "People should make their networks secure because even the local teenage hacker could have fun and lock you out of your own router. But if you get paranoid and put in a lot of encryption, that creates a level of inflexibility, which means the integrator has to come back to add new things when you want to expand. Minimum security is mandatory but don't get paranoid.

Wireless mesh networking gaining strength, report says

BECAUSE OF INCREASED RELIABILITY and scalability of mesh networking, demand for wireless sensor networking in the industrial sector will increase, according to wireless market research firm ON World Inc.

With thousands of nodes per network to be commonplace within five years, forecasts show that 168 million nodes could be up and running in 2010 for a $5.9 billion end user market, according to ON World.

"High return on investment, low replacement costs, and the ever-increasing pressure to cut costs, make wireless sensor networking especially suited for industrial networking,"said Charlie Chi, a senior analyst with ON World.

By reducing wiring costs by 50-70%, wireless sensor networks enable real-time data sharing throughout a facility, leading to increased industrial efficiency and productivity. Displacing wired systems (e.g., DeviceNet, Modbus, fieldbus), wireless sensor networking provides advantages such as large-scale networking, real-time monitoring, and new applications not previously possible.

By increasing reliability, robustness, and flexibility while significantly reducing overall costs, mesh wireless sensor networking can lead to new ways to network in industrial process automation, officials said. Mesh networking will also facilitate the adoption of real-time process equipment monitoring and distributed networking.

The major benefits of wireless sensor networking are reduced wiring costs and elimination of connectors.