Alcatel Lucent Announces lightRadio, New Base Station Architecture
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, February 7, 2011 · 
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Alcatel-Lucent today announced lightRadio, what the company calls a breakthrough in mobile and broadband infrastructure that reduces technical complexity, power consumption and other network operating costs by shrinking and simplifying cell towers.
According to the company, the new architecture breaks down a base station, typically located at the base of each cell site tower, into its components elements and then distributes them into both the antenna and throughout a cloud-like network. Additionally Alcatel Lucent said that today’s clutter of antennas serving 2G, 3G and LTE systems can be combined and shrunk into a single multi-frequency, multi-standard wideband active array antenna that can be mounted on poles, sides of buildings or anywhere else there is power and a broadband connection.
By reducing the cell site to just the antenna and leveraging future advances in microwave backhaul and compression techniques, Alcatel Lucent says this technology eventually will enable broadband coverage virtually anywhere there is power by using microwave to connect back to the network.
West Carolina to Deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s IPTV Solution for Small Telcos
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 29, 2010 · ·
Abbeville, S.C.-based West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative has become the first rural, tier 3 operator to deploy Alcatel Lucent’s Triple Play Express (TPE) voice and data solution.
The TPE solution will include micro-architecture of the Microsoft Mediaroom platform that Alcatel-Lucent recently announced, a unique design that can support more than three times as many households while using a smaller number of servers. The TPE solution also will support video-on-demand (VoD), HDTV, remote DVR, an operator mosaic channel, an applications dashboard and enhanced caller ID that will be delivered as services to West Carolina’s customers.
“Alcatel-Lucent’s solution will provide us the capabilities to better serve our customer with the latest services” said Dave Herron, vice president and general manager of West Carolina. “Their approach for rapid delivery, with a tested and integrated solution, was key in our decision to choose them.” Beginning January 1, 2011, nearly 15,000 residents of South Carolina will have access to the new service. Read more
Vendors Develop DSL Technologies to Boost Speed
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 1, 2010 · ·
Although fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is the ideal, long-term solution, new copper technologies may help telecom operators squeeze faster speeds out of their existing plant, and thereby extend the useful life of their investment.
Vendors are experimenting with a variety of methods to boost the speed of DSL, such as bonding several copper lines, creating virtual circuits and using advanced noise cancellation to increase the speed of broadband over copper to several hundred megabits per second.
At the Broadband World Forum in Paris last week, Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it can now transmit speeds up to 825 Mbps over a distance of 400 meters, but NSN is not alone in its quest. You might remember that Huawei announced last month that it can transmit 700 Mbps also over a distance of 400 meters, and, according to Network World, Alcatel-Lucent recently reported that it has achieved 910 Mbps in tests over 400 meters. Read more
Alcatel-Lucent Intros IPTV Solution for Small Telcos
Posted by Jesse Ward on Friday, July 23, 2010 · ·
Alcatel-Lucent is targeting small telcos with the release of a compact IPTV solution, powered by Microsoft Mediaroom, which can scale from 1,000 to 100,000 set-top boxes. The solution provides high-quality television programming, and also enables new services through the blending and personalization of Web and broadcast content.
Alcatel-Lucent’s Integrated Solution for Microsoft Mediaroom is a substantially modified version of an existing solution that the company has previously deployed in more than 25 large networks globally. The new solution, based on Microsoft’s Mediaroom Hyper-V architecture, includes a unique design that can support more than three times as many households, while using a smaller number of servers. Read more
Alcatel-Lucent Achieves 300 Mbps over Copper
Posted by Jesse Ward on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 · ·
Although fiber-to-the-home is the ideal, long-term solution for telco providers, it will require an overhaul to existing outside plant and a major time and fiscal investment. In the meantime, operators are looking for new technologies to increase the speed and extend the life of their current copper plant.
Alcatel-Lucent, the worldwide leader in DSL port shipments, is likewise invested in the technology. The company announced today that it has developed a method to transmit data at 300 Mbps over two copper lines.
Researchers at the company’s Bell Labs demonstrated technology that boosts the theoretical transmission speeds of DSL to 300 Mbps over a distance of 400 meters (or about 1,300 feet), or 100 Mbps at 1 kilometer (3,281 feet). Read more