Always On: Next Gen Networks will Fuel Tomorrows Innovations
August 4, 2009
Filed Under: in Analysis, Infrastructure 2.0, News
Author: Nate D'Amico
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Even as certain areas push to increase adoption and availability to broadband access the network service providers are not standing still. They are all busy bees pushing the rollout of their next generation networks to gain a leg up on the competition and capture market share by providing the fuel that powers tomorrows innovators with the backbone needed to deliver and support their solutions.
We reported a couple weeks ago about Clearwire and their Wimax launch in the Vegas market. Today they have followed up on that announcement by stating that starting in September their service will be rolling out in 10 new markets keeping the pressure on the other providers prepping their 4G backbones. The lucky regions are Boise, Idaho; Bellingham, Wash.; and markets throughout Texas, including: Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Killeen/Temple, Waco and Wichita Falls.
On the cable provider side of things all of the top networks have been cranking away for the past few years to meet the "memorandum of understanding" with the CE manufacturers stating that their networks would be upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0 and their head-ends being interactive ready allowing the next generation of services to be deployed on set-top-box and new internet connected TV's.
The July 1st deadline has come and gone with "most" of the top six providers regions meeting the network upgrade. Some of them are still rolling out officially as Comcast recently announced that SF Bay Area customers can now enjoy 50Mbps service and the impending ITV features that take advantage of the upgrade will be rolling out over the next calendar year. Similar news from Cox on the east coast.
Lying under the covers of all these network upgrades is the IPv6 movement that has been years in the making and finally seems to be making some progress. Last week we got to chat with Michael Wheeler who runs the Global IP business unit of NTT America. Michael talked about NTT's movement to continue to spread the call to action for service providers and equipment manufacturers to get on the IPv6 bandwagon. The most public known benefit of IPv6 is the adressable space argument. As more and more devices are IP enabled (smart coffee maker and fridge example) IPv4 is running out of addresses to be assigned. Similar to the bandwidth management benefits that DOCSIS 3.0 gives the cable folks IPv6 will greatly help bring network configuration,switching and management up a notch. Michael talked about how Asia (Japan specifically), are ahead in adoption but North America is catching up and finally several large internet companies that use NTT services are starting to test things out in their networks and datacenters.
Along the lines of IPv6, today Juniper Networks announced that their next gen routers and switches have been selected to power the the third generation of the Trans-Eurasia Information Network.
As these upgrades and advancements of the networks continue over the next couple of years our always connected world will evolve rapidly fed by innovative new hardware in the mobile space and new software services. This will open up new opportunities conducting business on a global scale as well new entertainment and learning services.
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