Connectivity, Communications & Cloud News - Page 21

Bell LAbs, which is a division of Alcatel-Lucent, is claiming to have "set a new broadband speed record of 10Gbps using traditional copper telephone lines". This was achieved in a research project that could see gigabit broadband speeds delivered to normal broadband networks with copper, by combining fiber.

These 10Gbps speeds can only be achieved at 30 meters (or 100 feet), and at 70m (or 230 feet) the top speeds drop to 1Gbps. Alcatel-Lucent has said that bidirectional 1Gbps speeds can be achieved in the real-world over networks that deliver fiber to the curbside, and rely on copper for the final few feet of the connection.

Alcatel-Lucent said: "When it becomes commercially available in 2015, G.fast will use a frequency range for data transmission of 106MHz, giving broadband speeds up to 500Mbps over a distance of 100 meters. In contrast, XG-FAST uses an increased frequency range up to 500MHz to achieve higher speeds but over shorter distances. Bell Labs achieved 1Gbps symmetrical over 70 meters on a single copper pair. 10Gbps was achieved over a distance of 30 meters by using two pairs of lines (a technique known as 'bonding'). Both tests used standard copper cable provided by a European operator".

Enough energy to power the entirety of the United Kingdom and Norway is wasted every single year as smart devices are left on standby mode, according to a report.

The International Energy Agency claims that wasted electricity from these devices makes up over 400 terawatt hours (TWh) every year - or about as much power produced yearly by over 100 coal plants. Crunching the numbers, the IEA points out that just last year over 14 billion devices were network enabled and it's set to shoot up to 50 billion by 2025 - and the required energy could make up a stonking 6 percent of global consumption.

"The proliferation of connected devices brings many benefits to the world, but right now the cost is far higher than it should be," the IEA's executive director, Maria van der Hoeven, said. "Consumers are losing money in the form of wasted energy, which is leading to more costly power stations and more distribution infrastructure being built than we would otherwise need, not to mention the extra greenhouse gases."

If you thought the 1Gbps on offer from Google Fiber was impressive, well, that would feel like dial-up compared to what the private pipeline the US Department of Energy recently tested - bursting out an incredible 91 gigabits per second between Denver and Maryland.

The reason behind the uber-fast Internet access is that the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and NASA officials having to deal with copious amounts of data, but with access to this 91Gbps connection, that is a thing of the past. Even faster transfers have been benchmarked, but these were done over direct connections.

We reported earlier in the year that Alcatel-Lucent and BT smashed a huge 1.4 terabit connection, but this was a direct connection between London and Ipswich. ESnet does have a goal in mind, where it hopes to see transfer speeds increased to as high as 1Tbps, where it has already started work on a 400 gigabit network. Where do I sign up?

I don't know why I'm just reading about, and thus reporting about it just now, but more details are leaking out on next iteration of the PCI Express specification - PCIe 4.0.

As it stands, PCIe 3.0 has a maximum throughput bandwidth of 32GB/sec, but PCIe 4.0 will ramp things up to 64GB/sec - as it will have a base speed of 16Gbps per data link. At the moment, GPUs won't make much more use of this, but with SSDs moving toward PCIe - we are seeing a huge increase in the required bandwidth - with OCZ showing off 3.8GB/sec with PCIe-based SSDs in RAID 0 at Computex this year as an example.

When will we see PCIe 4.0 rolled out? We should expect it to come baked into Intel's upcoming Skylake platform, with its 100-series chipset.

The City of San Jose and Intel are working together to help stimulate the local economy and embrace their "Green Vision" efforts by collaborating for Smart Cities USA. City officials hope to embrace the Internet of Things and utilize the Intel Smart City Demonstration Platform so residents have real-time, local data that can help guide their energy consumption and daily activities.

"To help improve quality of life in San Jose, we're exploring new ways of capturing and sharing localized information to our residents," said Kerrie Romanow, San Jose Environmental Services Department director. "With better information, we tend to make better decisions. We're optimistic that the real-time air quality data will help our staff understand how we can positively influence the environment right here in San José as well as regionally and globally."

When people think of Silicon Valley, they tend to think more of San Francisco - but over the next 30 years, the population of San Jose is expected to increase to 1.4 million. Moving forward, the city hopes to continue attracting tech and biotech companies, and launching "smart city" initiatives will continue to draw attention.

GPS manufacturer Magellan will introduce its Cyclo 315 and 505 cycling GPS units to the North American market starting next month. The Cyclo GPS series was originally released by Magellan to the Australian and European markets last year, and must compete with Garmin in a very competitive market.

Both models are 3" and includes a touchscreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, smartphone connectivity, and sophisticated ANT+ support so athletes can track heart rate, speed, cadence, and power while out in the saddle. The Cyclo 315 will cost $349.99 and the Cyclo 505 has a starting MSRP of $429 - both models will be available starting in May.

"The Magellan Cyclo GPS line includes models that will appeal to the majority of bike riders in the U.S.," noted Sam Muscariello, Magellan outdoor product marketing director, in a press statement. "From the hardcore triathlete to the body armored mountain biker, even the weekend touring enthusiast, Cyclo has all the right features needed to take cyclists to the next level and help them reach their goals."

Last week, Quantenna Communications teased the world with something it is calling "10G Wi-Fi". This new Wi-Fi technology will have support for data transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, and a much longer range than current Wi-Fi technology.

Stanford Professor of Electrical Engineering Andrea Goldsmith said of Quantenna's new tech: "Quantenna's 8x8 architecture with adaptive beamforming demonstrates that the 'massive MIMO' promise of significantly higher throughput, robustness, and reduced interference can be realized in practice. This architecture will also significantly enhance the capabilities of MU-MIMO, allowing it to support interference-free transmission to many more devices simultaneously. These technology advances will transform the landscape of applications and devices that Wi-Fi can support. As we move into an era of exponentially-growing video usage and the Internet of Things, the 8x8 architecture and MU-MIMO technologies will become essential in all high-performance Wi-Fi devices".

This is the kind of technology we need as 4K (and higher) starts penetrating into our homes, where we're streaming and blasting out super high-res videos and data everywhere, all at once.

GPS company Garmin has announced the Edge 1000 cycling GPS unit, featuring new technologies to appease cyclists with deeper pockets. The device has a full-color 3" touchscreen providing 240x400 resolution, and a reported battery life up to 15 hours.

Although running GPS units from Garmin have greatly advanced, some in the cycling industry think enough wasn't being done to promote new bike-centric GPS units. However, Garmin pulled out all of the stops with the Edge 1000, including built-in Wi-Fi so map data can be downloaded faster - and GPS-based turn-by-turn directions while out in the saddle.

Cyclists can also use ANT+ sensors to connect the Edge 1000 to a heart rate monitor, power meters, or cadence sensors, Garmin said in the press release.

Intel has just shown off an incredible new way of networking between PCs at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show currently going on in Las Vegas. The new technology is called Thunderbolt Networking, and will soon be made available to all PCs that feature Thunderbolt 2 controllers.

There will soon be an updated Windows driver released, that will "emulat[e] an Ethernet connection environment" which will provide a 10Gbps two-way link between computers that are connected through a Thunderbolt cable. Thunderbolt Networking will not be enabled for older PCs that feature the first-generation Thunderbolt controllers.

Windows PCs aren't the only things receiving Thunderbolt Networking, with two connected Thunderbolt-enabled Macs also capable of this new technology. It's not going to be as good as the PC version, but it will work nonetheless. We should see this new Thunderbolt Networking technology update for Windows pushed out soon.

Qualcomm recently made an announcement about Mu-Mimo (Multi-User, Multiple input and Multiple Output) technology that is considered as a breakthrough in wireless technology as its three times faster than Wi-Fi speeds.

The development of MU-Mimo took seven years for research, but in the end it turned out to be a great technology. Wi-Fi access points work by serving one user at the time, but MU-Mimo works even with multiple users.

The company explains,"Using MU-MIMO is like using the carpool lane: the Wi-Fi Highway doesn't change, but grouping up with other users lets you go much faster while de-congesting the other lanes."