The amount of Next Generation Communications news is an indication that we are clearly in the middle of busy season. While as usual it spans all the way from optical to wireless to data centers, starting with all of the activities of community host Alcatel-Lucent (News 
- Alert) (ALU) seems appropriate.
The big news from ALU was covered by my colleague Paula Bernier in an insightful piece on ALU’s introduction of a series of upgrades to its mobile backhaul portfolio, and the implications it will have on helping service providers with their LTE (News - Alert) and small cell deployments.
In fact, wireless was a major them for the company based on its announcement that it is working with Northern European operator Ziggo to turn private Wi-Fi connections into public hotspots. And it isn’t just on current deployment issues where there was activity; ALU is a leader of the EARTH (Energy Aware (News - Alert) Radio and neTwork tecHnologies) consortium of 15 telecommunications providers, vendors and academic institutions who have developed a framework that reduces the energy consumption of mobile networks by up to 70 percent.
Europe was also important as a leading indicator for the trend. I’ve been watching for a while regarding the interest in extending the life of existing copper plant by using VDSL2 Vectoring technology for provisioning competitive and cost-effective broadband. Belgacom (News - Alert) is the latest example with the revelation that it will be using the ALU-supplied technology to bring broadband to a large majority of Belgian households.
The enterprise side of the ALU house was also gaining attention. It announced the expansion of its partner ecosystem, collaboration with JGC Corporation to help enhance efficiency and workforce safety at a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Indonesia, and the deployment by United Arab Emirates' Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) of its unified communications (UC) solutions.
News
Other industry news of note included:
Features
Service Providers
- A follow-up and more detailed article on the recently announced embedded OTDR solution from ALU that makes the monitoring of optical networks easier and more precise.
- A look by TMCnet Contributing Editor Susan Campbell at six new research reports about the challenges and opportunities of deploying next generation solutions in India and other developing countries.
Enterprise
You might be interested in how ALU’s OpenTouch solution enabled the visitors and organizers of the massive French Much Festiveal Des Vieilles Charrues to enjoy the event where smartphones could be used, and logistics were greatly improved.
Industries
Improving the customer experience for travelers was the focus of a look at how the hospitality industry is using next-gen capabilities to make their guests feel more at home.
I also wanted to draw your attention to an item I wrote on the future of data centers, and an important webinar on the subject that I will be hosting on November 1, SDN: Let’s Cut the Hype, What is the Reality?
Weekend reading
As is my custom in this space, there is a lot to recommend for a little weekend reading, which includes two Alcatel-Lucent TechZine articles:
And check out the Resource Center. It is constantly being updated with whitepapers, videos and case studies. The featured eBook, Innovating Innovation, and the whitepaper Creating Your Smart Grid: A How-To Guide are extremely useful.
