LAN & WAN - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Nortel's patents more valuable than its products

  Nortel’s patents were slightly more valuable than its products, as the transactions for Nortel’s product groups combined did not quite measure up to the single deal for its intellectual property.

• Net neutrality goes Dutch

  While the Netherlands is primarily known for windmills, tulips and legalized marijuana, it could soon be known for its net neutrality regulations as well.

• The history of Metro Ethernet

  A lot has happened with Ethernet in service provider networks in the past 10 years. And the Metro Ethernet Forum has been behind a lot of that progress. From promoting and education the industry on the merits of Ethernet in the service provider network, to actually defining carrier-class Ethernet specifications, the MEF has been at the forefront of advances in the technology on a larger-than-enterprise-network scale. Here are the major milestones the MEF has achieved over that time period:

• Metro Ethernet Forum celebrates 10 years of accomplishments

  When the Metro Ethernet Forum celebrates its 10th anniversary next month, it can tick off quite a list of accomplishments for the ways it has shaped the <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/061411-ethernet-vendors-racing-to-meet.html">Layer 2 Ethernet standard</a>.

• ICANN finally approves expansion plan for top-level domains

  After four years of debate, Internet policymakers on Monday approved a controversial plan to introduce hundreds of new domain name extensions to the Internet infrastructure at a special meeting in Singapore.

• Cisco again looks to debunk the multivendor network

  In its second attempt to debase arguments that a multivendor network is more beneficial to users than a <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/012011-gartner-slams-cisco-single-vendor.html">single-vendor infrastructure</a>, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/subnets/cisco/">Cisco</a> this week hosted a webcast of two customers discussing the merits of their all-Cisco networks.

• Cisco fabric launch seeks to undermine Arista, IBM

  In an effort to thwart the momentum of Arista Networks and IBM's <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/101410-blade-ibm-ethernet-switch.html">BLADE Network Technologies business</a>, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/subnets/cisco/">Cisco</a> this week announced what it claims is the first high-performance trading fabric optimized for the financial markets industry.

• Google's fast Web protocol gains a little speed

  Using Google Chrome browser cuts Web page download times by 10 per cent to 20 per cent if the sites use Google's fast Web protocol, according to acceleration company Strangeloop, which now supports the technology.

• IPv6 traffic surges at launch of World IPv6 Day

  A surge of <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/073009-ipv6-guide.html">IPv6</a>-based Web traffic began flowing over the Internet last night when World IPv6 Day began, according to data gathered by Arbor Networks.

• World IPv6 Day: Tech industry's most-watched event since Y2K

  The nation's largest telecom carriers, content providers, hardware suppliers and software vendors will be on the edge of their seats tonight for the start of World IPv6 Day, which is the most-anticipated 24 hours the tech industry has seen since fears of the Y2K bug dominated New Year's Eve in 1999.

• Can't reach your favorite site? IPv6 may be to blame

  A small number of Internet users will experience delays or time-outs as they attempt to visit Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other popular websites tonight and tomorrow, due to a 24-hour trial of a new Internet standard called IPv6.

• Hackers may try to disrupt World IPv6 Day

  Hundreds of popular websites -- including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Bing -- are participating in a 24-hour trial of a new Internet standard called IPv6 on June 8, prompting worries that hackers will exploit weaknesses in this emerging technology to launch attacks.

• Comcast expands IPv6 trial

  Comcast has expanded its <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/2010/042810-ipv6-tutorial.html">IPv6</a> trial, adding hundreds of cable modem subscribers in the San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Miami areas to participants in Littleton, Colo., that have been operational all year with this next-generation Internet service.

• Large-scale IPv6 trial set for June 8

  The largest experiment in the <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2009/020909-evolution-internet.html">40-year history of the Internet</a> will take place on Wednesday, as hundreds of Web sites test a new standard called <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/073009-ipv6-guide.html">IPv6</a> that can support vastly more devices with faster, lower-cost connectivity than today's technology.

• 10G top-of-rack switches to surge to $1B in sales this year

  Even though sales of Layer 2/3 <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/topics/ethernet-switch.html">Ethernet switches</a> declined 12% sequentially in the first quarter, sales of 10 Gigabit top-of-rack switches are expected to jump 51% to $1 billion this year, according to Dell'Oro Group.