Traffic Payout

A recent report by Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., directing analyst for data center and cloud, Infonetics Research, finds that "Though WAN optimization revenue increased 3% sequentially in 3Q13, to $210 million, it remains on an overall downhill course, with revenue falling 9% year-over-year this quarter. Future WAN optimization revenue will increasingly come from the replacement of existing gear

The EU's Advocate General’s Opinion says that ".. Member States are to ensure that copyright holders or holders of related rights are able to apply for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe their rights .. It is already established that internet providers can in principle be regarded as intermediaries and therefore as persons against which

Sandvine announced that it has "..received initial orders exceeding $4 million from several properties of a Tier 1 mobile service provider group that operates in most countries across Latin America .. This new customer will be deploying Sandvine’s Network Analytics product across group properties to provide actionable business intelligence about popular applications, devices and network quality

Fortinet announced that it has ".. partnered with SingTel to immediately roll out secured broadband services to enterprises across Singapore. Running on Fortinet's high performance FortiGate® network security platforms and FortiManager® and FortiAnalyzer® centralised management and reporting appliances, the SingTel Business Fibre Broadband Security Suite intercepts security threats and

A recent report by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research finds that "After several years on the back burner, the concept of the user data repository, where subscriber data is consolidated in a centralized repository, is finally taking off .. Use cases such as revenue assurance, churn management, and opex savings have long been

Sights of my home town, Tel Aviv. By Noam Armonn.

During the years I had a number of posts covering the "Bandwidth on Demand" (BoD) use-case for traffic management - either as a vendor pitch or actual deployments. BoD has several formats - increasing the bit-rate for a limited period of time (known as "Turbo Boost" or "Turbo Button") with or without "special QoS" for a certain application (video) or top-up the quota (related to usage-based

By Martin Morgan*, Director of Marketing, Openet

At the start of November this year, leading market research firm Infonetics released their survey on operators’ residential femtocell strategies. According to Infonetics, “operators are currently focused on quality of experience, leveraging femtos to deliver 5-bar voice coverage in the home and provide faster and more consistent broadband. The

Diametriq announced the ".. addition of CAMEL/WIN [Customized Applications for Mobile enhanced Logic/Wireless Intelligent Network] to its Diameter Interworking System™ ensuring pre-paid subscriber roaming between LTE and 3G networks. Diametriq along with a Tier-1 operator, have taken the lead and developed the CAMEL/WIN specification solving a critical challenge of supporting subscriber

Qwilt reported ".. new Worldwide Online Video Quality of Experience (QoE) data, compiled from analytic network performance insights from its global customer deployments. In its first annual report, the company measured the average bitrate of customer networks across North America [customers include Mediacom and Comway], South America, Europe and Asia, to determine actual viewer QoE during peak

Ulticom announced the ".. deployment of the Ulticom Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) to optimize Diameter-based charging traffic for the Tecnotree Agility™ Convergent Charging System. 

The Ulticom DSC acts as a load balancer and provides intelligent distribution for Diameter-based transactions across multiple pools of servers performing Online Charging Services (OCS) .. Tecnotree product

by guest blogger Alice Fiman

Not all of us can be crime fighters, but we can all report crime. Today, we are asking for those driving on State Route 7 near Eatonville to keep an eye out for criminals stealing or damaging a vital safety sign.

As you travel south on SR 7, just north of Ohop Valley, there is a sharp curve in the vicinity of milepost 31.5. You may notice the arrow signs light up, letting you know you are traveling too fast approaching the curve. These signs, part of a research project, are funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Washington is one of five states where FHWA is testing “blinker signs.”

The project team believes these signs can reduce single-vehicle run-off-the road crashes at curves, where nationally, 25 percent of all highway fatalities occur. Someone is damaging and stealing the solar panels that power the signs. Without power, the sign can’t perform its vital safety function.

If you see someone out there and it just doesn’t look right, call 9-1-1 and report the suspicious activity. Make this call when it’s safe for you.

Be the hero.  Don’t let them get away and hurt someone you care about. Make the call to 9-1-1 or take note and fill out an online form later. 

Thank you. 

If we’re going to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, we need more people and teams to take on "moonshots"—audacious projects that create 10x improvement, not 10 percent. Part of that involves encouraging and celebrating the audacity of the attempt. So last week we partnered with Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to run a special session of Solve for X on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to discuss and debate audacious science and technology moonshots that could transform the world.

Solve for X is a community of individuals and organizations that work together to accelerate progress on moonshots—and what better group of people to work with than those already thinking about our country’s future? As Susan Molinari, our VP of public policy and government affairs, said at the event: "Policymakers are trying to solve big, intractable problems—and so are engineers. Engineers are tackling challenges that have no answers to date, and so are our policymakers.”

The D.C. event brought together a group of exceptional technologists, entrepreneurs, polymaths-at-large, AAAS fellows, Members of Congress and their staff. Pioneers in their respective fields proposed moonshots in manufacturing, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, and access to natural resources:

• Neil Gershenfeld and Nadya Peek from the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms proposed setting up FabLabs to bring manufacturing back to America—and in a way appropriate to the 21st century
• Theresa Condor from NanoSatisfi proposed an inexpensive way to give all students direct access to personal satellites to conduct their own science experiments and to transform adoption of STEM
• Chris Lewicki from Planetary Resources proposed mining asteroids for natural resources

Following the moonshot proposals, we broke into small groups to brainstorm resources, technology and people that could help make the ideas better and happen faster. At Solve for X, brainstorming means two-thirds "yes and"—creating stepping stones to build on an idea—and one-third "yes but—providing critical feedback on blind spots or suggesting alternate implementations.


Solve for X co-creators Astro Teller and Megan Smith closed out the event reminding us that moonshots can come from anywhere—people of all ages and places, companies, academia, government, inspired experts, enthusiastic newcomers, even accidental discoveries. So join our 160 moonshot pioneers by submitting your own moonshot video, and contribute to our conversations on Google+ and Twitter—we'd love to hear from you.

Posted by Puneet Ahira, Moonshot Evangelist and Project Lead, Solve for X

 A new guest post will be published on Monday - "Femtocells, LTE and the Move to Personalization – The Evolution of Policy" by my 31st guest, Martin Morgan.
 

"LTE is changing the speed at which operators do business. Increases in sophistication in customer behavior are radically changing how operators develop and market their services" says Martin.Stay tuned!

Amdocs announced "Amdocs PCC Ecosystem partner program - This expansion of Amdocs' Enreach partner program will address service providers' lack of integration in the network control domain by bringing together policy, charging, inline monetization, deep packet inspection (DPI), optimization and analytics vendor specialists. The program's goal is to create the industry's broadest ecosystem of

cVidya launched a "powerful Marketing Analytics solution that will enable mobile operators to maximize revenue from existing services, improve customer acquisition and retention, and break into new markets. 

Able to analyze customer information from multiple sources, Enrich™ offers a 360° view of cross-business key performance indicators, as well as packages of pre-modeled customer data

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and if you’re like us, you still have loads of stuff to buy on your expanding holiday gift list. If you can’t imagine braving the crowds to get everything picked and purchased, don’t worry: our elves have made some improvements to Google Shopping in time for the holidays.

Find the hottest toys and get inspired with our holiday shortlists
We’ve curated holiday shortlists for top gift categories including Hot Toys, Electronics, Google & Android Gadgets, Gifts for the Home, Gifts for Her and Gifts for Him. For those of you looking for something to delight the kids in your life, here are some of the top trending toy searches on Google Shopping this month:

• Rainbow Loom
• Minecraft Legos
• Monster High Sets
• Doc McStuffins Playsets
• Nerf Rebelle Heartbreaker Bow Blaster

And for those of us wanting to relive our childhoods, we’re also seeing many nostalgic toys making a comeback this year:

• My Little Pony
• Barbie Dreamhouse
• Furby
• Ninja Turtles
• Easy-Bake Oven

Browse more quickly and easily
A new shopping experience on desktop, tablet and mobile makes it easier than ever to browse and hone in on items you want to buy, whether it’s a camera, a ski jacket or an ice cream maker. Click on a product to preview details like sizes, colors and description, and find out if it’s available at a nearby local store. If you see an item that’s almost perfect but not quite, click to view “visually similar” items.

Make your shortlist and check it twice
Shortlists help you keep track of products that catch your eye, compare them at a glance, and share ideas with friends and family. Your shortlist now also stays with you at the top of each page while you browse Google Shopping, so you can keep track of items as you go.

Check out the product from all angles
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what an item actually looks like from the online picture. Now, for many items on Google Shopping, you can see a 360° view of the products. These interactive images bring you the in-store feeling of holding and touching a product.
Once you’ve got something for everyone on your shopping list, we encourage you to buy something for yourself. You’ve earned it.

Posted by Karen Corby, Senior Product Manager, Google Shopping

Ulticom announced an "OEM agreement with a major Chinese Telecom Equipment Manufacturer (TEM) to supply Ulticom’s DSC product as an integral component of their Evolved Packet Core (EPC) product line".

Jamie McArdle [pictured], VP Sales, Ulticom may have given us a hint: "A leading global provider of telecom equipment and network solutions has selected the Ulticom DSC Initial deployments of our

You don’t need to be besties with a Wizard to share an adventure in Middle-earth—just point your favorite browser to goo.gl/TheHobbit on your laptop, phone or tablet to check out “Journey through Middle-earth,” the latest Chrome Experiment.

Inspired by the upcoming motion picture "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Journey through Middle-earth” brings the locations and characters from the movie trilogy to life with a mix of modern web technologies. It was developed by North Kingdom in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.

Your adventure starts on a beautiful, interactive map of Middle-earth. Zoom in to explore Trollshaw Forest, Rivendell and Dol Guldur (with more locations to come in the next few weeks). Click on each one to learn its history and meet the characters who inhabit it, or dive further to test your wits on a unique survival challenge.

The immersive 3D graphics in “Journey through Middle-earth” were built with CSS3 and WebGL, which you might recognize from previous Chrome Experiments. But “Journey through Middle-earth” is the first Chrome Experiment designed to bring this beautiful, 3D experience to mobile, thanks to support for WebGL in Chrome for Android on devices with high-end graphics cards.

The rich audio effects and sound manipulation are delivered through the Web Audio API, which is now supported on both Chrome for Android and Chrome for iPhone and iPad. Although WebGL isn’t supported on iOS, Chrome users can still experience most of “Journey through Middle-earth” on their iPhones and iPads. We can’t wait to see what sort of rich experiences developers will build as modern web technologies become available on more types of devices.

Circle +Google Chrome to stay updated as more Middle-earth locations get released in the coming weeks. You can also check out the Chromium Blog and read the team’s technical case study if you feel like geeking out a bit more.

Adventure is a click away. Just watch out for the trolls!

Posted by Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Product Marketing Manager & Part-time Dragon-slayer

Astellia announced a "new contract with Canadian mobile network operator Eastlink. Astellia will implement its unified network performance management system. By integrating both RAN and Core data into customized dashboards for network planning, maintenance, and radio optimization, Astellia is able to provide 360° network visibility. This will enable Eastlink to further optimize their network and

VSS Monitoring launched the "Big Data Visibility solution ..  built on two new advances in the vMesh Architecture: vSpool™ and vNetConnect™:



VSS' VSpool

The vSpool hardware module for VSS Monitoring’s vBroker™ chassis enables network data to be captured directly from the network infrastructure, and delivered to and analyzed synchronously or asynchronously by any network analytics, forensics

RADCOM announced that it "received new orders amounting to 3.6 million dollars with a tier 1 operator in Asia. This is an expansion of an existing deployment with this operator. RADCOM’s Customer Experience solution enables this service provider to provide its customers with extremely high quality service on their mobile devices .. With these new orders, RADCOM will provide this customer with

Ruckus Wireless announced "launch of Ruckus SmartCell™ Insight, the first carrier-class Wi-Fi analytics platform capable of archiving years of historical operational data that can be generated by up to hundreds of thousands of Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi access points and millions of client Wi-Fi sessions on mobile network operator (MNO) and large enterprise Wi-Fi networks .. Available starting in Q1

Not quite four score and seven years ago, I was an elementary school student, staring at a classroom map, gripped by the (mistaken) deduction that since Los Angeles was in the southern half of the country, Civil War battles must have clattered on the ground outside my home. While a teacher eventually helped me understand that California wasn’t in the Confederacy, the moment led me to understand the weight of history and that it has shaped the world into what it is today.

Today, on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, we’re helping make the past come a little bit more alive. Three new exhibits now available on the Google Cultural Institute focus on President Lincoln and the 272 words that shaped a nation’s understanding of its identity. Thanks to our friends at the White House, the Lincoln Library, Cornell University, Dickinson College and the Library of Congress, you can browse high-resolution digital versions of all five Lincoln-handwritten copies of the address. You can also:

• Learn why there are five different versions, and explore how they differ
• See the copy that hangs in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom
• Enjoy multimedia exhibits written by Lincoln experts for interpretation of and context around the speech
• Read the 272-word reflections of our contemporaries like former President Jimmy Carter, former chairman of the NAACP Julian Bond, and our very own Eric Schmidt on the legacy of Lincoln and his address

You can also contribute your own version of the Gettysburg Address to Learn the Address, a project by documentarian Ken Burns, who has also been reaching schoolchildren across the U.S. with Google+ Connected Classrooms.

Most of us will never stand in the Lincoln Bedroom and see the handwritten draft exhibited there. But now anyone with access to an Internet connection can explore all these artifacts from this defining moment in history—perhaps a bit more accurately than when I gazed at that map.

Posted by Amrit Dhir, Partner Development Manager

Today marks the start of Google Code-in, a global online contest for pre-university students (13-17 years old) interested in learning more about open source software. Participating students have an opportunity to work on real world software projects and earn cool prizes for their effort.

For the next seven weeks students from around the world will be able to choose from an extensive list of tasks created by 10 open source projects. Some tasks require coding in a variety of programming languages, creating documentation, doing marketing outreach or working on user interfaces.

Participants earn points for each task they successfully complete to win T-shirts and certificates. At the end of the contest, 20 students will be selected as grand prize winners and flown to Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters. Winners will receive a trip to San Francisco, a tour of the Googleplex and a chance to meet with Google engineers.

More than 1,200 students from 71 countries and 730 schools have participated in Google Code-in over the past three years. Last year, our 20 grand prize winners came from 12 countries on five continents!

We hope this year’s participants will enjoy learning about open source development while building their technical skills and making an impact on these organizations. Please review our program site for contest rules, frequently asked questions and to get started.

Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs

   
Procera Networks announced that their "Network Application Visibility Library (NAVL) has been selected by NTT DATA Corporation for development of a network traffic analytics product. 

NTT DATA’s solution will provide enterprises with data forensics, network security, network monitoring, traffic analysis and Big Data processing. NTT DATA will be leveraging NAVL as the DPI engine of choice,

Martyn Hudson explains in Plusnet's blog how the UK ISP deals with major events generating spikes in bandwidth demand for several hours "Red Bull Stratos" (8M people watching live) or two weeks during the London 2012 Olympics games [see "Sandvine and Procera Analyze the Olympics Games" - here].


The games "saw Internet usage skyrocket – no more so than from business users. As we can see from the

Adax Packet Processing

 board


Adax announced "..a new partnership with communications and networking specialist Agata Solutions. Agata have integrated their high-performance Packet Processing Software with the Adax Pkt2-PCIe, an intelligent Cavium-based Packet Processing Controller to produce the Agata DPI Probe product. 


The Agata DPI probe and Packet Processing software is available

Stacey Higginbotham ("Over 60% of US Broadband Subscribers have Data Caps" - here)  [pictured] explains that "We’re not fans of ISPs capping broadband here at Gigaom, so we’re keeping a close eye on how those caps evolve and who they affect. Check out our updated list on who’s capping your broadband .. In most cases, the companies implementing caps maintain that 99 or 98 percent of their users

Ericsson latest Mobility Report reveals ".. that mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 9.3 billion by 2019, and more than 60 percent of these - 5.6 billion - will be for smartphones. To support the smartphone user experience, WCDMA/HSPA networks are predicted to cover 90 percent of the world's population by 2019. Moreover, almost two-thirds (65 percent) of the world's population will be

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) ".. intends to expand upon its network forensics expertise to include new deep packet inspection capacity that will be able to capture and retain metadata. The agency is currently seeking tenders for an appliance that can accept a stream of TCP/IP traffic or potentially previously captured packets in PCAP format. The request for tender does not specify

Paolo Bertoluzzo [pictured], Vodafone's Group Chief Commercial and Operations Officer, highlighted "Vodafone differentiation" during Vodafone's 2013 H1 presentation (here).

The first differentiation factor seems to be Vodafone's RED - its "worry free" mobile plan [see "Vodafone to Offer Multi-Device and Family Plans (End of 2013)" -here] that includes shared family and device billing. The

Avvasi announced the ".. release of Xperium Maps, a radio network QoE visualization tool .. Xperium Maps offers unprecedented capabilities, allowing mobile network providers to visualize in real-time and historically the evolution of video QoE at the Radio Access Network (RAN) level. 

Mobile service providers, when confronted with the growth of mobile video in their networks, are often at a

You’d think the thrill might wear off this whole renewable energy investing thing after a while. Nope—we’re still as into it as ever, which is why we’re so pleased to announce our 14th investment: We’re partnering with global investment firm KKR to invest in six utility-scale solar facilities in California and Arizona. Developed by leading solar developer Recurrent Energy, the projects have a combined capacity of 106MW and will generate enough electricity to power over 17,000 U.S. homes. Google will make an approximately $80 million investment into these facilities.

This investment is similar to one we made back in 2011, when we teamed up with KKR and invested $94 million in four solar facilities developed by Recurrent. Those facilities have since started generating electricity, and we’ve committed hundreds of millions more—more than $1 billion in total—to renewable energy projects around the world.

These investments are all part of our drive toward a clean energy future—where renewable energy is abundant, accessible and affordable. By continuing to invest in renewable energy projects, purchasing clean energy for our operations and working with our utility partners to create new options for ourselves and for other companies interest in buying renewable energy, we’re working hard to make that future a reality.

Posted by Kojo Ako-Asare, Head of Corporate Finance

The Broadband Traffic Congress 2013 awards, shown with relevant links to recent posts in my blog (see 2012 awards here):

Best Use of Traffic Management for Improving Customer Experience: Oracle’s Tekelec Policy Solution - Telefonica and Oracle Expand PCRF to Fixed Broadband"   

Best Content Optimisation Tool for Managing Video Traffic on Mobile Networks: Avvasi Q-SRV - Avvasi Launches Video

In a year in which government surveillance has dominated the headlines, today we’re updating our Transparency Report for the eighth time. Since we began sharing these figures with you in 2010, requests from governments for user information have increased by more than 100 percent. This comes as usage of our services continues to grow, but also as more governments have made requests than ever before. And these numbers only include the requests we’re allowed to publish.

Over the past three years, we’ve continued to add more details to the report, and we’re doing so again today. We’re including additional information about legal process for U.S. criminal requests: breaking out emergency disclosures, wiretap orders, pen register orders and other court orders.

We want to go even further. We believe it’s your right to know what kinds of requests and how many each government is making of us and other companies. However, the U.S. Department of Justice contends that U.S. law does not allow us to share information about some national security requests that we might receive. Specifically, the U.S. government argues that we cannot share information about the requests we receive (if any) under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But you deserve to know.

Earlier this year, we brought a federal case to assert that we do indeed have the right to shine more light on the FISA process. In addition, we recently wrote a letter of support (PDF) for two pieces of legislation currently proposed in the U.S. Congress. And we’re asking governments around the world to uphold international legal agreements that respect the laws of different countries and guarantee standards for due process are met.

Our promise to you is to continue to make this report robust, to defend your information from overly broad government requests, and to push for greater transparency around the world.

Posted by Richard Salgado, Legal Director, Law Enforcement and Information Security

Ericsson announced that "KT has entered into an agreement with Ericsson to launch a mobile content acceleration [MCA] service in its live LTE network. This will be the world's first commercial deployment of its kind, and it builds on technology provided by Ericsson.

According to Ericsson's MCA product page - "The Ericsson Mobile Cloud Accelerator comes pre-integrated with the global Content

Venice was once described as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man,” and from these pictures it’s hard to disagree. You can now explore panoramic imagery of one of the most romantic spots in the world, captured with our Street View Trekker technology.

It was impossible for us to collect images of Venice with a Street View car or trike—blame the picturesque canals and narrow cobbled walkways—but our team of backpackers took to the streets to give Google Maps a truly Shakespearean backdrop. And not just the streets—we also loaded the Trekker onto a boat and floated by the famous gondolas to give you the best experience of Venice short of being there.

We covered a lot of ground—about 265 miles on foot and 114 miles by boat—capturing not only iconic landmarks but several hidden gems, such as the Synagogue of the first Jewish Ghetto, the Devil’s Bridge in Torcello island, a mask to scare the same Devil off the church of Santa Maria Formosa and the place where the typographer Manutius created the Italics font. Unfortunately, Street View can’t serve you a cicchetto (local appetizer) in a classic bacaro (a typical Venetian bar), though we can show you how to get there.

Once you’ve explored the city streets of today, you can immerse yourself in the beauty of Venice’s past by diving deep in to the artworks of the Museo Correr, which has joined the Google Cultural Institute along with Museo del Vetro and Ca’ Pesaro - International Gallery of Modern Art.

Finally, take a look behind the scenes showing how we captured our Street View imagery in Venice.

The Floating City is steeped in culture; it’s easy to see why it’s retained a unique fascination and romance for artists, filmmakers, musicians, playwrights and pilgrims through the centuries—and now, we hope, for Street View tourists too.

Posted by Daniele Rizzetto, Street View Operations Manager (and proud Venetian!)

By guest blogger Alice Fiman

AIRS system displays the results of each vehicle's scan.

As one of the most trade-dependent states in the nation, Washington has many big trucks traveling its highways.

In early November, the Roadway Safety Foundation and the Federal Highway Administration honored our agency along with the Washington State Patrol for our joint project developing a new way to get big trucks with unsafe brakes off the road.

It was close to three years ago when our Commercial Vehicle Services and Statewide Transportation and Collision Data Office joined forces with WSP to develop the automated infrared roadside screening (AIRS).

AIRS was first deployed at the northbound Interstate 5 DuPont weigh station.  Based on this success, we are scheduled to install the system at all 11 of Washington’s interstate weigh stations and ports of entry. 



WSDOT project team: Left to right: Ken Lakey STCDO, Vic Bagnell CVS, Rich Rackleff STCDO, and Nghia  Chau, STCDO

 AIRS starts when an infrared camera, buried in the center of the off-ramp lane, scans and analyzes the undercarriage of a vehicle entering a weigh station. A WSP Commercial Vehicle Officer can then see a display of each vehicle’s scan. Hot or warm brakes show up a reddish color, with colder brakes in blue. Good working brakes show signs of heat so, in this case, red is good. WSP’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement staff use the information to determine if the vehicle needs closer inspection.

During software testing, WSP took a total of 12 trucks out of service over a two-day period. One of those trucks was leaking brake fluid, another had brake drums that were full of rust, one had a flat tire and still another had a brake air can coming off. 

Why an emphasis on the big trucks? Well, first, because these trucks can be pretty big, there can be more damage and longer traffic delays during a collision. Plus, we have a joint operating agreement with WSP and we often work together in many ways. It’s all about keeping drivers safe and traffic moving.

Specifically in the area of weigh stations, WSP operates all Washington’s weigh stations and ports of entry, while we provide the technical support, such as the computer systems AIRS.

When veterans return home, a college degree is often a great next step for a successful transition to civilian life. But college can be a tough place for veterans, especially when they’re juggling classes with personal, family and financial pressures. Unfortunately there’s very little data about what can help veterans thrive in school. We want to change that.

Today, we’re granting a $3.2 million Global Impact Award to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, Student Veterans of America, the Posse Foundation and Veterans of Foreign Wars to support data analysis of U.S. veterans’ higher education. The study will be made public and answer critical questions:

• Which colleges are most successful at supporting veterans through to graduation day?
• What on-campus programs have the biggest impact?
• How do veterans’ education majors stack up against employment opportunities?

Based on the report, we’ll fund the expansion of the veterans’ programs found to be most effective—whether it’s on-campus child care, access to dedicated mental health services or physical gathering spaces—and will also provide Googler support to make this project a reality.

This award builds on our work to train and mentor student veterans through the Google Veterans Network. We’re proud to serve those who’ve served.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google Giving

   


Showing Prime Time data. Source: Netflix

Netflix (31.6% of US fixed traffic - here) has improved its "ISP Performance" reports [see "Netflix - New Site Shows ISP Performance for US, UK, Scandinavia and more" - here], by isolating the prime time statistics - "so you know which Internet service providers (ISPs) deliver the best Netflix experience when it matters most".

Joris Evers,

Infonetics Research provided some additional information from its recent DPI report (see previous post - here). 


Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, forecasts that "spending on standalone DPI solutions to grow 30% year-over-year in 2013, driven largely by the mobile segment.



The concept of “DPI inside” is gaining traction as manufacturers

You're probably used to downloading email attachments, but each of those files takes time to download, eats up space on your device, and can get buried deep inside your "Downloads" folder. With today's update to Gmail, you can skip that whole process. Instead, you can view attachments and save files directly to Google Drive without ever leaving Gmail, making it easy to access them later from whatever device you’re on—computer, phone or tablet.

The next time you open an email with attachments, you’ll see new previews of the files at the bottom of the email, from photos and videos to spreadsheets and PDFs.

When you click on one of those previews, a full-screen view of the image or document will appear. You can read, search for a particular phrase, and even browse through multiple attachments right in Gmail.
You can now also save your attachments directly to Drive simply by clicking the Drive button that appears when you hover over the preview. Of course, if you prefer to download the attachment to your computer, you can—just click the arrow button.
This new attachment experience is available on desktop and will be rolling out over the next week. If you’re one of the more than 120 million active Drive users, you know that saving your files to Drive lets you get to them from any computer, phone or tablet. And if you aren’t taking advantage of Drive just yet, give it a try with your next Gmail attachment.

Posted by Scott Johnston, Director of Product Management

(Cross-posted on the Gmail Blog and Google Drive Blog)

Allot Service Gateway

Allot Communications announced it has ".. received a three million dollar order from a Tier One operator in APAC for the Allot Service Gateway .. The APAC operator will utilize the policy enforcement capabilities to implement charging plans that will provide notification and redirection when the subscriber is reaching close to his data volume quota [see chart below],

Sandvine's recent Internet traffic trends report, (based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus service provider customers) finds that “For the first time ever, peer-to-peer filesharing has fallen below 10% of total traffic in North America, which is a stark difference from the 60% share it consumed 11 years ago ..Netflix (31.6%) holds its ground as the leading downstream application in

Over the past year, more and more Googlers have had the chance to meet service members and hear their stories through the Google Veterans Network—our employee resource group. These interactions have led to a greater understanding of the challenges the veteran community faces and have inspired many teams across Google to find additional ways for our technology to help.

This Veterans Day, on behalf of the Google Veterans Network and all Googlers, we’re proud to share some of the new ways we’re working with partners to support the military veteran community.

• Helpouts by Google allows anyone to give and receive help over live video, and we think it can be an effective platform for nonprofit and veteran service organizations to connect with veterans and their families. Helpouts for veterans are already available, ranging from guidance for veteran education benefits to entrepreneurship/business planning. Because Helpouts is HIPAA-compliant, providers such as Give an Hour can provide secure and confidential mental health care sessions online—particularly useful for those veterans who are physically unable to travel from their homes.
• Tour Builder is a storytelling tool in beta that enables anyone to record memories of their travels in Google Earth. Tour Builder was inspired by the accomplishments of military service members around the globe. We hope it will give veterans an easy way to share their journeys with loved ones at home and to preserve the legacy of their service for generations to come.
• 13.5 percent of the nation's businesses are run by veterans, employing a collective 8.2 million people. In recognition of the contributions veterans make to the economy, the Google Enterprise blog and Google+ page will share stories throughout the week from veteran-owned business and service organizations that achieved success with the help of Google Apps—like RuckPack Combat Nutrition:

Our professional development programs that pair Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with Google mentors continue to grow. This past summer, we hosted resume writing workshops for 350+ student veterans in 12 Google offices in partnership with Student Veterans of America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Last week, working collaboratively with the Bob Woodruff Foundation, we welcomed more than 100 injured post-9/11 veterans and their loved ones to Google NYC for a tech immersion and mentoring day. Finally, VetNet, the Google+ career services platform we launched last year with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families and Hire Heroes USA, has helped thousands of veterans prepare for civilian careers.

Follow us at google.com/+GoogleForVeterans to let us know how else we can help and to stay up to date on our activities througout the year. Happy Veterans Day!

Posted by Carrie Laureno, Audience Evangelist & Founder, Google Veterans Network

According to a report in BillingViews, and as can be seen here, "Volubill is actually in the hands of a French receiver appointed on October 29 in a process known as ‘liquidation judiciaire’ (judicial or compulsory liquidation in English). The company appears to have been traveling OK up until 2010 as previously reported but turnover reduced to €11.35m and €10.75m in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

 
Procera Networks continues to expand its partnerships with optimization vendors [see "Procera Partners with Skyfire: Detects and Steers Video Traffic for Optimization" - here], and announces a "a joint solution and strategic partnership that integrates Avvasi’s industry-leading Q-VUE product [see "Avvasi Launches Video Analytics Service Gateway - w/Location (RAN), Device and Subscriber

Are we about to see stronger Net Neutrality in the US?




Marvin Ammori [pictured], a Future Tense Fellow at the New America Foundation and a lawyer who represents technology companies on internet policy issues, thinks not.

"Net neutrality is a dead man walking. The execution date isn’t set, but it could be days, or months (at best). And since net neutrality is the principle forbidding huge

NetCracker announced that "Gartner Inc., the world-leading information technology research and advisory firm, has positioned NetCracker as a “Leader” in its October 2013 Magic Quadrant for Operations Support Systems .. 

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Operations Support Systems “rates vendors that sell end-to-end solutions for service assurance and fulfillment, including network resource

Stacey Higginbotham [pictured] writes to GigaOm about the recent developments in usage-based billing policies in the US broadband market:

"Comcast is expanding its usage-based broadband trials. Given the larger roll out, it looks like a 300 GB cap plus a $10 overage fee that gets you 50 more GB is the winner .. which translates roughly into 40 cents per hour of HD television streamed via the

Alcatel-Lucent and TDS Telecommunications [see "DPI Deployments: TDS Uses Sandvine" - here] announced that ".. Kindsight security technology is powering TDS’ Hacker Alert service. The Kindsight Broadband Security solution enables TDS to continuously analyze Internet traffic for threats, inform subscribers and provide directions on how to remove ‘malware’ or other infections on a device. TDS

Ericsson announced that "Telstra has selected the Ericsson Diameter Signaling Controller to expand its wireless network and meet the rapid growth in mobile broadband usage .. Ericsson Diameter Signaling Controller is implemented on Ericsson Blade System, a scalable, high-capacity platform that is involved in some 40 percent of the world's total voice and data traffic. It can be deployed as a

Crews are building a brand-new, wider SR 6 Willapa River Bridge next to the existing, 84-year-old bridge.

By guest blogger Abbi Russell

1929 was a heavy year. It was the year Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as President, the year that saw a catastrophic stock market crash and the first inklings of the Great Depression. It was the first year of the Academy Awards. 7-Up was invented that year, as well as the first car radio.

We can thank 1929 for bringing us Anne Frank, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Grace Kelly, Bob Newhart, Audrey Hepburn and Arnold Palmer (the golfer, not the confused beverage).

One other less glamorous but interesting fact about 1929: It was the year we opened a brand-new bridge carrying State Route 6 over the Willapa River.

The steel truss bridge, located near Menlo in Pacific County, was built using the most advanced engineering and materials of the day. But now, 84 years later, it’s time to say goodbye to early twentieth century construction and hello to the future.

We are replacing the Willapa River Bridge with a wider, more modern structure designed for today’s traffic and structural standards.  Next week, our contractor hits a major milestone as crews set 12 girders to span 275 feet across the Willapa River. Once the girders are set, crews will start deck construction with the aim of finishing and opening the new bridge to traffic in fall 2014.

The new bridge won’t have a graceful superstructure arching overhead; it will be a relatively plain structure with two 12-foot lanes of smooth, grey concrete. But it will carry two log trucks side-by-side, something the narrow 1929 structure struggles with. It will be built to survive earthquakes and floods, something we can’t guarantee with the 84-year-old bridge. And, with good care, it will last at least 50 years.

That’s where the old bridge is an overachiever – it has served drivers for 84 years, even though it wasn’t intended to. The new structure could last that long, and who knows? In another 84 years, maybe another young writer will marvel at the passage of time and the strength of those old and faithful structures.

Each year, Drowsy Driving Prevention Week (DDPW, Nov. 3-10, 2013) focuses national attention on the significant threat posed by motorists who get behind the wheel while extremely tired. As we’ve discussed previously on this blog, our research shows that roughly one-in-six fatal crashes involves a drowsy driver. And, according to new survey data released this week from our latest Traffic Safety Culture Index, just about everybody thinks it’s unacceptable to drive when you’re having a tough time keeping your eyes open, but a substantial number of people do so anyway.

  
PeerApp announced it has been "..selected by Mediatti Broadband Communications to provide its UltraBand transparent caching platform. UltraBand enables Mediatti to deliver Internet video and data content with dramatically improved quality".

This is PeerApp's 2nd cable operator customer serving US military bases in Japan (see "Americable [Japan] Saves 33% Bandwidth with PeerApp" - here).



"

   
In its SEC filing for Q3, 2013 (here) Procera Networks states the following (see also "Procera: "We have 16 direct trials with Tier 1 global service providers" - here):



For the three months ended September 30, 2013, revenue from two customers represented 33% and 11% of net revenue, respectively, with no other single customer accounting for more than 10% of net revenue [Shaw Communications

   
Amdocs continues to expand its offering in the network optimization space - much close to the IP data plane compared to its legacy products.

The BSS/OSS vendor announced ".. it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Celcite Management Solutions LLC [see "Celcite Updates SON with Responsibility Metrics and Accelerated Load Balancing" - here]  for

 
Procera Networks announced record-high revenues for Q3 ($21.3M, +33 Y/Y) bring it closer to Sandvine ($27.2M) and Allot Communications ($24.1M). The company also announced a new fixed Tier1 order (here) with parental control capabilities, and the selection of its DPI engine software, NAVL, by "4 leading technology companies for inclusion in their products" (here).




The 3 vendors total

Citrix Bytemobile published its "Mobile Analytics Report, November 2013" (here) that "provides insight into subscriber behavior and related factors that affect subscribers’ quality of experience (QoE) with mobile data services".

Main findings:


Three applications - Media Player, Browser and Google Play - generate 83% of mobile data volume associated with Android devices, with Media Player

What if getting help for a computer glitch, a leaky pipe, or a homework problem was as easy as clicking a button? What if you could connect via real-time video to a music teacher or a yoga instructor from the comfort of your home? What if you could get someone knowledgeable to get you “unstuck” when you really need it?

Today, we’re announcing Helpouts—a new way to get and give help over live video. Our goal is simple: help people help each other. We want to use the convenience and efficiency of the web to enable everyone, no matter where they are or what time it is, to easily connect with someone who can help.

Help might be a quick answer to a problem you’re having right now, like how to fix your garage door, or how to remove a computer virus; or it might be guidance completing a project, like building a deck. It might be learning a new skill, like how to speak conversational French or how to draw cartoons; or it might be general advice on how to improve your fitness or your writing (I could use this right now).

With Helpouts, you can choose who you get help from based on their qualifications, their availability, their price, their ratings and reviews. You can connect instantly or book in advance. You can get help from individuals or from brands you already know and trust, like Sephora, One Medical, Weight Watchers, Redbeacon (a Home Depot company), and Rosetta Stone. Once you’re in a Helpout, you can do more than just talk—you can share your computer screen, collaboratively edit a presentation, or record your Helpout. And if the experience doesn’t meet your expectations, we offer a full money back guarantee.

Today is just the beginning. We’re starting small and in a few categories. The number of people giving help on Helpouts and the type of help available will grow over time. Helpouts may not be suitable for every occasion, and it will take time to get used to interactions via real time video. We hope that the efficiency, convenience and global reach of Helpouts will make people’s lives easier in the long term.

We hope you’ll give Helpouts a try and give us your feedback through ratings and reviews, or talk to us on Google+, Twitter or Facebook. And if you’re interested in giving help on Helpouts yourself, let us know.

It’s time to make getting good help a whole lot easier.

Posted by Udi Manber, VP Engineering

We all remember the days when we’d arrive at school, permission slips and bag lunches in tow, ready to venture forth on a field trip. Those were the days we waited for all year. Yet most field trips cost money, require lots of planning, and can only go as far as a school bus can take you.

If you’re a K-12 teacher, head over to the Connected Classrooms site and learn how your classroom can participate.

Posted by Lisa Jiang, Google+ Education Partnerships Lead

A survey made WildPackets ".. surveyed more than 100 network engineers and IT directors to determine where companies were with the state of migrating to 10G networks. Along with getting a better understanding of migration, the team also set out to get a better understanding of the challenges faced when deploying 10G, 40G and 100G networks and what network engineers needed in a network analysis

  
ADLINK announced its ".. first network processing unit (NPU) product, the ADLINK aTCA-N700 AdvancedTCA® packet processing blade, featuring dual 32 core NPUs providing parallel processing and up to 320G switching capability. .. The ADLINK aTCA-N700 is compliant to the ATCA Base Specification and the ATCA Ethernet Specification"

Features:

Two Cavium OCTEON II CN6880 processors, each with 32

  
AdaptiveMobile announced the "..launch of Tethra™, a Hadoop-based “Big-Security” threat analytics platform designed to defend service provider networks. Tethra provides powerful real-time continuous monitoring of threats, evaluating the billions of events occurring every day within the typical mobile and fixed line service provider. Unlike traditional approaches to network security, which

The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, voted in favor (17:0) of a new Net Neutrality law. This is the first of 3 votes needed for the law to be approved (here, Hebrew).

The new law (a previous one referred to wireless services only - here) prohibits all licensed ISPs to limit or block any service or application provided over the internet netwrok and limit or block the customer's ability to use