Traffic Payout

Comverse announced that "Play (P4) has selected the Comverse ONE Converged Billing & Active Customer Management solution to support expansion of services and functionalities for its advanced 4G/LTE network serving a rapidly growing subscriber base.

.. Upgrading to the new Comverse ONE product line addresses specific key Play requirements, such as: LTE Enablement ..  Virtualization and:

A new study by Grand View Research concludes that "The global Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) market is expected to reach USD 4,711.3 million by 2020 ..  In terms of product, standalone DPI dominated the global market and accounted for over 75% of the overall demand in 2013; mainly owing to features such as fair use, caching, video optimization and traffic offered by standalone DPI products"

In its Q1 2014 "State of the Internet" report (here), Akamai Technologies examines the Internet's 4K video readiness:



"Given the growing interest in the streaming delivery of 4K (“Ultra HD”) video, we thought it would be interesting to begin tracking a “4K readiness” metric in the State of the Internet Report. 




With 4K adaptive bitrate streams generally requiring between 10 – 20 Mbps of

With more than 1.2 billion searches and counting, World Cup fever continues in Brazil and around the world. This week, we’re taking a special look at the top search trends from throughout the tournament so far. Keep up with all of our insights from search at our World Cup hub.

We know Cristiano Ronaldo can strut his stuff on the football pitch—and in the occasional Armani ad—but he’s taking it to new heights on the search charts. Topping longtime rival Lionel Messi and rising icon Neymar, Ronaldo proves all you need to win in search is serious dribbling skills, a chiseled jawline and a unique haircut (although the reason behind his hairstyle may be pretty heartwarming … if true).

Look ma—no hands!
A World Cup is only as good as its goals—and we’ve seen a couple of doozies this time around. Robin Van Persie’s leaping header made him an overnight Internet sensation, while people were excited to see that Messi got his groove back after scoring his first World Cup goal in eight years. And if you blinked, you might have missed Clint Dempsey’s goal in the U.S.A’s 2-1 victory over Ghana. Clocking in at 32 seconds after the start of the match, Dempsey scored the fastest American goal in World Cup history. That feat, however, couldn’t save the United States as they fell victim to the latest goal in World Cup history off the head of Silvestre Varela.

A pitched battle
Do you take your fish and chips with pasta? Searchers were eager to watch England and Italy’s clash for Group D dominance (spoiler alert: both teams got the boot) while the U.S.A.’s match against Ghana took second place in search. Rounding out the top three, we’re pretty sure Guillermo Ochoa’s stellar performance and totally convincing impression of a wall was what made the Brazil vs. Mexico match a hot one.

Time to bust a move
It was a dance-off on the trends charts as Daniel Sturridge's wave won over the crowd ahead of Neymar’s funky jig. But our personal favorite has to be the Ghanaian national team’s collaborative routine after star striker Asamoah Gyan scored a goal to take the lead in their match against Germany. We just love an ensemble!

Long hair, don’t care

It’s not really about football unless you mention WAGs (“wives and girlfriends” of players). Amongst leading ladies, Colombian singer Shakira steals the search show. And after her partner, Spanish defender Gerard Pique, and his team suffered a World Cup collapse, it just might be a good thing she’s the center of attention.


Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched for the [hulk] and [super mario] and still couldn’t escape [world cup] mania.

Verizon Digital Media Services announced that "Since its acquisition of EdgeCast Networks [see "Verizon Acquires EdgeCast; Will it Serve DT and TeliaSonera?" - here] .. Verizon Digital Media Services has rapidly expanded the capacity of the Verizon EdgeCast CDN, adding more than 20 new points of presence, or POPs, in major cities around the world since January. These cities include Warsaw,

Mavenir Systems announced the "availability of its Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG). For subscribers using Wi-Fi, the ePDG provides a secure connection to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and enables seamless mobility between LTE and Wi-Fi.

Mavenir’s ePDG allows subscribers to maintain constant access to high-speed data and voice services whether they are in LTE coverage areas or

By Roger Thompson

We’re gearing up for the fourth weekend full closure of the SR 520 bridge this month. Wait. What? Another closure?

The main reason streets or highways are closed to traffic for construction is so crews can get the work done more quickly, more efficiently, and more safely with fewer disruptions to motorists. Sometimes crews can perform their work by closing just part of a road. Other times, it’s necessary to shut down a highway entirely – again, to get the work done more quickly, efficiently, and safely.

In other words, get in and get out!

Another reason is to take advantage of the longer daylight and good weather we often have in Western Washington during the summer. It’s great for backyard barbecues – but it’s also great for getting a lot of outdoor construction done. Especially when it involves pouring concrete or placing asphalt. And there’s a whole lot of that going on with the SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV Program.

During June’s four weekend closures of SR 520, crews are pouring some 2,000 cubic yards of concrete to build the roadway deck for the new West Connection Bridge on Lake Washington (it will connect the new floating bridge with the highway’s existing lanes in Seattle). Other crews, working around the clock during the four closures, are placing asphalt for the new, six-lane highway being built on SR 520 between Evergreen Point Road and I-405.

Crews use a closed SR 520 highway and a barge as work platforms to pump concrete for the roadway deck of SR 520’s new West Connection Bridge.

Another reason for having four weekend highway closures in a five-week span is the pressing nature of the SR 520 construction schedule. Urgency is driving our weekend closures for the highway’s  Eastside Transit and HOV Project. Our contractor crews are in the home stretch of completing the Eastside’s improvements, including new transit stops in the highway’s median, lidded overpasses, roundabout interchanges, direct-access ramps for buses and carpools, and a dedicated transit/carpool lane in both directions. All this work is critical to opening the improved Eastside segment of SR 520 later this summer.

A paving crew places asphalt on the highway’s new six-lane Eastside corridor.

Crews also are working to complete the West Connection Bridge in a couple of months so that other crews can move forward with the next phase of building the new floating bridge: anchoring into position and joining together the bridge’s massive concrete pontoons, building the roadway deck, then, in early 2016, connecting it to the fixed-bridge structures on either side of Lake Washington and opening the new road to traffic.

Did we need to schedule four full-weekend closures in such a short time frame? Unfortunately, yes. The fact is there is never a good time to shut down a highway. But summer, as noted earlier, is when certain highway work can best be done. With so many community festivals, sporting events and other popular weekend happenings in the greater Seattle area, the number of “available” weekends for highway closures gets whittled down pretty fast.

More SR 520 closures will be needed this summer as we proceed with all this construction. Check our SR 520 Highway Closures page for the latest in closure information.

This morning we welcomed 6,000 developers to our 7th annual Google I/O developer conference. The crowd in San Francisco was joined by millions more watching on the livestream and 597 I/O Extended events, in 90+ countries on six continents.

We’re meeting at an exciting time for Google, and for our developer community. There are now one billion of you around the world who use an Android device. One billion. We estimate that’s more than 20 billion text messages sent every day. 1.5 trillion steps taken with an Android. And more importantly, a roughly estimated 93M selfies.

Today, developers got a preview of our most ambitious Android release yet. With more than 5,000 new APIs (for non-techies, that stands for application programming interfaces) and a new, consistent design approach called material design, we’re continuing to evolve the Android platform so developers can bring to life even more beautiful, engaging mobile experiences.

But, beyond the mobile phone, many of us are increasingly surrounded by a range of screens throughout the day--at home, at work, in the car, or even on our wrist. So, we got to thinking: how do we invest more in our two popular, open platforms—Android and Chrome—to make it easier for you to easily and intuitively move from your phone, tablet, laptop to your TV, car or even your watch?

That question was answered for the I/O crowd today. Here are some highlights:

On the go: Android Wear and Android Auto
Most people check their phones more than 150 times a day. Often, it’s to read a text, look at a notification, or get some other simple piece of information. That’s a lot of time spent unlocking, swiping and entering passwords, when your hands could easily be free handling more important things.

Enter Android Wear, which extends Android, and its ecosystem of apps, to that most familiar spot for a “wearable,” your wrist. You get the information you need, quickly at a glance—just like you’re used to doing with your watch. Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions or to get stuff done. Get alerted when it's time to leave for dinner. Call a cab to take you there. See the traffic on the way. Text a friend once you're seated. It’s all right there, on your wrist, easy to see, right when you want it. Today we announced that two Android wearables, the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, are available to order today on Google Play, and the Moto 360 from Motorola will be available in the coming months. Your thumbs will thank you.

It’s one thing to be able to simply check your wrist for what you need when you’re on the go. But what about when you’re in your car? Many of us want to stay connected even while driving. Getting directions, traffic updates, finding just the right music playlist. But using our phones while at the wheel is simply unsafe.

Android Auto, which we showed to developers today, takes care of that for you. Just connect your Android phone to a car with Android Auto, and you’ll have what you need at your fingertips such as turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps, your curated playlists and radio stations through Play Music, simple-to-use voice search, and reminders from Google Now. This is accessible through your car’s controls, and more importantly, is far safer than fumbling around with your phone. You’ll start to see Android Auto in cars later this year.

In the living room: Chromecast and Android TV
So, you get out of your car, and now you’re home, after a long day, in front of the TV. Last summer, we launched Chromecast, a small, affordable device that lets you cast online video, music and anything from the web to your TV. It’s getting an update to make it even more powerful, and convenient to use, with new features like the ability to allow others to cast to your TV without needing to be on the same WiFi network, a customizable homescreen with personal photos or beautiful art, and casting exactly what is on your Android phone or tablet screen directly to the TV.

Now, in addition to Chromecast, Android TV brings all that you love about Android apps and games to your living room. Android is baked directly into your TV-watching experience, through a set-top box or as part of your TV. You can use voice search to find a live TV show, a good flick from Google Play, or a music video on YouTube. Plus, because it’s Android, you’ll be able to play your favorite Android games, reimagined for TV and with a gamepad. Android TV, which, like Chromecast, supports Google Cast technology, will ship with products from a range of consumer electronics companies later this year.
For the next billion: Android One
All these amazing multi-screen experiences are built around a smartphone and basic internet connectivity. However, there are many people—billions of people, in fact—who still don’t have access to a smartphone. We want to change that; so today we announced an important initiative called Android One.

We’re working with partners on a comprehensive solution—which includes hardware reference platforms—to address the mobile computing needs of those in emerging markets. Android One will provide smartphones that are high quality, affordable and come with reasonable data plans. Our partners will launch an initial range of sub-$100 Android One smartphones starting in India this Fall, with more countries to follow. We’ve long wondered what potential could be unleashed if people everywhere had access to the latest technology and the world's information. It's time to find out.

Design, Develop, Distribute
All in all, Android and Chrome are the platforms that make these experiences possible, but the products developers build upon them are what make it all come alive. Google I/O allows us to show them what we’re up to—whether it’s a new approach to design, new developer tools, or new ways to reach the next billion people who come online.

For all you developers out there, thanks for everything you do. We can’t wait to see what you build next.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps

An article by Josee Loudiadis [pictured], Director of Network Intelligence, Alcatel-Lucent, covers the "signaling spikes that can overwhelm available signaling capacity, undermining the customer experience and the operator’s reputation with it" and analyzes the signaling behavior of several common applications.

"There are three kinds of “signalasis”: microbursts that can be measured in

This June and throughout 2014, Google is thrilled to be celebrating Pride with the world in 35+ offices globally. With the ever increasing international focus on the LGBT community (searches for LGBT-related terms on Google have increased 41% since 2004 and started really picking up steam in March 2010) it has become even more evident that despite the marriage equality gains made in the United States, much more work needs to be done to ensure the safety and rights of the LGBT community everywhere. The challenges will continue, but so will the celebrations -- here are the top 5 ways we’re celebrating Pride Google-style.

In February, Gayglers (LGBT Googlers and Allies) marched for the fourth year in Sydney’s Mardi Gras Celebration to show our support for marriage equality.
In April, we participated in the Tokyo Rainbow Week Pride Parade.

In May, we danced through the streets of Sao Paulo.

We embellished the Google signs at our Mountain View Headquarters and the New York City office with rainbow “O’s”.

Off the heels of our Google Doodle on the opening day of the Winter Olympics, we continued to show our support of a world where every athlete can be Proud to Play through #ProudToPlay on YouTube.

We’ve got 10 more Pride celebrations after June and are looking forward to thousands of Proud Googlers walking in the San Francisco and New York Pride parades on Sunday, June 29th.


Google’s Pride is spreading: We are now the first-ever corporate sponsor and contingent in the Seoul Pride Parade, and a Gaygler contingent is marching for the first time in Mexico City. And, thanks to the valiant planning efforts of a Gaygler ally, Google will be represented at WorldPride in Toronto this year - we’ll be the ones with a double decker bus handing out Google Pride stickers, wearing Google Pride t-shirts!

1. #Pridecast on Google+ and YouTube
This year, you can enjoy Pride from anywhere - whether your town has a march or not. On June 29, The NYC Pride March will be home base for #Pridecast, a live, online Pride celebration on Google+ and YouTube. Along with NYC Pride, we’ll be streaming the best moments from the march, and bringing in well-known LGBT advocates -- like Laverne Cox of Orange is the New Black, Jonathan Groff of Glee and Frozen, activist Rea Carey, and Scandal’s Dan Bucatinsky -- in person and from around the world via Hangouts On Air.

Celebrate with us - and tune in on Google+ and YouTube at 12:30pm ET on Sunday, June 29.

These are just a few ways Google is celebrating Pride Month. We encourage everyone to continue to celebrate well beyond this month--to keep marching, to keep speaking up--until gay rights are fully recognized for what they are: basic human rights.

Happy Pride, everybody!
Posted by Randy Reyes, Gaygler and Global Diversity Team

ipoque announced its "..next generation PACE 2.0 software that identifies thousands of applications and services and provides deeper insight on application attributes such as real-time performance metrics, all from a single solution .. providing high-speed application identification in real-time together with QoE metrics on VoLTE traffic at 40Gbps speed.

Dirk Czepluch [pictured], President and

Dali Wireless unveiled ".. High Density System (HDS™) ..  HDS is the only solution on the market that can allocate coverage and capacity dynamically and simultaneously ..  based on the RF Router technology, HDS delivers the high capacity of a macro-cell, the flexible coverage of DAS with the tiny footprint of a pico-cell without traditional interference challenges .. It is technology-, vendor-,

Vasona Networks announced its "..work with Cellcom to improve mobile broadband performance. The Wisconsin-based operator has deployed both the Vasona SmartAIR™1000 edge application controller [see "[Vendor Review]: Vasona's Cell Traffic Management" - here] and SmartVISION™ analysis suite [see "Vasona Adds Cell-Level Analytics" - here] to gain real-time visibility of network congestion and

Zhilabs and Stoke have "..signed an agreement to bring to market a joint RAN analytics solution that enables mobile broadband operators to pinpoint trouble spots in 3G/LTE networks with greater speed and accuracy and take more rapid corrective action.


.. The joint solution leverages the inherent data collection capabilities of the Stoke security gateway rather than network probes, which are

Diametriq announced that "Transatel, a leading MVNE, has deployed their Diameter Interworking Solution™ in its Global MVNE network. Transatel needed their NextGen Diameter-based 4G LTE OCS to interwork with CAMEL based legacy networks. Diametriq’s Diameter Interworking System™ (DIS™) solved this problem by providing interworking between CAMEL and Diameter protocols [see "Diametriq Adds Support

The World Cup is well underway and people are searching for every match highlight and replay. Read on to learn what was trending on Google this past week.

There’s football … and then there’s everything else
The Internet is still gobbling up every last bit of the World Cup as searches for the sport reached near ravenous levels (who knew we were so starved of the beautiful game?) John Brooks, a previously obscure member of the USMNT, was on the top of the Internet’s head after using his own to score the game-winning goal against Ghana for the United States. From [england vs italy] to [brazil vs mexico] no match was left untouched, or unsearched.

But the [world cup] wasn’t the only sport that mattered this week (even though it might have seemed like it). The Stanley Cup winner LA Kings and recently crowned NBA champions San Antonio Spurs topped the charts just for one day. In more serious news, people checked in on Michael Schumacher, the Formula 1 driver who was put into a coma after a skiing accident, and mourned the loss of baseball player Tony Gwynn to cancer.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous
When he’s 72 … Paul McCartney found himself on the trending list as he celebrated his 72nd birthday in style and surrounded by music royalty. Speaking of royalty, little Prince George walked his way to the trends charts, as people were eager to find photos and videos of his first steps, making Prince William a proud papa during his first Father’s Day.

Searching my way way back to you ...
Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, the film adaptation of the acclaimed musical Jersey Boys, is hitting a theater near you this week, and searchers are looking for showtimes and reviews before they head to the theater. We’ll have to wait and see if the movie proves to be as successful as 22 Jump Street, which is still trending from last week. While films battle it out for box office supremacy, rumors are swirling that Khal Drogo (sometimes known as Jason Momoa) could be playing Aquaman in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman flick … we won’t hold our breath on that one.


Tip of the week
Have you noticed our World Cup doodles? Throughout the tournament we’re drawing them in real time to reflect amazing moments that happen on the pitch. Got an idea for a doodle? Give us a shout with #GoogleDoodles, we’re always looking for inspiration.

Posted by Jenise Araujo, who searched this week for [golazos] and ended up finding a video of an elderly gentleman [persieing], and is filling in this week for Emily, who is in Alaska searching for [herself].

In a post to Allot Communications' blog, Matan Trogan, Regional Product Manager for APAC, covers the vendor's recent APAC customer event in Phuket, Thailand.

Among the case studies presented at the event, Matan mentions that a "customer explained that video traffic from their 10M subscribers comprises 40% of downlink traffic and that video stalling and buffering have a negative impact on their

Alcatel-Lucent announced that "Bell Labs and net mobile AG (net-m) have reduced the probability of poor video streaming quality on the move with a new technology that can deliver a six-fold improvement over today’s streaming levels - without consuming any extra network capacity.

The new technology – Context-Aware Video Streaming - is based on Bell Labs’ Context-Aware Radio Access (CARA)

Miral is a hip hop dancer and choreographer who lights up stages across the country. Danielle is a cinematographer at Pixar, helping to bring beloved characters like Nemo and Merida to life. Erica is a humanitarian fighting malaria around the world.

These are all women with cool, amazing jobs. But, more important, they’re all women who use computer science, and an ability to code, to do those cool, amazing jobs. They couldn’t do what they do without having learned not just to use technology, but to build it themselves. Unfortunately, there are far too few women like them and far too few young girls following their paths. In fact, fewer than one percent of high school girls express interest in majoring in computer science.

This is an issue that hits home for me. My school-age daughter instinctively knows how to play games, watch videos and chat with friends online. She understands technology. And she likes using technology. But, she never expressed any interest in creating it herself.

So, I decided to launch a campaign at home — connecting my daughter to coding resources, increasing my encouragement and introducing her to other girls interested in computer science. It wasn’t always easy, but it’s already showing results. She recently started learning basic computer languages and using code to do projects at home.

Today, we’re attempting to solve this issue on a much larger scale. Along with Chelsea Clinton, Girls Inc., Girl Scouts of the USA, Mindy Kaling, MIT Media Lab, National Center for Women & Information Technology, SevenTeen, TechCrunch and more, Google is launching Made with Code, an initiative to inspire girls to code. The program includes:

• Cool introductory Blockly-based coding projects, like designing a bracelet 3D-printed by Shapeways, learning to create animated GIFs and building beats for a music track.

• Collaborations with organizations like Girl Scouts of the USA and Girls, Inc. to introduce Made with Code to girls in their networks, encouraging them to complete their first coding experience.

• A commitment of $50 million to support programs that can help get more females into computer science, like rewarding teachers who support girls who take CS courses on Codecademy or Khan Academy.

We’ve also posted videos about women who are using code in their dream jobs, like Miral, Danielle, Erica and other inspirational girl coders — like Brittany Wenger, who is using code to fight cancer. And, we’ve developed a few steps parents can take at home to get their daughters excited about computer science. Read more about the initiative here.

Nowadays, coding isn’t just a skill useful for working at a tech company; engineering isn’t just for engineers. Interior design. Medicine. Architecture. Music. No matter what a girl dreams of doing, learning how to code will help her get there. Their future — our future — is made with code. Let’s do what we can to make sure that future is as bright as possible.


Posted by Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube

Sandvine announced that "Smart Communications is using Sandvine’s Network Policy Control solutions to support PowerApp – the world’s first mobile Internet store – which allows users to purchase “bite-sized”, application-specific, mobile service plans to fit their particular preferences and needs. 

[see the plan's FAQ - here]

PowerApp, developed by Smart Communications’ technology partner,

Tektronix Communications announced that it has been ".. selected as the provider of monitoring & assurance solutions to optimize network performance and quality for Thailand’s market-leading operator, AIS.

.. In Phase 1 of the project, Tektronix Communications will monitor pure voice and VoIP session traffic across all parts of the core network using its Iris Session Analyzer and Iris Packet

Procera Networks announced it has ".. received a follow-on order for ContentLogic from an existing Tier 1 EMEA Mobile operator customer .. The mobile operator is leveraging the capabilities of ContentLogic to offer Parental Control services to its subscribers without deploying additional hardware in the network, saving both capital and operational costs. This capability can be activated in

Nirmal Govind, Director, Streaming Science & Algorithms, Netflix, explains how "we use big data for deep analysis and predictive algorithms to help provide the best experience for our members ..  the types of problems we're solving [I am quoting 2 of the items]

Understanding the impact of QoE on user behavior

To improve the streaming experience, we look at QoE metrics that are likely to have

A post to Zen Internet's (UK) blog states that "All ISPs manage the data running across the network – the traffic – to some extent, but some larger ISPs are more intrusive. In some cases they throttle speeds, deliberately slowing down connections when users exceed what the ISP terms acceptable use. In others, they use a technique called Deep Packet Inspection to monitor usage and throttle the

Grant Gross reports to Network World about Cisco's approach to Net Neutrality "All bits running over the Internet are not equal and should not be treated that way by broadband providers, despite net neutrality advocates' calls for traffic neutral regulations, Cisco Systems said". 






Cisco's Recent  Visual Networking Index Predictions


Jeff Campbell, VP government and community relations,

Cable ONE announced that "Google recently rated Cable ONE High Speed Internet “YouTube HD Verified” - a certification given only to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who consistently offer a connection stable enough to stream HD (720p) video without interruption or buffering .. Cable ONE offers speeds ranging from 50Mbps to 70Mbps - ideal for streaming multiple movies or videos at the same time,

All eyes were on Brazil this week, and searches were not far behind. Here’s a look at what’s trending on Google, from the football pitch to the political battlefield.

Football fever
The World Cup kicked off yesterday, and it’s safe to say that it’s on pretty much everyone’s minds. Even in the U.S., searches for the tournament beat searches for the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Playoff combined. In addition to more general searches like [world cup schedule] and [world cup 2014], people searched for information on top players like Cristiano Ronaldo—who left the field limping during a practice session this week—and Ronaldinho, who won’t be on Brazil’s squad this year but still has star power. If you want more news from Brazil, be sure to check out google.com/worldcup, where we’ll be sharing trends about every match for all 32 countries.

New cinema classics?
This week in entertainment, it seems to be all about the sequels. Harry, Lloyd and the Mutt Cutts van are back in Dumb and Dumber To, which premiered its trailer on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this week. As Harry says in the original movie, “Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!” (Well, we’ll see, at least.) Meanwhile, cop comedy 22 Jump Street debuts in theaters today and searches are spiking for the film as well as for one of its (newer) stars—actress Amber Stevens.

Surprises at the polls
Americans got a major surprise this week in Virginia when U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the primary election to the relatively unknown David Brat. People turned to the web to learn more about the upset, though searches for Cantor still dominate over those for Brat overall.

Celebrity causes… of a kind
Mila Kunis, who is pregnant with her first child, went on Jimmy Kimmel this week to make an important public service announcement to men who say “we are pregnant”: Just. don’t. do it. And Blue Ivy, the daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, has landed on the trending search list after an online petition was created urging Blue Ivy’s parents to “comb her hair.” The petition ignited a debate about natural hair and standards of beauty.

Tip of the week
If you’re in the U.S. and can’t skip work to watch soccer all day, you can still catch all the highlights from Brazil with a simple search. We've teamed up with ESPN to bring you closer to all the stunning goals, beautiful passes, iffy red cards, tense penalty kicks and much more. Try a search for [brazil world cup] or [mexico vs. cameroon] during or after a match to get video highlights from ESPNFC.com. 

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [friskies commercial 2014] and who did not give in to the temptation to write about Pretty Little Liars in this post, even though it was totAlly a trending topic.

4 Years ago I covered Ericsson's announcement on deploying its "Dynamic End-to-End Policy Control solution enabling service differentiation" solution by Telkomsel Indonesia (see "DPI/QoS Deployments (14): Telkomsel (Indonesia) Uses Ericsson for Service Differentiation and Traffic Control" - here).

Recently I heard that one of Allot's recent wins is with Telkomsel.

At the end of 2013, Telkomsel

Asaf Gilad reports to Calcalist [here, Hebrew] that "Following the acquisition of Mobixell [for $15M, see "No Longer a Rumor: Flash Networks Acquires Mobixell" - here], Flash Networks initiated a process of letting 25 of its Israeli employees go.. the employees are from both companies and all ranks .. in order to reduce redundancies. Flash Networks has 200 employees in Israel and another 100 

ItsOn announced that ".. Sprint will use the ItsOn Smart Services™ Platform to enhance Sprint’s mobile network capabilities and enable new types of mobile services. The multi-year agreement provides Sprint with the ability to design and implement granular service policy control for various data, text and voice services using ItsOn’s SaaS cloud solution.

Sprint will be integrating the ItsOn

By Anne Broache

As you may have seen on this blog before, we are all about finding ways to reduce how much waste our projects send to landfills—both to leave our environment better than we found it and to save taxpayers money.

Fully intact, the house makes its move across the street toward its new location.

But usually we’re talking about practices like reusing soil and recycling concrete during highway construction. That’s why the scene atop Renton’s Talbot Hill neighborhood on a recent Tuesday morning was a bit unusual.

At a bend in Davis Avenue South overlooking downtown Renton and Lake Washington, an entire 3,300-square-foot house rested on steel beams and sets of wheels in its original lot. Over the course of a day, a small contractor crew used a winch and pulley system to roll the two-story structure to a vacant lot across the street.

Our agency bought the home and lot last year to prepare for an important road project for the area (more on that below). Often, when we purchase property, the most cost-effective next step is to demolish and remove whatever buildings remain.

A few hours after beginning its slow move, the structure has almost reached its final resting spot.

In this case, however, we emphasized the need for recycling when seeking demolition contractors. As a result, the winning contractor found a way to reuse and relocate most of the house—at a price nearly 90 percent less than what we had budgeted.  Bottom line: The house is no longer in the way of our project, and the contractor can now finish readying the house for new residents.

We’re excited that we secured not only an affordable bid but also a green one—recycling at its best. We eliminated potential waste from tearing down the house, erased the emissions and fuel usage that would have occurred as haul trucks made numerous trips through Renton neighborhoods, and prevented the need for construction materials to build a new home on the vacant lot.

Making way for traffic improvements 

The property is one of several ongoing acquisitions related to the I-405/SR 167 Direct Connector project.

This visualization shows a planned new flyover ramp to connect the SR 167 HOT lanes with the I-405 carpool lanes.

We plan to improve traffic flow and safety by building a new flyover ramp that connects the High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on SR 167 with the carpool lanes on Interstate 405. We don’t have funding for construction yet, but we’re moving forward with property purchases and design so that we’re ready to start building once funding is in place.

If you’d like to learn more and follow our progress, be sure to bookmark the I-405/SR 167 Interchange Direct Connector Project webpage.

From the last minute U.S. goal against Algeria in ‘10 to the headbutt watched ‘round the world in ‘06, every four years the beautiful game captures the imagination of billions of people. This year, wherever you are, Google is bringing you closer to the action than ever before.

Don’t miss a minute
For the first time, a simple search for [world cup] or [world cup usa] will give you team lineups before the match, live scores, and even up to the minute information about goals and player stats.

You can also stay updated on your favorite teams with Google Now—you don’t even have to search. Learn more on Inside Search.


What does the world want to know during the tournament?
Google Trends is your real-time guide to the players, teams and moments that are capturing the world’s attention. At google.com/worldcup you can explore these moments throughout the tournament, whether it’s insight on how a country is feeling ahead of a big match, or where fans stand on a controversial game-winning call.

Take in the stadiums and streets with Street View
With Street View in Google Maps, you can explore the sights and culture of this year’s tournament, from the 12 stadiums to the iconic painted streets, one of Brazil’s tournament traditions.

As the world unites under a common love for a single sport, there's sure to be a lot of action. From dramatic tumbles to magisterial strikes, and from contested headers to flops and flags, we'll be there to help you discover and connect with the moments that matter most.

Posted by Emily Moxley, Product Manager

 
A new report by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research finds that "Much of the recent growth in the convergent charging market has been in expansion of existing deals, with operators buying license capacity and related services to support additional subscribers and new lines of business" .. The global convergent charging market

By Laura Johnson

Toll rates on the SR 520 and Tacoma Narrows bridges are going up July 1. When rates increase, often people ask, so where does all my toll money go?

Well, the majority of each dollar goes goes toward paying for construction of the new bridges in the corridor you’re traveling. For example, on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 71 cents out of every toll dollar goes to repaying construction debt. On the SR 520 bridge, it’s 82 cents out of every dollar that goes toward the $1.2 billion in toll money we need to build the new bridge set to open in spring 2016.

So what about the other 29 and 18 cents? Well, it’s split among a lot of different things. We have to pay our vendors that operate the toll collection equipment out on the highway and our customer service centers. There are credit card and bank fees associated with collecting the toll money, and costs to buy the passes we sell you. We also have folks at our Toll Division who make sure the tolling operations keep running smoothly – they get a couple pennies from each dollar.

If you want to see how everything’s broken down, check out these color coded dollar bills, which make it easier to see the percentages in relation to each other.

Where your Tacoma Narrows Bridge toll dollar goes

71 cents of every dollar goes to repaying construction debt.


Where your SR 520 toll dollar goes

The majority of your SR 520 toll dollar goes to paying for a new bridge.


We also looked at how much it costs other toll agencies around the country to collect their tolls. WSDOT’s costs (in green) are about average.


Now that you know where your toll money goes, it’s time for the details about the upcoming rate increases. On July 1, the Tacoma Narrows toll will go up 25 cents across the board for two-axle vehicles, with new rates of $4.50 for Good To Go! customers with a pass, $5.50 for drivers paying at toll booths and $6.50 for Pay By Mail customers. It’ll cost the average weekday commuter about $65 more a year.

Tolls on the SR 520 bridge will go up approximately 2.5 percent on July 1. The peak weekday Good To Go! pass rate will be $3.80 and the peak weekday Pay By Mail rate will be $5.40. The average weekday commuter will pay about $52 more a year.

Again, these rate increases have to happen so that we can pay back the bonds we sold to finance the building of the bridges.

The way it’s set up for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is that there are escalating debt payments, so the toll rates have to increase to keep up.


For the SR 520 Bridge, the Transportation Commission planned to have four 2.5-percent increases over four years (2012-2015), and then a 15-percent increase in 2016. During the initial rate setting process, they chose the 15-percent increase in 2016 after the new bridge is open to drivers. No rate increases are planned after 2016 for financing purposes; however, the commission will monitor traffic and revenue data to ensure we pay back our bondholders.

Here today, gone tomorrow. The transient nature of street art means it can be at risk of being scrubbed out and lost forever to its legions of fans. But long after the paint has faded from the walls, technology can help preserve street art, so people can discover it wherever and whenever they like. In a new project launching today, we’ve partnered with street art experts to bring you 5,000+ images and around 100 exhibitions in the Google Art Project—telling a story of street art around the world.

Starting today, you can immerse yourself in a world of prowling foxes on lonely walls, supernatural symbolism, murals on a grand scale, tiny hard-to-spot icons, or trompe l’oeil techniques that use physical details of the wall itself to trick the eye.

Some of this work was created as a means of expression and activism, like the Chilean open-sky museums of La Pincoya and San Miguel, which were born as community projects to transform poverty-stricken neighborhoods, or to make a political statement like in London and Atlanta.

It’s not just about spraypaint either—other exhibits demonstrate the signature style of the artist, like JR’s large-scale and evocative photo-portraits, Roa’s animals, Vhils’ etching or Os Gemeos surrealism.

Using Street View, you can also explore buildings with street art that are closed to the public, or that have already been demolished—such as the famed Paris 13 tower:


In a series of fascinating exhibitions by our partners, you can also learn about origins of the street art movement or see how Street Art is being used in Poland to revitalize its cities. Take a tour through the origins of New York’s original graffiti movement of the 90’s, or see top highlights from the city’s 5 Pointz project. Compare the global nature of the Street Art produced in Mexico, which has a long and vibrant history of muralism, to the scene in the Philippines, which is just developing.

Street art may be temporary on our walls and sidewalks, but its beauty and vibrancy live on, on the web. Take a look— you’re sure to be bowled over by the variety of the urban canvas.

Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Programme Manager, Google Cultural Institute

Nokia announced that "Liquid Applications, a Nokia solution which enables innovative services and revolutionizes the mobile broadband customer experience, was successfully demonstrated by Zain KSA and Nokia in Saudi Arabia last week. The demonstration was first of its kind in the Middle East and Africa, and was carried out in Zain’s live network, powered by Nokia’s radio and core network

The fortressed city of Acre lies on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel. An important Middle Eastern city in ancient times, it’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its fortified walls, citadel, mosques, synagogues, khans, baths and Crusader structures, Acre has always been a meeting place for East and West, new and old. Today, it’s a mixed Jewish-Arab city, but people from the two communities interact all too rarely. Mistrust, and sometimes outright hostility, keep the two communities apart.

We wanted to see if the Internet could help break down some of these barriers. So last September, a group of 40 students from the separate Arab and Jewish schools in the city, together with 200 Arab, Jewish, Druze and Bedouin students from other communities in Israel, took part in “Hangout Bridges: Bridges to Peace.” A partnership with ORT, Israel’s largest educational network of schools and colleges, and the Peres Center for Peace, the program uses Hangouts to help create understanding—and friendship—between these communities.

Grouped together by their teachers into multi-cultural Google+ circles, the students got to know each other online and started working on joint projects. Each circle met on average 10 times on Hangouts, then in a series of face-to-face meetings.

Last week, we hosted the finale event of the program at Campus Tel Aviv, a tech hub for developers and entrepreneurs at our Tel Aviv office. The students and their teachers enjoyed a creative session with System Ali, a multicultural rap group, and an inspirational talk with the leaders of MEET, an educational initiative that brings together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The students then presented the projects they've been working on for the last eight months, including a walking tour of Acre using Google Maps that seeks to uncover the rich Jewish-Arab history of this ancient city; educational Hebrew-Arabic websites that address racism and prejudice in sports, provide information on relevant legislation and offer quizzes on the topic; and an original song performed in Hebrew, Arabic and English, emphasizing coexistence and mutual respect.

This is the second year we’ve run “Hangout Bridges” in Israel. For our next course, starting this coming fall, we’re doubling the number of participants. We hope we can expand to other countries and help—in a small way—build bridges of mutual understanding around the world. As participant Wasim Jass put it: “I learned that we can cast off the hatred and plant love in its place.”

Posted by Doron Avni, Senior Policy Manager, Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Israel

On google.com today, you may have noticed an intricately drawn version of our logo showing an unusual water purifier, surrounded by a variety of fantastical creatures. This doodle is the result of our seventh annual Doodle 4 Google competition, where we asked kids, grades K-12, to tell us what they’d invent to help make the world a better place. Today, out of more than 100,000 submissions, 250 state finalists, 50 state winners, and five national age group winners, we’re excited to present the 2014 U.S. Doodle 4 Google winner—11-year old Audrey Zhang of New York!

In the spirit of our theme around inventiveness, we asked Audrey to spend a day with the doodlers following our awards ceremony to help animate her illustration. In her new role as animator and film director, the ever detail-oriented Audrey made sure that each light would flicker and that the water was clean enough to (virtually) drink in. She was especially passionate about the illustration’s dragons—about whom (oh, by the way) she is also writing a novel.

In addition to seeing her finished work on our homepage today, Audrey received a $30,000 college scholarship and $50,000 Google for Education technology grant for her school. And to help make Audrey’s vision of water purification a reality, we donated $20,000 in her name to charity:water, a charity that brings clean water to developing nations, to provide clean water to schools in Bangladesh.

Audrey’s doodle was one of many amazing contributions to Doodle 4 Google this year. We encourage you to take a look at the outstanding national grade group winners, who we announced at an event with all 50 state winners at the Googleplex back in May.
Every year we do this, and every year we’re amazed. The thousands of young Doodlers who enter the contest are annual reminders of that special combination of curiosity and imagination that seems to come only from young people. Their ideas—like Audrey's—inspire us to do more and be better. Congratulations to all our Doodle 4 Google winners!

Posted by Liat Ben-Rafael, Doodle 4 Google Program Manager

By John Giere*, CEO and President, Openwave Mobility

Mobile devices guarantee that this will be the most watched World Cup ever, but low video quality and data-charge fears will let down a third of Europe’s World Cup fans.

How will you be watching the Brazil World Cup? That’s the question put to over 2200 football fans across three of Europe’s smartphone-savvy, soccer-loving nations: Spain (

Cellwize announced that it is the ".. first to offer a Network Functions Virtualized (NFV)-ready SON solution, that’s multi-technology and fully multi-vendor compliant ..Cellwize achieved the first step towards NFV by virtualizing its SON and application servers, delivering its optimization through virtual machines in NFV environments. As a result, elastic-SON™ can be fully automated with other

A new study by Dean Bubley [pictured], Founder, Disruptive Analysis finds that "New Non-Neutral Mobile Broadband Business Models will generate $25bn in 2019 - just 6% of total mobile Internet/data access revenue, excluding those plans that just use outright blocking/throttling, and those with just some form of zero-rating of apps/content - the latter will also be important, at >1.5bn users

While the Net Neutrality on the US goes towards "Fast Lanes", Chile, the first countries to adopt a Net Neutrality law (see "Chile: First Country to Legislate Net Neutrality" - here) does not compromise on any aspect of Neutrality.

Leo Mirani reports to QUARTZ that "A surprising decision in Chile shows what happens when policies of neutrality are applied without nuance. This week, Santiago put

NetCracker Technology "..introduced its new Service and Network Orchestrator solution for SDN/NFV, an integrated part of its market-leading NetCracker 9 suite. This new solution enables communications service providers (CSPs) to address the complexities associated with managing and monetizing multi-vendor virtualized as well as hybrid networks and services.NetCracker’s new Service and Network

It’s been a busy week for entertainment junkies, with the return of [oitnb] and a (yet another) huge episode of [game of thrones]. But people searched for more serious subjects, including the anniversary of [d-day] and a changing of the guard in Spain.

“Stars,” shows and sad goodbyes
Anticipation was high this week for the film adaptation of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, which comes out today. It’s the top topic on Hot Trends as I write this, and people are looking for related topics such as [ed sheeran], who contributed a song to the movie, and [theo james], who is rumored to be dating the film’s star Shailene Woodley. And searches for [orange is the new black] skyrocketed as the fan favorite returns for its much-awaited second season on Netflix.

People searched for [gwendoline christie], the Game of Thrones actress, after it was confirmed she’d be a cast member in the upcoming Star Wars 7 film. The Lady of Tarth had some company in search this week from [oberyn martell]—but we won’t get too into that in case anyone still has last week’s episode awaiting them on DVR.

And finally, on a sad note, Ann B. Davis—best known as housekeeper Alice on The Brady Bunch—passed away this week at the age of 88. Many were searching for information on her life and famous Alice moments.

Marking a moment in history
Today marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and veterans and world leaders gathered to commemorate the storming of the beaches of Normandy that turned the tides in World War II. [D-Day] was a top topic on Google, as people searched for [d-day anniversary] and [d-day facts] to learn more about this moment in history. If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at the Normandy Landings, this week we also added a new collection of 470 documents and images showing different perspectives on D-Day to the Google Cultural Institute.

Searching for knowledge
After 40 years on the throne, this week it was announced that King Juan Carlos I would step down in favor of his son Crown Prince Felipe. People turned to Google to understand the term [abdicate]. And as the summer break approaches, math games like [brainpop], [mymathlab] and [scratch] are trending in search—a good sign that parents and students are looking to stay sharp over vacation!

Tip of the week
Ready to cry? Just ask Google Search (on iOS and Android) to “show me movie times for The Fault In Our Stars.” You’ll see nearby theaters and showtimes, and can click on the time you like to buy a ticket online. “Ok Google, remind me to bring tissues!”
Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [darren aronofsky atwood] and [first city festival]

A new guest post will be published on Monday - "Brazil 2014 Goes Mobile!" by my 33rd guest, John Giere.

The article will focus on the expected mobile video usage during the world cup, based on a consumer survey conducted last month. "Mobile devices guarantee that this will be the most watched World Cup ever, but low video quality and data-charge fears will let down a third of Europe’s World

Procera Networks announced that its "Network Application Visibility Library (NAVL) has been selected by Connectem [see "Optus Tests Connectem to Manage Cell Congestion at Peak Usage" - here] to enhance its virtual evolved packet core (vEPC), the industry’s first comprehensive EPC solution for a virtual environment. 




Procera’s NAVL software engine provides application identification, traffic

Ericsson announced "..Ericsson Expert Analytics, a powerful, real time, big data analytics platform that enables operators to derive actionable insights from big data and to turn those insights into appropriate actions in real time. Expert Analytics is a fully configurable, horizontal platform that can support a wide variety of use cases for marketing, customer care, operations and network,

By Bart Treece

The name of the game is to keep traffic moving safely. But when there are several construction and maintenance projects that need to get on the road, the job gets complicated.

There really isn’t a “good” time to close part of entire stretches of highway in a large metropolitan area. However, the work needs to get done. Much of it is important for maintaining and preserving our aging infrastructure, like replacing bridge expansion joints (pdf 937 kb) on I-5 or patching the deck of the Ship Canal Bridge. Ignoring these issues would eventually mean unscheduled emergency closures that could impact your regular route to work. We all saw how badly traffic was snarled when a damaged joint needed repairs ASAP last week. This is why we try to schedule these closures when it affects the least amount of people, at night if possible. Some projects need more time, such as when there’s concrete involved which needs time to cure before its strong enough to hold the weight of hundreds of thousands of vehicles. That leaves the weekend, when fewer folks hit the roads.

The white board where closures are initially coordinated with large Seattle events and holidays

Looking at only weekends, we try to avoid four during the summer: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Seafair and Labor Day weekend. This adds up to a whole month without weekend closures because we know those are big travel times. We’re now left trying to juggle projects on competing corridors, such as SR 520 and I-90 or SR 99, I-5 and I-405. It doesn’t take a traffic engineer to know that closing lanes in the same direction on north/south or east/west routes at the same time would be a very bad thing. Also add into the mix that there are several events including Mariners, Sounders, Husky and Seahawks football game traffic we try to take into consideration. We can’t forget weather, which isn’t always predictable in the ‘Pugetopolis’ region. The threat of liquid sunshine can push a weather-sensitive project back to another weekend.

With projects on every major route planned this summer, there’s not that many weekends left. When possible, we try to combine work to avoid spreading project impacts further along than needed.