A lot has been written about a downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) in the cable industry (including a post I wrote a few weeks ago), but what’s going on over on the telecom side of the video marketplace? In the IPTV arena, we’re working through the issues relevant to secure download within the IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF). Our approach will use some similar technologies to what DCAS is delivering for cable, but it is not the same technical solution. The target of the IIF (which is one of the committees of ATIS, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions), is to deliver what is called”initial closure” of our first version of this secure, open-specification download stack by the end of 2007. The work is taking place within the Digital Rights Management Task Force which is one of 4 active IIF Task Forces. Some current IPTV set-tops have a proprietary download mechanism that is not secured by hardware. This makes these set-tops less secure than the DCAS approach over on the cable side since DCAS calls for downloading into very secure hardware. The ATIS IIF downloadable solution under development will allow use of secure hardware but not mandate it. Read More »

The Australian Network Operators Group (AusNOG) held their first conference on November 15-16 2007 in Sydney, Australia,Platinum partners included cisco and pipenetworks; Google and Vocus Communications were Gold partners; and, eIntellego, APNIC, Western Australia Internet Association and Communications Day provided Silver Partnership support. Participants at the conference included a plethora of carriers and ISPs from the region.Cisco speakers included Ric Pruss and Monique Morrow, both whom structured their presentations around the impact of dynamics and trends with regard to peer-to-peer networking constructs; RFID and sensory systems, content distribution as some examples to the overall infrastructure architecture, thus highlighting”the network as the platform” issue, and provoking discussions around subsequent industry preparation. Read More »

This is just one of the questions that can be answered with the application idea that Rhonda from California submitted to the Connected Life contest (and which won her a runner-up award). Remote Frequency Identification (RFID) tags would be put on your most frequently lost items, whether it be your keys, eyeglasses, or wallet, so that when you lose them, you’d be able to find their location by using an application on their home computer (or any networking device for that matter). The application would show a map of the home and identify the hidden item. More details of Rhonda’s idea, a video describing it, how she’s going to spend the money and why it’s a good idea for pet tortoises can be found here.Speaking from experience of living with a two-year old who as a tendency to put the remote in the laundry bin- or the freezer-. Or in her doll’s stroller- which all-too-often creates a frantic game of hide-and-seek throughout the house just to see The Office, I’d be willing to pay a pretty penny for this capability. And fortunately, with RFID prices falling and home networks becoming commonplace, this idea has a very legitimate chance of coming to our Connected Life in the future.

I participated in the Rutberg Wireless Influencers conference last week. Various interesting sessions, but the biggest buzz was about Google’s announcement of the Android mobile device platform and the Open Handset Alliance. Some industry watchers expected a new device, like the Apple iPhone. Instead Google proposed a software environment that would allow any company to create new applications, including Google of course. Android joins multiple existing mobile device platforms, including Symbian supported by Nokia and others, Qualcomm’s BREW, the fading Garnet OS (formerly Palm OS), and Microsoft Mobile Windows for Pocket PCs and Smartphones (and some cars). The Google proposal seems most aligned with the open source mindset, and certainly illustrates the colliding worlds of the mobile industry and Internet industry. The concept is promising, but will it attract a critical mass of application software and device developers? And will mobile operators allow such devices to connect to their networks? Read More »

Jeff Spagnola, vice president of marketing for the service provider segment at Cisco, met with a wide range of trade press, business press and industry analysts during trips to New York and Boston on the week of November 5. In the brief video here, he recaps some of those conversations and their various areas of focus, which included service provider transformation, business managed services, Cisco in WiMAX, globalization efforts and emerging markets.
Recap Of Cisco Service Provider Press Tour -- The funniest home videos are here