Aruba intros VBN solution

Aruba Networks has released its new virtual branch network (VBN) solution, which it says securely connects remote users with enterprise applications, greatly simplifying the management of offices, clinics, and telecommuters while significantly lowering costs, states Computerworld.

The remote networking market targeted by VBN comprises roughly half of the nearly $11 billion WAN edge market.

Growth in this segment is expected to be driven by the need to support increasingly dispersed workforces, lower operating expenses by reducing real estate holdings, and encourage sustainability through teleworking, among other factors.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is researching computer networks that organise and run themselves without human intervention and dramatically increase available radio spectrum, reports vnunet.

The organisation has been outlining its research goals for the future in its 2009 Strategic Plan to Congress. One area is the design of network infrastructure that can configure and maintain themselves. These are initially intended for linking participants in battle but the technology would also have civilian uses.

“At the core of this concept are robust, secure, and self-forming networks,” says the report.

Chinese equipment maker Huawei has overtaken European networking giant Alcatel-Lucent to become the number one player in the global optical network hardware market, says a research report from Infonetics, according to TMCnet.

Preliminary results from Infonetics' Optical Network Hardware report show Huawei increasing its market share to 23% during the first quarter of 2009, just ahead of Alcatel-Lucent, which maintains the overall lead on an annualised basis.

"Since 2002, the optical network market has grown at an 8% compound annual growth rate, but for most vendors it looked more like 6%, because Huawei absorbed a significant portion of the annualised gains,” says Andrew Schmitt, an analyst with Infonetics Research.