Power Wi-Fi using the sun: Startup. A small U.S. startup has announced technology for running Wi-Fi routers in remote places using only the power of the sun. Among the first round of products from Solis Energy is the Solar Power Plant, touted as being capable of supplying 12, 24 and 48 Volts DC for use in stand-alone applications such as surveillance cameras and outdoor Wi-Fi. Comprising a large solar panel connected to a generator unit, the system claims to be able to power such devices for up to seven days without sunlight to recharge its batteries, hence the out-sized panels. In normal use, power stored during the day keeps the system running at night.
Internet pioneer pushes fast-flow router. A startup led by one of the fathers of the Internet debuted recently, along with the company’s first product. Anagran, founded by Larry Roberts, one of the designers and developers of the ARPANET computer packet network that evolved into the Internet, announced the immediate availability of the Anagran FR-1000 Flow Router. The one-rack unit FR-1000 is designed to improve the performance of IP-based video, voice, data and wireless applications with lower cost and energy consumption than today’s Layer 3 routers. With IP service providers now offering cable- and HDTV-quality IPTV, and enterprises looking into video-based virtual meetings, video distribution represents the Internet’s future, Anagran contends. The FR-1000 has been running in multiple service provider and corporate network test environments for over six months, Anagran says. The list price is US$70,000.
Startup commercializes Disney-developed ID tech.Startup Bitkoo is releasing as a commercial product identity management technology developed and deployed by The Walt Disney Co. that it says provides cutting-edge authentication/authorization and auditing/compliance capabilities. Bitkoo, however, isn’t just taking over commercial development of the technology that Disney calls Keystone. The startup’s founder invented Keystone before leaving Disney. Doron Grinstein, CEO of Bitkoo, brainstormed the idea and wrote the software for Keystone, which Disney has been using for nearly three years to protect access to many of its critical applications, such as the central reservation system at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Antispam startup studies receiver’s reputation. Turning the idea of sender reputation on its head, a new e-mail security company called Abaca Technology is announcing a gateway product that determines an inbound e-mail message’s potential to be spam based on how much unwanted e-mail the receiver has gotten in the past. Abaca’s Email Protection Gateway appliance, which was launched recently at Interop New York, blocks spam from entering an organization by using the company’s ReceiverNet technology. This technology collects information about how much spam each receiver in an organization has been sent in the past, and uses that ratio of spam to legitimate mail to determine if a new message is wanted or not, says Bill Kasje, director of business development with Abaca.
Fixed/mobile company promises fast hand-over. Startup Agito Networks can cut a company’s mobile bills with a system that hands voice calls over quickly and accurately between company Wi-Fi and cellular networks, the outfit claimed. Agito’s system uses RF-location to tell when a user is approaching predefined points at the limit of the company’s Wi-Fi coverage. A client on the handset cooperates with the company’s RoamAnywhere router, which integrates with the company’s IP PBXs, so phone calls can be handed over between the Wi-Fi and cellular networks. The handover takes less than one second, which is much quicker than competitors, according to Pejman Roshan, Agito Networks’ vice-president of marketing. “Some solutions centralize call control decisions in the appliance — we take a different approach, distributing processing to the clients.” This is quicker and more scalable, he said.