Weekend tech reading: IEEE ratifies 5Gbps Ethernet, Amazon vs. UPS and FedEx on delivery

By Matthew DeCarlo on October 2, 2016, 11:30 AM


IEEE sets new Ethernet standard that brings 5X the speed without disruptive cable changesAs expected the IEEE has ratified a new Ethernet specification -- IEEE P802.3bz – that defines 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T, boosting the current top speed of traditional Ethernet five-times without requiring the tearing out of current cabling. The Ethernet Alliance wrote that the IEEE 802.3bz Standard for Ethernet Amendment sets Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 2.5G and 5Gbps Operation lets access layer bandwidth evolve incrementally beyond 1Gbps... Network World

Stewardship of IANA functions transitions to global internet community as contract withith U.S. government ends Today, 1 October 2016, the contract between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to perform the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, has officially expired. This historic moment marks the

FCC votes to bolster Wireless Emergency Alerts

By Shawn Knight on September 29, 2016, 6:15 PM



The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to update the rules governing Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) in an effort to make them more useful.

The system, designed to alert citizens on their mobile devices of emergency-type situations or events, was most recently on display earlier this month when New Yorkers were warned of a dangerous bombing suspect on the loose.

As The Washington Post recounts, the suspect was eventually apprehended following a shootout with police. The alert that was pushed out to the public wasn’t terribly informative; in fact, the publication likened it to a text message that a teenager might send to a friend. What’s more, the alert lacked helpful information that might have led to his apprehension sooner such as a photo.

Authorities would no doubt have preferred to issue a more detailed alert but simply weren’t able to do so due to limitations of the WEA system. As such, the message that went out was ripe with abbreviations and didn’t include a picture of the suspect.

Thanks to today’s FCC vote, future alerts should be much more robust.

Under the new rules, authorities will have up to 360 characters at their disposal – up from just 90 currently and far less than even Twitter’s 140-character limit. Furthermore, authorities will be able to send alerts with greater geographic accuracy which means you’ll be less likely to receive an alert about a tornado that may be many miles away.

Future messages will also be available in Spanish and will cover additional events, we’re told.