Abstract: A power distributor for a communications system for controlling delivery of electrical power drawn over a plurality of electrical communications connections allocated to respective customer premises equipment, to provide electrical power to network components within a network is arranged to control collection of electrical power to be drawn from each connection in accordance with power requirements of services operated by or for its respective customer premises equipment, independent of the identities of the electrical connections used to deliver those services. In particular when electrical connections are not being used by their respective customers they may instead be used by a beam-forming system to support improved service to a customer associated with a different connection, and the additional electrical power to power the beam-former is drawn from the connection associated with the customer receiving the enhanced service.

Abstract: This disclosure provides a base station, and a method of operating a base station, in a cellular telecommunications network, the base station having normal, compensation and energy saving modes of operation

Abstract: An optical data transmission system and method for, at an optical transmitter, converting to a second wavelength, an optical data signal at a first wavelength; transmitting at the second wavelength, the optical data signal to an optical receiver over an optical path; and transmitting at the first wavelength, to the receiver over the path a single-photon signal comprising a stream of single photons. The optical path is configured to carry optical signals at different wavelengths and the optical path attenuates signals at the first wavelength less than the optical path attenuates signals at the second wavelength. The optical data transmission system and method for, at the receiver, receiving the single-photon signal at the first wavelength and receiving the optical data signal at the second wavelength; and converting the optical data signal to the first wavelength for detection.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transmitting data in a communication system including a transmitter and receivers, each receiver being connected to the transmitter via a communication channel, the method including: precoding the data for transmission on the channels to provide first precoded data; using the first precoded data, for each channel, computing a number of bits to be allocated to that channel; determining that the bit allocation does not satisfy one or more criteria; ranking the channels in an order based on channel properties; discarding for use as a direct channel, one or more channels based on the ranking; precoding the data for transmission on the channels accounting for the discarded channels to provide second precoded data; and transmitting, by the transmitter, the second precoded data on the channels.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transmitting data from a transmitter device to one or more receiver devices, each of the one or more receiver devices being connected to the transmitter device via a respective wire connection, the transmitter device being operable to transmit signals onto the wire connections over one or more different channels, the method comprising, for each of the one or more different channels: determining a value of a function S˜mj,j, dependent on an upper bound for a channel capacity of the one or more channels and a channel gain of the jth channel; determining a transmission power Smj,j, for transmitting data along that channel based on S˜mj,j; and transmitting, by the transmitter device, data over that channel to one or more of the receiver devices, the data being transmitted at the transmission power Smj,j determined for that channel.

Abstract: A connection (5) to a first network (3, 13) is connected by way of a first routing processor (4) to a switching processor (14), which has a connection (35) to a network address translation processor (17) providing access to one or more hosted functions (22). Connections (6, 25) separate from the network address translation processor (17) are made to one or more hosted functions (9, 16, 23), incompatible with the NAT process, and also to a second network (2). This allows connections not requiring NAT to avoid the delays incurred by that process. Data packets are routed to the network address translation processor (17) or the first routing processor (4) in accordance with header information in the packet identifying a transmission control processor (17) and the second interface (35).

Abstract: There is disclosed a method of processing a data packet received by a packet sniffer, the packet containing an associated identifier, the method including transmitting the packet to a recipient, determining if the identifier corresponds to a particular network, wherein if the identifier is determined to correspond to the particular network, the identifier is provided to the recipient; and if the identifier is determined to not correspond to the particular network, the identifier is withheld from the recipient.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of operating a communications network such that the classes of service offered by a network operator will depend upon the underlying conditions in the network. A number of performance models, each of which is described by two vectors, is determined from historical network data. These performance models can be assigned to routes through the communications network, such that a request for a session can be made in accordance with the offered performance model for that route.

Abstract: If a cellular base station detects that it is about to shut down, either because no mobile terminals are within range, or because of a loss of power, for example because a user has deliberately switched it off, it first broadcasts a report that is about to shut down. This broadcast signal is picked up by the neighboring cells and used to update their neighbor lists, thus avoiding a false alarm which would otherwise be generated by the neighbors and transmitted to a centralized Operation Administration and Maintenance system when the shut-down cell fails to be detected on the next sampling cycle. The neighbors can then retain the shut-down base station in the neighbor list.

Abstract: A computer implemented method of data access to data stored in one or more data stores includes receiving a request to retrieve data from the one or more data stores; extracting characteristics of the request to classify the request according to a request classification; identifying a model for execution of one or more queries to one or more data stores; executing the one or more queries according to the model to formulate a response to the request, wherein the model for execution is identified based on a class of the request and includes an identification of one or more data stores to which the one or more queries are to be directed to formulate the response; and monitoring execution of one or more queries for a class of request and revising the model in accordance with predetermined criteria.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to identify a malicious database request including receiving a database query for retrieving data from a database; classifying the received query based on query instructions contained in the query to identify a class of query for the query, the class of query having associated attributes defining expected characteristics of queries of the class when executed by the database; monitoring characteristics of the received query executed to retrieve data from the database; and responsive to a determination that the monitored characteristics deviate from the expected characteristics, identifying the query as malicious.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to identify a computer security threat based on communication via a computer network includes receiving a definition of acceptable network communication characteristics for each of a plurality of communication protocols; receiving a first set of security events for the communication, each security event including network communication characteristics for the communication; for each security event in the first set of security events: a) identifying a communication protocol associated with the event; b) detecting deviations of network communication characteristics of the event from the acceptable network communication characteristics for the identified communication protocol; and c) generating a record of each deviation identifying a communication characteristic for which the deviation is detected, so as to generate a set of one or more records of deviation for the first set of security events; and storing the set of records of deviation as a security threat identifier for identify

Abstract: A computer implemented method for code distribution by a base station to a target device via a network, the distribution being made via one or more distribution servers arranged between the base station and the target device on the network, is disclosed.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to identify a computer security threat based on communication of a network connected device via a computer network including receiving a plurality of blocks of network traffic from the device, each block including a sequence of network traffic data items being identifiable by a position in the sequence of the block; identifying a subset of positions occurring in every block for which a degree of variability of values of data items in each position of the subset meets a predetermined threshold; and generating executable code for performing a plurality of processing operations based on the identified subset of positions, the executable code consuming a determinate quantity of computing resources when executed for the received network traffic.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to identify a computer security threat based on communication via a computer network including receiving a definition of acceptable network communication characteristics for each of a plurality of communication protocols; receiving a set of security events for the communication, each security event including network communication characteristics for the communication; for each security event in the set of security events: a) identifying a communication protocol associated with the event; b) detecting deviations of network communication characteristics of the event from the acceptable network communication characteristics for the identified communication protocol; and c) generating a record of each deviation identifying a communication characteristic for which the deviation is detected, and identifying a computer security threat for the communication based on the records generated for the set of security events.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to determine the satisfaction of one or more mapping conditions conditionally mapping a first state in a first pattern matching automaton to a second state in the first automaton, each of the conditions being based on symbol patterns matched by a second pattern matching automaton having states corresponding to wildcard symbols in the first automaton, the method comprising: encoding the conditions in a condition tree data structure associated with the first state, the condition tree modeling sequences of symbol patterns for matching by the second automaton and corresponding to each of the conditions, wherein a node in the condition tree corresponding to a complete set of symbol patterns for a condition has associated an output symbol sequence to identify a pattern match by the first automaton.

Abstract: A method for identifying malicious encrypted network traffic communicated via a network between a first and second computer system, the method including: monitoring network traffic over the network to detect a network connection as a new network connection; identifying characteristics of the network connection to determine a protocol of the network connection; retrieving a definition of a portion of network traffic for a network connection based on the determined protocol; evaluating Fourier transform coefficient values for each of a plurality of bytes in a portion of network traffic of the new network connection based on the retrieved definition; and comparing the evaluated coefficient values with a dictionary of one or more reference sets of coefficients, each of the one or more reference sets of coefficients being associated with a portion of network traffic of a malicious encrypted network connection, so as to determine if malicious encrypted network traffic is communicated over the network connection.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to a method of operating a management node in a cellular telecommunications network, the cellular telecommunications network further including a User Equipment (UE) and a first and second base station, wherein the UE is connected to the first base station by a first connection and to the second base station by a second connection, and the first and second connection relate to a first and second subscription, respectively, the method including detecting a first home network identifier of the first connection; detecting a first network operator identifier of the first base station; determining that a first home network identifier of the first connection is different to the first network operator identifier of the first base station; determining a preferred partner network associated with the first home network identifier; and initiating a transfer of the first connection to the preferred partner network.

Abstract: An aggregation device is arranged to receive a plurality of lines each of which is connected to a user premises and wherein one of the user premises is a multi-terminating-point enabled premises and includes a splitter device connected to the line and at least two distinct terminating points each of which is connected to the splitter device via an in-premises connection and is operable to terminate a two part connection between the respective terminating point and the aggregation device via the splitter device, and the aggregation device includes a transmitter portion, a memory, determination means, and selection means.

Abstract: A computer implemented method to identify an attacked computing device in a system of network-connected computing devices providing a plurality of computing services, the method including receiving a first data structure including data modeling relationships between vulnerabilities of computing services in a first proper subset of the plurality of computing services and exploitation of such vulnerabilities to identify one or more series of exploits involved in a network attack; receiving a second data structure including data modeling the computing devices in the system including the network connections of each computing device; and comparing the first and second data structures to identify the attacked computing device as an intermediate device in communications between at least two computer services in any of the one or more series of exploits.