Broadcom Positions New XLP II Multi-core Processors for Cloud Scale Networking

Broadcom is expanding its XLP II multi-core communications processors family designed for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) equipment.

The XLP500 processor features 32 NXCPUs with an innovative quad-issue, quad-threaded superscalar architecture with out-of-order execution for 80 Gbps performance. The processor supports Broadcom's Open NFV platform provides seamless interoperability with Broadcom's StrataXGS Switch Series.

XLP500 Series Key Features:

• Optimized driver and tight integration with Broadcom's FASTPATH software enables seamless interoperability with Broadcom's StrataXGS Switch Series
• Support for Broadcom's Open NFV platform enables seamless migration of virtual functions independent of Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs)
• Full end-to-end virtualization of CPUs memory, I/Os and acceleration engines
• Integrated autonomous acceleration engines support a broad range of applications such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), encryption, network acceleration and storage
• Configurable pool of high performance multi-core processors along with application-specific engines accelerates advanced networking and security functions in a virtualized environment
• Supports open-source virtualization platforms such as KVM, QEMU and OVS
• Integrated high speed I/Os including 40GEs, 10GEs, GE, HiGig2 and Interlaken
• Dedicated lanes for PCIE Gen3.0 and SATA3.0
  

"For service providers and data center operators looking to manage dynamically changing workloads and massive data requirements, the XLP500 Series provides the processing performance and flexibility required to deploy new services and cost-effectively scale the network," said Chris O'Reilly, Broadcom, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Processors & Wireless Infrastructure.  "With the addition of the XLP500 Series, Broadcom now offers the industry's broadest end-to-end portfolio of 28 nanometer multi-core communications processors, spanning 4 NXCPUs to 640 NXCPUs."

"In order to facilitate a successful industry-wide NFV rollout, HP's OpenNFV program requires an open platform to easily migrate virtual functions across systems and a new class of processors that can improve packet processing, help reduce hardware costs, simplify applications and improve time-to-market," said Vinay Saxena, Chief Architect, Network Functions Virtualization, Hewlett Packard. "We believe our collaboration with Broadcom on its Open NFV platform, and communications processors such as the XLP500 Series, are ideally suited to deliver the right balance of power, performance and workload flexibility needed to meet the requirements of NFV solutions."

Broadcom is also working on a dual-core, 64-bit ARM processor optimized for embedded applications. The company said its forthcoming Vulcan processor will be the highest performance ARMv8 CPU (see below).

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s836479

In October 2013, Broadcom unveiled its ARMv8-A architecture for a new generation of multicore processors designed to deliver server-class performance for network functions virtualisation (NFV).  The new design is built around a 64-bit ARM core with virtualized accelerators for networking, communications, big data, storage and security applications. The design also features a quad-issue, quad-threaded 64-bit ARMv8-A core with superscalar out-of-order execution. The core enables 3-GHz performance in the advanced 16-nm FINFET process node.

“By offering the industry’s highest performance ARM-based multi-core processor architecture, Broadcom is expanding its technical leadership in multiple generations of multi-core processing,” said Ron Jankov, Broadcom Senior Vice President and General Manager, Processor and Wireless Infrastructure. “Our innovations in the CPU core and comprehensive virtualization, along with our adoption of 16-nm FINFET technology, will further separate us from our competitors.”

Broadcom and ARM announced a partnership to define and develop an open, standards-based NFV software environment for the ARM ecosystem. The companies said they will work with members of the Linaro Networking Group and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to standardize the environment’s programming model, tool chains, application programming model, tool chains, application programming interfaces and networking-specific libraries across the industry.

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Supermicro Shows Intel-based SDN Superswitch and MicroBlade Microserver

Super Micro Computer introduced its new advanced Software Defined Networking (SDN) SuperSwitch and MicroBlade microserver solutions.

The new 1U SDN switch platform was developed using the Intel Open Network Platform (ONP) top of rack (TOR) switch reference design.

It uses the Intel FM6764 Ethernet Switch and an Intel Core i3 Processor with Intel Communications Chipset 8900 combined with Intel Open Network Software (ONS).  The programmable switch offers flexibility, agility, security and dynamic manageability through SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV). The SuperSwitch Platform supports OpenFlow control protocols and features 48x 10GbE SFP+, 4x 40GbE QSFP and 2x 1GbE RJ45 management ports in a 1U rack mount form factor, the Layer 2/3 SSE-X3848S is ideally suited for high bandwidth Top-of-Rack (ToR) link aggregation with 1,280Gb/s of switching capacity and Layer 3 packet performance of up to 960 million packets per second.

Supermicro also announced its 6U 112-node Intel Atom™ C2000 based MicroBlade microserver with MicroBlade SDN switches. This extreme density, ultra low power modular Blade architecture maximizes rack utilization with 112 independent power-conserving nodes (as low as 10W each) enabling up to 784 servers per 42U rack. Even higher density can be achieved with the Intel Atom-based architecture which can support up to a maximum 224 nodes. MicroBlade incorporates four Intel Ethernet Switch FM5224 modules featuring SDN functionality and an Intel Atom C2000 control plane processor that supports up to 2x 40Gb/s QSFP or 8x 10Gb/s SFP+ uplinks and 56x 2.5Gb/s downlinks per module, reducing cabling by 99%. Performance oriented UP and DP configurations supporting Intel Xeon E3/E5 processors families will be available in the next few months.

"Supermicro’s new SDN enabled SuperSwitch and MicroBlade switches provides Data Center, Cloud and Enterprise environments the greatest flexibility to dynamically allocate networked resources as data demands shift," said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. “Working with Intel, we’ve developed a high-bandwidth IA based switching solutions enabling a highly efficient and cost effective path to network virtualization. Supermicro’s new top-of-rack SuperSwitch combined with our extreme density, low power MicroBlade and extensive range of energy-efficient SuperServer and SuperStorage platforms delivers complete computing solutions exactly optimized to maximize ROI in hyperscale deployments.”

"The Intel Open Network Platform Reference Designs are an important part of Intel’s networking strategy to enable the industry to move toward open, standards-based technologies such as SDN and NFV," said Rose Schooler, vice president of Intel’s Data Center Group and general manager of the Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group. “The new Supermicro SuperSwitch, developed from the Intel ONP Switch Reference Design, delivers a high performance, easy to deploy and cost effective network switch that offers management and control functionality.”

http://www.supermicro.com/

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Riverbed Enhances Stingray for Cloud Applications

Riverbed Technology announced new features for its Stingray virtual application delivery controller (ADC) product family that improve the performance of business applications like Microsoft SharePoint 2013; increase reliability and scalability on Amazon Web Services (AWS); deliver enhanced visibility of an ADC-as-a-Service deployment; and enable enterprise and service provider customers to quickly and easily deploy application delivery services on demand.

Riverbed Stingray allows customers to dynamically deploy an ADC per application with ADC-as-a-Service, enabling scalable, secure and elastic delivery of enterprise, cloud and e-commerce applications. Stingray also controls and optimizes end-user services by inspecting, transforming, prioritizing and routing application traffic across the widest range of environments, from physical and virtual data centers to public and hybrid clouds.

What’s New in Stingray Traffic Manager and Stingray Services Controller

Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager enhancements

• Active-active load balancing for high-availability and scalability on Amazon AWS, minimizing or eliminating points of failure within IT environments to deliver the highest level of availability and scalability for cloud-based applications.
• Includes a number of interoperability features, easy-to-use Web Content Optimization and a key security enhancement with a new cryptographic module. This enhancement is in process for validation for Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 1.
• Improves SharePoint 2013 performance with support for intranet and Internet using the latest Web Content Optimization techniques with no changes to the application or web browsers.

Riverbed Stingray Services Controller enhancements

• Operations graphical user interface (GUI) helps administrators support service deployment and monitor ADC deployments.
• Virtual appliance form factor for Stingray Services Controller and micro instance host simplifies deployment by freeing customers from the need to maintain the underlying operating system.
• Simplified licensing and billing reports for chargeback.
• Enhanced visibility of an ADC-as-a-Service deployment with a comprehensive suite of reports that provide customers feedback on utilization of multiple resources.

http://www.riverbed.com

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Telefónica acquires eyeOS for Virtual Desktop Service

Telefónica has acquired eyeOS, a cloud computing start-up based in Barcelona, Spain offering an open-source web desktop.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Telefónica said the acquisition brings an open-source desktop virtualisation service (DVS), adding to Telefónica's current cloud software.  eyeOS makes it possible for companies to translate legacy applications to mobile as well as harness desktop virtualisation technology and apply this to mobile devices. This technology enables Telefónica to offer comprehensive solutions tailor made to specific needs based on free software capable of competing against other commercial proposals. The companies have collaborated since 2010.

“The acquisition of eyeOS demonstrates the willingness of a large company like Telefónica to work with start-ups, highlighting its openness to innovation and its ability to seek talent and the best
ideas outside of its own structure” said Pau Garcia-Milà, co-founder of eyeOS. “Telefónica will help eyeOS to not only consolidate and expand its technological proposal, but give it international reach through Telefónica's global network.”

David del Val, product innovation director at Telefónica and chairman and CEO of Telefónica I+D, said: "The integration of eyeOS into Telefónica will allow us to harness the technological abilities of a great team and develop a new generation of cloud services based on open technologies. These services define a scalable and affordable proposal that meets the needs of public administrations and SMEs among others.”

http://www.eyeos.com

http://pressoffice.telefonica.com/

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Spirent Intros SDN/NFV Test Environment

Spirent Communications introduced a virtual lab environment for SDN/NFV.

Spirent Velocity allows users to quickly set-up a predictable and repeatable virtualized test fabric to a desired deployment architecture, including choice of hypervisors, guest operating systems, reference server setup, NFV and other network elements such as SDN controllers and switches.

Spirent Velocity’s cloud-based design seamlessly incorporates the Spirent TestCenter Virtual and Spirent Avalanche Virtual test appliances, simplifying setting-up and running test cases using a database of methodologies for testing performance, availability, security and scale (PASS) of SDN/NFV. The cloud-based framework lets test engineers utilize physical and virtual test products of their choice on the platform, including other various test appliances or open source tools, to take advantage of existing investments and resources.

“With its cloud-based design, Spirent Velocity provides our customers a new platform to test a new generation of virtualized devices,” said Patrick Johnson, vice president of Cloud and Virtual Solutions at Spirent Communication. “With Spirent Velocity, enterprises, service providers and network equipment manufacturers are able to build out a predictable and repeatable virtual test environment that ensures they qualify their systems for performance and scalability with confidence, while minimizing the investment needed in test equipment or expertise.”

http://www.spirent.com/products/velocity

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Open Cloud Project to Build Silicon Valley Test Bed

The CloudEthernet Forum (CEF) and the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) are launching an "Open Cloud Project" to advance their cloud service delivery paradigm for service providers, industry vendors and over-the-top (OTT) cloud service providers.

The Open Cloud Project includes a dedicated proof of concept test laboratory based in Silicon Valley to provide ongoing testing and support for the iterative development of the CEF’s CloudE 1.0 open cloud environment. It will also provide the basis of future compliance and benchmark testing. Informed by the experience and learning of its close association with the MEF, and seeing the benefits that rapid, iterative development has brought to the cloud industry, the CEF is taking the pioneering step of integrating testing into the standards development process right from the start.

Initial work will be focused on three areas: application performance management, cloud security and traffic load balancing. The project’s open test program will lay the groundwork for a fully inter-working cloud environment, and the advancement of best practices to manage OTT and cloud services.

“This is vitally important work if we are to avoid fragmentation of the cloud,” explains James Walker, CEF President and Vice President of Managed Network Services at Tata Communications. “Cloud services rely on the end to end interoperability of so many players – enterprises, network and datacenter equipment vendors, datacenter operators, orchestration layers, management and reporting platforms, security devices, network service providers – the list goes on. The MEF has shown a successful model of defining service types and attributes which everyone can agree to and align with, which through this test bed we can adapt and bring to the cloud industry. Unless we can define industry best practices and global standards to establish an open cloud environment, cloud services run the risk of becoming more and more fragmented and difficult to integrate.”

http://www.CloudEthernet.org
http://www.MetroEthernetForum.org

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What is the Open Cloud Project?

Bob Mandeville, Founder and President of Iometrix Labs, introduces The Open Cloud Project - an initiative of the Cloud Ethernet Forum aimed at advancing standards for cloud services connectivity.

The ongoing reference architecture of the Cloud Ethernet Forum will be reproduced in a reference test bed. Six cloud Ethernet use cases will integrated into the test bed. 

See video: http://youtu.be/nmBIgeYin9g

 Filmed at Net Event's Cloud Innovation Summit in Saratoga, California.

 

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Overture Adds adds Copper Density to Ethernet over Optical and TDM

Overture rolled out a number of enhancements to its 6500 service aggregation and switching platform, including a 96-pair Ethernet over Copper (EoC) interface module that makes the 6500 the industry’s highest density EoC solution on the market.

The EoC interface module offers from 1 to 24 pair bonding across cards for resilient delivery of up to 300Mbps of symmetric performance-assured Ethernet service. The 6500 integrates seamlessly with Overture’s 400, 4000, and 6100 family of EoC Ethernet Access Devices to enable rapid service deployment on any scale.

“The 6500 and Ensemble OSA represent a fundamental new approach for service creation, activation and assurance,” said Keith Donahue, vice president of Product Management, Overture. “Ubiquitous Carrier Ethernet access – as enabled by the 6500 – is the foundation on which virtualization and software-defined services will be used to drive service agility and improve operational efficiency. At Overture, we are committed to helping service providers meet today’s challenges while providing a path to efficiently address future service evolution.”

http://www.overturenetworks.com

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Broadcom's 802.11ac Chip Offers Sub-Meter Indoor Location

Broadcom introduced an 802.11ac system-on-chip (SoC) featuring indoor positioning technology.

The BCM43462 SoC uses Broadcom's new AccuLocate technology to provide sub-meter accuracy on physical locations enabling retailers and public venue operators to deliver more personalized experiences to consumers.  It leverages fine timing measurement (FTM) technology, which Broadcom says yields highly accurate positioning regardless of environmental factors. Previous versions of indoor positioning relied on received signal strength indicator (RSSI) technology, where signal strength and performance can vary depending on environmental factors such as crowd density or temperature.

Key Features of the Broadcom BCM43462 SoC

• Dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) complete 5G WiFi (11ac) SoC with integrated MAC, PHY and radio
• Three-stream spatial multiplexing up to 1.3 Gbps
• State-of-the-art security provided by industry standardized system support
• Embedded hardware acceleration enables increased system performance
• Full IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n legacy compatibility with enhanced performance
• Support for FASTPATH UAP, Broadcom's enterprise class access point software

http://www.broadcom.com

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Equinix Opens Fifth Data Center in Dallas

Equinix opened its fifth International Business Exchange (IBX) in Dallas.

Equinix invested over $34 million in the first phase of the DA6 data center which includes space, power, and cooling for 450 cabinets. Future expansion phases of DA6 will accommodate 900 additional cabinets for a total of over 82,000 square feet of usable colocation space. With the addition of DA6 at full build, Equinix's total Dallas footprint will exceed 230,000 square feet dispersed over five data centers.

Four of Equinix's five Dallas data centers are located within the Dallas Infomart, a 1.6 million-square-foot building with multiple diverse fiber entry points into the building. Equinix is the largest colocation tenant in the Infomart.

http://www.equinix.com

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Embrane Hires Bill Burns to Lead Company

Embrane, a start-up developing application-centric network services, appointed Bill Burns as its new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  Burns previously was CEO of Spirent Communications plc, a global leader in test and measurement solutions.  Burns also held several executive leadership positions at Tellabs, Inc., including Senior Vice President Global Marketing, Strategy and Business Development, Senior Vice President – Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Vice President – Competitive Service Providers.

http://www.embrane.com

In March 2014, Embrane, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $14 million in Series-C funding for its application-centric network services.

The funding round was led by Cisco and included new Embrane investor Presidio Ventures, and participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and North Bridge Venture Partners.

Also,  Embrane announced it will deliver life cycle management for third-party network services, including the Cisco Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASAv) and Sourcefire virtual appliances.

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