Infinera Charts Network Transformation with PICs for Sliceable Photonics

Infinera unveiled two photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for new optical transport systems and line cards scheduled for delivery later this year. The introductions include a sliceable, enhanced PIC, ePIC-500, and an application-optimized PIC, oPIC-100.

Infinera said its new sliceable photonics technology enables the large pool of capacity in a PIC to be divided at a granular optical level.  Each slice can routed in a different direction as it exits the line card or the system housing, usually at the hub. The recipient of the individual slice is a line card or system that matches the capacity, usually at the spoke. For instance, a 500G superchannel originating at a hub location could be sliced into 100G chunks for delivery to multiple spokes.

The new ePIC-500 provides sliceable 500G capacity at the hub location, while the new oPIC-100 provides 100G capacity at the spoke location. While these two new PICs are applicable across all network locations they were developed specifically to support Layer T in the metro.

The introductions come as Infinera positions for a major transformation in network architecture driven by scale and virtualization.  Infinera sees the emergence of two layers:

• Layer C -- a cloud services layer that supports NFV plus other Cloud delivered services  
• Layer T --  the transport layer, which is founded on scalable photonics capable of delivering more capacity per line card and system while simplifying the network.

Infinera believes that PICs are integral to the evolution of the transport network and provide significant benefits when integrated into a packet-optical DWDM transport system, there creating an efficient Layer T and ultimately allowing Layer C to thrive.

The company said it has modeled a wide range of applications from metro aggregation to regional long-haul where hub-and-spoke, mesh or ring topologies are common. When using the new PICs, these models showed an estimated average reduction of 28 percent in modules, 31 percent in power and 45 percent in bandwidth inefficiencies as compared to conventional, commercial off the shelf technologies that deliver single-wavelength or super-channel solutions for 100G, 200G or 400G.

“Infinera has been shipping PICs in transport systems, that have been designed from the ground-up, for over a decade," said Dave Welch, co-founder and president at Infinera. "During this time the technology has surpassed over 1.5 billion hours of field operations. Sliceable photonics allows our customers to build networks with scale and flexibility for a wide variety of applications ranging from the metro to the long-haul. It provides a comprehensive tool set for us to be nimble and build market-specific platforms for Layer T as our customers’ needs continue to evolve."

http://www.infinera.com/j7/servlet/NewsItem?newsItemID=446

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Apigee Files for IPO - APIs + Predictive Analytics

Apigee, a start-up based in San Jose, California, filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock.

 The company's Apigee Edge API platform helps enterprises to build mobile and digital initiatives using APIs, apps and data. Apigee Insights delivers big data predictive analytics. Apigee says that when used together, its APIs and predictive analytics can create an adaptive cycle of continuous improvement – and the faster an enterprise goes through this cycle, the faster it can innovate, adapt and accelerate its digital business. http://apigee.com/

• In April 2014, Apigee announced $60 million in new venture financing for its API platform for enabling predictive analytics in digital interactions. Pine River Capital Management and Wellington Management Company participated as new investors in this round, along with current Apigee investors Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Bay Partners, Third Point LLC, SAP Ventures, funds managed by BlackRock, Focus Ventures, and Accenture. This brought Apigee's total funding to $171 as of April 2014. 

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Corning Intros SMF-28 Ultra 200 Fiber

Corning introduced the industry’s first 200-micron fiber with a 9.2 micron nominal mode-field diameter (MFD).

The new Corning SMF-28 Ultra 200 fiber enables the design of smaller, lighter, fully backwards compatible high-fiber, high-density cables. The company said its new fiber complies with the ITU-T G.657.A1 specification while also delivering enhanced bend resistance and seamless integration with the installed ITU-T G.652 fiber base in a 200-micron product. In addition, Corning claims the fiber’s low attenuation improves signal reach up to 10 percent over conventional ITU-T G.652 fiber types and increases coverage as much as 20 percent when served by a point-of-presence or central office.

“Corning SMF-28 Ultra 200 fiber helps solve one of the world’s toughest network challenges – increasing fiber capacity without taking up more space,” said John Igel, vice president and general manager of Corning Optical Fiber and Cable. “With the problem of MFD compatibility eliminated, network operators have the freedom to deploy fiber-rich 200-micron cables to address capacity and congestion – with the proven performance of SMF-28 Ultra fiber.”

Corning's SMF-28 Ultra fiber portfolio can be used for high-performance applications at 100G and beyond, and for next-generation passive optical networks (PONs) and wavelength division multiplexed passive optical networks (WDM-PONs).

http://www.corning.com/opcomm/nafta/en/news_events/news_releases/2015_News_Releases/2015032301.aspx

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NTT Electronics Delivers 20nm Low-Power Coherent DSP

NTT Electronics (NEL) announced the commercial release of its second generation, 20nm low-power coherent DSP for use in high-port-density 100G metro transport systems. The device was developed by NEL in collaboration with Broadcom.

The new NLD0640 Gen2 LP-DSP features integrated 100GE transponder capability, full coverage of operation modes such as the lowest power 80-km ZR mode and power-managed metro mode for distances up to 1200km, and digital equalizer compensating electrical signal distortion to-and-from 100G pluggable Analog Coherent Optics (ACO).  The LP-DSP uses Broadcom's signal-processing-enhanced mixed-signal technologies to intensify the coherent processing core, which has already been widely deployed as NEL's first generation 40nm DSP product NLD0629 Gen1 DSP3.

“I am glad to see that our initiative, to make merchant Silicon DSP solution available for every manufacturer, has evolved into this new generation.” said Masahito Tomizawa, Executive Manager of NTT Network Innovation Laboratories. “Digital coherent is an optical communications innovation, not only for enabling 100 Gbps per wavelength, but also for enabling interoperability among multi-source pluggable coherent optics using lower-cost technologies such as compound semiconductor and silicon photonics. One of my laboratories has already confirmed successful interoperability of the new NLD0640 Gen2 LP-DSP not only with multi-source CFP2-ACO’s but also with other CFP-DCO employing its in-house DSP ASIC.”

http://www.ntt-electronics.com/en/news/2015/3/20nm-low-power-coherent-dsp-shipping-in-volume.html

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New Celtic-Plus GOLD Project Continues Work on G.fast

Celtic-Plus, an industry-driven European research initiative, announced results and future plans of G.fast lab trials. A new Gigabits Over the Legacy Drop (GOLD) project will initiate the planned second version of the G.fast standard. This builds on a recently completed HFCC/G.fast project, which demonstrated throughput of nearly 1Gbps per copper pair at 100 meters, and up to 170Mbps per copper pair at 480 meters, on a 16 pair standard cable.

Sckipio said these tests used its technology.

Some highlights:

• The 4.2 Million euro Celtic-Plus project HFCC/G.fast (Hybrid Fibre-Copper connectivity using G.fast) brought together 14 organizations from nine countries and included Ericsson AB (SE), ADTRAN GmbH (DE), BT (UK), Dension Broadband Systems Kft (HU), EUR AB (SE), Orange SA (FR), Lund University (SE), Marvell Semiconductor (ES), Fundacion Tecnalia Research and Innovation (ES), Telefonica I+D (ES), Telnet Redes Inteligentes SA (ES), TNO (NL), FTW Telecommunications Research Center Vienna (AU) and Sckipio Technologies (IL).
• The 4.4 million euro Celtic-Plus project GOLD (Gigabits Over the Legacy Drop) brings together 12 companies from 8 countries including service providers BT (UK), Orange SA (FR); equipment vendors ADTRAN GmbH (DE), Alcatel-Lucent (BE), Ericsson AB (SE), Sagemcom (FR), and Telnet Redes Inteligentes SA (ES); chip vendors Marvell Semiconductors (ES) and Sckipio Technologies (IL); and researchers at Lund University (SE) and TNO (NL). The 3-year project, which is coordinated by Lund University, will run until December 2017.

http://www.4gbb.eu

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Dell Hires a Cisco Exec as CTO of its Enterprise Solutions Group

Dell announced the appointment of Paul Pérez as Chief Technology Officer of its Enterprise Solutions Group, where he will focus on leading the architecture, design and build-out of the next wave of Dell’s future-ready data center technologies. He joins Dell from Cisco Systems where he most recently served as vice president and general manager for the company’s Computing Systems Product Group, responsible for the UCS server and management portfolio. Also at Cisco, Mr. Pérez served as Chief Technology Officer for its Data Centre Business Group, where he oversaw the company’s technology strategy for converged infrastructure, virtualization and private cloud automation. Prior to Cisco, Mr. Pérez was the Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard for its ProLiant and BladeSystem infrastructure.

Dell also announced that Rory P. Read will become Chief Operating Officer and President of Worldwide Commercial Sales and will have responsibility for Dell’s global go-to-market initiatives, omni-channel sales planning and enablement. He joins Dell after a 30-year career with global technology companies such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lenovo and IBM. He served as Chief Executive Officer and President at AMD, Chief Operating Officer and President at Lenovo, and had IBM Business Services leadership responsibilities in the Asia-Pacific region. He is an accomplished industry executive who has led companies through rapid growth and evolving markets.

http://www.dell.com

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Amazon Names First Six AWS Managed Service Program Providers

Amazon named the first six companies to be admitted into its new AWS Managed Service Partner program:

• 2nd Watch
• Datapipe
• Smartronix
• Cascadeo
• Day1 Solutions
• RightBrain Networks

To become an approved member of this program, partners must pass an independent audit of their AWS Managed Service capability.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/

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CableLabs Joins NYU's 5G Research Program

CableLabs, the nonprofit research consortium for the cable industry, has joined NYU's research center as it drives development of 5G technology.

NYU WIRELESS, which was launched by the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering in August 2012, is developing fundamental science and mathematical channel models needed to create 5G equipment.

CableLabs becomes the 12th industry affiliate sponsor of the research center, joining Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, and others, as the industry starts to look beyond 4G and LTE-A, in pursuit of faster connections and greater access.

http://nyuwireless.com/

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