IBM Implements 100G Optical Transceiver in Sub-100nm CMOS

IBM announced another significant advancement with is CMOS integrated nano-photonics technology. The company said its researchers for the first time have tested a fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip, which will soon enable manufacturing of 100 Gbps optical transceivers. The design implements multiple optical components side-by-side with electrical circuits on a single silicon chip using sub-100nm CMOS technology.

“Making silicon photonics technology ready for widespread commercial use will help the semiconductor industry keep pace with ever-growing demands in computing power driven by Big Data and cloud services,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research. “Just as fiber optics revolutionized the telecommunications industry by speeding up the flow of data -- bringing enormous benefits to consumers -- we’re excited about the potential of replacing electric signals with pulses of light. This technology is designed to make future computing systems faster and more energy efficient, while enabling customers to capture insights from Big Data in real time.”

IBM's new 100G transceiver has a range of up to 2 kilometers and uses four laser at different wavelenghts, each operating as an independent 25 Gbps optical channel. Within a full transceiver design, these four channels can be wavelength multiplexed on-chip to provide 100 Gbps aggregate bandwidth over a duplex single-mode fiber, thus minimizing the cost of the installed fiber plant within the data center.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/46839.wss

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Telstra Extends its Global SDN into the Optical Layer

Telstra has extended its new global Software Defined Networking (SDN) Platform into the optical layer, enabling high-bandwidth provisioning up to 100G and automated fault restoration across its global Points of Presence (PoPs).

The announcement follows Telstra's recent acquisition of Pacnet, a provider of connectivity, managed services and data centre services to carriers, multinational corporations and governments in the Asia-Pacific region.  The Pacnet Enabled Network (PEN)an SDN-based service delivery platform with automated provisioning capabilities.

Telstra now operates 25 PEN Points of Presence across eight countries – including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US and the UK. Additional connectivity options into public Cloud services to bridge hybrid Cloud deployments are available too.

Jim Clarke, Telstra’s Director of Marketing, Product and Pricing – International, said the extension of SDN and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) capabilities into Layer 1 followed the announcement last month that Telstra had added nine Telstra PEN PoPs to Pacnet’s existing footprint of sixteen PoPs across Asia, creating a globally connected on-demand networking Platform.

“Extending our global PEN platform into the optical layer is the natural next step in our SDN strategy and by providing this infrastructure on demand, we’re able to significantly shorten the provisioning cycle times and better meet our customers’ growing high-bandwidth needs.

“This is an exciting milestone in Telstra’s SDN journey and by leveraging our high quality infrastructure assets and Pacnet’s leadership in early adoption of SDN technology, we will continue to innovate and deliver cost-efficient virtualised network resources to our customers,” Mr Clarke said.

“We believe it’s time for global networks to evolve. The applications of tomorrow require a different kind of network and this latest enhancement to the PEN Platform means we now have the unique capability to provide customers with on-demand provisioning of their network services up to 100G, whenever they want it and wherever they are based.

“Furthermore, Telstra plans to extend virtualisation to its suite of Managed Services offerings which means we can now, more than ever, deliver the choice and flexibility our customers require, in an age of bandwidth hungry applications, fuelled by distributed computing, big data and mobility,” Mr Clarke concluded.

http://www.telstra.com.au/

In March 2015,

In March 2015, Infinera announced that Pacnet, which operates submarine cable systems connecting 15 cities in the Asia-Pacific region, has deployed the new Infinera Open Transport Switch (OTS) software to extend virtualization into the optical layer of its network. Pacnet’s existing Intelligent Transport Network is based on the Infinera DTN-X packet optical transport networking platform.

Infinera’s OTS is now deployed within the Pacnet Enabled Network (PEN), which is an SDN-based service delivery platform that offers Layer 2 Ethernet services on-demand from 1 megabit per second to 10 Gbps. PEN delivers scalable bandwidth and software-enabled intelligence, allowing customers to dynamically provision bandwidth in minutes through a custom portal based on their business needs.

The combination of Infinera's DTN-X platform with the new Open Transport Switch allows PEN to offer a Layer 1 transport bandwidth on-demand service in increments of N x 10 Gbps. It is designed to allow services in increments of N x 100 Gbps for high-capacity customers in the future. The deployment runs in Hybrid Control mode, with new services leveraging bandwidth under SDN control, while existing production services continue to operate using their Infinera DNA network management system.

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Telstra Sets Low latency 100 Gbps Link with Ciena/Ericsson

Telstra has achieved a new landmark for low latency, high capacity non-regenerated optical transmission between Melbourne, Sydney and Perth – a round trip distance of 10,358 km  - using equipment from Ciena, supplied by Ericsson.

David Robertson, Director Transport and Routing Engineering Telstra says: ”This new optical technology enables Telstra to provide Australia’s lowest latency link between Sydney and Perth – key access points critical for Trans-Australian and international telecommunications. This high-performance link provides Telstra’s customers differentiation for applications which require high-speed and low latency, such as financial trading or cloud based offerings. We are also pleased to receive a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS for 10,358 km un-regenerated terrestrial optical transport link between Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.”

In a demonstration, the 100Gbps optical link between Melbourne and Sydney was increased to 200Gbps per wavelength using Ciena’s WaveLogic Extreme technology.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/150512-telstra-achieve-milestone_244069646_c

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Avago Positions PCIe Switching for Data Center Systems

Avago Technologies announced full production of its PEX9700 Series of 3rd generation PCIe switching silicon for the convergence of servers, storage, and network devices in data centers.

PCIe delivers performance of up to 1.5Tb/s through 97 lanes in full-duplex mode.

The Avago ExpressFabric PEX9700 series of switches simplify connectivity of data center systems, delivering the highest PCIe switching performance available inside the rack.

Avago said that while PCIe is the ubiquitous interconnect for internal devices, external device connectivity typically requires using other architectures. This wastes power, reduces performance, and increases costs. With these PCIe switches, devices within a hyperscale system, NVMe enclosure, and rack-scale-based subsystems can now communicate directly through the same high-performance PCIe fabric, turning those devices into a single high-performance, high-capacity compute system.

PEX9700 key new switching features include:

• Shared I/O - Enables endpoints to be shared among multiple hosts to maximize system resource efficiency and reduce cost and power
• Tunneled Windows Connection - Interconnect up to 24 (+1 management host) nodes on a single chip or cascade multiple chips to connect up to 72 nodes with no performance loss
• Embedded DMA Engines - Equips each port with a NIC-DMA engine that enables efficient data transfers between multiple hosts
• Flexible Port Configuration - Allows up to 23 endpoints to be combined with ports as wide as 16 lanes, providing nearly 16GB/s of bandwidth on each link
• Downstream Port Containment - Isolates errors in any endpoint from bringing down the entire system
• Dedicated Port Management - Enables software control of switch features for customized implementations using Avago-developed software modules

"PCIe is fundamental to next-generation data centers to manage the growth and complexity of data traffic," said Tom Swinford, senior vice president and general manager, Data Center Solutions Group at Avago. "With PCIe technology at the core of nearly every product in the data center, fabric convergence within the rack using Avago ExpressFabric is a powerful approach for intra-rack connectivity to enable powerful performance and scaling of systems."

http://www.avagotech.com/

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Xirrus XD4 Packs 4 802.11ac Radios

Xirrus introduced its Xtreme Density (XD) Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) packing four 802.11ac radios for supporting IoT and other other high-density Wi-Fi environments.

The XD platform, paired with Xirrus’XMS cloud management system, automatically chooses the best available bands and power level without IT intervention and customizes client connectivity for the best performance based on the capability of each device. The Xirrus design integrates the controller function into every AP, reducing system costs and improving overall system reliability compared to centralized controllers.

In addition, the company announced today that it is shipping TurboXpress on all Xirrus XD access points. TurboXpress allows administrators to configure every radio on the AP for high-speed 802.11ac operation, providing an instant Wi-Fi performance boost of up to 6x.

“With different devices and applications competing for bandwidth on wireless networks, one AP is not enough to maintain acceptable performance,” says Bruce Miller, Vice President of product marketing. “XD solves this problem by integrating more 802.11ac radios per AP than any solution in the market, and eliminating the central controller from the network. This combination establishes the Xirrus XD as a solution that not only performs better, but actually reduces implementation and ongoing operational costs – a win-win for everyone.”

http://www.xirrus.com/

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Comcast and Lenovo Join Open Daylight Project

Comcast and Lenovo have joined The OpenDaylight Project to support the development of an open, common SDN and NFV platform to enable network automation and programmability.

“We’re seeing more end users starting to adopt OpenDaylight and participate in its development as the community sharpens its focus on stability, scalability, security and performance,” said Neela Jacques, executive director, OpenDaylight. “Comcast has been testing ODL and working with our community since launch and the team at Lenovo were heavily involved in ODL’s foundation through their roots at IBM. Our members see the long-term value of creating a rich ecosystem around open systems and OpenDaylight.”

http://www.opendaylight.org/

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Verizon Cites Mobile Content Strategy for AOL Acquisition

Verizon announced plans to acquire AOL for $50 per share -- an estimated total value of approximately $4.4 billion -- for its digital content and advertising platforms.

Verizon said the deal further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy. The agreement will also support and connect to Verizon’s IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, creating a growth platform from wireless to IoT for consumers and businesses.

Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, said: “Verizon’s vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform. This acquisition supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience.”

He added, “AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world. At Verizon, we’ve been strategically investing in emerging technology, including Verizon Digital Media Services and OTT, that taps into the market shift to digital content and advertising. AOL’s advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams.”

http://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-acquire-aol
http://www.aol.com

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Hortonworks Posts Q1 Revenue of $23 Million, up 167% YoY

In its first quarterly financial report as a public company,  Hortonworks reported Q1 revenue of $22.8 million, an increase of 167% compared to the first quarter of 2014. Total GAAP gross profit was $11.3 million, compared to gross profit of $2.6 million in the first quarter of 2014. GAAP operating loss for the first quarter totaled $40.5 million, compared to a loss of $20.3 million during the first quarter last year. Non-GAAP operating loss for the first quarter was $32.3 million, compared to a loss of $15.8 million during the same period last year.

"We are pleased with our first quarter performance which was highlighted by strong revenue growth and the addition of 105 new support subscription customer logos," said Rob Bearden, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors, Hortonworks. "This brings our support subscription customer base to over 400 and represents over 200% year-over-year growth in our customer base. Coupled with our 143% dollar-based net expansion rate over the trailing four quarters, it is becoming more evident that our land and expand strategy is leading to rapid Hadoop adoption across many enterprise organizations."

http://hortonworks.com/

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Nokia Celebrates 150th Anniversary

Nokia marked its 150th anniversary since its founding in 1865 as a paper company.

"Our history is one of change: from paper to cables, rubber boots to TVs, and mobile phones to the Nokia of today. For 150 years we have embraced such change, emerging stronger as a result, and our recent Alcatel-Lucent announcement marks another such pivotal moment. We are moving forward with conviction, confidence and humility, fully focused on realizing the potential of an increasingly connected world," Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri said.

http://company.nokia.com/

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