Facebook's Latest Open Compute Project Data Center

Facebook has kicked off construction of its fifth mega data center in Fort Worth, Texas. The new site will join the other major Facebook data centers located in Prineville (Oregon), Forest City (North Carolina), Lulea (Sweden), and Altoona (Iowa). The new Fort Worth data center will feature the latest Open Compute Project hardware designs — including Yosemite, Wedge, and 6-pack — making it one of the most advanced data centers in the world. Notably,...

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Cisco to Acquire MaintenanceNet for $139 Million

Cisco will pay $139 million in cash and retention incentives to acquire MaintenanceNet, a privately held company providing a cloud-based software platform that uses data analytics and automation to manage and scale attach and renewals of recurring customer contracts. MaintenanceNet, which is based in Carlsbad, California, operates a ServiceExchange cloud platform that helps manufacturers improve service renewals and identify uncovered product...

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CableLabs Details New Remote PHY Specs for DOCSIS

CableLabs posted information on several different Distributed CCAP Architectures (including Remote PHY and Remote MAC-PHY). Last month, CableLabs publicly issued the Remote PHY family of specifications. Theses specifications are also known as MHAv2 as these are an evolution from the original Modular Headend Architecture specifications. In a blog posting, Karthik Sundaresan, Principal Architect, CableLabs, describes how the Remote PHY technology...

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Ooredoo Kuwait Picks VMware vCloud for NFV Platform

Ooredoo Kuwait has deployed both Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and IT applications on a single, unified cloud based on the VMware vCloud for NFV platform. Specifically, VMware's professional services team partnered with Ooredoo Kuwait and their VNF vendor Huawei to design and deploy the VMware vCloud for NFV platform and virtual network functions into a test environment in less than three months. VMware said its vCloud for NFV supported...

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Virgin America Teams with ViaSat for Ku- and Ka-Band Satellite

Virgin America announced a new technology partnership with ViaSat to bring faster satellite broadband to the airline's 10 new A320 aircraft deliveries, beginning in September of this year.  Virgin America will tap the power and economics of ViaSat-1, the highest capacity Ka-band satellite in the world, offering 140 gigabits-per-second, to deliver the fastest in-flight Wi-Fi service for high-quality video streaming. The deal will make Virgin...

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Xilinx Collaborates with China Mobile on 5G Fronthaul Interface

Xilinx is working with China Mobile Research Institute (CMRI) for the development of the next generation fronthaul interface (NGFI) for 5G. Fronthaul is the link between the baseband and radio units, which are expected to be distributed in 5G architectures. Specifically, Xilinx is contributing to the NGFI eco-system with a validated NGFI reference design on its Zynq SoC platform. The reference design, which can easily be migrated to other Zynq and...

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Comcast Boosts Residential Speeds

Comcast is increasing the speed of its Blast! tier by almost 50 percent to 150 Mbps (formerly 105 Mbps) and introducing a new Performance Pro speed tier of 75 Mbps, for customers in New England and mid-Atlantic states. “Today, our customers simultaneously connect to the Internet through multiple smartphones, tablets and laptops, and whether it’s to stream, shop, video chat, upload photos or do homework, we’re committed to ensuring they get the...

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