Sunday, August 16, 2015

Fujitsu Unveils Open 1FINITY Networking Platform

Fujitsu is introducing a new multi-layer category of networking equipment that leverages disaggregated architecture and dense form-factor blades for fast time-to-market, low initial investment, and efficient scaling. The first product is targeted at the data center interconnect market (DCI).

The Fujitsu 1FINITY platform marks a strategic departure from physically aggregated platforms, emphasizing open development, optimized functionality, and increased operating efficiencies.  Leveraging functional disaggregation, the initial platform release comprises four distinct product families providing transport, lambda, switch, and access functionality.

Fujitsu said each product in this 1FINITY family will be an independent system on a blade that is capable of being a full network element. The self-contained, modular blades can stand alone to deliver specific functionality or be combined with others for a broader network solution. The software framework logically reaggregates modular functions and provides a consolidated northbound interface, supporting communication with a user’s operations support system (OSS) and business support system (BSS).

The Fujitsu 1FINITY platform will use blades as compact as one rack unit (1RU).  The design eliminates rack partitioning due to chassis boundaries. Fujitsu will offer open pluggable optics. This will simplify procurement for users. Fujitsu will also support open APIs and open standard protocols. By separating the blades from a shelf, network operators will benefit from independent blade improvement and replacement as functionality advances.  Fujitsu also promises interoperability and backward compatibility between the new 1FINITY and its existing FLASHWAVE platforms.

The first product in the series is the 1FINITY T100 blade, which is designed specifically for metro data center interconnect (mDCI) applications.  The blade delivers 1.6 Tbps of bidirectional transport capacity.  Other key features include SDN-enabled Linux software, support for the latest optical technologies, and compliance with DWDM transmission standards. Customer trials of the 1FINITY T100 blade are in progress, and general availability is scheduled for December 2015.

“DCI is the fastest-growing application for optical networking equipment,” said Rod Naphan, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Fujitsu Network Communications. “Fujitsu’s response to this market demand is a purpose-built product with cost, space, and power attributes that will enable hyperscale data center operators to reduce their footprints and power requirements, efficiently scale their metro clouds, and create new Fujitsu will expand the 1FINITY portfolio beyond the mDCI solution with blades for wavelength services, extended-reach transport, high-density packet switching, innovative access, and multilayer interoperation with the FLASHWAVE 9500 platform."

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom/news/newsroom.html

EC Project SESAME Targets 5G with RAN Virtualization + Edge Computing

The European Commission has awarded EUR 8 million grant to a consortium of telecom industry vendors to develop the infrastructure required to support the future 5G network and communication systems.

Project SESAME, which is led by Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) and funded under the EC Horizon 2020 programme (H2020), will design and demonstrate virtualised, cloud-enabled, multi-operator, frequency agile, 5G-oriented radio access and services.

Project SESAME targets innovations around the three central elements of 5G: network intelligence through Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Mobile Edge Cloud Computing, substantial evolution of the Small Cell concept to create targeted coverage and capacity, and the consolidation of multi-tenancy in mobile network infrastructure; allowing several operators and service providers to engage in new sharing models.

"The old model for cellular, with dedicated hardware and dedicated spectrum per operator, is breaking down," said Dr. Nick Johnson, CTO of ip.access. "As demand continues to grow exponentially, with limited additional spectrum, flat subscriber growth and falling revenues per subscriber, new ways have to be found to use the resources we have more efficiently. This project does this by allowing spectrum to be shared between operators in a controllable, measurable and agile way."

Project SESAME consortium includes 18 members that span across the European Union, including the UK, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Greece.

http://www.ipaccess.com
http://horizon2020projects.com/
http://horizon2020projects.com/il-ict/h2020-backs-5g-infrastructure-project/

NYT: AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale

Citing leaked documents, The New York Times reported that AT&T has passed billions of emails flowing across its domestic network to the NSA and that it was instrumental in helping the NSA to wiretap the United Nations in New York.

The article describes a "highly collaborative" relationship between 2003 and 2013. The leaked documents are attributed to Edward Snowden.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html

Video: Operators Want a Single Journey of Transformation

Operators are going to embark on a single transformation journey covering SDN, NFV, cloud and the OSS transformation, says Bala Thekkedath, SDN/NFV Product Marketing Lead for Ericsson.

There are numerous open source projects underway in each layer of the network.  OpenDaylight is the open source effort underway for the SDN controller. Ericsson has already moved from use cases to Service Provider deployments for SDN controllers. But we have to remember that the transformation must happen at other layers as well.

See 2-minute video: https://youtu.be/0ulX7a7gGHM