Mirantis Launches NFV/OpenStack Initiative

Mirantis has launched a network function virtualization (NFV) initiative with partners Citrix, Metaswitch Networks and Overture Networks.

Mirantis will offer an NFV reference architecture and OpenStack validation program for partner virtual network functions (VNFs). New partner validations have been completed for:

• Citrix NetScaler
• Metaswitch‘s Perimeta Session Border Controller (SBC)
• Overture Networks’ Ensemble Service Orchestrator (ESO), which provides NFVO & VNFM capabilities and will be validated with Mirantis OpenStack and a broad ecosystem of VNFs

Mirantis’ NFV initiative will also add critical NFV features to Mirantis OpenStack, making it a carrier-grade OpenStack distribution that offers a small physical footprint, high availability (HA), single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) and other NFV features that support high performance VNF deployments.

“The telecommunications industry is in the midst of a massive transformation. It faces a ballooning customer base consuming massive amounts of data, and competition from a new wave of startups born out of the Web,” said Mirantis VP of Product and Partner Marketing, Kamesh Pammaraju.

https://www.mirantis.com/company/press-center/company-news/mirantis-launches-nfv-initiative-citrix-metaswitch-overture-networks/

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FCC Proposal Seeks Outage Reports for Submarine Cables

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering new rules that would require submarine cable licensees to report significant outages to the FCC. Licensees currently only report outages on an ad hoc basis, so the FCC only has limited data.

The FCC notes that there are approximately 60 primary submarine cables that connect the mainland U.S. and Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories, as well as between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Under the new proposal, submarine cable licensees report would be required to report major outages (i.e. outages involving either lost connectivity or degradation of 50 percent or more of an undersea cable’s capacity for periods of at least 30 minutes, regardless of whether the cable’s traffic is re-routed) to the agency’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS). The Commission also seeks comment on how the agency can improve submarine cable deployment processes generally.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-rules-promote-reliable-submarine-cable-communications

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Facebook's VP of Infrastructure to Chair Open Compute Project

Jason Taylor, vice president of infrastructure at Facebook, will serve as the president and chairman of the OCP Foundation board of directors from October 2015 to October 2016. He takes over from his former Facebook colleague Frank Frankovsky, who led the board since the foundation was created in late 2011.

The OCP Foundation board of directors has decided to adopt an annual rotating leadership among the member companies who serve on the board: Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Microsoft, and Rackspace.

http://www.opencompute.org/blog/new-leadership-on-the-ocp-foundation-board/

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Ericsson Expands 5G R&D Program in Europe

Ericsson is expanding its cross-industry 5G research and development (R&D) program in Europe, aiming to bring together major industrial players, the public sector and leading universities across Europe to strengthen the continent's competitiveness and maximize the benefits of the Networked Society.

The 5G for Europe program will focus on delivering research, innovation and industrial pilots that use next-generation 5G networks as an enabler. One of the goals is to deliver industry pilots of possible 5G solutions in areas including transport and automotive, the Internet of Things, utilities, public safety, public infrastructure and retail.

The program's academic and research partners include major technical universities such as Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, IMDEA Networks Institute, Madrid, Spain, and King's College, London, United Kingdom. Among the industry partners are leading enterprises such as wiseSense, Weiss Robotics and MyOmega System Technology in Germany and Zucchetti Centro Sistemi in Italy.

Ulf Ewaldsson, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson, says: "5G is the next step in the evolution of mobile communication and will be a fundamental enabler of the Networked Society. However, Ericsson needs to work together with industries to understand their specific network requirements in order to realize the full benefits of 5G technologies. "By expanding our 5G program to include major partners across Europe, we will gain valuable insights that will enable industries to digitalize effectively, to create new value and to strengthen the competitive position of European industry."

http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/releases/2015/09/1952645

• In March 2015, Ericsson launched the 5G for Sweden R&D program, together with partners in Swedish industry and academia. 5G for Europe broadens this initiative to seven countries and 10 institutions, with further partners to be included over time.
  
• Ericsson noted that around 60 percent of its global R&D spending is invested in Europe, and 15,000 of Ericsson's 25,000 R&D employees work in Europe. 
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Ericsson's 5G Radio Test Bed Tops 5 Gbps

Wednesday, February 25, 2015  5G, Ericsson  No comments

An Ericsson 5G radio test bed has topped 5 Gbps throughput.  The company will demonstrate fundamental 5G technologies at next week's Mobile World Congress, including 5G-LTE Dual Connectivity and 5G Multipoint Connectivity. Ericsson's 5G radio test bed features 5G devices and 5G radio base stations operating at in the high frequency 15 GHz band. 5G-LTE Dual Connectivity:  The 5G mobile device moves between LTE and 5G radio access coverage...

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China Mobile and ZTE Sign TD-LTE with South Korea

ZTE has signed a cooperation agreement with China Mobile Research Institute and South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) for research including TDD/FDD data roaming and VoLTE.

"We are delighted to cooperate with ZTE and China Mobile in this project," said Dr. Cui Kuishi, head of the Convergence Technology research department at MSIP’s Telecommunications Institute. "China Mobile and ZTE are leaders in the global telecommunications industry, and this strategic cooperation will help South Korea with the deployment of 4G interconnection and interoperability tests, especially the tests based on TD-LTE."

"We are excited about this tripartite cooperation with MSIP and China Mobile,” said Jason Cao, ZTE’s chief representative in South Korea. “The adoption of common telecommunications standards in China and South Korea will generate increased opportunities for industry and commerce, as trade and partnerships between businesses in the two countries grow under the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement.”

http://www.zte.com.cn

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