Cisco vs Arista Ruling from ITC: 3 Patent Violations, 2 Patents Cleared

The International Trade Commission (ITC) issued an initial determination in a patent infringement case brought by Cisco against Arista Networks.

The ruling found that Arista violated three of Cisco's patents: U.S. Patent 7,162,537 (“[E]xternally Managing Router Configuration Data … With A Centralized Database”) (Sysdb) and U.S. Patent Nos. 6,741,592 and 7,200,145 (Private VLANs).

Cisco said the ruling foreshadows an exclusion order banning imports of all Arista switches (implemented after confirmation by the full Commission).

Arista Networks noted that the ruling found that it did not infringe two of five patents being asserted in this case, thus clearing two of the four accused features in its EOS.

Arista said it also intends to fully address the infringement allegations with a new release of EOS available for software download in Q2 2016.

“Our primary focus is the continued supply of products to our customers. We respect the administrative process and the tireless work of the ALJ in this preliminary decision. We strongly believe that we have not infringed any of the patents in the investigation and look forward to the final determination of the full commission in June 2016,” said Marc Taxay, Vice President, General Counsel of Arista Networks.

Cisco filed the ITC complaint against Arista on December 19, 2014.

http://www.arista.com
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/protecting-innovation-itc-initial-determination

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Versa's FlexVNFs Run on Optimized EMC NFV Infrastructure

Versa Networks has tested and validated the interoperability of its FlexVNF software on EMC’s Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVi) platform to create an integrated “vCPE in a box” solution for deploying virtualized network and security functions in service provider points of presence (PoP) or data centers. The companies said this vCPE-in-a-box solution enables managed network and security services using virtualized network functions (VNF) and x86-based open hardware.

It supports a variety of Virtual Infrastructure Management choices, including VMware VIO with NSX and ESX, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (OSP) with OpenStack Open vSwitch (OVS) and KVM. Hardware abstraction and orchestration is provided by EMC’s NFVi Manager software and high-performance storage is provided through EMC ScaleIO. VNFs are provided by Versa FlexVNF software and include a wide range of networking and advanced security functions including routing, VPN, CGNAT, next-gen firewall, URL filtering, AV/IPS and more with integrated service chaining.

Versa with EMC vCPE is highly efficient and cost effective for service providers because it provides multi-tenancy across all its services, coupled with the ability to easily add VNFs by provisioning additional virtual machines (VMs). Each Versa VNF supports up to 250 end-customer organizations – greatly reducing head-end capex for providers versus having to deploy individual aggregation devices for each end customer.

“EMC has decades of experience helping global corporations build, scale and operate mission critical infrastructure as well as helping communications service providers build high-margin offers,” said David Hudson, General Manager of Telecom Modernization at EMC Corporation. “By working with innovative VNF vendors like Versa Networks to validate their solutions on EMC’s NFVi solution architecture stack, we are bringing that expertise to bear to make NFV a reality for more service providers and network operators.”

“We continue to hear from our provider customers and prospects that they want to decouple networking and security software from hardware, and realize the benefits of network function virtualization (NFV),” said Mark Weiner, CMO of Versa Networks. “Just like server and storage virtualization has dramatically improved the cost and agility of data center resources, NFV is bringing the same value proposition to carriers and their managed service offerings. We are aligned with EMC to bring the benefits of NFV innovation to provider customers globally.”

http://www.emc.com
http://www.versa-networks.com

Versa Unveils its Vision for the SD-WAN

Tuesday, November 10, 2015  SD-WAN, Silicon Valley, Start-ups, Versa, WAN  No comments

Versa Networks, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, introduced its software-defined WAN portfolio and outlined its vision to transform how enterprises build their WAN and branch office networks. The Versa solution leverages virtualized network functions (VNF), programmability and dynamic provisioning to re-architect the WAN and branch network for much greater agility, cost efficiency and simpler operations.


The Versa VNF solution consists of three components that together create next generation WANs and branch networks:

• Versa FlexVNF: The core building block for Versa VNF solutions, which includes a broad set of virtualized network and security functions with carrier-grade multi-tenancy, programmability, service chaining, service elasticity and cost-effective deployment choices
• Versa Director: Single point of centralized control and management for both connectivity and services
• Versa Analytics: A real-time analytics engine that provides control, visibility, prediction and a feedback loop for adaptability

By eliminating proprietary hardware and truck rolls, the company estimates it can cut the total cost of ownership by up to 80%. For service providers and large enterprises, Versa said its solution changes the game by enabling multi-tenancy with the ability to provision and manage hundreds of individual customers or business subsidiaries.  Versa supports multi-service capabilties with automatic service chaining, enabling complex managed services and branch network architectures with multiple networking and security functions. The Versa VNFs run on commodity-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware.

In its launch materials, Versa cited Orange and Colt.

http://www.versa-networks.com/products/

• Versa Networks was founded in 2012 by Kumar (CEO) and Apurva Mehta (CTO), who are credited with the development of the MX series routers at Juniper Networks.
• The company has raised $43 million in funding to date.  Investors include Sequoia, Verizon Ventures and Mayfield.

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Apcera's CEO Derek Collison on Containerization and Microservices

Containerization is really the hot topic these days, but it is similar to the term "microservices" -- not necessarily something new, but just really taking effect, says Derek Collison, Founder and CEO of Apcera.

This video discusses the massive decomposition of software systems underway and how containerization is proving to be especially effective.

"If we really want to build faster, we actually build less and we assemble more...," says Collison.

https://youtu.be/tiJdcKb3TIc

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BT Suffers Nationwide Outage

BT's broadband network suffered a widespread outage across the UK on Tuesday.  In a statement, BT said the outage did not appear to be the result of a malicious attack. Service was restored in most locations in two hours.

http://btplc.com/News/#/

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Coriant Transcend SDN Packet Controller for IP/MPLS

Coriant is expanding its Transcend SDN Solutions portfolio with the introduction of a packet controller optimized for mobile backhaul and carrier aggregation networks. Combining the Coriant Transcend SDN Transport Controller and Coriant Transcend SDN Packet Controller enables full, end-to-end network control – from optical transport to IP/MPLS access and aggregation networks.

Coriant said its new Transcend SDN Packet Controller supports a broad range of packet-based access and aggregation transport network use cases, including:

• Automated provisioning via customer portals
• Dynamic load distribution based on network congestion
• Alarm-based service re-route to reduce network instability
• Automated assignment of SRLG LSPs over diverse optical paths
• Low latency services
• WAN integration with virtualized and cloud-based services

Key features of the Coriant Transcend SDN Packet Controller include:

• Programming interfaces built upon standards-based interfaces (RESTCONF/YANG) for seamless interoperability with third-party OSS, orchestrators, and applications. The open API framework simplifies end-to-end service provisioning and enables automated synchronization between IP/MPLS and optical layers for enhanced multi-layer traffic engineering and optimization.
• A centralized Path Computation Element (PCE) that defines traffic flows based on real-time performance criteria in addition to traditional routing algorithms for context-optimized path computation and routing (e.g., routing based on network congestion or underlying optical transport paths). These capabilities have been shown to enable network operators to increase network utilization, improve network reliability, simplify operations, and deliver performance-aware services, while enabling efficiency improvements that can generate CapEx savings of up to 35%.
• Support for new and currently deployed network elements, as well as interoperability with existing NMS deployments, including the Coriant® 8000 Intelligent Network Manager (INM), to enable seamless migration and a non-disruptive roll out of network-wide SDN programmability.

“The introduction of the Coriant Transcend SDN Packet Controller follows upon successful completion of Tier 1 customer and multi-vendor interoperability trials,” said Paul Smelters, Executive Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Coriant. “This solution significantly strengthens the Coriant Transcend™ SDN Solutions portfolio by advancing SDN-enabled IP/Optical interworking at a time when network operators are looking to simplify multi-layer architectures without sacrificing scalability, flexibility, or resiliency.”

http://www.coriant.com/company/press-releases/Coriant-Extends-SDN-Control-from.asp

Blueprint: The Age of Swiss Army Knife Transponder

Thursday, October 15, 2015  100G, Blueprint, Coriant, DWDM  No comments

by Dr. Danish Rafique and Dr. Maxim Kuschnerov, Coriant What does the term flexibility signify for the optical transport business? In today’s market space, this is a challenging question, as the degrees of freedom are practically limitless. Over the last decades, the industry has exclusively focused primarily on increasing transport bandwidth or overall capacity per fiber. However, simple bit loading beyond 100G interfaces has resulted in significantly...

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Coriant Adds to its Transcend SDN Platform

Thursday, October 08, 2015  #SDN, Coriant  No comments

Coriant is rolling out a set of new capabilities for its Transcend SDN Transport Controller including enhanced multi-layer optimization and standards-based service interworking.  The company's approach is to combine SDN with its packet optical transport and smart router products to enable dynamic, end-to-end network control in an open network environment. The platform is currently in customer trials. "The lack of efficient interworking in...

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Venture Investors Pour $793.5 million into Magic Leap

Magic Leap, a start-up pursuing a next-gen computing paradigm that combines digital and physical realities, announced $793.5 million in new funding, led by Alibaba Group.

Magic Leap is developing its Dynamic Digitized Lightfield Signal -- the ability "to generate images indistinguishable from real objects and then being able to place those images seamless into the real world."

The company said continued investment cam from Google, Qualcomm Ventures and others. New investment also came from Warner Bros., Fidelity Management, J.P. Morgan Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and Wellington Management Company.

“Here at Magic Leap we are creating a new world where digital and physical realities seamlessly blend together to enable amazing new experiences. This investment will accelerate bringing our new Mixed Reality Lightfield experience to everyone,” said Rony Abovitz, Founder, President, and CEO of Magic Leap.

http://www.magicleap.com/

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Oclaro Cites Continued Strong Growth in 100G

Oclaro reported revenues of $94.1 million for the second quarter of its fiscal 2016, compared with revenues of $87.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2016. GAAP gross margin was 28.3% for the second quarter of fiscal 2016, compared with GAAP gross margin of 25.9% in the first quarter of fiscal 2016. GAAP net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 was $0.2 million. This compares with a GAAP net loss of $3.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2016.

"With a second consecutive quarter of 20 percent sales growth in our 100G portfolio we again delivered stronger financial performance. The quarterly revenue growth drove higher gross margin and net income," said Greg Dougherty, Chief Executive Officer, Oclaro. "We continue to see robust demand for our 100G product portfolio combined with favorable market conditions. As we expand capacity in Asia, both for our current and new 100G products, we expect revenue growth in 2016 to continue."

http://www.oclaro.com

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