Ericsson Pushes Gigabit LTE and Hyper-Scalable RAN

Ericsson's next Networks Software 16B release will support 1 Gbps LTE user downlink rates and feature "hyper-scalable" radio access network (RAN) architecture. New Elastic RAN will harness interconnected basebands for optimal coordination throughout the network as a foundation in Cloud Radio Access Network (RAN) deployment. Ericsson is also adding to its Radio System portfolio with new microwave backhaul products and new access radios supporting 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM.

Ericsson Networks Software 16B, which is slated for commercial release in Q2, will be showcased later this month at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.  Key features include:

• Three component Carrier Aggregation (CA) which enables the user to benefit from up to 60 MHz combined bandwidth from different spectrum bands simultaneously;
• 4X4 MIMO (multiple input multiple output) which doubles the number of unique data streams being transmitted to the user’s smartphone, thereby enabling up to twice the capacity and data throughput;
• LTE 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) encoding which packs more bits into the available spectrum; and
• Ericsson Lean Carrier, which increases both the data throughput received by end users, and overall system capacity by reducing the interference caused by excess reference signaling across the LTE network.

Ericsson’s new Elastic RAN enables every Ericsson Radio System LTE baseband unit to coordinate with any adjacent one, whether in a centralized, distributed or hybrid network architecture using high-performance Ethernet transport networks.  Ericsson said this Elastic RAN approach ensures that capabilities such as Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) can improve the user’s app coverage network wide irrespective of the baseband deployment scenario.

The Ericsson Radio System, which launched in Q1 2015 and became generally available in Q3 2015, is now complemented with three new radio access products supporting 4X4 MIMO as well as new spectrum bands and spectrum re-farming:

• Radio 4415 with 4x40W output power supports 4x4 MIMO to increase capacity by doubling the available data streams
• Radio 2012 adds support for the 1.4 GHz Supplemental Downlink band, thereby adding capacity to the network
• Radio 2212 with 2x80W output power to facilitate spectrum re-farming as operators upgrade from 2G to 3G and LTE

New microwave additions to the Ericsson Radio System include:

• MINI-LINK 6651, a compact indoor unit with a link capacity of 1.9 Gbps (using 4096 QAM and a 112 MHz channel), which is used for split mount deployments using an outdoor radio unit.
• MINI-LINK 6354, a two carrier all outdoor solution for traditional frequency bands, providing a capacity of 2.8 Gbps (using 4096 QAM and 112 MHz channels).
• Multi-band Booster, which provides a significant boost in performance and improved use of spectrum, by combining a wider high frequency channel with a narrow low frequency channel. One example is bonding of an E-band microwave radio, (70 and 80 GHz) together with a radio using a channel in the 23 GHz to enable 10 times more capacity than 23 GHz alone.
• High Performance Compact antennas for the current MINI-LINK 6363, MINI-LINK 6352 and Fronthaul 6392

"Our latest combination of software, hardware and network architecture innovations supported on the Ericsson Radio System, ensure that our mobile operator customers can continue to delight their customers while driving network performance and efficiency improvements as they evolve to 5G. Gigabit LTE, Elastic RAN, and new radio access and microwave backhaul products are all designed to help our operators become the frontrunners in their markets,” stated Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Radio, Ericsson.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/160204-ericsson-unleashes-gigabit-lte-and-creates-hyperscale-cloud-ran_244039856_c

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LinkedIn Develops its Own Data Center Switch

LinkedIn's engineering team has developed its own data center switch to keep up with the rapidly growing traffic demands of its professional, social network.

The new switch, dubbed "Pigeon", is a 3.2 Tbps switching platform that can be used as a leaf or spine switch. It uses Broadcom's latest Tomahawk silicon (32X100G) and switch software developed in house.

In a blog post, Zaid Ali Kahn describes why the company decided to take on the difficult task of switching software code development rather than relying on an existing network equipment supplier. Key reason include ongoing bugs, unneeded features, lack of a Linux-based platform support tools such as Chef/Puppet/CFEngine, out-of-date monitoring capabilities, and the high-cost of scaling the software license.

The Pigeon switch will be deployed in LinkedIn's upcoming data center in Oregon.

https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2016/02/falco-decoupling-switching-hardware-and-software-pigeon

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Ericsson Rolls out WCDMA Upgrades

Ericsson announced three WCDMA solutions: CDMA Flow of Users, Zero Touch WCDMA and Mobile Broadband Expander.  The company said these updates represent a significant step toward realizing itsvision of mobile broadband for everyone.

Currently, there are 3.6 billion mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide, corresponding to a penetration rate of less than 50% of world population. Ericsson believes over ninety percent of the world’s population to be covered by WCDMA/HSPA mobile broadband networks by 2021.

• WCDMA Flow of Users allows operators to maintain an optimal flow of smartphone users through a 3G/WCDMA network. It uses a defined selection of software features and settings to automatically balance active user count and consumer experience. As a result, operators can maximize smartphone user experience, even during busy traffic-load conditions, while ensuring high-quality voice services. The solution is already proven in the field, with global operators successfully doubling – or better – their network uplink and downlink throughput performance, while substantially reducing dropped call rates.
• The Zero Touch WCDMA approach industrializes the Flow of Users solution across all features and parameters in a 3G/WCDMA network, resulting in what can be termed a gold standard. With a gold standard setting based on Ericsson recommendations, a Zero Touch period is introduced in the RAN software upgrade cycle. During the Zero Touch period, there is minimal need for an operator to configure or tune a network, except when dimensioning or expanding coverage. This radically reduces the management effort for a 3G/WCDMA installation, supports faster upgrades, and can triple operational efficiency, along with maintaining high-quality app coverage in both low and high traffic-load scenarios.
• Mobile Broadband Expander with Intelligent Antenna Sharing enables antenna reuse between existing GSM sites and new WCDMA equipment, as well as reuse of site power, microwave and transport infrastructure. Reusing resources in this way can reduce TCO by more than 60 percent compared with building a conventional site, and supports accelerated rollout of 3G technologies.

“The latest Ericsson Mobility Report shows that 20 new mobile broadband subscriptions are activated every second, and will reach 7.7 billion globally by 2021. 3G/WCDMA networks will continue to be the foundation as mobile broadband brings new possibilities to people and industries around the world. For operators, capturing this global opportunity requires performance, efficiency and innovation – exactly what Ericsson’s new WCDMA launches deliver. We are committed to broadband for everyone, and in terms of supporting coverage growth, these solutions represent some of the most important additions ever to our portfolio,” stated Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Radio, Ericsson.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/160204-latest-ericsson-wcdma-launches-to-accelerate-mobile-broadband-for-everyone_244039856_c

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Verizon, Sequans Collaborate on LTE CAT M Chipsets

Sequans Communications and Verizon are collaborating to accelerate development of CAT M-capable LTE chipsets.

Category M is based on the coming Release 13 of the 3GPP LTE standard, which defines new features such as extended coverage, lower data rate and lower power consumption.  Cat M LTE is aimed at a new class of LTE applications for machine-type-communications (MTC) devices, such as wearables, asset trackers, smart meters and industrial sensors.

Verizon and Sequans previously collaborated on CAT 1 LTE technology, which led to Verizon becoming the first in the world to deploy CAT 1 LTE devices commercially.

“We led the industry when we introduced our Calliope CAT 1 LTE chipset platform, tested it on Verizon’s network, and introduced it to the market where it is now being deployed broadly,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “And we are excited to extend our partnership with Verizon to address the CAT M space. Having the support of Verizon will ensure the new Sequans CAT M-capable chipsets currently in development will be ready as quickly as possible.”

http://www.sequans.com

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Box Offers Encryption Key Management with AWS

Box introduced new solutions for customer managed encryption, ensuring independent control of encryption keys.

Box KeySafe is available in two offerings.  The first combines Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a dedicated hardware storage module (HSM) to protect keys used to encrypt sensitive data. The second integrates with AWS Key Management Service but doesn't require dedicated HSMs.

“Businesses of every size across even the most regulated of industries can now take full control of their data in the cloud with Box KeySafe,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “Today, we’re making customer-managed encryption easier to deploy and more cost-effective than ever before, further raising the bar for security in the cloud.”

http://www.box.com

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Nokia Predicts Network Capacity Needs for IPTV

Nokia is introducing two separate analytics capabilities for operators to  ensure the proper network capacity to support new services and maintain the highest quality IPTV service.

• Capacity Advisor for Nokia Performance Manager (NPM) analyzes past and present network use data to predict the network capacity operators will need to keep up with growth in service usage when launching a service or marketing campaign. Operators can create 'what-if' scenarios to identify capacity bottlenecks and plan capacity upgrades in the right locations at the right time without disrupting the customer experience.
• Nokia Service Quality Manager (SQM) for IPTV lets operators rapidly identify and fix IPTV service issues 50% more quickly to halve the number of service-related customer complaints. Operators can see on one dashboard the quality of the IPTV service they are delivering and automatically prioritize corrective actions and avoid unnecessary site visits.
  

"By combining intelligent analytics engines and Nokia's deep expertise in operating, optimizing and delivering multivendor, multitechnology networks, we deliver top network and service quality along with the ability to take action quickly. Today's launch of new capabilities for Nokia Performance Manager includes thousands of off-the-shelf KPIs and reports based on real operational cases," stated Bhaskar Gorti, President of Applications & Analytics, at Nokia.

http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2016/02/04/nokia-launches-analytics-to-predict-network-capacity-needs-and-protect-iptv-service-quality-mwc16

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Viavi Appoints Oleg Khaykin as CEO

Viavi Solutions appointed Oleg Khaykin as its new President and CEO, replacing interim President and CEO Richard E. Belluzzo, who will continue his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Khaykin has also been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Viavi, Khaykin was a Senior Advisor with Silver Lake Partners.  Before that, he was President and CEO of International Rectifier from 2008 until its acquisition by Infineon AG in the January of 2015. He has also served as Chief Operating Officer of Amkor Technology and Vice President of Strategy & Business Development at Conexant Systems.  Earlier in his career he spent eight years with The Boston Consulting Group and prior to that, he was an engineer at Motorola.

http://www.viavisolutions.com/

Viavi Announces Leadership Change One Week After Launch

Tuesday, August 11, 2015  People, Viavi  No comments

The Board of Directors of Viavi Solutions appointed Richard E. Belluzzo as interim president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Belluzzo currently serves as Chairman.  Tom Waechter has stepped down as the company's president and chief executive officer and Board member. The Viavi Board is commencing a search for a permanent president and chief executive officer.

The announcement follows the separation of JDSU into two public companies on August 1, 2015 -- Viavi and Lumentum.

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RagingWire Data Centers Appoints President

RagingWire Data Centers, which is an NTT Communications group company, has appointed Douglas S. Adams as president of the company effective immediately.

In this new role, Mr. Adams will be responsible for leading the company’s strategic growth plan focused on building wholesale data center campuses in top North American data center markets and working with NTT Communications and its affiliates as part of one of the world’s largest data center colocation providers.

Prior to being named president, Mr. Adams held multiple executive positions at RagingWire leading sales, marketing, product, and operations, and was most recently Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer. Previously, he served as general manager of the magnetic and optical data storage products division of NEC Technologies, Inc., and in sales, business development, and senior management at Mars, Inc.

RagingWire Data Centers has nearly 1,000,000 square feet of data center space and 80 megawatts of power in the United States, and an additional 3,000,000 square feet currently under development.

http://www.ragingwire.com/news/douglas-adams-named-president-of-ragingwire-data-centers

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