Ericsson: North America to Lead in 5G Rollouts

Mobile broadband to account for 90 percent of all subscriptions by 2022, according to the newly-released Ericsson Mobility Report. North America is set to lead in 5G rollouts and Ericsson is predicting that 25 percent of all subscriptions will be 5G in North America in 2022, representing the highest market penetration in the world.

"Almost 90 percent of smartphone subscriptions are on 3G and 4G networks today and standardized 5G networks are expected to be available in 2020. We are already seeing a great interest among operators in launching pre-standard 5G networks. 5G will accelerate the digital transformation in many industries, enabling new use cases in areas such as IoT, automation, transport and big data," stated Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, Ericsson.

Some highlights of the Ericsson Mobility Report:

• Asia Pacific will be the second fastest growing region for 5G subscriptions, with 10 percent of all subscriptions being 5G in 2022. From 2016 to 2022, Middle East and Africa will dramatically shift from a region with a majority of GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions, to 80 percent of all subscriptions on WCDMA/HSPA and LTE.
• By the end of 2016, there will be 3.9 billion smartphone subscriptions. Almost 90 percent of these subscriptions will be registered on WCDMA/HSPA and LTE networks. 
• By 2022, the number of smartphone subscriptions is forecast to reach 6.8 billion, with more than 95 percent of the subscriptions registered on WCDMA/HSPA, LTE and 5G networks.
• As of Q3 2016, 84 million new mobile subscriptions were added during the quarter to reach a total of 7.5 billion, growing at around 3 percent year-on-year. 
• India grew the most in terms of net additions during the quarter (+15 million), followed by China (+14 million), Indonesia (+6 million), Myanmar (+4 million) and the Philippines (+4 million). 
• Mobile broadband subscriptions are growing by around 25 percent year-on-year, increasing by approximately 190 million in Q3 2016 alone. 
• The total number of mobile broadband subscriptions is now around 4.1 billion.
• In Q3 2016, data traffic grew around 10 percent quarter-on-quarter and 50 percent year-on-year.
• Mobile video traffic is forecast to grow by around 50 percent annually through 2022 to account for nearly 75 percent of all mobile data traffic.

https://www.ericsson.com/news/2056743?categoryFilter=press-releases_1270673222_c

Read More

Cisco Posts Revenue of $12.4 Billion, up 1% YoY

Cisco reported revenue of $12.4 billion for its first quarter of FY 2017. Net income (GAAP) came in at $2.3 billion or $0.46 per share, and non-GAAP net income was $3.1 billion or $0.61 per share.

"We had a good quarter despite a challenging global business environment and we performed well in our priority areas," said Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco. "We are leading our customers in their digital transition by providing them with highly secure, automated, and intelligent solutions in the ways they want to consume them. Our innovation pipeline is robust and we are well positioned for the future."

Some highlights:

• Total revenue was $12.4 billion, up 1%, with product revenue down 1% and service revenue up 7%. 
• Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas down 1%, EMEA flat, and APJC up 6%. 
• Product revenue performance was led by Security and NGN Routing which increased 11% and 6%, respectively. Switching decreased 7%, Collaboration and Data Center each decreased 3%, and Wireless and Service Provider Video each decreased 2%.
• Total gross margin (GAAP) and product gross margin were 63.8% and 63.4%, respectively. 
• Headcount decreased by 1,326 to 72,385, compared to the prior quarter.

http://investor.cisco.com/investor-relations/overview/default.aspx

Read More

Microsoft Makes Open Source Commitments

Microsoft announced a number of big moves to bolster its standing with the open source community, including:

• joining the Linux Foundation as a Platinum Member
• welcoming Google to the independent .NET Foundation
• working with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to enable .NET developers to build apps for more than 50 million Samsung devices worldwide
• demonstrating a preview of Visual Studio for Mac, which enables developers to write cloud, mobile and macOS apps on Apple’s Mac operating system using the popular development environment
• previewing the next version of the company’s flagship SQL Server database with support for Linux, Linux-based Docker containers and Windows-based environments
• and previewing Azure App Service on Linux with support for containers.

“We want to help developers achieve more and capitalize on the industry’s shift toward cloud-first and mobile-first experiences using the tools and platforms of their choice,” stated Scott Guthrie, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Executive Vice President. “By collaborating with the community to provide open, flexible and intelligent tools and cloud services, we’re helping every developer deliver unprecedented levels of innovation.”

https://news.microsoft.com/2016/11/16/microsoft-contributes-to-open-ecosystem-by-joining-linux-foundation-and-welcoming-google-to-the-net-community/

Read More

Microsoft Contracts 237 Megawatts of Wind Energy

Microsoft announced two wind power purchasing agreements totaling 237 megawatts -- its biggest purchase of wind energy to date.


“Microsoft is committed to building a responsible cloud, and these agreements represent progress toward our goal of improving the energy mix at our datacenters,” said Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft. “Our commitment extends beyond greening our own operations because these projects help create a greener, more reliable grid in the communities in which we operate.”

Specifically, Microsoft has contracted with Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) to fix its long-term energy costs and purchase the environmental attributes connected with the new, 178-megawatt Bloom Wind project in Kansas. The project is the first to use a novel structure developed by ART and designed to offset high upfront costs associated with the creation of large-scale wind projects. Microsoft is the first buyer to participate in this structure, which has the potential to bring clean energy projects online at a faster pace.

The second contract involves a long-term agreement with Black Hills Energy to purchase 59 megawatts of renewable energy certificates from the Happy Jack and Silver Sage wind projects, which are adjacent to Microsoft’s Cheyenne, Wyoming, data center. The combined output of the Bloom and Happy Jack/Silver Sage projects will produce enough energy on an annual basis to cover the annual energy used at the datacenter.

“We are constantly looking for new ways to approach energy challenges and avenues of engagement with our utility partners,” said Christian Belady, general manager of cloud infrastructure strategy and architecture at Microsoft. “The team worked closely with ART to come up with a completely new model to enable faster adoption of renewables. Likewise, the tight engagement with Black Hills created the opportunity for Microsoft’s datacenter to become an asset for the local grid, maintaining reliability and reducing costs for ratepayers. This kind of deep collaboration with utilities has great potential to accelerate the pace of clean energy, benefitting all customers — not just Microsoft.”

These are Microsoft’s third and fourth wind energy agreements, joining the 175-megawatt Pilot Hill wind project in Illinois and 110-megawatt Keechi wind project in Texas. In March, Microsoft also signed an agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia and Dominion Energy Inc. to bring 20 megawatts of solar energy onto the grid in Virginia. These projects are in addition to the renewable and carbon-free energy Microsoft purchases from the grid mix in the markets in which it operates.

http://www.blackhillscorp.com
http://www.microsoft.com

Read More

MEF16 - Software-defined Access for User-driven Services

Software-defined Access will play a key role in future network architecture, says ADTRAN's Kurt Raaflaub, speaking at #MEF16.

 It is very important that the connection from the data center to the end-user's device be open, programmable, and scalable. This allows for a user-driven service model to thrive.

See video: https://youtu.be/3EwHgxi5ZgY

Read More

MEF16 - Distributed NFV with Whitebox CPE is Hot

Distributed NFV with universal CPE (the whitebox solution) is one of the hot trends at this year's MEF16, says Telco Systems' Raanan Tzemach.

One of the top drivers for this is that OPEX can be reduced in rolling out new services by avoiding the need to stack new boxes at the customer site.

See video: https://youtu.be/6Rmx2ZjUuFU

Read More

Coriant Adds Open Line System Capabilities to DCI Portfolio

Coriant introduced Open Line System (OLS) capabilities for its Groove G30 DCI Platform.

The open, plug-and-play optical layer solution provides 3X the density over comparable offerings, and gives network operators the ultimate in configuration flexibility to cost-efficiently address diverse Data Center Interconnect (DCI) and metro applications, including coherent and direct detect (PAM4) interconnect.

The Coriant Groove OLS solution offers open Northbound Interfaces (NBI) using YANG model-based NETCONF and RESTCONF, as well as an easy-to-use Command Line Interface (CLI), web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI), and support for SNMP.  The platform is designed to support up to 96 channels (wavelengths) in a 1RU form factor with full DWDM terminal capabilities, including all passive and active functions.

Coriant said its Groove OLS solution sets new benchmarks in flexibility and efficiency. Key benefits include:

• Open line system – prevents vendor lock-in by disaggregating the optical layer from the transmission layer and enables the Coriant Groove OLS solution to be paired with Groove or third-party transmission/transponder layer solutions
• Optical layer density – supports up to 96 channels in 1RU with full WDM terminal functionality, including passive and active optical layer functions, delivering 3X the density over comparable solutions and enabling significant OpEx savings via footprint and power efficiencies
• Configuration flexibility – enables "build your own optical layer" based on plug-and-play configurable technology for coherent and direct detect (PAM4) applications; supports a diverse range of optical layer functions in compact modular pluggable formats, including multiplexing/demultiplexing, pre-amplifier, booster amplifier, local add/drop amplifier, optical channel monitoring, optical protection, optical supervisory channel, OTDR, and tunable DCM functions
• Open management – shares common YANG model-based NETCONF and RESTCONF, and other northbound management and control interfaces with the Coriant Groove G30 DCI Platform for fast deployment and ease of integration into any OS environment

"Growth in interconnect traffic is driving the need for much more open and flexible optical layer solutions," said Yajun Wang, Chief Architect, Open Line System, Coriant. "The Coriant Groove™ OLS solution is architected to meet the requirements of ongoing open optical layer initiatives, enabling operators to cost-effectively deploy a future-proof optical layer."

The Open Line System solution for the Coriant Groove G30 DCI Platform will be available in Q1 2017.

http://www.coriant.com

Read More

MEF16 - LSO Hackathon - Putting it to Code

The LSO Hackathon takes the MEF's specification work and puts it to code. The exercise carries out implementations of the specs to validate that they work.

Charles Eckel provides an overview of this year's LSO Hackathon.

More info on the event is posted here: https://wiki.mef.net/display/LH/MEF+LSO+Hackathon

See video:  https://youtu.be/ldqLJwHHp-0

Read More