Cisco and Ericsson Extend Partnership to Wi-Fi

Ericsson and Cisco are extending their strategic partnership to include a new Wi-Fi solution n0amed Evolved Wi-Fi Networks (EWN).

The joint offering combines Ericsson's 3GPP access, core networks and applications with Cisco's Wi-Fi portfolio, to provide reliable Wi-Fi with the highest performance to Ericsson's mobile, cable and other industries customers. The design and deployment will be handled by Ericsson's services organization, with full product support from Cisco. EWN can be offered as a fully managed service with the global reach of more than 180 countries.

Highlights include:

• Indoor Small Cells - Combining indoor Ericsson access networks with Cisco® WLAN enables deployment in venues of both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity.
• Operator Wi-Fi - Allowing operators who have outdoor Ericsson access networks to use Cisco WLAN to offer access to their subscribers.
• Traffic Steering - Integrating Cisco WLAN with either Ericsson macro or indoor access networks via Ericsson's unique Real Time Traffic Steering feature enables operators to steer users between mobile and Wi-Fi access networks, ensuring the best end-user experience.
• Core Network Integration - Integrating Cisco WLAN into Ericsson packet core using trusted configurations will allow operators to offer all their core network services over Wi-Fi for multimode devices. Ericsson's highly successful Wi-Fi Calling capabilities already deliver seamless voice mobility over Cisco WLAN.

Rima Qureshi, Head of Region North America with responsibility for the strategic partnership with Cisco, Ericsson, says: "Our strategic partnership brings together the capabilities of two leading players in networking, mobility and cloud, creating the best end-to-end solutions and opportunities for our customers. By adding Wi-Fi solutions into the partnership, we will enable our customers to offer best-in-class Wi-Fi in their networks, complemented by our leading 3GPP portfolio and services organization."

"With Wi-Fi traffic predicted to grow to 50 percent of the total IP traffic by 2020, a top priority for service providers is to deliver the best possible connected experiences to their customers," said Yvette Kanouff, SVP & GM of the Service Provider Business Unit, Cisco. "Through our extended strategic partnership with Ericsson, we are committed to providing Wi -Fi solutions of the highest quality performance and reliability."

http://www.ericsson.com
http://www.cisco.com

Read More

Comcast Announces Multi-Platform, Direct-to-Consumer Solution for OTT Providers

Comcast Technology Solutions, which is a division of Comcast Cable, has expanded its direct-to-consumer (D2C) solution to help content providers build, launch, and manage over-the-top (OTT) experiences.

The expanded D2C solution offers video processing, management, multi-CDN distribution, and playout capabilities, as well as a powerful out-of-the box suite of monetization options spanning subscription management, promotion, storefront enablement, and billing. The solution is built with an innovative UX integration layer that allows UX providers to easily develop pre-integrated multi-platform application templates for maximum speed and flexibility.

Comcast Technology said its turnkey solution supports a variety of monetization models, with maximum flexibility and simplified pricing for enterprise customers.

"Content providers are increasingly interested in establishing direct-to-consumer businesses, but quickly become overwhelmed by the challenges of building, deploying, and managing OTT solutions seamlessly across any screen," said Barry Tishgart, Vice President of Comcast Technology Solutions.

"Customers want simplicity, repeatability, and speed, but they don't want to be locked into a one-size-fits all approach that can't evolve with their audiences and business needs. Our turnkey solution enables content providers to reduce complexity, accelerate time to market, and optimize their workflows, user experience, and monetization models as needed."

http://www.comcasttechnologysolutions.com

Read More

Intel Announces Global 5G Modem

Intel will begin sampling a 5G modem in the second half of 2017. The device will be capable of delivering 5G in both sub-6 GHz bands and mmWave spectrum in regions worldwide – including the United States, Europe, Korea and Japan

The modem’s baseband chip pairs with a new 5G transceiver that enables both sub-6 Ghz and mmWave capabilities. The chipset incorporates key 3GPP 5G NR (new radio) technology – including low latency frame structures, advanced channel coding and massive MIMO – to deliver faster connectivity and ultra-responsiveness.

Intel said its goal is to support both early trials and to lay a foundation enabling accelerated development of products that will support the 3GPP NR specification and help drive global adoption of the 3GPP 5G standard.

https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-accelerates-the-future-with-first-global-5g-modem/

Read More

WD Debuts PCIe NVMe-based SSDs

Western Digital introduced a branded, performance PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe-based SSD that delivers more than three times the sequential read speeds of current SATA SSDs.

The WD Black PCIe SSDs will be available in 256GB and 512GB capacities in a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor. The WD Black PCIe SSD boasts up to 2050MB/s and 800MB/s sequential read and write speeds, making it ideal as a boot drive when paired with a high-capacity hard drive, or as primary storage when building a future-ready PC. The company said its new WD Black PCIe SSD delivers more than three times the sequential read performance of SATA SSDs, an industry-leading 1.75M hours MTTF, and WD Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T.) Lab certification.

“NVMe PCIe-based SSD adoption is poised to accelerate in 2017 and the years to follow,” said Jeff Janukowicz, vice president, IDC. “Products like the WD Black PCIe SSD, with a broad ecosystem and compatibility testing, should give customers a significant performance increase over SATA SSDs and offer a straightforward solution for customers to update to or build future-ready systems.”

“We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation interface change,” says Eyal Bek, senior director of client SSD, Devices Business Unit, Western Digital. “The WD Black PCIe SSD ramps up performance while delivering worry-free reliability for our customers worldwide. We believe that this will accelerate the transition that is already occurring from SATA to PCIe. Western Digital is uniquely positioned to offer customers a complete storage portfolio—HDD or SSD, and SATA or PCIe form factors for every segment of the market.”

http://www.wd.com

Read More

SanDisk Intros 256GB Ultra microSD Card

Western Digital's SanDisk division introduced the first microSD card that meets the Application Performance Class 1 (A1) requirements from the latest SD Association’s SD 5.1 specifications. The 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card can hold up to 24 hours of Full HD video and with premium transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s.

The A1 spec allows the new card to manage random read input-output access per second (IOPS) of 1,500 and write IOPS of 500, so it can quickly open apps and process accompanying tasks, such as audio, graphics, saved profiles and in-app permissions. With this in mind, the new SanDisk Ultra microSD card with A1 is designed to provide consumers a faster, more powerful app experience using cards.

“SD technology is trusted by consumers around the world for its reliable, backwards compatible and highly interoperable storage, making it the world’s leading memory format with billions of SD memory cards and devices in the market,” said Brian Kumagai, SDA president. “The A1 specification will help consumers identify the appropriate card to ensure an optimal experience when running and launching apps on their smartphone. We are pleased that SanDisk will release an A1 card, and continues to contribute to breakthrough technologies enabled by the microSD format.”

MSRP is $199.99.

http://www.sandisk.com

Read More

Infinera Xceed Software Suite Powered by OpenDaylight

Infinera announced that its Xceed Software Suite is the first optical transport software-defined networking (SDN) solution to join the “Powered by OpenDaylight” program.

The OpenDaylight Project (ODL) is a collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate the adoption of SDN and network functions virtualization. The Powered by OpenDaylight program signals compliance with exceptional technical standards and quality for commercial products or services based on ODL. Xceed offers a portfolio of open and modular components for SDN programmability and automation of multi-layer transport networks.

“The Powered by OpenDaylight program makes it easy for end users to identify solutions that leverage the most critical components of the ODL platform without alteration,” said Neela Jacques, Executive Director of OpenDaylight. “The Infinera Xceed Software Suite is the first optical transport network solution to receive this recognition. Open software platforms like ODL help solution providers accelerate the development of tools for life cycle service orchestration, which help service providers simplify their network operations while rapidly bringing new services online.”

“Infinera has contributed to ODL as a member since 2014, leading the design and development of open SDN solutions for optical transport networks,” said Ian MacDonald, Vice President, Software Product Line Management at Infinera. “Network operators are increasingly focusing on open software solutions for multi-layer management of multi-vendor networks. We are pleased to be the first optical transport member of the Powered by OpenDaylight program.”

https://www.infinera.com


https://www.infinera.com/products/xceed-software-suite/

Read More

T-Mobile Adds 2.1M Customers in Q4 to Reach 71.5M in Total

T-Mobile added 2.1 million net customers in Q4, bringing its total customer count to 71.5 million at year-end 2016 and marking the fifteenth consecutive quarter that T-Mobile has generated more than 1 million net customer additions. Full-year 2016 also marked the third consecutive year that T-Mobile added more than 8 million net customers.

T-Mobile also saw ongoing strength in branded postpaid customers, reporting branded postpaid net customer additions of 1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Branded postpaid phone net customer additions were 933,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016, bringing the total branded postpaid phone net customer additions to approximately 13 million since the end of the first quarter of 2013, when T-Mobile launched the first Un-carrier initiative.

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/q416-prelim-results.htm

Read More

NTT and Furukawa Announce 2 Joint Ventures for Optical Components

NTT Electronics Corporation and Furukawa Electric Co. agreed to establish two joint venture manufacturing companies for planar lightwave circuits and optical semiconductors. Both joint ventures will be based in Japan.

The companies said the deals were motivated by the need for stable and efficient supply capability of optical components has increased in response to the demand created by rapid growth in cloud services.

http://www.ntt-electronics.com/en/news/2016/12/ntt-electronics-and-furukawa-electric-establish-joint-venture.html

Read More

New SEA-ME-WE 5 Cable Boasts 24 Tbps Capacity

Construction of the SEA-ME-WE (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5) cable system is now complete. The project was backed by consortium of leading telecom operators.

The new submarine cable connects Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh,  Sri-Lanka, India, Pakistan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen,  Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy and France.

Sea-Me-We 5 initially offer an aggregate capacity of 24 Tbps on 3-fibre pairs and the ability to carry 100G wavelengths. The SEA-ME-WE 5’s main endpoints are carrier-neutral/open Points-of-Presence (PoPs) and not just Cable Landing Stations (CLS).

Orange previously announced a construction and maintenance agreement for Sea-Me-We 5.

In March 2014, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC both announced contract wins for the new SEA-ME-WE5 project.

“The completion of the SE-ME-WE 5 project is a landmark system upgrade for all data users worldwide. This system facilitates a new age of digital transformation and innovation, catalysing greater economic activities, trade and growth across three continents.” noted Linette Lee, Chairperson, SEA-ME-WE 5 Consortium Management Committee. “I would like to thank all the members of the consortium for their unstinting support and commitment toward this project. Together, we collaborated across different time zones and overcame numerous challenges to achieve the complex integration of technologies as promised and on time.”

http://www.seamewe5.com/

• The 19 SEA-ME-WE 5 member companies include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), China Mobile International (CMI), China Telecom Global (CTG), China United Network Communications Group Company Limited (CU), Djibouti Telecom, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du),Myanmar Post and Telecom (MPT), Ooredoo, Orange, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel), Sparkle, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT), Telecom Egypt (TE), Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), TeleYemen, Turk Telekom International(TTI) and Trans World Associates (Pvt) Limited Pakistan (TWA)

Read More