GSMA's Vision for the 5G Era

At the opening of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA outlined five goals for the 5G era:

1. Provide boundless connectivity for all: 5G networks will co-exist with 4G networks and alternative network technologies to deliver a high-speed, reliable and secure broadband experience;
2. Deliver future networks innovatively and with optimal economics: All stakeholders will strive to cost-effectively deliver improved networks, relying on a combination of mainstream and alternative technologies, using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum;
3. Accelerate the digital transformation of industry verticals: The mobile industry will provide the networks and platforms to drive the digitisation and automation of industrial practices and processes;
4. Transform the mobile broadband experience: 5G networks will provide an enhanced broadband experience of up to 1 Gbps and below 10 milliseconds latency, and provide the platform for cloud- and artificial intelligence-based services; and
5. Drive growth in new use cases for massive IoT and critical communications services: 5G networks will support the massive rollout of intelligent IoT nodes for a multitude of scenarios, including critical communications services
   

The goals, which are published in a new study called ‘The 5G Era: Age of Boundless Connectivity and Intelligent Automation’, is based on an extensive survey of 750 operator CEOs and other industry stakeholders.

The GSMA forecasts that commercial 5G networks will begin to be widely deployed at the start of the next decade and, by 2025, will provide coverage to a third of the world’s population. 5G connections are forecast to reach 1.1 billion by 2025, accounting for approximately one in eight mobile connections worldwide by this time.

“The 5G era will usher in innovations that enable richer, smarter and more convenient living and working, making possible a huge array of new applications, everything from sensor-driven smart parking to holographic conference calls,” said Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA. “5G is an opportunity to create an agile, purpose-built network tailored to the different needs of citizens and the economy. But it is vital that all stakeholders work together to ensure that 5G is successfully standardised, regulated and brought to market.”

The full report is available to download here.

https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/?file=0efdd9e7b6eb1c4ad9aa5d4c0c971e62&download

Read More

Nokia Promises 5G FIRST End-to-End Solution in 2H17

At Mobile World Congress, Nokia is showcasing its 5G FIRST end-to-end solution incorporating its AirScale and AirFrame technology, including AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna, Cloud Packet Core and mobile transport.  The solution is expected to launch in the second half of 2017.

Nokia said it intends to give operators a first-to-market advantage based on early specifications.

The radio access network components of 5G FIRST comprise new Nokia massive MIMO Adaptive Antennas for 3.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz frequency bands, the AirScale System Module, AirScale cloud RAN technology and software. Nokia has upgraded its AirScale and AirFrame platforms to 5G based on specifications developed by the KT Special Interests Group (KT SIG) and Verizon 5G Technology Forum and the platforms will be adapted to 3GPP as standards develop.

Leveraging Nokia's end-to-end network capabilities, 5G FIRST also incorporates the multi-access Nokia Cloud Packet Core and the Nokia Shared Data Layer as part of a cloud-native core architecture to deliver the flexibility, massive scalability and performance operators need to rapidly and cost-effectively deliver 5G services. A comprehensive array of mobile transport offerings from Nokia address the critical capacity, reliability and latency requirements of the 5G era.

Samih Elhage, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: "We are able to leverage our breadth of expertise to deliver a true end-to-end 5G FIRST network and services solution. Working with operators such as Verizon we can help them tailor deployments to meet their own customers' unique demands and capitalize first on the opportunities this will bring. And we can leverage the technology to work with industries to identify new uses for 5G now under the 5G community program which will in turn open up even more opportunities for our operator customers."

http://www.nokia.com

Read More

Cisco Intros Security Architecture for Mobile Operators

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Cisco is introducing its Security Architecture for Mobile Service Providers, promising multi-layered protection across the network, the endpoint (device) and the cloud.

New elements include:

• Network Security: To help service providers protect their mobile backhaul from attacks against the core network, Cisco introduces its next generation of highly scalable, physical and virtual Security Gateway (SecGW) solutions, supported by the Firepower 9300 and Firepower 4100 Series firewall appliances, ASR 900 Series routers and Adaptive Security Virtual Appliance (ASAv).  
• Device Security: Cisco security on the device enables enterprises and service providers to extend visibility and device-level protection to offer the most robust mobile device platform for the enterprise.
• Cisco and Samsung will deliver endpoint visibility and data intelligence to business customers via Samsung Knox, Cisco AnyConnect and Cisco Stealthwatch solutions. 
• Cloud Security: Service providers can now deliver new revenue streams by offering their customers new managed security services from their own managed cloud, or Cisco-managed cloud environments.

In addition, the company is introducing ‘Cisco Umbrella for Service Providers’, a new cloud-delivered security platform.  Specifically, Cisco is introducing new integration of its Cisco Umbrella security service, with the Cisco Evolved Packet Core (EPC), available to run on the Cisco Ultra Services Platform or Cisco ASR 5500 Series routers to deliver a more secure Internet experience to any mobile device.

“Security is the business enabler for mobile service providers to confidently move forward with network transformation, virtualization and pave a path towards 5G,” said Gee Rittenhouse, senior vice president, Engineering, Security Business Group. “We are focused on helping our customers see more, protect better, and respond faster with robust security to fill in the gaps and appreciate all the new opportunities that come with network expansion, without the added risk.”

http://www.cisco.com

Read More

ADVA Advances Facebook-Designed Open Optical Packet Transport

ADVA Optical Networking reports that it is now working with nine customers on trials of the Facebook-designed Voyager solution, including Tier 1 service providers and large enterprises.  The open optical packet transport system is being tested in a range of proof of concept (POC) installations.

ADVA said the over the last nine months, Voyager has matured rapidly from blueprint to physical product. The 1RU DWDM unit features 12 x 100Gbit/s QSFP 28 clients and 4 x 200Gbit/s 16QAM on the line side.

ADVA also announced integration of Voyager into its FSP Network Manager.

“The two founding principles of the Voyager and Open Optical Packet Transport projects are openness and innovation and it’s these principles that have guided everything that our team has developed here,” said Niall Robinson, VP, global business development, ADVA Optical Networking. “Now that the Voyager system is complete, we’re focusing much of our time on further developing our services to ensure that customers have a turn-key solution. That’s why these POCs are so important. We’re able to see firsthand what resonates. Which services do the customers like? Which services do they need to see more of? Which services are truly critical? And what’s fascinating here is the breadth of applications these POCs cover. The lessons learnt from the next few months will be key as we move from trials to commercialization.”

“We’re excited by the progress we’ve made with Voyager by working with partners like ADVA Optical Networking. What was only an idea less than a year ago is now almost commercially ready for deployment,” said Hans-Juergen Schmidtke, co-chair, Open Optical Packet Transport project group, TIP, and director, engineering, Facebook. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with our partners to build the open optical packet transport solutions with Voyager into a complete package that will enable service providers and enterprises to deploy an open networking solution that delivers rapid results and enables continuous innovation.”

http://www.advaoptical.com

Facebook to Contribute Open Packet DWDM to Telecom Infra Project

Tuesday, November 01, 2016  DWDM, Facebook, Open  No Comments

Facebook outlined its plan for Open Packet DWDM for metro and long-haul fiber optic transport networks.  The idea is to "enable a clean separation of software and hardware" based on open specifications.

Facebook had already developed a new "white box" transponder and routing platform called Voyager based on Open Packet DWDM, which it will contribute to the Telecom Infra Project.

Facebook said the Voyager open line system will include Yang software data models of each component in the system, and an open northbound software interface (NETCONF, Thrift, etc.) to the control plane software. This allows multiple applications to run on top of the open software layer, enabling software innovations in DWDM system control algorithms and network management systems.

The DWDM transponder hardware includes DSP ASICs and complex optoelectronic components, and thus accounts for much of the cost of the system. The hardware design leverages technologies implemented in Wedge 100, Facebook's top-of-rack switch, including the same Broadcom Tomahawk switching ASIC.  It also uses the DSP ASIC and optics module (AC400) from Acacia Communications for the DWDM line side with their open development environment.

Facebook worked with Lumentum to develop a terminal amplifier specification so that multiple applications can run on top of the open software layer to enable software innovations in DWDM system control algorithms and network management systems.

Some additional notes:

• Equinix has successfully tested the Voyager solution and Lumentum’s open line system over 140km of production fiber. MTN also shared the results of their successful test of Voyager over their production fiber network in South Africa. Facebook, Acacia Communications, Broadcom, Celestica, Lumentum, and Snaproute are delivering a complete disaggregated hardware and software optical networking platform that is expected to significantly advance the industry.
• ADVA Optical Networking is providing commercial support for Voyager, including all of the essential services and software support needed to make it a complete network solution that is ready for deployment.
• Coriant is extending its networking software to enable engineering support for Voyager, providing routing and switching as well as DWDM transmission capabilities. The combination of DWDM and packet switching/routing opens up the potential for more open and more programmable network architectures.
• The first TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centers, sponsored by SK Telecom and Facebook, will open in Seoul in early 2017. Other TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centers are being planned to encourage community participation. The latest companies to join TIP include Bell Canada, du (EITC), NBN, Orange, Telia, Telstra, Accenture, Amdocs, Canonical, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Toyota InfoTechnology Center.

https://code.facebook.com/posts/1977308282496021/an-open-approach-for-switching-routing-and-transport/

Read More

Huawei and Softbank Complete 3.5 GHz Massive MIMO with CA Test

Huawei, in collaboration with SoftBank, completed a Massive MIMO verification test using the operator's 40 MHz spectrum on the 3.5 GHz band in Tokyo, Japan.

The test of Massive MIMO and multi-carrier technologies achieved a peak downlink rate of 1.4 Gbps.

Huawei said the 3.5 GHz band, with its abundant bandwidth resources, offers a great opportunity for the global development of LTE TDD, and has grown increasingly important as a 5G catalyst to assume the spotlight position of the global mobile industry.

Massive MIMO, featuring the incorporation of massive antennas and 3D beamforming, enhances spectrum multiplexing among multiple UEs to significantly improve spectral efficiency without additionally increasing site density or bandwidth. The 3.5 GHz Massive MIMO test further explores the latent potential of 3.5 GHz spectrum, and is expected to open up a new commercial era of LTE-Advanced.

http://www.huawei.com/en/events/mwc/2017

Read More

CORD and xRAN Consortium Partner in Software-based Extensible RAN

CORD and xRAN consortium partner to develop carrier grade software-based, extensible RAN February 23rd The CORD Project, an open source project seeking reinvent network access via enabling data centre economics and cloud agility in the central office, announces an agreement to partner with xRAN Foundation to collaborate on standardising and promoting a software-based, extensible RAN (xRAN) architecture.

The partnership is intended to deliver a carrier grade, open reference implementation of xRAN specifications within M-CORD for a next generation RAN architecture. Designed to address the challenges associated with closed, proprietary RAN systems and the future demands of 5G, the CORD Project and xRAN are combining two ecosystems of service providers, vendor and open source communities.

Through the initiative, the xRAN consortium will focus on developing software-defined standards for the architecture and interface definitions for next-generation RAN; the CORD community will focus on implementing xRAN standard APIs, a RAN controller based on ONOS and example RAN control applications for the M-CORD platform leveraging both open and closed hardware from multiple vendors.

As part of the partnership, ON.Lab has announced the appointment of Dr. Sachin Katti, Professor of EE and CS at Stanford University, as chief scientist for mobility to guide the integration of xRAN with M-CORD.

The collaboration is expected to establish a symbiotic relationship between standards and API specifications and reference implementations, and thereby allow the use of specifications to help improve the reference implementation, while experience with the reference implementation can help improve specifications. In addition, extended engagement with the open networking ecosystem will help to create software- defined standards and a reference implementation, and help speed the adoption of software defined RANs.

Founded in October 2016, the xRAN consortium has developed standardised RAN control interfaces that allow carrier applications to programmatically control multi-vendor RAN infrastructure and have been adopted by carriers. xRAN aims to decouple the RAN control plane from the user plane, build a modular eNB software stack that operates on COTS hardware and release open north- and south-bound interfaces.

Members of the xRAN consortium include AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom, plus Intel, Texas Instruments, Aricent, Radisys and Stanford University.

Regarding the partnership, Andre Fuetsch, president of AT&T Labs and CTO, commented, "AT&T has been a founding member and active supporter of both xRAN and CORD, and the time is right for xRAN and M-CORD to come together… the xRAN and M-CORD partnership will allow the building of mobile access networks with the ability to customise and optimise the RAN and to more quickly create new services…".

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/announcements/cord-project-and-xran-consortium-align-to-build-carrier-grade-software-for-next

Read More

ZTE Shows its 5G Pre-commercial Base Stations

At Mobile World Congress, ZTE is showcasing a range of 5G mmWave and Sub6GHz pre-commercial base stations.  The equipment will support 3GPP's 5G new radio (NR) new air interfaces and mainstream 5G frequency bands. The base stations use massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO), Beam Tracking, beamforming and other key 5G technologies.

The company is demonstrating a 5G mmWave base station with a 50 Gbps peak rate.  ZTE completed its first 5G mmWave field trials last year.

Zhang Jianguo , SVP of ZTE, said: "ZTE will continue its innovation in the 5G field to meet the product and service needs of customers. ZTE will occupy a place in the world's first 5G commercial market and lay a solid foundation for the future Internet of Things (IoT)."

http://www.zte.com.cn

Read More

Source Photonics ramps 100G QSFP28 LR4 transceiver capacity

 Source Photonics, a supplier of optical transceivers for data centre and broadband access connectivity, announced that in December 2016 it reached an operational milestone when it expanded capacity to over 10,000 units per month for 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 LR4 transceivers.

Source Photonics noted that it began shipping its 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 LR4 product in March 2015 following completion of a targeted sampling and qualification program. Subsequent investments of over $30 million in captive InP chip fab expansion and a captive optical subassembly (OSA) facility featuring high precision die attach and alignment capabilities have enabled monthly production capacity to be ramped from 1,000 modules to over 10,000 modules within 12 months.
  Source Photonics, a supplier of optical transceivers for data centre and broadband access connectivity, announced that in December 2016 it reached an operational milestone when it expanded capacity to over 10,000 units per month for 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 LR4 transceivers.

Source Photonics noted that it began shipping its 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 LR4 product in March 2015 following completion of a targeted sampling and qualification program. Subsequent investments of over $30 million in captive InP chip fab expansion and a captive optical subassembly (OSA) facility featuring high precision die attach and alignment capabilities have enabled monthly production capacity to be ramped from 1,000 modules to over 10,000 modules within 12 months.

The expansion of Source Photonics' 100 Gbit/s production line follows the earlier ramp of its 40 Gbit/s QSFP+ LR4 single mode platform to support the increasing demand for 40 Gbit/s connectivity in both North American and Asian cloud data centre markets.

The company noted that while North American demand is quickly transitioning from 10 and 40 Gbit/s to 100 Gbit/s, cloud operators and service providers in Asia are continuing to leverage the economies of scale at 40 Gbit/s, resulting in high demand for 40 Gbit/s transceivers. Source Photonics believes it will be able to increase its market share by exploiting a captive InP laser chip fab and shared OSA manufacturing assets with the 100 Gbit/s line to expand 40 Gbit/s production.

Source Photonics stated that leveraging its operationally integrated business model and LEAN manufacturing facilities for both InP chip and OSA production, it plans to further ramp production capacity to meet the connectivity demands of cloud-scale data centre operators. Specifically, it is aiming to increase capacity to 20,000 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 modules per month based on committed investments for 2017.

In January, Source Photonics announced it would increase investment in its 10 Gbit/s PON OLT and ONU product lines to address the fixed access network upgrade cycle from EPON and GPON to 10G EPON and XGS-PON. The company noted that investment throughout the manufacturing chain, including in laser chips and advanced optical modules, was intended to strengthen its position as the highest volume vertically integrated optical module supplier present in the market.

Earlier in February, the company launched what it claimed was the first XGS-PON N2 OLT optical transceiver module, designed to offer a universal solution for the upgrade of existing GPON to next generation XGS-PON networks able to support multi-gigabit services.

The expansion of Source Photonics' 100 Gbit/s production line follows the earlier ramp of its 40 Gbit/s QSFP+ LR4 single mode platform to support the increasing demand for 40 Gbit/s connectivity in both North American and Asian cloud data centre markets.

The company noted that while North American demand is quickly transitioning from 10 and 40 Gbit/s to 100 Gbit/s, cloud operators and service providers in Asia are continuing to leverage the economies of scale at 40 Gbit/s, resulting in high demand for 40 Gbit/s transceivers. Source Photonics believes it will be able to increase its market share by exploiting a captive InP laser chip fab and shared OSA manufacturing assets with the 100 Gbit/s line to expand 40 Gbit/s production.

Source Photonics stated that leveraging its operationally integrated business model and LEAN manufacturing facilities for both InP chip and OSA production, it plans to further ramp production capacity to meet the connectivity demands of cloud-scale data centre operators. Specifically, it is aiming to increase capacity to 20,000 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 modules per month based on committed investments for 2017.

In January, Source Photonics announced it would increase investment in its 10 Gbit/s PON OLT and ONU product lines to address the fixed access network upgrade cycle from EPON and GPON to 10G EPON and XGS-PON. The company noted that investment throughout the manufacturing chain, including in laser chips and advanced optical modules, was intended to strengthen its position as the highest volume vertically integrated optical module supplier present in the market.

Earlier in February, the company launched what it claimed was the first XGS-PON N2 OLT optical transceiver module, designed to offer a universal solution for the upgrade of existing GPON to next generation XGS-PON networks able to support multi-gigabit services.

http://www.sourcephotonics.com

Read More

Baicells Debuts its "Neutral Host" Small Cells

Baicells Technologies introduced its "NeutralCell", which provides a shared infrastructure that can be leveraged by multiple operators and neutral host service providers.

Baicell said its NeutralCell allows neutral host service providers to deliver a shared infrastructure solution – a single small cell that can be used by multiple operators. The NeutralCell units support the frequency band and transmitted power requirements of multiple operators, enables new business opportunities.

http://www.Baicells.com

Read More

Qualcomm Adds Support for Android Things OS on 4G LTE Processors

Qualcomm plans to add support for the Android Things operating system (OS) on its Snapdragon 210 processors with X5 LTE modems.

The Android Things OS is a new vertical of Android designed for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and Snapdragon processors are expected to be the world’s first commercial System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions to offer integrated 4G LTE support for this OS.

This combination is designed to support a new class of IoT applications requiring robust, security-focused and managed connectivity including electronic signage, remote video monitoring, asset tracking, payment and vending machines and manufacturing, as well as consumer devices such as smart assistants and home appliances.

Snapdragon 210 processors running Android Things OS will also allow manufactures and developers to harness the power of the Google Cloud Platform and Google services over 4G LTE in their IoT solutions. Additionally, support for Google

http://www.qualcomm.com

Read More