AT&T launches Microservices Supplier Program

AT&T is launching its microservices supplier program in partnership with IBM.  The idea is to offer a new approach to delivering business functionality for software developers. AT&T said that it is a heavy user of microservices for its internal systems.

Under this partnership, IBM will collaborate with AT&T to design, develop and deploy microservices that will transform AT&T’s business backend processes. IBM’s creation of microservices across sales, ordering, and enterprise data will enhance and modernize AT&T’s mission-critical systems. This enables higher-performing backend processing with minimal downtime while allowing the whole business to adapt quickly to changing market dynamics through the deployment of new fast and easy to access services and capabilities.

“Our software journey has focused on virtualizing our network functions to give more speed and flexibility than the traditional hardware model,” said Melissa Arnoldi, president, AT&T Technology and Operations. “We’re now looking at the 2,200+ apps in our IT system. And we’re starting to break them up into microservices to create agility, speed, and scalability that wasn’t possible before. Microservices are at the very core of our vision for the future of our network.”

Earlier this week, AT&T introduced Acumos, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that makes it easy to build, share and deploy AI applications, built with microservices.

Read More

100G Lambda MSA looks for new wavelength spec

A new 100G Lambda Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) Group is aiming to develop specifications based on 100 Gbps per wavelength optical technology.

Founding members of the group include Alibaba, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Ciena, Cisco, Finisar, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Inphi, Intel, Juniper Networks, Lumentum, Luxtera, MACOM, MaxLinear, Microsoft, Molex, NeoPhotonics, Nokia, Oclaro, Semtech, Source Photonics, and Sumitomo Electric.

The new interfaces defined by the 100G Lambda MSA double the speed per wavelength for 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps applications.

The group said it aims to complement the 100 Gbps (100GBASE-DR) and 400 Gbps (400GBASE-DR4) 500 m reach interfaces currently being defined by IEEE P802.3.  Its work focuses on reaches of 2 km and 10 km over duplex single-mode fiber.

http://100glambda.com/

Read More

Sweden's Norrsken First to Deploy Infinera XTM II and 400G Flexponder

Norrsken, a Sweden-based regional operator, is the first to deploy the Infinera XTM II and the recently released 400G Flexponder. The carrier operates a regional network in Sweden providing Layer 1 wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) services and Layer 2 Ethernet services.

The equipment will be used for new 100 Gb/s services to leading internet service providers and carriers. Infinera said its XTM II platform and 400G Flexponder enable network operators like Norrsken to activate multiple 200 Gb/s wavelengths on a fiber, providing up to an eightfold density increase and a reduction in power per gigabit of 3.5 times over the previous generation of 100 Gb/s technology.

“We are excited to be the first carrier to deploy Infinera’s newly released XTM II platform and the new 400G Flexponder,” said Björn Jonsson, CEO at Norrsken. “This state-of-the-art network upgrade allows us to expand our end-user offerings to include 100 Gb/s services and scale to meet increasing traffic demands from our rapidly growing customer base. This upgrade delivers higher capacity, higher density, ultra-low latency and lower power consumption while keeping our existing chassis and protecting our network investments with this market-leading packet-optical platform.”

“The XTM II platform is the ideal solution for Norrsken’s network upgrade,” said Karl Thedéen
Senior Vice President, Metro Business Group, Infinera. “By delivering the 400G Flexponder as committed to the market and upgrading Norrsken’s network to the XTM II platform as planned, Infinera is helping Norrsken benefit from industry-leading innovation, meet mounting customer demands and win in its market.”

Infinera Intros XTM II for Cloud Scale Metro Packet-Optical

Tuesday, June 13, 2017  Infinera, Metro  No Comments

In June, Infinera introduced its next generation packet-optical platform for metro networks. The XTM II, which delivers Layer 0, Layer 1 and Layer 2 services, is optimized for bandwidth-intensive cloud scale applications at the metro edge, such as Remote PHY, 5G transport and data center interconnect (DCI). The new platform builds on Infinera's XTM Series, but now adds 200 gigabits per second (200G) per wavelength capabilities, with an eightfold density increase and a reduction in power per gigabit of 3.5 times. Power consumption is believed to be the lowest in the industry for 100/200G transport. It also features Infinera Instant Bandwidth, which is the company's open grid line system with SDN control. This gives network operators a highly flexible, open and software-programmable packet-optical solution for Layer 0, Layer 1 and Layer 2 services.

A key component of the XTM II platform is the new range of 200G per wavelength traffic units, featuring:

• The 400G Flexponder: A dual, 200G muxponder that uses 16QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) for high-capacity transport, or a dual 100G transponder that uses quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) for longer reach operation. This device provides 400G of line and client capacity per slot, giving an eightfold density increase over the previous generation. Including optics, the device operates at as low as 20 watts per 100G service, which the company believes is the lowest power consumption per 100G available in the industry on any wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)-based platform.
• The 200G Muxponder: A 200G Layer 1 muxponder that supports a broad range of client signals, including 10G/40G/100G Ethernet and Optical Transport Network (OTN) as well as 8/16/32G Fibre Channel. The device can also be paired to create an OTN add-drop multiplexer (ADM).
• The EMXP440 Packet-Optical Transport Switch: A high-capacity addition to the existing range of EMXP devices that provides Layer 2 packet-optical switching with dual 100/200G ports and 12 or 24 10G ports. The EMXP440 supports Carrier Ethernet (CE) and MPLS-TP, packet transport with sub-50 milliseconds protection, Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) CE 2.0 service creation and quality of service-aware traffic aggregation. In addition, the EMXP440 has feature-harmonization with the EMXP/IIe range and PT-Fabric.

Additional enhancements to the XTM Series include:

• A new portfolio of XTM II upgraded chassis for improved power management and cooling and increased density to support nodes that require large volumes of new traffic units. 

• Instant Bandwidth capability, enabling the on-demand licensing of 100G bandwidth increments to align capital expense spend with service revenue and to reduce operational expenses through automated software activation of new capacity.
• New 400G+ per wavelength-ready flexible grid 4x and 9x ROADM modules and optimized hybrid erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)/Raman optical amplifiers to support sophisticated modulation formats and higher baud rates required above 100G. In addition, the new XTM II open flexible grid line system supports fiber capacity up to 24 terabits per second.
• A unified solution providing end-to-end software control from core to access. The XTM Series, including the XTM II, is supported by Infinera’s Xceed Software Suite and DNA network management system. This new range of packet-optical platforms provides network operators with leading low power and high density at Layer 0, Layer 1 and Layer 2, and supports full interworking with the large installed base of XTM Series and the DTN-X platforms.

https://www.infinera.com/xtm-ii-cloud-scale-metro-packet-optical-applications/

Read More

Ixia intros Network Visibility OS for open networking

Ixia introduced its new Network Visibility Operating System (NVOS) solution, a software version of Ixia’s network packet broker (NPB) product that allows Ixia’s NPB’s capabilities to run on open networking switches, such as those from Edgecore Networks.

Ixias said its NVOS embraces the movement of disaggregating software and hardware in software defined data center (SDDC) networks.

Network packet brokers aggregate, filter, and load-balance network packet data and then deliver it to security, forensics, and performance management tools. The new NVOS software transforms open switches into NPBs, providing rack and data center level visibility. It offers complete access to network packets to facilitate real-time visibility, insight, and security for high density hyperscale, microscale, and SDDC networks, even as they expand.

“IT management will appreciate the flexibility of Ixia’s NVOS,” says Recep Ozdag, Vice President of Product Management at Ixia. “Customers can build a data-center of any size by leveraging existing hardware or the hardware solution of their choice, which is ideal for creating an efficient and cost-effective IT operation.”

Read More

Frontier sees stabilization in Q3 as it trims losses

Frontier Communications reported Q3 revenue of $2.25 billion, down from $2.30 billion in the preceding quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $38 million.

“Our third quarter results highlight the ongoing stabilization across our business as we focus on executing our strategy,” said Dan McCarthy, President and CEO. “During the quarter, we were pleased with the continued improvement in subscriber trends and churn in our California, Texas and Florida (CTF) markets, ongoing stabilization in our commercial business, and continued operating efficiencies.

Some highlights:

• Consumer revenue was $1.1 billion, a sequential decline of $22 million versus the $40 million sequential decline in the second quarter.
• Customer churn improved to 2.08% (1.92% for Frontier Legacy and 2.33% for CTF operations) compared to 2.24% for the second quarter of 2017 (1.95% for Frontier Legacy and 2.69% for CTF operations), with CTF FiOS being the primary driver of the overall improvement. 
• Combined Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC) of $80.91 ($63.99 for Frontier Legacy and $107.33 for CTF operations). Excluding the positive one-time impact of the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight in the quarter, each of these measures of ARPC was stable sequentially.
• The hurricanes in Texas and Florida led to $12 million in losses, including operating expenses of $9 million and capital expenditures of $3 million.
• CAPEX for Q3 was $268 million, up from $263 million in Q2.

Read More

Netscout releases packet flow switch management software

Netscout released new packet flow switch management software that aims to simplify the challenge of visibility networks.

The Fabric Manager software, which supports Netscout's nGenius 5000 and nGenius 6000 series of packet flow switches,
simplifies the creation of packet flow topologies for large-scale networks by providing intuitive workflows and lifecycle orchestration. The software adopts a lifecycle-based management approach, focusing on configuration, deployment, and monitoring. This allows easier scaling of packet broker deployments.

Read More

Nutanix appoints Conway and Bostrom to board

Nutanix has added Craig Conway and Sue Bostrom to its board of directors. , effective Friday, October 27, 2017.

Conway served as President and CEO of PeopleSoft, Inc., an enterprise application software company from 1999 to 2004. Prior to PeopleSoft, he served as President and CEO of One Touch Systems, a high bandwidth network communications provider, and TGV Software, a TCP/IP protocol and applications company.

Bostrom served as Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer and Worldwide Government Affairs of Cisco Systems, Inc., a networking equipment provider, from 2006 to 2011. From 1997 to 2011, she held various leadership positions at Cisco, including Senior Vice President of the Internet Business Solutions Group, which shared Internet best practices with global Fortune 500 companies and governments

Read More

Orbital's Minotaur C Rocket Carries 10 Satellites to Orbit

Orbital ATK successfully launched 10 commercial spacecraft into orbit aboard its commercial Minotaur C rocket.

The miniature satellites belong to Planet, a San Francisco based company that is rapidly becoming a major provide of satellite imagery services. Planet now has a constellation of 275 "Dove" satellites in orbit.  It also now has a constellation of 13 "SkySat" satellites, making it he world’s largest commercial, sub-meter fleet of high-res satellites operating in space.

Orbital's Minotaur C rocket was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Read More

SpaceX launches Koreasat-5A

SpaceX successfully delivered the Koreasat-5A satellite into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed on the company's droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Koreasat-5A satellite is owned by KT SAT, South Korea’s sole satellite service provider and it will provide Direct-to-Home (DTH) broadcast, broadband, and backhaul services with its Ku-Band capacity. The spacecraft was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space and is equipped with 12 Ku-band transponders of 36MHz, and 24 Ku-band transponders of 54MHz.

Read More