Broadcom brings new Ethernet programmability with open source logical table software

Broadcom is introducing a new approach to Ethernet switch configuration that makes use of open source software to allow network hard vendors, OS vendors and even enterprise network managers to monitor, analyze, and provision switch resources through a standard software interface.

This capability is enabled by a new Software Development Kit Logical Table (SDKLT) for Broadcom switch ASICs that leverages table-based programming, where all the device physical resources such as MAC Address Tables, L3 route tables, TCAMs, etc. are exposed as logical tables. Device-specific information is stored in databases and not embedded in the APIs. Device-specific behavior is managed by logical tables through a small set of APIs. Broadcom said this approach introduces new ways to monitor, analyze and provision switch resources, all through industry standard automation tools. The company is making this logical table programmability available as an open source SDK.

Broadcom's first open source offering of the SDKLT is for BCM56960 Tomahawk switch, which is widely used in data center top-of-rack (TOR) switches. The SDKLT open source code is posted on GitHub. The open source code and the Logical Table APIs are released under Apache 2.0 license. The software is designed for High Availability (HA) including support for Soft Error Recovery, Warmboot, and In Service Upgrades.

“The SDKLT brings a fresh, state-of- the-art software development approach to the broader community of network software developers where they can now fully and directly control and monitor the rich switch feature set optimized for SDN and cloud use cases,” said Ram Velaga, senior vice president and general manager of switching products.

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AT&T open sources its Disaggregated Network OS (dNOS) for white boxes #SDN

AT&T announced plans to open source its Disaggregated Network Operating System project, or dNOS, which is a software framework for white box networking equipment. The project will now be hosted by The Linux Foundation.

AT&T said dNOS makes it easier for software developers, network operators, cloud providers, hardware makers and networking application developers to create new white box products, such as open routers and switches. AT&T sees white hardware as a critical component of its network.

“Our goal with open sourcing the dNOS project is to create a community around an open framework to software-enable industry-standard white box hardware designs, such as those contributed to the Open Compute Project,” said John Medamana, vice president of Packet Optical Network, AT&T. “We’re excited to work with The Linux Foundation to bring this concept to reality. We invite others to join us to build the community and support this effort.”

“The Linux Foundation welcomes the dNOS project to the open source community," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager of Networking, The Linux Foundation. "The dNOS project will help create a network operating system community that will benefit existing Linux Foundation projects like FRRouting and OpenSwitch, and pave the way for future projects to help drive innovation at the lower layers of the network stack.”

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Microsoft posts solid growth in cloud - Azure up 98% yoy

Microsoft reported revenue of $28.9 billion for the quarter ended 31-Dec-2017, up 12% over the same period a year earlier. Operating income was $8.7 billion and increased 10%. The company took a $13.8 billion GAAP charge in the quarter related to the tax reform.

“This quarter’s results speak to the differentiated value we are delivering to customers across our productivity solutions and as the hybrid cloud provider of choice,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Our investments in IoT, data, and AI services across cloud and the edge position us to further accelerate growth.”

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $9.0 billion and increased 25% (up 24% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Office commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 10% (up 10% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 41% (up 41% in constant currency)
• Office consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 12% (up 11% in constant currency) and Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 29.2 million
• Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 10% (up 9% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 67% (up 68% in constant currency)
• LinkedIn contributed revenue of $1.3 billion during the quarter with sessions growth of over 20% for the fifth consecutive quarter
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Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $7.8 billion and increased 15% (up 15% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Server products and cloud services revenue increased 18% (up 18% in constant currency) driven by Azure revenue growth of 98% (up 98% in constant currency)
• Enterprise Services revenue increased 5% (up 3% in constant currency) driven by Premier Support Services

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $12.2 billion and increased 2% (up 2% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Windows OEM revenue increased 4% (up 4% in constant currency) driven by OEM Pro revenue growth of 11%
• Windows commercial products and cloud services revenue decreased 4% (down 5% in constant currency) due to the impact of a prior year large deal
• Gaming revenue increased 8% (up 8% in constant currency) driven by Xbox hardware revenue growth from the Xbox One X launch
• Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 15% (up 15% in constant currency) driven by higher revenue per search and search volume

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AT&T posts big Q4 profit from tax windfall

AT&T posted Q4 revenue of $41.7 billion, down slightly from $41.8 billion a year earlier primarily due to declines in legacy wireline services, wireless service revenues and domestic video, which were mostly offset by growth in wireless equipment and International. Fourth-quarter net income attributable to AT&T was $19.0 billion, or $3.08 per diluted share, and reflects the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, compared to $2.4 billion, or $0.39 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

AT&T's full-year 2017 revenues amounted to $160.5 billion versus $163.8 billion in 2016.

The company also confirmed plans to add $1 billion to its CAPEX budget in 2018 as a result of the tax reform legislation.

“The impact of tax reform and regulatory rationalization will be substantial and positive for the U.S. economy and AT&T,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “Our FirstNet win and the opt-in by 100 percent of all states and territories will enable us to put the industry’s most robust spectrum assets to work in building a best-in-class nationwide network for public safety and first responders. On the Time Warner front, we look forward to presenting our case in court and closing the deal.”

Highlights for Q4 2017

• 4.1 million total wireless net adds for the fourth quarter, including 2.7 million in U.S., driven by connected devices, postpaid phones and prepaid, and 1.3 million in Mexico.  
• 300,000 total video net adds: 161,000 in U.S. and 139,000 in Latin America
• U.S. wireless results:
• 329,000 postpaid phone net adds
• Added nearly 700,000 branded smartphones to base
• Best-ever fourth-quarter postpaid phone churn of 0.89%
• 95,000 IP broadband net adds; 19,000 total broadband net adds; more than 7 million customer locations passed with fiber
• 161,000 total video net adds; 368,000 DIRECTV NOW net adds to reach nearly 1.2 million DIRECTV NOW subscribers
• International revenues were up 16.0% with strong growth in Mexico wireless and DIRECTV Latin America

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Ericsson to spin off its media businesses and sell 51% stake to One Equity Partners

Following a review of its strategic options, Ericsson will spin off its Media Solutions business as an independent video technology company.

One Equity Partners, a private equity firm with deep expertise in media and telecom investments, will acquire a 51% equity stake in the new company and Ericsson will retain 49% of the shares in the company. Media Solutions employees and contractors, as well as specified assets and liabilities, will transfer to the new company upon closing.


Angel Ruiz will continue to lead Media Solutions as the CEO of the new company.

Highlights of Media Solutions’ business include:

• TV platform used every day by over 18 million pay-TV subscribers in 26 countries and regulatory environments 
• Enabling the delivery of digital media services to over 1bn homes globally 
• Recording 3m video assets daily, with over 200 petabytes of time-shifted video storage deployed 
• More than 100,000 events per second tracked by its combined analytics data warehouse 

Red Bee Media

In addition, Red Bee Media (Ericsson's former Broadcast and Media Services group) will continue to be developed as an independent and focused media services business. Legal separation from Ericsson is underway. Full-year 2017 adjusted operating income for Red Bee Media was SEK -0.3 b. Full year revenues were SEK 2.5 b. Ericsson said cost and efficiency improvements should help improve the business.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: “Media Solutions and Red Bee Media are leading providers of media products and services, and with the performance improvements that are currently being implemented, we see future upsides to both businesses. We are confident that the direction we announce today will enable us to create the best long-term value, for both our customers and our shareholders.”

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Amdocs to acquire Vubiquity for video content management

Amdocs agreed to acquire Vubiquity, a Los Angeles-based company that provides professional video content management services, for approximately $224 million in cash.

Vubiquity works with over 600 leading film studios, television networks, and independent producers. It manages a 150,000+ asset library, providing superior quality distribution

Amdocs said Vubiquity's capabilities are of increasing importance to its 350+ communication and media service provider partners.

“This acquisition uniquely positions Amdocs at the center of increased convergence across the content community and video distributors including major OTT providers,” said Eli Gelman, Amdocs President and CEO. “Our joint offerings address the media and entertainment industry’s challenge in balancing the incredible growth of content and the many ways to consume content with making programming easier, faster to deliver and ultimately watch, while also delivering profits.”

“Vubiquity has successfully been connecting content owners and distributors across many diverse platforms and evolving business models at the core of its support to the media community,” said Vubiquity CEO Darcy Antonellis, who will, upon completion of the deal, be joining Amdocs as head of the Amdocs Media Division.

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Ericsson's Q4 sales dropped 12% yoy to

Ericsson's reported sales for Q4 2017 decreased by -12% to SEK 57.2 billion (US$7.26 billion). The figure was down 7% when adjusting for constant currency. Gross margin was 21.8%. Operating income was SEK -19.8 billion (-US$2.51 billion).

Ericsson attributed the weaker performance to lower LTE sales in China.

"During a challenging 2017, we have developed and started to execute on a focused strategy, strengthening our R&D while at the same time introducing robust measures to reduce cost and commercial risk. We have now laid the foundation for achieving our financial targets. The fourth quarter was in line with our overall expectation, with gradual improving performance in Networks and continued significant losses in Digital Services. The result is however far below our long-term ambition," stated Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson.

In its quarterly report, Ericsson noted that it has completed or exited 23 out of 42 under-performing managed service contracts, which should improve profitability.

In terms of market opportunity, Ericsson expects the Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment market to decline by -2% for full-year 2018. Geographically, Ericsson forecasts the Chinese market to continue to decline due to reduced LTE investments, while it sees positive momentum in North America.

Ericsson also announced the appointment of Åsa Tamsons as Senior Vice President and head of Business Area Emerging Business and member of Ericsson’s Executive Team. She joins Ericsson from McKinsey & Company where she has held the position as partner in McKinsey’s Stockholm office.


In addition, Ulf Ewaldsson, currently head of Business Area Digital Services, and Elaine Weidman, currently head of Group Function Sustainability & Public Affairs, will step down. Ewalsson will take on a role as advisor to the CEO, while Weidman-Grunewald has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.

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UK's National Research and Education Network to activate 400G with Ciena

Jisc, which operates Janet – the UK’s world-class National Research and Education Network (NREN), is deploying Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform to enable 400G wavelength connectivity -- a world first for an NREN.

“Our vision is for the UK to be at the forefront of scientific research. To make that happen, we must have a highly robust network powered with industry-leading technology that can scale to support bandwidth-intensive applications like genome editing and The Square Kilometre Array,” said Jeremy Sharp, Network Infrastructure Director, Jisc.

“Working with Ciena, the Janet Network was the first NREN to provide 100G for users and, as demand has grown, is now the first to provide 400G. WaveLogic Ai enables us to operate efficiently and accurately engineer the network for optimal capacity to manage massive flows from new data-intensive research activities,” Sharp added.

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