NEC provides 10G-EPON for KDDI's "au Hikari Home 10 giga"

NEC supplied the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (10G-EPON) system for KDDI's  "au Hikari Home 10 giga" an FTTH service for individual subscribers.

"au Hikari Home 10 giga" enables bi-directional service at up to 10 Gbps.

NEC's 10G-EPON system consists of an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) installed within KDDI facilities and an Optical Network Unit (ONU) installed inside the homes of individual subscribers.

The small and high-density packaging of an OLT is only the size of a 4U 19-inch rack, yet it houses up to 8,192 ONUs, which helps to minimize the space required for telecommunications carriers to install them.

NEC also noted that it reduced the size of the ONU by about 65% compared to NEC's conventional products.

"The need for high-speed and large-capacity Internet is expected to continue rising with the sophistication and high-definition of content and the increase in mobile data traffic such as Wi-Fi offload. In addition to this 10G-EPON system for KDDI, NEC will continue to work on the development of optical access technologies that support the strengthening of telecommunications carrier services," said Kazuhiro Tagawa, Deputy General Manager, Network Solutions Division, NEC Corporation.

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Orange leads 2017 Global Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD

Orange retains the top position on Vertical Systems Group’s 2017 Global Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD, while AT&T moves up to second, displacing Colt.

The results are as follows (in rank order based on retail port share): Orange Business Services (France), AT&T (U.S.), Colt (U.K.), CenturyLink (U.S.), BT Global Services (U.K.), Verizon (U.S.) and NTT (Japan). The Global Provider LEADERBOARD, the industry’s benchmark for multinational Ethernet network market presence, ranks companies that hold a 4% or higher share of billable retail ports at sites outside of their respective home countries.

The Challenge Tier of Global Providers includes companies with share between 2% and 4% of this defined market. Seven companies qualify for the year-end 2017 Challenge Tier (in alphabetical order): Cogent (U.S.), Global Cloud Xchange (India), SingTel (Singapore), T-Systems (Germany), Tata Communications (India), Telefonica Worldwide (Spain) and Vodafone (U.K.). Global Cloud Xchange is the new entrant gaining a Challenge Tier citation, moving up from the Market Player tier.

“With very slim margins separating the leading global service providers, Orange remains in first position, AT&T advances to second, and CenturyLink makes its debut,” said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. “To serve this specialized global market, key providers are increasing deployments of higher speed Ethernet connectivity to MPLS, VPLS and cloud services, while transitioning customers to more dynamic, advanced SDN-based hybrid WAN and SD-WAN offerings.”

The Market Player tier includes all Global Providers with port share below 2%. Companies in the year-end 2017 Market Player tier are as follows (in alphabetical order): Bell (Canada), Bezeq (Israel), CAT Telecom (Thailand), China Telecom (China), Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), Eir (Ireland), Embratel (Brazil), euNetworks (U.K.), Exponential-e (U.K.), Globe (Philippines), GlobeNet (Brazil), GTT (U.S.), HGC Global (Hong Kong), Indosat (Indonesia), Interoute (U.K.), KDDI (Japan), Korea Telecom (Korea), KPN (Netherlands), Liberty Global (Netherlands), Masergy (U.S.), PCCW Global (Hong Kong), PLDT Global (Philippines), Rogers (Canada), Rostelecom (Russia), Spark (New Zealand), Sparkle (Italy), Sprint (U.S.), StarHub (Singapore), TDC (Denmark), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia), Telia (Sweden), Telin (Singapore), Telkom South Africa (South Africa), TelMex (Mexico), Telstra (Australia), Vector (New Zealand), Virgin Media Business (U.K.), Zayo (U.S.), and other providers selling Ethernet services outside their home country.

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TE SubCom builds subsea cable landing infrastructure in Los Angeles

TE SubCom is beginning construction of a beach landing platform in Los Angeles to serve multiple subsea cables. Easements, permitting and agreements are complete and groundbreaking will begin imminently.

TE Subcom said LAX beachhead project will use horizontal directional drilling to install bore pipes for the shore-end landing due to the minimal impact this type of operation has on the environment of the beach and tidal area.

Chris Carobene, vice president of marine services at TE SubCom said, “Starting the construction of these bore pipes is a significant milestone for us. The project will enable a gateway to greater information capacity and significantly increased speed. We are eager to begin and looking forward to completion of the work.” Carobene added, “We continue to progress the project according to schedule and look forward to aiding our customers with this critical enabling infrastructure”.

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Foxconn Interconnect Technology advances 400G, 100G BiDi, CXP2

Foxconn Interconnect Technology showcased its latest 400 Gbps Interconnect solutions at the recent Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference & Exhibition in San Diego.

QSFP-DD product and technology demonstrations:

• Live traffic up to 400 Gbps will be run over interconnects utilizing FIT QSFP-DD cables, cages and connectors.
• 400G QSFP-DD SMF DR4 technology demonstration.
• QSFP-DD products: FIT will be showcasing its growing line of QSFP-DD cage, connector and interconnect products.

"FIT is committed to the development of 50G, 100G and 400G PAM4 based products and technologies that will add to one of the broadest portfolios of transceivers, cages/connectors, direct attach copper (DAC), and active optical cables (AOC) on the market," said Steve Shultis, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Foxconn Interconnect Technology.

FIT also announced the general availability of its 100 Gbps Bidirectional (100G BiDi) QSFP28 multimode fiber (MMF) transceiver module for 100 Gigabit Ethernet.

A key advantage is that the 100G BiDi module facilitates an easy upgrade path from 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps line rates to 100 Gbps by reusing existing duplex LC MMF fiber cable infrastructure. The 100G BiDi modules support link distances up to 70m OM3, 100m OM4, and 150m OM5 MMF. The company notes that because 40G BiDi QSFP+ transceivers have already been widely adopted in the industry, 100G BiDi QSFP28 optics are a smooth generational upgrade. Both 40G BiDi and 100G BiDi efficiently use 2 laser colors per link, instead of more complex and costly solutions using 4 laser colors. In addition, 40G BiDi and 100G BiDi limit the range of those colors in order to get improved cable performance with existing Enterprise OM3 and OM4 MMF cabling infrastructure. FIT's solution is designed using 50 Gbps PAM4 integrated circuits and optical signaling with mature 2-color (850 and 900nm) VCSEL technology highly leveraged from 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps.

In addition, FIT announced general availability and volume production of its CXP2 optical transceiver module and CXP2 active optical cable (AOC). These 300G (12x25Gbps) pluggable fiber optic solutions can be used to build a high-density, multi-lane interconnect fabric using mature VCSEL technology, which is strongly desirable for applications such as chassis interconnect in high-end switches, routers, server clustering, and high-performance computing.

Key features of FIT's CXP2 optical solutions include:

• Proven 850 nm technology with high reliability and consistent high quality: Fully-equipped with 12-channel arrays of VCSEL transmitter and PIN receiver technologies. Guaranteed performance over corner conditions at distances up to 100m OM4 multimode fiber.
• Multi-rate support: Each lane can operate up to 25.78 Gbps NRZ and is compatible with legacy data rates in CDR bypass mode. Suitable for 25GE, InfiniBand EDR, PCI Express, and proprietary data rates.
• Feature-rich programmability: Individual channel control of Tx&Rx CDR capability, Tx equalization, Rx amplitude and emphasis. Support for in-system firmware upgrade.
• Digital diagnostics support: Both transceiver module and AOC support temperature and supply voltage monitoring as well as per-channel laser bias current, laser power, and receiver input power monitoring.
• World 1st in high volume optical CXP2 production shipment: FIT is the first vendor offering CXP2 optical products with demonstrated high volume manufacturing capability.

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Gartner: Worldwide IoT security spending to reach $1.5 billion in 2018

Worldwide spending on IoT security will reach $1.5 billion in 2018, a 28 percent increase from 2017 spending of $1.2 billion, according to Gartner.

Gartner predicts that through 2020, the biggest inhibitor to growth for IoT security will come from a lack of prioritization and implementation of security best practices and tools in IoT initiative planning. This will hamper the potential spend on IoT security by 80 percent.

Gartner is also predicting that by 2021 regulatory compliance will become the prime influencer for IoT security uptake, especially in industries such as finance and healthcare where critical infrastructure protection mandates will appear.

"In IoT initiatives, organizations often don't have control over the source and nature of the software and hardware being utilized by smart connected devices," said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. "We expect to see demand for tools and services aimed at improving discovery and asset management, software and hardware security assessment, and penetration testing. In addition, organizations will look to increase their understanding of the implications of externalizing network connectivity. These factors will be the main drivers of spending growth for the forecast period with spending on IoT security expected to reach $3.1 billion in 2021 (see Table 1)."

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IAR Systems acquires Secure Thingz

IAR Systems Group AB, based in Uppsala, Sweden agreed to acquire Secure Thingz, a provider of advanced security solutions for embedded systems in the Internet of Things (IoT).

IAR Systems, which already owned approximately 20 percent of the shares in Secure Thingz, will pay approximately 230 MSEK (US$27.9 million) for the remaining 80%. IAR will finance the acquisition either with support from a credit facility or by a directed share issue.

Secure Thingz, which is based in Cambridge, UK and with an office in San Jose, California, was founded in 2016 by staff from ARM. The company develops and sells products and services for implementation of embedded security in connected devices. The company has provided security solutions for the Renesas Synergy Platform through its Secure Deploy platform offerings. Secure Thingz is headed by Haydn Povey, who previously led Arm's strategy for security across mobile, enterprise and IoT domains. Before that, Haydn Povey led the development and introduction of the Arm Cortex-M microprocessor family, which now dominates the embedded and IoT-markets and whose large market impact enabled the rapid adoption of 32-bit microcontroller technology around the globe. Haydn Povey will continue to operate Secure Thingz as CEO.

In February 2018, IAR Systems and Secure Thingz introduced a jointly developed product called Embedded Trust that enables companies to safeguard intellectual property against overproduction and counterfeiting, manage software updates in a robust way, and protect end users from malware intrusion and theft or loss of data.

"With the increasing number of connected devices, our customers are facing new challenges. One of the major challenges is how to deliver secure products in a world where even minor failures can lead to major consequences," comments Stefan Skarin, CEO, IAR Systems. "As a first step, our customers need help mainly protecting themselves against overproduction and IP theft, and we are responding to this need with a new offering that provides possibilities to create modern workflow where security is included from start. The acquisition of Secure Thingz is a step in our increased ambition for future growth through new technology, new markets, new business models, and new relationships. It also secures our position as a frontrunner in a changing industry."

"We are very excited to become a part of the highly competent IAR Systems team," says Haydn Povey, CEO, Secure Thingz. "We have already established a smooth collaboration with the development of Embedded Trust, and our combined resources within technology, sales and customer support will enable us to accelerate the development of the innovative security solutions that the digital products market so desperately needs."

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