Verizon: SD-WAN and software-defined enterprise services

SD-WAN is an exciting area of growth for Verizon, says Shawn Hakl, Senior Vice President, Business Products, but it is important to understand how transformative it really is. SD-WAN is really becoming a control layer that lets enterprises pull in a whole new set of services.

There has been a fairly rapid evolution of customers to whitebox solutions. Inevitably, customers don't buy SD-WAN as a standalone solution anymore. The market wants security services and WAN optimization.

One of the most exciting things is the movement to an agile, software-development model. This changes the conversation between the Service Provider and the customer. The focus turns to business outcomes.

As we enter 2019, Verizon is looking to where else SD-WAN can go, including how it will interact with 5G.

https://youtu.be/s9wN2kZU4dQ

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Cisco adds "baby" and "wireless brain" switches to Catalyst 9000

Cisco announced two major additions to its Catalyst 9000 switching portfolio:

New Catalyst Wireless Controller: For the first time, customers can run consistent security, automation and analytics services across wired and wireless environments by leveraging the same OS. The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller can be run anywhere—on premise, in any cloud, or embedded virtually on Catalyst 9000 switches. It supports today’s wireless standards and is ready for the 802.11ax standard. It also elevates wireless services with software updates without disruption, new threat defense and advanced programmability. Two models are available:

• Catalyst 9800-40 -- scales up to 2,000 APs, 32,000 clients and offers 40 Gbps throughput
• Catalyst 9800-80 -- scales up to 6,000 APs, 64,000 clients and offers 80 Gbps throughput

New Catalyst Mid-Market Switch: The  Catalyst 9200 switches extend intent-based networking to simple branch deployments and mid-market customers

• Up to 48 ports of full Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) capability
• Resiliency with Field-Replaceable Units (FRU) and redundant power supply, fans, and modular uplinks
• flexible downlink options with data or PoE+
• Operational efficiency with optional backplane stacking, supporting stacking bandwidth up to 160 Gbps
• UADP 2.0 Mini with integrated CPU offers customers optimized scale with better cost structure
• Enhanced security with AES-128 MACsec encryption, policy-based segmentation, and trustworthy systems
• Layer 3 capabilities, including OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, RIP, and routed access
• Advanced network monitoring using Full Flexible NetFlow
• Cisco Software-Defined Access (SD-Access): Simplified operations and deployment with policy-based automation from edge to cloud managed with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE); Network assurance and improved resolution time through Cisco DNA Center

The new switches use Cisco's own ASIC and run the same OS that powers all of the company's access and WAN products.

Cisco also notes that its Catalyst 9000 remains the fastest growing product in its history.

“We’re excited to bring the full power of Cisco’s intent-based capabilities to everyone, everywhere,” said Sachin Gupta, senior vice president, Product Management, Enterprise Networking at Cisco. “We want to give IT the tools they need to automate and see the network end-to-end. Our expanded Catalyst 9000 portfolio lets customers do this not only for large wired networks, but for wireless and simple branch deployments too.”

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Cisco's path from Intent-based Networking to Multi-Domain Architecture

Just over a year ago, Cisco presented the industry with its vision for The Network Intuitive - or intent-based networking. The company is now building on this with a new focus on Multi-Domain Architecture.

Fabio Gori, VP, Marketing Cloud, Cisco, talks about how this fits in the context of multi-cloud applications.

https://youtu.be/7cYM2gaoZTA

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Cisco integrates SD-WAN and security for the new Cloud Edge

Cisco is unifying its security and software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technologies to help organizations address the reality of the new Cloud Edge. Many organizations now find their employees using applications hosted in multiple clouds, and doing so from home, coffee shops and airport lounges, instead of just the office. Cisco said this requires a more sophisticated SD-WAN that is capable of delivery the same level of enterprise security regardless of where connections are made. For example, Cisco has worked with Microsoft to optimize the flow of data to Office 365, delivering a 40% boost in performance for remote employees.

“The emergence of the new Cloud Edge is disrupting our customers’ network and security architectures. Today, every WAN device must become software defined and secure,” said Scott Harrell, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Networking at Cisco. “Cisco’s SD-WAN makes it easy for customers to get the very best of networking and security. We are building a bridge to a new business world that speeds our customers’ ability to unlock the power of the cloud — faster with less risk.”

New innovations include:

• Adding advanced security to Cisco SD-WAN devices, including application-aware enterprise firewall, intrusion prevention, and URL filtering. This is managed through a single pane of glass. Cisco SD-WAN is powered by Talos, its cyber threat intelligence solution.
• Integrating Cisco SD-WAN with Cisco Umbrella, ensuring that access to malicious destinations can be blocked before a connection is ever established.
• Partnering with Microsoft to enhance the Office 365 application experience for users. Unlike other vendors, Cisco SD-WAN monitors in real-time all available paths to the Microsoft Office 365 cloud. Using Microsoft Office URLs, Cisco is also able to determine the closest cloud, resulting in up to 40 percent faster performance for users.
• Offering open APIs, providing service providers and partners the opportunity to create unique new services. To help developers and network engineers innovate, Cisco DevNet has created new SD-WAN learning labs and sandboxes.
• Introducing two new Integrated Services Routers (ISR) designed for small and large branch offices.
• Quick Start Service: Cisco is also helping customers accelerate SD-WAN deployments and decrease risk via 
• Introducing a new SD-WAN Quick Start Service that provides ustomers with access to remote implementation and knowledge transfer capabilities to streamline projects. 
• Both the network and security can be purchased through a single license model and managed through a single interface.

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SC18: Indiana University, Ciena, ESnet and Internet2 build Monon400

Indiana University is collaborating with Ciena, Internet2, and ESnet to power Monon400, a 400 Gbps network ever built for research and education.

Monon400 has a current capacity of 1.2 terabits-per-second with a maximum capacity of 25.6 terabits-per-second, enabling high-speed sharing of massive amounts of data created by modern digital instruments like gene sequencers, powerful microscopes, and the Large Hadron Collider.

The current Monon100 runs from Indianapolis to Chicago, linking the Indiana GigaPOP with Internet2 and Big Ten Academic Alliance, national research and education networks. The Indiana GigaPOP, a partnership of Indiana University and Purdue University, serves as the network hub for the state's colleges and universities.

For the Monon400 upgrade, Indiana GigaPOP is working with Ciena to deploy the company’s Waveserver Ai 400G stackable interconnect platform and Blue Planet Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller with Liquid Spectrum analytics applications to replace the current Monon100 infrastructure. Once complete it will be the first research network deployment of Blue Planet MCP and Waveserver Ai. The resulting programmable infrastructure will enable the use of 400G channels connecting Indianapolis to Chicago with full visibility into network efficiencies.

The new network will debut at this week's SC18 show in Dallas, supporting IU’s Research Technologies group as they demonstrate use of the Lustre file system across the wide area from 100G to 400G, using an end-to-end link from Dallas to Bloomington.

For the SC18 Network Research Exhibition (NRE) demo, the Monon400 will run over a dedicated 100G circuit provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s science network, ESnet, stretching from Chicago to Dallas. Indiana GigaPOP will use this circuit combined with three shared 100G circuits, two from Internet2 and one from CenturyLink, to complete the 400G capacity.

“The SC18 demonstration is just the first example of what the Monon400 will enable through the high-speed, low-latency network connectivity we have built in Indiana,” said Marianne Chitwood, director of I-Light, Indiana's statewide higher education optical fiber network, and the Indiana GigaPOP. “Researchers will be able to do high-performance data transfers at much higher speeds than before—all because Monon400 has been built with the research community and its requirements in mind.”

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SC18: ESnet demos SDN for End-to-end Networked Science

At this week's SC18 in Dallas, the Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is demonstrating its Software-defined network for End-to-end Networked Science at Exascale (SENSE) research project.

SENSE is building smart network services to accelerate scientific discovery in the era of ‘big data’ driven by exascale computing, cloud computing, machine learning and AI.

The SENSE SC18 demonstration in the Caltech and University of Maryland booths (1413 and 4211) showcases a comprehensive approach to request and provision end-to-end network services across domains that combines deployment of infrastructure across multiple labs/campuses, SC booths and WAN with a focus on usability, performance and resilience.

A SENSE testbed consisting of network and end-system resources has been deployed across DOE laboratories, including Fermilab and Argonne National Lab and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Berkeley Lab; facilities at Caltech and the University of Maryland; MAX (the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads) and ESnet. To control network resources, the SENSE system interacts with production provisioning system of ESnet and other regional and site networks. To control end-systems, SENSE software is deployed at the end-sites.

The SENSE demonstration at SC18 uses this persistent testbed and adds resources on the exhibit showroom floor at the conference. As shown in the figure below, the SC18 resources include data transfer nodes (DTNs) deployed in the Caltech and University of Maryland booths. Connections to the SC18 SCinet infrastructure provide multiple 100 Gbps connections back to the SENSE testbed. This infrastructure will be utilized to demonstrate the end-to-end SENSE services and includes high-speed data transfers and provisioning services.

http://www.es.net/news-and-publications/esnet-news/2018/esnet-to-support-leading-edge-demos-at-sc18/

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Kaloom collaborates with Red Hat on a Virtual Central Office for NFV

Kaloom, a start-up based in Montreal with offices in Santa Clara, California, has collaborated with Red Hat around the launch of the Red Hat virtual central office solution, a Virtual Central Office (VCO) solution for multivendor NFV deployments at the edge.

Kaloom has developed a Software Defined Fabric (SDF) for automating and optimizing data center networks based on open networking white box switches.

Kaloom's SDF, which is designed to virtualize the data center, leverages P4-based programming capabilities initially in switching silicon from Barefoot Networks. A physical data center can be partitioned into multiple independent and fully isolated virtual data centers (vDCs). Each vDC operates with its own Virtual Fabric (vFabric), which can host millions of IPv4 or IPv6 based tenant networks.

The joint solution with Red Hat leverages Kaloom’s programmable fabric to help increase the performance and lower the latency for NFV applications. Specifically, Kaloom said its solution enhances CPU utilization for virtual network function (VNF) applications by offloading sophisticated service chaining functionality and embedding it into the data plane to accelerate overall performance and lower latency. It offers integrated service chaining offload, virtual cloud router and virtual switch capabilities. It also provides customers with a way to program their infrastructure using the open standards-based P4 programming language to add new services and capabilities.

“We see a strong need among current beta and other potential customers to have an open multivendor NFV solution. Our advanced service chaining capabilities significantly increase performance and lower latency delivering better overall network performance and lower costs for data center operators,” said Laurent Marchand, CEO and founder of Kaloom. “Red Hat is a great partner for us to bring this solution to market.”

“As more mobile network operators look to embrace the role of a modern open telecommunications service provider, moving services from the core network closer to customers by virtualizing edge networks becomes an important consideration,” said Darrell Jordan-Smith, Vice President, Global Information and Communications Technology at Red Hat. “Red Hat virtual central office solution is designed to provide both a path for service providers to follow and an open pluggable framework upon which to build their next generation services by leveraging our partner ecosystem's strengths and technologies.”

http://www.kaloom.com

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China's Tencent trials ADVA FSP 3000 TeraFlex 600G DCI

Tencent has successfully transmitted single-wavelength 600 Gbit/s signals over its OPC-4 open line system (OLS) using the ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect TeraFlex solution.

The ADVA FSP 3000 TeraFlex high-density transport solution is capable of transmitting 3.6 Tbit/s of duplex capacity in a single rack unit with 600 Gbit/s bandwidth over a single set of optics.

ADVA describes the groundbreaking trial with Tencent as a first for the Chinese market and a major milestone for metro data center interconnect (DCI) networks. By transporting 600 Gbps per wavelength over an open 100km OLS, Tencent is highlighting the value of disaggregated solutions to cost-effectively meet the growing bandwidth needs of metro DCI infrastructure.

“What this trial proves is that 600 Gbit/s services are ready to go. With the ADVA FSP 3000 TeraFlex™ plugged into our self-developed open line system OPC-4, we have verified multiple rates from 200Gbit/s to 600Gbit/s through various modulation schemes,” said Fangchao Li, optical network architect, Tencent. “With the highest density available in the current market, ADVA’s open and modular 600Gbit/s DCI technology has integrated easily and seamlessly into our OPC-4. That simplicity will be invaluable to operators to meet booming data demand and address changing business needs in real time. With this test, we’re highlighting how ultra-high capacity can now be achieved, while also moving away from static, manual operations to an intelligent, programmable optical layer.”

https://www.advaoptical.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20181112-tencent-trials-adva-fsp-3000-teraflex-600g-dci-technology-over-its-open-line-system-opc-4

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10Gtek builds Active Copper Cables with Spectra7

10Gtek, a leading data center interconnect supplier and online retailer, has begun offering active copper cables (ACCs) using Spectra7’s GaugeChanger technology.

Spectra 7 said its GaugeChanger technology allows copper to extend much longer lengths without the cost and power penalty of optics. It works equally well at 25Gbps NRZ and 50Gbps PAM4 enabling new connector standards of 100/200/400 Gbps.

"Spectra 7 has created a revolutionary solution to address the dramatically increasing power and cost of data center interconnects," said Alan Wong, General Manager at 10Gtek. “We are pleased to be moving forward on several new designs with Spectra7 based on our technology assessment and customer interest.”

"10Gtek is a leading supplier and online retailer in the data center interconnect market," said Spectra7 CEO Raouf Halim. "The adoption of our GaugeChangerTM technology by 10Gtek will offer us a strong sales channel into the enterprise and HPC data center markets."

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Samsung's Exynos 9 Series 9820 Processor integrates 2.0 Gbps LTE Advanced Pro modem

Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest premium application processor (AP), the Exynos 9 Series 9820, equipped with a separate hardware AI-accelerator for on-device Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications.

The Exynos 9820 features a fourth-generation custom CPU, 2.0-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) LTE Advanced Pro modem, and an enhanced neural processing unit (NPU) to bring new smart experiences to mobile devices. The fourth-generation custom core delivers around 20-percent improvement in single core performance or 40-percent in power efficiency when compared to its predecessor which can load data or switch between apps much faster. In addition, the multi-core performance is also increased by around 15 percent. The new mobile processor embeds the latest Mali-G76 GPU cores, which deliver a 40-percent performance boost or 35-percent power savings, allowing longer play time of graphic-intensive mobile games or interactive AR applications.

“As AI-related services expand and their utilization diversify in mobile devices, their processors require higher computational capabilities and efficiency,” said Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics. “The AI capabilities in the Exynos 9 Series 9820 will provide a new dimension of performance in smart devices through an integrated NPU, high-performance fourth-generation custom CPU core, 2.0Gbps LTE modem and improved multimedia performance.”

http://www.samsung.com/exynos

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MACOM posts Q4 revenue of $151.2 million

MACOM reported Q4 revenue of $151.2 million, a decrease of 9.1% compared to $166.4 million in the previous year fiscal fourth quarter and an increase of 9.7% compared to $137.9 million in the prior fiscal quarter.
Gross profit was $71.0 million, a decrease of 18.3% compared to $86.9 million in the previous year fiscal fourth quarter and an increase of 47.4% compared to $48.2 million in the prior fiscal quarter. Gross margin was 46.9%, compared to 52.2% in the previous year fiscal fourth quarter and 34.9% in the prior fiscal quarter.

For fiscal Year 2018, GAAP revenue was $570.4 million, a decrease of 18.4%, compared to $698.8 million in fiscal year 2017. Gross profit was $245.7 million, a decrease of 24.8%, compared to $326.9 million in fiscal year 2017.

"Our fourth quarter results were another step in the right direction toward our target operating model of 60% gross margin, 30% operating margin and 60% free cash flow,” commented John Croteau, President and CEO of MACOM. “Adjusted revenue was up 4% sequentially, adjusted operating margins up 90 basis points and adjusted earnings per share increased 23% over the prior quarter. Looking ahead, we expect the combination of growing revenue contribution from our secular growth drivers and prudent cost management to provide leverage for expanding operating margins and profits over the course of fiscal 2019."

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