Dell’Oro: 5G RAN spending on the rise

Surging 5G NR demand propelled the RAN market in 3Q 2019 to a fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year (Y/Y) growth for the first time in over a decade, according to Dell’Oro Group.   “The positive momentum that has characterized this market since the upswing began in the second half of 2018 extended into 3Q 2019, underpinned by a 5G ramp that is accelerating at an extraordinary pace,” said Stefan Pongratz, Analyst and Vice President...

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FCC's Chief Engineer to retire

Julius Knapp, Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology at the FCC, will retire on January 3, 2020, after more than 45 years at the Commission. Chairman Pai issued the following statement about Mr. Knapp’s retirement: “Julie Knapp is an FCC institution, and I will miss him for his expertise, his leadership, and his friendship.  He’s delivered incalculable value for American consumers over the years.  As just one example, if you...

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Microsoft and AT&T preview Network Edge Compute

Microsoft and AT&T announced select preview availability for Network Edge Compute (NEC) technology, which weaves Microsoft Azure cloud services into AT&T network edge locations closer to customers. NEC will initially be available for a limited set of select customers in Dallas. Next year, Los Angeles and Atlanta are targeted for select customer availability. NEC is enabled by AT&T’s software-defined and virtualized 5G core, which the...

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Qualcomm and Siemens test 5G private standalone in 3.7-3.8GHz band

by Benedict Chua, Assistant Editor Qualcomm and Siemens conducted a joint proof-of-concept project at the Siemens Automotive Test Center in Nuremberg, Germany that demonstrated the first private 5G standalone (SA) network in the 3.7-3.8GHz band. Qualcomm is providing the 5G test network and 5G industrial test devices that run on our foundational 5G technologies, and Siemens is supplying industrial end-devices like automated guided vehicles (AGV). “We...

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Palo Alto Networks to acquire Aporeto for microsegmentation tech

Palo Alto Networks agreed to acquire Aporeto, a start-up specializing in machine identity-based microsegmentation technology, for approximately $150 million in cash. Aporeto identifies workloads and applies microsegmentation across all infrastructures, helping customers secure their applications at scale. The company says its identity-based microsegmentation secures cloud applications by preventing East – West lateral movement and automating security...

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Altice to acquire Covage, 4th largest FTTH wholesale operator in France

Altice Europe N.V., acting through its SFR FTTH subsidiary, agreed to acquire Covage for a total cash consideration of €1.0 billion. Altice is acting in partnership with its consortium of financial investors, led by OMERS Infrastructure and including Allianz Capital Partners and AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets. Covage is the 4th largest fibre wholesale operator in France with 2.4 million homes to be passed (including 0.8 million homes already...

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NTT Com to open Osaka 7 data center -- largest in Kansai region

NTT Communications will launch its state-of-the-art Osaka 7 Data Center (Osaka 7) on December 1. Osaka 7 boasts 3,800m2 of server space capacity, the largest in the Kansai region. The facility will eventually offer 9,500m2 and 4,200 racks. NTT Com said Osaka 7's seismic-isolation design will minimize the impact on buildings and customer equipment if another powerful massive earthquake were to occur. In addition, Osaka 7 will be located in an area...

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FBI opens data center in Idaho

The FBI inaugurated a new data center at its campus in Pocatello, Idaho. The new facility adds approximately 140,000 square feet of both data center and office space capacity. The FBI said it is in the process of consolidating dozens of data centers across the country into fewer new facilities in order to improve efficiency and its cybersecurity posture. https://www.fbi.gov/image-repository/data-hall-fbi-pocatello-facility-111819....

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Malaysia's YTL deploys ADVA's Oscilloquartz synchronization

YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, which operates a 4G network with nationwide population coverage across Malaysia, has deployed ADVA's Oscilloquartz synchronization technology to support the nationwide rollout of LTE-Advanced services. YTL Communications’ new synchronization network is built on the OSA 5410 and OSA 5420 Series, a family of cost-effective, mid-scale synchronization distribution and assurance devices. Following a toolbox approach, this...

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Keysight's revenue rises 7% yoy to $1.1 billion, Ixia up 15%

Keysight Technologies reported quarterly revenue of $1.120 billion, up 7% when compared with $1.047 billion last year. GAAP net income was $195 million, or $1.02 per share, compared with GAAP net loss of $114 million, or $(0.61) per share, in the fourth quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP net income was $254 million, or $1.33 per share, compared with $193 million, or $1.01 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018. Reporting Segments Communications Solutions...

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Inphi launches 7nm coherent DSP supporting 400G

Inphi has begun sampling its new Canopus coherent Digital Signal Processor (DSP) based on 7nm technology and supporting high-density QSFP-DD, OSFP and CFP2-DCO coherent pluggable modules for cloud and telecom applications. Canopus leverages Inphi’s M200 coherent DSP techology enabling interoperability across generations of coherent solutions for 100G and 200G deployments to drive a seamless transition to 400G. Canopus supports 400G ZR, which...

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Facebook begins work on latest long-haul fiber route

Facebook began construction on a new long-haul fiber that will provide direct connectivity between its data centers in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina. Facebook says it will continue to partner and invest in core backbone network infrastructure. The company vows a "pragmatic approach to investing in network infrastructure and utilize whatever method is most efficient for the task at hand, including investing in fiber routes that provide much-needed...

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Reality check for the SD-WAN market

Quick reality check on SD-WAN... the U.S. market is currently in the high 100 million dollar range for carrier managed services. In comparison, the existing enterprise VPN service market, which includes MPLS and site-to-site VPNs, is valued at $12 billion or more, even though it is flat to slightly declining. Erin Dunne, Director of Research Services, Vertical Systems Group, provides insight. https://youtu.be/3a2TENT4OVc...

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Moving networks to open and disaggregated infrastructure

Networks need to become more open and disaggregated, says Rob Shore, VP of Marketing for Infinera. MEF is helping to accelerate this trend through its work in standardizing interfaces. The next step will be to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to these interfaces to improve resiliency and efficiency of the network. https://youtu.be/p3VOUJ5B56c ...

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Status of MEF LSO Sonata APIs

MEF's LSO Sonata APIs, which are designed for intercarrier connectivity,  were a hot topic at MEF19 in Los Angeles. Carriers are now looking at bringing automation to LSO Sonata APIs, which can open up many more possibilities, says Rosemary Cochran, Principal & Founder, Vertical Systems Group. More than 50 Service Providers worldwide are now supporting MEF LSO Sonata. https://youtu.be/hsPylMSjkc8 ...

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Moving networks toward open and disaggregated infrastructure

Networks need to become more open and disaggregated, says Rob Shore, VP of Marketing for Infinera. MEF is helping to accelerate this trend through its work in standardizing interfaces. The next step will be to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to these interfaces to improve resiliency and efficiency of the network. https://youtu.be/p3VOUJ5B56c ...

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MEF19: Blockchain and carrier automation

In order to achieve global, end-to-end connectivity, carriers need to cooperate, says Michael Kerns, Founder, Amartus. This requires a trusted mechanism that operates in an on-demand, autonomous fashion. Blockchain can provide this trusted environment because it enables immutable ledgers where all negotiations and transactions are recorded. Here is an overview of how blockchain can be a driver for carrier network automation. ...

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Nutanix reports flat quarterly revenue of $315 million

Nutanix reported revenue of $314.8 million for its first quarter of fiscal 2020 ended October 31, 2019, up from $313.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, reflecting revenue compression from the company’s ongoing transition to subscription and the significant reduction of hardware revenue from the prior year. There was a GAAP net loss of $229.3 million, compared to a GAAP net loss of $94.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Non-GAAP...

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Knightscope sends its autonomous security robots to Verizon 5G lab

Knightscope, which develops autonomous security robots, has been accepted into Verizon’s 5G First Responder Lab. “I couldn't possibly be more excited for Knightscope to be working with Verizon in building new technologies to help secure the places you work, study and visit,” said William Santana Li, chairman and chief executive officer, Knightscope, Inc. Launched in November 2018, the 5G First Responder Lab is a first-of-its-kind innovation program...

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AT&T readies launch of 5G over low-band spectrum

AT&T is preparing to launch its 5G network over low-band spectrum in the Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, R.I., Rochester, N.Y., and San Diego market areas in the coming weeks. The rollout will be extended next to Boston, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, New York City, San Francisco, Birmingham, Ala., Bridgeport, Conn., Buffalo, N.Y., Louisville, Ky., San Jose, Calif. and others. In addition to the launch of 5G service over low-band spectrum, AT&T...

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Bloomberg: BT Seeks Third Fiber Supplier

BT will seek a third supplier of fiber optic equipment as it looks to reduce purchases from Huawei Technologies, according to Bloomberg. Openreach is conducting an evaluation process. Nokia is the other lead supplier for the carrier's broadband fiber rollout, which currently reaches about 1.9 million homes. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-25/huawei-s-u-k-prospects-dented-as-bt-seeks-third-fiber-supplier...

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MEF19: Exceeding expectations for SD-WAN

Early feedback on enterprise SD-WAN indicates that the service is meeting or exceeding customer expectations, says Bob Victor, Head of Product Management, Comcast Business. The next step is to make things easier. MEF standardization and certification should help in this regard. https://youtu.be/_aw_N8R1ygk ...

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Big ambtions for MEF19 Proof-of-Concepts

What's striking about the fifteen Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) shown at this year's #MEF19 in Los Angeles is the scale of their ambition and the impact they will have if they reach deployment, says Daniel Bar-Lev, Director, Office of the CTO, MEF. https://youtu.be/xr8WlKyF07A ...

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The buzz at #MEF19

Nan Chen gives his take on #MEF19. Certainly, a lot of the buzz at this year's event concerned SD-WAN and MEF's standardization efforts, including the newly announced certification program. There was also progress on MEF's larger vision to create an overlay/underlay orchestration framework for network services. https://youtu.be/QUBQYZx0gkc ...

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MEF19: SD-WAN and the LSO Framework

Service Providers often have very common problems when it comes to SD-WAN. One of them is scale, especially as they add enterprise customers. Another challenge is how to deal with multi-vendor deployments. It is here that MEF's Lifecycle Service Orchestration (MSO) framework really comes into play, says Sue White, Head of SDN/NFV Marketing for Netcracker. https://youtu.be/7Fthzq83_P0 ...

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Dell'Oro: Stable demand for optical transport equipment in Q3

There was stable demand for optical transport equipment in 3Q 2019 as WDM revenue grew 4 percent year-over-year in the quarter, according to Dell’Oro Group. “Demand for network capacity has not shown any signs of abating,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “In the third quarter of 2019, the amount of capacity shipped on WDM equipment grew above 30 percent year-over-year, driving the WDM market up 4 percent. Once again, disaggregated...

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MEF19: SD-WAN Automation and Analytics

Carriers want to differentiate their SD-WAN services, and enterprises want to launch new applications to their end users, and automation is key to making this happen, says Chris Menier, GM, Digital Transformation, Vitria. Automation requires visibility across the entire service delivery layer. https://youtu.be/V5udRt-k6rM ...

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Juniper extends 400GbE over 2,000 km

Juniper Networks delivered 400Gbps Ethernet live traffic over 1,300 miles (2.092 km) in a trial conducted in conjunction with SCinet, the Supercomputing 2019 Conference's high-capacity network. SCinet used Juniper’s PTX10003 Packet Transport Router to deliver traffic between Denver and Chicago. The 400GbE link was part of the 4.22 Terabits of connectivity SCinet provided to the conference. It was made available to researchers working on projects...

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AT&T to provide Telefonica with last mile wireless access in Mexico

AT&T Mexico will provide Telefonica Movistar with capacity in its 3G and 4G access network and any future network technologies nationwide. Under the deal, Telefonica Movistar maintains its transport network and all of its platforms, without operational or geographical restrictions to meet the needs of its users and services. Telefonica Movistar will maintain sole control over its operations, including its client portfolio, operations, assets,...

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Google Loon to fly over the Peruvian Amazon

Peru is likely to be the first country in Latin America in which the "Loon" Internet-via-balloon service will operate Specifically, Loon and Internet para Todos Perú (IpT) have reached an agreement to use high-altitude balloons to expand mobile internet access to parts of the Peruvian Amazonia. The companies aim to provide service to Telefónica customers in Peru in 2020. Loon, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, uses...

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Orange launches its own 5G smartphone in Europe

Orange is the first operator to launch a 5G smartphone under its own brand in Europe. The Neva smartphone, which will initially be available on existing networks (3G, 4G, 4G+) in select markets in 2019, starting with Poland. It will then be available on Orange’s commercial 5G networks across Europe as they go live, boasts 6.47 inch borderless screen with full HD+ definition; device-integrated AI which utilises artificial intelligence to manage files,...

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FCC bars Huawei and ZTE from USF program

The FCC voted to prohibit the use of its $8.5 billion a year Universal Service Fund (USF) to purchase equipment and services from Huawei and ZTE.  The FCC cited a national security threat, noting that both Huawei and ZTE have close ties to the Chinese government and military. The newly adopted order also establishes a certification and audit regime to enforce the new rule. Furthermore, the FCC is proposing to require carriers receiving USF...

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Orange divests operations in Niger

Orange has sold its entire 95.5% stake in Orange Niger to Zamani Com S.A.S. Zamani Com S.A.S. is wholly owned by Mr Mohamed Rissa of Rimbo Invest and Mr Moctar Thiam of Greenline Communications, both minority shareholders of Orange Niger. Financial terms were not disclosed. The company’s services will continue to be marketed under the Orange brand during a transition period. Orange says the Africa and Middle East region remains a strategic priority,...

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MEF's 3 major technical themes for 2020

Pascal Menezes, CTO of MEF, talks about the 3 top technology themes inside of @MEF_Forum, for 2020, including (1) the overlay/underlay framework (2) how clouds are moving to the edge, enabled by SD-WAN, and (3) architecture to accelerate 5G. ...

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What's new at MEF19?

Kevin Vachon gives a quick overview of the big news from #MEF19 in Los Angeles, California. There is a big spotlight here on SD-WAN, new certification programs, the Proof-of-Concept showcase and overall progress with carrier orchestration and MEF 3.0. ...

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Spectra7 and Molex showcase 400G Active Copper Interconnects

Spectra7 Microsystems and Molex showed their 400G Active Copper Cables (ACCs) at this year’s SuperComputing 2019 (SC19) show in Denver. Spectra7’s GaugeChanger technology is said to work equally well at 25 Gbps NRZ and 50 Gbps PAM-4 enabling new connector standards of 100, 200 and 400 Gbps. Molex recently began shipping its Passive Copper QSFP-DD (Quad Small Form Factor–Double Density) Cable Assemblies in volume production and the same customers...

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Ayar Labs selected for Intel’s DARPA PIPES Project

Ayar Labs has been selected as Intel’s optical I/O solution partner for their recently awarded DARPA PIPES (Photonics in Package for Extreme Scalability) project. The PIPES project aims to develop integrated optical I/O solutions co-packaged with next generation FPGA/CPU/GPU and accelerators in Multi-Chip Packages (MCP) to provide extreme data rates (input/output) at ultra-low power over much longer distances than supported by current technology....

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Credo Joins Open Compute Project (OCP) to Accelerate 400G

Credo, which develops Serializer-Deserializer (SerDes) technology for 100G, 400G, and 800G, has joined the Open Compute Project (OCP). “As disaggregated chassis begin to displace tradition big-iron switching and routing chassis, low power, highly flexible and routable 400G interconnect becomes a core component of the architecture,” said Don Barnetson, Sr. Director of Product at Credo. “OCP provides a platform to standardize and proliferate 400G...

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Vcinity and Naval Research Lab demo fastest memory-to-memory

Vcinity and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have achieved near line rate performance for memory to memory data transfer and remote data access across a 100G link from Washington DC to Denver. The memory to memory data transfer was performed at 95Gbps across CenturyLink’s 100G circuit with ~37ms latency (between Washington DC and Denver). RAD X-1100 extended EDR InfiniBand (IB) fabric i.e., RDMA beyond the four walls of the data center and...

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Cisco shows switches powered by Innovium

At this week's SC19 in Denver, multiple network equipment vendors, including Cisco, showcased high-performance switches based on Innovium's TERALYNX silicon. Innovium said its 12.8Tbps TERALYNX low-latency production switch silicon is being used by OEMs and cloud providers for hyperscale and enterprise deployments. Cisco showcased two Innovium-based switches, the Nexus 3432D-S and Nexus 3408-S. The Nexus 3432D-S is a 1RU, QSFP-DD switch that supports...

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Carbon nanotube exceeds 100GHz in RF applications

Carbonics, a start-up based in Culver City, California, announced that carbon nanotube technology has for the first time achieved speeds exceeding 100GHz in-radio frequency (RF) applications. Potential applications include 5G mm-Wave technologies. Carbonics employs a deposition technology called ZEBRA that enables carbon nanotubes to be densely aligned and deposited onto a variety of chip substrates including silicon, silicon-on-insulator, quartz...

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