Telstra activates rapid, subsea restoration service with Ciena GeoMesh

Telstra is introducing a new rapid restoration service on its busiest subsea cable routes in Asia based on Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme solution. Ericsson is also a partner.

Currently, Telstra’s assured availability “Always on” service - offers restoration within eight hours. Telstra’s new service will reduce that time from hours to minutes.

Trials were held in December and the new service is now available on three of Telstra’s intra-Asia routes.

“The Asian region presents one of the most challenging environments for subsea cable systems. Busy and shallow shipping ports in Hong Kong and Singapore, high-levels of fishing activity and an ecosystem prone to natural disasters, all threaten to disrupt or damage underwater infrastructure,” said Nadya Melic, Telstra’s Head of Connectivity and Platforms.

Ericsson’s Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, Emilio Romeo said: “Through this innovative technology we are supporting Telstra to meet ever-increasing network demands and providing unprecedented levels of reliability, automation and intelligence. This solution gives Telstra increased capacity to adapt to network changes, ensuring customers receive the best possible service.”

Ciena’s Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific and Japan, Rick Seeto said: “We are seeing a growing trend for more agile, resilient and adaptive networks that use flexible, instrumented photonics and advanced software control. These innovations allow network providers like Telstra to not only scale their network and boost capacity but also protect traffic and service delivery.”

https://exchange.telstra.com.au/building-asia-pacifics-leading-subsea-cable-network/
https://www.ciena.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/Telstra-launches-continuous-connection-on-its-subsea-infrastructure.html

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IBM and Vodafone Business form partnership

IBM and Vodafone Business are establishing a new venture focused on digital transformation enabled by 5G, Edge and Software Defined Networking.

Under the new venture, Vodafone Business customers will have access to IBM's cloud offerings. IBM will provide managed services to Vodafone Business' cloud and hosting unit, in an eight-year engagement valued at approximately $550 million (€480 million). Customers will benefit from IBM's optimisation, automation and cognitive capabilities which help them to run their business effectively in a cloud environment. The venture will co-develop new digital solutions, combining Vodafone's leadership in IoT, 5G and edge computing with IBM's multicloud, industry expertise and professional services. The companies expect to be up an running in the first half of this year.

"IBM has built industry-leading hybrid cloud, AI and security capabilities underpinned by deep industry expertise," said IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty. "Together, IBM and Vodafone will use the power of the hybrid cloud to securely integrate critical business applications, driving business innovation – from agriculture to next-generation retail."

"Vodafone has successfully established its cloud business to help our customers succeed in a digital world," said Vodafone CEO Nick Read. "This strategic venture with IBM allows us to focus on our strengths in fixed and mobile technologies, whilst leveraging IBM's expertise in multicloud, AI and services. Through this new venture we'll accelerate our growth and deepen engagement with our customers while driving radical simplification and efficiency in our business."

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Baidu employs Xilix for edge acceleration board

Baidu has developed an edge acceleration computing solution enabled by Xilinx and targetted at edge application products such as smart-video security surveillance solutions, advanced-driver-assistance systems and next-generation robots.

The Baidu EdgeBoard is a turn-key solution that can be configured and customized as part of the Baidu Brain AI Hardware Platform initiative.

The Baidu Brain AI Hardware Platform is part of the Baidu Brain AI capabilities open platform, encompassing Baidu's open computing services and hardware and software products for edge artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

EdgeBoard is based on the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, which integrates real-time processors with programmable logic.

"Xilinx offers the world's leading adaptive chips and development support. The flexible EdgeBoard we built based on Xilinx is designed to enable developers and engineers to quickly leverage Baidu-proven technology or deploy self-defined models, enabling faster deployment," said Youping Yu, general manager of Baidu's AI ecosystem division. "This is the ideal acceleration engine to enable Baidu Brain to broadly serve Chinese edge AI developers."

"We are very excited to be selected as the AI technology for the Baidu Brain AI Hardware Platform," said Freddy Engineer, corporate vice president, global data center sales, Xilinx. "The massive and open ecosystem being built by Baidu will accelerate the innovation of edge AI across China, resulting in products and solutions that will improve the way we work and live."

http://ai.baidu.com/tech/hardware/deepkit.

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Huawei completes 5G NR test using 2.6 GHz band

Huawei completed a test 5G NR (New Radio) using the 2.6 GHz spectrum band in a trial organized by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group.

To date, Huawei officially completed the third phase of China's 5G laboratory and field testing in NSA (Non-Stand Alone) and SA (Stand Alone) scenarios. The most mainstream NR frequency bands, including the 3.5GHz and 4.9GHz, were tested earlier. The most recent 2.6 GHz test was conducted in Huairou 5G test field and CAICT (China Academy of Information and Communications Technology) MTNet (Mobile Communication Trial Simulation Network) Lab using Huawei's latest 5G Massive MIMO 64T64R gNB.

For 2T4R 5G terminals, the single-user downlink peak throughput exceeded 1.8 Gbps.

Huawei said the successful verification of its 2.6 GHz NR gNB proves that 2.6GHz is a valid choice for operators to deploy a 5G NSA/SA commercial network. It also shows Huawei's strong determination to accelerate the development of 2.6GHz industry together with industry.

Yang Chaobin, president of Huawei's 5G product line, said: "In the early stage of 5G network deployment, C-Band and 2.6GHz are undoubtedly the most mainstream frequency bands. The C-Band industry chain is gradually becoming mature under the joint efforts of all of us. Similarly, the industry chain of 2.6GHz needs to be promoted together. Huawei has completed the full testing of C-Band and 2.6GHz in China's 5G Technology R&D Trial, which demonstrates the strength of Huawei's end-to-end 5G products and solutions, and is also a Huawei’s substantial action for accelerating the maturity of the 5G industry chain."

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China Unicom tests ZTE’s 5G prototype smartphone in Shenzhen trial

China Unicom is testing ZTE’s 5G prototype smartphone in a 5G field trial in Shenzhen. The test is fully verifying the 5G network equipment’s networking capabilities, special services, roaming and interconnection, and the inheritance of existing services in phases, thereby laying a solid foundation for the 5G whole network commercial construction.

ZTE said the Shenzhen testing represents the world's first commercial test field to make the first call in the NSA mode and in compliance with the 3GPP Rel-15.

The Shenzhen test adopts ZTE’s 5G end-to-end solution, including radio access network, core network, transport network and intelligent device, and 5G prototype smartphone.

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Boeing invests in Isotropic Systems for satellite terminals

Isotropic Systems Ltd., a start-up developing next-generation integrated satellite terminals, announced a $14 million Series A round of funding led by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, with participation from WML, Space Angels and Space Capital.

Isotropic Systems, which is based in London, is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminal designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services.

"The Series A financing builds on an exceptional year for Isotropic which saw a rapidly growing roster of strategic partners and customers who are poised to unlock the full potential of high-throughput satellites and mega-constellations across all orbits," said John Finney, founder and chief executive officer of Isotropic Systems. "Boeing's investment provides our team access to Boeing experts, testing labs, and other valuable resources to fast-track the deployment of our terminal solutions and to leverage our intellectual property across other space-based and wireless connectivity applications."

https://www.isotropicsystems.com

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Telia Carrier opens PoP at Equinix HK1 in Hong Kong

Telia Carrier activated an additional Point-of-Presence (PoP) at the Equinix HK1 data center in Hong Kong, its second PoP in the city.

In September, Telia Carrier announced a PoP in Tokyo, Japan.

Telia Carrier said its APAC expansion is a continuation of the carrier’s organic growth story.

“We are committed to investing in network and geographic diversity in the Asia Pacific region, as demonstrated by the building of another new PoP in Hong Kong,” said Henrik Almroth, Managing Director APAC, Telia Carrier. “The resilient design of our network, coupled with the strength of our relationship with data center operators in the region, will guarantee the highest quality performance and service for clients in this rapidly growing market.”

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Scalyr appoints Christine Heckart as CEO

Scalyr, a start-up offering a "blazing-fast" log management solution, appointed Christine Heckart as its new CEO. Steve Newman, founding CEO of Scalyr, will assume the role of chairman and founder to focus on advancing the company’s product vision and technology.

Scalyr is log management platform designed for modern development and deployment. Unlike traditional log management tools designed for the legacy data center, Scalyr is built to meet next-generation approaches to software development, including microservices and containers. The company is based in San Mateo, California.

Scalyr reports more than 100 percent groth in 2018, adding marquee names such as Cisco, Palo Alto Unified School District, Vanderbilt University, and Worldpay to its customer list.

Heckart most recently served as Senior Vice President at Cisco and as Executive Vice President at Brocade. In addition, Heckart has held multiple executive and C-level positions at global technology brands, including NetApp, Microsoft, and Juniper Networks. Heckart serves on the board of directors at Lam Research Corporation and 6sense.

“As digital customer experiences become increasingly immersive, their underlying systems and code have grown more complex, as have the challenges and bugs. The Scalyr platform helps engineers build and troubleshoot software within modern IT and application environments,” Heckart said. “We have an awesome product that developers use daily, an impressively diverse employee base, and a network-effect built into the architecture itself. A query that takes other companies ten minutes takes Scalyr one second, and it will only get faster and more affordable as we grow.”

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Netrounds raises funding for software-based active testing, monitoring

Netrounds, a start-up based in Sweden, announced a Series A investment round led by Swisscom Ventures and a new Nordic technology investment fund which is expected to be disclosed and announced at the end of Q1, 2019. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Netrounds focuses on software-based active testing, monitoring and automated troubleshooting solutions for communications service providers and global enterprises.

"The Netrounds team is thrilled to begin working with our new investors as we continue our exciting journey of growth and innovation," said Mats Nordlund, CEO and co-founder of Netrounds. "This investment round will significantly improve our sales team's capability to execute on our rapidly growing sales pipeline and to capture global market share."

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Socionext to highlight 112G SerDes for 100G/200G/400G

Socionext will feature its advanced SoC designs including 112G SerDes, 120+ GS/s ADC/DAC, AI technology, high-performance memory, multi-die packaging and RF/mmWave solutions at DesignCon later this month at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Socionext provides a high-performance SerDes macro with up to 112Gbps per channel for 100G/200G/400G networks. These capabilities are further extended by utilizing the company’s ultra-high-speed ADC & DAC technologies, a key component in coherent and direct detect optical networking SoCs enabling Terabit (Tbps) datacenter interconnect (DCI) solutions for hyperscale cloud operators.

Socionext will demonstrate solutions of ultra-energy-efficient 56Gb/s PAM4 SR to LR CMOS transceivers optimized to help companies cost-effectively meet the ever-increasing demand for performance, functionality and design requirements.

The company will also showcase a high-performance, energy-efficient edge server with AI accelerator delivering powerful parallel processing performance for video processing and image recognition. This video management system is optimized for facial and object recognition ideal for surveillance and security applications.
ments. Socionext will also showcase advanced “Chip-Package-PCB co-design” methodology developed to help companies quickly and cost-effectively deliver high-quality, high-performance, multi-die packaging and RF/mmWave solutions.

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