Huawei strives for cloud-native 5G core

Huawei has focused on cloud-native as the cornerstone of its 5G core network solutions.

Speaking at this week's Huawei Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, Jason Dai, President of Huawei Cloud Core Network Strategy & Business Development Dept, said Huawei is striving for a fully cloudified core network based on technologies such as three-layer decoupling, stateless design, cross-DC disaster recovery, containers, and service-based frameworks. Huawei's flow control algorithm enables 5G core networks to cope with traffic bursts caused by ultra-dense connections. End-to-end network slicing enables new service models. Huawei 5G core network is based on the distributed architecture of control plane and user plane separation (CUPS), with its centrally managed control planes and one-stop plug-and-play ready user planes. On-demand scheduling based on heterogeneous edge computing enables services to be processed only by the most suitable resources.

Huawei also noted the following milestones:

• more than 580 commercial cloud core network contracts worldwide
• 40 commercial 5G contracts worldwide

https://www.huawei.com/us/press-events/news/2019/4/huawei-5g-core-network

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DriveNet scales its disaggregated router to 400G

DriveNets, a start-up based in Israel, announced 400G-port routing support to its Network Cloud software-based disaggregated router.

The company says its Network Cloud is the only router on the market designed to scale 100/400G ports up to performance of 768 Tbps. Inspired by the hyperscalers, Network Cloud runs the routing data plane on cost-efficient white-boxes and the control plane on standard servers, disconnecting network cost from capacity growth.

DriveNets’ latest routing software release supports a packet-forwarding white-box based on Broadcom’s Jericho2 chipset which has high-speed, high-density port interfaces of 100G and 400G.

The platform is now being tested and certified by a tier-1 Telco customer.

DriveNets was founded in 2015 by Ido Susan and Hillel Kobrinsky. Susan previously co-founded Intucell, which was acquired by Cisco for $475 million. Kobrinsky founded the web conferencing specialist, Interwise, which was acquired by AT&T for $121 million.

In February, the company emerged from stealth with $110 Million in Series A funding.

“Unlike existing offerings, Network Cloud has built a disaggregated router from scratch. We adapted the data-center switching model behind the world’s largest clouds to routing, at a carrier-grade level, to build the world’s largest Service Providers’ networks. We are proud to show how DriveNets can rapidly and reliably deploy technological innovations at that scale,” said Ido Susan CEO and Co-Founder of DriveNets.

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Swisscom activates 5G

Swisscom switched on its commercial 5G network on April 17th across 102 locations in the first 54 towns – including Basel, Bern, Chur, Davos, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.

Swisscom plans to extend 5G coverage across Switzerland from Aadorf to Zwischbergen by the end of the year.

“The Swisscom 5G network will be ready for everyone across Switzerland by the end of the year as the new 5G devices from the major manufacturers wait under the Christmas trees,” says Urs Schaeppi, CEO Swisscom.

Swisscom picks Ericsson + Juniper for 5G IP transport

Sunday, September 09, 2018  Ericsson, Juniper, Swisscom, Switzerland  

Ericsson will supply a new end-to-end 5G IP transport network to Swisscom. The deployment will use Ericsson's Router 6000 and Juniper Networks' 5G core routing portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ericsson said it takes end-to-end responsibility for Swisscom's 4G and 5G networks – from radio base stations to the data center. This includes hosting core applications such as IMS and Packet Core and managing network slices end to end with Ericsson Dynamic Orchestration.

Heinz Herren, CIO and CTO at Swisscom, says: "We have selected Ericsson's transport solution for our 5G network. Partnering with Juniper Networks, Ericsson has extended its transport coverage and can now take end-to-end transport responsibility all the way from the Radio Access Network (RAN) to the next generation core. Seamlessly managed and orchestrated, this reduces our complexity and affords a more efficient, high-performing network."

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Zapata raises $21M in series A for quantum computing

Zapata Computing, a start-up that spun out of Harvard University, raised $21 million in Series A financing for its pursuit of quantum computing. New and existing investors include Pitango Ventures, BASF Venture Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Pillar VC, and The Engine.

Zapata is focused on the software and quantum algorithms to enable the next generation of discoveries — for a wide range of industries including chemistry, pharmaceuticals, logistics, finance and materials — on quantum computers.

“For our Series A, we looked specifically for world-class investors who bring a global reach and a depth of experience in enterprise software and applications,” said Christopher Savoie, CEO and cofounder of Zapata. “The success of Zapata’s quantum software platform in delivering real world advances in computational power for applications — particularly in chemistry, machine learning, and optimization — has sparked an enormous demand from Fortune 100 and Global 1000 enterprises worldwide. The new financing will power our expansion strategy, enabling us to accelerate product development and expand our business into new markets and regions.”

“The playbook for quantum computing is being written right now by first movers like Zapata,” said Alán Aspuru-Guzik, cofounder of Zapata. “As the enterprise demand for our quantum solutions continues unabated, Zapata has a distinct opportunity to aggressively and rapidly cultivate the next generation of quantum science talent who can transform the promise of quantum technology into reality.”

The software is designed to run on the latest quantum hardware made by Google, IBM, Rigetti, Honeywell, IonQ and others.

https://www.zapatacomputing.com/

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CloudGenix raises $65 million for SD-WAN

CloudGenix, a start-up based in San Jose, California, raised $65 million in new funding for its SD-WAN solutions

CloudGenix is known for its AppFabric technology, which ensures application-specific, service-level agreements (SLAs).

The company reports growth of 300% year-over-year, fueled by greater than 90% win-rates against incumbent legacy networking vendors. It customer wins include a large retailer based in Atlanta with more than 2,000 locations.

The recent funding round included existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Mayfield Fund, and Intel Capital, and new investors including ClearSky. This brings total funding to $100 million.

“We are leading a revolution in the networking industry. We are executing on our vision of delivering autonomous WANs to our customers – enabling them to specify application policies aligned to their business and have the infrastructure choreograph itself. We couldn’t be more thankful to our customers and look forward to serving them in even larger numbers,” said CloudGenix Founder and CEO Kumar Ramachandran.

 https://www.cloudgenix.com/

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SENKO Showcases Future of Photonics Integration with The SN Connector

SENKO Components Jim Hasagawa and Tiger Ninomiya showcase SENKO's newest photonics integrated SN Connector designed by COBO standards.

 The SN Connector accelerates 400Gbps applications by eliminating the need for a breakout cable as the SN Connector runs 64 fiber lanes with the breakout at the adapter front panel.

https://youtu.be/aVs3GW2BEfU

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ADTRAN posts Q1 sales of $144M

ADTRAN reported Q1 2019 revenues of $143.8 million compared to $120.8 million for the same period last year. Net income was $0.8 million compared to a net loss of $10.8 million for the first quarter of 2018. Non-GAAP net income was $4.9 million compared to a net loss of $15.8 million for the first quarter of 2018.

ADTRAN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton stated, “We are pleased with our progress in the first quarter of 2019. Our revenue was diverse and well balanced with material contributions across the LATAM, EMEA, North America, and Pacific Rim regions. Furthermore, our broad portfolio of next-generation solutions continues to gain market traction with a growing number of customers in an expanding range of market segments. This progress underscores the company’s global strategy of diversification across geographies and markets.”

http://www.adtran.com

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Ericsson's Q1 sales rose 7% thanks to North America

Driven by strong sales growth in North America, Ericsson reported Q1 revenue of SEK 48.9 billion, up 7% compared to the same period last year with constant currency. Gross margin was 38.4% (34.2%) driven by improvements in Networks and Managed Services. Operating income was SEK 4.9 (-0.3) b. and operating margin was 10.0% (-0.7%).

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson, states: "5G services, including mobility, have been launched in South Korea and North America. While Switzerland has released spectrum allowing Swisscom to offer commercial 5G services, using our equipment, the development in other parts of Europe is considerably slower primarily due to lack of spectrum, poor investment climate and additional uncertainties related to future vendor market access.

Gross margin[2] improved to 38.5% (35.9%) YoY, driven by improvements in segments Networks and Managed Services, and also by the recently signed patent license agreement with OPPO.

Segment Networks had a strong quarter with an organic sales growth[1] of 10% YoY, driven by increased investments in North America. Networks gross margin[2] improved to 43.2% (40.4%) YoY, mainly due to higher hardware capacity sales and IPR revenues. In the quarter we announced our intent to acquire the German company Kathrein’s antenna and filters business. This will further expand our capabilities in the advanced active and passive antenna domains, which are growing in importance as 5G evolves.

In Managed Services, sales fell organically by -5% due to headwind from contract exits. In the quarter, our Operations Engine was launched with good response from our customers. Gross margin improved to 17.7% (9.1%) YoY, supported by efficiency gains and customer contract reviews. Excluding a non-recurrent positive effect of SEK 0.7 b. from a customer settlement, the operating margin was 8.6%, exceeding the higher range of our financial target for 2020."

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2019/4/ericsson-reports-first-quarter-results-2019

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