Verizon tests full virtualization of baseband functions

In a trial environment conducted with Nokia and Intel in California, Verizon achieved full virtualization of baseband functions – the heaviest portion of computing on the Radio Access Network (RAN).

Intel provided its Xeon Scalable processor-based platforms and FlexRAN reference architecture while Nokia provided its new AirScale All-in-Cloud Base Station architecture.

Verizon said this virtualization will enable the network to be hardware agnostic, using Common Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware, leading to greater flexibility and speed to deployment of products and services.

“Having virtualized the core of the network last year, this significant step forward in virtualizing the RAN edge is a critical piece of providing the next generation of wireless solutions for consumers and enterprises,” said Adam Koeppe, Senior Vice President of Network Planning.  “With a virtualized baseband unit, we will lay the foundation to be able to move computing functionality to the edge of the network and will be able to rapidly respond to customers’ varied latency and computing needs.”

"Nokia is a leader in driving and commercializing Cloud RAN innovations, and we are excited to be a part of this collaborative work that represents a key milestone for Verizon’s cloud migration,” said Michael Clever, Senior Vice President and Head of Cloud RAN, Nokia. “This successful trial is an important step in offering flexible and scalable capacity, plus continuous software delivery.”

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-multi-access-edge-compute-network-slicing

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Openreach to increase pace of FTTP rollout

Clive Selley, CEO, Openreach, announced plans to reach an extra one million premises with full fibre to the premises (FTTP) service within the original timeframe, meaning four million homes and businesses will have access to a full fibre to the premises (FTTP) service over our network by the end of March 2021.

Openreach deployed more FTTP during 2018/19 than in the previous seven years combined.

We’ve made this future-proof broadband technology available to more than 1.2 million homes and businesses nationwide, and we’ve honed our skills, tools and techniques to become not only the fastest, but the most efficient and highest-quality fibre builder in the UK.

"We’re determined to be the UK’s full fibre broadband provider and we’ve been encouraged by the direction of Government and Ofcom in supporting that investment case."

https://www.homeandbusiness.openreach.co.uk/news?utm_source=Openreach+Splashpage&utm_medium=news+link

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FCC considers opening 1675-1680 MHz band for shared use

The FCC is proposing to reallocate spectrum in the 1675-1680 MHz band for shared use between incumbent federal users and new, non-federal flexible-use wireless operations.

The 1675-1680 MHz band currently is used for weather forecasting services. The FCC proposes to reallocate the 1675-1680 MHz band on a co-primary basis for terrestrial fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) use on a shared basis with existing federal users, and it seeks comment on appropriate service and technical rules for the band.

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Interxion reports continued data center demand in Europe

Interxion reported Q1 2019 revenue of €151.5 million, a 13% increase over the first quarter of 2018 and a 3% increase over the fourth quarter of 2018. Recurring revenue was €145.3 million, a 14% increase over the first quarter of 2018 and a 4% increase over the fourth quarter of 2018. Recurring revenue in the first quarter represented 96% of total revenue. Net income decreased by 28% to €8.4 million (1Q 2018: €11.7 million).

“Interxion continues to experience strong demand in Europe, with the cloud and content platforms continuing to expand across our pan-European footprint, driving 14% recurring revenue growth in the first quarter and providing support for our ongoing expansion program,” said David Ruberg, Interxion’s Chief Executive Officer. “Interxion’s highly-connected data centres and value-enhancing communities of interest continue to attract mission-critical and latency sensitive applications, contributing to sustainable attractive returns for our shareholders.”

Operating Highlights

• Equipped space increased by 3,500 square metres during the quarter to 148,300 square metres.
• Revenue generating space increased by 4,000 square metres during the quarter to 119,000 square metres.
• Utilisation rate at the end of the quarter was 80%.
• During the first quarter, Interxion completed the following capacity additions:
• 2,600 sqm in Frankfurt;
• 300 sqm in London; and
• 300 sqm in Dusseldorf.
• In April, Interxion acquired a 40% equity interest in Icolo Ltd., a Kenyan data centre operator.

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FCC rejects China Mobile's license application

After a very lengthy review period, the FCC voted to deny an application from China Mobile to provide telecommunication services between the United States and foreign destinations.

The FCC said it thoroughly examined the application and found it to be not in the public interest due to several factors related to China Mobile USA’s ownership and control by the Chinese government. The FCC further stated that a grant of the application would raise substantial and serious national security and law enforcement risks that cannot be addressed through a mitigation agreement between China Mobile and the federal government.

Ajit Pai, FCC Chairman, stated: "Simply put, granting China Mobile’s application would not be in the public interest. China Mobile ultimately is owned and controlled by the Chinese government. That makes it vulnerable to exploitation, influence, and control by that government. And in the current security environment, which features Chinese government involvement in computer intrusions and economic espionage, there is a significant risk that the Chinese government would use China Mobile to conduct activities that would seriously jeopardize the national security, law enforcement, and economic interests of the United States."

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-denies-china-mobile-telecom-services-application

• China Mobile's application was filed in 2011.

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TELUS to trial MobiledgeX

TELUS, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, will conduct a trial of the MobiledgeX edge network in Canada. Third parties, such as mobile application developers, consumer device makers, and IoT hardware manufacturers will be enabled by end-to-end low latency and a global network of participating MobiledgeX operators to innovate with these new edge performance capabilities.

Specifically, TELUS will pilot MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0, which aggregates processors and GPUs in virtualized cloudlets in key locations near the edge of TELUS’ wireless and wired access networks.

“TELUS is excited to pioneer edge computing technology in Canada as the first operator to collaborate with MobiledgeX and empower next-generation technologies and experiences,” said Ibrahim Gedeon, Chief Technology Officer, TELUS. “TELUS is constantly innovating and trialing technologies that will be vital components in the networks of tomorrow. Partnering with MobiledgeX to pilot its world-class edge computing technology today will ensure that TELUS customers continue to enjoy Canada’s largest and fastest mobile network in the future.”

“The massive edge computing opportunity can only be realized when it can benefit from ubiquity and scale,” said Eric Braun, Chief Commercial Officer at MobiledgeX. “Our work with TELUS delivers exactly that, reflecting an aligned vision for the future of mobile operators as key players in mobile application development, performance, security, and reliability. We are thrilled to be working with TELUS to usher in a new era of mobile services in Canada.”

http://www.mobiledgex.com

Deutsche Telekom deploys MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud

Tuesday, February 19, 2019  Deutsche Telekom, Edge, MobiledgeX  

MobiledgeX, the edge computing company founded by Deutsche Telekom AG, unveiled its architecture for connecting mobile users to application cloud containers created by aggregating existing operator network resources.

Deutsche Telekom is now using the MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 to power the first world's first public mobile edge network deployment and is already supporting the prototyping of developer use cases such as live trials around Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM).

The solution MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 leverages application cloud containers created by aggregating existing operator network resources. At runtime, MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 spins up the containers on-demand in edge cloud locations (also known as “cloudlets”) that optimally fulfill the needs of the desired application and user quality of experience.

Key features of MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0:

• Device and platform-independent SDKs for Android and IOS devices in Java, C++, C# or REST that support edge node discovery, built-in identity and verified location services, with the ability to connect automatically to the nearest edge location. MobiledgeX will release these SDKs as open source to speed development times and flexibility.
• A Distributed Matching Engine (DME) that is natively borne and integrated into Telekom Deutschland’s mobile network in Germany. The DME allows developers to ensure the identity and location of application users while guaranteeing their privacy as this data remains within the boundaries of the mobile service provider and is not disclosed to MobiledgeX.
• A fully multi-tenant control plane that supports zero-touch provisioning of edge cloud resources via a Cloudlet Resource Manager. This architecture is massively scalable based on the number of distributed edge cloud locations and enables the operator to bring any combination of compute, storage and network resource pools to add to capacity independently of a preferred Virtualization Infrastructure Management (VIM) layer. For example, while Deutsche Telekom edge cloud resource pools are virtualized using OpenStack, MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R1.0 equally supports other industry- standard VIMs such as VMware or native Kubernetes.
• A global edge cloud SAAS portal that allows operators to visualize application delivery performance and developers to deploy their application containers.

MobiledgeX 

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Hungary's national power utility deploys ADVA's fiber monitoring

HEP Telekomunikacije (part of HEP Group), which manages the telecommunication infrastructure and telecommunication systems of Hungary's national energy utility,  has deployed ADVA's ALM fiber monitoring technology to provide precise, real-time insight into its access, metro and core networks.

ADVA's solution is being used to assure both HEP Telekomunikacije’s legacy SDH network and its high-performance WDM infrastructure built on the ADVA FSP 3000. Specifically, the ADVA ALM delivers detailed visibility of HEP Telekomunikacije fiber infrastructure, empowering its maintenance team to easily and precisely pinpoint faults or areas of degradation.

ADVA’s regional partner ITeRATIO played a key role in the project.

“What this deployment gives us is the power to react quickly to any issues. Whether it’s monitoring displacement in our underground infrastructure or detecting damage to OPGW aerial fiber, the ADVA ALM enables us to take rapid and effective action,” said Davor Rakoš, head of network construction and development, HEP Telekomunikacije.

“This simple, compact device offers several key advantages for utility network assurance. It operates without a fan and consumes very little energy. It’s also a highly robust solution ready to be installed virtually anywhere. What’s more, the ADVA ALM is fully interoperable with our existing network management solution, including our Netcool/OMNIbus supervisory system.”

http://www.advaoptical.com

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A10 Networks gains Powered by Oracle Cloud status

A10 Networks has achieved Powered by Oracle Cloud status for its its A10 vThunder Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and its A10 Harmony Controller.

The vThunder ADC and Harmony Controller are now available in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

A10 Networks vThunder software appliances are secure application services that serve a wide variety of application requirements and workloads on virtual infrastructure. In addition, A10 Networks vThunder software appliances integrate with cloud, software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) orchestration platforms to support building programmable software networks. Implementing virtualized L4-L7 server load balancing with vThunder ADC as a virtual network function (VNF) will optimize, accelerate and secure applications within Oracle Cloud. Scaling web and infrastructure servers seamlessly ensures business continuity, accelerates applications for efficient operations and protects infrastructure for uninterrupted operations.

The A10 Harmony Controller simplifies operations and increases the agility of the operations teams. Infrastructure and application operations teams can centrally-manage infrastructure configuration and application policies for vThunder application services, such as load balancing and application delivery. Configuration and control can also be automated via APIs and integrated with orchestration systems used within organizations. In addition, the controller provides comprehensive infrastructure and per-application metrics and analytics for performance and security monitoring, anomaly detection and faster troubleshooting.

http://www.oracle.com/partners
http://www.a10networks.com

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eSilicon tapes out 7nm Combo PHY for high bandwidth memory

eSilicon announced the tapeout of a 7nm test chip to provide silicon validation of its physical interface (PHY) to support the new JEDEC standard JESD235B, referred to informally as high bandwidth memory (HBM) 2E and emerging low-latency HBM technology. 

The chip contains a 7nm PHY from eSilicon and a controller from Northwest Logic.  This 7nm test chip, along with a previously taped out 7nm test chip will be part of a 2.5D test system to verify end-to-end support for the new HBM interfaces. The PHY design is a “combo” device that supports HBM2, HBM2E and the emerging low-latency HBM interface in one physical IP block.

When compared to HBM2, the HBM2E standard increases total capacity from 8GB to 16GB, bandwidth per pin from 2.4 Gb/s to 3.2 Gb/s and bandwidth per stack from 307.2 GB/s to 410 GB/s. Samsung Electronics announced the industry’s first HBM2E to deliver the 3.2 Gb/s per-pin transfer speed, at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference in March.

“HBM memory stacks are a critical component for many of our new FinFET-class 2.5D ASICs,” said Hugh Durdan, vice president, strategy and products at eSilicon. “We look forward to validating the performance and functionality of our combo PHY and Northwest Logic’s controller to support the latest HBM capabilities.”

http://www.esilicon.com

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FCC approves Theia's 112 Satellite LEO Constellation

The FCC approved an application by Theia Holdings to construct, launch, and operate a satellite constellation that will be used to provide high-resolution earth-imaging data in the United States and globally.

Theia’s proposed satellite system is comprised of 112 satellites operating in non-geostationary satellite orbit, and the Commission granted Theia authority for those satellites to use frequencies in the Ka (20/30 GHz), Ku (11/14 GHz), V (40/50 GHz) and the 1215-1300 MHz bands to provide fixed-satellite and earth exploration satellite services.

Over the past eighteen months, the FCC has approved requests by OneWeb, SpaceX, and other companies proposing NGSO constellations.

Various media reports have stated that the Theia Satellite Network will be used for high-definition Earth observation. 

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Cabling for High Density Interconnects with Tom Marrapode of Molex

Molex's COBO reference board showcases routing ribbon technology, formed ribbon technology, round cables, optical shuffles and optical flex planes.  All these Molex cabling options give system and mechanical designers the ability to go from COBO modules to the panel front or back with single or multi-mode fiber.

https://youtu.be/35xs5FufbuU

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