TIM carries 550G wavelength with Nokia's Photonic Service Engine 3

 Nokia, in collaboration with Telecom Italia (TIM), set a new European record for data transmission over a long-distance backbone network -- a wavelength speed of 550 Gbps carried more than 350 km on TIM's operational network between Rome and Florence. In addition, TIM and Nokia carried a 400G wavelength over 900 km between Rome and Milan, and a 300 Gbps wavelength over 1,750 km.

The trial used the new Nokia Photonic Service Engine 3 (Nokia PSE-3). TIM'a DWDM backbone is based on the latest generation of Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch.  The network is fully automated and currently carries optical signals with a capacity of 100 Gb/s over distances of up to 1,800 kilometers, and 200 Gb/s up to 800 kilometers. The backbone, with a coverage of over 16,000 kilometers of fiber, and connecting to 65 national POPs (Point of Presence), has carried over 9,000 petabytes of data traffic in the last year.

Elisabetta Romano, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at TIM, said: "We are proud of this European record which confirms TIM's technological leadership, the high quality of our network, our commitment to develop innovative solutions in order to guarantee the best experience to our customers. Today's result, which triples transmission speed compared to the current one, confirms that TIM's network is the most advanced infrastructure capable of offering new digital services and platforms, also with a view to developing 5G."

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2019/05/30/nokia-and-tim-break-european-record-for-long-distance-data-transmission-over-high-speed-network-laying-groundwork-for-5g/

• Nokia has previously announced trials of its PSE-3 chipset, which implements probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS), with Germany's M-net and Poland's Netia.

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Analog Devices debuts mmWave 5G chipset

Analog Devices (ADI) that combines ADI’s advanced beamformer IC, up/down frequency conversion (UDC), and additional mixed signal circuitry. This optimized “Beams to Bits” signal chain represents a unique set of capabilities only available from ADI.

The new mmWave 5G chipset includes the 16-channel ADMV4821 dual/single polarization beamformer IC, 16-channel ADMV4801 single-polarization beamformer IC and the ADMV1017 mmWave UDC. The 24- to 30-GHz beamforming + UDC solution forms a 3GPP 5G NR compliant mmWave front-end to address the n261, n257 and n258 bands. The high channel density, coupled with the ability to support both single- and dual-polarization deployments, greatly increases system flexibility and reconfigurability for multiple 5G use cases while best-in-class equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) extends radio range and density.

“Millimeter-wave 5G is an emerging technology with great potential,” said Karim Hamed, general manager of Microwave Communications at Analog Devices. “It can be extremely difficult to design these systems from the ground up, balancing system-level challenges in performance, standards, and cost. This new solution leverages ADI’s best-in-class technology, long legacy in RF, microwave and mmWave communications infrastructure, and deep expertise across the RF spectrum to simplify the design process for customers, reduce overall component count, and accelerate the path to 5G deployment.”

http://www.analog.com

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Sprint's 5G unlimited plan is priced at $80/month

Sprint activated its first 5G commercial service in areas of Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City.

Sprint is using 64T64R (64 transmitters 64 receivers) 5G Massive MIMO radios from Ericsson in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Kansas City. These radios support split-mode, enabling Sprint to simultaneously deliver LTE Advanced and 5G NR service. Sprint's 5G Massive MIMO radios run on its 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum, and they are deployed on Sprint's existing 4G cell sites, providing a nearly identical footprint for both 2.5 GHz LTE and 5G NR coverage.

Service is available using the LG V50 ThinQ 5G smartphone and the HTC 5G Hub.

A 5G Unlimited Premium plan -- with unlimited data, talk and text nationwide, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Twitch Prime, Tidal HiFi and 100 GB LTE mobile hotspot -- is priced at $80 per month with AutoPay for one line.

Sprint expects to launch 5G service in areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

Earlier this month, Sprint provided the following network update

• Sprint now has 2.5 GHz spectrum deployed on approximately 80 percent of its macro sites.
• Sprint currently has approximately 30,000 outdoor small cells deployed including both mini macros and strand mounts.
• Sprint has deployed approximately 1,500 Massive MIMO radios, which increase the speed and capacity of the LTE network and, with a software upgrade, will provide mobile 5G service in select cities in the coming weeks.

Sprint activates Samsung's massive MIMO

Thursday, September 13, 2018  5G, MIMO, Sprint  

Sprint has activated Samsung's 5G-ready massive MIMO solutions on its production 2.5 GHz TDD-LTE network.

Samsung said its massive MIMO can provide a way for operators to inject new capacity into their network without having to purchase more spectrum or add new base stations. It is being used by Sprint to significantly boost LTE network speeds and capacity for millions of U.S. customers, while improving network efficiencies through advanced beam-forming. Additionally, this helps provide Sprint with a seamless upgrade path to 5G New Radio (NR), utilizing the carrier’s deep 2.5 GHz spectrum.

“We are excited to see Samsung MIMO solutions in use on Sprint’s current LTE commercial network, which will help their customers experience the full benefits of network innovation,” said Lyle Nyffeler, Vice President, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “Our MIMO solutions are engineered to maximize 4G networks today, while offering a graceful, seamless path to a 5G future.”

In February 2018, Sprint announced its selection of Samsung as a massive MIMO provider for their future 5G mobile network launch in the U.S..

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American Tower to acquire 5,500 sites in five African markets

American Tower agreed to acquire Eaton Towers, which owns and operates approximately 5,500 communications sites across five African markets, for approximately $1.85 billion. American Tower expects to accelerate new build activity across the region due to expanded relationships with multiple key tenants.

The Eaton towers are located in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Niger. Eaton Towers was co-founded in 2009 by Terry Rhodes, CEO. Alongside the majority shareholder, Capital International, investors include Development Partners International, Ethos and Standard Chartered.

American Tower said the Eaton assets are expected to generate approximately $260 million in property revenue and approximately $165 million in gross margin, at current exchange rates, in their first full year in American Tower’s portfolio.

Jim Taiclet, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer stated, “This transaction will significantly augment our existing footprint in Africa and positions ATC to take even better advantage of the growth opportunity in the region as 4G mobile data technology is deployed to serve millions of Africans over the coming years.”

http://www.americantower.com

• American Tower's global portfolio includes more than 170,000 sites.

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Colt Ethernet Line Encryption leverages ADVA FSP 150

Colt Technology Services is using the ADVA FSP 150 with ConnectGuard security technology to deliver its new Ethernet Line Encryption service at up to 10 Gbps.

ADVA’s ConnectGuard Ethernet technology, which is built on an enhanced version of MACsec, uses cryptographic techniques including dynamic key exchange and hardware tamper protection. It also features comprehensive service assurance and testing functionality.

Colt’s Ethernet Line Encryption is now available in Europe, North America and Asia on metro, national and international Ethernet line circuits. Earlier this year, ADVA and Colt jointly displayed the comprehensive Layer 2 encryption service at the Berlinale Film Festival in a live proof of concept demo.

"We’re using the ADVA FSP 150 with ConnectGuard Ethernet encryption to offer robust protection for data in transport. Our Ethernet Line Encryption solution ensures that all data flowing through the Colt IQ Network is safe from attack. But what makes it especially valuable to today’s businesses is how straightforward it is to implement and that it only adds a few microseconds of latency and barely any impact on throughput,” said Peter Coppens, VP, product portfolio, Colt Technology Services. "

“Our FSP 150 ConnectGuard Ethernet technology enables encrypted connectivity with none of the complexity, latency and bandwidth cost associated with IPSec. Developed in compliance with the most stringent security standards, such as the US FIPS, it’s the ideal basis for an encryption-as-a-service offering,” commented Stephan Rettenberger, SVP, marketing and investor relations, ADVA.

http://adva.li/colt-encryption

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Altran's Network Operating System support Marvell Prestera switches

Altran has developed the first commercial network operating system (NOS) to support the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family of fully integrated Ethernet switches for data centers.

Altran’s Intelligent Switching Solution (ISS) combined with the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 switch silicon, delivers a feature-rich, production-grade platform that scales up to 12.8 terabits per second.

The Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family features the company's Storage Aware Flow Engine (SAFE) technology and its high-radix switch core technology known as Forwarding Architecture using Slices of Terabit Ethernet Routers (FASTER).

SAFE facilitates virtual storage orchestration on the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family by providing greater insight into network flows with per flow visibility, advanced telemetry and comprehensive diagnostics that identify and resolve network congestion. The gNMI-enabled advanced network monitoring features of the ISS are designed to optimize the Prestera CX 8500’s dedicated hardware engines, which have programmability to address the latest telemetry packet formats and monitoring data exporting methods such as INT, iOAM and TAM.

Altran's ISS supports a wide range of standards for advanced routing, switching and management features, data center features and 5G mobility infrastructure. It delivers high performance and scalability through containers and micro services-based architecture.

“Altran’s ISS is an integral part of more than 100 products from leading networking and telecom equipment manufacturers. It enhances switching capability, reduces development times and increases focus on advanced application development,” said N. Mohan Rangan, Group SVP and chief engineering officer at Altran North America. “We also have a strong, longstanding relationship with Marvell for developing solutions that usher in next-generation technologies for the entire networking ecosystem.”

https://www.marvell.com

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AWS begins Managed Streaming service for Apache Kafka

Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced a fully managed service for Apache Kafka that lets developers build and run highly available, secure, and scalable applications based on Apache Kafka without having to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure.

Apache Kafka is used to capture and analyze real-time data streams from a range of sources, including IoT devices, website clickstreams, financial systems, and database logs. While many customers chose to self-manage their Apache Kafka clusters, they often spend a lot of time and expense securing, scaling, patching, and ensuring high availability for Apache Kafka and Apache ZooKeeper clusters, which Apache Kafka depends on for resource management.

Amazon MSK is fully compatible with Apache Kafka, enabling customers to migrate their on-premises or Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) clusters to Amazon MSK with no code changes. There are no commitments or upfront investment required to run Amazon MSK, and customers only pay for the capacity they use.

"Customers who are running Apache Kafka have told us they want to spend less time managing infrastructure and more time building applications based on real-time streaming data,” said Rajesh Sheth, General Manager of Amazon MSK, AWS. “Amazon MSK gives these customers the ability to run Apache Kafka without having to worry about managing the underlying hardware, and it gives them an easy way to integrate their Apache Kafka applications with other AWS services. With Amazon MSK, customers can stand up Apache Kafka clusters in minutes instead of weeks, so they can spend more time focusing on the applications that impact their businesses.”

https://aws.amazon.com/msk

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Nutanix revenue dips to $287.6 million as company shifts to subscription model

Nutanix reported revenue of $287.6 million (at 77.1% non-GAAP gross margin) for its third quarter of fiscal 2019, ended April 30, 2019, down from $289.4 million (at 68.4% non-GAAP gross margin) in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. Non-GAAP gross margin was 77.1%, up from 68.4% in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.

Non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.56, compared to a non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.21 in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.

Q3 FY’19 subscription billings increased to 65% of total billings, up 8 percentage points from the previous quarter, and Q3 FY’19 subscription revenue reached $168.4 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 110%.

“While we faced a top-line impact in our third quarter as we continue to execute our strategic shift toward a recurring revenue business model, our strong foundation and commitment to our customers position us well for the long term,” said Dheeraj Pandey, Chairman, Founder and CEO of Nutanix. “Successful businesses are built over time on a bedrock of exceptional products, outstanding customer support and talented and committed employees. With solid sales hiring in Q3 and increased adoption of our AHV hypervisor, indicating a strong product and enthusiastic customers, I truly believe Nutanix has that foundation in place.”

“We are encouraged by the momentum and growth of our subscription business as we transform to a recurring revenue model, which will enable a more predictable revenue stream over time and provide our customers greater flexibility for their hybrid cloud deployments,” said Duston Williams, CFO of Nutanix. “We believe the actions we have been taking to strengthen lead generation and enhance sales execution will position us well for the future.”

https://ir.nutanix.com/company/financial/

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F5 intros app for Cisco ACI

F5 Networks introduced an app to that combines L2-3 network connectivity with L4-7 application services within Cisco ACI environments.

The F5 ACI ServiceCenter app, which is available through Cisco’s ACI App Center, enhances visibility and control throughout the network and application stack.

It enables joint customers to deploy, configure, and customize application services in ACI environments quickly via declarative APIs. Together, F5 and Cisco engineering teams have built a number of use cases that utilize F5’s broad range of availability, networking and security services, making it uniquely beneficial, easier, and more effective for users to deploy and consume the companies’ technologies together.

“Technology collaboration between F5 and Cisco is a clear win for joint customers,” said Calvin Rowland, SVP of Business Development at F5. “Building on previous partnership efforts, the F5 ACI ServiceCenter app gives organizations the ability to elegantly develop and enhance application and network deployments with a software-defined approach. More broadly, joint efforts like this are emblematic of the ways the two companies integrate capabilities for advanced automation and orchestration throughout the L2-7 stack.”

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Keysight submits 5G NR non-standalone RF test case

Keysight Technologies' 5G Conformance Toolset was first to submit 5G new radio (NR) non-standalone (NSA) radio frequency (RF) test cases for PTCRB validation approval in frequency range 2 (FR2), as well as for 5G NR standalone (SA) protocol test cases in frequency range 1 (FR1), accelerating market introduction of 5G NR mobile devices.

PTCRB is a certification forum consisting of leading U.S. mobile operators.

Keysight’s 5G Conformance Toolset continues to offer unique validation coverage for 5G NR standalone, which also plays an important role in accelerating 5G NR mobile device certification for commercial introductions around the world.

"By being first to submit 5G NR test cases for PTRCB validation approval, Keysight is enabling mobile operators to speed up their ability to deliver on the promise of 5G and capitalize on early commercial 5G NR deployments,” said Kailash Narayanan, vice president and general manager of Keysight's wireless test group. “We’re proud to once again showcase our 5G technology leadership position which was achieved as a result of our close collaborations with market makers, as well as our significant contributions to the 5G NR standards.”

Since the beginning of this year, Keysight has obtained initial GCF approval for validated 5G NR NSA test cases and has enabled the activation of GCF certification for 5G NR standalone devices. Keysight's 5G Conformance Toolset offers the widest range of GCF 5G NR radio frequency and protocol test cases for NSA and SA modes.

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