Ericsson debuts standalone 5G NR software and edge cloud hardware

Ericsson introduced standalone 5G New Radio (NR) software to expand 5G deployment options. Ericsson already supports 5G non-standalone (NSA) 5G NR. The new standalone 5G NR software can be installed on existing Ericsson Radio System hardware. Coupled with Ericsson’s 5G dual-mode Cloud Core solutions, the new products are aimed at opening new business opportunities for service providers – especially having established an architecture that facilitates agility, provides advanced support for network slicing and enables the speedy creation of new services.

Ericsson has also launched Inter-band NR Carrier Aggregation – a new software feature that extends the coverage and capacity of NR on mid- and high bands when combined with NR on low bands. This will improve speeds indoors and in areas with poor coverage.

Two new Massive MIMO radios have also been added to the Ericsson Radio System mid-band portfolio: AIR 1636 for wider coverage which provides optimized performance on longer inter-site distances; and AIR 1623 for easy site build with minimal total cost of ownership.

Ericsson is also introducing an edge computing solution to enable service providers to offer 5G services such as augmented reality and content distribution at low cost, low latency, and high accuracy. The new Ericsson Edge NFVI (Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure) is part of the end-to-end managed and orchestrated distributed cloud architecture, which makes it possible to distribute workloads, optimize the network and enable new services in the cloud. 

In addition, Ericsson is launching the Ericsson partner VNF Certification Service, a partner certification program for virtual network functions (VNF). The service is open to all VNF vendors and grants a certification on the Ericsson NFVI platform using Ericsson Labs. This will create an ecosystem with a shorter time-to-market for working with partners and applications.

Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “We continue to focus our efforts on helping our customers succeed with 5G. These new solutions will allow them to follow the 5G evolution path that fits their ambitions in the simplest and most efficient way.”

Read More

YouTube: A Coffee with Ren

Huawei Founder & CEO Ren Zhengfei hosted a 1-hour 45-minute discussion with George Gilder (futurist and venture capitalist) and Professor Nicholas Negroponte (co-founder of the MIT Media Lab), at the company's Shenzhen headquarters.



Some key takeaways:

• Ren did not expect such a ferocious attack by the U.S. government
• Ren expects the U.S. blacklisting to wipeout US$30 billion in sales growth, however, overall sales will be flat for 2019 and 2020 at around $100 billion.
• Ren said overseas smartphone sales will dip 40%
• Gilder said the U.S. is making a terrible mistake with the Huawei ban. Gilder said the entire Internet is facing a security problem. This is a technical problem, not a political problem.
• Negroponte said we are facing a cultural problem. He although described the Huawei ban as a mistake, and that the world must learn to collaborate.

The video was streamed live and posted by CCTV.

The panel's moderator invited questions from the international press but Ren did not respond to a question from CNN regarding China's censorship of the Web and the blocking of Google and other American firms.

https://youtu.be/h43qwoetLwU

Read More

AT&T spends $980 million for 5G spectrum in 24 GHz band

AT&T confirmed that it won 24 GHz spectrum in 383 Partial Economic Areas (PEAs) in FCC Auction 102 for a nationwide average of 254 MHz. AT&T spent about $980 million in the auction.

All of the licenses that AT&T won were in the upper 500 MHz portion of the 24 GHz band. When added to the mmWave spectrum AT&T already holds in the 39 GHz band, AT&T’s average spectrum depth in mmWave increased by two-thirds to more than 630 MHz nationwide.

AT&T said the auction provides it with stronger nationwide coverage and additional spectrum depth and capacity in many top markets where demand is often greatest. In the top 10 markets alone, AT&T won nearly 286 MHz on average, including 300 MHz in 8 of those markets.

“We’ve already been recognized for having the nation’s fastest1 and best2 wireless network, and by further strengthening our spectrum position, we intend to build on our success. I’d like to congratulate and thank the FCC on the conclusion of another successful auction.”

AT&T's mobile 5G service is currently available in parts of 19 cities, with plans to reach parts of 29 cities by the end of 2019.

“We’re leading the nation in mobile 5G deployment and the large, contiguous block of spectrum we won in Auction 102 will be critical to maintaining that leadership,” said Scott Mair, president of AT&T Operations. “We’ve already been recognized for having the nation’s fastest1 and best2 wireless network, and by further strengthening our spectrum position, we intend to build on our success. I’d like to congratulate and thank the FCC on the conclusion of another successful auction.”

Read More

Gulf Bridge International picks Nuage for SD-WAN

Gulf Bridge International, which provides managed IP services in Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Asia, will deploy Nuage Networks' SD-WAN 2.0 solution to offer their enterprise customers optimized connectivity between branches and private and public clouds.

GBI said the rollout will enable its customers to set up automated services with specific policies related to availability, reliability or security, via one, unified interface. This includes dynamic responses to security threats such as distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) and the ability to monitor capacity and distribute it manually or automatically in order to meet the bandwidth needs of individual branches or data centers.

Sunil Khandekar, founder and CEO of Nuage Networks, said: "Contributing to this one-of-a-kind service for the region presents immense opportunity for Nuage Networks. By integrating our SD-WAN solution with GBI's extensive network, their enterprise customers will reduce operational overhead and have the ability to create a highly secure and dynamic network to connect all their branches and users to both public and private clouds - at a global scale."

GBI - Transforming Subsea Systems with SDN

Wednesday, December 06, 2017  #MEF17, #SDN, GBI, Subsea  

GBI, which stands for Gulf Bridge International, is well-known for its subsea cable system extending from the Arabian Gulf to the United Kingdom to the west and Singapore to the east. In this video, Rick Hillson, VP of Next Gen Architecture for GBI, talks about transforming this system with #SDN and #NFV.

See video: https://youtu.be/O09truKmCkU

Read More

GSMA: 5G impacting weather forecasting is untrue

The GSMA issued a press statement asserting that 5G systems will not harm weather forecasting services, commercial satellite, radar and other applications using adjacent airwaves.

“5G and weather forecasts can and will co-exist – it’s ludicrous to suggest otherwise,” said Brett Tarnutzer, Head of Spectrum, GSMA. “To suggest that our 7-day forecast will go away with 5G is simply fake news. We cannot allow these scare tactics to prevent us from reaping the huge societal and economic benefits of 5G networks. We urge everyone to simply look at the facts and not get drawn in by misleading rhetoric.”

“We are asking Europe and other countries around the world not to let a campaign of misinformation close the door on a new world of possibilities that 5G will bring,” added Tarnutzer. “From mobile broadband at fibre-like speeds to the home to digital factories and precision surgery – without mmWave spectrum, none of these use cases will reach their full potential. Making decisions on 5G that aren’t based on the facts will seriously undermine the potential impact of 5G on communities and economies.”

Read More

FiberHome selects Ethernity's FPGA SmartNIC

FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies, a major Chinese networking and telecommunication equipment provider, has selected Ethernity Networks' ACE-NIC100 FPGA SmartNIC for implementation within its latest FitBNG Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) product.

The accelerated platform will integrate FiberHome’s BNG software and Ethernity’s SmartNIC hardware using standard DPDK (data plane development kit) to fully offload up to 80Gbps of data processing to the ACE-NIC100’s onboard FPGA.

Ethernity said its solution minimizes CPU intervention, saving CPU cycles and significantly reducing CPU power and cost. The ACE-NIC100 will support tens of thousands of subscribers with PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) termination, performance monitoring counters per subscriber, and hierarchical quality of service (H-QoS), which is impractical for implementation in software-only BNG.

“We have been working closely with Ethernity for months to develop a solution that includes the performance and features that best fit our needs,” said Mr. Wang Ye, Director of NFV Product Lines at FiberHome. “Ethernity’s ACE-NIC100, with its high throughput and offloading capabilities, is an ideal fit for our FitBNG solution architecture, and by reducing the required CPU cores, we have improved our cost efficiency as well. It's a very powerful enabler for FiberHome.”

Read More

Anixter develops new cabling system for next-gen buildings

Anixter has developed a new utility-grade cabling system for supporting building subsystems, technologies & applications.

INFRASTRUCTURE by Anixter, also known as UTG, was developed alongside Belden, CommScope and Fluke Networks.

Anixter said its UTG program provides specifications for interoperable and future-ready solutions that exceed current standards of category rated cabling, including extended transmission distances, higher bandwidth capabilities, 4k streaming, increased bundling sizes for Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications and support for next-generation Wi-Fi technologies.

“Connectivity issues impact employee productivity, business profitability and user experience, and these variables are some of the key factors in attracting premium tenants and employees,” says Bill Geary, executive vice president, Network & Security Solutions at Anixter. “According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the number of connected buildings across the globe is projected to double by 2060, and IHS Markit predicts connected devices will reach 75 billion in the next 6 years, meaning these spaces must transform to keep up with our reliance on technology.”

Read More

Singapore to deploy 5G-ready SDN alongside power grid

Nokia is collaborating with SP Telecom to roll out Singapore’s first 5G-ready software-defined network, which sits alongside the country’s power grid, to support critical communication services.

Nokia will be supplying a full suite of tech to SP Telecom, including its FP4-based Service Router, optical transport, cloud software, service automation and network orchestration.

SP Telecom infrastructure serves as an alternative fibre network in Singapore. It uses unique fibre pathways that combine leased SP Group infrastructure and owned fibre pipes, laid alongside the power network cables. It is also a highly efficient network that supports ultra-low latency for 5G players. SP Telecom is a joint venture of ST Engineering and SP Group.

“SP Telecom constantly looks for new ways to bring the latest technologies and best-in-class partners together, developing solutions that can generate new and positive changes in the industry,” said Titus Yong, CEO of SP Telecom. “We are well poised to facilitate the rollout of 5G in Singapore, working closely with our technology partners to deliver a reliable, high-performance and seamless network for 5G players and their customers.”

http://www.sptel.com/media-centre/

Read More

Mellanox cites supercomputing momentum for HDR 200G Infiniband

Mellanox Technologies reports that HDR 200G InfiniBand continues to gain traction with next generation of supercomputers worldwide due to its highest data throughput, extremely low latency, and smart In-Network Computing acceleration engines.

Mellanox's HDR 200G InfiniBand solutions include its ConnectX-6 adapters, Mellanox Quantum switches, LinkX cables and transceivers and software packages.

“We are proud to have our HDR InfiniBand solutions accelerate supercomputers around the world, enhance research and discoveries, and advancing Exascale programs,” said Gilad Shainer, senior vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “InfiniBand continues to gain market share, and be selected by many research, educational and government institutes, weather and climate facilities, and commercial organizations. The technology advantages of InfiniBand make it the interconnect of choice for compute and storage infrastructures.”

Examples

• The Texas Advanced Computing Center’s (TACC) Frontera supercomputer -- ranked #5 on the June 2019 TOP500 Supercomputers list, Frontera utilizes HDR InfiniBand, and in particular multiple 800-port HDR InfiniBand switches.
• The new HDR InfiniBand-based Orion supercomputer located at the Mississippi State University High Performance Computing Collaboratory -- ranked #62 on the June 2019 TOP500 list, the 1800-node supercomputer leverages the performance advantages of HDR InfiniBand and its application acceleration engines to provide new levels of application performance and scalability.
• CSC, the Finnish IT Center for Science, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute -- ranked #166 on the TOP500 list.
• Cygnus -- the first HDR InfiniBand supercomputer in Japan and ranked #264 on the TOP500 list.
• India's Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) 

Read More