Nokia and ADVA demo end-to-end 5G synchronization

ADVA and Nokia jointly demonstrated end-to-end network timing with the accuracy and resilience needed for 5G services.

The demonstration, which was presented at Orange Poland’s Innovation Garden Summit, highlighted how precise phase and frequency synchronization can be delivered and assured from the core to the cell site without risk from GNSS vulnerabilities.

The live showcase in Warsaw featured ADVA’s diverse range of Oscilloquartz products. This includes ultra-compact small-form-factor solutions designed to be utilized in large numbers even in the most challenging and space-restrictive conditions.

ADVA said its solutions meet the urgent demand for precise timing at the network edge. At the other end of the scale are Oscilloquartz modular, high-performance IEEE 1588v2 PTP core grandmasters that provide ultimate scale with a carrier-class design and in-built hardware redundancy. As part of the OSA ePRTC system, these provide an ultra-precise source of time with guaranteed holdover performance, removing the risk of reliance on GNSS alone.

“Our joint demo with Nokia answers the most urgent timing challenges facing today’s network operators. It highlights how our solutions can accelerate the deployment of 5G, IoT and mobile edge computing by delivering new levels of accuracy and stability for phase and frequency synchronization,” said Jörg Urban, senior director, business development, Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “We’re showing Tier 1 CSPs how easy it is to distribute, monitor and assure end-to-end timing that is fully resistant to GNSS outages. The precision and reliability that our technology offers will empower operators to support emerging applications in fields such as highly interactive augmented reality and self-driving vehicles.”

http://www.advaoptical.com
http://www.oscilloquartz.com

BT employs ADVA's precision synchronization for 5G

Monday, March 25, 2019  ADVA, BT  

BT is deploying ADVA's Oscilloquartz synchronization technology to bring 4G coverage to previously underserved areas and begin the rollout of 5G services across the UK. The new synchronization solution is deployed nationwide in 10 core time base sites, 106 metro time sites and close to 1,000 Tier 1 sites at the network edge. Prior to this deployment, BT’s timing network was based purely on frequency synchronization. ADVA said its Oscilloquartz...

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ADVA's Oscilloquartz delivers enhanced PRTC for 5G network timing

Tuesday, June 19, 2018  ADVA  

Oscilloquartz, which is a division of ADVA, launched an enhanced primary reference time clock (ePRTC) system for 5G network timing. The Oscilloquartz solution, which is able to provide timing accuracy and stability even when the GNSS signal is lost, features the OSA 3230B ePRC atomic cesium clock connected to an Oscilloquartz clock combiner and grandmaster. The company said the technology provides the ideal timing source for mission-critical transport...

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Radisys contributes seed code to the O-RAN Alliance

Radisys is contributing its Open 5G Software seed code to the O-RAN Alliance for its 5G NR Stack Reference Architecture thereby helping to accelerate the O-RAN ecosystem and enable the delivery of open APIs and open architectures for mobile operators.

Radisys, along with China Mobile and AT&T as the Operator co-chairs, is teamed with Intel to co-chair Work Group 8 to define the 5G NR stack reference architecture. Radisys is the first contributor to this effort with its seed code. The O-RAN Alliance’s additional workgroups will leverage the code for their own deliverables.

The Radisys’ Open 5G Software seed code was made available as open source code by the O-RAN Alliance’s Software Community during MWC Shanghai, which occurred June 26-28.

"We share a common vision with our WG8 co-chairs – China Mobile, AT&T and Intel – to accelerate RAN evolution through the principles of disaggregation and openness, while laying the groundwork for 5G networks that are being built today,” said Neeraj Patel, vice president and general manager, Software and Services, Radisys. “We thank our mobile operator co-chairs for welcoming us as co-chair, re-affirming our own commitment to the open telecom revolution, and we call on other vendors and operators to make their own contributions to this important work."

http://www.Radisys.com

O-RAN Open Source Community gets underway

Tuesday, April 02, 2019  Linux Foundation, ORAN  

The O-RAN Alliance and the Linux Foundation have established the O-RAN Software Community (O-RAN SC) to provide open software aligned with the O-RAN Alliance’s open architecture.

As a new open source community under the Linux Foundation, the O-RAN SC is sponsored by the O-RAN Alliance, and together they will develop open source software enabling modular, open, intelligent, efficient, and agile disaggregated radio access networks. The initial set of software projects may include: near-real-time RAN intelligent controller (nRT RIC), non-real-time RAN intelligent controller (NRT RIC), cloudification and virtualization platforms, open central unit (O-CU), open distributed unit (O-DU), and a test and integration effort to provide a working reference implementation. Working with other adjacent open source networking communities, the O-RAN SC will enable collaborative development across the full operator network stack.

“This collaboration between the O-RAN Alliance and the Linux Foundation is a tremendous accomplishment that represents the culmination of years of thoughtful innovation around the next generation of networks,” said Andre Fuetsch, Chairman of the O-RAN Alliance, and President of AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer at AT&T. “The launch of the O-RAN SC marks the next phase of that innovation, where the benefits of disaggregated and software-centric platforms will move out to the edge of the network. This new open source community will be critical if 5G is to reach its full potential.”
http://www.o-ran-sc.org

O-RAN Alliance readies Open Fronthaul Specification

Tuesday, February 19, 2019  #MWC19, Fronthaul, O-RAN  

The O-RAN Alliance is preparing to release the first O-RAN standard Open Fronthaul Specifications comprised of control, user, synchronization and management plane protocols.

Sachin Katti, Stanford University Professor and O-RAN TSC co-chair said, “we are excited to release the first O-RAN Open Fronthaul Specification. O-RAN has leveraged significant specification work done in xRAN and will accelerate interoperability testing and product commercialization. Further, the O-RAN fronthaul workgroup has also started discussions on potential new study items to pursue for 2019.”

At next week's MWC19 in Barcelona, O-RAN Alliance members will showcase six strategic proof-of-concepts across various member booths covering four key themes: intelligent RAN control, Open Interfaces, virtualization and white box.

Highlights of the demos

1. "O-RAN aligned implementation of Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC) Load Balancing" showcases predictive load balancing using Smart Radio Fingerprint technology that provides opportunities to interoperability using O-RAN architecture interfaces and established industry elements. The solution enables the accurate redirection of UE attachment, optimized load balancing, and improved user experience. This demo is being sponsored and hosted by China Mobile and ZTE at their respective booths. 
2. “AI empowered User Quality of Experience (QoE)” showcases predictive user QoE enabled by machine learning micro services chained together, to autonomously recognize traffic types in real-time, predict quality and provide closed-loop network controls resulting in a consistent, high-quality 5G user experience. This demo is being sponsored by China Mobile and Nokia; and hosted in the China Mobile booth. 
3. “Open Fronthaul Interface” showcases the use of O-RAN’s Open Front Haul specification with a variety of vendors to achieve interoperability between the O-DU and O-RU enabled by a fully specified control, user, synchronization and management plane protocols. This demo is being sponsored by Verizon, NTT DOCOMO, KT Corporation, SK telecom, Fujitsu, HFR, Intel, Keysight, Mavenir, NEC and SOLiD; and hosted by NTT DOCOMO, KT Corporation, Keysight, Mavenir and NEC at their respective booths. 
4. “Virtualized O-CU on Akraino edge cloud orchestrated by ONAP” -- showcases the integration of virtualized CU with a community supported Akraino edge stack blueprint packaged into a “cloud appliance” enabling the flexibility of virtualization and cloud, while retaining the simplicity and low cost of an appliance. This demo is being sponsored by AT&T and Nokia; and hosted in the Nokia booth.
5. “Programmable mmWave White-Box Radio Unit,” showcases a mmWave smart O-RU transmitting a 5G NR signal with 100MHz bandwidth using a 5G open RAN test platform and a 28 GHz ORU whitebox with a beamformed active antenna system to two UEs test emulators. This demo is being sponsored by AT&T, Anokiwave, Ball Aerospace, Xilinx and Keysight; and hosted in the Xilinx booth.
6. “Open hardware reference design for sub 6GHz indoor coverage” showcase two live demos of white-box and general-purpose hardware supporting sub 6GHz indoor coverage deployment scenarios for both 4G and 5G. The first demo is being sponsored by China Mobile, Lenovo, Baicells; and hosted at Lenovo booth. The second demo is being sponsored by China Telecom, Intel, H3C; and hosted in the Intel booth.

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China Mobile activates its first Access CDN at the OLT

China Mobile (Zhejiang) activated its first commercial Access CDN deployed at the OLT.

To address the problem of huge video traffic volume, Zhejiang Branch of China Mobile has adopted ZTE's innovative Light Cloud solution to push the CDN to the OLTs, which is the network node nearest to the users, by loading IT capabilities into the OLTs. The solution reduces access latency, increases download speeds, and enhances service experience. In addition, it saves upstream bandwidth by up to 60 percent, thereby alleviating upstream network bandwidth shortages.

https://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/news/20190701e1.html

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CyrusOne builds third cata center in Frankfurt

CyrusOne has commenced construction on the first phase of its newest data center location in Frankfurt, Germany. The facility is CyrusOne’s third in the Sossenheim district of the city, offering cloud providers, systems integrators and multinational corporations customized, secure and resilient data center solutions within a key business hub.

Upon completion, expected in Q2 2020, the site will comprise two adjoining, four-story buildings delivering 22 MW of IT power to 11,500 sq. m of world-class technical space. Indirect adiabatic air cooling in each data hall will ensure an extremely low Power Usage Efficiency (PUE). CyrusOne is using a modular construction method and will work closely with valued partners including Mercury and Klein Architekten.

“Frankfurt is one of the fastest growing and most strategically important locations for CyrusOne due to its economic strength and proximity to one of the most important European financial centers,” said Tesh Durvasula, President Europe, CyrusOne. “This will mark our third expansion facility in Frankfurt and I expect it will effectively be pre-leased by the time we complete construction next year.”

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Rockley Photonics raises $52 million

Rockley Photonics, a start-up based in Oxford, UK, announced US$52 million in the first closure in its Series E funding round for its silicon photonics technology.

Rockley Photonics, which was formed in 2013, developed a third-generation silicon photonics platform specifically designed for the optical I/O challenges facing next-generation sensor systems and communications networks. The company says its platform exploits optimized waveguide dimensions.

Andrew Rickman, chief executive officer at Rockley added: “Rockley is uniquely positioned having developed a proprietary photonics platform and manufacturing technologies, underpinned by a depth of expertise that goes back some 30 years. We are currently using our platform to address applications in the data center and high-performance computing, medical and life sciences, and 3D imaging/sensing verticals with the potential for additional verticals in the future.”

Mahesh Karanth, chief financial officer at Rockley explained: “With this latest round of investment, Rockley is strengthening its position as a leading integrated silicon photonics solutions provider. It will support the full execution of our business plan and continued growth as we make significant strides in co-packaging for optoASICs and data center connectivity, LiDAR and consumer electronic applications.”

Investors in the lastest funding round include a key strategic partner, Morningside Technology Ventures and numerous private investors. The company has now raised $165 million to date.

www.rockleyphotonics.com

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Intel names Baidu as an AI development partner

Intel confirmed that it is collaborating with Baidu on development of the new Intel Nervana Neural Network Processor for Training (NNP-T). The collaboration involves the hardware and software designs of the new custom accelerator with one purpose – training deep learning models at lightning speed.

Since 2016, Intel has been optimizing Baidu’s PaddlePaddle deep learning framework for Intel® Xeon Scalable processors. Now, the companies give data scientists more hardware choice by optimizing the NNP-T for PaddlePaddle.

"The next few years will see an explosion in the complexity of AI models and the need for massive deep learning compute at scale. Intel and Baidu are focusing their decade-long collaboration on building radical new hardware, co-designed with enabling software, that will evolve with this new reality – something we call ‘AI 2.0,"  stated Naveen Rao, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the AI Products Group.

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China Mobile approves ZTE's CE-band 96-wavelength system

ZTE's commercial CE-band 96-wavelength beyond 100G OTN system passed the on-site test of Hubei Branch of China Mobile and the FOA network access test of China Mobile Group.
Compared with the traditional C-band 80-wavelength 100G system,

ZTE’s CE-band 96-wavelength 200G system increases the capacity by 140% compared with a C-band 80-wavelength 200G system.

In August 2018, ZTE cooperated with Hubei Branch of China Mobile to build the new provincial backbone beyond 100G IDC network, adopting the CE-band 96-wavelength 200G system. This system implements electrical cross-connection to achieve fast connection.

By means of the fast assignment of ROADM system wavelengths, it supports flexible hybrid scheduling of optical and electrical layer services, thereby improving service provisioning and operation efficiency.  Meanwhile, the solution provides multiple routing channels and supports one-hop transmission on the optical layer, enabling lower network latency and mesh network services.

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Telia acquires Fello for prepaid in Sweden

Telia has acquired Fello AB, a prepaid MVNO in Sweden.

Fello AB started in 2013, has seven employees and the business is located in Gothenburg. Telia has provided network services to Fello since its beginning.

Fello AB will be implemented in the Swedish operations and the brand Fello will remain within Telia.

Telia said the deal does not require any approval from Sweden's Competition Authority.

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In Memoriam: Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom

Robert (Bob) William Collymore, CEO of SAFARICOM, passed away at the age of 61 due to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). He leaves behind a wife and four children.

Collymore has served as CEO of Safaricom since 2010. Previously he has worked in the UK, Japan, and South Africa in a number of senior executive roles in Marketing, Purchasing, Retail, Governance and Corporate Affairs. He also served in various roles at the United Nations, including on the UN Commission on Life Saving commodities for women and children.

Safaricom is an international service provider based in Nairobi, Kenya.

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