AT&T sees progress with ONF's SEBA, Trellis and other projects

Projects like Trellis, SEBA, OMEC, Stratum, and P4 are redefining what a modern network looks like, said Andre Fuetsch, President, AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer, speaking at the Open Networking Foundation’s Connect 2019 conference in Silicon Valley/

AT&T is currently using SEBA (Software-Enabled Broadband Access) to deliver gigabit-plus, low-latency home internet access via white box hardware to 500 homes in the U.S. The carrier plans to scale up in 2020 and beyond.

SEBA (SDN Enabled Broadband Access) is a lightweight virtualized broadband platform originally based on a variant of ONF’s R-CORD. It supports multiple virtualized access technologies at the edge of the carrier network (e.g. PON, G.Fast, DOCSIS), allowing each access technology to be controlled by OpenFlow. Furthermore, mediation software is provided to help operationalize the access devices and connect the SEBA implementation to OSS/BSS systems. SEBA supports both residential access and wireless backhaul and is optimized such that traffic can run ‘fastpath’ straight through to the backbone without requiring VNF processing.


Fuetsch also talked about progress with Trellis, which is seeing very deployment as well.

Trellis defines a solution for an open multi-purpose L2/L3 spine-leaf Ethernet switch fabric for edge data centers and for interconnecting multiple sites. It supports Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) running on servers, network functions implemented directly within the switch fabric itself, and the interconnection of local and remote resources all in a single solution. Trellis builds a non-blocking fabric using OpenFlow controlled white box switching hardware and open source software. The Trellis fabric does not run any embedded control protocols on the switches (e.g. BGP, OSPF or RSTP). Instead, intelligence is moved into applications running on a clustered ONOS controller.

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AT&T: 75% of MPLS tunnel data traffic under SDN control

AT&T has reached an inflection point in its efforts to virtualize its network and implement software-defined controls.

AT&T confirmed that 75% of the data traffic running through its multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) tunnels, which connect the core elements of its network, is now under SDN control.

https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2019/09/delivering_sdn_promise.html

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RETN deploys Infinera on Europe-Asia terrestrial route

RETN deployed Infinera’s fourth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE4)-based platform to power its TRANSKZ network.

RETN, which is one of the fastest-growing independent European providers of Internet transit and connectivity services, operates its own end-to-end Eurasian network with unique geographical coverage. The TRANSKZ network stretches across a diverse terrain of more than 15,000 kilometers and interconnects critical markets which are currently underserved territories across the route.

Infinera said the new terrestrial deployment serves as an alternative to subsea cables on the Europe-to-Asia route. Enhanced with the latest-generation equipment, the high-performance network supports three diverse paths of similar lengths from Europe to the border of China via Kazakhstan in partnership with Transtelecom JSC, and offers low-latency and high-capacity services linking all major locations in commercial and financial hubs. Working closely with Infinera, RETN completed the final 4,000 kilometers of the main route in Kazakhstan and deployed services on the long-distance network in less than 30 days, accelerating time to revenue.

“Our network segment from Kazakhstan to the border of China, which we upgraded earlier in 2019 to complete the TRANSKZ network, experiences harsh weather conditions. We also anticipated other potential issues we’ve had to face working in these challenging territories. So, we needed to find the right solution, combined with the technical expertise of RETN engineers, the local partner, and the vendor, to ensure RETN received superior network performance,” said Tony O’Sullivan, COO at RETN. “The Infinera team provided us with the best solution to meet our needs while working closely with our team throughout the entire network deployment. Many years of cooperation have proven Infinera’s solutions to be highly reliable and operate successfully through harsh environmental conditions along very long routes.”

“We are delighted to support RETN with the upgrade of TRANSKZ as they continue to find innovative ways for their customers to meet growing volumes of data coming to and from Europe, China, and beyond,” said Bob Jandro, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Infinera. “With Infinera’s portfolio, network service providers like RETN are set up for success with solutions that are reliable, agile, and scalable to support the bandwidth increases that customers demand.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/RETN-Uses-Infinera-to-Power-New-TRANSKZ-Network-for-Europe-Asia-Connectivity

https://retn.net/

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Russia's Inoventica selects ADVA's FSP 3000

Inoventica, one of Russia’s leading IT service providers and data center operators, has selected ADVA's FSP 3000 platform to meet soaring data demand from enterprise and carrier customers by boosting the capacity of its backbone network to 100Gb and up.

The new fully redundant infrastructure leverages ADVA’s QuadFlex line card and OpenFabric cross-connect – two technologies optimized for efficiency and complete flexibility. ADVA’s Select partner, the IT solution specialist Zettaline is also playing a key role in facilitating the project.

ADVA said its FSP 3000 enables significant energy savings and, with its 1RU footprint, occupies very little rack space. Using ADVA FSP 3000 QuadFlex technology, the solution will transport 100Gbit/s data loads over distances stretching to 2,000km across the Moscow metropolitan area. By enabling greater spectral efficiency, QuadFlex delivers extended reach without any need for signal regeneration. Also key is the ADVA FSP 3000 OpenFabric, which creates a distributed architecture, enabling Inoventica to simply and efficiently aggregate lower-speed services.

“ADVA’s technology enables us to take the next step with our infrastructure while also leveraging maximum value from our existing network. With this deployment, we can flexibly respond to soaring data requirements and help our customers to unleash their full potential,” said Vitaly Slizen, CEO, Inoventica.

“We’re proud that Russia’s largest cloud service provider has chosen to harness our technology and expertise. Together with our partner Zettaline, we’ve built a solution that efficiently expands Inoventica’s infrastructure and provides the tools it needs to address today’s key challenges,” commented Andreas Jelinek, senior director, sales, Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS, ADVA.

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ADTRAN cites momentum with XGS-PON

ADTRAN cited deployments of its XGS-PON solutions over the past year by network operators in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim to deliver multi-gigabit services for residential, commercial, industrial and governmental broadband programs.

According to the IHS Markit | Technology Broadband Aggregation Equipment Market Tracker - Q1 2019, ADTRAN is a leading supplier based on ports shipped in North America, EMEA, and South and Central America regions with its 10G EPON, XGS-PON and NG-PON2 solutions. National network operators in Australia, regional service providers and utilities across North America, and alternative operators in Europe are using 10G PON delivered by the ADTRAN Total Access 5000 and SDX 6000 SD-Access platforms.

“Service providers realize they can differentiate themselves by choosing 10Gbps capable point-to-multipoint fiber access technology over traditional, decades-old technologies, creating the most efficient, flexible, scalable and robust service delivery network,” ADTRAN Chief Technology Officer of EMEA and APAC Ronan Kelly said. “We are enjoying tremendous traction with our XGS-PON solutions amongst every service provider type, in almost every region around the world, as providers look to build networks that support Gigabit Society services and applications, setting them apart from their traditional competitors.”

ADTRAN also announced that Australia’s national broadband network builder and operator NBN Co presented ADTRAN with its 2019 “We Are Fearless” award at the “nbn Supplier Summit” in Sydney, Australia. ADTRAN is working with NBN Co and other partners to help build Australia’s national broadband access network “nbn” by 2020.

“We value the wise counsel and expertise ADTRAN brings to all our endeavors, be it technology or advice on partnerships and why an open, multi-vendor ecosystem is important,” NBN Co CFO Philip Knox said. “We are pleased to recognize ADTRAN for being fearless in advocating this approach, as well as helping us provide high-speed broadband to our customers.”

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Caixin: Huawei to Raise $844 Million in First On-Shore Bond Sales

Huawei Technologies is seeking to raise RMB 6 billion (US$844 million) in its first sale of bonds to the domestic market, according to Caixin, a business journal in China. The article states that Huawei plans to use the funds for working capital and to maintain financial stability. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction are listed as underwriters.

https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-09-12/huawei-to-raise-844-million-in-first-on-shore-bond-sales-101461554.html

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Mellanox on track to ship over 1 million ConnectX Adapters in Q3 2019

Mellanox Technologies announced it is on track to ship over one million ConnectX and BlueField Ethernet network adapters in Q3 2019, a new quarterly record.

The company says growth is driven by public and private clouds, telco operators and enterprise data centers seeking faster compute and storage platforms.

“We are thrilled to see ConnectX and Ethernet SmartNICs exceed the one million parts shipment mark in a single quarter. We expect this number to continue and grow in the coming quarters as more of the market is transitioning to 25 Gb/s Ethernet and faster speeds,” said Eyal Waldman, president and CEO of Mellanox Technologies.

The BlueField-2 IPU integrates all the advanced capabilities of ConnectX-6 Dx with an array of powerful Arm processor cores, high performance memory interfaces, and flexible processing capabilities in a single System-on-Chip (SoC), supporting both Ethernet and InfiniBand connectivity up to 200Gb/s.

Video - Mellanox's Michael Kagan on SmartNICs

Monday, August 26, 2019  Mellanox  

Michael Kagan, CTO and co-founder of Mellanox Technologies, talks about the next step for SmartNICs and the company's newly released ConnectX-6 Dx product driven by its own silicon.

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Telefónica looks to sell 50,000 mobile towers

Telefónica disclosed plans to monetise a second portfolio of mobile sites within the next year.

In 2016, some of Telefónica network assets, including 18,000 mobile sites, were spun off into Telxius.

In this second sale of infrastructure assets, the carrier believes it could generate an estimated OIBDA of c. €360 million through the sale of approximately 50,000 sites.

Telefónica operates through a portfolio of c. 130,000 sites globally, and owns, directly or through its subsidiaries, a unique portfolio of c. 68,000 sites across 12 markets. In the UK, Telefónica owns c. 7,000 sites through its 50% interest in Cornerstone, which was jointly created in 2012 by Telefónica and Vodafone to operate their combined nationwide tower site infrastructure and support their active sharing arrangements. Telefónica and Vodafone have agreed to extend the agreement to include 5G roll-out and explore potential monetisation options for Cornerstone.

In Germany, Telefónica Deutschland currently owns nationwide c. 19,000 sites, making it one of the largest single country portfolios in Europe.

https://www.telefonica.com/en/web/press-office/-/telefonica-to-accelerate-the-monetisation-of-its-mobile-telecommunications-infrastructure

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Telia appoints Christian Luiga as acting CEO

Christian Luiga has been appointed acting President and CEO of Telia effectively immediately, replacing Johan Dennelind, who announced his resignation in early August. A search for a permanent CEO is underway.

Luiga joined Telia in 2009 and headed Corporate Control until April 2014, when he was appointed CFO of the company. Douglas Lubbe has been appointed acting CFO in Telia Company. His most recent position was CFO of Telia Sweden.

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