RTI to terminate transpacific cables at Equinix

RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. has selected Equinix IBX data centers to extend their connectivity solutions in Tokyo, Japan, and Sydney, Australia.

RTI and its affiliates will soon be completing construction on several new high-fibre capacity cables that will land on Guam. Equinix termination points that are currently live include the following two cable routes:
Japan-Guam-Australia South Cable System (JGA South) connecting Sydney and Guam with termination into Equinix SY4 IBX in Sydney and with a branch to Australia's Sunshine Coast.
Japan-Guam-Australia North Cable System (JGA North) connecting Tokyo and Guam with termination into Equinix TY2 IBX in Tokyo.

"JGA South's initial design capacity of 36 Tbps empowers our customers with unrivaled scalability that will seamlessly interconnect Equinix's campuses in Sydney and Tokyo. Content users of any size can now quickly connect to us across the campus, easily transmit their content over the fastest path between Sydney and Tokyo, and rest assured that their content is being delivered safely and securely," stated Russ Matulich, Chief Executive Officer, RTI.

Japan-Guam-Australia North Cable to offer 24 Tbps

Sunday, September 15, 2019  Subsea  

Installation is underway on a new Japan-Guam-Australia North Cable System with an initial design capacity of 24 Tbps. Future modulation upgrades will increase capacity further. Commercial activation is expected in Q1 2020.

JGA North’s submersible repeaters were manufactured by NEC Corporation and the submarine cable was manufactured by OCC Corporation. JGA North lands in Minami Boso, Chiba, and is extended by terrestrial dark fibers to two neutral world-class data centers in Tokyo.

JGA North will land at the Gateway Network Connections facility in Guam. Announced in June 2019 through a strategic partnership between RTI and GTA, GNC is Guam’s first combined neutral cable landing station and data center, providing seamless interconnection for both existing and new cables between and among Asia, Australia, and the United States.

https://us15.campaign-archive.com/?u=71b5dcfd024e7017839808268&id=f4f8b14ef3

NEC selected for 96 Tbps SxS cable from Guam to California

Tuesday, January 29, 2019  NEC  

NEC has been awarded a turnkey contract to be the system supplier for the SxS Cable System (SxS), a 10,500-kilometer subsea cable system that will directly connect Guam and California. The SxS cable has an initial design capacity of more than 96 terabits per second (Tbps).

The project is commissioned by RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. (RTI-C).

Russ Matulich, RTI-C’s CEO, acknowledged this important milestone stating, “The addition of SxS complements our more than $500 million of investments towards ensuring the fastest connectivity between essential neutral POPs in Asia, Australia and the United States. SxS will seamlessly interconnect with our HK-G, JGA North, JGA South and SEA-US cable systems in a new purpose-built, RTI-owned facility in Guam. SxS strongly positions RTI to provide large-scale connectivity for our customers for years to come.”

RTI-C is headquartered in Singapore, and RTI is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

http://www.rticable.com

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SK Telecom completes 5G SA data session over multivendor network

SK Telecom completed a standalone (SA) 5G data session on its multi-vendor commercial 5G network in Busan, Korea.

SK Telecom said it on track to launch the world’s first 5G SA service in the first half of this year.

To achieve this standalone 5G milestone, the company applied standalone New Radio (NR) software to its existing non-standalone (NSA) 5G base stations, and completed multi-vendor interoperability between network equipment of Ericsson and Samsung. SK Telecom has also applied key 5G technologies such as network slicing and mobile edge computing (MEC) to its standalone 5G network.

“With the successful standalone 5G data call on our multi-vendor commercial 5G network, we are now standing on the threshold of launching standalone 5G service, a key enabler of revolutionary changes and innovations in all industries,” said Park Jong-kwan, Vice President and Head of 5GX Labs of SK Telecom. “SK Telecom will offer the best 5G networks and services to realize a whole new level of customer experience in the 5G era.”

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ADVA supports 5G-PICTURE railway testbed

ADVA demonstrated Europe’s first 5G rail deployment that delivered multi-Gbps connectivity to fast-moving trains.

The demo was conducted by ADVA, Blu Wireless Technology, CNIT, COMSA Industrial and the local railway operator and infrastructure manager, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC).

Deployed across three stations of the FGC network in Barcelona, the 5G-PICTURE railway testbed interconnected a variety of end-user devices and compute resources using the most advanced optical and wireless network technologies. The deployment used ADVA’s G.metro passive optical technology and FSP 150 edge aggregation solution. Millimeter wave (mmWave) access points (APs) were used to maintain track-to-train connectivity as well as programmable mobility functions for seamless onboard services. The APs were connected to passive WDM add/drop nodes built with ADVA’s low-latency G.metro system and each mmWave AP was capable of dedicated 10Gbit/s connectivity. All the traffic from the trackside was further aggregated to the railway operator’s core network based on ADVA’s 100Gbit/s Ethernet aggregation technology.

“With this demo, we’ve presented the blueprints for the future of rail telecommunication networks. We’ve shown how a combined optical and microwave 5G architecture can carry both critical and non-critical communications, dramatically simplifying deployments and delivering significant cost reduction,” said Jim Zou, senior engineer, advanced technology, ADVA. “Unlike traditional railway telecommunication networks that rely on separate infrastructures, what we’ve proposed with this demo is a unified, automated network able to support every application and prevent service interruptions. It delivers high-bandwidth internet access to passengers on the move, while also providing train operators with driver-to-control connectivity, access to surveillance cameras and mission-critical onboard applications. Now a single 5G network can provide all telco services for train companies, freight operators and passengers.”

“This project is about completely transforming on-train connectivity for the digitalization strategy of the railway sector. It’s about providing massive high-quality wireless capacity to trains to enable cloud-based applications that improve performance and security in the railway sector. It’s also about being able to support new business and passenger applications,” said Manuel Alfageme, head of smart systems innovation, COMSA Industrial. “At COMSA, we have a formidable record of leading the way with rail innovation. By jointly demonstrating the technical and commercial viability of this technology in a live operational environment, we’re showing train operators and railway infrastructure managers that open, scalable and agile 5G networks are now possible in the railway vertical. The time has come for a new generation of integrated railway infrastructure.”

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Angola Cables tests Nokia’s PSE-3 chipset over subsea cables

Angola Cables is trialling Nokia’s Photonic Service Engine 3 (PSE-3) chipset for the first direct optical connection between the USA and Africa.

The new services leverage the interconnection of two existing subsea cable systems – SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) and MONET. SACS, owned and managed by Angola Cables, operates between Fortaleza, Brazil and Luanda, Angola and is connected to AngoNAP Datacenter. The consortium-owned MONET connects Santos/Fortaleza with Florida/USA.

Combining SACS and MONET subsea systems in this joint trial allows for the first time 300 Gbps of traffic between Miami and Luanda. The subsea wavelengths were deployed with Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect (PSI) data center interconnect (DCI) platform utilizing the PSE-3. The 1830 PSI provisioned optical wavelengths at 300 Gbps using probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) to optimally shape the signals to the specific characteristics of the 12,635 km cable, achieve operation near the theoretical limits of the system.

The test adds more capacity to an already low latency network. Lower-latency network connections improve performance and user experience in applications such as cloud computing and content consumption. According to the ITU, sub-Sarahan Africa has recorded the highest growth in internet use globally over the past decade, from under 10% of the population in 2010, to over 28% in 2019. Enhanced subsea connectivity is crucial for access to global content and services of this growing user base.

Fernando Azevedo, Technical Director at Angola Cables, said: “With Nokia’s PSE-3, Angola Cables can optically interconnect the MONET and SACS submarine fiber optic cables, enabling more capacity and a further reduction in latency between content providers in North America and the rapidly growing data consumption markets in Africa.”

Sam Bucci, Head of Optical Networking at Nokia, said: “Africa is a strategic growth market for Nokia across both our core CSP and webscale businesses. We are proud to partner with Angola Cables to apply our ground-breaking PSE-3 technology to a unique and challenging subsea route, helping to deliver enhanced services to a rapidly developing part of the world.”

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Crosslake Fibre selects Equinix to terminate its Digital Gateway

Crosslake Fibre selected Equinix to extend its backhaul capacity into Equinix TR2 International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center in Toronto and Equinix NY4 IBX in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The Crosslake cable traverses Lake Ontario from Toronto to New York State utilizing a specialized 192-fiber strand submarine cable that is 36 miles (58 km) in length. For the first time, this new network route delivers sub-9 ms round trip delay (RTD) performance between Toronto and New York.

"The new network provides physical geographic diversity, the lowest latency performance and ultra-high capacity throughput. This backbone internet infrastructure between Equinix data centers benefits content delivery networks, financial customers, gaming ecosystem, payment processing customers and internet download speeds, in addition to being a potential catalyst for economic development," stated Mike Cunningham, CEO, Crosslake Fibre.

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FireEye acquires Cloudvisory

FireEye acquired Cloudvisory, a provider of continuous visibility, compliance, and security policy governance solutions for multi-cloud and data center assets. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cloudvisory offers a complete centralized security management solution for audit, compliance, micro-segmentation and enforcement through cloud-native controls of the various cloud platforms. The Cloudvisory solution operates across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, OpenStack and VMware, as well as traditional virtualized and bare metal environments.

The Cloudvisory solution is designed to provide:

• Visibility into network data traffic for workloads, applications, and microservices
• Ability to detect and remediate misconfigurations and malicious activities across multiple cloud providers
• Compliance assurance standard benchmarks for CIS, PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, and compliance requirements
• Advanced compliance assurance controls
• Ability to detect, alert, block, and quarantine attacks using cloud-native microsegmentation

“Customers need consistent visibility across their public and hybrid cloud environments, as well as containerized workloads,” said Grady Summers, Executive Vice President of Products and Customer Success at FireEye. “Cloudvisory delivers this visibility and allows FireEye to apply controls and best practices based on our frontline knowledge of how attackers operate. Security is top of mind for almost all organizations as they migrate critical workloads to the cloud. With the addition of the Cloudvisory technology, FireEye is able to offer a comprehensive, intelligence-led solution to secure today’s hybrid, multi-platform environments.”

“Joining FireEye offers Cloudvisory a unique opportunity to combine our innovative approach to cloud visibility and FireEye’s unrivaled insights into the threat landscape,” said Lisun Kung, Cloudvisory co-founder and chief executive officer prior to the acquisition. “We’re excited by the potential to quickly scale and help more organizations secure their cloud and container workloads.”

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TIA targets ICT supply chain security

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is kicking off an initiative to build telecommunications supply chain security standards and programs.

In a new position paper entitled, “Trust in ICT Supply Chain Security Can Only Come from Global Industry-Driven Standards and Programs,” TIA argues that the ICT supply chain has become increasingly complex and vulnerable to threats by criminals and bad-actors that can disrupt business continuity and devastate consumer confidence, with vast economic consequences.

TIA’s position paper outlines how ensuring trust and integrity in the ICT supply chain can only come from industry-driven standards, measurements, and benchmarking that form a consistent, common, and accepted set of global requirements. The paper discusses how an industry-led approach can respond and adapt more quickly to changing technology, market needs, and new threats than government regulations, while maintaining innovation, competition and economic growth.

“Our economy demands safe, secure and reliable devices, equipment and networks for businesses and consumers. With the unprecedented connectivity that 5G promises, network and supply chain security have become the most critical global telecom issues of our time,” said TIA CEO David Stehlin. “Industry-driven standards are the only way to build a trusted and secure global network. As the leading industry association for the connected world, TIA is uniquely poised to lead the way.”

TIA has the track record and experience to take the lead globally on ICT supply chain security. TIA, together with its members, has developed and maintained more than 3,600 telecommunications industry standards. The QuEST Forum TL 9000 Quality Management System, part of TIA’s Business Performance Community, has been successfully meeting global supply chain quality requirements of the worldwide ICT industry for more than 20 years, providing an adaptable foundation to address security.

TIA’s government affairs team is also leading advocacy efforts on ICT supply chain security and working with regulators across the Americas, Europe and Asia on approaches to securing critical infrastructure and networks. In 2019, TIA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Indian telecommunications regulators to enhance cooperation on 5G deployment. As a founding member of the Beijing-based United States Information and Technology Office (USITO), TIA has worked to ensure that China’s approach to cybersecurity is inclusive of global companies with proven networks solutions.

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Liquid Telecom to launch 5G wholesale roaming in South Africa

Liquid Telecom is preparing to launch a 5G wholesale roaming service in South Africa. Liquid Telecom will use its 3.5GHz spectrum asset to build the 5G network and provide nationwide 5G wholesale services to the market early in 2020.

The 5G wholesale network will also help accelerate the evolution of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa.

“This is a milestone moment for Liquid Telecom South Africa,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO. “Our wholesale operating partners can exploit our new ultra-fast 5G roaming network to build the next generation of communications and make innovation possible, anytime, anywhere. 5G will facilitate real-time remote collaboration, improved business efficiency and lower costs – ultimately driving growth in the South African economy.”

“This breakthrough 5G wholesale service will create innovation in every aspect of South African society and industry,” says Strive Masiyiwa, Chairman, Liquid Telecom. “For the first time, mobile network operators and ISPs will have open access to Liquid Telecom’s new 5G mobile network. The launch of the service also underscores Liquid Telecom’s vision to bring high-speed connectivity to everyone.”

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Skylo raises $103M for IoT over existing geostationary satellites

Skylo, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, emerged from stealth to unveil its plans to create "the world’s most affordable and ubiquitous network that connects any machine or sensor.

Skylo will leverage the cellular Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) protocol via satellite, making it possible to instantly connect billions of sensors on objects and machines in remote areas. Skylo’s new satellite connectivity will use existing geostationary satellites without the need to add new infrastructure in space. The company says it has proven its end-to-end technology and completed successful commercial field trials with major enterprise and government customers. The company’s customers already include enterprise and government entities in a range of industries including automotive, railways, agriculture and maritime.

Skylo recently completed a Series B round of funding which raised $103 million, led by SoftBank Group and joined by all existing investors. The company previously raised $13 million in a Series A round that was co-led by DCM and Innovation Endeavors, and joined by Moore Strategic Ventures. The new

“Skylo envisions a world where connectivity for machines, sensors and devices is as ubiquitous as the sky,” said Skylo co-founder and CEO Parthsarathi “Parth” Trivedi. “This low-cost, global fabric of connectivity for machine data will be transformative for entire industries.”

Skylo’s end-to-end solution encompasses the Skylo Hub, the Skylo Network, the Skylo Data Platform and Skylo API. Mass manufacturing of the Skylo Hub is underway and the Skylo Network is already live with early customers.

• Skylo Hub — The Skylo Hub is a self-installed, easy-to-use satellite terminal that connects to the Skylo Network. It has a suite of onboard sensors to sense geolocation and acceleration, and operates like a wireless “hot spot” for a variety of external sensors such as vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD2), temperature sensors, and standard mobile or tablet devices. The Hub uses off-the-shelf components from the cellular world, which drastically reduces the cost of the Hub and increases sensor and device compatibility. Skylo’s digitally-steered antenna technology makes the device so compact that the Hub itself is 8” x 8”, and the antenna can even be OEM-installed onto most vehicles, utilities infrastructure, and other industrial equipment. The Skylo Hub has a built-in battery, or can connect directly to external power sources, including solar.
• Skylo Network — Skylo has also developed a proprietary method of efficiently transmitting data; this technology minimizes satellite usage costs, a cost savings that is passed onto Skylo customers.
• Skylo Data Platform and Skylo API — The Skylo Data Platform and API helps customers to manage their Skylo Hubs remotely and visualize, analyze and act on the data that is generated, sent, and received via connected devices.

Skylo was founded in 2017 by CEO Parth Trivedi, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Andrew Nuttall and Chief Hub Architect Dr. Andrew Kalman. The company’s current Board of Directors includes Board Chairman former U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer, David Chao of DCM, Scott Brady of Innovation Endeavors, Harpinder “Harpi” Singh of Innovation Endeavors, and Skylo CEO Trivedi. Following the receipt of required regulatory approvals, SoftBank Group will also have a representative on the Board of Directors, who will be Yoshi Segawa. Skylo has offices in San Mateo, Calif., Bangalore, India, and Tel Aviv, Israel, and is growing the team globally to support its fast-growing customer base.

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Zzoomm deploys ADTRAN for multi-gig services in the UK

Zzoomm, a Full Fibre network provider in the UK, is leveraging ADTRAN’s 10G Symmetric XGS PON portfolio to initially offer up to 2Gbps symmetric residential services.

At the core of its full-fibre network is ADTRAN’s Total Access 5000 (TA5000). Zzoomm will be able to scale services within Henley-on-Thames, and beyond, by upgrading the switch fabric to 100G.

“Today, less than 11 percent of the UK has Full Fibre coverage, and we’re addressing that head-on by building the broadband network of the future with ADTRAN,” said Matthew Hare, Chief Executive of Zzoomm. “Henley-on-Thames is a tech-savvy town with a great digital community, many remote workers and a mix of population demographics. Like the rest of the UK, residents of Henley love bandwidth-intensive applications and online gaming. Our Full Fibre network provides the infrastructure needed to ensure that every person gets the optimized broadband experience they crave, both today and in the future.”

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Xilinx files patent infringement complaint against Analog Devices

Xilinx filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Analog Devices, asserting infringement of eight United States patents in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The filing came as a counterclaim to the an existing lawsuit between the firms.

Xilinx said its lawsuit details the unauthorized use by Analog Devices of certain Xilinx technologies involving serializers/deserializers (SerDes), high-speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs), as well as mixed-signal devices targeting 5G and other markets. In addition to seeking damages, Xilinx is requesting that Analog Devices be enjoined from selling, offering to sell, or importing into the United States, products that infringe Xilinx’s asserted patents.

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Sequans opens 5G design center in Israel

Paris-based Sequans Communications S.A. announced the expansion of its research and development resources in Israel with the opening of a new design center for the purpose of accelerating Sequans’ 5G new product development.

Sequans' new team is mainly focused on the development of 5G broadband and critical IoT products that will complement its existing massive IoT products, including the company’s flagship Monarch and Calliope platforms. The 5G products Sequans is readying for production include its 5G-compliant Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT chip announced in 2019 that will address the massive IoT market, and the coming new Taurus 5G chip that will address the broadband and critical IoT markets.

“Our new R&D center in Israel has been established to accelerate our ongoing 5G development and is a reflection of our commitment to keep our IoT products at the leading edge with best-in-class performance and lowest cost,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “Our 5G knowledge will be leveraged and augmented by this new team of experts who will ensure that we get across the goal line and get our new 5G products to market according to plan.”

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SK Telecom expands Project xCloud

SK Telecom is expanding support for Project xCloud, which is Microsoft’s game streaming technology that allows gamers to play Xbox games directly from the cloud on mobile devices while connected to the internet.

Specifically, SK Telecom and Microsoft will increase the number of games for Project xCloud preview in Korea from 29 (as of November 2019) to 85 titles, including homegrown Korea-developed favorites such as “Black Desert” and “Tera.” And around 40 of these games will provide Korean subtitles or voice-overs, and more games that support the Korean language will be added to the preview over time.

As an exclusive business operating partner of Project xCloud, SK Telecom launched the public preview for Project xCloud in Korea in October 2019 for its selected customers. At present, public previews for Project xCloud are being provided in the United States, United Kingdom and Korea. According to Microsoft, Project xCloud preview participants in Korea are on average spending 1.75 times more time gaming and revisiting three times more compared to the participants in the United States and United Kingdom.

“Our partnership with SK Telecom has played a valuable role in helping Microsoft reach new, mobile-first gamers while also learning more about delivering high-quality game streaming through 5G networks,” said Kareem Choudhry, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Project xCloud. “As we enter the next phase of our preview in Korea, it is critical for us to have a strong partnership with a respected company like SK Telecom to push the technology forward.”

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Dr. Omar Ishrak elected Chairman of Intel

Dr. Omar Ishrak was elected independent chairman of Intel's Board of Directors, replacing Andy D. Bryant, who Bryant will remain on the board through the end of Intel’s 2020 annual stockholders’ meeting. He had previously notified the board in March 2019 that he did not intend to stand for re-election at this year’s meeting.

Intel also announced that Alyssa Henry was elected to Intel’s board. Her election marks the seventh new independent director added to Intel’s board since the beginning of 2016.

“I want to thank and congratulate Andy for over seven years’ service as chairman of the board,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan. “Andy has been a rudder for Intel during a time of change and transformation. He has led the board with integrity and always with Intel’s best interest in mind.”

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Vantage Data Centers added 41MW capacity in 2019

In 2019, Vantage Data Centers added 41MW of capacity into operation across North America.

Vantage opened new facilities in Northern Virginia, Santa Clara, California, and Quebec City, in addition to its expansion in Montreal. The company also purchased land outside of Phoenix in Goodyear, Arizona, where it is developing the company’s largest campus to date.

“Our growth in 2019 was extraordinary, fulfilling the goals we set early in the year,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO, Vantage Data Centers. “Not only did we expand outside of the U.S. for the first time, we also opened three new facilities and entered four new markets. This tremendous growth has been fueled by demand from hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprises and powered by an innovative funding strategy.”

In addition, over the course of 2019, Vantage raised $1.6 billion in capital to support its expansion across North America. In addition, Vantage opened a second headquarters in Denver to facilitate the growth of its employee base.

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