Monday, January 27, 2020

FCC opens the 3.5 GHz band for commercial operations (#CBRS)

The FCC certified four Spectrum Access System (SAS) Administrators, paving the way for full commercial operations in the 3.5 GHz band.

Specifically, the FCC has certified CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google, and Sony as Spectrum Access System administrators in the 3.55-3.7 GHz band.

“The FCC has made it a priority to free up mid-band spectrum for advanced wireless services like 5G.  And today, I’m pleased to announce the latest step to achieve that priority: the approval of four systems that will enable the 3.5 GHz band to be put to use for the benefit of American consumers and businesses,” said Chairman Pai.  “As with all of our efforts to execute on the 5G FAST plan, we’re pushing to get next-generation wireless services deployed in the 3.5 GHz band as quickly and efficiently as possible.  I would like to thank Commissioner Mike O’Rielly for his leadership throughout this proceeding as well as the FCC staff and those in the private sector who have worked so hard to achieve this milestone.”

The CBRS Alliance, which now includes 159 companies, noted that the success of this opening was the result of unprecedented public-private partnerships between industry and government organizations.

Prior to commercial availability, the 3.5 GHz CBRS band was used primarily by the Department of Defense (DoD), mostly for shipborne radar systems. To ensure that the DoD has continued access to the band, environmental sensing capability (ESC) networks along the U.S. coast (operated by CommScope, Federated Wireless, and Google) will inform the SAS administrators to activate a protection zone and dynamically reassign users in the area to other parts of the band, thus protecting the incumbent’s use of the spectrum while maximizing availability of CBRS spectrum across coastal areas.

“The authorization of Full Commercial Deployments in the CBRS band is a significant milestone in our nation’s management and utilization of a vital resource, the radio frequency spectrum,” said Dana Deasy, chief information officer for the Department of Defense (DoD). “The Defense Department worked closely with our federal partners at the NTIA and FCC, and with industry, to ensure that our mission critical operations would be protected while enabling new commercial uses. Collectively, we were able to creatively address the engineering and security challenges associated with military and commercial spectrum sharing. We look to build upon those successes going forward. Additionally, I would like to thank the men and women in DoD who have diligently worked to make today possible.”

“With commercial deployments of OnGo already underway, the CBRS Alliance would like to recognize the exceptional efforts of the almost 160 member companies that comprise the Alliance, as well as the extensive industry and government collaboration required to bring OnGo to market,” said Dave Wright, president of the CBRS Alliance. “Over the past six years, our members have contributed incredible amounts of time, energy, and innovation to address the need for reliable, cost-effective wireless services and have now made OnGo a reality. At its start, this industry effort consisted of a handful of companies that saw the potential for new services utilizing CBRS’ innovative access framework. It is now comprised of 159 companies representing the diversity of OnGo solutions, including mobile, cable, rural, enterprise, and industrial uses. OnGo is ready for full-scale deployments – enabling 4G LTE systems today and 5G NR solutions this year.”

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-20-110A1.pdf

Dynamic spectrum sharing with 3.5 GHz CBRS network



A tremendous amount of mid-band spectrum is opening up for enterprises, mobile network operators, cable operators, and new players, Kurt Schaubach, CTO of Federated Wireless, thanks to dynamic spectrum sharing with Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).

 This video covers:
* The CBRS ecosystem and commercial rollout timeline
* Who is Federated Wireless and what are its key technologies
* How CBRS creates access to spectrum for densification of existing networks and entry for new players
* CBRS in 4G and 5G scenarios

ServiceNow goes industry-specific, including telecom support

ServiceNow is pursuing a new industry solutions strategy, including for telecommunications and banking.

ServiceNow said its new telecommunications solution will align customer care and service assurance to transform how communication service providers deliver great customer experiences by proactively anticipating issues and addressing them quickly while maximizing availability and quality of service. The company's new banking solution will simplify middle-to-back office operations to help banks move at the speed of digital business, delivering seamless customer experiences throughout the enterprise that drive customer loyalty.

“Every company around the world aspires to deliver great experiences that drive fierce customer loyalty and create powerful employee engagement,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO, ServiceNow. “And companies across many industries are turning to ServiceNow to help them transform their business to unleash productivity and fuel innovation. By creating industry-specific solutions, delivered through a partner-led model, we can better address the unique challenges that companies in key vertical markets face as they look to digitally transform their businesses.”

ServiceNow also announced extended partnerships with Deloitte and Accenture. Deloitte will become the “Lead Launch” Partner for ServiceNow’s banking solution, working with ServiceNow to implement new workflows that will transform how banks operate. Accenture will become the “Lead Launch” ecosystem partner for ServiceNow on its new telecommunications solution, helping companies drive digital transformation through purpose-built workflows. Accenture will also help guide ServiceNow’s product roadmap and create telecommunications-specific digital workflow solutions that deliver great experiences to help support software defined networking, especially vital for new connected services enabled by 5G.

“With 5G being one of the highest priorities and most significant investments for service providers, they are seeking a competitive advantage by establishing greater agility and scale in today’s cloud-first world,” said Peters Suh, North America Communications Industry Lead at Accenture. “Through our expanded ecosystem partnership with ServiceNow, we’re better positioned than ever to help companies elevate solutions and support the transitions of the telecommunications industry.”

Comcast Business acquires Blueface for cloud-based UC

Comcast has acquired Blueface, a developer of unified communications solutions based in Dublin, Ireland. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Comcast Business will add Blueface’s proprietary and fully customizable cloud voice unified communications platform to its portfolio of business-grade solutions.

“The addition of Blueface’s Unified Communications (UC) solution to the Comcast Business portfolio will provide customers access to industry-leading audio and video tools to connect employees across devices and locations,” said Bill Stemper, President, Comcast Business. “Whether connecting within a company or directly to customers, Blueface technology, powered by Comcast Business, will provide businesses a seamless communications experience. We look forward to delivering innovative solutions that enable businesses to help power employee productivity and extraordinary customer experiences in 2020 and beyond.”

http://www.blueface.com/blog/comcast-acquires-blueface

Juniper posts Q4 sales of $1.208 billion, up 2% YoY

Juniper Networks reported preliminary net revenues of $1,208.1 million for 4Q2019, an increase of 2% year-over-year, and an increase of 7% sequentially. GAAP operating margin was 14.8%, a decrease from 16.7% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and an increase from 12.2% in the third quarter of 2019. GAAP net income was $168.4 million, a decrease of 12% year-over-year, and an increase of 70% sequentially, resulting in diluted earnings per share of $0.49. Non-GAAP net income was $198.7 million, a decrease of 3% year-over-year, and an increase of 19% sequentially, resulting in non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.58.

Full Year 2019 net revenues were $4,445.4 million, a decrease of 4% year-over-year.

“We returned to year-over-year growth during the December quarter and saw encouraging trends across various areas of our business, including record Enterprise sales, double digit year-over-year growth in the Cloud, solid momentum with Mist, and another quarter of strength in our services organization,” said Juniper’s CEO, Rami Rahim. “We believe we are executing well and positioned to sustainably grow the business starting this year.”

“We experienced better than expected top and bottom-line results during the December quarter,” said Juniper’s CFO, Ken Miller.

Keysight: more than 600 validated 5G test cases

Keysight Technologies, which was engagements with all four U.S. mobile operators, has now surpassed 600 validated 5G test cases for its 5G network emulation solution suite.

Keysight leveraged contributions to 5G NR standards and certification forums such as 3GPP, Global Certification Forum (GCF) and PTCRB, to create a comprehensive range of test cases used by mobile operators and their ecosystem of device makers to ensure new 5G devices operate as intended on their networks. It 5G network emulation solutions provide early access to a comprehensive range of test cases for protocol, radio frequency (RF), radio resource management (RRM) conformance and carrier acceptance validation. Following the most recent conformance agreement (CAG) meeting organized by GCF, the solution suite offers a leading number of GCF-validated protocol test cases for both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) mode, for both TDD and FDD deployments and across any 3GPP-specified frequency band. It continues to offer a leading number of RF validated test cases in frequency range 2 (FR2) for NSA mode. Early access to a comprehensive set of GCF-validated test cases accelerates device certification according to the 3GPP 5G new radio (NR) standard.

“Our close collaborations across the mobile industry has enabled us to fully support major mobile operators’ deployments of 5G services that rely on high-end devices,” said Kailash Narayanan, vice president and general manager of Keysight's wireless test group. “We’re pleased to offer the industry’s most comprehensive range of 5G test solutions to support 5G rollouts in the more than 120 countries currently investing in this technology.”

As 348 mobile operators around the world ramp up deployment of their 5G services, Keysight is well-positioned to support a connected ecosystem with solutions for device performance validation in any 3GPP-specified frequency band. Keysight’s 5G test solutions help speed the commercialization of most of the 199 5G devices that the industry has announced according to latest report on the 5G device ecosystem as published by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association.

F5 Networks reports sales of $569 million, up 5% YoY

F5 Networks reported revenue of $569.3 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2020, up 5% from $543.8 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019, driven by software solutions revenue growth of 50%.

GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 was $98.5 million, or $1.62 per diluted share compared to first quarter fiscal year 2019 GAAP net income of $130.9 million, or $2.16 per diluted share.

Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 was $155.4 million, or $2.55 per diluted share

“To better meet our customers’ changing application demands we have invested to deliver our world-class applications services across a wider range of deployment and consumption models,” said François, Locoh-Donou, CEO and President of F5 Networks. “As a result, customers are increasingly deploying F5 in multi-cloud environments, driving a revenue mix shift toward software. During our first quarter, customer demand for our software solutions and related services and support drove 50% software revenue growth and 5% revenue growth.”

Iguazio raises $24M for its data science platform

Iguazio, a start-up based in Herzliya, Israel, raised $24 million in funding for its data science platform for real time machine learning applications.

The Iguazio data science platform helps data scientists create real-time AI applications while working within their chosen machine learning stack.

The funding was was led by INCapital Ventures, with participation from existing and new investors, including Pitango, Verizon Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, Samsung SDS, Kensington Capital Partners, Plaza Ventures and Silverton Capital Ventures.

“This is a pivotal time for AI. Our platform helps data scientists push the limits of their real-time AI applications and see their impact in real business environments,” said Asaf Somekh, co-founder and CEO of Iguazio. “With support from INCapital, Kensington Capital Partners, and our other investors, we are ready to expand our international team and reach our ambitious goals.”

http://www.iguazio.com

Fujikura SAMPLES 60 GHz Millimeter Wave module

Fujikura has begun sampling a 60 GHz Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications Module featuring a High-gain phased array antenna. The compact design combines a baseband wireless modem function and an antenna with an included RF front end function.

Major Specifications

  • Frequency Band 57 - 71 GHz (CH1-CH6)
  • EIRP 40 dBm
  • Horizontal Beam Forming Angle  ±45 deg
  • Interface PCIe Gen2 x2 lane

The module can be used in communications networks embedded in backhaul equipment, access points (AP), customer premises equipment (CPE), V2X equipment, etc.

http://mmwavetech.fujikura.com