ONF's Aether targets Enterprise 5G/LTE-Edge-Cloud-as-a-Service

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced Aether – the first open-source platform for delivering Enterprise 5G/LTE-Edge-Cloud-as-a-Service.

Aether (pronounced ‘ee-ther’) provides mobile connectivity and edge cloud services for distributed enterprise networks, all provisioned and managed from a centralized cloud.

Aether leverages existing work from ONF including the CORD and ONOS platforms. It can be run in a Kubernetes environment, and it simultaneously supports deployment on licensed (4G/5G) and unlicensed (CBRS) spectrum.

“Aether opens the door for enterprises to rapidly deploy 5G and edge cloud services to help power their digital transformations. This can be done with a variety of flexible business models including in collaboration with telco operators, cloud operators, and third party providers. It offers the flexibility to utilize a wide range of bands including 5G, licensed bands, and CBRS. This cloud-enabled platform turns mobile connectivity and enterprise mobile edge cloud capabilities into a cloud-managed service, simplifying deployment and operations while delivering scalable and cost-effective services,” states Guru Parulkar, Executive Director, ONF & Executive Director, Stanford Platform Lab.

ONF already has a modest Aether pilot production network supporting edge cloud services running at two ONF offices, Intel Labs, and at other sites. This pilot is centrally managed and controlled from public cloud, with Aether Edge installations at each site. The entire deployment is maintained by ONF and ONF members using a distributed CI/CD DevOps development pipeline.

As with all ONF projects, Aether is backed by ONF’s operator partners AT&T, China Unicom, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Google, NTT Group and Turk Telekom. Additionally, ONF, Intel, GSLab, Infosys, and Accelleran are actively collaborating as a distributed DevOps team enhancing and maintaining Aether.

An introduction to Aether is provided in this 5 minute video by Oguz Sunay, Chief Mobile Architect, ONF.

https://youtu.be/TbSgM_RbZss

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Acacia samples 400ZR, OpenZR+, Open ROADM MSA

Acacia Communications has begun sampling multiple variants in its family of 400G pluggable optical transceiver modules, including 400ZR, OpenZR+, and Open ROADM MSA. Volume production is expected in the second half of 2020.

Acacia’s 400G pluggable module family features an expansive list of interoperability solutions in QSFP-DD, OSFP and CFP2-DCO pluggable form factors for cloud data center interconnects (DCIs) and service provider networks. The modules are based on Acacia's Greylock 7nm DSP, its 3rd generation of coherent DSP. The company is pursuing a 3D Siliconization approach that allows for high volume manufacturing processes.

OpenZR represents the combination of 400ZR and the Open ROADM MSA. It targets metro regional DCI applications.

Acacia said 400G pluggable modules represent a key architectural change in high-bandwidth data center interconnects because they can be plugged directly into switches and routers offering the same density for both coherent DWDM and client optics in the same chassis.

“We’re excited to be successfully passing traffic in the lab with the Acacia 400G-OSFP-ZR module in our 7000 Series switches and routers,” said Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer at Arista Networks. “400ZR is critical to meeting customer demand for growing data center interconnect bandwidth and we believe the thermal and optical performance of Acacia’s coherent platform in the OSFP form factor will provide network operators with a very reliable and power efficient solution.”

“Acacia is reinforcing its coherent pluggable leadership by sampling 400G technology in multiple form factors,” said Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst at Cignal AI. “Interoperable 400G solutions have the potential to transform cloud DCI and traditional operator architectures and create new applications for coherent optics at the edge of the network.”

Acacia also noted the following company milestones
> 200,000 coherent silicon photonic integrated circuits
> 400,000 coherent DSP ports
> 125,000 pluggable DCO modules

https://acacia-inc.com/

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OFC 2020 in on next week in San Diego

The Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC) will kick off its technical programming on Sunday, 8 March at the San Diego Convention Center in California. Exhibits will be open 10-12 March.

“We are a global community who will continue to interact, in spite of difficult global situations,” the OFC Steering Committee and Program and General Chairs conveyed. “We now find ourselves in unchartered territory but are working together, aiming to put on a conference that utilizes the global telecommunication infrastructure that the OFC community has enabled to allow for virtual technical participation by the international community that has been impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The work and discovery that has made OFC the most important event in our field will continue as planned.”

Details on health and safety measures that have been implemented in response to the Coronavirus can be found here.
https://www.ofcconference.org/en-us/home/about/update-on-coronavirus/

All technical registrants will receive information on how to access live and pre-recorded and content captured presentations. All attendees, media/analysts can remotely participate in the OFC Plenary session via live video streaming. Participants must pre-register to receive the live-stream link.
https://ofc2020live.mediasiteservices.com/

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF LIGHT-SPEED CONNECTIONS

OFC will proudly celebrate two discoveries that led to the development of practical fiber optical communications: the demonstration of low-loss fibers (16dB/km) and the first room-temperature semiconductor lasers. Activities include a special keynote presented by David Welch, Infinera Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, on Tuesday, 10 March, 18:15 – 19:00 (PDT), the Timeline of Innovation, a show-floor exhibit that features 50 years of optical fiber milestones, an interactive exhibit highlighting recipients of the John Tyndall Award and a conference reception on Tuesday, 10 March, 19:00 – 20:30 (PDT). Sponsors include Corning (Innovator), Thorlabs (Premier) and Inphi (Supporter).

PLENARY SESSION

Three world-renowned visionaries will explore the future of silica as a pillar of telecommunication technology, the development and realization of 5G wireless networks, and new horizons in gravitational-wave astrophysics during OFC’s Plenary Session, Tuesday, 10 March, 08:00 – 10:00 PDT (15:00 – 17:00 GMT). These visionary speakers include:

• Dr. Qi Bi, President, China Telecom Technology Innovation Center; CTO, China Telecom Beijing Research Institute, China
• Dr. Karsten Danzmann, Director, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Germany
• Sir David Payne, Director, Optoelectronics Research Centre Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, University of Southampton, UK

All attendees, media/analysts can remotely participate in the OFC Plenary session via live video streaming. Participants must pre-register to receive the live-stream link.

https://www.ofcconference.org/

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Dell’Oro: Optical Transport sector grew 6% in 2019

The Optical Transport equipment market, driven by WDM system sales, grew 6 percent in 2019, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Two equipment manufacturers—ZTE and Ciena—increased their optical revenue the most, securing additional market share gains this year.

“The optical equipment market shined fairly bright this year,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Considering the Optical Transport market hasn’t posted a revenue growth rate greater than 4 percent in the past seven years, this was really a welcome surprise, brought on by continued demand for WDM systems across all regions. The most revenue contribution came from two regions: Europe, Middle East and Africa or EMEA for short and Asia Pacific,” added Yu.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2019 Optical Transport Quarterly Report:

• ZTE’s market share increased two percentage points in 2019 due to a strong sales recovery from last year’s U.S. ban. This lifted ZTE’s share across all regions with the exception of North America where ZTE no longer has meaningful revenue.
• Ciena’s market share increased one percentage point in 2019 driven by the company’s rising sales in data center interconnect applications, driven by the success of its Disaggregated Transponder Unit or stackable systems sales.

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Ciena posts Q1 sales of $833M, up 7% yoy

Ciena reported revenue of $832.9 million for the first quarter of its fiscal 2020, as compared to $778.5 million for the fiscal first quarter 2019. Ciena's GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter 2020 was $62.3 million, or $0.40 per diluted common share, which compares to a GAAP net income of $33.6 million, or $0.21 per diluted common share, for the fiscal first quarter 2019.

"We began fiscal 2020 with another quarter of outstanding financial performance, including 7% year-over-year revenue growth and robust operating results," said Gary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena. "We are well-positioned to continue gaining share by leveraging our financial strength, global scale, diversification and increasing technology leadership."

Some highlights:
Two 10%-plus customers represented a total of 24% of revenue
Cash and investments totaled $957.4 million
By geography, the Americas represented 69% of sales, while EMEA was 15%, and APAC was 15%
Headcount totaled 6,588

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2019 U.S. Competitive Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD

Cogent, Zayo, GTT and Sprint have achieved a position on the 2019 U.S. Competitive Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD, according to Vertical Systems Group’s latest Competitive Provider LEADERBOARD, which ranks companies in order based on U.S. retail Ethernet port share for this segment.

To qualify for the 2019 U.S. Competitive Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD, companies must have either a top rank or a Challenge Tier citation on the 2019 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD.

Competitive Provider is one of three U.S. provider segments, along with the Incumbent Carrier and Cable MSO segments. This segment encompasses CLECs, regional and global providers, and specialized carriers selling Ethernet services in the U.S. market.

• Cogent, Zayo, GTT and Sprint each qualify for a position based on their 2019 Challenge Tier citations.
• For the third consecutive year, there were no Competitive Providers with a top rank on the 2019 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD.
• Other companies in the Competitive Provider segment include the following (in alphabetical order): American Telesis, BT Global Services, Consolidated Communications, Crown Castle Fiber, DQE Communications, Expedient, FiberLight, FirstLight, Fusion, Great Plains Communications, Logix Fiber Networks, LS Networks, Masergy, MegaPath, MetTel, NTT, Orange Business, Segra, Tata, Telstra, TPx, Unite Private Networks, US Signal and other competitive providers selling retail Ethernet services in the U.S.

https://www.verticalsystems.com/2020/03/04/2019-competitive-leaderboard/

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Nokia collaborates with Intel on 5G New Radio and cloud infrastructure

Nokia announced a collaboration with Intel for its 5G radio portfolio.

Specifically, the companies have worked closely on the new Intel Atom P5900 processor that combines compute, connectivity and acceleration technologies. The jointly developed custom silicon solutions are included in Nokia’s AirScale radio access products being shipped worldwide as part of its 5G “Powered by ReefShark” portfolio.

The partnership also calls for using the latest Intel Xeon processor technology in Nokia’s cloud infrastructure. Nokia’s AirFrame data center solution for edge and core also uses the latest second generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor with built-in AI acceleration. The processor is also included in both Nokia’s AirScale all-in-cloud virtual RAN (vRAN) and 5G core solutions to meet the requirements demanded by 5G technologies. Nokia’s AirScale Cloud RAN virtualizes radio functions to deliver ultra-low latency and high bit rates for demanding services, as well as providing the flexibility to deliver scalability, agility and operational efficiency to meet demand.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “This partnership highlights our continued commitment to ensuring our 5G portfolio is underpinned by best-in-class technology. 5G networks need to support billions of devices and machines, and this massive increase in volume and scale means that existing infrastructure and components must evolve rapidly, adopting technologies and techniques to enable to deploy 5G networks quickly.”

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