Nokia debuts AirScale All-in-Cloud base station

Nokia rolled out a series of enhancements to its AirScale portfolio including a Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) software upgrade for existing Nokia AirScale base stations and introduction of a Nokia AirScale All-in-Cloud base station.

Nokia’s DSS solution, delivered as a software upgrade to existing Nokia AirScale base stations, enables dynamic sharing between 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technologies. The 4G–5G DSS feature, which has been the subject of interest from operators in leading 5G markets, automatically co-ordinates the spectrum usage between 4G and 5G, helping them reuse existing 4G radio networks and speed up 5G rollouts. Typically, 5G is launched in higher mmWave or cmWave spectrum, while existing 4G is deployed in the lower spectrum range. By reusing the lower-frequency 4G spectrum, 5G coverage can be achieved faster and at a lower cost. Initial deliveries of Nokia’s DSS solution are planned to start in April 2020, with volume shipments expected by July, in line with the availability of DSS-capable mobile devices.

The new Nokia AirScale All-in-Cloud base station virtualizes real-time baseband and puts the baseband processing power at the edge of the network to meet extremely low-latency requirements, boosting the efficiency of the network. Nokia Bell Labs is developing an AirScale Cloud-native RAN.

The rollout also includes compact dual and triple-band remote radio heads to support cell site deployment requirements, as well as several new high-performance massive MIMO adaptive antennas to deliver 5G coverage and high capacity.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, commented: “All of these upgrades are designed to support mobile operators in their efforts to deliver compelling 5G experiences to their customers faster and at a lower cost. They will also support with increased demand for capacity, which is critical in the current environment. Our latest portfolio innovations will help operators to take advantage of the 5G world by delivering new use cases and business models and add new revenue streams.”

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Google gains partial clearance for Pacific Light subsea cable

Google was granted clearance by the FCC to operate the segment of the Pacific Light Cable Network System connecting the United States to Taiwan for the next six months, pending a final disposition of the license application. The temporary authorization does not authorize any commercial traffic on the subsea cable segments to/from the Philippines or Hong Kong.

The U.S. Department of Justice, along with the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, advised the FCC that those agencies do not oppose Google's request carry traffic over the cable between the U.S. and Taiwan.

In its application for Special Temporary Authority, Google emphasized “an immediate need to meet internal demand for capacity between the U.S. and Taiwan” and that without the sought temporary authority Google would likely have to seek alternative capacity at “significantly higher prices.”

Under the terms of the Provisional National Security Agreement, Google has agreed to a range of operational requirements, notice obligations, access and security guarantees, as well as auditing and reporting duties, among others. The Provisional National Security Agreement also includes a commitment by Google to “pursue diversification of interconnection points in Asia,” as well as to establish network facilities that deliver traffic “as close as practicable” to its ultimate destination.  This term reflects the views of the Executive Branch that a direct cable connection between the United States and Hong Kong would pose an unacceptable risk to the national security and law enforcement interests of the United States.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/ib/forms/reports/related_filing.hts?f_key=2252704&f_number=SCLSTA2020040200015

Google and Facebook Team Up for Pacific Light Cable Network

Wednesday, October 12, 2016  Facebook, Google, Submarine Cable, Undersea  

Facebook and Google are teaming up to build the highest capacity, trans-Pacific cable system to date.

The Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), which will stretch 12,800 km between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, will have an estimated cable capacity of 120 Tbps.  The cable is expected to enter service in the summer of 2018. The project is organized by Pacific Light Data Communication Co. Ltd., a new company based in Hong Kong.

TE SubCom has been appointed lead contractor. The cable will use TE SubCom’s C+L technology, a major step forward in available cable transmission capacity that effectively doubles the available bandwidth and capacity per fiber pair over a traditional C-band-only designed system.

Google noted that it has now taken an ownership stake in six submarine cables: PLCN, Unity, SJC, FASTER, MONET and Tannat.

http://www.te.com/usa-en/about-te/news-center/subcom-facebook-google-pldc-co-build-plcn-101216.html
https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/10/new-undersea-cable-expands-capacity-for-Google-APAC-customers-and-users.html

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US Department of Justice recommends banning China Telecom

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a recommendation to the FCC to revoke and terminate China Telecom (Americas) Corp.’s authorizations to provide international telecommunications services to and from the United States. 

The Department of Justice said its recommendation was based on:

• the evolving national security environment since 2007 and increased knowledge of the PRC’s role in malicious cyber activity targeting the United States;
• concerns that China Telecom is vulnerable to exploitation, influence, and control by the PRC government;
• inaccurate statements by China Telecom to U.S. government authorities about where China Telecom stored its U.S. records, raising questions about who has access to those records;
• inaccurate public representations by China Telecom concerning its cybersecurity practices, which raise questions about China Telecom’s compliance with federal and state cybersecurity and privacy laws; and
• the nature of China Telecom’s U.S. operations, which provide opportunities for PRC state-actors to engage in malicious cyber activity enabling economic espionage and disruption and misrouting of U.S. communications. 

“Today, more than ever, the life of the nation and its people runs on our telecommunications networks,” said John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.  “The security of our government and professional communications, as well as of our most private data, depends on our use of trusted partners from nations that share our values and our aspirations for humanity.  Today’s action is but our next step in ensuring the integrity of America’s telecommunications systems.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/executive-branch-agencies-recommend-fcc-revoke-and-terminate-china-telecom-s-authorizations

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Cohesity raises $250 million for its web-scale data management

Cohesity, which offers a web-scale platform for data management, announced $250 million in Series E funding. The San Jose, California-based start-up is now valued at $2.5 billion, more than double the valuation from the company’s Series D round less than two years ago. With the new funding, Cohesity’s total funding since inception exceeds $650 million.

Cohesity specializes in hyperconverged secondary storage. Its hyperconverged appliance consolidates all secondary data and associated management functions on one unified solution, including backups, files, objects, test/dev copies, and analytics.
The company cited the following recent milestones:

• 150 percent increase in recurring revenue, emphasizing the success of the company’s subscription-based software model.
• 100 percent increase in customers as well as data under management.
• 135 percent increase in the number of Cohesity’s new and existing customers that have licensed the company’s cloud capabilities.

“Closing a major funding round during these times of economic uncertainty is testament to the promise that our investors see in Cohesity,” said Mohit Aron, CEO and founder, Cohesity. “More enterprises globally are abandoning legacy offerings in favor of our modern, software-defined approach to data management that is incredibly simple to use -- critical during these challenging times as customers are looking to reduce total cost of ownership while enabling remote IT teams.”

The new funding was led by DFJ Growth, Foundation Capital, Greenspring Associates, and Wing Venture Capital. DFJ Growth and Greenspring Associates are new investors as are Baillie Gifford and Sozo Ventures. The round also includes broad support from existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund 1, as well as strategic investors Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco Investments.

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Corning announces corporate restructuring

Corning announces a corporate restructuring round five Market-Access Platforms (MAPs): Mobile Consumer Electronics, Optical Communications, Automotive, Life Sciences, and Display.

Additionally, Corning has established a new leadership position that will drive operational excellence. Eric S. Musser, a 34-year Corning veteran, has been named to the expanded role of president and chief operating officer (COO), effective immediately.

Each of the Market-Access Platform organizations will report to Musser in his role as COO. Musser’s newly appointed direct reports are:

John P. Bayne Jr., senior vice president and general manager, Mobile Consumer Electronics
Michael A. Bell, senior vice president and general manager, Optical Communication
Avery (Hal) Nelson III, senior vice president and general manager, Automotive
Ronald L. Verkleeren, senior vice president and general manager, Life Sciences
John Z. Zhang, senior vice president and general manager, Display

“By organizing around the MAPs, we’re positioning Corning to capture more customer insights, further leverage our distribution channels, and open up new opportunities for innovation with industry leaders,” said Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and chief executive officer. “The new structure allows us to drive growth by activating the full power of our cohesive portfolio.”

“A next generation of distinguished leaders is stepping up to deliver a well-defined set of inventions and business initiatives,” Weeks said. “I am excited about driving Corning’s future together as we continue to solve tough problems, deepen relationships with customers, and make a positive difference in the world.” 

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Hungary's Magyar Telekom launches 5G with Ericsson

Magyar Telekom officially launched initial 5G commercial services in parts of Budapest and at the company's headquarters in Könyves Kálmán körút.

Magyar Telekom 5G commercial launch is based on 5G-ready products and solutions from Ericsson Radio System.

The live 5G network launch comes just two weeks after Magyar Telekom secured the related 3.5GHz spectrum in Hungary’s spectrum auction on March 26.

Tibor Rékasi, CEO, Magyar Telekom, says: “Magyar Telekom has been preparing to launch 5G for a long time after exploring the business opportunities and 5G technology and operating a test network for six months with Ericsson. This enables us to launch commercial service quickly after receiving the frequency license. 5G provides our customers with higher data rates and low latency, as well as connection of many new devices, and 5G will become a platform for new applications and opportunities for both industries and individuals.”

Arun Bansal, President Europe and Latin America, Ericsson, says: “I am incredibly pleased to build on the strong and fruitful partnership we have with Magyar Telekom, who are just as committed to innovation and digitalization as us. As leaders in 5G, we at Ericsson have seen the massive impact it has on innovation, and I’m excited to see what opportunities it will bring to Hungary.”

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Huawei develops 5G Indoor Distributed Massive MIMO for China Unicom

Huawei has developed a 5G Indoor Distributed Massive MIMO solution for China Unicom Beijing's "5G Capital" initiative.

The 5G Indoor Distributed Massive MIMO solution is based on Huawei's 5G LampSite Digital Indoor System (DIS). It introduces the Massive MIMO technology to LampSite to form distributed Massive MIMO antenna arrays supporting up to 64T64R ability. Through dynamic coordination among multiple digital indoor headends, the capacity on indoor networks becomes scalable, self-adapting to changes in data traffic. In addition, compared with the cell splitting approach, both interference and manual commissioning costs are significantly reduced, while also effectively increasing 5G indoor spectral efficiency.

In the first year of 5G commercial deployment, China Unicom has successfully deployed 5G digital indoor systems in key scenarios across China's major cities.

Ritchie Peng, CMO of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, said: "Based on our long-term investment in indoor digitalization region, we released the full-scenario 5G DIS product and solutions in February 2020 to enable better indoor coverage and superior 5G networks. Faced with growing scalability demand for uplink and downlink capacity, we successfully introduced Massive MIMO technology to indoor networks in close collaboration with China Unicom. This technological breakthrough will substantially increase 5G capacity. We will continue to make technological innovations and develop leading solutions that address the exact requirements of customers."

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China Unicom Beijing and Huawei to build "5G Capital"

China Unicom Beijing and Huawei are collaborating on a "5G Capital" joint innovation project that aims to promote 5G smart services and explore business modes, contributing to the quick development of “New Infrastructure” to keep high-quality sustained economic development.

The companies will conduct six pilot programs, explore value monetization of four 5G smart services, and implement two major showcase projects in 2020.

In the first year of 5G commercial adoption, China Unicom Beijing has successfully brought high-quality 5G services to a number of landmark buildings in Beijing. These include the 2019 International Horticultural Exhibition parks, China Media Group's headquarters towers, and the National Stadium, better known as Bird's Nest.

The companies are also collaborating on 5G macro, pole, and indoor solutions. This will offer extra advantages for China Unicom Beijing to construct dual Gigabit networks in both indoor and outdoor scenarios and provide users with faster and better 5G services of greater diversity.

https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2020/4/5g-capital-mou-beijing-unicom

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Intel and Georgia Tech to lead DARPA project

Intel and the Georgia Institute of Technology have been selected to lead a Guaranteeing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robustness against Deception (GARD) program team for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The goal of the GARD program is to establish theoretical ML system foundations that will not only identify system vulnerabilities and characterize properties to enhance system robustness, but also promote the creation of effective defenses. Through these program elements, GARD aims to create deception-resistant ML technologies with stringent criteria for evaluating their effectiveness.

The first phase of GARD will focus on enhancing object detection technologies through spatial, temporal and semantic coherence for both still images and videos.

Intel is the prime contractor in this four-year, multimillion-dollar joint effort to improve cybersecurity defenses against deception attacks on machine learning (ML) models.

“Intel and Georgia Tech are working together to advance the ecosystem’s collective understanding of and ability to mitigate against AI and ML vulnerabilities. Through innovative research in coherence techniques, we are collaborating on an approach to enhance object detection and to improve the ability for AI and ML to respond to adversarial attacks,” states Jason Martin, principal engineer at Intel Labs and principal investigator for the DARPA GARD program from Intel.

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Xilinx appoints Brice Hill as CFO

Xilinx appointed Brice Hill to the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), effective immediately. He joins Xilinx from a 25-year tenure at Intel Corporation, where he most recently served as the CFO and COO, Technology, Systems and Core Engineering Group, managing all financial aspects of the company’s manufacturing, research and development, and product engineering operations.

Prior to that, Hill was Corporate Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Unit finance, including the Data Center, PC, and IoT business units. Hill had also previously held senior finance roles in capacity strategy, PC desktop and chipsets, and the data center at Intel.

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