Nokia debuts WaveFabric Elements: photonic chips, devices, subsystems

Nokia unveiled its WaveFabric Elements portfolio of photonic chips, devices and subsystems, including its fifth generation coherent digital signal processor family, the Photonic Service Engine V (PSE-V).
The company said its WaveFabric Elements address the demanding power, performance, and cost-per-bit requirements of 400G networking across data center, metro, core and subsea applications.

Nokia’s WaveFabric Elements portfolio combines digital signal processing (DSP) and optics technologies focused on emerging end-to-end 400G applications. The new, fifth generation coherent DSP family consists of multiple designs optimized for different optical networking applications, form factors, and platforms. These include:

• PSE-Vs (super coherent), which can run up to 90 Gbaud and employ the second generation of Nokia Bell Labs-pioneered probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS). PSE-Vs are capable of transporting up to 800G, while providing 60% greater reach, 40% lower power per bit, and 15% greater spectral efficiency than previous DSP generations. 
• PSE-Vc (compact), which enables programmable capacity from 100G to 400G with metro to long haul capability. Its extremely low power enables integration into a variety of pluggable transceiver modules.

The new DSPs are complemented by the CSTAR portfolio of coherent optical modules from its recent acquisition of Elenion Technologies. CSTAR leverages state-of-the-art silicon photonics and packaging technology, and addresses applications, including intra-data center, metro DCI and long-reach optical transport. In addition to pairing them with the new PSE-V DSPs within Nokia platforms, the company will sell them independently to industry partners for integration into pluggable transceiver modules available to the broader market.

The CSTAR family of optical engines is currently shipping to customers. PSE-V-based platforms and pluggables will be available beginning in Q4 2020.

Sam Bucci, Head of Optical Networks at Nokia, said: "Networks are truly at an inflection point, and 400G will be a catalyst for a significant transformation. With our WaveFabric Elements portfolio, Nokia is committed to supplying the 400G optical ecosystem with components, subsystems and design services, as well as continuing to build the highest performing optical transport solutions for the 400G era and beyond."

https://www.nokia.com/networks/technologies/pse-super-coherent-technology/

Nokia to acquire Elenion for silicon photonics

Wednesday, February 19, 2020  Elenion, Mergers And Acquisitions, Nokia, NY/NJ, Silicon Photonics  

Nokia agreed to acquire Elenion a start-up developing silicon photonics-based System-on-Chip solutions that can be produced in a CMOS foundry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Elenion, which was founded in 2014 and is based in New York City, develops highly integrated, low-cost silicon photonics technologies for short-reach and high-performance optical interfaces and has pioneered a design toolset which enables a greatly simplified, low cost, scalable manufacturing process. The Elenion platform simplifies integration with optical chipsets, lowers power consumption, improves port density and helps to lower the overall cost per bit for network operators.

Nokia said Elenion's state-of-the-art silicon photonics design platform improves product costs by bringing simplification and scale to the optical supply chain. It is expected to bring time-to-market and cost advantages to Nokia’s broad portfolio of networking solutions.

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Juniper's Mist AI-powered Wi-Fi offers contact tracing

Mist Systems' AI-powered enterprise Wi-Fi is now supporting key workplace business continuity safety tasks like proximity tracing, journey mapping and hot zone alerting as part of strategic contact tracing and social distancing initiatives.

Juniper said that by using Mist access points and cloud services in conjunction with Wi-Fi and/or BLE-enabled devices such as phones and badges, enterprises can now support:

• Proximity tracing - If an individual identifies as COVID-19 positive (or is experiencing symptoms), enterprises can quickly identify and notify other employees, guests or customers that may have been in close proximity to that individual while onsite. 
• Journey mapping - Customers can view historical traffic patterns and dwell times for employees who have reported testing positive for COVID-19 – from the moment they were onsite to departure. Journey mapping can identify high-traffic hot zones so customers can take safety measures such as reconfiguring workspaces and deploying additional cleaning efforts.  
• Hot zone alerting - By looking at the quantity of devices and locations in specific areas, enterprises can disperse or divert traffic away from congested areas with real-time, location-based alerting. They can also view trends over time to identify certain areas for proactive measures.

“Employee health and wellness have always been a key part of business continuity planning, but now more than ever enterprises are looking to IT for help complying with OSHA, ADA, CDC and other guidelines,” said Sudheer Matta, VP of Products at Mist. “The Mist architecture provides unique value by combining Wi-Fi with patented virtual BLE technology, supported by a 16 antenna array that is bi-directional and minimizes the need for extra infrastructure hardware like battery-powered beacons. In addition, Mist recently launched a Premium Analytics service that provides unique insight from a variety of data sources to optimize end-user/client experiences and identify trends that can assist customers with workplace safety.”

https://www.mist.com/contact-tracing

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Intelsat offers Cellular Backhaul Solution for U.S. Mobile Operators

Intelsat launched CellBackhaul, an end-to-end managed service that helps Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) provide cost-efficient and rapid 4G and 5G broadband coverage to rural areas of the United States.

As an end-to-end cellular backhaul managed service, Intelsat CellBackhaul includes:

• Network-design consultation
• Connectivity from the MNO's cell sites to their core network over Intelsat's high-performance integrated space and ground network
• Satellite antenna and modem, plus additional equipment installation and maintenance options
• Guaranteed Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• 24x7 network-operations support

“We innovate to help our customers connect more people, places, and devices they otherwise would not be able to connect, and we do that on a global scale,” said Intelsat Director of Product Management for Networks, Gerry Collins. “Our service will enable our U.S. mobile network operators to quickly and cost-effectively expand their coverage and bring connectivity into unserved and underserved areas, including many previously considered unreachable or unprofitable.”

Intelsat also noted that the FCC is moving forward with its planned $9 billion 5G Rural Fund. As much as 67% of the U.S. landmass in 49 states and three U.S. territories could be eligible for funds to bring 5G into rural communities and support connectivity needs of American farms and ranches – a tremendous opportunity for U.S. MNOs.

Intelsat plans to roll out the Intelsat CellBackhaul service to mobile operators in additional regions, including Africa, in late 2020.

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Nokia to supply fiber solutions to Openreach

Nokia will supply its fiber solutions to Openreach to help meet its target of bringing ultra-fast and reliable broadband access to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s.

Nokia will provide GPON and XGS-PON technologies to expand Openreach’s fiber-rich network to reach 4.5 million premises by the end of March 2021. The solution, which includes the 7360 ISAM FX, Nokia 7362 ISAM DF and Nokia ISAM ONTs, is capable of delivering up to 10Gbps symmetrical broadband speeds in the future and supports a smooth evolution from current traditional deployments to virtualized access-network control and management (SDAN – Software Defined Access Networking) by software upgrade. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Nokia described the agreement as a key milestone in its extensive partnership with Openreach to deliver multi-Gigabit, next generation PON connectivity to customers and builds on an extensive end-to-end network framework that has been established over the past years. This includes G.fast technology which currently allows Openreach to offer 100s of Mbps to homes in areas where fiber is not available yet.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said: “We’re accelerating our full fibre build to deliver an ultrafast, ultra-reliable and futureproof broadband network throughout the UK. This new digital platform will help our economy to bounce back more quickly from the Covid-19 pandemic – enabling people to continue work from home, and millions of businesses to operate seamlessly online for decades to come.  Right now, we’re making the new network available to around 32,000 homes and businesses every week, and Nokia’s innovative solutions are helping us to build it better, broader and faster. Our partnership with Nokia will be critical in helping us to upgrade the nation and hit our target of reaching four and a half million premises by the end of March 2021.”

Peter Bell, Network Technologies Director, Openreach CTIO said: “Nokia is already making a major contribution to Openreach’s Fibre-to-the-Premises rollout, including in the build of our first fully fibred city, Salisbury. We’re confident that Nokia will continue to be a strong partner in helping us meet our ambition throughout the UK.”

Sandra Motley, President of Fixed Networks at Nokia said: “Ensuring everybody has access to broadband services is critical, especially during unprecedented times like these where it has become the lifeline to millions working, handling healthcare and learning from home.  Our fiber solutions will help Openreach bring enhanced ultra-broadband services to millions of new customers across the UK today while our 10G PON technology will help to futureproof their network against whatever may come next.”

Openreach picks ADTRAN's OLTs and Cloud Platform

Thursday, May 14, 2020  ADTRAN, Openreach, UK  

Openreach, the wholesale infrastructure arm of BT, has selected ADTRAN’s SDX Series of OLTs and Mosaic Cloud Platform to help it achieve its ambition of making gigabit and multi-gigabit services available to 20 million homes across the UK by the mid-to-late 2020s with its Full Fibre network.

ADTRAN said its SDX platform will enable Openreach to economically scale its GPON and XGS-PON network with a level of flexibility that could not be realized with traditional access solutions.

Peter Bell, Network Technologies Director, Openreach said: “We’re already making our new ultrafast, ultra-reliable broadband network available to around 32,000 UK homes and businesses every week – and we’re on track to reach our target of reaching four and a half million premises with ‘Full Fibre’ by the end of March 2021.”

“But we don’t want to stop there. Our new network will support the UK’s economy for decades to come and help it bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, so we’ll be accelerating our Full Fibre build throughout the year. ADTRAN’s solutions will play a key role in helping us achieve that as we’re continually searching for innovative technologies that can help us build the network better, broader and faster for our customers.”

More than 600 retail carriers across the United Kingdom rely on Openreach to deliver the wholesale capacity to support a broad portfolio of services to enterprise, small-to-medium businesses and residential customers.

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Couchbase raises $105 million in Series G for NoSQL database

Couchbase, which offers a NoSQL database, raised $105 million in its Series G round of fundraising.

The new funding round was led by GPI Capital, also included oversubscribed participation from existing investors Accel, Sorenson Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, Glynn Capital, Adams Street Partners, and Mayfield.

Couchbase said its customer base now exceeds 500 enterprises, including over 30% of the Fortune 100. In its latest fiscal year, the company reports over 70% total contract value growth, 50%+ new business growth, and 35%+ growth in average subscription deal size.  The company has nearly $100M in committed annual recurring revenue.

“To be competitive today, enterprises must transform digitally and use technology to get closer to their customers and improve the productivity of their workforces.  To do so, they require a cloud-native database built specifically to support modern web, mobile and IoT applications.  Application developers and enterprise architects rely on Couchbase to enable agile application development on a platform that performs at scale, from the public cloud to the edge, and provides operational simplicity and reliability,” said Couchbase President and CEO Matt Cain. “More and more, the largest companies in the world truly run their businesses on Couchbase, architecting their most business-critical applications on our platform.  This has become even more pronounced today as all companies are closely evaluating their digital strategies while carefully managing their capital allocation plans. Completing this funding round in the current climate is a testament to the importance of modern databases and the relevance of Couchbase as we continue our path to becoming a large, public company.”

Couchbase is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

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NVIDIA's data center business tops $1 billion in quarterly sales, up 80% YoY

NVIDIA reported revenue of $3.08 billion for its first fiscal quarter ended April 26, 2020, up 39 percent from $2.22 billion a year earlier, and down 1 percent from $3.11 billion in the previous quarter.

GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $1.47, up 130 percent from $0.64 a year ago, and down 4 percent from $1.53 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.80, up 105 percent from $0.88 a year earlier, and down 5 percent from $1.89 in the previous quarter.

NVIDIA completed its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies  April 27, 2020, for a transaction value of $7 billion. It also transitioned its GPU Technology Conference to an all-digital format, drawing more than 55,000 registered participants, while NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote videos were viewed 3.8 million times in their first three days.

“As the world battles COVID-19, we salute the first responders, healthcare workers, and service workers who courageously step in harm’s way to save lives and keep the world going,” said Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's CEO. NVIDIA had an excellent quarter. The acquisition of Mellanox expands our cloud and data center opportunity. We raised the bar for AI computing with the launch and shipment of our Ampere GPU. And our digital GTC conference attracted a record number of developers, highlighting the accelerating adoption of NVIDIA GPU computing.

“Our Data Center business achieved a record and its first $1 billion quarter. NVIDIA is well positioned to advance the most powerful technology forces of our time – cloud computing and AI,” he said.

Some highlights:

• Gaming - First-quarter revenue was $1.34 billion, down 10 percent sequentially and up 27 percent from a year earlier.
• Data Center - First-quarter revenue was $1.14 billion, up 18 percent sequentially and up 80 percent from a year earlier.
• Professional Visualization - First-quarter revenue was $307 million, down 7 percent sequentially and up 15 percent from a year earlier.
• Automotive - First-quarter revenue was $155 million, down 5 percent sequentially and down 7 percent from a year earlier.

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U.S. Department of State to require 5G Clean Path

The U.S. Department of State will begin requiring a “clean path” for all 5G network traffic between U.S. diplomatic facilities and the United States. U.S. military facilities are also expected to participate in the 5G Clean Path initiative.

The goal is to ensure that all 5G data transiting U.S. diplomatic facilities only cross trusted network equipment.

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said the law must prevent Huawei and ZTE from having any equipment in the path of traffic along the 5G clean path.

https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-protects-national-security-and-the-integrity-of-5g-networks/

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EKINOPS secures additional financing

EKINOPS has secured a new €12 million credit facility from its bank partners. Ninety percent of the loan is guaranteed by the French state under the PGE state-guaranteed loan scheme.

In addition, EKINOP's U.S. subsidiary also secured financing under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) offered to SMEs by the Small Business Administration.

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