Australian researchers achieve 44.2 Tbps from a single light source.

Researchers from Monash, Swinburne and RMIT universities in Australia have tested a single light source delivering 44.2 Tbps. The research, which is published in the journal Nature Communications, tested a device that replaces 80 lasers with one single piece of equipment known as a micro-comb.

The ultra-high data transmission occurred over 75 km of standard optical fibre using the single integrated chip source over the C-band at 1550 nm with a spectral efficiency of 10.4 bits s−1 Hz−1. Micro-comb spacing of 48.9 GHz enabled the use of 64 QAM - quadrature amplitude modulated.

Professor Moss, Director of the Optical Sciences Centre at Swinburne, says: “In the 10 years since I co-invented micro-comb chips, they have become an enormously important field of research. “It is truly exciting to see their capability in ultra-high bandwidth fibre optic telecommunications coming to fruition. This work represents a world-record for bandwidth down a single optical fibre from a single chip source, and represents an enormous breakthrough for part of the network which does the heaviest lifting. Micro-combs offer enormous promise for us to meet the world’s insatiable demand for bandwidth.”

https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/latest-news/2020/05/australian-researchers-record-worlds-fastest-internet-speed-from-a-single-optical-chip.php

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Crehan: Server-class Ethernet adapter market up 30% YoY in Q1

Shipments of total server-class Ethernet adapters increased more than thirty percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, according to a recent report from Crehan Research. This increase is the largest the market has had in over eight years – see accompanying figure – and resulted in record shipments. In correlation with these record shipments, server-class Ethernet adapter revenue also had a record quarter and posted an even higher growth rate.

“Data center operators added server networking capacity at record levels to ensure delivery of the digital-based services that have become so important as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “These services include telemedicine and food and merchandise delivery, as well as the enablement of working, schooling and entertainment from home. On top of this, data center operators had to ensure the continuity of existing bandwidth-hungry applications and initiatives in a very challenging and disrupted supply-chain environment.”

Other noteworthy results from Crehan’s Server-Class Ethernet Adapter report include:

• The strength in the server-class Ethernet adapter market was broad-based with all speeds – from one gigabit Ethernet (GbE) up to 200GbE – experiencing shipment increases. However, 25GbE, 50GbE, and 100GbE growth was particularly strong during the quarter with combined shipments more than doubling year-over-year.
• Intel accounted for the majority of total server-class Ethernet adapter shipment volumes and shipment growth.
• Nvidia (Mellanox) comprised the majority share of shipment speeds of 25GbE-and-greater and drove most of the robust growth in this segment.
• Marvell saw its 25GbE QLogic-based adapter shipments more than double year-over-year, as a result of strong blade server adoption of its FastLinQ products.
• Vendor-built SmartNIC shipments more than tripled year-over-year but still comprised a relatively small portion of total server-class Ethernet adapter volumes. Broadcom’s Stingray product drove most of this growth.

“Given the migration to higher speed server-class Ethernet adapter connections, the bandwidth increase in the quarter was even higher than the shipment increase, which further accelerated a recent inflection in server networking bandwidth growth,” Crehan said.

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Alibaba Cloud grew 58% YoY in March quarter

Alibaba's cloud division recorded sales of RMB 12.217 billion (US$1.725 billion) for its most recent quarter, up 58% YoY.  The growth was primarily driven by increased revenue contributions from both its public cloud and hybrid cloud businesses. Adjusted EBITA was a loss of RMB179 million (US$25 million).

https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/presentations/pre200522.pdf

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Huawei develops CableFree antenna design for 5G masts

Huawei has developed a "CableFree" antenna design for 5G base stations that significantly reduces the internal complexity for multi-band services.

Huawei's new design features cable-free feeding and integrated phase shifters. This produces a distinct increase in antenna integration, tangibly improving antenna performance.

Highlights:

1. Exceptional high-band coverage for 5G. CableFree improves antenna radiation efficiency by approximately 20%, boosting high-quality coverage of the 5G era.
2. Higher output power to facilitate 5G multi-band and multi-channel applications. 5G is designed to meet high-capacity and high-speed requirements, and this highlights the necessity of introducing new spectrum and deploying high-order MIMO technology. To adapt to this trend, antennas must accommodate a high power of up to 1 kW, far above 500 to 600 watts of previous radio access technologies. CableFree increases the antenna power capacity by more than 80%, meeting the requirements for higher output power in the 5G era.
3. Reduced antenna weight to facilitate installation. A higher level of antenna component integration offers an effective approach to reduce antenna weight. With CableFree, a six-band antenna can be 10 kg lighter. The weight of multi-band antennas can be kept below 50 kg. As a result, a crane is not required during installation, simplifying installation and reducing cost.
4. Better PIM performance. PIM is short for passive intermodulation, reflecting signal interaction at the junction of two metal mechanical components of antennas. CableFree reduces screws and soldering points in antennas by 80%, reducing PIM risks while also ensuring long-term PIM stability. The resulting novel architecture and process further improve production automation and consistency among batches.

To date, CableFree has been successfully applied to Huawei's Munich Pro, Golden Mini, and London Pro series antennas, as well as 32T32R Massive MIMO products, helping customers quickly deploy high-quality 5G networks.

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PAWR Project to test AI-Driven Spectrum Sharing

The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) Project Office, led by US Ignite and Northeastern University, announces $2.7 million in new funding awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense for development work on advanced spectrum sharing technologies. 

The PAWR program will perform spectrum sharing tests on a live 5G-NR network at the POWDER wireless testbed site in Salt Lake City, Utah. The researchers hope to demonstrated how two mobile operators can occupy spectrum in the same CBRS channel autonomously using AI.

PAWR is funded by the National Science Foundation and a consortium of 35 industry partners.

“When we started the PAWR program to develop and deploy four city-scale wireless testbeds across the country, it was with the intention of creating shared infrastructure to enable new research into advanced communications network technologies,” said Joe Kochan, Principal Investigator and Project Director for the PAWR Project Office. “We’re gratified to be able to support the DOD’s mission today to further network performance with greater spectrum sharing capabilities in the transition to 5G and beyond.”

http://www.advancedwireless.org

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Nokia joins the Open RAN Policy Coalition

Nokia has joined the Open RAN Policy Coalition, which was formed earlier this year to promote policies that will advance the adoption of open and interoperable solutions in the Radio Access Network (RAN) as a means to create innovation, spur competition and expand the supply chain for advanced wireless technologies including 5G.

Brian Hendricks, Vice President of Government Relations Americas, Nokia said: “Nokia believes that policymakers, operators and equipment providers should work together to support research and development of emerging network technologies that include open systems, advanced 5G technologies and foundational 6G research, with policies that support a robust ecosystem of trusted suppliers that will create a strong U.S. position in secure wireless technology. We believe this coalition strongly supports this approach and we are pleased to join and help the industry move forward on this important effort.”

Nokia notes that it was the first major vendor to join the O-RAN Alliance and it is co-chairing the workgroups that are defining the Open Fronthaul Interface and the Near Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), which will help automate and optimize the network. In addition to the O-RAN Alliance, Nokia has championed open standards in 3GPP, the Linux Foundation’s ONAP initiative, ETSI’s Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) initiative, and more.

Open RAN Policy Coalition elects AT&T's Boyer as chairman

Wednesday, May 20, 2020  AT&T, O-RAN, Standards Watch  

The Open RAN Policy Coalition elected representatives from 12 companies to serve on its Board of Directors.

Chris Boyer of AT&T was elected to serve as the Coalition’s Chairman; Eric Wenger of Cisco will serve as Vice-Chair; Nick Fetchko of Verizon as Treasurer; and Becky Fraser of Qualcomm as Secretary.

At-large Board members elected include Thierry Maupile of Altiostar; Jeff Blum of DISH Network; Robert Pepper of Facebook, Jayne Stancavage of Intel; John Baker of Mavenir; David Jeppsen of NTT; Azita Arvani of Rakuten Mobile; and Ed Howard of Vodafone.

Open RAN Policy Coalition seeks to diversify supply chain

Wednesday, May 06, 2020  O-RAN  

A new Open RAN Policy Coalition has been formed to promote policies that will advance the adoption of open and interoperable solutions in the Radio Access Network (RAN) as a means to create innovation, spur competition and expand the supply chain for advanced wireless technologies including 5G.

The coalition believes that the U.S. Federal Government has an important role to play in facilitating and fostering an open, diverse and secure supply chain for advanced wireless technologies, including 5G, such as by funding research and development, and testing open and interoperable networks and solutions, and incentivizing supply chain diversity.

As evidenced by the current global pandemic, vendor choice and flexibility in next-generation network deployments are necessary from a security and performance standpoint,” said Diane Rinaldo, Executive Director, Open RAN Policy Coalition.  “By promoting policies that standardize and develop open interfaces, we can ensure interoperability and security across different players and potentially lower the barrier to entry for new innovators.”

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Introducing the CBRS Smart Radio by Doodle Labs

Doodle Labs introduced a new model of its Smart Radio that operates at the CBRS band (3550-3700 MHz) for use in low-latency, private wireless networks.

Doodle Labs's new RM-3625 Smart Radio can be configured to operate in both the Citizens Band Radio Service Device (CBSD-A) and End User Device (EUD) roles for mobile Industrial IoT use cases. Mesh Rider is an advanced RF and networking technology for long-range communication. Customers regularly stream low latency HD video from up to 20 km away (field proven for 116 km telemetry link). The RM-3625 is available in three use-case optimized form factors: Embedded, External and Pocketable. The Embedded version is smaller than a deck of cards and is particularly suited for integration inside OEM equipment. T

The new RM-3625 model joins the company's extensive portfolio of Smart Radios that operate at various frequencies in the 100 MHz to 6 GHz range.

“We’re excited with our CBRS solution. Similar to our Industrial WiFi products, this CBRS model opens up a new set of opportunities for our customers in many industry verticals and especially in the fast growing Autonomous/Unmanned Ground Vehicles sector,” said Amol Parikh, VP of Marketing at Doodle Labs.

https://doodlelabs.com/products/smart-radio/smart-radio-cbrs-rm-3625-overview

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GLOBALFOUNDRIES adopts ITAR security and export control at Fab8

GLOBALFOUNDRIES will implement export control security measures at its most advanced manufacturing facility, Fab 8, in Malta, New York.

Specifically, the company plans to bring its Fab 8 facility into compliance with both the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) standards and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), making the company the most advanced ITAR foundry in the United States.

The new control assurances, which will go into effect later this year, will make confidentiality and integrity protections available for defense-related applications, devices or components manufactured at GF’s Fab 8 facility.

GF notes that it has invested over $13 billion in Fab 8 to date.

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ZTE demos 5G Stand Alone in Belarus

ZTE demonstrated a 5G SA (Stand Alone) network in test mode in Belarus in partnership with A1, a Belarusian telecommunications operator. The test network operates in the 3.5 GHz spectrum.

A1 has also completed Belarus’s first call in a new standard format, by virtue of VoNR (Voice over New Radio) technology for 5G packet voice transmission.

The 5G SA network, under the 3.5 GHz spectrum bandwidth, features a great support of a variety of applications, such as Gigabit without Fiber Connectivity, Cloud XR, ultra-HD live broadcast, automatic driving and remote surgery.

“The path of A1 to the deployment of fifth-generation communications began in 2016 with the launch of the world's first fully virtual mobile core network together with ZTE,” said Christian Laqué, A1 Deputy General Director for Technical Issues. “Then, we were the first in Belarus to implement such innovative solutions as NB-IoT, eSIM, VoLTE, VoWiFi, thereby laying a solid foundation for the future development of 5G.”

“We are pleased that A1, one of our long-term partners, has become the first operator in Belarus to launch 5G SA network. 5G Stand-alone architecture allows improving network bandwidth while adapting to various innovative services,” said Wei Wei, General Manager of ZTE LLC (Belarus). “Moreover, ZTE and A1 will soon launch a joint 5G laboratory in the industrial park Great Stone, where we plan to test network equipment and applications for vertical industries.”

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Zayo gains UK government procurement status

Zayo has been placed on two of the UK Government’s key procurement mechanisms for the provision of fiber connectivity.

Zayo said these placements enable it to provide design, installation, testing and fiber installation for organisations across the UK public sector.

Derek Gillespie, Zayo’s global chief revenue officer, said, “I’m delighted that Zayo has been named as an approved supplier for the UK public sector. We have extensive experience in providing fiber connectivity to government and education across the United States, and we look forward to putting this expertise to work for more of the UK’s Public Sector.”

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