Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Windstream carries 800G wavelength over 730km using Infinera

Windstream successfully achieved 800 Gbps single-wavelength transmission over 730 kilometers across its long-haul network between San Diego and Phoenix. The test used Infinera’s fifth-generation coherent optical technology, ICE6 (Infinite Capacity Engine), equipped in a Groove (GX) Series platform over industry-standard G.652-compliant SMF-28 fiber. By looping back the signal, the test also achieved a 700G transmission over 1,460 km.

The record performance was enabled by advances in Nyquist subcarriers, a pioneering innovation developed by Infinera’s Optical Innovation Center (OIC). Nyquist subcarrier-based solutions map the traffic into tightly packed, lower-baud-rate digital subcarriers within a single optical carrier. Infinera says subcarriers also amplify the benefits of its other OIC innovation, such as 64QAM long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping and dynamic bandwidth allocation.

The companies said the trial demonstrates that ultra-high-speed optical transmissions, such as 700G and 800G, can be deployed in real-world network applications over significant distances. This will enable emerging 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400 GbE) services to be supported over longer distances within the Windstream national network. High-performance, high-speed transmission will also enable network operators like Windstream to realize increased efficiency in cost per bit and power per bit, as well as increased capacity per fiber by as much as 70 percent compared to third-generation (400G) coherent technology and by as much as 35 percent compared to fourth-generation (600G) coherent technology.

“Windstream remains committed to staying at the forefront of technological innovation and the superior performance of ICE6 brings real-world value to our network and enables us to meet the explosive growth in bandwidth demands of our customers,” said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “The flexibility of ICE6 coupled with the easily deployable compact modular form factor of the GX Series will enable Windstream to quickly and easily introduce this new technology across our entire network from edge to core.”

“Infinera is delighted to set this new industry benchmark and partner with Windstream, a network operator that continually pushes the boundaries of optical networking,” said Parthiban Kandappan, chief technology officer at Infinera. “As proven by the superior performance of this network trial, we believe our unique expertise with Nyquist subcarriers coupled with the groundbreaking innovations introduced by ICE6 will represent the standard for high-speed optical engines going forward.”

Windstream tests 400GbE QSFP-DD customers interfaces

Windstream Wholesale and Infinera demonstrated 400GbE client-side services with commercially available ultra-efficient 400GbE-LR8 QSFP-DD compact pluggable interfaces.

The trial leveraged Infinera’s commercially available 2x 600G Wavelength muxponder on its Groove (GX) G30 Compact Modular Platform with the CHM-2T sled, which enabled the customer-facing 400GbE service to be transmitted using a single-carrier 600G wavelength.

Windstream Wholesale said it is currently engaging with customers for initial deployment of the end-to-end 400G Wave service.

“We’re excited to partner with Windstream and leverage the power and flexibility of our 600G Wavelength technology to deliver enhanced high-speed services,” said Glenn Laxdal, SVP, GM of Product Management, Infinera. “The ability to support 400GbE services with a wide-variety of client interfaces and to carry those services across metro, regional and long-haul distances enables Windstream to seamlessly support their customers’ evolving connectivity needs.”


https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wholesale/interactive-map

Infinera evolves its Groove optical transport with 2 x 800G transponder sled

Infinera announced the expansion of its Groove (GX) Series of open, compact, and modular transport solutions with the adoption of a sled-based architecture and support for its sixth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE6) technology. The platform's evolution includes carrier-grade features, high-density chassis, and a wide variety of advanced sled capabilities.

“These advances represent the continuation of Infinera’s vision to bring open, modular, cost-effective solutions to our customers,” said Glenn Laxdal, Infinera Senior Vice President, Product Management. “Infinera pioneered the compact modular transport platform with the Cloud Xpress for internet content providers, significantly advanced its compact modular portfolio with the industry’s first sled-based architecture with the GX G30, and is now leading the market once again with this evolution of the GX Series.”

The expanded GX Series of compact modular solutions adds improved scalability and carrier-grade features to modern data center-style networking approaches with chassis options that streamline and accelerate large-scale deployments in a wide variety of data center and traditional service provider networks. These features include NEBS Level 3 compliance, field-replaceable redundant controllers, both A/C and D/C power supplies, enhanced security, 300-millimeter (mm) and 600-mm ETSI-compliant shelf variants, and multi-chassis single-element configurations. Additionally, the expansion adds a variety of new sled-based options:

The ICE6-powered CHM6 sled – an industry-leading 2 x 800G transponder sled
Flexible aggregation sleds – a suite of metro-optimized sleds for multi-service aggregation
Advanced open line system sleds – including low- and high-degree ROADMs with colorless/directionless/contentionless add/drop architectures and low-cost FOADMs, enabling support for most networks

NEC teams with D-Wave on Quantum development

NEC Corporation has formed a partnership with D-Wave Systems and invested $10 million in the firm, which is known for its pioneering work in quantum computing systems, software and services.

The two companies will work together on the development of hybrid quantum/classical technologies and services that combine the best features of classical computers and quantum computers; the development of new hybrid applications that make use of those services; and joint marketing and sales go-to-market activities to promote quantum computing.

Under the partnership, the companies will build on the existing hybrid tools of D-Wave's Leap quantum cloud service to develop hybrid services capable of solving large combinatorial optimization problems at high speed, by combining D-Wave’s quantum annealing technology with NEC’s supercomputers. The newly developed services will be available to customers of both companies through Leap.

In addition, the companies will apply D-Wave's collection of over 200 early customer applications to six markets identified by NEC, such as finance, manufacturing and distribution. The two companies will also explore the possibility of enabling the use of NEC's supercomputers on D-Wave’s Leap quantum cloud service.

“We are very excited to collaborate with D-Wave. This announcement marks the latest of many examples where NEC has partnered with universities and businesses to jointly develop various applications and technologies. Our work with D-Wave has a special focus on developing hybrid quantum computing services and enhancing related hybrid quantum software applications, accelerating commercial-grade quantum solutions globally. This collaborative agreement aims to leverage the strengths of both companies to fuel quantum application development and business value today,” said Motoo Nishihara, Executive Vice President and CTO, NEC.

"Japan has long been a global leader in quantum computing, from the advent of quantum annealing to today's continued commercial research and development. By combining efforts with NEC, we believe we can bring even more quantum benefit to the entire Japanese market that is building business-critical hybrid quantum applications in both the public and private sectors," said Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. "NEC is a proven pioneer of world-changing technology, and we're united in the belief that hybrid software and systems are the future of commercial quantum computing. Our joint collaboration will further the adoption of quantum computing in the Japanese market and beyond."

http://www.dwavesys.com

Rambus delivers 112G XSR/USR PHY on TSMC 7nm

Rambus announced the availability of its 112G XSR/USR PHY based on TSMC’s industry-leading 7nm process.

Applications for the 112G XSR/USR PHY  and chiplet architectures include next-generation 51.2 Terabit per second (Tbps) ASICs for network switches, where 112G XSR links will connect the digital switch ASIC die to CPO engines. In AI/ML and HPC SoCs, the 112G XSR PHY can be used to bridge purpose-built accelerator chiplets for natural language processing, video transcoding and image recognition. Another popular use case is the die disaggregation of large SoCs, hitting reticle size limits for manufacturable yields, into multiple smaller die connected using XSR links over organic substrate. Increasingly, these advanced applications are implemented on TSMC’s N7 process.

“This important milestone highlights Rambus’ leadership in high-speed SerDes enabling the industry’s highest value and most demanding applications,” said Hemant Dhulla, vice president and general manager of IP cores at Rambus. “At an industry-leading power efficiency of sub-picojoule per bit, and unidirectional bandwidth approaching two terabit per second per millimeter, we are very proud to offer our 112G XSR/USR solution in partnership with TSMC.”

“We’re pleased with the availability of Rambus’ PHY on our N7 process technology to address the growing market need for low-power, high-performance chiplet architectures,” said Suk Lee, senior director of the Design Infrastructure Management Division at TSMC. “Our ongoing partnership with Rambus ensures that designers can meet next-generation requirements for performance and power efficiency in computing, AI/ML and networking using TSMC’s advanced process technologies.”

https://www.rambus.com/interface-ip/serdes/112g-xsr-phy

AWS Snowcone ships 8TB to the cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced a small, ultra-portable, rugged, and military-grade secure device to run applications and migrate data to AWS.

AWS Snowcone features 2 CPUs, 4 GB of memory, 8 TB of storage, and USB-C power (or optional battery). It measures 9 inches x 6 inches x 3 inches (23 cm x 15 cm x 8 cm) and weighs 4.5 lbs (2.1 kg). The device can easily fit in a backpack or messenger bag, standard mailbox, or any type of vehicle, and is light enough to be carried by drone.

AWS said it designed Snowcone to operate in extreme environments or disconnected remote sites (including oil rigs, first responder vehicles, military operations, factory floors, remote offices, hospitals, or movie theaters) for long periods of time without traditional data center conditions. With support for AWS IoT Greengrass, the ability to run Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, and ample local storage, AWS Snowcone can be used as an IoT hub, data aggregation point, application monitor, or lightweight analytics engine.

All data on AWS Snowcone is encrypted using military grade 256-bit keys that customers can manage using the AWS Key Management Service (KMS). Additionally, AWS Snowcone contains anti-tamper and tamper-evident features to help ensure data on the device stays secure during transit.

“Thousands of our customers have found AWS Snowball devices to be ideal for collecting data and running applications in remote and harsh environments. Since 2015, customer use of Snowball devices has greatly increased, as has their need for an even smaller device with even greater portability,” said Bill Vass, VP of Storage, Automation and Management Services, AWS. “With more applications running at the edge for an expanding range of use cases, like analyzing IoT sensor data and machine learning inference, AWS Snowcone makes it easier to collect, store, pre-process, and transfer data from harsh environments with limited space to AWS for more intensive processing.”

Qualcomm debuts 5G and AI-enabled robotics platform

Qualcomm Technologies introduced an integrated 5G platform for robotics in the consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial and professional service sectors.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform is comprised of an extensive set of hardware, software and development tools.  The platform’s Qualcomm QRB5165 processor features a powerful heterogeneous computing architecture coupled with the leading fifth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine delivering 15 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance for running complex AI and deep learning workloads. The processor also offers machine learning (ML) inferencing at the edge under restricted power budgets using the new Qualcomm® Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA), a powerful image signal processor (ISP) with support for seven concurrent cameras, and a dedicated computer vision engine for enhanced video analytics (EVA). With support for 4G and 5G connectivity speeds via a companion module, the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform helps pave the way for the proliferation of 5G in robotics and intelligent systems.

“Qualcomm Technologies is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator with a strong foundation in AI, mobile computing and connectivity. By applying its deep-rooted mobile systems expertise to the robotics industry, Qualcomm Technologies is helping to enable the creation of more powerful, secure, and intelligent robots than ever before,” said Dev Singh, senior director, business development and head of autonomous robotics, drones and intelligent machines, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “With the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform, Qualcomm Technologies will help accelerate growth in a wide array of robotics segments such as autonomous mobile robots (AMR), delivery, inspection, inventory, industrial, collaborative robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), enabling Industry 4.0 robotics use cases, and laying the foundation for the UAV Traffic Management (UTM) space.”

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2020/06/17/qualcomm-launches-worlds-first-5g-and-ai-enabled-robotics-platform

T-Mobile US appoints new CFO

T-Mobile US promoted Peter Osvaldik, T-Mobile’s current senior vice president, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer, to Chief Financial Officer (CFO), replacing Braxton Carter, who plans to retire on July 1, 2020.

Osvaldik joined T-Mobile in January 2016 as vice president, External Reporting and Technical Accounting. He was elevated to senior vice president, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer in June 2016. Prior to T-Mobile, Osvaldik held Chief Accounting Officer, Controller and manager roles at Outerwall, Coinstar and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is a graduate of Western Washington University. Carter spent more than 19 years at T-Mobile, starting his career at MetroPCS and then playing an integral role as the company merged with T-Mobile in 2013. Upon the merger, he was named Executive Vice President and CFO in May 2013.

“Peter brings his proven leadership capabilities and strong financial acumen into this position at a critical time in the Un-carrier’s history, as we manage the significant complexities and huge opportunities inherent in this next chapter, integrating Sprint and delivering on the financial potential of the new T-Mobile,” said T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer Mike Sievert.