Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing MSA gets underway

A new Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement (CW-WDM MSA) consortium has been established to define and promote specifications for multi-wavelength advanced integrated optics.

The CW-WDM MSA said it will solely focus on specifying the laser source instead of the full communications link, and is not targeted at any specific application. Such an approach allows developers to fully optimize optics to their customers’ requirements without interoperability constraints while simultaneously creating a large business opportunity for laser source suppliers.

Currently, IEEE and MSA standards specify four WDM interfaces. Emerging advanced integrated optics applications, such as silicon photonics (SiPh) based high-density co-packaged optics, optical computing, and AI, are expected to move to 8, 16, and 32 wavelengths. Standardizing higher wavelength counts is a crucial part of an emerging ecosystem which is enabling a leap in efficiency, cost, and bandwidth scaling compared to current technology. Increasing the number of wavelengths, while staying in the O-band and aligning with ITU and IEEE standards, allows developers and suppliers to leverage their strategic investments in the current generation of optical products to accelerate time to market of next generation products.

Promoter Members of the CW-WDM MSA are Arista Networks, Ayar Labs, CST Global, imec, Intel, Lumentum, Luminous Computing, MACOM, Quintessent, Sumitomo Electric, and II-VI.

In addition, several Observer Members have signed on to be briefed on the development of the standard to enable early technology development based on the new specifications. Observer Members are AMF, Axalume, Broadcom, Coherent Solutions, Furukawa Electric, GlobalFoundries, Keysight Technologies, NeoPhotonics, NVIDIA, Samtec, Scintil Photonics, and Tektronix.

“Laser sources have been the critical building block of fiber optic communications, and standardizing their specifications has been key to the success of telecom and datacom optics,” said Chris Cole, Chair of the CW-WDM MSA. “ITU-T established complete baselines for DWDM and CWDM grids. The IEEE then specified subsets of these grids for high volume data center applications, starting with 40G and 100G Ethernet optics. The CW-WDM MSA will similarly leverage ITU-T and IEEE standards to specify 8, 16 and 32 wavelength grids in O-band for emerging advanced datacom and computing optics. With the definition of multiple grid sets, the MSA will enable developers to choose what is optimum for their application, while allowing laser suppliers to only have to invest in one technology platform.”

“We support and encourage consortiums like the CW-WDM MSA Group in order to accelerate important technical innovations,” said Christopher Berner, Head of Compute at OpenAI. “OpenAI must be on the cutting edge of AI capabilities and low latency, high bandwidth optical interconnect is a central piece of our compute strategy to achieve our mission of delivering artificial intelligence technology that benefits all of humanity.”

https://cw-wdm.org/

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Equinix adds $142 million extension to Dallas Infomart

Equinix has expanded its Dallas Infomart Data Center campus with the opening of a new $142 million International Business Exchange (IBX) data center and the launch of its 5G and Edge Proof of Concept Center (POCC).

The new DA11 IBX facility, which is the ninth data center for Equinix in the Dallas metro area, is a four-story, state-of-the-art data center designed for both small- and large-capacity deployments. Initial capacity is 1,975 cabinets with colocation space of approximately 72,000 square feet. Future expansion will take it to more than 3,850 cabinets with colocation space of more than 144,000 square feet.

The Equinix 5G and Edge Proof of Concept Center (POCC) enables Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), cloud platforms, technology vendors and enterprises to directly connect with the largest edge data center platform in order to test, demonstrate and accelerate complex 5G and edge deployment and interoperability scenarios. The Equinix 5G and Edge POCC aims to:

• Develop 5G and edge architectures that leverage ecosystems already resident at Equinix. 
• Explore hybrid multicloud interconnectivty scenarios between MNOs, public clouds and private infrastructures. 
• Develop multiparty business models, partnering strategies and go-to-market motions for the nascent 5G and edge market. 

“We are seeing significant customer demand in Dallas as enterprises look to increase their business offerings through implementing IT infrastructures that are able to keep pace with the continually evolving digital landscape. We are thrilled to bring our ninth facility to the Dallas campus online in this increasingly important and growing market,” stated Jon Lin, President of Americas, Equinix.

The iconic Infomart building, which is located at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, is one of the largest interconnection hubs in the U.S. an

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Global Switch starts construction of massive Amsterdam data center

Global Switch kicked off construction on the first stage of a new data centre in Amsterdam.

The 32,000 sq m data centre, Global Switch Amsterdam East, will be built immediately adjacent to the existing Amsterdam West facility located in the Slotervaart/Overtoomseveld district, close to the main Dutch cable infrastructure, the financial district and city centre. Global Switch Amsterdam is the only multi-tenant provider in the city with a dedicated mains supply, and once all stages of the new data centre are complete, the utility power supply capacity will increase by 40MVA, bringing the campus total to 72MVA supplied at 50kV.

In contrast to the recent moratorium on granting new data centre planning consents, importantly Global Switch Amsterdam East is a known project with Gemeente Amsterdam (City of Amsterdam) and is not impacted either by the widely announced ‘building stop’ or affected by power availability across the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam East will incorporate the latest technologies such a flooded room cooling design with hot aisle containment allowing flexible IT rack load deployment. The cooling will be generated using a free-cooling water-based cooling system and will allow the heat to be exported to the local community. The data centre will be targeting an annualised design Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2 and a BREEAM "Very Good" certification. In addition, as part of Global Switch’s comprehensive Energy Management Programme, customers will be offered 100% green energy.

The company notes that its existing Amsterdam West is a core node not just for the Netherlands, but also for Europe and beyond. It is one of the most connected hubs in the country and currently hosts a multitude of global and national telecommunications and cloud providers, AMS-IX and NL-IX as well as a wide range of internet services providers. With direct fibre connections between the two data centres, customers of Amsterdam East will be able to access this connectivity rich environment and will benefit from a wide choice of cloud and network providers as well as direct access to the global IP backbone. The two data centres will provide a total of four diverse entry points and four interconnected Meet Me Rooms ensuring highly resilient connections.

John Corcoran, CEO Global Switch, said, “We are continuing to see demand for high quality, resilient and energy efficient data centres providing multiple connectivity options particularly from global hyperscale cloud providers looking for highly experienced data centre operators, such as Global Switch, as well as demand from European, US and Asian customers. We are therefore delighted to have now started construction of Global Switch Amsterdam East which will be our fourteenth data centre.”

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Western Digital unveils OpenFlex Data24 NVMe-oF Storage Platform

Western Digital unveiled its new OpenFlex Data24 NVMe-oF Storage Platform, a new shared storage JBOF (Just a Bunch of Flash) enclosure that extends the value of NVMe to multiple hosts over a low-latency Ethernet fabric network. The new enclosure leverages the company's new dual-port, performance Ultrastar DC SN840 NVMe SSDs and in-house RapidFlex NVMe-oF controllers.

The new OpenFlex Data24 holds up to 24 hot-swappable Ultrastar DC SN840 NVMe SSDs, providing up to 368TB in a compact 2U form factor. The newly branded RapidFlex RDMA-enabled NVMe-oF controllers allows up to six hosts to be directly attached with 100Gb Ethernet without the need for an external switch. RapidFlex controllers provide sub-500 nanosecond latency for projected platform performance topping 13M IOPS/70GB/s when adding up to six network adapters to the OpenFlex Data24.

“Data infrastructure has never been as vital to the world’s economy as it is today,” said Yusuf Jamal, senior vice president of Western Digital’s Devices and Platforms Business. “As a leading provider of essential data infrastructure, our mission is to help enterprises architect next-generation data centers to support business-critical applications and bandwidth-hungry workloads at scale. Western Digital’s leadership in NAND Flash, capacity-enterprise HDDs and supporting technologies are being relied upon now more than ever. We’re fully committed to helping companies transition to NVMe and move to new composable architectures that can maximize the value of their data storage resources.”

https://www.westerndigital.com/

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VMware offers certification for Network Functions Orchestration and Automation

VMware is expanding its Telco Cloud certification program to enable telco network functions partners to test the interoperability and readiness of their Virtual Network Functions (VNF) and Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNF) with the VMware Telco Cloud platform.

To date, more than 35 partners have received more than 170 certifications. The expanded program will offer two new certifications:

• VMware Ready for Telco Cloud certifies network functions for deployment and lifecycle operations through VMware Telco Cloud Automation, a multi-cloud orchestration and automation platform. As part of this certification program, VMware collaborates with partners to create an ETSI-Compliant descriptor, as well as workflow, resource, and artifacts for a validated and tested Cloud Service Archive (CSAR). This level requires the partner to complete the VMware Ready for Telco Cloud Infrastructure certification as a pre-requisite.
• VMware Ready for Telco Cloud Infrastructure, formerly known as VMware Ready for NFV, identifies telco network functions that interoperate with the core infrastructure layers of the VMware Telco Cloud, as referenced by the VMware ETSI-compliant vCloud NFV Reference Architecture. The focus of this certification level is on the virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) based on VMware Cloud Director and VMware Integrated OpenStack and, shortly, CaaS (Container as a Service): VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid compatibility, as well as the compatibility with the platform’s core components: VMware vSphere for virtualized compute, VMware NSX for virtualized networking and VMware vSAN for virtualized storage. The program is available at no cost to VMware partners. Testing can be completed either in the VMware on-premise certification lab or in the cloud as a self-service model.

VMware said its expanded program enables partners to accelerate the onboarding and deployment of their 5G-ready services on the VMware Telco Cloud platform, thereby reducing communications service providers (CSPs) time to revenue. CSPs benefit from having access to advanced network functions and services, such as 5G Core components, that are ready to be deployed on the VMware Telco Cloud platform.

“As the telecommunications industry starts its migration to 5G and cloud native telco cloud design principles, there are two trends that will shape the industry for years to come – a need for improved orchestration and a shift of network functions to a cloud native architecture,” explained Gabriele Di Piazza, vice president of solutions, Telco & Edge Cloud, VMware. “The expanded scope of the VMware Ready for Telco Cloud program reflects VMware’s understanding of these shifts, and our focus on helping customers more seamlessly architect, deploy, and manage software-defined telco clouds.”

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Iskratel launches XGS-PON OLT blade

Iskratel launched its XGS-PON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) blade for its broadband-access product SI3000 Lumia, which supports multiple access technologies. The blade leverages network processors to operate in a flow-based mode and pave the way for operators to use next-generation, software-defined access solutions.

Fully equipped with XGS-PON blades, Iskratel’s single SI3000 Lumia XGS-PON OLT can serve up to 32,678 users from the same MEC chassis. The new four-port XGS-PON OLT blades in MEC chassis support full wire-speed throughput, as well as split ratio up to 1:512.

"We are pleased to launch our XGS-PON OLT blade for SI3000 Lumia which operators can utilise and deploy in a host of urban and rural environments,” said Matjaž Aljančič, Director of Business Unit Broadband at Iskratel. “Specifically, Iskratel's PON portfolio has already proven itself in the RUNE (Rural Network) project, which will connect around 350,000 households in rural Slovenia and Croatia, and XGS-PON deployment is due later this year.”

https://www.iskratel.com/en/company/press-centre/2020/06/1179-Iskratel-unveils-new-XGS-PON-OLT-blade

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Nutanix adds remote management to cloud infrastructure

Nutanix is rolling out new capabilities that will allow IT teams to deploy, upgrade and troubleshoot their cloud infrastructure remotely.

“Nutanix was founded with a vision — to make IT infrastructure management so simple, that it essentially becomes invisible,” said Greg Smith, VP of Technical and Product Marketing at Nutanix. “These new capabilities will offer an even more seamless experience from day one and beyond — from anywhere. Nutanix’s simplified management as well as a more secure and resilient IT infrastructure, whether from home or a remote location, is something that is now more important than ever.”

The Nutanix Foundation Central allows IT teams to deploy private cloud infrastructure on a global scale from a single interface, and from any location. After quickly installing non-configured appliances or servers on-site, Foundation Central then takes over to image and configure Nutanix nodes, and install any Nutanix software solution.

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AT&T pays down $5.3 billion in debt ahead of schedule

AT&T announced early repayment of six series of bonds totaling approximately $4.3 billion and prepayment of term loans totaling $1.0 billion. The total principal of these prepayments is approximately $5.3 billion.

AT&T said its goal is to continue improving its credit quality even as it remains committed to paying a dividend to its shareholders and investing in its growth areas — fiber, 5G and HBO Max. For full-year 2020, AT&T expects its dividend payout of free cash flow ratio will be in the 60% range. This gives the company the flexibility to continue to reduce its debt levels during 2020.

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U.S. Cellular joins O-RAN

U.S. Cellular has joined the O-RAN Alliance.

U.S. Cellular said open RAN architecture can help accelerate its delivery of advanced 5G capabilities.  The carrier is undertaking a multi-year initiative to deploy 5G across its footprint.

“We are committed to driving innovation and bringing the latest technology to our customers that enhances their wireless experience, and we can do that faster and more efficiently with an open, intelligent and interoperable RAN that in turn promotes a diverse vendor community and open-market competition,” said Narothum Saxena, vice president of advanced technology and systems planning at U.S. Cellular.

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