T-Mobile US activates standalone 5G

T-Mobile US activated standalone architecture (SA) in its 5G network across the United States.

“Since Sprint became part of T-Mobile, we’ve been rapidly combining networks for a supercharged Un-carrier while expanding our nationwide 5G footprint, and today we take a massive step into the future with standalone 5G architecture,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “This is where it gets interesting, opening the door for massive innovation in this country — and while the other guys continue to play catch up, we’ll keep growing the world’s most advanced 5G network.”

In SA areas, T-Mobile engineers have already seen up to a 40% improvement in latency during testing.

In the near-term, SA allows T-Mobile to unleash its entire 600 MHz footprint for 5G. With non-standalone network architecture (NSA), 600 MHz 5G is combined with mid-band LTE to access the core network, but without SA the 5G signal only goes as far as mid-band LTE. With today’s launch, 600 MHz 5G can go beyond the mid-band signal, covering hundreds of square miles from a single tower and going deeper into buildings than before.

By flipping the switch to activate SA, T-Mobile increased its 5G footprint by 30 percent — now covering 1.3 million square miles in more than 7,500 cities and towns across the country.

T-Mobile partnered closely with Cisco and Nokia to build its 5G core, and Ericsson and Nokia for 5G radio infrastructure. OnePlus, Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung have helped T-Mobile ensure existing devices can access SA 5G with a software update, based on compatibility.

http://www.t-mobile.com/5g

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SiTime builds MEMS Clock-System-on-a-Chip

SiTime is entering the $1 billion per year silicon clocks market with the introduction of a Clock-System-on-a-Chip powered by its third generation MEMS resonator technology.

The new SiTime "Cascade" family of MEMS clock ICs is targeted at 5G, wireline telecom and data center equipment. The first product, the SiT9514x, consists of clock generators, jitter cleaners, and network synchronizers that deliver multiple clock signals in a system. SiTime’s MEMS resonator is integrated inside the silicon package.

SiTime's MEMS devices, which have shipped over 1.5 billion units in over 200 commercial products, deliver higher performance, lower power, and better resiliency than other timing solutions.

SiTime says its Cascade clock-system-on-a-chip delivers up to 10 times higher reliability and resilience, enabling superior resiliency for 5G infrastructure. Either standalone or together with SiTime’s MEMS TCXOs and OCXOs, the SiT9514x delivers a complete timing solution for applications such as 5G RRUs, small cells, edge computers, switches, and routers.

Samling is underway and volume production is expected in Q4.

“SiTime continues to expand our focus on the communications-enterprise market for many reasons. Our MEMS technology is well suited to solve the difficult timing challenges of emerging 5G infrastructure. This represents a large growth opportunity for SiTime that is complemented by production usage for many years,” said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. “Today, our Elite Platform™ Super-TCXOs™ and Emerald™ OCXOs have multiple design wins in this market. We are expanding our strong foothold with the introduction of the Cascade family. Not only is this a natural next step for our timing business, but it also brings us closer to the customer as we work together to define their clock tree. In fact, Cascade devices offer a complete clock-system-on-a-chip, which allows our customers to simplify their designs and reduce time to market. As the only provider of MEMS resonators, oscillators, and clock ICs, and delivering system-level benefits to customers, SiTime continues to transform the $8 billion timing market.”

https://www.sitime.com/company/news/press-release/sitime-enables-5g-vision-zero-downtime-10-times-higher-reliability

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PacketFabric launches Cloudflare Network Interconnect

PacketFabric has begun offering Cloudflare Network Interconnect through its Network as a Service (NaaS) Marketplace. This provides a private pathway to Cloudflare DDoS Protection and Cloudflare Magic Transit; a dedicated on-ramp to Internet acceleration and optimization via Cloudflare Argo; private access to corporate applications; and a secure origin for Cloudflare’s CDN.

PacketFabric’s SDN platform is a private Layer 2 NaaS that delivers instant and secure connectivity at speeds from 50Mbps to multi-100Gbps.

At launch, PacketFabric will interconnect with the Cloudflare Network Interconnect in 15 North American and APAC markets. Additional North American and international markets are planned to be launched throughout 2020 and 2021.

"Our customers can now connect to Cloudflare via a private, secure, and dedicated connection through the PacketFabric Marketplace," said Dave Ward, PacketFabric CEO. "PacketFabric is proud to be a launch partner of Cloudflare Network Interconnect. Our large U.S. footprint provides the reach and density to further benefit Cloudflare’s enterprise customers."

“At Cloudflare, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the security, performance, and reliability of our customers' networks and teams. By partnering with PacketFabric, we are providing an additional path for our customers to access our services in the location of their choice using the method they prefer. Secure, private, reliable, and efficient software-defined network connectivity between Cloudflare's edge and our customers is another way we are helping to build a better Internet,” said John Graham-Cumming, Chief Technology Officer of Cloudflare.

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Taiwan's APT picks Nokia as sole 5G (NSA/SA) vendor

Taiwanese mobile operator Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) has selected Nokia as its single vendor for 5G New Radio (NR). APT will deploy high-band 28 GHz mmWave in Taiwan.

The deal also encompasses 5G core (non-standalone and standalone), security and monetization. Financial terms were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, APT will also deploy Nokia software spanning Core Network, monetization and security. The cloud-native Cloud Mobile Gateway (CMG) and Cloud Mobility Manager (CMM) appliance solutions, from Nokia’s Cloud Packet Core (CPC) portfolio, will deliver a highly scalable and flexible Control/User Plane Separation (CUPS) architecture.

Nokia said its CPC cloud-native design also gives APT the capability to rapidly launch 5G services to its customers without making significant changes to the network. Additional virtual network functions and applications to be deployed on Nokia CloudBand and NetAct will manage these along with the physical network elements. This will allow APT to shift its network and operations to cloud-native automated efficiency and to rapidly launch and monetize new 5G experiences and enterprise services. NetGuard Certificate Manager will, in turn, ensure efficient and secured management of digital entities.

Nokia will also provide its Nokia AirFrame data center solution to support cloud-based applications necessary for future telco and IT networking and service delivery, and digital design and deployment for a faster time to market, as well as optimization and technical support services.

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Arista posts Q2 sales of $541M, down 11% yoy

Arista Networks reported Q2 revenue of $540.6 million, an increase of 3.4% compared to the first quarter of 2020, and a decrease of 11.1% from the second quarter of 2019.

GAAP gross margin of 63.7%, compared to GAAP gross margin of 64.7% in the first quarter of 2020 and 64.1% in the second quarter of 2019. Non-GAAP net income was $167.0 million, or $2.11 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $198.6 million, or $2.44 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2019.

"I am definitely pleased with our quarterly performance and proud of the tenacity shown by the Arista team in the face of the challenging pandemic era we live in," stated Jayshree Ullal, President & CEO of Arista Networks. "Arista's market position has been reinforced as we were placed in the leader’s category by two renowned market analyst firms."

In a conference call, Arista said it has won 50 customers for 400G so far, in various stages of deployment.

https://s21.q4cdn.com/861911615/files/doc_presentations/2020/08/2020-highlights-q2-(1).pdf

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NeoPhotonics posts strong Q2, revenue of $103M, up 26% yoy

NeoPhotonics reported Q2 revenue of $103.2 million, up 6% quarter-over-quarter and up 26% year-over-year. Gross margin was 32.5%, up from 30.5% in the prior quarter and from 19.2% in the prior year. Diluted net income per share was $0.11, in comparison to $0.12 in the prior quarter and to a net loss per share of $0.16 in the same period last year.

“The second quarter was another strong quarter, with revenue up 26% compared to last year and continued gross margin expansion to 32.5%. This was our fourth straight quarter of profitability. Non-GAAP EPS was 16 cents and GAAP EPS was 11 cents per share,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “With increasing momentum in 400G and above product design wins across almost all of the major network equipment manufacturers globally, and with increasing momentum in 400ZR opportunities, we remain optimistic about the growth prospects for NeoPhotonics,” concluded Mr. Jenks.

https://ir.neophotonics.com/static-files/6ce8797b-88ee-46f6-b8ee-7be80c30f65f

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Inphi reports record Q2 revenue of $175M, strong data center sales

Inphi reported Q2 rvenue of $175.3 million, up 103.2% year-over-year, compared with $86.3 million in the second quarter of 2019. The increase was due to higher demand for Cloud and Telecommunications products as well as the inclusion of eSilicon revenues as a result of the acquisition that closed on January 10, 2020.

Gross margin under GAAP in the second quarter of 2020 was 53.0%, compared with 56.9% in the second quarter of 2019. GAAP operating loss in the second quarter of 2020 was $4.3 million or (2.4%) of revenue, compared to GAAP operating loss in the second quarter of 2019 of $14.2 million or (16.5%) of revenue. Non-GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2020 was $50.9 million, or $0.95 per diluted common share. This includes the one-time tax benefit referred to above which represents approximately $0.10 per diluted share as part of the $0.95 per diluted common share for the second quarter of 2020. 

“In Q2 our product offerings were firing on all cylinders.  On a year-over-year basis, our Cloud revenue grew 92% driven by our PAM4 products inside data centers and our COLORZ solution between data centers.  Our Telecom revenue grew 119% driven by both our new ASIC and PAM4 for 5G and our coherent solutions for long haul and metro,”  said Ford Tamer, President and CEO of Inphi Corporation. “We continue to invest in resources both organically and through strategic acquisitions that can scale Inphi to larger opportunities ahead. Although we are cautious with regard to the macro uncertainties, we believe our continued success and breadth of product cycles will drive sequential growth in the third quarter.”

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Inphi acquires assets in Vietnam from Arrive Technologies

Inphi has acquired certain assets from Arrive Technologies, located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Arrive Technologies, founded in 2001, has 112 employees with strong design capabilities in embedded software, digital ASIC, post silicon validation and FPGA emulation. The team has designed highly complex transport framers and products including pseudowire and circuit emulation functions with domain expertise including, but not limited to, OTN/SONET, FEC, PTP, and Security (IPsec). Arrive had been engaged with many of Inphi’s system OEM customers in the cloud, telecom and 5G markets. 

Inphi said the addition of these resources will provide Inphi with front-end design, verification, validation and firmware skills that complement Inphi’s existing design teams in Singapore and Vietnam.

“Resource allocation for new projects is an industry challenge. With the acquisition of resources from Arrive, we are now able to dedicate a world-class engineering team to projects targeting our cloud and telecom customers,” said Ford Tamer, President and CEO of Inphi Corporation. “We welcome the team from Arrive to the Inphi family and are excited to advance our shared commitments in driving successful customer engagement, industry-leading innovation and best of class execution.”

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Rackspace IPO to raise over $700 million

Rackspace Technology announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 33,500,000 shares of its common stock at an initial public offering price of $21.00 per share. In addition, Rackspace Technology granted to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 5,025,000 shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "RXT" on August 5, 2020.

Rackspace Technology expects to receive gross proceeds of approximately $703.5 million from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses, or approximately $809.0 million if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full.

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Keysight tests O-RAN with China's Cambridge Industries Group

Keysight Technologies announced inter-operability development testing (IODT) of O-RAN radio units (O-RUs) in collaboration with Cambridge Industries Group (CIG), a leading original design manufacturer (ODM), headquartered in Shanghai, China.

The testing was accomplished using CIG’s O-RU and Keysight’s Open RAN Studio, signal source and analyzer solutions to create an environment for 5G new radio (NR) modulation analysis. As a result, CIG and other vendors of O-RUs can accelerate design verification of products based on specifications set by the O-RAN Alliance. CIG is part of a network infrastructure ecosystem that is using O-RAN fronthaul interfaces to unlock the full potential of an open RAN architecture.

“We rely on partners such as Keysight to effectively develop and validate open RAN standards-based network elements, including small cells and O-RAN compliant radio and distributed units,” said Haibo Zhao, founder, chief technology officer (CTO) at CIG. “Working with Keysight, with cross-domain expertise, enables CIG to derive insights critical in the design and manufacturing of a flexible infrastructure that serves diverse use cases for consumers and vertical industries.”

“Together with key partners such as CIG, we are advancing the development of a disaggregated, virtualized network architecture based on O-RAN specifications,” said Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president of Keysight and general manager of Keysight's Network Access Group. “The future of pervasive wireless connectivity requires end-to-end performance verification of 5G network elements across multiple domains including, radio frequency (RF), mmWave and O-RAN protocol.”

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