Telefónica activates 5G across Spain

Telefónica switched on its 5G network in Spain.

Telefónica is promising to bring 5G to 75% of the Spanish population by the end of the year.

The first phase of the rollout combines NSA (non-standalone) 5G and DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) using the 3.5 GHz band (the only 5G band frequency already licensed to operators) and the mid-band (1800-2100 MHz). The second phase will bring SA (standalone) 5G once the technology is fully standardized.

The new deployments will take place in tandem with a gradual shut-down of the 2G and 3G networks, which is slated for 2025. Telefónica also expects to have replaced 100% of its old copper network with fiber by 2025.

The announcement was made by José María Álvarez-Pallete, Telefónica’s Executive Chairman, who stressed that “the launch of our 5G network constitutes a leap forward towards the hyperconnectivity that will change the future of Spain”. The switching on of Telefónica’s 5G network comes after Álvarez-Pallete confirmed Telefónica’s commitment to promote the complete digitisation of the country last July. “It’s 5G for everyone, without any exceptions. In all the autonomous communities. Telefónica will accelerate the digitisation of SMEs, the public administrations and the general public with this initiative. “Like fibre and like so many other great things, 5G is Telefónica”, explained the company’s chief executive.

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Telefónica Germany / O2 builds 5G core w Ericsson & AWS

Telefónica Deutschland is working with Ericsson and AWS to build a cloud-first 5G core for the O2 mobile network of the future.

The carrier said that for the particularly security-relevant 5G core network, it selected a European provider in the form of the Swedish telecommunications supplier Ericsson. Plans call for a completely independent 5G core network with full cloud compatibility in its infrastructure by next year.

"As the network operator that connects most people in Germany with mobile communications, we have a very special social responsibility for secure digital connectivity. With 5G we are shaping Germany's digital future," says Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland. "With Ericsson as technology partner for our 5G core network, we can continue to offer our private and business customers the most powerful network technologies at economically attractive prices. The O2 mobile network will become a synonym for digital trust.”

With the virtualization of our 5G core network, we are laying the foundation for the digital transformation of the German economy. This collaboration with AWS is an important part of our strategy for building industrial 5G networks", says Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Germany / O2.

https://www.telefonica.de/news/press-releases-telefonica-germany/2020/06/european-network-supplier-for-the-most-security-relevant-network-area-telefonica-deutschland-builds-5g-core-network-with-ericsson-technology.html?pk_campaign=related_news

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AWS launches second local zone in Los Angeles

The new Los Angeles Local Zone contains a subset of services, such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon FSx for Windows File Server and Amazon FSx for Lustre, Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, and remember, applications running in the zone can access all AWS services and other resources through the zone’s association with the parent region.

AWS Regions are composed of Availability Zones, which each comprise of one or more data centers and are located in separate and distinct geographic locations with enough distance to significantly reduce the risk of a single event impacting business continuity, yet near enough to provide low latency for high-availability applications. Each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security and is connected via redundant, ultra-low-latency networking. AWS customers focused on high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault-tolerance.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/announcing-a-second-local-zone-in-los-angeles/

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ECI/Ribbon selected for Italy's LightNet Research Network

Ribbon Communications has been selected to modernize and extend the University of Trieste’s LightNet Research and Education Network (REN) in partnership with TIM.

Under the three-year, fully turnkey open project, Ribbon will deploy its portfolio of  E-Line and E-LAN protected services solution, part of its Neptune and Apollo product lines, to deliver enhanced connectivity to the university’s students, faculty and research centers. The company was selected for its outstanding portfolio, proven track record of success, and previous experience in successfully collaborating with TIM.

“Learning environments and research centers have become increasingly digitized or digitally-led, making access to reliable, resilient, and competitive connectivity services essential,” said Giorgio Giorgetti, LightNet Technical Director at The University of Trieste. “Our high capacity connections with the national REN GARR, our cross-border links with Slovenia's REN ARNES, and the use of supercomputers for AI simulation and big data analytics have increased our users’ need for a high capacity, scalable and adaptable network that cost-effectively meets shifting requirements. We’re pleased to be working with Ribbon and TIM for this upgrade.”
 already underway, will replace the existing legacy network infrastructure deployed in the city of Trieste and the regional extension of the network connecting universities and research centers. The solution leverages the Apollo ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) dynamic layer for the underlying backbone, and Neptune to deliver E-Line and E-LAN services. Ribbon’s Muse network lifecycle management system will provide the end-to-end management.

“We’re delighted to have been chosen to upgrade the LightNet research and education network with next generation network infrastructure technology. This is our eighth consecutive win in this unique sector with similar projects in the USA and across Europe,” said Fernando Valdivielso, Ribbon’s EVP of EMEA and APAC Sales. “Our high performance, future-proof networking solutions portfolio has demonstrated itself to be particularly well suited to the needs of the REN community worldwide time and again.”

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Colocation Australia deploys ADVA's FSP 3000 OpenFabric

Colocation Australia (ColoAU), a subsidiary of 5G Networks Limited, has deployed ADVA's FSP 3000 OpenFabric.

ADVA says its open OTN cross-connect technology enables ColoAU to optimize links between Australia’s mainland state capital cities and Singapore. Customers can select data rates ranging from 1.25Gbit/s to 50Gbit/s over OTN, Ethernet, SDH/SONET and Fibre Channel interfaces.

“We’re using ADVA’s technology to solve one of the key problems that small and medium-sized companies face. They no longer need to waste valuable resources in overprovisioning links that end up redundant or obsolete and are able to support growing bandwidth requirements driven by demand. By utilizing the ADVA FSP 3000 OpenFabric™, we’re able to provide elastic bandwidth offerings that can instantly be turned up or down,” said Nic Tippelt, wholesale manager, ColoAU. “Our new national wavelength product lets customers take control. It empowers them to choose high-quality, secure, point-to-point connectivity that supports ever-changing capacity needs.”

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Finland's Elisa moves forward with 5G Standalone

Working with Ericsson, Elisa has established the first end-to-end 5G Standalone connection in Finland.

Kalle Lehtinen, CTO, Elisa, says: “Elisa started to test 5G technology years before its launch in 2019. Now, together with Ericsson, we again walk a few steps ahead and look to the future of 5G. Although this was a pilot, it’s a big step towards even faster, more reliable and efficient 5G that will benefit our customers in the near future.”

Jenny Lindqvist, Head of Northern & Central Europe, Ericsson, says: “Elisa and Ericsson have always been united in our dedication towards a sustainable and connected future. We are incredibly pleased to continue our journey together as Elisa’s trusted partner, reaching all 2.8 million of their customers with our superior connectivity, and now innovating with our leading 5G portfolio. The low-latency benefits of 5G will be multiplied by utilizing 5G standalone connectivity, and alongside Elisa we will unlock more solutions to transform both society and industry.”

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Teledyne LeCroy tests 200GbE PAM4

Teledyne LeCroy announced the support for complete analysis of IEEE 802.3cd based 200GbE Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM4) Ethernet links in the SierraNet M648 Ethernet and Fibre Channel Protocol Test System with the latest Net Protocol Suite software version 4.30.

SierraNet M648 offers extensive and deep Ethernet protocol analysis, including InFusion traffic impairment tools for both NRZ and PAM4 signaling and is the only dedicated analysis tool in the market to offer complete test and network validation tools covering the full range of ethernet speeds and protocols available.

"The IEEE 802.3cd signaling and data rates are seeing accelerated adoption, and 200GbE is a key element for achieving the high-speed access to cloud and enterprise data storage.  With a focus on both the transport layer as well as the supporting storage protocols, the SierraNet is essential for maintaining critical networks, and to improve uptime, energy and resources," said David Rodgers, Senior Product Manager with Teledyne LeCroy.

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