Verizon tests Quantum Key Distribution

Verizon set-up a trial Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) network in the Washington D.C. area.

Live video was captured outside of three Verizon locations in the D.C. area, including the Washington DC Executive Briefing Center, the 5G Lab in D.C and Verizon’s Ashburn, VA office. Using a QKD network, quantum keys were created and exchanged over a fiber network between Verizon locations. Video streams were encrypted and delivered more securely allowing the recipient to see the video in real-time while ensuring hackers are instantly detected.

A QKD network derives cryptographic keys using the quantum properties of photons to prevent against eavesdropping. Verizon also demonstrated that data can be further secured with keys generated using a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) that creates truly random numbers that can’t be predicted. With QKD, encryption keys are continuously generated and are immune to attacks because any disruption to the channel breaks the quantum state of photons signaling
eavesdroppers are present.

"The use of quantum mechanics is a great step forward in data security,” said Christina Richmond, analyst at IDC. “Verizon's own tests, as well other industry testing, have shown that deriving "secret keys" between two entities via light photons effectively blocks perfect cloning by an eavesdropper if a key intercept is attempted. Current technological breakthroughs have proven that both the quantum channel and encrypted data channel can be sent over a single optical fiber. Verizon has demonstrated this streamlined approach brings greater efficiency for practical large-scale implementation allowing keys to be securely shared over wide-ranging networks.”


https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-achieves-milestone-future-proofing-data-hackers

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Dell’Oro: Open RAN market to eclipse $5 billion

The worldwide sales of Virtualized Open RAN technologies are forecasted to grow at double-digit rates over the next five years with cumulative Open RAN investments – including hardware, software, and firmware excluding services – projected to surpass $5 B over the forecast period, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

“At a first glance it might appear overly optimistic with a baseline scenario suggesting a new technology, which remains relatively untested and some officials believe would need a decade to get off the ground, would be able to become a billion-dollar market comprising a sizable portion of the overall RAN segment in just half a decade,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group. “At the same time, the momentum is improving, and we have adjusted the outlook upward to reflect a confluence of factors including promising results from initial commercial deployments, growing support from the incumbent RAN suppliers, and increased geopolitical uncertainty acting as a catalyst for operators to rethink their supplier strategies,” continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights:

• Cumulative Virtualized RAN revenues—here defined as the proportion of RAN baseband/compute capex that will utilize general-purpose processors for CU and/or DU—are projected to approach $3 B to 5 B over the next five years.
• Cumulative Open RAN radio shipments – including macro and small cells – are projected to surpass 1 M over the forecast period.

https://www.delloro.com/news/open-ran-market-expected-to-eclipse-5b/

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IDC: Ethernet switch market drops 6.3% in Q2

The worldwide Ethernet switch market recorded $6.6 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20), a decrease of 6.3% year over year, according to IDC's Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and IDC Quarterly Router Tracker, while worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market revenues recorded a slight year-over-year gain, with a 0.1% increase in 2Q20 to nearly $4.0 billion.

"In addition to there being varying trends across the enterprise, hyperscale, and service provider segments of both the Ethernet switch and router markers, there is also significant variation in second quarter results based on geography," noted Petr Jirovsky, research director, IDC Networking Trackers. "Regions of the world where the COVID-19 pandemic subsided in the second quarter saw increases in their markets, while the response to the virus was ramping up during this period in parts of Europe and the Americas, representing a headwind."

"Softness in the Ethernet switch market in the first quarter of 2020 continued into the second quarter, driven primarily by the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the lockdown of most economies worldwide," says Brad Casemore, research vice president, Datacenter and Multicloud Networks at IDC. "Despite the headwinds of COVID-19, the Ethernet switch market stayed relatively healthy, most notably because of steady demand from hyperscalers and other cloud providers, which continue to invest in greater datacenter scale and higher bandwidths."

Some Ethernet switch highlights from IDC:

• From a geographic perspective, the Ethernet switch market saw year-over-year reductions in most global regions. A bright spot was China, which recorded a 25.4% year-over-year increase in 2Q20. The broader Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan and China) fell by 6.7% year over year with Hong Kong's Ethernet switch market dropping 35.8%. Japan's market was off 3.0% from a year earlier. There was also weakness across Europe and the Americas. Western Europe's Ethernet switch market fell 13.1%, with the United Kingdom off 23.4% from a year earlier and France losing 20.5%. Central and Eastern Europe was down 7.6% with Hungary losing 20.1% year over year while the Czech Republic grew 17.6%. The Middle East and Africa region fell 7.5% with Qatar declining 17.1% but Israel gaining 7.6%. In the Americas, the United States was down 12.5% while Canada lost 16.5%. The Latin America region fell 22.1% with Mexico losing 21.6% compared to a year earlier.
• Port shipments for 100Gb switches rose 51.2% year over year to 6.7 million units. 
• 100Gb revenues grew 16.3% year over year in 2Q20 to nearly $1.5 billion, making up 22.4% of the market's overall revenue. 
• 25Gb switches also saw impressive growth with revenues increasing 39.0% to $505.9 million and port shipments growing 62.2%. 
• Lower-speed campus switches, a more mature part of the market, saw mixed results in port shipments and revenue as average selling prices (ASPs) in this segment continue to decline. 
• 10Gb port shipments rose 23.1% year over year, but revenue declined 6.1%. 10Gb switches make up 28.0% of the market's total revenue. 1Gb switches declined 10.1% year over year in port shipments and fell 17.9% in revenue. 1Gb now accounts for 35.0% of the total Ethernet switch market's revenue.

Some router market highlights from IDC:

• The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market increased 0.1% on a year-over-year basis in 2Q20, with the major service provider segment, which accounts for 76.9% of revenues, growing 1.5% and the enterprise segment of the market declining 4.2%. 
• From a regional perspective, the combined service provider and enterprise router market grew 18.1% year over year in China and was up 20.2% in Japan. The broader Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan and China) fell 5.6% year over year. Revenues in Western Europe were off 10.4%, while the Central and Eastern Europe combined enterprise and service provider market declined 8.7%. The Middle East & Africa region was down 5.7% year over year. In the United States, the enterprise segment was down 12.0%, while service provider revenues fell 5.9%, giving the combined markets a 7.5% year over year drop. The Latin American market declined 2.6% on an annualized basis.
• Cisco finished 2Q20 with a 13.4% year-over-year decline in overall Ethernet switch revenues and market share of 47.2%. In the hotly contested 25Gb/100Gb segment, Cisco is the market leader with 35.7% of the market's revenue. Cisco's combined service provider and enterprise router revenue was down 9.6%, with enterprise router revenue decreasing 11.8% and SP revenues down 8.1% year over year. Cisco's combined SP and enterprise router market share stands at 33.2%.
• Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue rose 15.7% on an annualized basis, giving the company market share of 12.0%. The company's combined SP and enterprise router revenue increased 16.7% year over year, giving the company a market share of 36.3%.
• Arista Networks saw Ethernet switch revenues decline 17.9% in 2Q20, bringing its share to 6.4% of the total market. 100Gb revenues account for 72.4% of the company's total revenue, reflecting the company's longstanding presence at cloud providers and large enterprises.
• HPE's Ethernet switch revenue declined 17.3% year over year, giving the company a market share of 5.1%.
• Juniper's Ethernet switch revenue fell 8.2% in 2Q20, bringing its market share to 2.8%. Juniper saw a 3.3% decline in combined enterprise and SP router sales, bringing its market share in the router market to 10.2%.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS46830820

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Ciena trims outlook on COVID-related market pressure

Ciena reported Q3 revenue of $976.7 million, increasing 1.7% year over year. Net income per share was $0.91 GAAP; $1.06 adjusted (non-GAAP), increasing 49% year over year.

Gary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena said: “We delivered outstanding financial results in the third quarter, reflecting our continued innovation, market leadership and strong competitive position in an uncertain macro environment. Although COVID-related market dynamics have resulted in an orders slowdown and are likely to adversely impact our revenue for a few quarters, we are confident in our ability to continue executing on our strategy and expanding our market leadership."

On an investor webcast, Ciena executives said:

• COVID-19 is having an adverse impact on the velocity of business in general and particularly new business initiatives, especially in August
• Service providers and MSOs are expressing greater caution with regard to spending.  They are also running their networks hotter.
• Optical spend growth by Webscale operators is now expected to be flat to low single-digits for this year versus the 7% to 10% that was expected at the beginning of the year. 
• This year, the company believes it captured an additional 1% plus of global market share
• Roughly 50 design wins for WaveLogic 5 Extreme
• More than a dozen customers for Adaptive IP solutions, including Telefónica UK and SK Telink

https://investor.ciena.com/news/press-release-details/2020/Ciena-Reports-Fiscal-Third-Quarter-2020-Financial-Results/default.aspx

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TELUS carries 800G wavelength for 970km with Ciena

TELUS carried an 800G wavelength from Toronto to Quebec City, a distance of 971.2km, using equipment from Ciena.

The record-setting link leveraged Ciena 6500 shelves equipped with WaveLogic5 Extreme (WL5e) technology.

https://www.ciena.com/insights/articles/ciena-and-telus-bring-800g-to-canada-break-worldwide-transmission-record.html

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Broadcom posts revenue of $5.8 billion, up 6%

Broadcom reported revenue of $5,821 million for its third quarter of fiscal year 2020, ended August 2, 2020, up 6% compared to a year earlier. GAAP net income was $688 million and adjusted EBITDA was $3,342 million.

"We delivered third quarter revenue results in-line with our expectations, driven by healthy demand from cloud and telecom customers, which more than offset the expected reset in wireless," said Hock Tan, President and CEO of Broadcom Inc. "Our outlook for the fourth quarter reflects a strong anticipated ramp in wireless, as well as the continuing surge in demand for networking from cloud and telecom customers, more than offsetting expected softness in enterprise."

"We generated record free cash flow of over $3 billion, which represented 33 percent growth on a year on year basis, and reduced total debt by $1.9 billion in the quarter," said Tom Krause, CFO of Broadcom Inc. "Looking ahead, our cash flow outlook remains robust and we plan to pay down an additional $3 billion in debt in the fourth quarter."

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Rain Tree Photonics and MaxLinear deliver 400G module for hyperscalers

Singapore-based Rain Tree Photonics (RTP) and MaxLinear announced the availability of a silicon photonics-based solution for 400G-DR4 optical modules for hyperscale data centers.

Rain Tree Photonics’ proprietary photonics engine leverages the company's silicon photonics integration technology and offers high yield and volume scalability. It is also developed to be ready for Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) architectures, while maintaining compatibility with pluggable module architectures.

MaxLinear’s MxL93542 Telluride PAM4 DSP is a key component in the development of high-speed, mega-scale data centers based on 100Gbps single lambda optical interconnects. This SOC and others in the Telluride family are the world’s first DSPs with integrated electro-absorption modulated laser (EA-EML) drivers for 100/400Gbps optical interconnects and breakout mode clocking support for 400Gbps DR4 optical modules.

The RTP1908, RTP’s 400G-DR4 silicon photonic engine, integrates multiple photonic devices allowing all 4 channels to fit into a tiny chip footprint. Each channel also features RTP’s energy-efficient modulator which is directly driven by the MxL93542’s integrated EA-EML driver. The entire photonic circuit is optimized for low optical insertion loss and features large mode-field-diameter fiber couplers that ensure high yield with standard packaging lines.

The MxL93542 16nm CMOS PAM4 DSP SoC consumes an extremely low 6.7W of power, which includes the integrated EA-EML driver power dissipation. The minimal power consumption of the MxL93542 meets the stringent power constraints of 400Gbps optical module form-factors, including QSFP-DD, OSFP and COBO devices.

“MaxLinear’s MxL93542 PAM4 DSP with integrated quad-channel EML drivers provides outstanding cost benefits for 400G-DR4 optical module customers. Driver integration also simplifies the module design, which together with RTP’s fabless++ approach, improves NPI cycle-time for customer adoption,” said Dr. Huang Ying, Co-founder at Rain Tree Photonics. “The MxL93542’s integrated drivers also work well with the high-efficiency, low-drive silicon photonic modulators in the RTP1908, achieving excellent TDECQ and OMA performance.”

“We are pleased with the successful pairing of the MxL93542 with Rain Tree Photonics’ RTP1908 silicon photonics engine to provide a compelling integrated solution for 400G-DR4 modules,” said Will Torgerson, Vice President and General Manager of MaxLinear’s High-Speed Interconnect Group. “The highly integrated Telluride DSPs offer superior link-margin performance and industry-leading power consumption.”

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Broadcom pushes ahead with Gen 7 64Gb/s Fibre Channel

Broadcom released the first Gen 7 64Gb/s Fibre Channel switching platforms and the first 64Gb/s Fibre Channel optical transceiver.

The solutions are currently being qualified for use in Brocade switches and Emulex adapters, for end-to-end Gen 7 Fibre Channel performance.

“Broadcom continues to lead the market and drive innovation with the launch of the industry’s first end-to-end Gen 7 Fibre Channel portfolio,” said Jack Rondoni, senior vice president and general manager, Brocade Storage Networking division, Broadcom. “Brocade Gen 7 harnesses the power of 64Gb/s switching technology and transforms current storage networks with autonomous SAN capabilities, simplifying management, and significantly reducing operational costs.”

Brocade said its Gen 7 Fibre Channel being 64Gb/s line-rate speed along with a 50 percent reduction in latency. Brocade Gen 7 also introduces a range of autonomous technologies to simplify and automate management. The self-optimizing capability utilizes actionable intelligence to automate network management and maximize performance. Learning traffic behavior enables the network to make smarter decisions on traffic prioritization, congestion management and notification to ensure optimal network performance for applications and storage.

https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/product-releases/53756
https://www.broadcom.com/products/fibre-channel-networking

• Broadcom acquired Brocade in November 2017.

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Ericsson activates 5G on its own campus in Texas

Ericsson activated its own 5G Distributed Innovation Network across multiple locations in North Texas. The network uses Ericsson’s 5G portfolio across multiple campuses, including Plano Ericsson Village, the company’s 38-acre North American headquarters near Legacy Park, and Ericsson's Richardson Labs, a research facility nine miles away.

Both 5G Core Stand-Alone (SA) and integrated Non-standalone (NSA) radio access network (RAN) are supported in the lab using an SD-WAN connection to the public cloud as well as radio and mobile transport for full application cloud-to-device connectivity, management and orchestration.

Ericsson’s 5G Distributed Innovation Network now provides a collaboration environment for operators, application developers, hyperscalers and hardware manufacturers developing solutions for 5G. In fact, Ericsson will utilize Dell Technologies hardware at the Ericsson Village to demonstrate a realistic hardware configuration for the edge network.

Tomas Ageskog, Head of Digital Services for Ericsson North America, says: “Decades of communications technology experience and a passion for innovation have shaped our ability to anticipate our customers’ challenges. This end-to-end network provides a great platform for trial and development to demonstrate what end-users face in deploying 5G in an Enterprise environment across devices, access, transport and core.”

Kevin Zvokel, Head of Networks for Ericsson North America, says: “We built it, and we run it both as an operator and as a large, complex Enterprise, demonstrating how 5G and edge computing work together to deliver new services and use cases. We’re running real-world experiments and use cases to solve problems today that the industry will encounter tomorrow, such as end-to-end network slicing.”

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SpaceX completes 12th Starlink launch, private testing undeway

SpaceX successfully completed its 12th Starlink launch mission, delivering a further 60 satellites to orbit and bringing the constellation size to over 700.

During the launch webcast, SpaceX disclosed that private beta testing of the Starlink network has achieved download speeds of 100 Mbps with "super good latency" capable of supporting the fastest online video games. SpaceX also confirmed that inter-satellite links using "space lasers" have been successfully tested. Once the constellation is fully operational, the inter-satellite links should be able to transfer large data flows across the globe.

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