Tuesday, December 8, 2020

OIF launches 800G Coherent and Co-Packaging Framework projects

OIF launched two new projects – 800G Coherent and Co-Packaging Framework, availability of a new FlexE for 400ZR white paper, newly elected board members/positions and working group representatives.

800G Coherent

In scope for the 800G Coherent project is to define interoperable 800G coherent line specifications for campus and DCI applications. The resulting Implementation Agreement (IA) will:

  • Define single-lambda 800G coherent line interfaces for two applications
  • Amplified, single span, DWDM links up to 80-120km
  • Unamplified, fixed wavelength links of 2-10km
  • Support Ethernet client(s) (minimum 100GE) up to 800G aggregate bandwidth

“The next standardized coherent rate beyond 400ZR will be technically challenging with many factors to be considered,” said Tad Hofmeister, Technical Lead, Optical Networking Technologies at Google and OIF Vice President. “With the 800G Coherent IA, OIF is in a unique position to take a leadership role in defining interoperable 800G coherent line interfaces for various applications.”


Co-Packaging Framework IA

The Co-Packaging Framework IA, announced on November 10, 2020, will study the application spaces and relevant technology considerations for co-packaging of communication interfaces with one or more ASICs. A primary objective of this specification is to identify new opportunities for interoperability standards for possible future work at the OIF or other standards organizations. Upon completion, the work will be summarized in a Framework IA.

White Paper

A new OIF white paper addressing 400ZR applications requiring multiplexing of lower rate Ethernet signals (e.g. 100GE) and how to leverage FlexE for this service multiplexing is now available.

The OIF 400ZR IA includes mapping of 400G Ethernet signals as defined in IEEE 802.3, but not lower rate services such as 100G Ethernet. This white paper describes utilizing the OIF FlexE Implementation Agreement multiplexing of lower service rates, such as 100G and 200G Ethernet to a 400G frame that can be carried by 400ZR devices. Example profiles are provided to guide interoperability in common scenarios.

Election Results

Board of Directors:

  • Ian Betty, Ciena, continues to serve on the Board and was appointed as President
  • Mark Filer, Microsoft, was elected to the Board (two-year term)
  • Tad Hofmeister, Google, continues to serve on the Board and was re-appointed as Vice President
  • Mike Li, Intel, was re-elected to the Board (one-year term)
  • Jeffery Maki, Juniper Networks, was elected to the Board (one-year term)
  • Gary Nicholl, Cisco, was re-elected to the Board (two-year term) and appointed as Secretary/Treasurer
  • Nathan Tracy, TE Connectivity, was re-elected to the Board (two-year term) and appointed as VP of Marketing

Officers:

  • Klaus-Holger Otto, Nokia, was elected as Technical Committee Chair
  • Karl Bois, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, was elected as Technical Committee Vice Chair
  • Lyndon Ong, Ciena, was re-elected as Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair, Networking
  • Richard Ward, Intel, was elected as Market Awareness & Education Committee Co-Chair, Physical and Link Layer
  • Dave Brown, Nokia, continues to serve as Director of Communications

Technical Committee:

  • Michael Klempa, Amphenol, was elected as Physical and Link Layer Interoperability Working Group Chair (two-year term)
  • Jeffery Maki, Juniper Networks, was re-elected as Physical Layer User Group Working Group Chair (two-year term)

“I’m looking forward to serving OIF members as president of this vital organization and thank all those who have served and continue to serve,” said Ian Betty, Ciena and new OIF president. “OIF’s role continues to be critical in making great strides in interoperability solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Congratulations to the entire board and those appointed to leadership positions – your role is integral to OIF’s continued success.”

http://www.oiforum.com

Arm perspective on Next-Gen Edge: Portability is Key

As we think about moving computing from the core data centers to the edge, portability will be key to building out edge infrastructure. In this video, Chris Bergey, SVP/GM Infrastructure Line of Business at Arm, talks about the concept of portability as illustrated in Arm's Project Cassini which brings cloud-native technologies to the edge to enable a secure and portable computing environment.

https://youtu.be/LUY1zJvYQqI






Marvell debuts O-RAN solution based on Octeon DPU

Marvell introduced a 5G O-RAN portfolio consisting of silicon, software and hardware reference designs spanning the radio unit (RU), distributed unit (DU) and centralized unit (CU) with Ethernet connectivity between these network elements.

Marvell’s O-RAN platform includes its OCTEON Fusion baseband processor family that is currently shipping in volume to tier 1 OEMs. Marvell’s newly announced OCTEON Fusion-O processors maintain the full capabilities of the OCTEON Fusion family including 15 Gbps capacity and support for 200MHz channelization, while adding specific O-RAN functions such as eCPRI compression/decompression and split 7.2 interfaces with integrated fronthaul. Additionally, the platform includes key reference software, allowing OEMs, ODMs and network operators to rapidly bring O-RAN compatible products to market.

mMIMO RU

A 32T32R, 8 DL layer, 100MHz channel radio unit.

  • Hardware reference design in partnership with Analog Devices
  • Reference lower L1 and beamforming software
  • O-RAN management plane software
  • O-RAN fronthaul interface
  • Analog Devices Transceivers and DFE software

vDU and DU

The OCTEON Fusion-O DU hardware reference designs are available as either a virtualized DU (vDU) PCIe-based offload accelerator or an integrated DU. 

  • Dual mode 5G and LTE
  • Integrated fronthaul for 7.2 split
  • 16DL/8UL layer support
  • Reference LTE and 5G L1 software

CU

In addition to support for vDU server configurations, the Marvell O-RAN platform also provides support for our industry-leading L2/L3 OCTEON processors supporting a fully integrated standalone CU implementation.

  • Dedicated L2/L3 silicon
  • Virtualized L2/L3 support
  • Partnership protocol stack ports from industry leaders

https://www.marvell.com/

Marvell ships its next gen access and metro Ethernet switching silicon

Marvell is now shipping its latest generation Prestera DX 7300 series of Ethernet switches for 5G carrier access and metro networks. Significantly, the new switches incorporate accurate time-sensitive features, integrated MACsec and advanced processing functionality, and support for 400G coherent optics.

Key features of the Prestera DX 7300 series 

  • ITU-T G.8273.2 Class C PTP/SyncE, Time Sensitive Networking (802.1CM) compliance for precise 5G timing
  • Advanced security with secure boot and integrated 802.1ae 256b MACsec engines for Layer2 data encryption
  • Segment Routing (SRV6) for advanced traffic engineering and service chaining
  • Enhanced network telemetry and intelligence for actionable metadata exports
  • 56Gbps PAM4 SerDes supporting port speeds up to 400Gbps
  • Flexible I/O speeds 1G/2.5/5/10/25/50/100/400G

Marvell notes that to support the new RAN deployment models for radio access fronthaul applications, its Prestera DX 7300 family integrates highly accurate time synchronization, 802.1CM Time-Sensitive-Network (TSN) for fronthaul, network slicing and native eCPRI-aware processing. The switches are part of Marvell's open radio access network (open RAN) and virtualized radio access network (vRAN) platform solutions, also announced today.

The Prestera DX 7300 series of switches integrate 56Gbps SerDes, high-capacity MACsec and advanced processing that can be matched with pluggable 400G-ZR optical modules. This functionality enables system manufacturers to develop solutions for multi-access edge computing (MEC) and data center interconnect (DCI) applications that benefit from traffic efficiency, openness and the optimized cost structure of packet Ethernet networks.

"As 5G brings rigorous data protection and performance demands to the transport network, the infrastructure has to meet the requirements for secured communications at higher speeds and data rates to support emerging use cases," said Guy Azrad, general manager and senior vice president of Switching at Marvell. "Our newest Prestera family offers the most secured switching solution with the high-speed interfaces needed to fulfill 5G potential at the industry's lowest power and footprint available today."


MACOM showcases transimpedance amplifiers for 400ZR, PAM 100G to 800G

At this week's ECOC 2020 Virtual Conference, MACOM is showcasing the following products 


Flip-Chip Quad Channel Driver and Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA) for 400G ZR:  MACOM's linear modulator driver and TIA are high-performance quad-channel flip-chip devices for operation at symbols rates up to 64GBaud. These products offer the low power consumption and the flexibility required to enable next generation 400G ZR modules.

PAM4 100G to 800G Transimpedance Amplifiers: MACOM's portfolio includes a 4x28GBaud TIA and a 1x28GBaud TIA for 53Gbps applications. These products are aimed at high density optical interconnect solutions and are intended for 50G, 100G, 200G, 400G and 800G receivers using multilevel modulation such as PAM4.

https://www.macom.com/




InnoLight samples OSFP 2xFR4 and DR8+ optics

InnoLight Technology (Suzhou) is introducing a line of 800G OSFP and QSFP-DD800 optics. OSFP 2xFR4 and DR8+ are currently available for early customer evaluation, with QSFP-DD800 DR8+ available in January 2021. Other 800G parts as listed below will be ready for evaluation in 1H 2021. Volume production is currently planned for either Q4, 2021 or Q1 2022 depending upon product type. 

  • 800G OSFP 8x100G DR8 & AOC
  • 800G OSFP DR8+
  • 800G OSFP 2x400G FR4
  • 800G OSFP 1x800G LR8
  • QSFP-DD800 8x100G DR8 & AOC
  • QSFP-DD800 DR8+
  • QSFP-DD800 2x400G FR4
  • QSFP-DD800 8x100G LR


In addition to the above mentioned 800G products, InnoLight is developing innovative optics to enable 800G transmission in the legacy 4X fiber structure in either multimode OM3/OM4 or single mode fiber plant. These innovative optics will help customers to increase bandwidth to 800G using the existing SR4 or DR4 fiber layouts for point to point or breakout applications. Availability is planned in 2H 2021.

"InnoLight's 800G transceivers continue InnoLight's leadership in high performance pluggable optics, doubling bandwidth capacity without disruption of existing data center infrastructure. With our industry leading 400G deployments, InnoLight is uniquely positioned in driving 800G implementation and to deliver the best price performance optics in the industry. Our new innovative 800G optics to support existing 4x fiber plants are especially suited for Hyperscale DC operators." said Osa Mok, Chief Marketing Officer of InnoLight.

InnoLight is showcasing video demos of 800G pluggable OSFP 2xFR4, 800G OSFP DR8+ and QSFP-DD800 DR8+ at the ECOC 2020 virtual event.


FCC's C-Band spectrum auction gets underway

 The FCC kicked off its auction of 280 megahertz of prime mid-band spectrum in the 3.7-3.98 GHz band—a portion of the C-band.  This is the FCC’s largest mid-band 5G spectrum auction to date.

“This is a big day for American consumers and U.S. leadership in 5G,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.  “By freeing up this wide swath of critical mid-band spectrum, the FCC is paving the way for Americans to receive fast 5G wireless services.  Together with the recent success of our 3.5 GHz band auction, our work to auction the 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz bands in 2021, and the other ground-breaking spectrum auctions we’ve held since 2017, our 5G FAST Plan is in full swing.  American consumers and businesses will benefit from this FCC’s efforts for years to come.” 


Chairman Pai proposed and instituted a plan to repurpose the C-band quickly.  As a result, this mid-band spectrum will be available to deliver next-generation connectivity to American consumers and businesses years ahead of schedule.  The FCC successfully secured commitments from fixed satellite companies to move quickly out of the 3.7-3.98 GHz band and into the upper portion of the C-band, which will free up this crucial mid-band spectrum for 5G wireless services. 

The first round of the clock phase of the auction started on December 8th at 10 a.m. ET.  This auction will offer 5,684 new flexible-use overlay licenses based on Partial Economic Areas (PEAs) for spectrum in the 3.7–3.98 GHz band.  This spectrum holds the potential to be prime spectrum for 5G services given its combination of geographic coverage and capacity, and the FCC’s auction procedures will ensure the assignment to auction winners of contiguous spectrum blocks allowing wide channel bandwidths that support 5G deployment. 

Satellite operators currently using the C-Band have agreed to repack their operations out of the band’s lower 300 megahertz (3.7-4.0 GHz) into the upper 200 megahertz (4.0-4.2 GHz).  The first phase of this transition—the clearing of 120 megahertz of spectrum from 3.7-3.82 GHz in 46 of the nation’s top 50 PEAs—will conclude by December 5, 2021.  The second phase—clearing the lower 120 megahertz of spectrum in the remaining PEAs, plus an additional 180 megahertz from 3.82-4.0 GHz nationwide—will conclude by December 5, 2023.  


Optoscribe develops glass chip for low-loss coupling to silicon photonics

Optoscribe Ltd. introduced glass chip for low-loss coupling to silicon photonics (SiPh) grating couplers.

The new OptoCplrLT is designed to overcome fiber-to-SiPh photonic integrated circuit (PIC) coupling challenges to enable high volume automated assembly and help drive down costs. 

The device was created using Optoscribe’s proprietary high-speed laser writing technique. It features low-loss light turning curved mirrors, which are uniquely formed in the glass, to direct the light to or from SiPh grating couplers. This prevents the need for bend-tolerant fiber solutions, which are often expensive, challenging and have some significant limitations in size and profile.

To help address footprint challenges, OptoCplrLT has a low-profile interface of less than 1.5mm in height, which allows compact interface layouts that alleviate packaging constraints. It is also compatible with industry-standard materials and processes; for example, the glass chip has a coefficient of thermal expansion matched to the silicon chip, helping to maximise performance.

Russell Childs, CEO of Optoscribe, said: “With data center operators and transceiver manufacturers seeking innovative solutions to help address fiber-to-SiPh PIC coupling challenges, we are pleased to introduce OptoCplrLT™ to help meet market demands of performance, cost and volume, as well as helping to overcome such hurdles including SiPh transceiver packaging and integration.”


  

AWS previews Amazon HealthLake

AWS announced Amazon HealthLake, a HIPAA-eligible service for healthcare and life sciences organizations. 

Amazon HealthLake aggregates an organization’s complete data across various silos and disparate formats into a centralized AWS data lake and automatically normalizes this information using machine learning. The service identifies each piece of clinical information, tags, and indexes events in a timeline view with standardized labels so it can be easily searched, and structures all of the data into the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) industry standard format for a complete view of the health of individual patients and entire populations. 

“There has been an explosion of digitized health data in recent years with the advent of electronic medical records, but organizations are telling us that unlocking the value from this information using technology like machine learning is still challenging and riddled with barriers,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Amazon Machine Learning for AWS. “With Amazon HealthLake, healthcare organizations can reduce the time it takes to transform health data in the cloud from weeks to minutes so that it can be analyzed securely, even at petabyte scale. This completely reinvents what’s possible with healthcare and brings us that much closer to everyone’s goal of providing patients with more personalized and predictive treatment for individuals and across entire populations.”

U.S. Senate confirms Nathan Simington to FCC


The U.S. Senate 49-46 to confirm Nathan Simington to a seat on the Federal Communications Commission. He takes the seat previously occupied by Republican Mike O’Rielly. With Republican Ajit Pai leaving as well, the FCC will be split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, until President-elect Biden chooses a new chairman. 

Simington currently serves at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration as a Senior Advisor in the office of Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information.


Outgoing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stated “I congratulate Nathan on his confirmation by the U.S. Senate and look forward to welcoming him to the Commission.  It has been the greatest honor of my professional life to serve at the FCC, and I am confident that Nathan too will enjoy the challenges and rewards of the job."  

Fireeye reports cyber attack by a nation state

FireEye confirmed that it was recently attacked by a highly sophisticated cyber threat actor in what it believes was as a state-sponsored attack. 

Kevin Mandia, FireEye's Chief Executive Officer,said the attackers tailored their world-class capabilities specifically to target certain Red Team assessment tools that the company uses to test its customers’ security. These tools mimic the behavior of many cyber threat actors and enable FireEye to provide essential diagnostic security services to our customers. None of the tools contain zero-day exploits. 

FireEye will now need to release the methods and means to detect the use of the stolen Red Team tools. This includes more than 300 countermeasures to minimize the potential impact of the theft of these tools. 

FireEye also said that, consistent with a nation-state cyber-espionage effort, the attacker primarily sought information related to certain government customers. 

https://www.fireeye.com/blog/products-and-services/2020/12/fireeye-shares-details-of-recent-cyber-attack-actions-to-protect-community.html