Colt tests quantum-based super-encryption with ADVA

Colt Technology Services has successfully conducted a field trial of quantum-secured transport using ADVA's FSP 3000 platform with ConnectGuard Layer 1 encryption technology. 

The trial, which was conducted over Colt’s deployed metro network in Frankfurt, utilized quantum key distribution (QKD) to super-encrypt live data traffic. ADVA’s partner ID Quantique also played a key role in the trial. Colt harnessed the ADVA FSP 3000, which receives quantum keys generated by ID Quantique’s QKD technology. The QKD provides quantum random bit strings. These keys are used as an additional entropy source for the ADVA encryption solution, operating at line speeds of 100Gbit/s. The solution is the first commercial high-speed optical networking product to feature a dedicated interface for quantum keys based on the ETSI key delivery standard.

“With quantum computers on the horizon, it’s crucial to stay one step ahead of the hackers. This trial is a major step towards the next generation of cryptographic infrastructure and takes us closer to safeguarding our customers’ information from tomorrow’s threats,” said Oktay Tekin, director, sales engineers, DACH, Colt Technology Services. “Businesses across the world depend on the speed, reliability and robust security of our services to operate effectively and with complete peace of mind. By conducting this trial with ADVA to harness QKD technologies, we’re exploring how to protect against unprecedented challenges further down the line.”

“Our FSP 3000 ConnectGuard encryption solution ensures maximum security as well as high capacity and low latency. In recent years, it has won a fierce reputation for protecting service provider and enterprise networks across the globe. Now, this trial of QKD-secure transport is proving how vital our technology will be even in the post-quantum era,” commented Uli Schlegel, director, product line management, ADVA. “Colt’s trial shows that it’s now possible to secure high-speed connectivity over deployed operational networks against tomorrow’s quantum computer attacks. It’s a significant milestone for Colt’s enterprise customers. From sensitive financial information to valuable intellectual property, their data will soon be shielded from the cybercriminals of the future.”

ADVA supports Quantum-Secure VPN (QuaSiModO) project

Tuesday, May 12, 2020  ADVA, Quantum, Security  

ADVA is playing a key role in a unique research initiative extending post-quantum security to VPN networks. The company has supplied its ADVA FSP 150 with ConnectGuard Ethernet encryption for the Quantum-Secure VPN Modules and Operation Modes (QuaSiModO) project, which is being conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied and Integrated Security, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and genua GmbH. Funding is provided by the German Federal...

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ADVA FSP 3000 powers UK’s first quantum network

Wednesday, June 13, 2018  ADVA, Quantum, UK  

ADVA's FSP 3000 platform is powering a metro transport system in the city of Cambridge that is being used for the UK's first quantum network. The project, which is conducted by the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, super-encrypts data using quantum key distribution (QKD) for complete and long-term cryptographic data security. ADVA said the openness of its ADVA FSP 3000 platform, which can accept keys from third-party systems utilizing...

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Europes's OPENQKD uses ADVA for quantum key distribution

Tuesday, January 28, 2020  ADVA  

The OPENQKD project, whose mission is to create and trial a secure communication network across Europe based on quantum key distribution (QKD), will leverage ADVA's FSP 3000 and FSP 150 platforms. ADVA will provide optical and Ethernet encryptors as well as open line systems for multiple testbed locations. OPENQKD, which is funded by the European Commission, seeks to accelerate the commercial adoption of QKD technology and to promote interoperability...

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Juniper intros cloud-native Paragon Automation for service assurance

Juniper Networks introduced a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications that deliver closed-loop automation in 5G and multicloud environments.

Juniper said its Paragon Automation suite is designed to translate business intent into real-world performance across the lifecycle of a network and services. The goal is to help operations teams to eliminate manual tasks and processes, assuring that users have a consistent, high-quality experience throughout the life of their service.

Paragon Automation combines active test agents, streaming telemetry and machine learning with closed-loop remediation. 

Highlights:

• Network-aware automation, including capabilities such as real-time awareness and visualization of network topology and integrated support for segment routing, MPLS and network slicing across all network domains. The solution provides multi-layer root-cause analysis to visualize, analyze and map service issues down to the device and from the device back up to the service. It extends automation across the entire Layer-2 through Layer-7 network stack, across all domains and clouds and the full network and service lifecycle.
• Network-tailored machine learning fueled by true algorithmic machine learning and network analytics. It collects, aggregates and analyzes huge volumes of real-time telemetry data to provide a multidimensional view of device, network and service health. And it uses diverse ML algorithms to detect anomalies and outliers and make accurate predictions about future device and network behavior.
• Cloud-native agility and resiliency: Paragon Automation can be used as a cloud-hosted SaaS solution, hosted on-premises or in a public cloud environment. And it can be deployed in redundant node clusters within a single data center or across multiple clouds in a high-availability, highly reliable scale-out architecture.

Some of the capabilities are developed in partnership with Anuta Networks.

https://blogs.juniper.net/en-us/service-provider-transformation/unleash-experience-first-networking-with-juniper-paragon-automation

Juniper to acquire Netrounds for service assurance platform

Monday, September 28, 2020  Juniper, Mergers And Acquisitions, Netrounds  

Juniper Networks agreed to acquire Netrounds, which offers a programmable, software-based active test and service assurance platform for fixed and mobile networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Netround, which was founded in 2007 and is based in Lulea, Sweden, focuses on lifecycle service assurance. Its vendor-agnostic platform is offered as on-demand as a SaaS solution or on-premise for NFV deployment. Netrounds’ traffic-generating test agents allow OSS and NFV orchestrators to remotely test, monitor, and assure their network service KPIs and SLAs.

Juniper said Netrounds will enhance its automated WAN solutions to further simplify operations for service providers and ensure positive end-user experiences. 

“End-user expectations for a consistently high quality of experience for services delivered over IP networks in the cloud era are extremely high, and the onset of 5G will only accelerate this. Service providers are increasingly looking to differentiate themselves by looking beyond offering basic connectivity and focusing on the quality assurance of their services,” said Manoj Leelanivas, chief product officer, Juniper Networks. “Today’s announcement and plan to bring Netrounds into Juniper will fully automate the complexities of testing and actively monitoring those customer service experiences at scale, a crucial step to staying competitive in today’s dynamic market.”

“Today, end users are often the first to discover service quality problems, as traditional assurance solutions primarily focus on passive device health instead of service quality,” said Mats Nordlund, CEO and Co-Founder of Netrounds. “Combined with Juniper Networks’ sophisticated network automation solutions, service and cloud providers are now able to rapidly deliver software-defined network services with guaranteed end-to-end service quality. For our customers, this is a key success factor when rolling out solutions in dynamic environments built on 5G network slicing, Kubernetes, SD-WAN and hybrid-cloud. We are thrilled to be joining Juniper to provide higher levels of automated assurance to complex networks.”

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Keysight debuts 400GE test system covering PAM4 and 100GE NRZ

Keysight Technologies introduced its new AresONE-S 400GE test system for validating complex, mixed 400 gigabit Ethernet (GE) and lower-speed networks and devices.

The AresONE-S 400GE test system, which is aimed at network equipment manufacturers and data center operators, provides 6.4 Tbps load and stress traffic to detect and debug data transmission errors at multiple Ethernet speeds. Further, AresONE-S allows multiple systems to be synchronized together to test 25.6 Tbps networking devices and equipment using a single test system.

Highlights of Keysight’s AresONE-S test system:

• An ultra-high-density, 2 rack unit (RU) fixed chassis to deliver optimal rack space footprint.
• The IxNetwork software application, a Layer 2 and 3 protocol emulation platform that runs end-to-end tests with an extensive list of networking protocols and data plane traffic to test network infrastructure performance.
• A single test platform for all seven 400GE PAM4 and 100GE NRZ speeds: 400/200/100/50GE PAM4 and 100/50/40/25/10GE NRZ to test all speeds and FEC methods to future-proof investments.

AresONE-S fixed chassis is available in two options, the AresONE-S-400GE QSFP-DD High-Density 16-Port Test System and AresONE-S-400GE QSFP-DD High-Density 8-Port Test System. Customers can start lower-port-count testing by purchasing 4 ports in the 8-port chassis, or 8-ports in the 16-port chassis. Keysight’s “pay-as-you-grow” model enables customers to add ports and software options in the field to support future test requirements.

Data center operators have widely deployed mature 100GE non-return-to-zero (NRZ)-based technologies.  Keysight notes that higher Ethernet speeds, such as 400GE, create new mixed signaling and forward error correction (FEC) implementations in data center networks, as well as multi-rate speed environments. The transition from NRZ to pulse amplitude modulation level-4 (PAM4) requires testing of both types of encoding.

“Data center operators are dealing with complex environments containing multiple signaling technologies and Ethernet speeds that continue to evolve,” said Ram Periakaruppan, vice president and general manager, Keysight’s Network Test and Security Solutions group. “AresONE-S doubles the port density of any other 400GE test platform and delivers the flexibility our customers need to verify their networks and network equipment, while scaling to meet future requirements.”

https://www.keysight.com/us/en/about/newsroom/news-releases/2021/0216-nr21016-keysight-delivers-first-16-port-400ge-test-system-t.html?akamai-feo=off

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Samsung introduces a new type of High Bandwidth Memory

Samsung Electronics Co. introduced a new High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) processing power.. 

The new processing-in-memory (PIM) architecture is designed to accelerate large-scale processing in data centers, high performance computing (HPC) systems and AI-enabled mobile applications.

Kwangil Park, senior vice president of Memory Product Planning at Samsung Electronics stated, "Our groundbreaking HBM-PIM is the industry's first programmable PIM solution tailored for diverse AI-driven workloads such as HPC, training and inference. We plan to build upon this breakthrough by further collaborating with AI solution providers for even more advanced PIM-powered applications."

Samsung said most of today's computing systems are based on the von Neumann architecture, which uses separate processor and memory units to carry out millions of intricate data processing tasks. This sequential processing approach requires data to constantly move back and forth, resulting in a system-slowing bottleneck especially when handling ever-increasing volumes of data.

Instead, the HBM-PIM brings processing power directly to where the data is stored by placing a DRAM-optimized AI engine inside each memory bank — a storage sub-unit — enabling parallel processing and minimizing data movement. When applied to Samsung's existing HBM2 Aquabolt solution, the new architecture is able to deliver over twice the system performance while reducing energy consumption by more than 70%. The HBM-PIM also does not require any hardware or software changes, allowing faster integration into existing systems.

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Verizon to acquire Austrian-based incubed IT for robot automation

Verizon agreed to acquire incubed IT GmbH, a privately-held company based in Hart bei Graz, Austria. Financial terms were not disclosed.

incubed IT's software platform offers autonomous navigation tools to administer, manage and optimize mixed fleets of robots in industrial settings. The software enables robots to localize and navigate autonomously and can be easily integrated into nearly any mobile robot.

Verizon said incubed IT’s autonomous software will enable enterprise customers to gain new efficiencies as they scale their autonomous mobile robot fleets using 5G.

“This acquisition further demonstrates Verizon’s commitment to developing new and innovative businesses and use cases leveraging the power of 5G,” said Rima Qureshi, Chief Strategy Officer at Verizon. “Mobile robot orchestration is a real and emerging challenge faced by enterprises today. By integrating incubed IT’s autonomous software with Verizon’s 5G platform, we will have the ability to power robotic automation at scale. This will create new opportunities for enterprise customers to better and more effectively monitor and optimize their business processes.”

“incubed IT’s next-generation software and autonomous fleet management server are foundational components for the future of terrestrial robotics,” said Elise Neel, Vice President of Verizon New Business Incubation. “When we combine incubed IT’s capabilities with the reliability, responsiveness and vast capabilities of Verizon’s 5G platform, we will enable faster, less expensive and more effective adoption of robotic automation for enterprises everywhere.”

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Palo Alto Networks to acquire Bridgecrew

Palo Alto Networks agreed to acquire Bridgecrew, a developer-first cloud security company, for approximately $156 million in cash. 

Bridgecrew, which is based in San Francisco, is a pioneer in shift left, focusing on infrastructure as code (IaC), where infrastructure configuration is codified during development. The company’s developer-first IaC security platform offers developers and DevOps teams a systematic way to enforce infrastructure security standards throughout the development lifecycle. The proposed acquisition will enable Prisma Cloud to provide developers with security assessment and enforcement capabilities throughout the DevOps process.

Bridgecrew’s open-source IaC scanner, Checkov, has gained significant early traction with developers, surpassing 1 million downloads in 2020 — its first full year of availability. 

"Shift left security is a must-have in any cloud security platform. Developers don’t want to wait until runtime to find out their security is not working, and the CISO charged with protecting the entire organization certainly values higher security from fixing issues earlier in the development lifecycle. We are thrilled to welcome Bridgecrew, and their widely adopted and trusted developer security platform, to Palo Alto Networks. When combined, Prisma Cloud customers will benefit from having security embedded in the very foundation of their cloud infrastructure," says Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

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Malaysia's Allo Technology deploys Infinera

Allo Technology Sdn Bhd (Allo), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), has deployed Infinera’s GX Series Compact Modular Platform over its nationwide open optical network infrastructure.

Allo’s modernized open optical network enables the advancement of technology and connectivity services in Malaysia by providing the infrastructure needed, including tower fiberization, data center connectivity, and cross-border connectivity to neighboring countries through Allo Carrier Network System (ACNS). Allo supports Malaysia’s digital transformation with its expanded offerings, which include connectivity services for residential and business enterprises.

Infinera said its GX series supports Allo in addressing the coverage and speed gap issues for fixed broadband services in the country. The network deployment delivers terabit capacity on demand in an easy-to-operate, highly compact form factor. The GX Series features coherent 600G technology with a seamlessly upgrade path to 800G capability in the future.

“Allo Carrier Network is the superhighway backbone of Malaysia and we rely on innovative, proven technology and solutions to ensure connectivity across the country,” said Muhammad Mohd Yunos, Chief Technology Officer at Allo. “Infinera’s GX Series is the ideal platform to meet our ICT infrastructure needs in an open optical networking environment.”

“As the industry moves to open networking, operators like Allo are able to seamlessly increase network capacity with deployment of best-of-breed coherent solutions over existing optical infrastructure,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Infinera. “The GX Series is purpose-built for open optical networks, supporting deployment over virtually any optical line system and boasting a flexible and highly compact form factor for space and power savings.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/allo-technologys-nationwide-open-optical-network-leverages-infineras-gx-series

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Styra cites rapid growth of its cloud-native Open Policy Agent authorization

Privately-held Styra, the founders of Open Policy Agent (OPA) and provides of cloud-native authorization, reported over 300 percent growth year-over-year in 2020. The company's employee headcount grew by 90% during the year.

The company said the rapid adoption of its Declarative Authorization Service (DAS), the company’s turnkey enterprise security solution built on the recently graduated open-source project OPA, can be attributed to accelerating global demand for an authorization solution that meets the flexibility and scale requirements of Kubernetes and cloud-native environments—due in no small part to a newly remote workforce and need for highly available cloud-based applications and services. 

In 2020, OPA was awarded graduated status from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) after meeting the foundation’s criteria for community growth and project adoption.  OPA downloads increased from 6 million to over 35 million in 2020.

“OPA adoption across all use cases over the last year has been phenomenal,” said Torin Sandall, vice president of open source at Styra. “We’ve seen the community grow in every measurable way. Slack and openpolicyagent.org membership and participation has more than doubled, the number of public repositories on GitHub containing .rego files has also doubled and the number of Docker image downloads has gone from 6M to over 39M. We attribute much of this growth to the efforts of the community and to the need for a robust authorization policy-as-code solution in the cloud native ecosystem.”

Open Policy Agent: Building a standard for cloud-native authorization

Wednesday, September 02, 2020  Styra, Video  

Here is a quick introduction to Open Policy Agent (OPA), which is now a Cloud Native Computing Foundation incubating project, and which provides an open source, general-purpose policy engine for cloud infrastructure.

The cloud-native stack is becoming so complex and distributed that a common, application autorization mechanism is necessary.

 In this video, Bill Mann, CEO of Styra, talks about how OPA is gaining momentum as the de facto approach for establishing authorization policies across cloud native environments. Styra pioneered OPA. Its founding team of Tim Hinrichs and Teemu Koponen previously played key roles in the development of software-defined networking and network virtualization at Nicira.

https://youtu.be/U-a91ylm8uw

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MaxLinear collaborates on Facebook Connectivity's Evenstar

MaxLinear announced a collaboration with Facebook Connectivity to integrate silicon technologies and radio processing algorithms into Evenstar radio units (RUs). MaxLinear will integrate its MaxLin radio processing algorithms including Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) and Crest Factor Reduction (CFR) technologies with Evenstar RUs to enhance performance and reduce cost.

The Evenstar program is a collaborative effort focused on building a general-purpose RAN reference architecture for 4G and 5G networks in the OpenRAN ecosystem. '

MaxLinear’s patented wideband linearization techniques are based on sophisticated machine learning algorithms that significantly improve the efficiency of power amplifiers when compared to other available industry solutions. This increased efficiency dramatically reduces system power consumption by as much as 300W for a 64-transceiver massive MIMO implementation, enabling easier deployment of lower-cost radios.

“We are excited to contribute to the OpenRAN ecosystem and make Evenstar radio units more efficient,” said Brendan Walsh, Vice President of MaxLinear’s Wireless Infrastructure Group. “Our core technologies, including silicon transceivers, linearization and AI algorithms, will help enable the acceleration and adoption of OpenRAN solutions like Evenstar.”

“We are thrilled to welcome MaxLinear to the Evenstar program,” said Jaydeep Ranade, director of wireless engineering for Facebook Connectivity. “Our close collaboration with MaxLinear will accelerate innovation and performance improvements in the OpenRAN ecosystem. OpenRAN support is gaining momentum and we look forward to working together to make higher performance, open networks more accessible around the globe."

www.maxlinear.com

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