Nokia partners with Google Cloud on Cloud RAN

Nokia announced a partnership with Google Cloud to develop new, cloud-based 5G radio solutions combining Nokia’s Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN, Cloud RAN (vRAN) and edge cloud technologies with Google’s edge computing platform and applications ecosystem. 

The initial collaboration, which is already underway at Nokia’s Espoo headquarters, will pursue a number of different workstreams. The first, which will focus on Cloud RAN, will integrate Nokia’s 5G vDU (virtualized distributed unit) and 5G vCU (virtualized centralized unit) with Google’s edge computing platform, running on Anthos. Nokia’s 5G standalone network with vCU and 5G core will also be tested on Google Cloud Anthos platform as a cloud-native deployment.

Bikash Koley, VP, Google Global Network and Head of Technology for Telecom Products at Google Cloud, said: “This partnership with Nokia will combine both of our decades of mobile communications expertise to deliver new solutions that help CSPs enable business transformation at the network edge.”

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “We are excited to develop new 5G solutions at the network edge with Google Cloud. Our service provider customers will benefit greatly from this collaboration with more choice and flexibility to efficiently deploy and orchestrate 5G networks. This will ultimately help our customers deliver 5G services on the network edge providing multiple options of cloud-based solutions paving the way forward.”

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Nokia collaborates with AWS on Cloud RAN

Nokia announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to research and enable Cloud RAN (vRAN) and Open RAN technologies.

The collaboration, which will be conducted at Nokia’s facilities, aims to develop innovative proof of concepts (PoC) to explore and enable Cloud RAN and related technologies. Nokia is pursuing a strategy of collaborating with AWS to extend the reach of its Cloud RAN technologies in support of 5G deployments and the development of new use cases.

The initiative will see engineering teams from both companies research how the combination of Nokia’s RAN (Radio Access Network), Open RAN, Cloud RAN and edge solutions can operate seamlessly with AWS Outposts. The companies cite three distinct areas of collaboration:

• onboarding and validating Nokia’s 5G vDU (virtualized distributed unit) on AWS Outposts using Amazon EKS for far edge cloud or on-premises deployments 
• the implementation of Nokia’s 5G vCU (virtualized centralized unit) with AWS Outposts, AWS Local Zones, using Amazon EKS as a cloud native deployment 
• a proof of concept for an end-to-end solution with Nokia’s 5G Cloud RAN and 5G standalone Core network running on AWS, where end enterprise users can leverage 5G for use cases such as an industrial application.

In addition, Nokia will run AWS EKS Anywhere on the Nokia AirFrame Open Edge server. Nokia AirFrame Open Edge distributes computing capacity into the edge of the network and drives the implementation of Cloud RAN, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) as well as 5G.

Dave Brown, Vice President, Amazon EC2, AWS, said: “This collaboration with Nokia will extend the reach of our industry-leading cloud technology to support our Telco and enterprise customers. We look forward to working closely on this collaboration and offer multiple deployment choices for customers to build 5G Cloud RAN and Open RAN solutions. Our customers will benefit from different options to run 5G RAN using AWS Outposts with either Intel or ARM-based CPU choices, or third-party bare metal servers while using Amazon EKS and EKS Anywhere. This will solve for the challenge of CI/CD, automation, and network orchestration by using a common framework of tools across Core and RAN.”

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, commented: “This is a critically important collaboration and the continuation of Nokia’s Cloud RAN leadership. At Nokia we are committed to supporting our customers and giving them the flexibility and elasticity they need on the network edge. We are building an ecosystem of public cloud partners that will ultimately support our customers and help them to build compelling 5G use cases.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2021/03/15/nokia-and-aws-to-enable-cloud-based-5g-radio-solutions/

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American Tower tests Infinera's XR optics for point-to-multipoint

Infinera and American Tower completed the first point-to-multipoint coherent optical transmission in a carrier network environment in Latin America. 

This field trial was conducted with Infinera’s XR optics technology over American Tower’s Passive Optical Network (PON) network in Colombia. The trial demonstrated XR optics’ compatibility with existing GPON traffic over a single-fiber PON deployment in a metro regional area.

The proof of concept shows American Tower’s ability to take advantage of the transformative value that XR optics can provide in the company’s existing network infrastructure. 

Infinera said its XR optics could enable network operators like American Tower to dramatically simplify their network architectures and significantly reduce CapEx and OpEx costs while enhancing network scalability. 

“As American Tower is evolving its network in preparation of new Edge Data Center and 5G applications, we are always looking for innovative technologies to help us achieve greater value on our existing infrastructure,” said Paul Choiseul, Fiber CTO EMEA & Latin America at American Tower. “The success of the Infinera XR optics solution over our PON network is the culmination of an idea that was born two years ago, when we shared with Infinera our roadmap to test advanced DWDM technologies over ATC’s PON networks. This technology will allow us to provide high capacity, ultra-low latency solutions over our existing PON networks that will satisfy Edge Data Center and 5G requirements.”

“The trial with American Tower provides another proof point illustrating how Infinera’s digital subcarrier-powered XR optics can be applied to existing networks and can seamlessly coexist with GPON traffic,” said Dave Welch, Infinera Chief Innovation Officer and Co-founder. “This represents a radical shift in the way metro networks can be built, promising a dramatic reduction in TCO, setting a new benchmark in scalability, and increasing service flexibility and velocity.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/infinera-and-american-tower-complete-live-network-demonstration-first-in-latin-america

Infinera's XR Optics delivers coherent optical subcarrier aggregation

Monday, September 23, 2019  100G, ECOC, Infinera  

Infinera introduced a point-to-multipoint coherent optical subcarrier aggregation technology with the potential to significantly reduce the number of transceivers required in an access network while eliminating intermediate aggregation. Infinera's XR optics technology, which is optimized for hub-and-spoke traffic patterns, is powered by independently routable Nyquist subcarriers and coherent optical aggregation capabilities. With coherent subcarrier...

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DISH Network enters long term lease with American Tower

DISH Network entered into a master lease agreement for space on up to 20,000 American Tower communications sites across the United States as it deploys its new nationwide 5G network. 

Cash lease payments will commence in 2022 and grow over time as DISH’s network deployment progresses. In addition, DISH may lease shared generators from American Tower on select sites and will have the ability to utilize American Tower’s zoning, permitting and other pre-construction services.

Dave Mayo, DISH’s Executive Vice President of Network Development said, “With the American Tower agreement, DISH now has the complete, robust infrastructure portfolio we need to support our nationwide 5G network deployment. Our team has already developed colocation plans for American Tower sites across the country to bring a new generation of connectivity to Americans.”

Steve Vondran, American Tower’s Executive Vice President and President, U.S. Tower Division stated, “We look forward to this agreement evolving into a long-term, mutually beneficial strategic partnership. We believe that our nationwide portfolio of communications sites is optimally positioned to continue to serve as the backbone of today’s critical mobile broadband networks while assuring a meaningful share of new leasing activity in the marketplace.”

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Rogers + Shaw merger to reshape Canadian market

Rogers Communications agreed to acquire Shaw Communications in a $26 billion deal that could reshape the Canadian communications market. Under the transaction, Rogers will acquire all of Shaw’s Class A and Class B shares for $40.50 per share, reflecting a ~70% premium to Shaw’s Class B share price.

The merger will create Canada’s most robust wholly-owned national network and accelerate the deployment of 5G. Once the transaction is complete, the companies plan to invest $2.5 billion in 5G networks across Western Canada, which is expected to create up to 3,000 net new jobs. The deal brings together Shaw’s fibre-to-home, WiFi and wireless networks with Roger's national wireless network and 5G capabilities.

Both Rogers and Shaw began as family operated businesses.

Rogers will also commit to establishing a new $1 billion Rogers Rural and Indigenous Connectivity Fund to connect rural, remote and Indigenous communities across Western Canada to high-speed Internet and closing critical connectivity gaps faster for underserved areas. 

Joe Natale, President and CEO of Rogers Communications, states: “We are proud to join forces with the Shaw family and team as we combine our companies and our 10,000 team members across Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, supported by a head office in Calgary. Western Canada is a major driver of our national economy and together we will have the scale, expertise and commitment to deliver the technology infrastructure needed to keep local communities connected, businesses competitive and attract new investment. We’re at a critical inflection point where generational investments are needed to make Canada-wide 5G a reality. 5G is about nation-building; it’s vital to boosting productivity and will help close the connectivity gap faster in rural, remote and Indigenous communities."

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Windstream lights up fiber to 60,000 new locations

Kinetic Wholesale by Windstream has added access to 60,000 new locations in the first quarter of 2021 across its 18-state footprint. The company is currently engaged in a multi-year plan, $2 billion initiative to dramatically expand its fiber footprint and gigabit internet service. Kinetic Wholesale fiber broadband access is available in exchanges where Windstream is the incumbent provider.

“As we continue to drive fiber deeper into our network, our cost-effective broadband and ethernet access is now available for our wholesale partners for business customers,” said Jeff Small, Kinetic president. “Through simple provisioning and transparent customer support, our fiber product fits seamlessly into any portfolio.”

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AEPONYX secures funding for silicon photonics on MEMS

AEPONYX, a start-up based in Montreal, announced the closing of a new $10 million funding round to support the buildout its 5G product portfolio.

Participants in this funding round were Fonds Ecofuel, BDC, Investissement Québec, and Fonds Innovexport.

“We are delighted to bring innovative products to the 5G market” says Philippe Babin, CEO of AEPONYX. “The creation of our integrated photonics with MEMS products enable the

Telecom industry to advance their next-generation networks. With the 5G adoption rate eclipsing where 4G was at this point in time, we see tremendous growth potential.”

AEPONYX said its integrated photonics innovations combined with their fast-tuning and ultra-small MEMS devices are well suited for telecom applications.

“While our technology works beautifully in quantum computing, LiDAR, and sensors, we are targeting telecom as our first market vertical” says Babin.

“These optical devices, combining high data rates with being quite small in size, are exactly what the market is looking for to advance the global 5G infrastructure significantly” stated Fonds Ecofuel’s Managing Partner, Richard Cloutier.

http://www.AEPONYX.com

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IP Infusion tunes its OS for 5G and high-capacity optical networks

IP Infusion introduced the latest release of its Network Operating System (NOS) platform (OcNOS-SP 4) featuring:

• Increased scalability -- Scales from entry-level white box switches to high-end optical and packet transport devices, planning to support 400 Gbps ethernet interfaces and beyond
• Efficient WAN virtualization – Enables diverse overlay services through EVPN/BGP to achieve Traffic Engineering (TE) and resiliency for disparate environments
• Operational efficiency – Simplifies the service lifecycle through common, streamlined implementations with support for Segment Routing, Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP), OpenConfig, self-tuning DWDM transceivers, and MicroPlug XGS Passive Optical Network (PON) and Optical Line Terminal (OLT).
• Mobile network virtualization, across Radio Access Network (RAN), transport and core, necessitates scalability, enhanced Quality of Service (QoS), resiliency and manageability to accommodate massive increases in 5G bandwidth and satisfy the ever-growing demands by users and applications.

OcNOS-SP 4 provides a unified software platform capable of supporting Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway (DCSG) and Cassini-based Packet Optical network element that are fully compliant with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Open Optical Packet Transport (OOPT) specifications. OcNOS-SP 4 also provides support for the latest cost-optimized DCSG platform from UfiSpace (S9500-22XST).

The OcNOS-SP 4 software platform features:

• Control Plane with extensive network virtualization features, enhanced standards-based Layer 2 and 3 protocols
• Standard, packet-based timing and synchronization in compliance with ITU G.8275.2 and TIP Specification for DCSG and mobile xHaul use cases
• Ethernet Virtual Private Networks (EVPN) support for normalized and scalable virtualization, powerful Traffic Engineering to enable QoS, and other protocol enhancements
• OpenConfig support for network automation and programmability
• Segment Routing (SR) and Path Computational Element Protocol (PCEP) to simplify and scale the network
• Tunable DWDM transceivers to significantly reduce sparing requirements and OpEx
• MicroPlug SFP+ support for Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) white box switches to deliver 10 Gbps XGS (Symmetrical) PON and OLT at lower cost.

“With OcNOS-SP 4, IP Infusion is raising the bar for disaggregation of the mobile network,” said Atsushi Ogata, President and CEO of IP Infusion. “OcNOS-SP 4 unleashes network innovation by enabling mobile operators with access to leading edge technology, massive scalability, operational efficiency and lower TCO, without any compromise.”

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Orange to leverage Nokia's Self-Organizing Networks

Orange will leverage Nokia's Self-Organizing Networks (SON) to boost automation and support 5G optimization across its affiliates worldwide.

The deal allows Orange affiliate operators to optimize their mobile networks irrespective of which RAN vendor they run on with the help of Nokia SON technology.

Arnaud Vamparys, Senior VP Radio Networks and 5G at Orange, said: “As a long-term partner, Nokia was a natural choice to help us automate our mobile networks in different geographies. The complexity of radio optimization is growing with 5G beamforming and Nokia’s flexible, automated and multi-vendor platform enables us to maintain our exemplary network quality and customer satisfaction in the 5G era.”

Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia, said: “5G deployments and rollouts look much simpler on paper than they do in the real world. We appreciate and understand that our CSP customers have a technology stack that spans multiple vendors, which can lead to inefficiencies and complexity. Working with Orange and its global affiliates to optimize and simplify their multi-vendor networks is a challenge we relish and are proud to be part of.”

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Lattice Semiconductor joins DARPA Toolbox Initiative

Lattice Semiconductor's Diamond and FPGA design tools for its highly reliable, low-power, small form factor FPGAs are now included in the DARPA Toolbox initiative. 

The DARPA Toolbox initiative is a new, agency-wide effort aimed at providing access to state-of-the-art technology from leading commercial technology vendors to the researchers behind DARPA programs.

The partnership also provides DARPA organizations with access to a selection of Lattice's soft IP cores and technical support to accelerate technology innovation for DARPA programs and foster the use of Lattice low-power FPGAs in DARPA-designed applications. 

“Partnering with technology innovators like Lattice through our DARPA Toolbox initiative serves to streamline access for our organizations to cutting-edge technologies,” said Serge Leef, the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) program manager at DARPA and leader of the DARPA Toolbox initiative. “Lattice's portfolio of FPGA design tools and soft IP cores offer a compelling platform for our researchers to consider when implementing applications requiring artificial intelligence at the Edge, 5G communications, and/or automation."

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