AMS-IX hits 10 Tbps peak traffic record

 AMS-IX (Amsterdam Internet Exchange), one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world, has reached a new traffic milestone. On the evening of 07-April-2021 at around 22:00 PM, AMS-IX measured a traffic peak of 10,012 Terabit per second. 

Internet traffic is surging for some time now due to the pandemic. Governments all over the world are taking lockdown measures restricting people’s movements and forcing them to work from home and spend their evenings indoors. 

In March and November last year AMS-IX reached the milestones of 8 and 9 Terabit per second. The curfew and the bad weather in the Netherlands have led to this new traffic peak of 10 Terabit per second. Many connected networks have upgraded their port capacity to handle extra traffic volume.

“The pandemic has resulted in Internet growth that makes us go back to the end of the 90s. Last year Internet volume exchanged over AMS-IX grew over 35% and we see the same pattern for this year. We live in uncertain times, but you can be sure that Internet traffic keeps on growing,” says AMS-IX CEO Peter van Burgel. 

AMS-IX says it is well capable of handling the traffic growth and is even able to handle traffic volume if it was the double over night. Moreover, AMS-IX invested in the capacity of the platform and added more 100G-ports. The platform currently has a port-capacity that enables 42 Terabit per second. Over 885 networks are connected to the Amsterdam interconnection hub, 75% of them are of European origin.

https://www.ams-ix.net/ams/news/new-10-tbit-s-peak-traffic-record-for-ams-ix

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NEC and Cisco partner on 5G IP transport

NEC and Cisco announced a Global System Integrator Agreement (GSIA) to expand their partnership for accelerating the deployment of innovative 5G IP transport network solutions worldwide.

NEC has been a Cisco Gold Partner for over two decades.

Under the agreement, the companies will jointly drive new business opportunities for 5G. NEC group companies will work closely with Cisco to complement NEC’s ecosystem with optimized IP metro/access transport and edge cloud computing solutions. Cisco will support NEC’s customer engagements by offering best-in-class products, proposals and execution support.

The companies said they will strive to further enhance their joint solution portfolio and to optimize regional activities for advancing the digital transformation of customers across the globe.

"We believe 5G is fueling the internet for the future, and accelerating our customers’ digital transformations," said Jonathan Davidson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco. "Together with NEC, we are creating a powerful force to drive the critical changes needed in networking infrastructure to carry the internet into the next decade."

"Collaboration across the network solution ecosystem is essential for continued success in meeting diversified customer requirements and establishing a win-win relationship," said Mayuko Tatewaki, General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Division, NEC Corporation. "This powerful partnership strengthens our global competitiveness as a network integrator that drives the customer journey with innovative solutions."

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Telia Carrier opens PoP in Denver

Telia Carrier launched a a new Point of Presence (PoP) at Flexential’s data center in Aurora, Colorado. The partnership will allow Flexential’s customers to take advantage of Telia Carrier’s fiber backbone and connectivity providing cloud, application, content providers and Enterprise customers with new diverse routes and capacity at Terabit scale.  

 The partnership and expansion allow existing Flexential customers in the region access to a new Telia Carrier route from Denver to Omaha, Des Moines and Chicago. This route bypasses carrier hotels, saving expense and reducing latency. The path adds diversity and redundancy to existing fiber pathways, enhancing connectivity and delivering Telia Carrier’s signature levels of low latency and high availability. 

“By combining our strength in infrastructure and existing backbone technology with Telia Carrier’s global reach, we are able to offer customers in the Denver metro area connections outside the region via a diverse route at a lower cost and without reliance on a downtown carrier hotel,” said Ryan Mallory, COO Colocation and Interconnection, Flexential. “This new fiber route will drive significant reductions in latency and expanded interconnection options that are typically not available in a primarily rural area.” 

“Telia Carrier is excited to provide unique, diverse connectivity options supporting the demand to connect major markets and enable regional edge performance at scale,” said Art Kazmierczak, Director of Business and Network Development, Telia Carrier. “We are excited to continue to grow the local ecosystem connectivity working with Flexential and our AS1299 internet backbone providing a trusted customer experience to application, cloud and content performance.” 

https://www.teliacarrier.com/about-us/press-releases/flexential-partners-with-telia-carrier.html

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Verizon extends rollout of fixed 5G Home Internet to more cities

Verizon expanded its fixed 5G Home Internet service to more cities, including parts of Milwaukee and Tampa.

Verizon 5G Home Internet is now available in 30 markets.

The carrier says most customers can experience max download speeds up to 1 Gbps, with typical download speeds of 300 Mbps.

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-5G-home-internet-is-available-in-more-cities

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U.S. adds seven Chinese supercomputing sites to Entity List

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added the following seven Chinese supercomputing sites to its Entity List for conducting activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States:

Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, the National Supercomputing Center Jinan, the National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, the National Supercomputing Center Wuxi, and the National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou. 

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo released the following statement:

“Supercomputing capabilities are vital for the development of many – perhaps almost all – modern weapons and national security systems, such as nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons. The Department of Commerce will use the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from leveraging U.S. technologies to support these destabilizing military modernization efforts.”

https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2021/04/commerce-adds-seven-chinese-supercomputing-entities-entity-list-their

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CommScope to spin-off its home networks business

CommScope announced plans to spin-off its Home Networks business and other initiatives to reduce operating costs throughout the Company. 

Upon completion of the separation, Joe Chow, Home Networks senior vice president, will become the chief executive officer of the stand-alone Home Networks company. The Board of Directors, management, company name and headquarters will be announced after they are finalized. The new, independent company is expected to be listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange upon completion of the separation.

CommScope said the spinoff will improve its own margins while allowing the new company to pursue its own strategic market opportunities.

Following the completion of the spin-off transaction, CommScope will be composed of the following three business segments:

• Broadband Networks: Dedicated to serving the telco and cable provider broadband market as a leading equipment manufacturer. The segment is focused on growing its current portfolio and deployment of DAA and virtualized platforms and driving investments to expand fiber capacity, fiber connectivity and network orchestration.
• Venue and Campus Networks: Targeting both public and private networks for campuses, venues, data centers, and buildings. Venue and Campus Networks is focused on driving performance in its RUCKUS Wi-Fi 6 and cloud control platforms, ONECELL features to capitalize on 5G growth and virtualization, and driving high-density expansion in data centers.
• Outdoor Wireless Networks: Focused on the Macro and Metro Cell businesses and building metro cell power solutions and modularity design innovation. The segment is also working on the development of new technologies in cell site connectivity and other technologies to support telco carriers building their 4G and 5G networks.

“Since I joined CommScope last October, the Board and management team have been undertaking a comprehensive review of our portfolio of assets and how each contributes to our long-term growth strategy,” said Chuck Treadway, president and chief executive officer. “As we proceeded with this review, it became clear that the Home Networks business’ distinct strategy, growth characteristics, investment requirements and returns on invested capital are not aligned with the rest of our portfolio. We believe that Home Networks will be better positioned to deliver superior home and consumer-oriented products as an independent company. In addition, we are moving quickly to streamline costs to create greater financial flexibility to invest in our growth. We expect the cost reduction actions we are taking in core CommScope to, at a minimum, offset Home Networks’ adjusted EBITDA and create savings we can reinvest in our business, which should result in post-spin leverage within core CommScope at no more than current levels.”

https://ir.commscope.com

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Verizon & Honda test 5G for connected and autonomous vehicles

Honda and Verizon, in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Mcity, a test bed for connected and autonomous vehicles, are testing how new connected safety technology using 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC) could ensure fast, reliable communication between road infrastructure, vehicles and pedestrians sharing the road thus reducing collisions and saving lives. 

Since 2017, Honda has been developing a technology to realize a collision-free society called SAFE SWARM. Using Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) communication, Honda SAFE SWARM enables vehicles to communicate with other road users and share key information such as location, speed, and vehicle sensor data. One limitation of this approach is the need to outfit each vehicle with onboard artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The use of 5G helps move the AI capabilities from the vehicle to the MEC, reducing the need for AI onboard each vehicle.

The partners highlighted three safety scenarios:

• Pedestrian Scenario: A pedestrian is crossing a street at an intersection. An approaching driver cannot see the pedestrian due to a building obstructing the view. Smart cameras mounted in the intersection relay information to MEC using the 5G network. Verizon’s MEC and V2X software platforms detect the pedestrian and vehicle and determine the precise location of road users assisted by Verizon’s Hyper Precise Location services. A visual warning message is then sent alerting the driver of the potential danger.
• Emergency Vehicle Warning Scenario: A driver cannot see an approaching emergency vehicle and cannot hear its siren due to the high volume of in-vehicle audio. Verizon’s MEC and V2X software receive a safety message from the emergency vehicle and send a warning message to nearby vehicles. The driver receives a visual warning.
• Red Light Runner Scenario: A vehicle fails to stop at a red light. Using data from the smart cameras, MEC and V2X software detect the vehicle and send a red-light-runner visual warning message to other vehicles approaching the intersection.

“Honda’s research collaboration with Verizon is an important step in our multi-year effort to develop connected vehicle safety technology to realize our vision for a collision-free society,” said Ehsan Moradi Pari, Ph.D, research group lead at Honda’s Advanced Technology Research Division. “While the research is preliminary and not intended as a product feature at this time, 5G-enabled vehicle communication and MEC have the potential to advance safety for everyone sharing the road.”

“The ability to move computing power to the edge of our 5G network is an essential building block for autonomous and connected vehicles, helping cars to communicate with each other in near real-time and with sensors and cameras installed in streets and traffic lights,” said Sanyogita Shamsunder, vice president of Technology Development and 5G Labs at Verizon. “When you consider that roughly 42,000 people were killed in car accidents last year and 94% of accidents are caused by human error, our new technologies including 5G and MEC can help drivers ‘see’ things before the human eye can register and react helping to prevent collisions and save lives.”

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Axiata and Telenor seek to build a new Malaysian Digital Champion

Axiata Group and Telenor Asia are planning to merge the telco operations of Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) and Digi.com Berhad (Digi) into a new Malaysian Digital Champion.

The partners will have equal ownership in the venture estimated at 33.1 percent each. Axiata together with Malaysian institutional funds will own over 51% of the merged company, which will be considered a leading telecommunications service provider in Malaysia in terms of value, revenue and profit, with proforma revenue of about RM12.4 billion, pre-synergy EBITDA of the combined entity at approximately RM5.7 billion, and an estimated 19 million customers. The new company will be named Celcom Digi Berhad and will continue to be listed on Bursa Malaysia.

Chairman of the Axiata Board, Tan Sri Ghazzali Sheikh Abdul Khalid, said: “We are exceedingly pleased to have come this far in discussing the potential merger of our Malaysian operations. The joint creation of a true Malaysian Champion, this merger of Celcom and Digi will see the coming together of the largest mobile operator with the firepower to trigger tremendous opportunities in helping Malaysia leapfrog into the Fourth Industrial Revolution and fulfil our vision of a digitised nation.”

“As Malaysia charges ahead in new areas of 5G, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Internet-of-Things, the new entity will be positioned to compete amidst uncertainties and challenges in the post-pandemic world. As we face fierce competition from global internet based services and content providers, our stronger strategic position will allow for better negotiation levers in how we choose to compete and cooperate.”

Axiata’s President & Group Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Izzaddin Idris, said: “It is no secret that the telecommunications industry continues to face long-term structural headwinds of slower growth, increased operating costs and lower profits. On one hand, we see prices of products and services continue to slide while capital expenditure especially on network, quality coverage and advanced technology continue to rise. Against that, data traffic has doubled every year pre-Covid and expected to accelerate even faster in the new norm. Digital aspirations and the ever-increasing demand for connectivity call for significant investments. In order to stay ahead of the curve, we must strengthen the foundation to offer continuous high-quality broadband, improve 4G connectivity and subsequently, support the acceleration of 5G rollout.”

https://www.axiata.com/investors/ir-presentations/

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Cradlepoint offers Ruggedized 5G Edge Router

Cradlepoint introduced its new R1900 Ruggedized 5G Edge Router, powered by a Cradlepoint NetCloud subscription service that includes cloud-delivered software, endpoints, training, and support. The R1900 router, which is optimized for in-vehicle networks, is the first product to utilize Cradlepoint's second-generation 5G architecture. It supports nationwide coverage (low-band) and capacity (mid-band) networks at speeds up to 1Gbps as well as gigabit LTE. 

The unit delivers full 5G performance, enterprise-class security and SASE support, IoT connectivity with Bluetooth, and edge computing for Microsoft Azure IoT Central or AWS Greengrass environments.

Highlights

• WAN: 5G and LTE (CAT20), wireline (via gigabit Ethernet), and a dual modem option
• LAN: Simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (2x2) and 4 gigabit Ethernet ports
• BLE: Long-range, low-power Bluetooth 5.1 to support IoT connectivity
• GPS: Discrete GNSS location with dead reckoning
• WIRED: RS232, USB, and GPIO ports for serial and ODB-II connections
• Expandable Connectivity via Managed Accessory Docks

The R1900 design will support all nationwide public safety networks on both LTE and 5G, such as AT&T FirstNet and Verizon Frontline in the US and the Emergency Services Network (ESN) in the UK.

https://cradlepoint.com/product/endpoints/r1900-series/

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