DISH Wireless picks Oracle for 5G core

DISH Wireless has selected Oracle to enable a Service-Based Architecture (SBA) for its 5G core.

This will enable DISH Wireless to provide enterprise customers added control of the software and services they utilize, taking advantage of network slices.

“Oracle’s capabilities will essentially serve as the control tower of our network core, enabling our customers to consume software on demand and facilitating the advanced core functions required to power a truly automated network,” said Marc Rouanne, chief network officer, DISH Wireless. “While many carriers may claim to have 5G, there are certain attributes only possible with a cloud-based standalone network, and our working with Oracle will yield results that will unleash the power of true, fully-optimized 5G.”

Oracle’s 5G core control plane , which is aligned with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), includes network functions that will help operators automate and scale to meet the expected growth in 5G subscribers and connected devices. DISH Wireless will be using a number of network functions from Oracle including:

• Policy Control Function (PCF): dynamically routes low-latency applications to edge data networks, while simultaneously considering network data analytics and slice information to provide optimized policies minimizing network resource utilization while maximizing quality of experience.
• 
  Network Repository Function (NRF): serves as a central repository for all of the network functions in DISH’s 5G network, along with the services provided by each of these elements.
• Network Exposure Function (NEF): acts as a centralized point for service exposure and plays a key role in authorizing all access requests originating from outside the DISH network to enable Cellular IoT, non-IoT, edge computing and API gateway use cases for DISH and its enterprise customers.
• Additionally, DISH will utilize Oracle for 5G Service Communications Proxy (SCP), Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP) and Binding Selection Function (BSF).

“DISH Wireless is completely disrupting the wireless industry,” said Andrew Morawski, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications, Networks. “Using Oracle’s 5G cloud-native technology to automate their network, DISH will be one of the most agile operators in the world enabling enterprise digital transformation journeys across many diverse industries.”

https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/dish-wireless-selects-oracle-for-5g-core-service-based-architecture-2021-05-14/

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Australia's NBN now serves over 8.1 million premises

Australia's NBN network is currently serving more than 8.1 million premises, putting NBN Co on track to achieve its FY21 forecast of 8.2 million active premises by 30 June 2021.

For the nine months to 31 March 2021, NBN Co generated total revenue of $3.5 billion, reflecting a 23 per cent year on year increase in the nine months to 31 March 2021 as more Australian homes and businesses connect to the nbn network and take up higher speed services.

Revenue from Business customers increased to $0.6 billion in the nine months to 31 March 2021, up 24 per cent from $0.5 billion in the prior corresponding period. Despite NBN Co’s ongoing financial support for the industry and end user customers throughout the COVID period, Residential Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) remained steady at $45.

Chief Executive Officer at NBN Co, Stephen Rue, said:

“We are pleased with the solid progress we have achieved and recorded across all of our key financial and operating metrics in the third quarter. Revenue was particularly strong, largely due to new customer activations on the network and upgrades to higher speed services. We are well placed to achieve our FY21 total revenue target of $4.5 billion, as outlined in the Corporate Plan.

“Our EBITDA performance showed a significant improvement over the previous corresponding period as a result of high revenue growth, which will support our long-term reinvestment in the network, and a 28 per cent decrease in total operating expenses, including subscriber costs. We expect to achieve our FY21 EBITDA target of $1.3 billion.

“We have continued to invest in supporting the industry and end user customers through initiatives such as the COVID-19 CVC Credit Offer, which came to an end after almost a year on 31 January 2021.

“Our Focus on Fast initiative, which commenced on 1 February 2021 and offers rebates to retailers to incentivise sales of higher speed tiers, has helped to lift more customers to higher speed tiers with approximately 10 per cent of customers now on plans based on wholesale speed tiers of 100 Mbps2,3 and an additional 7 per cent of customers on plans offering download speeds of 250 Mbps and close to 1 Gbps.

“We are making excellent progress on our $4.5 billion network investment program, having identified and announced the suburbs and towns that will comprise the first 1.1 million of 2 million premises that will benefit from our extension of fibre deeper into communities with greater access to higher speed services, on demand.

“To date, around 3.5 million premises can access our Home Ultrafast plans offering download speeds of close to 1 Gbps3 and by June 2023, we’re forecasting that 75 per cent of premises on our fixed line network – or around 8 million premises – will be able to access our highest speed Home Ultrafast services.”

https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/media-centre/media-statements/nbn-on-track-to-achieve-fy21-financial-forecast 

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Nokia supplies data center switching for OpenColo

OpenColo, which operates a 71,000 square foot state-of-the-art data center in Santa Clara, California, is deploying Nokia's data center switching solution, including its 7220 Interconnect Router (IXR). OpenColo services include bare metal and managed servers, cloud streaming and data center connectivity.

The Nokia data center switching solution comprises SR Linux, an open Linux based NOS and a NetOps development toolkit that helps automate data center network operations.  OpenColo is also using the Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) to interconnect its data centers using dual optical fiber connections running at 100Gbps. OpenColo has also installed the Nokia 7750 Service Router (SR), based on Nokia FP4 silicon, to provide IP routing within and between its data centers, including peering and interconnection to multiple service providers.

SR Linux and the 7750 SR share the same proven routing protocols from the Nokia Service Router Operating System (SR OS). This enables OpenColo to offer its customers more reliable and stable data center switching and internet connectivity, as well as the ability to handle future data center and peering traffic needs.

Scott Brookshire, CTO of Energy Group Networks, parent company of OpenColo, said: “Nokia and its SR Linux was an easy choice. We wanted a solution that was extensible, open, supported telemetry and gNMI, and was provided by a company that transforms networking both on the hardware and software side. Even more, we needed a partner that understands our needs and can work very closely with us to reimagine our architecture and solve some of our biggest problems. We also appreciated that Nokia builds and supports its hardware, so we have a single vendor to manage and work with should we ever run into problems.”

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Ericsson to pay EUR 80 million to settle claims

Ericsson will pay EUR 80 million to Nokia for settle a damages claim relating to events that were the subject of a 2019 resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The matter concerns Ericsson’s violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Ericsson says the payment to Nokia reflects uncertainty, risk, expense, and potential distraction from business focus associated with a potentially lengthy and complex litigation. 

"As communicated in 2019, the resolution with DOJ related to criminal charges of books and records and internal controls violations of the FCPA in five countries including in Djibouti and a guilty plea to one instance of bribery in Djibouti. The resolution with the SEC related to allegations of violations of the books and records and internal controls provision of the FCPA in six countries and of the bribery provision of the FCPA in three of these six countries."

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2021/5/ericsson-announces-settlement-with-impact-in-second-quarter-2021

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Cisco to acquire Kenna Security for risk-based vulnerability mgt

Cisco agreed to acquire Kenna Security, a start-up offering irsk-based vulnerability management technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Kenna, which is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, helps organizations to work cross-functionally to rapidly identify, prioritize and remediate cyber risks. 

Cisco says the acquisition will help it transform the way security and IT teams collaborate to reduce the attack surface and the time it takes to detect and respond.

“Hybrid work is here to stay, and the increasing complexity of cybersecurity is our customers’ biggest challenge. We must radically simplify security to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Security and Collaboration. “Our goal is to unify all critical control points into a single platform. With the addition of Kenna Security, we will fundamentally strengthen our platform experience by giving customers the ability to prioritize vulnerabilities based on a robust risk methodology that is tuned to their unique needs.”

The acquisition of Kenna Security with Cisco’s SecureX platform will help customers:

• Discover and prioritize their organization’s assets with a centralized, contextual view
• Speed decision making with prioritization of vulnerability data based on threat intelligence and asset business value
• Accelerate and simplify response with orchestration to proactively perform patch management or deploy virtual patching
• Reduce friction associated with compliance efforts with a simple and easy way to generate compliance reports
• Enhance collaboration between security and IT teams to effectively deal with vulnerabilities to reduce risk for businesses

“Cisco is on a mission to reshape the way we think about security, and together we have a unique opportunity to fundamentally transform how organizations effectively manage risk at scale,” said Karim Toubba, CEO of Kenna Security. “As malicious actors continue to evolve their methods, we need to make it easier than ever for customers to predict, detect, prioritize and respond to the security threats that matter. The breadth and scale of Cisco coupled with Kenna Security’s mastery of machine-learning and data science will reshape how the entire industry addresses cyber risk.”

https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=2160133

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AIM Photonics appoints Laursen as chair of leadership council

The American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) appointed Dr. Tod A. Laursen, as Chair of the AIM Photonics Leadership Council. In this role, Dr. Laursen will hold leadership and oversight responsibilities, including direct engagement with industry and government stakeholders, strategic planning and management, and guiding photonics-enabled innovation.

Dr. Tod A. Laursen currently serves as Acting President of SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Previously, Dr. Laursen was the Senior Vice Chancellor and Provost of the State University of New York (SUNY), a post he assumed in September of 2018. Dr. Laursen joined SUNY from Khalifa University (KU) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he was the founding president and served as its leader since 2010. Prior to becoming President of Khalifa University, Dr. Laursen was a member of the faculty of Duke University. He earned his Ph.D. and Master of Science postgraduate degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor of science in the same subject from Oregon State University.

“The promise of AIM Photonics is rooted in its network of researchers, innovative partnerships, and the exciting possibilities that integrated photonics can make a reality,” said Dr. Laursen. “I am honored to deeply engage with industry, academia, and government stakeholders in this new role to execute a strategy building on AIM’s successes to further enable a sustainable future and global manufacturing leadership related to this essential technology. I am so appreciative to Bob Duffy for his years of dedicated leadership and service and look forward to working closely with the AIM leadership team as we support the manufacturing institute’s R&D and commercialization efforts, anticipate increased collaborations, and facilitate technological competitiveness for the nation.” 

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SpaceX completes 28th Starlink mission

SpaceX launched 52 more Starlink satellites on Saturday, May 15 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

In addition to its own Starlink satellites the booster also carried two satellites for customers: a Capella Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite and Tyvak-0130 for Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. 

This was the eighth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and three Starlink missions.

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Cisco to acquire to Socio Labs for online event platform

Cisco agreed to acquire Socio Labs, a start-up offering a modern event technology platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Socio Labs, which is based in New Delhi, India, helps event organizers with to host in-person, virtual or hybrid events.

Cisco plans to integrate the technology into Webex Events for enhance meetings, webinars and webcasts and to also include large-scale, multi-session hybrid events and conferences. The solution will enable live streaming, sponsorship, networking and advanced analytics, along with continuous engagement before, during and after events – as well as Webex features like polling, Q&A, chat and real-time translation.

“The future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration. “With that comes increased complexity of creating inclusive experiences, and meaningful and measurable interactions for both virtual and in-person attendees. Socio Labs offers Webex powerful technology to provide customers with an unparalleled hybrid event management solution to engage participants whether they join in person or virtually.”

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