Southern Cross NEXT submarine cable lands in Los Angeles

 

The trans-Pacific Southern Cross NEXT submarine cable has landed in Los Angeles. The 15,857.8 km (9,854 mile), which connects to Sydney and Auckland with branches linking Fiji, Tokelau, and Kiribati, is expected to be completed in early 2022. 

The $350 million Southern Cross NEXT cable will provide 72 Tbps of capacity and will be the largest and lowest-latency submarine cable system ever built between Sydney and Los Angeles. The new route will add to the existing Southern Cross network ecosystem, which includes 12 cable stations and eight major datacenter hubs in Australia and the US. The Southern Cross network spans six countries and eight time zones, connected by over 45,000 km (28,000 mile) of cable - greater than the Earth’s circumference.

Southern Cross CEO Laurie Miller states " The completion of NEXT will interconnect Oceania to the key content centers in the USA and is a significant technical achievement marking arguably the longest single span submarine cable segment ever achieved to date,” Miller said. “This enhancement of the Southern Cross network will allow us to continue to evolve and provide resilient high-capacity connectivity solutions to key markets in the USA.”

Pioneer Consulting served as shipboard representatives on the project, supervising cable loading, freighter transfer, laying operations, post-lay inspection and burial, and shore-end landings. Pioneer Consulting also supports Southern Cross in a comprehensive senior consulting capacity, which has included a range of responsibilities such as market analysis, survey oversight, route engineering, turn-key procurement and contract review, contractor coordination, COVID-19 risk analysis, project management, manufacturing audits, and quality assurance.

“We’re proud to bring a full suite of Pioneer’s services to this project, to reach this tremendous milestone, and to have collaborated with Southern Cross to achieve unprecedented connectivity across the Pacific,” said Gavin Tully, Managing Partner at Pioneer Consulting. "Multiple countries along the route will benefit from the fastest, most reliable broadband access ever to be available to them. Southern Cross NEXT paves the way for wider utilization of 5G and IoT, and Pioneer is honored to have played a role in this pivotal project.”

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Masergy Performance Edge boosts SD-WAN + SASE

Masergy introduced a new SD-WAN and SASE capability designed to minimize packet loss over public broadband connections, making them perform more like a private Ethernet circuit.

Masergy Performance Edge is available with Masergy’s Managed SD-WAN Secure and SASE offerings and uses proprietary network architecture along with industry standard and compatible routing algorithms. The company says it is able to minimize packet loss over public broadband connections for more predictable application experiences.

“Masergy is working to ensure our clients’ new need for broadband doesn’t impact their business continuity. Remote work success shouldn’t hinge on network connectivity types, and we’ve created Masergy Performance Edge™ to make sure it doesn’t,” said Chris MacFarland, CEO, Masergy. “Masergy pioneered software-defined networking 20 years ago. We were the first to market with AIOps integrated in our SD-WAN and SASE solutions, and we’re already on the path to autonomous networking — so there’s no better company to revolutionize broadband, making it the high-performance, predictable service everyone wants it to be.”

https://www.masergy.com/sd-wan/performance-edge

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Nokia and Vodafone run Anomaly Detection Service on Google Cloud

An Anomaly Detection Service is being rolled out across Vodafone’s pan-European network to quickly detect and remediate network anomalies before they impact Vodafone customers.

The machine learning based application is running on Google Cloud. It is based on Nokia Bell Labs technology and was developed after a Nokia-Vodafone agreement signed in 2020. The product quickly detects and troubleshoots irregularities, such as mobile site congestion and interference, and unexpected latency, that can impact customer service quality.

Following an initial deployment in Italy on more than 60,000 4G cells, Vodafone will extend the service to all its European markets by early 2022. 

Anomaly detection is offered “as-a-service,” an important dimension to Nokia’s Cloud and Network Services’ business group strategy, and there are plans to eventually apply Anomaly Detection Service to Vodafone’s 5G and core networks.

Vodafone expects that around 80 percent of all its anomalous mobile network issues and capacity demands will be automatically detected and addressed using Anomaly Detection Service.

Johan Wibergh, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone, said: “We are building an automated and programmable network that can respond quickly to our customers’ needs. As we extend 5G across Europe, it is important to match the speed and responsiveness of this new technology with a great service. With machine learning, we can ensure a consistently high-quality performance that is as smart as the technology behind it.”

Amol Phadke, Managing Director, Telecom Industry Solutions, Google Cloud, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Nokia and Vodafone to deliver a data- and AI-driven solution that scales quickly and leverages automation to increase cost efficiency and ensures seamless customer experiences across Europe. As behaviors change and the data needed for analysis increases in velocity, volume, and complexity, automation and a cloud-based data platform are now key in making fast and informed decisions.”

Vodafone tests single 1T clear channel with Nokia

Monday, June 28, 2021  Nokia, Terabit, Turkey, Vodafone  

Vodafone Turkey has tested a 1T (terabit) clear-channel IP connection using Nokia's 7950 XRS routers with terabit interfaces powered by Nokia’s FP4 chipset. Nokia’s FP4 terabit linecard offers two 1T ports and demonstrated deployment readiness by carrying test traffic on Vodafone Turkey’s network. Nokia said the trial is part of an ongoing modernization effort to transform Vodafone Turkey’s IP network. Nokia is delivering a multi-access mobile...

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Vodafone tests Nokia's 100G single wavelength PON

Sunday, February 07, 2021  Nokia, PON, Vodafone  

Vodafone completed a trial of a new Passive Optical Network (PON) technology capable of delivering speeds up to 100 Gbs on a single wavelength - the first application of flexible rate transmission in a PON network. The test was conducted in Vodafone’s Eschborn lab in Germany.The Nokia Bell Labs 100G PON prototype leveraged 25G optics in combination with digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. 25G class optics are based on mature eco-system and...

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Dell'Oro: RAN revenues on track for a quarter trillion by 2025

Cumulative worldwide radio access network (RAN) revenues are projected to approach a quarter trillion USD over the 2020 to 2025 forecast period to accommodate the surging demand for 5G, according to a newly published forecast report by Dell'Oro Group.

"The global upswing that began in the second half of 2018 has become deeper and stronger, propelling the overall RAN market to continue to surprise on the upside," said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group. "Even with the market surprising on the upside, we believe that there is room for expansion over the near term as the early adopters continue to roll out 5G at an extraordinary pace, resulting in a more upbeat 5-year outlook relative to our last forecast," continued Pongratz.

Other highlights from the Mobile RAN 5-Year Forecast Report:

• The unexpected RAN surge is primarily driven by 5G NR. LTE is roughly on target but 5G NR revenues have accelerated.
• 5G NR RAN revenues to approach $150 Billion to $200 Billion.
• Cumulative 2020-2025 base station shipments remain on track to surpass 30 M.
• Global macro and small cell transceiver shipments to approach 0.8 Billion.

http://www.delloro.com

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Untether AI raises $125 million for high-performance silicon

Untether AI, a start-up based in Toronto, announced an oversubscribed $125 million funding round for its at-memory computation and AI inference acceleration silicon.

The latest funding was led by an affiliate of Tracker Capital Management and by Intel Capital, with participation from new investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPP Investments”) and existing investor Radical Ventures.

As part of the funding round, Tracker Capital Senior Advisor Dr. Shaygan Kheradpir will join Untether AI’s Board of Directors. Previously, Dr. Kheradpir served as Verizon’s Group CIO, Barclays Bank Group COO, and CEO of Coriant and Juniper Networks.

“I am pleased to add Tracker Capital to our prestigious group of investors and welcome Shaygan to our Board,” said Arun Iyengar, CEO, Untether AI. “Tracker Capital’s unmatched experience and relationships across sectors will help speed our engagements in multiple high-value markets, including telecom, technology, financial services, retail, and defense. I am also thrilled to welcome CPP Investments to the Untether AI family. With the new funding round and partnerships, we will be able to expand our current product reach and accelerate the development of our next generation products."

Saf Yeboah-Amankwah, Intel Chief Strategy Officer added: “We have been an investor in Untether AI since the seed round. During that time Untether AI has assembled a world-class management team, developed and launched an exceptional product, and is now poised for growth in the burgeoning AI inference acceleration space.”

The dramatic increase in the usage of AI, along with its heavy computational requirements, is overwhelming traditional compute architectures, and drastically increasing power consumption in datacenters. 

Untether AI said its at-memory compute architecture and tsunAImi accelerator cards can achieve record-breaking energy efficiency and compute density for inference acceleration. 

www.untether.ai

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Viavi bids again for EXFO and Germain Lamonde rejects

Viavi Solutions announced a fourth, unsolicited bid to acquire EXFO, which is undertaking a Go Private transaction. Viavi's new offer raises the bid from US$7.50 to US$8.00 in cash per share. 

Viavi said its higher offer reflects EXFO's recently announced fiscal third quarter 2021 financial results in which bookings increased 47.2% year-on-year to US$87 million with a book-to-bill ratio at 1.20.  EXFO's business strength reflects both a macroeconomic recovery and secular industry growth demand driven by 5G wireless and fiber network deployment.  EXFO's strong results and future prospects further underpin the inadequate US$6.00 consideration of the Going Private Transaction.

Mr. Germain Lamonde, founder of EXFO, issued the following statement:

"Viavi Solutions Inc. (Viavi) made a fourth unsolicited, non-binding proposal to acquire EXFO Inc. (EXFO), and, for the fourth time, I make it crystal clear to Viavi and to my board of directors at EXFO that as controlling shareholder of EXFO, I would not consider any transaction with Viavi, or any other change of control transaction. Viavi knew full well I would reject any new non-binding, non-executable tentative proposal, which in my view is only intended to create distortion in the current go-private process and is simply aimed at eliminating Viavi’s main competitor – it is clearly not in the best interest of Viavi and EXFO customers as they would end up paying much higher prices for the products we sell, having less services and no longer benefit from EXFO’s incredible innovation engine."

EXFO acquires InOpticals for 400G/800G testing

Saturday, January 02, 2021  EXFO  

EXFO completed its previously-announced acquisition of InOpticals Inc. of Taiwan. InOpticals' solutions will be integrated into EXFO's  test and measurement (T&M) product family. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed."EXFO has made strategic investments in recent years, both internally and through acquisitions, to increase its footprint in the rapidly growing lab and manufacturing test segments," said Germain Lamonde, EXFO's...

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CoreSite adds Google Cloud interconnect at Silicon Valley data center

CoreSite Realty announced support for Google Cloud’s Partner Interconnect on its Silicon Valley data center campus.

The service from Google Cloud allows customers to connect to Google Cloud globally, along with direct internet peering. This additional option provides CoreSite with the ability to offer low-latency fiber connectivity to Google Cloud using Dedicated Interconnect to support the Silicon Valley region’s most demanding data and application requirements. Dedicated Interconnect at CoreSite enables secure 10G and 100G connectivity at a lower cost than carriers or data centers providing Type 2 access. Google Cloud Interconnect has become the “go-to” solution to connect on-premises data centers to Google Cloud.

“We are dedicated to helping our customers solve increasing bandwidth and performance challenges. CoreSite’s interconnection platforms enable them to transfer and process large datasets with ultra-low latency, architect hybrid and multi-cloud solutions, and boost cloud access resiliency via diverse points of connectivity,” said Juan Font, CoreSite’s SVP of General Management. “Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect high-speed fiber connectivity is a value-adding enhancement to our interconnection capabilities in Silicon Valley.”

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QCT and DZS partner on virtualization, edge cloud, Open RAN

Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) and DZS announced a strategic partnership to jointly accelerate virtualization and containerized Open RAN-based infrastructures for telco operators.

The partnership leverages DZS mobile transport, telco edge, and converged network expertise and QCT’s server and NFV infrastructure integration capabilities, to address carrier and operator business opportunities 5G, edge cloud and network virtualization.

“The collaboration between QCT and DZS brings tremendous synergies,” said Mike Yang, President of QCT. “QCT’s profound infrastructure experiences coupled with DZS’s solid cloud-native, software-defined networking expertise promises a converged system blueprint for edge cloud and better 5G service experiences for telco customers.”

“We are excited to work with QCT and their portfolio of infrastructure solutions to enable open software-defined network virtualization and cloud-native automation solutions,” said Charlie Vogt, President and CEO of DZS. “Our partnership reflects a shared commitment to the realization of network-aware cloud technologies, open networks, and support customer choice, enabling operators to monetize their 5G investments with DZS Cloud and QCT platforms.”

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Analog Devices supplies beamforming chip for Metawave's 5G repeater

Analog Devices has supplied its ADMV4828 beamforming chipset for Metawave's new TURBO 5G repeater.

Metawave is now licensing TURBO steerable beamforming front-end modules, enabling 5G companies to immediately and affordably expand their offerings to include fully-calibrated and integrated dual-polarized antenna arrays.

“5GmmW is an exciting and necessary next step in the evolution of the communications market,” said Kerem Ok, RF Product Line Director at Analog Devices. “We are encouraged to see continuous development from Metawave in offering a versatile platform with most notably very high range leveraging our ADMV4828 beamforming chipset.”

Metawave offers its passive KLONE reflectors, for indoor and outdoor use, which provide a license-free, no power solution to extend 5G. Metawave’s TURBO repeater is for outdoor use, and offers a low power, lightweight, small footprint, and affordable alternative to installing high volumes of radios. Even more attractive, Metawave’s TURBO all-analog repeater delivers unmatched range extension and data throughput increase with its 100+ dB overall gain and near-zero signal distortion to accommodate higher modulations.

“We’ve demonstrated extremely high range gains with our advanced TURBO repeater since integrating with the Analog Devices ADMV4828 chipset,” said Metawave’s CEO and co-founder Maha Achour. “Our KLONE platforms are currently being tested globally and our partners and customers are experiencing great results with our specifically-designed passive reflectors. TURBO, purpose-built for easy installation and outdoor usage, boosts 5G signals much further and even through glass, solving many of the issues organizations face as they deploy 5G in cities, stadiums, and challenging areas.”

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