Spirent: 5G trends accelerating

As of mid-year 2021, 5G trends are continuing to accelerate, with 5G SA Core evaluation, testing and launch activities growing significantly across all geographic regions, according to Spirent Communications, which supplies test, assurance, and analytics solutions to mobile operators and network equiment vendors and device suppliers worldwide.

“At the halfway point in 2021, the dominant 5G trends that were present at the start of the year continue to gather pace, with the need for agility and responsiveness enduring,” said Spirent’s Head of Market Strategy, Steve Douglas. “With end-user adoption increasing at a blistering pace, service providers in all major regions are focused on accelerating time to market, improving coverage and optimizing costs. It’s clear that the global 5G race is back on.

Some highlights of the mid-year addendum to the Spirent 5G report: 

Geographic Trends - All major regions (North America, Europe and Asia) are aggressively pursuing 5G Standalone (SA) Core testing and deployments. North America is driving the demand for customer experience and service assurance solutions. Asia Pacific continues its focus on and investment in transport infrastructure, toward the goal of supporting industrial use cases. Europe is starting to accelerate activities after COVID and high-risk vendor delays.

5G Standalone - New services and differentiation are driving 5G Standalone. 5G SA Core evaluation, testing and launch continue to grow significantly across all geographic regions. Large service providers are looking to use multiple vendors while smaller telcos look for one key partner. Key challenges include supporting high release volumes and managing multi-vendor performance.

5G Telco Edge Cloud - Partnerships, early trials and deployments between hyperscalers and service providers are expanding. Providers are still working to benchmark edge performance and integrate assurance for consistent, deterministic latency. Latency looks set to become a key battle ground for the hearts and minds of industry and enterprises.

Open RAN - There are currently 45 ongoing Open RAN trials and early deployments across 27 countries (source: TeckNexus). Leading 5G service providers are targeting larger-scale Open RAN non-dense urban rollouts during 2022. Early deployments will focus on rural, indoor and private coverage. Interoperability, performance, robustness and system integrator overheads require that service providers continue to test and validate every deployment phase.

6G Vision - The industry is beginning to coalesce around some key themes, including THz frequencies, use of intelligent reconfigurable surfaces and metamaterials, open networking and network of networks (terrestrial cellular, NTN, subsea, and Wi-Fi convergence).

Spirent’s “5G 2021: Market Drivers, Insights & Consideration” addendum is available here:

http://www.spirent.com/assets/the-spirent-2021-5g-report

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Nokia demos 1 Tbps per channel coherent with Vodafone

Nokia demonstrated a 1 Tbps (terabit per second) per channel coherent transmission over the live optical network of Vodafone Turkey. The companies proved a capacity increase of 150% over a single channel coherent transmission, and the ability to scale network capacity up to 70 Tbps per fiber. 

The test showcased 1 Tbps capacity over 130 GHz bandwidth without any errors on Vodafone Turkey’s live optical network between its data centers. The trial was conducted over the operator’s in-service optical network, based on Nokia’s  wavelength routing technolgy, which includes its high performance, non-blocking CDC-F ROADM optical switch architecture. Supporting operation over C+L bands, Nokia’s optical line system also enables a doubling of the total fiber capacity of Vodafone Turkey’s network.

Nokia said the test also used its photonic service engine (PSE) technology for providing maximum performance and spectral efficiency. The Nokia PSE coherent optics are deployed in Vodafone Turkey’s network using the 1830 PSI-M (Photonic Service Interconnect-Modular) compact modular optical networking platform, optimized for data center interconnect applications over metro, regional and long-haul distances.

The test builds upon an earlier trial conducted by Nokia and Vodafone Turkey that validated a 1 Tbps clear channel IP router interface. 

Thibaud Rerolle, CTO at Vodafone Turkey, said: “At Vodafone Turkey, we are committed to using next generation technology to provide the most convenient services to our customers – uninterrupted and reliably. Our fiber optic backbone is an important step on the way to 5G and, with Nokia, we continue to equip our optical network with the latest technologies and innovations for our services today and in the future." 

James Watt, Head of Optical Networks Division, Nokia, said: “Our field-proven optical technologies and solutions are enabling service providers like Vodafone Turkey to meet growing capacity demand and provide the best end-user experience. We are pleased to complement our deployment of advanced optical transport solutions with the successful and timely completion of this crucial trial to modernize Vodafone Turkey’s optical network. Together, we are accelerating their digital transformation with solutions that can be easily scaled to meet 5G demands.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2021/09/09/nokia-and-vodafone-turkey-achieve-maximum-optical-transmission-capacity/

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 transport architecture that will enable the operator to evolve its transport infrastructure in a changing industry. Nokia’s 7250 IXR interconnect router and FP4-based 7750 Service Router portfolios have already been deployed for the delivery of high capacity, low latency 5G services to Vodafone Turkey’s customers. Nokia’s platforms support the features and protocols that will enable SDN control automation and optimization of applications and use cases.

Thibaud Rerolle, CTO, at Vodafone Turkey, said: “As we ramp up our delivery of new services, we are committed to providing the best possible quality of experience to our customers. We continue to rely on Nokia to evolve our IP network with industry-leading router innovation and technology to address our needs today and for next generation services." 

Vach Kompella, Head of IP Networks Division, Nokia, said: “Today’s IP networks are expected to handle hundreds of new applications and services for millions of users. The 1T trial builds upon Nokia’s advanced routing technology and platforms to future-proof Vodafone Turkey’s IP network, which serves one of the world’s largest intercontinental markets. Together we have successfully validated Nokia’s FP4 based 1T clear channel interface across Asia and Europe.”

Nokia and Elisa test first 1 terabit clear-channel interface

Wednesday, January 27, 2021  Elisa, Finland, Nokia, Terabit  

Elisa, a network operator serving Finland and Estonia, has tested the first 1 Tbps clear-channel interface across its commercial infrastructure.Elisa upgraded some of its Nokia 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS) nodes with 1T interfaces powered by Nokia’s FP4 chipset, the industry’s first terabit capable routing silicon. The new FP4 terabit linecard supports two 1T ports and demonstrated deployment readiness by carrying live traffic on Elisa’s...

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T-Systems teams with Google Cloud on sovereign cloud for Germany

T-Systems announced a strategic, long-term partnership with Google Cloud to provide a sovereign cloud for German enterprises, the public sector, and healthcare organizations. 

The companies agreed to develop a large spectrum of next-generation sovereign cloud solutions and infrastructure where customers can host their sensitive workloads whilst continuing to leverage the scalability, elasticity and reliability of public cloud services. Service management and operation of the sovereign cloud will be supervised by T-Systems.

The new joint offering that will be available as of mid 2022 and then upgraded over the following months. In addition, T Systems will exercise a control function over relevant parts of the German Google Cloud infrastructure. 

"Our joint strategic goal is to support the digitalization of European companies and the public sector as they move operations to the cloud," explained Adel Al-Saleh, member of the Telekom Board of Management and CEO of T-Systems. "Together with Google Cloud, we will build a sovereign cloud services portfolio that provides clients with full control over their data, software and operations whilst leveraging the full power of Google Cloud. Even stricter compliance requirements for public sector institutions will be addressed. We are happy that we’ll be able to offer customers a cloud solution that is secure and sovereign, but also gives access to the innovation and scalability of Google Cloud in Germany. We are also considering Austria and Switzerland as a next step," he added.

"We’re committed to helping enable Germany’s digital transformation,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “Data privacy, security and control are vital to European and German organizations as they digitize their operations. The sovereign cloud solution we are partnering with T-Systems to create will provide public and private-sector organizations with an additional layer of technical and operational measures and controls that ensure German customers can meet their data, operational, and software sovereignty requirements." 

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/sovereign-cloud-from-t-systems-and-google-cloud-635314

T-Systems enters strategic collaboration agreement with AWS

Thursday, December 17, 2020  AWS, Cloud, Deutsche Telekom, T-Systems  

T-Systems and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement to manage the digital transformation of companies more quickly, efficiently and securely. 

T-Systems said the agreement will spur it to build out capacity in both solutions and people through a strong training and enablement program. The ICT service provider intends to train 3,000 additional AWS experts as part of the new collaboration.

Regarding security, AWS and T-Systems agreed to closely collaborate to achieve the targets recently set by the European regulation.

“Since the beginning of our relationship with AWS, we have built up expertise in AWS technology and combined it with our extensive experience from major transformation projects. Our customers appreciate this,” explained Adel Al-Saleh, member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management and CEO T-Systems.

https://www.t-systems.com/us/en/about-t-systems/news/t-systems-and-aws-expand-collaboration-365120

Deutsche Telekom aligns with Microsoft Azure

Thursday, December 10, 2020  Deutsche Telekom, Microsoft  

Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft announced a seven-year strategic agreement to help customers of all sizes accelerate their cloud transformation initiatives. 

"We have agreed on the framework for joint strategic growth with our long-term partner Microsoft. We are delighted," said Adel Al-Saleh, member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management and CEO of T-Systems. "This partnership will enable us to enhance services for our customers. We will also be supporting each other with digitalization and network build-out." 

Highlights

• Telekom plans to migrate the majority of its internal IT workloads to the public cloud by 2025 and Azure is a central part of that strategy. Through a companywide training program, thousands of Telekom employees will learn how to maximize the benefits of Azure. 
• Telekom will also offer its customers direct access to the Microsoft cloud through Azure ExpressRoute. 
• Telekom will offer Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams. As part of this, the companies have started a project for German schools to reimagine traditional approaches to education, enabling remote learning through cloud-based IT infrastructure, modern devices and the cloud productivity and collaboration applications within Microsoft 365. 
• Telekom will help its customers with moving their SAP environments to Azure. SAP solutions on Azure offer enterprise-grade security, and business continuity and reduce hardware expenses, making it easier for start-ups and smaller organizations to get started. 

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HyperLight advances its thin-film lithium niobate PICs

HyperLight, a start-up based in Cambridge, Mass., cited progress in its development of thin-film lithium niobate photonic integrated circuits for next-generation 800 Gbps and beyond 1.6 Tbps optical networking systems.

HyperLight claims its thin-film lithium niobate integrated photonics solution combines the proven superior material property of lithium niobate with an established and scalable integration process. The company has developed a thin-film lithium niobate modulator that reaches sub-volt driving voltages while maintaining >100 GHz bandwidth. Earlier generation of the devices achieved 700.5 Gbps line rate and 538.8 Gbps net rate over 10.2 km of single-mode fiber of intensity-modulated and direct detected (IM-DD) signals in a demonstration conducted with Nokia Bell Labs. 

Dr. Mian Zhang, CEO and co-founder of HyperLight, will present the company at the upcoming 2021 European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) next week in France.

https://hyperlightcorp.com/

HyperLight claims breakthrough with its lithium niobate optical modulator

Sunday, March 14, 2021  HyperLight, Optical, Start-Up  

HyperLight, a start-up based in Cambridge, MA developing thin-film lithium niobate (LN) photonic integrated circuits (PICs), announced breakthrough voltage-bandwidth performances in integrated electro-optic modulators. 

HyperLight says its electro-optic PIC could lead to orders of magnitude energy consumption reduction for next generation optical networking.

Current electro-optic modulators require extremely high radio-frequency (RF) driving voltages (> 5 V) as the analog bandwidth in ethernet ports approaches 100 GHz for future terabits per sec capacity transceivers. In comparison, a typical CMOS RF modulator driver delivers less than 0.5 V at such frequencies. Compound semiconductor modulator drivers can deliver voltage > 1 V at significantly increased cost and energy consumption but still fall short to meet the optimum driving voltage. The limited voltage-bandwidth performance in electro-optic modulators poses a serious challenge for meeting tight power consumption requirements from network builders.

HyperLight's integrated electro-optic modulator is capable of 3-dB bandwidth > 100 GHz, a previously impossible voltage-bandwidth achievement. The results are described in a manuscript entitled “Breaking voltage-bandwidth limits in integrated lithium niobate modulators using micro-structured electrodes,” published in Optica on March 8th, 2021.

“We believe the significantly improved electro-optic modulation performance in our integrated LN platform will lead to a paradigm shift for both analog and digital ultra-high speed RF links,” said Mian Zhang, author, CEO of HyperLight. “For example, using sub-volt modulators for digital applications, high speed electronic drivers may have largely reduced gain-bandwidth requirements or possibly be completely bypassed with modulators directly driven from electronic processors. This would save building and running costs for network operators. For RF links, the low-voltage, high bandwidth and excellent optical power handling ability could enable sensitive and low noise millimeter wave (mmWave) photonic links in ultrahigh-frequency bands.”

http://www.hyperlightcorp.com

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Databricks closes whopping $1.6 billion for data lakehouse

Databricks, which offers a data, analytics and AI platform, announced the final closing of its $1.6 billion Series H funding round with the participation of existing investors Amazon Web Services (AWS), CapitalG, and Microsoft.

Databricks, which is based in San Francisco, now boasts a $38 billion post-money valuation. 

Databricks says the new funding will be used to accelerate innovation and adoption of the lakehouse as the data architecture’s popularity across data-driven organizations continues to grow at a rapid pace.

“We are delighted to once again include our most strategic partners in this latest round of funding, as it validates our vision for an open and unified approach to data and AI on any cloud,” said Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks. “As we jointly make more organizations successful in their move to the cloud and accelerate adoption of the lakehouse architecture, we’re excited to see these partnerships – and the ecosystems formed around them – continue to grow for decades to come.”

Databrick builds its analytics platform directly on the cloud data lakes on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud to support multiple data and analytics workloads in a single, unified location. The company claims more than 5,000 customers organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, H&M, and over 40% of the Fortune 500. Its founders include the original creators of Apache Spark, Delta Lake and MLflow.  

https://databricks.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/databricks-closes-series-h-with-additional-participation-from-strategic-partners

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King County builds metro edge with ADVA

 King County in the state of Washington is using ADVA's FSP 150 metro edge device to upgrade its network which serves education, public and government facilities.

ADVA’s compact and scalable FSP 150 device supports 100 Gbps aggregation at the metro edge, enabling the county to migrate its customers to 10 Gbps Ethernet services. 

King County’s new edge infrastructure delivers highly reliable MEF 3.0 demarcation and service aggregation. The ADVA FSP 150-XG400 Series features assurance functions and provides visibility of service quality – a key tool for effective SLA management. The device also includes pre-activation testing for 100 Gbps services. 

“The I-Net is a vital resource that provides cost-effective, dependable connectivity at public facilities for communities across the county. Local governments, schools, libraries and our many other partners throughout the region can confidently access even the most data-hungry, latency-sensitive applications. This high-capacity solution at the edge provides robust infrastructure that allows our partners to deliver critical online services to King County residents, regardless of their ZIP code,” said Tommy Lee, manager, I-Net and business development, King County. “ADVA’s edge technology is highly scalable because it requires no extra space or power consumption to quickly transition from 1Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s. It creates a genuinely future-proof architecture ready to expand further in years to come.”

http://www.adva.com

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UScellular selects Nokia for 5G SA core

UScellular selected Nokia for its standalone 5G core network. Deployment expected to be completed by the end of 2022. Financial terms were not disclosed.

UScellular’s deployment of Nokia’s 5G core adds to its existing support for the Radio Access Network (RAN) where Nokia is supplying its AirScale radios for both low-band and mmWave 5G.

Ed Cholerton, President of Nokia North America, said: “We are thrilled to be selected by UScellular to deliver a full 5G experience to its customers. Our 5G SA core and 5G radios provide not only new capabilities, scale, operational efficiencies, and revenue opportunities, but drive a far better user experience that customers expect. Working with UScellular to provide the core network function software and cloud infrastructure continues our momentum in the North American standalone 5G core market.”

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Verizon adds locations for 5G UWB and Home Internet

Verizon expanded the footprint of its 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service to Harrisburg, PA; Athens, GA; Orlando, FL and Fremont, CA, which means 5G Ultra Wideband is now available in parts of 82 cities. 

Verizon also expanded the availability of its 5G Home service to five additional cities: Fremont, CA; Orlando, FL; Pensacola, FL; Sarasota, FL and Niagara Falls, NY. With the addition of these new cities, Verizon’s 5G Home Internet is now available in parts of 57 cities.

“Our continued investment in 5G Ultra Wideband means that more people than ever can experience unmatched speed on phones and a home broadband alternative that is transforming the market,” said Kyle Malady, Verizon’s chief technology officer. “We will continue our aggressive push into even more places.”

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Altice USA announces resignation of its COO

Altice USA confirmed the resignation of Hakim Boubazine, Chief Operating Officer and President of Telecommunications.

Altice USA Chief Executive Officer Dexter Goei will assume direct responsibilities for the Telecommunications division, effective immediately. Mr. Boubazine will serve as Senior Advisor to the CEO until December 31, 2021.

Mr. Goei commented: “It has been a pleasure to work with Hakim, and I want to thank him for the critical role he has played over the last six years at Altice USA. We appreciate the time he will serve as a senior advisor and wish him much success in his future endeavors.”

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