Hughes and OneWeb alliance targets enterprise services

Hughes Network Systems and OneWeb have signed a distribution agreement in the U.S. focused on enterprise services. 

In India, the parties have entered into an MOU for a strategic agreement to distribute services to large enterprises, small and medium businesses, government, telcos and ISPs, including in the rural and remote parts of the country. 

Hughes and OneWeb also stated that thy intend to work together to broaden distribution globally, with Hughes to offer OneWeb's low-latency, high-speed connectivity for markets such as enterprise, government, commercial aviation and maritime, cellular backhaul, and community Wi-Fi hotspots.   

The companies also highlighted a demonstration of multi-orbit connectivity in action. The test, recorded on August 26, featured the successful real-time, seamless switching between the Hughes JUPITER 2 geostationary, high-throughput satellite (HTS) and OneWeb's low latency, high speed LEO constellation. 

Hughes' ActiveTechnologies software instantaneously evaluated the type of traffic and transmitted it over the most efficient path: latency-sensitive activities (like fast-twitch video gaming and a video call) were transmitted via OneWeb; bandwidth-intensive activities like video streaming were transmitted via JUPITER HTS.

Hughes, through its parent company EchoStar, is an investor in OneWeb. It is also an ecosystem partner to OneWeb, developing gateway electronics and the core module that will power every user terminal for the system. And Hughes is the prime contractor on an agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab to integrate and demonstrate managed LEO SATCOM using OneWeb capacity in the Arctic region.

OneWeb's initial constellation will consist of 648 LEO satellites. Services will begin this year to the Arctic region, including Alaska, Canada, and the UK. By late 2022, OneWeb will be offering its high-speed, low latency connectivity services globally. Service testing on the satellites already in orbit is underway, using gateways that Hughes is building for the network. Results are positive, including seamless satellite and beam handovers, high speeds and low latency.

Hughes is developing its next-generation JUPITER 3 Ultra-High Density Satellite, expected to launch in the second half of 2022.

Pradman Kaul, President, Hughes, said: "The future of connectivity depends on a worldwide network of multiple transports, including terrestrial, geostationary and Low Earth Orbit satellite services. OneWeb's system enhances the Hughes portfolio of networking capabilities, introducing a low-latency option with global reach that complements GEO satellite capacity density and capability to meet our customers' needs. As a case in point, in India which has been starved of high-throughput satellite services, the OneWeb services will help us meet the tremendous backhaul and broadband demand."

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IDC: Switching revenues rise 11% while routing dip 0.5% in Q2

The worldwide Ethernet switch market recorded revenues of $7.4 billion in the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21), an increase of 10.8% year over year, while worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market revenues declined 0.5% year over year in 2Q21 to $3.9 billion, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker.

"IDC witnessed a strong start to 2021 for the global Ethernet switch market, as macroeconomic conditions improved and a growing number of organizations worldwide demonstrated perseverance and digital resilience in the face of the rolling challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Brad Casemore, research vice president, Datacenter and Multicloud Networks at IDC. "Enterprises made notable investments in their campus networks, while hyperscalers and other providers of cloud services continue to drive growth in high-bandwidth datacenter switching."

Highlights from IDC

Switching

The Ethernet switch market's annualized growth of 10.8% builds upon the 7.6% growth in the first quarter of 2021. For the first half of the year, Ethernet switch revenues are up 9.3% over 2020. Compared to the second quarter of 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic – revenues increased 3.8%.

From a geographic perspective, the 2Q21 Ethernet switch market had strong results across most parts the world. In Asia/Pacific, the People's Republic of China revenues grew 11.6% year over year while Japan's market increased 8.3%. More broadly in the Asia/Pacific region, excluding China and Japan, the market rose 20.5% year over year in the quarter, buoyed by the market in Singapore growing 58.2% annually. In Europe, results were mixed: Western Europe's market rose 23.1% year over year with strength from France, which grew 39.3%. Central and Eastern Europe's market was essentially flat at 0.5% growth with Russia declining 4.8%. In the Middle East & Africa, the market increased 2.6% year over year. Across the Americas, revenues in the United States rose 6.2%, Canada's market fell 1.0%, and Latin America's market increased 8.1% year over year with Mexico rising 15.8% compared to a year earlier.

Overall port shipments increased 28.4%, driven by strength in the non-datacenter portion of the Ethernet switch market. Non-datacenter Ethernet switch revenues grew 17.7% in 2Q21 with port shipments increasing 36.1%. The non-datacenter ethernet switch portion of the market makes up 88.6% of port shipments and 58.5% of total market revenues with the balance of revenues and port shipments in the datacenter portion of the market. In the datacenter segment, revenues rose 2.4% year over year, while port shipments declined 10.6%.

The higher-speed segments of the Ethernet switch market continue to see significant growth, driven by hyperscalers and cloud providers. Market revenues for 200/400 GbE switches grew 132.5% from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2021, with port shipments more than tripling (+206.0%) on a sequential basis. 100GbE revenues increased 15.4% on an annualized basis, while port shipments rose 11.4% year over year. 25/50 GbE revenues increased 25.6% year over year while port shipments rose 1.3%.

Lower-speed switches, a more mature part of the market, saw mixed results. 10GbE port shipments rose 3.1% year over year, but revenue declined 8.4%. 10Gb switches make up 23.4% of the market's total revenue. 1GbE switches increased 33.2% annually in port shipments and 14.4% in revenue. 1GbE accounts for 35.9% of the total Ethernet switch market's revenue. 2.5/5GbE revenue increased 25.3% sequentially from 1Q21 to 2Q21, while port shipments rose 26.6% quarter over quarter.

Router Market

The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market declined 0.5% year over year in 2Q20 with the major service provider segment, which accounts for 76.7% of revenues, falling 0.8% and the enterprise segment increasing 0.4%. From a regional perspective, the combined service provider and enterprise router market increased 15.7% in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan & China). Japan's market increased 4.9% while the People's Republic of China market was down 14.4% year over year. Revenues in Western Europe grew 3.3% year over year, while in Central and Eastern Europe the combined enterprise and service provider market was flat. The Middle East & Africa region grew 4.3%. In the U.S., the enterprise segment was down 4.8%, while service provider revenues increased 7.8%, giving the combined markets a 4.6% increase on an annualized basis. The Latin America market grew 1.0% on an annualized basis and Canada's market increased 2.2% year over year.

Company highlights

• Cisco finished 2Q21 with a 4.5% increase in overall Ethernet switch revenues and market share of 44.1%. Cisco's combined service provider and enterprise router revenue grew 2.4% year over year with enterprise router revenue decreasing 9.8% and SP revenues increasing 10.1%. Cisco's combined SP and enterprise router market share stands at 34.2% in the quarter.
• Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue increased 3.5% on an annualized basis, giving the company market share of 11.1%. The company's combined SP and enterprise router revenue declined 8.5% year over year, giving the company a market share of 33.4%.
• Arista Networks saw Ethernet switch revenues increase 31.6% in 2Q21, bringing its share of the total market to 7.5%.
• H3C's Ethernet switch revenue increased 10.6% year over year, giving the company market share of 7.0% in the quarter. In the combined service provider and enterprise routing market, H3C's revenues increased 32.6%, giving the company 2.5% market share.
• HPE's Ethernet switch revenue increased 46.4% year over year, giving the company a market share of 6.7%.
• Juniper's Ethernet switch revenue increased 23.3% year over year in 2Q21, bringing its Ethernet switch market share to 3.1%. Juniper saw a 3.9% decline in combined enterprise and SP router sales, bringing its market share in the router market to 9.8%.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS48222221

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IDC: Worldwide server market revenue dips 2.5% in Q2

Worldwide server market revenue declined 2.5% year over year to $23.6 billion during the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21), while worldwide server shipments surpassed 3.2 million during the quarter, an increase of just 0.1% over the previous year, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.

Volume server revenue was up 5.6% to nearly $20.0 billion. Midrange server revenue declined 30.0% to $2.4 billion, and high-end servers declined by 32.7% to $1.3 billion.

"Broadly speaking, server market performance was muted in the second quarter as the market shifted slightly towards single socket server configurations," said Paul Maguranis, senior research analyst, Infrastructure Platforms and Technologies at IDC. "While servers purchased directly from ODMs declined year over year, some past backlog recovery within the hyperscale datacenter community contributed to a large jump in this segment when compared to the first quarter of this year."

Overall Server Market Standings, by Company

• HPE/H3C ended the quarter in a statistical tie with Dell Technologies for the top position in the worldwide server market. The revenue shares for the two companies were 15.7% and 15.6% respectively. 
• Inspur/Inspur Power Systems ranked third with 9.4% revenue share. 
• Lenovo was in fourth place while IBM came in at fifth, with 7.0% share and 5.0% share respectively. 
• The ODM Direct group of vendors accounted for 26.7% of total server revenue and declined 8.8% year over year to $6.3 billion while accounting for 32.2% of all units shipped during the quarter.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS48221821

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Dell'Oro: Sales of broadband access equipment rise 7% in Q2

Total global revenue for the Broadband Access equipment market increased to $3.6 B in 2Q 2021, up 7 percent year-over-year (Y/Y). Growth came from spending on both Cable and PON infrastructure, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

"Fiber buildouts for residential, business, and mobile transport applications show no signs of slowing," noted Jeff Heynen, Vice President, Broadband Access and Home Networking at Dell'Oro Group. "Despite supply chain constraints and increased costs, operators continue to prioritize spending on their broadband access networks," explained Heynen.

Additional highlights from the 2Q 2021 Broadband Access and Home Networking quarterly report:

• Total cable access concentrator revenue increased 12 percent Y/Y to $247 M. Node splitting activity continues, resulting in increased DOCSIS licenses as well as new DAA node purchases.
• Total DSL Access Concentrator revenue was down 51 percent Y/Y, driven by slower port shipments worldwide as more operators shift their spending to fiber.
• Total PON ONT unit shipments exceeded 35 M for the second time in three quarters.

https://www.delloro.com/news/accelerating-fiber-deployments-fuel-7-percent-y-y-growth-for-broadband-equipment/

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Dell'Oro: Campus switch sales surge 15% yoy in Q2

The worldwide Campus Switch market revenue surged in 2Q 2021, growing 15 percent year-over-year, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. The last time we saw such a robust performance was back in 4Q 2018 when Cisco initiated its Catalyst 9K refresh cycle.

“Although a favorable comparison with the year-ago period may have played a role in this rebound, it is very encouraging to see a broad-based growth across all major regions; enterprises of all sizes (from large to small); and nearly all industry verticals, including those that have been hit hard by the pandemic such the hospitality sector,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “This is an improvement from the prior quarter where the recovery has been driven mostly by government stimulus that benefited mainly the public sector,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the 2Q 2021 Ethernet Switch – Campus Report:

• The year-over-year growth was broad-based across nearly all vendors, including those with high exposure to the low-end market.
• Despite the robust growth, supply constraints impacted to some degree certain products and vendors. A more pronounced impact may manifest in the second half of the year.

https://www.delloro.com/news/the-campus-switch-market-roars-back-in-2q-2021/

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Slovak Telekom picks Ekinops to upgrade its network access

Slovak Telekom, a Deutsche Telekom Group member, has selected Ekinops' network access solution to upgrade its legacy symmetrical DSL network.

Slovak Telecom is utilizing Ekinops’ ONE521 router, which combines a DSL modem, a Fiber port and LTE as an option. Slovak Telekom can now benefit from this remotely provisioned router based on the Ekinops OneOS6 operating system. The OneOS6 software offers as standard a broad set of network access features, and also supports advanced VPN, SD-WAN and a Microsoft Direct Routing certified session border controller. 

Ekinops says its solution enables Slovak Telekom to easily expand its service portfolio and handle increasing connectivity demands (from DSL to Fiber) without changing hardware.

“We were familiar with Ekinops’ strong technical capabilities and personalized, collaborative approach following its close work with other Deutsche Telekom group members,” commented Jozef Lachkovic, Director of Technology Transformation and Optimization at Slovak Telekom. “These qualities have been central to this project’s success. Highly responsive and agile, Ekinops has delivered a flexible, open and cost-effective solution that aligns with our needs today and in the future.”  

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