ONF spins out Ananki, a start-up focused on private 5G

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) launched Ananki, an independent venture-backed company to deliver open source-based Software-Defined Private 5G as a commercial service to address enterprises’ unique requirements of Industry 4.0. The ambition is to enable enterprise private 5G that is hardened and optimized for industrial applications, yet as easy to consume as Wi-Fi.

Ananki’s technological foundation is ONF’s open source Aether, SD-RAN, SD-Fabric and SD-Core projects. The company will offer a private 5G solution delivered as a SaaS. 

Key attributes:

• Optimized 5G+ Experience - Software-defined, automated, AI powered, application optimized connectivity, with enhanced security enabled by a programmable data plane 
• Cloud First - pre-integrated with hyperscaler cloud and edge, delivering private 5G as a SaaS service, creating a continuously improving experience running on any multi-cloud platform
• Industry 4.0 Ready - Empowering developers to build transformative IoT, IIoT and OT solutions with rich APIs

“ONF continues to innovate in ways that magnify the power of open systems and open source across our industry. The ONF board recognizes that the lack of support for open source initiatives from commercial companies remains an inhibiting factor for scaled adoption. To meet this challenge, we have agreed to spin out Ananki as an independent company to pursue commercialization of Aether with a view that this will help accelerate the adoption and impact of open source,” states Andre Fuetsch, ONF Board Chair and AT&T CTO.

Guru Parulkar, Executive Director ONF and CEO of Ananki, comments: “Ananki is broadening the impact of the ONF’s work, and will help ONF’s Aether become much more broadly adopted.  By providing a commercially supported option for consuming Aether, many more organizations will be able to easily and economically leverage the benefits of Private 5G for building Industry 4.0 solutions.  And in turn, Ananki is committed to contributing back to the ONF open source, helping to advance the Aether platform and broaden the ONF community.”

https://ananki.io/

http://www.opennetworking.org

 ONF's Aether Edge Cloud selected for DARPA's Pronto Project

Thursday, December 03, 2020  ONF  

The Open Networking Foundation's Aether 5G Connected Edge Cloud platform is being used as the software platform for Pronto, a project backed by $30 million in DARPA funding to develop secure 5G network infrastructure. Specifically, DARPA is funding ONF to build, deploy and operate the network to support research by Cornell, Princeton and Stanford universities in the areas of network verification and closed-loop control. 

Aether (pronounced ‘ee-ther’) provides mobile connectivity and edge cloud services for distributed enterprise networks, all provisioned and managed from a centralized cloud. ONF will enhance and deploy its open source Aether software platform as the foundation for the Pronto research work, and in turn the research results will be open sourced back into Aether to help advance Aether as a platform for future secure 5G network infrastructure.

One of Pronto's goals is "to leverage network programmability to enable deep and wide network visibility, verification, and closed-loop control, giving programmers tools to build and dynamically deploy customized network functionality in a secure and reliable manner."

ONF also confirmed that it is now running a beta production deployment of Aether.  This deployment is a single unified cloud managed network interconnecting the project’s commercial partners AT&T, Ciena, Intel, Google, NTT, ONF and Telefonica. This initial deployment supports CBRS and/or 4G/LTE radio access at all sites, and is cloud managed from a shared core running in the Google public cloud.

The University campuses are being added to this Aether deployment in support of Pronto. Campus sites will be used by Pronto researchers to advance the Pronto research, serving as both a development platform and a testbed for use case experimentation. The Aether footprint is expected to grow on the university campuses as Aether’s 5G Connected Edge Cloud capabilities are leveraged both for research on additional use cases as well as for select campus operations.

“At Google Cloud, we are working closely with the telecom ecosystem to help enable 5G transformation, accelerated by the power of cloud computing. We are pleased to support the Open Networking Foundation's work to extend the availability of 5G and edge capabilities via an open source platform,” stated Shailesh Shukla, VP and GM, Networking, Google Cloud.

“Cornell is deploying Aether on campus to bring private 5G/LTE connectivity services with edge cloud capabilities into our research facilities.  We expect private 5G/LTE with connected edge cloud to become an important and integral part of our research infrastructure for many research and operational groups on the campus.  We also see the value of interconnecting a nation-wide leading infrastructure with Stanford, Princeton and ONF for collaborative research among university researchers across the country,” said David Lifka, Vice President for Information Technologies and CIO, Cornell University.

https://prontoproject.org/

https://opennetworking.org/

ONF's Aether targets Enterprise 5G/LTE-Edge-Cloud-as-a-Service

Thursday, March 05, 2020  ONF  

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced Aether – the first open-source platform for delivering Enterprise 5G/LTE-Edge-Cloud-as-a-Service.

Aether (pronounced ‘ee-ther’) provides mobile connectivity and edge cloud services for distributed enterprise networks, all provisioned and managed from a centralized cloud.

Aether leverages existing work from ONF including the CORD and ONOS platforms. It can be run in a Kubernetes environment, and it simultaneously supports deployment on licensed (4G/5G) and unlicensed (CBRS) spectrum.

“Aether opens the door for enterprises to rapidly deploy 5G and edge cloud services to help power their digital transformations. This can be done with a variety of flexible business models including in collaboration with telco operators, cloud operators, and third party providers. It offers the flexibility to utilize a wide range of bands including 5G, licensed bands, and CBRS. This cloud-enabled platform turns mobile connectivity and enterprise mobile edge cloud capabilities into a cloud-managed service, simplifying deployment and operations while delivering scalable and cost-effective services,” states Guru Parulkar, Executive Director, ONF & Executive Director, Stanford Platform Lab.

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HyperLight and Nokia Bell Labs demonstrate 300 GBd for PAM-4

HyperLight, a start-up based in Cambridge, MA developing thin-film lithium niobate (LN) photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and Nokia Bell Labs demonstrated a new record-breaking high-speed data transmission using its ultrahigh bandwidth, linear, and low noise thin-film lithium niobate Mach Zehnder (MZM) modulator.

Using a HyperLight photonic chip, Nokia Bell Labs demonstrated a low complexity faster than Nyquist scheme without transmitter pre-processing achieving a record symbol rate of 300 GBd for PAM-4 and 570 GBd for OOK using a 100-GHz digital-band interleaved digital-to-analog converter together with HyperLight’s low voltage, linear, and low noise, 100-GHz thin-film LiNbO3 Mach Zehnder modulator (MZM). 

HyperLight says this pre-processing-free faster than Nyquist technique could be crucial for future co-packaged optics to drive the optics directly by the SerDes output without the power-hungry digital signal regeneration.

The details of these demonstrations were presented at the ECOC 2021 post-deadline sessions. The authors of the paper include Di Che and Xi Chen from Nokia Bell Labs.

In addition, HyperLight, together with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), demonstrated the first ultra-broadband Analog-to-Digital converter with a record-high acquisition bandwidth of 320 GHz. This is a significant milestone achieved using HyperLight's high bandwidth thin-film lithium niobate modulator which allowed the imprinting of radio frequency signal on an optical carrier and enabled the direct modulation of data at a record high carrier frequency of 300 GHz.

The paper authors include HyperLight CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Mian Zhang, Head of Devices, Dr. Prashanta Kharel, D. Fang, D. Drayss, G. Lihachev, P. Marin-Palomo, H. Peng, C. Füllner, A. Kuzmin, J. Liu, R. Wang, V. Snigirev, A. Lukashchuk, J. Witzens, C. Scheytt, W. Freude, S. Randel, T. J. Kippenberg, and C. Koos.

http://www.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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FCC releases $1.9 billion Supply Chain Reimbursement Program

The FCC posted information for communication service providers seeking funding from the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program for costs incurred for the removal, replacement, and disposal of Huawei and ZTE equipment and services obtained on or before June 30, 2020.

The $1.9 billion funding program is open to communications service providers with 10 million or fewer customers, including schools, libraries and healthcare providers that provide advanced communications services. The program will open on Friday, October 29, 2021 at 12:00 AM ET and close on Friday, January 14, 2022 at 11:59 PM ET.

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Huawei intros four optical infrastructure products

At its annual HUAWEI CONNECT 2021 event,  Huawei launched four new optical infrastructure products: a hybrid OTN (H-OTN) platform supporting Native Hard Pipes (NHPs) technology,  an OptiXsense platform for fiber monitoring, an industrial optical terminal, and a 10G mini optical terminal.

Huawei H-OTN supporting NHPs - the new platform integrates OTN and Optical Line Termination (OLT) device capabilities while guaranteeing the absolute security of core services and slashing latency by over 60%.

Huawei OptiXsense is designed for enhanced signal collection. It features an enhanced-Optical Digital Signal Processor (e-oDSP) module designed "to correct blind spot errors, raising the effective signal collection rate to 99.9% and achieving zero false negatives." It offers vibration wave identification engine powered by a 32-dimensional vibration wave analysis algorithm that increases the event recognition accuracy to 97%.

Huawei OptiXstar 2.0 industrial optical terminal is designed to carry video backhaul, sensing, and mechanical control services. An  precision circuit design auxiliary algorithm has been introduced to suppress circuit loop energy, satisfying the intrinsic safety requirements and eliminating the need for underground explosion-proof boxes. A detection algorithm 2.0 enables network switchover within 30 ms when a link or port fails.

Huawei 10G mini optical terminal brings for XGS PON campus customers. The product size is only one fifth of the industry average. With a built-in patented photoelectric composite connector, the power loss and optical path insertion loss of the device is 50% and 67% lower than the industry average, respectively. Moreover, it provides up to 90 W power supply for Wi-Fi 6 APs.

"Digital transformation is now shifting from office scenarios to core production scenarios, which poses higher requirements on digital infrastructure," said Richard Jin, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line. "This requires optical communication networks to be more reliable and secure, and optical sensing technology to provide higher identification precision for optical services. As a leader in the optical industry, Huawei has been continuously investing in basic research and technical innovation, and is committed to building ubiquitous optical connections. With its leading optical products and solutions, Huawei will enable various industries to dive into digital."

https://huaweihub.com.au/huawei-innovating-nonstop-for-faster-digitalisation/

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Nokia supplies XGS-PON to Telecom Slovenia

Telekom Slovenije has designated Nokia as a partner vendor for the supply of XGS-PON equipment for its FTTH network.  The deployment of the Quillion chipset-powered Nokia ISAM FX series will replace some existing access nodes and will also support the newly built FTTH network which covers the entire country.

Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks at Nokia said: “The global investment in fiber highlights the competitive advantage that ultra-fast networks bring. Nokia is the leader in 10Gb/s symmetrical PON and the only vendor to enable a smooth evolution to 25G speeds. We are proud to work with Telekom Slovenije to bring high-speed broadband to customers on the largest FTTH network in Slovenia.”

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Astera raises $50 million for data center connectivity silicon

Astera Labs, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $50 million in an over subscribed Series-C funding round for its silicon solutions for intelligent systems.

Astera Labs recently launched its Aries Smart Retimer portfolio for Compute Express Link (CXL) 2.0 and PCI Express (PCIe) 5.0 that enable workload-optimized platforms in the cloud. The company is also developing ASIC and module solutions that unlock complex system topologies critical to mainstreaming data-intensive applications such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

The new funding was led by Fidelity Management and Research. Fidelity was joined in this funding round by Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners, with continued participation from existing investors Avigdor Willenz Group, GlobalLink1 Capital, Intel Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and VentureTech Alliance. Prior to this round, Astera Labs raised only $35 million over three years.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Fidelity, Atreides, and Valor to cement our leadership position in intelligent cloud connectivity solutions and usher Astera Labs into the next growth phase of our company,” said Jitendra Mohan, CEO, Astera Labs. “With this investment and increased collaboration with our manufacturing partners, we will rapidly scale our worldwide operations to satisfy incredible customer demand and launch multiple new product lines to solve the industry’s most pressing connectivity challenges.”

“CXL has opened a new era of data center system architecture that is critical to realize the vision of AI in the cloud,” said Sanjay Gajendra, Chief Business Officer, Astera Labs. “We are leading the industry with design wins at the five most significant CPU/GPU/AI processor platforms in the world and the majority of Cloud customers. This positions us well to capitalize on CXL’s exciting new capabilities for cache-coherent and memory interconnects.”

http://www.AsteraLabs.com

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Keysight teams with Taiwan's National Central University Optical Sciences Center

Keysight Technologies is collaborating with Taiwan-based National Central University Optical Sciences Center (NCUOSC) on the design and test validation efficiency of gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) applications. 

Wide band gap (WBG) materials, such as GaN and SiC, offer rapid switching speeds, low loss and withstand high temperature and voltage characteristics. As a result, these materials are leveraged in consumer power products, fast charging, electric vehicles and rail transit, as well as 5G infrastructures and data center servers. However, these advantages increase the complexity of design and testing.

“Keysight’s PD1500A DPT enables NCUOSC to reliably characterize wide-bandgap devices and effectively innovate GaN and SiC applications. Its safety protection, scalable and optional test fixtures deliver the flexibility we needed for future expansions,” said Professor Yue-Ming Hsin, Director of NCUOSC. “In addition to the PD1500A, we also setup the Keysight B1505A/N1265A Power Device Analyzer/Curve Tracer to serve the complete and crucial characterizations of WBG semiconductors. It's our pleasure to collaborate with Keysight and contribute to the ecosystem of 5G/6G and electric vehicles.”

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SenseOn raises $20 million for AI cyber platform

SenseOn, a start-up based in London, raised US$20 million in Series A funding for its AI-based cyber security platform.

SenseOn combines broad detection and response capabilities across traditionally siloed security domains with AI-based automation and an open security data cloud. Its unified platform proactively detects and shuts down threats including ransomware, hacking / data theft and malicious insiders, solving critical security challenges in a rapidly evolving IT landscape. It’s also uniquely suited to hybrid and remote work settings as it can be rapidly deployed across any endpoint or network inside and outside the traditional perimeter.

The round was led by Eight Roads Ventures and was supported by existing investors MMC Ventures, Crane Venture Partners and Winton Ventures Limited.

CEO of SenseOn, David Atkinson commented: “We are facing a new reality whereby attackers are advancing more quickly than legacy approaches can keep up with, but hybrid and multi-cloud environments are far more complex than we yet know how to defend. Added to this, the volume and speed of data is beyond what legacy architecture was ever designed to handle. The daily headlines show legacy approaches don’t work and if we don’t do something courageous now as a security community or we aren’t going to stand a chance in the future. We chose to partner with Eight Roads Ventures because of their ability to support SenseOn’s vision, thanks to their collaborative partnership style, their strong knowledge of the cyber industry and their global footprint.”

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