Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Nokia's high gain antenna + algorithms increases fixed mmWave by 5-10x

Nokia announced a mmWave innovation that combines very high gain with a 360 Field of View, picking up any signal from any direction, and effectively increasing 5G FWA capacity by 5-10x.

Nokia says its 360 High Gain technology overcomes the propagation challenge of weak signals resulting from line-of-sight dependency by both amplifying available signals and dynamically finding the strongest connection. The concept leverages a very high gain antenna in the CPE.

"Nokia’s 360 High Gain 5G mmWave technology captures a 360 mmWave fingerprint of the indoor environment, picks up direct and reflected signals from any direction, and adapts to the changing environment, through advanced analytics."

Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks at Nokia said “Making indoor, self-installable mmWave FWA viable in an urban indoor environment is crucial for FWA growth. The addition of mmWave to the 5G FWA market will deliver the 5 to 10 times more capacity that is needed to support the ever more demanding subscribers and services. I am extremely proud of our Fixed Network team who have notched up yet another technical first”.

Nokia has validated the 360 High Gain 5G mmWave FWA technology in its research labs, and technology trials are ongoing in various urban environments. The company expects volume deployments in 2023, initially from  operators with subscribers in dense urban environments.

https://www.nokia.com/networks/solutions/fwa-fastmile/#mmwave

ADTRAN adds 60GHz mmWave mesh portfolio for access and backhaul

ADTRAN introduced a 60GHz mmWave mesh wireless access and backhaul solution designed to deliver a wide range of revenue-generating services from residential access, SMB Gigabit and multigigabit neutral host/open access applications for public Wi-Fi, and 5G small cell densification. 

The ADTRAN MetNet 60GHz solution—which includes the new Gen 2 mesh node, Gigabit-ready CPE and cloud-management—delivers twice the capacity and up to four times the reach of competing mmWave products, according to the company. It features self-organizing, self-optimizing and self-healing (SON) technology that extends Gigabit coverage up to 600 meters, is deployable in under 30 minutes and delivers high-capacity (15+ Gbps capacity per node) for wireless access and backhaul. 

ADTRAN says the MetNet 60GHz solution could be used to deliver Gigabit tier services to RDOF census block groups (CBGs), as well as support applications such as Gigabit to MDUs, smart city applications, 5G small cell backhaul or offer low-cost Gigabit point-to-point campus LAN extension.

“The ADTRAN MetNet 60GHz solution is the only solution that economically extends Gigabit service wirelessly to deliver both residential and business services where terrain, population density and regulations limit the deployment of fiber,” said Robert Conger, Senior Vice President, Technology and Strategy at ADTRAN. “Now more than ever, service providers are looking for innovative and reliable solutions that simplify the deployment and maintenance of Gigabit service architectures that create new revenue streams while lowering the total cost of service.”

Highlights for the ADTRAN MetNet 60GHz Gen 2 Mesh Node:

  • Dynamic bandwidth allocation capability for preserving spectrum resources, delivering deployment flexibility, and doubling the capacity available for users.
  • Support for all six channels in the 60GHz spectrum (57GHz-71GHz), cutting atmospheric attenuation by 90% and offering 50% greater channel selection and coverage.
  • Unique channel selection per sector and support for channels 5 and 6, delivering up to four times the reach of other new to market 60GHz mmWave products.
  • Four times more client connections per mesh node (up to 120 CPE or remote nodes) enabling faster network scale with fewer costly fiber drops.
  • Power consumption 80% lower power per Gigabit connection, requiring fewer mesh nodes, compared to competing 60GHz products.
  • Cloud-management for remote mesh topology setup, management, service configuration and upgrades, resulting in a network that is simple to deploy and manage.

http://www.adtran.com/fixedwireless

Telstra deploys Infinera’s Coherent 800G across 2,940-km subsea cable

Telstra has deployed Infinera’s coherent 800G solution across a dispersion-managed subsea cable between Hong Kong and Singapore, a segment that spans 2,940 kilometers.

The deployment uses Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent technology on its GX Series Compact Modular Platform, enabling a 45% increase in capacity over previous-generation technology and 20 times the original design capacity of the cable.

Infinera said its ICE6 solution, which offers highly granular baud rate configuration, long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping (LC-PCS), and Nyquist subcarriers, helps network providers to get the most out of their dispersion-managed subsea cables.

“Telstra designed and deployed its dispersion-managed cable, EAC-2A1, long before coherent transmission was developed. The success of our ICE6 trial illustrates that we can successfully upgrade our existing cable systems to meet growing bandwidth demands,” said David Robertson, Executive International Networks & IT at Telstra. “This success was the driving force behind selecting ICE6. With Infinera’s 800G solution, we can significantly increase capacity on all segments of our network across our new modern and legacy cables globally. Building new cables is expensive so getting the most out of them using the latest technology means we can meet our customers’ ever-increasing capacity and resilience needs at the right price point.”


“The success of this trial with Telstra and its decision to deploy ICE6 emphasize the innovative technology, capability, and value of ICE6, which demonstrated its ability to deliver scalable capacity across a challenging legacy cable,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Infinera. “As subsea operators look to protect their subsea network infrastructure investment, deploying proven solutions that quickly and cost-effectively enable accelerated service turn-up will be critical to meet increasing customer demands.

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/telstra-deploys-infinera-coherent-800g-solution-across-dispersion-managed-subsea-cable

Federated Wireless open Spectrum Exchange for PAL licensees

Federated Wireless has opened a Spectrum Exchange to enable Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Priority Access License (PAL) holders to lease under-utilized spectrum to third parties to supplement General Authorized Access (GAA) availability. 

The Spectrum Exchange provides an automated portal that uses Light Touch API technology to eliminate the need to file documents and wait for approval from the FCC, for those wishing to lease spectrum from PAL holders. The engagement model is analogous to peer-to-peer accommodation services (e.g. Airbnb, VRBO, etc), offering simplicity, flexibility and quick transaction time for leasing spectrum. Organizations seeking assured, PAL-grade connectivity throughout the 3.5 GHz CBRS band will simply visit the Spectrum Exchange, browse through the lists of providers, spectrum availability, time periods and locations, and place an order online. Cost for spectrum is determined by each spectrum owner and can vary depending on geography and bandwidth amounts. Spectrum is allocated almost instantly for the period requested through the Federated Wireless Spectrum Access System (SAS), with ongoing delivery assured through the Federated Wireless network operations center (NOC).   

“The Federated Wireless Spectrum Exchange gives us and PAL holders the best of both worlds, allowing them to monetize spectrum they acquired through their PALs and giving us and our customers the spectrum we need, when we need it,” said Frontier Wireless Director of Wireless Architect Engineering, Carlos Cardona. “This will greatly accelerate 5G services to market, ensuring that end-users have the highest-quality wireless experiences, and helping the U.S. maintain its lead in global 5G deployments.” 

http://www.federatedwireless.com

Vantage Data Centers builds in Johannesburg, SA

Vantage Data Centers has begun construction of its first African campus in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The expansion program leverages a US$1 billion investment from existing financial partners. 

The carrier-neutral Johannesburg campus will consist of three facilities across 30 acres (12 hectares) with 650,000 square feet (60,000 square meters) of data center space once fully developed. The first phase of the campus, slated for completion in the summer of 2022, will include a 16MW building.

Vantage is pursuing sustainable construction practices such as offering renewable energy options, limiting carbon footprints and maintaining energy efficient operations with an industry-leading power usage effectiveness (PUE).

Google develops Anthos for Virtual Machines w support for VNFs

Google released a preview of Anthos for Virtual Machines, a new capability allowing developers to standardize on Kubernetes while continuing to run some workloads that cannot be easily containerized in virtual machines. 

The idea is to allow developers to standardize on Anthos as their operational model while still supporting VMs for traditional workloads like Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) or stateful monolithic workloads. Google Cloud describes this as an incremental modernization effort.

Developers can take advantage of Anthos for VMs in two ways – either by attaching vSphere VMs, or shifting VMs as-is. For customers with active VMware environments, the Anthos control plane can now connect to your vSphere environment and attach your vSphere VMs, allowing you to apply consistent security and policies across clusters, gain visibility into the health and performance of your services, and manage traffic for both VMs and containers. Alternately, Anthos for VMs allows you to shift VMs as-is onto Anthos with KubeVirt, an open-source virtualization API for Kubernetes. 

"While we have seen many customers make the leap to containerization, some are not quite ready to move completely off of virtual machines (VMs). They want a unified development platform where developers can build, modify, and deploy applications residing in both containers and VMs in a common, shared environment."

https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/hybrid-cloud/introducing-anthos-for-vms-and-other-app-modernization-tools



  • Anthos Service Mesh, which connects, manages, a
  • Rambus samples 5600 MT/s DDR5 registering clock driver

    Rambus has begun sampling its 5600 MT/s 2nd-generation registering clock driver (RCD) chip to the major DDR5 memory module (RDIMM) suppliers. 

    This new level of performance represents a 17% increase in data rate over the first-generation 4800 MT/s Rambus DDR5 RCD. 

    Rambus said it is able to deliver 5600 MT/s performance at lower latency and power while optimizing timing parameters for improved RDIMM margins.

    “The RCD is a mission-critical enabler of DDR5 server DIMMs that provide the bandwidth and capacity needed in next-generation data centers,” said Sean Fan, chief operating officer at Rambus. “Achieving the 5600 MT/s data rate is the latest demonstration of our continued leadership in DDR5 memory interface products.”

    https://www.rambus.com/rambus-advances-server-memory-performance-with-the-industrys-first-5600-mt-s-ddr5-registering-clock-driver/

    Kyndryl is IBM's managed infrastructure services business

    IBM's board of directors approved the previously announced separation of the company’s managed infrastructure services business into a new company called Kyndryl.

    Kyndryl's mission is to design, run and manage the most modern, efficient and reliable technology infrastructure for the world's most important businesses and organizations. The company will have 90,000 employees worldwide upon spin out from IBM.

    To effect the separation the IBM board of directors declared a pro rata distribution to IBM stockholders of 80.1 percent of the outstanding shares of Kyndryl.  Once distributed, each holder of IBM common stock will receive one share of Kyndryl common stock for every five shares of IBM common stock held on October 25, 2021, the record date for the distribution.   The distribution is expected to occur after close of market on November 3, 2021. IBM will retain 19.9 percent of the shares of Kyndryl common stock, with the intention of exchanging those shares for IBM debt during the 12-month period following the distribution, subject to market considerations.

    “Today’s announcement is a milestone for IBM, its employees and its shareholders as we enter a new era of growth,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman and chief executive officer.  “The separation of Kyndryl is a significant step in the continued evolution of IBM, a company now squarely focused on delivering powerful hybrid cloud and AI solutions and capabilities to enterprises around the world.”

    “Kyndryl has an important and exciting mission – to design, build and manage the technology infrastructure that the world depends on each day,” said Martin Schroeter, Kyndryl chairman and chief executive officer.  “As an independent and focused services leader, Kyndryl will be at the heart of progress for our customers.

    Kyndryl is organized into six global managed services practices:

    • Cloud
    • Applications, Data & AI
    • Security & Resiliency
    • Core Enterprise & zCloud
    • Network & Edge
    • Digital Workplace

    http://www.kyndryl.com

    • In September, Kyndryl baned Martin Schroeter as Kyndryl board chairman. Schroeter was IBM's senior vice president of global markets before leaving IBM in June of 2020 and before that he served as the chief financial officer from 2014 to 2017. 


    Hailo raises $136 million for its edge AI processors

    Hailo, a start-up based in Tel Aviv, raised $136 million in a Series C round of funding for its edge processor designed for AI workloads.

    The Hailo-8 edge AI processor boasts up to 26 tera-operations per second (TOPS) performance, capable of processing of FHD stream in real-time, and with typical power consumption of 2.5W, according to the company.

    The funding round was led by Poalim Equity and Gil Agmon with participation from existing investors including Hailo Chairman Zohar Zisapel, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), Latitude Ventures and OurCrowd; and new investors Carasso Motors, Comasco, Shlomo Group, Talcar Corporation Ltd. and Automotive Equipment (AEV).

    Hailo was established in Israel in 2017 by members of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite technology unit.

    https://hailo.ai/

    Restructuring deal cuts Riverbed's debt by $1 billion and infuses $100m cash

     Riverbed Technology announced a Restructuring Support Agreement  with its equity sponsors and an ad hoc group of lenders holding a super-majority of its funded secured debt regarding the terms of a comprehensive financial restructuring that will reduce its funded secured debt by over $1 billion and provide a $100 million cash infusion.


    “We are pleased to have reached this agreement, which is an important step forward in securing our long-term success as we continue to execute our strategy and deliver relevant technologies to our customers that are critical for today’s digital and hybrid workplace,” said Dan Smoot, President and CEO of Riverbed Technology. “Since I became CEO in June, the team and I have been focused on taking Riverbed to the next level, driving profitable growth and accelerating innovation to support our customers and partners, and I am pleased with the strong double-digit bookings growth for our visibility solutions that we saw in the third quarter. Our solid business foundation enables us to take these actions, which will be critical in our ongoing initiative to strengthen our financial position and fuel our next phase of growth. Following the implementation of the RSA, we look forward to moving ahead as a financially stronger company.”

    Mr. Smoot continued, “We are grateful to have the support of all the investors in our capital structure as we undertake this process, which demonstrates their confidence in our business and will enable us to complete this financial recapitalization on an expedited basis. Our team is as dedicated as ever to serving our amazing customers around the world and providing the leading end-to-end visibility and network and acceleration solutions that they have come to expect. We are confident that the proactive steps we are taking today will allow us to further invest in the Company and best position Riverbed to meet the needs of our customers in the markets we serve. We thank our customers and partners for their continued support, and our employees for their commitment to Riverbed.”

    https://www.riverbed.com/

    Riverbed appoints Dan Smoot as President and CEO

    Riverbed appointed Dan Smoot as President and CEO.Smoot, who has more than 30 years of experience holding top leadership roles including at Salesforce, Cisco and VMware, joined Riverbed in June 2018. At Riverbed, he has held several executive leadership roles, including most recently COO and leading the company’s Worldwide Sales, Channels and Alliances, Sales Operations and Customer Experience teams.Smoot was previously Executive Vice President of...