Huawei outlines all-optical target architecture

 Huawei outlined a new all-optical target network architecture based on five pillars, called the Five Ones:

• One-kilometer access: In wireless networks, the majority of base stations are located within 1km of users.  By using existing base stations as access points for local distribution of fiber, the challenge of providing optical connectivity to all terminals is reduced.
• One-stop all-optical access: By deploying optical transport network (OTN) equipment closer to the end-user, operators can provide both high-service level, and differentiated Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to commercial customers.
• 
  One-network all-optical slicing: Optical slicing allows operators to offer premium services to users willing to pay for guaranteed levels of performance.  Distributed deployment of OTN partly helps to achieve this, but another key element is to distribute all-optical cross connects (OXCs) throughout the network.  Huawei pioneered the development of all-optical OXCs, equipment that allows to switch optical data signals at light speed, without converting it to electrical.
• One-hop connection architecture: Consolidating the integration of an existing optical transport network with a recently-upgraded all-optical metro network enhances user experience. It opens the door to practically instantaneous cloud access and networks offering guaranteed, deterministic latency not exceeding a few milliseconds.
• One-click smart operation: Optical controls help to deliver a digital transformation of networks, where all communications hardware is connected and remotely monitored. This enables the autonomous operation of networks, or autonomous network driving.

Richard Jin, President of Huawei's Optical Business Product Line, said, “After more than a year of innovation with customers from around the world, we truly believe that an all-optical target network is the best choice for global operators looking to achieve an optimal TCO in fixed and 5G mobile backhaul, while inspiring new growth in home broadband and enterprise private line business.”

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2021/11/five-one-tco-all-optical-target-network

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MTN Group sees continued growth in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa

 Citing strong growth momentum in major markets Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, South Africa based MTN Group reported that its service revenue ramped up 19.1% to R125 billion in the first nine months of the year. Data and fintech service revenue increased by 34.5% and 35.0% respectively. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 24.1%, with margins expanding 2.1 percentage points to 45.0% on a constancy-currency basis.

At period-end, the group subscriber base was 272m.

The company also noted progress in finalising a passive infrastructure deal for MTN South Africa. MTN is seeking to sell and then lease back its towers.

MTN now has 51 million Mobile Money customers in 16 markets, and it is processing almost 20 000 transactions a minute, with the value of transactions up 67.2% year-on-year to US$175.5bn.

MTN plans for a public offer of shares in MTN Nigeria. It has also exited the telecoms market in Yemen.

“It’s been a busy quarter, and I’m particularly pleased with the sustained operational momentum across our businesses,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita.

“Material progress was made in accelerating the deleveraging of the holding company balance sheet, and our asset realisation programme and portfolio optimisation priorities are progressing well. The process of structurally separating our fintech and fibre assets remains on track.”

https://www.mtn.com/mtn-group-records-strong-operational-delivery-and-strategic-progress-in-q3/

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ADVA launches sustainable supplier program

ADVA has launched a sustainable supplier program as part of its ongoing commitment to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The initiative extends ADVA’s holistic sustainability strategy upstream in its supply chain and is a key step towards the company’s production processes becoming completely carbon neutral. 

Launched in cooperation with ADVA’s finance platform partner Traxpay, the program involves ADVA offering financial incentives to its suppliers who meet strict criteria for minimizing environmental impact. The scheme also strengthens ADVA’s supply chain at a time of unprecedented logistical challenges, including material shortages and the global semiconductor crisis.

“The sustainable supplier program is another milestone in expanding our environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities and ensuring environmentally friendly supply chain management. Everyone needs to play their part to fight climate change and so we’re rewarding our suppliers who share our dedication to taking urgent action now,” said Klaus Grobe, director, global sustainability, ADVA. “Our commitment to setting and meeting strict emissions targets has made ADVA one of the world’s leading systems vendors when it comes to sustainability. Now we’re also incentivizing our suppliers to prioritize the future and meet the highest standards in the industry for carbon reduction.”

https://www.adva.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20211119-adva-launches-sustainable-supplier-program-to-tackle-co2-emissions

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Rostelecom plans new Moscow data center campus

 Rostelecom Data Centers (RTK-DC) has acquired a property in south Moscow to build a new Tier III data center campus with four halls encompassing a total area of 57,291 sqm. The site will be able to accomodate 6,710 racks and an overall capacity of 55 kW. The staged launch will see first 1,000 racks commissioned in September 2022.

RTK-DC currently manages a distributed DC network across Russia with a total capacity of 13,500 racks (in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Udomlya, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg), as well as public cloud platforms (IaaS, platform services, VDI, DR and storage etc.), inter DC data transfer (the largest traffic exchange point in Russia MSK-IX), telecommunications, private cloud, integration projects, software and hardware development services.

The company says the Moscow DC market is significantly undersupplied with a capacity shortage of almost 900 new racks per year. The new project will help fill that gap and satisfy the high demand for data center infrastructure and services, especially thanks to its favourable location and good public transport access.

Yuri Samoilov, First Deputy Director General of Rostelecom Data Center: “We are seeing an ever growing demand from businesses and state organisations for data center services, and the market is currently unable to satisfy that demand. Our large-scale project in Moscow will be instrumental in helping fill the capacity gap, enabling businesses to implement their digital projects and build solid internal IT infrastructures based on reliable and sustainable technologies.”

https://www.company.rt.ru/en/ir/news_calendar/d461183/

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Rockley Photonics collaborates with Icahn School of Medicine

Rockley Photonics announced a collaboration with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY, part of the Mount Sinai Health System, to incorporate Rockley’s non-invasive biomarker sensing platform into potential clinical and healthcare research studies.

Rockley said it aims to create new opportunities for its photonics-based sensing platform in healthcare and medical applications and help expand the future use of real-time, non-invasive biomarker sensing for people around the globe.

 

“At Mount Sinai, we pride ourselves on our full-spectrum healthcare activities and relentless pursuit of leveraging the latest cutting-edge technologies in our research,” said Zahi A. Fayad, director of the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We look forward to designing studies that evaluate the application of mobile, non-invasive sensing capabilities and examine the ability to identify biomarker correlations. The results have the potential for real and substantial impact in mobile health and clinical care.”

“We are honored and delighted to incorporate our unique biomarker sensing technology in what could be many exciting and truly eye-opening research studies,” said Dr. Andrew Rickman, chief executive officer and founder of Rockley Photonics. “The learnings gained from these studies have the potential to accelerate the development of new algorithms and applications in remote healthcare, from real-time biomarker measurement to early disease state identification. By enabling these new capabilities on a small wearable device, we expect to bring easier access to key health insights to larger and more diverse populations.”

https://rockleyphotonics.com/biomarker-sensing

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Telenor enters partnership with Google Cloud

Telenor is exploring how to leverage Google Cloud’s expertise in data management, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI/ML), as well as the company’s infrastructure, to bring together the complimentary technologies to Telenor’s customers and society overall.

Specifically, Telenor and Google Cloud will collaborate the following key areas:

• Strengthening Telenor’s technology capabilities to make an impact: Both companies aspire to transform and modernise Telenor’s IT and networks by looking into how Google Cloud’s services, global data centre network, and security capabilities can be used. Both companies will also look to drive better customer experiences by leveraging Google Cloud’s data, analytics and AI/ML intelligence technologies. Telenor and Google Cloud’s collaboration aims to support customers and industries to face their digital transformation challenges.
• Delivering growth through joint go-to-market activities: Telenor and Google Cloud will collaborate on expanding both horizontal and vertical services through joint go-to-market activities, creating new scalable revenue streams.
• 
  Joint innovations: Telenor and Google Cloud will innovate and enhance the capabilities of current and future products, develop new modern industry solutions and services, and drive cost efficiencies. This may include developments to the next generation of virtual network function and edge computing, focusing on IoT and 5G.
• Bringing digital to all: Google Cloud and Telenor are committed to bringing digital to all customers. The two organisations will join forces to support these businesses, helping to get them online and guiding them through their digital transformations by providing access to support teams and next-generation solutions. The aim is to look at how solutions are developed, how businesses are responsibly run, diverse ways of working and ultimately empower societies.

“Telenor wants to work with leaders in the tech industry and stay committed to being at the forefront of modernisation and digitalisation. As connectivity is the foundation for building trust, we believe that together we can go beyond connectivity to enhance our offering to our customers with new and innovative solutions, whilst improving the overall experience of our current portfolio,” says Sigve Brekke, president and CEO of Telenor Group.

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Australia's Foxtel debuts 4K streaming STB from CommScope

Foxtel, Australia's leading, next-generation subscription television service, will provide subscribers with a new iQ5 streaming set top box from CommScope.

The new STB supports 4K and can be deployed in a subscriber’s home using Wi-Fi, satellite, or a fully integrated hybrid connection. 

The iQ5 features a stacked design with a detachable 1TB hard drive so subscribers can record their favorite shows and software enhancements. It also offers streaming apps including Netflix, YouTube, ABC iView, SBS On Demand, Amazon Prime, Vevo and coming soon to the Foxtel platform, Paramount+ and 10Play. 

By partnering with CommScope’s Professional Services organization, Foxtel was provided with a fully managed service to design, develop, and deploy their flagship set top box software for iQ5.

“CommScope worked closely together with Foxtel to bring the iQ5 to fruition completion,” said Phil Cardy, Vice President, International PLM, Home Networks, CommScope. “The success of the iQ5 launch is a testament to the ability of both CommScope and Foxtel leveraging each other’s expertise. Even during these difficult times, CommScope and Foxtel were able to leverage a global team, including a local presence in Australia, to create a highlight effective development project.”

http://www.commscope.com

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