SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites in the first phase of its upgraded network. SpaceX said its new
The satellites were carried to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9 first stage booster previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, and five earlier Starlink missions.
The mission was SpaceX's 60th launch of 2022.
http://www.spacex.com
Nokia announced an extension of its patent license agreement with Huawei.
The terms of the agreement remain confidential between the parties.
https://www.nokia.com
by Chris Janson, Product Marketing Manager, Optical Networking
As we ring in the new year, the transformation of business digitalization continues. We see enterprises increasingly dependent upon networks of highly connected devices and systems to control everything from customer transactions to just-in-time manufacturing. About a year ago, IDC outlined its predictions for 2022 digital transformation. In their report, they foresaw 50% of organizations had transformation plans in place by the end of 2022, and a year later, 90% of organizations would be prioritizing investments in digital tools that augment physical facilities.
These things come as no surprise to those watching enterprises and their use of technology. Large retailers like Amazon continue to invest in regional warehouses with highly automated inventory control systems. Governments continue to roll out digital systems to control things like municipal parking lots and tax payments. Driving this adoption is the desire to provide better service at lower cost, taking advantage of enabling technologies such as IoT devices and handheld computing power in nearly everyone’s hands (i.e., your smartphone). The result is far-flung entities and their digitalized operations have one thing in common: the need for highly reliable and secure network connectivity.
Implications for network connectivity
A common thread through any enterprise’s digitalized architecture is the need to connect independent devices and compute or storage capacity. This network aggregates mobile and IoT wireless devices onto an IP-optical wireline network. Modern cellular architecture offers high capacity, low latency, and very resilient performance which must be matched by the backbone network. At layer 3, IP-MPLS routing offers a powerful ability to steer traffic flows exactly where needed and while router capacity continues to grow in pace with demand, there will be a need to perform multiplexing and switching at lower network layers, in the physical backbone network.
This backbone network needs to be capable of scale and capacity growth matched to the needs of the enterprise. Thirst for capacity has been expanding exponentially for years, demanding that IP-optical networks expand correspondingly. This need for scale has been met through higher capacity routing as well as higher capacity DWDM optical transport systems. Fiber capacities now commonly exceed 400Gbps per wavelength, with some systems now exceeding 1Tbps per wavelength.
Line capacity is but one performance metric. Service providers must also consider the need for service flexibility, assurance, and security. Flexibility delivers various service protocols and speeds needed by each customer while ensuring performance at defined service level agreement tiers. At the same time, the service must be highly resilient to outages. The service also needs to be secure from theft and intrusion. Some large enterprises will insist that their traffic is logically, if not physically, separated from other user’s traffic. Encryption needs to be provided at the transport layer, which is safe from harvest now, and decrypt later attack in the presence of a practical quantum computer.
Opportunity for service providers: retail or wholesale
These elements form simple requirements that a service provider needs to meet to enjoy a sizable market share in providing differentiated services to various enterprise customers. For the typical communication service provider (CSP), the question becomes: should they operate as a retail provider or partner with another provider as a wholesale provider?
For reasons from regulation to the practicalities of customer support, a CSP may decide to set up as a wholesale service provider, working with a retailer to provide last-mile connectivity and customer support for local enterprise markets. This is a very practical solution that can help the CSP capture revenue which otherwise may be lost. Optical transport technology makes this business arrangement very practical to deploy and operate.
OTN makes it practical
Optical Transport Networking, standardized in ITU-T G.709, provides a set of tools that service providers can deploy to help their wholesale business operate seamlessly. An Optical Transport Network (OTN) is ideally suited to provide an end-to-end solution for various service requirements that demand security, scalability, low latency and high availability. OTN improves network efficiency and utilization and can carry any traffic type including legacy services. The enhancement includes components common to DWDM systems – transponders, optical mux/demux modules, amplifiers – but OTN adds switching and grooming capabilities at layer 1. Multilayer optimization is achieved by using an optimal mix of electrical grooming and photonic transport for increased scalability and flexibility.
OTN incorporates coherent electro-optics to optimize reach and capacity over large metro, regional and long-haul networks as well as to scale solutions in the core. At the network edge, OTN solutions need to be compact, versatile and extend services all the way to customer premise sites to provide carrier-grade service demarcation with end-to-end service assurance. Modern OTN networks provide advanced control plane options for carrier-grade restoration and protection and are managed by advanced network automation and management tools.
In delivering a high-value, SLA-aware solution, OTN offers powerful yet practical tools for premium wholesale and business services with flexibility, security and guaranteed performance. The business services can span from network edge through metro aggregation and core for end-to-end connectivity. OTN delivers efficient aggregation and multiplexing of services that avoids cascading and complexity while supporting any topology mesh with fast service rollout. OTN services are flexible, with client interface and protocol versatility, using any-to-any service connectivity, and SLA-aware provisioning. OTN services are also reliable, with multi-failure restoration, secure through hard traffic isolation within the OTN payload, guaranteed latency and deterministic bandwidth.
As one example, the use of OTN in a wholesale network allows the operator to slice capacity in any optical line among various user classes, each with its SLA. Traffic slices can be isolated appropriately from each other, using a combination of layer 2 switching for soft isolation and layer 1 OTN for hard isolation within the same optical data unit (ODU). An example of this is shown in figure 1, where various sub-rate services are soft-isolated within ODUFlex 1, while the entire ODUFlex 2 slice is hard-isolated from the rest of the ODU4. This way, the end user performance is ensured as determined by their respective SLAs.
A service provider who deploys an end-to-end OTN solution is well-positioned to deliver the range of connectivity services demanded by modern enterprises. Whether operating directly with the enterprise, through a retail service provider, or a combination of both routes to market, OTN helps service providers optimize their market share and revenue.
Huawei and Orange achieved a new world record optical transmission of 157 Tbps over a 120 km fiber on the Orange network in South West France.
In June 2022, Huawei released the industry's first ultra-broadband Super C + Super L solution able to provide 12 THz of spectrum () over a fiber using C band (C for Conventional wavelengths) and L band (L for long wavelengths). In this testing, the total bandwidth was extended to 18 THz by using in-house technologies for S band (S for short wavelengths) and relying on the transmission expertise of Huawei's French R&D Center. A total number of 240 wavelengths were used to provide a total transmission capacity of 157 Tbit/s, based on Huawei's advanced high-order constellation shaping modulation algorithm.
Gilles Bourdon, Vice President for Wireline Networks & Infrastructure, Orange Innovation, declared: "Facing the continuous increase of traffic demand, obtaining more spectrum and therefore more value from our existing assets is crucial. It is even more important as spectral efficiency of such optical systems reaches a theoretical limit. The testing proves the capability of our fiber infrastructure to offer 50 % more spectrum and thus effectively address one of our key topics: the experience and connectivity of our customers."
Richard Jin, President for the Optical Business Product Line, Huawei, declared: "Huawei has long been committed to strategic investments, research and technological breakthroughs in the optical communications domain, as illustrated by the excellence of our optical research teams, such as the one in Paris. We are delighted to collaborate with an operator as innovative as Orange to contribute, together, to the creation of the network of the future."
https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2022/12/optical-innovation-orange
Oracle opened its 41st global region and fourth in the U.S. in Chicago, Illinois.
The new Chicago region will offer over 100 OCI services and applications, including Oracle Autonomous Database, MySQL HeatWave, OCI Data Science, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, and Oracle Analytics.
Oracle said its new facility has been designed to enable high availability, data residency, and disaster protection. OCI offers layers of security to help ensure resources are provisioned securely for every customer, a zero trust architecture for maximum isolation of customer tenancies, and many integrated customer security services that are offered at no extra charge.
In addition, the Oracle Cloud Chicago Region is designed to help meet the security and compliance needs of customers in both the commercial and public sectors. OCI’s architecture is designed to allow cloud regions to be deployed within separate secure and isolated realms for different uses. The Chicago area is the location of an existing Oracle Cloud Region with DISA Impact Level 5 authorization for use by U.S. government organizations to store and process Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and National Security Systems (NSS) information. Oracle currently operates several independent realms serving the U.S. and U.K. governments, and Oracle has announced that it plans to offer a sovereign cloud realm for the European Union in 2023.
“As the home to more than 20 percent of the Fortune 500, 60 percent of all U.S. manufacturing, and the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, the U.S. Midwest is a global innovation hub across key industries,” said Clay Magouyrk, Executive Vice President, OCI. “These industries are increasingly seeking secure cloud services to support their need for high-speed data transfer at ultra-low latency. We are excited to open the new Chicago region to help our Midwest customers and partners easily and securely move their mission-critical workloads to the cloud.”
The company also noted its extensive network of more than 75 global and regional OCI FastConnect partners. CoreSite and Digital Realty are the host partners for the new Oracle Cloud Chicago Region’s FastConnect locations. Partners available at launch for the Oracle Cloud Chicago Region include Megaport, Equinix, CoreSite, and Digital Realty.
Currently available Oracle Cloud Regions:
https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-opens-cloud-region-in-chicago-2022-12-15/
BT announced a trial of cloud RAN technology in Leeds.
C-RAN technology uses specialist software which has the potential to be used in smaller, more compact units including existing street furniture.
Alex Tempest, Managing Director, BT Wholesale, said: “The introduction of this new technology highlights BT’s commitment to delivering innovative solutions that benefit residents, businesses, and visitors, whilst also supporting economic growth across Leeds and the wider UK.
https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-trials-state-of-the-art-5g-technology-in-leeds/
BT Group will be combining its Global and Enterprise units into a single B2B unit, BT Business. The combined business unit would have generated FY22 pro-forma revenues of approximately £8.5 billion and EBITDA of over £2 billion, and it is expected to deliver at least £100m of gross annualised savings by the end of FY25.
BT Business will be led by Bas Burger the current CEO of BT’s Global unit. Bas joined BT Group in 2008 and prior to the Global role was responsible for BT Americas. Before joining BT Group, Bas was executive president and a member of the management committee of Getronics NV, where he ran global sales, channels and partnerships, developing the company’s international business. He was also CEO and managing director of KPN Entercom Solutions.
BT said the reorganistion will create a simpler corporate structure with three customer facing units: Consumer supporting UK consumers; BT Business supporting business and public sector customers; and Openreach delivering UK nationwide fixed access infrastructure.
BT Group Chief Executive Philip Jansen said:
“BT Group is a leading provider of B2B connectivity and related services to UK and multinational corporations, government and public sector organisations worldwide, as well as UK SMEs1 and SoHos2. BT Enterprise is the market leader in the UK, with a market share of 30% underpinned by BT Group’s fixed and mobile network leadership, the strength of the BT brand, and national sales, service and distribution. BT Global serves many of the world’s largest companies and is consistently rated as a leader for its networking and security services and has ambition to be the leading provider of secure multi-cloud connectivity.”
“By combining the two units, BT Business will bring the Group’s combined assets, products, capabilities and brand to the service of all of our 1.2m business customers who will benefit from faster innovation and delivery. Bas is an excellent leader and I’m confident he will build on the plans already underway and drive the combined business back to growth.”
“Throughout the past two very challenging years, Bas and Rob have provided outstanding leadership. Covid accelerated a shift in the market as people and businesses changed the way they worked, whilst macro-economic factors have disrupted supply chains and put pressure on businesses and the public sector globally. Despite this, we’ve made progress and our customer satisfaction scores have improved, in some cases to an all time high. I am grateful to Bas and Rob for laying the foundations that enable us to take this next step in BT Group’s transformation.”
https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-to-combine-enterprise-and-global-units-to-create--bt-business/
euNetworks announced the appointment of Stephanie Lynch-Habib as President.
Stephanie joins euNetworks following more than 25 years working in the telecom and technology industry. Most recently she was Chief Revenue Officer at InterCloud in Paris, responsible for driving growth opportunities for the business. Before joining InterCloud Stephanie led the global marketing and communications strategy of the GSMA, the global organisation representing mobile operators and organisations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries. She has also held the position of Chief Marketing Officer at Colt, responsible for marketing strategy and prior to that, spent 16 years with AT&T EMEA, holding numerous senior marketing, sales, and strategy roles. While at AT&T, Stephanie was a founder of the AT&T European Women's Network.
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Stephanie to euNetworks,” said Paula Cogan. “She’s a great addition to the team and fills a critical position in the business. I am excited for the contributions that Stephanie will make to euNetworks as I move to take up the role of Chief Executive Officer of euNetworks in January. Along with Stephanie’s global leadership experience, her advocacy, and efforts for strong women representation in the telecom sector is commendable and we welcome her contribution to euNetworks’ diversity and inclusion focus as well as in the wider industry.”
In the United States, Starlink is priced at $110/month with a one-time hardware cost of $599.
ZenFi Networks (ZenFi), which was recently acquired by BAI Communications, announced the promotions of Patrick O’Hare to Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Robert Sokota to President of Link Solutions.
Patrick ‘Pat’ O’Hare will take over Vincenzo ‘Enzo’ Clemente’s former role as President and COO of ZenFi Networks. Enzo stepped down from his role upon the company’s recent acquisition by BAI. O'Hare is a key founding member of ZenFi’s management team.
Robert Sokota has also been a pivotal member of the ZenFi Networks management team since 2014 after leading Cross River Fiber’s merger with ZenFi. He has served as the company’s Chief Administrative Officer, and, since June of 2021, Sokota served as the President of CityBridge’s Wireless Division, where he played a key role in developing the company’s partnership with LinkNYC and the Link5G project. In his new role as President of Link Solutions, Sokota will lead the expansion of the Link5G project and its powerful multi-tenant wireless solutions throughout New York City and beyond to new markets. He will also continue to spearhead partnerships with CityBridge, Intersection, and others.
SES heralded the first launch for O3b mPOWER, its second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) constellation poised to enable tens of thousands of multi-gigabit class spotbeams across the planet.
SpaceX succesfully orbited the first two satellites, which a software-defined capability to deliver more than 5,000 steerable beams that can be repositioned based on real-time data from SES customers’ terminals. The satellites were launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The satellites are based on Boeing’s 702 platform use Spectrolab’s custom-designed solar arrays built to withstand harsh MEO radiation.
SES contracted with Boeing to deliver 11 O3b mPOWER satellites to SES, Boeing continues production, integration and testing of the remaining nine spacecraft. The O3b mPOWER satellites are also flexible in their launch configuration, with the ability to launch two or three satellites at a time.
SES said its new MEO satellites will be able to deliver roundtrip latency of less than 150 milliseconds. The company is also partnering with Microsoft to bring one-hop connectivity from the satellites into Microsoft Azure data centers. The terabit-scale capacity of the new O3b mPOWER constellation, the automated and software-defined steerable beams of the satellites, upgraded customer terminals and telco/cloud partnerships are expected many new use cases and deployment sites.
“Much more than just another launch, today marks the next milestone of our MEO journey. Since starting this journey, we have gone on to positively impact millions around the world. Today, with our second-generation O3b mPOWER, we are bringing game-changing technology that delivers a unique combination of multiple gigabits per second of throughput at any location, guaranteed reliability and service flexibility that is a first in the industry,” said Steve Collar, CEO of SES. “Whether we are enabling governments to carry out critical missions securely, cruise operators to provide high-speed broadband access to passengers at all times, or mobile network operators to deploy 4G/5G networks in underconnected areas or restore communications networks in down time, O3b mPOWER is the satellite system of choice for applications where performance matters most.”
O3b mPOWER commercial service is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2023.
“SES approached us with a vision to create global equity, by providing people with high-speed connectivity where it wasn’t economically or physically feasible to build fiber infrastructure,” said Jim Chilton, senior vice presiqdent of Space and Launch at Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “We partnered to create a super computer constellation in space to meet that goal, and we can’t wait to see what SES does as the 702X platform’s first user.”
The first stage Falcon 9 booster previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G and one Starlink mission. It was recovered on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=SES-O3b-mPOWER
https://www.ses.com/press-release/first-two-o3b-mpower-satellites-successfully-launched
SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It was the 15th mission for the Falcon 9 booster used for this launch. It previously launched Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3, and nine Starlink missions. It was the 58th launch of a Falcon 9 in 2022.
Advent International, a major global private equity investor, agreed to acquire Maxar Technologies (NYSE:MAXR), a provider of space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence, in an all-cash transaction that values Maxar at an enterprise value of approximately $6.4 billion, representing a premium of approximately 129% over Maxar’s closing stock price of $23.10 on December 15, 2022..
Following the close of the transaction, Maxar will is to remain a U.S.-controlled and privately-operated company.
Maxar said that as a private company it will be able to accelerate investments in next-generation satellite technologies and data insights that are vital to its government and commercial customers, as well as pursue select, strategic M&A to further enhance its portfolio of solutions. This includes supporting the successful delivery of the new Legion satellite constellation, accelerating the launch of Legion 7 and 8 satellites and further growing the Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure businesses through investments in next-generation capabilities, such as advanced machine learning and 3D mapping.
Advent, which has approximately $28 billion invested across the defense, security and cybersecurity sectors in the last three years, said it has substantial expertise supporting many satellite and defense platforms which serve the U.S. government and its allies as well as companies across the globe.
“This transaction delivers immediate and certain value to our stockholders at a substantial premium,” said General Howell M. Estes, III (USAF Retired), Chair of Maxar’s Board of Directors. “Maxar’s mission has never been more important, and this transaction allows us to maximize value for stockholders while accelerating the Company’s ability to deliver its mission-critical technology and solutions to customers over the near and long term.”
“Today’s announcement is an exceptional outcome for stockholders and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, the value Maxar has created and the reputation we have built in our industry,” said Daniel Jablonsky, President and CEO of Maxar. “Advent has a proven record of strengthening its portfolio companies and a desire to support Maxar in advancing our long-term strategic objectives. As a private company, we will have enhanced flexibility and additional resources to build on Maxar’s strong foundation, further scale operations and capture the significant opportunities in a rapidly expanding market.”
The Wireless LAN market hit a new record of $2.4 Billion in the third quarter, despite the continuing supply bottlenecks and representing a surprising 32 percent year over year growth, according to a recently published report from Dell'Oro Group. Meanwhile, manufacturers still have a huge pile-up of backlogged orders.
“The third quarter saw the second highest level of shipment volumes in history – a testament to manufacturers’ excellent navigation of the supply constraints,” said Siân Morgan, Wireless LAN Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Their strategies of redesigning products, expediting components, and turning to brokerage firms are coming to fruition. On top of this, the high adoption of Wi-Fi 6 is driving up prices, having an accelerating effect on revenues.
“We predict that the fourth quarter will be another record, with prices rising for the 6th quarter in a row, and shipment volumes skyrocketing. We’re also making the bold prediction that next year the Enterprise Class Wireless LAN market will break the $10 Billion mark, two years earlier than we predicted,” added Morgan.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2022 Wireless LAN Quarterly Report:
The ongoing need to modernize the network and security architecture for branch offices and hybrid users led to the vigorous 33 percent revenue growth in the SASE market, according to a recent report from Dell'Oro Group, which also anticipates that enterprises will continue to place a high priority on SASE and cause the overall SASE market to grow to $8 B for the full year 2023.
“3Q 2022 was the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year SASE revenue growth topping 25 percent, which signals the importance enterprises are placing on SASE,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Research Director, Network Security, and SASE & SD-WAN at Dell’Oro Group. “Unlike some other network security markets we track, we expect the high investment priority will continue and lead to the SASE market eclipsing $8 B in 2023,” added Sanchez.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2022 SASE & SD-WAN Quarterly Report:
SASE security, also referred to as SSE (the basket of products providing cloud-delivered SWG, CASB, ZTNA, and FWaaS), achieved its tenth consecutive quarter of sequential revenue expansion.
SASE networking, synonymous with SD-WAN, had a challenging Y/Y comparison in 3Q 2022 against a very strong 3Q 2021 when enormous pent-up demand was a significant driver. Nonetheless, the ongoing trend of improved supply chains allowed vendors to better service demand and sustain a similar level of market growth compared to recent quarters.'
https://www.delloro.com/news/strong-enterprise-demand-drives-sase-growth-33-percent-in-3q-2022/
BT awarded a five-year contract to Nokia for its AVA Analytics software for fixed networks. The project aims to help BT strengthen its network monitoring through AI and machine learning, and improve its subscriber experience.
The deal enhances Nokia’s dashboard solution (“Homeview”) for BT to give its call center agents a real-time, full view of the operator’s network, from individual subscribers to devices, in order to quickly correct access and in home issues, and provide the best service across all its phone and digital channels.
Nokia’s AVA Analytics will provide BT with the use of automated workflows with deep analytics to deliver operational efficiency improvements and boost BT’s net promoter scores (NPS). NPS is a barometer of how likely a customer would recommend a provider or service to another user.
Along with AVA Analytics, Nokia’s Home Device Manager and Service Management Platform enables BT’s roughly 6,000 care agents to remotely manage over 10 million WiFi connections, with more than 100 million actions taken each day to optimize the home broadband experience for BT’s customers.
Nick Lane, Managing Director for Consumer Customer Services at BT, said: “Our expanded partnership with Nokia is another demonstration of our commitment to providing the best customer experience by investing in AI, analytics, and other state-of the-art technology. Our partnership will help BT’s customer service agents provide the best service across all phone and digital channels and continue to make BT the only network to answer 100% of customer calls in the UK.”
Hamdy Farid, Senior Vice President, Business Applications at Nokia, said: “Nokia AVA Fixed Network Insights is a critical component to helping operators improve network diagnosis and troubleshooting processes, while reducing unnecessary manual fixes. We are very pleased to be taking our partnership with BT to the next level with this agreement.”
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking public comment on the development and implementation of the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (Innovation Fund).
The Innovation Fund is a $1.5 billion grant program that will support the promotion and deployment of open, interoperable, and standards-based radio access networks (RAN). Authorized under the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and funded through the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, this historic investment aims to strengthen U.S. leadership in the global telecommunications ecosystem, foster competition, lower costs for consumers, and strengthen our supply chain.
NTIA is charged with administering the Innovation Fund and establishing criteria for grants awarded. The comments submitted will provide vital input and recommendations for consideration in the development and implementation of NTIA’s Innovation Fund grant program.
“The highly consolidated global market for wireless equipment creates serious risks for both consumers and U.S. companies,” said Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator. “Our $1.5 billion fund will jumpstart innovation in the industry and open it up to a more diverse set of suppliers. We expect the increase in competition to lead to more secure, resilient and cost-effective networks.”
Commenters are encouraged to address any or all the questions in the Request for Comment. Written comments may be submitted to regulations.gov by 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 27, 2023. All comments submitted will post publicly on Regulations.gov.
T-Mobile US has deployed what is described as the world’s largest highly scalable and distributed nationwide cloud native converged core gateway using Cisco’s flagship networking solutions including the Cisco 8000 Series routers, 5G and 4G packet core gateways, Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches with Cisco Network Services Orchestrator for full stack automation.
The fully automated converged core architecture is based on Cisco’s cloud native control plane, optimized with Kubernetes orchestrated containers on bare metal, freeing up over 20% of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) cores.
“T-Mobile customers already have access to the largest, most powerful 5G network in the country, and we’re innovating every day to supercharge their experience even further,” said Delan Beah, Senior Vice President of Core Network and Services Engineering at T-Mobile. “This cloud native core gateway takes our network to new heights, allowing us to push 5G forward by delivering next-level performance for consumers and businesses nationwide while setting the stage for new applications enabled by next-gen networks.”
“Our strategic relationship with T-Mobile is rooted in co-innovation, with a shared vision to establish best practices for 5G and the Internet for the Future,” said Masum Mir, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Networking Provider Mobility. “This is the type of network every operator aspires to. It will support the most advanced 5G applications for consumers and businesses today and enables T-Mobile to test and deliver new and emerging 5G and IoT applications with simplicity at scale.”
Meta has terminated a contract for the expansion of a major data center in Odense, Denmark.
Per Aarsleff, the lead contractor for project, valued the cancelled contract at DKK 2.4 billion. As a result, all construction work on the data center will be halted immediately.
https://www.aarsleff.com/about-aarsleff/news/news/termination-of-contract-for-data-centre-in-odense#
Hyperscale data center capex is on track for 28 percent growth 2022, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group, owever, cloud service providers are expected to enter a digestion cycle in 2023.
“Data center capex has grown double-digits for the fifth consecutive quarter, led by the US hyperscalers’ investments in new data center footprints,” said Baron Fung, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “With supply improvements in the recent quarter, vendors were able to reduce backlog significantly in the rest of cloud and enterprise markets. However, we anticipate growth headwinds ahead, as the hyperscalers wind down on their expansion cycle, and enterprises tighten IT capital spending in light of an uncertain business climate,” explained Fung.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2022 Data Center IT Capex Quarterly Report:
https://www.delloro.com/news/hyperscale-data-center-capex-on-track-for-28-percent-growth-in-2022/
Zayo highlightes a series of expansions to its independent fiber network infrastructure, including continued growth in its long-haul capacity with three new and overbuilt dark fiber routes, 18 new 400 Gbps enabled routes, and a newly completed Transpacific subsea route connecting the U.S. and Tokyo. This series of expansions from Zayo marks the latest in the company’s $250 million investment into its global infrastructure this year.
Zayo’s two new dark fiber routes include:
In addition to the new dark fiber routes, Zayo has overbuilt the following route with new fiber capacity:
New 400G routes include:
Zayo’s newest completed Transpacific subsea route connects Hillsboro, Oregon, to Tokyo utilizing the TGN-P cable marks the third Transpacific route for Zayo, in addition to its existing capabilities on PC-1 and Unity. The route provides a diverse option to PC-1 for a Transpacific cable landing in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and also includes a diverse landing station in Tokyo. The route is available with pre-provisioned and pre-tested 10G Waves circuits and is managed by Zayo’s network operation center (NOC) for enhanced customer service.
“Zayo is committed to supporting the needs of our customers, not only for today, but for the innovations of tomorrow,” said Bill Long, chief product officer at Zayo. “Zayo is one of the only national providers actively pursuing new fiber builds, which have been enabled through our extensive existing infrastructure footprint, expertise within our teams, and the agile business structure Zayo has worked to build over the last 15 years. The continued expansion of our dark fiber and wave routes provides our customers with the customization and scaling ability they need to accelerate their digital transformation journeys.”
https://www.zayo.com/newsroom/zayo-unveils-latest-series-of-infrastructure-expansions/
Ericsson, Japanese operator KDDI, and Sony carried out a proof-of-concept (POC) showing end-to-end network across two simultaneous slices for the same user equipment and the same end-user service.
In this PoC, Ericsson's 5G Core equipment and Sony's 5G SA mobile devices applied User Equipment Route Selection Policies (URSP) standards and Priority Scheduling to enable a gaming app to use two different network slices – one for video and one for mobile operation signals. This showed that dedicated network slices can be used for different processes on a mobile device by changing the terminal’s route selection policies in response to a request from 5G core equipment.
Chris Houghton, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Area Northeast Asia, Ericsson, says: “This significant achievement with KDDI, an important customer of ours, and Sony, a key partner, paves the way for all sorts of applications in network slicing. We will continue to support our customers and partners in Japan to monetize their networks by delivering new value and services for end users.”
The PoC showed that in a highly loaded mobile network, Radio Access Network (RAN) Slicing functions such as Quality of Service and Radio Resource Partitioning (RRP) can provide the required service isolation and differentiated priorities to protect the mobile broadband user performance. In addition, end-to-end network slices were deployed by the Service Orchestration, with the profiles for the RAN and 5G core and cell-level radio resources partitioned using RRP
Mr. Toshikazu Yokai, Managing Executive Officer, General Manager of Mobile Network Technical Development Division, KDDI, stated. “KDDI is constantly working on technology validation with the aim to create new use cases and services utilizing 5G standalone. KDDI will continue to develop and verify technologies to create new value.”
Worldwide campus switch sales were up 23 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) in 3Q 2022, the highest growth rate in nearly two decades, surpassing even the rate of recovery after the two prior market downturns in 2008 and 2020, according to Dell'Oro Group. Growth was broad-based across most vendors, including large and small players, but Cisco was the only vendor with meaningful share gain, increasing by nearly five points during the quarter.
“Gradually improving supply situation is helping release aging backlog, which sent port shipments to record levels for the quarter and for the first nine months of the year,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “ Unfortunately, most of the backlog fulfilled during the quarter is from orders placed ahead of the list price increase. Consequently, vendors’ margins continue to be suppressed as cost continues to rise without being passed on to customers. As a point of reference, the cost of some constrained components went up by factors of 100 to 500.
“With such a strong performance for the first nine months of the year, the market is on track to achieve strong double-digit growth in 2022. Although 2022 is coming above expectations, we have not changed our forecast for 2023 and still predict a low-single-digit growth in the market. This growth will be fueled by near-record backlog levels reported by most manufacturers. Nevertheless, as the 2023 year progresses and backlog starts to normalize, macro-economic headwinds may start to suppress market performance,” added Boujelbene.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2022 Ethernet Switch – Campus Report:
Nokia is building a nation-wide optical transport network spanning 3,000km for FCCN, which provides high-speed Internet connectivity and IT services to the Portuguese higher education and research system.
The agreement includes Nokia’s 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect optical transport and switching solutions, management systems for the dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network, and design, implementation, and maintenance services.
Nokia submitted the winning bid in an international tender to build a new RCTS optical network as part of the 17 million RCTS100 Project, 13 of which came from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).The new DWDM network replaces FCCN’s legacy OADM network with Colorless-Flexgrid (C-F) reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) to enable simple and remote reconfiguration of lightpaths, and increases network capacity by a factor of 10 using 100G/200G wavelengths.
