Wednesday, April 6, 2022

O-RAN releases Minimum Viable Plan 002

The O-RAN ALLIANCE announced the second release of specifications encompassing an O-RAN Minimum Viable Plan for products that meet the highest priority needs of operators.

O-RAN Release 001, released last year, focused on creating Open Interfaces that include Open Fronthaul, transport, hardware and cloud.

The new O-RAN Release 002 focuses on enabling Open Intelligence. Features in Release 002 include specifications for Traffic Steering, Quality of Service and Quality of Experience Optimization, RAN Slicing, and Service Management and Orchestration.

The 4 new specification titles comprise:

  • O-RAN R1 interface: General Aspects and Principles v1.0
  • O-RAN A1 interface: Test Specification v1.0
  • O-RAN Acceleration Abstraction Layer High-PHY Profiles v1.0
  • O-RAN Security Tests Specifications v1.0

Another 36 technical documents have been updated with extensions and new features. To learn more about the new and updated specifications, please read our web announcement. To access the O-RAN specifications, please visit our website.

In addition, the O-RAN Alliance plans to organize two global PlugFests in 2022 for its member companies and institutions.

https://www.o-ran.org

Equinix acquires MainOne for west African data centers

Equinix completed its previously-announced US$320 million acquisition of MainOne, which is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. Founded by Funke Opeke in 2010, the company has enabled connectivity for the business community of Nigeria and now has digital infrastructure assets, including three operational data centers, with an additional facility in Lagos expected to open in April 2022.

Equinix said the deal augments its long-term strategy to become a leading African carrier-neutral digital infrastructure company.

Equinix to acquire MainOne data centers in Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire

Equinix agreed to acquire MainOne, a leading West African data center and connectivity solutions provider, with presence in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, for $320 million. 

MainOne's assets include:

  • Three operational data centers, with an additional facility under construction expected to open in Q1 2022. These facilities will add more than 64,000 gross square feet space to Platform Equinix, in addition to 570,000 square feet of land for future expansions.
  • An extensive submarine network extending 7,000 kilometers from Portugal to Lagos, Accra and along the west African coast, with landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
  • A terrestrial network of more than 1,200 kilometers of reliable terrestrial fiber in Lagos, Edo and Ogun States. Connectivity to terrestrial sites extends across 65 PoPs (points of presence) in cities across Portugal, Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.
  • Access to key internet exchanges enabling low latency to key global networks, including Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook.
  • An estimated 800+ business-to-business customers, including major international technology enterprises, social media companies, global telecommunications operators, financial service companies and cloud service providers.
  • Nearly 500 employees and a management team with a deep understanding of local and international markets.
  • The facilities generate approximately US$60M annualized (Q2'21LQA) revenue with a purchase multiple of approximately 14x EBITDA.

The acquisition is expected to close Q1 of 2022.

Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix: "The acquisition of MainOne will represent a critical point of entry for Platform Equinix into the expansive and rapidly growing African market. MainOne's leading interconnection position and experienced management team represent critical assets in our aspirations to be the leading neutral provider of digital infrastructure in Africa. Growth of data consumption in Africa is amongst the fastest in the world, and our customers are looking for a trusted partner to pursue the opportunities presented by broad mobile adoption and greater connectivity across the region. MainOne's infrastructure, customer relationships, partner ecosystem and operating capability will extend the reach of Platform Equinix and bolster opportunities for customers in Africa and throughout the world."

Globally, Platform Equinix is comprised of 237 data centers across 65 metros and 27 countries.

https://www.equinix.com/newsroom/press-releases/2021/12/equinix-to-expand-into-africa-with-acquisition-of-mainone


Equinix acquires 4 data centers from Chile's Entel

Equinix agreed to acquire four data centers from Chile's  Empresa Nacional De Telecomunicaciones (Entel) for an enterprise value of approximately US$705 million. The deal includes three data centers in Santiago, Chile and one in Lima, Peru.Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix: "Latin America holds enormous potential, and our commitment to the region has exponentially grown since we entered back in 2011," said Charles Meyers, President...

EllaLink cites 30% less latency for gamers on transatlantic link

EllaLink said its new fiber optic submarine cable linking Europe with Latin America enables gamers on both continents to play online matches with 30% less latency. EllaLink has entered into a partnership with IP Telecom - which provides differentiated IP transit access to the main content servers spread across the European continent - and with NoPing, a high-performance solution for latency improvement focused on the online gaming segment.Inaugurated...

Equinix and Singapore's GIC to build 2 data centers in Seoul

Equinix and GIC, SINGAPORE'S sovereign wealth fund, agreed to form a US$525 million joint venture to develop and operate two xScale data centers in Seoul, Korea. GIC will own an 80% equity interest in the joint venture, and Equinix will own the remaining 20% equity interest. The two facilities under this joint venture, to be named SL2x and SL3x, are expected to provide more than 45 megawatts (MW) of power capacity to serve the unique core workload...

Equinix announces its 10th data center in Paris

Equinix unveiled plans for its 10th data center in Paris.  The new site, named PA10, will be part of the Equinix Saint-Denis campus. Phase 1 of PA10 is due to provide 3,775 m2 of colocation space and 1,525 cabinets of capacity. Upon completion of all planned phases, the full site is expected to generate 5,775  m2 of colocation space with ~2,250 cabinets.PA10 is targeted to utilize 100% renewable energy. New sustainability technology employed...



EANTC Multi-vendor Interoperability Showcase video

Carsten Rossenhövel, CTO and co-Founder of EANTC, discusses the Multi-Vendor Interoperability Showcase at this week's MPLS, SD & AI Net World Congress in Paris.

https://youtu.be/N35n5Cqx6B0



MITRE Engenuity supports U.S. semiconductor R&D

MITRE Engenuity announced an agreement of principles with Intel, Micron, and Analog Devices to accelerate semiconductor research, development, and prototyping to build a more robust U.S. semiconductor industry.

The visio is to pursue a whole-of-nation approach for a more innovation-focused U.S. semiconductor industry and supply chain.

MITRE Engenuity is built on MITRE’s 60+ year history of serving as an independent, objective bridge and convener of government, industry, and academia, bringing together the whole of nation to tackle some of the biggest challenges to our national security.

“The semiconductor industry in the U.S. is at an inflection point. There has never been a more important time to come together as an industry to establish the path forward to advance the foundation of innovation that will help solve the nation’s biggest challenges,” said Ann Kelleher, PhD, executive vice president and general manager of Technology Development at Intel Corporation. “The Semiconductor Alliance is an open collaboration that will leverage current and future R&D investments by industry and government throughout the U.S. and will support the spirit of the CHIPS for America Act to re-establish American industry leadership.” 

Laurie Giandomenico, PhD, MITRE chief acceleration officer and MITRE Engenuity leader, added, “The United States has an opportunity for generational impact in the face of growing strategic competition with China. By forging innovative partnerships based on trust and neutrality, Intel, Micron, Analog Devices, and MITRE Engenuity through the Semiconductor Alliance are aligning the interests of industry, government, and universities to collaborate and grow the semiconductor industry on U.S. soil.”

https://www.mitre.org/news/press-releases/intel-micron-analog-devices-join-mitre-engenuity-semiconductor-alliance

Milestone: Deutsche Telekom now has 5,000 5G antennas

Deutsche Telekom reports that its 5G rollout continues at pace with more than 5,000 antennas now part of its 5G network. 

  • Around 350 new sites have been added in recent weeks. 
  • In total, almost 1,700 sites make up the very fast 5G network. 
  • The antennas transmit at the 3.6 gigahertz (GHz) frequency. The network can provide up to one gigabit per second for download speeds. 
  • New additions to the list are locations from all over Germany, including Dülmen (North Rhine-Westphalia), Soltau (Lower Saxony), Annaberg-Buchholz (Saxony) and Freising (Bavaria). 

As of now, the new 5G sites also support the latest 5G standalone technology. This already applies to all antennas transmitting in the 3.6 gigahertz band. 

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/5000-antennas-available-for-high-speed-5g-1002442

Spectra7 demos 112G PAM4 GaugeChanger chip

Spectra7 Microsystems demonstrated its new 112G PAM4 GaugeChanger chip intended for next generation 800Gbps data center interconnects at this year's annual DesignCon Conference and Exhibition.

The demo show Spectra7's new GC1122 chip compensating for 112Gbps PAM4 signal loss over 4m of Volex 28AWG high-speed twin-ax cable.

Since the GC1122 is analog and highly linear, dynamics such as line rate adjustment, multi-level signaling, intermittent line silence, transmit pre-emphasis or amplitude adjustment and receiver adaptivity are fully preserved. GC1122 chips are now sampling to leading cable partners and end customers.

"We are excited to have Volex as a partner for this impressive demonstration of what is achievable with our GaugeChanger™ technology and their cable technology," said Spectra7 CEO Raouf Halim. "We look forward to bringing 800G cables to market with them later this year."

http://www.spectra7.com