05/25/22 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Verizon and AWS expand edge computing to 19 U.S. metro areas

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 5G, Edge, Verizon

Verizon and AWS launched 5G mobile edge computing in Nashville, TN and Tampa, FL.

The mobile edge solution, which was first launched in August 2020, the companies provide mobile edge computing via AWS Wavelength Zones in 19 locations in the U.S. That means 75% of the U.S. population is now within 150 miles of a Wavelength Zone.

“With the ongoing expansion of our mobile edge compute infrastructure, we’re enabling developers to build transformational applications that enhance consumers’ experiences by moving the data and processing done by applications and services to the edge of Verizon’s wireless network and closer to the end-user’s device,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “By offering both public and private mobile edge compute, we’re giving businesses ultimate optionality. This can transform the way companies can leverage predictive analytics, allowing them to improve operational efficiency, mitigate risk and increase revenue.”

“With the rapid expansion of AWS Wavelength Zones across the US, even more developers can innovate faster and deploy powerful cloud-based applications to the edge – offering ultra low latency, high bandwidth, and high performance for these applications,” said George Elissaios, director and general manager of AWS EC2 core product management at AWS. “We’re excited to collaborate with Verizon to bring AWS services to the edge of the Verizon 5G network across the US to help our customers transform consumer experiences.”

Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength is currently available in 19 locations including Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, TN, New York City, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Tampa, FL and Washington DC. Verizon and AWS also offer private mobile edge computing for enterprises called Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Outposts.

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-aws-expand-edge-computing-19-us-metro-areas

Verizon debuts mobile edge cloud with Microsoft Azure

Tuesday, August 31, 2021 Azure, Microsoft, Verizon

Verizon is now offering an on-premises, private edge compute solution in collaboration with Microsoft Azure.Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge is a cloud computing platform that brings compute and storage services to the edge of the network at the customer premises providing enterprises with increased efficiencies, higher levels of security, and the low lag and high bandwidth needed for applications involving computer vision, augmented...

Verizon 5G Edge taps Google Distributed Cloud Edge

Thursday, December 16, 2021 Edge, Google Cloud, Verizon

Verizon and Google Cloud agreed to collaborate on 5G edge services for mobile and connected devices, including autonomous mobile robots, intelligent logistics and factory automation.Verizon 5G Edge with Google Distributed Cloud Edge, will bring Google’s compute and storage services to the edge of the local network.The companies also plan to develop public 5G mobile edge computing for developers and enterprises. In addition, Ericsson, in collaboration...

Ayar Labs teams with NVIDIA on Optical Interconnects

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Ayar, Nvidia, Optical Interconnects

Ayar Labs is working with NVIDIA on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure based on optical I/O technology to meet future demands of AI and high performance computing (HPC) workloads.

The collaboration will focus on integrating Ayar Labs’ technology to develop scale-out architectures enabled by high-bandwidth, low-latency and ultra-low-power optical-based interconnects for future NVIDIA products. Together, the companies plan to accelerate the development and adoption of optical I/O technology to support the explosive growth of AI and machine learning (ML) applications and data volumes.

“Today’s state-of-the-art AI/ML training architectures are limited by current copper-based compute-to-compute interconnects to build scale-out systems for tomorrow’s requirements,” said Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Ayar Labs. “Our work with NVIDIA to develop next-generation solutions based on optical I/O provides the foundation for the next leap in AI capabilities to address the world’s most sophisticated problems.”

“Over the past decade, NVIDIA-accelerated computing has delivered a million-X speedup in AI,” said Rob Ober, Chief Platform Architect for Data Center Products at NVIDIA. “The next million-X will require new, advanced technologies like optical I/O to support the bandwidth, power and scale requirements of future AI and ML workloads and system architectures.”

https://ayarlabs.com/

Ayar Labs lands $130m for In-Package Optical I/O

Tuesday, April 26, 2022 Ayar Labs, Silicon, Start-Ups

Ayar Labs, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, secured $130 million in additional financing for its optical I/O solution.

With the new investment, Ayar Labs said it is ramping production and securing supply chain partners, as signaled by previously announced multi-year strategic collaborations with Lumentum and Macom, both leaders in optical and photonic products, as well as GlobalFoundries on its new GF Fotonix platform. The company also confirmed that it made its first volume commercial shipments under contract and expects to ship thousands of units of its in-package optical interconnect by end of year.

The new funding was led by Boardman Bay Capital Management. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NVIDIA entered this investment round, joining existing strategic investors Applied Ventures LLC, GlobalFoundries, Intel Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures. Other new strategic and financial investors participating in the round include Agave SPV, Atreides Capital, Berkeley Frontier Fund, IAG Capital Partners, Infinitum Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners, and Tyche Partners. They join existing investors such as BlueSky Capital, Founders Fund, Playground Global, and TechU Venture Partners.

http://www.ayarlabs.com

What's hot at OFC22? Ayar Labs on Optical I/O

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 #OFC22, Ayar Labs

There is a lot of discussion about optical I/O and the challenge of getting photonics integrated much closer to compute units, says Mark Wade, co-founder and CTO, Ayar Labs.Last year, Ayar Labs demonstrated its end-to-end, DWDM micro-ring solution for optical I/O. This year, it's clear that big parts of the industry are heading in this direction. Some highlights for the ecosystem include GlobalFoundries newly announced photonics platform, a...

Marvell milestone: 100,000 400G Coherent DSPs shipped

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Marvell, Silicon

Marvell announced a significant milestones: the cumulative shipment of more than 100,000 400G Coherent Digital Signal Processors (CDSPs).

Marvell's CDSP portfolio includes Canopus, the industry's first 7nm CDSP enabling 400G ZR/ZR+, metro and long haul pluggable optical modules, and the Marvell Deneb, an ultra-low power, multi-mode 400G DSP for OpenZR+ and OpenROADM.

The company also noted having achieved several industry firsts:

Fueled the industry's first 400G ZR/ZR+ QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors for data center interconnect (DCI) applications in cloud networks.
Delivered the industry's first 400ZR module with coherent DSP for hyperscale cloud data networks.
Enabled the industry's first and highest performing 200G and 400G CFP2 deployments in networks worldwide.
Delivered the industry's first and only DSP to enable probabilistic shaping within a CFP2 form factor.
Created the industry's largest open ecosystem of partners offering standards-based small form factor coherent pluggable modules that enable massive scalable bandwidth in metro, access and DCI transport networks.
Enabled the industry's first CDSP to integrate power and thermal management functionality to support operation over the entire industrial temperature range, from -40C to 85C.

"We are proud to see our vision of open pluggability everywhere come to life. This milestone is a testament to Marvell's leadership in delivering on our core values of performance innovation at the lowest power to drive mass deployment of 400G coherent pluggables," said Pranay Aiya, vice president, Product Marketing and Customer Applications Engineering at Marvell. "We are thankful to our team, customers and partners for helping us execute on this mission of industry firsts!"

https://www.marvell.com/company/newsroom/marvell-achieves-industry-leading-100000-400g-coherent-dsp-shipment-milestone.html

NVIDIA reports strong data center sales, trims outlook

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Nvidia

NVIDIA reported record revenue for the first quarter ended May 1, 2022, of $8.29 billion, up 46% from a year ago and up 8% from the previous quarter, with record revenue in Data Center and Gaming.

GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $0.64, down 16% from a year ago and down 46% from the previous quarter, and include an after-tax impact of $0.52 related to the $1.35 billion Arm acquisition termination charge. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.36, up 49% from a year ago and up 3% from the previous quarter.

“We delivered record results in Data Center and Gaming against the backdrop of a challenging macro environment,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “The effectiveness of deep learning to automate intelligence is driving companies across industries to adopt NVIDIA for AI computing. Data Center has become our largest platform, even as Gaming achieved a record quarter.

“We are gearing up for the largest wave of new products in our history with new GPU, CPU, DPU and robotics processors ramping in the second half. Our new chips and systems will greatly advance AI, graphics, Omniverse, self-driving cars and robotics, as well as the many industries these technologies impact,” he said.

However, NVIDIA trimmed its outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 is as follows:

Revenue is expected to be $8.10 billion, plus or minus 2%. This includes an estimated reduction of approximately $500 million relating to Russia and the COVID lockdowns in China.

GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 65.1% and 67.1%, respectively, plus or minus 50 basis points.

Some highlights:

Data Center: First-quarter revenue was a record $3.75 billion, up 83% from a year ago and up 15% from the previous quarter.
Gaming: First-quarter revenue was a record $3.62 billion, up 31% from a year ago and up 6% from the previous quarter.
Professional Visualization: First-quarter revenue was $622 million, up 67% from a year ago and down 3% from the previous quarter.
Automotive and Robotics: First-quarter Automotive revenue was $138 million, down 10% from a year ago and up 10% from the previous quarter.

https://investor.nvidia.com/home/default.aspx

Nutanix reports sales of $403.7M, up 17%, and supply chain delays

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Nutanix

Nutanix reported revenue of $403.7 million for its third quarter ended April 30, 2022, up 17% from the $344.5 million reported for the same period a year earlier.

The company cited 28% a YoY ACV billings growth to $204.7 million, but trimmed its outlook due to supply chain delays.

“Our third quarter reflected continued solid execution, demonstrating strong year-over-year top and bottom line improvement,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nutanix. “Late in the third quarter, we saw an unexpected impact from challenges that limited our upside in the quarter and affected our outlook for the fourth quarter. Increased supply chain delays with our hardware partners account for the significant majority of the impact to our outlook, and higher-than-expected sales rep attrition in the third quarter was also a factor. We don’t believe these challenges reflect any change in demand for our hybrid multicloud platform, and we remain focused on mitigating the impact of these issues and continuing to execute on the opportunity in front of us.”

https://www.nutanix.com/press-releases/2022/nutanix-reports-third-quarter-2022

Google Cloud region opens in Madrid in partnership with Telefónica

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Data Centers, Google Cloud, Spain

Google opened a new cloud region in Madrid, Spain.

The new Madrid region (europe-southwest1) provides low-latency, highly available cloud services with high international security and data protection standards. The Madrid region is launching with three cloud zones to prevent service interruptions, and our standard set of products, including Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Storage, Persistent Disk, CloudSQL, and Cloud Identity.

The facility, which joins Google Cloud's network of 33 regions throughout the globe, was built partnership with Telefónica.

“We welcome the Cloud capabilities that the Google Cloud region is bringing to Spain. It is especially important for the alignment with the security levels that public sector organizations demand and as required in the National Security Scheme. They must take advantage of a cloud that is offered locally with the highest security guarantees. The collaboration with hyperscalers is key. It is also essential to continue advancing with best practices adoption, training, security configurations and supervision” Luis Jimenez, Subdirector del Centro Criptológico Nacional.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/new-google-cloud-region-in-madrid-spain-now-open

Google's Grace Hopper subsea cable lands in Cornwall

Wednesday, September 15, 2021 Google, Subsea, UK

The Grace Hopper subsea cable has landed in Bude, Cornwall, UK. This follows a successful Bilbao landing earlier in September.

Google says Grace Hopper will use a new switching architecture to provide optimum levels of network flexibility and resilience to adjust to unforeseen failures or traffic patterns.

https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/our-grace-hopper-subsea-cable-has-landed-uk/?linkId=131609522

Google's Grace Hopper subsea cable to link US-UK-Spain

Tuesday, July 28, 2020 Google, Subsea

Google unveiled plans for a new subsea cable — Grace Hopper — which will run between the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain. The cable is named for computer science pioneer Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (1906–1992), an admiral in the U.S. Navy best known for her work in developing the COBOL programming language.

The Grace Hopper cable will be equipped with 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers). Subcom has been selected as the lead contractor. The project is expected to be completed in 2022.

Google said the Grace Hopper cable system will be the first to use a novel optical fiber switching that allows for increased reliability by moving traffic around outages.

Grace Hopper joins Google's other private subsea cables, Curie, Dunant and Equiano.

Dell'Oro: Mobile Core and MEC market rebounds

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Dell’Oro, Research

The total Mobile Core Network (MCN) and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) market revenues for 1Q 2022 rebounded to a positive year-over-year (Y/Y) growth rate after the decrease in 4Q 2021 which was the first decrease since 4Q 2017, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

The MCN market growth was driven by an extremely high double-digit percentage Y/Y revenue growth rate in the 5G MCN market overcoming the Y/Y revenue declines in the 4G MCN and IMS Core markets. For the MCN market regionally, the China region had a high growth rate while the MCN market excluding China had a negative growth rate for the quarter.

“With the continued aggressive build-out of 5G Standalone (SA) networks in China, the China region in 1Q 2022 substantially increased its share of the 5G MCN market over last quarter,’ stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “At the end of 1Q 2022, we have identified 25 Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that have commercially launched 5G SA Mobile Broadband networks (MBB) with services available to consumers. The 5G Core vendors (in alphabetical order) include Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, Samsung, and ZTE. We have identified 150 MNOs with 5G Core contracts with the above vendors plus Mavenir. There are still more 5G Core contracts that vendors have acknowledged without revealing the associated MNOs.

“We see fewer 5G Core network launches slated for 2022 as compared to 2021 when 16 networks were launched. However, many are being readied for 2023 launches and we project mid-single-digit percentage Y/Y growth rates for the balance of 2022. One of the most anticipated and publicized 5G Core launches is Dish Wireless – the first to run 5G Core on the Public Cloud. The company is preparing to launch in many cities by mid-June 2022 to meet regulatory coverage requirements. In early May 2022, Dish had a soft launch in its first city, Las Vegas. Nokia is the primary 5G Core vendor.

“Multi-access Edge Computing deployed by MNOs has barely scratched the surface in spite of all the hype, except for the China region, which has deployed thousands of MEC nodes throughout their MNO networks, with a mix of Public MEC and Private MEC sites,” continued Bolan.

Additional highlights from the 1Q 2022 Mobile Core Network and Multi-Access Edge Computing Report:

The top two vendors for the MCN, 4G MCN, and IMS Core markets were Huawei and Ericsson.
The top two vendors for the 5G MCN market were Huawei and ZTE.
Nokia and Ericsson had the highest Y/Y growth rates for the 5G MCN market coming from a low small base. However, Huawei had the highest dollar revenue gain, with a lower Y/Y growth rate coming from a larger base.

https://www.delloro.com/news/china-5g-deployments-drive-mobile-core-networks-to-growth-in-1q-2022/

Australia's NBN Co reports financials

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 Australia

Australia's NBN Co. reported total revenue of $3.8 billion for Q3 FY22 for the nine months to 31 March 2022:, up 10 per cent on Q3 FY21, primarily due to growth in activations and customers upgrading to higher speed tiers. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA), including subscriber costs, was $2.3 billion, a $1.4 billion improvement on the corresponding nine-month period.