AT&T transmits 5G from Flying COW

AT&T recently demonstrated a 5G "Flying COW" (Cell on Wings) over a quiet, non-descript field in rural Missouri.

“We had intermittent, weak LTE signal at the flight location before we launched the 5G Flying COW,” said Ethan Hunt, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Principal Program Manager, AT&T. “We flew the drone up to about 300 feet, turned on the signal and it began transmitting strong 5G coverage to approximately 10 square miles.”

AT&T says the drone could be used to quickly set-up 5G service for first responders in a search and rescue mission.

“Our focus within the drone world is connectivity. All of our drone solutions have that focus,” said Art Pregler, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program Director, AT&T. “5G brings a lot of new capability to the table. We can connect a lot larger number of devices with 5G. When we put that up, we can share with a larger population.”

AT&T also highlighted two other drone projects:

• Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight operations, GEOCAST air operations -- this would allow the pilot to operate a drone from a completely different location. An AT&T-patented flight control system  allows  operators and  tethered Flying COWs to be separated by thousands of miles.  In the next phase, AT&T will launch untethered Flying COWs.
• 5G RoboDogs -- which could be used for a number of situations, such as search and rescue or bomb disablement. 

https://about.att.com/story/2022/5G-drone-program.html

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NTU Singapore taps Keysight for 6G R&D in terahertz frequencies

The Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies in Singapore has selected Keysight's software-centric test and measurement solutions to advance 6G technology based on terahertz frequencies.

Keysight’s solutions will be used to validate on-chip terahertz electronic-photonic devices such as transceivers. Located at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), a leading research university, the centre leverages terahertz frequencies to develop a unique electronic-photonic hybrid approach. It can be used to design mobile devices capable of efficiently operating at data rates of up to several terabits per second (Tbps). Many emerging applications and future 6G use cases, including augmented reality, holographic communication and mobile edge computing rely on such high data rate speeds.

“Keysight is pleased to contribute to breakthroughs in 6G technology by providing NTU with a 6G testbed that accurately analyzes unchartered terrain spanning electronics and photonics technologies for their TeraX Lab,” said Boon Juan Tan, vice president and general manager of Keysight’s general electronics measurements solutions (GEMS) group. “Together with pacesetters such as NTU, Keysight is enabling high-speed data transfer links critical to realizing a wide range of consumer, enterprise and government 6G applications.”

Keysight’s integrated software and hardware tools, with advanced performance in measurement science applicable to 6G technologies, enable NTU to accurately characterize complex transceiver modules. Keysight combines the company’s high-speed arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), optical modulation analyzer with highly detectable symbol rates, network analyzer (PNA), PSG analog signal generator with compact upconverters and downconverters from Virginia Diodes Inc. (VDI) and PathWave Vector Signal Analysis software to create a turnkey solution for comprehensive testing and validation of on-chip terahertz electronic-photonic devices.

https://www.keysight.com/zz/en/about/newsroom/news-releases/2022/0602-nr22065-keysight-test-solutions-selected-by-ntu-singapore-t.html

Keysight and Samsung Research sign 6G MoU

Tuesday, February 15, 2022  6G, Keysight  

Keysight Technologies and Samsung Research signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance research and development of 6G. The two companies will work together to develop test and verification technologies for 6G wireless systems.The collaboration will accelerate the development of AI-enabled air interfaces that leverage massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna technology. Such air interfaces support deployment of energy-efficient...

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Keysight and LG Electronics collaborate on 6G

Monday, February 07, 2022  6G, Keysight  

Keysight Technologies collaborated with LG Electronics to demonstrate a 6G radio frequency (RF) front-end (RFFE) module at the recent 2021 Korea Science and Technology Exhibition in December.The demonstration leveraged Keysight’s 6G Sub-Terahertz (THz) R&D Testbed and LG’s 6G radio front-end transceiver to generate terabit data wireless transmissions. Keysight’s 6G testbed supports a scalable number of frequency bands and ultra-wide bandwidths....

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Arista intros 7130 Series of low latency programmable switches

Arista Networks introduced ultra low latency, highly programmable 7130 Series switching systems designed for demanding in-network applications, such as financial trading. 

The Arista 7130 Series of low latency programmable switchesare powered by full-featured, programmable switching silicon and ultra low latency Layer 1 and highly scalable FPGAs. The expanded 7130 Series includes two new models that integrate full-featured L2/3 switching and open programmability with high performance L1 connectivity. They both run Arista EOS and integrate with CloudVision, supporting the broad range of switching, routing, DANZ monitoring and programmability across Arista’s extensive portfolio.

• The 7130LBR Series are 96 port systems combining the ultra low latency Layer 1 X-Point with two high performance FPGAs, Broadcom Jericho2 switching silicon, a powerful CPU and precision timing hardware, enabling consolidation of network, server and custom FPGA applications into a highly compact form factor. Compared to traditional multi-box approaches, the 7130LBR reduces device and network hop count, cabling, power and cost while providing orders of magnitude density and latency improvements through co-location of these key components.
• Supporting dynamic reconfigurability, the robust features of Arista’s R series, a portfolio of 7130 FPGA applications from Arista and its partners and a comprehensive FPGA Development Kit, customers can mix and match Arista applications with their bespoke processing without resorting to slow connections to external devices. In addition, two high-grade AMD/Xilinx FPGAs can be combined to perform complex data processing tasks or deployed in parallel enabling independent functions and live prestaging of new applications with seamless switch-over.
• The 7130B Series provides high density Layer 1 fabric combined with a full-featured, high-radix Intel Tofino L2/3 switch. Providing over 2.5x the Layer 1 connectivity of existing solutions with 256 interfaces using high-density QSFP-DD connectors, hundreds of devices can be interconnected to provide thousands of edge ports and hundreds of FPGAs with minimal latency impact. In addition, the 7130B sophisticated P4 programmable packet processing enables customized packet handling, filtering and statistics as well as Arista’s advanced pipeline profiles for scalable address translation, tunneling and load balancing.

“Cboe is one of the world’s largest global market infrastructure providers and delivers leading-edge technology that powers markets and serves investors around the globe,” said Curt Schumacher, Senior Vice President, Infrastructure at Cboe Global Markets. “As we continue to invest in our infrastructure to drive our ongoing expansion into new markets and regions globally, we expect Arista’s solutions will provide new ways to further enhance application performance and scale, without compromising on efficiency, in our business.”

Customer testing is currently in progress, with general availability in Q4 2022.

https://www.arista.com/en/company/news/press-release/15648-pr-20220601

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OIF advances Common Management Interface Spec (CMIS)

The OIF has released a Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) Implementation Agreement (IA). 

CMIS provides a well-defined mechanism to initialize and manage optical and copper modules in a standard way, while still providing the capability to provide custom functionality. This commonality makes integration into different host platforms easier for both the host and module vendors.

IA—CMIS 5.2:The importance of CMIS continues to expand as higher-speed systems require more complex modules demanding more sophisticated management interfaces. This IA marks the first OIF-approved CMIS IA and the completion of the transition of the work to OIF.

“One of the reasons OIF adopted the CMIS work is its close coupling and application to ongoing OIF projects,” said Ian Alderdice, Ciena and OIF Physical & Link Layer Working Group – Management Co-Vice Chair. “This IA includes new features supporting a wide variety of form factors, most importantly fiber channel enhancements which expands the range of end-user applications.”

At its Q2 2022 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting, which was held last month, a new CMIS project was also intiated. CMIS addresses commonality in managing pluggable modules and is a critical interface working hand-in-hand with other OIF areas, including co-packaging and electrical. The project work to create the next version of CMIS will add the necessary support for co-packaging/External Laser Small Form Factor Pluggable (ELSFP) projects and link training.

“This new project work represents the next steps in the evolution of CMIS and its alignment with other OIF PLL Working Groups tracks to enable an interoperable ecosystem,” said Gary Nicholl, Cisco and OIF PLL Working Group – Management Co-Vice Chair and Secretary/Treasurer. 

https://www.oiforum.com/oif-releases-new-common-management-interface-specification-cmis-implementation-agreement-and-launches-new-cmis-project-at-q2-technical-and-mae-committees-meeting/

OIF adopts Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) 

Thursday, January 06, 2022  OIF  

OIF has adopted the Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) work initiated by the Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density (QSFP-DD) Multi Source Agreement (MSA).  

CMIS may be used by pluggable or on-board modules, such as QSFP Double Density (QSFP-DD), OSFP, COBO, QSFP, and future module developments like co-packaged optics with host to module management communication based on a two-wire interface. This specification is targeted to systems manufacturers, system integrators and suppliers of CMIS compliant optical and copper modules. 

“The QSFP-DD MSA initiated the CMIS effort to address an industry need for commonality in managing pluggable modules, and it has been broadly and successfully adopted across the industry,” said Mark Nowell, Cisco, QSFP-DD MSA Group founding member and MSA co-chair. “OIF is very well suited to maintain and extend the development of this effort and I look forward to seeing their progress.”

“Adopting CMIS from the QSFP-DD MSA, with the goal to build on and extend the specification is an ideal expansion of OIF’s work,” said Nathan Tracy, OIF VP of Marketing and TE Connectivity. “OIF is where the cloud gets its work done and extending CMIS is a giant step forward and an integral linkage to the other work that OIF members are doing to enable an interoperable ecosystem.” 

In August, OIF announced the new Physical & Link Layer (PLL) Working Group Management track to include the transition of ownership and maintenance of CMIS from the QSFP-DD MSA to OIF and a project to focus on CMIS extensions for co-packaging implementations. OIF will take over the ongoing CMIS revisions and further enhancements and CMIS extensions under this track. This track is co-vice-chaired by Gary Nicholl, Cisco and Ian Alderdice, Ciena.

https://www.oiforum.com/

OIF's Coherent Common Management Interface Spec supports 400ZR

Tuesday, March 03, 2020  OIF, Standards  

OIF has completed the Coherent Common Management Interface Specification (C-CMIS) Implementation Agreement (IA), which serves as an extension to the CMIS (QSFP-DD/OSFP/COBO) management specification, specifically targeting DCO modules. “The C-CMIS IA is an important part of the developing 400ZR ecosystem,” said Ian Betty, Ciena and OIF Board Member. “It defines additional management registers, and monitors, together with new functionality, mechanisms,...

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OIF launches Optical Module Management Interface Survey

Wednesday, July 01, 2020  400ZR, COBO, OIF  

The OIF is conducting a survey to determine how the Common Management Interface Specification is viewed by the industry and the level of industry alignment on and support for further standardization of optical module management. The subject of module management encompasses physical interfaces, communication protocols and management applications layers. The survey is intended to gather industry opinion regarding evolution of optical module management...

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Telefónica Hispam picks Mavenir for cloud-native IMS core

Telefónica Hispam (Hispanoamérica) has selected Mavenir's cloud-native IMS Core for fixed and mobile networks across Mexico, Colombia, and Chile.

Mavenir said the transition to its cloud-native IMS platform will allow Telefónica Hispam to evolve all fixed and mobile voice services and modernize operations. The solution will be deployed on TCloud, Telefónica’s private telco cloud infrastructure.

Alejandro Ghianni, Planification and Engineering Director at Telefónica Hispam said, “At Telefónica, we appreciate that core network functions must be modernized to support network evolution, and virtualized architectures will need software that supports both VoLTE and 5G Voice. We are very excited to embark on this network transformation journey with Mavenir.”

Javier Gavilan, Mavenir’s Chief Technical Officer CALA region said, “Only a cloud-native network, evolved into a fully web-scale platform, can meet the requirements for a successful 5G transformation. Mavenir’s cloud-native IMS Core can be deployed on any cloud eliminating legacy hardware platforms. This mobile-first architecture has been deployed in a variety of large multivendor environments including O2 Telefónica in Germany and Virgin Mobile O2 in the UK. We are very pleased to have been awarded this important project by Telefónica Hispam.

https://www.mavenir.com/press-releases/telefonica-selects-mavenir-for-cloud-native-ims-core/

Telefónica builds cloud native IoT with Mavenir packet core and AWS

Monday, February 15, 2021  Mavenir, Telefonica  

Telefónica is preparing to launch a managed IoT connectivity service based Mavenir’s packet core solution and AWS’s cloud infrastructure. Mavenir's cloud native functions will be hosted in AWS. Mavenir said the use of the cloud enables advanced, new functionalities for end users that were not previously possible: local data processing/storage, direct connectivity to other cloud services, and global low latency. The new service is managed...

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Credo ships 40G PAM3 SerDes

Credo Technology Group announced availability of its Ostrich 40G, PAM3 Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) PHY/PMA Intellectual Property (IP). 

Ostrich is a multi-protocol high-speed SerDes supporting data rates up to 25.6Gbps NRZ and 40Gbps PAM3. A single bi-directional lane supports channel insertion loss up to 30dB bump-to-bump at 40Gbps with spread-spectrum clocking (SSC) enabled while achieving very low power to address all key application use cases. Credo's unique SerDes technology enables silicon solution providers and OEMs to manufacture custom chip solutions which address new market opportunities, while delivering on critical performance and low- power system level requirements.

Credo says unique mixed signal approach was first applied with the move from NRZ to PAM modulation when Ethernet connectivity jumped from 25G to 50G. With new applications demanding two times the throughput, and current single-lane data rates maxing out in the 20G to 32G NRZ performance range, the move to advanced modulation schemes enables higher performance at the lowest possible power. To enable 40Gbps performance the company determined that PAM3 offered the best overall balance of performance and power.

Bill Brennan, Credo’s President and Chief Executive Officer stated: “The data infrastructure market is experiencing an exponential increase in bandwidth demand. There is a revolution happening as new markets and standards, including those for applications such as consumer devices, small-to-medium sized business, automotive and others demand higher-speed connectivity at lower power. Credo is addressing the expansion of the connectivity ecosystem by delivering industry-leading performance with advanced IP solutions like our Ostrich 40G PAM3 SerDes, while in parallel providing complementary IC product solutions."

https://www.credosemi.com

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Sony establishes a Space Communications company

Sony Corporation of America has formed a new company, Sony Space Communications Corporation (SSC), to offer small optical communications devices for connecing micro satellites in LEO via a laser beam. 

By using optical communications, SSC aims to realize high-speed communications with small devices, which are physically difficult to achieve with conventional radio communications because conventional communications require large antenna and high power output. In addition, by constructing an optical communications network not only between satellites and the ground, but also between satellites in orbit, SSC aims to enable real-time communications from anywhere on the ground to any satellite in space. 

"Currently there are approximately 12,000 satellites in space, and the number is expected to increase in the future. The amount of data used in orbit is also increasing year by year, but the amount of available radio waves is limited," said Kyohei Iwamoto, President, Sony Space Communications Corporation. "Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites need to communicate with the ground, so a large number of communications facilities are required for real-time communications, which is problematic because these satellites must pass directly over a ground station to communicate with it. Additionally, the need for frequency licenses for radio waves and the requirement for lower power consumption of communication equipment needed by smaller satellites, like micro satellites, are also issues to be addressed."

https://www.sony.com/content/sony/en/en_us/SCA/company-news/press-releases/sony-corporation-of-america/2022/new-company-established-sony-space-communications-corporation.html

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Zayo acquires Education Networks of America

Zayo Group has acquired Education Networks of America (ENA), a leader in providing managed network connectivity, communications and cybersecurity services to K-12 school districts participating in the federally-funded E-Rate program, as well as other public sector customers. The acquisition is being funded by Zayo’s recent sustainability-linked first lien term loan (“ESG term loan”)

ENA was previously owned by ZMC, a leading investor in and operator of media, communications and entertainment businesses. The acquisition marks another significant milestone in a momentous first half of the year for Zayo, which has included the acquisition of QOS Networks, the addition of Lisa Hook to the board of directors and Zayo’s largest organic network expansion to date.

“We are proud of Zayo’s history serving the public sector and see tremendous opportunity with the addition of ENA, which is known for being a trusted provider of managed network and cybersecurity solutions,” said Andrés Irlando, president of Zayo. “ENA’s mission, particularly serving K-12 and healthcare customers, will enable us to have a positive impact on communities while furthering our commitment to leading in Environmental, Social and Governance initiatives. Together, we look forward to driving digital transformation across the public sector while delivering an exceptional customer experience.”

https://www.zayo.com

 

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