07/14/22 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Digital Realty positions ServiceFabric as largest open fabric-of-fabrics

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Cloud Exchange, Data Centers, Digital Realty

Digital Realty launched ServiceFabric, an interconnectivity solution and orchestration platform positioned as the industry's largest open fabric-of-fabrics.

ServiceFabric Connect, which was developed in-house, is an orchestration platform available to Digital Realty customers immediately in 61 sites and 32 metro markets worldwide. The platform pulls together network and cloud connectivity elements from multiple sources, including those from Digital Realty and its partners, to instantiate end-to-end services. With a counterpart connection, companies are empowered to use one port to connect to anyone, anywhere, at any time through a global platform.

The initial service capabilities delivered by ServiceFabric are focused on network connectivity services:

Global Layer 2 virtual connectivity to hybrid IT infrastructure and cloud partners
Global Layer 3 virtual connectivity to your hybrid IT infrastructure
Virtual Router based connectivity to your hybrid IT infrastructure and cloud partners

"Today, we're demonstrating significant progress against our industry manifesto and reiterating the need to remove legacy barriers in the interconnection industry and address Data Gravity. We look forward to engaging with industry participants, especially our strategic connectivity and cloud partners, as we shape our roadmap for a next-generation interconnection fabric that will unlock new opportunities and value for all industries. ServiceFabric will incorporate the products of service providers in an open and neutral manner to enable holistic hybrid IT solutions for our enterprise customers. We will be an industry steward championing this shift and, together, we can tackle Data Gravity head-on and build a new era of open, secure and dynamic connected data communities globally," comments Chris Sharp, CTO, Digital Realty.

The new ServiceFabric underpins Digital Realty's global data center platform, PlatformDIGITAL, which encompasses a data communities including 1,500+ enterprises, 1,200+ network service providers, and 1,100+ cloud and IT providers.

"Since the launch of our strategic partnership in 2016, we have been proud to support Digital Realty with on-demand cloud connectivity that aligns with our shared vision of empowering businesses with rapid and secure interconnection on a global scale," says Vincent English, CEO of Megaport. "We are excited to support the evolution of Digital Realty's interconnection services with the announcement of ServiceFabric™Connect. Being the first integrated ecosystem partner of ServiceFabric™ Connect, we are fully committed to continue innovating with Digital Realty to provide customers with a frictionless on-demand interconnection experience."

https://investor.digitalrealty.com/news-and-events/news/press-release-details/2022/Digital-Realty-Strengthens-its-Global-Platform-with-Launch-of-New-Interconnectivity-Solution/default.aspx

Digital Realty advances its Fabric-of-Fabrics with Zayo collaboration

Tuesday, July 27, 2021 Digital Realty
Digital Realty is advancing its efforts to build "the largest open fabric-of-fabrics" interconnecting key centers of data exchange via a partnership with Zayo Group Holdings. Zayo, will help to lay the physical and virtual foundations of a new open fabric. "As businesses continue to shift globally towards hybrid IT to enable new digital workplace models, create new lines of business, and control costs, Zayo and Digital Realty are...
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Digital Realty's PlatformDIGITAL targets ecosystem connectivity

Thursday, November 07, 2019 Data Centers, Digital Realty, SDN

At its MarketplaceLIVE event in New York City, Digital Realty introduced its PlatformDIGITAL, a global data center platform for helping its data center colocation customers to scale their digital business. PlatformDIGITAL aims to deliver seamless and dynamic ecosystem connectivity within a Digital Realty data center and throughout its growing portfolio of data centers worldwide. “With the announcement of PlatformDIGITAL™, we uniquely enable...

Digital Realty Launches Cloud Service Exchange

Thursday, September 22, 2016 Cloud Exchange, Data Centers, Digital Realty, Megaport

Digital Realty is launching Service Exchange, an interconnection platform that facilitates direct, private and secure connections from clients in its data center to multiple cloud service providers – including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure – as well as telecommunications providers and other Digital Realty customers worldwide. The new Service Exchange, which is powered y Megaport, provides the elastic, SDN-based...

O-RAN Alliance publishes 52 new specifications

Thursday, July 14, 2022 O-RAN, Standards

The O-RAN ALLIANCE released a new set of 52 specifications for open and intelligent RAN, as the first batch of the O-RAN Release 003 specifications. Among them there are 12 new titles including use cases for Massive MIMO and the R1 interface, E2 interface testing, O2dms interface, Acceleration Abstraction Layer, outdoor macro cell HW, and security specification of 3 different parts of the O-RAN Architecture.

“The O-RAN ALLIANCE has always taken security very seriously. We have recently converted the Security Focus Group into O-RAN’s 11th technical Work Group to allow even more intensive specification efforts in the field of security,” said Andre Fuetsch, Chairman of the O-RAN ALLIANCE and Chief Technology Officer of AT&T. “Security experts from the O-RAN ecosystem have been applying systematic threat analysis on different components of the O-RAN Architecture. Security is becoming an integral part of individual interface or function specifications and there is a security testing specification for proper verification. A systematic and transparent approach to security by the broad O-RAN ecosystem follows best practices seen in other parts of the network to ensure the best possible, most secure solutions.”

Another 40 technical documents have been updated with extensions and new features.

In June 2022, following on the half year release cycle, the O-RAN Software Community (OSC) published its 6th open software release dubbed "F". The F Release continues to improve the support for Traffic Steering and Network Slicing use cases, as well as the alignment with the latest O-RAN specifications.

Main features of the F release include:

For O-Cloud, the OSC O-CLOUD platform implemented O2 DMS and IMS, and support of 3 types of resource pools (SIMPLEX, DUPLEX, and DUPLEX +) according to the O-RAN O-CLOUD specification

For Intelligence, the F release delivered:

Implementation of A1-Policy & A1-EI functions according to O-RAN specifications
Initial R1 interface support such as Data Management Exposure
Update of the Near-RT RIC to support E2AP specification v2.0
xApp framework for Python with support of the REST-based interface for E2 subscriptions
For the radio protocol, new features include Intra-CU handover, Idle Mode Paging and HARQ framework in a new version
The Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) added its management enhancement by supporting the Standard Defined Messages (StdDefine) over the O1/VES interface, while developing the framework for Network Slicing, and support for the O2 interface
Tools and functions to provide the O-RAN deployment topology view for rApp and CNF deployment

"Congratulations to the team for continuously progressing at the pace of 2-release cycle per year since its inception in 2019," said Chih-Lin I, co-chair of O-RAN Technical Steering Committee, and Chief Scientist from China Mobile. "One of the key highlights from F release is the implementation of the O-CLOUD with multiple resources, which becomes the steppingstone to Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) xNF deployment for the G release."

https://www.o-ran.org/news-and-events

LF Networking releases ONAP Jakarta

Tuesday, July 05, 2022 LFN, ONAP

LF Networking released ONAP Jakarta -- the tenth version of its open-source, orchestration and automation framework for network operators, cloud providers, and enterprises. Release Highlights Security enhancements in the A&AI, DCAE, CCSDK, MSB, and MultiCloud projects, reducing log4j vulnerability and removing most GPLv3 dependencies.Deepened O-RAN integration in the OOF Self Optimizing Network (SON) and CCSDK projects with O-RAN O1...

O-RAN adds certification and badging program

Thursday, June 30, 2022 O-RAN

The O-RAN Alliance, which has just wrapped up its industry summit in Germany, has launched its Certification and Badging program in collaboration with Open Test and Integration Centres (OTIC). O-RAN certificates state that an equipment or function is conformant to O-RAN specifications, whereas the O-RAN badges confirm interoperability or end-to-end functionality of an O-RAN solution. O-RAN certificates and badges will be issued by the Open...

NEC. to acquire Ireland's Aspire Tech. for O-RAN expertise

Thursday, June 30, 2022 Ireland, NEC

NEC agreed to acquire Aspire Technology Unlimited Company, a system integration company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company specializes in designing and integrating Open RAN solutions. It provides solutions and services across the full network lifecycle for legacy and open architectures, from 2G to 5G. Financial terms were not disclosed.NEC is a global leader in Open RAN. NEC Open Networks is an industry-leading ecosystem consisting of...

Dell'Oro: Data center switch market to approach $100B by 2027

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Data Centers, Dell'Oro, Research, Switching

The Ethernet Switch Data Center market is forecast to grow at a nearly double-digit CAGR between 2021 and 2026, approaching $100 billion in cumulative spending over the next five years, according to a recent report by Dell'Oro Group. 400 Gbps and higher speeds are forecast to comprise half of the spending, with 800 Gbps surpassing 400 Gbps by 2025.

“Given the strong bookings and unprecedented levels of backlogs, we expect the demand in the market to remain strong in 2022 but sales performance will be determined by the supply environment,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “However, as we look into 2023, concerns started to arise regarding the sustainability of the demand level in the market. Those concerns are fueled by increased macro-economic uncertainties, which, combined with potential improvements in the supply situation, may put a break on the panic purchasing behavior we are currently experiencing in the market.

“Although we may see some slowdown in revenue growth in 2023, due in part to a tough comparison with 2022, we expect the data center switch market to remain, for the most part, resilient to these macro-economic headwinds as the pandemic has amplified the importance of the network and accelerated digital transformation initiatives. Additionally, our interviews with value-added resellers and system integrators revealed that many vendors have implemented some sort of non-cancellation policy for their orders which should provide confidence in a strong revenue outlook, at least through the first half of next year.

“Another reason that underpins our optimism about the long-term health of the market is the portion of spending driven by Cloud Service Providers (SPs). Cloud SPs are projected to comprise 60 percent of the spending on data center switches by 2026 and to drive the adoption of 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, and 1600 Gbps speeds,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the Ethernet Switch – Data Center 5-Year July 2022 Forecast Report:

The availability of 800 Gbps optics and 25.6 T chips propelled the adoption of 800 Gbps switch ports. This adoption was first spearheaded by Google. Other Cloud SPs such as Meta and Microsoft are expected to follow suit.
As Cloud SPs continue to migrate their networks to higher speeds, they will be making distinct choices in terms of chip capacity, switch radix, and network topology.
Co-packaged optics will start to ramp towards the end of our forecast horizon, but pluggable optics will continue to dominate.

https://www.delloro.com/news/data-center-switch-market-to-approach-100-b-over-the-next-five-years/

Oracle partners with Claro on cloud services in Colombia

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Cloud, Colombia, Oracle

Oracle has formed a partnership with Claro to jointly offer Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services to public and private sector organizations and enterprises in Colombia.

Claro will become the host partner for an Oracle Cloud region in Colombia, which will enable Claro to offer OCI platform services along with professional and managed services to help customers adopt cloud solutions. In addition, to help improve its customer service and billings processes, Claro will migrate over 100 on-premises servers running mission-critical workloads to OCI.

“Partnering with Claro accelerates the technology modernization of businesses and consumers across Latin America. Our collaboration with Claro will also accelerate cloud adoption, stimulate economic recovery, and spur competitiveness in these countries,” said Germán Borromei, managing director, Oracle Colombia and Ecuador.

“We’ve reached another milestone in Colombia by hosting Oracle’s first public cloud region in the country. With this, we continue to support the modernization of organizations in the public and private sector with a comprehensive and differentiated portfolio. Oracle chose our Triara Data Center, certified with ICREA 5, that complies with the highest security standards so that local businesses have access to database services and middleware applications from one of the leading cloud providers in the market,” said Carlos Zenteno, CEO, Claro Colombia.

https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-and-claro-partner-to-expand-global-cloud-services-in-colombia-2022-07-14/

Telstra acquires Digicel Pacific for US$1.85 billion

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Mergers and Acquisitions, Telstra

Telstra has completed the acquisition of Digicel Pacific Limited, which operates in six markets in the South Pacific including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga and Nauru.

The transaction values Digicel Pacific at up to US$ 1.85 billion, inclusive of a three year, US$ 250 million earn-out, equating to approximately 8.3 times DPL's adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of approximately US$ 222 million in the year ended March 31, 2021.

Telstra's bid was supported with funding from the Australian Government, through Export Finance Australia.

Commenting, Denis O'Brien, Digicel Founder and Chairman, said: "Having established our Pacific operations as a business start-up in 2005, we depart with enormous pride in a team that has made affordable best-in-class communications available to more than 10 million people across six of the most exciting economies in the region. I am deeply grateful to all our colleagues who contributed to this success and in particular, to our 1,700 staff in the Pacific who I know will continue to represent the Digicel brand with pride under new owners Telstra. We wish them every continued success for the future."

Commenting, Oliver Coughlan, Group Chief Executive, said: "Until 2020 I was privileged to serve as CEO of our Digicel Pacific operations over many years and to work with exceptional people at this highly performing, high growth business. They retain our appreciation and friendship. Post this transaction, Digicel is well positioned to support continuing growth in our well-invested networks in our 25 markets in the Caribbean and Central America."

https://www.digicelgroup.com/en.html

Digicel Tonga confirms two separate undersea cable breaks

Monday, January 17, 2022 Digicel, Outage, Subsea, Tonga

Digicel reported that its preliminary technical fault investigation has established that there are two separate undersea cable breaks. The first between TCL cable landing station Sopu, Tongatapu and FINTEL cable landing station in Suva, Fiji. The international cable break is approximately 37km offshore from Tonga. The second cable break is on the domestic cable which is near the area of the recent volcanic activity. The company has engaged the cable...

Tonga loses subsea cable connectivity following eruption

Sunday, January 16, 2022 Subsea, Tonga

Subsea cable connectivity to the Kingdom of Tonga was lost following the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano on Saturday.Digicel reported that all communication to the outside world in Tonga is affected due to damage on the Tonga Cable Limited submarine cable, which runs 827 kilometers and connects the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa to Southern Cross’ trans-Pacific cable in Suva, Fiji.https://www.digicelgroup.com/to/en/news/2022/jan/16th/network-restoration-volcanic-eruption.htmlTelstra...

Telstra and Australian government to acquire Digicel Pacific

Sunday, October 24, 2021 Australia

Telstra, in partnership with the Australian government, reached a deal to acquire the Digicel business in the South Pacific region for US$1.6 billion, plus up to an additional US$250 million subject to business performance over the next three years.The Digicel business will be owned and operated by Telstra. Telstra is contributing US$270 million of equity to the US$1.6 billion purchase price and the Australian Government, through Export Finance Australia,...

Ethernet Alliance elects 2022 Board of Directors

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Ethernet Alliance, People

The Ethernet Alliance announced its 2022 Board of Directors:

Peter Jones, Cisco Systems, Inc. – Chair and Board of Directors
Chris Lyon, Amphenol Corporation – President and Board of Directors
Jeffery Maki, Juniper Networks, Inc. – Treasurer and Board of Directors
Carl Wilson, Intel Corporation – Secretary and Board of Directors
David J. Rodgers, EXFO Inc. – Board of Directors
John Calvin, Keysight Technologies, Inc. – Board of Directors
Craig Carlson, Marvell Technology, Inc. – Board of Directors
Dave Estes, Spirent Communications plc – Board of Directors
Kishore Racherla, Broadcom Inc. – Board of Directors

Additionally, the Ethernet Alliance confirmed the following committee and subcommittee chairs:

George Zimmerman, CME Consulting – Technical Chair
David Tremblay, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company – Power over Ethernet (PoE) Certification and Subcommittee Chair
Orshi Abraham, Spirent Communications plc – Marketing Chair
David J. Rodgers, EXFO Inc. – Events and Conferences Chair
Pavel Zivny, Tektronix, Inc. – High-Speed Networking Subcommittee Co-Chair
Sam Johnson, Intel Corporation – High-Speed Networking Subcommittee Co-Chair
Bob Voss, Panduit Corporation – Single-Pair Ethernet Subcommittee Chair
Mark Nowell, Cisco Systems, Inc. – Advisory Board Subcommittee Chair

“One of Ethernet’s best traits is its ability to swiftly adapt to changing demands across applications, while resolutely maintaining its hallmark interoperability,” said Ethernet Alliance chair, Peter Jones of Cisco Systems, Inc. “From enterprises, to operational technology networks, to automotive, to edge computing, Ethernet delivers reliable performance up and down the value chain. The Ethernet Alliance is committed to its role as the Voice of Ethernet, and promoting Ethernet’s continued growth and expansion.”

https://ethernetalliance.org/blog/2022/07/14/the-ethernet-alliance-announces-2022-officers-and-board-of-directors/

What's hot at OFC22? Spirent on 800G

Sunday, March 27, 2022 #800G, #OFC22

One of the hottest topics at OFC22 was 800G (2x400G), enabled by 112Gbps electrical lanes, explains Steve Rumsby, Demo Architect, Spirent.A multivendor interoperability demo was hosted by the Ethernet Alliance.https://youtu.be/feZi4ipf...

What's hot at OFC22? 2022 Ethernet Roadmap

Sunday, March 20, 2022 #OFC22, Ethernet Alliance

Users fully expect Ethernet to work -- just to work -- even as it increases in speeds and as it enters new application areas, says Orshi Abraham, Marketing Chair, Ethernet Alliance. Multivendor interoperability is key to continued success.The 2022 Ethernet Roadmap was released at OFC...

Alaska Communications upgrades with Ciena’s 6500 Packet Optical

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Alaska, Ciena

Alaska Communications is using Ciena’s 6500 Packet Optical platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme programmable 800G technology to upgrade capacity between core sites, including across submarine links. They are also utilizing a variety of Ciena’s Routing and Switching platforms (8180, 5171, 5170, 3928) to deploy 1Gbps-10Gbps 5G mobile backhaul services, as well as 8180 routers to upgrade the aggregation network from 10Gbps to 100Gbps.

Previously, Ciena was selected to upgrade Alaska’s terrestrial and AKORN submarine networks to improve Internet access and provide secure, reliable connectivity. Alaska Communications increased network capacity by four times from the Lower 48 to Alaska using WaveLogic 5 Extreme technology as part of Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine solution.