Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Google outlines its Jupiter data center network architecture

Google's "Jupiter" data center network combines optical circuit switching (OCS) and wave division multiplexing (WDM) technology to ensure uniform, arbitrary communication among tens of thousands of servers at 100s of Gbps of bandwidth with sub-100us latency, according to a blog post by Amin Vahdat, Google's VP/GM Systems and Services Infrastructure.

Jupiter currently supports more than 6Pb/sec of data center bandwidth. 

The data center network architecture is described in a paper presented at SIGCOMM 2022 called "Jupiter Evolving: Transforming Google's Datacenter Network via Optical Circuit Switches and Software-Defined Networking."

Notably, Google developed its own Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) technology that maps an optical fiber input port to an output port dynamically through two sets of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) mirrors. These can be rotated in two dimensions to create arbitrary port-to-port mappings.

A rack with 8 OCS switches enables arbitrary logical topologies between data center packet switches. OCS simply reflects light from an input port to an output port without packet routing or heading parsing.

An SDN control plane seamlessly orchestrate thousands of dependent and independent operations.

Amin's blog post: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/systems/the-evolution-of-googles-jupiter-data-center-network

Google's SIGGCOM paper: https://research.google/pubs/pub51587/

Intel welcomes investment from Brookfield in Arizona fabs

Intel announced a cost-sharing partnership in which the infrastructure affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest global alternative asset managers, will provide Intel with a new, expanded pool of capital for manufacturing build-outs.

Intel describes its new Semiconductor Co-Investment Program (SCIP) as a new funding model that will accelerate its IDM 2.0 foundry strategy. The partnership with Brookfield is expected to enhance Intel's balance sheet.

Under the deal, the companies will jointly invest up to $30 billion in Intel’s previously announced manufacturing expansion at its Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona, with Intel funding 51% and Brookfield funding 49% of the total project cost. Intel will retain majority ownership and operating control of the two new leading-edge chip factories in Chandler, which will support long-term demand for Intel’s products and provide capacity for Intel Foundry Services (IFS) customers. The transaction with Brookfield is expected to close by the end of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.

“This landmark arrangement is an important step forward for Intel’s Smart Capital approach and builds on the momentum from the recent passage of the CHIPS Act in the U.S.,” said David Zinsner, Intel CFO. “Semiconductor manufacturing is among the most capital-intensive industries in the world, and Intel’s bold IDM 2.0 strategy demands a unique funding approach. Our agreement with Brookfield is a first for our industry, and we expect it will allow us to increase flexibility while maintaining capacity on our balance sheet to create a more distributed and resilient supply chain.”

Sam Pollock, CEO of Brookfield Infrastructure, said, “By combining Brookfield's access to large-scale capital with Intel’s industry leadership, we are furthering the advancement of leading semiconductor production capabilities. Leveraging our partnership experience in other industries, we are pleased to come together with Intel in this important investment that will form part of the long-term digital backbone of the global economy.”

In addition, Intel confirmed that it is continuing to work with governments in the U.S. and Europe to seek incentives for domestic manufacturing capacity for semiconductors. 

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1568/intel-advances-smart-capital-introduces-first-of-its-kind

Intel picks Germany for its next European fab 

Intel announced plans to invest an initial 17 billion euros into a leading-edge semiconductor fab mega-site in Magdeburg, Germany, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt.  Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and production planned to come online in 2027.The new facility will use Intel’s most advanced, Angstrom-era transistor technologies, serving the needs of both foundry customers and Intel for Europe and globally as part of the...

Intel to acquire Tower Semi, expanding its foundry footprint

Intel agreed to acquire Tower Semiconductor for $53 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $5.4 billion. Tower Semiconductor, which is based in Migdal Haemek, Israel, offers expertise is in specialty technologies, such as radio frequency (RF), power, silicon-germanium (SiGe) and industrial sensors, extensive IP and electronic design automation (EDA) partnerships, and an established foundry footprint. It operates...

IFS makes a splash: $1B fund, Arm & RISC-V support, Open Chiplet Platform 

The newly established Intel Foundry Services (IFS) announced several initiatives to accelerate its entrance into the semiconductor fabrication market: a $1 billion investment fund, support for Arm and RISC-V in addition to x86, and pioneering work with chiplet architecture based on 3D packaging technology.The new $1 billion investment fund has three aims:Equity investments in disruptive startups.Strategic investments to accelerate...



PEACE Cable completes final splice linking Marseille to Karachi

PEACE Cable International Network Co. announced the final slicing of the Pakistan-Egypt segment of its subsea cable system, thus enabling ready-for-service connectivity from Karachi, Pakistan to Marseille, France.

The PEACE Pakistan-Egypt segment connects Karachi, Pakistan and Zafarana, Egypt, spanning a total length of 5,800 km. The landings of Karachi and Zafarana were completed in March and December 2021 respectively. In addition, the Mediterranean segment of PEACE linking Marseille, France, to Abu Talat, Egypt, a 3,200km long project, has also achieved RFS in March 2022. 

In 2019, the landing agreement was signed by Cybernet and PEACE Cable. Cybernet, the landing partner of PEACE in Pakistan, has built the country’s state-of-the-art, Cable Landing Station in Karachi, which will allow global carriers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), content providers and virtually all IT-enabled firms to tap into the submarine cable capacity at easily accessible interconnect points across Pakistan. Cybernet has the most robust fiber optic network across the country which will also facilitate access and boost business opportunities for PEACE in the Asian region.

The PEACE Cable System, connects Asia, Africa and Europe, with its stronghold connecting Pakistan, France, Egypt, Kenya. The whole system deploys a state-of-the-art “system-within-a-system” and adopts advanced ROADM powered by WSS and Flexible Grid, providing PoP to PoP solutions. 

PEACE has a capacity of up to 96T for Pakistan - Egypt segment and 192T in the Mediterranean segment from Egypt connecting to France. Meanwhile, PEACE is now under construction for the Singapore extension, which will extend the coverage of the PEACE cable system to Southeast Asia and continue to enhance the value of the PEACE cable system's network resources, forming a major Asia-Europe interconnection channel by connecting Singapore, the southeast Asian international circuit transfer center, and France, the European transfer center.

"The segment from Pakistan to France has now been built well, which is really a thrilling milestone”, Sun Xiaohua, COO of PEACE Cable, says. “With Cybernet, we will bring much-needed redundancy to Pakistan's Internet backbone and provide users with high-speed traffic to meet the rapidly growing demand for internet access in different types of digital scenarios in Pakistan.” Mr. Shoaib Qureshi, Country Manager of PEACE Cable in Pakistan, says: “PEACE is the first international submarine cable starting from Pakistan and reaching Europe, Africa and Singapore. It is a new beginning of submarine chapter for Pakistan market, we are very excited to grow this region’s connectivity.”

http://www.peacecable.net/News/Detail/16641

Orange and PCCW join PEACE subsea cable project

PCCW Global, Orange, and PEACE Cable International, a leading international submarine cable operator, reached agreement to deploy the Pakistan and East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) submarine cable system.

PEACE will be a 12,000km ultra-low latency cable system connecting three of the largest and most populous continents in the world - Asia, Africa and Europe. The backbone of the project will interconnect Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France, with additional planned landing points and extensions. Completion is targeted for 2021.


In terms of the cooperation, Orange will supply and operate the cable landing station in Marseille, as well as linking the system to one of the city’s major data centers - creating a connectivity gateway across Europe and on to the Americas through existing transatlantic networks.

Mr. Marc Halbfinger, Chief Executive Officer, PCCW Global, said, “Our collaboration with Orange is a critically important step towards bringing PEACE online and we trust the capabilities and vast experience of their teams in France to provide a successful and timely delivery of the European leg of the project. Orange has vast experience in submarine cable infrastructure development. So we are confident that Orange will not only successfully provide the necessary cable infrastructure in France, but also benefit from being one of the first major users of the PEACE cable to connect important and growing traffic from Africa to Europe.”

Telecom Egypt signs PEACE subsea cable

Telecom Egypt entered agreements enabling the Pakistan & East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) subsea cable system to cross Egypt through new diversified terrestrial routes between the Zafarana and Abou Talat cable landing stations, where Telecom Egypt will provide PEACE with brand new state of the art landing facilities. The total value of the agreement amounts to US$45 million over the lifetime of the cable.

In addition,  PEACE will be granted an additional fiber pair to its redundant cross Egypt routes to accommodate PEACE extensive demand to Europe with a total value of US$20 million. China-based HENGTONG OPTIC-ELECTRIC, which is a backer of PEACE, has also agreed to provide Telecom Egypt with fiber optic cables of different cores based on competitive pricing. This cabling will be used in Telecom Egypt's strategic plans for fiber deployment inside Egypt.

PEACE is a 12,000 km long cable system with landings in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France.

Huawei Marine advances PEACE subsea cable project

The Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) Cable project, which will connect Asia, Africa and Europe, has entered into the cable and material manufacturing stage.

The PEACE cable system will span 12,000 km and is designed for 200G, 16Tbps per fiber pair connectitivity. The ready for service date is targetted for first quarter of 2020.

The project is being developed by PEACE Cable International Network Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of China's HENGTONG Group.  Huawei Marine Network is lead contractor.

Sun Xiaohua, Chief Operating Officer of PEACE Cable said, “PEACE Cable has created a new business model in the submarine cable industry that builds a bridge for these regions communications and provides connectivity opportunities to players all along the route by investing in the branches and gaining bandwidth on the trunk in a more efficient way.”

CoreSite signs Adela Technologies, a managed security service provider

Adela Technologies, a Maryland-based managed security service provider (MSSP), is using CoreSite’s hybrid IT environment, which combines compliant colocation with native onramps to leading cloud providers, to provide hosted security solutions.

Adela's customer base ranging from small businesses to government entities such as the Department of Defense (DoD). The company chose to deploy its physical servers in CoreSite’s VA1 data center, which provides multi-layered physical security and hardened construction to address intense security requirements of its customers and compliance levels that support FISMA and FedRAMP deployments. The MSSP leveraged CoreSite’s infrastructure to build a multi-tenant cloud to support its customers’ production and non-production workloads with a security focus and deliver the flexibility and FedRAMP readiness it requires to accredit its DevSecOps environment for the DoD.

To support production workloads, Adela also leverages CoreSite’s native cloud onramps to securely integrate with applications running in AWS using direct low-latency interconnections. As a result, Adela was able to architect a dedicated environment in AWS to support clients who cannot operate in a shared environment.

“At Adela Technologies, we support our customers’ digital journeys and cloud-emerging technology requirements while enabling them to focus on their core business objectives rather than their underlying infrastructure,” said Fred Evans, Chief Operating Officer for Adela. “CoreSite’s hybrid IT solutions allow us to use a single provider to support diverse workload requirements that encompass both colocation and public cloud environments. By simplifying this integration, we can dedicate more time to building solutions that support our clients’ business objectives.”

“CoreSite has on-net connectivity to all the major cloud providers including AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, IBM and Alibaba. Through these native onramps, CoreSite provides customers like Adela secure network connectivity and seamless integration to leading cloud providers that enables high-performance hybrid cloud architectures,"said Brian Eichman, Vice President of Solution Architecture for CoreSite. 

American Tower to buy CoreSite for $10B

American Tower agreed to acquire CoreSite for $170.00 per share in cash, an enterprise value of $10.1 billion when including the assumption and/or repayment of CoreSite’s existing debt.CoreSite, which as of Q3 2021 consisted of 25 data centers, 21 cloud on-ramps and over 32,000 interconnections in eight major U.S. markets, generated annualized revenue and Adjusted EBITDA of $655 million and $343 million, respectively, in Q3 2021. CoreSite has averaged...


Nokia's SaaS iSIM Secure Connect gains GSMA certification

Nokia's iSIM Secure Connect solution has been accredited under the GSMA’s Security Accreditation Scheme (SAS), which confirms the quality and capabilities of security and privacy policies, procedures, and controls that play an important role in supporting additional certifications in compliance with other external standards, like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2, and Cloud Security Alliance. With the GSMA accreditation in hand, Nokia will now pursue those additional certifications for its other SaaS services later this year and into 2023.

GSMA’s SAS is typically required as the necessary security grade by CSPs globally, so reaching this significant milestone gives operators and enterprises a high degree of confidence of using Nokia iSIM Secure Connect in a SaaS delivery model.

iSIM, or integrated SIM, Secure Connect, through a SaaS delivery model, manages machine-to-machine and consumer device subscriptions for embedded SIM, or, eSIM- and iSIM-enabled devices. iSIM Secure Connect gives control to automate the entire eSIM/iSIM profile lifecycle management process; enables CSPs and enterprises to quickly onboard and manage connected devices at massive scale; and opens opportunities to monetize services linked to trusted digital identities.

Since November 2021, Nokia has introduced seven SaaS services, including iSIM Secure Connect, NetGuard Cybersecurity Dome, Nokia Home Device Management, and Nokia AVA NWDAF, which enhances network operations with AI/ML driven closed-loop automation.

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2022/08/23/nokia-saas-services-strengthened-with-key-gsma-security-accreditation/

Video: Key thoughts on CISA's Shields Up

https://youtu.be/ooLtVCLPM6s

Where is the U.S. critical infrastructure 6 months after CISA launched the "Shields Up" program?

Can the "shields" ever be taken down at this point with so many adversaries interested in disrupting the US? Given the disparities in resources across certain industries, which area is most behind? 

Ron Fabela, CTO and Co-founder, SynSaber, offers his thoughts.

Nokia and Furukawa partner on Optical LAN in Latin America

Nokia announced a partnership with Furukawa, which is a market leader for copper cables and optic fiber in Latin America. With this agreement, Furukawa will incorporate Nokia’s optical networking equipment into its Laserway passive optical LAN solution, marketed by its partner ecosystem to the enterprise market.

Optical LANs, also known as POLs, are used in commercial buildings and campuses to provide local area network connectivity, offering significant advantages over traditional copper-based solutions. These solutions provide lower energy consumption, increased security, more scalable deployments and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).



Fiber Broadband Association study highlights societal impact

The Fiber Broadband Association published a study, authored by RVA Market Research & Consulting, entitled “A Detailed Review: The Status of U.S. Broadband and The Impact of Fiber Broadband.” The report highlights five key areas of impact: Digital Equity, Performance, Sustainability, Economic Impact, and Quality of Life/Personal Productivity. 

These key highlights illustrate why the U.S. has begun the largest fiber broadband investment cycle in history. Nearly $130 billion in federal, state, and local subsidies are being invested from the Competitive Carriers’ Association, the American Rescue Plan Act, the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, the NTIA, the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service ReConnect loan and grant program, and most recently the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

“This investment in fiber as the critical broadband infrastructure for the nation’s future will further accelerate innovation and the next phase of the internet – the Metaverse,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO at the Fiber Broadband Association. “As every American becomes connected with future-proof fiber broadband, consumers and businesses will begin to leverage the amazing future that is in store for all of us as digital equity reaches everyone, regardless of where they live.”

Highlights from the study include:

Digital Equity

  • Lowest density zip codes have service levels with 1/3 the bandwidth of high-density areas
  • 58% of broadband adopters in the past 4 years are low income
  • 37% of broadband adopters in the past 4 years are non-white households

Performance

  • Fiber has 45% faster download and 4.7x faster upload speeds than cable
  • Fiber has reduced the cost per bit by 90% over the past decade
  • Fiber has half the latency of cable
  • Fiber providers’ Net Promoter Scores are significantly better

Sustainability

  • Fiber delivers 20% more carbon savings than DSL and 40% more than cable HFC
  • Overall, fiber shows the highest net reduction in carbon based on transmission itself and the impact of enabling work from home

Economic Impact

  • 47% of rural moves are to areas with fiber
  • Over $78 million per year of additional primary revenue from home-based businesses could be gained from an FTTH community of 100,000 households

Quality of Life / Personal Productivity

  • 72% of consumers rank broadband as very important
  • Broadband is a Top Three attribute for selecting a community (in addition to safe streets / low crime and affordable living)
  • Homes with fiber have better access to healthcare and education

Fiber Connect 2022: Why the fiber industry is super hot

 https://youtu.be/iItoKxW6WaoGary Bolton, president and CEO of Fiber Broadband Association, shares his key takeaways from the Fiber Connect 2022 conference and exhibition in Nashville, TN.With tens of billions in new subsidies promised for broadband rollouts, interest in fiber-to-the-home and middle mile solutions is at an all-time high. Expect new players to join the moment...