Microsoft deploys NVIDIA's H100 Tensor Core GPUs + Quantum-2 InfiniBand

Microsoft announced new massively scalable virtual machines that integrate the latest NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking. Azure’s new ND H100 v5 virtual machine for AI developers can scale across thousands of GPUs.

The ND H100 v5 VMservice is supported by:

• 8x NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs interconnected via next gen NVSwitch and NVLink 4.0
• 400 Gb/s NVIDIA Quantum-2 CX7 InfiniBand per GPU with 3.2Tb/s per VM in a non-blocking fat-tree network
• NVSwitch and NVLink 4.0 with 3.6TB/s bisectional bandwidth between 8 local GPUs within each VM
• 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors
• PCIE Gen5 host to GPU interconnect with 64GB/s bandwidth per GPU
• 16 Channels of 4800MHz DDR5 DIMMs

“Co-designing supercomputers with Azure has been crucial for scaling our demanding AI training needs, making our research and alignment work on systems like ChatGPT possible.”—Greg Brockman, President and Co-Founder of OpenAI. 

In a blog post, Microsoft's John Roach disclosed that since 2019, Microsoft and OpenAI have been working working in close collaboration to build supercomputing resources for training increasingly powerful AI models. The Azure infrastructure used included thousands of NVIDIA AI-optimized GPUs linked together in a high-throughput, low-latency network based on NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand.

https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/ai/how-microsofts-bet-on-azure-unlocked-an-ai-revolution/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-previews-powerful-and-scalable-virtual-machine-to-help-customers-accelerate-ai/

Read More

Coherent shows CPO 800G multimode optical engine

Coherent demonstrated a co-packaged (CPO) 800G multimode optical engine for use in cost-, power-, and latency-sensitive applications such as artificial intelligence and machine learning computer clusters. 

The module that features 16 channels of 50G NRZ transmitters and receivers in a 15 mm x 15 mm x 4 mm multimode CPO 800G VCSEL-based engine. 

The entire analog front end, including the driver, VCSEL, photodiode, and transimpedance amplifier, consumes less than 4 pJ/bit. 

Each VCSEL is paired with another unpowered device to enable 100% cold sparing for extremely high reliability.

Prototypes of this multimode CPO engine, which are jointly developed with IBM under the sponsorship of ARPA-E, are available for immediate evaluation.

https://www.coherent.com/news/press-releases/coherent-demos-optical-transciever-module-operating-at-200g

Read More

Rivada to leverage Aalyria's Spacetime orchestration

Rivada Space Networks (RSN) will use Aalyria’s Spacetime platform to orchestrate the network for its planned LEO constellation.

Aalyria, which is based in Livermore, California, is a spin-out from Google. Aalyria's Spacetime software was used internally at Google and Alphabet for nearly a decade, and most recently powered the communications network for Project Loon’s various deployments in Peru, Puerto Rico, and Kenya. The technology already has millions of flight hours orchestrating and managing airborne communications systems around the world. Spacetime is also being used by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to help develop secure internet connectivity throughout the space domain for both private and public sector customers.

Rivada’s constellation will consist of 600 satellites interconnected via laser links. The solution will offer integrated core and edge connectivity over a single, global private network in space. The first satellite launch is set for 2025, with global service starting in 2026.

Aalyria said its Spacetime solution will ensure robust and reliable means of communications between any two user terminals in the world through real-time analysis of millions of possible paths. Spacetime is an advanced software platform designed for orchestrating and managing networks of satellites, ground stations, aircraft, ships, urban meshes, and more. Spacetime optimizes and continually evolves the antenna link scheduling, network traffic routing, and spectrum resources -- responding in real time to changing network requirements. Spacetime operates networks across land, sea, air, and space, at any altitude or orbit type, supports all radio frequency bands and optical wavelengths, and is designed for interoperability with legacy, hybrid space, 5G NTN and FutureG network architectures.

“Rivada’s first-of-its-kind constellation is exactly the type of next generation connectivity system Spacetime was designed to advance,” said Chris Taylor, CEO of Aalyria. “We built Spacetime to dynamically route communications across anything that flies or moves, on Earth or in space, to expand connectivity to people, places, and things that were previously thought unconnectable. We’re excited to add Rivada to our roster of world-class partners and look forward to working with them in the coming years.”

Clemens Kaiser, Chief Program Officer at RSN commented: "With our manufacturing and launch services contracts in place we are now moving at full speed on defining the optimal systems solutions to deliver our ground-breaking constellation. We are delighted to be integrating Aalyria’s Spacetime solution and look forward to demonstrating that our fully meshed laser space network, regenerative payload and beam hopping solution can be very efficiently orchestrated to provide unparalleled service performance for our customers."

Read More

Keysight provides O-RAN testing for NTIA's 5G Challenge

The 2023 5G Challenge, which is led by the NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences and hosted by CableLabs and its subsidiary, Kyrio, aims to accelerate the adoption of 5G open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, and modular, multi-vendor solutions by fostering a large, vibrant, and growing vendor community.

Keysight announced that its Open RAN Architect (KORA) solutions have been added to CableLabs’ 5G Lab to validate the interoperability of open radio access network (O-RAN) components during the event.

Specifically, Keysight’s KORA solutions will be used in the CableLabs 5G Lab to test edge-to-core O-RAN subcomponents, verifying interoperability and measuring performance. The Keysight P8800S UeSIM and P8822S RuSIM solutions will be used to emulate a baseline system with the P8850S CoreSIM O-RAN core emulator. This will enable the test lab to validate O-RAN radio units, distributed units, and central units, allowing contestants to optimize products and designs for the latest O-RAN specifications.

Keysight offers a comprehensive test portfolio that verifies end-to-end performance of 5G network elements and enables conformance, interoperability, performance, and security testing across the entire O-RAN lifecycle for Open Testing & Integration Centers (OTIC) such as Kyrio.

Jason Lauer, Vice President for Kyrio’s Engineering and Operations Group, said: “Expanding the capabilities of the 5G Lab and OTIC by adding the Keysight Wireless test solutions will provide 5G Challenge contestants and future OTIC testing vendors the opportunity to test end-to-end with multiple test platforms.”

Peng Cao, Vice President and General Manager for Keysight's Wireless Test Group, said: “We are delighted to support CableLabs’ 5G Lab with expanded testing capabilities with Keysight's complete interoperability and conformance solutions portfolio. Our equipment will allow 5G Challenge contestants to confirm that their subcomponents are interoperable with the subcomponents of other vendors.”

2023 5G Challenge for O-RAN solutions offers $6M in prizes

Wednesday, February 01, 2023    

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in partnership with the Department of Defense (DoD), is kicking off a 2023 5G Challenge that aims to accelerate the adoption of 5G open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, secure networks and multi-vendor solutions by advancing towards true plug-and-play 5G interoperability.The 5G Challenge offers over $6 million in prize money. Contestants will create 5G equipment prototypes...

READ MORE

Read More

ZTE's revenues rose 7.4% in 2022 to RMB 122.95 billion

ZTE reported 2022 revenue of RMB 122.95 billion (approximately US$17.9 billtion), 7.4% higher than a year earlier. The company's profit hit RMB 8.08 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion) in 2022, up 18.6% compared to 2021.

Some additional highlights from ZTE:

In 2022, operating revenue in both the domestic and international markets, and operating revenue in the Company's three major businesses including carriers' networks, government and enterprise business, as well as consumer business, all achieved a year-on-year growth. Operating revenue of domestic market reaching RMB 85.24 billion, 69.3% of its overall operating revenue while the operating revenue from international market hitting RMB 37.71 billion, covering 30.7% of its overall operating revenue.

For its carriers networks business, ZTE achieved an annual operating revenue of RMB 80.04 billion, a year-over-year rise of 5.7%. ZTE claims the No.2 market share position for annual shipments of 5G base stations, 5G core networks and 200G coherent ports.

For its government and corporate business, ZTE achieved an operating revenue of RMB 14.63 billion, a year-on-year growth 11.8%. ZTE's core products such as server and storage, GoldenDB distributed databases, and cloud computers, have achieved rapid growth in the number of top customers across the industries including finance and Internet.

In its consumer business, ZTE generated an operating revenue of RMB 28.28 billion, a year-on-year increase 9.9% during the period. The company has gradually integrated mobile phones, mobile Internet products, home information terminals, and ecological capabilities to provide individuals and families with a rich selection of smart products. 

Read More

India's Netplus Broadband picks Nokia for big rollout

Netplus Broadband, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in India, has selected Nokia's Multi-Access Gateway Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) application for access management and 7750 S and 7250 IXR aggregation routers for a major rollout in northern India.

Netplus has operations spread across 400 plus cities and towns in several states in Northern India, with the biggest in Punjab.  

In addition, Netplus will also deploy Nokia’s 7750 SR Extended Services Appliance (ESA) to scale support of Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT), helping it solve the challenges faced by increasing demand for connected endpoints.

Netplus will be partnering with Nokia’s IP Networks services team to support the deployment of the Nokia products and applications to deliver the new, quad-play residential broadband services to its subscriber base of one million plus across the state of Punjab. 

Arshdeep Singh Mundi, Executive Director at Netplus, said: “Our partnership with Nokia will help us achieve our goals of a world-class broadband experience for our customers and last-mile broadband expansion with the benefit of added capacity. The expanded coverage will leverage Nokia’s state of the art broadband access infrastructure and help Netplus cater to our customers’ increasing demand, helping drive the Digital India vision.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/03/13/nokia-partners-with-netplus-to-deliver-future-proof-and-world-class-broadband-services-in-india/

Read More

Telekom Malaysia builds 5G Core with ZTE

Telekom Malaysia (TM) has selected ZTE to build a hybrid cloud 5G core network that is designed for future technologies and applications.

Over the next three years, this strategic partnership will foster innovation and advancement of state-of-the-art technologies for TM's 5G Core project, which includes bare metal containers, SDN-based architecture, hardware acceleration, CUPS, and 3-layer decoupling. Advancements in these technologies will propel the development of a converged, open, reliable, trusted and efficient 5G core network.

Jasmine Lee Sze Inn, TM's Executive Vice President for Mobile, said: "TM is pleased to partner ZTE in building a hybrid cloud 5G core network that is designed to meet the rising needs for future technologies. This strategic partnership will transform 5G-enabled networks to deliver innovative solutions and services through our state-of-the-art network and infrastructure, and enable seamless connectivity and exceptional network performance."

Read More