Broadband Forum enables containerized apps on CPE

Broadband Forum is launching significant upgrades to USP 1.3 and TR-181 Device 2.16. 

The new features establish a standardized, interoperable method for deploying and supporting value-added applications in a containerized framework. 

The features can be used on all broadband subscriber connected devices, including Wi-Fi routers, set-top boxes, and smart home hubs.

Potentially, ISPs could use the capabilities to manage individual smart home applications separately and without the need for complicated firmware updates.

"With these upgrades, we are reimagining the potential of broadband services, paving the way for service providers to introduce next-generation applications and services with unparalleled ease, without the need for monolithic firmware upgrades," said John Blackford, Broadband Forum Chairman and Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area Co-Director. "Our commitment is to provide an ecosystem that delivers the enhanced and diversified services that end-users now expect."

Previously, a device software upgrade would have been needed for services to be installed. But in a container framework, applications can be separated from the device’s operating system and managed dynamically within secure and trusted software containers. In turn, this means that the lifecycle of the application can be managed by the service provider using the remote device management protocol USP 1.3.

“These latest publications from Broadband Forum will open up an array of possibilities for service providers, enabling them to unlock the full potential of their infrastructure and deliver groundbreaking value-added services,” said prpl Foundation President Len Dauphinee. “Service providers will now have improved capacity to control and manage connected devices in the customer premises, allowing increased customer engagement and service personalization.”

Developed by the Broadband Forum, USP has transformed device management and customer support in the broadband industry, offering real-time device data and control for service providers.

https://www.broadband-forum.org

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Microsoft post 26% growth in Azure and other cloud services

Microsoft reported revenue of $56.2 billion for the quarter ending 30-June-2023, up 8% (up 10% in constant currency) compared to a year earlier. Net income was $20.1 billion, up increased 20% (up 23% in constant currency).

“Organizations are asking not only how – but how fast – they can apply this next generation of AI to address the biggest opportunities and challenges they face – safely and responsibly,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We remain focused on leading the new AI platform shift, helping customers use the Microsoft Cloud to get the most value out of their digital spend, and driving operating leverage.”

“We delivered a solid close to the fiscal year driven by Microsoft Cloud quarterly revenue of $30.3 billion, up 21% (up 23% in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

Highlights

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $18.3 billion and increased 10% (up 12% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 12% (up 14% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 15% (up 17% in constant currency)
• Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 3% (up 6% in constant currency) and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew to 67.0 million
• LinkedIn revenue increased 5% (up 7% in constant currency)
• Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 19% (up 21% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 26% (up 28% in constant currency)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $24.0 billion and increased 15% (up 17% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• ·Server products and cloud services revenue increased 17% (up 18% in constant currency) driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 26% (up 27% in constant currency)

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $13.9 billion and decreased 4% (down 3% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Windows OEM revenue decreased 12%
• Devices revenue decreased 20% (down 18% in constant currency)
• Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 2% (up 3% in constant currency)
• Xbox content and services revenue increased 5% (up 6% in constant currency)
• Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 8%

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Google Cloud revenue rises 28% to $8.03 billion

In its quarterly report, Alphabet reported that Google Cloud generated revenue of $8.031 billion for the quarter, up 28% compared to $6.276 billion a year ago.

The company also noted that it has completed an assessment of the useful lives of its servers and network equipment and adjusted the estimated useful life of this equipment from four years to six years and the estimated useful life of certain network equipment from five years to six years. This change in accounting estimate was effective beginning in fiscal year 2023, and the effect was a reduction in depreciation expense of $966 million and $2.0 billion and an increase in net income of $752 million and $1.5 billion, or $0.06 and $0.12 per basic and $0.06 and $0.12 per diluted share for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023, respectively.

https://www.abc.xyz/assets/20/ef/844a05b84b6f9dbf2c3592e7d9c7/2023q2-alphabet-earnings-release.pdf

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Corning reports lower Q2 optical sales due to near-term dip

Corning reported Q2 GAAP sales of $3.2 billion, up 2% sequentially. Core sales were $3.5 billion, up 3% sequentially, driven by Display Technologies. GAAP and core sales were down year over year, reflecting continued lower demand in several markets.  Second-quarter GAAP EPS was $0.33, up 65% sequentially. 

In Optical Communications, sales were $1.07 billion, down 5% sequentially and 19% year over year, due to lower volume. The company said near-term demand for passive optical network products remains weak. Net income for Optical Communications was $140 million, down 12% sequentially and 23% year over year; the impact of lower volume was moderated by productivity improvements.

Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Corning’s second-quarter results reflect progress on our comprehensive plan to improve profitability and cash flow – even in the current weak end-market environment. As expected, core gross margin expanded 1 percentage point sequentially, and has grown more than 2 percentage points since the beginning of the year. We also improved free cash flow to $310 million.”

Ed Schlesinger, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said, “In the second quarter, sales grew 3% sequentially as higher sales in Display Technologies more than offset a decline in Optical Communications. We executed well on our comprehensive plan to improve profitability and cash flow. Core operating income increased 16% sequentially, and free cash flow grew to $310 million.

https://investor.corning.com/investor-relations/default.aspx

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Intel to manufacture 5G SoC for Ericsson on 18A process

Ericsson has selected Intel’s 18A process and foundry service for its next-generation optimized 5G silicon.

18A is Intel's most advanced node on the company's five-nodes-in-four-years roadmap. After new gate-all-around transistor architecture – known as RibbonFET – and backside power delivery – called PowerVia – appear first in Intel 20A, Intel will deliver ribbon architecture innovation and increased performance along with continued metal linewidth reduction in 18A.

Under the agreement, Intel will manufacture custom 5G SoCs (system-on-chip) for Ericsson to create highly differentiated leadership products for future 5G infrastructure. Additionally, the companies will expand their collaboration to optimize 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with Intel® vRAN Boost for Ericsson’s Cloud RAN (radio access network) solutions to help communications service providers increase network capacity and energy efficiency while gaining greater flexibility and scalability.

“As our work together evolves, this is a significant milestone with Ericsson to partner broadly on their next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. This agreement exemplifies our shared vision to innovate and transform network connectivity, and it reinforces the growing customer confidence in our process and manufacturing technology,” said Sachin Katti, senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge group at Intel. “We look forward to working together with Ericsson, an industry leader, to build networks that are open, reliable and ready for the future.”

“Ericsson has a long history of close collaboration with Intel, and we are pleased to expand this further as we utilize Intel to manufacture our future custom 5G SoCs on their 18A process node, which is in line with Ericsson’s long-term strategy for a more resilient and sustainable supply chain,” said Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice president and head of Networks at Ericsson. “In addition, we will be expanding our collaboration that we announced at MWC 2023 to work together with the ecosystem to accelerate industry-scale open RAN utilizing standard Intel Xeon-based platforms.”

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Dell’Oro: Microwave transmission equipment sales continue to grow

The cumulative revenue for Microwave Transmission equipment in the next five years is forecast to be $18 billion, which is 12 percent higher than the revenue achieved in the last five years, according to a recent report from Dell’Oro Group.

“Demand for Microwave Transmission gear is on the upswing,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Dell’Oro Group. “The growing number of 5G rollouts occurring globally is feeding the need for more wireless mobile backhaul. This is especially true for E-band systems since they were designed to efficiently transmit multiple gigabits of bandwidth. Hence, we are projecting shipments of E-band radios to grow at a 22 percent CAGR for the next five years,” added Yu.

Additional highlights from the Microwave Transmission & Mobile Backhaul 5-Year Forecast July 2023 Report:

• Demand for mobile backhaul equipment, consisting of both wireless and fiber systems, to be used in 5G networks is forecast to grow at a five-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 20 percent.
• The Microwave Transmission market is projected to peak in 2025 as the rate of growth in 5G deployments begins to slow the following year. Annual shipments are expected to reach a height of 1.8 million at that time.
• We increased our forecast for Packet Microwave and the Asia Pacific region due to greater demand in India.

https://www.delloro.com/news/18-billion-microwave-transmission-equipment-revenue-over-next-five-years/

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Dell’Oro: Campus Switch Sales to Exceed $100B for 2023-2027

More than $100 billion will be spent on campus switches over the next five years, according to Dell’Oro Group, which is raising its outlook for the 2023 revenue growth while, at the same time, revising its forecast for 2024 to show a steeper decline than projected in its prior forecast.

“Given the sustained high level of backlog combined with the unexpectedly rapid improvement in supply, we have raised our revenue forecast for 2023 to show a high-single digit growth in this market. It is worth noting that this projection comes despite a tough comparison with 2022 during which the market experienced a robust double-digit growth,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “As we head into 2024, however, the top-of-mind question is whether we should expect a correction in the market following two extraordinary years in sales performance and, if so, how steep that correction might be. We examined historical trends and interviewed various system vendors, Value-Added Resellers and System Integrators and are currently forecasting a high-single digit decline in the campus switch market in 2024.

“While challenges such as backlog normalization, capacity digestion, and spending optimization may temporarily impact market growth in 2024, we expect a fast recovery and long-term growth in the following years. This growth trajectory will be propelled by several tailwinds, including an accelerated pace of digital transformation, a greater portion of high-priced Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) devices, and the need for faster network speeds,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the Ethernet Switch – Campus 5-Year July 2023 Forecast Report:

• 2.5/5.0 Gbps is expected to drive 15 percent of the campus switch sales by 2027.
• PoE ports are forecast to comprise more than half of the total campus switch port shipments by 2027.
• Despite some short-term headwinds, China is expected to gain three points of revenue share over our forecast period.
• The IT/OT convergence is expected to increase over our forecast horizon, but adoption may take time given the very long 10-30 year lifecycle of industrial networking equipment.
• The introduction of Artificial Intelligence capabilities will continue to play a key role in vendors’ competitive positioning in the market.

https://www.delloro.com/news/campus-switch-sales-to-exceed-100-b-between-2023-and-2027/

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Xcel Energy deploys Nokia private LTE

U.S.-based Xcel Energy will deploy a Nokia private LTE network to help modernize grid operations to better serve customers across the company’s eight-state service area. T

Nokia will design and integrate the network leveraging Xcel Energy’s choice of Anterix 900 MHz spectrum based on the Nokia Modular Private Wireless (MPW) solution combined with Nokia Operational Support Systems (OSS). The solution will leverage Xcel Energy’s existing high-performance Nokia IP/MPLS infrastructure.

The advanced grid will enable an enhanced user experience for Xcel Energy’s 3.7 million electricity customers in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. Customers will have greater transparency and control over their energy use leveraging smart meters and online tools.

Nokia notes that it has now has deployed mission-critical networks to over 2,600 enterprise customers across industry sectors including energy utilities, ports, mines, manufacturers and logistics companies.

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/07/25/nokia-deploys-private-lte-for-xcel-energys-grid-modernization-in-the-united-states/

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ZEDEDA adds remote access services to its edge orchestration

ZEDEDA, which offers an edge orchestration solution, introduced a suite of Edge Application services providing remote access, inventory and configuration management, and Kubernetes management.

The first service in the suite, ZEDEDA Edge Access, enables IT administrators and platform operations teams to access any remote device from any location. It provides secure access, control and audit tracing for edge deployments.

ZEDEDA Edge Access offers access controls that provide full encryption of user sessions. It also provides granular user control and access, enabling customers to provide third parties secure access to their edge infrastructure. 

https://www.ZEDEDA.com

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Padtec joins Fiber Broadband Association

Padtec S.A. has joined the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), an association that brings together operators and companies from several countries that operate in the telecommunications sector – specifically, in the optical fiber segment. The entity's objective is to promote the adoption and advancement of optical transmission technologies in Latin and North America, stimulating technological innovation, as well as new business models and applications.

“The FBA performs an important role in promoting fiber optics as the preferred technology for broadband infrastructure, with a view to improving connectivity around the world based on the advancement of communication networks”, assesses Carlos Raimar Schoeninger, Padtec’s CEO. “For us, networking is essential for fostering cooperation that results in technological advances. This is very much in line with our purpose of contributing to the evolution of the infrastructure of next generation communication networks in Brazil, in the Americas and in the world,” he adds.

https://www.padtec.com.br

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