POET targets 1.6T transceivers with 200G per lane

POET Technologies announced its development of an optical interposer platform for 1.6T transceivers and beyond using 200G per lane technology. The company said it expects to complete the design of 1.6T Transmit and Receive optical engines with 200Gbps per lane technology based on the new generation of Optical Interposer designs by early 2024. It plans to demonstrate these products at major tradeshows and start customer sampling by first half of 2024.

Enhancements to POET’s Optical Interposer now support 200Gbps per lane speed for both the transmitter and the receiver. The transmit optical engine has been modified for externally modulated lasers (EML), EML drivers and monolithically integrated multiplexers for single mode fiber applications for up to 10km reach. The receive optical engine can now incorporate the next generation higher speed photodiodes, trans-impedance amplifiers and monolithically integrated low-loss polarization-insensitive demultiplexers for 1.6T transceivers and beyond.

https://poet-technologies.com/news/2023-aug-15.html

Read More

Sources: Intel likely to drop acquisition of Tower Semi

Intel failed to secure clearance from Chinese regulators for its pending acquisition of Tower Semiconductor.

Media sources, including Reuters and Bloomberg, reported that Intel is likely to walk away from deal.

In February 2022, 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 seven manufacturing facilities: Fab 1 and Fab 2 (150mm and 200mm) in Israel, Fab 3 and Fab 9 (200mm) in Newport Beach, California and in San Antonio, Texas and three additional fabs (two 200mm and one 300mm) in Japan via a partnership with  Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan. Tower is also sharing a 300mm manufacturing facility being established in Italy with ST Microelectronics. Altogether, Tower offers more than 2 million wafer starts per year of capacity. Tower also has a silicon photonics foundry.

Read More

GÉANT upgrades IP/MPLS backbone to 800 Gigabit Ethernet with Nokia

GÉANT, the collaboration of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), will deploy a state-of-the-art IP/MPLS solution from Nokia.

As part of its GN5 IP/MPLS routing and switching replacement project, GÉANT will be the first NREN in the world to deploy 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) routing interfaces

The upgrade is managed under a 10-year frame agreement led by Nomios Group, a leading European provider of cybersecurity services and solutions, in partnership with Nokia, which will supply its 7750 Service Router IP/MPLS platform powered by its FP5 network processing silicon. The FP5 chipset supports 800G transmission, which triples capacity within the existing footprint.

GÉANT interconnects 40 NRENs in 40 European countries, and links 50 million users and institutions to more than 100 additional NRENs globally. Over the past five years, the GÉANT network has experienced 30 percent traffic growth each year and is now carrying more than 7 Petabytes of data daily.

The GÉANT GN5 IP/MPLS Routing and Switching Infrastructure Replacement project represents a strategic go-to-market partnership between Nomios and Nokia, bringing together Nomios' extensive experience in designing and implementing robust networking solutions, combined with Nokia's expertise in delivering cutting-edge IP network technology for the world’s most critical networks. 

Stephane Haulbert, Nokia Partner Business Leader in Europe, said, “We are excited to partner with Nomios and be the first to bring 800GE speeds to such bandwidth-intensive and rigorous research environments as GÉANT. This is a real achievement that demonstrates how our leading IP technology delivers the capacity, resilience, and security required for these essential, massive-capacity networks, with the optimized energy consumption the industry needs to meet their sustainability targets. 

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/08/15/nokia-nomios-group-to-triple-capacity-for-geant-european-research-network-with-new-ultra-high-capacity-ip-backbone-network/

Read More

Coherent posts revenue of $1.205B, surge in AI datacom transceivers

Coherent Corp. reported revenue of $1.205 billion for the quarter ending 30-June-2023.  Non-GAAP EPS amounted to $0.41. Both figures were at the high end of the company’s guidance.

The company said a surge of AI/ML-related datacom transceiver orders represented the most prominent trend in the quarter.

However, in a letter to shareholders, Coherent said macroeconomic headwinds and uncertainty continue to affect nearly all of its end markets and restrain its near-term growth and visibility. 

https://www.coherent.com/content/dam/coherent/site/en/documents/investors/sec-filings/2023/august-16/quarterly-shareholder-letter-20230815.pdf

Read More

Half of cell sites in west Maui now restored

Data collected by the FCC indicates that 10 out of the 21 cell sites serving the fire zone of west Maui have restored service.  Thi covers cell sites serving Kapalua, Napili-Honokowai, Kaanapali, Lahaina, Launiupoko, and Olowalu , as of 8/13/23 at 6:00 a.m. (EDT).

A number of wireless companies have deployed mobile assets to Maui to support wireless services while fixed cell sites are being restored. 

On 8/11/23, the FCC granted special temporary authority to AT&T Mobility to operate two Cells-On-Wheels (COWs) and three temporary microwave sites.  The FCC also granted special temporary authority to AT&T Mobility to use several frequencies for microwave backhaul from five cell towers. 

Verizon also confirmed that voice coverage has been restored to West Maui, however, data service remains limited. Verizon continues to deploy satellite assets to existing cell sites in order to provide improved coverage and data capacity on the network. 

Verizon said its network team and their vendors have worked around the clock since the fires broke out to mobilize and activate emergency assets from Oahu and the mainland to Western Maui. Verizon deployed a COLT (Cell on Light Truck) in Lahaina on August 12 to replace coverage for the infrastructure damaged in the fires. In addition, the fiber optic cable that transports voice and data traffic from cell sites to the rest of the network was damaged by the fire. To replace the fiber transport, Verizon is utilizing a fleet of STEERs (Satellite Trailer Emitting Equipment Remote) to handle voice and data traffic moving to and from its existing sites outside of the fire zone in Western Maui

Also via the FCC, cable and wireline companies reported 16,700 subscribers out of service in the disaster area; this may include the loss of telephone, television, and/or Internet services.

Read More

Dell’Oro: Hyperscalers to capture 9% of the 5G SA Workloads in 2027

Dell’Oro Group projects Hyperscale Cloud Providers (HCPs) to capture 9 percent of the 5G Standalone (5G SA) Workloads market in 2027. 

Public Cloud 5G SA Workloads’ 5-year cumulative revenues are expected to reach $5.4 B with a five-year CAGR of 65 percent.

“The forecast has been reduced due to the slow migration to 5G SA by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) for their eMMB networks and by Enterprises for their 5G SA private wireless networks,” stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Some Enterprise networks are commercially deployed, but most are long-term Proofs-of- Concept or field trials, lasting as long as a few years. 

As a result, Dell’Oro forecasts that HCPs such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure will capture a cumulative 6 percent of the market revenues over the next five years by hosting 5G workloads on their respective public clouds.

“In this report update, we include HCPs’ revenues for the Edge (Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and for vRAN).  The Edge’s cumulative revenues are expected to reach  $1.3 B over the next five years. The anticipated CAGR for the Edge of the Public Cloud market is 86 percent, marking it the highest growth segment for HCPs. The interest by the HCPs also extends to the IMS Core and the virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN), which are included,” Bolan added.

https://www.delloro.com/news/hyperscale-cloud-providers-to-capture-9-percent-of-the-5g-sa-workloads-market-in-2027/

Read More

BT and Qualcomm extend 5G research in UK

BT will continue its collaboration with 5G lab facilities installed in the Qualcomm Technologies office in Farnborough, United Kingdom.

The facilities include 5G test labs with BT Group’s live environment installed, providing a platform for Qualcomm Technologies and BT Group, which runs the EE mobile network in the UK, to continue to test and validate new 5G advanced technologies that will help with faster deployment and commercialization of next generation 5G features and services.

Vikrant Jain, Director, Business Development, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. says: “We are excited to announce our collaboration with BT for testing and validation of new 5G features / next generation 5G services. Our state-of-the-art lab facilities will help facilitate and speed up the time-to-market, which means customers can benefit from the new technology sooner. We value our relationship and that has been running for over a decade, and we would like to thank BT for their continued support on this advancing innovation and we look forward to what else is to come for us in the technology space in the future.”

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2023/08/qualcomm-and-bt-group-announce-5g-lab-r-d-facilities

Read More