Zayo activates 400G across Europe

Zayo confirmed that its transport network in Europe is fully 400G enabled.

Zayo’s 400G network allows businesses, data centres, carriers and hyperscalers to access high bandwidth, low latency connectivity throughout Europe with the most direct routing for multi-cloud and multi-market connectivity. The 400G enhancements also support global connectivity for Zayo customers outside of Europe, with Zayo’s North American network also scheduled to be fully 400G enabled by the end of 2024.

Zayo’s European network is built on five diverse subsea cables, three of which are owned and operated by Zayo, powering 2,500 on-net buildings, 125 core points of presence (PoPs) and 16 metro fibre markets.

Zayo said its network enhancement also provides a significant sustainability benefit for 400G-connected businesses. Independent research showcases that Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme, which underpins Zayo’s 400G network, drives a threefold increase in fibre capacity while reducing power per bit by 80% and physical space needed by 85% compared to the original WaveLogic generation.

Zayo is already looking towards the future, at the growth of 800G networks, having broken the world record for the longest 800G optical wave in a commercial network at 1,044.51km.

Yannick Leboyer, Managing Director, Europe at Zayo Group, says: “Our customers are increasingly taking advantage of bandwidth-intensive applications to keep up with the competition - from AI and IoT to advanced analytics - which require significantly higher bandwidth and low latency connectivity.

https://www.zayo.com/resources/global-network-capabilities/

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T-Mobile opens network slicing beta for developers

T-Mobile US opened its network slicing beta to Android and iOS developers nationwide. The program has also expanded to Android developers to use 5G standalone (5G SA) to optimize their video calling applications commercially available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series. 

The moves make it easier for developers across the country to test their new and improved applications with the customized video calling network slice on T-Mobile’s 5G SA network using a commercial device.

“We didn’t just build the largest, fastest and most advanced 5G network so our customers can immediately benefit from the improved performance. We also want our network to serve as a platform for innovation,” said John Saw, EVP and Chief Technology Officer at T-Mobile. “I am so incredibly proud of my team and our partners who are pioneering new technologies like network slicing so we can help bring the true promise of 5G to life.”

“At Samsung, we want to give our users the best possible experience with the technology they love and depend on every day,” said Jude Buckley, Corporate Executive Vice President of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics America. “The Galaxy S23 series offers a great video call experience and innovations like network slicing can make it even better. We look forward to working with T-Mobile to unlock its full potential for our users.”

https://devedge.t-mobile.com/5g-network-slicing

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Verizon’s multiyear network upgrades

Verizon highlighted major accomplishments on its multi-year transformation of its network architecture:

• Introducing 5G service to more than 230 million people, accelerating C-band spectrum deployment and strategically using premium mmWave spectrum to serve customers in high 5G usage areas.
• Expanding 5G Fixed Wireless Access Internet availability to cover more than 40 million households.
• Accelerating the fiber build plan, deploying nearly 57k fiber miles since 2020 and now connecting over 51% of its cell sites with its own fiber.
• Upgrading 76% of pro sports venues with 5G Ultra Wideband service to provide greater coverage and exponentially more capacity in major gathering and event spaces to better support high data traffic.
• Redesigning the core of the network to function in a cloud-native environment and introducing advanced technologies such as virtualization, automation and orchestration throughout the network. Introducing virtualization (throughout the core and in over 15,000 cell sites), re-architecting to a Kubernetes-based cloud-native platform, and integrating extensive automation and orchestration have been largely invisible to customers, but those changes are making a world of difference. Not only is Verizon able to make changes that benefit customers faster (like introducing new security measures, improving handoffs between cell sites, improving latency, and reducing call drops) but it can now implement those enhancements without taking the network offline, so customers are getting the benefits with zero down time.
• Currently, more than 68% of customers have 5G capable cell phones and they are using exponentially more data. 
• At present, 5G traffic using C-band spectrum makes up more than 38% of the total data on the network, up from over 14% one year ago. 
• As 5G data usage increases, there is a correlated decrease of data volume on the 4G network with customers currently using just over 56% compared to a year ago when nearly 81% of data traffic ran over 4G service. 
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• Verizon sees a steady pace of approximately 400,000 net adds for Home Internet each quarter, a majority of which are fixed wireless access (FWA). 
• As of August, over 2.5 million consumer and business customers are using Verizon’s FWA service with each using just over 300 GB of data per month. 
• Private networks are gaining momentum as well with solutions like the Cleveland Clinic and the NFL’s Coach-to-Coach coming online in all 30 NFL stadiums.

“It’s been a tremendously dynamic and exciting few years for our network, introducing 5G to the market, redesigning the network core functions, accelerating our fiber build and introducing a host of advanced technologies to improve our customers’ experience with us,” said Joe Russo, EVP and CEO of Global Network and Technology. “These changes mean more people can do more things in more places more reliably, and that’s what we’re all about as a company.”

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Aligned Data Centers plans hyperscale campus in Ohio

Aligned Data Centers has acquired a 129-acre land parcel in Perkins Township, Ohio, where it will become the site of a planned new, four-building hyperscale data center campus. The site is a former automotive equipment manufacturing facility originally built during the Second World War. 

Aligned’s NEO-01 data center, the first of four planned facilities, will enable densities beyond 300 kW per rack by deploying air-cooled, liquid-cooled or hybrid cooling solutions – all within the same data hall. This includes the company’s Delta waterless heat rejection technology.

“Aligned is very excited to enter the Northeast Ohio market and return a brownfield site to productive use for the local community,” states Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “As part of our sustainability mission, Aligned has not shied away from redeveloping brownfield projects that have lain dormant for many years (sometimes decades) in communities. Transforming these properties into assets for the local community is a win-win-win – removing blight, generating revenue, returning jobs to a former industrial location, and preserving greenfields for other uses.  We look forward to supporting the ongoing growth of our customers and bringing new economic, environmental, and social opportunities to Perkins Township.”

https://www.aligneddc.com 

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NTT teams with Qualcomm on AI at the edge

NTT announced a strategic engagement with Qualcomm to invest in and accelerate the development of the 5G device ecosystem.

The companies will use their combined expertise to meet the need for 5G-enabled devices that support use cases, such as push-to-talk devices, augmented reality headsets, computer vision cameras and sensors at the edge across the manufacturing, automotive, logistics and other industries. The 5G-ready devices will leverage Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G chipsets with AI models built in to enhance AI at the edge through various applications, such as image recognition, with capabilities ranging from counting items and identifying object characteristics to verifying workers wearing safety masks or hardhats (PPE). 

As part of NTT’s end-to-end Edge as a Service offering, NTT is now offering Device as a Service to make it easy for customers to access, upgrade, and recycle 5G and edge devices and simplify device lifecycle management as well as reduce IT maintenance and costs. 

“This collaboration is truly an exciting one because we are answering the demand we’re hearing from our clients. Together with Qualcomm Technologies, we will strengthen the 5G ecosystem delivering the devices our customers require in a simple and cost-effective way, empowering them as they continue along their digital transformation journey,” said Shahid Ahmed, Executive Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation at NTT Ltd. 

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Dell’Oro: Generative AI drives accelerator market

Accelerators led all server semiconductors and components with triple-digit year-over-year growth in 2Q 2023, according to a recent report from Dell’Oro Group. While Intel still maintains a majority share of the server CPU market, AMD’s revenue share now exceeds 20 percent. ARM is also poised to gain share with new cloud server deployments in 2023.

“NVIDIA has benefited from the surge in demand for accelerated computing for generative AI applications, and has displaced Intel as the largest server component manufacturer since the beginning of this year,” said Baron Fung, Sr. Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Meanwhile, over the past four quarters, the rest of the server semiconductor and component market has witnessed a contraction, as system vendors and hyperscale cloud service providers reduce component inventory levels and pause purchases in response to a slowdown in general-purpose computing deployments. We project a recovery in the component market starting in the second half of 2023, as system vendors and hyperscale cloud service providers resume component purchases in anticipation of the next investment cycle in 2024. Accelerators will continue to drive long-term growth, and new server platforms with 5th-generation CPUs will lead to an upside in IT spending,” explained Fung.

Additional highlights from the new 2Q 2023 Data Center IT Semiconductors and Components Quarterly Report:

• Server and storage systems component market is forecast to grow 1 percent in 2023.
• NVIDIA led all vendors in server component revenue in 2Q 2023, followed by Intel, Samsung, and Western Digital.
• GPU shipments are projected for 59 percent growth in 2023 mainly from NVIDIA H100 deployments. Higher volumes for AMD and Intel GPU-based systems are expected later this year. 

Dell’Oro Group’s Data Center IT Semiconductors and Components Quarterly Report tracks revenue, unit and capacity shipments, unit and capacity pricing, and market share of major semiconductor and component manufacturers supplying the data center server and storage system markets since 2018. The report focuses on significant server and storage semiconductors and components, including CPUs; accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and custom AI ASICs; memory; Ethernet and InfiniBand NICs and Smart NICs/DPUs; HDDs and NAND/SSDs.

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Airgain intros 5G FWA antenna

Airgain introduced its new Lumos 5G Fixed Wireless Access Antenna to boost the performance of connected devices. 

With a multiband, directional antenna design as well as 2x2 and 4x4 MIMO configurations for both LTE and 5G, Lumos can maximize the performance of enterprise routers, indoor fixed wireless access (FWA) devices, customer premises equipment (CPE), and a myriad of other cellular-based devices.

The specifications of the new Lumos FWA antenna include:

• Options for 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO LTE/5G (617 - 4200 MHz)
• Optimized for bands N41 and N77
• High peak gain
• 617 - 960 MHz, 3.6 dBi
• 1700 - 2700 MHz, 8.2 dBi
• 3300 - 4200 MHz, 10.9 dBi

“As 5G becomes more ubiquitous, the market is constantly searching for solutions that can power an ‘always connected’ environment,” said Brian Critchfield, Vice President of Global Marketing for Airgain. “With the high gain and easy-to-install configuration of our new Lumos™️ 5G Fixed Wireless Access Antenna, users can augment existing installations or bundle it as part of new installations and achieve often better performance than with wired solutions. We believe its versatility combined with performance can be a game changer.”

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