Malaysia's Allo Tech deploys Infinera's ICE-X coherent pluggables

Allo Technology Sdn. Bhd. (Allo), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), is using Infinera's ICE-X intelligent coherent pluggables and XTM Series to boost its nationwide optical network and expand services across Malaysia. The Allo Carrier Network System (ACNS) is the optical backbone for Malaysia, providing direct connectivity with broad coverage spanning the peninsula.

The selection was based on a point-to-point performance during a recent field trial where Infinera’s suite of ICE-X intelligent pluggables was hosted in Infinera’s XTM Series packet optical networking platform across Allo’s network spanning 1,228 kilometers from the Thailand border to Malaysia. The demonstration delivered both high transmission performance and efficient traffic aggregation, while also significantly expanding overall network capacity. Infinera’s solutions enable Allo to expand its services across Malaysia to bring broadband connectivity to the entire country, extending broadband services to parts of the country where services are not currently available.

Planned network deployments include point-to-multipoint network architectures utilizing the wide range of deployment options of Infinera’s ICE-X intelligent coherent pluggables and the XTM platform. 

“Infinera’s ICE-X suite of coherent pluggables is redefining network scalability, flexibility, and economics for bandwidth applications for single- and dual-fiber networks. For network operators like Allo, Infinera’s latest solutions are game changing, enabling them to leverage existing network assets to extend bandwidth services seamlessly and efficiently,” said Ryan Perera, Senior Vice President, APAC Sales at Infinera. “This increases the value of their network infrastructure while positioning them for future growth.”

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Laser Light and Inligo Networks sign $175M Asia-Pac bandwidth deal

 Laser Light and Inligo Networks signed a fifteen-year $175 million Reciprocal Master Services Agreement for optical service capacity throughout the Asia-Pacific Region. 

Formed in 2020, Inligo Networks is a privately owned telecommunications infrastructure company in the final stages of commencing construction of the foundational Asia Connect Cable (ACC-1) system. ACC-1 is a new subsea fibre optic system stretching 18,000 klms between Singapore and Los Angeles, to be installed through the Java Sea. With committed landings in Singapore, Batam, Jakarta, Makassar, Dili, Darwin, Manado, Davao, Guam and Los Angeles, the system is perfectly positioned to support Laser Light's satellite network through the region. Inligo is also building a terrestrial system, known as Unite, between Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, which will provide seamless connectivity between the Australian capitals onto the ACC-1 system via Darwin.

As part of the terms, Laser Light intends to purchase optical transport capacity from Inligo on its terrestrial and subsea cables in and around Southeast Asia, Australasia, and the Pacific US. In turn, Inligo intends to purchase from Laser Light its redundant, resilient global connectivity to meet the needs of its customers overhead and beyond its current network footprint via Laser Light's next-generation data service platform.

Inligo Networks will provide additional regional connectivity to Laser Light's planned network hubs, meshing many of its optical satellite ground stations and points of presence across Asia and the Pacific, including Australia's Northern Territory. The solution provides Laser Light with significant redundant network capacity via terrestrial, and subsea cable infrastructures, complementing its optical satellite capacity. The agreement also allows Laser Light to leverage a range of Inligo's low latency routes between the USA, Pacific and Asia and the development of the technology in Australasia where the demand for connectivity remands high. 

"The opportunity to partner with Laser Light as a foundational customer on our ACC-1 and Unite networks, along with being able to supplement these networks with Laser Light's capabilities, global reach and unique service portfolio, adds significant opportunities for our customers. The alignment of two disruptive, innovative high-tech organisations will generate truly meaningful benefits for our customers and shareholders as well as driving efficiencies for our respective organisations," said Simon Zettl, Commercial Director and Chief Revenue Officer at Inligo Networks.

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ECOC: Open XR Forum Symposium on October 3

At the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), the Open XR Forum will host a symposium, open to all attendees, to discuss the latest transceiver specifications, including thermal mechanical form factor and electro-optical characteristics. The symposium will also highlight multi-vendor use cases, including full-featured host-independent management, multipoint aggregation, and high-speed business services over passive optical network (PON) infrastructures.

Open XR Forum symposium member speakers include:

• Mark Watts, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Verizon
• Harald Bock, VP, Network & Technology Strategy, Infinera
• Andrea Di Giglio, Systems Specialist at Telecom Italia Lab, TIM
• Kevin Driscoll, VP, Strategic Sales, LightRiver
• Andrew Lord, Sr. Manager, Optical Networks Research, BT
• David Hillerkuss, Director, Open XR Forum
• José Manuel Rivas-Moscoso, Optical Transport Innovation Technical Lead, Telefónica CTIO
• Dave Welch, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Infinera

www.openxrforum.org

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ECOC: Marvell to showcase 800 Gbps ZR/ZR+ pluggables

At ECOC in Glasgow, Marvell Technology will showcase its latest optical connectivity and switch solutions, including:

• COLORZ 800, 800 Gbps ZR/ZR+ pluggable modules for increasing both the bandwidth and distance of data center interconnects (DCIs).
• Nova, the industry's first 1.6T PAM4 DSP featuring 200 Gbps per lambda optical bandwidth.
• Orion, the industry's first 800 Gbps coherent digital signal processor (DSP) for pluggable modules. Capable of powering connections up to 2,000 km in length, Orion is poised to change the economics and performance of the transport networks connecting carrier and cloud assets over extended geographic areas.
• Optical modules powered by the Marvell Orion and Nova DSPs from select ecosystem partners.
• Teralynx 10, an ultra-low latency, programmable 51.2 Tbps switch chip optimized for high-bandwidth workloads for AI and ML.

https://www.marvell.com/company/newsroom/marvell-to-showcase-industry-first-high-speed-connectivity-solutions-for-the-ai-era-at-ecoc-2023.html

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ECOC: MaxLinear announces 5nm PAM4 DSP for 800G

MaxLinear announced a new member of its Keystone 5nm PAM4 DSP family (KeystoneMM – MxL93684) that monolithically integrates VCSEL drivers with the DSP active optical cables (AOCs) and multimode links. KeystoneMM is available to sample to key customers and will be released to full production in Q1 2024. MaxLinear will be exhibiting at ECOC in Glasgow, Scotland.

Multimode Fiber is extensively deployed in short reach applications such as fiber-optic cable infrastructure in data centers and other large networks– for example, between individual servers, within racks, or within rows. Multimode optical links prove to be the more economical option compared to single-mode optical solutions for short reach applications. These shorter reach links dominate the interconnect volume for most AI/ML deployments.

“With the explosion in deployments of AI clusters, the demand for multimode transceivers and AOCs continues to accelerate for 100G/lane 400G and 800G interconnects. These applications needed integrated, low-power, high-performance, cost-effective solutions to support the massive scale of these networks,” said Drew Guckenberger, Vice President of High Speed Interconnect at MaxLinear. “Our 5nm Keystone PAM4 DSP with integrated VCSEL drivers addresses the demands of this key market, enabling best-in-class power consumption of <10W for 800G short reach optical transceivers and AOCs.”

MaxLinear’s Keystone 5nm DSP family addresses both 400G and 800G applications and is the first generation to provide 106.25Gbps host side electrical I/O to match the line side 106.25Gbps interface rate. 

Variants supporting single mode optics (EML and SiPh), multimode optics (VCSEL transceivers and AOCs), and Active Electrical Cables (AECs) are all available and can be paired with companion TIAs to provide complete solutions.

The Keystone family’s host side interfaces support 25G, 50G, and 100G per lane ethernet rates over C2M, MR and LR host channels. The line side interfaces also support the same rates and are targeted for 100G/λ DR, FR, and LR applications. All devices provide extensive DSP functionality, including line-side transmitter digital pre-distortion (DPD), transmit pre-emphasis (TX FIR), receiver feed forward equalization (FFE) and decision feedback equalization (DFE).

https://investors.maxlinear.com/press-releases/detail/515/maxlinear-announces-5nm-cmos-pam4-dsp-with-integrated-vcsel

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AMD intros accelerator card for fintech

AMD announced its new Alveo UL3524 accelerator card, a new fintech accelerator designed for ultra-low latency electronic trading applications. 

The Alveo UL3524 delivers a 7X latency improvement over prior generation FPGA technology, achieving less than 3ns FPGA transceiver latency2 for accelerated trade execution. It is powered by a custom 16nm Virtex UltraScale+ FPGA, and it features a novel transceiver architecture with hardened, optimized network connectivity cores to achieve breakthrough performance.

The new card is already deployed by leading trading firms and enabling multiple solution partner offerings.

“In ultra-low latency trading, a nanosecond can determine the difference between a profitable or losing trade,” said Hamid Salehi, director of product marketing at AMD. “The Alveo UL3524 accelerator card is powered by the lowest latency FPGA transceiver from AMD—purpose-built to give our fintech customers an unprecedented competitive advantage in financial markets.”

https://www.amd.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-9-27-amd-unveils-purpose-built-fpga-based-accelerator-.html

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Arrtel and Rivada win Space Force contract

Artel, a provider of secure network communication services to U.S. government agencies, has been awarded a Commercial Satellite Communications Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (p-LEO) contract  from the U.S. Space Force and is partnering with Rivada Space Networks to offer high speed, low-latency connectivity with full global coverage..

Artel is a carrier-agnostic network integrator of global terrestrial and satellite network communication services, cyber security, risk management, and information technology solutions.

Rivada's global low-latency point-to-point connectivity network of 600 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, the "OuterNET", is a unique next-generation architecture combing inter-satellite laser links with advanced onboard processing that provide unique routing and switching capabilities to create an optical mesh network in space. This approach to "orbital networking," in which data stays in space from origin to destination, creates an ultra-secure satellite network with pole-to-pole coverage, offering end-to-end latencies much lower than terrestrial fiber over similar long distances. And by routing traffic on a physically separated network, it provides a layer of defense for any organization that needs to securely share data over a large distribution of site. Together it provides unique solutions for Government Services operations. The first satellite launch is set for 2025, with global service starting in 2026. 

"We are committed to delivering state-of-the-art technology solutions to the US Government", said Ed Spitler, Head of Satcoms Programs at Artel. "The Rivada constellation brings a new level of security, performance and global reach that will enable our customers to not only expand their current networks but also address new market opportunities. We are excited to partner with Rivada to provide the next generation of secure connectivity."

Declan Ganley, CEO, Rivada Space Networks, said: "We are delighted to be working with Artel and honored to be one of a limited number of LEO solutions trusted to provide solutions to the USSF. By allowing satellites to go beyond their traditional role of "gap-filler," and unlike other limited LEO systems which bridge the last mile between the satellite and the nearest gateway, Rivada's OuterNET is a fully inter-connected space network which will become the technology of choice for secure data communications. Rivada's OuterNET will solve essential connectivity and security challenges for government communications globally".

https://www.rivada.com/artel-rivadaspace/

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Open Compute Project approves Adtran’s OSA 5400 TimeCard

The Open Compute Project (OCP) Time Appliance Project (TAP) has approved its OSA 5400 TimeCard for data center timing and synchronization. The pluggable device injects Adtran’s Oscilloquartz timing technology into any white box server.

Adtran’s OSA 5400 TimeCard plugs into any free PCIe slot to turn a standard COTS server into a precise PTP grandmaster clock or NTP server. With multiple oscillator options, the solution ensures accurate timing even during extended periods of GNSS disturbances. 

“We’re proud that our OSA 5400 TimeCard has been validated by OCP-TAP. This card brings our 74 years of expertise in timing and synchronization to standard servers, going beyond the TAP specifications to provide a scalable, fully featured timing solution in a compact half-size PCIe card. It offers a major boost for data center operators looking to embrace open, disaggregated hardware, especially where timing is vital and space is limited. Our OSA 5400 TimeCard ensures seamless, efficient operation of mission-critical and time-sensitive applications,” commented Igal Pinhasov, VP of PLM at Oscilloquartz, Adtran. 

https://www.adtran.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20230928-ocp-tap-approves-adtrans-osa-5400-timecard-for-precise-resilient-data-center-timing

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5G Set to Surpass 4G LTE by 2028

5G is on course to become the most widely-adopted, exceeding 4G LTE by over 2.5 billion connections in 2028, according to 5G Americas, citing data from Omdia.

The research finds a surge in new 5G connections in the last six months, an astounding addition of 331 million new 5G connections, pushing the global total to an impressive 1.4 billion. 

This surge in adoption and network deployments sets the stage for further acceleration, with projections indicating an imminent approach to the 2 billion mark by the end of 2023. By 2028, Omdia's latest forecast anticipates 8 billion 5G connections, surpassing the first-decade growth of LTE by over 2.5 billion connections.

Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, stated, "The phenomenal global growth of 5G connections underscores the insatiable demand for advanced connectivity. With 1.4 billion connections and counting, we are witnessing the transformative power of 5G technology as the industry focuses on integrating 5G connectivity into new devices and services in this era of innovation."

North America continues to lead in the 5G race. By the close of Q2 2023, the region boasts an impressive 151 million 5G connections and a robust 496 million LTE connections. The 5G penetration rate in North America has reached an exceptional 40 percent, with a growth rate of 25.5% in the first half of 2023. Projections indicate that North America's 5G connections will reach a remarkable 669 million by 2028.

Currently, there are 287 commercial 5G networks worldwide, and this number is anticipated to grow to 425 by 2025. This reflects significant investments in 5G infrastructure worldwide. The number of 5G and 4G LTE network deployments as of September 15, 2023 are summarized below:

5G:

• Global: 287
• North America: 17
• Latin America and Caribbean: 29

4G LTE:

• Global: 707
• North America: 17
• Latin America and Caribbean: 31

https://www.5gamericas.org/

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