Nokia and Orange achieve 800G on 6,600km Dunant subsea cable

Orange achieved a record 800 Gbps per wavelength transmission over the 6,600 km Dunant transatlantic subsea cable using the Nokia PSE-6s super coherent optics productized in the Nokia 1830 Photonic Services Interconnect – Modular (PSI-M). 

In the trial, Orange and Nokia demonstrated error-free performance at 800G over a 6,600km link between the cable landing stations at Virginia Beach, U.S. and St Hilaire de Riez, France and at 700G over a total link distance of 7,345km from Virginia Beach to Paris. The terrestrial links consisted of 9 spans of Orange’s existing fiber network, through multiple cascaded reconfigurable optical add/drop multipliers (ROADMs), using 150GHz WDM spectrum channels.

The trial, which was conducted under real-world network conditions, validates a planned upgrade of the Orange long-haul network using Nokia’s PSE-6s super coherent optics. It demonstrates the ability to expand the capacity and spectral efficiency of existing subsea cable systems while reducing the number of coherent optics needed by 33% and lowering total power consumption compared with existing coherent optics.

The introduction of the PSE-6 super coherent capabilities across the Nokia 1830 portfolio enables high-performance, spectrally efficient transport of high-speed services across long-haul, ultra-long haul and trans-oceanic networks spanning multiple 1000s of kilometers.

Jean-Louis Le Roux, Vice President International Networks at Orange, said: “This trial demonstrates OINIS’ commitment to supporting ever-greater network scale and new high-bandwidth services across our global network, which combined with our subsea networks truly connects the whole world. We are pleased to validate Nokia’s latest generation of super coherent optics as an important enabler to these continuous network upgrades, with high spectral efficiency, sustainability and operational deployment flexibility.”

James Watt, Head of the Optical Networks Division at Nokia, said: “We are very pleased with the success of Nokia’s high-performance PSE-6s in this trial and delighted to continue to work with Orange in support of their network upgrade plans. As data volumes grow unabated worldwide, innovation in optical networks is critical to stay far ahead of the curve. The PSE-6 super-coherent optics supercharge the Nokia optical portfolio, delivering massive network scale and service reach while ensuring sustainable growth with power-efficiency.”

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Dell'Oro: North American Optical Transport Market Declined in 3Q 2023

The North American Optical Transport equipment market contracted 4 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) in 3Q 2023, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. This is in contrast to the market outside the North American region where demand improved for a third consecutive quarter, growing 6 percent Y/Y.

“The market dynamics are different in North America than other parts of the world because the supply chain and component crises resulted in a run for optical equipment,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Then when component supply improved, service providers started to receive more equipment than they needed, creating a pause in new orders and requests to move out deliveries into 2024. The market dynamics were different in other regions for varying reasons such as Covid policies slowing economic growth in some countries and a war in others. Hence, service providers in these countries did not build inventory in early 2023,” added Yu.

Additional highlights from the 3Q 2023 Optical Transport Quarterly Report:

• The worldwide Optical Transport market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 3 percent, reaching $16 billion by 2024.
• The North American and Latin American regions declined Y/Y in 3Q 2023 due to a mixture of issues: excess inventory, worsening macro-conditions, fear of recession, and higher borrowing costs.
• Ciena, FiberHome, and Nokia each gained more than one percentage point of market share in the trailing four quarter period compared to a year ago.

https://www.delloro.com/news/north-american-optical-transport-market-declined-in-3q-2023/

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Nokia responds to AT&T's vendor selection

Following the news that AT&T awarded a $14 billion contract to Ericsson, Nokia issued a statement expressing its disappointment and assesing its next steps.

Specifically, Nokia now expects revenue from AT&T in Mobile Networks will decrease over the next 2-3 years. AT&T accounted for 5-8% of Mobile Networks net sales year-to-date in 2023. 

Nokia has previously announce plans to reduce its cost base, and these actions are expected to partially mitigate the impact of AT&T’s decision. Nokia expects Mobile Networks to remain profitable over the coming years but this decision would delay the timeline of achieving double digit operating margin by up to 2 years.

Nokia has invested heavily in the last few years to deliver market leading radio technology and a highly competitive product portfolio. This has helped it gain the most 5G market share since Q1 2022 among the top RAN suppliers, reaching 29% in Q3, excluding China (source: Dell’Oro). Nokia remains one of the few global vendors of mobile network equipment with significant scale and R&D investment capability to deliver market leading products to customers and while the company is taking action to lower its cost-base, it will protect its R&D output. The company notes that NTT DOCOMO recently selected Nokia’s O-RAN 5G network for their commercial deployment.

Nokia remains a key partner for AT&T within both its Network Infrastructure and Cloud and Network Services businesses. AT&T will also continue to buy products such as microwave radio links and femto solutions from Mobile Networks. AT&T confirmed to Nokia that while its decision was driven by reasons specific to AT&T, it believes Nokia has highly competitive products and services in Radio Access Networks (RAN) and an accomplished R&D capability.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Nokia, said, “Whilst the news from AT&T is disappointing, our Mobile Networks business has made significant progress in recent years, increasing our RAN market share and technology leadership. I firmly believe we have the right strategy to create value for our shareholders into the future with opportunities to gain share, diversify our business and improve our profitability. Mobile Networks are critical to our global connected future and as I have said before the cloud computing and AI revolutions will not materialize without significant investments in networks that have vastly improved capabilities. Our customers can rest assured that we continue to invest in R&D and develop market-leading products for them.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/12/05/nokia-comments-on-att-vendor-plans/

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MEF packages IP Services and API portfolio

MEF announced availability of its IP Services and API Portfolio featuring a range of new and existing MEF assets for SD-WAN services, cloud access and edge computing applications.

The MEF IP Services and API Portfolio offers a suite of MEF-developed deliverables for NaaS services and solutions, including:

• IP service attributes and service definition standards
• Standardized IP service and product schemas including new IP product and service data schemas (payloads) and developer guides
• Open standard Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) business and operational APIs
• Onboarding and Interop Testing (OIT) and API certification services
• LSO community

“The MEF IP Services and API Portfolio is a culmination of years of collaboration and innovation within the MEF community,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF. “We are proud to make this comprehensive portfolio available to the industry, empowering service providers to seamlessly offer NaaS services and capitalize on the rapidly growing Internet Access services market.”

IP Services Standards

MEF’s extensive library of standards is developed and approved by the world’s leading service and technology providers and based on IETF standards. These standards include IP Service Attributes, Subscriber IP Service Definitions, SOAM for IP Services, Service Activation Testing for IP Services and MEF Services Model: Information Model for IP/IP VPN. MEF standards continuously evolve to meet the latest requirements of NaaS use cases.

Standardized IP Schemas

MEF’s standardized product and service data schemas for IP services work together with the comprehensive open standard LSO APIs for both automated business and operational interactions between NaaS operators and IP services operators. MEF’s new IP broadband and DIA services product payload and accompanying MEF developer guide are available now. MEF’s IP service data schemas and developer guide will be available in January 2024.

LSO Business and Operational APIs

MEF’s extensive portfolio of LSO APIs enable IP broadband and DIA service providers to automate all aspects of their business interactions with their customers increasing their ability to participate in NaaS offerings including SD-WAN, cloud and 5G/6G services. LSO APIs are published with business requirements and use case standards, API schema and developer guide standards, and test requirement standards and are continuously iterated on a six-month cadence.

Additionally, MEF’s powerful LSO Blending Tool enables developers to blend MEF LSO APIs with MEF’s Internet Access product data schemas amplifying the value of LSO API implementations used with any MEF standardized product payload.

MEF OIT and LSO API Certification Services

MEF’s IP Services and API Portfolio includes OIT services, which enables operators to constantly test their interoperability readiness with their partners using a subscription- and cloud-based test harness service used by over 20 service providers to date. MEF OIT is highly valuable both for sellers and buyers as it dramatically shortens the onboarding process.

In addition, MEF’s LSO API Certification program, part of its MEF 3.0 Certification program which has certified over 150 companies for thousands of products and services, enables IP Broadband, DIA and IP VPN operators to prove their ability to use LSO APIs for buying and selling of their services.

LSO Community

The widespread adoption of LSO APIs, with over 40 service providers in production and an additional 100 in various stages of adoption, has fostered a thriving community of service providers leveraging MEF’s standardized IP Services and API portfolio to automate business and operations with partners. Additionally, a growing ecosystem of LSO Solution Providers is empowering Internet Access operators to harness the power of LSO APIs and LSO Internet Access product payloads to seamlessly collaborate with any LSO partner. For more insights, refer to MEF’s comprehensive State of the Industry Report published earlier this year.

https://www.mef.net/news/mef-introduces-industry-leading-ip-services-and-api-portfolio-with-standards-schemas-tools-testing-certification-for-ip-broadband-dia-and-ip-vpn-for-wholesale-and-retail/

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Nokia launches gigabit Multi-Dwelling Unit for cable operators

Nokia will add a MoCA Access solution to its Gigabit Connect portfolio, giving cable operators additional options for addressing customers in multi-dwelling units (MDUs) that are difficult to serve with fiber. 

Specifically, Nokia will resell MoCA from InCoax products as part of its Gigabit Connect solution which easily combines with Nokia’s PON OLT portfolio. The initial products offered include a one-port indoor/outdoor DPU serving up to sixteen subscribers, two models of modems that can be self-installed by the consumer, and a passive splitter/combiner to enable coexistence with legacy services. The Gigabit Connect MoCA solution can deliver a 2Gbps symmetrical subscriber experience with low latency on both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint deployments.

The solution will be managed as a single pane of glass through Nokia’s Altiplano Access Controller.

Geert Heyninck, Vice President of Broadband Networks for Fixed Networks at Nokia, said: “Solutions like MoCA, are going to play an important role in helping operators connect customers to gigabit speeds in difficult to reach buildings. The addition of MoCA to our Gigabit Connect solution enables cable operators to move to fiber faster and better serve locations that are too difficult or expensive to run with fiber. The integration also makes it easy to operate since both the FTTH and MoCA can be managed as a single network.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/12/05/nokia-launches-gigabit-multi-dwelling-unit-mdu-solution-for-cable-operators-0/

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Adtran cites momentum for Mosaic One SaaS

Adtran cited rapid adoption of its cloud-based, Mosaic One software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, which optimizes network operations by utilizing AI-driven algorithms.  Its three dedicated portals - Care, Operate and Promote – enable service providers to manage complex deployments, reduce costs and deliver superior services to their subscribers. What’s more, Mosaic One is vendor- and technology-neutral, providing an all-encompassing monitoring solution for FTTH, DOCSIS, DSL and fixed wireless networks across multiple vendors.

Adtran added over 300+ customers in under 18 months.

“In less than 18 months, Mosaic One has hit a huge milestone. We often talk about how it empowers service providers to maximize the value of fiber networks. But Mosaic One’s success is also due to the fact that it gives customers what they need — a service with no hidden fees and no additional charges post-deployment. Many of our new customers came to us drained by the intricate licensing and perplexing invoicing their prior vendors used. Instead, what you get with Mosaic One is one invoice, one service, one incredibly easy way to manage your entire network,” commented Robert Conger, GM of software platforms at Adtran. “Achieving 300 deployments in such a short period is impressive, but for Mosaic One, it’s just the beginning. With more service-enhancing and revenue-boosting features in the pipeline, we’ll help shape a new era of opportunity for service providers.”

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Deutsche Glasfaser awards optical contract to Ekinops

Deutsche Glasfaser (DG), a leading competitive service provider in Germany serving over 1.2 million private household, businesses and public institution customers and adding around 40,000 new homes passed per month, selected Ekinops as a single vendor. DG will deploy the Ekinops360 portfolio across all tiers of its optical transport network including the Core, Aggregation, and Central Office (street cabinet). Ekinops’ FlexRate™ 100G to 400G coherent solutions are being introduced with its advanced colorless and gridless ROADM architecture. Enhanced by Celestis NMS management system to provide flexibility, ease-of-use and the seamless support of Alien wavelength services. Ekinops ETR (Extended Temperature Range) solutions are being deployed in central offices to extend capacity as close to the customer as possible and support the deployment of 10Gbps XGS-PON access technology as standard across DG's network.

Ekinops is also providing a full suite of professional services to assist DG in optimizing its network deployment. This includes whole scope of works from site surveys to equipment installation and commissioning.

"As pioneers of fiber rollout in Germany we have always sought to employ state-of-the-art technology in our network,” commented Pascal Koster, Chief Operating Officer of Deutsche Glasfaser. "The Ekinops360 gives us the ability to streamline our operations with a single end-to-end system that meets our ambitions to be even more efficient and responsive.”  

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