CableLabs completes Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 spec

CableLabs has completed its Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 specification, significantly increasing upstream capacity and enabling symmetric multi-Gigabit services over existing hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) technology. Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 technology builds on the DOCSIS 3.1 specification, which made deployments of 10 Gbps downstream and 1 Gbps upstream broadband possible.

Full duplex communication enables upstream and downstream traffic to efficiently use the same spectrum simultaneously. In contrast, spectrum is typically split between the upstream and downstream in current DOCSIS implementations.

“In the United States, more than 90 percent of households are connected to an HFC network, and consumers typically have higher download speeds than upload speeds,” said Phil McKinney, president and chief executive officer of CableLabs. “By enabling Full Duplex DOCSIS, the upstream and downstream traffic can flow at up to 10 Gigabits concurrently, doubling the efficiency of spectrum use.”

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Alibaba to crank up its research activities

Alibaba expects to invest more than US$15 billion in research and development over the next three years. The expanded R&D efforts includes the launch of a new Alibaba Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook (DAMI) which will focus on cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, network security, visual computing, Natural Language Processing. The academy plans to open seven research labs in China (Beijing and Hangzhou), the United States (San Mateo and Bellevue), Russia (Moscow), Israel (Tel Aviv) and Singapore.

Alibaba Group’s Chief Technology Officer, Jeff ZHANG will be the head of the Academy.

“The Alibaba DAMO Academy will be at the forefront of developing next-generation technology that will spur the growth of Alibaba and our partners. We aim to discover breakthrough technologies that will enable greater efficiency, network security and ecosystem synergy for end-users and businesses everywhere,” said Jeff ZHANG.

The Academy will set up an advisory board of globally renowned educators and researchers, including:

• Avi Wigderson, Professor of Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
• George Church, Professor of Harvard University and Professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Henry M. Levy, Professor and Director of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
• Hong MEI, Professor and Vice President of Beijing Institute of Technology
• Jeannette Wing, Director of the Data Science Institute, Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
• Kai LI, Professor of Princeton University
• Michael I. Jordan, Professor of University of California, Berkeley
• Ru HUANG, Professor and Dean of School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University
• Wen GAO, Professor and Dean of Faculty of Information and Engineering Sciences, Peking University
• Zhaohui WU, President, Zhejiang University

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Vantage plans $1 billion data centre in Ashburn

Vantage Data Centers announced plans to invest $1 billion to build a brand-new 108MW wholesale data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The company has already purchased a 42-acre property for the project.

The new facility will be larger than Vantage's campuses in Silicon Valley and Quincy, Washington. The new facility is less than two miles away from Mae East (Equinix). The company 8, with a five-building design. The first 24MW building  will be ready in early 2019.

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Tintri updates its automation toolset for all-flash

Tintri, which offers an enterprise cloud platform, announced the latest release of its Automation Toolkit featuringexpanded capabilities for automating all-flash storage operations.

The latest version of Tintri Automation Toolkit provides a set of APIs and SDKs to build automation workflows that are standardized, repeatable and abstracted at the same level – the virtualized application – as their other workflows for maximum efficiency. The 3.1 version supports Tintri synchronous replication and has the ability to initiate failovers. The Toolkit consists of the following features:

• Tintri REST API – the fully documented REST API provides customers a high degree of flexibility to extract any data and perform any action on any VM
• Tintri Python SDK – provides abstraction above the REST API for use in automating Tintri with open source, OpenStack and Linux environments
• Tintri PowerShell Toolkit – provides a full set of PowerShell cmdlets for use in Microsoft Windows environments. The Toolkit integrates with a heterogeneous ecosystem of PowerShell offerings from other companies, including integration with VMware vSphere PowerCLI cmdlets.

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Box brings machine learning to its cloud storage

Box introduced a framework for applying machine learning tools such as computer vision, video indexing, and sentiment analysis to content stored in its cloud service.

The Box Skills framework includes functionality powered by IBM Watson, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as Box Skills Kit, a set of developer resources for building custom skills. These skills include:

• Audio Intelligence: Uses audio files to create and index a text transcript that can be easily searched and manipulated in a variety of use cases
• Video Intelligence: Provides transcription, topic detection and detects people to allow users to quickly find the information they need in a video
• Image Intelligence: Detects individual objects and concepts in image files, captures text through optical character recognition (OCR), and automatically adds keyword labels to images to easily build metadata on image catalogs.

Box will also add automatic workflow initiation, APIs, e-signatures, and workflow management tools to its workflow software.

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FirstNet and AT&T launch developer program for public safety

FirstNet and AT&T, which in April announced a partnership for the deployment of a national high-speed data and voice network for first responders, launched a developer program geared toward America’s first responders.

FirstNet is looking to independent software developers to spur innovation and create new apps for public safety. The developer program will feed the FirstNet app store, providing public safety with a one-stop shop for reliable, highly secure solutions optimized for the FirstNet network. Based on common and open standards, this ecosystem will be an engine for innovative, cost effective and interoperable public safety solutions.

“The FirstNet app ecosystem is an important building block as we work to modernize public safety’s communications tools and capabilities,” said Chris Sambar, senior vice president, AT&T – FirstNet. “The FirstNet network will bring public safety the connectivity they need to communicate and collaborate. But it’s really what we’re able to build on top of that connectivity that will make the biggest difference in these brave men and women’s day-to-day operations.”

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Equinix acquires 5 data centres in Spain and Portugal

Equinix has acquired five data centers in total in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Lisbon from Itconic, a leading data center, connectivity and cloud infrastructure solutions provider in Spain and Portugal.  The all-cash deal was valued at €215M (approximately US$259M).

The five data centres together add approximately 322,000 gross square feet to the Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) portfolio. Itconic generated approximately €55.5M or approximately US$66.8M of revenues for the period Q2 2017 annualized. Approximately 250 employees will transfer to the Equinix team.

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Equinix acquires data centre in Istanbul for $93 million

Equinix has acquired the Zenium data center business in Istanbul from its existing shareholders in an all-cash transaction for US$93 million.

The Zenium data center currently generates approximately US$2.5 million of annualized revenues. The facility, which will be renamed Equinix IS2, currently offers 1,500 square meters of colocation space today with the ability to increase this to 12,000 square meters and up to 22MW of critical customer load at full build.

According to the Global Interconnection Index, which measures and forecasts the growth of Interconnection Bandwidth, Europe is expected to grow 44% per annum to reach 1451 Tbps of installed capacity by 2020. Europe's growth will be driven by a number of factors, including data sovereignty and the need for European businesses to exchange information with other businesses in-region.

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5th Annual IEEE Women in Engineering conference set for 21-22 May 2018

The fifth annual IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (IEEE WIE ILC) has been scheduled for 21-22 May 2018 at the San Jose Convention Center.

The conference will welcome speakers from around the world to share their experience and skills to inspire women to Lead Beyond through tracks focused on skills necessary for advancement in Innovation, Inspiration and Executive Leadership. Designed to advance women working in STEM disciplines, WIE ILC brings together over 1,500 professional women for two full days of education, networking, innovation, knowledge sharing, interactive sessions, discussion and much more. In addition, WIE ILC will host the #WIEWednesday virtual track series consisting of online presentations focused on Innovation, Inspiration and Executive Leadership that will run from February through May 2018, leading up to the conference.

“The IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference has been enthusiastically embraced by the global women in STEM community. Now entering its fifth year, we’re excited to gather some of the world’s most powerful and inspiring thought leaders together once again to share new concepts for driving women’s advancement in business and technology,” said Nita Patel, chair, IEEE WIE ILC. “Over half of our attendees have ten or more years of experience and offer a wealth of knowledge in their respective fields. We invite you to join us at WIE ILC, to engage, exchange and network with fellow professionals. Registration will open in November.”

Individuals and groups interested in speaking at WIE ILC, whether in person or during the virtual track series, are invited to submit presentation proposals with a theme of Lead Beyond by 20 October 2017.

http://ieee-wie-ilc.org/

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KPN Circular Manifesto seeks environmentally sustainable network

Royal KPN, the Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, published a "Circular Manifesto" calling on networking equipment suppliers to make infrastructure and customer premise equipment more durable and longer lasting using fewer virgin raw materials and built in such a way that by 2025 close to 100% of the parts and resources can be reused or recycled.

KPN aims to transition to "a circular economy" based on these principles by 2050.

The announcement was made at the Layer 123 SDN World Congress occurring this week in The Hague, Netherlands.

Seven supplies have signed the KPN Circular Manifesto: ARRIS, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei and ZTE; and recycling and refurbishing specialists Drake & Farrell and Teleplan.  These companies will work with KPN to produce by 2025 hardware that is circular by design and implement processes that are more energy efficient for both KPN and its customers.

“Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges in our society and it’s time for action, not words.  As the Netherland’s largest ICT-provider, we recognize that we have a leading role to play to enable the necessary transition towards a sustainable and increasingly circular economy. That’s why we’re implementing our own circular economy target with a demanding timeline,” said Eelco Blok, CEO of KPN. “We’re very pleased that such important partners have accepted this challenge and share our determination. After all, it’s only by working together that we can realize the innovation necessary to become circular. Their support is key and the knowledge we develop together can also benefit other stakeholders who seek to reduce their own environmental impact.”

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Intel builds 17-qubit superconducting quantum chip

Intel announced a major advance in quantum computing: the delivery of a 17-qubit superconducting test chip for quantum computing to QuTech, Intel’s quantum research partner in the Netherlands.

Intel developed the chip using a mnew architecture allowing improved reliability, thermal performance and reduced radio frequency (RF) interference between qubits.
The design leverages a scalable interconnect scheme that allows for 10 to 100 times more signals into and out of the chip as compared to wirebonded chips.

Intel said the successful fabrication of a quantum computing chip underscores the importance of material science and semiconductor manufacturing in realizing the promise of quantum computing.

“Our quantum research has progressed to the point where our partner QuTech is simulating quantum algorithm workloads, and Intel is fabricating new qubit test chips on a regular basis in our leading-edge manufacturing facilities,” said Dr. Michael Mayberry, corporate vice president and managing director of Intel Labs. “Intel’s expertise in fabrication, control electronics and architecture sets us apart and will serve us well as we venture into new computing paradigms, from neuromorphic to quantum computing.”

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Swisscom installs Ericsson NFVi in core network

Swisscom has installed Ericsson's Network Functions Virtualization infrastructure (NFVi) solution in its core network.

The Swisscom cloud-based enterprise service, which went live in September, is based on Ericsson's full-stack telco cloud infrastructure. Ericsson’s NFVi offering comprises Ericsson Cloud Manager, Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment, Ericsson Cloud SDN, Ericsson Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000, and system integration and support services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Swisscom said it is working closely with Ericsson to onboard additional services in the near future.

Swisscom launches Enterprise Cloud in Swiss jurisdiction

Friday, September 08, 2017  Swisscom, Switzerland  No Comments

Swisscom announced the launch of two new cloud solutions:Enterprise Service Cloud from Switzerland and the Enterprise Cloud for SAP Solutions, which has been specially designed for efficient SAP operations.

Swisscom is also extending its portfolio with global offerings from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

The Enterprise Service Cloud is an integrated cloud that covers everything from infrastructure via platform services to Managed Services and outsourcing. All data storage and functionality resides within Swiss jurisdiction. The cloud runs in tier IV-certified Swisscom data centres. From 2018 there will also be industry-specific services, for the banking or health sector for instance, with tighter compliance guidelines.

Enterprise Cloud for SAP Solutions is a SAP-certified, flexible and reliable service. As the largest SAP provider in Switzerland, Swisscom said it can offer the expertise of its 300 SAP consultants and its 80 full outsourcing customers to provide flexible infrastructure and dedicated SAP operations for Switzerland.

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Nokia Technologies exits VR, refocuses on digital health

Nokia Technologies, the business unit which includes the company's extensive patent portfolio and which pursues a number of ventures, announced a strategic shift.  The division will focus on digital health, while repositioning its investments in virtual reality (VR). Nokia Technologies will also focus on growing brand and technology licensing while leaving its successful patent licensing business untouched.

Nokia Technologies cited "slower-than-expected development of the VR market. The company will halt development of further versions of the OZO VR camera and hardware, while maintaining commitments to existing customers. Job losses are expected to be around 310 of the roughly 1090 employees in Nokia Technologies. Cuts will occur mainly in Finland, the US and the UK.

The company said this strategic realignment will leverage its digital health portfolio acquired through the purchase of Withings in 2016.

The OZO, which was conceived at Nokia's R&D facilities in Tampere, Finland and introduced in 2015, captures stereoscopic 3D video through eight (8) synchronized global shutter sensors and spatial audio through eight (8) integrated microphones. Software built for OZO enables real-time 3D viewing.

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Ericsson nominates an outsider as next Chairman

Ronnie Leten has been nominated as new Chairman of the Board of Ericsson, replacing Leif Johansson, who has served in the role since 2011 and who recently announced his intention to step down,

Leten is a well-know Belgian business executive who has served as president and CEO of Atlas Copco since 2009. 

Leten is currently a board member in SKF, the Chairman of the Board of Electrolux and proposed Chairman of the Board of Epiroc, the part of Atlas Copco planned to be dividend out in 2018.

Ericsson's Nomination Committee has also propose Kurt Jofs as new member of the Board. Jofs was responsible for Ericsson’s Networks business 2003-2008 and is currently the Chairman of the Board in Tieto.

Both nominations need to be approved by the company's board of directors. Ericsson’s Nomination Committee consists of Johan Forssell, Investor AB (Chairman of the Nomination Committee); Bengt Kjell, AB Industrivärden and Handelsbankens Pensionsstiftelse; Christer Gardell, Cevian Funds; Anders Oscarsson, AMF Försäkring och Fonder; Johan Held, Afa Försäkring; and Leif Johansson, Chairman of the Board.

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Edgecore contributes 10G PON OLT design to Open Compute

Edgecore Networks, which is the wholly-owned switching subsidiary of Accton, is contributing its hardware design for a disaggregated 10G PON OLT to the Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation.

Edgecore's whitebox OLT could be used to deploy 10G PON services from Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) infrastructures, which utilize whitebox hardware and open source SDN and NFV software to lower equipment costs, increase service delivery agility, and leverage open technology innovation. The design offers 16 XFP ports supporting 10G XGS-PON or NG-PON2 plus four 100 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 uplinks. Furthermore, it conforms to the AT&T Open XGS-PON 1RU OLT specification contributed to the OCP Telco Project, and is based on Broadcom StrataDNX switch and PON MAC SOC merchant silicon. The Edgecore disaggregated OLT supports the Virtual OLT Hardware Abstraction (VOLTHA) interface to centralized PON management software in CORD infrastructures.

By contributing the design to OCP, Edgecore is making it easier for service providers to choose whitebox hardware to accelerate 10G PON deployments.
 are developing software to integrate and manage the OLT in CORD deployments”

“Edgecore is working closely with service providers and partners worldwide who are testing our whitebox OLT hardware as they plan 10G PON services, and with partners who are developing software to integrate and manage the OLT in CORD deployments,” said Jeff Catlin, VP Technology, Edgecore Networks. “Our contribution to OCP of the hardware design package for the 10G OLT will enable service providers to deploy completely open hardware and software CORD infrastructures including our OCP-ACCEPTED leaf/spine switches, Ethernet edge switches and now the whitebox OLT for residential and business service delivery.”

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Intel joins Open Neural Network Exchange

Intel has joined the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), which was first announced last month by Microsoft and Facebook to give users more choice in AI frameworks.

Currently, the ONNX format is supported by Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, Caffe2 and PyTorch. Microsoft’s FPGA-based Project Brainwave will also support ONNX.

Intel said it is participating in the project to provide greater flexibility to the developer community by giving access to the most suitable tools for each unique AI project and the ability to easily switch between frameworks and tools.

 center.

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Tata Teleservices looks to shut mobile operations in India

It appears that Tata Teleservices is preparing to exit the mobile market in India.

According to TRAI, the national regulatory authority, Tata had 42,094,961 mobile subscribers as of the end of July, down by 1.6 million in only a month.

On Monday, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran told The Economic Times, said the business was in "really bad shape".  It carries a debt of Rs 31,000 crore debt in addition to spectrum liability. It looks increasingly likely that the company will sell off its network assets and cease operations. No timelines were given.

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Toshiba intros 50 Mbps photocouplers

Toshiba America Electronic Components introduced two high-speed photocouplers for applications such as programmable logic controllers, I/O interface boards, photovoltaic inverters, and factory automation inverters:

• TLP2767 -- a 50Mbps photocoupler that provides both a creepage and clearance distance of 8mm and isolation thickness of 0.4mm, supporting reinforced isolation. It features isolation voltage of 5000Vrms (min) and is housed in a SO6L package. 
• TLP2367 -- provides creepage and clearance distance of 5mm (min) and isolation voltage of 3750Vrms. It is available in a 5-pin SO6 package. 

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Nokia debuts its Software-Defined Access Network vision

Nokia is introducing its Software-Defined Access Network (SDAN), which comprised of its "Altiplano" cloud-native software, "Lightspan" open programmable hardware, scalable deployment practices, automated operations and integration services for operators.

The cloud-native, Altiplano SDN/NFV software helps operators scale their network by centralizing and virtualizing network functionality that was traditionally embedded in the access equipment. Altiplano leverages open interfaces, open data models and open industry initiatives such as Open Broadband , ON.LAB , Open Networking Foundation (ONF), CORD , ONAP and BBF. Nokia developed Altiplano to be integrated in multivendor environment.

The Nokia Lightspan family of programmable access nodes bring data center practices to the central office. The programmable design brings cloud and operational agility to the copper/fiber outside plant. It features the Lightspan SX-16F, the world's first 16-port reverse-powered G.fast micro-node which can be safely reverse-powered from the home. It also includes the Lightspan CF-24W, a stackable software-defined optical line terminal (OLT) that delivers the industry's highest next-generation PON (NG-PON) capacity in a single one-rack unit.

Nokia said it already had real world SDAN use-cases defined developed in cooperation with leading operators like du, nbn, and SK Telecom.

"Nokia focuses on areas where virtualization provides concrete benefits to operators. We deliberately go for an open, standardized, vendor-agnostic approach that smoothly integrates legacy as well as new cloud services. Our fixed access virtualization portfolio now covers copper, fiber, coax networks and professional services, which makes us ideally placed to transform the operator's network, operations, and business just as the opportunities of 5G begin to accelerate," stated Federico Guillén, president of Nokia Fixed Networks.

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Iron Mountain to buy data centres in London and Singapore

Iron Mountain has agree to acquire two Credit Suisse data centers in London and Singapore for approximately $100 million. As part of the transaction, Credit Suisse will enter into a long-term lease with Iron Mountain to maintain their existing data center operations. The two facilities combined add 273,000 square feet and over 14 megawatts (MW) of capacity (including future expansion) to Iron Mountain’s growing portfolio – of which 4.2MW is leased to Credit Suisse. The London data center is 120,000 total square feet and located in the Slough Trading Estate, while the Singapore data center is 153,000 total square feet located in Serangoon.

The deal represents the first international expansion of Iron Mountain's data center business.

Iron Mountain plans to fund the purchase with proceeds from a new share issua.

• In September, Iron Mountain acquired the FORTRUST data center business.
• Also in September, Iron Mountain opened the first of four planned data centers at a new, 83-acre campus in Northern Virginia. The first is a Tier III, 165,000 square-foot, 10.5-megawatt multi-tenant and cloud facility located in Prince William County. The company invested over $80 million in the first phase of this data center and expects to invest $350 million to bring the full campus to completion. The first phase opens with more than half of its first phase capacity pre-leased, including customers like Virtustream, a Dell Technologies business. 
• Northern Virginia is Iron Mountain’s fifth U.S. data centre market. Additional locations include Boston, Denver, Kansas City and Western Pennsylvania.

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