TIM carries 550G wavelength with Nokia's Photonic Service Engine 3

 Nokia, in collaboration with Telecom Italia (TIM), set a new European record for data transmission over a long-distance backbone network -- a wavelength speed of 550 Gbps carried more than 350 km on TIM's operational network between Rome and Florence. In addition, TIM and Nokia carried a 400G wavelength over 900 km between Rome and Milan, and a 300 Gbps wavelength over 1,750 km.

The trial used the new Nokia Photonic Service Engine 3 (Nokia PSE-3). TIM'a DWDM backbone is based on the latest generation of Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch.  The network is fully automated and currently carries optical signals with a capacity of 100 Gb/s over distances of up to 1,800 kilometers, and 200 Gb/s up to 800 kilometers. The backbone, with a coverage of over 16,000 kilometers of fiber, and connecting to 65 national POPs (Point of Presence), has carried over 9,000 petabytes of data traffic in the last year.

Elisabetta Romano, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at TIM, said: "We are proud of this European record which confirms TIM's technological leadership, the high quality of our network, our commitment to develop innovative solutions in order to guarantee the best experience to our customers. Today's result, which triples transmission speed compared to the current one, confirms that TIM's network is the most advanced infrastructure capable of offering new digital services and platforms, also with a view to developing 5G."

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2019/05/30/nokia-and-tim-break-european-record-for-long-distance-data-transmission-over-high-speed-network-laying-groundwork-for-5g/

• Nokia has previously announced trials of its PSE-3 chipset, which implements probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS), with Germany's M-net and Poland's Netia.

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Analog Devices debuts mmWave 5G chipset

Analog Devices (ADI) that combines ADI’s advanced beamformer IC, up/down frequency conversion (UDC), and additional mixed signal circuitry. This optimized “Beams to Bits” signal chain represents a unique set of capabilities only available from ADI.

The new mmWave 5G chipset includes the 16-channel ADMV4821 dual/single polarization beamformer IC, 16-channel ADMV4801 single-polarization beamformer IC and the ADMV1017 mmWave UDC. The 24- to 30-GHz beamforming + UDC solution forms a 3GPP 5G NR compliant mmWave front-end to address the n261, n257 and n258 bands. The high channel density, coupled with the ability to support both single- and dual-polarization deployments, greatly increases system flexibility and reconfigurability for multiple 5G use cases while best-in-class equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) extends radio range and density.

“Millimeter-wave 5G is an emerging technology with great potential,” said Karim Hamed, general manager of Microwave Communications at Analog Devices. “It can be extremely difficult to design these systems from the ground up, balancing system-level challenges in performance, standards, and cost. This new solution leverages ADI’s best-in-class technology, long legacy in RF, microwave and mmWave communications infrastructure, and deep expertise across the RF spectrum to simplify the design process for customers, reduce overall component count, and accelerate the path to 5G deployment.”

http://www.analog.com

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Sprint's 5G unlimited plan is priced at $80/month

Sprint activated its first 5G commercial service in areas of Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City.

Sprint is using 64T64R (64 transmitters 64 receivers) 5G Massive MIMO radios from Ericsson in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Kansas City. These radios support split-mode, enabling Sprint to simultaneously deliver LTE Advanced and 5G NR service. Sprint's 5G Massive MIMO radios run on its 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum, and they are deployed on Sprint's existing 4G cell sites, providing a nearly identical footprint for both 2.5 GHz LTE and 5G NR coverage.

Service is available using the LG V50 ThinQ 5G smartphone and the HTC 5G Hub.

A 5G Unlimited Premium plan -- with unlimited data, talk and text nationwide, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Twitch Prime, Tidal HiFi and 100 GB LTE mobile hotspot -- is priced at $80 per month with AutoPay for one line.

Sprint expects to launch 5G service in areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

Earlier this month, Sprint provided the following network update

• Sprint now has 2.5 GHz spectrum deployed on approximately 80 percent of its macro sites.
• Sprint currently has approximately 30,000 outdoor small cells deployed including both mini macros and strand mounts.
• Sprint has deployed approximately 1,500 Massive MIMO radios, which increase the speed and capacity of the LTE network and, with a software upgrade, will provide mobile 5G service in select cities in the coming weeks.

Sprint activates Samsung's massive MIMO

Thursday, September 13, 2018  5G, MIMO, Sprint  

Sprint has activated Samsung's 5G-ready massive MIMO solutions on its production 2.5 GHz TDD-LTE network.

Samsung said its massive MIMO can provide a way for operators to inject new capacity into their network without having to purchase more spectrum or add new base stations. It is being used by Sprint to significantly boost LTE network speeds and capacity for millions of U.S. customers, while improving network efficiencies through advanced beam-forming. Additionally, this helps provide Sprint with a seamless upgrade path to 5G New Radio (NR), utilizing the carrier’s deep 2.5 GHz spectrum.

“We are excited to see Samsung MIMO solutions in use on Sprint’s current LTE commercial network, which will help their customers experience the full benefits of network innovation,” said Lyle Nyffeler, Vice President, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “Our MIMO solutions are engineered to maximize 4G networks today, while offering a graceful, seamless path to a 5G future.”

In February 2018, Sprint announced its selection of Samsung as a massive MIMO provider for their future 5G mobile network launch in the U.S..

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American Tower to acquire 5,500 sites in five African markets

American Tower agreed to acquire Eaton Towers, which owns and operates approximately 5,500 communications sites across five African markets, for approximately $1.85 billion. American Tower expects to accelerate new build activity across the region due to expanded relationships with multiple key tenants.

The Eaton towers are located in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Niger. Eaton Towers was co-founded in 2009 by Terry Rhodes, CEO. Alongside the majority shareholder, Capital International, investors include Development Partners International, Ethos and Standard Chartered.

American Tower said the Eaton assets are expected to generate approximately $260 million in property revenue and approximately $165 million in gross margin, at current exchange rates, in their first full year in American Tower’s portfolio.

Jim Taiclet, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer stated, “This transaction will significantly augment our existing footprint in Africa and positions ATC to take even better advantage of the growth opportunity in the region as 4G mobile data technology is deployed to serve millions of Africans over the coming years.”

http://www.americantower.com

• American Tower's global portfolio includes more than 170,000 sites.

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Colt Ethernet Line Encryption leverages ADVA FSP 150

Colt Technology Services is using the ADVA FSP 150 with ConnectGuard security technology to deliver its new Ethernet Line Encryption service at up to 10 Gbps.

ADVA’s ConnectGuard Ethernet technology, which is built on an enhanced version of MACsec, uses cryptographic techniques including dynamic key exchange and hardware tamper protection. It also features comprehensive service assurance and testing functionality.

Colt’s Ethernet Line Encryption is now available in Europe, North America and Asia on metro, national and international Ethernet line circuits. Earlier this year, ADVA and Colt jointly displayed the comprehensive Layer 2 encryption service at the Berlinale Film Festival in a live proof of concept demo.

"We’re using the ADVA FSP 150 with ConnectGuard Ethernet encryption to offer robust protection for data in transport. Our Ethernet Line Encryption solution ensures that all data flowing through the Colt IQ Network is safe from attack. But what makes it especially valuable to today’s businesses is how straightforward it is to implement and that it only adds a few microseconds of latency and barely any impact on throughput,” said Peter Coppens, VP, product portfolio, Colt Technology Services. "

“Our FSP 150 ConnectGuard Ethernet technology enables encrypted connectivity with none of the complexity, latency and bandwidth cost associated with IPSec. Developed in compliance with the most stringent security standards, such as the US FIPS, it’s the ideal basis for an encryption-as-a-service offering,” commented Stephan Rettenberger, SVP, marketing and investor relations, ADVA.

http://adva.li/colt-encryption

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Altran's Network Operating System support Marvell Prestera switches

Altran has developed the first commercial network operating system (NOS) to support the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family of fully integrated Ethernet switches for data centers.

Altran’s Intelligent Switching Solution (ISS) combined with the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 switch silicon, delivers a feature-rich, production-grade platform that scales up to 12.8 terabits per second.

The Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family features the company's Storage Aware Flow Engine (SAFE) technology and its high-radix switch core technology known as Forwarding Architecture using Slices of Terabit Ethernet Routers (FASTER).

SAFE facilitates virtual storage orchestration on the Marvell Prestera CX 8500 family by providing greater insight into network flows with per flow visibility, advanced telemetry and comprehensive diagnostics that identify and resolve network congestion. The gNMI-enabled advanced network monitoring features of the ISS are designed to optimize the Prestera CX 8500’s dedicated hardware engines, which have programmability to address the latest telemetry packet formats and monitoring data exporting methods such as INT, iOAM and TAM.

Altran's ISS supports a wide range of standards for advanced routing, switching and management features, data center features and 5G mobility infrastructure. It delivers high performance and scalability through containers and micro services-based architecture.

“Altran’s ISS is an integral part of more than 100 products from leading networking and telecom equipment manufacturers. It enhances switching capability, reduces development times and increases focus on advanced application development,” said N. Mohan Rangan, Group SVP and chief engineering officer at Altran North America. “We also have a strong, longstanding relationship with Marvell for developing solutions that usher in next-generation technologies for the entire networking ecosystem.”

https://www.marvell.com

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AWS begins Managed Streaming service for Apache Kafka

Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced a fully managed service for Apache Kafka that lets developers build and run highly available, secure, and scalable applications based on Apache Kafka without having to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure.

Apache Kafka is used to capture and analyze real-time data streams from a range of sources, including IoT devices, website clickstreams, financial systems, and database logs. While many customers chose to self-manage their Apache Kafka clusters, they often spend a lot of time and expense securing, scaling, patching, and ensuring high availability for Apache Kafka and Apache ZooKeeper clusters, which Apache Kafka depends on for resource management.

Amazon MSK is fully compatible with Apache Kafka, enabling customers to migrate their on-premises or Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) clusters to Amazon MSK with no code changes. There are no commitments or upfront investment required to run Amazon MSK, and customers only pay for the capacity they use.

"Customers who are running Apache Kafka have told us they want to spend less time managing infrastructure and more time building applications based on real-time streaming data,” said Rajesh Sheth, General Manager of Amazon MSK, AWS. “Amazon MSK gives these customers the ability to run Apache Kafka without having to worry about managing the underlying hardware, and it gives them an easy way to integrate their Apache Kafka applications with other AWS services. With Amazon MSK, customers can stand up Apache Kafka clusters in minutes instead of weeks, so they can spend more time focusing on the applications that impact their businesses.”

https://aws.amazon.com/msk

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Nutanix revenue dips to $287.6 million as company shifts to subscription model

Nutanix reported revenue of $287.6 million (at 77.1% non-GAAP gross margin) for its third quarter of fiscal 2019, ended April 30, 2019, down from $289.4 million (at 68.4% non-GAAP gross margin) in the third quarter of fiscal 2018. Non-GAAP gross margin was 77.1%, up from 68.4% in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.

Non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.56, compared to a non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.21 in the third quarter of fiscal 2018.

Q3 FY’19 subscription billings increased to 65% of total billings, up 8 percentage points from the previous quarter, and Q3 FY’19 subscription revenue reached $168.4 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 110%.

“While we faced a top-line impact in our third quarter as we continue to execute our strategic shift toward a recurring revenue business model, our strong foundation and commitment to our customers position us well for the long term,” said Dheeraj Pandey, Chairman, Founder and CEO of Nutanix. “Successful businesses are built over time on a bedrock of exceptional products, outstanding customer support and talented and committed employees. With solid sales hiring in Q3 and increased adoption of our AHV hypervisor, indicating a strong product and enthusiastic customers, I truly believe Nutanix has that foundation in place.”

“We are encouraged by the momentum and growth of our subscription business as we transform to a recurring revenue model, which will enable a more predictable revenue stream over time and provide our customers greater flexibility for their hybrid cloud deployments,” said Duston Williams, CFO of Nutanix. “We believe the actions we have been taking to strengthen lead generation and enhance sales execution will position us well for the future.”

https://ir.nutanix.com/company/financial/

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F5 intros app for Cisco ACI

F5 Networks introduced an app to that combines L2-3 network connectivity with L4-7 application services within Cisco ACI environments.

The F5 ACI ServiceCenter app, which is available through Cisco’s ACI App Center, enhances visibility and control throughout the network and application stack.

It enables joint customers to deploy, configure, and customize application services in ACI environments quickly via declarative APIs. Together, F5 and Cisco engineering teams have built a number of use cases that utilize F5’s broad range of availability, networking and security services, making it uniquely beneficial, easier, and more effective for users to deploy and consume the companies’ technologies together.

“Technology collaboration between F5 and Cisco is a clear win for joint customers,” said Calvin Rowland, SVP of Business Development at F5. “Building on previous partnership efforts, the F5 ACI ServiceCenter app gives organizations the ability to elegantly develop and enhance application and network deployments with a software-defined approach. More broadly, joint efforts like this are emblematic of the ways the two companies integrate capabilities for advanced automation and orchestration throughout the L2-7 stack.”

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Keysight submits 5G NR non-standalone RF test case

Keysight Technologies' 5G Conformance Toolset was first to submit 5G new radio (NR) non-standalone (NSA) radio frequency (RF) test cases for PTCRB validation approval in frequency range 2 (FR2), as well as for 5G NR standalone (SA) protocol test cases in frequency range 1 (FR1), accelerating market introduction of 5G NR mobile devices.

PTCRB is a certification forum consisting of leading U.S. mobile operators.

Keysight’s 5G Conformance Toolset continues to offer unique validation coverage for 5G NR standalone, which also plays an important role in accelerating 5G NR mobile device certification for commercial introductions around the world.

"By being first to submit 5G NR test cases for PTRCB validation approval, Keysight is enabling mobile operators to speed up their ability to deliver on the promise of 5G and capitalize on early commercial 5G NR deployments,” said Kailash Narayanan, vice president and general manager of Keysight's wireless test group. “We’re proud to once again showcase our 5G technology leadership position which was achieved as a result of our close collaborations with market makers, as well as our significant contributions to the 5G NR standards.”

Since the beginning of this year, Keysight has obtained initial GCF approval for validated 5G NR NSA test cases and has enabled the activation of GCF certification for 5G NR standalone devices. Keysight's 5G Conformance Toolset offers the widest range of GCF 5G NR radio frequency and protocol test cases for NSA and SA modes.

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Microchip announces Terabit-Scale Ethernet PHY with MACsec

Microchip Technology introduced its META-DX1 family of Ethernet Physical-Layer (PHY) devices that integrates, onto a single chip, Ethernet ports from 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to 400 GbE, flexible Ethernet (FlexE), Media Access Control Security (MACsec) link encryption and nanosecond timestamping accuracy at terabit capacity.

The META-DX1, which was developed by Microchip's Microsemi division, enables line cards to quadruple in capacity – from 3.6 terabits per second (Tbps) to 14.4 Tbps with 36 ports of 400 GbE or 144 ports of 100 GbE – while supporting key features needed by service providers.


The META-DX1 family uniquely combines MACsec and FlexE into one solution. The META-DX1 MACsec engine secures traffic leaving the data center or enterprise premises, and FlexE enables both cloud and telecom service providers to meet capacity requirements while reducing fiber plant capital expenditures by optimally configuring links beyond today’s fixed-rate Ethernet so they can use low-cost, high-volume optics.

High-performance timestamping enables nanosecond-level accuracy on every port. This will support timing requirements of 5G mobile base stations.

The META-DX1 also brings a flexible crosspoint switching capability that makes it easier for OEMs to navigate the market transition from 25 Gbps NRZ and 56 Gbps PAM-based architectures by enabling them to support a single design or SKU for both 100 GbE (QSFP28) and 400 GbE (QSFP-DD) optics.

“The META-DX1 family was purpose-built to unify into a single hardware and software offering the broad range of capabilities service providers need in their network buildouts that connect enterprise and data center services to the cloud and emerging 5G applications,” said Babak Samimi, vice president for Microchip’s Communications business unit.  “By delivering the highest-density Ethernet ports coupled with MACsec, FlexE and the nanosecond packet timing performance needed for 5G, we’ve introduced an innovative Ethernet connectivity platform for telecom and cloud service provider routers and switches, as well as optical transport equipment.”

Initial META-DX1 family members will sample during Q3 2019.

https://www.microchip.com/
https://www.microsemi.com/META-DX1

Microsemi and Acacia collaborate on Flexible Rate Optical at up to 600G

Thursday, January 24, 2019  Acacia, Microsemi  

Microsemi and Acacia Communications announced interoperability between Microchip’s DIGI-G5 Optical Transport Network (OTN) processor and Acacia’s AC1200 Coherent Module.

Microsemi's DIGI-G5 OTN processor supports FlexE and OTUCn protocols, enabling new terabit scale line cards with flexible rate optical interfaces for packet optical transport platforms. Acacia's AC1200 modules support for metro and data center interconnect networks. Specifically, while the DIGI-G5 processes client traffic into OTN, the 1.2T AC1200—powered by Acacia’s Pico digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC—on the line card will enable the OTN connections over two 600G tunable DWDM wavelengths with flexible transmission three-dimensional (3D) shaping features. These features, which include fractional quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and adaptive baud rate optimize transmission reach and capacity, approaching theoretical limits on a wide range of network configurations, in a power efficient manner.

The companies said their collaboration enables the first flexible rate system architectures with an established ecosystem to support the market’s transition to 200G, 400G, 600G and flexible rate OTN networks built with new Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) and OTUCn protocols. FlexE was designed to provide up to 30 percent greater bandwidth efficiency compared to traditional Ethernet link aggregation (LAG) with fewer limitations. Combining it with OTUCn and tunable fractional dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) transmission brings service providers the potential to improve their OTN network capacity by up to 70 percent.

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Ethernity delivers Programmable Universal Edge Platform

Ethernity Networks introduced its ENET Universal Edge Platform (UEP) network appliance, an edge-optimized low-space, low-power FPGA-based programmable device with up to 40 Gbps of networking capacity and 10 Gbps of IPSec security performance.

Ethernity's UEP appliance is powered by a dual-core ARM processor that handles the control plane. It can be used as a standalone high-end Network Interface Device that offers rich routing and IPSec security functionalities. The ENET UEP contains an interchangeable mezzanine card that enables the appliance to be designed for XGS-PON connectivity for placement at cellular base stations, to support G.fast for distribution point unit and multi-dwelling unit deployment, or to support Internet of Things (IoT) aggregation elements, for example, a radio modem for the IoT sensor network.

The main board of the ENET UEP comes with two SFP+ interfaces that can be equipped with 10GbE or XGS-PON transceivers, and an FPGA equipped with Ethernity’s ENET Flow Processor, implementing a complete Carrier Ethernet switch, hierarchical QoS, router, IPSec, and optional XGS-PON MAC.

The default ENET UEP offers 8 x 1Gb RJ45 ports in the mezzanine card, but can be designed to support G.fast, enterprise Power over Ethernet (PoE) solutions, radio interfaces, or additional connectivity via GbE/10GbE. The ENET UEP also comes with a unique PCIe connection to any standard server, enabling it to be used for NFVI acceleration.

“After many years of delivering Carrier Ethernet over low-cost, low-power FPGAs, it is exciting to have customers requesting that we apply our field-proven expertise and patented technology to a comprehensive solution for the network edge,” said Shavit Baruch, VP of R&D at Ethernity Networks. “The ENET UEP is the perfect application for our 5G, mobile backhaul and Ethernet access products as a complement to our customers’ solutions in the central office.”

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Ekinops acquires OTN tech fom Padtec

Ekinops agreed to acquire an OTN switching platform developed by Padtec, an optical communications system manufacturer based in Brazil, for €10 million in cash. The deal brings an experienced R&D team comprised of 25 engineers based in Campinas, near Sao Paulo (Brazil). Brazilian operations will be overseen by Jean-Luc Pamart, co-founder of Ekinops and VP of R&D for optical transport.

With this acquisition, Ekinops expects to be able to offer a complete OTN/DWDM solution for optical networks from early 2020, enabling flexible data traffic and support for the evolution of data speeds and protocols transmitted over 200-400G modulated optical wavelengths, eventually reaching 1 Tbps.

Ekinops plans to carry out a capital increase by private placement over the coming weeks, for an amount capped at 10% of the capital stock.

Padtec CEO Manuel Andrade said:

"The acquisition of the OTN-Switch Platform by a globally recognized company such as Ekinops is a validation of the capability of Padtec's engineers to develop state-of-the-art technologies deployable worldwide. Additionally, we are happy to enter into commercial agreements with Ekinops that will enable Padtec to offer the OTN-Switch on an OEM basis to our customer base in Latin America. This is a clear win-win agreement for both companies."

Didier Brédy, Chairman & CEO of Ekinops, made the following comments:

"The OTN technology developed by Padtec is particularly innovative and will enable Ekinops to take a major technological and commercial leap forward in order to advance its position with leading telecom operators. The agreements with Padtec, the leading Latin American manufacturer and supplier of optical networking equipment, will also allow Padtec to source the OTN products it needs from Ekinops. This major strategic acquisition means that Ekinops can target to triple its sales of optical transport products within 5 years."

http://www.padtec.com.br/en/
https://www.ekinops.com/

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Gogo envisions air-to-ground 5G network for Aviation

Gogo plans to build an air-to-ground 5G network in North America for aviation.

The new air-to-ground (ATG) network will be designed for use on business aviation aircraft, commercial regional jets and smaller mainline jets operating within the contiguous United States and Canada.

The 5G network will leverage Gogo's existing infrastructure of more than 250 towers and will use unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz range, along with a proprietary modem and advanced beamforming technology.

Gogo said its 5G infrastructure will support all spectrum types (licensed, shared, unlicensed) and bands (mid, high, low), and will allow Gogo to take advantage of new advances in technology as they are developed.

https://concourse.gogoair.com/gogo-to-launch-5g-network-for-aviation/

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IEEE restricts Huawei employees from peer review

The IEEE will restrict employees of Huawei Technologies from certain activities that are not generally open to the public, including certain aspects of the publication peer review and editorial process.

The IEEE said the new policy is due to the blacklisting of Huawei by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

The IEEE noted that employees of Huawei "can continue to participate in individual membership, corporate membership and voting rights; subscribe to and access IEEE’s digital library and other publication products; submit technical papers for publication; participate in and present at IEEE-sponsored meetings and conferences, and may sponsor and accept an IEEE award."

https://www.ieee.org/about/news/2019/compliance-with-us-trade-restrictions.html

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Softbank picks Ericsson and Nokia for 5G

SoftBank Corp. awarded major 5G contracts to Ericsson and Nokia, marking a significant change in its preferred vendors. Huawei has been a supplier of 4G infrastructure for Softbank.

Ericsson was selected by SoftBank as a primary 5G vendor for the deployment of a multi-band 5G network in Japan following a series of successful joint proof-of-concept activities that began in 2015. Under a new agreement, Ericsson will provide SoftBank with radio access network equipment, including products from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio. This will enable SoftBank to launch 5G services on their newly granted 3.9-4.0 GHz and 29.1-29.5 GHz bands for 5G New Radio (NR).

Nokia also confirmed that it was selected to supply its 5G AirScale solution to Softbank for deployment across Japan. Nokia's 5G AirScale supports multiple frequencies, in both distributed and centralized architectures, giving SoftBank tremendous flexibility in its network evolution. Nokia has also been a long term supplier to Softbank. Nokia also noted that it now has 38 5G commercial contracts, including 20 with named customers.

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Palo Alto Networks to acquire Twistlock and Puresec

Palo Alto Networks announced two acquisitions: Twistlock, a specialist in container security, and PureSec, a leader in serverless security.

Twistlock, which is based in Portland, Oregon, combines vulnerability management, compliance, and runtime defense for cloud-native applications and workloads. The company serves more than 290 customers, with more than a quarter on the Fortune 100 list. Twistlock co-founders, Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel, will join Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto Networks will pay approximately $410 million in cash to acquire Twistlock. Investors in Twistlock included ICONIQ Capital, YL Ventures, TenEleven, Rally Ventures, Polaris Partners and Dell Technologies Capital. The company raised about $63 million in total funding over several rounds.

"Our vision for a cloud-native security platform is a natural fit with Palo Alto Networks cloud strategy. We have liked-minded teams, and we’re looking forward to accelerating our ability to serve customers and partners on their cloud-native journey together," stated Ben Bernstein, co-founder and CEO, Twistlock.

PureSec, which was founded in 2016 and is based in Tel Aviv, specializes in serverless security. The company provides end-to-end security for serverless functions that cover vulnerability management, access permissions, and runtime threats. PureSec co-founders, Shaked Zin, Ory Segal, and Avi Shulman, will join Palo Alto Networks. Terms of the PureSec transaction were not disclosed.

Palo Alto Networks said the acquisitions will further advance the company’s ability to offer the most complete and comprehensive cloud security suite in all critical areas of cloud security.

"Today marks another exciting step forward in our commitment to offering our customers the industry's most complete cloud security offering. We believe that our acquisition of these leading companies will significantly enhance our ability to be the cybersecurity partner of choice for our customers, while expanding our capabilities and strengthening our Prisma cloud security strategy," stated Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

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Palo Alto Networks debuts "Prisma" Cloud Security Suite

Palo Alto Networks unveiled its Prisma cloud security suite to provide business customers with access, data protection, and application security.

The Prisma suite consists of four key components:

• Prisma Access secures access to the cloud for branch offices and mobile users anywhere in the world with a scalable, cloud-native architecture, blending enterprise-grade security with a globally scalable network. It will soon run on Google Cloud Platform (GCP™), extending the service to more than 100 locations for an even faster and more localized experience. Customers will also have access to a streamlined cloud management user interface (UI) that enables rapid onboarding of branches and users. In addition, Prisma Access will include capabilities specifically designed for service providers to enable the rapid provisioning of secure outbound internet connectivity for their customers.
• Prisma Public Cloud provides continuous visibility, security, and compliance monitoring across public multi-cloud deployments. Powered by machine learning, it correlates data and assesses risk across the cloud environment. Starting today, customers can further reduce their attack surface early in the development cycle through a "shift left" approach to security. With the ability to detect vulnerabilities and fix improper configurations in customers' infrastructure-as-code templates, developers can reduce risk without sacrificing agility. 
• Prisma SaaS is a multi-mode cloud access security broker (CASB) service that safely enables SaaS application adoption. It provides advanced capabilities in risk discovery, adaptive access control, data loss prevention, compliance assurance, data governance, user behavior monitoring, and advanced threat prevention. New integrations will bring improved administration experience across IT-sanctioned and IT-unsanctioned SaaS applications with unified visibility and management.
• VM-Series is the virtualized form factor of the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall that can be deployed in private and public cloud computing environments, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), GCP, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and VMware NSX. The VM-Series is also enhanced through infrastructure-as-code automation for deployment and configuration, which reduces complexity for customers.

http://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma

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South Africa picks ADVA for nationwide research and education network

The South African National Research Network (SANReN), an initiative of the South African Department of Science and Technology hosted by the Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR), has selected ADVA's FSP 3000 platform in combination with ADVA ALM fiber monitoring technology to create a nationwide research and education (R&E) network.

The network, which features ADVA’s dynamic ROADM technology and QuadFlex line cards, will bring high-bandwidth connectivity to universities and research institutions across South Africa.

“With this deployment, we’re empowering scientists and academics across the country to go further than ever before. Such an enormous increase in broadband capacity will enable them to push the boundaries of discovery, utilize advanced applications and collaborate with peers in innovative new ways,” said Leon Staphorst, director, SANReN.

http://www.advaoptical.com

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Marvell sells Wi-Fi business to NXP for $1.76 billion

NXP will acquire Marvell’s Wi-Fi Connectivity business for $1.76 billion in cash.

The deal includes Marvell’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology portfolios and related assets. The business employs approximately 550 people worldwide and generated roughly $300 million in revenue in Marvell’s fiscal 2019.

NXP said the acquisition enables it to offer a full range of wireless connectivity solutions including WiFi 4, 5, 6 and Bluetooth/ BLE combo along with its flagship edge computing platforms. including I.MX, Layerscape, Kinetis, LPC and the newly introduced RT Crossover Processors.

“We are excited to be able to combine Marvell’s world-class connectivity with NXP’s industry leading embedded processing, we can offer our customer base the broadest portfolio of Edge solutions which includes tailored security and a full suite of wireless connectivity spanning WiFi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread and NFC,” said Richard Clemmer, chief executive officer of NXP.

“NXP has built a broad consumer footprint and an optimized platform for IoT applications, making it an ideal home for our innovative Wi-Fi technology and team,” said Matt Murphy, president and CEO of Marvell. “At the same time, this transaction yields a premium valuation and substantially higher economic return for Marvell shareholders while accelerating our transformation into a leading infrastructure supplier spanning 5G, data center, enterprise and automotive Ethernet applications.”

“We are excited to be able to combine Marvell’s world-class connectivity with NXP’s industry leading embedded processing, we can offer our customer base the broadest portfolio of Edge solutions which includes tailored security and a full suite of wireless connectivity spanning WiFi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread and NFC,” said Richard Clemmer, chief executive officer of NXP. “I am delighted this world-class team with the right set of complementary connectivity technologies is joining NXP, enabling us to deliver on our commitment to provide Secure Connections for the Smarter World.”

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