Broadcom broadens portfolio of fiber optics, PHY, switching for 100/200/400/800G

Broadcom has expanded its portfolio of 100Gb, 200Gb, 400Gb, and 800Gb electro-optics platform solutions for data center and cloud networks. 

The rollout includes the first 100Gb PAM-4 VCSEL and multi-mode kit, proven 112Gb PAM-4 PHY with direct-drive technology, and uncooled 100Gb PAM-4 EML capability. The expanded portfolio complements Broadcom’s 12.8-Tbps Tomahawk 3 and 25.6-Tbps Tomahawk 4 switch platforms. Highlights:

100G PAM-4 VCSEL Kit and Uncooled EML

• More than 10M channels of 50Gb VCSEL deployed in cloud data centers
• Complete 100Gb MMF kit including VCSEL, PD, driver, and TIA addressing fast growing cloud demand
• Expanding production of uncooled 100Gb EML to meet low power dissipation and system cost requirements for hyper-scale applications
• Advanced 200Gb EML optics available in second half of 2021 to address cost and power consumption challenges for next generation 800Gb and 1.6Tb data center applications
• New optical components for 4x100Gb MMF kit targeting 400Gb and 800Gb applications:
• VCSEL: AFCD-V84LP
• PD: BPD3056-4
• Driver: AFSI-N94C4S2
• TIA: AFSI-R94C4S2
• New optical components for 100Gb/lane SMF kits:
• EML: 283QT1xx for 100/200/400/800Gb application
• TOSA: TX-E1x112-SU131 for 100Gb DR1 application

112Gb/56Gb PAM-4 PHY

• Industry-leading DSP performance and power efficiency enabling MMF and SMF optical transceivers to meet IEEE and all optical module MSA specifications
• Client-side interoperability with Broadcom merchant switch devices using proven industry leading 28-Gbaud and 56-Gbaud SerDes architecture and flexibility to support either 56-Gb/s or 112-Gb/s PAM-4 physical lanes
• Option to support direct drive capability from the PHY for 50-Gb/s per lane and 100-Gb/s per lane eliminating the need for an external laser driver
• Key PHY product families
• BCM874xx/871xx -- Centenario family with 50-Gb/s per lane client side to 100-Gb/s per lane for optical line side interfaces
• BCM878xx -- Portofino family with 100-Gb/s per lane client side and 100-Gb/s per lane for optical line side interfaces 
• BCM875xx -- Estoque family with 50-Gb/s per lane client side and 50-Gb/s per lane for optical line side interfaces

Broadcom will demonstrate multiple products based on 112Gb PAM-4 PHY with 100Gb PAM-4 EML and 100Gb PAM-4 VCSEL technologies running on Broadcom’s Tomahawk switch platform at the 2021 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) from June 7th to 11th. 

Additionally, Broadcom is showcasing its latest 100Gb, 200Gb, 400Gb and 800Gb electro-optics platform solutions in the Broadcom OFC Virtual Exhibit.

“Broadcom offers a complete line of PAM-4 PHYs with direct drive capability that reduce power and cost while enhancing the ease of deployment,” said Vijay Janapaty, vice president and general manager of the Physical Layer Products Division at Broadcom. “Broadcom’s portfolio of optimized solutions for a wide range of optical and line card applications at both 50G/lane and 100G/lane enable customers to rapidly deploy leadership networking solutions to meet the demanding growth of hyperscale cloud datacenters.”

https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/product-releases/54656

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Corning intros bendable SMF-28 optical fiber

Corning introduced its SMF-28 Contour optical fiber featuring enhanced bend resilience, network compatibility, and industry-leading low loss characteristics.

Highlights:

• Superior bendability designed to reduce the impact of errors during installation and optimize reach in densely cabled environments where 5G networks are being deployed. SMF-28 Contour fiber is an ITU-T G.657.A2 fiber that has 10 times the macrobend resilience of G.652.D fibers and seven times the macrobend resilience of G.657.A1 fibers. The associated increase in microbend resilience enables dense, high-fiber-count cables needed to meet the demands of future high-capacity networks.
• 
  Exceptional compatibility with legacy networks while providing superior bend protection, which can mean up to 50% faster installation by minimizing corrective splice-loss work. Other G.657.A2 fibers also provide bend protection but with a compromised, lower mode field diameter. SMF-28 Contour fiber does not compromise, providing both G.657.A2 bend protection and a matched 9.2-micron mode field diameter in the same product.
• Wide spectrum and industry-leading low-loss transmission across all the wavelengths that constitute the communication systems of today and tomorrow. First, SMF-28 Contour fiber’s industry-leading low attenuation delivers 10% longer reach in all networks and up to 20% wider access-network coverage. Second, SMF-28 Contour fiber’s bend loss protection enables up to twice the network reach in new long-wavelength FTTH systems. Together, these features enable larger FTTH subscriber areas and greater revenue potential.

SMF-28 Contour fiber is available in a standard 242-micron configuration and a smaller 190-micron configuration. 

Corning says smaller-diameter designs are increasingly important because while bandwidth demands have grown, the space available for network infrastructure has not. The 190-micron version of SMF-28 Contour fiber enables smaller cables with higher fiber counts – maximizing use of existing infrastructure

“Corning’s revolutionary SMF-28 Contour optical fiber is the latest example of our ability to solve tough industry challenges,” said Dr. Bernhard Deutsch, vice president and general manager, Corning Optical Fiber and Cable. “Operators today are looking to deploy future-ready networks as efficiently as possible, often in densely cabled environments, and we’ve designed this new product to answer those needs. Fifty years after Corning scientists invented the first low-loss optical fiber, we’re proud to help drive a new era of industry growth and network transformation.”

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Lumentum intros 400G CFP2-DCO coherent modules, PAM4 DMLs with 2 km reach for 400G+

At next week's virtual Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) Lumentum will introduce new 400G CFP2-DCO coherent modules, enhanced PAM4 DMLs with 2 km reach for 400G+ applications, and expanded WSS capabilities.

The new high-performance 400G CFP2-DCO coherent transmission modules build on the company's existing its 200G CFP2-DCO coherent pluggable transceiver modules, enabling next-generation data center interconnects (DCI) and metro/regional to long-haul coherent networks at bit rates of 100G, 200G, 300G, and 400G. The new flex-coherent module supports all major industry initiatives including OpenROADM, OpenZR+, and OIF 400G ZR. It also adds numerous innovative proprietary modes when best performance is needed and cross-vendor interoperability is not. In addition, it supports L1 encryption, Link Layer Discovery Protocol, and Overhead IO channel. Currently, the 400G CFP2-DCO is shipping as beta samples with production release planned for the third quarter of 2021. To sample the 400G CFP2-DCO, contact a Lumentum representative at customer.service@lumentum.com.

High-Speed 100G PAM4 DML for up to 2 km Data Center Reach 400G+ Applications - Lumentum has enhanced its latest 100G PAM4 (53 Gbaud) directly-modulated laser (DML) to expand the usage from 500m for 100G DR and 400G DR4 and 100m for 800G PSM8 DR4, to also transmit up to 2 km for 100G FR and 400G FR4 CWDM transceiver module applications. These DMLs satisfy the needs of customers seeking lower cost and lower power consumption solutions by providing a smaller footprint with fewer components needed to operate in high-speed transceiver applications. To request beta samples of the new 100G PAM4 DML for 2 km applications, contact a Lumentum representative at customer.service@lumentum.com.

Expanded Capability for its TrueFlex wavelength selective switches (WSS) to now support all spectral bands, including C-band, L-band, and extended C-band for next-generation colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) and colorless, directionless (CD) ROADM architectures. Additionally, Lumentum has reinforced their exceptional manufacturing scale with production, agility, and flexibility to rapidly respond to changes in requested build configurations and spectral bands across any of its high-performance WSS products. Lumentum's best-in-class lead on WSS delivery continues to be a critical enabler for network operators worldwide as they resume buildouts of massively-scalable and flexible high-capacity optical networks.

https://www.lumentum.com/en/media-room/news-releases/lumentum-highlight-and-present-latest-innovations-ofc-2021-virtual-event

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Fujitsu samples 100GBaud coherent receivers for 800G

Fujitsu Optical Components Limited (FOC) is launching a 100GBaud integrated coherent receiver for applications in 800 Gbps optical networks.

The device integrates 90-degree hybrid, balanced receivers, polarization beam splitter and VOA function into a small, single package using micro assembly technology. Sampling is underway.

The 100GBaud integrated coherent receiver supports three times higher symbol rates than the traditional 32GBaud integrated coherent receiver. This supports flexible QPSK and xQAM modulation methods from 32GBaud to 100GBaud, enabling optimization of the transmission distance and capacity of optical networks.

FOC notes that it is already developing  products for 130 GBaud and beyond.

https://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/foc/en/subsidiary-gig5-sample/about/resources/news/press-releases/downloads/20210601.html

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NTIA announces $1 billion in grants to expand broadband on tribal lands

Nearly $1 billion in U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) grants are now available to expand broadband access and adoption on Tribal land. 

The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program was established by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. Grants will be made available to eligible Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian entities for broadband deployment as well as for digital inclusion, workforce development, telehealth, and distance learning.

“These investments will help many Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian communities gain long-overdue access to life-saving technologies, economic opportunities, remote learning, and countless other benefits,” said Secretary Gina Raimondo. “This funding is an important step forward, but we cannot stop here. Access to broadband is as essential as electricity to our everyday life. Under President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, we will have the resources to deploy high-quality broadband infrastructure to every Tribal community.”

“For generations, a lack of infrastructure investment in Indian Country has left Tribes further behind in the digital divide than most areas of the country,” said Secretary Haaland. “We have a responsibility as a country to build infrastructure that will fuel economic development, keep communities safe, and ensure everyone has opportunities to succeed. Today’s announcement marks a major stepping stone in the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to an all-of-government approach to ensure the federal government lives up to its responsibilities to Tribal communities.”

“We are excited to continue our work with Native American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian communities to make this program a success,” said Acting NTIA Administrator Evelyn Remaley. “NTIA will leverage its deep experience with funding broadband programs to ensure that we make significant progress in eliminating the digital divide on Tribal land.”

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DT tests multivendor 5G voice over new radio (VoNR) call

Deutsche Telekom and partners completed the first 5G Voice over New Radio (VoNR) call in an end to end multi-vendor environment. 

The partners were able to verify the capability over a 5G Standalone (SA) network with voice and 5G data sessions in parallel. This network setup integrated a 5G Core from Ericsson and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) from Nokia. The calls were completed on commercial terminals from Samsung and Xiaomi and a Mobile Test Platform from Qualcomm. 

The demo took place on 5G standalone network infrastructure in test mode at Deutsche Telekom’s innovation lab in Warsaw, Poland. Ericsson provided its cloud-native dual-mode 5G Core platform and Ericsson Radio System products such as Baseband 6630 and Radio 4422 for mid-band 5G.

Alex Choi, SVP Strategy & Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom, says: “High quality and seamless voice calling remains a must-have service for our customers in the 5G era. The addition of 5G VoNR can be a differentiator for next-generation immersive applications that integrate highspeed 5G data with high-definition audio. Our collaboration with best-in-class partners to validate end-to-end 5G VoNR interoperability is an important step towards the future of 5G voice services for our customers.”

“This achievement is a step forward in realizing the full potential of 5G for consumers and industries. The capabilities of mature 5G networks will bring significant benefits to end-users as well as produce a plethora of innovative new services and applications,” says Enrico Salvatori, senior vice president and president, Qualcomm Europe/MEA, Qualcomm Europe, Inc. “Both the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G and the 5G smartphone form factor test device used in this activity are powered by Snapdragon 780G and 888 5G Mobile Platforms with Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF Systems respectively which support a wide range of 5G capabilities including both 5G VoNR and 5G SA.” 

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/world-first-end-to-end-multivendor-5g-voice-over-nr-call-628746

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Smartoptics Group AS completes IPO

 Smartoptics Group AS completed an initial public offering of its shares on Euronext Growth in Oslo, Norway.  The public listing follows a successful private placement raising gross NOK 100 million in new equity.

“The IPO is a milestone in Smartoptics’ history. We have over the last year experienced tremendous traction in the market, as we have developed technology and services that are perceived as more innovative and flexible than those of our competitors. As a listed company, we now have added fuel to power our ambitions of reaching USD 100 million in revenue and 15-20 percent EBITDA margin by 2025-2026,” said CEO Magnus Grenfeldt.

In 2020, Smartoptics had a revenue of USD 34.8 million and an EBITDA margin of 6 percent. The start of 2021 has been strong, with first quarter revenues growing 52 percent to reach USD 10 million and an EBITDA margin of 13.8 percent.

“We have positioned ourselves perfectly in this market. We have become a preferred vendor for many small and medium-sized operators and enterprises. Our technology, size and business culture make it possible for us to maneuver faster than the giants of the industry, and most of the other medium-sized players have been acquired. Hence, we face limited competition in our segment,” said Grenfeldt.

The Smartoptics shares were sold at NOK 10.38 per share in the private placement, equivalent to a post-money capitalization of approximately NOK 1 billion. The transaction included a secondary share sale of NOK 150 million. Among the investors are Danske Invest, Ålandsbanken and Varner Invest.

https://www.smartoptics.com/

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Fujitsu Network Communications demos open optical network control with TIP

 Fujitsu Network Communications demonstrated open optical network control in collaboration with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Converged Architectures for Network Disaggregation & Integration (CANDI) project group. The proof of concept, conducted in collaboration with the project team including Tier 1 network operators, demonstrates end-to-end service operations and network visibility across multi-vendor optical networks.

Fujitsu contributed the Virtuora Network Controller (NC) to enable multi-vendor SDN control across a partially disaggregated Open Line System (OLS), helping to define real-world operator use cases to accelerate adoption of open converged and packet optical networks. The controller supports both a standard T-API interface for the ROADM network as well as an OpenConfig interface for the transponders.

The proof of concept is the first integration of a commercial SDN controller based on the OpenDaylight platform, along with GNPy, the only vendor-neutral, open-source optical planning tool for optical reach verification. Virtuora NC supports both OLS domain control and optical SDN control, leveraging OpenDaylight to deliver a blend of openness and out-of-the-box capabilities for optical network design, installation, service creation, assurance and maintenance.

Fujitsu Network Communications said ths proof of concept demonstrates how flexible, modular optical hardware products and software control solutions based on open-source platforms provide a unique offering that achieves immediate needs for new network infrastructure, while positioning the network itself for migration to open networking in phases. This inherent flexibility allows communications service providers to deploy an optical architecture today and achieve an open network architecture tomorrow.

“The open optical control project is a major milestone toward enabling operators to achieve greater vendor diversity and efficiencies in their optical networks,” said Francois Lafontaine, vice president and head of the software business at Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. “This proof of concept clearly validates the capabilities of Virtuora NC as a true multi-vendor SDN controller.”

 https://www.fujitsu.com/

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OE Solutions announces 400G QSFP-DD LR4 transceiver with 10km reach

OE Solutions announced a new high-speed optical transceiver module, the 400G QSFP-DD LR4 supporting distances up to 10km. 

The 400G QSFP-DD LR4 module, which utilizes the standard 4 CWDM wavelengths from 1271nm to 1331nm, will be available for testing in Q4 of this year and mass production will commence in Q1 2022.

“We are very excited to announce our first 400G transceiver module”, said Per Hansen VP of Marketing and Sales at OE Solutions America. “This module utilizes the latest technology to enable a maximum power consumption of only 10W, which is critical for many high-density applications in both telecom and datacom.”

https://oesolutions.com/

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Cignal AI: Spending rebounds for worldwide optical and packet transport

 Worldwide spending on network transport equipment increased 4% in the first quarter of 2021, according to the most recent Transport Hardware Report from research firm Cignal AI. Strong gains in switching and routing spending were offset by the slightly weaker deployment of optical transport equipment. Spending by Chinese network operators slowed across all product categories after 2020’s strong growth, while the rest of the world rebounded this quarter.

“Chinese spending on optical transport hardware has plateaued as major 5G network builds mature and new projects have not been initiated,” said Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst for Transport Hardware at Cignal AI. “China’s extraordinary growth during 2015 to 2018 could not continue long term due to the impracticality of expanding upon the enormous amounts that had already been spent in the region.”

Additional 1Q21 Transport Hardware Report Findings:

• First-quarter 2021 worldwide optical hardware spending was slightly negative YoY, as China and NA declines dragged the average down. All other regions reported growth YOY.
• Worldwide packet transport sales grew in the first quarter. Edge, Core, and Aggregation all grew by more than 10% YoY when compared against an especially weak 1Q20.
• Japan’s extraordinary run of packet transport spending growth continued into Q1; up nearly +40% YoY. Much of the growth belongs to established carriers (as opposed to newcomers like Rakuten). Cisco continues to lead sales in the region, and the company more than doubled its packet transport sales YoY.
• Optical hardware sales in China declined nearly -10%, despite being compared to a weak 1Q20. The current quarter’s decline was unexpected since China has resolved COVID issues and was expanding rapidly for 5G, OTT, and regional interconnections.
• EMEA’s Q1 optical hardware sales were very strong; up more than 20% YoY. Despite reports of Huawei losing new deals in the region (e.g. Swisscom and DT), the company’s market share leadership remained steady.

https://cignal.ai/2021/06/spending-rebounds-for-worldwide-optical-and-packet-transport/

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Tavistock looks to 10G XGS-PON in Orlando with ADTRAN

Tavistock Development Company is leveraging the ADTRAN Total Access 5000 (TA5000) 10G fiber access platform with XGS-PON technology to deliver Florida’s first 10 Gbps high-performance broadband service to Sunbridge, a master-planned community in Central Florida. 

Working through service provider 832 Communications, Tavistock will provide up to 10 Gbps symmetrical FTTH services to an anticipated 10,000 residents over the next 10 years. 

“All across America, families are looking to join communities that can support their interests. Whether that is hiking a series of challenging trails or conquering the latest virtual reality game, we all need reliable connectivity. ADTRAN’s solutions enable service providers to meet these demands today and build a network that can grow with the communities they serve,” said Craig Stein, Vice President of Sales at ADTRAN. “We’re helping communities, large and small, rapidly deliver the internet access and connected home experience their subscribers demand, which is drawing more residents and opportunities to their areas.”

http://www.adtran.com/TA5000

ADTRAN brings Combo PON tech to its TA5000 fiber access platform

Wednesday, June 03, 2020  ADTRAN  

ADTRAN has added support for Combo PON within its Total Access 5000 (TA5000) fiber access platform, enabling network operators to deliver GPON and XGS-PON technologies over a single common optical distribution network. Both fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies can be simultaneously deployed from a single advanced FTTH module, eliminating the need for performance-draining external coexistence modules. ADTRAN says Combo PON can simplify the upgrade...

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Equinix to open $142M data center in Silicon Valley powered by fuel cells

Equinix is preparing to open its fourteenth Silicon Valley data center site on June 30, 2021.

The $142 million facility, named SV11,  is located at the Equinix Great Oaks campus in south San Jose.

The initial phase of SV11 will add more than 61,000 square feet (5,667+ square meters) of colocation space—and provides campus cross-connectivity into SV1, SV5 and SV10, making it an ideal home for customers looking to interconnect to key network and cloud service providers. Initially, it will include space for 1,450 cabinets, with space for additional cabinets in future phases. At full build, the facility will provide capacity for 2,950 cabinets.  

SV11 is targeting LEED Silver certification with an ultra-low design average annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.17. Additionally, with expansion of the current Bloom Energy fuel cells, the campus is planned for 20 megawatt (MW) of capacity. This will be the first time Equinix will use the Bloom Energy fuel cell system as primary generation with utility electrical grid and generators as backup sources. 

"Digital transformation continues to accelerate at an unprecedented rate," said Jon Lin, President, Americas, Equinix. "In fact, 47% of respondents in a recent Equinix survey of enterprise IT decision-makers said they have accelerated their digital transformation plans. SV11 is another example of our commitment to provide our customers with the right places, partners and possibilities for their digital transformations now and in the future."

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TSMC advances its 3DFabric chip stacking technologies

TSMC cited progress with its "3DFabric" advanced packaging and chip stacking technologies at the company’s online 2021 Technology Symposium. 

TSMC will be offering larger reticle-size for both its InFO_oS and CoWoS® packaging solutions in 2021, enabling larger floor plans for chiplet and high-bandwidth memory integration. Additionally, the chip-on-wafer (CoW) version of TSMC-SoIC will be qualified on N7-on-N7 this year with production targeted for 2022 at a new fully-automated factory.

In addition, TSMC is introducing its N5A process node, the newest member of the 5nm family and aimed at satisfying the growing demand for computing power in newer and more intensive automotive applications such as AI-enabled driver assistance and the digitization of vehicle cockpits.

TSMC also said its N3 process node technology is poised to begin volume production in the second half of 2022.

https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/2831

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Dell'Oro: Revenues for Mobile Core Network market up 16% in Q1

Revenues for the Mobile Core Network (MCN) market rose 16 percent year-over-year for 1Q 2021, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. 5G Core market reached over 20 percent revenue share of the MCN market, a record high since tracking 5G revenues began in 2Q 2020.

“This growth rate has been fueled from buildouts from five commercially deployed nationwide mobile 5G Standalone (5G SA) networks, three in China, one in the US, and one in Western Europe,” stated David Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “The MCN market is poised for higher growth as more 5G SA networks are readying to come on-line.  An example comes from Japan, as some of the Japanese service providers (SPs) are readying their networks for 5G SA. NEC, one of the primary 5G vendors in Japan, ranked fourth among 5G Packet Core vendors in 1Q21, achieving double-digit percent revenue market share,” Bolan added.

Additional highlights from the 1Q 2021 Mobile Core Network Report:

• Investment in 4G Core saw its first double-digit percentage revenue decline year-over-year as more investments go into 5G.
• IMS Core market growth remains positive as SPs realize they need to move their voice core from circuit switched voice to VoLTE for initial voice services for 5G.
• Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Mavenir are the top vendors for the quarter in 1Q 2021 based on the trailing four quarters

https://www.delloro.com/news/mobile-core-network-market-logged-strong-double-digit-growth-in-1q-2021/

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Spirent and AWS collaborate on automated 5G network testing

Spirent Communications is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring automated 5G testing capabilities to communications service providers (CSPs) building 5G networks on AWS.

The collaboration combines AWS’s Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline with Spirent’s vendor-neutral 5G test capabilities.

With the introduction of 5G Network Validation on AWS, utilizing Spirent’s Landslide 5GC Automation Package, operators can easily leverage the fully integrated 5G test automation capabilities to rapidly test and validate both deployments and updates of 5G network functions and services. It provides a continuous delivery framework using AWS CodePipeline, together with its security and observability best practices, and is available in all AWS Regions. The solution is fully decoupled and highly scalable, supporting many parallel tests, while allowing several types of network tests which can be automatically triggered as part of the 5G Network application pipeline.

“Service providers around the world are facing a number of distinct challenges as they look to deliver on the promise of 5G,” said Doug Roberts, general manager of Spirent’s Lifecycle Service Assurance business. “The race is on to deploy new 5G technology, but because it is highly complex and new, there is a genuine lack of expertise and resources available to establish and deliver the vital 5G core testing and validation necessary to successfully get these complex networks and services to market.”

“Manually establishing such complex testing requirements is a very time-consuming process, typically running into many months,” says Roberts. “Thanks to our new collaboration with AWS, service providers can leverage Spirent’s 5G expertise and proven test methodologies to easily incorporate automated 5G testing and validation on AWS, reducing months to minutes. They will be able to test with confidence, dramatically accelerate time-to-market, and analysis shows significant cost savings can be achieved compared to traditional manual testing methods.”

http://www.spirent.com/Landslide5GCAP

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Itential and Kaloom aim for automated 5G network slicing

Itential announced a partnership with Kaloom targetting the ability to integrate, automate, and deploy 5G network slicing intelligence. Customers will become better equipped to unlock the monetization of 5G through automation, network slicing, and virtualized network fabrics connected to the cloud.

Kaloom’s Cloud Edge Fabric solution disrupts the technical, operational, and economics of how distributed cloud edge and data centers are built and managed. With an embedded 5G user plane function (UPF), Kaloom’s solution enables the virtualization of network fabric needed for telecom providers to communicate within the larger network environment.

Itential simplifies and accelerates the deployment and automation of multi-domain, multi-vendor network infrastructures. The Itential Automation Platform is a low-code, cloud-native solution that seamlessly connects to any IT system, cloud, or network technology for end-to-end automation of any network use case, making it an ideal solution for automating and orchestrating advanced capabilities like 5G Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) creation and 5G network slicing.

Itential and Kaloom will also collaborate to enable configuration of InterPlanetary File Systems (IPFS) inside of the mobile core network to increase access for delivering mobile traffic. Mobile gateways are the cornerstone of the wireless network. The need for systems to run within data centers makes Kaloom’s added functionalities essential, as they include replication in a smaller virtualization of the network and its components.

“For operators to extract returns on their massive 5G investments, they need the means to offer and charge for differentiated services,” said Roy Chua, Principal at AvidThink, a research and analyst firm. “However, many operators worldwide are struggling to put together the underlying end-to-end infrastructure that can power these offerings. Kaloom and Itential’s partnership couples an agile network automation solution with a flexible network fabric, enabling network operators to bring such services to market much faster.”

“We are excited to be working closesly with Itential on a shared mission to enable telecom providers for 5G networking orchestration,” said Suresh Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kaloom. ”We have a strong alignment in terms of our views of the modern network and how it should be managed. Partnering with Itential to create new functionalities allows us to offer the differentiation needed for leading our customers into the future.”

Itential and Kaloom will be discussing the integration in more detail during Itential’s live-streamed webinar scheduled for June 8, 2021 at 12 p.m. ET. The webinar, Cloud to Core to Edge: Making 5G Network Slicing a Reality will feature a product demonstration and plans for 5G rollouts, honing in on end-to-end customer solutions for multi-customer network slicing. Other speakers at the webinar include leading executives from Equinix and AvidThink.

https://www.itential.com/news/itential-and-kaloom-integrate-to-automate-5g-network-slicing/

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Investment group acquires FireEye Products business for $1.2 billion

A consortium led by Symphony Technology Group (STG) will acquire the FireEye Products business, including the FireEye name, in an all-cash transaction for $1.2 billion.

The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, will separate FireEye’s network, email, endpoint, and cloud security products, along with the related security management and orchestration platform, from Mandiant’s controls-agnostic software and services.

“We believe this separation will unlock our high-growth Mandiant Solutions business and allow both organizations to better serve customers,” said FireEye Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mandia. “After closing, we will be able to concentrate exclusively on scaling our intelligence and frontline expertise through the Mandiant Advantage platform, while the FireEye Products business will be able to prioritize investment on its cloud-first security product portfolio. STG’s focus on fueling innovative market leaders in software and cybersecurity makes them an ideal partner for FireEye Products. We look forward to our relationship and collaboration on threat intelligence and expertise.”

“We are extremely impressed by the FireEye Products business and the mission critical role it plays for its customers,” said William Chisholm, Managing Partner at STG. “We believe that there is enormous untapped opportunity for the business that we are excited to crystallize by leveraging our significant security software sector experience and our market leading carve-out expertise.”

Mandiant Solutions has established its position as the market leader in threat intelligence and cybersecurity expertise from the front lines, serving enterprises, governments and law enforcement agencies worldwide. 

FireEye pioneered the advanced threat detection market with the introduction of its Multi-Vector Execution (MVX) engine for network security.

FireEye Acquires Mandiant for $1 Billion

Friday, January 03, 2014  Cyber Security, FireEye, Mergers And Acquisitions  

FireEye acquired privately held Mandiant in a transaction valued at around $1 billion.  The deal consists of 21.5 million newly issued shares (NASDAQ: FEYE), options to purchase shares of FireEye stock, and approximately $106.5 million of net cash to the former Mandiant security holders. Mandiant is a leading provider of advanced endpoint security products and security incident response management solutions. It has more than two million endpoints...

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Digital Colony completes acquisition of Boingo Wireless

Funds managed by affiliates of Digital Colony completed their previously-announced acquisition of Boingo Wireless for approximately $854 million, including the assumption of $199 million of Boingo’s net debt obligations.

Under the deal, Boingo stockholders will receive $14.00 in cash per share of Boingo’s common stock. As a result of the completion of the transaction, Boingo is now a privately-held company and its common stock no longer trades on the NASDAQ.

“The completion of this transaction marks an exciting new chapter for Boingo to advance our business strategy forward with greater flexibility and resources,” said Mike Finley, Chief Executive Officer of Boingo Wireless. “Digital Colony brings significant operational expertise through its ownership of various digital infrastructure businesses, and together, we are committed to addressing the critical need for wireless connectivity. We believe the best is yet to come as this need continues to drive demand for our neutral host, converged networks.”

“With the adoption of 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and CBRS, demand for converged indoor networks will continue to dramatically increase over the next decade. As a leading indoor digital infrastructure provider serving the connectivity needs of essential properties, Boingo is ideally positioned to build on its market leadership and capitalize on this growth opportunity,” said Marc Ganzi, Colony Capital President and CEO of Colony Capital and CEO of Digital Colony. “This investment represents a unique platform that will only further be enhanced by Digital Colony’s strong operational capabilities, industry relationships, and access to capital. We look forward to working with Mike and the entire Boingo team as they continue to advance its business strategy in developing and deploying reliable networks and serving their diverse set of high-quality customers.”

http://www.digitalcolony.com

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MaxLinear showcases 5nm CMOS 800G PAM4 DSP

MaxLinear will showcase a 5nm CMOS 800Gbps PAM4 DSP for data center applications at the virtual Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) from June 6 to June 11, 2021. 

“With the exponential growth of data traffic within hyperscale cloud networks, the needed increase in interconnect bandwidth in those networks requires lower-power, higher-density optical modules that support higher lane rates,” said Drew Guckenberger, Vice President of Optical Interconnect at MaxLinear. “We are extremely excited to announce the availability of our Keystone family of 5nm CMOS PAM4 DSPs, specifically designed to address these requirements. With our third generation Keystone DSP design, and the power advantages of 5nm CMOS technology, we are directly addressing our customers’ critical needs for low power, highly integrated, high performance interconnect solutions in next generation hyperscale cloud networks.”

“We’re pleased to see the result of our collaboration with MaxLinear, a strategic technology partner of TSMC, in developing and manufacturing its leading PAM4 DSPs on TSMC’s 5nm technology to address the rapidly growing cloud datacenter network infrastructure market,” said Alex You, Vice President of Business Management, TSMC North America. “The Keystone family of SoCs are amongst the first radio-frequency mixed-signal digital SoCs leveraging TSMC’s 5nm CMOS process. The excellent power, seamless integration, and performance benchmarks set by Keystone are a testament to the advanced capabilities of our process technology, and also to MaxLinear’s design expertise in the most advanced processes.”

The new 800G DSP is part of MaxLinear’s new Keystone family of 5nm CMOS PAM4 DSPs. Keystone represents MaxLinear’s third generation of PAM4 DSPs for 400G/800G optical interconnects. This is the first generation to provide 106.25Gbps host side electrical I/O to match the line side 106.25Gbps interface rate. This is a crucial capability for next generation 25.6T switch interfaces.

The Keystone family’s host side interfaces support 25.78125/25.5625/53.125/106.25Gbps signaling per lane over C2M 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).

The Keystone family (MxL9364x, MxL9368x) includes both standalone DSPs and DSPs with monolithically integrated drivers that offer high-swing differential and single-ended output driver options to address both SiPh and EML direct drive applications. The following channel configurations are available in each case:

• 8x50G to 8x50G
• 8x50G to 4x100G
• 4x100G to 4x100G
• 8x100G to 8x100G

https://www.maxlinear.com/Company/press-releases/2021/MaxLinear-Showcases-Industry%E2%80%99s-First-5nm-CMOS-800G

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BT begins testing hollow core fibre

BT kicked off trials of hollow core fibre at the BT Labs in Adastral Park, Ipswich, in a collaborative project with Lumenisity, a Southampton University spin out company, and Mavenir.

BT researchers are conducting the trials at BT’s research and engineering campus, using a 10-kilometre-long hollow core fibre cable provided by Lumenisity. The new fibre has a hollow, air filled centre that runs the entire length of the cable. It will be used to test a variety of use cases, including potential benefits for 5G networks and ultra-secure communications, like Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).

BT notes that single-mode optical fibre was pioneered at Adastral Park. Research into hollow core fibre presents an opportunity to explore how the capabilities of optical fibre can be enhanced in future, with the potential to reduce the latency, or signal delay, caused by the light travelling through glass, by up to 50%. This new fibre has an air-filled central core, with an outer ring of glass, to guide the laser beam whilst maintaining the signal speed at very close to the ultimate speed of light.

Professor Andrew Lord, BT’s Head of Optical Network Research, said: “We’re excited to begin trialling hollow core fibre and to discover the potential opportunities and benefits of deploying this technology in certain scenarios. This new type of fibre cable could play an important role in the future of the world’s communications infrastructure, heralding a step-change in capability and speed, to keep up with the demands for high-speed, low latency communications driven by 5G networks, streaming, and more.”

Mike Fake, Lumenisity’s Director responsible for Product Management, said: “Lumenisity is delighted to be the supplier of field deployable CoreSmart hollowcore cable for these trials with BT. This is further evidence of the impact our unique low loss, high performing cables can have on the networks operated by our carrier partners.”

John Baker, Mavenir’s Senior Vice President Business Development, said: “The ability to extend the reach of fibre connected radios only further demonstrates the power of Open RAN and its Eco System. This improvement will significantly increase the number of use cases that can be served from containerised cloud-based Open RAN solution.”

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-kicks-off-trials-of-revolutionary-new-optical-fibre/

euNetworks connects LSE with hollowcore fibre from Lumenisity

Thursday, April 15, 2021  Eunetworks, Hollowcore, Lumenisity, Start-Ups, UK  

Lumenisity Limited, a start-up based in Romsey, United Kingdom, supplied its ultra low latency CoreSmart cable solution based on "NANF" hollowcore fibres, to euNetworks Fiber UK. The fibre route connects an Interxion data center with the London Stock Exchange.

Lumenisity Limited, which was formed in early 2017 as a spin out from the University of Southampton, said data travels 50% faster in hollowcore cable, reducing latency by 1/3, and providing a round trip saving of 3μs per km. These latency savings are very significant in financial trading applications. 

euNetworks offers a fibre-based, dedicated network platform supporting the bandwidth needs of the financial services community. 

“We’re very pleased to partner with euNetworks to enable them to provide the lowest latency performance to a major trading exchange using our CoreSmart cable,” said Tony Pearson, Business

Development Director at Lumenisity. “We are excited to be collaborating with such an established Carrier and to already have hollowcore deployed, carrying traffic as part of this development.”

“We continue to focus on delivering lowest latency services for our customers. We focus on identifying new and innovative technologies that can be deployed on our network to provide the best possible bandwidth solutions,” said Brady Rafuse, Chief Executive Officer of euNetworks. “We’re excited to be working with Lumenisity, helping to develop and deploy hollowcore fibre. We’re confident that with this technology we can achieve market leading fibre-based latencies much closer to radio frequency systems, without the constraints that are inherently present with those radio frequency solutions.”

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