Sunday, August 7, 2022

Video: Standardizing SD-WAN and (soon) SASE



SD-WAN evolved independently with a number of big players and, as a result, all of their solutions are different, notes Dave Larson, GM and CTO of Spirent.

SASE, as an extension of SD-WAN, brings a new set of monetization possibilities.

MEF is about using standards and APIs to level of playing field.

https://youtu.be/wwWMah7yeBE

Dell'Oro: Data center physical infrastructure market on 8% CAGR

Data center physical infrastructure (DCPI) revenues are forecast to grow at an 8 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2021 to 2026 to above $31 billion, according to a new study from Dell'Oro Group. Growth is forecast to remain resilient, driven by sustainability-minded data center expansion from cloud and colocation service providers, despite near-term supply chain constraints persisting and macroeconomic headwinds forming.

“Demand for data center physical infrastructure remains resilient, despite the developing macroeconomic uncertainties,” said Lucas Beran, Principal Analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “Most importantly, data center sustainability has risen to the top of decision making criteria in the industry, opening the door for significant technology transitions during this forecast period.  The most exciting is the acceleration of data center liquid cooling, as both direct liquid cooling (DLC) and immersion cooling (single-phase and two-phase) are forecast to grow significantly and surpass $1 billion in market revenue by 2026,” added Beran.

Additional highlights from the Data Center Physical Infrastructure 5-Year July 2022 Report:

  • DCPI revenue growth is forecast to slow to 6 percent in 2023, driven by continued cloud and colocation service provider growth and marginal enterprise growth.
  • China is forecast to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period, followed by APAC (Excluding China) and EMEA.
  • Data Center Thermal Management is forecast to grow the fastest rate of any market segment during the forecast period, surpassing $6 B in vendor revenues in 2026.
  • The Service Providers (Top 10 Cloud, Rest-of-Cloud, Colocation, and Telco) customer segment is forecast to grow at a double-digit CAGR during the forecast period, while the Enterprise customer segment (Large Enterprise, Rest-of-Enterprise) is forecast to grow at a much lower rate.

https://www.delloro.com/news/sustainability-initiatives-to-drive-data-center-physical-infrastructure-to-31-billion-in-2026/

Western Digital sees growth in HDDs for cloud players

Western Digital reported revenue of $4.53 billion for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2022, down 8% year-over-year (YoY). Fourth quarter GAAP earnings per share (EPS) was $0.95 and Non-GAAP EPS was $1.78. 

Fiscal year 2022 revenue was $18.79 billion, up 11% YoY. Fiscal year 2022 GAAP EPS was $4.75 and non-GAAP EPS was $8.22.

For Q4:

  • Cloud revenue increased 5%. Cloud represented 46% of total revenue. Within Cloud, the continued ramp of 18-terabyte and 20-terabyte drives drove a 7% year-over-year increase in nearline HDD revenue. In Flash, enterprise SSD revenue more than doubled sequentially and was up 38% year-over-year. There was strong demand from  cloud customers for the latest generation energy assisted drives driving a near record nearline shipment of 111 exabytes.
  • Client revenue declined 14%. Client represented 36% of total revenue. On both a sequential and year-over-year basis, client HDD led the revenue decline while Flash was roughly flat.
  • Consumer revenue declined 23% YoY. Consumer represented 18% of revenue. On a sequential basis, the revenue decline was primarily due to lower retail HDD shipments. The year-over-year decrease was due to broad-based decline in retail products across HDD and Flash.

"I am proud of our team for driving strong fiscal year 2022 performance, during which revenue grew 11% and non-GAAP EPS increased 81%, demonstrating progress in unlocking the earnings potential of our business,” said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO. “In addition to strong financial performance, fiscal year 2022 was a hallmark year for Western Digital from an innovation, product development and execution perspective. The combination of our innovation engine and the multiple channels to deliver our products to the market puts Western Digital in a great position to capitalize on the large and growing opportunities in storage ahead even in the midst of macro dynamics weighing on near-term demand.”


https://investor.wdc.com/static-files/7a02a646-b769-442b-885c-c62cf97ced6e

D-Wave completes SPAC IPO

D-Wave, which offers quantum computing systems, software and services, was acquired by DPCM Capital, Inc., a special purpupose acquisition company. 

Pursuant to the deal, D-Wave Quantum Inc. became the parent company of DPCM Capital and D-Wave, and its shares of common stock and warrants are expected to commence trading, on Monday, August 8, 2022 on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols “QBTS” and “QBTS WS,” respectively.

From its inception more than 20 years ago, D-Wave has focused on delivering quantum computing products and services that provide the fastest path to practical, real-world applications with customer value,” said Alan Baratz, CEO, D-Wave Quantum. “Today marks a significant milestone in our journey, as we embark on our next phase as a publicly-traded company. Through this Business Combination, we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth strategy, using capital raised through the Business Combination along with our new access to the public markets to advance the production of our quantum computing solutions and continue to unlock the power of quantum computing to benefit business and society. The era of commercial quantum computing is here.”

D-Wave's end-to-end quantum solution encompasses hardware, software, real-time quantum cloud service, developer tools and powerful quantum hybrid solvers. The company has brought to market five generations of quantum computers to date and, in June 2022, launched an experimental prototype of its sixth-generation machine, Advantage2. D-Wave also holds a broad portfolio of 200+ patents applicable to both annealing and gate-based quantum computing.

D-Wave’s commercial customers include nearly two dozen Forbes Global 2000 companies and industry leaders like Volkswagen, Accenture, BBVA, NEC Corporation, Save-On-Foods, DENSO, and Lockheed Martin, which are exploring quantum hybrid applications. 

https://www.dwavesys.com

Singtel plows additional US$100 million into its venture arm

Singtel is to invest a further US$100 million into Singtel Innov8, its corporate venture arm, raising its total capital commitment to US$350 million. 

Innov8 invests in start-ups that align with Singtel Group businesses in the areas of 5G, Artificial Intelligence, the digital economy, sustainability, cyber security and emerging technologies. It operates on an evergreen fund model, re-investing returns from portfolio exits into new investments. With the capital injection, Innov8 will further expand its portfolio of investments in Southeast Asia, United States, China, Israel and Australia.

Innov8 has invested in over 95 start-ups since its inception in 2010 and has had over 35 exits. Four of the exits were unicorns – Arista, Ruckus, Jasper, and Shape – start-ups that achieved a valuation in excess of US$1 billion. Innov8’s portfolio also includes a number of companies that have demonstrated scale – BitSight, Carro, Cato, FinAccel, SenseTime, Shopback, and Sygnum amongst others. S

“This capital infusion is meant for identifying and growing innovative start-ups with new technologies and capabilities that are synergistic and in lockstep with Singtel’s strategic reset to drive greater improvements in our core operations, accelerate our new growth engines, and place us at the forefront of new and fast-evolving areas,” said Mr Yuen Kuan Moon, Group Chief Executive Officer of Singtel and Chairman of Singtel Innov8. “As we sharpen our business focus, we will recycle our assets and capital into selected growth areas, reshaping our portfolio to better serve our stakeholders and build momentum for the longer term.”

https://innov8.singtel.com

Friday, August 5, 2022

Lumentum completes acquisition of NeoPhotonics

 Lumentum completed its previously announced acquisition of NeoPhotonics.

"I am excited to unite NeoPhotonics' differentiated products and technology and talented team with those of Lumentum," said Alan Lowe, Lumentum President and CEO. "This acquisition better positions us for attractive growth opportunities created by the digital transformation of work and life, which is driving relentless growth in the needed volumes and performance of cloud and network infrastructure. I welcome our new colleagues to the Lumentum team and want to thank NeoPhotonics' CEO Tim Jenks and the rest of NeoPhotonics' leadership team for their contributions in getting us to this important milestone."

http://investor.lumentum.com

Lumentum to acquire NeoPhotonics for $918M amidst strong demand

Lumentum agreed to acquire NeoPhotonics for $16.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $918 million and a premium of approximately 39% to NeoPhotonics' closing stock price on November 3, 2021.

The companies cited significant next-gen 400G+ opportunities as a leading driver for the merger.

NeoPhotonics, which was founded in 1996 and is based in San Jose, is a leading supplier of tunable lasers and optoelectronic components, including devices manufactured in its own Indium Phosphide fabs and combined with electronics using using Advanced Hybrid Photonic Integration techniques. The product portfolio includes coherent components and tunable lasers, coherent transceivers, wavelength management products, as well as fixed wavelength lasers and high speed driver ICs. The company has engineering and manufacturing facilities in Silicon Valley (USA), Japan and Shenzhen, China.

Lumentum said the acquisition strengthens its position in the more than $10 billion market for optical components used in cloud and telecom network infrastructure. 

"With NeoPhotonics, we're making another important investment in better serving our customers and expanding our photonics capabilities at a time when photonics are at the forefront of favorable long-term market trends," said Alan Lowe, Lumentum President and CEO. "At the center of our strategy is a relentless focus on developing a differentiated portfolio with the most innovative products and technology in our industry so that we can help our customers compete and win in their respective markets. Adding NeoPhotonics' differentiated products and technology and innovative R&D team is consistent with this strategy and together, we will better meet the growing need for next generation optical networking solutions."

"Today's announcement is an exciting milestone for NeoPhotonics," said Tim Jenks, NeoPhotonics President, CEO, and Chairman. "The increasing global demand for our ultra-pure light tunable lasers and photonics technologies for speed over distance applications is more apparent than ever, and Lumentum is the ideal partner to serve our customers on a larger scale. Lumentum recognizes the importance of NeoPhotonics' differentiated photonic technology and products, which are well positioned for accelerated growth in the coming years. "



Ghost Security raises $15 million for protecting APIs

Ghost Security, a start-up based in Austin, Texas, emerged from stealth mode to announced $15 million in venture funding for its work in defending APIs.

Ghost is backed by 68 Capital, DNX Ventures, and Munich Re Ventures.

“As an industry, we are still seeing a lot of legacy thinking around how to deal with the application, data, and microservice sprawl that large scale cloud adoption has created,” said Greg Martin, Ghost Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Existing approaches and application security solutions are now dated and losing effectiveness. At Ghost, we are completely rethinking the approach to securing modern applications from the ground up. We believe the explosive growth of microservices and APIs in the cloud will continue to outpace the capabilities of existing security solutions. We see this creating an even larger gap between the defensive capabilities of enterprise businesses and the capabilities of skilled hackers.”

“What’s exciting about the Ghost platform is that it removes the complex and invasive processes required to protect applications and APIs making this type of technology more accessible to organizations across the globe,” said Florian Leibert, General Partner and Co-founder at 468 Capital.

“The surge in adoption of applications, APIs, and microservices represents great growth potential for businesses but also introduces many new attack surfaces,” said Hiro Rio Maeda, Managing Partner at DNX Ventures. “A better approach to securing these assets is needed, and Ghost is well-positioned to address that challenge.”

https://ghost.security

Thursday, August 4, 2022

Telstra and Microsoft enter strategic partnership

Telstra and Microsoft announced a five-year agreement that significantly expands their existing strategic partnership.  

The arrangement is believed to be one of the largest partnerships Microsoft has established with a telecommunications provider globally. 

Telstra to become Microsoft’s largest supplier of its network capacity requirements on terrestrial fibre in Australia. Microsoft will become an anchor tenant on Telstra’s new ultra-fast intercity fibre network.

Some other key aims:

  • Boost Microsoft’s connectivity and growth in Australia, with Microsoft becoming an anchor tenant on Telstra’s new ultra-fast intercity fibre network.
  • Drive Telstra’s ambition to have about 90 per cent of its applications on public cloud infrastructure by 2025, which includes Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud partner as part of Telstra’s multi-cloud approach.
  • See Telstra launch a dedicated end-to-end Microsoft practice to unlock maximum value for the organisations’ joint customers across their digital transformation journey by combining Microsoft’s cloud, edge and modern work solutions with Telstra’s network leadership and technology experts.
  • Increase collaboration between Telstra and Microsoft to support hybrid ways of working and develop environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
  • Boosting connectivity and harnessing cloud capabilities

Microsoft will also explore boosting its capacity on Telstra’s leading Asia-Pacific subsea cable network. 

The organisations will also continue to co-develop products that reimagine familiar experiences and merge the network and the cloud to create new offers. For example, Telstra and Microsoft recently co-developed Branch Offload, Australia’s first 5G-enabled edge computing solution for enterprises. The solution blends Telstra’s 5G and fixed connectivity with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge for edge computing, secure edge, SD-WAN and service orchestration, and is delivered by Telstra Purple.

Telstra CEO Andrew Penn comments:  “Our strategic partnership with Microsoft is on a scale not seen before in Australia, and it will be Australian businesses who will benefit at a time when the urgency to digitise and transform their operations has never been greater.” 

“Digital technology is foundational to the resilience and differentiation of every organisation,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Our partnership brings together Telstra’s leadership in network connectivity with the breadth and depth of the Microsoft Cloud to address key challenges, including hybrid work and sustainability, and support Australia’s growth.”

https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/media-releases/telstra-and-microsoft-sign-five-year-agreement

Verizon debuts mobile edge cloud with Microsoft Azure

Verizon is now offering an on-premises, private edge compute solution in collaboration with Microsoft Azure.Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge is a cloud computing platform that brings compute and storage services to the edge of the network at the customer premises providing enterprises with increased efficiencies, higher levels of security, and the low lag and high bandwidth needed for applications involving computer vision, augmented...

Lumen enters edge partnership with Microsoft Azure

 Lumen Technologies announced a strategic relationship with Microsoft Azure focused on the next generation of enterprise application delivery at the network edge. The companies cited several go-to-market efforts to support mutual customers worldwide:A certified Azure deployment which will be able to run in Lumen Edge Computing nodes worldwide, unlocking more low latency and high bandwidth use cases for customers of Azure service platform.Communication...

AT&T to power its network with Microsoft Azure for Operators

AT&T will power its mobile network on Microsoft's Azure for Operators cloud starting with the 5G and migrating existing and future workloads over time. Microsoft will assume responsibility for both software development and deployment of AT&T’s Network Cloud immediately and bring AT&T’s existing network cloud to Azure over the next three years. Financial terms were not disclosed.Under an expanded strategic alliance between the firms, AT&T...


U.S. Department of Defense launches Innovate Beyond 5G

The U.S. Department of Defense has kicked off an Innovate Beyond 5G (IB5G) Program to foster collaborative partnerships with industry and academia for 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies. 

3 main projects are highlighted:

  • Open6G -- a new industry-university cooperative effort that aims to jumpstart 6G systems research on open radio access networks (Open RAN).  The effort will focus on Open RAN research and open source implementation of 5G protocol stack features to support emerging beyond/enhanced 5G applications.  Open6G will serve as the DoD’s hub for development, testing, and integration of trusted enhancements, supporting an industry and federal government NextG ecosystem pursuing 6G technology goals. Led by a $1.77 million anchor award from IB5G, the project is managed by Northeastern University’s Kostas Research Institute through a cooperative agreement with the Army Research Laboratory. The technical effort will be housed at Northeastern University’s Institute for Wireless Internet of Things.  
  • Spectrum Exchange Security and Scalability -- a new project with Zylinium Research, which recently demonstrated a Spectrum Exchange for dynamic spectrum allocation on the Platform for Open Wireless Data-drive Experimental Research (POWDER) at the University of Utah, which is part of the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research program funded by the National Science Foundation. This current effort will leverage blockchain in order to provide data persistence, scalability, and robustness to create a secure and distributed Spectrum Exchange.  Zylinium’s Spectrum Exchange research was funded $1.64 million by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), representing a prime example of government inter-agency and industry collaboration in the interest of advancing spectrum sharing techniques and machine-driven network capabilities.
  • IB5G -- in collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs, to develop resilient, large-scale, Massive Multi-Input/Multi-Output (MIMO) from MHz to GHz project. This project was awarded $3.69 million by OUSD (R&E)/IB5G under an Open Broad Agency Announcement solicitation for Advanced Wireless Communications research. The effort will explore key technology components that enable scaling MIMO technology across different bands/bandwidths and DoD-oriented use cases. 

“The DoD has a vital interest in advancing 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies and concept demonstrations,” said Dr. Sumit Roy, IB5G Program Director. “These efforts represent our continuing investments via public and private sector collaboration on research & development for critical Beyond 5G technology enablers necessary to realize high performance, secure, and resilient network operations for the future warfighter.”

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3114220/three-new-projects-for-dods-innovate-beyond-5g-program/

Next G Alliance outlines North America's roadmap for 6G

by Benedict Chua, Associate EditorATIS’ Next G Alliance published a Roadmap to 6G report that presents the first 6G vision for North America and describes major steps that industry, government and academia should take to ensure North American wireless leadership for the next decade.ATIS said more than 600 experts from 80 Next G Alliance members representing industry, government and academia came together to create the 43-page report.The following...


NEO Semiconductor unveils its X-DRAM

NEO Semiconductor introducted its X-DRAM, a new class of memory promising improvements over conventional DRAM by lowering the power consumption and increasing the performance. Specifically, the X-DRAM architecture lowers refresh power by 85% and activation latency by 50%.

The company says its X-DRAM is compatible with current DRAM manufacturing technologies, processes, structures, and dies. X-DRAM has a wide range of use cases, from cloud servers to mobile devices to IoT objects. 

"Not only is X-DRAM expected to have a significant impact on the global DRAM market, but it will also serve environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals," says Andy Hsu, Founder and CEO of NEO Semiconductor and an accomplished technology inventor with more than 120 granted U.S. patents. "X-DRAM can lower refresh power by more than 80% through a combination of 50% refresh frequency and 25% refresh time. It also lowers main memory latency and narrows the processor-to-memory performance gap. As a result, it dramatically reduces the power consumption of IT infrastructure and consumer products, leading to much lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions."

Power consumption and latency performance have led to alarming environmental and economic concerns. Products incorporating X-DRAM will be able to address these "DRAM fab manufacturers have been innovative in utilizing new materials, developing new processes, increasing memory density, and achieving reduced cost," said Jay Kramer, President of Network Storage Advisors. "Even with all the success with each generation of DRAM technology, X-DRAM enables DRAM manufacturers to implement a new architecture to achieve considerably lower power for environmental sustainability and improved latency for higher system and device performance."

https://neosemic.com

Ericsson wins a 5G contract with Bharti Airtel in India

Bharti Airtel awarded its first 5G contract in the country to Ericsson. 

Airtel will deploy power-efficient 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System and Ericsson microwave mobile transport solutions. Ericsson will provide 5G connectivity in 12 circles (geographical regions in India) for Bharti Airtel. Deployments are to get underway this month.

Gopal Vittal, MD and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel, says: “As our trusted, long-term technology partner, we are delighted to award our first 5G contract to Ericsson for 5G deployment in India. 5G presents a game-changing opportunity to drive the digital transformation of industries, enterprises and the socio-economic development of India. With our 5G network, we aim to deliver the full benefits of 5G connectivity, fuel India’s journey towards a digital economy and strengthen the country’s position on the world stage.”

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: “We look forward to supporting Bharti Airtel with its deployment of 5G in India. With Ericsson’s unrivaled global 5G deployment experience, we will help Bharti Airtel to deliver the full benefits of 5G to Indian consumers and enterprises, while seamlessly evolving the Bharti network from 4G to 5G. 5G will enable India to realize its Digital India vision and foster inclusive development of the country.” 

Ericsson notes that it now serves 125 live 5G networks in 55 countries. Around 50 percent of the world's 5G traffic outside China is now carried over Ericsson's radio networks.

Nokia wins 45% share of Bharti Airtel's 5G RAN

Bharti Airtel awarded a multi-year contract to Nokia for 5G radio access network (RAN) deployment.  The companies said the contract represents approximately a 45% share of Bharti's planned 5G RAN rollout.  Nokia has been a supplier to Bharti for the past 18 years.Under this contract, Nokia will provide equipment from itsAirScale portfolio, including modular and scalable baseband as well as high-capacity 5G massive MIMO radios.This multi-year...


Qualcomm signs with Manchester United

Qualcomm has entered into a multi-year sponsorship deal with Manchester United. Financial terms were not disclosed.

In addition to promotions for Manchester United fans at Old Trafford and around the world, Qualcomm Technologies will advise Manchester United on planned improvements to mobile connectivity.

Victoria Timpson, CEO Alliances and Partnerships at Manchester United, said: "Snapdragon platforms will enable ground-breaking experiences for fans across the globe, deepening their engagement with the football club they love."

"Manchester United has always pushed boundaries of what's possible and we are excited to be partnering with a company at the forefront of innovation."

Don McGuire, SVP of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and CMO of Qualcomm said: "We are proud to bring the power of Snapdragon together with one of the most iconic names in world sport."

http://www.qualcomm.com

Orange Egypt picks Nokia to modernize network

Orange Egypt selected Nokia to modernize its SDM network over the next 5 years. 

Nokia’s 3GPP-compliant SDM solution includes Nokia Registers – Home Subscriber Server, Home Location Register and One-NDS (Network Directory Server), plus 5G’s Unified Data Management and Authorization Server Function. Together the components will allow Orange Egypt to better manage subscriber data across different technology networks.

Nokia’s SDM solution is deployed over three geographical sites and serves around 33 million mobile and fixed Orange Egypt subscribers. This includes subscribers of 2G, 3G, 4G, fixed services, data and voice, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) with Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) services. The new upgraded system supports the upcoming launch of 5G services.

Ayman Amiri, Chief Technology Officer at Orange Egypt, said: "The modernized, industry-leading Nokia SDM solution will help us better address the evolving needs of our customers. Building on our existing experience leveraging Nokia’s SDM solution, we are looking forward to leveraging these upgrades as we consolidate our customer base across different technologies and move towards 5G.”

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Lumen offers 8 Gbps residential service over XGS-PON

Lumen Technologies is now offering symmetrical 8 Gbps broadband over its Quantum Fiber residential and small business service. Lumen is using XGS-PON technology.

The 8 Gbps tier is available to select residents and small businesses in cities near Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle, with more cities to come.  

"Technology is evolving and so is Lumen as we tap into the power of our fiber network to give communities more bandwidth to excel at work, play and online life," said Andrew Dugan, chief technology officer at Lumen. "Lumen is strengthening its portfolio and increasing gigabit speeds to fuel consumer and small business broadband connections – and it's just the beginning. We're investing in technology and internet speeds that will continue to push families and businesses into the future."

"This is a game-changer for internet users who want to broaden their horizons with multi-gigabit connections," said Maxine Moreau, president of Lumen Mass Markets. "Quantum Fiber service delivers reliably fast internet for the increasing number of connected devices, virtual work environments, next-level gaming and the ability to upload extremely large files in a matter of seconds. We're so pleased to bring this industry-leading technology to our Quantum Fiber communities to help them thrive in a digital world."

http://www.Q.com

Keysight and Nokia demo 800 Gigabit Ethernet

Keysight Technologies and Nokia demonstrate the first public 800GE test, validating the readiness of next-generation optics for service providers and network operators.

The readiness testing was conducted at Nokia’s private SReXperts customer event in Madrid in June 2022, and included Keysight’s AresONE 800GE Layer 1-3 800GE line rate test platform and the Nokia 7750 Service Routing platform. The AresONE was used to test and qualify Nokia’s FP5 network processor silicon along with 800GE pluggable optics. Specific Nokia platforms used in the validation were the FP5 based 7750 SR-1x-48D supporting 48 ports of 800GE and the 7750 SR-1se supporting 36 ports of 800GE.

Nokia’s FP5 silicon delivers 112G SerDes which enables 800GE support in hardware. FP5 enables networks to efficiently scale capacity and concurrently IP subscriber services while maintaining integrity, providing advanced protection against escalating network security threats, and lowering power consumption. Nokia is the first vendor to ship high-density 800GE systems this year with platforms supporting a range of 36 x 800GE in compact fixed platforms to 432 ports of 800GE in the flagship 7750 SR-14s.

Keysight says the move to the 800GE pluggable optics on front panel ports, interconnect and link reliability requires a new round of validation cycles to support carrier-class environments. 

“The move to 800GE presents service providers and vendors in the supply chain with new challenges to validate chips, optical transceivers, or networking equipment port electronics,” said Ram Periakaruppan, vice president and general manager, Keysight's Network Test and Security Solutions group. “The unique combination of the Keysight AresONE 800GE test system and Nokia's 7750 Service Router addresses the interoperability challenges in 112Gbps electrical lane signaling and supports the service provider community to accelerate validation of carrier-class 800GE devices and network infrastructure in a multi-service environment.”

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Keysight and showcase our FP5 silicon in this important, world’s first demonstration,” said Ken Kutzler, vice president of IP Routing Hardware at Nokia. “Nokia’s industry leading, innovative FP5 silicon is the first network processor silicon for high-performance routing to meet the demands of the 800GE network upgrade cycle. The combination of Keysight’s AresONE 800GE with Nokia’s FP5 and 7750 SR platform meets both the performance and verification needs of our 800GE IP routing interfaces.”

Keysight launches 800G test solutions

Keysight Technologies launched new 800G test solutions for validating electrical and optical interfaces to speed development of next generation data center technologies, including the first 100Gbps transmitter and receiver pre-conformance test solution.Keysight’s new portfolio of electrical and optical analysis solutions enable an 800G ecosystem, consisting of optical components, chipset, switch and semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) vendors,...


Samsung develops Memory-semantic SSD based on CXL

 At this week's Flash Memory Summit 2022, Samsung announced its 'Memory-semantic SSD', which combines the benefits of storage and DRAM memory. Leveraging Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect technology and a built-in DRAM cache, Memory-semantic SSDs can achieve up to a 20x improvement in both random read speed and latency when used in AI and ML applications. Samsung’s Memory-semantic SSDs will be optimized to read and write small-sized data chunks at dramatically faster speeds.

Samsung’s telemetry technology gathers human-readable metadata from key components inside customers’ SSDs such as NAND flash and DRAM as well as SSD controllers and firmware. Based on this broad set of telemetry information, data centers can detect and prevent any potential problems ahead of time, enabling a more reliable and efficient operation.

Additionally, Samsung confirmed that the first UFS 4.0 mobile storage is scheduled to enter mass production this month. The new UFS 4.0 will be a critical component in flagship smartphones that require large amounts of data processing for features like high-resolution images and graphics-heavy mobile games, and will later be used in mobility, VR and AR.

Samsung also announced market availability of two enterprise SSDs. Its PM1743 is the industry’s first PCIe 5.0 SSD, while the PM1653 is the first 24G SAS SSD, both now in mass production. The company further highlighted its paradigm-shifting SmartSSD and CXL DRAM, which have been designed to avoid bottlenecks in current memory and storage architectures.

"The IT industry is facing a new set of challenges brought on by the explosive growth in big data, and this underscores the importance of a robust, cross-industry ecosystem," said Jin-Hyeok Choi, keynote speaker and executive vice president of Memory Solution & Product Development at Samsung Electronics. "We are committed to developing transformative memory technologies that can bring far-reaching changes in how we move, store, process and manage data for future AI, ML and HPC applications, as we navigate these challenging tides together with industry partners."

Nokia wins 45% share of Bharti Airtel's 5G RAN

Bharti Airtel awarded a multi-year contract to Nokia for 5G radio access network (RAN) deployment.  The companies said the contract represents approximately a 45% share of Bharti's planned 5G RAN rollout.  Nokia has been a supplier to Bharti for the past 18 years.

Under this contract, Nokia will provide equipment from itsAirScale portfolio, including modular and scalable baseband as well as high-capacity 5G massive MIMO radios.

This multi-year deal follows the recently concluded 5G spectrum auctions and allocation of pan-India spectrum to Bharti Airtel, supporting their ambition to take India into the 5G era.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel said, “We are pleased to continue our partnership with Nokia and take India into the 5G era. Airtel has always believed that the real leverage of 5G technology will come from the capacity to build an ecosystem across devices, networks, applications, and services. As mobile penetration increases across India, mobile telecom services will have a transformative impact across all sectors of the economy. Airtel is investing in the right areas and working with the right partners to serve our customers even better.”

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO at Nokia said, “This landmark deal reinforces our long-standing partnership with Bharti Airtel. We are delighted that they have chosen Nokia's best-in-class AirScale baseband and radio portfolio to deliver superior 5G performance in one of the world's largest networks. I look forward to our continued successful long-term collaboration in this vital and dynamic market.”

ADTRAN posts Q2 revenue of $172 million

ADTRAN reported Q2 revenue of $172.0 million, net income of $2.1 million and earnings per share of $0.04. Non-GAAP net income was $9.7 million and non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.19.

ADTRAN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton stated, “We had a strong Q2 fueled by the growing demand for our fiber broadband platforms. Customer demand continues to grow at record levels. We increased revenue both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year in our domestic and international markets, and also throughout our customer segments. This provides continued momentum as we move forward with our integration of ADVA. The combination of these two companies will strengthen our overall solution portfolio and provide the resources necessary to maximize our success in this unprecedented investment cycle in fiber networks.”

The company also announced that its Board of Directors declared a cash dividend for the second quarter of 2022. The quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 per common share is to be paid to the Company’s stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 18, 2022. The ex-dividend date is August 17, 2022 and the payment date will be September 1, 2022.

http://www.adtran.com/investor

A10 Networks posts revenue of $68.0 million, up 14.9% yoy

A10 Networks reported revenue of $68.0 million, up 14.9% year-over-year. GAAP gross margin was 80.2%. GAAP net income was $10.4 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, compared with GAAP net income of $6.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2021.

Revenue growth was led by a 33.7% increase in the Americas year-over-year.

“Continued strong demand for our proprietary, security-led solutions, combined with sustained business execution, resulted in 14.9% top-line growth and overall performance that exceeded our ‘Rule of 40’ target,” said Dhrupad Trivedi, President and Chief Executive Officer of A10 Networks. “The increasing threat of cyberattacks, exacerbated by geopolitical events in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, make our security and infrastructure solutions a growing priority even as certain non-security investments are reprioritized due to macroeconomic concerns. We are capturing market share through better technology that helps our customers to achieve their business goals and we continue to invest in strategic growth opportunities. Simultaneously, our proven business model, including gross profit margins exceeding 80% and Adjusted EBITDA margins of 26% enable us to deliver consistent shareholder returns through share repurchases and a quarterly cash dividend.”

“We have been able to successfully navigate supply chain challenges and input cost pressures, as evidenced by our stable gross margins, and we expect these challenges will persist for some time,” continued Trivedi. “We reiterate our full year targets around top line growth of 10 – 12% and expanding EBITDA in the range of 26 – 28% of revenue. 

https://investors.a10networks.com/home/default.aspx


DISH Network reports drop in revenues, wireless subscribers

DISH Network revenue of $523 million for the second quarter 2022, compared to $671 million for the year-ago quarter. Diluted earnings per share were $0.82 for the second quarter, compared to $1.06 per share during the same period in 2021. 

Some highlights:

  • Net pay-TV subscribers decreased approximately 257,000 in the second quarter, compared to a net decrease of approximately 67,000 in the year-ago quarter.
  • The company closed the quarter with 9.99 million pay-TV subscribers, including 7.79 million DISH TV subscribers and 2.20 million SLING TV subscribers.
  • Retail wireless net subscribers decreased by approximately 210,000 in the second quarter, compared to a net decrease of 201,000 in the year-ago quarter.
  • The company closed the quarter with 7.87 million retail wireless subscribers.