Biden nominates Anna Gomez as FCC commissioner

President Biden nominated Anna M. Gomez to serve as a commissioner on the FCC.  

Gomez is a telecommunications attorney who currently serves as a Senior Advisor for International Information and Communications Policy in the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy. Gomez served as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Deputy Administrator from 2009 to 2013. She also served for 12 years in various positions at the Federal Communications Commission, including as Deputy Chief of the International Bureau and as Senior Legal Advisor to then-Chairman William E. Kennard. Gomez also was Vice president for Federal and State Government Affairs at Sprint Nextel and an Associate at Arnold and Porter.

President Biden also re-nominated current commissioners Geoffrey Adam Starks and Brendan Carr for new terms at the FCC.

https://www.fcc.gov

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Meta contributes Terragraph, Open M-Plane and Maveric to LF Connectivity

 The Linux Foundation, in collaboration with Meta, announced LF Connectivity, a new open source project focused on advancing technologies to accelerate emerging network and connectivity applications.

Meta is contributing three initial sub-projects:

• Terragraph is a wireless technology solution for delivering gigabit speed last-mile access
• Open M-Plane - a software component of Meta's Evenstar hardware design for the configuration and management of the RAN. It is interoperable, hardware-independent, and aligned with O-RAN specifications to help enable mobile wireless connectivity by providing flexibility to operators looking to source hardware from different vendors as they deploy their own RAN solutions.
• Maveric enables the development and evaluation of cellular network optimization algorithms before their deployment on the network. It is a developer platform that leverages AI/ML approaches to provide realistic cellular network representations and examples that demonstrate its use. 

Supporting organizations include AMD, Cambium Networks, Capgemini, Edgecore Networks, Siklu Communications, University of Delhi, VIAVI, and Virginia Tech. 

“Meta is pleased to contribute our Terragraph, Open M-Plane, and Maveric technologies to the Linux Foundation’s Connectivity project,” said Shah Rahman, engineering director, Meta. “By sharing these technologies, we hope to further improve global connectivity by enabling other companies to participate and contribute to those projects.”

“With 5G becoming more pervasive and NextG on the horizon, bandwidth and latency requirements will be higher than ever, with more applications leveraging augmented reality and immersive experiences that need to traverse networks,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, IoT, the Linux Foundation. “We are pleased to bring new open source tools to more organizations across the globe and welcome LF Connectivity to our growing number of networking projects working to improve digital transformation.”

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-meta-launch-new-lf-connectivity-project-umbrella-to-improve-enhanced-access-to-networks

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Meta unveils first in-house ASIC — a video processor

Meta unveiled a highly optimized device for processing video for live-streaming, video on demand (VOD), AR/VR, and AI-generated content across the Meta family of applications.

The Meta Scalable Video Processor (MSVP) is the company’s first in-house-developed ASIC solution. 

The company said it intends to “eventually offload the majority of our stable and mature video processing workloads to MSVP and use software only for workloads that require specific customization and significantly higher quality.”

Some highlights

Each MSVP ASIC can offer a peak transcoding performance of 4K at 15fps at the highest quality configuration with 1-in, 5-out streams and can scale up to 4K at 60fps at the standard quality configuration

• Performance scales linearly with resolution. 
• Performance is achieved at ~10W of PCIe module power. 
• Throughput gain of ~9x for H.264 when compared against libx264 SW encoding. 
• For VP9, throughput gain of ~50x when compared with libVPX speed 2 preset.
• ~9x faster throughput for H.264 compared to libx264 SW
• ~50x faster throughput for VP9 compared to libVPX speed 2

https://ai.facebook.com/blog/meta-scalable-video-processor-MSVP

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Blovelight develops WDM lens array with SABIC’s resin

China-based Blovelight has partnered with SABIC on an integrated, single-mode fiber optic lens array for optical transmission applications. 

The design uses SABIC’s ULTEM resin to mold an integrated connector and receiving lens array and provide a housing for the WDM component. 

Compared to aspherical glass lenses, SABIC says its resin provides greater design freedom and high-volume, high-speed production without the need for secondary grinding and polishing. From a performance standpoint, ULTEM resin delivers high near-IR transmission (>88% at 850-1550nm), a high refractive Index, and excellent dimensional stability over a wide temperature range (-40℃ to 85℃) to help ensure consistent alignment with single-mode fibers.

ULTEM resin also met the demands of the assembly process for Blovelight’s WDM application by providing high mechanical strength, dimensional stability, and the ability to build miniaturized, multichannel parts.

https://www.sabic.com/en/news/40100-sabic-ultem-resin-provides-high-performance-solution-to-blovelight-for-its-single-mod-wdm-module

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Liquid Dataport activates terrestrial fiber from Mombasa to Johannesburg

Liquid Dataport activated the first terrestrial fibre route connecting Mombasa to Johannesburg. 

This new route is the first fibre link across DRC between Goma and Kananga, providing multiple landlocked countries with extra redundancy, resilience, connectivity to numerous data centres and cloud resources, and, most significantly, an alternative option in the event of a subsea cable outage between Kenya and South Africa.

Liquid Dataport, which is a unit of Cassava Technologies, noted that this route offers hyperscalers, enterprises and wholesale carriers direct connectivity to data centres in Johannesburg and Nairobi. Investments on the Equiano sea cable and significant capacity on the PEACE and 2Africa undersea fibre cables together with its extensive terrestrial cross-border fibre broadband network ensures that Liquid’s customers benefit from low-cost international capacity landing on both the Kenyan and South African shores wherever they need it on the continent.

Commenting on the launch of this new route, David Eurin, CEO of Liquid Dataport, said, “This is the first terrestrial-only cable connecting Mombasa to Johannesburg via DRC. It is the result of our significant fibre infrastructure investments in several countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. With this new route, we are able to provide our existing and future customers access to an intelligent network with increased resilience and low latency. It not only provides redundancy but was designed to provide additional capacity to the landlocked countries on the route with direct access to cloud resources on the African continent and beyond”.

https://www.liquiddataport.com/liquid-dataport-launches-the-first-terrestrial-data-superhighway-connecting-mombasa-to-johannesburg/

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New Broadband Forum spec targets virtualized ONU authentication

The Broadband Forum will develop a new specification for ONU authentication in virtualized services.

Conventionally, ONU authentication is carried out solely by the operator’s Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), however, as more network functions become disaggregated from physical equipment, it can also be carried out by functions on the network management plane.

ONU authentication also determines whether the ONU is managed by an ONU Management Control Interface (OMCI) function embedded in the OLT (eOMCI) or virtualized in the Management Plane (vOMCI). But if both the OLT and Management Plane engage management with the same ONU, it can have unpredictable results.

TR-489 defines the global architecture and requirements and identifies the interfaces (including YANG modules) necessary to perform ONU authentication including the selection of whether the OMCI function is performed by the OLT or by a management entity in the operator’s network. Whichever is selected controls, configures, and monitors the ONU to identify potential faults, collect and analyze performance data, and encrypt data.

A variety of credentials and procedures can be used to authenticate an ONU, including matching serial number, registration ID or LOID. Which ONU authentication procedure that needs to be considered depends on operational procedures at the discretion of the operator.

“If the authentication process – and which part of the network is responsible for it – is not defined, it can result in inconsistent or even faulty network behavior,” said Ken Ko, Managing Director at Broadband Forum. “TR-489 will benefit all Broadband Forum Work Areas concerned with ONU authentication and management selection and continue to help the industry transition to open, virtualized networks.”

https://www.broadband-forum.org/2023-05-16-onu-authentication-standard-critical-for-virtualized-networks

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Samsung begins mass production of 16Gb DDR5

 

Samsung Electronics started mass production of 16-gigabit (Gb) DDR5 DRAM designed for data center servers, HPC clusters, etc.

The new chips are based on the most advanced 12 nanometer (nm)-class process technology and boast a maximum speed of 7.2 gigabits per second (Gbps).

Compared to the previous generation, Samsung’s new 12nm-class DDR5 DRAM reduces power consumption by up to 23% while enhancing wafer productivity by up to 20%.

“Using differentiated process technology, Samsung's industry-leading 12nm-class DDR5 DRAM delivers outstanding performance and power efficiency,” said Jooyoung Lee, Executive Vice President of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics. “Our latest DRAM reflects our continued commitment to leading the DRAM market, not only with high-performance and high-capacity products that meet computing market demand for large-scale processing, but also by commercializing next-generation solutions that support greater productivity." 
 

https://www.samsung.com

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Dell’Oro: Microwave Transmission Equipment market forecasted at +5% in 2023

The microwave transmission equipment market is forecast to grow 5 percent in 2023, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group, thanks to demand for E-band systems, which are capable of transmitting data at rates up to 20 Gbps. E/V Band shipment volumes are predicted to grow 35 percent year-over-year.

“Microwave Transmission equipment demand is in a growth cycle due to 5G,” stated Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “This growth cycle began in 2021 and is expected to drive increasing demand for microwave equipment for many more years. Among the wireless backhaul technologies, E-band systems are positioned to benefit the most since these products can easily meet the requirements for 5G backhaul,” added Yu.

Highlights from the 1Q 2023 Microwave Transmission & Mobile Backhaul Quarterly Report:

• Microwave Transmission market growth in 2023 will be driven by higher demand in both mobile backhaul and the Vertical markets.
• Huawei held the highest share in the quarter and trailing four-quarter period. The manufacturers with the next highest shares were Ericsson, Nokia, and Ceragon.
• Aviat Networks announced the intent to acquire NEC’s wireless backhaul business. The addition of NEC’s microwave business could improve Aviat’s share rank from top-six to top-three.
• Microwave transmission equipment demand significantly increased in the Indian region. Compared to the same period a year ago, microwave revenue nearly doubled in 1Q 2023.

https://www.delloro.com/news/microwave-transmission-equipment-market-forecasted-to-grow-5-percent-in-2023/

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Tokyo Tech builds supercomputer with HPE Cray XD6500

Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) Global Scientific Information and Computing Center (GSIC) selected Hewlett Packard Enterprise to build its next-generation supercomputer, TSUBAME4.0.

TSUBAME4.0, which was procured under the Japanese government procurement rules, will be based in a newly constructed facility in Tokyo Tech’s Suzukakedai campus and is expected to be fully operational in spring of 2024.

TSUBAME4.0 will be built with HPE Cray XD6500 supercomputers, consisting of 240 nodes, and equipped with two 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors, four NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, and 768 GiB of main memory. It will achieve a theoretical peak performance of 66.8 petaflops at 64-bit double precision. Additionally, the system will reach 952 petaflops at 16-bit half-precision, delivering 20 times more accelerated compute performance than TSUBAME3.0, its predecessor.

“TSUBAME has been supporting our research on cyclic peptide drug discovery, which is anticipated to become the next-generation medicine,” said Professor Yutaka Akiyama, School of Computing, Tokyo Tech. “TSUBAME has always been our partner in the daring challenges of achieving world’s first. It has been supporting reproduction of biophysical phenomena with hundred-fold larger simulations, and through exhaustive calculation on hundreds of cases has generated quantitative proof of predictive ability. With the significantly accelerated TSUBAME4.0, we look forward to its support in realizing intelligent drug discovery through large-scale molecular simulation and fusing it with deep learning technology in generating predictive models.”

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2023/05/hpe-and-tokyo-tech-collaborate-to-build-the-next-generation-tsubame40-supercomputer-for-artificial-intelligence-scientific-research-and-innovation.html

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Airspan secures $25m, appoints Glenn Laxdal as CEO

Airspan Networks announced a new $25 million financing agreement with affiliates of Fortress Investment Group (“Fortress”). Airspan agreed to issue the lenders new common stock warrants to purchase 5,912,040 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.01 per share. 

Airspan also modified the terms of its senior secured convertible notes to increase the principal amount to $52.5 million and increase the interest rate to 10%.

In addition, Airspan’s Board appointed Glenn Laxdal, previously Airspan’s President and COO, to serve as Chief Executive Officer.

Eric Stonestrom, Executive Chairman of Airspan said, “We are continuing to make necessary changes to our operating model to focus the company and position it for the future. The Mimosa divestiture and debt restructuring provides the funding and sets the company up for its next phase of growth. We are excited to welcome Glenn to the Board and as Airspan’s new CEO.”

Glenn Laxdal, President and Chief Executive Officer has served as Airspan’s President and COO since January of 2022. Prior to Airspan he has held senior leadership positions at Infinera, Ericsson, Blackberry, and Nortel.

https://www.airspan.com

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BT says FTTP fiber build is now 40% completed

BT reported full year FY23 revenue of £20.7bn, down 1% with the growth in Openreach more than offset by decline in the other units. Adjusted EBITDA was £7.9bn, up 5% due to growth in Openreach and Consumer offset by a decline in Enterprise.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said: “We have delivered our outlook for FY23: this year we’ve grown both pro forma revenue and EBITDA for the first time in six years while navigating an extraordinary macro-economic backdrop. Over the last four years we have stuck firmly to our strategy and it’s working.

“Openreach is competing strongly and it’s clear that customers love full fibre. The Openreach Board has reaffirmed its target to reach 25 million premises with FTTP by the end of 2026 and plans to further accelerate take-up on the network. In Consumer we’re delivering for customers with strong growth in FTTP and 5G, and we’re also seeing green shoots in B2B with a return to revenue growth in the final quarter in Global and the creation of our newly integrated Business unit.

“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitise the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base. New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”

Some additional highlights:

• FTTP build of 702k premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 54k per week, with 41% of our 25m build completed; FTTP footprint of 10.3m, up 43%, with a further 6m where initial build is underway
• Customer demand in Openreach for FTTP extremely strong with FY23 orders up 70% year on year; take up rate grew to 30.4% with record net adds of 395k in the quarter; base now c.3.1m
• Record quarter of Consumer FTTP connections up 50% year-on-year with the base now over 1.7m
• We have 8.6m 5G connections, up 62% on last year; our 5G network now covers 68% of the population
• Cost transformation on track with gross annualised cost savings of £2.1bn since April 2020 against the £3bn target, with a cost to achieve of £1.1bn against a target of £1.6bn
• Created Business through the merger of Enterprise and Global to enhance value for all B2B customers, strengthen our competitive position and deliver material synergies
• BT expects to reduce its total labour resource from 130,000 employess currently to 75-90,000 by FY28-FY30.

https://newsroom.bt.com/results-for-the-full-year-to-31-march-2023/

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CommScope refreshes fiber gateways and ONUs

CommScope launched a new HomeVantage line of fiber gateways and optical network units (ONUs).

The portfolio expansion of fiber gateways provides a cost-effective solution for service providers to deliver the full 2.5Gbps broadband speed of GPON around the home. With offerings that include both one device and two-device solutions, the gateways enable reliable, single platform delivery of voice-over-IP (VoIP), data, and broadcast-quality streaming video. This new HomeVantage line of fiber gateways includes:

• HomeVantage NVG578M1 GPON Fiber Gateway with dual-band Wi-Fi 6
• HomeVantage NVG578M2 GPON Fiber Gateway with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, with enhanced Wi-Fi®
• HomeVantage NVG568M2 Ethernet Gateway with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, for use with a separate ONU/ONT

“We’re excited to debut our new HomeVantage line of fiber gateways that enable our service provider partners to consistently elevate the connected home experience,” stated Ken Haase, vice president of product management, CommScope Home Networks. “HomeVantage home networking solutions are economically designed to provide cost-effective solutions for service providers with the ability to continually deliver next generation features and advanced consumer services to the home.”

CommScope is also launching a range of XGS-PON passive optical network (PON) data ONUs with optional voice services to deliver up to 10Gbps symmetrical broadband services over fiber. The ONU offerings include:

• HomeVantage N670 XGS-PON Fiber indoor ONU
• HomeVantage N675 XGS-PON Fiber indoor ONU with voice

CommScope home PON solutions are standards compliant and interoperable with leading OLT vendors, including CommScope’s FLX™ cloud-to-edge next-generation PON solution.

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Dell'Oro: Nokia continues to gain share in RAN market

Preliminary findings show that the slower momentum that has characterized the broader 2G-5G Radio Access Network (RAN) market since 4Q 2021 extended into 1Q 2023, spurring the overall RAN market to record a six consecutive quarter of more stable trends, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

“Despite lackluster topline growth, the quarter was actually very interesting both from a regional and supplier perspective,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Not surprisingly, growth is now transitioning away from the advanced markets towards the slower-to-adopt 5G markets. But the speed of this shift was perhaps a bit surprising as the pendulum swung drastically towards the positive in India while the North American RAN market performed much worse than expected.  And from a supplier perspective, vendor rankings were, for the most part, stable in the quarter. Vendor revenue shares, however, were impacted by the vastly different growth trajectories across the suppliers,” continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the 1Q 2023 RAN report:

• Top 5 RAN 1Q 2023 RAN suppliers include Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Samsung.
• Top 4 RAN 1Q 2023 RAN suppliers outside of China include Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and Samsung.
• Nokia recorded the highest growth rate among the top 5 suppliers, while Ericsson and Samsung both lost some ground in the first quarter.
• The report also shows that Nokia’s RAN revenue share outside of China has been trending upward over the past five quarters.
• The Asia Pacific RAN market has been revised upward to reflect the higher baseline in India.

https://www.delloro.com/news/ran-still-slow-but-stronger-than-expected-in-1q-2023/

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Poland's Hawe Telekom hits single-module 1.6 Tb/s with Infinera’s ICE6

Hawe Telekom, a wholesale carrier based in Poland, completed a live network trial of Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent solution. In the trial, which was conducted on Hawe Telekom’s Warsaw-Poznan-Frankfurt route, Infinera’s ICE6 technology delivered high-performance 600G, 700G, and 800G transmissions on Hawe Telekom’s existing optical line system.

“ICE6 operating in our international system has achieved full 800G single-wavelength throughput. Each ICE6 module has two line interfaces, which enabled us to achieve a total transmission of 1.6T on a single interface module. This validates Hawe Telekom’s ability to meet the highest operator standards, and we are prepared to offer the highest-speed services to our customers,” said Dominik Drozdowski, Vice President of the Management Board, Hawe Telekom S.A.

“Deploying Infinera’s innovative and industry-leading ICE6 solution will enable Hawe Telekom to keep pace with bandwidth demands and scale as needed, delivering secure, high-capacity services at the lowest cost possible,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Infinera. “We look forward to working with Hawe Telekom to deploy ICE6 across their network.”

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Stathera raises US$15M for MEMS timing devices

Stathera, a start-up based in Montreal, announced US$15 million in a Series A funding round for its MEMS timing solutions.

Stathera also announced a commercial collaboration agreement with South Korean conglomerate, Doosan. The company is also pursuing partnerships with semiconductor industry leader MediaTek, as well as quartz timing leader TXC.

The round was co-led by BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund and Celesta Capital, with additional participation from strategic investors including MediaTek, Seiko Epson, and TXC.

“Technology scaling using conventional timing architectures has hit a wall when it comes to synchronizing next-generation electronics. Stathera’s technology introduces a new approach to integrating and manufacturing timing devices,” said George Xereas, Stathera’s CEO and Co-founder. “We are excited to be the only company with state-of-the-art DualModeTM frequency technology, which has the potential to re-architect the entire $9.4 Billion electronics timing industry. We are grateful to our investors for recognizing and investing in this potential, which will allow us to expand our world class team and drive commercialization.”

https://www.stathera.com/

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NTT demos 1.4Tbps wireless in the sub-THz band

Marking a major step toward 6G, NTT achieved the world’s first “orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing high-capacity wireless transmission—at 1.44 Tbps—using an ultra-wide bandwidth of 32 GHz.  This is the equivalent of approximately 35,000 ultra-high-definition 4K videos (at about 40 Mbps).

The demonstration used the sub-THz band within the range from 135 GHz to 170 GHz.

NTT said its approach used an analog circuit called a “Butler matrix” to increase the spatial multiplexing order by multiplexing multiple OAM waves. This approach reduces the enormous amount of digital signal processing required to eliminate interference between multiplexed data streams in high-capacity communications exceeding one terabit.

NTT succeeded in developing an antenna-integrated Butler matrix that operates with a wide bandwidth and low loss. The antenna-integrated Butler matrix is designed to simultaneously generate and separate eight different OAM waves over a very wide bandwidth, i.e., 135 to 170 GHz, which can be used to multiplex and transmit eight data signals. Moreover, by performing OAM multiplexing transmission with two different polarizations, it is possible to multiplex and transmit twice as many data signals simultaneously without them interfering. 

This technology is expected to enable (i) broadband and high-speed wireless transmission comparable to optical transmission systems and (ii) seamless connection between wireless and optical transmission systems without the need for a complex digital signal-processing system for spatial multiplexing, since the analog circuit (i.e., the Butler matrix) handles the multiplexing of OAM waves. The next step in this development is to conduct demonstrations over longer distances (exceeding 100 m) while envisioning various applications of this technology in the real world, including wireless backhaul/fronthaul between base stations and relay transmission.

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CableLabs issues 100G Coherent PON specification

Earlier this month, CableLabs issued an Architecture Specification for Coherent Passive Optical Networks (CPON) 100 Gbps (100G) Single Wavelength PON. 

Promising increased capacity per wavelength, extended reach and higher port density, the new spec brings coherent detect to PON access networks. Existing PON standards rely on Intensity-Modulation Direct-Detect (IM-DD) technology, which is approaching limits in terms of capacity and network reach.

With coherent detection, 100G CPON extends the reach of PON over fiber networks up to 80 kilometers. Current PON implementations typically are 25 km or less.

In addition, CPON offers a split ratio up to 512:1, providing 100 Gbps to support up to 512 end users on a single OLT port while maintaining a typical reach of 25 kilometers.

https://www.cablelabs.com/specifications/CPON-SP-ARCH

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Cisco’s revenues rise 14% on strong quarter

Cisco reported third quarter revenue for the period ended April 29, 2023 of $14.6 billion, up 14% year-over-year. Net income (GAAP) was $3.2 billion or $0.78 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $4.1 billion or $1.00 per share, up 15% year-over-year.

"We once again delivered a strong quarter in a dynamic environment," said Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco. "In Q3, we delivered record revenue and double-digit growth in both software and subscription revenue. As key technologies like cloud, AI and security continue to scale, Cisco's long-established leadership in networking, and the breadth of our portfolio position us well for the future."

"Our operational discipline and focused execution resulted in strong top and bottom-line growth, margin expansion and record operating cash flow," said Scott Herren, CFO of Cisco. "Our healthy backlog, recurring revenue streams and RPO, as well as the improving availability of supply, underpin our confidence to increase full year guidance."

Some highlights:

• Total revenue was up 14% at $14.6 billion, with product revenue up 17% and service revenue was up 3%. 
• Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 13%, EMEA up 16%, and APJC was up 11%. 
• Product revenue performance was led by growth in Secure, Agile Networks up 29%, Internet for the Future up 5%, End-to-End Security up 2%, and Optimized Application Experiences up 12%. Collaboration was down 13%.
• On a non-GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 65.2%, 64.5%, and 67.3%, respectively, as compared with 65.3%, 64.1%, and 68.9%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
• Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 64.2% for the Americas, 66.6% for EMEA and 66.4% for APJC.

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Medusa cable to connect 11 countries across Mediterranean

Orange Tunisia and Medusa Submarine Cable System signed an agreement to deploy a submarine cable stretching from Lisbon to the Egyptian city of Port Said, passing various Mediterranean countries en route. It will have 16 landing points in different countries including Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Algeria, France, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.

At more than 8,000 km in length, the system is believed to be the longest in the Mediterranean. Implementation is scheduled for the end of 2025.

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Juniper integrates ChatGPT into Marvis AI

Juniper Networks is integrating ChatGPT with Marvis, its virtual network assistant (VNA) driven by Mist AI. This enables Juniper customers and partners to access public-facing knowledgebase information using Large Language Models (LLM). In addition, new Marvis integrations with Zoom enable superior video conferencing experiences while significantly reducing troubleshooting costs. 

Juniper says ChatGPT brings more human-like conversational capabilities, particularly with respect to documentation and support issues. Specifically, Marvis now leverages a LLM API to respond to user queries for technical documentation and other publicly available historical knowledge base information. For example, customers can ask Marvis “What do the Access Point LED lights mean?” or “List steps to configure Juniper campus fabric” and receive an accurate and direct response in the typical ChatGPT style in addition to a list of relevant documents. 

“AI is the next step in automating tasks that typically require a human IT domain expert, improving how IT teams operate the network with AI-driven tools like Marvis and its conversational interface,” said Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer at Juniper Networks. “Juniper Mist has always been a pioneer in utilizing proven AIOps to deliver assured user experiences from client to cloud, and with these latest LLM enhancements, Marvis will provide even more actionable knowledge and be an even more valuable member of the IT team.” 

In addition, Juniper introduced a new AP24 Access Point. This 2.4 GHz/5 GHz/6 GHz tri-band capable device (dual band concurrent) supports up to 3.6Gbps throughput. It also features the standard Juniper Mist dedicated scanning radio for data collection and intelligent Radio Resource Management (RRM) capabilities to intelligently choose the best band to use. 

The AP24 complements other Wi-Fi 6E access points recently announced by Juniper, which include the AP45 (2.4 GHz/5 GHz/6 GHz quad-radio, 4x4:4SS, vBLE array) and AP34 (2.4 GHz/5 GHz/6 GHz quad-radio, 2x2:2SS, omni BLE).

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