Monday, September 4, 2023

Tech Update: Public Cloud-like VPC Networking for All

How to achieve consistent VPC-style networking for applications across public cloud and private infrastructure? 

Alex Saroyan, CEO from Netris, breaks it down for you:

- Alex discusses the shift towards cloud-native applications and the challenges of latency, cost, and data sovereignty issues that come with it. He emphasizes that while the public cloud is not the only infrastructure where applications run, it is crucial for the new generation of engineers and applications.

- The concept of VPC networking: Alex introduces VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) networking, a framework that simplifies infrastructure for engineers. He explains how VPC networking differs from traditional networking, highlighting its high-level abstraction that allows engineers to work more efficiently without needing to be experts in network protocols.

- The future of hybrid cloud environments: Alex shares insights on the growing trend of companies going hybrid, building private clouds, or creating new infrastructures. He discusses how Netris helps customers leverage the automation and high-level abstractions of the cloud in their private cloud and bare metal environments, allowing them to focus on their core business rather than becoming infrastructure experts.

https://youtu.be/v-oA5g3jq6w

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Zayo adds Bordeaux wavelength connecting Paris and Marseille

Zayo activated a new Bordeaux wavelength route connecting Paris and Marseille using its existing fiber network in France.

Bordeaux is a strategic connection for Zayo’s global network due to its central location in the South West region of France, thriving technology industry and proximity to cable landing station locations. Zayo’s expansion in Bordeaux provides the opportunities to  tap into this growing market and provide critical connectivity infrastructure to support the region’s digital economy.

As part of the route expansion, Zayo selected Equinix’s first International Business Exchange data centre in Bordeaux (BX1) as one of its major hubs on the new route. This will act as the connectivity hub for the new Amitié subsea cable, delivered this summer by a consortium of Hyperscalers made up  of Microsoft & Meta, Orange, Vodafone and Aquacomms. It will play a key role in responding to rapidly increasing bandwidth demand in the region. 

Régis Castagné, Managing Director of Equinix France comments: “We’re delighted to be part of the expansion of this new line to extend its reach to France’s main economic zones. We set up our first data centre in Bordeaux – BX1 – less than two years ago because we believed in the region’s potential as a new connectivity hub for France, and we’re delighted today to see a growing demand for high-speed capacity between Bordeaux and the rest of Europe. This project will undoubtedly support the growth of our customers and the region’s digital economy, while work on the Amitié submarine cable for which our facilities are the first gateway has just been completed.”

https://www.zayo.com/info/eu/?utm_source=website_newsroom&utm_campaign=Bordeaux_route_2023&utm_medium=press%20release

Lockheed Martin delivers 5G testbed to U.S. Marine Corp

Lockheed Martin has delivered the final Phase 1 Initial Prototype 5G testbed variant for the Open Systems Interoperable and Reconfigurable Infrastructure Solution (OSIRIS) to the Marine Corps program management team at Camp Pendleton, California.

OSIRIS is a 5G communications network infrastructure testbed for expeditionary operations experimentation for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering's (OUSD R&E) FutureG & 5G Office and the USMC.

“The Lockheed Martin-led team, in close partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps has proven that quickly evolving 5G commercial technology can be leveraged in near real-time to solve current and emergent mission challenges,” said Deon Viergutz, vice president, Lockheed Martin Spectrum Convergence. “The OSIRIS program is leveraging Lockheed Martin’s experience maturing vendor-interoperable solutions based on open standards, which will enable a wide variety of composable 5G solutions tailored to any mission and platform.”

The final testbed will consist of three distinct 5G standalone network configurations: a trailer-mounted 5G Nomadic Tower, an ATV-mounted 5G Mobile Relay, and a transit case deployable 5G Operational Facility.

The OSIRIS testbed will help to address the need for test facilities that enable rapid experimentation and dual-use application prototyping.

The testbed will also identify areas for further synergy between 5G networks and DOD platforms, and allow for the connection of various 5G-ready user devices, sensors, vehicles, and endpoints. 

https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2023-08-31-Lockheed-Martin-Delivers-Initial-5G-Testbed-to-US-MarineCorps-and-Begins-Mobile-Network-Experimentation#assets_all

Verizon upgrades Distributed Antenna System at MetLife Stadium

Verizon is deploying a new Distributed Antenna System (DAS) throughout the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The new DAS system will provide 4G LTE service and 5G Ultra Wideband service using Verizon’s C-band spectrum designed for high capacity and wide coverage in addition to the 5G service it already offers in the stadium using its premium millimeter wave spectrum. It will cover the field, bowl, concourse (including the four gate entrances), all clubs/suites, and the ticketing areas. As part of the new design, engineers are also adding a performance enhancement technology that divides crowds into sectors like pieces of a pie. Each sector can be adjusted individually to handle wireless traffic. 

Verizon is also increasing the capacity on the fiber connections in and out of MetLife so they can carry 10 times the amount of data. 


Coherent's Dr. Mark Sobey announces retirement

Coherent announced the retirement of Dr. Mark Sobey, Predient of its Laser division.

Dr. Sobey has served as President of Coherent’s Lasers Segment since the closing of the merger between II-VI and Coherent, Inc., in July 2022. Prior to the merger, Dr. Sobey served as Coherent, Inc.’s, Chief Operating Officer from 2020 to 2022. He was previously Executive Vice President and General Manager of Coherent, Inc.’s, OEM Laser Sources until being promoted to COO, and before that he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of Specialty Laser Systems (SLS) from 2010 to 2016, and Vice President and General Manager of SLS from 2007 until 2010.

“Dr. Sobey’s long track record of success with the former Coherent, Inc., combined with his outstanding expertise in laser and fiber optics technology, have provided invaluable leadership to our combined company over the past 14 months,” said Dr. Vincent D. Mattera, Jr., Chair and CEO. “Dr. Sobey’s scientific and technical prowess was a great asset to Coherent Corp., and I personally will miss him as a colleague on our Executive Leadership Team. We thank him for his significant contributions and wish him and his family all the best following his retirement.”

Samsung readies 12nm-Class 32Gb DDR5 DRAM

Samsung Electronics is preparing to begin mass production of the highest-capacity 32-gigabit (Gb) DDR5 DRAM using 12 nm-class process technology. 

This achievement comes after Samsung began mass production of its 12nm-class 16Gb DDR5 DRAM in May 2023. 

Previously, DDR5 128GB DRAM modules manufactured using 16Gb DRAM required the Through Silicon Via (TSV) process. However, by using Samsung's 32Gb DRAM, the 128GB module can now be produced without using the TSV process, while reducing power consumption by approximately 10% compared to 128GB modules with 16Gb DRAM. This technological breakthrough makes the product the optimal solution for enterprises that emphasize power efficiency, such as data centers.

"With our 12nm-class 32Gb DRAM, we have secured a solution that will enable DRAM modules of up to 1-terabyte (TB), allowing us to be ideally positioned to serve the growing need for high-capacity DRAM in the era of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and big data,” said SangJoon Hwang, Executive Vice President of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics. “We will continue to develop DRAM solutions through differentiated process and design technologies to break the boundaries of memory technology."

Having developed its first 64-kilobit (Kb) DRAM in 1983, Samsung has now succeeded in enhancing its DRAM capacity by a factor of 500,000 over the last 40 years.


Thursday, August 31, 2023

Tech Update: 4 Tbps FPGA with In-Package Optical I/O

Bringing optical I/O as close as possible to the processor is key design aim for high-performance computing. Intel and Ayar Labs demonstrate  a 4 Tbps bidirectional communication between two optically enabled Intel FPGAs using Ayar Labs TeraPHY optical I/O chiplets. Data generated from each FPGA is optically transmitted from one board and received and verified on the other board. 


Mark Wade, Chief Scientist and Co-founder of Ayar Labs, and Anthony Yu, Vice President of Computing and Wired Infrastructure at GlobalFoundries, walk us through the demo:

  • They showcase Ayar Labs' TeraPHY optical I/O chipletss, built in the GlobalFoundries' 45nm silicon photonics process, which enables breakthrough multi-terabit per second optical connectivity solutions.
  • They discuss the evolution of fiber attached technology, highlighting the importance of figuring out how to attach fiber once you have Optical I/O chiplets in the package.
  • They demonstrate the assembly of the whole solution into a standard card level form factor, integrating laser sources externally from the SoC package and sending laser light into the optical chiplets through optical fiber routed on the edge of the card.

The demo represents a major milestone on the path to drive optical connectivity all the way to the processor.

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Cignal AI: IPoDWDM represents a $1.6B Component Opportunity by 2026

 Metro WDM equipment spending will soon be disrupted by a transition to pluggable optics used in routers, according to the recent Impact of IPoDWDM report from Cignal AI. IPoDWDM is a 20-year-old concept, but new factors such as the emergence of 400ZR, architecturally progressive hyperscale network operators, and changing traffic and network management trends will catalyze widespread deployment by 2026.

“IP-over-DWDM is poised to disrupt the Metro WDM equipment market and will shift some revenue and technical leadership to vendors of coherent pluggables,” said Kyle Hollasch, Lead Analyst for Transport Hardware at Cignal AI. “A significant amount of hardware spending will be displaced, but total spending on equipment and pluggables will continue to grow due to the new applications enabled by router-hosted pluggable coherent modules.”

Additional Report Findings:

  • Most IP-over-DWDM modules deployed by hyperscale operators will drive new applications and architectures, but roughly half of these modules will replace traditional standalone hardware.
  • Total Cloud spending on traditional optical transport hardware will decline -5% annually through 2026.
  • IP-over-DWDM module revenue will more than offset this decline as 400ZR and 800ZR pluggables will represent nearly half of WDM transport spending by hyperscale operators.
  • Coherent modules used in IPoDWDM applications represent a $1.6B opportunity by 2026.
  • Service Provider optical spending will be flat through 2026 as a drop in Metro WDM spending due to IPoDWDM will offset growth in Long Haul.

Ciena reports sales of $1.07 billion, up 23%, solid performance

 Citing solid performance across all regions and a growing backlog, Ciena reported revenue of $1.07 billion for its fiscal third quarter ended July 29, 2023, up 23% compared with a year earlier. Ciena's adjusted (non-GAAP) net income for the fiscal third quarter 2023 was $89.1 million, or $0.59 per diluted common share, which compares to an adjusted (non-GAAP) net income of $49.0 million, or $0.33 per diluted common share, for the fiscal third quarter 2022.

"We delivered excellent results for the fiscal third quarter with strength across all regions," said Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ciena. "We are encouraged by increased customer activity that, when combined with our elevated backlog, market leadership and expanding addressable market, we believe will drive growth and market share gains going forward."

"We are very encouraged by the level of overall customer activity that we are seeing across all regions and segments. Most notably, we are seeing early signs of near-term requirements with our customers as they work to ensure their network readiness for machine learning and AI traffic coming out of the data center and into the WAN."

Some additional highlights:

  • Added 18 new customers in Q3 for WaveLogic 5 Extreme, bringing the total customer count to 246. 
  • First order for WaveLogic 6 in the quarter, well before it is even generally available. 
  • Routing and Switching revenue was  up 27% year-over-year, with the addition of more than 30 new customers for the portfolio in the quarter.
  • First customer order for the WAVE router platform.
  • Platform Software and Services revenue was up 24% year-over-year. 
  • One 10% customer in the quarter, which is a cloud provider. 
  • Total non-telco revenue was 46% year-over-year in the quarter to $487 million, a record high. 
  • Subsea revenue was up 21% year-over- year in the quarter to $76 million. 
  • Revenue from service provider customers was up 9% year-over-year, which included one Tier 1 customer that came in just under 10% threshold in Q3.

https://investor.ciena.com/events-presentations


Lumotive unveils Optical Beam Steering Chip for Next Gen LiDAR

Lumotive, a start-up based in Seattle, announced full production implementation of its Light Control Metasurface technology – the world's first digital beam steering solution.

The Lumotive LM device is a solid-state optical semiconductor which can be manufactured in high volume. It enables the next generation of lidar to expand into new applications and become the pervasive standard for intelligent 3D sensing worldwide. '

LM10 Key Features

  • Ultra wide 160-degree FOV in the steering axis
  • 10x9mm active aperture area fits many system designs
  • True solid-state, zero-inertia beam steering
  • Software-definable, non-sequential dynamic scanning
  • Compatible with all laser types, including VCSEL and EEL
  • Evaluation kit and full lidar reference designs available

"After 8 years of rigorous R&D, we are thrilled to bring the first ever solid-state optical beam steering product to market," said Dr. Gleb Akselrod, Founder and CTO of Lumotive. "LCM technology, which uses the revolutionary physics of dynamic metasurfaces to actively steer light without any moving parts, is enabling never before seen capabilities in 3D sensing and many other applications where software-controlled optical beamforming is critical."

"With the unveiling of our LM10, we are entering a new era of programmable optics where mastering light control is no longer a distant vision, but a here-and-now reality," said Dr. Sam Heidari, CEO of Lumotive. "By combining the transformative power of metamaterials with our patented semiconductor manufacturing process that enables low-cost mass production, we're democratizing high-quality, software-definable 3D sensing."

https://lumotive.com/

Vodafone implements Open RAN across U.K. with Samsung

Samsung is supporting Vodafone's large-scale deployment of Open RAN across 2,500 mobile sites in Wales and the South-West of England.

Specifically, Samsung is providing its vRAN software and Open RAN radio solutions for this deployment, which is described as the largest Open RAN rollout in the UK.

  • The vRAN software supports Multi-RAT (multiple radio access technology) across 4G and 5G.
  • The radio solutions include Massive MIMO radios in the low- and mid-bands.
  • Samsung has fully integrated its 64T64R Massive MIMO radios into Open RAN, demonstrating its capability to handle integration.

Vodafone has been at the forefront of Open RAN innovation and we are excited to kick-off the mass installation of Open RAN, working together with Samsung Networks and the rest of our ecosystem,” said Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK. “After rounds of testing and validation, we are well prepared to embark on this new phase in our Open RAN expansion, and look forward to opening up a new world of possibilities that will transform customer experiences.”

“Now we are witnessing how innovative technologies like Open RAN and vRAN can further bolster 5G capabilities, creating new paths and possibilities for network evolution,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Following this historic milestone in Europe, we will continue working together with Vodafone to take their Open RAN networks to new heights.”

https://news.samsung.com/global/vodafone-and-samsung-begin-mass-open-ran-rollout-across-the-united-kingdom

Nutanix hits sales of $494.2 million, up 28% yoy

Nutanix reported revenue of $494.2 million for its fourth quarter ended July 31, 2023, up 28% compared to the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating income was $63.6 million compared to a loss of $(37.8) million a year earlier.

“Our fourth quarter capped off a fiscal year that showed healthy year-over-year top line growth and sharp year-over-year improvements in profitability and free cash flow,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nutanix. “Our consistent execution over the course of the year against an uncertain macro backdrop is a testament to the benefits of our subscription model, as well as the value our customers see in the Nutanix Cloud Platform as they look to modernize their IT footprints and implement hybrid multicloud operating models.”


https://ir.nutanix.com/financial/quarterly-results

VMware posts Q2 sales of $3.41B, up 2% yoy

VMware reported revenue for the second quarter of $3.41 billion, an increase of 2% from the second quarter of fiscal 2023.  Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter was $792 million, or $1.83 per diluted share, up 11% per diluted share compared to $697 million, or $1.64 per diluted share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

“We delivered solid Q2 results. Our customers continue to invest in our Multi-Cloud offerings as they modernize their infrastructure to run enterprise, cloud-native, and new AI workloads,” said Raghu Raghuram, CEO, VMware. “At the recent VMware Explore Las Vegas, we unveiled new offerings including the next evolution of VMware Cloud, NSX+, vSAN Max, and an enhanced Tanzu Application Platform, all designed to help customers innovate faster and reduce total cost of ownership. We also introduced VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA to accelerate AI-enabled applications in the enterprise.”

  • Subscription and SaaS revenue for the second quarter was $1.26 billion, an increase of 34% year-over-year.
  • Subscription and SaaS revenue constituted 37% of total revenue for the quarter.
  • Subscription and SaaS ARR exiting the second quarter was $5.31 billion, an increase of 36% year-over-year.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Napatech launches 400Gbps SmartNIC based on Intel Agilex FPGA

Napatech announced general availability of its first 400Gbps programmable SmartNIC based on the Intel Agilex 7 FPGAs.

The new NT400 SmartNIC platform includes two QSFP56 network ports, supporting up to 2x200G traffic. At the core of the NT400 platform is the Intel Agilex 7 FPGA F-Tile chiplet, which incorporates a configurable, hardened Ethernet protocol stack.

The SmartNIC hardware is complemented by Napatech's portfolio of production-grade software packages. The platform's PCIe Gen 4 16-lane host interface enables full-duplex 2x100Gbps traffic between network ports and host applications.

Napatech said it chose the Intel Agilex 7 FPGA for its scalability options, which allow support for five different configurations that meet various price, performance, power and feature goals.

“The NT400 platform represents the latest generation within our portfolio of SmartNIC solutions,” said Jarrod Siket, Chief Marketing Officer at Napatech. “We will deliver multiple SKUs based on this platform, providing products with memory configurations as well features like time synchronization and management ports that are precisely tuned to the requirements of our customers’ applications, all packaged with the applicable production-grade software.”

“We are delighted to see Napatech choose the Intel Agilex 7 FPGA for their leading-edge SmartNIC solutions,” said Mike Fitton, Vice President Programmable Solutions Group and General Manager, Network Business Division at Intel. “The combination of our FPGAs, which deliver high performance, and power efficiency plus a rich feature set for the most demanding applications, together with Napatech’s production-grade hardware and software, helps ensure that customers can deliver leading solutions for a wide range of enterprise and telecom applications.”


https://www.napatech.com/media/press-releases/

Forbes: Intel’s Chiplet Strategy Accelerates FPGA Development

An article in Forbes discusses how Intel's use of chiplets is accelerating the development of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). 

Specifically chiplets are being used for input/output (I/O) functions, allowing the central portion of the FPGA to remain unchanged and eliminating the need to redesign the main FPGA die. 

The article also notes that Intel's use of chiplets is part of a broader trend in the semiconductor industry toward integrating multiple chiplets in a package to deliver product innovation across market segments.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tiriasresearch/2023/08/21/intels-chiplet-strategy-accelerates-fpga-development/?linkId=100000214920972&sh=551f16285561


Brightspeed names Tom Maguire as next CEO

Brightspeed, the fifth largest incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in the U.S., selected Tom Maguire, current chief operating officer, to succeed Bob Mudge as chief executive officer. Mudge will step into the role of executive chair of the Board of Directors, responsible for the strategic direction of the company. Brightspeed will also welcome Manuel (Manny) Sampedro as chief operating officer. The changes are effective November 1, 2023.

“When we began our exploration of a new internet company in 2020, Bob Mudge, Chris Creager and Tom Maguire were the advisors we trusted to help evaluate and shape the opportunity. We asked each of them to stay on to take the company through the launch and initial stabilization, and we’ve been so pleased with all that this team has accomplished so far. As planned, Chris transitioned to an advisor role earlier this year, and this next transition is a natural next step in the team’s evolution,” said Aaron Sobel, partner, private equity at Apollo and Brightspeed Board member. “Bob has helped to shape Brightspeed into the growing, thriving company it is today, and I’m pleased he has agreed to step into the role of executive chair for our Board, where he will remain actively involved in the company.”

With more than four decades of experience in telecommunications, Tom Maguire brings a breadth of expertise to his new role. Beginning as a field technician and rising through various management and leadership roles at Verizon, Tom ultimately served as SVP, national operations support, responsible for the processes and systems supporting an operations team of 35,000 field technicians, engineering and network operations employees. In his role as COO at Brightspeed, Tom leads a team of nearly 3,000 employees and is responsible for service and repair, as well as the company’s multi-year fiber network deployment.



UScellular gains early C-Band spectrum access

UScellular has received full access to the 5G C-Band spectrum it was awarded from Auction 107 in March 2021, allowing the company to expand its 5G network faster than anticipated. 

Earlier this year, UScellular upgraded more than 440 cell sites in preparation for this spectrum access, and the company will turn on this enhanced 5G service in the coming weeks – three months ahead of schedule. C-Band spectrum technology brings faster data speeds and more capacity and enhances the network performance for customers.

"This early access to our C-Band spectrum allows us to accelerate our plans and bring a superior network experience to more mobile and Home Internet customers earlier than expected," said Mike Irizarry, executive vice president and chief technology officer at UScellular. "Additional spectrum access is important as we advance our mission to connect people to what matters most."

newsroom.uscellular.com

Ericsson teams with AWS and Hitachi America R&D on Private 5G

Ericsson, AWS and Hitachi America R&D enabled the private 5G infrastructure trial at Hitachi Astemo Americas’ electric motor vehicle manufacturing plant in Berea, Kentucky.

The solution leverages Ericsson Private 5G side by side with the AWS Snow Family to provide the private cellular networks that were foundational in establishing machine learning (ML) models within the Hitachi manufacturing complex.

Using Hitachi video analytics, real-time video of the component assembly operation was fed across the Ericsson private 5G network to help detect defects earlier, reducing wasted material and lost production.

“We explored and validated new use cases enabled by private 5G to show how smart factories can already function,” Sudhanshu Gaur, Vice President of R&D for Hitachi America and Chief Architect at Hitachi Astemo Americas, says. “The combination of private 5G, cloud and artificial intelligence/machine learning automated technologies has the potential to revolutionize the way we manufacture products, and we are excited to be at the forefront of this innovation.”

Globe Telecom deploys Nokia’s Interleaved Passive Active Antennas

Nokia is deploying itsmodular Interleaved Passive Active Antenna (IPAA+) for Globe Telecom, Inc, across the southern islands of the Philippines. 

Nokia’s advanced IPAA+, has a light, modular design and supports all 5G frequency bands in a single compact antenna including the 2.6 GHz spectrum band. Nokia said its IPAA+ also has the capability to support other bands, which means investments are protected. The new IPAA+ is the size and weight of a standard multiband antenna and makes it easier and faster for service providers to deploy their 5G networks through just a simple antenna swap. C

Nokia and Globe’s engineering team also successfully trialed a Globe Telecom-specific variant of the IPAA+ in the field. The field test was carried out in Tantangan, South Cotabato in the island of Mindanao, making Globe Telecom the first operator in the world to successfully test the 2.6 GHz IPAA+ variant.

Jeciel Nuyda, President at Nokia Shanghai Bell Philippines, said: “We are delighted to partner with Globe Telecom on this deal that will see our state-of-the-art IPAA+ products being deployed in the Philippines. These products are lighter, more modular and cover all sub-6GHz 5G frequency bands. We look forward to collaborating closely with Globe on this important deployment.”


Nokia field tests mobile network for the moon

 Nokia conducted a major field test of the 4G LTE lunar network it will provide to NASA.  The tests were conducted at the Southern Colorado Autonomous Test Facility in partnership with Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost.





  • In October 2020, NASA selected Nokia to deploy the first LTE/4G communications system on the lunar surface. Nokia’s lunar network consists of an LTE Base Station with integrated Evolved Packet Core (EPC) functionalities, LTE User Equipment, RF antennas and high-reliability operations and maintenance (O&M) control software. The solution has been specially designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the launch and lunar landing, and to operate in the extreme conditions of space. The fully integrated cellular network meets very stringent size, weight and power constraints of space payloads in an extremely compact form factor. Nokia is partnering with Intuitive Machines for this mission to integrate this groundbreaking network into their lunar lander and deliver it to the lunar surface. The network will self-configure upon deployment and establish the first LTE communications system on the Moon.