Juniper Rolls out Optical Upgrades

Juniper Networks announced a number of enhancements to its optical portfolio, including:

• Photonic and Coherent DWDM Interface Cards for the Juniper Networks PTX and MX series routers; specifically, new line cards for the PTX3000 that fully collapse the optical layer with the IP/MPLS layer, the industry’s first 1-TB coherent DWDM line card for the PTX5000 and a coherent 100GbE DWDM interface card with a highly programmable and service rich programmable forwarding ASIC for the MX Series. These line cards, which also feature highly programmable multi-layer SDN control, are designed for multi-vendor interoperability and highly efficient data center interconnect and metro networking needs.
• New optical layer support for Junos Space Connectivity Services Director (CSD) that extends visibility, control and management capabilities beyond the IP layer to the optical layer, and unified fault, configuration, and performance management.
• Enhanced Multi-layer SDN programmability for our Junos operating system and theNorthStar Controller that, when used in conjunction with Juniper Networks PTX and MX series routers, provides traffic automation for converged packet-optical layers.

http://www.juniper.net

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Molex and Cisco Target Double-Density QSFP Interfaces

Molex and Cisco announced their participation in a multi-supplier agreement (MSA) to create high-speed, double-density quad small form factor pluggable (QSFP-DD), a new high-speed interface. Thirteen industry leaders have joined the MSA to collaborate in developing this new high-speed interface.

The new QSFP-DD interface expands on widely adopted QSFP enabling systems to support backwards compatibility to existing 40 GbE and 100 GbE QSFP interfaces as well as a clear path to future 2x100 GbE and 400 GbE interfaces. By maintaining the same port density per rack unit, customers can speed up networks without redesigning the architecture.

“With a clear trend towards hyper-converged fabrics, customers need an aligned switch silicon and optics roadmap,” said Luca Cafiero, senior vice president and general manager at Cisco. “Global IP traffic is expected to reach 1.4 zettabytes next year, reflecting a CAGR from 2012 to 2017 of 23 percent. All players involved in network architecture will have to step up their game to meet this demand, and the MSA for QSFP DD is a big step in that direction. We are confident that, with industry leaders like Molex, we can help to lead the development of high-speed technology that will be broadly used throughout the industry.”

http://www.cisco.com
http://www.molex.com

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MACOM Showcases PAM-4 for 200G and 400G Systems

M/A-COM Technology Solutions is demonstrating a complete electronics chip-set utilizing PAM-4 technology and enabling a 56Gbps per lane data rate. This featured IP demonstrates another facet of MACOM’s advanced chipset solution for 200G and 400G optical connectivity in both parallel single mode fiber (PSM) and wave division multiplexing (WDM) applications.

MACOM said its technology demonstration at this week's #OFC16 achieves industry leading transimpedance amplifier (TIA) sensitivity and low power, which enables the development of 200G QSFP and 400G MSA optical modules. On the transmit side, MACOM’s demonstration will feature a 28Gbaud linear driver and Clock and Data Recovery (CDR). The signal will be transmitted over single mode fiber, and recovered on the receiver side using MACOM’s 28Gbaud TIA and retimed with MACOM’s receiver CDR.

“MACOM has achieved excellent performance in silicon through its 28Gbaud PAM-4 chipset IP. This technology, along with recently announced L-PIC™ silicon photonics and our CW lasers, will enable next generation 200Gbs and 400Gbs solutions for small form-factor optics,” said Preet Virk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks, MACOM.

http://www.macom.com

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NEL Ships First 16nm 100G/200G Coherent DSP

NTT Electronics (NEL) announced industry-first 16nm ultra-low power DSP for both 100G QPSK long-haul and 200G 16QAM Metro optical links.

The new 16nm DSP “ExaSPEED 200” consumes under 10W per 100Gbps in its 200G operation mode, doubling the power efficiency compared to the previous generation 20nm 100G Low Power DSP. It leverages 200G DSP core and 16nm CMOS fin-FET mixed-signal technologies that were developed in collaboration with Broadcom .

The new ExaSPEED 200 integrates enhanced forward error correction (EFEC) based on the de facto standard staircase code. The built-in EFEC enhances line-side interoperability up to Metro reach, and accelerates open networking and system hardware disaggregation.

“Large Service Providers are moving towards SDN-based flexible optical transport architecture to dynamically manage, plan, provision, and re-optimize optical networks with substantially reduced cost,” said Haruhiko Ichino, NEL Executive Vice President and General Manager of Broadband System & Device Business Group. “We are strongly committed to pioneering innovation in the coherent DSP in order to meet their expectation in flexible, software configurable optical ‘white box’ elements that are modular, with interoperable subsystems from multiple vendors,” he added.

http://www.ntt-electronics.com

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Red Hat Posts Revenue of $544 Million, up 17%

Red Hat reported fourth quarter revenue of $544 million, up 17% year-over-year or 21% in constant currency; full fiscal year revenue of $2.05 billion, up 15% year-over-year or 21% in constant currency. GAAP operating income for the quarter was $72 million, up 6% year-over-year.

“Enterprises increasingly adopting hybrid cloud infrastructures and open source technologies drove our strong results. The fourth quarter marked our 56th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, contributing to Red Hat’s first fiscal year crossing $2 billion in total revenue,” stated Jim Whitehurst, President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Hat. “Customers are demanding technologies that modernize the development, deployment and life-cycle management of applications across hybrid cloud environments.

Some highlights:

• Subscription revenue from Infrastructure-related offerings for the quarter was $391 million, an increase of 15% in U.S. dollars year-over-year and 18% measured in constant currency. 
• Subscription revenue from Application Development-related and other emerging technologies offerings for the quarter was $89 million, an increase of 38% in U.S. dollars year-over-year and 43% measured in constant currency.

http://www.redhat.com

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Infinera's Infinite Capacity Engine Revs to 2.4 Tbps Capacity

Infinera unveiled its Infinite Capacity Engine, a multi-terabit optical subsystem combining the company's next generation FlexCoherent Processor and the photonics of its fourth generation photonic integrated circuit (PIC).

The Infinite Capacity Engine, which will be integrated into the Infinera portfolio of long-haul terrestrial, subsea, metro and data center interconnect platforms, breaks new ground for optical transport by being the first in the industry to deliver optical super-channel capacity up to 2.4 terabits per second and reach up to 12,000 kilometers in a single small package.

Infinera said its new Infinite Capacity Engine represents the next step function in WDM performance because of the capacity jump to 2.4 Tbps of optical bandwidth, combined with longer reach, better power efficiency and the integration of other advanced functions. Significantly, the Infinite Capacity Engine furthers the company's Instant Bandwidth capability, which enables pre-deployed bandwidth to be provisioned on-demand in 100 Gbps increments via software activation. New capabilities include 100G temporary licenses, enabling capacity to be deployed for a specific duration of time.

Some highlights of the Infinera Infinite Capacity Engine:

• Massive scale: supporting super-channels up to 2.4 Tbps from a single subsystem with up to 12 times more bandwidth than other implementations.
• Advanced Coherent Toolkit (ACT): delivers up to 60 percent more capacity-reach performance for submarine and terrestrial networks than the current generation of optical technologies by allowing extended reach and/or utilization of higher order modulation formats on a per channel or super-channel basis in challenging fiber environments. The Infinera ACT features Nyquist subcarriers, a new technology that increases tolerance for non-linear effects and SD-FEC gain sharing. In addition, multiple modulation formats are supported including matrix enhanced - phase shift keying (ME-PSK), BPSK, 3QAM, QPSK, 8QAM and 16QAM.
• Sliceable super-channels: provides the unique ability to deliver 2.4 Tbps of capacity in a single module with a single fiber pair. In addition, it provides fine-grained and flexible control of optical wavelengths at 100 Gb/s. The Infinite Capacity Engine can tune and route a 100 Gbps wavelength or N x 100 Gbps super-channels in multiple separate directions with any specified flexible grid coherent modulation across the extended C-Band. As a result, network line-card module requirements can be reduced up to 77 percent while delivering tremendous flexibility. Moreover, total cost of ownership can be reduced by up to 53 percent as compared to non-sliceable implementations.
• In-flight wire-speed encryption: encrypts traffic transparently at Layer 1 on a per service basis or in the bulk mode per super-channel, using the strong 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) key. The Infinite Capacity Engine is integrated with easy-to-use key exchange and cryptography mechanisms, providing wire-rate multi-terabit processing with more capacity than current industry solutions.

"The Infinera Infinite Capacity Engine ushers in a new era in optical transport networking and is the foundation for network operators to rapidly respond to massive bandwidth demands," said Dr. Dave Welch, Infinera Co-founder and President.

https://www.infinera.com/technology/engine/

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ADVA Launches MicroMu Module for DCI Scalability

ADVA Optical Networking introduced an active QSFP28 MicroMux module for its FSP 3000 CloudConnect data center interconnect (DCI) solution that lets customers convert a 100GbE client port into either 10 x 10GbE ports or 2 x 40GbE ports..

ADVA said its MicroMux module was developed to meet one single purpose – support existing client ports without lowering key efficiency or density metrics. The module is available in both single mode and multimode. It transports data over short reach, intermediate reach (40GbE) and long reach (10GbE). It allows customers to seamlessly mix 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE clients into the ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect’s single 400G line card without any footprint increase. The MicroMux module is also able to aggregate asynchronously or independently clocked 10GbE and 40GbE traffic.

“From day one, our FSP 3000 CloudConnect platform has been built directly with some of the world’s leading ICPs and CSPs. It’s this direct dialogue that has made our DCI technology so successful,” said Christoph Glingener, CTO, ADVA Optical Networking. “Our MicroMux module is the latest example of this. It’s an entirely unique device that drives our DCI solution even further ahead of the field. With one single QSFP28 module, customers are now able to convert a 100GbE client port into either 10 x 10GbE ports or 2 x 40GbE ports. This is true scalability. What’s more, it can be done without any detriment to the incredible data or power density of our FSP 3000 CloudConnect platform. This is unmatched in the industry. There’s simply no other vendor that can do this.”

http://www.advaoptical.com/

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Video: Cisco's Dave Ward on the Evolution of Open Networking

Open source software and open networking are rapidly advancing, says Dave Ward, CTO of Engineering and Chief Architect, Cisco.  The conversation has moved on from talking about protocols and SDN controllers.


Now we are working on reactive network platforms that leverage real-time telemetry. The SDN community also needs to understand who are the developers for each layer of the network. This will enable enterprises and Service Providers to operate similarly to how the cloud works.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/MMiyQvZbQOw

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Fujitsu Optical Releases CFP2 for 100G DP-QPSK, 200G DP-16QAM

Fujitsu Optical Components Limited (FOC) announced commercial production of its compact, low power consumption CFP2 ACO transceiver, which supports both the 100G DP-QPSK and the 200G DP-16QAM modulation formats.

FOC said its coherent transceiver has the same interface as the CFP2 MSA transceiver which is commonly used in 100G Ethernet applications and conforms to the OIF CFP2 ACO Class 1/Class 2 standards. The transceiver is compliant with the Class 2 standard and supports 16QAM transmission by using a linear modulator driver.

http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/foc/en/resources/news/press-releases/2016/20160317.html

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NeoPhotonics Samples 100G Class 3 Coherent Pluggable CFP2-ACO

NeoPhotonics has begun sampling its "ClearLight" CFP2-ACO (Analog Coherent Optics) Class 3 Coherent Pluggable Module -- the first in a series of high performance pluggable modules that expand upon the company’s coherent product suite to meet growing demand for high density coherent solutions for both telecom and datacenter networks.

The ClearLightTM CFP2-ACO combines all of the optical functions necessary for a coherent transponder in a standard form factor compact pluggable module and is designed to fully support the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) “Implementation Agreement for CFP2-Analog Coherent Optics Module” (OIF-CFP2-ACO-01.0, January 22, 2016) for Class 3. The module incorporates NeoPhotonics leading ultra-narrow linewidth external cavity tunable laser and high responsivity integrated coherent receiver, exhibits low electrical power consumption and is suitable for 100G DP-QPSK and 200G 16QAM operation. The ClearLightTM Class 3 CFP2-ACO is compatible with DSP (digital signal processor) solutions from multiple vendors and places the control of the optics outside the module with the DSP.

“We are pleased to announce initial customer sampling for the emerging Coherent Pluggable market with our first CFP-2 ACO module in a Class 3 configuration,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “We are building upon our core strength in advanced hybrid photonic integrated circuits to combine multiple different functions in a compact module utilizing the right material technology for each element. This will allow us to follow this first product with a series of modules to meet the ever increasing performance demands of future networks,” continued Mr. Jenks.

http://www.neophotonics.com

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MACOM Announces Dual 28Gbps Clock Data Recovery Devices

M/A-COM Technology Solutions introduced two dual 28Gbps Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) devices with an integrated laser driver and designed for SFP28 short reach (SR) or long reach (LR) module applications.

MACOM’s dual reference-free CDR devices feature multi-rate retiming, with the MASC-37028 retiming from 24Gbps to 26.5Gbps and the MASC-37029 retiming from 25.5Gbps to 28.1Gbps. The flexible output drive options with programmable output swing and eye shaping feature support VCSEL, DML and EML laser applications. The MASC-37029 also incorporates dedicated RS0/RS1 functionality to enable use with Fibre Channel speed negotiation.

“MACOM’s MASC-37028 and MASC-37029 are highly integrated, low-power 28G solutions designed to be flexible for both SR and LR SFP28 applications,” said Angus Lai, Director of Product Marketing, High-Performance Analog at MACOM. “These devices interface seamlessly with MACOM’s M03002, a low power single channel 28G TIA, for a complete SFP28 SR application solution. They are also compatible with MAOM-002301, a low power single channel 28G DML driver, for a complete SFP28 long reach application solution.”

http://www.macom.com

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TeliaSonera Considers Sale of Spanish Unit

TeliaSonera confirmed that it is in discussions with Zegona Communications, which is listed on the London stock exchange, over a possible offer for TeliaSonera’s Spanish operations Yoigo.

http://www.teliasonera.com

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Cumulus Names Josh Leslie as CEO, JR Rivers as CTO

Cumulus Networks named Josh Leslie as Chief Executive Officer, taking over the post from co-founder JR Rivers, who will now serve as CTO.

Leslie has served as Cumulus Networks' VP of Sales since June 2015. Prior to joining Cumulus Networks, Leslie ran worldwide field operations at Instart Logic where he was responsible for signing the company’s first 150 enterprise customers. He also spent six years at VMware where he held roles in sales, operations and business development as the company scaled from $100 million to $1 billion in revenue.

https://cumulusnetworks.com/blog/picking-up-the-baton11

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In Memorium: Andrew S. Grove 1936 – 2016

Intel announced the passing of Andrew S. Grove.

Present at Intel’s 1968 founding with Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, Andy Grove became Intel’s President in 1979 and CEO in 1987. He served as Chairman of the Board from 1997 to 2005. Both during his time at Intel and in retirement, Grove was one of the most influential figures in technology and business, writing best-selling books and widely cited articles, and speaking out on an array of prominent public issues.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “Andy made the impossible happen, time and again, and inspired generations of technologists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.”

http://www.intel.com

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Japan's O Three Project Touts SDN Milestones

Japan's O3 (O Three) Project, which is back by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced a number of SDN milestones:

1. Technology for a common control framework -- this structuralizes complex network configurations that span multiple layers (wireless, optical, packet, and other networks) and multiple domains, enabling the integrated and rapid construction/operation of virtual wide area networks. The technology takes virtual networks comprised of multi-layer/multi-domain networks and creates a database of their control structures. The database is used to visualize the virtual network, as well as automatically convert construction- and control-related processes to processes directed at devices comprising the physical network. These processes are then executed automatically. As a result, it becomes possible within a virtual wide area network to introduce value-added functions for individual applications, such as enhanced security through real-time analysis of transferred data, improved throughput achieved by traffic distribution, and improved reliability through redundancy.

2. Technologies for integrated control of multiple layers and domains -- uses the virtual network's control structure database mentioned in 1. to construct a resource pool that stores the relationship between the layers and domains within the physical and virtual networks. This enables the dynamic allocation of network resources that exist across different layers and domains, and realizes the efficient use and stable operation of virtual wide area networks. Specifically, they refer to technology for managing multi-layer network resources, technology for impact assessment and recovery in the event of multiple system failures, and technology for checking the quality of the entire virtual network, such as OAM(7) functions within SDN. Whereas network control previously required layer- and domain-specific operations, the new technologies will remove physical constraints such as location and configuration, and enable a holistic approach combining resources across the entire network. This will improve the efficiency, usability, and convenience of virtual wide area networks. Even service platform operators, who do not own physical network resources, will be able to provide added value by creating unique functions through software control. These could include real-time communications transfer control that responds to communications content, traffic distribution through the flexible switching of networks, and network redundancy for bypassing faults in the event of system failure.

3. Technologies for developing virtualization-compatible SDN nodes -- uses the integrated control of multiple layers and domains to realize communications devices (nodes) that enable flexible changes in the network configuration and network quality of telecommunications carriers. They are aimed at telecommunications carrier networks comprised of networks within data centers (DCs) and networks between DCs, and consist of two technologies: "automatic tunnel-setting processing" and "packet-aware optical path processing." The "automatic tunnel-setting processing" technology is aimed at networks within DCs and the connection between networks within and between DCs. It automatically sets a tunnel protocol for configuring a virtual network within the SDN software switch. This technology is an expanded version of the high-performance open-source SDN software switch Lagopus(8), which the project has been developing. The "packet-aware optical path processing" technology is aimed at networks between DCs. Based on the situation of resources within the upper packet transport layer, it provides multiple optical paths (ODUflex(9)) of optical core networks with various band frequencies within the lower layer. For the control, the project proposed and standardized the OpenFlow protocol expansion method(10), which is similar to packet layer control. Whereas each network previously required separate nodes, the new technologies enable a single node (multi-layer node) to realize the optical core network and packet transport, and another to realize the IP network and tunnel protocol. This reduces the number of nodes and enables the efficient use of resources, and can lead to lower capital expenditure (CAPEX). In addition, by realizing automated tunnel protocol setting and the automated and targeted control of optical paths, operating expenditure (OPEX) can also be reduced.

Key players in O3 include NTT, NTT Communications, Fujitsu Limited, and Hitachi.

http://www.o3sympo.com/

NTT Communications Develops SDN OAM

Monday, December 14, 2015  #SDN, Japan, NTT Com  No comments

NTT Communications announced the development of a basic operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) function for software-defined networking (SDN) on multiple wide area networks (WAN). The new SDN OAM functions enable end-to-end network connection quality to be visualized on multiple WAN using link trace and loopback tests. The new technology visualizes network topology by automatically collecting connection information on physical networks...

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Japan's O3 Project Announces First Milestones for Multi-Carrier, Multi-Layer SDN

Sunday, March 09, 2014  #SDN, Japan, NTT  No comments

Japan's "Open Innovation over Network Platforms" research and development (R&D) project, also known as the "O3 Project", announced the first milestones in its development of multi-carrier, multi-layer SDN, including the development of a database of expressions for integrating the optical layer of the network with packet layer. The O3 project is supported by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and includes the participation...

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NTT Readies its "Lagopus" SDN SoftSwitch

Sunday, June 08, 2014  Japan, NTT, SDN  No comments

NTT will be showing  "Lagopus" Open Source Software (OSS) SDN switch at this week's Interop Tokyo 2014 conference ahead of a formal unveiling next month. Development of the Lagopus SDN software switch originates with NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, which is one of the participants in Japan's O3 Project commissioned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. A prototype SDN software switch “Lagopus” that enabled 10 Gbps forwarding...

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Comcast Business Offers Direct Ethernet to AWS at Up to 10G

Comcast Business is now offering AWS Direct Connect Ethernet service at up to 10 Gbps.

Comcast Business is now a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN).  Comcast said it has the reach to connect more than 1 million Ethernet-enabled buildings in the Comcast network to AWS services like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Solution (Amazon S3) and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC).

The integration with AWS Direct Connect marks another addition to the data center and cloud program Comcast Business unveiled in 2014 that is designed to provide customers with more efficient access to cloud solutions. Comcast noted that it has one of the largest and most diverse networks in the country, with connections to more than 400 data centers and cloud exchanges.

“Connecting to a leading provider of cloud services is an advanced IT asset for our enterprise customers, and as CIOs and IT leaders look to expand their use of AWS, our integration with AWS Direct Connect will give them a new Ethernet network option to connect dispersed office locations and data centers,” said Denice Hasty, senior vice president of Marketing and Product Management for Comcast Business. “A key part of our cloud and data center initiative is to give businesses direct access to cloud providers for increased options and flexibility as they customize their hybrid network strategies.”

http://business.comcast.com

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China Mobile Now Has 1.1M Base Stations and > 300M 4G Customers

China Mobile reported 2015 operating revenue or RMB668.3 billion (approximately US$103.3 billion), up by 2.6%; of which, revenue from telecommunications services was RMB584.1 billion, down by 1.3%. Profit attributable to equity shareholders was RMB108.5 billion, down by 0.6%.

Some highlights from the company's financial report:

• Total mobile customers was 826 million, up by 2.4%
• For the first time, revenue from data services exceeded its revenue from voice services, accounting for 52.0% of revenue from telecommunications services.
• Approximately 1.1 million base stations in service, providing coverage for China's over 1.2 billion people.
• 2015 net addition of over 200 million 4G subscriber, bringing its total 4G customer base to over 300 million. 
• Mobile data traffic increased 143.7% compared to the previous year.
• The total number of wireline broadband customers exceeded 55 million

http://www.chinamobileltd.com/en/ir/webcasts/pre160317.pdf

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Fujitsu Announces Smart CPRI Transport for Mobile Fronthaul

Fujitsu announced the availability of its Smart CPRI Transport solution designed to support advanced Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) fronthaul deployments.

The Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) solution contains a smart WDM system with integrated diagnostics, remote visibility, self-healing functionality, and ultralow latency. It provides CPRI fronthaul transport between remote radio heads (RRHs) on cellular towers and centralized baseband units (BBUs).

Fujitsu said its highly scalable architecture transports up to 80 CPRI channels via CWDM/DWDM over a fiber pair, while facilitating easy operation and maintenance. The solution can be configured for point-to-point, linear chain, point-to-multipoint, or ring network topologies. It utilizes a remote terminal connected to each RRH and one or more aggregators connected to BBUs residing at a BBU hotel, central office, or super macrocell site. In partnership with HFR, Inc., Fujitsu is supplying Smart CPRI Transport products in North America.

Three modular chassis are available:

• The HSN8100NA is a remote terminal. The 2U shelf has two service slots and supports up to eight CPRI channels.
• The HSN8300NA can function as either a remote terminal or a midsize aggregator. The 4U shelf has six service slots and supports up to 24 CPRI channels.
• The HSN8500NA is a high-capacity aggregator. The 8U shelf has 20 service slots and supports up to 80 CPRI channels.
• Carriers can use the Fujitsu NETSMART 1500 to simplify network management, provisioning, and surveillance. With the adoption of cloud-based architectures, the Smart CPRI Transport solution positions the RAN for SDN and the BBUs for virtualization, providing enhanced visibility into the RAN through a self-optimizing network (SON).

Some additional highlights of the solution:

• Easy installation. Integrated engineering and installation tools reduce installation and maintenance expenses. Internal BERT, loopback, and distance measurement functions improve installation velocity. Optional FEC overcomes fiber impairments for substandard fiber pathways.
• Easy upgrades. Pluggable optics simplify upgrades from CPRI service interface options 3 and 5 to CPRI option 7. Carriers can minimize capital expenses by reprovisioning transponders for new CPRI rates.
• Fault detection. Extensive OAM for centralized remote visibility identifies alarm locations and distinguishes between radio and transport network faults, reducing MTTR, test equipment, and truck rolls. Custom threshold alerts enable proactive fault resolution before service is affected.
• High reliability. Self-healing network operation for ring or diverse linear paths provides sub-50 millisecond protection switching. Integrated differential delay compensation maintains in-service calls upon protection switches. These network resiliency features provide five 9s availability and reduce customer churn.

“Carriers are seeking better ways to cost-effectively address the performance of next-generation mobile networks,” said Steve Pelosi, vice president and head of the Optical Business Unit, Fujitsu Network Communications. “Fujitsu Smart CPRI Transport is a proven, highly scalable solution that optimizes fronthaul network design for a C-RAN architecture — reducing operating costs and improving network reliability.”

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/about/resources/news/press-releases/2016/fnc-20160317-02.html

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Birch to Acquire Primus Assets in Canada, U.S. and P.R.

Birch Communications agreed to acquire select assets and customers of Primus Telecommunications, one of Canada's largest independent, full-service, telecommunications service providers.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Primus' more than 250,000 business and consumer customers will significantly expand Birch's service footprint. The transaction will also include 20,000 customers in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The companies said they complement each other from a product perspective, each offering industry-leading broadband internet, cloud-hosted PBX, dedicated data access, local phone, long distance and a variety of wholesale solutions.

"This transaction demonstrates our continued commitment to grow our service territory, product-set and customer base," said Vincent Oddo, President and CEO at Birch. "Primus customers will benefit from being part of a larger service provider with a strong commitment to award-winning customer care, and Birch customers will benefit from a new, significantly larger service territory. With the addition of the Primus assets, Birch expects that a significant portion of its revenue in 2016 will come from its fast-growing fiber and managed services segments."

The deal marks the 28th asset purchase for Birch.

http://www.birch.com
http://wwww.primus.ca

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Google Highlights its Software-based "Maglev" Load Balancers

Google disclosed key details on Maglev, the software-based, network load balancer that is used to ensure consistent performance for the Google Compute Engine.

In a blog posting, Google said Maglev load balancing has been handling most of the traffic to Google services since 2008. It runs on the same, ordinary servers that the services themselves use. The system "uses Equal-Cost Multi-Path routing (ECMP) to spread incoming packets across all Maglevs, which then use consistent hashing techniques to forward packets to the correct service backend servers, no matter which Maglev receives a particular packet."

https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/03/Google-shares-software-network-load-balancer-design-powering-GCP-networking.html

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