AT&T Suffers Widespread 911 Calling Outage

AT&T experienced a widespread outage of 911 emergency calling service for mobile customers on Wednesday evening and lasting for approximately five hours.

Media reports suggested the outage impacted at least 14 states and Washington D.C.. AT&T Mobility confirmed that service interruptions were preventing callers from reaching 911 emergency centers but the company did not disclose the extent of the problem or the cause.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a statement saying the FCC would investigate.

“Every call to 911 must go through,” said Chairman Pai.  “So when I first learned of yesterday’s outage, I immediately directed FCC staff to contact AT&T about it and the company’s efforts to restore access to emergency services to the American public.  I also spoke with Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief
executive officer, and stressed the urgent need to restore service and to communicate with first responders, as well as AT&T customers, about the status of operations.  Additionally, I announced last night that I have directed Commission staff to track down the root cause of this outage.”

“The FCC’s public safety professionals are on the case,” said Lisa Fowlkes, Acting Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.  “Access to 911 emergency services is essential for all Americans, especially the most vulnerable.  We will fully investigate this outage and determine the root cause and its impact.”

http://www.fcc.gov

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Alibaba Looks to Intel FPGAs for Cloud Acceleration Service

Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun), is kicking off a pilot program with Intel for a cloud-based FPGA (field programmable gate array) acceleration service.

Specifically, Aliyun will use Intel Arria 10 FPGAs, Intel Xeon processor-based servers and software development tools for application acceleration as a ready-to-go preconfigured infrastructure.  The Aliyun service offers systems designers cloud-based workload acceleration as an alternative to investing in on-premises FPGA infrastructure.

“At Alibaba Cloud, we offer customers access to a number of services in the cloud, and adding an FPGA-based acceleration offering means they can access that powerful computing without the cost or requirement of building out their own infrastructure,” said Jin Li, senior director, Alibaba Cloud. “This service greatly adds to our value as a leading provider of highly scalable cloud computing and data management services that provide businesses with flexible, reliable connectivity.”

“Intel FPGAs are enabling exciting new business models such as Alibaba’s approach of using FPGAs to accelerate diverse workloads via cloud services,” said Dan McNamara, corporate vice president and general manager, Intel Programmable Solutions Group. “In addition, Intel offers customers scalable solutions for accelerated computing with its data center leadership in Intel Xeon processors, FPGAs, optimized tools and software, and a global partner ecosystem across the spectrum of deployment models.”

http://www.intel.com

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Coriant Announces Short Reach CFP2-ACO Pluggable for Groove Network Disaggregation Platform

Coriant introduced a Short Reach CFP2-ACO pluggable for its Groove G30 Network Disaggregation Platform (NDP). The Groove Short Reach CFP2-ACO pluggable, which uses silicon photonics from Elenion Technologies, enables cost-optimized, power-efficient 200G connectivity for carrier transport and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) applications.

Coriant said its Short Reach CFP2-ACO represents a new class of analog coherent devices purpose-built for surging data traffic growth. Compared to PAM-4, the Short Reach CFP2-ACO preserves the operational and network engineering simplicity of coherent transmission while significantly lowering the cost and power for short reach interconnect applications. In combination with the Coriant Groove G30 Muxponder solution, the Short Reach CFP2-ACO helps support delivery of very high-capacity, low power, and cost-optimized connectivity for all applications requiring 10G, 40G, and 100G service aggregation and 200G DWDM transport. It also complements the Coriant Groove™ G30 Open Line System (OLS), enabling the industry’s highest density and lowest cost short reach transport.

“A faster pace of innovation and the shift to more open, disaggregated network solutions are enabling network operators and content providers to redefine their network architectures for scale, quality of experience, and total cost of ownership,” said J.C. Fahmy, Vice President of Product Management and Business Development, Data Center Solutions, Coriant. “With the Coriant Short Reach CFP2-ACO we are redefining the economics of short reach transport while building upon the proven value of our market-leading Groove Network Disaggregation Platform.”

http://www.coriant.com/

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Arista introduces cEOS containerised software for cloud networking applications

Arista Networks, a provider of software-driven cloud networking solutions for large data centre and computing environments, has announced the introduction of its Containerized EOS (containerised Extensible Operating System) designed to support alternate models of procuring, packaging and deploying its EOS for cloud, enterprises and service providers.

Leveraging the industry-standard container development/operations (DevOps) model, Arista is extending the architectural options beyond its own hardware to enable support for EOS on virtual machines, containers and third-party merchant silicon-based switches.

Containerized EOS

Arista's new cEOS provides for the containerised packaging of EOS software and agents for deployment in cloud infrastructure based on the same proven EOS software image that runs on all Arista products. The flexible deployment options are designed to allow cloud network operators that are customising their operating environments to create a uniform workflow for development, testing and deployment of differentiated services.

Arista stated that the initial roll-out of Arista cEOS has been endorsed by ecosystem partners including Broadcom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Microsoft Azure Networking. The new capability means that Arista EOS is supported on a range of open hardware, including three form factors: Arista's merchant silicon-based platforms, bare metal switches, and industry standard virtual machines or containers.

Arista EOS for DevOps

Arista is also extending the DevOps approach to microservice architecture and containerisation to support workloads, workflows and complex development and validation at large scale. For example, as cEOS can execute as a container, customers can run other containerised applications on the same platform, such as automation or monitoring tools.

In addition, Arista cEOS extends the core EOS architecture to offer a lightweight module for use in network modelling, development and validation in the cloud. As with virtualisation, this capability helps developers to seamlessly migrate from development to production for the entire operating environment using a consistent cloud network approach.

Arista EOS additionally now offers support for the container ecosystem as follows: can run in a container on a range of hardware and cloud operating platforms; supports applications running concurrently within its workspace, either in a VM, as native Linux apps or as a container; allows automated discovery and provisioning of services for container workloads running within EOS or in external containers via Container Tracer.

EOS disaggregation

Customers can also now use cEOS with industry standard white box hardware and support an array of tools and applications from the container ecosystem.

The new Arista cEOS is available immediately for customer trials on selected third-party hardware platforms.

https://www.arista.com/en/

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China Telecom deploys Huawei CloudFabric for Cloud-based Multi-Tenant Data Centre

China Telecom Wuxi Branch (Wuxi Telecom) announced it has completed an upgrade from a traditional data centre facility to a new cloud-based multi-tenant data centre utilising Huawei's CloudFabric data centre network solution.

The new cloud-based multi-tenant data centre network is designed to integrate the segmented resources of traditional data centre operations, while also improving collaboration and operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities of tenant service provisioning and network configuration. The enhanced performance is intended to help Wuxi Telecom meet the evolving demands of local enterprises, government and research institutions, as well as providing a foundation for future cloud transformation.

Huawei noted that Wuxi Telecom's data centre operations, with a focus on supporting traditional services such as solution consultation, IT infrastructure rental, and IT outsourcing, have suffered bottlenecks, and additionally contained segmented infrastructure resources, such as standalone racks.

Huawei staed that different racks rented by the same tenant may be located in different equipment rooms or even data centres, and to reduce opex and improve the tenant experience operators need to efficiently utilise segmented resources, simplify O&M of tenant resources across multiple data centres and deliver efficient collaboration and provisioning of tenant services and network configurations.

The new cloud-based multi-tenant data centre is designed to enable Wuxi Telecom to improve resource utilisation, speed service provisioning and simplify O&M in its data centre. The new facility is based on Huawei's CloudFabric data centre network solution, which comprises an agile controller and CloudEngine switches. The solution also features a SDN architecture and uses VXLAN technology to enable a large Layer 2 virtual network.

The solution is designed to enable Wuxi Telecom to integrate scattered rack resources and unify the management of resources in different regions for a single tenant. Additionally, the agile controller serves to automatically translate service languages into network configurations, allowing automated deployment and helping reduce service provisioning time, as well as supporting future cloud transformation initiatives.

The Huawei solution additionally provides visibility of both virtual and physical network infrastructure and delivers big data-based intelligent analysis for enahnced O&M efficiency.

http://www.huawei.com

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Edgecore Showcases 25/100 GBE switches, virtual OLT based on AT&T XGS-PON specification

Edgecore Networks, a provider of open networking solutions and a subsidiary of Accton Technology, has announced design contributions to the Open Compute Project (OCP) of a 25 Gigabit Ethernet top-of-rack switch and high-density 100 Gigabit Ethernet spine switch designed to lower the cost of high capacity data centre networks, as well as 802.1ac WiFi access point designs.

At the OCP Summit Edgecore is showcasing new open hardware platforms that extend open networking into telecom applications, including a modular packet optical switch integrating Ethernet networking at up to 100 Gigabit Ethernet and featuring analogue coherent optics (ACO) and digital coherent optics (DCO) technology from multiple partners.

The company is also displaying a disaggregated virtual OLT for PON deployment at up to 10 Gbit/ that is based on the AT&T Open XGS-PON 1RU OLT specification contributed to the OCP Telco working group.

Edgecore is contributing the specification and design package for the AS7800-64X, the first open network switch design to be based on the Broadcom StrataXGS Tomahawk II switch series, which provides 64 x QSFP28 ports in a 2U form factor and is designed to deliver a cost effective 100 Gigabit Ethernet networking alternative.

In addition, to meet demand for optimised 25 Gigabit Ethernet top-of-rack switching, Edgecore is contributing the specification and design for the AS7300-54X open network switch, based on Broadcom's StrataXGS Tomahawk switch series, providing 48 x SFP28 ports, each supporting 10 or 25 Gigabit Ethernet and 6 x QSFP28 100 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports.

The AS7300-54X and AS7800-64X designs feature options for CPU modules incorporating Intel Atom, Xeon Processor D or NXP QorIQ T2080 processors. The switches also initially offer support for OCP-ACCEPTED networking software, including Open Network Install Environment (ONIE), Open Network Linux, Open Optical Monitoring (OOM) API and SnapRoute's FlexSwitch NOS.

At the OCP Summit, Edgecore is showcasing new open networking demonstrations and products including:

1. Its ASFvOLT16 disaggregated virtual OLT, an OCP-INSPIRED product conformant with AT&T Open XGS-PON 1RU OLT specification based on Broadcom StrataDNX switch and PON MAC SOC silicon and offering 16 ports of XGS-PON or NG-PON2 with 4 x QSFP28 ports for next generation PON deployments and R-CORD telecom infrastructure.

2. The AS7812-24S open packet optical switch, a 1.5U modular platform based on Broadcom StrataXGS Tomahawk switch silicon that provides 3.2 Tbit/s bandwidth over a mix of 10 to 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 100/200 Gbit/s CFP2 coherent optical ports, integrating optics and coherent DSP technology from partners Acacia Communications, Finisar and NTT Electronics.

3. The OCP-ACCEPTED AS7512-32X 100 Gigabit Ethernet open network switch based on Cavium XPliant switch silicon with Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC), the open source networking software contributed to OCP by Microsoft and co-contributors.

4. An Open Optical Monitoring (OOM) API demonstration based on Edgecore open switch hardware, Cumulus Linux NOS, and 25 and 100 Gbit/s optical transceivers from Finisar that shows the OCP-ACCEPTED OOM integrating asset management and health monitoring of optical transceivers and switches.

5 Its Wedge100BF-65X open network switch, offering 65 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports and based on Barefoot Networks programmable Tofino switch silicon, which is being contributed to OCP.

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Vietnam's MobiFone selects Nokia solution for 100 Gbit/s OTN + DWDM regional network

Nokia announced that MobiFone of Vietnam, the largest mobile operator in the country with over 40 million subscribers, is deploying a 100 Gbit/s OTN and DWDM regional network from Ho Chi Minh City to 10 provinces in southern Vietnam.

The new transport network supplied by Nokia is designed to enable MobiFone to deliver new, high capacity services in the key economic zones in the south of Vietnam, where a significant proportion of its subscribers are located.

Under the agreement, Nokia will provide its 100 Gbit/s DWDM solution with L1 GMPLS transport capability to support traffic growth in the regions. Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) will to increase network capacity and improve efficiency, as well as helping speed the deployment of new services. When completed, the new transport network will be support increased traffic capacity of up to 300 Gbit/s and enable system expansion up to 8 Tbit/s capacity in future.

MobiFone is one of the three major mobile network operators in Vietnam claiming a market share of around 30% and operating nearly 30,000 2G and 20,000 3G base stations across the country. The company is planning to launch 4G services during 2017.

Earlier in February, Nokia announced it was providing Xiaomi, a major electronics manufacture and ISP in China, with a an optical network to link 7 data centres in the Beijing region. The Nokia data centre interconnect (DCI) solution was based on the 1830 PSS, managed by the Network Services Platform.

In November 2016, Nokia announced that dtac, part of the Telenor Group and the second mobile operator in Thailand, had selected products from its IP/optical portfolio to upgrade its backbone network, to include implementing a software-defined network (SDN)-ready IP and Optical network. For the project, Nokia was to supply the 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS) and 1830 PSS.

http://www.nokia.com

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Ciena reports Q1 revenue of $621.50m, up 8.4% yr/yr, net income of $3.86m

Ciena announced unaudited financial results for its fiscal first quarter ended January 31, 2017 as follow:

1. Revenue for the first quarter of 2016 of $621.50 million, down 13.2% compared to $716.19 million in the fourth quarter and up 8.4% versus $573.11 million for the first quarter of 2015.

2. Gross profit for the first quarter of $273.78 million, down 14.0% compared to $318.55 million in the third quarter and up 8.9% versus $251.45 million for the first quarter of 2015.

3. R&D expenditure for the first quarter of $116.87 million, up 3.9% compared to $112.45 million in the fourth quarter and up 8.1% versus $108.05 million for the first quarter of 2015.

4. SG&A expenditure for the first quarter of $120.87 million, down 6.3% compared to $129.00 million in the fourth quarter and up 6.4% versus $113.62 million for the first quarter of 2015.

5. Total operating expenditure for the first quarter of $254.68 million, 1.6% compared to $258.87 million in the fourth quarter and up 6.0% versus $240.21 million for the first quarter of 2015.

6. On a GAAP basis, net income for the first quarter of $3.86 million, compared to a net income of $36.59 million in the fourth quarter and a net loss of $11.55 million for the first quarter of 2015.

On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the first quarter of $38.40 million, compared to a net income of $69.40 million in the fourth quarter and versus a net income of $25.23 million for the fourth quarter of 2015.

7. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of January 31, 2017 of $943.91 million, compared with $1.05 billion as at October 31, 2016.

Additional results and notes

For the first quarter of 2017, Ciena noted that North America customers contributed 65.3% of total revenue (including 61.1% for U.S. customers), versus 64.7% in the fourth quarter, with EMEA accounting for 14.7%, versus 15.7% in the prior quarter, CALA 5.7%, versus 6.5% in the fourth quarter, and Asia Pacific 14.3%, versus 13.1% in the prior quarter, of total sales.

The company had two customers that accounted for greater than 10% of total revenue, overall representing 27% of total revenue, in the first quarter.

Headcount at the end of the first quarter was 5,613, compared with 5,555 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016.

Outlook

For the second quarter of 2017, Ciena expects revenue in the range $680 to $710 million, representing a sequential increase of 11.8% at the midpoint.

http://investor.ciena.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=99134&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2252399

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MRV enhances Pro-Vision orchestration software with RestConf northbound API

MRV Communications, a provider of advanced packet and optical solutions for service providers, data centre operators and enterprises, has announced an upgrade to its Pro-Vision service management and orchestration software platform via the addition of a RestConf northbound application program interface (API).

The new Pro-Vision interface is based on standards-compliant Yang models, including those defined by the Open Networking Foundation's (ONF) T-API open standard, enabling integration with high-order orchestration platforms, thereby providing full lifecycle service orchestration (LSO) for transport services.

Pro-Vision integrates with MRV's family of optical transport and switching platforms and is designed to enable service providers to create, manage, diagnose, visualise and optimise multi-layer networks, while also reducing their opex costs.

MRV stated that through the addition of the next generation RestConf northbound API, Pro-Vision can help to further simplify the use and service orchestration of SDN-enabled networks, as well as supporting troubleshooting functions and new optical and packet products and features.

MRV's Pro-Vision is designed to scale to address a range of customer requirements, from regional operators to large global service providers. The solution offers an intuitive GUI to help automate provisioning and management for thousands of network elements, and delivers enhanced control, awareness and troubleshooting capabilities to support service provisioning, assurance, monitoring, reporting, maintenance and inventory management functions.

MRV launched Pro-Vision 3.2.1 for the provisioning, management, troubleshooting and reporting for packet and optical services in late 2015. The platform is designed to streamline lifecycle orchestration of MEF CE2.0 and optical transport services using GUI-based screens. Combined with MRV's OptiDriver, OptiPacket and OptiSwitch products featuring ROADM and 100 Gbit/s interfaces, the solution can support full control of optical transport and packet services.

Pro-Vision is designed to address LSO from planning to activation and monitoring, including maintenance and troubleshooting. The new release also introduced an optical channel monitoring capability that works together with a dedicated module from MRV's optical transport portfolio to allow automated monitoring for up to eight 40- or 80-channel DWDM trunks per module.

http://mrv.com/

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Lumos offers fibre connectivity from Virginia Beach cable landing to Richmond and Ashburn

Lumos Networks, a fibre-based service provider serving the mid-Atlantic region with over 9,200 fibre route miles of infrastructure, has announced continued expansion of its sales pipeline for prospective carrier customers seeking diverse fibre routes from the Virginia Beach undersea cable landing site into both Richmond and Ashburn, Virginia.

Lumos noted that carriers have requested proposals for both lit and dark services to address demand for secure, high bandwidth solutions into data centre facilities in Richmond and Ashburn.

Lumos Networks announced it had extended fibre connectivity into the EdgeConneX Edge Data Center (EDC) in Norfolk, Virginia last year, noting that the new data centre connection leveraged its 822 fibre route mile expansion in Virginia that included 270 route miles of fibre in the Hampton Roads/Norfolk markets, encompassing the cities of Hampton, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News and Virginia Beach.

In May 2016, Telefonica, which had previously detailed plans to deploy the BRUSA 11,000 km subsea cable linking Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza in Brazil with Puerto Rico and the U.S., purchased a site from Virginia Beach Development Authority to develop a cable landing station for the new cable system. Telefónica International Wholesale Services USA acquired the site in Virginia Beach to build a 20,000 sq-foot data centre to house what was claimed as the first trans-oceanic fibre cable station in the Mid-Atlantic region.

On February 20th Lumos Networks announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Sweden-based EQT Infrastructure for $18.00 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $950 million.

Earlier this year, Lumos announced it had acquired Charlotte, North Carolina based DC74 Data Centers and that it had closed its acquisition of Clarity Communications, with a 730 mile fibre network with 75 on-net locations, mainly in North Carolina.

Commenting on the expansion, Timothy G. Biltz, president and CEO of Lumos Networks, said, "Over the next several years a number of undersea cables (are) scheduled to reach the Virginia Beach landing site, which is less than half a mile from Lumos' dense fibre footprint… I estimate that the two Telefonica cables, MAREA Cable (also funded by Microsoft and Facebook) and the BRUSA Cable, could begin carrying traffic in the third quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018, respectively".

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Facebook Refreshes its OCP Server Designs

At this year's Open Compute Summit in Santa Clara, California, Facebook unveiled a number of new server designs to power the wide variety of workloads it now handles.

Some updated Facebook metrics:

• People watch 100 million hours of video every day on Facebook; 
• 95M+ photos and videos are posted to Instagram every day; 
• 400M people now use voice and video chat every month on Messenger. 

Highlights of the new servers:

• Bryce Canyon is a storage server primarily used for high-density storage, including photos and videos. The server is designed with more powerful processors and increased memory, and provides increased efficiency and performance. Bryce Canyon has 20% higher hard disk drive density and a 4x increase in compute capability over its predecessor, Honey Badger.
• Yosemite v2 is a compute server that provides the flexibility and power efficiency needed for scale-out data centers. The power design supports hot service, meaning servers don't need to be powered down when the sled is pulled out of the chassis in order for components to be serviced; these servers can continue to operate.
• Tioga Pass is a compute server with dual-socket motherboards and more IO bandwidth (i.e. more bandwidth to flash, network cards, and GPUs) than its predecessor Leopard. This design enables larger memory configurations and speeds up compute time.
• Big Basin is a server used to train neural networks, a technology that can do a number of research tasks including learning to identify images by examining enormous numbers of them. With Big Basin, Facebook can train machine learning models that are 30% larger (compared its predecessor Big Sur). They can do so due to greater arithmetic throughput now available and by implementing more memory (12GB to 16GB). In tests with image classification model Resnet-50, they reached almost 100% improvement in throughput compared to Big Sur.

http://www.opencompute.org/wiki/Files_and_Specs
https://www.facebook.com/Engineering/

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Microsoft's Project Olympus OCP Server Runs Qualcomm's ARM Processor

Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies (QCT) is working with Microsoft to enable a variety of Azure cloud workloads using its 10 nanometer Qualcomm Centriq 2400 ARM-based processor.

QCT has now joined the Open Compute Project and submitted a server specification using Centriq 2400, which offers up to 48 cores optimized for highly parallelized data center workloads.

Specifically, the Qualcomm Centriq 2400 Open Compute Motherboard server specification is based on the latest version of Microsoft’s Project Olympus. The companies have demonstrated Windows Server, developed for Microsoft’s internal use, powered by the Centriq 2400 processor.

“QDT is accelerating innovation in datacenters by delivering the world’s first 10nm server platform,” said Ram Peddibhotla, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies, Inc. “Our collaboration with Microsoft and contribution to the OCP community enables innovations such as Qualcomm Centriq 2400 to be designed in and deployed into the data centers rapidly. In collaborating with Microsoft and other industry leading partners, we are democratizing system design and enabling a broad-based ARM server ecosystem.”

“Microsoft and QDT are collaborating with an eye to the future addressing server acceleration and memory technologies that have the potential to shape the data center of tomorrow,” said Dr. Leendert van Doorn, distinguished engineer, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Corp. “Our joint work on Windows Server for Microsoft’s internal use, and the Qualcomm Centriq 2400 Open Compute Motherboard server specification, compatible with Microsoft’s Project Olympus, is an important step toward enabling our cloud services to run on QDT-based server platforms.”

http://www.qualcomm.com

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Cavium's ARM-based ThunderX2 Powers Microsoft's Project Olympus Server

At the Open Compute Summit in Santa Clara, California, Cavium announced that its ThunderX2 ARMv8-A Data Center processor is being tested by Microsoft for running a variety of workloads on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

The ThunderX2 product family is Cavium's second generation 64-bit ARMv8-A server processor SoCs for Data Center, Cloud and High Performance Computing applications. The family integrates fully out-of-order high performance custom cores supporting single and dual socket configurations. ThunderX2 is optimized to drive high computational performance delivering outstanding memory bandwidth and memory capacity.

Cavium said its hardware platform is fully compliant with Microsoft's Project Olympus which is one of the most modular and flexible cloud hardware designs in the data center industry. The platform integrates two ThunderX2 processors in a dual socket configuration. ThunderX2 SoC integrates a large number of fully out-of-order custom ARMv8-A cores with rich IO connectivity for accommodating a variety of peripherals for Azure, delivering excellent throughput and latency for cloud applications. The platform has been designed in collaboration with a leading server ODM supplier for Microsoft.

"Cavium is excited to work with Microsoft on ThunderX2," said Gopal Hegde, VP/GM, Data Center Processor Group at Cavium. "ARM-based servers have come a long way with first generation ThunderX-based server platforms being deployed at multiple data centers, which enabled a critical mass of ecosystem partners for ARM. We see the second generation products helping to drive a tipping point for ARM server deployment across a mainstream set of volume applications. Microsoft's support will help accelerate commercial deployment of ARMv8 server platforms for Data Centers and Cloud."

http://www.cavium.com

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Mellanox Enables IPCIe Gen-4 OpenPOWER-Based Rackspace OCP Server

Mellanox Technologies is supplying its ConnectX-5 Open Compute Project (OCP) Ethernet adapter to enable the world’s first PCIe Gen-4 OpenPOWER/OCP-based Zaius, the open server platform from Google and Rackspace.

Mellanox’s ConnectX-5 supports both InfiniBand and Ethernet at 10/25/50/100 Gbps. It is also the first adapter to support PCIe Express Gen 4.0 for full 200Gb/s data throughput to servers and storage platforms.

Mellanox said its ConnectX-5 also supports Multi-Host technology, which disaggregates the network and enables building new scale-out heterogeneous compute and storage racks with direct connectivity from multiple processors to shared network controller. Mellanox Multi-Host technology is available today in the Mellanox portfolio of ConnectX-4 Lx, ConnectX-4, and ConnectX-5 adapters at speeds of 50 and 100Gb/s.

“We anticipate that Zaius and our Barreleye G2 server solution will bring new levels of performance and efficiency to our portfolio,” said Aaron Sullivan, Distinguished Engineer, Rackspace. “This platform combines IBM’s Power9 processor with PCI Express Gen4, and Mellanox ConnectX-5 network adapters. Leveraging these technologies, it is now possible to deliver hundreds of gigabits of bandwidth from a single network adapter.”

“IBM, the OpenPOWER Foundation and its members are fostering an open ecosystem for innovation to unleash the power of cognitive and AI computing platforms,” said Ken King, IBM general manager of OpenPOWER. “The combination of the POWER processor and Mellanox ConnectX-5 technology, using novel interfaces like CAPI and OpenCAPI, will dramatically increase system throughput for the next generation of advanced analytics, AI and cognitive applications.”

“Mellanox has been committed to OCP’s vision from its inception and we are excited to bring continued innovation to this growing community,” said Kevin Deierling, vice president marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Through collaboration between IBM and Rackspace, we continue to push the boundaries of innovation, enable open platforms and unlock performance of compute and storage infrastructure.”

http://www.mellanox.com

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Radisys Announces DCEngine Release 1.0 Management Software

Radisys announced its DCEngine Management Software Release 1.0 for optimizing resources for hyperscale data centers,

The software is now available and shipping integrated with Radisys’ DCEngine product line, which is an open hardware platform based on the Open Compute Project (OCP) CG-OpenRack-19 specification. The specification is a scalable carrier-grade rack level system that integrates high performance compute, storage and networking in a standard 19 inch rack. Future DCEngine Management Software releases will extend these capabilities with a focus on facilitating the deployment and integration of the DCEngine hyperscale data center solution into existing SDN-enabled ecosystems.

Highlights of DCEngine Management Software Release 1.0

• Intel Rack Scale Design APIs to enable dynamic composition of resources based on workload specific demands
• Modules for leading data center orchestration frameworks, such as Ansible, to make firmware updates easy and convenient
• Redfish Interface 1.0 protocol support

“CSPs are evolving their virtualization strategies and deploying data center infrastructure to support high availability applications such as virtualized network functions and real-time data analytics,” said Bryan Sadowski, vice president, FlowEngine and DCEngine, Radisys. “Our new management software for DCEngine delivers essential hardware resource management capabilities that are increasingly needed in this new ecosystem. We’ve reduced the operational pain points for rack scale deployments and operations by building a suite of tools that enable automated and convenient configuration as well as resource management to meet CSPs’ evolving requirements.”

http://www.radisys.com

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Fujitsu Labs Unveils Tech for Multi-location Virtual Networks

Fujitsu Laboratories and Fujitsu Laboratories of America have announced the development of technology designed to simplify the delivery and operation of virtual network infrastructures that span multiple clouds and corporate networks.

The company noted that using conventional technology it is possible to build virtual network infrastructure within an individual cloud or corporate location utilising software defined networking (SDN) technology. However, virtual network infrastructure spanning multiple clouds and locations can require a different set-up for each cloud and location and manual configuration to connect each element of the IT infrastructure.

To address this issue, Fujitsu has developed software technology that abstracts the structural elements of networks in the IT infrastructure and which can support design, build, management and operation across multiple IT infrastructures. The company claims the technology can enable virtual network infrastructure to be built in one-tenth the time required with conventional technology for a virtual network infrastructure encompassing one cloud and a location with a few dozen devices.

The now solution developed by Fujitsu Labs and Fujitsu Labs of America functions by abstracting the structural elements of IT infrastructure to enable automated design and deployment of IT infrastructure that extends across multiple locations, while managing and operating the system as a single network infrastructure.

The new technology features elements as follows:

1. IT infrastructure abstraction via modelling of structural elements of IT infrastructure using logical software components to enable key features such as element configuration and operational status monitoring, allowing users to automatically build and operate virtual network infrastructures across multiple instances of IT infrastructure.

2. Virtual network function automatic supplemental technology to support the conversion from a logical to a virtual network infrastructure through deriving the designer's plans from the connection status of the logical network, automatically supplementing network functions by checking the connections between objects at different levels, such as IT infrastructure, subnets and nodes located at each end of a connection.

Fujitsu Labs stated that using the technology it is possible, for example, for a single engineer to design and configure a virtual infrastructure across one cloud and a location with a dozens of devices within one day. In addition, when migrating enterprise systems to the cloud it is possible to rapidly implement a project by performing operations on the logical network, or when setting up a network at multiple locations, by designing one logical network and then implementing a virtual network at each location.

Fujitsu Labs plan to continue development of additional functions for lifecycle management in logical networks using the technology, with the aim that Fujitsu will be able to provide sales as a network management function for enterprise users of cloud services after fiscal 2017.

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2017/0307-01.html

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Avaya to Sell Networking Business to Extreme for $100m

Avaya, which on January 19th filed voluntary petitions under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, has announced it that has entered into an asset purchase agreement under which Extreme Networks will serve as the primary bidder in a section 363 sale under the bankruptcy code to acquire Avaya's networking business for approximately $100 million, subject to adjustments.

The sale process will be administered by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and governed by the U.S. bankruptcy code. Other interested parties will have the opportunity to submit bids prior to a deadline set by the bankruptcy court. If other qualified bids are submitted, an auction process will be conducted, with the agreement with Extreme set as the floor value for the auction.

Approval of a final sale to either Extreme or a rival bidder is expected to take place shortly after completion of an auction, and the transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2017, the end of Avaya's fiscal third quarter 2017, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

On February 8th, Avaya reported first quarter results for the period ended December 31,2016 including revenue of $875 million, compared with $958 million a year earlier, with a net loss of $102 million, versus a net loss of $27 million in the 2016 first quarter. First quarter product revenue was $401 million, compared with $464 million a year earlier.

Extreme reported second quarter results for the period ended December 31, 2016 on February 1st including revenue of $148 million, compared with $139 million a year earlier, with a net income of $12.7 million, compared with net income of $9.0 million for the second quarter of 2016.

Avaya announced on January 19th that it was filing under chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, stating that its foreign affiliates were not included in the filing and would continue normal operations.

The company noted it had obtained a committed $725 million debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing facility underwritten by Citibank. Subject to court approval, the DIP financing, combined with cash from operations, was expected to provide sufficient liquidity during the chapter 11 cases to support continuing business operations.

Regarding the transaction, Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO of Avaya, said, "After extensive evaluation, I believe that a sale of the Networking business is the best path forward for all stakeholders… it provides a clear path for networking customers and partners and enables the company to focus on its core… Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions".

http://www.avaya.com
http://investor.extremenetworks.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1016337

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VimpelCom Russia selects Nokia to Manage Fixed, Mobile, Transport Networks

Nokia and Russian communications and technology company VimpelCom, which services over 58 million mobile and 2.2 million fixed broadband customers through the Beeline brand, have signed a five-year agreement under which Nokia will become the main provider of managed services for operator's fixed, mobile and transport network operations.

Having previously been responsible  for managing services on VimpelCom's network in central Russia, under the new agreement Nokia will extend its responsibility to managing VimpelCom's 2G, 3G and 4G mobile networks that are based on a range of equipment from different vendors. Specifically, field maintenance work will be carried out by Nokia for VimpelCom in the Southern, North Caucasian and Central regions of Russia, including in Moscow.

By consolidating and transforming its network operations, VimpelCom is aiming to benefit from more efficient networks and more streamlined operations, faster time to market and lower operating costs. VimpelCom also expects to enhance service quality for its more than 58 million mobile and over 2 million fixed broadband customers in Russia.

Under the agreement, Nokia will also provide network planning and optimisation services, network implementation, project management and network support via its global delivery hub located in Voronezh in the south west of Russia.

VimpelCom/Beeline in Russia is a part of Amsterdam-based telecom group VEON, the company having announced it was changing its name from VimpelCom to VEON on February 27, 2017. VEON serves over 235 million customers worldwide in countries and regions including Russia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Algeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

http://www.nokia.

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Turkcell Partners with iBasis to Launch new IPX PoP in Istanbul

iBasis, a KPN company that provides international voice and value-added services for mobile operators, and mobile and fixed telecommunications operator Turkcell of Turkey announced a collaboration to establish an IPX point of presence (PoP) in Istanbul.

The new IPX PoP marks a further step in Turkcell's initiative to provide multiple services including 2G/3G and LTE signalling and roaming to customers and is intended to support growth in LTE services throughout the region. The PoP also expands the reach of the iBasis global IPX network, which currently encompasses more than 450 LTE destinations worldwide.

iBasis noted that through this collaboration, mobile operators in Eurasia and the Middle East have access to a single point of contact for global IPX reach with secure, end-to-end quality of service, enabling the provision of roaming for a range of LTE services to subscribers.

By enabling roaming services from Istanbul in Turkey, the new iBasis PoP is designed to support growth of the mobile ecosystem and expand the market for LTE services throughout Eurasia and the Middle East. iBasis stated that the geographical redundancy, diversity of transmission routes and high availability of the Turkcell network will help ensure secure and reliable services.

iBasis is a major IPX provider for carriers, mobile operators, OTTs and IoT service providers. The company offers voice services including HD voice, VoLTE and anti-fraud services. The iBasis IPX is a single multi-service IP interconnect service that allows interconnection for operators worldwide. iBasis' InVision analytics enables operators to monitor and manage the quality of roaming traffic globally.

Regarding the agreement, Emre Erdem, carrier relations and wholesale director, Turkcell, said, "With the target of transforming the Silk Road into the Fiber Road, Turkcell cooperates with international operators and continues to take steps to advance the evolution of Istanbul into the newest Internet base due to it geo-strategic location… it provides a bridge between East and West, which supplies a continuous connection… by partnering with Tier 1 operators".

http://ibasis.com/

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Orange Egypt selects Oscilloquartz Synchronisation for LTE Roll-out

Oscilloquartz, a supplier of timing solutions and an ADVA Optical Networking company, announced that Orange Egypt, a company of France-based global telco Orange, has deployed its OSA 5421 technology as part of a complete synchronisation solution.

The advanced precision time protocol (PTP) grandmaster clocks from Oscilloquartz are designed to distribute and assure accurate timing throughout the national network in Egypt. The end-to-end synchronisation solution will also support the phase and frequency requirements required for Orange Egypt's large-scale deployment of LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) capabilities.

It was noted that in October 2016, Orange Egypt became the first mobile operator in Egypt to be awarded a license to operate 4G services, which the company is now rolling out supported by an investment of around $484 million. The new network and services are supported by the synchronisation network based on the Oscilloquartz OSA 5421 solution.

Oscilloquartz's advanced PTP grandmaster clock is a compact synchronisation distribution and assurance device that incorporates the vendor's Syncjack technology that enables continual monitoring. The solution is designed to deliver both the accurate phase and frequency information required for Orange Egypt's 4G services and provide assisted partial timing support via a quartz oscillator that allows extended holdover in the case of GNSS outages. In addition, the solution is optimised for deployment at the network edge.

In November 2016, Oscilloquartz announced it had been selected to synchronise a national core transport network being deployed for India's armed forces. The 60,000 km infrastructure, being built by a consortium led by Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL), featured Oscilloquartz technology to provide precise frequency and phase delivery leveraging its caesium beam clock and synchronisation supply unit, plus its synchronisation management system, SyncView Plus.

http://www.oscilloquartz.com/

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