Panama's Cable Onda deploys Coriant's packet optical

Cable Onda, a leading television service provider in Panama, is deploying Coriant's packet optical transport technology to upgrade its DWDM backbone infrastructure.

The deployment uses the Coriant 7100 Nano Packet Optical Transport Platform, which offers advanced networking features, including Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing (ROADM) and dynamic photonic switching.

Coriant said its 7100 Nano enables Cable Onda to cost-efficiently address diverse traffic demands with a flexible system architecture that supports fabric-less switching for OTN, packet, and SONET/SDH, 10G and 100G transparent transport.

Grupo Comtel is the local partner.

"We are pleased to team with Comtel to deliver Cable Onda a truly best-in-class solution purpose-built for their evolving service needs," said Alberto Barriento, Managing Director, Caribbean and Latin America, Coriant. "The ability to cost-efficiently scale backbone capacity and adapt to unpredictable end-user traffic flows helps Cable MSOs like Cable Onda differentiate their services in a highly dynamic and competitive market environment."

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HPE and Rackspace partner on OpenStack Private Cloud

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Rackspace have partnered to offer an OpenStack Private Cloud managed service.

The companies said their Private cloud will offer benefits of a public cloud - cloud-like utility pricing, elastic infrastructure and simplified IT – in the enterprises' own data center, a colocation facility or a datacenter managed by Rackspace.
                                           
“The launch of OpenStack Private Cloud with pay per use infrastructure delivered by Rackspace and HPE marks a pivotal moment in the private cloud market and in the industry at large,” said Antonio Neri, president of HPE. “This experience is the best of the cloud and on-premises worlds, and we fully expect this simple pay-per-use technology model to change the way enterprises make technology decisions.”

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Versa's SD-WAN brings support for Unified Communications

Versa Networks, which specializes in software-based networking and security solutions, has expanded its Versa Cloud IP Platform with embedded voice and video codec support to provide native mean opinion score (MOS)-based traffic engineering and reporting for unified communications (UC) services (voice and video).

The problem with most SD-WAN solutions is that they can only identify voice or video packets and abide by a policy defined by loss, latency, jitter and delay requirements as well as by circuit priority to move traffic in an optimal fashion. What they cannot do is

Versa enables real-time assessment of the actual user experience of a voice/video session as captured by a MOS score. This is used to define policies.

The new capabilities enable managed-service providers to deliver high-quality, business-class voice and video services for unified communications as a service (UCaaS) by bundling Versa Secure SD-WAN with their UC solutions.

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AT&T suffers outage

Some of AT&T's U.S. customers experience a network outage. Reported problems involved mobile and well as Internet service.

AT&T's customer care department advised users to restart their phones to resolve the problem.

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Introducing MEF 3.0 - Nan Chen

Nan Chen introduces the MEF 3.0 Transformational Global Services Framework for defining, delivering, and certifying agile, assured, and orchestrated communication services across a global ecosystem of automated networks.

See video:  https://youtu.be/F-gQHi3SFBo

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MEF 3.0 is Transformational

MEF 3.0 is now a reality, bringing the transformational services based on SDN and coming over IP and Carrier Ethernet, says Alessandro Talotta, Chairman and CEO of Telecom Italia Sparkle.

See video: https://youtu.be/a4bT5_gewqs

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Google launches Cloud Spanner Multi-Region with Five 9s SLA

Google announced the general availability of its Cloud Spanner Multi-Region configurations, which enables application developers to achieve synchronous replication of transactions across regions and continents.

Google describes Cloud Spanner as "the first and only enterprise-grade, globally distributed and strongly consistent database service built specifically for the cloud that combines the benefits and familiarity of relational database semantics with non-relational scale and performance."

So, regardless of location, Cloud Spanner can read and write up-to-date (strongly consistent) data globally and do so with minimal latency for end users. Google is promising a 99.999% availability SLA with no planned downtime.

Google Cloud Spanner also ensures database resiliency in the even of regional failure.

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Didi Chuxing opens Silicon Valley Lab

Didi Chuxing, the leading ride sharing service in China, opened a U.S. research facility in Mountain View, California.  The offices encompass 36,000 square feet and offer capacity for more than 200 employees.

DiDi Labs, which was officially launched in March 2017, focuses on AI-based security and intelligent driving technologies.

Bob Zhang, CTO of Didi Chuxing, said at the campus opening, “It’s been an exciting year for DiDi Labs. Our talented team is growing fast and making important contributions across our key tech areas, from smart-city transportation management, AI ride-matching, to security and new product innovation. ”

Didi Chuxing now has over 450 million users and is handling over 25 million daily rides.

DiDi acquired Uber China in August 2016.

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CoreSite brings AWS Direct Connect to its Denver data center

CoreSite announced AWS Direct Connect service in its Denver campus (DE1 and DE2), which is located in the center of the city.

CoreSite noted the presence of over 75 network, cloud, and IT service providers within these two data centers.

AWS Direct Connect enables customers to directly access AWS over a private, enterprise-grade network connection.

With this expansion, CoreSite customers have direct access to all AWS Regions globally, with native connectivity to AWS Direct Connect now available in five markets including Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Silicon Valley, and Northern Virginia. In addition, connectivity to AWS Direct Connect is available across seven major markets, including Boston and Chicago, through the CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange.

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AT&T extends its 5G trial to Minneapolis

AT&T will extend its 5G Evolution trial in parts of Minneapolis in the coming months, including near the host stadium for the upcoming Super Bowl.

Minneapolis is one of 20 markets where the technology trial is expected to begin by the end of the year.

This includes upgraded cell towers with network upgrades that include ultra-fast LTE Advanced features like 256 QAM, 4x4 MIMO, and 3-way carrier aggregation.

“We’re excited about launching this new wireless network in Minneapolis in the coming months as we move towards standards-based mobile 5G,” said Marachel Knight, senior vice president, Wireless Network Architecture and Design. “The upgrades we’re making today in Minneapolis are the foundation for the future of next generation connectivity in this city.”

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MACOM reports network infrastructure slowdown in China

MACOM reported revenue of $698.8 million for its fiscal year ended September 29, 2017, an increase of 28.4%, compared to $544.3 million in fiscal year 2016. Gross profit was $326.9 million, an increase of 16.1%, compared to $281.6 million in fiscal year 2016. Fiscal year 2017 gross margin was 46.8%, compared to 51.7% in fiscal year 2016.

FY 17 fourth quarter revenue was $166.4 million, an increase of 9.0%, compared to $152.7 million in the previous year fiscal fourth quarter and a decrease of 14.5% compared to $194.6 million in the prior fiscal quarter. Gross profit was $86.9 million, an increase of 6.2% compared to $81.8 million in the previous year fiscal fourth quarter, and a decrease of 6.2% compared to $92.6 million in the prior fiscal quarter.

"As expected, fiscal Q4 was a very challenging quarter, as we navigated through a hard pause in network infrastructure demand in China, impacting our entire range of Networks businesses," remarked John Croteau, President and CEO of MACOM. "Networks was down 25% sequentially, though it still grew 3% year on year. Somewhat offsetting the decline in Networks, we had a very strong quarter in our A&D and multi-market businesses, which grew 32% and 16% year-over-year, respectively.

"In the December quarter, we expect Networks demand to remain soft, and the A&D and Multi-market businesses to return to more normalized levels. We expect the December quarter will be the bottom of the down-cycle in network infrastructure, which appears to be on the verge of turning.

"We see 2018 providing a more positive environment. In addition to expecting a cyclical recovery in Telecom networks, we’ve expanded our customer footprint, and several of our secular growth drivers look to be approaching major inflection points as we secure deals with industry franchise players. We believe we are poised to be a major beneficiary of the upgrade from 40G to 100G CWDM that’s well underway inside the Data Center."

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AT&T and Verizon strike a deal to build cell towers with Tillman

AT&T and Verizon reached an infrastructure sharing agreement in which they will work with a third party, Tillman Infrastructure, to build hundreds of cell towers.

Tillman will build, own and operate the towers, small cells and smart cities infrastructure. AT&T and Verizon have committed to leasing and co-anchoring the co-located towers. Construction will begin in Q1 2018. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The three companies see the potential for significantly more new site locations in the future.

“We continue to focus on technology innovation and investing in the latest software platforms to provide the best possible customer experience on our network,” said Nicola Palmer, Chief Network Officer for Verizon Wireless. “At the same time, it is imperative to reduce operating costs. We are reviewing all of our long-term contracts as they come up for renewal and we are excited to develop new vendor partners to diversify our infrastructure providers.”

“We need more alternatives to the traditional tower leasing model with the large incumbents. It’s not cost-effective or sustainable. We’re creating a diverse community of suppliers and tower companies who will help increase market competition while reducing our overhead,” said Susan Johnson, SVP of Global Supply Chain, AT&T. “We look forward to working with Verizon as we establish site locations and sign new lease agreements with additional suppliers in the coming years.”

“Tillman is excited about the opportunity to work with AT&T and Verizon in order to further develop the cell tower model of the future,” said Suruchi Ahuja, CFO of Tillman Infrastructure. “Over the past year we have built a strong team at Tillman and are committed to rapidly building a leader in wireless infrastructure in the U.S. in order to best serve carriers and the broader communities in which we will enable connectivity.”

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Verizon offers SD-WAN for wholesale customers

Verizon Partner Solutions (VPS) has launched a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution for wholesale customers.

Verizon said the new service provides its wholesale customers with better control of network operational costs while improving bandwidth efficiency.

Key features of Verizon Partner Solution’s SD-WAN

• Transport independence: IPsec overlay and traffic distribution over multiple paths, with built-in load balancing and automatic fail-over capability.
• Application optimization: centralized network visibility and control, as well as quality of service and bandwidth management with traffic shaping.
• Intelligent path control: policy-based routing, which assigns a traffic path based on source, destination or application; and dynamic path selection, which chooses a traffic path per-application based on loss, latency and jitter.
• Secure connectivity that features intuitive, AES encryption to maintain data privacy.
• Centralized SDN control and policy management that helps Enterprise scale efficiently

“Verizon’s SD-WAN solution essentially gives enterprises the best of both worlds - the power of the Internet and the performance and reliability of a private IP network - to help them keep up with the continued growth of network traffic,” said Eric Cevis, Verizon Partner Solutions. “Network traffic demand continues to increase due to SaaS applications, cloud migrations, video and IoT. SD WAN improves bandwidth usage and enables the network to act as a sensor to enhance delivery of applications.”

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Video: Welcome to MEF17 - Nan Chen

 Nan Chen gives an overview of this week's MEF17 event in Orlando, Florida.

See video: https://youtu.be/WhRkEBzdG4Q

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Video: SDN is Real - Michael Howard

When we look back at 2017, we'll say it was the year that SDN became real - says Michael Howard, Senior Research Director at IHS Markit - Technology. Many operators now have real deployments with real SDN and NFV customers.

See video: https://youtu.be/zSNufkBPeUA

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NTT Com and Dimension Data to integrate their clouds

Dimension Data, the global technology solutions and services provider, and NTT Communications, the ICT solutions and international communications business within NTT Group, will create a single ‘cloud powerhouse’ by bringing together their cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) capabilities under the management of NTT Communications.

Dimension Data is a subsidiary of the NTT Group based in South Africa and with operations in 48 countries.

Both NTT Communications and Dimension Data will retain their existing strategic partnerships under the new structure.

NTT Communications said it will be able to deliver new hybrid IT solutions that offer greater visibility, automation, management and governance.

Katsumi Nakata, Senior Executive Vice President, NTT Communications said: “We’re excited that our augmented capabilities and broadened footprint will take us to the next level in global cloud IaaS platform, coupled with one of the largest software-defined network services that connect over 190 countries worldwide, more than 140 global data centres, and the world’s leading Tier 1 IP network. We are confident that we will continue to deliver superior results and contribute significantly to the success of both our clients and our cloud business.”

Dimension Data Group Chief Executive Officer, Jason Goodall said: “Combining our cloud IaaS assets provides enterprises on their hybrid IT journey with a unique combination of services and expertise, on a global basis. We’ll deliver services at-scale and provide a level of innovation not currently available in the managed cloud-based hybrid IT solutions space.”

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Mellanox: Infiniband powers most Supercomputers

InfiniBand solutions accelerate 77 percent of the new high-performance computing systems on the TOP500 list deployed since the previous list (June 2017 to November 2017), according to Mellanox Technologies.

Some highlights:

• Mellanox accelerates the fastest supercomputer on the list
• InfiniBand connects 2 of top 5 systems - #1 (China) and #4 (Japan)
• InfiniBand connects 6 times more new HPC systems versus proprietary interconnects (June’17 - Nov’17)
• InfiniBand connects 15 times more new HPC systems versus Ethernet (June’17 - Nov’17)
• InfiniBand connects 77% of new HPC systems (June’17 – Nov’17)
• Mellanox connects 39 percent of overall TOP500 systems (192 systems, InfiniBand and Ethernet)
• InfiniBand connects 33 percent of the total TOP500 systems (164 systems)
• InfiniBand connects 60 percent of the HPC TOP500 systems
• 25G Ethernet first appearance on the Nov’17 TOP500 list (China Hyperscale companies) - 19 systems
• Mellanox connects all of 25G, 40G and 100G Ethernet systems on the Nov’17 TOP500 list
• InfiniBand is the most used high-speed Interconnect on the TOP500

“Due to its smart acceleration and offload advantages, InfiniBand connects the vast majority of the new TOP500 high-performance computing and deep learning systems deployed in the last 6 months. Furthermore, InfiniBand accelerates the fastest supercomputer in the world and in China, the fastest supercomputer in Japan, and has been selected to connect the fastest supercomputers in Canada, and in the US. By delivering highest applications performance, scalability and robustness, InfiniBand enables users to maximize their data center return on investment and improve their total cost of ownership by 50 percent,” said Eyal Waldman, president and CEO of Mellanox Technologies.

“We are also happy to see our 25 Gigabit and above Ethernet solutions on the TOP500 list, representing the adoption of our Ethernet NICs, switches and cables in hyperscale and cloud companies, as they deliver highest efficiency to these platforms. Finally, we are excited to showcase our HDR 200Gb/s switch systems portfolio at the Supercomputing’17 conference, as we plan to release our HDR InfiniBand solutions in the first half of next year, further increasing the technology advantage of Mellanox in high-performance computing, cloud, Web2.0, database, deep learning and compute and storage platforms.”

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NTT Communications to Acquire Secure-24

NTT Communications (NTT Com) agreed to acquire Secure-24 Intermediate Holdings, Inc. (Secure-24), a U.S.-based leading provider of comprehensive managed services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Secure 24, which is based in Southfield, Michigan, uses proprietary automated operation tools to deliver managed security services.

NTT Com and NTT Group companies including Dimension Data expect to combine Secure-24 services to enhance their ability to meet hybrid IT requirements, including Secure-24’s portfolio of managed application and database services, including SAP, SAP HANA, Oracle, Hyperion, JD Edwards, Microsoft, Epic, custom, industry and other mission-critical applications.

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Google chops latency of its Andromeda SDN stack by 40%

Google released a new edition of its Andromeda SDN stack that reduces network latency between Compute Engine VMs by 40% over the previous version.

Andromeda 2.1, which underpins all of Google Cloud Platform (GCP), introduces a hypervisor bypass that builds on virtio, the Linux paravirtualization standard for device drivers. This enables the Compute Engine guest VM and the Andromeda software switch to communicate directly via shared memory network queues, bypassing the hypervisor completely for performance-sensitive per-packet operations.

Google noted that is has cut the latency of its SDN stack by nearly a factor of 8 since it first launched Andromeda in 2014.

https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/11/Andromeda-2-1-reduces-GCPs-intra-zone-latency-by-40-percent.html

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TRON Forum transfers IoT OS to IEEE

The TRON Forum, which supports a development project called TRON Project that addresses real-time architecture for embedded systems, will transfer ownership of the TRON µT-Kernel 2.0 to the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). This effectively transfers a leading real-time operating system (OS) title for 16- and 32-bit microprocessors deployed throughout the IoT ecosystem to IEEE.

The arrangement also provides a license to TRON Forum for use of the intellectual property.

“In our ongoing efforts to foster openness and the broad utilization of globally-recognized technical standards, the IEEE-SA continues to seek collaborative agreements that help advance technology for humanity,” said Konstantinos Karachalios, managing director for the IEEE-SA. “This agreement with the TRON Forum will pave the way for development of new standards in line with the goal of both our organizations to promote open innovation frameworks. We look forward to our continued work and cooperation.”

The TRON Project is a project launched in 1984 by Prof. Ken Sakamura, now dean of the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design (INIAD) at Toyo University. The Project aims to build an open architecture for embedded systems.

http://www.ieee.org
http://www.tron.org

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