Internet2 to deploy Cisco's latest 8200 series routers

Internet2 will deploy Cisco's latest 8200 series routing platform powered by Cisco Silicon One ASICs, running IOS XR7 and Network Services Orchestration (NSO) software as part of the packet infrastructure upgrade to its national backbone. The deployment is part of a strategic alliance announced by Internet2 with Cisco to deliver next-generation capabilities and software solutions across the U.S. research and education (R&E) infrastructure.

The new agreement between the two organizations focuses on delivering a national R&E network with increased capacity incrementing at 400 Gbps, on-demand cloud-connectivity, and a reduced carbon footprint that will remove 6681 metric tons a year of carbon from the environment. The agreement also includes collaborative opportunities for Internet2 and Cisco to support research activities and multi-domain service orchestration with campus and regional partners.

Highlights

• Cisco 8201 and 8202 routers will be deployed in 48 locations across the country utilizing between 1 and 4 devices per location. A typical node which connects national backbone resources with regional networks has between 24 and 96 400G network access ports.
• Cisco NSO will become the basis for an extensible network-wide automation platform that will immediately deliver Internet2 services and can eventually support campus to regional to national to cloud service orchestration.
• The system will be interconnected using native 400G wavelengths on Internet2's optical network to deliver Nx400G capacity between cities.
• A move to segment routing with multiprotocol label switching (SR-MPLS) and Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) will allow researcher applications to eventually claim up to an entire 400G link for a particular application while other network uses are dynamically moved to other paths.
• As part of the agreement, Cisco is also offering incentive programs for regional networks and campuses to adopt similar technologies for their own network upgrades.
• While delivering 4 to 12 times more capacity across the national footprint, the new Cisco solution is expected to require 668 metric tons less power and cooling.

"Research and education networks have never been more critical than they are today, and the selection of Cisco is a very exciting and critical milestone for the R&E community," said Howard Pfeffer, President and CEO, Internet2. "Cisco is supporting the delivery of a software-driven infrastructure that enables rapid deployment of new services and tight integration with applications and scientific workflows on the campus and in the cloud, both of which are essential to our nation's future. Cisco has also made substantial commitments not only to Internet2, but to the broader R&E community, by pledging ecosystem-wide support that helps us bridge campus, regional, national, and international needs." 

"Now more than ever, we believe that technology can be used for good to build a more inclusive future for us all," said Cisco Senior Vice President of U.S. Public Sector Nick Michaelides. "Innovation is in Cisco's DNA and we are proud to stand with and support leading researchers by providing a technological backbone that will help them connect, share data, collaborate and accelerate all their great work. Internet2 members are some of the brightest minds in the world, working to solve the biggest problems on the planet and we're honored to help them connect and work together to help build that more inclusive world we envision."

Internet2 to move onto CenturyLink’s new low-loss optical fiber

Wednesday, December 18, 2019  CenturyLink, Internet2  

by Benedict Chua, Assistant Editor Internet2 will migrate the majority of its footprint onto CenturyLink's new low-loss optical fiber. CenturyLink recently pulled new, low-loss optical fiber over a large portion of its national network. The installation uses an ITU-T G.652.D compliant single-mode optical fiber that is optimized for high bit rate coherent systems using advanced modulation schemes supporting 100G and above. CenturyLink also realigned...

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Internet2 to deploy open line system (OLS) from Ciena

Tuesday, October 15, 2019  Ciena, Internet2  

by Benedict Chua, Assistant Editor Internet2 will deploy a flexible grid open line system (OLS) from Ciena to transform its network to a more scalable, programmable and adaptive architecture. The upgraded network, which connects several hundred universities, government agencies, and community anchor institutions across the U.S., strengthens Internet2 and the wider R&E community’s ability to conduct scientific research, enhance collaboration,...

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New Open RF Association brings together chipset and RF vendors

A new Open RF Association (OpenRF) has been formed with a mission to expand the functional interoperability of hardware and software across multi-mode RF front end and chipset platforms into the 5G era. The consortium's founding members include Broadcom, Intel, MediaTek, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Qorvo, and Samsung.

OpenRF aims to deliver an open framework that standardizes hardware and software interfaces without limiting innovation, while enabling total flexibility for 5G device Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to take advantage of time-to-market, cost, performance, and supply chain benefits. OEMs will be able to choose interoperable best-of-breed solutions from a multi-vendor ecosystem, while using the same RF front end with any 5G baseband.

OpenRF plans to:

• Create a set of core chipset and RF front end features and interfaces that will enable interoperability across 5G basebands while allowing innovation across vendors
• Build upon industry standards to maximize configurability and effectiveness of the RF front end
• Develop a common hardware abstraction layer enhancing the transceiver/modem and RFFE modules interface
• Define and develop industry-leading approaches to RF power management
• OpenRF plans to develop a compliance program to support a robust ecosystem of interoperable RFFE and chipset platforms.

Ongoing development of the MIPI RFFE specification, which has become the de facto interface for control of the radio frequency front end since its release in 2010, will continue to be coordinated within MIPI Alliance’s RFFE Working Group. OpenRF is currently working toward a liaison agreement with the Alliance.

David Archbold, Vice President of Marketing, Wireless Semiconductor Division, Broadcom: “One of the key issues facing mobile phone OEMs today is time-to-market, delivering leading edge products into a very competitive landscape in a timely fashion. OpenRF provides the framework to streamline and condense the OEM’s design cycle, from inception to product launch. This is a critical step to promote a pro-competitive environment, allowing OEMs to freely choose solutions based on performance, size and cost.”

https://openrf.com/

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UK's Defence Committee urges faster removal of Huawei kit

 There is clear evidence of collusion between Huawei and the Chinese state, according to a new report issued by the UK's Defence Select Committee, which states that the goal of removing Huawei from the UK’s 5G networks by 2027 may need to be moved forward. The Committee concludes that "developments could necessitate this date being moved forward, potentially to 2025 which could be considered economically feasible."

Chair of the Defence Committee, Tobias Ellwood MP, writes: "Protecting the public and preserving our nation’s security are amongst the principle responsibilities of Government. The decision to embed a technology that compromises this would constitute a gross dereliction of these duties.

"The West must urgently unite to advance a counterweight to China’s tech dominance. As every aspect of our lives becomes increasingly reliant on access to data movement we must develop a feasible, practical and cost-effective alternative to the cheap, high-tech solutions which can be preyed upon and which come stooped with conditions which ensnare a state into long-term allegiance to China.

"We must not surrender our national security for the sake of short-term technological development. This is a false and wholly unnecessary trade off. A new D10 alliance, that unites the world’s ten strongest democracies, would provide a viable alternative foundation to the technological might of authoritarian states, whose true motives are, at times, murky. Democracies the world over are waking up to the dangers of new technology from overseas, that could inadvertently provide hostile states access to sensitive information through the backdoor."

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/24/defence-committee/news/119865/the-security-of-5g-we-must-not-surrender-our-national-security-for-the-sake-of-shortterm-technological-development/

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Viavi boosts its optical test capabilities

Viavi Solutions released six major enhancements to its LightDirect family of modules for their award-winning MAP-300 test platform, which was introduced last year, with specific focus on supporting coherent module and silicon photonics test applications.

• New high power, C+L band, continuously tunable laser module, the mTLS-C1, the most compact on the market for its performance class.
• Six new CW source types added to mSRC-C2 supporting all telecom telemetry wavelengths and critical new O-band additions, with both 1310nm DFB and high-power O-band broadband SLED now supported.
• New variable back reflection module, the mVBR-C1, to support the requirements of the recent OIF specification for 400G-ZR.
• Two new variants of the mPCX-C1, a full O-band version and a high-speed polarization scrambler, for manufacturing applications requiring only simple polarization scrambling.
• Significant feature enhancements to the mVOA-C1 module to support hardware triggers for LOS calibration, millisecond resolution disruption test modes, and new power control modes using external Optical Power Meters (OPMs).           
• A new MPO and high-power integrating sphere for the mOPM-C1 along with the first release of OPMScope on MAP-300, converting a chassis of power meters into a powerful multi-channel logging and transient capture system.

VIAVI is releasing three new fiber connectivity manufacturing solutions designed to optimize quality, productivity and capital utilization:

• The VIAVI CleanBlastPRO is the next generation in automated connector end-face cleaning systems, offering new features and capabilities to ensure clean end-faces for both single and multi-fiber connectors for the utmost in reliability and repeatability. Using a non-contact cleaning method with the industry's most trusted and effective solvent, CleanBlastPRO delivers streamlined productivity workflows and a 9X cost saving over traditional contact-based consumable cleaning methods.
• New time-saving measurement modes have been added to the MAP-300 Passive Component/ Connector Test (PCT) optical test system. The new VIAVI FastIL mode enables a user to measure the insertion loss (IL) of a 12 fiber MPO in under four seconds, representing a time savings of 20 to 40 percent. New data management utilities seamlessly integrate into the PCT-Control Center application, and greatly simplify the creation of html-based reports.
• In addition, the MAP-300 based mSWS Swept Wavelength System integrates a new, modular higher power swept laser, the mSWS-A2SLS. Already the lowest cost of ownership test solution for volume ROADM component manufacturing, the new modular laser enables a 50 percent reduction in rack space, up to 20 percent cycle time improvement and a further 30 percent reduction in the total cost of ownership when leveraging the open platform software interface and distributed architecture, all while maintaining current measurement performance.

Hu

"In today's complex network landscape, manufacturers face new challenges to address increased demand for production volume, performance and compliance with new industry standards," said Tom Fawcett, Vice President and General Manager, Lab and Production Business Unit, VIAVI. "As the industry quickly evolves, we work closely with industry-leading manufacturers to provide the tools they need for development of next-generation technologies, continuing more than 30 years of innovation in photonic and fiber optic test to ensure a seamless transition to high-efficiency volume manufacturing."

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T-Mobile US expands fixed wireless access (FWA) service

 T-Mobile is expanding its fixed wireless Home Internet service into more than 450 cities and towns across the U.S.  The carrier said it is targeting locations that AT&T is deserting as it moves away from DSL service.

T-Mobile is pricing the service at $50 per month with no data cap. The service currently runs over its LTE network, although T-Mobile said it is moving to 5G.

“We can’t stand idly by while AT&T leaves potentially millions with fewer home Internet options at a time when our connection to the Internet is so vital — for work, remote school, connection with family and friends. That’s why we’re undertaking this massive expansion,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “The Carriers and the Cableopoly have consistently over-promised and under-delivered when it comes to broadband access. Thanks to our merger with Sprint, we can end this and give millions in underserved communities more choices and competition for high-speed home broadband.”

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ADVA pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 67% by 2032

ADVA's targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). 

The new commitment is aligned with the most ambitious goals of the Paris climate accord: limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. ADVA, which was one of the first telecommunication technology suppliers to have targets validated by SBTi, is now committed to a 67% cut in emissions from its own operations by 2032. The new goals are part of a holistic sustainability strategy alongside radical improvements to the energy efficiency of ADVA’s complete product line. The targets are also a major step towards ADVA’s own production processes becoming carbon neutral.

“This new pledge puts us in line with the most aggressive internationally agreed targets for tackling greenhouse gasses. By shrinking our operations emissions by 67%, we’re helping to keep global warming below the most dangerous levels and moving our business significantly closer to a carbon-neutral future,” said Klaus Grobe, director, sustainability, ADVA. “Our upgraded commitment illustrates the strength of our dedication to environmental protection and social responsibility. What’s more, it goes hand in hand with our ongoing innovation to reduce emissions across the lifecycle of our products. By boosting energy efficiency, even as data demand multiplies, we’re creating a truly sustainable digital ecosystem and helping our customers meet their own ambitious sustainability goals.”

ADVA’s new targets will be realized through dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions from its car fleet and from purchased electricity. This will include a transition to 100% renewable energy across all key ADVA sites. The company also has an SBTi-approved target in place for a 3% drop in product use-phase emissions. This is an extremely ambitious goal, given the exponentially rising demand for internet bandwidth. Other notable areas of ADVA’s sustainability strategy include its award-winning focus on ecodesign with products optimized for raw material intake and recycling output. The company has also won recognition for its industry-leading sustainability practices with four years of “gold” ratings from the TIA Sustainability Initiative and, most recently, a “platinum” sustainability rating from EcoVadis, putting ADVA in the top 1% of participating companies.

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Samsung and KDDI team on 5G business opportunities

Samsung Electronics and KDDI are collaborating to verify and assess optimal 5G network solutions for enterprises in Japan.

The business customers can choose KDDI as their network manager, and decide whether to use KDDI’s existing network infrastructure or develop their own 5G network to expand or create their businesses. Through this alliance, the two companies will bring new, accessible choices for businesses in various fields. 

“Through our 5G Business Co-creation Alliance, we are pleased to collaborate with Samsung on driving new business opportunities for enterprise customers”, said Akihito Fujii, Executive Officer, General Manager, Service Planning and Development Division Solution Business Sector at KDDI. “With Samsung, KDDI will drive digital transformation, unlocking new value by enhancing user experiences for both consumers and business alike.”

“We are excited to deliver our advanced private 5G network solutions to help build a fast and reliable network for enterprises in Japan,” said Satoshi Iwao, Vice President and Head of Network Division at Samsung Electronics Japan. “In collaboration with KDDI, Samsung will continue to deliver on the full potential of private 5G networks, which will play a central role in transforming enterprises and introducing innovative new services to business users.”

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MEF and TM Forum align on Open APIs for Service Automation

MEF and TM Forum are aligning their efforts on open standard APIs to automate inter-provider services for digital transformation. 

Specifically, MEF’s inter-provider LSO Sonata APIs will be aligned with TM Forum's APIs so as to prevent a forking of the standards. 

MEF LSO Sonata APIs enable automation of MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet services, with additional work underway to automate connectivity services such as IP broadband, IP MPLS, Dedicated Internet Access, and 5G that underpin SD-WAN and SASE services at the network edge.

The two groups said their collaboration will help service providers accelerate their transition from operating within limited ecosystems/islands to being integral players in a worldwide federation of networks supporting on-demand digital services across multiple providers. 

TM Forum and MEF have specifically aligned on the following:

• TM Forum is developing Domain Context Specialization Guidelines that enable MEF LSO Sonata APIs to conform to TM Forum Open API standards.
• TM Forum API tooling is now being used by MEF to build the set of LSO Sonata APIs.
• LSO Sonata API product payloads work in alignment with TM Forum API standards using a polymorphic approach.
• The organizations have established a framework for ongoing collaboration.

“API alignment between MEF and TM Forum paves the way for members of both standards bodies to federate with the confidence and will accelerate service delivery across multiple providers.” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF. “Automation of inter-provider services – with currently available and planned LSO APIs – ultimately opens up opportunities to offer enterprise customers on-demand/ dynamic connectivity with coveted global reach.”

“CSPs are clear that B2B services will be critical to the success of 5G. This requires CSPs to offer enterprises access to complex solutions to business challenges. CSPs cannot do this on their own, so building out ecosystems of partners to meet the myriad needs of enterprises is essential,” said George Glass, Chief Technology Officer, TM Forum. “Open APIs are an important part of integrating partner capabilities and enabling CSPs to establish, operate and monetize platform-based business models. Both MEF and TM Forum recognized that bringing our APIs into alignment was for the good of the industry.”

http://www.mef.net/Press-Releases/MEF-and-TM-Forum-Collaborate-on-Open-APIs-for-Service-Automation

MEF's LSO Inter-Provider Automation takes another step forward

Thursday, June 04, 2020  MEF  

Eight leading service providers are on track to be production-ready in 2Q 2020 for deploying MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs to automate the ordering of MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet Access E-Line services:

• AT&T
• Infonas
• Bestel
• PCCW Global
• Sparkle
• Colt Technology Services
• Telefónica International Wholesale Services
• HGC Global Communications

Five already have implemented LSO Sonata APIs in production environments and three expect to be ready for deployment before the end of Q2 2020.  In addition, Bloomberg is the first multinational enterprise to take this step.

The goal of  LSO Sonata APIs is to help service providers to transition from operating as independent islands to participating in a global federation of automated networks that will support dynamic inter-provider services with frictionless commerce.

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Acacia samples 100G coherent DWDM module in QSFP-DD

Acacia Communications has begun sampling a new 100G coherent DWDM pluggable aimed at edge and access applications. 

The new 100G coherent DWDM module , which is offered in the QSFP-DD form factor, is designed to provide scalable traffic aggregation. It also provides an upgrade path to migrate from existing 10G WDM networks to higher-performing 100G DWDM coherent links for new architectures in access networks, such as cable/fiber deep and 5G wireless X-haul applications.

The company said its 3D Siliconization approach, based on silicon photonics, will enable it to achieve high-volume manufacturing with this product. In addition, Acacia’s pluggable coherent solutions in QSFP-DD were designed to enable network scalability to 200G and 400G versions in the future. 

“As with our recently announced 100G point-to-point solutions, Acacia is working to satisfy the requirements of service provider edge and access applications with coherent solutions designed for this market,” said Anuj Malik, Director of Product Management at Acacia Communications. “The benefits of coherent have been demonstrated in the metro, long-haul and submarine markets and, with these new products, Acacia is looking to deliver the same scalability, operational simplicity and improved total cost of ownership to the edge and access space.”

“The edge of the network is evolving, and we’re bringing new solutions to market designed to provide scale and ease of use for new applications around IoT and edge computing,” said Jörg-Peter Elbers, Senior Vice President of Advanced Technology, ADVA. “As service providers upgrade their access and aggregation infrastructure, it is only a matter of time before coherent technologies make inroads in this space. Acacia has been a leading provider of pluggable coherent optics and their latest innovation provides interesting possibilities.” 

http://www.acacia-inc.com 

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Deutsche Telekom to open fiber network to Telefónica Deutschland

Deutsche Telekom reached a milestone FTTH network sharing agreement with Telefónica Deutschland.

Under the ten-year contract, the companies are to extend their long-standing fixed line network collaboration to include Deutsche Telekom's fiber-optic network and new FTTH builds. Since 2013, Telefónica has been purchasing fiber-optic network-based copper lines (VDSL/vectoring) from Deutsche Telekom as part of a contingent contract that Telefónica then markets to its end customers. 

This is the first time that Deutsche Telekom will provide its partner with FTTH with download speeds of up to 1 Gbps. 

Telekom Deutschland CEO Dirk Wössner stated: “This is a pioneering deal for the buildout of the fiber-optic infrastructure in Germany for the next decade, based on a voluntary commercial agreement between two large market players from which many people and companies in Germany will benefit. Deutsche Telekom stands for open networks and cooperations. And we are emphasizing this with this wide-reaching cooperation agreement. This contract will secure the utilization of our broadband network. And we will receive financial resources that we will re-invest in our networks.”

"The long-term cooperation with Deutsche Telekom gives us planning security. In future, we will be able to offer our O2 customers access to the fiber optic network, especially in large cities. On this basis we can offer our customers first-class convergent products", explains Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Germany / O2.

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Pluribus scales up with its Adaptive Cloud Fabric

Pluribus Networks introduced a number of architectural enhancements to its Adaptic Cloud Fabric to scale hybrid clouds and edge data centers to thousands of nodes.

The Pluribus Adaptive Cloud Fabric, powered by the Netvisor ONE OS and open network switching hardware, leverages a controllerless SDN architecture that incorporates network automation, virtualization, secure segmentation, visibility and analytics.

The company is introducing two complementary innovations:

• Thousand-Node Fabrics: Extending the advantages of controllerless SDN automation across larger fabrics. With a hierarchical multi-pod architecture and new capabilities incorporated into the Pluribus UNUM management system, Pluribus enables the Adaptive Cloud Fabric to scale far beyond current levels and meet virtually any customer’s scalability requirements. The new architecture is designed to scale to 256, 512 or even 1,024 switches in a unified fabric, extending the operational simplification benefits of the Adaptive Cloud Fabric to larger and more distributed data centers.
• Open Fabric Extension with EVPN: Enabling multi-fabric federation and multi-vendor interoperability. The Adaptive Cloud Fabric incorporates open fabric extension using BGP EVPN, which delivers additional scalability in two ways. First, this approach can enable even greater scalability in Pluribus-delivered network fabrics – far beyond 1,024 nodes if needed – by seamlessly interconnecting and federating multiple Adaptive Cloud Fabrics and extending services between them. Open fabric extension with EVPN also supports standards-based interoperability and service extension to 3rd party fabrics, ideal for brownfield deployments and for those customers who desire multi-vendor environments.

“In the current environment, data center network fabrics must scale in multiple dimensions to meet the challenges of large private cloud and edge computing deployments,” said Kumar Srikantan, CEO at Pluribus Networks. “The Adaptive Cloud Fabric is already proven as a distributed multi-site data center fabric that is highly cost-effective, automated, agile and easy to operate. Now we can extend all the advantages of the Adaptive Cloud Fabric’s controllerless SDN automation across much larger fabrics, while also enabling EVPN-based fabric extension and multi-vendor interoperability.”

Pluribus notes that its Adaptive Cloud Fabric has been deployed by hundreds of customers to create secure software-defined data centers (SDDCs), unified network fabrics across multi-site data centers, and distributed clouds for 5G and edge computing. The company cites two recent examples:

• A regional government agency has deployed a 64-node Adaptive Cloud Fabric in a single data center and will expand it to a unified 128-node fabric across two geographically separated data centers, enabling active-active operations for high application agility and availability with low operational complexity.
• Trilogy Networks is leading the Rural Cloud Initiative (RCI) along with numerous rural telecom network providers. Trilogy, which recently announced completion of Phase 1 of the RCI Farm of the Future and is transitioning to production network deployments, is using the Adaptive Cloud Fabric to connect hundreds of highly distributed edge computing sites into a unified fabric to support edge applications for precision agriculture.

https://www.pluribusnetworks.com/

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Spectra7 cites progress in 800G active copper cables

Luxshare will evaluate 800Gbps data center interconnects using Active Copper Cable (ACC) interconnects based on Spectra7’s new GC1122 solution.

Spectra7 also confirmed that Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Inc. (Foxconn) a leading supplier of interconnect solutions will support next generation 800 Gbps Active Copper Cable (ACC) interconnects using Spectra7’s new GC1122 solution. 

Spectra7 said its GaugeChanger allows copper to extend much longer lengths without the cost and power penalty of optics. It works equally well at 25Gbps NRZ, 50Gbps PAM-4 and 100Gbps PAM-4 enabling new connector standards of 100, 200, 400 and 800Gbps.

Spectra7 Microsystems' GC1122 is the latest addition to the company's GaugeChanger product line and extends the data rate from 56Gbps to 112Gbps per lane. Since the GC1122 is analog and highly linear, dynamics such as line rate adjustment, multi-level signaling, intermittent line silence, transmit pre-emphasis or amplitude adjustment and receiver adaptivity are fully preserved.

“Spectra7 has created a compelling solution to address the dramatically increasing power and cost of data center interconnects. We are seeing significant interest from our largest customers for 800Gbps ACCs,” said Jinhua Chen, Enterprise GM at Luxshare-ICT.

“We are thrilled to have Luxshare as a partner for our 800Gbps GaugeChanger™ technology," said Spectra7 CEO Raouf Halim. "They are a technology leader in the hyperscale interconnect market."

Luxshare-ICT is a manufacturer of cable assembly and connector system solutions for consumer, automotive, cloud, and enterprise applications. 

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HAPSMobile completes first stratospheric flight with Loon payload

 HAPSMobile, a start-up backed by SoftBank with minority investment by AeroVironment, reached an altitude of 62,500 feet (approximately 19 kilometers) during the fifth test flight for “Sunglider,” a solar-powered unmanned aircraft system (“UAS”) designed for stratospheric telecommunications platform systems. 

The test flight, which took place on September 21, 2020 (MT) at Spaceport America in New Mexico, lasted a total 20 hours and 16 minutes, with 5 hours and 38 minutes of them in the stratosphere. 

Sunglider completed its flight on a pre-flight battery charge and solar energy during the flight. Sunglider also demonstrated its high-performance capabilities under extremely demanding conditions where wind speeds were greater than 58 knots (approximately 30 meters per second) and temperatures fell as low as -73 degrees Celsius.

Sunglider also carried a telecommunications payload from Loon. Smartphones on the ground connected to the Internet via the Loon payload in the stratosphere. Team members in New Mexico using the connection successfully placed a video call to Japan.

https://www.hapsmobile.com/

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Seaborn appoints Steve Orlando as CEO

Seaborn Networks appointed Steve Orlando as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Orlando brings 27 years of experience across senior leadership positions at Zayo Group, 

Orlando joins Seaborn from Zayo Group, where he served as the Senior Vice President of Fiber and Network Solutions. In this role, he led product, operations and network development to support indirect and direct sales for the organization across 18 states in the Central Region. He has also served at CenturyLink, Level 3, Global Crossing and Verizon Business.

“Seaborn is helping to transform global communications, and this appointment is sure to create a new era of success for the company and its customers,” comments Pete Hayes, Chairman of the Board at Seabras Group. “Steve brings a strong history of leadership and telecommunications experience, and he’s thoroughly equipped to lead Seaborn as it looks to address evolving global communications requirements.”

Seaborn emerges from Chapter 11

Thursday, July 09, 2020  Chapter 11, Subsea  

Seaborn has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy having reduced total outstanding debt, revised debt maturity arrangements, and restructured its ownership to provide a solid basis for the continued growth of the business going forward.

Coincident with the consolidation and Chapter 11 emergence, Larry Schwartz, former CEO of Seaborn, and Roger Kuebel, former CFO of Seaborn, have left Seaborn and the Seabras Group.

Pete Hayes and Don Shassian, Partners Group-appointed Board members, will serve as Interim CEO and Interim CFO, respectively, of the Seabras Group. Andy Bax, the Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) of Seaborn, will remain in the same role.

"We are excited about the future and sincerely thank all of our employees, customers, providers and other business partners for their continued commitment to the company”, said Andy Bax, Chief Operating Officer of Seaborn. “Our world-class team will continue to work hard to deliver innovative advancements and new, industry-leading solutions for our customers and partners for years to come."

“We believe that Seaborn’s technology-driven, client-first approach and advanced delivery solutions are best-in-class,” says Todd Bright, Partner and Head of Private Infrastructure Americas at Partners Group, a global private markets investment manager and owner of Seaborn on behalf of its clients. “We will continue to work side-by-side with Seaborn as a value-added investor to help the company meet the needs of its customers now and in the future.”

Seaborn is an independent cable operator that fully operates and maintains its submarine and terrestrial cable infrastructure. POPs, terrestrial backhaul, landing stations and subsea cable are all under Seaborn’s control. 

http://www.seabornnetworks.com

Seaborn extends Seabras-1 IP Network to key data centers

Monday, January 20, 2020  Seaborn, Submarine, Subsea  

Seaborn Networks announced new high capacity connectivity from their Seabras-1 IP Network directly into key global IX locations;

• Amsterdam - AMS-IX now live (January 6, 2020)
• Frankfurt - DE-CIX now live (January 6, 2020)
• London - LINX now live (January 6, 2020)
• San Jose - Equinix IX (SV1) live by end of January 2020
• Los Angeles - CoreSite Any2 IX (LA1) live by end January 2020
• Ashburn - Equinix IX (DC4) live by end January 2020

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Fujitsu launches private 5G services in Japan

Fujitsu is launching private 5G enterprise services in Japan.

"Private Wireless Managed Services" provides one-stop services from Fujitsu's wireless technology specialists for measuring, designing, building, operating, and maintaining the private 5G system. The service is offered beginning this week on a monthly usage basis.  A variety of enterprise use cases are supported.

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Marvell intros automotive Gigabit Ethernet PHY with MACsec

 Marvell introduced an automotive gigabit Ethernet PHY solution with integrated media access control security (MACsec).

Marvell said MACsec will fortify in-vehicle networking by securing data exchange on a hop-by-hop basis and prevents Layer 2 security threats such as intrusion, man-in-the-middle, and replay attacks. Marvell's new Open Alliance TC10 compliant, dual speed 100/1000 BASE-T1 88Q222xM Ethernet PHY enables energy efficient, secure in-vehicle networks and assists in achieving functional safety compliance at the system level.

Automotive networks rely heavily on partial networking in which some segments are hibernated and woken up on demand. Marvell's new gigabit PHY supports the Open Alliance TC10 for sleep mode and wake-up, tailored for automotive use cases. 

"Marvell is committed to developing innovative solutions for the automotive market and offers the industry's largest portfolio of secure Ethernet switches and PHYs," said Amir Bar-Niv, vice president of Marketing of the Automotive Business Unit at Marvell. "We are extremely proud to introduce the industry's first automotive gigabit Ethernet PHY that integrates Layer 2 security through MACsec while also delivering best-in-class lower power performance that meets the most stringent power budget. Marvell's 88Q222x solution is based on the Automotive QMS Process and comes with functional safety collateral assisting tier-1s and OEMs in fulfilling ISO 26262 at a system level."

https://www.marvell.com/products/automotive/88q222xm.html

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Telecom Infra Project streamlines its OpenRAN efforts

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is streamlining its OpenRAN and OpenRAN 5G NR Project Groups into an overarching OpenRAN Project Group under a revised charter.

The new Project Group will be chaired by Vodafone and T-Mobile USA, and different work streams will be co-led by BT, China Unicom, Ooredoo, Smartfren, TPG, Intel and Vodafone Idea.

Various new subgroups have also been formed:

• RU: Defining Radio Unit (RU) whitebox hardware (HW) platforms for 4G/5G
• DU/CU: Defining Distributed Unit (DU) & Centralized Unit (CU) whitebox HW for 4G/5G
• RAN Intelligence & Automation (RIA): Productization of AI/ML Use Cases for Massive MIMO (MaMIMO), e.g., beam optimization, Radio Resource Management (RRM) and Self Organizing Network (SON)

Segment subgroups: Focused on integrated RAN solutions for specific network use cases to improve deployment business cases:

• Outdoor: Addressing coverage and capacity requirements, performance and features for outdoor macro base stations
• Indoor: Defining requirements, performance and features for indoor 5G NR small cells

“We are excited to lead this transition towards flexible and open RAN with a richer ecosystem. Vodafone has been expanding OpenRAN footprint via ongoing pilot deployments in Europe and Africa. The streamlined OpenRAN structure is a significant opportunity to drive scale and support vendors to more quickly deliver products to the market. We look forward to the Project Group delivering harmonised requirements and proven commercial solutions to support our network deployment objectives,” stated Andy Dunkin, Senior Manager Mobile Access Centre of Excellence at Vodafone Group Networks and TIP Technical Committee delegate.

https://telecominfraproject.com/

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TIP pushes SDN for IP/MPLS, optical and microwave transport

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has formed a new sub-group within its Open Optical & Packet Transport project group to accelerate and drive the adoption of SDN standards for IP/MPLS, Optical and Microwave transport technologies. The new sub-group is called MUST (Mandatory Use Case Requirements for SDN for Transport) and is led by Deutsche Telekom, MTN, Orange, Telefónica, Telia Company and Vodafone.

With the MUST sub-group, operators will define the use cases, their workflows and the set of data models needed to fulfill them. These use cases will be incorporated into specification documents.

“The development and adoption of open interfaces is a key factor for the adoption of open and disaggregated technologies,” said David Hutton, Chief Engineer at the Telecom Infra Project. “We are delighted to see such a strong pull of operators starting this activity and we encourage other to join and work with us.”

https://telecominfraproject.com/

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ADVA releases DCSG operating system for mobile operators

ADVA announced the commercial release of a carrier-grade network operating system (NOS) designed for disaggregated cell site gateways (DCSGs).

The new ADVA Ensemble Activator, which was developed as part of the Telecom Infra Project's Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway group, enables mobile network operators to move away from closed proprietary systems and build open, vendor-neutral transport infrastructure with best-of-breed components.

ADVA said its Ensemble Activator is optimized for the operation of large, geographically dispersed networks. The software has been proven in tests with third-party hardware from suppliers such as Alpha Networks, Delta and Edgecore. ADVA has trials underway with multiple mobile operators including Telefónica and Vodafone. 

“Today’s announcement marks the start of a new age of disaggregated mobile networks. By deploying our Ensemble Activator, MNOs will be able to leverage the full benefits of separated software and hardware and inject unprecedented speed, efficiency and flexibility into their transport infrastructure,” said Eli Angel, VP, product line management, Ethernet access, ADVA. “Built on our team’s vast experience equipping the largest public networks with the most advanced connectivity solutions, Ensemble Activator has now proven itself in a wide range of real-life scenarios. These include 5G field trials where Ensemble Activator combined with third-party white box hardware to create an open and cohesive DCSG solution. By turning cost-effective bare-metal switches into powerful packet network devices, it will equip MNOs to build tomorrow’s mobile infrastructure.”

“Supporting the disaggregation of hardware and software while meeting the performance needs of the most demanding mobile networks is critical in transitioning today’s technology to open, highly scalable mobile transport architectures and enabling the mass rollout of 5G services. We are very excited about ADVA’s Ensemble Activator, as it offers something new to the market and enables a strong ecosystem for DCSG technology,” commented Luis MartinGarcia, manager, network technologies, Facebook and co-chair, DCSG group, TIP. “TIP is all about unleashing the power of collaboration and open innovation, and ADVA’s work demonstrates how quickly we build together in TIP to bring a powerful new technology to maturity.”

https://www.adva.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20201006-adva-announces-general-availability-of-markets-most-versatile-dcsg-operating-system

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Australia's OptiComm to build 10G XGS-PON with ADTRAN

OptiComm, which is the largest private competitor to Australia's NBN, is in the final stages of developing the nation's first 10G XGS-PON. The plan is to deliver residential service at a nominal line speed of up to 1 Gbps, and commercial service reaching speeds up to 10 Gbps.

OptiComm has been working closely with ADTRAN at the latter’s research and development facility in Melbourne.

OptiComm has been a licensed carrier and wholesale network infrastructure operator since 2007. As of 2019, OptiComm was serving 60,000 active connections and its fiber network passed 100,000 dwellings.

https://www.adtran.com/index.php/opticomm-announces-australia-s-first-next-generation-passive-optical-network-pon

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