AT&T deploys Band 14 spectrum for FirstNet

AT&T is rolling out Band 14 spectrum in cell sites used by the FirstNet network for first responders. The FirstNet Authority – an independent government agency – granted AT&T the right to use Band 14 specifically to support public safety subscribers on FirstNet.

So far, Band 14 has been deployed on existing cell sites in more than 700 markets nationwide. 

AT&T is also launching new FirstNet cell sites across the country to expand rural and remote coverage – including areas where emergency responses have been previously challenged by a lack of connectivity.

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AT&T begins offering fixed 5G for businesses

AT&T is adding fixed 5G wireless solutions for business customers.

AT&T will offer new fixed wireless router options from Sierra Wireless and Cradlepoint.

“It is now almost a full year since the global pandemic accelerated remote work adoption by almost a decade – and throughout the rapid evolution of related business needs, AT&T has been there to enable continued success,” said Mo Katibeh, Chief Product and Platform Officer, AT&T Business. “And today, we’re excited to build on the first, true nationwide business-focused broadband network with fixed wireless 5G connectivity. It’s the ideal solution for businesses to continue to innovate, serve their customers and enable employees to efficiently and effectively work – even when they can’t walk down the hall to someone else’s office.”

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SpaceX completes 21st Starlink launch

SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites on Thursday, March 11 at 3:13 a.m. EST.

The mission was the sixth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 booster, which previously supported launch of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and a Starlink mission.

SpaceX announced the expansion of its beta service to Germany and New Zealand. The company is also expanding its beta availability in the UK.

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Telstra InfraCo lights up Dark Fibre service in Australia

Telstra InfraCo, the new business unit with the Telstra Group that operates the company's passive and physical infrastructure assets (ducts, fibre, data centres, subsea cables and exchanges) has begun offering a Dark Fibre service for the first time - a significant milestone in Telstra’s T22 transformation.

Fibre optic cables are made up of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of smaller fibre optic strands arranged in pairs. Dark Fibre are pairs that haven’t been ‘lit up’ and can be licensed to organisations that require very high bandwidth.

“With more than 250 pre-defined paths available right now in six state capitals, connected to 68 metro data centres, 78 NBN Points of Interconnect and two cable landing stations, opening up our fixed network to customers in this way is a profound step in unlocking untapped value in our network assets. Available in most capital cities initially, we will soon expand the availability and use cases of Dark Fibre across the nation, beyond just metro locations,” states Telstra InfraCo Fibre Executive Kathryn Jones.

“Dark Fibre is the first of a series of offerings we will bring to the market that will give our customers the capacity, flexibility, security and speed needed to unlock new business opportunities.”

https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/media-releases/telstra-infraco-dark-fibre

Telstra's 3-way restructuring: InfraCo Fixed, InfraCo Towers, ServeCo

Thursday, November 12, 2020  Australia, Telstra  

Telstra is proposing a major restructuring that would to create three separate legal entities within the Telstra Group:

• InfraCo Fixed, which would own and operate Telstra’s passive or physical infrastructure assets: the ducts, fibre, data centres, subsea cables and exchanges that underpin Telstra’s fixed telecommunications network.
• InfraCo Towers, which would own and operate Telstra’s passive or physical mobile tower assets, which Telstra will look to monetise over time given the strong demand and compelling valuations for this type of high-quality infrastructure.
• ServeCo, which would continue to focus on creating innovative products and services, supporting customers and delivering the best possible customer experience. ServeCo would own the active parts of the network, including the radio access network and spectrum assets.

Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said the plan is driven by monetisation opportunities for its infrastructure assets where this might create additional value for shareholders.

“The proposed restructure is one of the most significant in Telstra’s history and the largest corporate change since privatisation. It will unlock value in the company, improve the returns from the company’s assets and create further optionality for the future,” Mr Penn said.

“The challenges and disruptions of the last 6-12 months have reinforced the increasing value of infrastructure assets globally; the importance of the digital economy, not only to business but to the whole of Australia and its economic recovery; and the dependence of the digital economy on telecommunications as its platform. Our proposed new corporate structure reflects this new world and will help us support the foundation for it – one that is in the interests of our shareholders, our employees, our customers, and ultimately one that benefits the country overall.”

https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/about-us/investors/pdf%20F/2020-Investor-Day.pdf 

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T-Mobile US pleased with its spectrum position

T-Mobile US confirmed that it invested just over $9.3 billion in the FCC’s C-Band auction, selectively acquiring additional mid-band spectrum, even s its competitors spent record-breaking amounts in the auction. 

T-Mobile won an average of 40 MHz of C-Band in key areas home to nearly 225 million people, which it will deploy to add additional depth to its already strong Ultra Capacity 5G, bringing even greater speed and performance. In the mid-band range, C-Band offers a great mix of coverage and speed, but there are some key differences from 2.5 GHz, the mid-band spectrum T-Mobile is primarily using to roll out Ultra Capacity 5G. Most notably, it doesn’t travel as far. T-Mobile engineers estimate it will require 50% more cell sites for meaningful and continuous coverage, and in some areas, for example in-building, the required densification can be 4x higher than 2.5 GHz. That’s why T-Mobile strategically invested in C-Band to supplement its much broader 2.5 GHz footprint in select urban and suburban areas where it already has a dense network. This will allow for the spectrum to quickly be deployed and provide a more meaningful performance boost for customers.

“T-Mobile customers are the clear winners in this auction. Our already industry-leading 5G network enabled us to be highly selective and strategic, concentrating our wins in top markets nationwide,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “As I predicted last fall, the other guys spent an unbelievable amount — because they had to. And even then, the truth is that C-Band is best for urban areas because it doesn’t propagate as well as T-Mobile’s substantial existing mid-band frequencies. For us, C-Band makes a great story even better, and we are incredibly pleased with our clear success in this auction. Our competitors had no choice but to go all in with a break-the-bank attempt to remain relevant in the 5G era.”

“Simply put, Verizon and AT&T bet on the wrong horse — went all in on millimeter wave — and now they’re scrambling … and writing big checks … to try to catch up. Meanwhile we’re on track to deploy Ultra Capacity 5G nationwide before they can even get their hands on C-Band,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “There’s only one true 5G leader in the US, and that is T-Mobile. All of America wins with better connectivity, more competition, and value that we’re able to bring to consumers and businesses — forcing the other guys to do better for their customers as we always have.”

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map

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OFC 2021 to remain all-virtual

The 2021 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) will convene in an interactive, all-virtual format, 06 – 11 June 2021. 

“This has been a challenging year for all of us, but as the international event for the global optical communications community to move the field forward, we must ensure that the groundbreaking content is accessible to a broad audience,” said Po Dong, OFC General Chair, II-VI Incorporated, USA. “OFC draws executives, technical experts, academia, media and analysts from all over the world, and this approach will allow our attendees and speakers to connect through an international schedule.”

New topics trending in technical paper submissions include quantum communications and machine learning in terms of network operation and how optics supports machine learning and neuromorphic computing. Free space optical communications (FSO) technology will be the focus of several presentations in addition to photonic integration, spatial division multiplexing (SDM) and 5G.

OFC 2021’s Symposia will focus on industry growth segments:

• Emerging Photonic Technologies and Architectures for Femtojoule per Bit Optical Networks
• MEC-based Network Architectures in Support of Enterprise Cloud
• Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) in the Context of Optical Communications​
• The Role of Machine Learning in Optical Systems and the Role of Optics in Machine Learning Systems

Special Sessions will highlight the following:

• Lessons Learned: Networks 2020 Status and Next Steps
• Free Space Optical (FSO) Communication is Finally Real
• Vision Talks: Beyond 2021 and Towards 2030

The OFC 2021 virtual exhibit will feature an enhanced exhibition experience providing the greatest opportunity to reach customers, connect with colleagues and demonstrate innovative products and solutions to the OFC community. 

https://www.ofcconference.org/

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Apple plans European Silicon Design Center in Munich

Apple announced plans to create a European Silicon Design Center in Munich, adding hundreds of new employees and a new state-of-the-art facility focused on connectivity and wireless technologies. The company plans to invest over 1 billion euros in the new facility and associated R&D over the next 3 years.

Munich is already Apple’s largest engineering hub in Europe, with close to 1,500 engineers from 40 countries working in a variety of areas including power management design, application processors, and wireless technologies.

Apple also notes that it has spent over 15 billion euros in the past five years with more than 700 companies of all sizes across Germany, including the chip manufacturer Infineon, battery company Varta, and the family-owned chemical company DELO, which is delivering resin for Face ID technology in Apple’s newest products, including iPhone 12 Pro.

https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/03/apple-to-invest-over-1-billion-euros-in-germany-with-new-munich-campus/

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Nokia develops 5G Business-to-Business trial for LG Uplus in Korea

Nokia will conduct a 5G Business-to-Business (B2B) digital platform trial for LG Uplus in Korea to address new business segments, including Industry 4.0, and smart factory. 

The proof-of-concept test of the 5G B2B digital platform will be completed in two phases.The first phase involves a demonstration in the Nokia Lab and the second phase with a field trial is planned in the LG Uplus Regional Operation Center in KyungNam.

Nokia's solution is based on multi-domain technology and ensures full automation and near real-time delivery of services. The solution includes a service platform powered by Nokia’s Digital Operations software, Cloud Operations Manager, Network Exposure Function, Registers, Cloud Packet Core, Software Defined Networking, and gNB (5G version of eNodeB), across Nokia’s cloud platform. 

Kevin Ahn, Head of Korea, Nokia, said: "We are excited to conduct this pathbreaking trial for LG Uplus to enable its enterprise customers to improve business processes with 5G. Nokia’s 5G B2B digital platform will allow LG Uplus to transform its B2B service creation with agility and automation and delight its enterprise customers with new use cases and operational excellence.”

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Dell'Oro: WLAN market sees big spending from education and govt sectors

 The Wireless LAN market experienced double-digit growth year-over-year in 4Q2020 thanks to government and stimulus spending in many countries including China, Japan, and the USA. Overall market outlook strengthens, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Wireless LAN vendors lose opportunities as supply lead times extend beyond government funding use by date.

“While government spending is flowing into all vertical industries, it is most notable in K-12 Education and Government,” said Matthias Machowinski, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “We estimate those two verticals alone contributed an additional 15 percent to overall market spend during 4Q 2020, as sales to K-12 increased 90 percent and Government increased almost 40 percent—extraordinary rates. Clearly, government spending is lifting overall market sales and by our judgment, is likely to continue through 2021 and beyond,” added Machowinski.

Additional highlights from the Wireless LAN 4Q 2020 Quarterly Report:

• Wi-Fi 6 achieved a major milestone, accounting for the majority of access point revenue. Notable growth came from government-funded projects in China, Japan, and Mexico.
• Demand surges for entry-level Enterprise-class access points for remote employees.

https://www.delloro.com/news/government-spending-drives-wireless-lan-market-to-double-digit-y-y-growth-in-4q-2020-outlook-strengthens/

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Ericsson adds 5G to robot security dog

Ericsson and TDC in Denmark have enabled 5G connectivity for a four-legged security robot named Spot that is now patrolling the perimeter of Hans Christian Anderson airport near the Danish city of Odense.

In collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute, the partners focused on how to unleash Spot – the Institute’s four-legged mobile robot developed by robotic company Boston Dynamics – on TDC NET’s national commercial 5G network.

The trial was one of several 5G use case scenarios developed by the joint Ericsson/TDC NET 5G Innovation Hub in Denmark. The partners have already successfully tested and deployed indoor 5G-powered dedicated industrial network with and deployed indoor 5G-powered dedicated industrial networks with Danish water solutions provider Grundfos.

Thomas Høiberg Giselsson, Senior Specialist, Danish Technological Institute, says: “If you want real-time analyses, it is necessary to be able to process data directly on Spot or to be able to efficiently transfer data to a suitable device.  Our test showed that by connecting Spot to 5G we have an opportunity to conduct real-time analysis.”

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NTT DOCOMO invests in Crosser for Edge Data Analytics

NTT DOCOMO Ventures has made an equity investment in Crosser Technologies AB, which provides edge data analytics and integration platform for manufacturers.

Crosser’s edge data analytics platform can handle, process, and utilize data obtained from factory equipment. It helps collect data from various devices and allows intuitive operations using visualized tools, making it possible to convert data into formats suitable for analysis and usage and automatically transform data without programming. The company’s software is deployed in edge devices inside factories, realizing real-time ultrahigh-speed data processing. Besides data processing and analysis, the platform can be used to automatically control manufacturing equipment based on the data; the platform is linked to various external tools such as ERP, MES System, and SAP, allowing users to utilize the platform for company-wide resource planning and management control and in factories. Crosser is based in Stockholm.

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Equinix xScale data center program for hyperscalers

Equinix provided details on its $3 billion xScale data center program, including projects currently under development in Brazil, France, Japan and other markets. 

Equinix xScale data centers serve the unique core workload deployment needs of a targeted group of hyperscale companies, including the world's largest cloud service providers. With xScale data centers, hyperscale companies can add core deployments to their existing access point footprints at Equinix, enabling their growth on a single platform that can immediately span 63 global metros and offer direct interconnection—within a vibrant set of ecosystems—to their customers and strategic business partners.

"Equinix xScale facilities offer hyperscale companies the unique value of Platform Equinix, including access to business ecosystems, interconnection services and local market knowledge around the world," said Krupal Raval, Managing Director, xScale, Equinix. "Our xScale data centers are engineered to meet the technical, operational, and pricing requirements of hyperscale companies that require large amounts of space and power to support massive scaling across thousands of servers for cloud, big data analytics or storage tasks, with 10, 20, or even 50 megawatts of power, all while meeting Equinix's sustainability commitments."

Regional Highlights/Key Facts:

Asia-Pacific

• Opening of TY12x in Tokyo. On March 1, Equinix opened its first xScale data center in Tokyo, TY12x. Equinix has had early success with TY12x, securing an anchor tenant committed to the full phase one capacity and a significant portion of phase two capacity.  TY12x is Equinix's first xScale data center in Asia. It will provide more than 186,000 square feet (about 17,300 square meters) of colocation space and will support 54 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers all phases are complete. TY12x operates in close proximity to 11 International Business Exchange IBX data centers in Tokyo.
• In addition to TY12x, the OS2x xScale data center in Osaka is currently under development and is expected to open in Q4 2021. Equinix also anticipates developing one additional xScale data center in Japan in the future. The three xScale data centers in Japan are expected to collectively deliver approximately 138 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers in Japan.
• Equinix and GIC complete Joint Venture Agreement in Asia-Pacific. In Q4 2020, Equinix completed the formation of the greater than US$1.0 billion initial joint venture in the form of a limited liability partnership with GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, to develop and operate xScale data centers in Japan. TY12x, OS2x and a planned future xScale data center in Japan are included in this initial joint venture.

EMEA

• Opening of PA9x in Paris. In February 2021, Equinix opened its second xScale data center in Paris named PA9x, which is currently fully leased by a single hyperscale tenant. PA9x is Equinix's second xScale data center in Paris and will provide more than 29,600 square feet (about 2,750 square meters) of colocation space and support 10 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers when complete. PA9x operates as part of a campus with PA2 and PA3 in Saint-Denis, France.

Additional xScale Data Centers in Europe

• Six xScale facilities are currently operating or are under development in Europe. Collectively, these sites will have the capacity to deliver approximately 106 megawatts of power to hyperscale customers in Europe once all are operational. These sites include:
• Paris:  PA8x which opened in Q1 2019 and PA9x which opened in February 2021
• London:  LD11x which opened in February 2021, and LD13x which opened in Q4 2019
• Frankfurt: FR9x which is expected to open in Q4 2021, and FR11x which is expected to open in Q2 2022
• Equinix and GIC Joint Venture Agreement in Europe
• In Q4 2019, Equinix completed the formation of the greater than US$1.0 billion initial joint venture in the form of a limited liability partnership with GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, to develop and operate xScale data centers in Europe. 

Latin America

• SP5x in São Paulo
• In Q3 2021, Equinix plans to open its first xScale data center in Latin America. SP5x is located in São Paulo, Brazil, and is in close proximity to the Equinix SP4 IBX data center. It will be connected by optical fiber to the existing four Equinix São Paulo IBX data centers and will support five megawatts of power to hyperscale customers in its first phase.

https://www.equinix.com/newsroom/press-releases/pr/124131/Hyperscale-Connectivity-Drives--Billion-in-Data-Center-Projects-by-Equinix-and-JV-Partners/

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AT&T Cybersecurity launches Managed SASE with Fortinet

AT&T launched managed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) powered by Fortinet.

AT&T SASE with Fortinet is a global managed SASE solution at scale that unifies software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) with essential network security functions of the SASE framework and 24x7 management. 

As the largest SD-WAN Managed Service Provider in North America, and one of the world’s largest Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs), AT&T said it has a unique understanding of what businesses need as they modernize and transform their networks, including the importance of security being a critical component of any business initiative. The inclusion of around-the-clock management helps relieve the burden of deployment and day-to-day support, with Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts acting as an extension to a business’ network and security teams.

AT&T SASE with Fortinet integrates with AT&T Alien Labs Threat Intelligence platform, enabling and unlocking multiple response actions, which provide SOC analysts visibility into network security, allowing them to respond to alarms effectively and efficiently.

“With the convergence of networking and security, organizations are struggling with managing and protecting applications and data accessing the network. AT&T’s heritage in providing integrated business solutions with managed services, and our best-in-class fiber and 5G connectivity solutions, uniquely position us to deliver on the promise of SASE. The solution will provide visibility and management for a more resilient network, making it safer for businesses to adapt and innovate,” states Rupesh Chokshi, VP, AT&T Cybersecurity.

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AWS adds lower cost storage classes

Amazon Web Services introduced new Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) One Zone storage classes that reduce storage costs by 47% compared to existing Amazon EFS storage classes, while delivering the same features and benefits. 

One Zone storage classes redundantly store data within a single Availability Zone (AZ) and are ideal for customers who want cost-optimized file storage options for workloads and applications that do not require the level of availability and durability offered by regional Amazon EFS storage classes that redundantly store data across multiple geographically separated AZs. 

AWS said its One Zone storage classes allow customers to achieve a blended storage price of $0.043/GB-month, while also offering higher availability and durability than self-managed file systems. One Zone storage classes provide these lower costs while delivering the same elasticity and scalability benefits of Amazon EFS Standard and EFS Standard-Infrequent Access, as well as features like lifecycle management, and integration with AWS compute services, including Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), AWS Fargate, and AWS Lambda. 

All Amazon EFS storage classes are designed for 99.999999999% (11 9’s) durability. Amazon EFS regional storage classes are designed to provide 99.99% (4 9’s) availability, while One Zone for Amazon EFS is designed to provide 99.9% (3 9’s) availability. For added data protection, Amazon EFS file systems in One Zone storage classes are automatically backed up using AWS Backup, and can be restored to any AZ within a Region, or copied to a different Region. Amazon EFS One Zone storage classes are available in US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Hong Kong), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), Europe (Milan), Europe (Stockholm), South America (Sao Paulo), Africa (Cape Town), Middle East (Bahrain), and all AWS GovCloud (US) regions, with more regions coming soon.

http://aws.amazon.com/efs

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Dell'Oro: Campus switch sales dipped in Q4

The worldwide Campus Switch revenue declined in 4Q 2020, following a short recovery in the prior quarter, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.  The year-over-year revenue decline was broad-based across all regions, except China which continued to grow for the third consecutive quarter.

“Government stimulus around the world, which propelled market recovery in 3Q 2020, continued in the fourth quarter of 2020,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “However, 4Q 2020 did not benefit from pent-up demand from large enterprises as much as the prior quarter did. On a more positive note, we started to see some sign of recovery in the mid-market,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2020 Ethernet Switch – Campus Report:

• Despite the market decline, verticals that performed well during the quarter are government and public sector, lower education, financial sector, and manufacturing.
• Industrial Ethernet switches were in high demand exiting the year.
• 5/5.0 Gbps port shipments were up more than 60 percent in 2020, as the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of higher speeds and new technologies.
• Major vendors with revenue share gain for the quarter as well as for the year are H3C, HPE, and Huawei.

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Cyxtera expands its bare metal service to additional data centers

Cyxtera, which operates a footprint of 61 data centers in 29 markets around the world, expanded its Enterprise Bare Metal service to customers in its data center facilities in Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Cyxtera Enterprise Bare Metal offers dedicated colocation infrastructure in an on-demand, subscription-based model. In total, Enterprise Bare Metal is now available from 12 markets – Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London in Europe, as well as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey Metro, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and Silicon Valley in North America.

“Our Enterprise Bare Metal offering delivers access to digital infrastructure that meets stringent compliance and security requirements in a dynamic fashion to allow our enterprise customers to deploy the capacity they need as their business needs change,” said Randy Rowland, Chief Operating Officer of Cyxtera. “We’re excited to bring this capability to our world-class facilities in Amsterdam and Frankfurt.”

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VMware teams with NVIDIA to deliver an AI-Ready Enterprise platform

VMware is collaborating with NVIDIA to deliver an AI-Ready Enterprise platform that combines the compute virtualization software of VMware vSphere and the innovation of NVIDIA AI Enterprise suite. Updates to the AI-Ready Enterprise platform include:

• NVIDIA has exclusively certified the new VMware vSphere 7 Update 2 release for NVIDIA AI Enterprise suite, a cloud-native collection of optimized AI applications and frameworks, for an end-to-end AI solution;
• vSphere 7 Update 2 introduces support for the NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs in NVIDIA-Certified SystemsTM. This, with NVIDIA AI Enterprise, enables customers to fold-in an end-to-end AI solution with confidence on their existing enterprise virtualization platform, instead of running AI projects in separate unmanageable IT silos; and,
• Customers are also able to incorporate the latest generation of NVIDIA GPUs into their virtual environment and take advantage of features like Multi-Instance GPU (MIG) allowing GPU cycles to be shared across multiple users; vSphere vMotion to provide live migration for non-disruptive operations; and vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) for automatic initial workload placement to avoid performance bottlenecks.

“NVIDIA AI Enterprise is a software suite optimized, certified and supported on VMware vSphere that enables customers to rapidly deploy, manage and scale AI in production with confidence,” said Justin Boitano, vice president and general manager of Enterprise and Edge Computing, NVIDIA. “Through NVIDIA’s collaboration with VMware, IT professionals can now support business teams with the industry’s most trusted AI tools across their hybrid cloud infrastructure.”

• In September 2020, VMware introduced vSphere with Tanzu to deliver Kubernetes.

https://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-newsfeed.VMware-Evolves-Developer-and-AI-Ready-Infrastructure-to-Advance-Digital-Business.4ab5538a-c5f6-4ebd-92a2-1dd0beaf972c.html

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Mexico's GigNet picks Tejas Networks for metro optical in Cancun

GigNet, a  digital infrastructure company in Mexico, has selected Tejas Networks' optical networking and broadband access products for a high-capacity fiber optic network expansion in the Cancun region of Mexico.

Tejas Networks will supply its full range of last-mile access products based on GPON/NG-PON fiber broadband technology, ultra-converged packet aggregation products based on MPLS-TP/PTN technology, and terabit-scale optical backbone products based on OTN/DWDM technology, all centrally managed by a universal SDN-ready network management system (NMS).

Mr. Sanjay Nayak, Managing Director and CEO of Tejas Networks said, "We are delighted to partner with GigNet as they increase their robust, flexible and scalable network to profitably deliver premium, SLA-driven services to their customers, using our innovative products. We are excited that they have selected our end-to-end optical and access products, for this prestigious network in Mexico."

http://www.tejasnetworks.com

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Etisalat picks Netcracker Domain Orchestration for 5G Slicing

Etisalat selected Netcracker Domain Orchestration solutions for automation of 5G slicing within a multivendor, cloud-native 5G core environment and across the entire network. 

Netcracker Core Domain Orchestration, based on the cloud-native Netcracker Digital OSS portfolio, combines Service Orchestration and VNF/CNF Orchestration with critical real-time OSS functions, including Active Inventory and Configuration Management as well as Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-driven analytics. The solution orchestrates multivendor 5G core and incorporates new 3GPP slice management functions, including Customer Service Management Function, Network Service Management Function and Network Slice Subnet Management Function. Additionally, Netcracker Edge Domain Orchestration comprises the same components for the edge domain with the addition of MEC application orchestration and management.

“Etisalat is always at the forefront of innovation, and with our 5G technology evolution to incorporate dynamic slicing, we will bring highly differentiated services, experiences and unique business value to our customers,” said Haitham Abdulrazzak, Chief Technology Officer at Etisalat.

“The collaboration with NEC on Netcracker Domain Orchestration further accelerates the automation, agility and new digital experience needed to change how our customers select and activate on-demand 5G services from cloud platforms,” said Khaled Al Suwaidi, Vice President of Fixed and Mobile Core at Etisalat.

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Zayo to acquire Intelligent Fiber Network in Indiana

Zayo Group Holdings agreed to acquire Intelligent Fiber Network (IFN) which provides fiber-based connectivity solutions to over 400 customers, operates a 5,000 route-mile network across multiple markets in Indiana, including Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Columbus, Terre Haute and South Bend.

“IFN brings to Zayo another unique and dense regional fiber network and a dedicated local team that excels in serving its customer base,” said Matt Steinfort, chief financial officer, Zayo. “This team, the additional network assets and the nearly 1,000 incremental on-net buildings will aid our efforts to accelerate growth as we look to capitalize on the enterprise opportunity within our network reach.”

“The combination of IFN and Zayo will enable significantly enhanced reach and value to our customers and our legacy owners,” said Jim Turner, chief executive officer, IFN. “Together, the combined companies will help drive investment and growth in Indiana’s communications infrastructure and advance the ubiquity of high speed connectivity throughout the state.”

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