Skorpios presents its Co-packaged Optics at ACP2021 in Shanghai

Skorpios Technologies presented its Tru-SiPh platform for integrating lasers, modulators, and other components on a polarization-insensitive silicon photonics platform at the ACP2021 Conference in Shanghai, China. 

Skorpios' highly integrated photonic chip will provide 3.2 Tb/s FR4 optical interfaces and is small enough that 16 can be placed around an Integrated Circuit to provide 51.2 Tb/s as a chip-scale interface for the next generation of high bandwidth switches.

Skorpios' Silicon Photonics platform integrates lasers, electro-absorption modulators (EAM), semiconductor optical amplifiers (S)A) and photodiodes (PD) in III-V compounds directly into silicon-based wafers. Electronics and optics can then be integrated, burned in, and tested at wafer scale. Laser materials are bonded directly to the silicon substrate vastly improving heat management and minimizing size of the laser. Since all laser stripe processing happens after bonding, multiple devices can be implemented on each implanted epitaxial layer, and laser power into the waveguide is optimized. Similarly, EAMs are built from other implanted epitaxies, reducing size and control complexity of the modulator.

The thick silicon platform Skorpios uses offers several advantages: Low waveguide loss, low coupling loss, polarization insensitivity, and high optical power handling. Multiplexing (Mux) and demultiplexing (DeMux)functions do not require tuning. The entire platform is covered in silicon dioxide after fabrication meaning that III-V devices and facets are environmentally protected, eliminating the need for hermetic packaging.

"It was exciting to present our 3.2Tb/s CPO design at this conference. With our design, we can integrate all devices on a single small chip, including 16 lasers (plus 16 redundant), 32 EAMs, 32 SOAs, 32 PDs, and 8 tuning-free wavelength Mux and DeMux, to provide eight standard 400Gb/s FR4 links," said Glenn Li, Skorpios' CTO. "This product is an outstanding demonstration of highly integrated heterogeneous silicon photonics possible with our platform."

http://www.skorpiosinc.com

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Comcast adds 300K broadband subs as growth rate slows

Comcast reported Q3 revenue of $30.298 billion and earnings per share of $0.86. Cable Communications increased 7.4% to $16.1 billion in the third quarter of 2021, driven by increases in broadband, wireless, business services, video, other, and advertising revenue, partially offset by a decrease in voice revenue.

Some highlights:

• Cable Communications total customer relationship net additions were 255,000 
• Total broadband customer net additions were 300,000
• Cable Communications Wireless Customer line net additions were 285,000
• Capital expenditures for cable communications decreased 5.4% to $1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021, primarily reflecting decreased investment in customer premise equipment, partially offset by increased investment in line extensions and scalable infrastructure. 

"I am pleased with our strong operating and financial results this quarter. Each of our businesses posted significant growth in Adjusted EBITDA, contributing to a double-digit increase in our Adjusted EPS. At Cable, our customer and financial metrics remained strong, highlighted by 10% growth in Adjusted EBITDA, the highest level of customer retention on record for a third quarter, and the most wireless net additions since the launch of Xfinity Mobile in 2017. Our results at NBCUniversal continue to be driven by the ongoing recovery at our domestic Theme Parks, as well as the success of our linear and streaming Media platforms. At Sky, our UK business maintained its momentum, delivering healthy growth in revenue, EBITDA, and customer relationships. Going forward, I am excited about the opportunity to continue to invest in our global technology platform and other businesses while returning more capital to shareholders. This strategy is reflected in our most recent product launches – XClass TV in the U.S. and Sky Glass in Europe – as well as the $2.7 billion we returned to shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and dividend payments," commented Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation.

https://www.cmcsa.com/news-releases/news-release-details/comcast-reports-3rd-quarter-2021-results

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AT&T brings private 5G to GE Research Campus

 GE Research has added AT&T 5G to its cross-industry 5G testbed at its research facility in Niskayuna, New York.

AT&T currently provides 2 flavors of 5G to GE's testbed: AT&T 5G, using low-band or sub-6 spectrum; and AT&T 5G+ via mmWave spectrum.

"The power of reliable, robust sub-6 and 5G+ networks will transform healthcare by bringing care more directly to the patient," said Eric Tucker, senior director of technical products, GE. "We're already seeing how doctors have become more connected to their patients through the power of telemedicine or teleconsulting. Just imagine what will be possible when millions of medical devices and diagnostics tools can be reliably connected to help doctors deliver faster, more effective patient care."

Tucker added, "Today, when you don't feel well, you call the doctor and schedule an appointment so that the doctor can examine you and figure out what's wrong.  Depending on schedules, it may take several hours or even days before you get into the doctor's office. But with the development of wearable sensors and other medical monitoring devices that GE and others are innovating, a future scenario could well be that the doctor calls the patient to tell them something is wrong first. This is possible in a very limited way today. The power of 5G networks could make it pervasive."

"A critical focus for the GE 5G testbed is democratizing technology and building solutions that work in the real-world setting," said SM Hasan, 5G Mission Leader, GE Research. "Having both flavors of 5G enables us to build solutions that span both high speeds, in building networks and the over-the-air 5G network available to AT&T customers."

http://www.business.att.com/learn/5G

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A10 Networks hits Q3 sales of $65.4 million, up 15% year-over-year

A10 Networks reported Q3 revenue of $65.4 million, up 15% year-over-year. GAAP gross margin was 79.8%; non-GAAP gross margin of 80.4% as the company successfully navigated short-term input cost pressures. GAAP net income of $74.9 million (114.6% of revenue), or $0.94 per diluted share, inclusive of a non-recurring tax benefit, compared with net income of $6.5 million, or $0.08 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2020.

Sales of security products grew 18% year-over-year.

"We achieved strong top- and bottom-line results as our security-led solutions are enabling us to capture market share and driving accelerated growth,” said Dhrupad Trivedi, President and Chief Executive Officer of A10 Networks. “Long-term deferred revenue has grown 16% year-over-year, outpacing total revenue growth. Our diversified model is enabling us to successfully navigate regional and logistical challenges, as evidenced by our 15% revenue growth and nearly 26% adjusted EBITDA margin validating the business model transformation. The increasing profitability of our business required us to release our full tax valuation allowance, as we now expect to utilize our entire net operating loss carryforwards in future periods. Our business model positions us to meaningfully drive growth and continue to improve the business model. In addition, the strong, sustainable free cash flow has enabled our Board to return capital to stockholders by declaring a quarterly cash dividend and significantly expanding our share repurchase program.”

“With a transformed portfolio focused on cybersecurity, improving market conditions and our relentless focus on execution, we are outperforming the industry as well as the expectations we set at the start of the year,” continued Trivedi. “We have solid visibility and confidence in our ability to accelerate growth beyond the previous targets of 6-8%, though we are cognizant of continued supply chain challenges and other global headwinds which could impact quarter-to-quarter performance.”

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Google collaborates on Intel's ASIC-based infrastructure processor

Intel and Google Cloud announced a deep collaboration to develop an ASIC P4-programmable infrastructure processing unit (IPU).

Code-named “Mount Evans,” this open solution supports open source standards, including an infrastructure programmer development kit (IPDK) to simplify developer access to the technology in Google Cloud data centers. 

Machine learning, large-scale data processing and analytics, media processing, and high-performance computing are all workloads that can benefit from the IPU. Another key design ambition is to separate infrastructure management functions from client workloads, thereby ensuring true bare-metal performance. Google and Intel also agreed to collaborate on open standards for transport and on P4 for programmable packet processing.

Intel said its goal is to enable developers to create an end-to-end programmable network based on Intel Xeon Scalable processors and next-generation Intel Xeon D processors, IPUs, and its new, P4-programmable Intel Tofino intelligent fabric processor (IFP) switch.

AT&T, supported by an established ecosystem of solution providers, will use Intel as a silicon provider for deployment of its forthcoming virtualized radio access network (vRAN), giving it the flexibility to bring automation and cloud-like capabilities into its network, along with optimizations for performance, cost and operational efficiency.

An archived webcast of the Intel Innovation 2021 event is posted.

Discussion of the IPU between Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Google Fellow Amin Vahdat begins around 1:37:00 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/innovation-event-livestream-replay.html#gs.essztu

Intel rolls FPGA-based Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU)

Thursday, June 17, 2021  DPU, Intel  

Intel outlined its vision for the infrastructure processing unit (IPU), a programmable network device that intelligently manages system-level infrastructure resources by securely accelerating those functions in a data center.

In a video, Guido Appenzeller, chief technology officer with Intel's Data Platforms Group says the idea is to cleanly separate the processing of client workloads from workloads of the cloud service provider.

Intel cites several advantages for an IPU architecture. First, cloud service providers will be able to process their workloads very efficiently on silicon designed for the tasks. The cloud service provider will be able to rent out 100% of available CPU resources to the clients. The clients are now able to fully control the CPUs including with their own hypervisors. In addition, local disk storage can be enhanced or replaced with virtual storage connected to the network. 

The first instances of Intel's FPGA-based IPU platforms are already shipping. Intel will be rolling out additional FPGA-based IPUs and integrated ASICs as well. "As a result of Intel’s collaboration with a majority of hyperscalers, Intel is already the volume leader in the IPU market with our Xeon-D, FPGA and Ethernet components,” said Patty Kummrow, vice president in the Data Platforms Group and general manager of Ethernet Products Group at Intel. “The first of Intel’s FPGA-based IPU platforms are deployed at multiple cloud service providers and our first ASIC IPU is under test.”

https://youtu.be/ahChxDyl8t4

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/infrastructure-processing-unit-data-center.html

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12th Gen Intel Core brings DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E, Thunderbolt 4

Intel launched the first products in the 12th Gen Intel Core family, boasting faster processing and the latest connectivity standards.  The family includes six new unlocked desktop processors offering a max turbo boost of up to 5.2 GHz and as many as 16 cores and 24 threads. 

The full 12th Gen Intel Core family will include 60 processors, set to power more than 500 designs from a broad set of partners. The 12th gen chips are the first built on Intel 7 process.

“The performance hybrid architecture of 12th Gen Intel Core processors is an architectural shift made possible by close co-engineering of software and hardware that will deliver new levels of leadership performance for generations,” said Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel. “This begins with the arrival of our flagship Core i9-12900K – the world’s best gaming processor – and you will see even more incredible experiences as we ship the rest of the 12th Gen family and beyond.”

Key platform advancements include:

• The first processors in the industry to offer DDR5 memory for up to 4800MT/s.
• The first processors in the industry to offer PCIe 5.0 (up to 16 lanes), which offers up to 2X I/O throughput over PCIe 4.0, with up to an additional four lanes of PCIe 4.0 support.
• Up to 30MB Intel Smart Cache (L3) and 14MB L2 cache for increased memory capacity with reduced latency.
• Integrated high-speed wireless with Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E, which combines industry-leading Wi-Fi 6E connectivity with powerful gaming network technology to minimize lag, latency, and packet loss.
• Discrete Thunderbolt 4 universal cable connectivity for external device expansion.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/core/12th-gen-processors.html

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Ciena and Samsung partner on mobile solutions

Samsung Electronics will offer Ciena’s xHaul solutions with its own 5G solutions to support 5G networks.

The companies agreed to collaborate on hardware and software solutions to telecom operators.  The arrangement combines Samsung’s 5G RAN and Core, including vRAN solutions, baseband units and radios, with Ciena’s xHaul Routing and Switching portfolio and next-generation Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller.

“As 5G proliferates, immersive services like AR/VR and HD video streaming are becoming the center of our daily mobile lives. In order to deliver more powerful 5G services, the current network architecture needs to evolve,” said Wonil Roh, Senior Vice President and Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s ability to couple our best-in-class 5G solutions with a leader in transport technologies like Ciena will give customers a solution to address this need, and do so with the confidence to scale and evolve their networks to support the future of 5G.”

“Together with Samsung, we’re fueling the next generation of mobile connectivity to unleash the full potential of 5G,” said Matt Cook, Vice President, Global Partner Organization, Ciena. “As both companies are leading innovators in our respective spaces with strong customer bases for these portfolios, this powerful collaboration leverages our collective leadership to create best-in-breed 5G networks that are open, scalable and adaptive.”

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CyrusOne says data center leasing remains strong

CyrusOne reported Q3 2021 revenue of $304.1 million, up 16% compared to a year earlier.  The increase in revenue was driven primarily by a 13% increase in occupied CSF and higher metered power reimbursements.

Net income was $6.7 million for the third quarter, compared to net loss of $(37.3) million in the same period in 2020. Net income for the third quarter included a $14.4 million gain associated with a change in fair value on the undesignated portion of the Company’s net investment hedge compared to a $(22.9) million loss in the third quarter of 2020. 

“We had strong financial results and another good bookings quarter, including a significant contribution from our European markets and healthy pricing across the leases,” said David Ferdman, interim president and chief executive officer of CyrusOne. “The demand environment remains strong, we continue to have productive discussions with our customers, and we are well positioned with capacity across the portfolio and more than $2 billion of available liquidity to support our growth.”

Some highlights:

• CyrusOne leased approximately 20 MW of power and 100,000 CSF in the third quarter, representing approximately $3.2 million in monthly recurring rent, inclusive of the monthly impact of installation charges. 
• The leasing for the quarter represents approximately $37.8 million in annualized GAAP revenue, excluding estimates for pass-through power. 
• The weighted average lease term of the new leases, based on square footage, is 108 months (9.0 years), and the weighted average remaining lease term of CyrusOne’s portfolio is 51 months (taking into consideration the impact of the backlog). 
• Recurring rent churn percentage for the third quarter was 0.5%, compared to 0.6% for the same period in 2020.
• In the third quarter, the Company completed construction on 161,000 CSF and 38 MW of power capacity across Phoenix, Northern Virginia, the New York Metro area, Cincinnati, Paris and Frankfurt. 
• Percentage CSF leased as of the end of the third quarter was 86% for stabilized properties and 84% overall. 
• In addition, the company has development projects underway in London, Frankfurt, Northern Virginia and San Antonio that are expected to add approximately 211,000 CSF and 49 MW of power capacity plus 469,000 square feet of powered shell.

https://investor.cyrusone.com/events/event-details/cyrusone-reports-third-quarter-2021-earnings

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MaxLinear reports solid Q3 growth, supply chain constraints

MaxLinear posted Q3 2021 revenue of $229.8 million, up 12% sequentially and up 47% year-over-year. GAAP gross margin was 56.5%, compared to 54.8% in the prior quarter, and 42.3% in the year-ago quarter.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.75, compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.53 in the prior quarter, and diluted earnings per share of $0.32 in the year-ago quarter.

“In the third quarter, revenue was up 12% sequentially and up 47% year-over-year, driven by growth across our broadband, connectivity and industrial and multi-market markets. Solid demand for our broadband access and connectivity and high-performance analog products was due to a combination of end-market strength and company-specific drivers, including platform-level silicon content increases and market share gains. Non-GAAP gross margin for Q3 of 61.3% is ahead of our original plan, as product mix shift towards higher value products continues to accelerate across broadband, connectivity, infrastructure, and high-performance analog end markets. We remain focused on improving the supply chain constraints to meet the strong and growing market demand for our connectivity, broadband, and infrastructure products in the short and long term,” commented Kishore Seendripu, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO.

https://www.maxlinear.com/

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Renesas acquires Celeno for Wi-Fi 6 & 6E silicon

Renesas Electronics agreed to acquire Celeno Communications, a start-up providing Wi-Fi solutions, for approximately US$315 million (approximately 35.9 billion yen at an exchange rate of 114 yen to the dollar) in cash. 

Celeno, which is headquartered in Israel, offers advanced Wi-Fi chipsets and software solutions, for high-performance home networks, smart buildings, enterprise and industrial markets. Its compact chipset offerings for Wi-Fi 6 and 6E deliver exceptional Wi-Fi network performance and increased security with low latency and low power consumption. Celeno’s breakthrough Wi-Fi Doppler Imaging technology, a Wi-Fi based, high-resolution imaging technology, is ideal for home elderly care and assisted living, home security, safe driving and digital and connected factories. It depicts, tracks and analyzes the motion, behavior and location of people and objects using standard Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for multiple cameras or sensors in home environments and commercial buildings.

As the world’s No.1 embedded processor supplier, Renesas offers a breadth of low-power MCU/MPU/SoC processors, wireless ICs, sensors and power management technologies. Celeno’s field-proven Wi-Fi and software capabilities are highly complementary to Renesas. The combination creates comprehensive, end-to-end embedded solutions for addressing the fast-growing markets for low-power connectivity in IoT, infrastructure, industrial and automotive applications.

“The transaction announced today underscores our continuous commitment to improve performance and efficiency in electronic systems,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, President and CEO of Renesas. “Building on our recently-expanded connectivity portfolio following the Dialog acquisition, the addition of Celeno provides us with more advanced Wi-Fi connectivity capabilities to deliver end-to-end connectivity solutions for both clients and access points. Renesas is now strongly positioned to capitalize on the growing opportunities from the massive rise in connectivity and requirements created by today’s increasingly connected world.”

“This is a compelling transaction for both our customers and employees. Our depth and strength in connectivity combined with Renesas’ industry leading portfolio of embedded solutions will allow us, together, to open up new growth areas we can target,” said Gilad Rozen, President and CEO of Celeno. “Renesas will also provide us with the go-to-market capabilities to bring Celeno to a broader range of customers.”

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Verizon Business adds Fortinet to its SD-WAN portfolio

Verizon Business has added Fortinet Secure SD WAN to its global SD WAN offering.

“The quick transition to hybrid and/or remote working models opened new avenues for cyber threat actors,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, Chief Revenue Officer for Verizon Business. “Solutions like Verizon’s Software Defined Secure Branch with Fortinet add those layers of security that help safeguard your employees, your business and ultimately your customers against cyberattacks.”

 Fortinet Secure SD WAN, which integrates SD WAN, firewall, and advanced routing, works with many types of network transports including MPLS, broadband, and wireless.

“Fortinet is committed to supporting our partners and customers with innovative Secure SD WAN technology based on a security-driven networking approach that tightly integrates an organization’s network infrastructure and security architecture,” said John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet. “By leveraging Fortinet Secure SD WAN, Verizon enables organizations to take a ‘work from anywhere’ approach to their network and security to support remote and hybrid workforces.”

 

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Iraq's ScopeSky picks Nokia'sNuage SD-WAN

ScopeSky, a leading internet service provider in Iraq, has selected Nokia’s Nuage Networks Virtualized Network Services (VNS) SD-WAN solution to deliver greater network automation, enhanced security and visibility to its enterprise customers.

Mohamed Faisal, Head of Customer Business Team for Iraq at Nokia, said: "Nokia’s Nuage Networks has become a leader in helping service providers harness the full potential of cloud and network automation and extend that to its enterprise customers’ branch locations. Our technology provides a flexible and open SD-WAN infrastructure that will serve as a foundation for ScopeSky to enhance network connectivity and deliver cloud-based services to customers across Iraq."

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2021 Open RAN Report and Video Showcase

Our 2021 Open RAN report examines key infrastructure considerations for service providers, integrators and enterprises as they contemplate adoption of solutions based on Open RAN principles. We look at relevant trends, organizations and standards, and provide our views on Open RAN and O-RAN adoption.

Our Open RAN video showcase collects and curates key insights from the industry's thought leaders including: Ignacio García-Carrillo, Telco Infrastructure Pre-Sales Leader at Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President of Network Edge and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division at Intel; Craig Wilson, VP Global Telecom Industry at IBM; Rob Soni, Head of RAN Infrastructure at VMware; Darrell Jordan-Smith, Senior Vice President, Industries & Global Accounts at Red Hat; Steve Douglas, Head of Market Strategy at Spirent; and Jim Poole, Vice President, Business Development at Equinix.

https://nextgeninfra.io/open-ran/

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Intel, Juniper, and Rakuten Symphony partner on O-RAN

by Benedict Chua, Associate Editor

Intel, Juniper Networks, and Rakuten Symphony are collaboratively developing an Open RAN solution that includes a "Symware" multipurpose edge appliance leverages Rakuten Symphony’s containerized RAN software from Altiostar, Intel Xeon D Processors and FlexRAN reference software, and Juniper’s cloud-native routing stack.

Kubernetes will play a key role

The Symware multipurpose edge appliance combines the containerized cell site routing functionality and a containerized Distributed Unit on a single general purpose server platform.

 The companies aim to provide a consistent carrier-grade routing stack across both physical and virtual Radio Access Networks. The goal is to enable 5G network slicing features both in RAN and transport domains including slice isolation, slice monitoring and dynamic traffic steering through segment routing.

The solution supports automation with zero-touch provisioning, rolling updates, telemetry and analytics for all the components, and is based on the Kubernetes ecosystem for orchestration and networking.

“Rakuten Symphony constantly looks to introduce leading-edge innovations to accelerate network transformations,” said Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Symphony. “With our partners, we have developed a cost-performance optimized appliance that simplifies the cell site deployment for 4G, 5G and future generations of mobile technology. Symware provides operators with the ultimate future-proof cell site solution that enables them to flexibly densify their network and accommodate various network topologies at the lowest cost.”

Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president and general manager, Network Platforms Group added, “We continue to see the industry shift to take advantage of the many benefits provided by the cloudification of the RAN. By utilizing our Next Generation Intel® Xeon® D Processors and FlexRANTM reference software, this collaboration showcases how RAN workloads can be consolidated onto a single server and meet the performance, capacity and cost requirements of 5G RAN deployments.”

Raj Yavatkar, Juniper’s CTO, stated “Removing the obstacles of deploying ORAN in disaggregated production networks is critical for 5G growth. Integrated routing and ORAN in a single platform delivers cost and operational benefits for network operators. Combined with industry leading Intel technology and Rakuten’s DU software, Juniper’s disaggregated and state-of-art routing stack offers operators a unique solution for delivering differentiated 5G services including network slicing.”

https://symphony.rakuten.com/

Interview - Mobile World Congress Los Angeles 2021

 How can a brand new network become the best network in Japan? 

In this video clip, Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Symphony, discusses their success in the use of Open RAN to disrupt the mobile market and how they prevailed despite naysayers.

https://youtu.be/MclEym6jYlMhttps://youtu.be/MclEym6jYlM

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VMware builds two RAN Intelligent Controllers (RICs)

VMware announced two RAN Intelligent Controllers (RICs), new capabilities for its Telco Cloud Platform RAN, and several key partnerships aimed at helping service providers smoothly transition to Open RAN.

“When it comes to Open RAN, the genie is out of the bottle. The potential benefits of increasing innovation while reducing operational expense are compelling. As such, VMware is pushing to accelerate the transformation of the RAN along with Open RAN principles,” said Sanjay Uppal, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider and Edge, VMware. “VMware is paving the way for service providers to modernize the RAN so it is programmable and intelligent, built with best-of-breed solutions from a vibrant partner ecosystem.”

The RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) is a new platform defined by the O-RAN Alliance that abstracts the underlying RAN infrastructure and provides developer APIs for xApps and rApps to program the RAN. VMware announced two RICs that can run independently of each other, or together:

• VMware Centralized RIC, an implementation of the non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (non-RT RIC) in the O-RAN Alliance reference architecture. It will manage and host rApps that have control functions with response timing greater than one second.
• VMware Distributed RIC, an implementation of the near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (near-RT RIC) in the O-RAN Alliance reference architecture. It will manage and host xApps that have control functions with response timing less than one second, typically on the order of 10’s of milliseconds.

VMware RIC SDKs are expected to be generally available in VMware’s Q4 FY22. VMware RIC is expected to be initially available in VMware’s Q1 FY23. 

VMware said its RIC has been engineered to integrate with traditional RAN equipment as well as virtualized RAN network functions independent of them being O-RAN compliant. A large ecosystem of xApps and rApps enables service providers to maximize the benefits of an Open RAN to address their unique requirements and priorities. VMware is preparing to launch a RAN application developer program to help partners jump-start and accelerate the development of xApps and rApps. 

The company also cited a number of partners who are already working with VMware to integrate their xApps and/or rApps as microservices on VMware RIC through SDKs, including:

• Cohere Technologies’ Spectrum Multiplier xApp improves spectral efficiency for service providers by as much as 2x with the use of its unique Delay-Doppler channel representation (read the press release).
• Polte's location xApp pioneers more secure, accurate and global location intelligence for service providers and their customers (read the press release).
• AirHop xApps and rApps support a broad spectrum of use cases, including RAN configuration and operation optimization, interference management, capacity and coverage optimization, and mobility optimization.
• Cellwize RAN intelligence technology and rApps enable backward compatibility alongside O-RAN future proof management and orchestration of multi-vendor networks.
• Intel is a strategic partner as VMware works with service providers to virtualize the RAN. VMware RIC is based on Intel FlexRAN reference architecture, enabling a flexible and programmable platform for software-defined RANs.

“Intel FlexRAN software allows operators transitioning to a cloud-native architecture to run their RAN and AI workloads on the same standard hardware platform as other workloads, from core to edge to access,” said Cristina Rodriguez, vice president of Intel’s Network Edge Group and general manager, Wireless Access Network Division. “VMware RIC, powered with Intel AI and Machine Learning capabilities, supports a wide variety of xApps and rApps that will help operators optimize their network performance, deliver new functions and features, and offer new value-added services.”

New capabilities for VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN aim to strike a balance between network performance and operational flexibility, including: 

• Performance: VMware ESXi delivers real-time performance for RAN workloads.
• Cost reduction: VMware Tanzu for Telco combined with VMware ESXi allows service providers to mix and match various cloud-native RAN workloads and custom 5G applications on the same physical appliance, ideal for open and disaggregated RAN where space is limited at the cell site and the number of sites keeps growing.
• Operational consistency: VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN provides a common platform and end-to-end automation and orchestration across 5G networks to prevent creating siloed islands of network functions.

https://telco.vmware.com/products/ric.html

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AT&T delivers Private 5G/Edge for Ford's Rouge electric vehicle factory

Ford Motor Company has deployed a private 5G network based on AT&T 5G with AT&T’s Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) technology at the  Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan.

The network will support advanced applications used in the production of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning.

“With this collaboration, we’ll help Ford unlock the potential of 5G helping to build the truck of the future,” said Rasesh Patel, Chief Product & Platform Officer, AT&T Business. “It’s 5G connectivity coming to life! And it’s all thanks to the transformative ultra-fast speeds, incredibly low latency, and massive connectivity that is 5G in action.

“The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center was built with a clean-slate design and features the latest in advanced manufacturing technology,” said Adrian Price, executive director, Global Manufacturing Engineering, Ford Motor Company. “We are deploying 5G technology at this facility as a platform to enable us to use significant additional advanced manufacturing technologies in the future.”

https://about.att.com/story/2021/ford-manufacturing-facility.html

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PAWR Project demos O-RAN slicing

The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) Project is demonstrating radio access network (RAN) slicing in an open RAN environment at this week's  Mobile World Congress (MWC) Los Angeles.

The demo shows a RAN slicing application in coordination with a near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (Cherry and Dawn release have been tested) and implemented on an end-to-end open source platform. With a POWDER-developed xApp linking to a RAN slicing manager, the team illustrates how the RAN slicer makes it possible to allocate resources dynamically, creating custom network slices that attach to targeted base stations and user endpoints.

“We are excited to give the industry a look at what’s possible in an open, programmable network setting,” said Kobus Van der Merwe, Associate Professor at the University of Utah and Principal Investigator on the POWDER testbed. “To our knowledge, our work represents the first effort to combine an open RAN framework with an open source mobility stack, providing a top-to-bottom RAN application in a realistic wireless environment.”

The PAWR program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and an industry consortium of 35 leading wireless companies. It is managed by the PAWR Project Office, which is co-led by nonprofit US Ignite and Northeastern University. In addition to POWDER, platforms in the PAWR program include COSMOS in New York City, AERPAW in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, and ARA, a newly-named rural broadband testbed in Ames, Iowa. 

http://www.advancedwireless.org

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FCC revokes China Telecom America's license

Citing national security concerns, the Federal Communications Commission a(FCC) revoked China Telecom (Americas) Corporation’s ability to provide domestic interstate and international telecommunications services within the United States.  

China Telecom Americas has been ordered to discontinue any domestic or international services that it provides pursuant to its section 214 authority within sixty days following the release of the order.  

The FCC noted several reasons for its decision, including:

China Telecom Americas, a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is subject to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government and is highly likely to be forced to comply with Chinese government requests without sufficient legal procedures subject to independent judicial oversight.  

China Telecom Americas’ ownership and control by the Chinese government raise significant national security and law enforcement risks by providing opportunities for China Telecom Americas, its parent entities, and the Chinese government to access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute U.S. communications, which in turn allow them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.  

 China Telecom Americas’ conduct and representations to the Commission and other U.S. government agencies demonstrate a lack of candor, trustworthiness, and reliability that erodes the baseline level of trust that the Commission and other U.S. government agencies require of telecommunications carriers given the critical nature of the provision of telecommunications service in the United States.  

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Biden nominates Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn to FCC

President Biden nominated Jessica Rosenworcel to serve as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission and Gigi Sohn as Commissioner of the FCC.

Jessica Rosenworcel presently serves as acting chair of the FCC. She has served as a Commissioner since 2012. Prior to joining the agency, she served as Senior Communications Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, under the leadership of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV and Senator Daniel Inouye. Before entering public service, Jessica practiced communications law. 

Gigi Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate. From 2013-2016, Gigi served as Counselor to Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and from 2001-2013 was Co-Founder and CEO of Public Knowledge, a leading communications and technology policy advocacy organization serving the interests of consumers. She was previously a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation’s Media, Arts and Culture unit and Executive Director of the Media Access Project, a communications public interest law firm. Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. 

President Biden also nominated Alan Davidson to serve as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce. He is currently a Senior Advisor at the Mozilla Foundation, a global nonprofit that promotes openness, innovation, and participation on the Internet. He was previously Mozilla’s Vice President of Global Policy, Trust and Security, where he led public policy and privacy teams promoting an open Internet and a healthy web. Alan served in the Obama-Biden Administration as the first Director of Digital Economy at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He started Google’s public policy office in Washington, D.C., leading government relations and policy in North and South America for seven years until 2012.

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Juniper posts Q3 sales of $1.19 billion, up 4% yoy

Juniper Networks reported preliminary Q3 2021 net revenues of $1,188.8 million, an increase of 4% year-over-year and an increase of 1% sequentially. GAAP operating margin was 10.1%, a decrease from 11.0% in the third quarter of 2020, and an increase from 7.3% in the second quarter of 2021. Non-GAAP net income was $152.0 million, an increase of 5% year-over-year, and an increase of 8% sequentially, resulting in non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.46.

“We reported a fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth and a second consecutive quarter of exceptional order growth during the Q3 time period,” said Juniper’s CEO, Rami Rahim. “Our strategy is working and the investments we have made both in our customer solutions and our sales organization are enabling us to capitalize on the strong demand across each of our end markets. Based on the momentum we are seeing, I am confident in our ability to not only grow our business in the December quarter, but also to do so again during the upcoming year.”

Juniper also stated that it continuew to experience component shortages which has resulted in extended lead times and elevated costs of certain products. However, the company believes it has sufficient supplies of semiconductors and other components to meet its financial forecast.

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