Luminar to acquire Freedom Photonics for laser manufacturing

Luminar, a leading global automotive technology company, agreed to acquire Freedom Photonics, a high-performance laser manufacturer based in Santa Barbara, California. Terms of the all stock transaction were not disclosed but the companies said the deal will not have a material impact on Luminar’s cash position or share count. 

The transaction follows a multi-year collaboration and brings fundamental next-generation chip-scale laser technology, IP, and production expertise in-house for Luminar lidar systems.

Freedom Photonics' portfolio includes photonic components, modules and subsystems. 

Luminar said its vertical integration across core lidar components will enable low costs, supply chain security and improved performance. 

This transaction follows the acquisition of subsidiaries Black Forest Engineering for custom signal processing chips in 2017 and Optogration Inc. in 2021 for receiver chips. This integration extends Luminar’s industry leadership on its path towards democratizing safety and autonomy for the automotive industry.

“Component-level innovation and integration is critical to our performance, cost and continued automotive technology leadership. Bringing Freedom Photonics into Luminar enables a new level of economies of scale, deepens our competitive moat and strengthens our future technology roadmap,” said Jason Eichenholz, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Luminar. “We’ve worked closely with the Freedom team for the past several years. They have proven to be the best in the world for breakthrough semiconductor laser chip technology, where both power and beam quality are needed simultaneously for true high resolution at long range.”

https://www.luminartech.com/technology/

Freedom Photonics and Vanguard Automation develop chip-scale interconnects

Monday, March 07, 2022  #OFC22, Freedom Photonics  

Freedom Photonics has deployed Vanguard Automation’s SONATA and REPRISE 1000 systems at its facilities in Santa Barbara, CA. The two systems combined construct a fully automated photonic integration and packaging solution built upon 3D nano-print technology, and enable the fabrication of low loss optical subsystem interconnects commonly known as Photonic Wire Bonds (PWBs). Freedom Photonics added Photonic Wire Bonding to its 21,000 square foot facility...

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Freedom Photonics demos 1550 nm semiconductor laser amplifier

Sunday, January 23, 2022    

Freedom Photonics demonstrated over 5.0 Watts of continuous wave optical power from a 1550 nm diode laser amplifier with nearly diffraction-limited beam quality. This result doubles the previous record reported just three months ago. “This achievement is a testament to the inherent scalability of our aura product line and demonstrates that this is just the beginning of a product life cycle that will see continuous improvements for years to come,”...

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SiFive raises $175 million in Series F funding for RISC-V

SiFive, a start-up specializing in RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions, raised $175 million in a Series F financing round, valuing the company at over $2.5 billion. 

SiFive, which is based in San Mateo, California, develops a range of processor cores, accelerators, and SoC IP to create domain-specific architecture that will enable efficient, high-performance computing solutions. 

The Series F round was led by Coatue Management, a global technology investment firm. Coatue joins existing investors AMD (through Xilinx Ventures), Ibex Investors, Intel Capital, Osage University Partners, Prosperity7 ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Samsung Ventures, SK hynix, Spark Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Western Digital Capital.

“The market has spoken and made it abundantly clear that RISC-V computing will be competing for the heart of all future computing platforms. As the founder and market leader of RISC-V computing it’s our role to lead this ecosystem forward and offer customers advanced computing alternative to Arm and others,” said Patrick Little, CEO and Chairman, SiFive. “This valuation is a validation of our strategy, our incredible team, and our singular focus on building the leading portfolio of high-performance RISC-V compute products in the market. Our customers are signaling strong demand for SiFive to deliver the highest level of performance as quickly as possible.”

“We continue to be impressed by SiFive’s growth and challenge to proprietary legacy architecture IP providers,” said Jaimin Rangwalla, Senior Managing Director at Coatue Management. “SiFive’s accomplishments in high-performance RISC-V IP enables future computing platforms to be built on an open, industry-wide base, allowing technology companies to design differentiated products for their target markets. We are proud to partner with and support the team as they create an exciting future for the company.”

“Intel believes in enabling a multi-ISA strategy, including RISC-V as the open compute base for future platforms,” said Bob Brennan, VP & GM, Customer Solutions Engineering, Intel Foundry Services. “Our IFS investment in RISC-V includes partnering with RISC-V leader SiFive to build the Horse Creek developer platform that will be broadly available in late 2022, based on Intel 4 process technology.”

https://www.sifive.com

• To date, SiFive has raised over $350 million.

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Taiwan's Far EasTone joins Ericsson's Startup 5G program

Far EasTone (FET), a leading operator from Taiwan, has joined the Ericsson Startup 5G program, which is designed to help communication service providers (CSPs) capture the consumer potential of 5G. 

FET is the first CSP in Northeast Asia to enroll in the program, joining a lineup of word-leading operators such as AT&T, Telstra, and Rogers, to name a few.  

With the ambition to maximize value for 5G users, FET has invested heavily in developing new value-added services within its 5G offering, including the recently announced 5G Metaverse Accelerator aiming to deepen the collaboration with local Taiwanese startups. 

“Bringing FET to the Ericsson Startup 5G program opens a new chapter in our long-term partnership,” said David Chou, President of Ericsson Taiwan. “FET has been a trailblazer in innovating 5G services on top of a superior network with our joint efforts. This constructive collaboration will further enable more promising consumer applications with differentiated services for Taiwan and to unlock the full potential of 5G. In the meantime, we look forward to connecting Taiwanese startups to an array of worldwide operators to accelerate 5G adoption within the ecosystem.”

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Google's Equiano subsea cable lands in Togo

Google's Equiano subsea cable, which will connect Lisbon, Portugal and Cape Town, South Africa with branching units along the west coast of Africa, will make Togo its first landing spot.

Representing the State, Société d’Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), a public telecommunications asset company, has strategically partnered with CSquared, an open access wholesale broadband infrastructure company, to create a joint venture – CSquared Woezon, which will be in charge of maintaining and operating the Equiano submarine cable as well as the existing e-Government and Communauté Electrique du Bénin (CEB) terrestrial optic fiber network located on the Togolese territory. Regarding the sale of international capacity, CSquared Woezon will provide open access to all national and regional operators on an objective, transparent and non-discriminatory commercial basis.

Nitin Gajria, Managing Director of Google Sub-Saharan Africa commented, “The landing of Equiano affirms Google’s commitment to the African continent, to support Africa’s digital transformation. We are thrilled that Togo will be Equiano’s first landing on the African continent, as it aligns with the country’s continuing efforts to promote digital inclusion for Africa. We look forward to working closely with the Togolese Government and The Ministry of Digital Economy and Transformation as they continue to build their digital infrastructure.”

https://www.csquared.com/togo-welcomes-googles-historic-equiano-subsea-cable-in-a-partnership-with-csquared-that-will-transform-the-countrys-broadband-landscape/

First subsea fiber cable to be landed on St Helena island

Monday, August 19, 2019  Google, Subsea  

The first fiber optic cable is expected to be landed on St. Helena, an island in the South Atlantic ocean that is a British Overseas Territory.

The fiber connection will be a spur from the main trunk of the Equiano cable, a new private subsea cable backed by Google that will connect Africa with Europe. The spur will be 1,140km long.

St. Helena is located 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) east of Rio de Janeiro and 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) west of the nearest point in Africa (the mouth of the Cunene River on the border between Namibia and Angola). The island has a population of 4,500.

http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/subsea-cable-to-be-landed-on-st-helena/?highlight=equiano

Google announces Equiano cable from Portugal to South Africa

Sunday, June 30, 2019  Africa, Cable, Google, Subsea  

Google unveiled plans for new private subsea cable connecting Lisbon, Portugal and Cape Town, South Africa with branching units along the west coast of Africa.

The Equiano subsea cable, which is named for Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy, will include a branching unit to Nigeria.

Google plans to use state-of-the-art space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology to achieve approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region.

The cable will be the first to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching. Google says this design will greatly simplify the allocation of cable capacity.

Equiano is fully funded by Google. Alcatel Submarine Networks was awarded a contract in Q4 2018.

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What's hot at OFC22? 2022 Ethernet Roadmap

Users fully expect Ethernet to work -- just to work -- even as it increases in speeds and as it enters new application areas, says Orshi Abraham, Marketing Chair, Ethernet Alliance. Multivendor interoperability is key to continued success.

The 2022 Ethernet Roadmap was released at OFC22.

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Equinix acquires 4 data centers from Chile's Entel

Equinix agreed to acquire four data centers from Chile's  Empresa Nacional De Telecomunicaciones (Entel) for an enterprise value of approximately US$705 million. The deal includes three data centers in Santiago, Chile and one in Lima, Peru.

Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix: "Latin America holds enormous potential, and our commitment to the region has exponentially grown since we entered back in 2011," said Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix. "Chilean, Peruvian and multinational companies are thirsting for the digital infrastructure required to thrive in today's economy; with today's expansion, we're broadening digital access and accelerating digital transformation across Latin America, while supporting growth in a responsible and sustainable manner." 

Some highlights: 

• The four facilities generate approximately US$53 million of annualized revenue and represent a purchase multiple of approximately 23x EV / 2021 adjusted EBITDA including Equinix SG&A expenses. The acquisition is expected to be AFFO per share accretive upon close, excluding integration costs. 
• Approximately 120 Entel employees and contractors are expected to become Equinix employees or contractors under the terms of the agreement.
• The more than 100 Entel customers currently operating in the four data centers will become Equinix customers, with more than 75 of these representing net-new customers.
• The three data centers in Chile are located in the metropolitan area of Santiago and have different strategic characteristics. The Ciudad de los Valles location is the largest multitenant data center in Santiago, with ample expansion opportunities. The downtown Santiago site is a network-dense facility, adjacent to the Entel Tower, a key IX facility in the market, and close to the city government center, within a heightened security environment. The facility in Longovilo is strategically located away from the city center to meet the backup and disaster recovery needs from financial institutions.
• The Peruvian data center is a well-established Tier III site located in Lima, the capital of Peru.

Telxius activates Mistral along Latin America's Pacific coast

Tuesday, August 10, 2021  Chile, Subsea, Telxius  

Telxius' new Mistral submarine cable, which runs along the Latin American Pacific coast, is now ready for service between Puerto San Jose (Guatemala) with Valparaiso (Chile) with additional landing points in Salinas (Ecuador), Lurin (Peru) and Arica (Chile).Mistral spans approximately 7,300 km, and features six fibre pairs, 132 Tbps of potential capacity, and the lowest latency from Guatemala to Chile. It is the first subsea cable in the last 20...

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NTT demos orchestration based on ETSI's ZTM spec

NTT DOCOMO, in collaboration with NTT Com, NTT Network Service Systems Laboratories (NS Labs) and NTT Network Innovation Center (NIC), has demonstrated end-to-end orchestration (E2EO) technology based on the Zero Touch Network and Service Management (ZSM) specification of ETSI, the European standardization organization. 

E2EO technology automates 5G network slicing to enable multiple networks to operate on common infrastructure. In the recent demonstration, which is being conducted from November 2021 to March 2022, a 5G mobile network built on a testbed incorporating NTT Com, NS Labs and NIC technologies has been automatically sliced with E2EO technology into multiple networks suitable for each application.

Once fully established, interface specifications for transport-network, core-network and data-network control domains will enable the automatic creation and deletion of 5G network slices. This will also enable service quality to be monitored so that processing capacity can be expanded whenever degraded quality is detected in any slice.

https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2022/0311_00.html

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SpaceX launches 53 more Starlink satellites

On March 19, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This Falcon 9 first stage booster previously launched Dragon’s first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and nine Starlink missions.

In a tweet,  Elon Musk noted that the launch was the heaviest Falcon 9 payload ever launched, at 16.25 metric tons.

The mission was the 11th SpaceX launch and 8th Starlink launch of 2022.

http://www.spacex.com

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Dell'Oro: Double-digit growth for Service Provider router and switching in '21

The worldwide Service Provider Router and Switch market rebounded in 2021 and surpassed pre-pandemic revenue levels, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. The North America region led the worldwide market expansion with solid double-digit growth.

“Demand for IP routers, especially in North America, surged last year as network operators pumped up investments across a wide range of network infrastructures,” said Shin Umeda, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Our research found that North American network expansion projects for Internet and cloud backbones, mobile transport, and broadband aggregation all contributed to the region’s first annual increase since 2015,” added Umeda.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2021 Service Provider Router and Switch Report:

• Strong growth in North America for 2021 combined with modest gains in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region offset a drop for the Asia Pacific region that reflected a decline in China.
• The Service Provider Core Router market expanded for the first time since 2018 as network operators increasingly deployed 400 Gbps technologies to expand network capacity.
• Cisco was the top-ranked vendor for the 2021 worldwide Service Provider Router and Switch market, regaining leadership that Huawei held for the prior year. Nokia, Juniper, and ZTE, in ranked order, rounded out the top five market share spots.

https://www.delloro.com/news/service-provider-router-and-switch-market-surpassed-pre-pandemic-levels-in-2021/

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Dell'Oro: Campus switch sales reach record levels in 2021

The worldwide Campus Switch market revenue reached a record level in the fourth quarter and the full year 2021, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Digital transformation initiatives, combined with government stimulus, propelled most of the growth in 2021. Arista, Extreme, H3C, HPE Aruba, Juniper were able to gain revenue share in 2021.

“What was remarkable is that the 2021 revenue growth was broad-based across all regions, all customer sizes; and all vertical segments, including those that have been hit hard by the pandemic, ” said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “However, despite the robust sales performance in 2021, demand continues to outpace supply. Supply challenges continue to limit vendors’ ability to fulfill orders, resulting in wide quarter-to-quarter variations in vendors’ performance. These variations are causing share shifts in the market, which are not necessarily reflective of competitive displacements, but rather the timing of order fulfillment,” added Boujelbene.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2021 Ethernet Switch – Campus Report:

• Huawei regained the revenue leading position in China in 4Q 2021, after briefly ceding its place to H3C in the prior quarter.
• 2.5/5.0 Gbps ports were up 16 percent in 2021 but comprised only 1 percent of the total ports as the price premium over 1 Gbps is still hindering its mass adoption. We expect, however, that the 2.5/5.0 Gbps adoption will accelerate with the ramp of Wi-Fi 6 and the anticipated introduction of Wi-Fi 7 WLAN Access Points.
• Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) ports up strong double-digits and comprised 30 percent of the total ports in 2021.

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Brazil's Raízen picks Juniper + NEC for campus Wi-Fi

Raízen, a global leader in bio-energy solutions, has selected Juniper Networks and NEC to design and deploy anew Wi-Fi network for its headquarters in São Paulo and offices in Piracicaba, Brazil. 

The new network uses the Juniper Mist AI solution to dramatically streamline the IT helpdesk function for Raízen, which is one of Brazil’s largest private business groups.

NEC is providing consultancy and implementation services. 

The new platform provides automated and real-time data insights into exactly what Raízen’s users, devices and sites are experiencing on the network. In addition, by using actionable data from individual users, Mist AI provides tailored feedback and proactive support, as well as correlated, AI-driven insights into the network’s overall ongoing health and performance.

Raízen is assessing further projects based on the capabilities of the Juniper Mist cloud, including Wired Assurance, warehouses becoming Wi-Fi enabled and newly-acquired companies making the move to the Juniper solution.

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Crehan: Amazon and Google deployed >50% of total data center Ethernet switch bandwidth in 2021

The data center Ethernet switch market saw very strong annual bandwidth growth during 2021, with an increase of more than 60%, according to a recent report from Crehan Research Inc. This growth is the largest in four years, despite market bandwidth being five times bigger now. 

A major driver of the strong increase were high-volume 400 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch deployments by Amazon and Google, resulting in these two companies accounting for over half of all 2021 bandwidth deployed.

“The insatiable demand for data center networking bandwidth continues," said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, "with hyperscale cloud service providers at the tip of this spear. Artificial intelligence is one of the latest applications driving robust high-bandwidth growth, as this service-offering from cloud providers gains traction.”

Crehan’s report further shows that it took only about three years for 400GbE to comprise the majority of data center Ethernet switching bandwidth, despite its limited number of early customers. In fact, 400GbE data center switching is just now hitting broad market adoption in terms of number of customers deploying this technology.

"Although the portion of total data center Ethernet networking bandwidth from Amazon and Google has surged over the past couple of years," Crehan said, "it will likely rebalance a bit in 2022 as 400GbE and 200GbE see broader market deployments, starting with Meta and Microsoft early this year."

https://crehanresearch.com

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Keysight delivers 800G test solution for 112 Gbps Serial data interfaces

Keysight Technologies introduced an 800G compliance test solution for validating 112 gigabit per second (Gbps) serial data center interfaces. The new 112 Gbps conformance test solution leverages Keysight’s M8040A 64 GBaud high performance bit error ratio tester (BERT) with a N1060A Digital Communication Analyzer (DCA) for receiver testing and Keysight’s Infiniium UXR-Series real-time oscilloscope for transmitter testing. 

Interfaces capable of supporting speeds of at least 100 Gbps and per lane are critical to realizing the benefits of 800G deployments. Keysight’s 112 Gbps conformance test platform enables optical transceiver manufacturers to accurately verify both the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) of designs that support connectivity speeds of 100 Gbps or greater.

Keysight said its fully automated 112 Gbps conformance test solution enables users to:

• perform flexible, precise and repeatable testing across a variety of implementation scenarios, to minimize development schedules.
• leverage a wide range of test cases for validating compliance to the latest specifications defined by both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF).
• simplify and accelerate testing of multiple interfaces, including chip-to-chip, chip-to-module, cabled and backplane.

The solution includes automated test software for verifying the following:

• receiver in conformance to IEEE 802.3ck specifications (M8091CKPA)
• transmitter in conformance to IEEE 802.3ck specifications (N1091CKCA and D90103CKC)
• transmitter in conformance to OIF-CEI-112G PAM4 specifications (N109212CA and D9050CEIC)

Keysight expands 800G test solutions with multimode interfaces

Thursday, February 03, 2022  800G, Keysight, Test  

Keysight Technologies expanded its portfolio of 800G test solutions for the optical transceiver ecosystem. The latest addition to Keysight’s existing portfolio of 800G test solutions are new design and validation solutions that support multimode interfaces, which are critical for an energy efficient data center infrastructure. The 800G multimode test solutions uniquely support high-speed data interconnect speeds of up to 100 Gbps.

In December 2020, Keysight launched industry-first 800G test solutions to help speed development of next generation data center technologies. The 800G multimode test solutions enable users to verify the performance of a wide range of optical transceiver modules and components, including vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), photodiodes, modulator drivers, transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) and physical layer (PHY) chips.

The extended portfolio supports 400G and 800G design validation, in accordance with standards defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), across the entire product lifecycle, from early research and development to manufacturing. Industry-leading test capabilities from Keysight include:

• Multimode component characterization using Keysight’s N4373E lightwave component analyzer
• Conformance and interoperability validation using Keysight’s N1077B 64Gbaud multimode optical and electrical clock recovery solutions
• Transceiver module performance evaluation using Keysight’s A400GE-QDD and G800GE layer 1 multiport test solutions.

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Broadband Forum completes Phase 2 of its 5G work.

The Broadband Forum released three new specifications for providing operators with new 5G deployment options, including 5G hybrid access using wireline and LTE or NR:

• TR-456 Issue 2 ‘Access Gateway Function Functional Requirements’ - the capabilities introduced by TR-456 Issue 2 include ensuring operators have the capacity to multiplex multiple sessions between the 5G-Residential Gateway and Access Gateway Function on top of the customer VLAN. This enables each session to be unique in terms of User Plane Functions (UPFs) selection, and operators can place video traffic, business traffic or community Wi-Fi all on their own wireline connection with different policies for each. The specification also expands support for legacy CPE in the form of multi-session support and expanded legacy authentication models. It also addressed other operational aspects such as maximum transmission unit handling, improved NAS transport reliability and Quality of Service enhancements.
• TR-470 Issue 2 ‘5G Wireless Wireline Convergence Architecture’ - Hybrid-access with the functionality of ATSSS (Access Traffic Steering, Switching, Splitting) supports multiple traffic distribution mechanisms and policies, and is another key enabler from TR-470 Issue 2. This is based on the Residential Gateway with dual access: PON or DSL on the wireline side and 5G or LTE on the wireless side. The LTE support is critical as the operator can create and manage logical sessions that leverage existing network coverage and therefore can offer services with seamless availability for connectivity, bandwidth aggregation and policy-based forwarding, even if the 5G radio deployment is not complete yet.
• TR-124 Issue 7 ‘Functional Requirements for Broadband Residential Gateway Devices’ - adds Multi-Access support and specifies requirements for the Residential Gateways connected to the 5G System which allow operators to maximize throughput, redundancy, and reliability. This provides the ability to not only run isolated sessions on each access, but to run multiple sessions that use multiple access either as active-standby or simultaneously.

“The Phase 2 work has delivered multi-session and enhanced authentication support for legacy Residential Gateways that do not have any 5G capability. Multi-session will enable the same user to connect to multiple service networks, while previously the user was limited to a single data network. This additional improvement can be considered a foretaste of what will be possible with 5G-Residential Gateways,” said Rosaria Persico, Principal Broadband Forum Delegate, TIM. “Operators are able to leverage innovation and common procedures specified by Broadband Forum that result in enhanced customer experience across available access network assets, and this specification development will ensure a smooth evolution path to a standardized 5G hybrid model.”

https://www.broadband-forum.org

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Lawrence Berkeley National Lab develops board-in-board interconnects

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) introduced a compact, robust, and low-cost method for interconnecting printed circuit boards (PCBs) without requiring soldering or additional components. 

Berkeley Lab says its narrow board-in-board connectors can handle higher voltages and mechanical stresses compared to currently available miniature connector technologies. Multiple boards can be connected into a variety of shapes, including 3D shapes. Potential uses are broad–ranging, from vital aviation electronics to thin sensor probes. This technology is now available for licensing.

“This new type of PCB interconnects opens up a world of design opportunities for electronics,” said Stijn Wielandt, a researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area. “The strong locking mechanism means simple assembly and less breakage in applications that produce mechanical stress or vibrations on circuit boards. The compact format also allows for use in 3D components.”

Because the contacts are spaced out along the length of the board, the connector can also handle higher voltages, which opens opportunities in the field of power electronics, for example in the domain of solar power, battery packs, and motor control.

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What's hot at OFC22? SENKO on dense fiber connectors for CPO

 Co-packaged optics (CPO) was one of the hottest topics at OFC, as evidenced by the many visitors at SENKO's booth who stopped by to discuss the latest requirements for high-density fiber interconnects, says  Emmanuel Kolczynski, Application Engineering Manager, SENKO.

At OFC, SENKO showcased its SN-MT connector for CPO applications.  Here is an overview.

https://youtu.be/ZEwioqGbrfg

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What's hot at OFC22? Cudoform stamping for Co-Packaged Optics

Many companies are looking for new solution for integrating optics with electronics in a single package to shorten electrical link lengths and reduce power, says R. Ryan Vallance, CEO and CTO, Cudoform.

Cudoform specializes in high-accuracy stamping of metallic components, proving an innovative way to bring light into co-packaged optics.

https://youtu.be/eqj9jiazEJ0

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AT&T leads 2021 U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN LEADERBOARD

Vertical Systems Group announced today that the following seven companies achieved a position on the year-end 2021 U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN Services LEADERBOARD (in rank order based on site share): AT&T, Comcast Business, Hughes, Verizon, Windstream, Lumen, and Aryaka. These service providers each have two percent (2%) or more of the installed and billable Carrier Managed SD-WAN customer sites in the U.S. as of December 31, 2021.

“The U.S. Managed SD-WAN services market emerged from the pandemic in 2021 with solid growth in new site installations, driven by accelerated network transformations and more flexible solutions for customers,” said Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “Competition is heating up as evidenced by the shake up in top provider rankings on our year-end 2021 U.S. LEADERBOARD benchmark.”

Three companies attained a Challenge Tier citation for 2021 (in alphabetical order): Fusion Connect, MetTel and TPx. This tier includes service providers with between one percent (1%) and two percent (2%) share of U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN sites.

Some additional highlights:

• Rankings changed for five of the seven market leading providers on Vertical’s 2021 U.S. Carrier Managed SD-WAN LEADERBOARD based on latest site share results as compared to the previous year.
• AT&T retains first position overall for the fourth consecutive year.
• Comcast Business rises to second position, up from fourth in 2020 based on site share that includes organic growth plus sites added from its Masergy acquisition.
• Hughes moves to third position, from second overall in 2020. Verizon moves into fourth position, a change from third in the previous year.
• Lumen advances to rank fifth, up from sixth position. Windstream drops to sixth position from fifth in 2020. Aryaka retains seventh position and rounds out the roster of top providers for 2021.
• Additionally, TPx drops into the 2021 Challenge Tier from the LEADERBOARD.
• MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Service Certification has been attained by five of the 2021 U.S. LEADERBOARD companies: AT&T, Comcast Business, Verizon, Lumen and Windstream. Each of these providers also has employees with MEF SD-WAN Certified Professional training certification.
• Primary technology suppliers to the service providers ranked on the 2021 Carrier Managed SD-WAN LEADERBOARD include Cisco, Fortinet, Versa and VMware. Additionally, SD-WAN providers Aryaka and Hughes utilize internally developed technologies.

https://www.verticalsystems.com/2022/03/16/2021-us-sdwan-leaderboard/

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Dell'Oro: PON equipment spending up 32% yoy

Total global revenue for the Broadband Access equipment market increased to $16.3B in 2021, up 12 percent year-over-year (Y/Y), according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Growth came once again from spending on both PON infrastructure and fixed wireless CPE.

"2021 was a record year for PON equipment spending, with some of the highest growth coming from the North American market, where expansion projects and fiber overbuilds are picking up considerably," said Jeff Heynen, Vice President, Broadband Access and Home Networking at Dell'Oro Group. "These fiber expansion projects show no signs of slowing heading into 2022."

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2021 Broadband Access and Home Networking quarterly report:

• Total cable access concentrator revenue increased 4 percent Y/Y to just over $1B. Steady growth in Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) deployments helps offset declines in traditional CCAP licenses.
• Total PON ONT unit shipments reached a record 140 M units for the year, bucking the supply chain constraints that have dogged the cable CPE market.

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Lightpath expands fiber footprint west of Boston

 Lightpath announced a 75-mile expansion of its all-fiber network west of its Boston metro footprint, bringing the total size of the Lightpath network in the Boston metropolitan area to more than 200 route miles.

The Boston West expansion includes over 75 miles of new, high-count fiber along the I-90 corridor between Boston and Marlborough, planned in two phases. Phase 1 of the build (in yellow on map) will be completed later in 2022, while the additional proposed routes (in red on map) are targeted for completion in 2023. 

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