Open XR Forum builds membership momentum

Juniper Networks, Sumitomo Electric and Arrcus have joined the Open XR Forum, which aims to advance the deployment of software-configurable point-to-point and point-to-multipoint coherent optical networks utilizing XR optics pluggable transceiver technology.

These new members bring essential expertise and world-class experience in routing, access/edge networks and software to the Open XR ecosystem. Their contributions and participation in the Forum will help drive multi-vendor, interoperable solutions to enable high bandwidth, software-configurable, coherent optics from the core to the edge of the network.

"Juniper is pleased to work with the Open XR Forum members, to advance the development of intelligent coherent pluggables. We are excited to be part of the Open XR vision of transforming network architecture to deliver major advances in performance, cost and network agility to meet the rapidly expanding capacity requirements for cloud, datacenter and 5G traffic," said Brendan Gibbs, SVP Product Management, Juniper Networks.

"Building a robust multi-vendor ecosystem is essential to enable network operators to achieve the substantial savings and increased network capabilities provided by XR optics technology. As critical members of the value chain, these new members mark a significant step forward in the realization of the XR optics network vision," said Dave Welch, Infinera Co-Founder.

Open XR Forum membership is expanding rapidly to cover a wide range of industry participants which currently includes AT&T, BT, Colt, Crown Castle, Infinera, Liberty Global, Lumen Technologies, Telefónica, Verizon, Windstream and ZAYO.

http://www.openxrforum.org

Open XR Forum MSA gets underway

Tuesday, June 08, 2021  XR Optics  

A new Open XR Forum has been established to advance the development of XR optics-enabled products and services, accelerate the adoption of coherent point-to-multipoint network architectures, and drive standardization of networking interfaces to ensure ease of multi-vendor interoperability and an open, multi-source solution ecosystem.The Open XR Forum will function as a multi-source agreement (MSA) working group for XR optics, the industry’s first...

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Infinera introduces XR Optics-powered coherent pluggables

Wednesday, May 19, 2021  Infinera  

Infinera introduced a suite of coherent optical pluggables based on its XR optics technology and designed to seamlessly address point-to-point and point-to-multipoint transport applications from the network edge to the core. Infinera’s new suite of vertically integrated ICE-XR pluggables will support a range of transport rates, including 100G, 400G, and 800G, and utilize industry-standard form factors such as QSFP-28, QSFP-DD, and CFP2 to enable...

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OIF releases Common Electrical I/O 5.0 Implementation Agreement

OIF published a new Implementation Agreement (IA) for Common Electrical I/O (CEI) 5.0 specifying the next generation of 112 Gbps electrical interconnects. The IA specifies transmitter, receiver and channel requirements associated with Extra Short Reach (XSR), Medium Reach (MR) and Long Reach (LR) interfaces for multi-chip-module, chip-to-chip, and high-speed backplane applications.

“This IA marks a new generation of specifications for 112G interfaces,” said Klaus-Holger Otto, Nokia and OIF Technical Committee Chair. “It is a continuation of OIF’s proud history of adding next-generation data rates that enable broad interconnect solutions and are critical building blocks for several industry standards and platforms.”

“These new data rate specifications will enable applications including backplane, chip-to-chip, and die-to-die interfaces within a package,” said David Stauffer, Kandou Bus and Chair of OIF’s Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group. “And, it enables multiple applications, such as co-packaged optics. Definitions of interfaces within co-packaged die are unique to this IA and OIF’s work.”

http://www.oiforum.com

OIF advances 224G CEI

Wednesday, March 16, 2022  OIF  

OIF launched four new CEI projects during its recent Q122 Technical and MA&E Committees meeting, which was held virtually in mid-February. These include:CEI-224G-Extra Short Reach (XSR) Common Electrical On-Package Interface Project, CEI-224G-Very Short Reach (VSR) Common Electrical Chip-to-Module Interface Project, CEI-224G-Medium Reach (MR) Common Electrical Chip-to-Chip Interface Project, CEI-224G-Long Reach (LR) Common Electrical...

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OIF demos at at #OFC22: 400ZR interoperability; CPO; CEI-112, CMIS

Wednesday, February 23, 2022  #OFC22, OIF, Silicon  

OIF will host the following demonstrations at this year’s OFC 2022 in San Diego, March 8-10, 2022. Industry experts will also present updates on OIF’s current work in many critical areas, including 400ZR/800ZR and electrical rates.400ZR Demo - the first-ever public multivendor 400ZR consists of a full implementation of 400GE across an 80km, DWDM ecosystem using multiple module, router, open line systems, and test equipment vendors, demonstrating...

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Marvell joins Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) Consortium

Marvell has joined the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) Consortium as part of its ongoing development of open chiplet interconnect standards. 

Marvell said its contributions to the UCIe standard will leverage the company's advanced chiplet interconnect and packaging experience to help further the consortium's objective of developing open standards that create a more robust ecosystem for inter-operable chiplets.

Marvell's UCIe participation is complementary to the company's existing work in the Open Compute Project (OCP) and Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) which is aimed at the development of open standards-based solutions for connecting single or multi-node 5nm and 3nm chiplets. Through these experiences, Marvell brings advanced domain knowledge and a unique perspective that will help align and optimize global chiplet interconnect standards for a range of leading-edge applications with differing requirements such as CXL, Ethernet and custom low-latency connectivity while fostering chiplet interoperability.

"Marvell has been an industry pioneer in chiplet connectivity and continues to push the envelope of performance optimization for a wide range of multi-chiplet applications in advanced packaging architectures," said Noam Mizrahi, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Fellow at Marvell. "We see the great value in aligning interconnect standards across the industry and look forward to contributing towards that goal as a member of the UCIe consortium."

"UCIe represents the culmination of years of learning and implementation experience with on-package interconnects at a time that is right for industry standardization," said Dr. Debendra Das Sharma, Intel Senior Fellow. "We are excited that Marvell has joined the consortium and is working to develop cloud-optimized multi-die solutions that are compatible with UCIe."

https://www.marvell.com/products/custom-asic.html

NVIDIA opens its NVLink die-to-die and chip-to-chip

Tuesday, March 22, 2022  Nvidia  

NVIDIA will expand the use of its NVLink chip-to-chip and die-to-die interconnect technology in its GPUs, CPUs, DPUs, NICs and SOCs. The company also plans to open the technolgy to other for for custom chip and chiplet integrations. NVIDIA NVLink-C2C is built on top of NVIDIA’s world-class SERDES and LINK design technology, and it is extensible from PCB-level integrations and multichip modules to silicon interposer and wafer-level connections,...

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AWS offers mainframe modernization service

Amazon Web Services introduced a service that makes it faster and easier for customers to modernize mainframe-based workloads by moving them to the cloud. 

AWS Mainframe Modernization can refactor mainframe workloads to run on AWS. Alternatively, customers can keep their applications as written and replatform their workloads to AWS by reusing existing code with minimal changes. A managed runtime environment built into AWS Mainframe Modernization provides the necessary compute, memory, and storage to run both refactored and replatformed applications and helps automate the details of capacity provisioning, security, load balancing, scaling, and application health monitoring. The AWS Mainframe Modernization service also provides the development, testing, and deployment tools necessary to automate the modernization of mainframe applications to run on AWS. There are no upfront costs, and customers only pay for the amount of compute provisioned. 

“Customers often tell us that AWS is the best place to run any type of application because of its unmatched breadth and depth of purpose-built services. However, businesses in a wide variety of industries have relied on mainframes to run business-critical applications for decades. These businesses naturally want to modernize their mainframe-based applications to reduce costs and eliminate technical debt, but they don’t know how or where to get started,” said William Platt, General Manager of Migration Services at AWS.

AWS Mainframe Modernization is generally available today in US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Canada (Central), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), and South America (São Paulo) with availability in additional AWS Regions in the coming months.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/modernize-your-mainframe-applications-deploy-them-in-the-cloud/

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STACK Infrastructure builds data center capacity in Australia

STACK Infrastructure announced a partnership with Hickory, a leading Australian commercial real estate developer, to develop data center capacity in three Australian markets: Melbourne, Canberra, and Perth. 

STACK Australia is currently constructing a 72MW campus in the high growth hyperscale corridor of Truganina in Melbourne’s western suburbs. The facility is expected to be delivered early in 2023 and will include two 36MW buildings (currently under construction) with separate access points to accommodate multiple users with separation of security and services. In parallel, STACK Australia is expanding into two key emerging hyperscale markets, including a 28MW data center in Hume, Canberra and a 24MW single data center in Wangara, Perth. Both the Canberra and Perth projects have received development approval, and they will each break ground in the third quarter of 2022 with delivery over the second half of 2023.

As part of this partnership, Hickory’s data center management team led by Joel O’Halloran, Michael Gunton, and James Veness will join the STACK global platform.  

“STACK’s expansion into Australia, building on our recent Japan development, exemplifies our focus on establishing a scalable presence in core regional markets that are strategically important to our clients,” said Pithambar (Preet) Gona, STACK’s Chief Executive Officer - APAC. “The partnership with Hickory demonstrates our ability to leverage our partnership model and expertise to the benefit of our customers while attracting leading data center talent regionally to the STACK platform”

https://www.stackinfra.com/about/news-events/press-releases/stack-infrastructure-expands-apac-footprint-into-australia-with-124mw-of-capacity-across-melbourne-canberra-and-perth/

STACK Infrastructure plans new 84MW data center in northern Virginia

Monday, April 18, 2022  Data Centers, Stack  

STACK Infrastructure unveiled plans for a new 84MW data center campus on 34 acres in Prince William County in Northern Virginia. The project will comprise a minimum of two buildings spanning 602,000 square feet. STACK anticipates the data centers will be ready in Q3 of 2023.In the last four months, STACK has announced a total of 300MW of additional capacity planned in Northern Virginia. In aggregate, STACK’s current and under-development...

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Dell’Oro: Ethernet Adapter Market Surpasses $1 B in 1Q 2022

The Ethernet controller and adapter market surpassed $1 billion for the first time in 1Q 2022, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. Growth was attributed to the adoption of Smart NICs and high-speed ports.

“The Ethernet controller and adapter market was driven by strong Smart NIC and 100 Gbps port shipments,” said Baron Fung, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Furthermore, port average selling prices escalated during the quarter as vendors passed higher supply chain costs on to end-users, adding to topline growth. However, vendors continue to contend with supply chain challenges to meet strong end demand. We anticipate the upcoming server platform refresh and cloud expansion cycle to drive the strong demand for Ethernet adapters,” added Fung.

Additional highlights from the 1Q 2022 Ethernet Adapter and Smart NIC report include:

• Total Ethernet controller and adapter port shipments grew 2 percent in 1Q 2022.
• 100 and 200 Gbps ports accounted for 38 percent of the revenue in 1Q 2022 from high-end workloads such as accelerated computing.
• Smart NICs open vendors such as Marvell, Napatech, and Nvidia accounted for 30 percent of the revenue in 1Q 2022 and gained share over internally developed solutions by the major cloud service providers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

https://www.delloro.com/news/ethernet-adapter-market-surpasses-1-b-in-1q-2022/

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Israel's Partner Communications deploys ADVA's Oscilloquartz

Partner Communications has deployed its Oscilloquartz timing technology to support 5G rollout throughout Israel to deliver the level of accuracy and availability needed for next-generation mobile services and time-sensitive low-latency applications. 

Partner Communications’ new timing infrastructure features the OSA 5440, a fully redundant, scalable, and modular multi-technology grandmaster for core deployment. Operating with the OSA 3230B ePRC cesium clock and OSA clock combiner, it provides an ePRTC system, providing high levels of time stability compliant with the ITU-T G.8272.1 standard. Onboard multi-band, multi-constellation receivers compensate for atmospheric disturbances to filter out timing errors. What’s more, centralized AI-powered GNSS assurance software identifies and protects against vulnerabilities of satellite-based timing. The solution also includes the OSA 5410 Series for continuous probing and assurance, enabling Partner Communications’ team to anticipate any issues and minimize disruption to service. The technology is remotely controlled by ADVA’s Ensemble Controller with Sync Director.

“Upgrading a major nationwide mobile network like ours required the most advanced timing technology and the support of an expert team. That’s why we selected ADVA’s Oscilloquartz synchronization solution built on a core PTP grandmaster clock with full hardware redundancy and a scalable modular design. It offers many fan-out options, including PTP over multiple 10Gbit/s interfaces, and its advanced GNSS technologies ensure highest availability even under challenging conditions,” said Yigal Giladi, VP of engineering at Partner Communications. “With our new timing infrastructure, we can deliver the best possible mobile 5G experience to our customers. Now when GNSS is compromised or otherwise unavailable, ADVA’s ePRTC solution means we can still deliver phenomenally accurate timing across our network even during very long GNSS outages.”

https://www.oscilloquartz.com

https://www.adva.com

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Immuta raises $100 million for its data security

Immuta, a start-up based in Boston, secured $100 million in Series E funding for its platform can automate access to data by discovering, securing, and monitoring data on any cloud service. The new investment brings Immuta’s total financing to date to $267 million.

Led by NightDragon, the funding round also includes new investor Snowflake Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Data Cloud company, as well as participation from existing investors Dell Technologies Capital, DFJ Growth, IAG, Intel Capital, March Capital, StepStone, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Wipro Ventures. This new infusion of capital builds upon Immuta’s record growth in 2021, which included increasing commercial annual recurring revenue (ARR) by more than 100 percent, doubling its customer base, and continuing its global expansion into EMEA and APJ. Immuta will use the investment to accelerate product innovation, expand sales, marketing, and customer success teams to meet growing global demand, and deepen strategic partnerships within the cloud data ecosystem.

“There is a major shift in the modern data stack as organizations scale to derive value from their data more quickly, while also protecting their data assets and adhering to privacy regulations,” said Immuta CEO Matthew Carroll. “We’ve entered the next wave of the cloud data evolution where automation and security are essential to meeting modern cloud and data demands. This new funding will help propel Immuta into our next phase of growth as we continue to revolutionize cloud data access and data security.”

“As the threat landscape continues to escalate and cloud migration continues, we’re seeing increased global interest in the need for secure data access solutions,” said Dave DeWalt, former CEO of FireEye, McAfee, Documentum and now Founder and Managing Director at NightDragon. “Immuta is the clear market leader in providing secure data access, providing data teams with one universal platform to control access to data at scale. Many of the world’s top data-driven organizations – Roche, Mercedes-Benz Group, IAG, and the U.S. Army – rely on Immuta every day to quickly, safely, and efficiently share more data with more users. We’re excited to be making this investment in such a critical part of the modern data stack.”

“With this expanded partnership, enterprise customers can benefit from both Snowflake’s native data policies for data governance and Immuta’s simple, centralized, and comprehensive method for managing and automating data policy within specific workflows,” said Christian Kleinerman, Snowflake SVP of Product. “Together, customers have a solution for more seamless enforcement of data policy, ultimately allowing for more customer value. We look forward to partnering with Immuta through the next stages of its growth.”

http://www.immuta.com

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II-VI tapes out DSP for 100 Gbps coherent optical access

by James E. Carroll

II‐VI has taped-out its Steelerton digital signal processor (DSP) for 100 Gbps coherent transmission in optical access and aggregation networks.  

The company says its Steelerton DSP, miniaturized and with ultralow power dissipation, typically of 2 W, was designed specifically to enable 100 Gbps digital coherent optics (DCO) in a pluggable QSFP28 format, one of the most widely deployed 100 Gbps transceiver form factors in access networks.

“The Steelerton DSP promises to bring 100 Gbps QSFP28-DCO transceivers into the mainstream in access networks,” said Matthias Berger, Vice President, Coherent Technology, II-VI Incorporated. “It’s a breakthrough solution that enables wide-scale deployment of full C-band tunable coherent transceivers into QSFP28 ports, of which there are tens of millions in service. The Steelerton DSP is less than one-fifth the size and consumes less than half the power of any other 100 Gbps coherent DSP commercially available.”

https://ii-vi.com/news/ii-vi-incorporated-develops-ultralow-power-dsp-for-100-gbps-coherent-transmission-in-optical-access-networks/

ADVA and II-VI debut 100ZR pluggable coherent transceiver

Tuesday, June 21, 2022  ADVA, II-VI  

ADVA and II‐VI introduced a jointly-built, 100ZR pluggable coherent transceiver for the optical network edge.The new Coherent 100ZR, which is rated for both commercial- and industrial-temperature (C-temp and I-temp) operating ranges, features the II-VI Steelerton coherent digital signal processor (DSP). The device plugs directly into existing head-ends, switches, and routers, enabling existing network elements to transmit 100 Gbps signals over links...

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IFS makes a splash: $1B fund, Arm & RISC-V support, Open Chiplet Platform 

Monday, February 07, 2022  Intel, Silicon  

by James E. CarrollThe newly established Intel Foundry Services (IFS) announced several initiatives to accelerate its entrance into the semiconductor fabrication market: a $1 billion investment fund, support for Arm and RISC-V in addition to x86, and pioneering work with chiplet architecture based on 3D packaging technology.The new $1 billion investment fund has three aims:Equity investments in disruptive startups.Strategic investments to accelerate...

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Intel intros NetSec Accelerator Reference Design

Intel introduced a new design blueprint that enables fast deployment of network security workloads.

The new Intel NetSec Accelerator Reference Design allows original design manufacturers to quickly build – and bring to market – PCIe add-in cards featuring Intel QuickAssist Technology (Intel QAT) acceleration and full Intel-based server functionality, including orchestration and management. Ideal for IPsec, SSL/TLS, firewall, SASE and analytics workloads, design-optimized cards can be integrated by network and security vendors within their solutions to expedite the integration of network and security functions and maximize the capabilities of server infrastructure at the edge.

Intel says its ecosystem partners are currently developing products based on the reference design. Silicom and F5 will be among the first to utilize the Intel NetSec Accelerator Reference Design to offer integration and acceleration of networking and security functions for rapid scale and time to market.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/atom/netsec-accelerator-reference-design-solution-brief.html

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Juniper adds Cloud Access Security Broker to SASE

Juniper Networks has expanded its SASE offering with the addition of Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities to its Juniper Secure Edge solution. When combined with its SD-WAN solution driven by Mist AI, Juniper says it can now offer a full-stack SASE solution with visibility into both the edge and the data center.

Juniper delivers CASB and DLP to secure SaaS applications and help prevent unwanted access, malware delivery and distribution, and data exfiltration. Both capabilities are part of Juniper's Secure Edge cloud-delivered security solution managed by Security Director Cloud, which secures remote users and on-premises users alike. It easily manages Zero Trust and SASE architectures through one management portal using a single-policy framework. 

Key benefits:

• Prevent unauthorized access to data residing in the cloud by allowing only validated users to have access. Data access control gives security teams the greatest visibility and control over SaaS applications — both sanctioned and unsanctioned — including data, usage, compliance, threat prevention and access, which complements the suite of cloud-delivered security capabilities offered by Juniper Secure Edge.
• Expand visibility for IT operations and security teams with DLP by creating identity-based micro-perimeters around users, SaaS applications and the data within them, and keeping sensitive and confidential data within the organization safe.
• Protect SaaS applications from compromise by controlling user actions on a granularlevel, scanning all existing and new files within SaaS applications for malware, and preventing upload and download of the compromised files.
• Take a stepwise approach to SASE. Organizations can leverage their existing SRX security policies and extend them to their SASE architecture with Secure Edge to meet the business needs of today and beyond, growing with them as they expand their SASE footprint. Whether they’re starting with SD-WAN or SSE or both, Juniper is the only vendor in the market today that provides organizations with both the flexibility they need and the simplicity they want.

"The biggest challenge with SASE solutions today is that they require organizations to abandon existing technology investments that are working for them, forcing them to start from scratch and rebuild Zero Trust principles into a new architecture," said Samantha Madrid, Group VP of Security Business & Strategy, Juniper Networks. "Now, with the addition of CASB and DLP, Juniper addresses these concerns with a full-stack SASE suite of capabilities that are flexibly adopted and deployed while extending Zero Trust principles already implemented across the network to the cloud.”

https://newsroom.juniper.net/news/news-details/2022/Juniper-Networks-Offers-New-Secure-Edge-CASB-and-DLP-Capabilities-to-Simplify-the-SASE-Experience/default.aspx

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Orange Polska awards 10-year contract to Nokia

Orange Polska awarded a ten-year contract extension to Nokia. The improved deal, which will cover 50 percent of Orange’s network in northern Poland and run until 2036, will see the modernization of the operator’s existing radio network infrastructure as well as enhance its 5G capabilities. The move will support Orange’s strategy of delivering best-in-class services to its customers.

Under the contract, Nokia will upgrade all existing networks including equipment supporting phasing out Orange’s 3G network and infrastructural solutions enabling reallocating the frequencies to enhance its 4G coverage and capacity. This network refresh is scheduled to continue until 2025. Nokia will also supply equipment from its latest energy-efficient AirScale portfolio including Single RAN, AirScale base stations, and 5G Massive MIMO antennas for the operator’s 5G solution that covers all deployment scenarios from dense-urban capacity to wide-area coverage.

Nokia will also deliver equipment supporting C-Band spectrum when it is made available in Poland. C-Band spectrum, between 3.4 GHz and 3.8 GHz, is a crucial resource for operators to offer the best mix of 5G network capacity and coverage to subscribers. These solutions will support Orange’s network leadership while delivering superior connectivity and capacity to its customers. Nokia will also provide services, including digital deployment, technical support for operations and maintenance, as well as professional services.

Nokia also noted that it operates global R&D facilities with thousands of engineers in Wroclaw and Krakow.

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2022/06/07/nokia-wins-ten-year-network-expansion-deal-with-orange-polska/

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AT&T Private 5G powers DoD Smart Warehouse demo

AT&T participated in a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. Navy demonstration showcasing a variety of 5G-powered technology solutions that can support the enablement of a Naval "Smart Warehouse."

AT&T's private 5G network, which powered the demonstrations at a warehouse in Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, delivered data throughput speeds of 3.9 Gbps with less than 10 milliseconds of latency.

The 5G Smart Warehouse project at Naval Base Coronado is the DoD program's use-case incorporating 5G capabilities for transshipments between shore facilities and naval units. The goal is to increase the efficiency and fidelity of naval logistic operations including identification, recording, organization, storage, retrieval, and the transportation of materiel and supplies.

Lance Spencer, Client Executive Vice President – Defense, AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet, states: "The AT&T 5G-powered solution we've delivered at Naval Base Coronado is a first of its kind, high-performance, highly secure, and scalable private network solution. We expect it will serve as the foundation for improved efficiency, timeliness, accuracy, security, and safety of Naval warehouse operations."

https://about.att.com/story/2022/smart-warehouse-dod-navy.html

• In October 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five U.S. military test sites, representing the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. DOD seeks to remain at the forefront of cutting-edge 5G testing and experimentation to strengthen our Nation's warfighting capabilities as well as U.S. economic competitiveness in this critical field.

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Dell'Oro: Supply constraints hit Wireless LAN Market in 1Q22

 Supply constraints plagued the Wireless LAN market in 1Q22, and would likely worsen in 2Q22 as a result of the China Covid lockdowns, according to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group. 

Several US-based wireless LAN manufacturers announced that backlogs approached ten-to-fifteen times higher than normal.

“Many enterprises have planned network upgrades and the popular connection is Wi-Fi. The trouble is getting it. Several manufacturers announced that components from second and third-tier suppliers became the bottleneck in 1Q22,” said Tam Dell’Oro, Founder, CEO and Wireless LAN Analyst. “Supply constraints have resulted in highly volatile quarterly performance vendor-to-vendor depending on whether or not they have all the components. For example, sales may be up 20 percent in one quarter and down 20 percent the next. Another item, which could potentially cause delays, that we are keeping our eye on are the contract negotiations between the west coast dockworkers union and the Maritime Association,” added Dell’Oro.

Additional highlights from the Wireless LAN 1Q22 Quarterly Report:

• Wi-Fi 6E sales accelerated during the quarter as more manufacturers launched products and Extreme Networks and HPE Aruba expanded their portfolios. The adoption of Wi-Fi 6E (meaning the percent of total Indoor unit shipments as of the third quarter of the technology shipping) is tracking below the rates of the previous two technologies, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2. However, it is still early days and three quarters do not make a trend.
• For the fourth consecutive quarter, the Retail vertical continued to rank among the top-performing verticals.

https://www.delloro.com/news/supply-constraints-plague-wireless-lan-market-in-1q22-likely-worsen-in-2q22/

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Digital Realty appoints Mary Hogan Preusse as Chairman

Digital Realty appointed Mary Hogan Preusse as Chairman of the Board, succeeding Laurence Chapman, who will continue to serve on the Board of Directors. 

Ms. Hogan Preusse, a 30-year REIT industry veteran, joined Digital Realty's Board of Directors as an independent director in May 2017. Prior to joining Digital Realty's Board, from 2000-2017, she served as Managing Director and co-head of Americas Real Estate at APG Asset Management, managing the firm's public real estate investments in North and South America. Before APG, Ms. Hogan Preusse spent eight years as a sell-side analyst covering the REIT sector and began her career as an investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch. 

"I was delighted to have Mary join the Board in 2017 and am confident that she is the right person to take the reins at this exciting time for Digital Realty and to lead the Board as we continue to accelerate the growth of our global platform," said Mr. Chapman. "Mary has played an instrumental and strategic role in driving Digital Realty's expansion and innovation since joining the Board. It has been a privilege to serve as Chairman of this strong and diverse Board, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with Mary and the Digital Realty management team as a Director." 

"On behalf of the management team, I thank Laurence for his significant contributions and exemplary leadership as Chairman over the past five years," said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer A. William Stein. "Mary's extraordinary investment experience and knowledge of our industry and technology-driven platform will be tremendously valuable as we continue to adapt to the changing world and enable our customers to execute on their digital transformation initiatives globally.  I'm thrilled to work even more closely together with her to execute our long-term strategy." 

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WD considers its strategic options

Responding to input from Elliott Investment Management and other investors, Western Digital announced that it is reviewing potential strategic alternatives aimed at further optimizing long-term value for its shareholders. The Executive Committee of the Western Digital Board, chaired by Western Digital CEO, David Goeckeler, will oversee the assessment process and fully evaluate a comprehensive range of alternatives, including options for separating its market-leading Flash and HDD franchises. 

“The Board is aligned in the belief that maximizing value creation warrants a comprehensive assessment of strategic alternatives focused on structural options for the company’s Flash and HDD businesses,” said Goeckeler. “Through this process, we are actively engaging in a broad range of strategic and financial alternatives that will help further optimize the value of Western Digital, including Elliott’s offer to invest incremental equity capital in our Flash Business. We look forward to continuing our constructive dialogue with Elliott as this process unfolds.”

Elliott Managing Partner Jesse Cohn and Senior Portfolio Manager Jason Genrich said, “Western Digital is strongly positioned in an industry that represents a compelling growth opportunity, and we have confidence in David and his management team’s execution, strategic vision and focus on shareholder value. We’re encouraged by the positive direction of our discussions so far, and by Western Digital’s openness to considering a full separation of its Flash business. We are pleased that Western Digital’s Board is conducting this review, and Elliott is prepared to provide strategic resources and additional capital to help the company realize the full value of both of its businesses.”

https://www.westerndigital.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/2022/2022-06-07-western-digital-announces-review-of-strategic-alternatives

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OpenLight unveils Silicon Photonics platform with integrated InP lasers

OpenLight, a start-up based in Santa Barbara, California, introduced its open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers.

OpenLight operates under the tagline, "Open. Integrated. Scalable." The open platform includes integrated lasers, optical amplifiers, modulators, photodetectors, and other key photonic components to form a complete solution for low-power, high-performance photonics ICs. In addition, OpenLight offers select PIC designs and design services to accelerate time-to-market. 

The company says it aims to accelerate the development of high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in applications such as datacom, telecom, LiDAR, healthcare, HPC, AI, and optical computing. The technology has passed qualification and reliability tests on Tower's PH18DA production process. OpenLight expects the first open Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) shuttle run on the PH18DA process as well as 400G and 800G reference designs with integrated lasers to be available in Summer 2022.

By processing the Indium Phosphide (InP) materials directly on the silicon photonics wafer, the PH18DA platform reduces the cost and time of adding lasers, enabling volume scalability and improved power efficiency. In addition, monolithically integrated lasers improve overall reliability and simplify packaging. 

"The rapidly growing silicon photonics market is being driven by the relentless demand for higher bandwidth needed to analyze, store and move complex data," said Dr. Thomas Mader, Chief Operating Officer at OpenLight. "OpenLight's open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers enables scaling from one laser to hundreds, or even thousands of lasers per PIC, all monolithically integrated at the wafer level. With our platform, companies can enter emerging markets faster, accelerate new applications and completely change the way their teams build photonic systems of tomorrow."

"We strongly believe that OpenLight's technology will transform the silicon photonics industry," said Dr. Marco Racanelli, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Tower Semiconductor's Analog Business Unit. "Providing an open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers that has been qualified on Tower's process will help mutual customers innovate and fuel the next generation of silicon photonics designs at scale. We are excited to partner with OpenLight in this journey."

http://www.openlightphotonics.com

• OpenLight is led by Dr. Thomas Mader, Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Daniel Sparacin, VP of Business Development and Strategy, and Dr. Volkan Kaman, VP of Engineering.

Synopsys and Juniper form joint venture for silicon photonics

Monday, April 04, 2022  Juniper, Silicon Photonics, Synopsys  

Synopsys and Juniper Networks are establishing a joint venture company focused on open silicon photonics for applications such as telecom, datacom, LiDAR, healthcare, HPC, AI, and optical computing. The new company's open silicon photonics platform will include integrated lasers, optical amplifiers, and a full suite of photonic components to form a complete solution that will be accessible through a Process Design Kit (PDK). The platform promises...

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Tower Semi and Juniper develop silicon photonics process 

Tuesday, December 21, 2021  Israel, Juniper, Silicon Photonics, Tower Semiconductor  

Tower Semiconductor and Juniper Networks announced a silicon photonics (SiPho) foundry-ready process with integrated III-V lasers, amplifiers modulators and detectors. Potential applications include optical connectivity in datacenters and telecom networks, as well as AI, LiDAR and other sensors. The new platform co-integrates III-V lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA), electro-absorption modulators (EAM) and photodetectors with...

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Windstream Wholesale launches nationwide 400G routes

 Windstream Wholesale announced the following 400G wave service routes:

• Ashburn, Va., to Chicago, Denver, San Jose and Los Angeles
• Atlanta to Dallas, Phoenix, San Jose and Los Angeles
• Seattle to Portland, San Jose and Los Angeles
• Chicago to Dallas and Atlanta

“The bandwidth demands facing large enterprise and hyperscale customers are expanding and evolving rapidly as the transition to cloud services and cloud computing accelerates, and Windstream Wholesale is enhancing our long-haul network to ensure we meet their needs,” said Joe Scattareggia, chief revenue officer of Windstream Wholesale. “We are cascading a phased approach that gives our customers time to plan as we continue to invest and enable 400G services across our entire core long-haul network.”

Windstream Wholesale is also taking orders now for the following routes, which will be 400G capable in the second half of 2022:

• Chicago to Atlanta and Miami
• Chicago to Newark and New York City
• Atlanta to Ashburn, Newark and New York City
• McAllen, Texas; to Dallas, Memphis, Ashburn and New York City

The company will begin accepting orders for the third phase of its 400G expansion starting in the third quarter of 2022.

https://www.windstreamwholesale.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Windstream-Wholesale-National-Network.pdf

Windstream Wholesale completes 400G ZR+ trials

Monday, April 18, 2022  400ZR, Silicon  

Windstream Wholesale completed interoperability testing of QSFP-DD form factor ZR+ pluggable modules from II-VI and Acacia, now part of Cisco. The tests established 400 Gigabit links in a production environment over a 1,027-kilometer link. The team also leveraged the Marvell Deneb Coherent DSP within a native 0 dBm II-VI pluggable and the Acacia module using the Greylock DSP. Industry standard oFEC algorithms were also used in the trials.“These...

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Windstream Wholesale and Infinera develop Node-on-a-Blade 

Thursday, March 03, 2022  Infinera, Windstream Wholesale  

Windstream Wholesale will transform its optical network infrastructure using an innovative Node-on-a-Blade jointly pioneered by Infinera and Windstream.The companies describe Node-on-a-Blade as the next evolution of ROADM-based solutions that will provide a more advanced and cost-effective approach to optical networking enabling deployment across a wider variety of network locations. Advanced capabilities include a coherent optical channel monitor...

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NTT DOCOMO announces 6G partnerships

NTT DOCOMO and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) announced partnerships with Fujitsu, NEC, and Nokia to conduct experimental trials of new mobile communications technologies for the targeted commercial launch of 6G services by around 2030.

Launching the envisioned 6G services will require verification of numerous new mobile technologies, including those needed to newly use frequencies in the millimeter and sub-terahertz (above 6 GHz) bands, in addition to bands for existing 5G services. The trials are also expected to verify AI-based wireless transmission methods. DOCOMO and NTT will jointly conduct experimental trials with the three vendors, focusing on mobile technologies using new 6G frequency bands and AI-based wireless technology among these various mobile technologies.

The new 6G system will greatly exceed the performance of 5G and simultaneously provide high-speed, large capacity, and low latency capabilities, use new high-frequency bands such as sub-terahertz bands above 100 GHz, expand communication coverage in the sky, at sea and in space, and enable both ultra-low-power consumption and low-cost communications.

Naoki Tani, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at DOCOMO, said: "6G studies are progressing two or three years ahead of that of 5G. From this early stage, we would like to collaborate with world-leading global vendors to proactively demonstrate breakthrough concepts and technologies and promote them to the world."

DOCOMO and NTT will begin conducting indoor trials within the fiscal year ending in March 2023, and outdoor trials will begin in the following fiscal year. The trials are expected to verify concepts proposed so far by DOCOMO and NTT and will be reported in global research groups, international conferences and standardization activities related to 6G, and will serve as a foundation for more advanced technologies.

https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2022/0606_00.html

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