Vodafone and Idea to Merge and Create Largest Operator in India

Vodafone India and Idea have agreed to merge to create the largest telecoms operator in India. The transaction is to be implemented as a merger of equals that will result in joint control of the combined company between Vodafone and the Aditya Birla Group.

Under the terms of the agreement, Vodafone will combine its subsidiary Vodafone India (excluding its 42% stake in Indus Towers) with Idea, an Indian stock exchange-listed company. Vodafone stated that the merger ratio is in line with recommendations from independent valuers, with an implied enterprise value of INR828 billion ($12.4 billion) for Vodafone India and INR722 billion ($10.8 billion) for Idea, excluding its stake in Indus Towers.

On completion of the transaction, Vodafone will own 45.1% of the combined company, after transferring a stake of 4.9% to the Aditya Birla Group for approximately INR39 billion ($579 million) in cash, concurrent with completion of the merger. The Aditya Birla Group will own 26.0% of the new company, with the right to acquire additional shares from Vodafone under an agreed mechanism, with a view to eventually equalising the shareholdings over a period of 4 years.

Vodafone stated that the transaction will establish a complementary combination that will be India's largest telecoms operator with the most extensive mobile network and a commitment to support the Indian government's Digital India initiative. The combination will result in an operator serving approximately 400 million customers, with a 35% market share in terms of subscribers and a 41% share in terms of revenue. The combined company will hold 1850 MHz of spectrum, including around 1645 MHz of liberalised spectrum acquired through auctions

The combination is expected to enable significant cost and capex synergies with an estimated net present value of approximately INR670 billion ($10 billion) after integration costs and spectrum liberalisation payments, with estimated run-rate savings of INR140 billion ($2.1 billion) on an annualised basis by the fourth full year after completion of the transaction.

Completion of the transaction, which is subject to approvals from relevant regulatory authorities, other customary closing conditions and approval by Idea shareholders, is expected in the 2018 calendar year. After closing, Vodafone India will be deconsolidated by Vodafone, reducing the group's net debt by approximately $8.2 billion.

http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/media/vodafone-group-releases/2017/merger-vodafone-india-idea.html

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ZTE Carries 400G Single Carrier over 2,125km

ZTE claimed a new record for long-haul 400 Gbit/s single-carrier optical transmission utilising patented compensation algorithms that enable transmission of 84 Gbaud WDM for PDM-8QAM signals over a distance of up to 2,125 km on standard single-mode fibre.

The test is designed to demonstrate the capabilities of ZTE's patented 504 Gbit/s PDM-8QAM technology for 400 Gbit/s transport. The test involved 84 GBaud PDM-8QAM signals generated and pre-processed by a 84 GSa/s digital analogue converter with joint pre-equalisation and look-up-table pre-distortion algorithms. Using receiver-side digital-backward propagation (DBP) fibre nonlinearity compensation, ZTE achieved eight-channel WDM transmission with EDFA-only amplification enabled.

ZTE noted that in 2015 it partnered with OFS to deliver transmission of 128.8 Gbaud WDM QPSK signals over 10,130 km and 6,078 km of terrestrial fibre at different spectrum efficiency, while in 2016 it demonstrated single-carrier 800 Gbit/s transmission with 120 Gbaud WDM 16QAM signals over 1,200 km terrestrial fibre links.

http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201703ma/0323ma4

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Expanding horizons for Google Cloud Platform

The most compelling case for adopting the Google Cloud Platform is that it is the same infrastructure that powers Google's own services, which attract well over a billion users daily. This was the case presented by company executives at last week's Google Next event in San Francisco – "get on the Cloud… now", said Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Google's parent; "Cloud is the most exciting thing happening in IT", said Diane Greene, SVP of Google Cloud.

Direct revenue comparisons between leading companies are a bit tricky, but many analysts place the Google Cloud Platform at No.4 behind Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and IBM in the U.S. market. Over the past three years, Google invested $29.4 billion for its infrastructure, according to Urs Hölzle, SVP, Technical Infrastructure for Google Cloud, on everything from efficient data centres to customised servers, customised networking gear and specialised ASICs for machine learning.

Google operates what it believes to be the largest global network, carrying anywhere from 25% to 40% of all Internet traffic. Google's backbone interconnects directly with nearly every ISP and its private network has a point of presence in 182 countries, while the company is investing heavily in ultra-high-capacity submarine cables.

The argument goes that by moving to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), enterprise customers move directly into the fast lane of the Internet, putting their applications one hop away from any end-user ISP they need to reach with less latency and fewer hand-offs. Two example of satisfied GCP customers that Google likes to cite are Pokemon Go and Snap Chat, both of which took a compelling application and brought it to global scale by riding the Google infrastructure.

One question is, does the Google global network give its Google Cloud Platform a decisive edge over its rivals? Clearly all the big players are racing to scale out their infrastructure as quickly as possible, but Google is striving to take it one step further – to develop core technologies in hardware and software that other companies later follow. Examples include containers, noSQL, serverless, Kubernetes, Map Reduce, TensorFlow, and more recently its horizontally-scalable Cloud Spanner database synchronisation service, which uses atomic-clocks running in every Google data centre.

Highlights of Google's initiatives include:

·         New data centres: three new GCP regions - California, Montreal and the Netherlands - bringing the total number of Google Cloud regions to six, and the company anticipates more than 17 locations in the future. The new regions will feature a minimum of three zones, benefit from Google's global, private fibre network and offer a complement of GCP services.

·         GCP the first public cloud provider to run Intel Skylake, a custom Xeon chip for compute-heavy workloads and a larger range of VM memory and CPU options. GCP is doubling the number of vCPUs that can run in an instance from 32 to 64 and offering up to 416 Gbytes of memory. GCP is also adding GPU instances. Google and Intel are collaborating in other areas as well, including hybrid cloud orchestration, security, machine and deep learning, and IoT edge-to-cloud solutions; Intel is also a backer of Google’s Tensor Flow and Kubernetes open source initiatives.

·         Google Cloud Functions: a completely serverless environment and the smallest unit of compute offered by GCP; it is able to spin up a single function and spin it back down instantly, so billing occurs only while the function is executing, metered to the nearest one hundred milliseconds.

·         Free services: a new free tier to the GCP that provides limited access to Google Compute Engine (1 f1-micro instance per month in U.S. regions and 30 Gbyte-months HDD), Google Cloud Storage (5 Gbytes a month), Google Pub/Sub (10 Gbytes of messages a month), and Google Cloud Functions (two million invocations per month).

·         Lower prices for GCE: 5% price drop in the U.S., 4.9% drop in Europe; 8% drop in Japan.

·         Google BigQuery data analytics service, including automated data movement from select Google applications, such as Adsense, DoubleClick and YouTube, directly into BigQuery.

·         Titan: a custom security chip codenamed Titan that operates at the BIOS level; Intel is also introducing new security tools to keep customer data secure. The chip authenticates the hardware and services running on each server.

·         Project Kubo toolset: a joint effort with Pivotal for packaging and managing software in a Kubernetes environment.

·         Engineering support plans ranging from $100 per user per month to $1,500 per user per month with a 15-minute response time.

·         Data loss prevention API to guard information inside the Google Cloud.

The Google Next event provided a number of sessions for looking over the horizon. In a 'fireside chat', Marc Andreesen and Vint Cerf speculated on the arrival of quantum computing and neural networking/machine learning services on the public clouds. Both possibilities are likely to augment current public cloud computing models rather than replace them. The types of applications could vary. For instance, a cloud-based quantum computing service might be employed to finally secure communications.

Google is also betting big that the cloud is the ideal platform for AI. Fei-fei Li, Chief Scientist for Cloud AI and ML at Google, observed that a few self-driving cars can put considerable data into the cloud. What happens when there are millions of such vehicles? Building on ramps for AI is the next step with API and SDKs that draw new applications onto Google's TensorFlow platform. The company discusses this in terms of 'democratising' AI, which means making sure its algorithms and cloud analytic systems become widely available before others move into this space.

A final differentiator for GCP is that Google is the largest corporate purchaser of renewal energy. In 2017, the company is on track to reach 100% renewal power for its global data centres and offices. One hopes that others will catch up soon.

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Red Hat Hits Q4 Revenue of $629 million, up 16%

Red Hat reported Q4 revenue of $629 million, up 16% year-over-year. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $560 million, up 17% year-over-year. GAAP net income for the quarter was $66 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, compared with $53 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.Full fiscal year 2017 total revenue was $2.4 billion, up 18%.

“Our strategic position with customers is evidenced by the continued growth in large commitments to Red Hat. The number of deals greater than $1 million in fiscal 2017 grew by over 30% annually, and we closed a record number of deals over $20 million, including our first-ever deal of approximately $100 million in the fourth quarter,” stated Eric Shander, acting Chief Financial Officer of Red Hat. “This performance also drove a record backlog of $2.7 billion in U.S. dollars, up 28% year-over-year which contributes to our fiscal year 2018 revenue outlook of 13% to 14% growth and should help drive expanded GAAP operating margin of 15.2% and non-GAAP operating margin of 23.6%.”

http://www.redhat.com

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ADVA Demos PAM4 100G Direct Detect with Corning SMF-28

ADVA Optical Networking and Corning demonstrated a 100 Gbit/s direct detect solution based on PAM4 technology using the newly expanded ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect platform and Corning SMF-28 ULL fibre. The demo showed how direct detect signals can be transported over 100 km while adhering to stringent optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) requirements.

ADVA noted that through extending the reach of direct detect signals, ICPs and CNPs can use the technology to cost-effectively address DCI bottlenecks as well as to enable the relocation data centres to lower cost locations.

The joint demonstration specifically used ADVA's recently announced direct detect optical layer, featuring its new SmartAmp and PAM4 technology, which is designed to provide ICPs and CNPs with an open and cost-effective DCI solution that is lower cost than alternative coherent options.

By combining Corning's ITU-T G.652-compliant SMF-28 ULL fibre with the ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect it is possible to extend the reach of PAM4 direct detect transmission beyond 100 km, leveraging the ultra-low loss performance of the fibre. Corning's SMF-28 ULL fibre, typically delivering performance of ≤0.16 dB/km at 1550 nm, is claimed to offer the lowest attenuation of any terrestrial fibre, which helps enable enhanced OSNR across greater distances than previously attainable.

In addition, ADVA 100 Gbit/s direct detection solution, integrated with the FSP 3000 CloudConnect DCI platform, is designed to provide error-free transmission at a lower cost per bit than coherent solutions.

In a separate demonstration, ADVA partnered with Inphi to show how disaggregated direct detect technology can be used to develop flexible 100 Gbit/s transport systems. The demonstration involved its FSP 3000 CloudConnect equipped with direct detect OLS with SmartAmp technology and Inphi's ColorZ 100 Gbit/s PAM4 solution in a QSFP form factor. The demonstration showed transport 3.6 Tbit/s of bidirectional data across 80 km of fibre.

Regarding the demonstration, Dr. Bernhard Deutsch, VP, PLM, optical fibre and cable at Corning Optical Communications, said, "Corning SMF-28 ULL fibre provides more than a 3 dB improvement in loss budget over 100 km compared to a link constructed with generic single-mode fibre… this enables a practical DCI link with workable margin to be installed over longer distances, interconnecting data centres spread over a larger territory".

http://www.advaoptical.com

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Luxtera Begins Volume Shipments of 2 x 100G PSM4

Luxtera, a developer of silicon photonics technology, announced shipping in volume of what it claims it the first 2 x 100 Gbit/s PSM4 (parallel single mode fibre 4-lane) embedded optical transceiver, designed for cloud data centre, enterprise and telecom networking applications.

The company noted that the compact LUX62608 OptoPHY module was developed employing its patented and proven silicon photonics integration platform and is designed to deliver high density with long reach optics at significantly lower cost than using two 100 Gbit/s front panel pluggable QSFP modules.

Luxtera's OptoPHY 2 x 100G-PSM4 solution includes eight independently operating transmitter and receiver channels, integrating high-speed phase modulators, photodetectors, waveguides, grating couplers, high-speed electrical retimers and control circuitry and is powered by a single integrated laser. The components are packaged in a silicon photonics chipset, with no additional external elements required.

Key features of the product include: 200 Gbit/s aggregate bandwidth optical transceiver; compliance with 2 x 100G PSM4; 8 x 26 Gbit/s independently operating channels with full-duplex operation; multi-rate 1-25.78 Gbit/s per channel performance; extended reach of up to 2 km; and typical power consumption of less than 5 W.

Luxtera stated that the OptoPHY 2 x 100G-PSM4 optical transceiver has been selected by Ericsson as the optical interconnect for its Hyperscale Datacenter System, HDS 8000, a cloud computing system with a disaggregated architecture. OptoPHY serves as the optical interconnect for the HDS 8000's compute, networking and storage sleds and helps to eliminate tradeoffs between reach and cost performance.

http://www.luxtera.com

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Inphi unveils 64 Gbaud linear TIA/VGA amplifier

Inphi announced production availability of its IN6450TA 64 Gbaud dual channel linear TIA/VGA amplifier, and that its 32 Gbit/s quad linear TIA with analogue and digital SPI interfaces and second-generation single chip quad channel linear driver in bare die form will be combined as a chipset to address the requirements of 100/200 Gbit/s coherent systems for metro and long haul applications.

64 Gbaud linear TIA/VGA amplifier

Inphi has announced production availability of its IN6450TA device, claimed as the first 64 Gbaud dual channel linear TIA/VGA amplifier, offering support for data rates of 400 to 600 Gbit/s per wavelength and targeting long haul, metro and data centre interconnect (DCI) applications.

The company noted that with growing demand for bandwidth, service providers and data centre operators require more efficient technologies, such as flexible coherent DWDM transmission capable of changing transmission capacity and reach on demand. This capability is enabled through the use of components capable of supporting multiple modulation formats and baud rates; the IN6450TA is designed to work with modulation formats supporting data rates of up to 600 Gbit/s on a single wavelength.

Inphi stated that it worked with NeoPhotonics on the design of the IN6450TA and its incorporation into NeoPhotonics' 64 Gbaud micro-ICR targeting applications in high-density line cards and pluggable transceivers.

Chipset for 100/200 Gbit/s coherent systems

The IN3254TA and IN3226DZ devices are designed to be integrated to enable higher density, lower cost solutions for emerging coherent optical sub-assembly (COSA) components. COSA implementations are designed to enable delivery of the newly proposed CFP2-DCO form factor, as well as provide the more compact, lower cost ACO modules with higher port-count line cards for 100/200 Gbit/s coherent transmission applications.

Inphi noted that for 100 Gbit/s, a major part of the growth is attributed to the CFP2 coherent modules expanding the addressable market for pluggable transceivers. The company's new transceivers are intended to enable the next generation of 100 and 200 Gbit/s networking infrastructure for metro and inter-data centre markets, where smaller size, lower cost and pluggable modules are the key requirements.

https://www.inphi.com

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Huawei Marine Shows Unrepeatered Ultra Long Haul

Huawei Marine presented a live demonstration of its ultra-long unrepeatered system and ZTE announced what it claims is a new record for long-haul 400 Gbit/s single-carrier optical transmission.

In September 2016, Huawei Marine announced it had achieved transmission of up to 648.9 km using an unrepeatered system. Based on its 100 Gbit/s technology, enhanced Raman amplifier (ERPC) and remote optical pump amplifier (ROPA), Huawei claims that ultra-long unrepeatered system transmission distance can be increased by up to 10%.

For the demonstration at OFC, Huawei Marine recreated its lab environment in Beijing. The company stated that by observing signal spectrum on the receiver side and signal power evolution across the link span, the system can deliver high reliability and transmission capabilities.

http://www.huaweimarine.com/

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ColorChip Demonstrates 200G QSFP56 PAM4

ColorChip, a developer of integrated optical components and sub-systems for high speed networking, announced technology demonstrations at OFC 2017 including uncooled CWDM4 DML devices driving both PAM4 and NRZ modulation and packaged in QSFPx form factors; the company also announced volume production of its 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 QSFP28 product.

200 Gbit/s QSFP56 PAM4 with CWDM4 DML

ColorChip presented several demonstrations utilising uncooled CWDM4 DML technology, including the exhibition of 200 Gbit/s PAM4 featuring TOSA and ROSA based on the company's patented SystemOnGlass platform and leveraging field-proven 40/100 Gbit/s deployments, with extension beyond 400 Gbit/s.

ColorChip noted that the link demonstrates the building blocks that can enable a compact, low power 200 Gbit/s PAM4 transceiver using the CWDM4 grid, packaged in a compact QSFP56 form factor and with a standard duplex LC optical interface.

2 x 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 in QSFP-DD

ColorChip is also showing a 2 x 100 Gbit/s 'two in a box' solution based on its SystemOnGlass technology implementing an 8-channel TOSA and ROSA to create a dual CWDM4 transceiver in QSFP-DD or OSFP form factor. At OFC the 8 channel optical engines, which include dual embedded CWDM4 multiplexers, enable a 2 x 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 QSFP-DD transceiver with 8 x 25 Gbit/s NRZ electrical interface and dual duplex-LC optical connectors.

Mass production of 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 QSFP28

ColorChip also announced volume production of its 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 OCP-accepted transceiver, which offers an optical interconnect with low power consumption of 2.6 W and delivering reach of 500 metres, which can be extended to 10 km. Provided in the 4WDM-10 MSA specification, the transceiver targets inter-data centre and campus connectivity applications.

Manufacturing expansion

In order to meet growing demand for data centre networking, ColorChip stated that it has completed $60 million in funding over the past 18 months to support a significant expansion of its industrialised-optics TOSA/ROSA assembly lines in Israel. The company has also partnered with contract manufacturer Fabrinet for the optical module integration and final testing.

ColorChip stated that over the past 6 months, it has doubled production floor space to 20,000 sq feet and increased head count to more than 300 employees.

http://www.colorchip.com

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Nokia delivers 100G Core and Metro for Jio in India

Nokia announced it has provided optical core and metro solution for Reliance Jio Infocomm's (Jio) pan-India 4G LTE network to support traffic growth created by the operator's initiative to deliver broadband connectivity for all of India.

Jio is engaged in rolling out a national mobile broadband network in India and began offering services in September 2016. As part of this deployment, Nokia is providing a 100 Gbit/s transport network that spans 90,000 km designed to enable Jio to offer high-capacity broadband services to underserved regions throughout India, as well as support nationwide long-distance (NLD) service.

Nokia noted that over the past six months, Jio has achieved rapid subscriber growth as part of its plan to transform India into one of the top ten broadband countries globally. With broadband penetration currently at less than 20%, according to ITU data, the majority of the country's population is underserved and as part of its effort to change this Jio is deploying Nokia's transport network to support high bandwidth services such as video streaming, multimedia content distribution and cloud
and business services.

Through the agreement, Nokia is supplying an optical solution designed to provide a scalable, resilient transport network that can meet the connectivity and communication needs for both fixed and wireless users. Jio has deployed the 1830 Photonic Service Switch, including wavelength routing technology and 100 Gbit/s DWDM capabilities, enhanced with GMPLS functionality to enable capacity management and restoration and allow the rapid deployment of new services.

Previously, in late February Jio and Cisco announced a collaboration to expand Jio's multi-terabit capacity, all-IP converged network based on Cisco's Open Network Architecture and cloud-scale networking technologies offering support for IP/MPLS and encompassing data centre, WiFi, security and contact centre solutions. It was noted that as part of its network roll-out Jio had installed over 300,000 km of fibre, and built India's largest cloud data centre.

http://www.nokia.com

• In early March, Ericsson announced that it was providing its OSS fulfilment suite as part of Jio's broadband network deployment.

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Metaswitch Offers White Label Cloud Contact Center Solution

Metaswitch announced several enhancements to its Cloud Contact Center (powered by Telax) offering, including white label capabilities that enable service providers to construct custom, trusted brand experiences for their customers.

Metaswitch Cloud Contact Center enables providers to offer the highest voice quality and reliability to its business customers’ help desk, customer service, sales and billing departments. Advanced capabilities include intelligent skill-based routing, multi-channel support and workforce management.

New features include:

• White-label branding capabilities -- Metaswitch’s provider-focused solution enables service provider branding right out-of-the-box, with no additional fees or special training required.
• Real-time Business Intelligence – Provides interactive and intuitive visualization of real-time data.
• Multi-Location Agent – Compiles call statistics on a queue-by-queue basis and across multiple locations. Perfect for the demanding needs of verticals such as retail, healthcare and banking, it also enables central administration of location-specific scheduling, routing, and dashboards.
• Enhanced UI - User interface enhancements provides clearer visibility into user activity and resource utilization.

“Metaswitch understands the value of the brands that our service provider customers have worked so hard to build, said Chris Carabello, senior director of product marketing for Metaswitch. By providing them with a solution custom-built for service providers with comprehensive brand insertion capabilities, and best-in-class business intelligence, they have greater opportunity to differentiate themselves in the multi-billion dollar cloud contact center market.”

http://www.metaswitch.com

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Juniper Shows its Open Cloud Interconnect DCI

Juniper Networks announced the introduction of Open Cloud Interconnect, a data centre interconnect (DCI) solution designed to enable network operators to accelerate cloud service delivery while simplifying network operations.

The Juniper solution integrates new high-capacity coherent optical technology with open, programmable routing, switching, security and virtualisation capabilities to enable customers to optimise multi-layer DCI networks and gain increased network automation, visibility and control.
Juniper noted that with new cloud business models emerging to address demand, network operators face challenges in areas such as scaling network capacity, optimising network resources and simplifying operations. In addition, proprietary, single-layer vendor products can limit an operator's ability to adapt quickly to the needs of cloud-based business.

Juniper's new Open Cloud Interconnect solution is designed to help data centre operators to address these challenges leveraging developments extending from the IP to the photonic layer designed to enable an open, scalable, secure and simpler DCI network.

Designed to align with the its recently-announced Unite Cloud for the Data Center and the Software-Defined Secure Networks (SDSN) platform, Juniper's Open Cloud Interconnect can be adapted to support a range of network architectures, enabling cloud providers, service providers and large enterprises to build, optimise and control DCI networks to meet their individual requirements.
The Open Cloud Interconnect incorporates technologies from Juniper's product portfolio, including MX Series 3D universal edge routers, QFX Series switches and Contrail Networking, which can be used to build custom DCI solutions.

Juniper's Open Cloud Interconnect solution specifically features new coherent DWDM line cards for the QFX10000 and BTI7800 platforms to enable greater capacity and reach. The QFX10000 coherent DWDM line card integrates 1.2 Tbit/s of optical capacity with 6 ports of up to 200 Gbit/s, and enables the delivery of DCI-optimised Ethernet VPN (EVPN), VXLAN and MacSec security with scalable, low-power coherent DWDM.

The solution also features the new UFM6 line card for the BTI 7800 series, offering a muxponder/transponder that combines 10 configurable 10/100 Gigabit Ethernet client ports and 2 coherent DWDM ports of up to 200 Gbit/s. The UFM6 also supports SD-FEC for improved performance over metro, regional and long-haul spans up to 2,000 km and is interoperable with coherent DWDM line cards from Juniper and third-party suppliers.

The solution also offers network visibility and control functionality via open APIs that extend the capabilities of the proNX Service Manager software to allow management of coherent optical interfaces on Juniper MX and PTX Series routers, QFX Series switches and the BTI Series packet optical portfolio. Additionally, multi-layer control is available through Yang-based integration of proNX and Juniper's NorthStar controller.

Juniper's new UFM6 line card and updated proNX service manager software are available immediately; the coherent DWDM line card for the QFX10000 is due to be available in the second quarter of the year.

http://www.juniper.net

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MACOM unveils 100G CWDM4 transmitter

MACOM) unveiled the production ready MAOP-L284CN, a 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 transmitter L-PIC (lasers integrated with a silicon photonic integrated circuit) and supporting driver and controller IC chipset, and introduced its complete PAM4 technology chipset for 100 Gbit/s applications.

L-PIC solution

MACOM's L-PIC device combines four distributed feedback (DFB) laser diodes utilising its patented Etched Facet Technology (EFT), four 28 Gbit/s Mach-Zehnder optical modulators integrated with CWDM mux, monitor photodiodes and an output coupler for operation over a single standard single mode fibre.

Using MACOM’s patented self-aligning etched facet technology (SAEFTTM) to enable precision attachment of the lasers to the L-PIC, the device allows customers to bypass optimising optical coupling with active alignment and curing by providing an integrated single device designed to reduce manufacturer assembly time and component cost.

The MAOP-L284CN L-PIC transmitter is available as part of a complete chipset platform, including the MAMF-011095 silicon PIC controller and MASC-37053A high-speed, low-power modulator driver. The chipset solution eliminates the need to assemble discrete components and reduces configuration and test costs.

MACOM noted that after the recent acquisition of AppliedMicro and its PAM4 technology, it will extend the L-PIC transmitter platform to support 200 and 400 Gbit/s switch-to-fibre applications.

PAM4 chipset

Supporting 100 Gbit/s data rates over a single wavelength to enable single fibre and four-lane parallel fibre connectivity for 100, 200 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet applications, MACOM's PAM4 chipset features a new TIA, transmit and receive CDR devices and linear electro-absorption modulated laser (EML) driver.

MACOM's new PAM4 chipset for single lambda 100/200/400 Gbit/s includes the following products:

1. MATA-005817 single-channel 53 Gbaud PAM4 linear TIA enabling 100 Gbit/s over a single lambda.
2. MAOM-005311 single-channel 53 Gbaud PAM4, 1.8 Vpp single ended linear driver for single lambda 100 Gbit/s EML transmitters.
3. MATA-03819 four-channel 53 Gbaud PAM4 linear TIA for 200/400 Gbit/s parallel fibre applications with PIN photodetectors.
4. MATA-03919 four-channel 53 Gbaud PAM4 linear TIA for 200/400 Gbit/s multi-wavelength single fibre applications with APD photodetectors.
5. MAOM-005411 four-channel 53 Gbaud PAM4, 1.8 Vpp single ended linear driver for 100 Gbit/s per lambda EML-based parallel/multi-wavelength transmitters.
6. MAOM-38051 four-channel 28 Gbaud PAM4 (56 Gbit/s) transmit CDR with 2.5 V differential pre-driver and adaptive equaliser for EML applications.
7. MAOM-38053 four-channel 28 Gbaud PAM4 (56 Gbit/s) transmit CDR with 2.5 V differential driver and adaptive equaliser for silicon photonics.
8. QMASC-38040 four-channel 28 Gbaud PAM4 (56 Gbit/s) receive analogue CDR with limiting amplifier for applications as a companion to the TIA.

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ZTE reports FY'16 revenue of RMB 101.23 bn, up 1.0%

ZTE reported full-year financial results for the period ended December 31, 2016 as follows:

1. Operating revenue of RMB 101.23 billion (approximately $14.70 billion), up 1.0% compared with RMB 100.19 billion in 2015.

2. Gross profit of RMB 29.62 billion, up 1.8% compared with RMB 29.09 billion in 2015.

3. R&D expenditure of RMB 12.76 billion, up 4.6% versus RMB 12.20 billion in 2015.

4. SG&A expenditure of RMB 15.35 billion, up 6.2% compared with RMB 14.45 billion in 2015.

5. Net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 2.36 billion (approximately $343 million), compared with net profit of RMB 3.21 billion in 2015.

6. Net cash flow from operating activities of RMB 5.26 billion, down 28.9% compared with RMB 7.40 billion in 2015.

7. Cash as of December 31, 2016 of RMB 32.35 billion, compared with RMB 28.02 billion as at December 31, 2015.

Additional results and notes

ZTE noted that the 2016 net loss attributable to holders of ordinary shares of RMB 2.36 billion ($343 million) included a provision of approximately $892 million related to the settlement of its case in the U.S excluding the provision, net profit would have been RMB 3.83 billion (approximately $557 million), up 19.2% versus 2015.

Revenue for the Carrier Networks division increased to RMB 58.9 billion in 2016 versus RMB 57.22 billion in 2015, Consumer Business revenue rose to RMB 33.5 billion from RMB 32.47 billion in 2015, and Government and Corporate Business generated revenue of RMB 8.90 billion, versus RMB 10.50 billion in 2015.

On a geographic basis for 2016, ZTE reported revenue as follows: China - RMB 58.55 billion, versus RMB 53.11 billion in 2015, Asia (excl. China) – RMB 14.56 billion, versus RMB 14.82 billion in the prior year; Africa – RMB 5.75 billion, versus RMB 6.98 billion a year earlier; and Europe, Americas and Oceania – RMB 22.37 billion, versus RMB 25.28 billion in 2015.

http://www.zte.com.cn

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Intel Adds Two to its Board of Directors

Intel announced the election of Omar Ishrak and Greg Smith to its board of directors.

Ishrak, 61, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic, a global leader in medical technology.  Smith, 50, is the chief financial officer and executive vice president of corporate development and strategy at Boeing.

http://www.intel.com

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Microsoft's Project Olympus provides an opening for ARM

A key observation from this year's Open Compute Summit is that the hyper-scale cloud vendors are indeed calling the shots in terms of hardware design for their data centres. This extends all the way from the chassis configurations to storage, networking, protocol stacks and now customised silicon.

To recap, Facebook's newly refreshed server line-up now has 7 models, each optimised for different workloads: Type 1 (Web); Type 2 - Flash (database); Type 3 – HDD (database); Type 4 (Hadoop); Type 5 (photos); Type 6 (multi-service); and Type 7 (cold storage). Racks of these servers are populated with a ToR switch followed by sleds with either the compute or storage resources.

In comparison, Microsoft, which was also a keynote presenter at this year's OCP Summit, is taking a slightly different approach with its Project Olympus universal server. Here the idea is also to reduce the cost and complexity of its Azure rollout in hyper-scale date centres around the world, but to do so using a universal server platform design. Project Olympus uses either a 1 RU or 2 RU chassis and various modules for adapting the server for various workloads or electrical inputs. Significantly, it is the first OCP server to support both Intel and ARM-based CPUs. 

Not surprisingly, Intel is looking to continue its role as the mainstay CPU supplier for data centre servers. Project Olympus will use the next generation Intel Xeon processors, code-named Skylake, and with its new FPGA capability in-house, Intel is sure to supply more silicon accelerators for Azure data centres. Jason Waxman, GM of Intel's Data Center Group, showed off a prototype Project Olympus server integrating Arria 10 FPGAs. Meanwhile, in a keynote presentation, Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Leendert van Doorn confirmed that ARM processors are now part of Project Olympus.

Microsoft showed Olympus versions running Windows server on Cavium's ThunderX2 and Qualcomm's 10 nm Centriq 2400, which offers 48 cores. AMD is another CPU partner for Olympus with its ARM-based processor, code-named Naples.  In addition, there are other ARM licensees waiting in the wings with designs aimed at data centres, including MACOM (AppliedMicro's X-Gene 3 processor) and Nephos, a spin-out from MediaTek. For Cavium and Qualcomm, the case for ARM-powered servers comes down to optimised performance for certain workloads, and in OCP Summit presentations, both companies cited web indexing and search as one of the first applications that Microsoft is using to test their processors.

Project Olympus is also putting forward an OCP design aimed at accelerating AI in its next-gen cloud infrastructure. Microsoft, together with NVIDIA and Ingrasys, is proposing a hyper-scale GPU accelerator chassis for AI. The design, code named HGX-1, will package eight of NVIDIA's latest Pascal GPUs connected via NVIDIA’s NVLink technology. The NVLink technology can scale to provide extremely high connectivity between as many as 32 GPUs - conceivably 4 HGX-1 boxes linked as one. A standardised AI chassis would enable Microsoft to rapidly rollout the same technology to all of its Azure data centres worldwide.

In tests published a few months ago, NVIDIA said its earlier DGX-1 server, which uses Pascal-powered Tesla P100 GPUs and an NVLink implementation, were delivering 170x of the performance of standard Xeon E5 CPUs when running Microsoft’s Cognitive Toolkit.

Meanwhile, Intel has introduced the second generation of its Rack Scale Design for OCP. This brings improvements in the management software for integrating OCP systems in a hyper-scale data centre and also adds open APIs to the Snap open source telemetry framework so that other partners can contribute to the management of each rack as an integrated system. This concept of easier data centre management was illustrated in an OCP keynote by Yahoo Japan, which amazingly delivers 62 billion page views per day to its users and remains the most popular website in that nation. The Yahoo Japan presentation focused on an OCP-compliant data centre it operates in the state of Washington, its only overseas data centre. The remote data centre facility is manned by only a skeleton crew that through streamlined OCP designs is able to perform most hardware maintenance tasks, such as replacing a disk drive, memory module or CPU, in less than two minutes.

One further note on Intel’s OCP efforts relates to its 100 Gbit/s CWDM4 silicon photonics modules, which it states are ramping up in shipment volume. These are lower cost 100 Gbit/s optical interfaces that run over up to 2 km for cross data centre connectivity.

On the OCP-compliant storage front not everything is flash, with spinning HDDs still in play. Seagate has recently announced a 12 Tbytes 3.5 HDD engineered to accommodate 550 Tbyte workloads annually. The company claims MTBF (mean time between failure) of 2.5 million hours and the drive is designed to operate 24/7 for five years. These 12 Tbyte enable a single 42 U rack to deploy over 10 Pbytes of storage, quite an amazing density considering how much bandwidth would be required to move this volume of data.

Google did not make a keynote appearance at this year’s OCP Summit, but had its own event underway in nearby San Francisco. The Google Cloud Next event gave the company an even bigger stage to present its vision for cloud services and the infrastructure needed to support it.

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IS Kenya selects Telco Systems for Fibre Upgrade

22nd Telco Systems, a BATM Advanced Communications company and provider of SDN and NFV and multi-service Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and MPLS edge solutions, and Internet Solutions Kenya, a pan-African provider of cloud, communication, connectivity and carrier services, announced an agreement for the upgrade of Internet Solutions Kenya's entire fibre infrastructure to 10 Gbit/s.
Internet Solutions Kenya (IS Kenya), a subsidiary of the Dimension Data Group, which is part of NTT Group, provides cloud, communication, connectivity and carrier services to public and private sector organisations in Kenya and across East Africa. The upgraded network is designed to enable the operator to provide enterprise customers in Kenya and across the region with advanced business services.

Under the agreement, Telco Systems will provide IS Kenya with an automated, software-defined network able to support 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The new network will also be fully orchestrated, enabling faster service provisioning and simplified network deployment and maintenance operations.

Telco Systems is specifically supplying its EdgeGenie Orchestrator service management system, together with the T-Metro 7124, T-Marc 3348 and T-Marc 3308 demarcation devices.
The deployment will additionally provide IS Kenya with full MPLS services capability across the fibre network and to its customers, as well as enabling support for the latest MEF 2.0 standards. The upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet is designed to help IS Kenya improve the quality of its services, deliver more data traffic and meet the increasing bandwidth requirements of its customers.

IS Kenya (formerly AccessKenya Group) was acquired by Dimension Data Group in 2013. The company holds four licenses from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), including DCNO, ISP, PDNO, and Local Loop Operator licenses and has capacity on the Seacom international subsea cable and, in partnership with Tata Communications, a Tier 1 PoP facility, providing diverse worldwide connectivity.

In 2016, Telco Systems announced the deployment if a 10 Gigabit Ethernet Carrier Ethernet network for the Kenya Education Network (KENET), a not-for-profit telecommunications operator in Kenya serving the education sector and research institutions. The new network was based on Telco Systems' T-Metro 8001 10 Gigabit Ethernet service aggregation platforms and T-Marc 3348S 10 Gigabit Ethernet demarcation devices.

http://www.telco.com/

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Sumitomo Electric showcases QSFP28 100G-ER4

Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI), a global provider of optical solutions, showcased 100 Gbit/s devices and modules and next-generation 200 and 400 Gbit/s solutions at OFC 2017 in the Los Angeles.

QSFP28 ER4 Lite

SEI's new QSFP28 100G-ER4 Lite transceiver, the SQF1000EL, is designed for mid-reach MSA Ethernet applications, delivering 4 x 25 Gbit/s channels over distances up to 40 km. The company noted that while the IEEE standard specifies a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) prior to the PIN photodetector to enable 40 km reach, the QSFP28 ER4 Lite replaces the SOA and PIN with an avalanche photo diode (APD) and external FEC to reduce the power usage and maintain optical link budget.

400 Gbit/s CFP8

The 400 Gbit/s CFP8 transceiver is compliant with IEEE 802.3bs 400GBASE-LR8/FR8 specifications for links up to 10 km. The SFF4801 series features SEI's electro-absorption modulated lasers (EMLs) and PIN photodiodes and is able to support 12.8 Tbit/s on a switch faceplate and targets metro applications between data centres and clients.
Separately, Sumitomo Electric Industries and MACOM Technology Solutions (MACOM) announced they are showcasing a joint 100 Gbit/s PAM4 single wavelength (lambda) demonstration at OFC.

The joint demonstration features MACOM's 100 Gbit/s, 16 nm FinFET, PAM4 PHY, linear driver and high bandwidth, low noise transimpedance amplifier (TIA), and SEI's high bandwidth EML driving a 53 Gbaud PAM4 modulated signal over single mode fibre.

The companies noted that optical modules integrating these technologies will enable serial 100 and 400 Gbit/s transmission with the lower cost and higher density required for data centre and access networks. Specifically, single wavelength 100 Gbit/s will facilitate the deployment of low cost 100 Gbit/s QSFP28 and 400 Gbit/s QSFP-DD and OSFP modules.

https://www.sumitomoelectric.com/

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Ixia Demos PAM4-Based 200 Gigabit Ethernet

Ixia conducted a 200 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) live demonstration at OFC 2017. During the demo, Ixia sent and received IEEE 802.3bs compliant, line rate 200 GbE traffic via 50 Gbps, PAM4 electrical lanes over the QSFP56 form factor with passive direct attached copper cable.

Ixia noted that it is the first company to demonstrate line rate 200GbE technology by combining four electrical lanes of 50 Gbps, defined as 200GAUI-4 by IEEE802.3bs, via four-level Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM4).

http://www.ixiacom.com

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Lenovo Hires Former Intel CIO to Head its Data Center Infrastucture

Lenovo appointed Kim Stevenson, the former CIO of Intel, as senior vice president and general manager leading its new Data Center Infrastructure (DCI) business segment, where she will oversee the company’s core data center products and solutions portfolio. Most recently, she spent eight years at Intel leading that company’s Client, Internet of Things and System Architecture (CISA) Group and serving as Intel CIO for four years. Before Intel, she spent seven years at the former EDS holding a variety of positions including vice president of its Worldwide Communications, Media and Entertainment (CM&E) Industry Practice.

Lenovo also announced the following appointments:

• Paul Ju, as vice president and general manager of Hyperscale, Ju joined Lenovo in September 2016 and has deep experience in hyperscale systems and cloud computing through management positions with leading global technology and data center providers.
• Madhu Matta as vice president and general manager of High-Performance Computing & Artificial Intelligence. Matta joined Lenovo in November 2015 and brings deep experience in advanced computing technologies through executive assignments at leading server and storage companies.
• Radhika Krishnan as executive director and general manager of Software-Defined Data Center. Krishnan’s unit also includes networking technologies and telco solutions. She joined Lenovo in February 2016 and has a deep background in advanced server, storage, networking and software-defined technologies.

http://www.lenovo.com

 

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