Orange Business and Cisco team on SD-WAN

Orange Business Services has expanded the capability of its global SD-WAN with the first onboarding of a Cisco SD-WAN virtual network function (VNF) on the Cisco Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS). This platform, which delivers a fully functional virtualized solution for network services, is part of the Orange universal customer premise equipment (uCPE) offer.

Orange said that thanks to uCPE central orchestration, it can provide automated Cisco SD-WAN deployment, based on Viptela technology, in minutes on all enterprise sites, wherever they are located. The uCPE can run multiple additional functions, such as security, which can be orchestrated centrally and chained as required. This means that enterprises can dynamically adapt the branch office configuration to optimize user experience.

“This work strengthens our long-standing partnership with Cisco. Together we are bringing innovations in SD-WAN and the wider network to our customers worldwide. These developments will help realize the promise of intent-based networking, which will use artificial intelligence to automatically orchestrate networks based on predicted user demand. This will help improve application performance, security and business continuity,” said Pierre-Louis Biaggi, vice president, Connectivity, Orange Business Services.

“SD-WAN provides the essential foundation for Service Providers to transform their network services,” said Sachin Gupta, senior vice president, product management for Cisco Enterprise Networking. “One of the truly global providers, we are excited Orange is accelerating the adoption of SD-WAN technology leveraging Cisco’s ENCS platform. Our partnership will accelerate customers’ transformation to cloud and digital while delivering new-age capability for simplified operations, application visibility and performance."

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QCT showcases Central Office 2.0

• Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) has opened a demonstration lab in San Jose, California to showcase its “Central Office 2.0” solutions, including:
• QxStack NFV Infrastructure with Red Hat OpenStack Platform - with data plane calibration and Enhanced Platform Awareness (EPA) enabled for optimized network performance
  QCT Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) Ready POD for central office and edge computing – the world’s first fully integrated open source infrastructure ready for customer validation
  QCT Rackgo R Vertical Integration with OpenStack – an Intel RSD-based full-featured rack level solution with easy deployment and scalability

QCT said “Central Office 2.0” represents its vision for the next-generation Central Office to advance edge computing for high-performance and low-latency 5G applications, such as IoT, autonomous vehicles and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR).

“QCT’s long-term collaboration with Intel and Red Hat now extends to the Telco space,” said Mike Yang, President of QCT. “With our partners, we directly address emerging requirements in the Telco market with an optimized NFVI Platform that supports carrier-grade infrastructures and delivers a practical software-defined networking solution for disaggregating the control and data plane and providing performance consistency on IA-based systems. Through these strategic partnerships with industry-leading hardware and software providers in the 5G infrastructure space, we’ve developed high-performance open platforms that are aimed at lowering Telco CAPEX and provide a competitive OPEX advantage for increased margins over the long-term.

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Pensa releases automation software for NFV

Pensa, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, released software for intelligent automation of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) services.

The company said its Maestro NFV uses intelligent automation and advanced modeling to help CSPs design, validate and deliver NFV network services. The software ensures that network designs are correct and that they will work as intended, reducing the risk of human error. The key benefits of Pensa Maestro NFV include:

• Enabling CSPs to simplify and accelerate the deployment of NFV solutions
  Enabling CSPs to bring new revenue-generating services to market faster
  Enabling CSPs to intelligently automate NFV solution design, build and test processes to reduce manual errors, lower costs, and increase business velocity

"The digital services revolution has begun, but communication service providers are stuck with legacy infrastructure and processes that hold them back," said Pensa CEO Tom Joyce. "There are huge opportunities on the horizon for telcos and CSPs, but to participate they must use NFV. Before now, it has been very hard to make this technology simple, reliable, and fast. Pensa's mission is to help our customers transition to NFV faster."

"We began development of this solution for NFV back in 2014, before many people were thinking about the complexity of designing these networks," said Ujwal Setlur, co-founder and CTO of Pensa. "Today we have years of experience engineering customer solutions for NFV. Early customer deals and the introduction of Pensa Lab last years allowed us to harden our technology to the point where we are proud to call Maestro NFV carrier-class."

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Open Compute Project measures its market impact

The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) has engaged IHS Markit to determine the adoption and impact of OCP gear in the technology industry.

IHS Markit interviewed OCP members, suppliers and service providers, as well as incorporated their own in-depth industry research to determine non-board member revenue by region and vertical, as well as provide a forecast through 2021. OCP Board member companies include Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Microsoft and Rackspace. Equipment markets explored in this study included servers, storage, network, rack, power and peripherals.

Some preliminary findings:

• 2017 OCP YoY growth from non-board member companies was 103%
• The 5-year CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is 59%, while the total market growth is expected to be in the low single digits
• Servers account for almost 75% of non-board OCP revenue in 2017, with rack, power, peripherals and other (primarily WiFi and PON, or passive optical networks) expecting the highest growth rates
• The America’s represented the majority of non-board OCP revenue in 2017, through hyperscaler, telco and financial industry adoption, while EMEA has a forecasted CAGR of 70%, primarily driven by telecommunications firms
  EMEA revenue from non-board member companies is expected to surpass $1 billion (US) by 2021, while Asia Pacific is expected to surpass EMEA in adoption as early as 2020

“OCP is excited to work with IHS Markit to get an independent view of our ability to influence the market through adoption. This study creates a baseline for us to measure our progress against, as well as gives us insight into projected growth in regions and markets. It also provides a view into perceived value as well as barriers for adoption. While we are pleased with the initial indicators, we also recognize we have much to do to continue our momentum,” stated Rocky Bullock, CEO for the Open Compute Project Foundation.

In th

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MACOM and ST team to bring GaN on silicon to mainstream RF

MACOM and STMicroelectronics have agreed to develop GaN (Gallium Nitride) on Silicon wafers to be manufactured by ST for MACOM’s use across an array of RF applications.

MACOM said the deal provides it with increased Silicon wafer manufacturing capacity and improved cost structure. This could displace incumbent Silicon LDMOS and accelerate the adoption of GaN on Silicon in mainstream markets. ST and MACOM have been working together for several years to bring GaN on Silicon production up in ST’s CMOS wafer fab. As currently scheduled, sample production from ST is expected to begin in 2018.

“This agreement punctuates our long journey of leading the RF industry’s conversion to GaN on Silicon technology. To date, MACOM has refined and proven the merits of GaN on Silicon using rather modest compound semiconductor factories, replicating and even exceeding the RF performance and reliability of expensive GaN on SiC alternative technology,” said John Croteau, President and CEO, MACOM. “We expect this collaboration with ST to bring those GaN innovations to bear in a Silicon supply chain that can ultimately service the most demanding customers and applications.”

“ST’s scale and operational excellence in Silicon wafer manufacturing aims to unlock the potential to drive new RF power applications for MACOM and ST as it delivers the economic breakthroughs necessary to expand the market for GaN on Silicon,” said Marco Monti, President of the Automotive and Discrete Product Group, STMicroelectronics. “While expanding the opportunities for existing RF applications is appealing, we’re even more excited about using GaN on Silicon in new RF Energy applications, especially in automotive applications, such as plasma ignition for more efficient combustion in conventional engines, and in RF lighting applications, for more efficient and longer-lasting lighting systems."

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MACOM's quarterly revenue dips to $131 million

MACOM reported revenue of $130.9 million for its fiscal first quarter ended December 29, 2017, a decrease of 13.7%, compared to $151.8 million in the previous year fiscal first quarter and a decrease of 21.3% compared to $166.4 million in the prior fiscal quarter.

The company cited difficulties in China.

The was a GAAP net loss from continuing operations was $17.0 million, or $0.49 loss per diluted share, compared to net loss from continuing operations of $2.2 million, or $0.04 loss per diluted share, in the previous year fiscal first quarter and net loss from continuing operations of $1,000, or $0.21 loss per diluted share, in the prior fiscal quarter.

Non-GAAP adjusted gross margin was 53.7%, compared to 57.2% in the previous year fiscal first quarter and 58.1% in the prior fiscal quarter;

“As expected, the first quarter was challenging across the board, as we dealt with the full impact of the geopolitical downturn in China,” remarked John Croteau, President and CEO of MACOM. "While it is still too early to call the exact slope of the recovery, we continue to believe that December was the bottom of the cycle for MACOM, and we expect demand will progressively strengthen through the remainder of the year.

“We expect 2018 will be a transitional year in our served markets, as the technology landscape shifts in anticipation of the next major wave of infrastructure investments in Cloud Data Centers and 5G Telecom. Although these shifts will likely moderate the pace of recovery, we believe they will ultimately lead to multiple breakout opportunities that play directly to our strengths."

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Lumentum reports a record quarter, sales rise to $404.6 million

Lumentum reported record net revenue for the fiscal second quarter of 2018 was $404.6 million, with GAAP net income of $204.8 million, or $3.17 per diluted share.  Net revenue for fiscal first quarter of 2018 was $243.2 million, with GAAP net income of $7.1 million, or $0.11 per diluted share. For comparison, net revenue for the fiscal second quarter of 2017 was $265.0 million, with GAAP net income of $11.8 million, or $0.19 per diluted share.

Non-GAAP net income for the fiscal second quarter of 2018 was $107.8 million, or $1.67 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income for fiscal first quarter of 2018 was $27.8 million, or $0.43 per diluted share.
"We achieved record revenue and profitability and exceeded our guidance for the second quarter driven by strong demand and execution in our 3D sensing, ROADM, industrial and telecom pump laser businesses. Our performance demonstrates the power of Lumentum's proprietary capabilities, which leverage many years of experience across multiple end markets," said Alan Lowe, President and CEO. "Our proven capabilities position us well for the future as demand for our industrial lasers and ROADMs is strengthening, and 3D sensing opportunities are broadening to more customers and end markets."

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OPNFV verification program

The OPNFV Project is launching a verification program to facilitate both vendor self-testing and third-party lab testing or Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) components.
The OPNFV Verified Program (OVP) establishes an industry threshold based on OPNFV capabilities and test cases. The initial version will test and verify NFV infrastructure components and features, including NFVI, VIM, underlying cloud infrastructure, basic packet forwarding, IPv6, and VPN.

"We are breaking new ground by leveraging open source platforms to measure compliance of commercial products," said Heather Kirksey, VP, Community and Ecosystem Development, The Linux Foundation. "This is a huge step for the industry, and speaks to the power of open, community-driven solutions to help the ecosystem in real-world deployments. I am incredibly proud of the collaborative work that has gone into establishing this set of common NFV platform requirements to aid the industry on the path towards robust NFV deployments."

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Chasing the next virtual network opportunity

by James E. Carroll

For tennis fans, all attention is currently on the city of Melbourne, where the final rounds of the Australia Open are underway. For those interested in the future of cloud connectivity, the focus goes to the city of Brisbane, where an Australian upstart is making a name for itself in the emerging Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) category. Potential users of NaaS could include large multinational, governments, other cloud providers. service providers including mobile network operators, and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). We expect to see many mobile operators transition to virtual networks over time and this could be one model.

Founded in 2013, Brisbane-based Megaport has built what it considers to be the world's first SDN interconnection fabric linking enterprises with equipment in colocation data centres to leading cloud service providers.

Megaport says its elastic fabric is "the reason cloud connectivity will scale." The company developed and runs its own proprietary software stack for automating virtual connections across the fabric. It offers APIs that would enable customers to automate connections across its service. Megaport owns and operates its own core network infrastructure, including fibre and transport for each market and between inter-city data centres. This footprint now covers major cities in Australia, Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe – a total of 37 major markets in 19 countries. Unlike with best-effort public Internet access, Megaport is able to provide strict SLAs because it controls the transport network and the switching fabric, and the Layer 2 access inside the colo data centre.

The ASX publicly-listed company has reported steady revenue growth over the past year as it quickly scales its service. For its fiscal quarter ending 31-December-2017, revenue was A$4.68 million, up 12.7% sequentially. The total number of customer ports increased in the quarter to 2,259, up 9% sequentially.

From Virtual Layer 2 to Virtual Layer 3

Just this week, Megaport is unveiling a virtual router service that enables customers to rapidly and privately connect at Layer 3 without the need to own or manage routers or physical infrastructure.  The Megaport Cloud Router (MCR), which rides the company’s same physical network, aims to make it easier for companies to expand their service footprint through virtual Points of Presence (PoPs), and peer with ecosystem partners worldwide. It does so by removing the need to own physical routers or network infrastructure. Megaport said its service also enables cloud to cloud connectivity. Customers can use its cloud router to move workloads and data between Cloud Service Provider (CSP) environments.  Customers can create virtual routers within routing zones around the world to enable global coverage and support localized routing decisions. In addition, networks service providers connect to Megaport can use MCR to set up virtual PoPs around the world.

“As a Network as a Service company, it’s imperative that Megaport continues to innovate solutions that abstract complexities in the network buying experience,” said Vincent English, Chief Executive Officer, Megaport. We’ve moved further up the stack by expanding our SDN’s capabilities to address Layer 3 IP routing and support a broader set of customers with varying technical capabilities and business needs. With Megaport Cloud Router, there’s no need for a deep understanding of Layer 3 intricacies to take advantage of IP routing features. Cloud to cloud connectivity is one of several new use cases unlocked by MCR which provides powerful options for enterprises architecting next-generation multicloud and hybrid cloud solutions. Our customers can move beyond the constraints of their physical network and rapidly establish virtual Points of Presence to unlock unique peering and interconnection opportunities around the world.

Company leadership

Megaport was founded by Bevan Slattery, who currently serves as Chairman of the business. Over his career, Slattery built multiple successful Australian IT and telecommunications companies including Superloop and NextDC.  He also co-founded PIPE Networks which grew to become Australia’s largest Internet Exchange and Australia’s third largest metropolitan fibre network provider, selling to TPG in May 2010.

Megaport is headed by Vincent English, who previously was Chief Financial Officer for Digicel Group. Prior to joining Megaport, Vincent was for Digicel Group, the global mobile network operator active in  31 markets in the Caribbean and South Pacific.  Megaport’s engineering team is led by Tim Hoffman (CTO), who previously led the Global Network team at Twitter, responsible for worldwide infrastructure, including all interconnection, backbone and content distribution infrastructure, and global data centres.  In this role, Hoffman negotiated peering agreements with some of the largest Internet backbone providers. Eric Troyer serves Megaport's Chief Marketing Officer. Troyer previously was Director of Network Edge and Interconnection Strategy at Microsoft where he led planning and engineering teams tasked with network expansion and IP capacity acquisition to scale Microsoft’s cloud strategy. Working at Equinix, he drove the Equinix Internet Exchange product

Building the Ecosystem

Customers connect to its fabric via a single, physical "mega-port" at any of the 185 colo data centres in which is present. This physical port enables the set-up and tear-down of virtual ports to any of the other parties connected to the global Megaport network. The concept is simple. Once a sufficient number of parties are on-board, Megaport benefits from the "n-squared" magic of networks. The company is now poised to enter that rapid growth phase.

Megaport has been prolific in forming partnerships with key players for cloud. These can be sorted into the following categories:

• Cloud Service Providers: Alibaba, AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud
• Data Centre Operators: now present in 185 data centres worldwide, including those of CyrusOne, Digital Realty, EdgeConnex, 4 Degree Data Centres, IO, Cyxtera, vXchnge, QTS, FORTRUST, Stream Data Centers 
• Network and Managed Service Providers: Aqua Comms, Cloudlogix, GT, Seaborn Networks, Rackspace

In the last category of network service providers, we see two subsea cable operators. This is interesting because it means that enterprises attached to the Megaport fabric now have the ability to activate transoceanic capacity on a short-term basis and via a simple web portal. The partnership with Aqua Comms, which was announced in November 2016, allows customers to turn on elastic interconnectivity services to Aqua Comms’ transatlantic subsea network between New York, Dublin, and London.  Consumption is be based on cloud computing models, including month-to-month services – a huge gain in provisioning flexibility compared with the old system of negotiating 20-year contracts (IRUs).

In its home country of Australia, which is probably its most developed market, Megaport is already providing a similar capability to the U.S.  Dedicated capacity between Sydney and Los Angeles now enables its enterprise customers in Australia and New Zealand to connect to multi-national cloud nodes in North America.

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Reliance Jio continues its rapid rise

by James E. Carroll

How fast can a network grow from zero to 160 million subscribers? Ask Reliance Jio, the brainchild of billionaire investor/entrepreneur/tycoon Mukesh Ambani and his Reliance Industries Ltd.
Reliance Jio only first launched commercial service on 5th September 2016.

Its market debut has been described as an earthquake for the Indian telecoms market, and the start of a price war that is drawing the casualties from the nation’s twelve mobile operators. In addition to cut-rate tariffs and the promise of unlimited LTE mobile data for an extended period, the company tapped into the energy and graces of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Chairman Ambani even dedicated the new company to “”realising the Prime Minister’s inspiring vision of Digital India for 1.2 billion Indians. Despite this connection, Jio immediately drew complaints from other operators for what they saw as anticompetitive behaviour.

From the starting line on 05 September 2016, Jio rocketed ahead to become the fastest growing mobile operator ever seen. In the first month, Jio enrolled 16 million lines. The 50 million threshold was passed on the 83rd day. The 100 million milestone came on 22 February 2017. As of 31 December 2017, Jio passed the 160 million subscriber milestone, adding 27 million gross user lines in the fourth quarter alone.

As the Indian market tends to experience greater churn rates and a higher percentage of prepaid users, Jio’s net additions for the quarter amounted to 21.5 million.  In Q3 2017, the company enrolled 19.5 million lines, indicating that Jio’s remarkable clip continues.

Six months after launch, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ordered Jio to withdraw the 3 months complimentary, unlimited mobile broadband offer for new subscribers, arguing that such a generous offer distorted the market.

This week, Reliance Jio is reporting its second quarterly profit in its brief history and even as it continues to spend aggressively to build out its network.

For its most recently fiscal quarter, Reliance Jio reported standalone revenue from operations of  6,879 crore  rupees  (US$1.7 billion), and up 11.9% over trailing quarter. Standalone EBITDA  amounted to 2,628 crore rupees (US$411.8 million) and the EBITDA margin was 38.2% (trailing quarter at 23.5%).  Standalone net profit amounted to 504 crore rupees (US$78.9 million).
Before we become too enamored of this operator, it is critical to note the very low ARPU levels in the Indian telecoms sectors compared to those in developed economies.

Jio’s average revenue per user per month is just154 rupees (approximately $2.41)  

At these levels, continued investment in the latest generation of imported networking equipment will require commitment from the parent firm, Reliance Industries, or the emergence of adjacent opportunities, such as mobile banking or shopping services that could be commercialized with the very large subscriber base.

Additional metrics disclosed by Jio

• World’s largest mobile data consumption network – first Exabyte network in the world
• Total wireless data traffic of 43,100,00,000 GB (9.6 GB per subscriber per month) 
• Total voice traffic of 311,130,000,000 minutes
• Video consumption has crossed 2,000,000,000 hours per month on the network (13.4 hours of video consumption per subscriber per month)
• On track to achieve 99% population coverage during the year
• Only network to deploy pan-India 4G across the 800MHz/ 1800MHz/ 2300MHz bands 

Acquiring more infrastructure

Earlier this month, Jio agreed to acquire network infrastructure assets of Reliance Communications Limited and its affiliates. Jio was the winning bidder in a sale mandated by the lenders of Reliance Communications.

The sale includes assets under four categories – Towers, Optic Fiber Cable Network, Spectrum and Media Convergence Nodes, specifically:

• 122.4 MHz of 4G Spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands
• Over 43,000 towers, amongst the top 3 independent tower holdings in India
• ~ 1,78,000 RKM of fiber with pan India footprint
• 248 Media Convergence Nodes, covering ~5 Million sqft used for hosting telecom infrastructure

The deal was valued at US$$3.77 billion, according to media reports. Reliance Communications said it will use the proceeds for debt repayment and that it retains its other businesses including its enterprise networking practice, its data centers, and its subsea cable network.

Jio’s management said the assets are strategic in nature and are expected to contribute significantly to the large-scale roll-out of wireless and Fiber to Home and Enterprise services in India.

Here’s what we know about Jio’s physical network. 

The Jio All-IP digital platform is built on Cisco’s Open Network Architecture and Cloud Scale Networking technologies featuring IP/MPLS, spanning areas including Data Center, Wi-Fi, Security and Contact Center solutions. Jio has laid more than 185,000 miles (or 300,000 KM) of fiber, and built India’s largest cloud data center to build platforms for applications and vertical solutions. Cisco claims a leading role at this layer of the network.

Nokia 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.  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.

In March 2017, Ericsson announced that it was providing its OSS fulfilment suite as part of Jio's broadband network deployment.

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China Unicom deploys Nokia's AirGile cloud-native core network

China Unicom will deploy a cloud-native core network based on Nokia's AirGile technology to enable the delivery of Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and Voice-over-Wi-Fi (VoWiFi), and lay the foundations for the future evolution to 5G. The installation will occur in seven Chinese provinces: Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Hainan, Yunnan, Gansu and Hunan. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deployment of the Nokia cloud-native core network also enables new services such as 'one-number, multi-devices'. The network will include Nokia AirGile cloud-native core technologies as well as the Nokia AirFrame data center, NetAct, CloudBand and Session Border Controller. Nokia will also act as a product and systems integrator.

In 2017 Nokia and China Unicom began interoperability with other vendors' equipment, enabling China Unicom to be the first operator to deploy a three-layer decoupled network architecture using network functions virtualization to decouple hardware and software and ensure flexibility allowing each network layer to evolve independently.

Gao Bo, head of the China Unicom customer business team at Nokia Shanghai Bell said: "Nokia has the breadth of technology and services expertise to provide an end-to-end cloud native core for China Unicom. The network will deliver new capabilities and allow China Unicom to accelerate the launch of new services, while new agility will help enable a smooth transition toward 5G in the future."

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Broadcom sweetens its bid for Qualcomm

Broadcom boosted its unsolicited bid to acquire Qualcomm to $121 billion, or $82 per share, consisting of $60.00 in cash and the remainder in Broadcom shares.

Broadcom described the bid as its "best and final offer", saying that it is prepared to pay to Qualcomm "a significant "reverse termination fee" in an amount appropriate for a transaction of this size in the unlikely event we are unable to obtain required regulatory approvals."

Several conditions were placed on the new offer, including that Qualcomm completes its own acquisition of NXP on current terms or that this merger be sracapped. A second condition is that Qualcomm not delay or adjourn its annual meeting past March 6, 2018.

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Ampere emerges from stealth with 64-bit ARM server designs

Ampere, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, emerged from stealth and revealed its plans for 64-bit ARM-based server processors aimed at hyperscale cloud applications and next-generation data centers.

Ampere Computing is headed by Renee James, the former president of Intel until 2016. Its team also includes three other Intel veterans: Atiq Bajwa, Chief Architect, and foremerly VP and GM of product architecture at Intel; Rohit Avinash Vidwans, Executive Vice President of Engineering, with 25 years experience at Intel including work on Xeon microprocessors for data center and enterprise servers; and Greg Favor, Senior Fellow, and 25 years experience at Intel including over 60 patents. Ampere is backed by The Carlyle Group.

Ampere said its processors will offer a high performance, custom core Armv8-A 64-bit server operating at up to 3.3 GHz, 1TB of memory at a power envelope of 125 watts. It will also offer mixed signal I/O features including PCIE Gen 3, SATA Gen 3, USB and workload accelerators, as well as the high-performance on-chip fabric. The processors are sampling now and will be in production in the second half of the year.

In October, The Carlyle Group acquired the compute business of AppliedMicro from MACOM, which earlier in 2017 acquired Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AppliedMicro") in a deal was valued at approximately $770 million on the day it was announced.

In March 2017, AppliedMicro announced the sampling of its third generation 16-nanometer FinFET Server-on-a-Chip (SoC) solution, X-Gene 3.  The device is an ARMv8-A compatible processor that matches comparable x86 processors in CPU throughput, per-thread performance, and power efficiency while offering advantages in memory bandwidth and total cost of ownership. It features 32 ARMv8-A 64-bit cores operating at speeds up to 3.0 GHz, eight DDR4-2667 memory channels with ECC and RAS supporting up to 16 DIMMs and addressing up to 1TB of memory and 42 PCIe Gen 3 lanes with eight controllers.

“We have an opportunity with cloud computing to take a fresh approach with products that are built to address the new software ecosystem,” said James. “The workloads moving to the cloud require more memory, and at the same time, customers have stringent requirements for power, size and costs. The software that runs the cloud enables Ampere to design with a different point of view. The Ampere team’s approach and architecture meets the expectation on performance and power and gives customers the freedom to accelerate the delivery of the most memory-intensive applications and workloads such as AI, big data, storage and database in their next-generation data centers.”

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Singtel seeks to increase stake in Bharti Airtel

Singtel will subscribe to new shares in Bharti Telecom under a proposed preferential allotment.

Specifically, Singtel International Investments will be allotted up to 85,450,000 new equity shares in Bharti Telecom at an issue price of INR310 per equity share. This will increase Singtel’s stake in Bharti Telecom by up to 1.7% for an aggregate consideration of approximately INR26.5 billion or S$555.6 million. Through this allotment, Singtel’s economic interest in Airtel will increase by 0.9 percentage point to 39.5%.

Airtel is India’s largest telecommunications company with operations in 16 countries across South Asia and Africa and a customer base of over 390 million. It has been an associate of the Group since Singtel acquired a stake in 2000.

Mr Arthur Lang, CEO International, said, “This is a good opportunity for us to deepen our strategic partnership with Airtel. While there are currently headwinds in India, we take a long-term view of our investment in Airtel which continues to be a strong market leader in a region with rapidly increasing smartphone penetration and mobile data adoption.”

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Corning opens a new cable manufacturing plant in North Carolina

Corning has opened a new cable manufacturing facility in Newton, North Carolina. The factory will employ more than 200 people and is part of Corning’s previously announced plan to invest more than $250 million in its optical fiber, cable, and solutions manufacturing facilities.

In North Carolina, in addition to this new plant in Newton, Corning is also expanding its fiber manufacturing facility near Concord and its cable facilities in Winston-Salem and Hickory.

“Network operators around the world are challenged to meet exploding demand for high-speed connectivity and data storage,” said Clark S. Kinlin, executive vice president, Corning Optical Communications. “We are adding this cable capacity to help ensure reliable supply of the world’s highest performing optical cable in a growing market. This world-class facility was commissioned in record time, a feat that would not have been possible without our long-serving Catawba County employees, or the support of state and local leaders here in North Carolina.”

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Telstra opens 5G Innovation Centre

Telstra opened a 5G Innovation Centre at its Southport Exchange on the Gold Coast..

The 5G Innovation Centre is hosting several 5G demonstrations:

• Australia’s first 5G field trial using a moving vehicle demonstrating how the high bandwidth and low latency of 5G can deliver an immersive view from the driver’s perspective via virtual reality headsets and support autonomous driving.
• A speed test of around 3 Gbps down and 300 Mbps up over mmWave spectrum demonstrating the speed and capacity that will be achieved over 5G and how that will support advanced multimedia applications such as augmented and virtual reality.
• How drones enabled with artificial intelligence can support surf lifesaving and be operated on a mass scale by 5G beam forming technology targeting each drone.
• A robotic arm demonstrating how the ultra-low latency of 5G can support a range of industrial applications requiring precise control.

“Telstra has already conducted Australia’s first 5G field trial and the world’s first 5G outdoor data call over 26GHz ‘mmWave’ radiofrequency spectrum.  From our new 5G Innovation Centre we will be completing a number of 5G firsts in 2018 to ensure Australia remains at the forefront of mobile technology,” said Robyn Denholm, Chief Operations Officer, Telstra.

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Oclaro posts quarterly sales of $139 million

Oclaro reported revenues of $139.3 million for its second quarter of fiscal 2018, compared with revenues of $155.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2018, and revenues of $153.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. GAAP gross margin was 37.2% for the second quarter of fiscal 2018, down from 39.5% in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. Non-GAAP operating income was $24.5 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2018. This compares with non-GAAP operating income of $34.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2018, and non-GAAP operating income of $36.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2017.

"The December quarter results were in line with our expectations. While revenue declined from the prior quarter, the team again delivered strong gross margin, profitability and cash flow," said Greg Dougherty, Chief Executive Officer, Oclaro. "While we project March quarter revenue to be down sequentially, we anticipate another quarter of solid operating income. As the headwinds facing the industry begin to subside, and we ramp new products, our revenue is expected to resume growth in the June quarter."

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Transpacific subsea capacity on the rise

We’ve entered a period in which subsea capacity along the major transoceanic routes is expanding by leaps and bounds, and the Pacific is no exception.

For years, the four fibre pair Pacific Crossing (PC-1) has ruled the roost for bandwidth between the west coast of the United States and Asia. Pacific Crossing's 21,000 km fiber optic ring first entered service in 2001 as a protected system with a capacity of 3.2 Tbps based on its ability to carry 10 Gbps wavelengths. A mid-life upgrade enabled the ability to carry 100G wavelengths, effectively tripling capacity to 10 Tbps.

In 2009, NTT acquired the cable system from Pacific Crossing Ltd, Inc., a former subsidiary of Global Crossing and of the former Asia Global Crossing. During the great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, the PC-1 North and PC-1 West segments were severed underwater, but were subsequently restored a few weeks later by the cable repair ship, CS Lodbrog. Service on the southern portion of PC-1 was unaffected by the disaster.

The 17-year-old PC-1 subsea cable network is now showing its age.  The new generation of cables offer much greater capacity and, some, even the ability to carry future 400G wavelengths. We are also seeing

The FASTER transpacific cable

The FASTER transpacific cable entered commercial service in June 2016 – a milestone event described at the time as “the world's highest capacity undersea cable system.”  Google touted the fact that it controls a single fibre pair on the 9,000km trans-Pacific cable connecting Oregon and two landing sites in Japan (Chiba and Mie prefectures).  Over this single fibre pair, Google is able to carry up to 100 wavelengths at 100 Gbps – the equivalent of 10 Tbps of traffic when fully loaded.  The design features extremely low-loss fiber, without a dispersion compensation section, and the latest digital signal processing technology. NEC was the lead contractor.  Significantly, it was the first major transpacific cable system to land in Japan after the Tohoku mega-earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

JUPITER will rule (at least for a while)

In October 2017, plans were unveiled for JUPITER, a new large-capacity, low-latency subsea cable between Japan and the United States with the backing of SoftBank, Facebook, Amazon, PLDT and PCCW Global.

The JUPITER cable system. which will have a total length of 14,000 km, will have two landing points in Japan — the Shima Landing Station in Mie Prefecture and the Maruyama Landing Station in Chiba Prefecture — as well as a U.S. landing station in Los Angeles, California, as well as a landing station at Daet in the Philippines.

 JUPITER will feature a state-of-the-art submersible ROADM employing WSS (wavelength selective switch) for a gridless and flexible bandwidth configuration. The cable system will also be designed to support 400 Gbps wavelengths. The initial design capacity is 60 Tbps.

NTT Com said its Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) and Pacific Crossing-1 (PC-1) cables will connect with JUPITER to provide a redundant three-route structure linking major cities in Asia, Japan and the United States. NTT Com is also planning direct connections from the cable landing stations in Japan to data centers in Tokyo and Osaka.

JUPITER is expected to come online in early 2020

Telstra expands its transpacific subsea cable investments

Telstra has just announced plans to invest in two transpacific cable projects, expanding its transoceanic network by the equivalent of 6 terabits per second of new capacity. Most of Telstra’s transpacific traffic is currently carried on the AAG cable, which connects South East Asia to the US west coast via Hong Kong, Guam and Hawaii. The 20,000 Km AAG system went in service in late 2009. The system features 96*10G DWDM technology. In addition to Telstra, there are 18 other carriers participating in the consortium.

The first new Telstra undersea investment is a newly announced, 13,000-km Hong Kong Americas (HKA) cable project, which is also backed by China Telecom, China Unicom, Facebook, and Tata Communications. The HKA system will feature six fiber pairs and will connect from Chung Hom Kok in Hong Kong to Hermosa Beach in California. The designers are considering additional branching segments. It’s design capacity is stated at 80 Tbps. Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), which is the lead contractor for the project, will supply its submarine WSS ROADM units and the latest generation of repeaters.  In addition, the HKA cable will be compatible with future generations of submarine line terminal equipped with Probabilistic Shaping technology. Telstra will own a half-fibre pair on the HKA cable system.

The second Telstra project is the 12,800-km Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), which will also connect Hong Kong and the U.S. and offer an estimated cable capacity of 120 Tbps.  The cable is expected to enter service in the summer of 2018. This project is organized by Pacific Light Data Communication Co. Ltd., a new company based in Hong Kong, and has the backing of Google and Facebook. TE SubCom has been appointed lead contractor.

Carrier-neutral Hawaiki will be ready for service in June

The deployment of Hawaiki, a new carrier-neutral submarine cable linking Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Oregon, is progressing quickly as the new fibre is laid across the vast South Pacific.  This 15,000 km undersea system promises up to 43 Tbps of new capacity on the market. The project is owned by Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The key people behind the project were New Zealand-based entrepreneurs Sir Eion Edgar, Malcolm Dick and Remi Galasso.

TE SubCom serves as the lead contractor

More than half of the 15,000 route is now in the water and landing stations in Oregon, Hawaii and Sydney  have been built. Another cable landing station in American Samoa will be ready in March. TE SubCom’s cable-laying vessel CS Responder is now berthed in Auckland, poised to begin marine activities for the New Zealand leg of the transoceanic cable system later this month. The operation will include the landing of the Hawaiki cable in Mangawhai Heads. With FCC licensing now complete, this week the company is predicting that the whole system can be declared commercially ready-for-service in June.

“The start of 2018 finds Hawaiki closer and closer to ready for service”, stated Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki. “Landing the cable in its home country represents a major event for our team and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our New Zealand partners for their continuous support. Hawaiki will bring huge benefits to New Zealand in terms of greater connectivity to Australia and the US, security of supply, diversity and increased business opportunities for the Telecom and IT industries.”

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ATX appoints Charlie Vogt as CEO

ATX Networks, which supplies network infrastructure systems and commercial video solutions, has appointed Charlie Vogt as President and CEO, replacing Ken Wildgoose, who led the company as its President and then CEO for the last 18 years.  Mr. Wildgoose will remain with ATX as an advisor and continue to serve on the Company’s Board of Directors.

Vogt most recently was President and CEO of Imagine Communications, where he transformed the company from Harris Broadcast to Imagine Communications and GatesAir. Previously, Vogt was CEO of GENBAND. He has also held leadership roles at Taqua and Santera Systems (Tekelec), Accelerated Networks (Calix Networks), Lucent (Alcatel), Ascend Communications (Lucent), ADTRAN, Motorola and IBM.

“It has been an honor to lead ATX Networks and to be a part of the Company’s incredible team of dedicated employees,” said Mr. Wildgoose. “Charlie is a visionary and strategic thinker with a decades-long track record of hyper growth in the service provider and media communications industries. His passion and expertise in conjunction with the Company’s talented team and exciting new initiatives in the cable HFC access network and commercial video gateway markets positions ATX for an exciting and promising next chapter.”

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Openreach commits to "Fibre First" for the UK

Openreach announced plans to accelerate its rollout of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) across the UK.

The new "Fibre First Programme" represents a strategic shift in the way that Openreach thinks about last mile infrastructure. Going forward, the company will seek to deploy "fibre first" wherever possible, including in rural areas.

Openreach said its new goal is to reach three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020. The programme will start in a few months in an initial eight cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London, and Manchester.

Reaching an all-fibre network across the UK is a massive and Openreach said the full rollout may take decades.

"I believe Openreach can be at the heart of this digital revolution and has a critical role to play in ensuring the UK has a FTTP network, fit for the future. The prize for our wholesale customers, their customers and the UK as a whole is huge," stated Clive Selley, Openreach CEO.

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