Samsung Heavy Industries picks AWS to develop autonomous shipping

Samsung Heavy Industries selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider.

Samsung Heavy Industries is developing an autonomous smart shipping system to enable the self-piloting of large container ships, LNG carriers, and floating production systems. The company will use the breadth of AWS’s services, including machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality, analytics, databases, compute, and storage to develop this platform. This includes Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon Simple Storage Solution (Amazon S3), AWS Key Management Service (KMS), and AWS CloudTrail to create integrated systems for all vessel-related data collected from land to sea.

“We’re digitizing our shipping fleet by using the most advanced technologies in the world to enhance our approaches to shipbuilding, operations, and delivery, and chose AWS as our preferred cloud provider to help us quickly transform Samsung Heavy Industries’ into a cloud-first maritime business,” said Dongyeon Lee, Director of Ship & Offshore Performance Research Center at Samsung Heavy Industries. “By leveraging AWS, we’ve successfully released several smart shipping systems so that our customers can manage their ships and fleets more efficiently, and we continue to test new capabilities for ocean-bound vessel navigation and automation. AWS delivers a highly flexible environment, with the broadest and deepest portfolio of cloud services, that is ideal for accelerating research and development across the company, and it has enabled our developers and data scientists to bring new ideas to market at an unprecedented pace.”

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Equinix now has an 82% utilization rate across its global data centers

Equinix reported quarterly revenue of $1.262 billion, up 18% year-over-year or up 9% yoy on a normalized and constant currency basis. Net income amounted to $68 million and adjusted EBITDA was $604 million, with a 48% adjusted EBITDA margin.

Peter Van Camp, Executive Chairman and Interim CEO and President, Equinix: “Equinix delivered another strong quarter with record bookings across all three regions and virtually all key operating metrics showing solid momentum in our go-to-market engine and interconnection strategy. Our unique global platform of 200 data centers, and the customer ecosystems within them, remain at the heart of our strategy, as evidenced by strong cross-regional sales and healthy interconnection activity in Q2."

Some highlights for the quarter:

• Interconnection revenue continued to outpace colocation revenue, reflecting the rapid adoption of hybrid, multicloud as the preferred IT deployment model
• Cross connects between customers increased to more than 288,000
• The Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric platform now serves more than 1,200 customers. 
• Completed expansions in the Amsterdam, Denver and London metros
• Achieved a utilization rate of 82% across the platform
• There is an active pipeline of 32 expansion projects currently underway, including a partnership with Omantel
• Key customer wins and expansions included China Mobile, Lithia Motors and Tencent
• Customer deployments across multiple metros increased to 85% of total recurring revenue.

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Huawei demos CUSP interface protocol for Cloud-based BNG

Huawei is showing off Control Plane and User Plane Separated Protocol (CUSP), an interface protocol for cloud-based Broadband Network Gateways (BNGs).

CUSP defines protocol requirements for information delivery, reliability, and security mechanisms needed for communication between the control and user planes in cloud-based BNG architecture with separated control and user planes.

The company provided a demonstration of CUSP at an IETF Hackathon in Montreal, Canada. Two two CUSP scenarios were demonstrated. Connection to the network environment, provided by a Huawei remote lab, allows programming to be performed on the interfaces between the control and user planes of the cloud-based BNG with CU separated architecture, all in accordance with a CUSP draft. As a result, the control plane can control the user plane, with board information, interface status, and user login information on the user plane queried through the control plane.

In the second scenario, the control plane can allocate different IP address segments to forwarding devices through CUSP, thereby implementing centralized management and control over address resources, effectively improving resource utilization.

Huawei and China Mobile have submitted CUSP to the IETF for consideration as a standard.

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Deutsche Telekom posts 1.3% growth, raises guidance

For the second quarter of 2018, Deutsche Telekom reported net revenue rose 1.3 percent year-on-year in organic terms, reaching 18.4 billion euros. Adjusted EBITDA rose 3.9 percent in organic terms to 5.9 billion euros. Adjusting for currency variation, revenue was down slightly, by 2.8 percent, while reported adjusted EBITDA was down 0.3 percent.

Citing the positive financial outlook for its U.S. subsidiary, Deutsche Telekom revised upward its full-year guidance for adjusted EBITDA for the second time this financial year.

Some highlights

Germany

• Mobile service revenues rose 2.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, reaching 1.7 billion euros. 
• 45 percent of mobile contract customers (consumers) under the Telekom brand name already use a product bundle from the MagentaEINS portfolio, compared with 38 percent a year earlier. 
• At the end of the second quarter, there were 3.9 million MagentaEINS customers, about half a million more than in the second quarter of 2017.
• Over the last twelve months, Telekom has put 1,000 new mobile sites into operation in order to close remaining gaps in coverage. 
• 74 percent of households in Germany with a fixed line now have access to fiber-optic-based products (FTTH, VDSL/vectoring), compared with 67 percent a year ago.
• With 624,000 additional customers opting for fiber-optic-based products, and the overall number rising to almost 11 million, the success of this strategy was once again evident. 
• Deutsche Telekom added another 80,000 customers overall in the broadband market.
• In the second quarter of 2018, the Germany operating segment posted a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percent in adjusted EBITDA to 2.1 billion euros. One factor in this growth was a reduced cost base, which fell 2.1 percent to 3.3 billion euros. Revenue decreased slightly, declining 0.9 percent to 5.3 billion euros.

United States

• T-Mobile US second-quarter service revenues rose 6.1 percent year-on-year to reach 7.8 billion U.S. dollars. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 5.1 percent to 3.0 billion U.S. dollars.
• The number of branded postpaid customers rose by more than one million in the second quarter. 
• Overall, T-Mobile US reported 1.6 million new customers in the second quarter – its 21st consecutive quarter of million-plus growth. As of June 30, the customer base was 75.6 million.

Europe

• Revenue in the Europe operating segment rose 1.3 percent to 2.9 billion euros. 
• There was a year-on-year increase of 1.8 percent in mobile service revenues.
• Magyar Telekom (Hungary) delivered the strongest growth in mobile business. 
• The upward trend in new mobile contract customers (plus 336,000) and new broadband customers (plus 73,000) continued to hold in the second quarter. 
• The number of customers opting for these convergent products rose 48.3 percent to 2.7 million. 

Systems Solutions

• Systems Solutions’ total revenue decreased 0.8 percent to 1.7 billion euros. The decline in earnings indicators was accentuated by capital expenditure in areas promising future growth, with adjusted EBITDA falling 11 percent to 121 million euros compared with the prior-year quarter. T-Systems is thus on track for the full-year guidance for 2018.
• At the end of June, T-Systems launched a transformation program under the motto Investing while Saving to get the company back on the path to growth. 

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Lumentum delivers strong quarterly sales of $301.1 million

Lumentum reported net revenue of $301.1 million for its fiscal fourth quarter 2018, ended 30-June-2018, with GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders of $25.7 million, or $0.40 per diluted share. Net revenue for fiscal third quarter 2018 was $298.8 million, with GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders of $2.4 million, or $0.04 per diluted share. Net revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter 2017 was $222.7 million, with GAAP net loss attributable to common stockholders of $(55.2) million, or $(0.90) per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income for the fiscal fourth quarter 2018 was $61.6 million, or $0.95 per diluted share.

Net revenue for fiscal year 2018 was $1,247.7 million, with GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders of $241.5 million, or $3.82 per diluted share. Net revenue for fiscal year 2017 was $1,001.6 million, with GAAP net loss attributable to common stockholders of $(103.4) million, or $(1.71) per diluted share.

"Record revenues in TrueFlex® ROADMs, commercial lasers, and industrial pump lasers drove strong fourth quarter results, capping off a record fiscal 2018 that saw 25% year over year growth and 19.7% operating margins," said Alan Lowe, President and CEO, "Our strategy of investing in differentiated products addressing multiple growing end-markets critically dependent on photonics drove our strong fiscal 2018 results and positions us well for the future."

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CenturyLink posts lower Q2 revenue, higher earnings as integration progresses

CenturyLink reported revenue of $5.90 billion for the second quarter 2018, compared to $6.04 billion for the second quarter 2017 on a pro forma basis. Diluted earnings per share was $0.27 for the second quarter 2018, compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.06 for the second quarter 2017.

Total revenues declined 2.1%
Business revenues declined 1.6%
Consumers revenues declined 4.0%
The total number of consumer broadband customers was 4,906,000

"Our continued progress on integration efforts contributed to a solid quarter, with strong growth in Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow," said Jeff Storey, president and CEO of CenturyLink. "Across the company, we are focused on profitable growth and providing a better experience for our customers and employees."

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AT&T and Telefónica win bids in Mexico's spectrum auction

AT&T was the largest winning bidder of licenses in Mexico's auction of 2500-2690 MHz spectrum. In total, AT&T will pay MX$1,400,101,288 (US$75.881 million)  in both FDD and TDD for the 20-year license. Telefónica will pay roughly half as much.

With this auction now complete, Mexico's major spectrum holders are as follows

http://www.ift.org.mx/

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Western Digital outlines OpenFlex architecture data center storage

Western Digital introduced its "OpenFlex" architecture for high-scale private and public cloud data centers.

WD's OpenFlex is a set of open standards, architecture and products that leverage industry-standard NVMf technology and the concept of software composable infrastructure (SCI). The idea is to create independently scalable pools of flash and disk that can be connected to computing resources via common networking technologies, such as Ethernet.

The elements of WD's vision include:

• A "Kingfish" open API for orchestrating and managing SCI
• Open product mechanical specifications to enable vendor neutral solutions
• OpenFlex architecture and initial partner ecosystem
• OpenFlex product line of flash and disk NVMe-over-Fabric (NVMf) devices

"Data centers need a more efficient approach to satisfying the needs of complex and dynamic applications and data workflows,” said Phil Bullinger, senior vice president and general manager of Data Center Systems at Western Digital. “To ensure flexibility, data center operators also need open solutions that enable them to select from best-in-class, vendor neutral options. Western Digital’s OpenFlex architecture and products, and our commitment to the open community help satisfy these needs, while delivering significant improvements in cost and agility. We’re building on our proven leadership in disk, flash and NVMe storage products to deliver the future of data infrastructure.”

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LF Deep Learning Foundation builds membership

The LF Deep Learning Foundation, whose mission is to support and sustain open source innovation in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning, announced five new members: Ciena, DiDi, Intel, Orange and Red Hat.

These companies join founding members Amdocs, AT&T, B.Yond, Baidu, Huawei, Nokia, Tech Mahindra, Tencent, Univa and ZTE.

“We are very pleased to build off the launch momentum of the LF Deep Learning Foundation and welcome new members with vast resources and technical expertise to support our growing community and ecosystem of AI projects,” said Lisbeth McNabb, Chief Operating Officer of The Linux Foundation.

Mazin Gilbert, Vice President of Advanced Technology and Systems at AT&T, has also been elected to the role of Governing Board Chair of LF Deep Learning. This position leads the board in supporting various AI and ML open source projects, including infrastructure and support initiatives related to each project.

“The Deep Learning Foundation is a significant achievement by the open source community to drive harmonization among tools and platforms in deep learning and artificial intelligence,” said Mazin Gilbert, Vice President of Advanced Technology and Systems at AT&T. “This effort will enable an open marketplace of analytics and machine learning capabilities to help expedite adoption and deployments of DL solutions worldwide.”

https://www.deeplearningfoundation.org

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OIF validates Transport Application Programming Interface (T-API) 2.0

The Optical Internetworking Forum's Transport Application Programming Interface (T-API) 2.0 is market ready, following a six week, multi-vendor interoperability demonstration. The results of the interoperability test are reported in a new whitepaper published by the OIF.

The multi-vendor demo led by four network operator labs included lab-deployed and cloud-deployed systems testing new dynamic behavior use cases and deployment scenarios. The demo also incorporated service provisioning scenarios at the LSO Presto reference point in the MEF LSO architecture, using the MEF NRP Interface Profile Specification (MEF 60), which defines extensions to T-API in support of Carrier Ethernet services.

Participating network operators were CenturyLink, China Telecom, SK Telecom and Telefónica and vendors included ADVA, Coriant, Infinera, NEC/Netcracker, Nokia and SM Optics. Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) was a participating academic institution and TELUS Communications participated as a consulting network operator.

Key findings detailed in the whitepaper:

• Open Networking Foundation (ONF) T-API 2.0 specifications have addressed the main issues identified in the OIF’s 2016 testing and provide a basis for real-time orchestration of on-demand connectivity setup, control and monitoring across diverse multi-layer, multi-vendor, multi-domain carrier networks
• Additional scaling and performance enhancements will need to be addressed as T-API is deployed in real networks, such as refinements to the model, greater detail in error codes to improve debugging properties, and potential implementation options such as a separate server for notifications of network events
• The API allows for some variability in the use of topology abstraction depending on business requirements and technology; documentation of supplementary examples for topology abstraction will help application and orchestration software developers.

http://www.oiforum.com/documents/oif-2018-sdn-t-api-interop-demo-white-paper/

“Standardized and open SDN APIs reduce complexity in intra and inter-domain operations, allowing us to provide more diverse services to our customers in less time,” said Park Jin-hyo, EVP of ICT R&D Center at SK Telecom. “After successfully completing the test trial, SK Telecom will keep engaging in 5G transport network and service development by opening APIs and transforming the current infrastructure into Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) Platform.”

Layer 1 Transport API interoperability demo -- MEF, ONF, and OIF

Wednesday, July 25, 2018  MEF, Video  

The recently concluded MEF-ONF-OIF interoperability demo that focused on the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Transport Application Programming Interface (T-API).

NEC's Karthik Sethuraman and Centurylink's Jack Pugaczewski provide an overview of the demo. A proof-of-concept (PoC) on this topic will be presented at #MEF18.

See video: https://youtu.be/kahW_dxoBSk

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Australia's NBN Co implements ARRIS DOCSIS 3.1

Australia's NBN Co has begun rolling out ARRIS's technology solutions for its nationwide launch of DOCSIS 3.1, which aims to bring gigabit-class broadband over the upgraded HFC network to three million premises in major Australian cities by 2020. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ARRIS technology powering the network includes:

• E6000 Gen 2 Platform – the world's most widely deployed CCAP platform
• OM4100 OptiMax – 4x4 segmentable nodes – scalable and upgradeable optical modules that extend the edges of the fiber network without requiring additional infrastructure at the plant
• ServAssure NXT management platform – the system that provides visibility across the entire service environment to anticipate and resolve issues before they impact the consumer experience
• ARRIS CM8200B – DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems
• Global Services – supporting the planning, designing, implementation and operation of the network and business processes

"NBN Co has worked hard on the introduction of DOCSIS 3.1 onto the HFC network and we are very proud to be able to launch the technology onto the network with our HFC technology partner ARRIS," said Ray Owen, Chief Technology Officer at NBN Co. "This is another example of NBN Co using world-leading technology to deliver a better experience for Australians on the nbn broadband access network. DOCSIS 3.1 will not only double the capacity of the NBN Co HFC network, but it will also help us deliver a more stable and resilient service for end-users with the advanced technologies that it uses."

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Deutsche Telekom expands 100Mbps in rural areas

Deutsche Telekom reported progress in its network modernization especially in development areas as 405,000 additional households across Germany recently become eligible for 100 Mbps service. Upload speeds have also increased from 10 Mbps to 40 Mbps. The speed boast is attained by installing vectoring line cards in its street cabinets.

"We are making great progress on expanding broadband in Germany", said Walter Goldenits, Chief Technology Officer at Telekom Deutschland.

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Toshiba develops Ethernet-Attached Native NVMe-oF SSD

Toshiba Memory introduced an native NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) SSD for direct Ethernet access based on the NVMe-oF Specification Version 1.0.

Toshiba Memory's new SSD is powered by the Marvell 88SN2400 NVMe-oF SSD converter controller, enabling dual-port 25Gbps Ethernet connectivity of high-performance U.2 NVMe SSDs. This makes it suitable for cloud data centers and enterprise data centers.

At this week's Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, California, Toshiba Memory is showing an Ethernet JBOF prototype chassis that was developed and built by Aupera Technologies. The JBOF is powered by 1+1 redundant 100Gbit Ethernet switch units with dual 6x100 Gbit Ethernet uplinks, which enables 16M IOPS system performance (4KB Random Read), the fastest ever seen in the industry[2].

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Brazil's Copel Telecom deploys Coriant's 200G transport

Copel Telecom, a regional telecom operator in Brazil and a subsidiary of the electric power utility company in the State of Paraná, has deployed 200G optical transmission technology from Coriant to scale its fiber backbone.

Copel Telecom uses Coriant's hiT 7300 DWDM platform to power its regional backbone, which supports residential Internet services covering more than 81 cities as well as corporate services offered in all 399 municipalities in Paraná. The recent upgrade uses Coriant CloudWave Optics technology to increase line-side transmission speeds to 200G per wavelength. In addition to increasing reach and spectral efficiency, the programmable interface solution enables Copel Telecom to reduce power, footprint, and cost as the network scales. Enhancements to the Coriant Transcend Chorus transport network management system enable simplified end-to-end service provisioning and advanced network control through software-defined programmability and automation.

“We continue to differentiate our services by helping customers take advantage of the digital revolution with fast, stable, and affordable connections,” said Adir Hannouche, Chief Executive Officer, Copel Telecom. “Our long-standing technology collaboration with Coriant has enabled us to keep pace with the capacity demands of end-user applications, and we are proud to announce that our network today is one of the first in Brazil to support 200G transmission.”

“The tremendous success that Copel Telecom has demonstrated with its residential GPON deployments has been one of the main drivers for increased capacity demand in the backbone network,” said Lucas Vanagas, Managing Director for South America, Coriant. “We are pleased to extend our relationship with Copel Telecom by providing the technology innovation, network design and professional services support that allows them to deliver an ultra-fast, always-on internet experience while reducing operations costs.”


Coriant CloudWave Optics combines advanced digital signal processing, photonic integration, and embedded software to enable flexi-rate coherent interface support including QPSK (100G), 8QAM (150G), and 16QAM (200G), with the latest generation of CloudWave Optics supporting higher baud rates and additional modulation formats, paving the way to transmission speeds of 400G per wavelength.

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Infinera posts Q2 revenue of $202.7 million

Infinera reported Q2 2018 GAAP revenue of $208.2 million compared to $202.7 million in the first quarter of 2018 and $176.8 million in the second quarter of 2017. GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 40.5% compared to 40.5% in the first quarter of 2018 and 36.7% in the second quarter of 2017. GAAP operating margin for the quarter was (10.4)% compared to (12.2)% in the first quarter of 2018 and (22.9)% in the second quarter of 2017. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $(21.9) million, or $(0.14) per share, compared to a net loss of $(26.3) million, or $(0.17) per share, in the first quarter of 2018, and net loss of $(42.8) million, or $(0.29) per share, in the second quarter of 2017.

“In Q2, we delivered strong margins and our fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, as customers continued to adopt our next-generation products,” said Tom Fallon, Infinera CEO. “In the second half, we expect to deploy several new opportunities that will drive multi-year growth. We believe adding Coriant’s capabilities and extensive customer base to our vertically integrated operating model and refreshed product portfolio, will allow us to enter 2019 in a position of strength. I really like our opportunity and am very excited for what the future holds.”

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A10 offers "apps" for its multi-cloud and on-premises analytics platform

A10 Networks has enhanced its A10 Harmony Controller multi-cloud analytics and management platform with new "Harmony Apps" that support key A10 security solutions, namely, Thunder SSLi (SSL Insight), Thunder CFW (Convergent Firewall), and the Thunder CGN (Carrier-Grade Networking).

The initial set of A10 infrastructure apps available include:

• SSLi App for encrypted traffic, user behavior, and key information insights with the Thunder SSLi solution. The SSLi App also introduces enhanced centralized management and simplified workflows for Thunder SSLi deployment and operations.
• GiFW App for application, policy, and performance insights with Thunder CFW’s GiFW (Gi Firewall) solution.
• CGN App for subscriber and network services visibility with Thunder CGN’s CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) solution.

A10 said it will foster an ecosystem of apps for 3rd party solutions that can be used to provide intelligent automation, make deployments extremely easy and validate configurations to ensure correct operation and security. In addition, apps can provide context-specific custom dashboards.

“Today, with applications being deployed on a multitude of cloud and on-premises infrastructures, app and security teams are pressured to ensure that security and availability is not compromised,” said Kamal Anand, Vice President of Cloud, A10 Networks. “The A10 Harmony Controller 4.1 enables a single pane of glass for secure app services, helping to ease the stress and burden that are weighing on IT teams”.

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Keysight provides packet-level visibility into Kubernetes

Keysight Technologies has added packet-level visibility into workloads in containers and Kubernetes clusters via its Ixia CloudLens software-as-a-service platform.

Packet visibility into containers and Kubernetes clusters can now extend across cloud platforms, including AWS Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

“The lack of granular access to cloud traffic creates blind spots which could compromise application performance or security, resulting in degraded customer experience and increased network security risk,” said Scott Register, vice president, product management for Keysight’s Ixia Solutions Group. “By expanding CloudLens support to containers, we offer the packet-level visibility that security and network teams need to diagnose critical security and performance issues in their container-based environments all in one platform.”

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Arista to pay $400M to Cisco, resolving patent dispute

Cisco and Arista reached a settlement resolving their long-running patent dispute.

Under the deal, Arista will pay $400 million to Cisco, and Cisco agrees not to assert against Arista patents that were included in the litigation as long as Arista shall continue to implement workarounds it had put in place to certain of those patents.

In an SEC 8-K filing, Cisco also said Arista agreed to make certain changes to the user interfaces of its products.

The parties also to use an arbitration process to resolve any further patent infringement claims for the next three years, and not to bring to an action against the other for patent or copyright (except for any claims of source code misappropriation) infringement for the next five years.

https://investor.cisco.com/investor-relations/overview/default.aspx

Cisco Hits Arista with Multiple Patent Lawsuit

Sunday, December 07, 2014    

Cisco filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Arista Networks, claiming that a dozen key switching features covered by 14 different U.S. patents held by Cisco were copied.

In a blog post, Mark Chandler, General Counsel at Cisco, writes that none of these features are incorporated in industry standards andy were patented by individuals who worked for Cisco and are now at Arista, or who at Cisco worked with executives who are now at Arista. Specifically, Cisco's complaint cites the following technologies that are incorporated by Arista in their entirety into Arista’s products.

• System Database (“SysDB”) (Arista uses Cisco’s networking device implementation covered by Cisco Patent No. 7,162,537)
• Zero-Touch Provisioning (“ZTP”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent No. 7,290,164)
• On Board Failure Logging (“OBFL”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent No.7,340,597)
• Control Plane Policing (“CoPP”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent No. 7,224,668)
• Spanning Tree Loop Guard(Arista uses Cisco’s implementations covered by Cisco Patent Nos. 7,460,492 & 7,061,875 )
• In-Service System Upgrades (“ISSU”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation described by Cisco Patent No. 8,356,296)
• Virtual Port Channels (“vPC”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent No 8,051,211)
• Access Control ListsImprovements (“ACL”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent Nos. 7,023,853 & 6,377,577)
• Private Virtual Local Area Networks (“Private VLANs”) (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent Nos. 6,741,592 & 7,200,145)
• Generic Command Interface (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent No. 7,047,526)
• CLI Command Data Translation (Arista uses Cisco’s implementation covered by Cisco Patent No. 7,953,886)

Furthermore, Chandler argues that "Arista promotes the theft of Cisco’s intellectual property as a key differentiator for Arista versus other Cisco competitors."

Mark Chandler's blog post is here:
http://blogs.cisco.com/news/protecting-innovation

A copy of the complaint is posted here:
http://www.slideshare.net/Cisco/cisco-patent-complaint-against-arista

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Bharti Airtel buys capacity on MENA Cable and TE North Cable Systems

Bharti Airtel reached an agreement with Telecom Egypt under which it will acquire IRUs (Indefeasible Right of Use) on Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) and TE North Cable Systems.

Specifically, Airtel gets the right to use fiber pairs on MENA Cable from Egypt to India with access to Saudi Arabia and Oman, and other fiber pairs from Egypt towards Italy. It also extends beyond MENA Cable, where Airtel will get the right to use a fiber pair from Egypt to France on TE North along with capacities on SMW5 and AAE1 cable systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO – Airtel Business said, “The partnership with Telecom Egypt underlines our commitment to provide world-class service experience to our customers. The partnership including MENA Cable and TE’s network will be a good addition to our global network portfolio and provide us with a high quality and diversified new route to Western Europe and the rest of the world. ”

Ahmed El Beheiry, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Egypt commented, “Telecom Egypt’s global network was built over the years through investments in consortiums as well as private international submarine cable systems. Our reach and position as an international hub with tens of Tbps lit capacity, makes us the partner of choice for Euro-Asian and Euro-African transit traffic. Telecom Egypt signed the agreement with OTMT to acquire MENA Cable with the aim of capitalizing on the growing traffic from India and Saudi Arabia to Europe and to obtain a new gateway to Europe through Italy. We are pleased to be able to sign the MoU with Airtel as well as to be able to bundle MENA’s assets with existing assets of the TE network. We aim to come back to the market with more details on the MoU and its financial impact once the deal is closed.”

Telecom Egypt acquires MENA cable for $90 million

Saturday, June 02, 2018  Egypt, Mergers And Acquisitions, Subsea  

Telecom Egypt announces that its 50% owned subsidiary, Egyptian International Submarine Cables Company (EISCC), will acquire the Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA) for a total value of US$90 million from Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E.

Telecom Egypt said the decision to acquire MENA Cable comes in line with its strategy to achieve a short-term return from this investment and to preserve the revenue stream of the submarine cable systems.

MENA Cable is licensed in Egypt and Italy to operate a submarine telecommunications system connecting Europe to the Middle East and South East Asia.

"The decision to acquire MENA Cable is one of the most important steps towards implementing the company’s strategic plan to ensure the sustainability of submarine cable revenues and reinforce the contribution of the USD revenue stream. The new cable will add to Telecom Egypt’s network of submarine cables fortifying TE’s network offering to the maximum number of routes between India and Europe as well as add a new gateway to Europe through Italy," stated Ahmed El Beheiry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

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Lumina enhances its SDN controller with PacketCable support

Lumina Networks has enhanced its OpenDaylight-powered SDN controller with support for the open source PacketCable multimedia interface (PCMM).

Lumina's SDN controller with PCMM protocol enables cable operators (MSOs) to manage QoS for services such as VoIP by controlling QoS parameters in the cable modem termination system (CMTS). PCMM also provides resource auditing and management and a robust security mechanism. Lumina’s SDN Controller provides an open source-based platform using a PCMM plugin and allows MSOs to deploy SDN without vendor lock-in.

Andrew Coward, CEO of Lumina Networks stated “Support of PacketCable QoS from an industry proven platform, such as the Lumina SDN Controller, further extends the benefits we can provide to the MSO market. Lumina now has the ability to help MSOs move SDN technology from the lab into production.”

Lumina raises $10 million for its OpenDaylight-powered SDN controller

Thursday, May 24, 2018  Lumina, Start-Ups  

Lumina Networks, a start-up based offering an SDN controller powered by OpenDaylight, announced $10 million Series A financing, including $8 million in new funding led by Verizon Ventures. Other new investors included AT&T and Rahi Systems.

Lumina was formed in August 2017 as a spin-off from Brocade.

"This investment by both Verizon and AT&T demonstrates the strategic importance of open source networking to the automation and digitization of their networks,” said Andrew Coward, Founder and CEO of Lumina Networks. “We understand the value of our mission to take open source networking out of the labs of our customers and into production deployment. This funding will enable us to reach a wider customer base and realize the industry vision of easily deployable open source software-defined networking (SDN)."

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