Nokia offloads its Gainspeed EPON/DPoE portfolios to Vecima Networks

Nokia has sold its Gainspeed EPON/DPoE business to Vecima Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Nokia said it plans to maintain an ongoing business relationship with Vecima that includes key, enabling technologies to address unified cable access opportunities. 

Nokia will retain its cable-related products and solutions including mobile, routing, transport, fiber, and fixed wireless access technology, along with network operations and customer experience-related solutions. 

Vecima Networks, which is based in Victoria, BC, Canada, provides integrated hardware and scalable software solutions for broadband access, content delivery and telematics.

The companies said Nokia’s Gainspeed cable access portfolio is well-aligned with Vecima’s Entra family, both of which address the migration to cable’s 10G platform, including DAA (Distributed Access Architecture) and 10G-EPON.

The Nokia Unified Cable Access solution, featuring the Gainspeed portfolio of products, includes a centrally controlled Distributed Access Architecture solution with unified support for Flexible MAC DAA nodes for Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) networks and DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON (DPoE) nodes for fiber-to-the-home and business. The portfolio also includes a DAA video engine and a chassis-based EPON/DPoE solution for non-HFC network implementations.

“Our cable access solutions have played a very important role in helping to redefine next generation cable solutions and our customers' strategies for addressing evolving network demands using distributed architectures,” said Sandra Motley, President of Fixed Networks at Nokia. “However, the industry continues to go through significant shifts, and we believe the timing is right to transition our cable access business to Vecima Networks. Vecima has the focus, resources and complementary product portfolio needed to support these changes and help operators move toward a Distributed Access Architecture.”

https://vecima.com/

Nokia intros virtualized Distributed Access Architecture

Monday, October 09, 2017  Cable, Nokia  

Nokia introduced the next generation of its Unified Cable Access solution based on a Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) that gives cable operators the flexibility to deploy both R-PHY and R-MACPHY devices within the same network and easily switch from one to the other based on their network requirements and strategic direction.

The basic idea with DAA is to move cable access layer functions that are traditionally placed in the headend and hub sites to the access nodes. To date, cable operators have had to choose between two DAA approaches: R-PHY, which moves only the DOCSIS signal generation (PHY) to the access node; and R-MACPHY, which moves both the PHY and DOCSIS processing (MAC) to the access node.

Features of Nokia's new vDAA include:

• vCMTS Anywhere - Nokia has virtualized a cable modem termination system (CMTS), which includes the DOCSIS MAC, as a virtual network function (VNF). This provides the flexibility to run the vCMTS anywhere in the network: on the node, or on an off-the-shelf server in the outside plant, hub, headend or data center. 
•  Universal Node - Cable operators can convert a Gainspeed cable access node from R-PHY to R-MACHPHY, or vice versa, on the fly. This capability lets operators choose the best approach to a node for a given use case. It also enables an operator to seamlessly evolve from an R-PHY to R-MACPHY deployment.
•  Unified Control - The Gainspeed access controller can simultaneously support both R-PHY and R-MACPHY nodes, expanding its current cable and fiber unified control capabilities. This helps operators reduce costs and simplify network design by using the same controller to manage all types of Nokia access nodes deployed across HFC and fiber networks 
• Interoperability - Nokia is committed to full solution interoperability and will support any R-PHY or R-MACPHY node as part of its solution.
  

In 2016, Nokia acquired Gainspeed, a start-up specializing in DAA (Distributed Access Architecture) solutions for the cable industry via its Virtual CCAP (Converged Cable Access Platform) product line. Financial terms were not disclosed. Gainspeed's Virtual CCAP enables cable operators to increase the capacity of their existing HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) infrastructure and rapidly deploy new services, while simultaneously reducing space and power requirements in the headend. The solution also enables cable operators to migrate their networks to a software-driven, all-IP architecture. Gainspeed's design eliminates the physical CCAP by leveraging SDN and NFV to distribute the CCAP’s functions to other devices and locations in the network. This centralizes routing, control and management in the data center or cloud and pushes
the physical layer, DOCSIS processing and RF modulation into the node, deep within

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Nutanix Clusters now on AWS

Nutanix announced general availability of its hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) software, along with all Nutanix products and services, to bare metal Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

With this announcement, Nutanix extends the simplicity and ease of use of its software to public cloud.

Additionally, customers will be able to take advantage of the company’s full software stack on private and public cloud. This includes unstructured storage solutions Files, application orchestration solution Calm, database administration and automation solution Era, and more.

“We are excited to support an extension of a customer’s private cloud environment into AWS with the launch of Clusters on AWS. This provides customers the flexibility to get the most out of both their AWS and Nutanix environments,” said Doug Yeum, Head of Worldwide Channels and Alliances at Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Customers now have an opportunity to take advantage of Nutanix Clusters on AWS to deploy adjacent to their cloud-native applications in AWS and fast track their digital transformation.”

Key features in Nutanix Clusters include:

• Apps and Data Mobility: Nutanix Clusters provides a seamless way to move legacy apps and data to the cloud. It enables mobility without needing to re-architect apps, something that can be extremely costly and time consuming.
• Streamlined Operations with Unified Cloud Environment: Nutanix Clusters allows customers to create, manage, and orchestrate their infrastructure, as well as their applications, across private and public clouds, all through a single interface. Unlike competitive solutions that only offer siloed cloud management, Nutanix Clusters extends this to private and public cloud. This single stack removes the need for a separate team to manage each environment, or the re-skilling of teams, and also enables seamless app mobility across clouds.
• Built-In Networking Integration with AWS: Thanks to built-in integration with the AWS networking layer, Nutanix Clusters delivers benefits in terms of ease of deployment and performance. The networking integration also allows customers to use their existing AWS accounts, including unused credits, virtual private clouds, and subnets. This enables a truly unified management plane across private and public cloud, and hugely simplifies the customer experience of managing a hybrid cloud environment.
• Cloud Cost Optimization: In addition to addressing key technical and operational challenges with hybrid cloud environments, Clusters can provide significant cost savings to customers. This is achieved by removing the need for different teams to manage each cloud environment, eliminating the need for costly migrations for legacy applications, and providing a way to easily hibernate public cloud clusters with just one-click to help eliminate waste. Additionally, available portable licenses, flexible payment models, and increased visibility in cloud spend, through Xi Beam, allow businesses to optimize their cloud investments and truly choose the right cloud for each workload, without lock-in.
• Freedom of Choice: Nutanix Clusters on AWS gives customers the choice to either reuse existing on-premises hardware or AWS credits when building out a hybrid environment. In addition, customers can also choose to bring the on-premises licenses or select a pay-as-you-go or Cloud Commit models.

Nutanix Clusters on AWS is currently available to customers in 20 AWS Regions. In addition to being able to easily use their existing portable Nutanix licenses, customers will be able to choose between Cloud Commit and pay-as-you-go models. To learn more about Nutanix Clusters on AWS, its use cases, or to Test Drive it visit here or join the special announcement event.

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SiFive raises $61 million for RISC-V

SiFive, a start-up specializing in RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions,  raised $61 million in a Series E round.

SiFive, which is based in San Mateo, California, develops a range of processor cores, accelerators, and SoC IP to create domain-specific architecture that will enable efficient, high-performance computing solutions. Recently, SiFive announced the SiFive 20G1 update for SiFive Core IP, enabling significant enhancements for performance, power, area, and features, with pre-integrated SiFive Shield, for whole SoC security, and SiFive Insight advanced trace and debug capabilities.

The latest funding round was led by SK hynix, joined by new investor Prosperity7 Ventures, with additional funding from existing investors, Sutter Hill Ventures, Western Digital Capital, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, Intel Capital, Osage University Partners, and Spark Capital.

“Global demand for storage and memory in the data center is increasing as AI-powered business intelligence and data processing growth continues”, said Youjong Kang, VP of Growth Strategy, SK hynix. “SiFive is well-positioned to grow with opportunities created from data center, enterprise, storage and networking requirements for workload-focused processor IP.”

http://www.sifive.com

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Lumentum posts quarterly sales of $368 million

Lumentum reported net revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2020 was $368.1 million, with GAAP net loss attributable to common stockholders of $(4.6) million, or $(0.06) per diluted share. This compares with revenue of $402.8 million in the preceding quarter and revenue of $404.6 million for the same period a year earlier.

"Strong market demand and solid execution drove better than projected results across all financial metrics in our fourth quarter, especially gross margin and EPS," said Alan Lowe, President and CEO. "We head into fiscal 2021 with demand increasingly driven by new products and technologies, strengthened market positions, and an improving financial model with accruing benefits from acquisition synergies. We became a standalone public company five years ago and since then have significantly improved our financial performance every year. While we have accomplished a lot over the past five years, I believe our future is brighter than ever."

Key new product areas for Lumentum include:

• Contentionless MxN and high-port count ROADMs to enable network capacity scaling
• PIC based components and DCO modules to enable scaling to even higher network bandwidths
• PAM4 and high-speed EMLs and DMLs to enable next generation datacenters and 5G networks
• Highly-efficient VCSEL arrays for next generation contact-less biometric authentication,
• computation photography, LiDAR, and other computer vision applications
• Ultra-fast solid-state lasers for demanding semiconductor and display manufacturing applications 

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Viavi clocks revenue of $266.6 million, down 8% year-over-year

VIAVI reported revenue of $266.6 million for its fourth fiscal quarter, ended June 27, 2020. GAAP net income was $26.7 million, or $0.12 per share. Non-GAAP net income was $40.8 million, or $0.18 per share. This compares with net revenue of $256.2 million for the preceding quarter and revenue of $289.7 million for the same period last year.

"In fiscal fourth quarter our Wireless Lab equipment business delivered a record revenue quarter driven by 5G and we also saw overall NSE demand stabilizing," said Oleg Khaykin, VIAVI's President and Chief Executive Officer.  "For the full fiscal year 2020, revenue and non-GAAP EPS grew despite the business impact from the COVID-19 pandemic in the second half. Although near-term macroeconomic uncertainty is expected, we remain positive on the secular demand drivers for increased network capacity that drive 5G Wireless and Fiber and the continued penetration and adoption of 3D Sensing technology in mobile applications."

Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA customers represented 38.8%, 27.7% and 33.5%, respectively, of total net revenue for the quarter ended June 27, 2020. Americas, Asia-Pacific and EMEA customers represented 36.5%, 32.4% and 31.1%, respectively, of total net revenue for the year ended June 27, 2020.

https://investor.viavisolutions.com/home/default.aspx

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Dell'Oro: Network Security and ADC market to grow at 6% CAGR

The Network Security and Data Center Appliance market, consisting of the Firewall, Content Security, Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System (IDS and IPS), and Application Delivery Controller (ADC) markets, is forecasted to grow at 6% five-year CAGR and go from $14 B in 2019 to $19 B in 2024, according to Dell'Oro Group's newly published 5-Year Forecast report.

Some highlights:

• The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact the market both negatively and positively throughout 2020 and into the first half of 2021, assuming that an effective therapy or a vaccine is developed that allows society to restabilize.
• In aggregate, the network security market, which consists of the Firewall, Content Security, IDS, and IPS markets, will continue to experience both positive and negative factors. The negative factor of delayed spending will have a slight advantage, however, leading to flat Y/Y growth in 2020.
• Dell'Oro expects that post-pandemic, the network security market will return to the overall growth of 8% Y/Y from 2021 to 2024 and reach $17.1 B in 2024.
• The network security market will vary significantly from historical growth trends during the pandemic. The report predicts that the Content Security and Firewall market will rebound and return to nominal growth post-pandemic. However, the IPS and IDS market will not and will continue to its long decline.
• During the pandemic, the ADC market will be affected by both positive and negative factors. Overall, we anticipate that the positive factor of surge spending will keep growth in positive territory at 1% Y/Y in 2020.
• Post-pandemic, we expect that the ADC market will accelerate slightly faster than Dell'Oro predicted in its previous forecast due to the combination of positive factors ranging from market demand and vendor dynamics. The five-year CAGR forecast is 1% versus our prior forecast of flat growth.
• 
  

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Jack in the Box goes All-In on AWS

Jack in the Box, a fast-food chain with 2,200 locations across the U.S., has migrated from on-premises data centers to going all-in with AWS for its data infrastructure.

The hamburger chain and its franchise restaurant operators are now using a common operational dashboard powered by AWS to analyze sales, inventory, food safety, and labor patterns. Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server legacy databases have been migrated to Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) and Amazon Redshift for data warehousing. Jack in the Box will also use AWS' machine learning services to help its restaurants more accurately predict customer traffic and optimize service time and food costs.

"By going all-in on AWS, Jack in the Box can spend most of their time innovating versus having to navigate multiple platforms, giving the company and its restaurant franchise owners the ability to understand their customers better and anticipate their needs, while also providing the scale and flexibility to quickly respond to changing business operating conditions.”

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TEC launches 10G XGS-PON across mid-south with ADTRAN

TEC, a provider of residential and business services for rural communities in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, is launching 10G services using ADTRAN’s Total Access 5000 (TA5000) fiber access platform.

“In recent years, we have witnessed exponential advancements and growth in the technologies surrounding broadband internet delivery to business and residential customers,” said John Cole, Director of Network Operations at TEC. “Today, we are excited to introduce 10G XGS-PON to TEC service areas. It allows TEC to serve fiber-based broadband services to residential homes and businesses at speeds up to 10G. These speeds are often used by service providers as the primary internet connections that serve thousands of customers. With XGS-PON, we now have the ability to deliver 10G to each building we connect.”

“TEC’s commitment to delivering the network its customers need is demonstrated by its decision to deliver the first 10G network that spans these rural communities,” said Mark Ogden, Regional Vice President of Sales at ADTRAN. “ADTRAN’s commitment to TEC is that we’ll continue to deliver solutions and services they need to help them build their best network today, tomorrow and into the future.”

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NETGEAR ships tri-band mesh WiFi router with LTE-A backup

NETGEAR began shipping its new "Orbi" Tri-band Mesh WiFi system with 4G LTE Advanced connection to provide an alternative when traditional wired Internet - cable, fiber or DSL - connections are limited or unavailable.

The new unit, which carries an MSRP of $400, is the industry’s first tri-band mesh system with LTE-A Cat 18 modem technology that works with a SIM card from AT&T, T-Mobile and other major 4G LTE Advanced cellular network providers.

“Today, we are living in an era defined by our ability to stay connected, as many of us are working and learning from home,” said David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR. “We have designed the Orbi 4G LTE Router to address this demand for uninterrupted internet access with its capability to provide connectivity over both 4G LTE Advanced as well as traditional wired network connections.”

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Ciena appoints Pete Hall to head Middle East and Africa region

Ciena appointed Pete Hall as its new head of Middle East and Africa (MEA) region and subsea sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Previously, Hall was a key member of Orixcom’s management team, where he drove telecoms, network and cloud sales, marketing and strategy. He established Orixcom’s go-to-market strategy and the primary relationships that delivered a strong base of anchor customers, partners and hyperscalers, including Microsoft, AWS and Oracle.

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U.S. to open 3.45-3.55 GHz mid-band spectrum for 5G

The Trump administration announced that 100 megahertz of contiguous, coast-to-coast mid-band spectrum will be made available for commercial 5G deployment.

The action, which will be taken by the FCC in collaboration with the Department of Defense, targets the 3.45-3.55 GHz band.

“I commend the President and Department of Defense for today’s announcement that the 3.45-3.55 GHz band will be made available for commercial 5G deployment.  This is a key milestone in securing United States leadership in 5G.  I also would like to thank FCC staff for their work to help create a framework that will promote 5G service in this important band.  Together with the spectrum being made available for 5G in the C-band as well as the 3.5 GHz band, we are now on track to have a 530-megahertz swath of mid-band spectrum available for 5G from 3.45 to 3.98 GHz.  The FCC looks forward to moving quickly to adopt service rules for the 3.45 GHz band and then hold an auction to bring this prime mid-band spectrum to market.”

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Equinix to acquire Mumbai data centers from GPX India

Equinix agreed to acquire the India operations of GPX Global Systems for US$161 million in cash, representing a multiple of approximately 15x the projected EBITDA at full utilization.

GPX India's assets include a fiber-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centers, adding more than 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets at full buildout. The facilities will add more than 90,000 square feet of colocation space to Platform Equinix when fully built. GPX India offers a cloud dense environment and access to major cloud services, including Amazon Direct Connect, Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect. GPX India operates its own cloud interconnection solution.

Equinix notes that GPX India facilities also host key internet exchanges such as Mumbai IX-DECIX, AMS-IX India, Extreme IX and Bharat IX, allowing ISPs, carriers, CDNs and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic.

"India represents the second largest internet user base in the world, with consumption expected to grow with the continued advancement of internet infrastructure, smartphone ownership and the penetration of 4G and 5G. Extending Platform Equinix to India has long been a strategic objective for Equinix and we are excited that the GPX transaction will allow us to capitalize on this market opportunity and meet the needs of our customers as they seek to expand their digital businesses," states Charles Meyers, President and CEO, Equinix.

Equinix markets

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Ciena selected for Windstream's Next-Gen Converged Optical Network

Windstream will deploy Ciena’s Waveserver 5 compact modular platform, powered by its WaveLogic 5 Extreme technology, in its National Converged Optical Network (NCON). Additionally, Windstream will be leveraging Ciena’s 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS), the first reconfigurable, fully programmable and integrated C&L-band line system to access double the optical spectrum capacity. Deployment and activiation are expected to begin in Q3. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Windstream’s NCON will connect cities across its Tier 1, 2, and 3 markets to major U.S. data centers, cable landing stations, and cross-border gateways.

Ciena said its 800G platform will enable Windstream’s NCON to efficiently scale and dynamically adjust for optimal capacity on any path and avoid potential faults by automatically re-routing traffic based on available network resources. Another key capability of Windstream’s NCON will be enabled by Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller, which will utilize automation features and operational diagnostics to proactively identify and prevent potential connectivity issues. NCON will also take advantage of Ciena’s Liquid Spectrum predictive analytics, which will act as the brains of the network to provide real-time visibility into network efficiency.

"Windstream’s decision to partner with us again and build a world-class network that will span its entire U.S. footprint using our high-performance coherent optics and leading automation software not only demonstrates their industry leadership, but will help them deliver differentiated and innovative services while adapting to the disruptions and demands created by the digital economy," stated Jason Phipps, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Ciena.

"Our increasingly digital world requires a differentiated network that pushes the boundaries of technology to take the connectivity experience to the next level. After extensive review in our quest to innovate and meet growing customer demands, it was clear that Ciena was the best partner to support our nationwide network transformation and ability to adapt to digital disruption. With NCON, Windstream will build an ultra-high capacity, intelligent network that will interoperate with our existing multi-vendor topology," stated Buddy Bayer, Chief Network Officer, Windstream.

https://news.windstream.com/news/news-details/2020/Windstream-Selects-Ciena-for-Next-Generation-National-Converged-Optical-Network/default.aspx

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India activates subsea cable connecting Chennai and Andaman Islands

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a subsea cable system connecting Chennai and Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The cable also extends Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island, and Rangat.

Initial capacity is 2 x 200 Gbps between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands.

About 2300 Kms of Submarine OFC cable has been laid at a cost of about Rs 1224 Crore, and the project has been completed in time.

https://www.narendramodi.in/prime-minister-shri-narendra-modi-to-inaugurate-submarine-cable-connectivity-to-andaman-nicobar-islands-a-ni-on-monday-10th-august-550856

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SFP-DD MSA updates spec for 100G

The Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density (SFP-DD) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) Group released an updated (v4.1) hardware specification for 100+ Gbps, high-density networking equipment. The SFP-DD form factor uses 2-lane pluggable modules, is backward compatible with SFP+ and offers improved host to module management communication based on a Two-Wire-Interface (TWI).

SFP-DD revision 4.1 hardware specification includes added features to support ResetL, dual function IntL/TXFaultDD and ePPS. Newly added timing tables will also allow for low speeds signals, soft control and module status. The former chapter 7 Management Interface is now part of chapter 4, Electrical Specification. The updated hardware specification includes port mapping, optical connectors and module color coding moved out of Mechanical and Board Definition chapter 5 and into a new chapter 5. Lastly, TS-1000 Normative Module and Connector performance requirements were added as Appendix A.

Targeting support of optical modules up to 3.5 W, the SFP-DD form factor addresses the technical challenges of achieving a double-density interface and ensuring mechanical interoperability for module components produced by different manufacturers while still enabling the use of legacy SFP modules. This updated specification supersedes previous versions and has updated mechanical connector dimensions. Users should note that the connector dimensions specified in the 4.1 supersede all previous versions.

SFP-DD MSA promoters include Alibaba, Broadcom, Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE, Huawei, II-VI Incorporated, Intel, Juniper Networks, Lumentum, Molex, Nvidia and TE Connectivity. Contributors include Accelink, Amphenol, AOI, Eoptolink, FIT, Fourte, Genesis, Hisense, Infinera, Innolight, Maxim Integrated, Multilane, Nokia, Oclaro, Senko, Source Photonics, US Conec and ZTE.

http://sfp-dd.com/2020/08/sfp-dd-msa-releases-updated-4-1-hardware-specification/

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CommScope sues Rosenberger for antenna patent infringement

CommScope filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against Rosenberger Site Solutions LLC and two related Chinese companies, Rosenberger Asia Pacific Electronic Co., Ltd. and Rosenberger Technology (Kunshan) Co. Ltd.

The complaint asserts that certain cellular base station antennas manufactured in China by Rosenberger and sold in the United States, infringe seven of CommScope’s patents associated with CommScope’s base station antenna innovations. These CommScope patents relate to critical building blocks and enhanced methods used to design a wide array of base station antennas for bands ranging from 600MHz to over 2000MHz. These key technologies enable CommScope’s customers to buildout high performance multi-band cellular networks.

CommScope notes that this is the second lawsuit CommScope has filed against Rosenberger relating to its use of CommScope’s base station antenna technology.

“CommScope innovates, designs, manufactures, and sells best-in-class products and solutions around the world,” said Farid Firouzbakht, senior vice president and segment leader of Outdoor Wireless Networks for CommScope. “CommScope has taken this action to protect the company’s significant investments in developing innovative products that help our customers unlock the potential of their network infrastructure.”

https://www.commscope.com/press-releases/2020/commscope-sues-rosenberger-for-patent-infringement/

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California Research and Education Network upgrades to 400G

The California Research and Education Network (CalREN) is now able to provide high-capacity services, from 100G to 400G and beyond, on its coastal path between Los Angeles and Sunnyvale. The 460-mile upgraded optical route includes nodes in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Soledad.

The upgrades leverages flex-grid spectrum Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs). Flex grid optimizes the amount of spectrum used per wavelength, enabling more data capacity to be provisioned over fiber spans.

CalREN, which is operated by CENIC, serves the vast majority of K-20 students, educators, researchers, and individuals at other vital public-serving institutions. CalREN operates over 8,000 miles of fiber optic cable and serves more than 20 million users.

In 2019, CENIC upgraded the southern path of its network between Los Angeles and Riverside, including nodes in Tustin, Oceanside, San Diego, Escondido, and Sun City. Work will start in the fall on upgrades to the final inland path, which completes the network ring from Sunnyvale back to Los Angeles and includes nodes in Oakland, Sacramento, Fergus, Fresno, and Bakersfield.

“Next-generation infrastructure ensures CENIC can easily meet today’s networking demands while remaining flexible to meet the needs of tomorrow,” said CENIC President and CEO Louis Fox. “These upgrades provide CENIC’s members a more robust and efficient network on which to conduct data-intensive research, support teaching and learning, provide cutting-edge medical care, and enhance community engagement.”

CENIC is also supporting the Pacific Research Platform (PRP), a partnership of more than 50 institutions, led by researchers at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, with support from the National Science Foundation. PRP builds on the optical backbone of Pacific Wave, a project of CENIC and Pacific Northwest Gigapop, to create a high-speed freeway for large scientific data sets by connecting campus networks and supercomputing centers on a regional scale, with Science DMZs at each site.

Developed by the US Department of Energy’s Energy Science Network (ESnet) engineers, the Science DMZ model addresses common network performance bottlenecks encountered at research institutions by creating an environment that is tailored to the needs of high-performance science applications, including high-volume bulk data transfer, remote experiment control, and data visualization. PRP’s design supports university researcher data analysis for projects such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the NSF’s South Pole Neutrino Detector (IceCube), and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

CENIC deploys first 400G circuit in Los Angeles

Wednesday, December 18, 2019  400G, CENIC  

CENIC, the organization that provides global connectivity for education and research institutions in California, has deployed a 400 Gbps single-carrier optical circuit between Los Angeles and Riverside. This marks one of the first-ever 400G superchannels to be deployed by a US regional research and education network. Construction included upgrading nodes in Los Angeles, Tustin, Oceanside, San Diego (home to the San Diego Supercomputer Center), Escondido, Sun City, and Riverside to 400G capabilities.

CENIC upgraded network infrastructure to flex spectrum Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) and the NCS 1004 transponder platform. CENIC used Cisco-loaned equipment for the validation in production and is now implementing the permanent infrastructure.

“This is an important networking milestone for CENIC,” said President and CEO Louis Fox. “With increasing demands for 100G services among our community, from research scientists working with big data sets to educators leveraging technology to transform the classroom, network capacity should not limit the work or ambitions of our researchers, teachers, or students.”

CENIC plans to expand its 400G provisioning capabilities along its coastal fiber path from Los Angeles to Sunnyvale by mid-2020.

CENIC’s network traffic continues to grow by roughly 60% each year. Between May 2018 and May 2019, the network moved an exabyte of data.

http://www.cenic.org

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Huawei expects production of its Kirin 5G silicon to end by Sept 15

Huawei has confirmed that the production of its 5G Kirin chipset by TSMC will end in the coming weeks. Speaking at an industry event in Shenzhen, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Unit, said: “Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on Sept. 15,” Yu said at a conference August 7th. “This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips.”

Huawei’s HiSilicon division will also not be able to produce its AI chipsets developed or fabricated using U.S. sanctioned technology, including design tools and libraries from Cadence or Synopsys.

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Precision OT debuts QSFP-DD 400G transceivers

Precision OT introduced its new line of QSFP-DD 400G optical transceivers supporting distances between 100m and 10km.

Precision OT is offering 4 different transceiver variants for this form factor to ensure that network operators' varying needs can be fully met. Precision's QSFP-DD transceivers support the continued growth of network traffic while being backwards compatible with existing QSFP optics.

"Optical transceivers, especially 400G-capable ones, are the key component in enabling more traffic to flow across today's networks," says Chris Page, CTO of Precision OT. "Single lambda 100G will be one of the most cost-effective ways for MSOs and data centers to deal with future bandwidth demands, because a single 100G line can reduce the costs of a typical 4x25G architecture by at least 40%. In this way, the use of four lines of 100G and PAM4 modulation can enable the 400G data rates our customers need to ensure they are ready for the future. For us, at Precision OT, it is about creating networking solutions that grow over time and accommodate increased demand cost-effectively, with both flexibility and agility."

http://www.precisionot.com

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Australia's Macquarie Telecom picks Juniper

Macquarie Telecom, which focuses on Australia’s mid-to-large enterprise and government customers, has selected Juniper Networks for the refresh of its nationwide network from the core to the edge. The nationwide network upgrade by Juniper Networks is slated to be completed by the end of 2020

Specifically, Macquarie is using Juniper's MX10003, MX480 and MX204 Universal Routing Platforms for a variety of core, aggregation and edge functions. Segment routing is utilized to route traffic across the production network - a first by an Australian Juniper Networks customer on the MX10K platform.

“For over twenty years, both companies have built our respective businesses by being disruptors that offer our customers innovation, differentiation and value. Juniper is delighted to be able to help grow Macquarie Telecom’s business further through this network refresh which includes a next-generation segment routing deployment driven by our automation and AI-driven capabilities. Together, we are confident that we can improve time-to-market while increasing the end customer’s experience, all while providing Macquarie Telecom with an ultra-reliable and highly-agile network for years to come,” says Bruce Bennie, VP & GM, ANZ, Juniper Networks.

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