Cisco's Bill Gartner: DWDM pluggables simplify Internet architecture

Reach limitation of direct detection technologies at higher speeds will expand the need for coherent detection, said Bill Gartner, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Optical Systems and Optics Group, speaking in a Tech Talk webinar hosted by Evercore ISI. This possibly includes the need for coherent optics inside the data center when line rates exceed 1.6 Tbps.

The discussion, which focuses on Cisco’s optical strategy, portfolio evolution and market dynamics, tracks $6 billion in acquisitions that Cisco has completed over the past decade: Core Optics (2010), Lightwire (2012), Leaba (2016), Luxtersa (2019) and Acacia (2021).  

Looking ahead, Gartner says the combination of massively-scalable routers and DWDM pluggables will lead to a simplified, flat, hop-to-hop architecture for Internet backbones.

The discussion also covers 400ZR momentum, the competitive landscape, co-packaged optical (CPO) switch technology, the Acacia acquisition and Cisco's role as an independent component supplier. 

An archive of the webcast is posted on Cisco's Investor relations website.

https://investor.cisco.com/events/default.aspx

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Sparkle launches Albania Crossing between Athens and Milan

Sparkle activated Albania Crossing, a new direct route that is the shortest path from Athens to Milan.

The new optical fiber link crosses Albania, the Bari-Durres submarine cable and the Italian backbone. It was built in cooperation with Albtelecom, the largest telecommunication company in Albania, and is directly connected to Sparkle’s extensive continental network.

Albania Crossing is Sparkle’s sixth route connecting the south-eastern area of the Mediterranean basin to the rest of the world, in addition to the existing submarine ring and to the terrestrial fiber links through Sofia, thus enabling the implementation of a robust and fully redundant connectivity.

The new link is part of a wider expansion strategy that leverages on Athens as an increasingly relevant regional cross-point and on Milan as a gravitational Internet and Cloud hub in mainland Europe to cater the needs of diversified and resilient connectivity between the Balkans, Middle East and Europe.

https://www.tisparkle.com/sparkle-launches-albania-crossing

Sparkle announces BlueMed subsea cable - up to 240 Tbps

Monday, April 15, 2019  Sparkle, Submarine, Subsea  

Sparkle announced plans for a massive subsea cable along the west coast of Italy, linking Genoa and Palermo. BlueMed will be a multi-fiber cable spanning 1,000 kilometers and with a design capacity of 240 Tbps. It will cross the Tyrrhenian Sea connecting Sparkle’s Sicily Hub open data center in Palermo, which serves eighteen international cables, with Genoa’s new open landing station, directly connected to Milan’s rich digital ecosystem. BlueMed...

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Everynet launches LoRaWAN network across U.S.

 Everynet launched its LoRaWAN Internet of Things (IoT) network in the United States.  The first phase of Everynet’s national network rollout will include the top 36 metropolitan areas and key logistics corridors across the United States, expected to go live by the end of 2021. 

Everynet will operate as a neutral-host, enabling mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), application service providers (ASPs), managed service providers (MSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to offer carrier grade Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) IoT services to their customers. 

Everynet will utilize Crown Castle’s infrastructure which includes more than 40,000 cell towers and nearly 80,000 route miles of fiber. Everynet’s 15-year commitment ensures that LoRaWAN customers, across the U.S., can easily go live on the network to monetize their deployments such as smart sensors or monitoring tools.

In addition to the U.S. market, Everynet networks are live in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Puerto Rico, Ireland and Iceland. Everynet also participates in the LoRa Alliance global association that offers roaming to more than 27 countries across the globe. Everynet has also collaborated with Semtech, a leading supplier of high performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and creator of LoRa technology.

“Expansion to the U.S. market is an important part of our global development. Our ultra-low-cost networks are already live across the globe, and we are pleased to enable nationwide, no CAPEX, turn-key IoT networks for our CSP partners,” said Lawrence Latham, CEO of Everynet. “Everynet networks deliver carrier grade connectivity, with built-in resilience, security and meaningful SLAs without any need for network CAPEX from our wholesale customers.”

“It was an easy decision to work with Everynet to build out their LoRaWAN IoT connectivity. We both see the long-term value of LoRaWAN in the U.S. and embrace shared infrastructure access for customers. We look forward to helping Everynet go live with a much-needed network,” said Paul Reddick, vice president of strategy, business and product development for Crown Castle.

“Our work with Everynet extends back many years and across many different geographies. As a company, we are committed to helping our customers address real world challenges and make the world a better, sustainable planet,” said Mohan Maheswaran, president and CEO of Semtech. “Everynet’s network launch will allow even more IoT applications and use cases leveraging LoRa to hit the U.S. market – everything from smart refrigeration and asset tracking to water conservation and utilities management.”

http://www.everynet.com

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O-RAN Alliance publishes 33 new specs

The O-RAN Alliance published another 33 specification documents, including 11 new titles, including the following:

Management interface, timing and synchronization for Transport

The baseline for Non-Real-Time Radio Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC) and Near-Real-Time RIC Architecture and interfaces (E2, A1, F1/X2/Xn)

Certification and badging guidelines and parts of end-to-end, inter-operability and conformance testing

In addition, the O-RAN ALLIANCE approved the first two European Open Test and Integration Centers (OTIC):

• European OTIC in Berlin hosted by Deutsche Telekom
• European OTIC in Torino hosted by TIM

Next week, at the O-RAN Virtual event, a total of 36 demos will be showcased.

“It is great to see the momentum in adoption of O-RAN based solutions,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, COO of the O-RAN ALLIANCE and SVP Technology Strategy & Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom. “OTICs will play an important role in managing the complex interoperability scenarios and related integration cost, and accelerate O-RAN product commercialization in large network solutions.”

https://www.o-ran.org/

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Windstream launches Intelligent Converged Optical Network

Windstream Wholesale launched its Intelligent Converged Optical Network, which consists of open and disaggregated infrastructure, allowing wholesale and enterprise customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

ICON stands for:

• Intelligent – network intelligence customer portal and API provide Layer 0-3 network insights
• Converged – disaggregated network architecture enables best of breed open line system, scalability and alien wave support
• Optical – Flexgrid and C+L band support enable extreme bandwidth growth
• Network - efficient architecture between local and long-haul networks

As part of its network enhancement, Windstream Wholesale has also bolstered its commitment to the West Coast of the U.S. The new ICON includes new routes from Hillsboro and Portland to Sacramento, and from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The two new West Coast ICON routes are powered by Ciena.

“Windstream is deploying ICON in a holistic way so that businesses can leverage additional bandwidth with a low latency, cohesive infrastructure,” said Buddy Bayer, Windstream’s chief network officer. “We took time to be intentional about our network planning so we can ride the technology curve and won’t have to overbuild line systems every time there’s a stair-step advance in technology.”

“With Ciena, Windstream adds the industry’s highest level of capacity built on an open and automation-ready architecture, ensuring the ICON network can adapt to dynamic and new requirements from customers,” added Kevin Sheehan, chief technology officer of the Americas at Ciena. “Our high-performance coherent optics ensures Windstream can continue to be very successful in their fastest growing markets.”

https://investor.windstream.com/

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Vodafone now 100% powered by renewable energy

Vodafone confirmed that its entire European operations – including mobile and fixed networks, data centres, retail and offices – will be 100% powered by electricity from renewable sources from 1 July 2021. The company has set a goal of reducing its own carbon emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2030 and across the company’s entire value chain by 2040.

Vodafone has direct Power Purchase Agreements in the UK and Spain.  In Italy, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Czech Republic, Vodafone has sourced Renewable Energy Certificates (‘RECs’) or tariffs.  In Albania, approximately 67% of electricity consumption is sourced from local renewable sources, and Vodafone has purchased the equivalent of the remaining annual consumption in the form of RECs through our partner in Italy.

Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said: “From 1 July 2021, Vodafone’s customers across Europe can be reassured that the connectivity they use is entirely powered by electricity from renewable sources.  This is a major milestone towards our goal of reducing our own global carbon emissions to net zero by 2030, helping our customers reduce their own environmental footprint and continuing to build an inclusive and sustainable digital society in all of our markets.”

https://www.vodafone.com/news/press-release/100percent-renewables

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MulteFire Alliance offers Uni5G technology blueprints

MFA (MulteFire Alliance) has expanded its mission to enable 5G private networks in unlicensed, shared and locally licensed spectrum by providing guidance to enterprises seeking to deploy their own network.

Leveraging existing 3GPP 5G specifications, MFA will deliver Uni5G Technology Blueprints to help enterprises select and implement the key features from the 3GPP standards that are relevant to their specific deployment. MFA will also develop best practices and deployment guides, including industry resources on understanding all available spectrum options for 5G private networks. The first Uni5G Technology Blueprint will be available in Q4 2021.

In addition, MFA has been awarded a global Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) ID by the ITU. MFA is planning to make this PLMN ID available to industry verticals. The PLMN ID is a series of numbers that identifies a specific network and ensures that only authorized devices connect to that network.

With access to a unique global PLMN ID number, industry verticals are able to deploy their own 5G private network in locally licensed spectrum or a MulteFire private network in unlicensed spectrum today.

MFA members and others under MFA authorization are able to bundle the PLMN ID with their network equipment, thus simplifying the deployment process for enterprises by eliminating the need for them to separately apply for a PLMN ID.

“MFA paved the way for industries to contemplate how they can deploy their own private network in unlicensed spectrum using MulteFire 4G/LTE-based cellular technology with high-performance, built-in security and mobility benefits,” said Mazen Chmaytelli, president, MFA. “Now through our expanded role in enabling 5G private networks, MFA will provide industry verticals with practical guidance on deployment that will meet their unique requirements and determine which spectrum option is right for their site.”

http://www.mfa-tech.org 

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SPIE and Vanderbilt announce fellowship in optics and photonics

SPIE and Vanderbilt University announced the establishment of the SPIE Faculty Fellowship in Optics and Photonics. A $500,000 gift from the SPIE Endowment Matching Program will be matched 100% by Vanderbilt. This is the eighth major SPIE gift to universities and institutes as part of the Society’s ongoing program to support the expansion of optical engineering teaching and research.

The SPIE Faculty Fellowship will support a Vanderbilt University faculty member who is working in optics and photonics. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Yuankai “Kenny” Tao has been selected as the recipient of the first gift.

Tao received his bachelor’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, as well as a master’s degree and a PhD in biomedical engineering, from Duke University. 

“I am thrilled SPIE has chosen Vanderbilt Engineering as a recipient of an endowed faculty fellowship,” said Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering Philippe Fauchet. “These investments provide critical support to our most promising young faculty to continue to develop their research programs and increase the school’s competitive advantage to recruit the best graduate students.”

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NTT develops optical concatenated loop topology

Researchers at NTT Corporation are developing concatenated loop network designs for improving optical access resiliency and performance.

The research, which helps advance NTT's IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) vision, aims to bring new flexibility to optical fiber cable routes in the access network.

NTT says its new optical access topology consists of concatenated optical fiber cable loops which are characterized by optical path duplexing and flexible fiber reassigning. Optimum parameters, including loop size and number of reassignable fibers in concatenated loops, were derived from theoretical calculations. 

https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2021/06/18/210618a.html

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Intel splits Data Platform Group, Rivera promoted, McKeown joins, Shenoy departs

Intel announced a restructuring of its Data Platform Group (DPG) into two new business units.

• Sandra Rivera will take on a new role as executive vice president and general manager of Datacenter and AI. Rivera will lead this organization’s focus on developing leadership data center products for a cloud-based world, including Intel Xeon and field programmable gate array (FPGA) products. She will also drive the company’s overall artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. Rivera has a deep history in data center technology and a track record of integrating Intel’s silicon and software portfolios to drive customer value. Prior to her role serving as Intel’s chief people officer, she led Intel’s Network Platforms Group. 
• Nick McKeown will join Intel full-time on July 6 as senior vice president and general manager of a new Network and Edge Group. This brings Intel’s Network Platforms Group, Internet of Things Group and Connectivity Group into a single business unit chartered to drive technology and product leadership throughout the network to the intelligent edge. Renown in the networking technology industry and recipient of the 2021 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, McKeown was previously a part-time Intel Senior Fellow who joined the company with its 2019 acquisition of Barefoot Networks, which he co-founded. 

Intel will also create two new business units, one focused on software and one on high performance computing (HPC) and graphics. 

• Greg Lavender has joined Intel as chief technology officer (CTO) and senior vice president and general manager of the new Software and Advanced Technology Group. This group will drive Intel’s unified vision for software, ensuring it remains a powerful competitive differentiator for the company. As CTO, Lavender will also be responsible for driving Intel’s technical innovation and research programs, including Intel Labs. He brings more than 35 years of experience in software and hardware product engineering and advanced research and development to Intel, most recently serving as senior vice president and CTO of VMware. He has also held key leadership roles at Citigroup, Cisco and Sun Microsystems. 
• Raja Koduri, a well-known innovator in GPU computing technology, will lead the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group, a newly formed business unit that will increase the company’s focus in the key growth areas of high performance computing and graphics. AXG is chartered with delivering HPC and graphics solutions for integrated and discrete segments across client, enterprise and data center. Koduri previously served as Intel’s general manager of Architecture, Graphics and Software. 

Rivera, McKeown, Lavender and Koduri will report directly to Pat Gelsinger. Navin Shenoy, who has been serving as executive vice president and general manager of the Data Platforms Group, will assist with the transition and leave Intel on July 6.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-makes-changes-strengthen-execution-innovation-critical-business-areas.html

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HPE bets big on its GreenLake Cloud Platform

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is rolling out a slew of enhancements to its GreenLake platform for cloud services in the data center, in a colocation center, and at the edge. Innovations span applications, security, silicon and software with automated, cloud-native capabilities that can be performed in just a few clicks and managed in a unified platform.

The company says its HPE GreenLake cloud platform now has over 1,200 customers representing $4.8 billion in total contract value. HPE also claims a 95% customer renewal rate.

“Organizations today know that to succeed in their industries, they must pursue a cloud everywhere mandate, which enables them to collect, analyze, and act on data, wherever it resides,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO at HPE. “The HPE GreenLake edge to cloud platform empowers organizations to harness the power of all their data, regardless of location, and today’s announcements further extend HPE’s leadership in this hybrid cloud market. From silicon, software, and security, to workloads that organizations rely on to run their businesses, HPE continues to extend the reach of the HPE GreenLake cloud platform, to help customers accelerate digital transformation and generate tremendous business outcomes.”

At its HPE Discover virtual event, HPE made the following announcements concerning the HPE GreenLake cloud platform:

HPE GreenLake Lighthouse: Agile, cloud-native solution that addresses configuration complexity to rapidly deliver multiple cloud services on-demand. HPE GreenLake Lighthouse, which provides a seamless, intelligent operational experience to easily run and manage different workload-optimized solutions. HPE Greenlake Lighthouse is built with HPE Ezmeral software to autonomously optimize different cloud services and workloads by composing resources to deliver the best performance, lowest cost or a balance of both, depending on business priorities.

Project Aurora: a foundation for HPE GreenLake’s zero-trust framework for HPE’s edge-to-cloud architecture. Project Aurora will embed within the HPE GreenLake cloud platform building blocks to automatically and continuously verify the integrity of the hardware, firmware, operating systems, platforms, and workloads, including security workloads. In addition, Project Aurora’s continuous attestation capabilities can be used to automatically detect advanced threats from silicon to cloud, in seconds compared to today’s average of 28 days. These capabilities help enterprises potentially minimize data loss, unauthorized encryption, and valuable data and intellectual property corruption. Project Aurora also complements existing security investments to reduce downtime and protect productivity and revenue. The new initiative builds upon HPE’s silicon root of trust technology. 

Silicon on-Demand: gaining processor core capacity in just a few clicks. The new pay-per-use, consumption-based pricing model  will optimize at the silicon level to offer a more granular cloud experience with better metering, reduced buffering time and faster deployment. Available first via the HPE GreenLake cloud platform, HPE will offer flexible consumption capabilities with Silicon on-Demand, a first-of-its-kind feature, developed in partnership with Intel, to add new capacity at a processor core and persistent memory level using Intel Optane technology. HPE is removing the need to order or install new processors by allowing customers to instantly activate and pay for more capacity with just a click.

Compute Cloud Console: delivering intuitive automatic management for unified compute operations as a service.  The Compute Cloud Console simplifies the infrastructure management experience with a seamless as-a-service experience no matter where workloads are running, from edge to cloud. Additionally, it automates manual tasks such as provisioning and lifecycle management, speeding up time-to-market and eliminating inconsistencies due to human error.

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/

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Aruba expands its flagship CX Switching portfolio

Aruba announced a new set of capabilities and solutions for Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform) as well as an expansion of its flagship CX Switching portfolio to include two new series of switches.

Updates include new AIOps, IoT and security features for Aruba Central – the cloud-native, AI-powered network management and analytics platform that sits at the heart of Aruba ESP – as well as additions to the Aruba CX Switching portfolio that are purpose-built for the Intelligent Edge. 

The switching expansion includes: 

• The Aruba CX 4100i , a family of ruggedized switches designed to withstand extreme temperatures and harsh environments, well-suited for industrial IoT applications that require always-on PoE and high-performance wired connectivity
• The Aruba CX 6000, a cost-effective, layer 2 solution purpose-built for remote offices and the SMB market.

“The developments of the past year have shown us that the distributed enterprise is here to stay, especially as organizations seek ways to maximize flexibility and build resiliency into their businesses in order to adapt quickly to whatever challenges may arise,” said Bob Laliberte, senior analyst and practice director at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Our research has shown that enterprises are accelerating their digital transformation initiatives and prioritizing projects that enhance productivity, security and collaboration, however, these highly distributed environments create more IT complexity. Therefore, there’s a real appetite in the market for technologies and solutions that leverage data and automation to increase agility and streamline operations.”

https://news.arubanetworks.com/

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Ericsson to deliver Multi-Operator RAN radios to KDDI and SoftBank

Ericsson has been selected by KDDI and SoftBank Corp. (as one of the vendors to help deploy Japan’s first Multi-Operator Radio Access Network (MORAN).  Ericsson’s network sharing solution powers both communications service providers while keeping both companies’operations and management capabilities separate.   

Ericsson equipment supports network sharing on both TDD (Time Division Duplex) and FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) as well as 4G/LTE and 5G New Radio (NR).  The solution consists of Ericsson Radio System  products such as RAN Compute (base band), radio and transport - with the powerful system on a chip, Ericsson Silicon, bringing innovative various solutions such as Ericsson Spectrum Sharing and Ericsson Uplink Booster.

Ericsson’s network sharing solution can also be applied to industrial or campus sites, where the radio access network may be shared between the onsite network and the public network, opening up more possibilities to support industry digitalization.

Tatsuo Sato, Vice President & Managing Officer, Technology Planning, KDDI says: “We are pleased to work closely with SoftBank and Ericsson to accelerate 5G network deployment. With the MORAN solution, we will be among the first to offer excellent 5G experiences to our customers.”

Tomohiro Sekiwa, Senior Vice President and CNO, SoftBank, says: “To provide 5G coverage to our customers across Japan with extraordinary speed, we are proactively working with KDDI and Ericsson.  The MORAN solution is key to this success and we have high expectations for this effort.”

Chris Houghton, Senior Vice President, Head of Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson, says: “We are thrilled to contribute to the efforts of our two important customers, KDDI and SoftBank, to build Multi-Operator RAN for the first time in Japan. We look forward to further supporting this imperative mission to build the country’s significant network infrastructure.”

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SiFive launches two high performance RISC-V cores

SiFive launched two new RISC-V processor cores: the P270, SiFive’s first Linux capable processor with full support for the RISC-V vector extension v1.0 rc, and the SiFive Performance P550 core, SiFive’s highest performance processor -- boasting a SPECInt 2006 score of 8.65/GHz, making it the highest performance RISC-V processor available today, and comparable to existing proprietary solutions in the application processor space.

“SiFive Performance is a significant milestone in our commitment to deliver a complete, scalable portfolio of RISC-V cores to customers in all markets who are at the vanguard of SOC design and are dissatisfied with the status quo,” said Dr. Yunsup Lee, Co-Founder and CTO of SiFive. “These two new products cover new performance points and a wide range of application areas, from efficient vector processors that easily displace yesterday’s SIMD architectures, to the bleeding edge that the P550 represents. SiFive is proud to set the standard for RISC-V processing and is ready to deliver these products to customers today.”

“We are pleased to be a lead development partner with SiFive to showcase to mutual customers the impressive performance of their P550 on our 7nm Horse Creek platform," said Amber Huffman, Intel Fellow and CTO of IP engineering group at Intel. "By combining Intel's leading-edge interface IP such as DDR and PCIe with SiFive's highest performance processor, Horse Creek will provide a valuable and expandable development vehicle for cutting-edge RISC-V applications."

https://www.sifive.com/blog/the-heart-of-sifive-is-performance-intelligence-

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Ericsson adds 5G mid-band support

Ericsson has extended its Cloud RAN (Radio Access Network) offering to include support for 5G mid-band and Massive MIMO deployments. 

Ericsson says a high-performing mid-band 5G deployment requires 150 times more compute power than 4G, in half the time. The company is adding hardware accelerators to deliver part of this needed compute power. Ericsson notes that cloud infrastructure becomes a feasible option for mid-band deployments. 

Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “We aim to constantly develop the best technologies by working closely with our customers. We continue investing in technology to stay ahead and deliver a high-performing and cost-effective portfolio, as evidenced by our latest releases. Now we are bringing this high performance to Cloud RAN with the vision that our customers can deploy cloud-native networks, virtually everywhere, on any cloud, and server platform.“

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2021/6/ericsson-strengthens-cloud-ran-portfolio-with-5g-mid-band-support

 

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Nutanix elects Virginia Gambale as Chair of the Board

Nutanix announced the election of Virginia Gambale as Chair of the Nutanix Board, effective June 16, 2021. Ms. Gambale joined the Board in June 2020 and became Lead Independent Director in December 2020. Gambale succeeds Dheeraj Pandey, who served as Chair until his departure in December 2020.

“Virginia’s insights, dedication, commitment and advice have contributed meaningfully to Nutanix, and we are eager to benefit from her continued leadership in this expanded role,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nutanix. “In addition to bringing a deep knowledge of our business, market landscape and technology from her experience as a prior CIO, Virginia has extensive board experience advising technology companies, and her thoughtful and structured approach to governance will help advance our leadership in hybrid multicloud, as well as help drive growth, profitability and value creation for our shareholders.”

Gambale has served on public company boards for more than 20 years across a variety of industries. She is currently Managing Partner of Azimuth Partners LLC, a strategic advisory firm focused on the use of disruptive technologies to assist mid-market and large corporations in their growth. 

https://www.nutanix.com/

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Intel cites continued momentum in 5G vRAN and edge

In a virtual event ahead of Mobile World Congress, Intel showcased a number of foundational technologies and products that position the company for continued leadership in 5G virtual radio access network (vRAN) and edge deployments. This includes the following product announcements:

• 
  Intel Agilex FPGA family is expanding, with a new FPGA with integrated cryptography acceleration that can support MACSec in 5G applications. This adds another layer of security to vRAN at the fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul levels.
• Intel Ethernet 800 Series family is expanding, with Intel’s first SyncE capable Ethernet Adapter that is designed for space-constrained systems on the edge, and well-suited for both high-bandwidth 4G and 5G RAN as well as other time- and latency-sensitive applications in sectors such as industrial, financial and energy.

In addition, Intel Smart Edge, which consists of two software offerings for the multi-access edge computing layer, will now have a unified architecture and codebase to help customers onboard and manage edge applications and network functions.  Intel Smart Edge is commercial software focused on enterprise on-premise use cases, such as private networks and universal Customer Premise equipment. The evolved and enhanced Intel Smart Edge Open (formerly known as OpenNESS) is an open software toolkit that enables developers to build highly optimized and performant edge platforms.

The virtual event also highlighted key partnerships for Intel, including:

• Reliance Jio announced it will do co-innovations with Intel in 5G radio and wireless core, and collaborate in other associate areas that include AI, cloud and edge computing, which will help it as they deploy 5G.
• Deutsche Telekom is using Intel FlexRAN technology with accelerators in O-RAN Town, in the O-RAN network it is deploying in Neubrandenburg, Germany — a city of 65,000 people spread out over 33 square miles. The company is relying on Intel as a technology partner as it delivers high-performance RAN at scale.
• DISH Wireless relies on Intel’s contributions to the 5G ecosystem as it builds out the first cloud-native 5G network in the United States. The launch in its first city, Las Vegas, as well as its nationwide network, will be deployed on infrastructure powered by Intel technology in the network core, access and edge.
• Cohere is pioneering a new approach to improve spectrum utilization by leveraging capabilities in FlexRAN. It is integrating and optimizing spectrum multiplier software in the RAN intelligent controller. Cohere’s testing shows its Delay Doppler spatial multiplexing technology is improving channel estimation and delivering up to a two-times improvement in spectrum utilization for operators. That’s what Vodafone has seen in 700Mhz testing in its labs.

“Network transformation is critical to unleash the possibilities of 5G and maximize the rise of the edge to create new and better business outcomes for our customers across the globe. As the leading network silicon provider, we have been driving this shift to virtualizing the core to access to edge, and implementing edge computing capabilities with our decade of experience, to power our society’s digital revolution”, said Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president, Network Platforms Group.

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DISH to run Nokia's 5G standalone core network in AWS

DISH confirmed that it will run Nokia's 5G standalone (SA) Core in AWS.

Nokia is providing voice core, cloud packet core, subscriber data management, device management and NetGuard network security, as well as professional end-to-end security services for DISH.

Nokia said the public cloud deployment will allow DISH to support new enterprise and consumer 5G use cases quickly, securely and across multiple cloud stacks at end customer premises. 

Marc Rouanne, Chief Network Officer, DISH, said: “Running the Nokia 5G SA core on AWS will optimize our network operations to launch new software and services rapidly and efficiently, enabling the integration of countless innovative use cases for customers. This collaboration is an important step forward on our mission to deploy the United States’ first cloud-native, OpenRAN-based 5G network.”

Dave Brown, Vice President, Amazon EC2, AWS, said: “DISH’s cloud-native 5G network serves as a prime example of how new carriers can revolutionize wireless connectivity in the 5G era. DISH is continuing to put innovation first with an eye on customer experience via this standalone core deployment on AWS with Nokia.”

Raghav Sahgal, President, Cloud and Network Services, Nokia, said: “We are pleased to break new ground in the telecom industry with AWS and DISH leveraging our cloud-native core to bring innovative 5G capabilities to enterprises and consumers. This collaboration places AWS and DISH at the forefront of the industry, delivering key 5G benefits such as agility and scalability to their customers over Nokia’s proven distributed core architecture.”

Nokia collaborates with AWS on Cloud RAN

Monday, March 15, 2021  AWS, Nokia  

Nokia announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to research and enable Cloud RAN (vRAN) and Open RAN technologies.The collaboration, which will be conducted at Nokia’s facilities, aims to develop innovative proof of concepts (PoC) to explore and enable Cloud RAN and related technologies. Nokia is pursuing a strategy of collaborating with AWS to extend the reach of its Cloud RAN technologies in support of 5G deployments and the development...

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Google Cloud and Nokia announce Telco Cloud Partnership

Thursday, January 14, 2021  Google Cloud, Nokia, Telco Cloud  

Google Cloud and Nokia announced a global, strategic partnership focused on cloud-native solutions for communications service providers (CSPs), including a cloud-native 5G Core and a network edge for business services.Under this partnership, Google Cloud and Nokia will work closely to validate, optimize and evolve cloud-native network functions, and the two companies will also co-innovate new solutions that will help CSPs deliver 5G connectivity...

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NEC and NTT Docomo develop RIC for Open RAN

NEC Corporation and NTT DOCOMO are collaborating on the development of RAN Intelligent Controllers (RIC) in support of intelligent Radio Access Networks (RAN). RICS have the potential to reduce operating costs of RANs by automating base station settings. 

The companies expect that, in the future, the RIC control cycle will be advanced from slow control to fast control, and from the base station unit level to a user-based level of control. At the same time, optimization will be performed in conjunction with the control of different elements, such as radio resources and computing resources. Moreover, the companies aim to create new value by optimizing network characteristics, such as ultra-high-speed, large-capacity, ultra-low latency, high reliability, and multiple simultaneous connections to realize a variety of services through upgraded networks.

NEC's subsidiary, Netcracker, provides an Open RAN Domain Orchestration solution aligned with the O-RAN Alliance Service Management and Orchestration framework, including RIC functionality

developed by Netcracker. The solution is based on Netcracker's Digital OSS (operations support system), built from its wealth of experience domestically and internationally, and brings together the orchestration, real-time OSS, and advanced analytics required to fully automate RAN domain operations, from planning and design, to activation, monitoring, and optimization. With end-to-end visualization and optimization, the solution maximizes RAN performance and improves business KPIs for service providers.

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3GPP approves Ligado’s L-Band spectrum

3GPP approved for new technical specifications that will enable use of Band 24 (L-band) spectrum in 5G networks.

Ligado Networks said the approvals mark a crucial step in itss expansion of the L-Band vendor ecosystem and its efforts to deploy new mid-band spectrum in 5G networks in the U.S. 

Specifically, the items that were approved at this week’s 3GPP plenary meeting include updates to Ligado’s existing LTE Band 24; a new 5G NR Band labeled n24; a new 5G NR Supplemental Uplink (SUL) Band labeled n99; and NR Carrier Aggregation (CA) and SUL band combinations for n24 and n99 with CBRS, C-Band and EBS/BRS spectrum. The approvals of SUL band n99 and band combinations will help facilitate the deployments of L-Band spectrum with other mid-band airwaves like the C-Band, CBRS, and EBS spectrum bands.

Ligado is currently developing a 5G Mobile Private Network Solution designed to bring the power of next-generation networks to the energy, manufacturing, health care, transportation, and other critical infrastructure sectors.

“This is a major milestone for us – in an already momentous year – and advances our vision to deploy this spectrum for a range of next-generation services,” said Ligado CEO, Doug Smith. “The 3GPP green light gives us what we need to accelerate our commercial ecosystem activities and expand Ligado’s roster of partners to deploy this much-needed spectrum for U.S. businesses and consumers.”

“Receiving these 3GPP approvals is a huge springboard to deploy the L-Band in U.S. 5G networks, and we’re excited to have continued support from several industry-leading vendors,” said Chief Technology Officer, Maqbool Aliani. “Bringing this additional mid-band spectrum to the 5G market will help the U.S. roll out next-generation deployments more quickly, at lower costs, and with superior network performance.”

Ligado raises $3.85 billion for its low-power L-band terrestrial network

Sunday, October 25, 2020  Ligado  

Ligado Networks announced nearly $3.85 billion in new capital for supporting its upcoming 5G launch. The funding was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., and included both existing and new investors.Since its bipartisan, unanimous approval from the FCC in April 2020, Ligado has made important strides to realize the full potential of its spectrum and progress toward bringing next-generation services to market. In June 2020, Ligado’s submissions into 3GPP...

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