Thursday, February 24, 2022

AT&T and Intel co-develop advanced RAN pooling

AT&T is collaborating with Intel on an Advanced  base station distributed unit (DU) pooling technology designed to deliver unprecedented levels of elasticity in the RAN. 

AT&T says DU pooling provides the greatest value in C-RAN or Centralized RAN network deployments where RAN baseband equipment from many cell sites are “pooled together” into a “cloud” of general purpose processors in far edge data centers or central offices. Furthermore, through an advanced form of DU pooling called Class II pooling, a single 5G radio can now distribute the baseband processing for each user device in the cell across multiple servers.

DU pooling technology was made possible by combining AT&T’s Open RAN technologies as one of the co-founders of the O-RAN Alliance with Intel’s expertise in general purpose processors and software-based RAN through its FlexRAN software stack running on Intel 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. The open standards for communications between radios and DUs that were published by O-RAN enabled its development, and the result is a technology demonstrator implemented on FlexRAN software.


https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2022/cloudifying-5g-with-elastic-ran.html

#MWC22: Proactive Service Assurance for 5G

What's hot at MWC22? 

Proactive Service Assurance for 5G says Rohit Batra, Head of Telecommunications, Media and Technology product for ServiceNow. Two key partnerships are highlighted: NTT and DISH.


https://youtu.be/NswG3yVyz70

Telefonica validates O-RAN xHaul transport link with Keysight

Telefonica accomplished the first validation of an open radio access network (RAN) xHaul transport link using Keysight's test tools.

xHaul is a unified fronthaul and backhaul networking infrastructure. It creates a common packet-based transport network for flexible and software-defined reconfiguration of networking elements in a service-oriented unified management framework. Mobile operators, such as Telefonica, are implementing O-RAN compliant xHaul transport architectures to reconfigure and share the network quickly and cost-effectively, to streamline delivery of 5G services.

“Keysight’s 5G test tools enable Telefonica Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC) to characterize xHaul transport links in accordance with O-RAN WG9 test specifications and advance its O-RAN xHaul interoperability test plans,” said Scott Bryden, vice president and general manager at Keysight. “Keysight’s solutions for emulating real-life Ethernet traffic conditions enable verification of the functionality and reliability of O-RAN xHaul transport architecture.” 

NETGEAR intros triband WiFi 6E for SMBs

NETGEAR introduced a tri-band, business-grade WiFi 6E product with cloud management for small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Key Features of WAX630E:

  • New 6GHz Band –– WAX630E offers many features and capabilities of WiFi 6 access points, including higher performance, lower latency, and faster data rates and supports WiFi 6E on the new wider 6GHz WiFi band
  • Ultra-Low Latency — Extends into the new 6 GHz band bringing 14 additional 80 MHZ channels for expanded spectrum capacity and less congestion thereby lower latency
  • WiFi Speed of up to 7.8Gbps ––Tri-Band WiFi with combined wireless speeds of up to 7.8Gbps (0.6+4.8+2.4 Gbps)
  • 8-Streams Tri-Band WiFi — 8 WiFi streams (two streams of 6GHz, four streams of 5GHz, and two streams of 2.4GHz) means more available bandwidth and less congestion for all devices on WiFi
  • Multi-Gigabit Speed with PoE — Includes a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port with PoE++ for high speed and easy wiring. An additional 1 Gbps Ethernet port is included for wired extension to a WiFi access point. Ideal switches to power WAX630E are GSM4210P, MS510TXPP, MS510TXUP and MS108EUP.
  • Remote Management — Remote Cloud monitoring and management with NETGEAR Insight for single pane of glass management. Insight Pro is available for multi instance network management for managed service providers.
  • 8 Secure Wireless Networks (SSIDs) — Separate VLANs and WPA3 makes WAX630E the ideal network configuration for SMBs for security and manageability
  • Separate VLANs — Separate networks to keep admin, employee, visitor, HR, Finance department networks securely separated from each other

Pricing begins at $350.

"ISPs are now offering multi-gig speeds to their business customers. Simultaneously, client devices such as the latest Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel smart phones and several new personal computer systems from leading manufacturers are supporting WiFi 6E. This combination makes it an imperative for businesses to at least double the connection speeds for their underlying WiFi systems,” said Doug Cheung, Director of Product Line Management, SMB Wireless at NETGEAR. “The WAX630E will enable businesses to improve the bandwidth of their WiFi network by up to 2.5 times.”


ADVA reports revenue of EUR 157.7 million, growth in demand from CSPs

Citing growth in demand from communication service providers (CSPs), particularly in the cloud access solution area, ADVA reported Q4 revenue of EUR 157.7 million, up by 3.9% from EUR 151.8 million in Q3 2021, also considerably up by 12.2% compared to EUR 140.6 million in Q4 2020. Net income reached EUR 17.5 million in Q4 2021 and decreased by 5.2% from EUR 18.5 million in Q3 2021, but increased significantly by 32.2% from EUR 13.2 million in Q4 2020. 

“Our business transformation strategy will remain our focus in 2022. Profitability, liquidity and expanding our sales in new industries are top priorities,” said Brian Protiva, CEO of ADVA. “Technologically, our solutions are extremely well aligned to the transformation of networks with cloud, mobility, 5G, automation and security. In addition to the high-value performance features of our optical data transmission, precise network synchronization technology and programmable cloud access solutions, our service portfolio also delivers increasing value. Furthermore, our strategic move to join forces with ADTRAN will create a global leader in a quickly expanding market opportunity around the network edge. Together, we can offer a comprehensive portfolio of solutions from the access part of the network, through the network edge, to the metro core, which goes well beyond the offerings of most other Western manufacturers.”

“Today, we report on a great financial year with solid growth and a significant increase in profitability. The consistent implementation of our business transformation strategy enables us to compensate for higher procurement costs due to the global shortage of components and still expand our margins. High cash flow generation combined with consistent debt reduction has led to a significant increase in our net cash position, which we were able to expand by more than EUR 60 million compared to 2020,” commented Uli Dopfer, CFO of ADVA. However, global inflationary tendencies and the resulting higher material costs, as well as the global shortage of materials, pose challenges for us in 2022. We start the year again with an order-backlog at record levels and are confident that we will once again overcome the ongoing challenges and grow profitably in 2022.”



VMware posts revenue of $3.53 billion, up 7% yoy

VMware reported Q4 revenue of $3.53 billion, an increase of 7% from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.  Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $855 million, or $2.02 per diluted share, down 9% per diluted share compared to $936 million, or $2.21 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.

Revenue for fiscal year 2022 was $12.85 billion, an increase of 9% from fiscal 2021.

  • The combination of subscription and SaaS and license revenue was $1.90 billion, an increase of 11% from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.
  • Subscription and SaaS revenue for the fourth quarter was $868 million, an increase of 23% year-over-year.

“The growth in customer demand for our multi-cloud solutions was reflected in our Q4 results. We are at an exciting time in our industry, as enterprises large and small transform and modernize to become software-based, digital enterprises,” said Raghu Raghuram, CEO, VMware. “We are well-positioned to help our customers build, run and secure their applications in this multi-cloud environment.”

“Q4 was a strong finish to a transformational year in which we became a standalone company and surpassed $12B in revenue,” said Zane Rowe, executive vice president and CFO, VMware. “As we look to our next fiscal year, we remain focused on accelerating growth of our Subscription & SaaS portfolio and scaling our multi-cloud platform enabling us to deliver long-term revenue and profit growth.”



NeoPhotonics reports revenue of $80.6 million, growth in 400G

Citing supply chain impacts, especially for analog and power semiconductors, NeoPhotonics reported revenue of $80.6 million, up 18% year-over-year on growth in 400G and above capable products and down 3.7% quarter-over-quarter. Supply chain shortages negatively impacted revenue by $15 million in the fourth quarter. Non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.06, compared to a Non-GAAP loss per share of $0.14 a year ago and a Non-GAAP net earnings per share of $0.01 in the prior quarter.

“Our business remains on a strong growth path, as demand continues to increase and our backlog has expanded to record levels with nearly a year of visibility. Our fourth quarter revenue trend reflected the operational challenges as the full force of industry-wide IC chip supply shortages impacted our topline revenue by more than $15 million. Our products for 400G and above applications grew 9% sequentially, comprising 56% of total revenue, despite this product group being the most impacted by supply chain chip shortages,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “Moreover, we now have three Cloud and data center switch customer design wins in place for our 400ZR coherent DCO modules products.”

Mr. Jenks continued, “The Lumentum transaction announced last November remains on track, having been approved by our stockholders at our special meeting on the first of February and the expiration of the waiting period under U.S. anti-trust regulations, as previously announced. We believe Lumentum is an ideal partner to serve our customers on a larger scale and look forward to securing regulatory approval from China and closing the transaction. I would like to thank all NeoPhotonics employees for their hard work and dedication for our strong performance in 2021, and for building the company’s strong technology leadership for high speed over distance applications.”

Year-over-year growth of products for 400G and above applications exceeded 70% to $148 million

Growth of 18% over the same quarter last year despite supply chain shortages.



DISH posts revenue of $4.45B, dip in pay-TV and wireless subscribers

DISH Network reported revenue totaling $4.45 billion for the quarter ending December 31, 2021, compared to $4.56 billion for the corresponding period in 2020. 

Net income attributable to DISH Network totaled $552 million for the fourth quarter 2021, compared to $733 million from the year-ago quarter. Diluted earnings per share were $0.87 for the fourth quarter, compared to $1.24 per share during the same period in 2020. 

Some highlights: 

  • Net pay-TV subscribers decreased approximately 273,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to a decrease of approximately 133,000 in the year-ago quarter. 
  • The company closed the quarter with 10.71 million pay-TV subscribers, including 8.22 million DISH TV subscribers and 2.49 million SLING TV subscribers. 
  • Retail wireless net subscribers decreased by approximately 245,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to a net decrease of 363,000 in the year-ago quarter. 
  • The company closed the quarter with 8.55 million retail wireless subscribers. 
  • Wireless CapEx for 2022 is expected to be $2.5 billion, compared to $1.0 billion for 2021.


Keysight names Satish Dhanasekaran as next CEO

Keysight Technologies named Satish Dhanasekaran as its next President and CEO, effective May 1, placing Ron Nersesian, who is retiring but who will continue as Executive Chairman of the Board.

Chief Executive Officer of Keysight when Agilent Technologies decided to spin-out the business in 2013. Under Nersesian’s leadership, Keysight’s revenues have increased at a ten percent compound annual growth rate, while generating annualized earnings and free cash flow growth of eighteen percent and twenty-five percent, respectively. At the same time and as of the end of fiscal year 2021, Keysight’s market capitalization has increased six-fold, while delivering shareholder returns nearly four times that of the S&P 500 Index.

Dhanasekaran began his career at Keysight in 2006. He has been Chief Operating Officer since 2020, focused on growing orders, increasing annual recurring revenue and driving the company’s growth initiatives. He oversees the Keysight functions that contribute to these objectives, including market and technology research; development of new technologies, products, and solutions; services; marketing; and sales.

“Keysight has a very bright future ahead, and I look forward to working with the team to execute our software-centric solutions strategy and apply the Keysight Leadership Model to deliver greater value for our customers, shareholders and employees.”

“I am incredibly proud of the exceptional results that the Keysight team has achieved for customers and shareholders,” said Nersesian. “Looking ahead, I am even more confident in Keysight’s future prospects and ability to drive further value creation given the strength of the company’s differentiated solutions, R&D investments, sales and marketing engines, leadership team, balance sheet, and culture.”


Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Arista embeds network detection and response into switches

Arista Networks is adding embedded security and packet analysis capabilities to its 720XP series of switches. 

By embedding NDR (Network Detection and Response) capabilities into the Arista EOS-based switches themselves, Arista says it can deliver broader visibility and threat hunting across the modern cognitive campus. 

The new capabilities build on Arista's Autonomous Virtual Assist (AVA) platforms with two key components: AVA Sensors and the AVA Nucleus. AVA Sensors support a variety of form factors from stand-alone appliances and virtual to cloud workloads and now, within campus power over ethernet (PoE) switches. The AVA Sensors analyze the full packet, including application layer data which sets the stage for automated and manual threat hunting. The sensors then transfer the “just right” deep-packet data to the AVA Nucleus, which is offered as both on-premises and SaaS. 

Arista will deliver the capabilities via a switch software upgrade . The company cites minimal impact on switch performance or reliability.

“Network security has been an ongoing challenge for most organizations due to hardware deployments and configuration changes needed at the network infrastructure level. While organizations acknowledge that the network presents a unique vantage point, security teams have been forced to trade off network visibility and ongoing operational costs,” said Rahul Kashyap, Vice President and General Manager of Cybersecurity and CISO at Arista Networks. “By building NDR capabilities into the switching infrastructure itself, Arista enables a built-in, secure network that reduces organizational risk by speeding up both time to detection and time to remediation.”

The new capabilities are expected to be generally available in Q2, 2022, with early trials in March 2022.



Mavenir showcases portfolio of O-RAN-compliant radio units

Mavenir is introducing a portfolio of O-RAN compliant Radio Units (RUs) spanning micro, macro, millimeter wave (mmWave) and massive MIMO (mMIMO) deployments. The products will be showcased at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

The Mavenir OpenBeam radio portfolio covers a wide range of spectrum, both licensed and unlicensed. Mavenir is offering open interfaces and O-RAN 7.2 compliance.

“We have engaged with customers globally to curate a comprehensive O-RAN portfolio that addresses the needs of both private enterprises as well as traditional communication providers” says Rajesh Srinivasa, Senior Vice President of Radio Business Unit at Mavenir. “OpenBeam portfolio covers a wide range of deployment scenarios starting from micro-RUs to 64TR Massive MIMO Radios. OpenBeam radios deliver industry-leading performance and energy efficiency packed in a small footprint.”

Pardeep Kohli, Chief Executive Officer at Mavenir, said “With the incredible growth of virtualization and Open RAN, we always believed that the ecosystem had to be accelerated as this is fundamental for the success of the future of networks. Mavenir has been working with many partners in the ecosystem, and we have also injected more direct contributions when it comes to innovative design.

https://www.mavenir.com/press-releases/expanding-the-open-ran-ecosystem-with-a-wide-portfolio-of-high-performance-o-ran-compliant-radios/

Viavi builds up its Open RAN test suite

Viavi Solutions announced extensions to its Open RAN test suite, including:

  • RIC Test. TeraVM RIC Test validates the performance of the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) when presented with a wide range of RAN scenarios, tests the functionality of rApps and xApps, and provides the means to generate the data needed to train AI models.
  • Test in the Cloud. VIAVI allows any node – O-RU, O-DU, O-CU, RIC and Core – and complete end-to-end testing to be performed in public, private and edge cloud environments.
  • Test as a Service. VIAVI now provides a Test as a Service (TaaS), offering the support to maximize your engineering productivity and provide access to the right tools and expertise to enable the rapid delivery of high performance and ultra-reliable cellular communications products.
  • TMLite. The capabilities of the flagship TM500 Network Tester are now available in a streamlined version on a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) server, enabling vendors to deploy focused functional test tools earlier in the development cycle, and allow smaller vendors to gain access to the TM500 family with a more compact package. The TMLite is built around the latest third-generation AMD EPYC processors which offer high compute and input/output flexibility per server, enabling multiple carriers of 4G and 5G at RF and Open Fronthaul.

VIAVI also highlighted the following partnerships:

  • Capgemini. VIAVI has collaborated with Capgemini, through Capgemini Engineering in Portugal, to deliver an industry-leading 5G and O-RAN lab test capability, powered by VIAVI's O-RAN Lab as a Service (LaaS) to ensure successful network integration of 5G networks and accelerate Lab-to-Live trials for Open RAN.
  • Ericsson. VIAVI will be delivering geolocation capabilities as a Non Real-time RIC Application (rApp) on the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform, a service management and orchestration product which enables any mobile network, purpose-built or Cloud RAN / Open RAN, to be intelligently automated.
  • Rohde & Schwarz. VIAVI and Rohde & Schwarz are partnering to offer an integrated solution for conformance testing of O-RAN Radio Units (O-RUs), including the O-RU Test Manager which provides a seamless user experience.

"Open RAN is moving out of the lab into the real world, facing the messy complexities of mapping theoretically sound technologies and architectures to a wide diversity of implementation scenarios," said Sameh Yamany, Chief Technology Officer, VIAVI. "VIAVI has harnessed its decades of leadership in test tools for cellular and virtual networks, our critical role in industry organizations such as the O-RAN ALLIANCE, and our relationships with other major vendors to ensure our customers have access to tailored and best-of-breed solutions."


MaxLinear debuts single-chip for 5G Open RAN Radio Units

MaxLinear introduced a fully integrated System on Chip (SoC) for 4G/5G Open RAN (Radio Access Network) radio units (RU) including in Macro, Massive MIMO, and Small Cell applications.

MaxLinear's Sierra integrates the following sub-systems into a single chip:

  • RF Transceiver supporting up to 8 transmitters, 8 receivers, and 2 feedback receivers
  • Digital Front End (DFE), powered by MaxLIN™ the industry’s leading digital pre-distortion (DPD) and crest factor reduction (CFR) solution, and supporting digital up-conversion (DUC) and digital down-conversion (DDC) of component carriers
  • Low PHY Baseband Processor supporting 5G, 4G, and NB-IoT air interfaces
  • Fronthaul Interface compliant with O-RAN Alliance Split 7.2x

“Sierra is an ultimate integration of MaxLinear’s highest performance RF and system technologies. It empowers radio vendors to rapidly and cost effectively develop new platforms with best-in-class size, weight, and power consumption for Open RAN applications,” said Brendan Walsh, Vice President of MaxLinear’s Wireless Infrastructure Group. “In this way Sierra represents a game-changing innovation that will level the playing field for wireless infrastructure vendors and can dramatically accelerate the global rollout of Open RAN without compromise on network performance or cost.”




NeoPhotonics samples Open ZR+ QSFP-DD transceivers

NeoPhotonics has begun sampling its Open ZR+ QSFP-DD transceivers. 

The Open ZR+ version of NeoPhotonic's QSFP-DD uses the Marvell Deneb Coherent DSP (CDSP) to incorporate industry-standard Open Forward Error Correction (OFEC). 

NeoPhotonics said that by using OFEC, the rOSNR capability of its transceivers is improved beyond traditional 400ZR CFEC, allowing for multiple span coverage in amplified networks. This may be applied to metro and IP-over-DWDM networks with extended-reach scenarios, with data rate coverage from 100 Gbps to 400 Gbps. 

In addition, there are a number of applications where the fiber reach may not exceed the OIF ZR specifications, but because of older fiber, patch panels and other impairments, the link loss and impairment budgets could exceed that of a standard 400ZR link. In these cases, NeoPhotonics’ OpenZR+ module can be used for 400G upgrades, where standard solutions are not practical.

“NeoPhotonics has developed an OpenZR+ solution to take advantage of the benefits of IP-over-DWDM and because many customers are interested in utilizing small form factor coherent modules deeper into their networks,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “Our Open ZR+ QSFP-DD transceivers combine an extended network reach and interoperable OFEC with our proven optical component and transceiver designs to address these needs. The transceivers also augment our proven 400ZR solutions, which have multiple design wins at cloud and data center switch customers, with new Open 400ZR+ compliant QSFP-DD and OSFP modules. The ability to transmit 400Gb/s over distances as long as 800km and more in a cost-effective manner is a real game changer,” concluded Mr. Jenks.

https://ir.neophotonics.com/news-releases/news-release-details/neophotonics-announces-sampling-open-zr-qsfp-dd-transceivers

Lumentum to acquire NeoPhotonics for $918M amidst strong demand

Lumentum agreed to acquire NeoPhotonics for $16.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $918 million and a premium of approximately 39% to NeoPhotonics' closing stock price on November 3, 2021.The companies cited significant next-gen 400G+ opportunities as a leading driver for the merger.NeoPhotonics, which was founded in 1996 and is based in San Jose, is a leading supplier of tunable lasers and optoelectronic components,...

NeoPhotonics cover 800km reach with 400ZR+ QSFP-DD transceiver

NeoPhotonics demonstrated that its 400ZR+ QSFP-DD coherent pluggable transceiver can effectively transmit at a 400 Gbps data rate over a distance of 800 km in a 75GHz-spaced DWDM system with more than 3.5 dB of OSNR margin in the optical signal. This 400ZR+ coherent pluggable transceiver module is based on NeoPhotonics high performance coherent optics and its ultra-pure color tunable laser, and achieves a reach of 800 km while staying within...


#MWC22: The Biggest Misconception about Private 5G

Ahead of MWC 2022, Shahid Ahmed, Group EVP, New Ventures and Innovation at NTT, shares the biggest misconception about private 5G.

https://youtu.be/RUvwfouROc4

OIF demos at at #OFC22: 400ZR interoperability; CPO; CEI-112, CMIS

OIF will host the following demonstrations at this year’s OFC 2022 in San Diego, March 8-10, 2022. Industry experts will also present updates on OIF’s current work in many critical areas, including 400ZR/800ZR and electrical rates.

400ZR Demo - the first-ever public multivendor 400ZR consists of a full implementation of 400GE across an 80km, DWDM ecosystem using multiple module, router, open line systems, and test equipment vendors, demonstrating the project achieved it’s interoperability goals.

Co-Packaging Architectures Demo - multi-party demonstrations of OIF's 3.2T Module project and external laser project (ELSFP). A variety of interoperable components that enable co-packaging will be shown, along with a system implementation.

CEI-112G Demo - multiple live demonstrations featuring interoperability amongst 12 participating members clearly prove the key role OIF provides as well as the developing supplier ecosystem. The CEI-112G demonstrations in the OIF booth will feature multi-party silicon supplier interoperability over various channels including mated compliance boards, PCB channels and direct attach copper cable channels, and even fiber. Each configuration demonstrates the technical viability of 112 Gbps operation, along with multiple industry form factors, including OSFP and QSFP-DD. The demo also shows a measured far-end eye diagram on an oscilloscope with analysis to show an example of the silicon signal integrity that is typically required going through the large variety of channels on display.

Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) Implementations Demo - CMIS provides a well-defined mechanism to initialize and manage optical and copper modules in a standard way, while still providing the capability to provide custom functionality. This commonality makes integration into different host platforms easier for both the host vendor and the module vendor. The CMIS demo consists of four separate demonstrations that show how modules can be managed and initialized, how modules can support multiple independent services (breakout) and how module firmware can be easily upgraded.

FlexE Demo - showing FlexE’s channelization features, which allow standard Ethernet optics to be broken down into multiple clients of both standard and non-standard Ethernet rates with a granularity of 5Gb/s. Realistic multi-vendor deployment scenarios will show standard 100GbE interfaces channelized into clients of mixed rates, mapping of traffic from standard Ethernet ports, and end-to-end bit error rate tester (BERT) features demonstrating error and alarm monitoring.

Participating companies include Accton; Alphawave IP; Amphenol; Applied Optoelectonics, Inc.; Broadcom Inc., Ciena; Cisco; EXFO; Fujitsu Optical Components; Innolume GmbH; Intel; Juniper Networks; Keysight Technologies; Lumentum, MACOM Technology Solutions Inc.; Marvell; MaxLinear, Inc.; Molex; MultiLane, Inc.; NEC Corporation; NeoPhotonics; Nokia; O-Net Communications; Ragile Networks Inc.; Senko Advanced Components; Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.; TE Connectivity; VIAVI Solutions and Wilder Technologies.

“With demonstrations in five critical technology areas enabling the networks of today and the future, the OIF booth at OFC will showcase the intersection of innovation, interoperability and implementations,” said Mike Klempa, Amphenol, and OIF Physical and Link Layer Interoperability Working Group Chair.

https://www.oiforum.com/oif-members-demonstrate-how-interoperability-accelerates-solutions-for-todays-and-future-global-networks-at-ofc-2022/

Meta to build data center in Idaho

Meta announced plans for a new data center in Kuna, Idaho. This will be Meta's 15th data center in the United States and 19th worldwide. The company estimates its investment in the project at $800 million.

Kuna is a town of approximately 24,000 located 18 miles (29 km) southwest of downtown Boise, the state capital of Idaho. The elevation is 2,694 ft (821 m).

The Kuna Data Center will run on 100% renewable energy. Meta said the facility will be at least 80% more water efficient than the average data center as the cooling system will rely on outside air for cooling for at least 50% of the year.


Dell'Oro: RAN growth slows in 4Q 2021 but still up over 10%

Radio Access Network (RAN) growth slowed somewhat in the fourth quarter, though this was not enough to change the full-year picture, according to Dell'Oro Group. Total 2G-5G RAN revenues, excluding services, increased at a double-digit rate for a second consecutive year, propelling worldwide RAN to approach $40B to $45B.

"The RAN market continues to show remarkable resilience to a confluence of external factors," said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group. "Even with the slower growth in the fourth quarter due partly to more challenging comparison, RAN prospects remain and healthy and the overall RAN market is on track to record a fifth consecutive year of growth in 2022," continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2021 RAN report:

  • Global RAN rankings did not change with Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Samsung leading the full year 2021 market.
  • Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and Samsung lead outside of China while Huawei and ZTE continue to dominate the Chinese RAN market.
  • RAN revenue shares are changing with Ericsson and Samsung gaining share outside of China.
  • Huawei and Nokia's RAN revenue shares declined outside of China.
  • Relative near-term projections have been revised upward – total RAN revenues are now projected to grow 5 percent in 2022.

http://www.delloro.com

Intelsat exits bankruptcy restructuring, cutting debt from $16B to $7B

Intelsat emerged from its financial restructuring process as a private company. The Plan of Reorganization, supported by all creditor groups and confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court on December 16, 2021, has reduced the Company’s debt by more than half, from approximately $16 billion to $7 billion.

In connection with emergence, Intelsat obtained $6.7 billion in new financing consisting of a revolving credit facility, term loan, and secured notes. Supported by new equity owners, the Company is now best positioned for long-term success as it continues to innovate and bring new services to market.

Intelsat also has a new Board of Directors, composed of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and six new directors, including Lisa Hammitt, Intelsat’s Chairperson. Biographies of the directors can be found on the Company’s website at intelsat.com/about-us/leadership/.

“For more than 50 years, Intelsat has led innovation in our sector and delivered high-performing services for customers,” said Intelsat’s Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Spengler. “Now that our financial restructuring has been completed successfully, we are driving Intelsat’s future development and growth from a position of even greater strength. We have significantly less debt as well as new financing to support our innovation and network plans, complementing our unparalleled global orbital and spectrum rights and strong operating model. We are positioned better than ever to fuel the success of our customers and partners, achieve our strategic objectives, and accelerate our growth. Building the world’s first global 5G satellite-based, software-defined, unified network is just one of Intelsat’s many groundbreaking projects well underway.”

Bankrupty court approves Intelsat's restructuring

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, approved Intelsat's Plan of Reorganization, marking the final Court milestone in the company’s financial restructuring process. Intelsat is poised to emerge from the process in early 2022 upon receipt of regulatory approvals, completion of certain corporate actions, and satisfaction of other customary conditions.Intelsat sais its confirmed Plan will reduce debt...


Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Infinera's ICE6 Turbo enables 4 x 400 GbE long-haul services

Infinera is rolling out a performance-optimized configuration of its 1.6T (2 x 800G) ICE6 coherent optical engine.

Infinera's ICE6 Turbo, which is produced in Infinera’s in-house, U.S.-based fabrication center, is the industry’s first coherent optical solution that can operate above 100 Gbaud.  This enables network operators to support 4 x 400 GbE services using a single optical engine across long-haul distances and 3 x 400 GbE services across ultra-long-haul distances, driving down the cost per bit of delivering high-speed optical services. ICE6 Turbo will be available in both C- and L-band variants.

Infinera said its ICE6 Turbo solution leverages the capabilities of the company’s unique monolithic indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology. The new benchmark for optical performance set by ICE6 Turbo is enabled by the holistic co-design of the various optical engine components and pioneering optical networking features including second-generation Nyquist subcarriers, long-codeword probabilistic constellation shaping (LC-PCS), dynamic bandwidth allocation, and soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) gain sharing.

“ICE6 Turbo builds on Infinera’s heritage of delivering innovative optical solutions that provide meaningful value for our customers,” said Ron Johnson, General Manager of Infinera’s Optical Systems & Network Solutions Group. “ICE6 Turbo further pushes the boundaries of optical performance, enabling our customers to rapidly scale their networks with industry-leading economics.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/infinera-ice6-gets-a-turbo-charge

Fastweb carries 600 Gbps wavelength across 1,372km with Infinera

Fastweb, one of the main telecom providers in Italy, completed a single-wavelength service connectivity speed trial of 600 Gb/s across its network, including the Milan-Bari optical route spanning 1,372 kilometers. The trial used Infinera’s fifth-generation ICE6 800G technology on the GX Series Compact Modular Platform. Infinera said its ICE6 solution enabled Fastweb to increase network capacity by up to two times. The ICE6 solution features...

Telia Carrier picks Infinera’s ICE6 800G solution for global network

Telia Carrier has selected Infinera’s ICE6 800G solution for Telia Carrier’s global network after completing a successful trial of the technology on Telia Carrier’s live number-one-ranked global network, AS1299. The decision to deploy Infinera’s ICE6 comes after a field validation trial on the 2,396-km link in the U.S. between Denver and Chicago. The trial was performed using Infinera’s innovative ICE6 technology over an existing third-party...