EU's Project VERTIGO demos optical links for geostationary satellites

The VERTIGO (Very High Throughput Satellite-Ground Optical link) project successfully demonstrated a high-power optical data transmission system at the Thales laboratory in Palaiseau, France. 

Thales Alenia Space, Thales, G&H and Leo Space Photonics R&D demonstrated the generation and transmission of optical communication signals carrying data at 25 Gbps in a controlled environment at a record breaking optical power of 97 W opening the way to 100W-class transmissions. This was achieved by splitting a modulated optical signal into two paths, each amplified through an individual state-of-the-art G&H high power amplifier, and then coherently combining the two amplifier outputs. This was an opportunity not only to demonstrate high and very high optical power generation but also to prove the possibility to transmit telecom signals at very high power while maintaining data integrity, a necessary condition for use in free-space optical links over long distances.

Following the outdoor trials of free-space optical links in Summer 2022, which notably demonstrated a record transmission at 1 Tbps over an atmospheric optical path of 53 km, the laboratory test campaign performed in Thales facilities concludes the VERTIGO project with a new record.

The partners said VERTIGO has shown that future geostationary communication satellites using optical feeder links are feasible.

Capitalizing on the results of the VERTIGO project, the next step will be to target a full-scale coherent laser link between a geostationary satellite at an altitude around 36.000 km and a ground station.

VERTIGO is a H2020 collaborative project funded by the EU, launched on June 1st 2019 and completed at the beginning of 2023. The project consortium was composed of CREONIC GmbH, ETH Zürich, Fraunhofer HHI, G&H, LEO Space Photonics R&D, ONERA, Thales Alenia Space in France and Switzerland and Thales Research & Technology.

https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press_release/european-project-vertigo-concluded-telecom-data-transmission-laser

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Kepler Communications raises $92M for optical satellite

Kepler Communications, a start-up based in Toronto, announced US$92 million in Series C funding to support its mission to "build the Internet for space."

Kepler said it will use the funding to launch an optical data relay infrastructure in 2024, complementing its existing RF network. Kepler’s optical communications infrastructure will use two near-orthogonal planes of relay satellites in sun-synchronous orbits, with satellites in each plane continuously connected using SDA-compatible optical inter-satellite links. 

Current plans call for the launch two Pathfinder satellites in Fall 2023, building on a current constellation of 21 satellites.  

The Kepler Network will streamline on-orbit communications with a network infrastructure designed to act as Internet exchange points (IXP) for space-to-space data relay. The Internet-ready constellation will deliver data to and from spacecraft in real time, enabling high-speed data relay through SDA-standard optical terminals.a

Kepler aims to offer optical services to customers by Q1 2025.

“Exponentially decreasing launch costs make space more accessible than ever, but connectivity beyond Earth is still costly, challenging, and inconsistent,” said Brad Gillespie, general partner at IA Ventures. “The Kepler Network solves this by providing a fast, open, developer-friendly network enabling ‘it-just-works’ connectivity between any asset in space and back to Earth—and someday to Mars and beyond! With proven customer demand for their high-speed optical network, we are excited to lead this funding round to enable Kepler to continue its rapid growth and achieve profitability.”

“Since our foundation, Kepler has been dedicated to enabling the future of space communications; working tirelessly to create the infrastructure needed for real-time, always-available access to space assets. As we build out The Kepler Network, we are solving challenges the industry faces and simplifying mission communications by bringing modern Internet capabilities into space,” said Mina Mitry, chief executive officer for Kepler. “Internet services on Earth completely transformed civilization, and we believe extending the Internet to space will have the same far-reaching impact.”

https://www.Kepler.space

• Kepler Communications was founded in 2015 by four graduate students from the University of Toronto: Mina Mitry, Wen Cheng Chong, Mark Michael and Jeffrey Osbourne.

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Univ of Southampton highlights silicon electro-optical modulator

The University of Southampton's Silicon Photonics group announced the publication of its paper on "Harnessing plasma absorption in silicon MOS ring modulators" in the prestigious Nature Photonics journal. 

The researchers have shown that  absorption during the plasma-dispersion effect can be harnessed to enhance the performance of  silicon MOS ring modulators. 

The work was performed within a Prosperity Partnership project jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and collaborator Rockley Photonics.

Dr Weiwei Zhang, Senior Research Fellow at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), explains: “Silicon MOS ring modulators convert electrical signals into optical signals. This is based on the plasma-dispersion effect, where if you increase the concentration of electrons and holes in the waveguide, you get a phase shift of the light, as well an increase in absorption. Until now the absorption part has been considered unwanted as it increases the overall device loss and so you get less light afterwards.”

“Our work shows that you can use the absorption to push the modulators to perform better for the same device capacitance. As a result, we have also managed to demonstrate the fastest data transmission recorded on a device of this type so far up to 100 Gbit s−1.”

“One of our main research focuses is to continually push the performance of optical modulators in silicon photonics. Whilst there has been a worldwide trend to introduce other materials to do this, CMOS compatibility can be compromised potentially leading to higher production costs. Here we have shown that there are still ways to enhance the performance of all-silicon based devices that can be fabricated at relatively low cost.”

https://www.orc.soton.ac.uk/news/7103

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Thales joins European Quantum Communication Infrastructure

Thales has joined the EuroQCI initiative (European Quantum Communication Infrastructure), which aims to deploy a quantum communication infrastructure for EU member states within three years.

By 2040, quantum computers could use their unprecedented computational power to decode encrypted data, incomparably threatening the security of even the best-protected communication systems. EuroQCI aims to counter that threat by developing sovereign systems to protect the communications and data assets of critical infrastructure providers and government institutions.

The longer-term objective is to create a Quantum Information Network (QIN) that will harness the phenomenon of quantum entanglement not only to guarantee communications security but also to create networks of quantum sensors and processors, which have the potential to drive exponential increases in the already outstanding performance of quantum sensors and quantum computers.

As part of this effort, Thales is breaking new ground as a member of multiple new consortia that have been set up since late 2022 in the following fields:

• Quantum repeaters, with the Delft University: QIA (Quantum Internet Alliance) – led by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands – is working to demonstrate the feasibility of connecting users in two metropolitan areas 500 km apart, using quantum repeaters, which can compensate for the loss of information via a quantum memory;
• Quantum key distribution: QKISS – coordinated by Exail – and QUARTER – led by LuxQuanta – are developing Quantum Key Distribution systems to protect users' critical communications from cyberattacks.
• Certification of quantum communication: PETRUS – led by Deutsche Telekom – is the official coordinator of 32 EuroQCI projects, on behalf of the European Commission. It is also developing a framework for certification and accreditation of quantum communication products and networks.
• Satellite quantum communications: TeQuantS – led by Thales Alenia Space – aims to develop quantum space-to-Earth communications technologies, necessary for cybersecurity applications and future quantum information networks, through the construction of satellites and optical ground stations by the end of 2026.

Thales notes that it currently operates the largest quantum physics research facilities in Europe, in partnership with the CNRS, and some 100 engineers and researchers are engaged in the development of the quantum solutions (sensors, communications and algorithms).

https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/group/press_release/thales-prepares-secure-european-infrastructures-against-attacks

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SambaNova adds AWS and Google Cloud veterans to team

SambaNova, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California that is developing an enterprise AI platform announced the addition of a former AWS Managing Director and a former Google Cloud VP to its team.

Richard Halkett has been appointed Chief Revenue Officer. He previously spent almost six years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), as the Managing Director and WW Lead for Innovation & Transformation Programs. Before joining AWS, he was the Global Director for Digital Capabilities at Cisco, where he built the company’s first sales teams dedicated to software, data, and analytics. Halkett brings extensive experience working in the US and internationally in both startup and enterprise technology in the public and private sectors. Previously, he was Executive Director of NESTA’s Policy & Research Unit, as well as Assistant Director of Studies at The Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Danner Stodolsky has been appointed SVP of Cloud. He joins SambaNova after over eleven years at Google, where he served as VP of Engineering for YouTube, Google Cloud Platform, and Ads Privacy. As a founder of the early search engine Lycos, and serving at Akamai Technologies, Quantum, and Verity, Stodolsky’s three decades of experience will provide SambaNova with unparalleled experience and insight.

"We're thrilled to have Richard and Danner join our team; they will be instrumental in unlocking new markets and enterprise applications for generative AI," said Rodrigo Liang, CEO of SambaNova Systems. "Richard’s expertise across sales, business strategy, and policy is unparalleled. His deep understanding of digital innovation will be invaluable as we continue to expand our reach. Danner’s engineering expertise from his many years at Google will help advance our cloud strategy globally.

• SambaNova was founded in 2017 by Stanford Professors Kunle Olukotun and Chris Ré along with Rodrigo Liang. Kunle Olukotun is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University and is known for his pioneering work on multi-core processors. Chris Ré is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and his research focuses on machine learning and its applications. Rodrigo Liang is a former Oracle executive who worked on hardware design for Sun Microsystems.

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Nokia supplies XGS-PON for Valoo in Finland

Nokia will supply a 10G XGS-PON  network for operator Valoo in Finland. The deal includes fiber access nodes for the central office and Nokia’s Altiplano broadband access controller, which includes software defined access networking (SDAN) capabilities. The new network will connect 200,000 homes in and around 30 cities by the end of 2026.  

Tommi Linna, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Valoo, said: “With Nokia’s advanced Lightspan multi-gig fiber broadband solution we can provide our customers the best possible technology there is in the fiber world. The solution enables us to deliver network connection to multiple customers using the same fiber and accelerate internet connections up to 20 gigabit and beyond. With Nokia’s new Altiplano controller we can bring advanced open access network solution to Finnish market.

“And last but not least: Nokia’s multi-gig fiber has a 95 percent smaller carbon footprint thanks to its energy efficiency gains compared to traditional point-to-point solutions. I couldn’t be more proud that we are the first fiber company in Finland executing Nokia’s multi-gig fiber to customers – starting this spring.”

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Nokia expands its MX Industrial Edge ecosystem

Nokia  launched four third-party applications for its MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) on-premise edge platform. The new applications leverage the GPU capability recently announced on the box.

Additions to the Nokia Industrial Application Catalog include:

• 
  Atos Computer Vision - Quality Inspector: Part of the Eviden business within Atos Group, this solution uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide applications which improve quality and productivity in manufacturing environments. It leverages modern deep learning to detect defects, foreign objects, anomalies, or incorrect setups with AI-based video analytics in real time. Enhanced by the new MXIE GPU capability, enterprises can quickly deliver models that achieve high accuracy even in challenging conditions.
• Crosser: The low code streaming analytics and integration platform for industrial IoT and industry 4.0. Users can access a rich library of pre-built modules and connectors to build Intelligent data flows and pipelines for preprocessing, analyzing and acting on industrial data. Live loops of streaming data can be created for ingesting transformed, ready-to-use data to any machine, service, cloud, IoT platform or digital twin.
• Litmus Edge: unifying data collection, normalization, contextualization, and analytics at the edge and cloud. Nearly 300 pre-built device drivers and integrations for OT assets and enterprise systems, along with digital twin and machine learning models, make it easier to address asset monitoring, anomaly detection, energy consumption, forecasting, predictive maintenance and more.
• Palo Alto Networks Next-Gen Firewall: Advanced security powered by Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto Networks software Next Generation Firewalls (VM-Series and CN-Series) deployed on MXIE uses AI and ML to prevent sophisticated cyber threats in the OT environment, without adding physical hardware to the network. 

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/04/13/nokia-expands-industrial-edge-applications-to-accelerate-enterprises-transition-to-industry-40/

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AWS sees long-term opportunities as it faces short-term headwinds

AWS faces short-term headwinds, writes Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a letter to investors dated 13-April-2023, due to companies "being more cautious in spending given the challenging, current macroeconomic conditions."  Nevertheless, Jassy says AWS continues to invest in cloud infrastructure and customer development for the long term.

Some notes from his letter:

• AWS revenue amounted to $80B in 2022, with about 90% of Global IT spending still on-premises and yet to migrate to the cloud.
• The AWS new customer pipeline is robust, as are active migrations. 
• AWS continues to deliver new capabilities rapidly (over 3,300 new features and services launched in 2022)
• AWS is investing heavily is Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI for its own use and for customer use.
• AWS delivered its first training chip (“Trainium”) in 2022; and for the most common machine learning models, Trainium-based instances are up to 140% faster than GPU-based instances at up to 70% lower cost.
• AWS launched its first inference chips (“Inferentia”) in 2019. The Inferentia2 chip, which just launched, offers up to four times higher throughput and ten times lower latency than ther predecessor. 
• Graviton3 chips, which launched in 2022, are providing 25% better performance than the Graviton2 processors
• The Kuiper project to create a low-Earth orbit satellite system for broadband internet service shares several similarities to AWS in that it’s capital intensive at the start, but has a large prospective consumer, enterprise, and government customer base, significant revenue and operating profit potential, and relatively few companies with the technical and inventive aptitude, as well as the investment hypothesis to go after it. 

The full letter is here: https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_downloads/AnnualMeetingMaterials/2023/2022-Shareholder-Letter.pdf

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AWS previews its generative AI service

AWS kicked off a limited preview of Amazon Bedrock, a new service that makes very large models that are pre-trained on vast amounts of data and commonly, referred to as Foundation Models (FMs), from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Stability AI, and Amazon accessible via an API. 

Bedrock enables customers to build and scale generative AI-based applications using FMs, The service will offer the ability to access a range of powerful FMs for text and images—including Amazon’s Titan FMs.

AWS says that one of the most important aspects of Bedrock is the ability to easily  customize a model. Customers simply point Bedrock at a few labeled examples in Amazon S3, and the service can fine-tune the model for a particular task without having to annotate large volumes of data (as few as 20 examples is enough). 

AWS notes that all data is encrypted and does not leave a customer’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/announcing-new-tools-for-building-with-generative-ai-on-aws/?trk=ace7c69a-33d1-4ab3-9cd3-c22ce23d47a7&sc_channel=el

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Sparkle boosts global optical transport with Nokia, Infinera

Sparkle is upgrading its global optical terrestrial and subsea networks with solutions supplied by Infinera and Nokia.

With the deployment of C band + L band (“C+L”) photonic nodes on the terrestrial links in Europe, Middle East and South America, Sparkle further increases its transmission capacity up to 38.4 Tb/s per fiber pair, thus providing high-performance, scalable, and guaranteed connectivity services up to 800G per wavelength between key locations. 

The new technology will initially be deployed between 23 major Points of Presence (PoPs) in Europe over 12,465 km with the first link to connect Milan with Frankfurt.

The C+L technology will also benefit all of Sparkle’s proprietary optical subsea links, including the upcoming BlueMed fiber pairs. All new capacity injection on the MedNautilus in the Mediterranean Basin, Curie in the Pacific Ocean, Seabras and Monet in the Atlantic, as well as on the remaining subsea infrastructures, will be deployed using the said technologies and allowing even more flexibility in managing both bandwidth and spectrum services, pushing further their initial design capacity. 

“Sparkle is always committed to using the best optical technologies, once they prove reliable and sustainable, to increase the capacity carried by its network, ensuring the highest standards of quality and efficiency,” said Enrico Maria Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle. “With this extensive deployment of the C+L technology on its network, Sparkle reinforces its competitiveness and its leadership in the global telecommunications market.”

https://www.tisparkle.com/media/press-release/sparkle-further-boost-its-global-optical-transport-network

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Zayo adds low-latency transatlantic cable route

Zayo announced a new direct subsea cable route connecting Manchester to New York.

The route avoids avoids backhauling to global Internet hubs in London and Paris, reducing transatlantic latency and enabling a better user experience.

“Cultivating an enhanced performance for our customers is at the forefront of Zayo's mission,” said Yannick Leboyer, Europe Chief Operating Officer at Zayo. “The new subsea route is Zayo’s latest step towards providing fast, reliable infrastructure to connect global Internet hubs both within Europe and to the U.S. With the fastest transatlantic connection from Manchester, Zayo is well-positioned to handle the increasing capacity demands between these hubs, fueling business innovation and digital transformation for our customers.”

The investment marks an additional transatlantic cable for Zayo, connecting Zayo's packet IP network between North America and Continental Europe. 

https://www.zayo.com/network

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Missouri's CEPC deploys Infinera's XT

Central Electric Power Cooperative (CEPC) deployed Infinera’s XTM Series to modernize and significantly increase capacity on its existing rural broadband network across the state of Missouri. 

CEPC is an electric generation and transmission cooperative in Missouri that spans 22,000 square miles, providing power for eight distribution cooperatives, and operates an extensive rural optical network that supports critical infrastructure telecommunications as well as middle-mile connectivity for rural broadband efforts. 

Deployments leveraged a fully ROADM-powered DWDM optical layer and a combination of Layer 1 and 2 200 Gb/s traffic management solutions.

“Keeping pace with bandwidth demands and delivering reliable broadband connectivity represent key challenges as local operators strive to bridge the digital divide in rural communities,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Infinera. “Infinera’s XTM platform is purpose-built for these types of network challenges, providing an efficient and flexible solution that helps network operators like CEPC quickly and cost-effectively scale to meet end-user demand.”

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Ekinops reports Q1 revenue of €31.9 million, up 15%.

Ekinops reported consolidated revenue of €31.9 million, up +15 and in line with annual guidance of more than +12% revenue growth on a full-year basis. At constant exchange rates, growth for the quarter ended at +14%.

Key points:

• Growth in all business lines, with +32% for Optical Transport, which was boosted by the continued success of WDM systems
• Access solutions reported quarterly growth of +2%. It should be noted that growth in France remained brisk, in the double digits.
• The share of Software & Services represented 14% of quarterly revenue, versus 15% in FY 2022, considering a particularly high basis for comparison (up +64% in Q1 2022).
• Record sales growth in North America: +86%, representing 30% of revenue. For the first time, on a quarterly basis, this region represented 30% of Group sales. The company cited significant deliveries to an important US service provider that covers 16 states.
• This past quarter was characterized by similar growth in France and international business, amounting to +15%.
• The share of international activity accounted for 67% of revenue in Q1 2023, compared to 64% for FY 2022.
• EMEA (Europe, excluding France, the Middle-East and Africa), which represents 34% of the Group's activity, posted a decline of -7% in its quarterly sales. Considering the basis for comparison (up +21% in Q1 2022), this trend is not indicative of the growth levels expected for the region on a full-year basis.
• Asia-Pacific reported a -40% decline which is also immaterial since it follows a +113% increase in sales over Q1 2022. Asia-Pacific accounted for 3% of the quarter's business volumes.

https://www.ekinops.com/news/corporate/q1-2023-31-9m-revenue-up-15

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EFFECT Photonics adds to team

EFFECT Photonics announced the appointments of Dr. Ted Schmidt as Senior Vice President of Product Development, Tony Englese as Vice President of Operations, and Veronique Gremmen-de Groot as lobal Head of Resources.

Schmidt has over 20 years of fiberoptic transceiver development experience, delivering advanced optical technologies for industry leaders such as Lumentum, Juniper Networks, OpNext, and Stratalight Communications. With a PhD in Physics, he is an inventor on 45 US patents and has authored numerous books, papers and articles in the field of optical communications.

Englese is an expert manufacturing and operations professional with a wide range of experience at companies such as Juniper Networks, Aurrion and Xsigo Systems (acquired by Oracle).

Gremmen-de Groot has an extensive background in Human Resources and organizational development for various industries, having worked for global companies such as KPN, Office Depot, TenneT and Conclusion.

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Ciena's new WaveRouter targets converged metro networks

Ciena introduced its new WaveRouter platform architecture for unifying IP, optical, and compute functionality in a single platform for the converged metro network. 

Ciena says WaveRouter is built on an open purpose-built router equipped with intelligent operating system software with performance data streaming, integrated with coherent pluggables, and augmented with optimized photonic line systems, for flexibility and programmability. The company cites the following features and benefits:

• Ultra-high metro capacity and multi-layer (IP/Optical) awareness and coordination

• Commercial temperature (0°C to +40°C) for space- constrained locations

• Separate modular redundant controller, route processor, and fabric 6–192 Tb/s+

• IP routing, BGP-LU, SR-MPLS, Carrier Ethernet, and SRv6 ready

• MACsec and IPsec ready

• SDN next-generation management, including support for protocols such as NETCONF/YANG, gNMI/gRPC, and GRPC dial-in/dial-out telemetry

• Single IP address for management

• Ciena’s MCP multi-layer support for end-to-end network management control and planning

• Hot-swappable redundant AC or DC power

“Service providers are looking to simplify their networks through convergence to gain a competitive edge in a cloud-driven, always-connected world. Until now, they’ve had to compromise when it came to capacity, operational ease, and sustainability. WaveRouter takes an innovative approach, combining the best in IP, coherent optics, and flexible photonics driven by multi-layer operations for real performance and energy advantages,” said Scott McFeely, Senior Vice President, Global Products and Services, Ciena.

WaveRouter will be generally available in the third quarter of 2023.

https://www.ciena.com/insights/white-papers/cienas-coherent-routing-paves-the-way-for-true-ip-optical-convergence

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Intel Foundry and Arm announce design collaboration

Intel Foundry Services (IFS) and Arm agreed to undertake design technology co-optimization (DTCO), in which chip design and process technologies are optimized together to improve power, performance, area and cost (PPAC) for Arm cores targeting Intel 18A process technology. 

Intel said its 18A process delivers two breakthrough technologies, PowerVia for optimal power delivery and RibbonFET gate all around (GAA) transistor architecture for optimal performance and power. 

IFS and Arm will develop a mobile reference design, allowing demonstration of the software and system knowledge for foundry customers. With the industry’s evolution from DTCO to system technology co-optimization (STCO), Arm and IFS will work together to optimize the platforms from applications and software through package and silicon, leveraging Intel’s unique open system foundry model.

“There is growing demand for computing power driven by the digitization of everything, but until now fabless customers have had limited options for designing around the most advanced mobile technology,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel Corporation. “Intel’s collaboration with Arm will expand the market opportunity for IFS and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology.”

“Arm’s secure, energy-efficient processors are at the heart of hundreds of billions of devices and the planet’s digital experiences,” said Rene Haas, CEO of Arm. “As the demands for compute and efficiency become increasingly complex, our industry must innovate on many new levels. Arm’s collaboration with Intel enables IFS as a critical foundry partner for our customers as we deliver the next generation of world-changing products built on Arm.”

https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1614/intel-foundry-and-arm-announce-multigeneration

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Rambus joins IFS Accelerator IP Alliance

Rambus has joined the Intel Foundry Services (IFS) Accelerator IP Alliance. 

Through the alliance, Rambus will have access to Intel's process roadmaps to provide advanced security and interface IP solutions optimized for performance, power, area and security for Intel process and packaging technologies. With Rambus IP on IFS, customers can design state-of-the-art SoCs for the data center, edge, 5G, automotive and military-aerospace applications.

"As part of our IDM 2.0 strategy, IFS is partnering with leading IP companies like Rambus to create a robust chip design ecosystem that will help our mutual customers deliver leading-edge silicon performance for the most demanding applications," said Suk Lee, VP of Ecosystem Development Office at IFS. "As the first open system foundry, our advanced process & packaging technologies and resilient supply chain, combined with Rambus IP, will lead the way to solutions that power our digital world."

"Rambus is a renowned provider of industry-leading IP solutions to customers across a broad market landscape including fast-growing data center and AI/ML applications,” said Sean Fan, chief operating officer at Rambus. “We are proud to join the Intel Foundry Services Accelerator IP Alliance and look forward to delivering IP to our mutual customers, enabling the most advanced SoCs.”

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NTIA launches $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Fund

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched a Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund aimed at developing of open and interoperable networks. 

The $1.5 billion fund, which is part for the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, will help to ensure that the future of 5G and next-gen wireless technology is built by the U.S. and its global allies and partners –not vendors from nations that threaten U.S. national security. 

The Innovation Fund’s first Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) aims to expand and improve testing to demonstrate the viability of new approaches to wireless like open radio access networks (Open RAN) and remove barriers to adoption. NTIA anticipates it will award up to $140.5 million during this first tranche of grants. The first round of awards will provide for a range of R&D and testing activities in this critical field, including: 

• Expanding industry-accepted testing and evaluation (T&E) activities to assess and facilitate the interoperability, performance, and/or security of open and interoperable, standards-based 5G radio access networks; and 
• Developing new or improved testing methodologies to test, evaluate, and validate the interoperability, performance, and/or security of these networks, including their component parts. 

Later NOFOs will build upon the foundational work of this first NOFO, creating an ecosystem for wireless innovation built by the U.S. and its global allies.  

“The Innovation Fund is a critical step toward securing 5G wireless networks while driving innovation at home and abroad,” said Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Investing in the next generation of innovation will unlock opportunities for new and emerging companies to compete in the global telecom market, strengthen our telecom supply chains and provide our allies and friends with trusted choices and innovative technologies to compete in the 21st Century.  We look forward to bringing the best of industry, academia, and the public together to deliver on this initiative.”  

“This fund is a critical downpayment on our efforts to reshape the global wireless infrastructure supply chain towards secure and trusted vendors,” said Sen. Mark Warner (VA). “I look forward to seeing how the Department – working with U.S. and allied innovators and network operators – helps encourage this market to move towards security, interoperability, and greater wireless innovation.” '

Applications due: 02-June-2023

Rolling Awards Begin: August 2023

https://ntia.gov/issues/innovation-fund/notice-of-funding-opportunity

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DISA deploys HPE Aruba Networking Infrastructure

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is modernizing and securing its multi-class wireless networks with HPE Aruba Networking ESP (Edge Services Platform) solutions.

As part of DISA’s digital transformation strategy under the Fourth Estate Network Optimization (4ENO) initiative, the deployment will include HPE Aruba Networking Wi-Fi 6 Access Points (APs) and HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass in support of approximately 400,000 DoD users and warfighters worldwide.

The 4ENO initiative includes an upgrade to a unified HPE Aruba Networking wireless infrastructure and new security capabilities at DISA Headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, for 4th Estate Agencies, and across DISA’s new DoDNet. The 4th Estate is a group of approximately two dozen DoD agencies that support the armed services and intelligence communities. DoDNet will provide secure as-a-service networking, IT systems, and business applications to participating 4th Estate agencies in support of DISA’s vision for establishing a single digital enterprise.

https://news.arubanetworks.com/news-release-details/2023/Defense-Information-Systems-Agency-DISA-Modernizes-Wireless-Networks-and-Access-Management-Across-All-Classification-Levels-With-HPE-Aruba-Networking-Infrastructure/default.aspx

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Sony Semi invests in Raspberry Pi for edge AI

Sony Semiconductor Solutions announced a strategic investment in aspberry Pi Ltd. (RPL). The minority investment cements the relationship between the two companies, to provide a development platform for SSS's edge AI devices to the worldwide community of Raspberry Pi users.

"Our goal is to provide new value to a variety of industries and support them in solving issues using our innovative edge AI sensing technology built around image sensors," said Terushi Shimizu, President and CEO of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. "We are very pleased to be partnering with Raspberry Pi Ltd. to bring our AITRIOS™ platform -- which supports the development of unique and diverse solutions utilizing our edge AI devices -- to the Raspberry Pi user and developer community, and provide a unique development experience."

"Sony Group is a longstanding and valued strategic partner. Our pre-existing relationship encompasses contract manufacturing, and the provision of image sensors and other semiconductor products," said Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi Ltd. "This transaction will allow us to expand our partnership, bringing Sony Semiconductor Solutions' line of AI products to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, and helping our users to build exciting new machine-learning applications at the edge."

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