Monday, August 14, 2023

LightRiver and Infinera showcase Coherent Pluggables in Multi-Vendor Networks

Infinera and LightRiver have completed a multi-vendor interoperability technology demonstration that leverages Infinera’s ICE-X line of intelligent coherent pluggables deployed in third-party host devices, including routers from Juniper Networks operating over a Smartoptics open ROADM system and the leading FTTX PON solution.

LightRiver’s netFLEX Transport Domain Orchestration and Control Software, combined with Infinera’s Intelligent Pluggables Manager (IPM) software, provided multi-vendor network automation.

The demonstration validates how network operators can leverage next-generation coherent pluggables to provide significant improvement in network efficiencies and expand network capacity by as much as 40 times, while also delivering new high-speed business services to currently underserved remote rural areas, including over single-fiber FTTX PON infrastructures.

“This demonstration highlights how disruptive and comprehensive technologies like Infinera’s ICE-X intelligent coherent pluggable solution provides network operators visibility to the optical layer of their network that was previously missing to deliver an accurate view to streamline operations,” said Tom Burns, General Manager of Optical Modules & Coherent Solutions Group at Infinera. “Infinera remains committed to delivering industry-leading open optical networking solutions, and we are proud to collaborate with LightRiver and other industry vendors to validate that these multi-layered disaggregated solutions can be rapidly deployed and managed.”

"Illustrating the power of LightRiver's netFLEX® network automation platform alongside Infinera's ICE-X intelligent coherent pluggable technology is a great opportunity for our companies to show how collectively we can help network operators improve efficiency and speeds,” added Matt Briley, SVP of Global Sales & Network Solutions Engineering at LightRiver. “Specifically, this multi-vendor integration showcases how next-gen network operators can achieve higher performance with fewer resources by leveraging automation and collaboration.”

The companies will exhibit their joint solution at Fiber Connect 2023, held August 20-23, 2023, at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Florida.

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/lightriver-and-infinera-to-showcase-the-power-of-next-gen-coherent-pluggables/

CENIC brings native 400 Gbps to CalREN

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) kicked off a new phase of the California Research and Education Network (CalREN) backbone: the upgrade of major node sites to support native 400 Gbps handoffs from member institutions, beginning with the San Diego node site located at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego. The Sunnyvale, Emeryville, Sacramento, Riverside, Tustin, and Los Angeles node sites are scheduled to be completed through this fiscal year.

Frank Würthwein, SDSC Director and Professor in the Department of Physics and at the HalıcıoÄŸlu Data Science Institute at UC San Diego, sees great benefit to the big-data research community in California. “SDSC is excited to work with CENIC on translating innovation into practice. While the first science driver for 400G is experimental particle physics in collaboration with Caltech’s Harvey Newman, we see many other disciplines in the wings, from astronomy to cybersecurity research to genomics to neuroscience, and of course Artificial Intelligence across them all.”

"These new native 400Gbps handoffs, along with the panoply of services that CENIC currently offers — Layer2 Virtual Private Network Services, Optical Services, and Optical Spectrum Services — will further pre-position one of the world’s leading research communities with additional cyberinfrastructure tools to continue a remarkable history of scientific and medical innovations," said CENIC’s President and CEO, Louis Fox.

https://cenic.org/news/cenic-completes-first-backbone-upgrade-allowing-native-400-gbps-handoffs-to-calren

  • In December 2022, CENIC validated ZR Plus coherent pluggables over CENIC’s production optical line system between Los Angeles and Sunnyvale, spanning a 750 km amplified distance. The demonstration used ZR Plus coherent optics in QSFP-DD form factor installed in a router at each end. CENIC turned up a 300G optical service and confirmed the error-free performance of the service, with a comfortable operating margin.
  • “We are pleased with these initial results, and we will continue to report to the community as we complete additional validations and adoption of coherent pluggables in our production network,” said Sana Bellamine, CENIC’s Director of Regional and International Infrastructure.
  • The Los Angeles to Sunnyvale turn-up was completed in close collaboration with Cisco.


Arelion deploys Cisco 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules

Arelion has today announced that it has taken another landmark step in con­­­­­­­­­­verging its IP and optical layers as the first global network to 

Arelion confirmed the deployment of Cisco 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules in its production IP backbone. 

The first regional reach deployment spans 675 kilometers between Stockholm and Copenhagen, over third-party Optical Open Line System (O-OLS).

Cisco 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules, with greater than +1 dBm transmit power, substantially simplify integration with brownfield and greenfield deployments. The streamlined architecture eliminates the need for excessive hardware, thereby reducing potential points of failure. As a result, it achieves 64% CAPEX and 76% OPEX savings. This contributes to a significantly more cost-efficient network with fewer interfaces to control and maintain.

Arelion said the deployment streamlines its overall network architecture, and also improves energy efficiency and ensures a more efficient expansion process.

"Almost four years ago, Cisco established the mission to redefine the economics of the internet through innovative products and solutions, like Routed Optical Networking. Together, we are helping Arelion achieve impressive cost savings and greater efficiency with Cisco 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules," said Bill Gartner, SVP and General Manager, Optical Systems and Optics, Cisco.

"With constantly rising demand for our IP services and increasing traffic across the Internet, Arelion is constantly looking to deploy the latest technology. The deployment of Cisco 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules will ensure cost-effective, high-performance connectivity for our customers and help us grow our network in scale as we continue to connect the world. In addition, the coherent pluggable modules also help us achieve our sustainability goals through improved energy efficiency and redeploying redundant hardware assets," said Dariusz Solowiej, VP Network Technology & Customer Operations, Arelion.

https://wwwArelion.com


Australia’s TPG Telecom deploys Ericsson’s Expert Analytics

TPG Telecom has awarded a new multi-year agreement to Ericsson for its cloud-native and AI-powered analytics tool.

Based on Ericsson Expert Analytics and EXFO Adaptive Service Assurance, the solution gives TPG Telecom’s Technology, Network and Care teams an in-depth, end-to-end understanding of subscriber’s experience at an individual level. Through the new agreement, TPG Telecom will gain insights from its 4G and 5G Mobile, Fixed Wireless Access and IoT subscribers using smart data collection with embedded intelligence to predict, prioritise, and resolve performance issues as they arise in real-time.

The solution integrates Ericsson Expert Analytics, EXFO adaptive service assurance and Ericsson software probes, provided as part of Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core, to deliver end-to-end network visibility and reduced total costs.

Ericsson said TPG Telecom is the first in Australia and one of the first communication service providers (CSP) globally to deploy Ericsson Expert Analytics in a commercial network using cloud-native technologies. 

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/7/2023/tpg-telecom-and-ericsson-launch-australian-first-analytics-and-troubleshooting-solution-to-boost-network-performance-for-customers

Intel and Synopsys expand partnership to advanced notes

Under an expanded strategic partnership, Synopsys will enable a range of its standardized interface IP portfolio on Intel's leading-edge process technologies, including Intel 3 and Intel 18A. This will give Intel's foundry customers access toIPs built on Intel advanced process technologies, and will help them accelerate design execution and project schedules for system-on-chips (SoCs).

Intel said the collaboration is an important milestone in its IDM 2.0 strategy, which is a multiyear transformation to regain and strengthen technology leadership, manufacturing scale and long-term growth. 

“Marking another important step in our IDM 2.0 strategy, this transaction will foster a vibrant foundry ecosystem by allowing designers to fully realize the advantages of Intel 3 and Intel 18A process technologies and quickly bring differentiated products to market,” said Stuart Pann, senior vice president and general manager of IFS. “Synopsys brings a strong track record of delivering high-quality IP to a broad customer base, and this agreement will help accelerate the availability of IP on advanced IFS nodes for mutual customers.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-partnership-news-aug-2023.html?cid=iosm&source=twitter&campid=newsroom_posts&content=100004477226984&icid=always-on&linkId=100000213854494#gs.4f85x2


Intelsat expects $3.7B in accelerated spectrum relocation payments

Intelsat expects to receive nearly $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter after completing C-band frequency clearing.

The FCC C-Band Transition Order set a deadline to clear the spectrum by December 2025 but offered incentive payments to satellite operators if cleared before December 2023. With the validated certification now complete, Intelsat will receive accelerated relocation payments totaling $3.67 billion.

“Intelsat’s C-band transition facilitates broader 5G services in the United States, while strengthening our financial position,” said Dave Wajsgras, CEO at Intelsat. “We reached this milestone well ahead of expectations, and I’m exceptionally proud of the Intelsat team and the hard work that led to this remarkable achievement.”

“Half of these proceeds will be used to deleverage our balance sheet, consistent with our debt covenants, while the remainder provides Intelsat with various options to create value and opportunities for all of our stakeholders,” Wajsgras said. “The Intelsat team is well positioned to remain a leader in the satellite communications industry as we continue transforming the company for the future.”

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Tech Update: CXL over Optics is a Game Changer for AI Data Centers

What is Optical CXL? LLMs need massive amounts of memory. Looking ahead, this requirement will only grow. CXL is emerging as an industry standard way to enable vast pools of virtualized memory.

https://youtu.be/jfczL_F1TTw

Here is Ron Swartzentruber, Director of Engineering from Lightelligence, to explain in 2 minutes how CXL over optics could be a game changer for data center architecture. Highlights:

  • The introduction of Photowave, a product that connects devices over a low latency Optical CXL fabric, is changing the way we think of computing and data center architectures.
  • The industry-backed CXL standard adds memory and cache coherency protocols to PCI Express, enabling disaggregation with much lower latency and higher bandwidth than an Ethernet-based solution.
  • The Photowave product extends the reach of the CXL PCI interconnect using photonics, offering energy efficiency and dramatic savings, and supports CXL 2.0 and PCI Gen 5 connectivity.

Check out other Tech Updates on our YouTube Channel (subscribe today): https://www.youtube.com/@NextGenInfra and check out our latest reports at: https://nextgeninfra.io/

Have a tech update that you want to brief us on? Contact info@nextgeninfra.io!


Maui fire knocked out 20 mobile towers near Lahaina

The wild fire in west Maui disrupted or destroyed 20 out of 21 mobile towers serving the areas of Kapalua, Napili-Honokowai, Kaanapali, Lahaina, Launiupoko, and Olowalu, according to network outage data furnished by communications providers to the FCC.

In addition, cable and wireline companies reported 16,709 subscribers out of service in the disaster area; this may include the loss of telephone, television, and/or Internet services.

Singtel builds Singapore’s highest power density data center

Singtel held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the commencement of construction of DC Tuas, Singapore’s highest power density, hyper-connected green data centre.

When operational in 2025, DC Tuas will offer 58MW of IT load capacity to support the strong demand for high-quality, sustainable digital infrastructure while optimising land, power and water use. The 120,000sqft, eight-storey facility is Singapore’s only data centre to be integrated with a cable landing station, providing its customers unparalleled international and domestic connectivity and enhanced network performance including lower latency and improved reliability.

DC Tuas, which is Singtel’s largest data centre in Singapore to date, will incorporate next-generation cooling capabilities that are able to support customers’ rack density of up to 80kW per rack with more efficient liquid cooling, thus lowering its PUE to below 1.3.

https://www.singtel.com/about-us/media-centre

Cisco to acquire WG2 for could-native mobile core

Cisco agreed to acquire Working Group Two (WG2), a Norwegian company built from a Telenor incubation together with Cisco, that pioneered a cloud native mobile core as-a-service platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cisco said WG2’s platform aligns with its Mobility Services Platform.

In a blog post, Matsum Mir, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Cisco Networking’s Provider Mobility business, writes: “WG2’s expertise in the mobile space brings capabilities crucial to the enterprise market including complete authentication, provisioning, voice, messaging, and data services, all of which will be rolled into our existing Control Center offers. Together, our Mobility Services Platform, and the Cisco Networking Cloud, Assurance, Security, and Collaboration portfolios, deliver remarkable value to our Service Provider partners and address business critical use cases for our enterprise customers.”

  • In 2019, Working Group Two (WG2), which is a new venture backed by Telenor Group and Digital Alpha (a financial fund supported by Cisco), announced a wholesale cloud-managed mobile network platform that will run both control and user plane on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The WG2 platform includes Cisco’s virtualized Ultra Packet Core, delivering 2G/3G/4G/5G mobile services, hosted on AWS. WG2 said its platform allows mobile operators and enterprises to create and monetize a new breed of business and consumer mobile services that control the network through a simple cloud-based API.


Oracle distributed cloud now available as a single rack on-prem

Oracle is making its distributed cloud platform available as a single-rack solution for enterprises to deploy in their own data centers. Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer enables organizations to run applications and middleware on OCI compute, storage, and networking services with flexible virtual machine (VM) shapes in their data centers. 

Organizations can use the same OCI services in their data centers and Oracle Cloud Regions, while developers and IT managers can use the same APIs and management tools to deliver a consistent user experience everywhere. 

“Users want a consistent experience regardless of where services are running, and that is why we continue to invest in our distributed cloud strategy with the launch of Compute Cloud@Customer,” said Edward Screven, chief corporate architect, Oracle. 

https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-delivers-oci-compute-services-anywhere-with-compute-cloud-at-customer-2023-08-09/

Dell’Oro: Private Wireless RAN Revenues Accelerated in Q2

 Private wireless revenues remain small relative to total RAN investments, but year-over-year growth is on the uptick, according to a recent report from Dell’Oro Group. Preliminary readings suggest that total private wireless RAN revenues, including traditional private wide-area macro and small cells, increased by around 60 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) in the second quarter. This growth was underpinned by positive trends from both established and smaller RAN suppliers.

“As is the case with most new shiny objects, there is an initial period of excessive hype and anticipation that results in a mismatch between expectations and reality,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “After multiple adjustments, the industry is now coming to terms with the fact that private wireless is a marathon, not a sprint. With both the suppliers and the operators adjusting their near-term expectations, the industry is now more aligned and in a better position to meet these revised growth objectives. The results in the second quarter clearly show that the private wireless market is moving in the right direction,” continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the July 2023 Private Wireless Report:

  • Top 3 Private Wireless RAN suppliers for the 3Q 2022 to 2Q 2023 period include Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson.
  • Top 3 Private Wireless RAN suppliers outside of China for the 3Q 2022 to 2Q 2023 period include Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung.
  • The high-level message that we have communicated for some time has not changed—private wireless is a massive opportunity, but it will take some time for private wireless to impact the broader public plus private RAN market.
  • Following multiple downward forecast revisions over the past year, we did not make any material changes this time around to the forecast or the mix between public and private investments. Total private wireless RAN revenues are projected to grow at a 24 percent CAGR between 2022 and 2027, while public RAN revenues are set to decline at a 2 percent CAGR over the same time period.
  • The underlying technology mix has also not changed. 5G is dominating in China, while LTE is currently dominating outside of China. Private 5G RAN revenues are projected to exceed $1 billion by 2027.

https://www.delloro.com/news/private-wireless-ran-revenues-accelerate-in-second-quarter/

Huawei returns to growth in 1H2023

Huawei reported revenue of CNY310.9 billion for 1H2023, with a year-on-year increase of 3.1% and a net profit margin of 15.0%. 

The company's ICT infrastructure business contributed CNY167.2 billion, its consumer business CNY103.5 billion, its cloud business CNY24.1 billion, its digital power business CNY24.2 billion, and its intelligent automotive solution (IAS) business CNY1 billion.

Huawei said the results were in line with its expectations.

"I'd like to thank our customers and partners for their ongoing support," said Sabrina Meng, Huawei's Rotating Chairwoman. "I'd also like to thank the entire Huawei team for its solidarity and dedication. Huawei has been investing heavily in foundational technologies to harness trends in digitalization, intelligence, and decarbonization, focusing on creating value for our customers and partners. In the first half of 2023, our ICT infrastructure business remained solid and our consumer business achieved growth. Our digital power and cloud businesses both experienced strong growth, and our new components for intelligent connected vehicles continue to gain competitiveness."

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2023/8/h1-business-results


Friday, August 11, 2023

MIPI Alliance and Automotive SerDes Alliance focus on camera and image sensors

The MIPI Alliance and the Automotive SerDes Alliance (ASA) have announced a new partnership that will enable the native integration of MIPI CSI-2 with the ASA Motion Link (ASA-ML) physical layer (PHY) interface. The goal is a more streamlined development environment for camera and image sensor applications by the automotive industry.

MIPI CSI-2 is a widely-used camera and image sensor interface that is already well-established in the automotive industry. ASA-ML is a high-speed SerDes PHY that is optimized for harsh automotive environments. The combination of MIPI CSI-2 and ASA-ML will provide automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers with a high-performance, reliable, and cost-effective solution for their camera and image sensor needs.

Under the terms of the partnership, ASA will develop an Application Stream Encapsulation Protocol (ASEP) to enable native CSI-2 transport over the ASA Motion Link PHY. Once the CSI-2 ASEP is approved by MIPI, ASA will include the CSI-2 ASEP in its next specification release as the only recommended camera protocol interface. Implementation of CSI-2 over ASA Motion Link will require memberships in both MIPI and ASA to benefit from their respective intellectual property licensing terms.

In addition to the partnership for MIPI CSI-2, the two organizations also plan to collaborate on the use of MIPI Display Serial Interface 2 (MIPI DSI-2) and security-related specifications.

https://www.mipi.org

Radisys acquires Mimosa

Radisys completed its previously announced acquisition of Mimosa Networks, a subsidiary of Airspan Networks.

Mimosa brings a diverse portfolio of point-to-point and point-to-multi-point connectivity products leveraging unlicensed spectrum bands. These products enable the rapid rollout of multi-gigabit-per-second Fixed Wireless Access networks and wireless backhaul connectivity for telecommunications systems. 

Radisys says the Mimosa product suite complements Radisys Open Access (Connect Open RAN and Connect Open Broadband) portfolio.



Thursday, August 10, 2023

Verizon Business partners with HCLTech for Managed Network Services

Verizon Business designated HCLTech as its primary Managed Network Services (MNS) collaborator in all networking deployments for global enterprise customers.

HCL Technologies (HCLTech) is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company headquartered in Noida.

Under the partnership, Verizon Business will continue to lead all customer acquisition, sales, solutioning, and overall planning and development with its customers. HCLTech will lead post-sale implementation and ongoing support. To execute the tightly coordinated balance of responsibilities at enterprise scale, a select group of Verizon Business Global Customer Operations staff will transition to HCLTech.

The companies said the partnership will help enterprise customers to  better control and scale their consumption of network services, better incorporate their broader ecosystem of technology partners, converge informational and operational technology (IT/OT) undertakings, and generally become more agile in accommodating ever changing technology needs. The managed service expertise covers complex operating environments -- across diverse locations, geographies, and devices -- while incorporating new technologies into their stack, including 5G, SD-WAN and SASE capabilities.

“HCLTech is a widely recognized industry leader for Managed Network Services, and with their IT service expertise and ongoing support of our enterprise networking deployments, Verizon Business can modernize our service delivery and simultaneously heighten our focus on helping customers incorporate next-generation technology like 5G, SD-WAN and SASE into their operations and their own customer offerings,” said Kyle Malady, CEO, Verizon Business. “IT/OT convergence is the future of data-centric business operations, and with the fast-accelerating pace of digitalization, customers need a well-coordinated delivery framework to realize that future.”

“Managed Network Services is core to our business, and we’re proud to collaborate with Verizon Business to lead MNS in all of their network deployments, modernization and operations for private enterprise,” said C Vijayakumar, CEO and Managing Director, HCLTech. “Our data-driven service delivery, advanced network capabilities and frictionless customer interfaces combined with the unique strengths and resiliency of the Verizon network will enable enterprises to drive better business outcomes and time to market. I am excited to welcome the incoming employees from Verizon Business Global Customer Operations and look forward to a successful and fulfilling journey together.”

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-business-forms-global-strategic-partnership-hcltech

Tech Update: The AI Networking Bandwidth Challenge

Scaling network infrastructure for AI faces a daunting challenge. Compared to today's servers connected at 100 Gbps, AI clusters will demand 30 Tbps - a 300X increase.

Nigel Alvares, VP of Global Marketing and Business Planning, Marvell, explains:

- The current cloud AI infrastructure is facing a bottleneck issue due to the need for greater bandwidth connectivity between growing capabilities of GPUs, TPUs, and AI accelerators.
- The solution to this challenge lies in the use of Optics. Optics are needed to connect these clusters together, within the clusters, and to connect the AI engines to memory, storage, and to one another.
- Marvell is addressing this opportunity with PAM4 technology spanning 800 gigabits per second, aiming to reach 1.6 terabist per second over the next year. They are also working with the ecosystem to scale beyond this.

https://youtu.be/E2eAwrfFEdA

Check out other Tech Updates on our YouTube Channel (subscribe today): https://www.youtube.com/@NextGenInfra and check out our latest reports at: https://nextgeninfra.io/

Have a tech update that you want to brief us on? Contact info@nextgeninfra.io!
https://ngi.fyi/tech-marvell-nigel

"Unpacking NaaS - Beyond Financing Models"

Will Network as a Service (NaaS) really change the way businesses operate?

Neil Anderson, AVP, Cloud and Infrastructure from WWT discusses:

- NaaS is not just a new financing model, it's a fundamentally different service that's changing the way businesses consume technology.

- With NaaS, businesses don't own the equipment but consume it more like a home broadband model, paying a provider a certain amount per month for the service.

- The key characteristics of NaaS include a different service model and a new way of financing equipment, making it a real game-changer in the tech industry

https://youtu.be/7d50lNKiJG4

Full showcase on #SASE, #SSE, #SDWAN, #ZTNA, #MCN, #NaaS at: https://ngi.fyi/sdwansaseztna23yt

Want to be involved in our video series? Contact info@nextgeninfra.io


IBM unveils analog AI chip for deep learning inference

 IBM Research introduced a mixed-signal analog AI chip for running a variety of deep neural network (DNN) inference tasks. 

The device has been tested to be as adept at computer vision AI tasks as digital counterparts, while being considerably more energy efficient.

The chip was fabricated in IBM’s Albany NanoTech Complex, and is composed of 64 analog in-memory compute cores (or tiles), each of which contains 256-by-256 crossbar array of synaptic unit cells. Compact, time-based analog-to-digital converters are integrated in each tile to transition between the analog and digital worlds. Each tile is also integrated with lightweight digital processing units that perform simple nonlinear neuronal activation functions and scaling operations.

The chip also has digital communication pathways at the chip interconnects of all the tiles and the global digital processing unit.

https://research.ibm.com/blog/analog-ai-chip-inference?sf180876106=1

Equinix to build fourth data center in Mumbai

Equinix plans to invest $42 million for its fourth International Business Exchange data center in Mumbai, India.

Equinix currently has two IBX data centers in Mumbai, named MB1 and MB2. The two data centers are home to the digital infrastructure of more than 300 international and local companies, including access to the world's leading cloud service providers Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud. They also host global networks, content delivery network providers, local carriers, more than 165 internet service providers (ISPs) and five internet exchanges. Businesses can use Platform Equinix® to quickly interconnect with these providers and their own global IBX deployments using on-demand, self-service connectivity.

In March 2022, Equinix announced its plan to enter the Chennai market with a land acquisition of over 5.5 acres. In June 2022, Equinix announced plans to expand its footprint with an investment of over US$86 million to build its third data center in Mumbai, called MB3.

Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India commented, "The increased digitalization of the economy is constantly driving the need for data center and interconnection services in India. The availability of MB4, expected in Q4 2023, will allow us to continue serving our customers' needs in India, enabling them to leverage our interconnection platform for efficient connectivity to multiple cloud service providers, network service providers and other businesses. This will help existing and new customers accelerate their digital transformation journey."

https://www.equinix.com/newsroom/press-releases/2023/08/equinix-expands-footprint-in-mumbai-to-address-rising-demand-for-digital-infrastructure