ECOC: LESSENGERS leverages direct optical wiring in 800G

LESSENGERS introduced its new 800G transceiver product (800G OSFP SR8) featuring “direct optical wiring” (DOW) technology, which is a polymer-based air-cladded waveguide technology that is particularly useful for optical interconnects in the data center and high-performance computing environments. 

The new new 800G OSFP SR8 transceiver will begin volume production in the Q4 2023.

DOW connects the active photonic devices such as laser diodes or photodiodes directly to the optical fiber, providing high-density and high-speed optical signal connectivity between switches, servers, and other devices within the data center or HPC clusters.  LESSENGERS cites the following benefits:

• No active alignment – cost-competitive optical coupling
• No use of multi-channel lens assembly – near-zero optical crosstalk
• No air gap – dramatically lower reflection noise
• High degree of freedom in heat sink design – much lower junction temperature

“We are proud to announce the volume production of DOW-based 800G AOCs and transceivers,” said Chongcook Kim, CEO at LESSENGERS.  “The use of DOW technology enables us to achieve high-performance and low-noise optics by its nature allowing us to streamline the production process flow with complete automation.”

https://lessengers.com/?page_id=14779

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ECOC: MACOM showcases 200Gbps/lane devices

At next week's European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) in Glasgow, MACOM will be showcasing 200Gbps/lane optical links and 200G/lane copper cables enabled by its newest chipsets.

200Gbps/lane Live Demonstrations:

• 226Gbps Laser Driver and TIA for 1.6T Optical Modules
• 226Gbps per lane Active Copper Cable Equalizers Extending DAC Reach for 800G/1.6T Applications
• 800G Multimode Fiber QSFP-DD (with DSP Partner) based on 112 Gbps per lane VCSEL Drivers and TIAs
• MACOM PURE DRIVE 800G Linear Pluggable Module Solutions

Showcase of New Products and Capabilities:

• High-Performance PIN Photodetector for 212 G per lane Applications
• 8-Channel SiPh Drivers for 800 G and 1.6 T Single-mode PAM4 Applications
• 226 Gbps EML and SiPh drivers for 1.6 T Optical Modules
• 130 Gbaud Drivers and TIAs for Coherent Applications

https://www.macom.com

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Cox Private Networks Launches Neutral Host as a Service

Cox Private Networks introduced Neutral Host as a Service in partnership with InfiniG. This solution provides reliable cellular from multiple mobile network operations (MNOs) in environments with poor indoor cellular coverage.  It expands public cellular networks through a dedicated, customer-owned private wireless network.

 Cox said its expands its private network offerings and provides mobile users access to stable, high-speed cellular service in hard-to-service areas such as buildings with reflective building materials, concrete walls, or locations underground. The solution solves similar challenges that distributed antenna systems (DAS) address, but at reduced cost and complexity, while also addressing many previously unserved organizations, facilities, and industries.

The Cox Connected Environments Collaboratory at Arizona State University is deploying an on-campus pilot of the Neutral Host technology. Through the pilot, the Collaboratory will explore how the solution enhances the digital infrastructure that powers learning and working for both students and employees.

"Offering a neutral host solution to enhance indoor cellular coverage is the natural next step for applying private wireless technology and is one more way we can use private wireless networks to solve our customer's connectivity pain points," said Brett Lasher, general manager, Cox Private Networks. "Our Neutral Host solution empowers enterprises to finally take control of the quality of cellular coverage within their four walls and deliver the connectivity that employees, customers and guests require.”

 

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Equinix provides cable landing station in L.A.for Southern Cross NEXT

Equinix will provide a key U.S.-based interconnectivity access point for the Southern Cross NEXT (SX NEXT) submarine cable system, which offers the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to Los Angeles.  

SX NEXT will leverage Equinix's next-generation cable landing station (CLS) architecture and its Los Angeles data center, enabling rapid provisioning and cost savings for the cable network provider. 

Equinix notes that it has won 50 subsea cable projects since entering the business in 2015. More than 50 Equinix metros are CLS enabled, meaning that Equinix's data centers are close enough to the coast to be able to support a CLS deployment.

https://www.equinix.com/newsroom/press-releases/2023/09/equinix-serves-as-gateway-for-southern-cross-next-subsea-cable-system-linking-australia-and-new-zealand-with-the-u-s-

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Arrcus teams with Red Hat on Multicloud Networking

Arrcus is collaborating with Red Hat to extend multicloud networking capabilities for service providers.

In collaboration with Red Hat, Arrcus brings a cloud-native approach, leveraging containerized and virtualized solutions, to help businesses adapt to the demands of the digital era. The centerpiece of this collaboration is the Arrcus multi-cloud networking platform, known as FlexMCN built on Arrcus’ ACE platform, which offers scalability, hyperscale performance, and cloud-native security for interconnecting enterprise data centers with cloud regions worldwide.

FlexMCN is tailored for service providers, colocation providers, and telcos, enabling them to extend their on-premise networks to multicloud environments seamlessly. 

Deploying and managing ArcEdge virtual routers across virtual private clouds (VPCs) and virtual networks (VNETs) in any region and cloud environment is simplified through the intuitive ArcOrchestrator console. Service providers can effortlessly deploy, connect, and secure numerous ArcEdges at scale, offering hub-spoke, full-mesh, or hybrid connectivity options. Furthermore, it simplifies cloud migration across multicloud environments with support for private and overlapping IP addresses along with network address translation.

"Our collaboration with Red Hat marks a significant milestone for our customers, bringing together Arrcus' cutting-edge network operating system with Red Hat's open source expertise,” said Arrcus Chairman and CEO, Shekar Ayyar. “We are excited about this collaboration as it empowers customers with a future-proof, scalable, and automated networking solution that can propel digital transformation to new heights."

https://arrcus.com/news/arrcus-unveils-groundbreaking-ace-ai-networking-solution/

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Akamai expands in seven key cities

Akamai Technologies announced the addition seven core compute regions in key locations around the world: Amsterdam, Netherlands; Jakarta, Indonesia; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Milan, Italy; Osaka, Japan; and São Paulo, Brazil. This marks the third phase of Akamai’s latest core compute region expansion since their acquisition of Linode last year. 

Highlights:

● Akamai’s new region in Amsterdam joins Akamai’s recently launched Stockholm region to power customers in northwest Europe.

● The company’s Jakarta region is located in the heart of a nation experiencing a rapidly growing digital economy. Indonesia is anticipated to grow its internet users by 36 million between now and 2028.

● Akamai's new core compute region in Los Angeles, the media and entertainment capital of the world.

● The company's Miami-based core compute region lets the company better serve customers doing business in Latin America, bringing Akamai's distributed connectivity to a rapidly growing business hub, which has seen an explosion of tech talent and venture capital investment.

● Akamai’s presence in Milan puts a stake in the ground in Italy’s second-largest city. The Italian market for cloud services grew 250 percent from 2015 to 2022. In addition to serving customers in Europe, the location will also support customers in the Middle East.

● The company’s new Osaka region will connect Japan’s population of 125 million to the massively scalable Akamai backbone. Japan ranks eighth in the world for countries with the largest digital populations.

● With one of the largest and hardest to reach digital populations in Latin America, São Paulo is Akamai’s first core compute region in Latin America, with additional connectivity planned later this year.

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Intel begins high-volume EUV production in Ireland

Intel commenced high-volume EUV production in Leixlip, Ireland.

The production in Fab 34 features the Intel 4 process technology.

The EUV scanner was supplied by ASML.

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Vecima expands U.S. manufacturing

Vecima Networks, which supplies broadband access equipment, will expand manufacturing into the U.S. for certain products in its Entra portfolio to meet the proposed Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

Presently, two of Vecima’s broadband access products – the Entra SF-4X Remote Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and the Entra EN8100 Remote PHY Access Node – are compliant with the BABA requirements pertaining to the Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program, another IIJA program, and have been widely deployed across North America.

Vecima has been engaged with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications Information and Administrative Agency (NTIA), which is currently finalizing rules related to BABA domestic sourcing requirements for the BEAD Program. Vecima anticipates, based on the steps the company is taking today, that Vecima will be part of NTIA’s list of BABA-compliant vendors for the BEAD program upon finalization of those requirements and its U.S. manufacturing operations.

“Our current Entra fiber and cable access platforms have been broadly successful with service providers due to strong technical and operational differentiation,” said Clay McCreery, Vecima Chief Operating Officer. “Today’s announcement that we’re planning to build products in the United States demonstrates our continued commitment to the marketplace and to empowering communities with equitable access to the broadband networks that fuel progress.”

https://vecima.com/

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Zayo activates 400G across Europe

Zayo confirmed that its transport network in Europe is fully 400G enabled.

Zayo’s 400G network allows businesses, data centres, carriers and hyperscalers to access high bandwidth, low latency connectivity throughout Europe with the most direct routing for multi-cloud and multi-market connectivity. The 400G enhancements also support global connectivity for Zayo customers outside of Europe, with Zayo’s North American network also scheduled to be fully 400G enabled by the end of 2024.

Zayo’s European network is built on five diverse subsea cables, three of which are owned and operated by Zayo, powering 2,500 on-net buildings, 125 core points of presence (PoPs) and 16 metro fibre markets.

Zayo said its network enhancement also provides a significant sustainability benefit for 400G-connected businesses. Independent research showcases that Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme, which underpins Zayo’s 400G network, drives a threefold increase in fibre capacity while reducing power per bit by 80% and physical space needed by 85% compared to the original WaveLogic generation.

Zayo is already looking towards the future, at the growth of 800G networks, having broken the world record for the longest 800G optical wave in a commercial network at 1,044.51km.

Yannick Leboyer, Managing Director, Europe at Zayo Group, says: “Our customers are increasingly taking advantage of bandwidth-intensive applications to keep up with the competition - from AI and IoT to advanced analytics - which require significantly higher bandwidth and low latency connectivity.

https://www.zayo.com/resources/global-network-capabilities/

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T-Mobile opens network slicing beta for developers

T-Mobile US opened its network slicing beta to Android and iOS developers nationwide. The program has also expanded to Android developers to use 5G standalone (5G SA) to optimize their video calling applications commercially available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series. 

The moves make it easier for developers across the country to test their new and improved applications with the customized video calling network slice on T-Mobile’s 5G SA network using a commercial device.

“We didn’t just build the largest, fastest and most advanced 5G network so our customers can immediately benefit from the improved performance. We also want our network to serve as a platform for innovation,” said John Saw, EVP and Chief Technology Officer at T-Mobile. “I am so incredibly proud of my team and our partners who are pioneering new technologies like network slicing so we can help bring the true promise of 5G to life.”

“At Samsung, we want to give our users the best possible experience with the technology they love and depend on every day,” said Jude Buckley, Corporate Executive Vice President of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics America. “The Galaxy S23 series offers a great video call experience and innovations like network slicing can make it even better. We look forward to working with T-Mobile to unlock its full potential for our users.”

https://devedge.t-mobile.com/5g-network-slicing

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Verizon’s multiyear network upgrades

Verizon highlighted major accomplishments on its multi-year transformation of its network architecture:

• Introducing 5G service to more than 230 million people, accelerating C-band spectrum deployment and strategically using premium mmWave spectrum to serve customers in high 5G usage areas.
• Expanding 5G Fixed Wireless Access Internet availability to cover more than 40 million households.
• Accelerating the fiber build plan, deploying nearly 57k fiber miles since 2020 and now connecting over 51% of its cell sites with its own fiber.
• Upgrading 76% of pro sports venues with 5G Ultra Wideband service to provide greater coverage and exponentially more capacity in major gathering and event spaces to better support high data traffic.
• Redesigning the core of the network to function in a cloud-native environment and introducing advanced technologies such as virtualization, automation and orchestration throughout the network. Introducing virtualization (throughout the core and in over 15,000 cell sites), re-architecting to a Kubernetes-based cloud-native platform, and integrating extensive automation and orchestration have been largely invisible to customers, but those changes are making a world of difference. Not only is Verizon able to make changes that benefit customers faster (like introducing new security measures, improving handoffs between cell sites, improving latency, and reducing call drops) but it can now implement those enhancements without taking the network offline, so customers are getting the benefits with zero down time.
• Currently, more than 68% of customers have 5G capable cell phones and they are using exponentially more data. 
• At present, 5G traffic using C-band spectrum makes up more than 38% of the total data on the network, up from over 14% one year ago. 
• As 5G data usage increases, there is a correlated decrease of data volume on the 4G network with customers currently using just over 56% compared to a year ago when nearly 81% of data traffic ran over 4G service. 
• 
  
• Verizon sees a steady pace of approximately 400,000 net adds for Home Internet each quarter, a majority of which are fixed wireless access (FWA). 
• As of August, over 2.5 million consumer and business customers are using Verizon’s FWA service with each using just over 300 GB of data per month. 
• Private networks are gaining momentum as well with solutions like the Cleveland Clinic and the NFL’s Coach-to-Coach coming online in all 30 NFL stadiums.

“It’s been a tremendously dynamic and exciting few years for our network, introducing 5G to the market, redesigning the network core functions, accelerating our fiber build and introducing a host of advanced technologies to improve our customers’ experience with us,” said Joe Russo, EVP and CEO of Global Network and Technology. “These changes mean more people can do more things in more places more reliably, and that’s what we’re all about as a company.”

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Aligned Data Centers plans hyperscale campus in Ohio

Aligned Data Centers has acquired a 129-acre land parcel in Perkins Township, Ohio, where it will become the site of a planned new, four-building hyperscale data center campus. The site is a former automotive equipment manufacturing facility originally built during the Second World War. 

Aligned’s NEO-01 data center, the first of four planned facilities, will enable densities beyond 300 kW per rack by deploying air-cooled, liquid-cooled or hybrid cooling solutions – all within the same data hall. This includes the company’s Delta waterless heat rejection technology.

“Aligned is very excited to enter the Northeast Ohio market and return a brownfield site to productive use for the local community,” states Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned. “As part of our sustainability mission, Aligned has not shied away from redeveloping brownfield projects that have lain dormant for many years (sometimes decades) in communities. Transforming these properties into assets for the local community is a win-win-win – removing blight, generating revenue, returning jobs to a former industrial location, and preserving greenfields for other uses.  We look forward to supporting the ongoing growth of our customers and bringing new economic, environmental, and social opportunities to Perkins Township.”

https://www.aligneddc.com 

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NTT teams with Qualcomm on AI at the edge

NTT announced a strategic engagement with Qualcomm to invest in and accelerate the development of the 5G device ecosystem.

The companies will use their combined expertise to meet the need for 5G-enabled devices that support use cases, such as push-to-talk devices, augmented reality headsets, computer vision cameras and sensors at the edge across the manufacturing, automotive, logistics and other industries. The 5G-ready devices will leverage Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G chipsets with AI models built in to enhance AI at the edge through various applications, such as image recognition, with capabilities ranging from counting items and identifying object characteristics to verifying workers wearing safety masks or hardhats (PPE). 

As part of NTT’s end-to-end Edge as a Service offering, NTT is now offering Device as a Service to make it easy for customers to access, upgrade, and recycle 5G and edge devices and simplify device lifecycle management as well as reduce IT maintenance and costs. 

“This collaboration is truly an exciting one because we are answering the demand we’re hearing from our clients. Together with Qualcomm Technologies, we will strengthen the 5G ecosystem delivering the devices our customers require in a simple and cost-effective way, empowering them as they continue along their digital transformation journey,” said Shahid Ahmed, Executive Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation at NTT Ltd. 

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Dell’Oro: Generative AI drives accelerator market

Accelerators led all server semiconductors and components with triple-digit year-over-year growth in 2Q 2023, according to a recent report from Dell’Oro Group. While Intel still maintains a majority share of the server CPU market, AMD’s revenue share now exceeds 20 percent. ARM is also poised to gain share with new cloud server deployments in 2023.

“NVIDIA has benefited from the surge in demand for accelerated computing for generative AI applications, and has displaced Intel as the largest server component manufacturer since the beginning of this year,” said Baron Fung, Sr. Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Meanwhile, over the past four quarters, the rest of the server semiconductor and component market has witnessed a contraction, as system vendors and hyperscale cloud service providers reduce component inventory levels and pause purchases in response to a slowdown in general-purpose computing deployments. We project a recovery in the component market starting in the second half of 2023, as system vendors and hyperscale cloud service providers resume component purchases in anticipation of the next investment cycle in 2024. Accelerators will continue to drive long-term growth, and new server platforms with 5th-generation CPUs will lead to an upside in IT spending,” explained Fung.

Additional highlights from the new 2Q 2023 Data Center IT Semiconductors and Components Quarterly Report:

• Server and storage systems component market is forecast to grow 1 percent in 2023.
• NVIDIA led all vendors in server component revenue in 2Q 2023, followed by Intel, Samsung, and Western Digital.
• GPU shipments are projected for 59 percent growth in 2023 mainly from NVIDIA H100 deployments. Higher volumes for AMD and Intel GPU-based systems are expected later this year. 

Dell’Oro Group’s Data Center IT Semiconductors and Components Quarterly Report tracks revenue, unit and capacity shipments, unit and capacity pricing, and market share of major semiconductor and component manufacturers supplying the data center server and storage system markets since 2018. The report focuses on significant server and storage semiconductors and components, including CPUs; accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and custom AI ASICs; memory; Ethernet and InfiniBand NICs and Smart NICs/DPUs; HDDs and NAND/SSDs.

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Airgain intros 5G FWA antenna

Airgain introduced its new Lumos 5G Fixed Wireless Access Antenna to boost the performance of connected devices. 

With a multiband, directional antenna design as well as 2x2 and 4x4 MIMO configurations for both LTE and 5G, Lumos can maximize the performance of enterprise routers, indoor fixed wireless access (FWA) devices, customer premises equipment (CPE), and a myriad of other cellular-based devices.

The specifications of the new Lumos FWA antenna include:

• Options for 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO LTE/5G (617 - 4200 MHz)
• Optimized for bands N41 and N77
• High peak gain
• 617 - 960 MHz, 3.6 dBi
• 1700 - 2700 MHz, 8.2 dBi
• 3300 - 4200 MHz, 10.9 dBi

“As 5G becomes more ubiquitous, the market is constantly searching for solutions that can power an ‘always connected’ environment,” said Brian Critchfield, Vice President of Global Marketing for Airgain. “With the high gain and easy-to-install configuration of our new Lumos™️ 5G Fixed Wireless Access Antenna, users can augment existing installations or bundle it as part of new installations and achieve often better performance than with wired solutions. We believe its versatility combined with performance can be a game changer.”

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Google's Nuvem cable to connect Portugal, Bermuda, South Carolina

Google announced plans to build a new transatlantic subsea cable system to connect Portugal, Bermuda, and the United States. 

The Nuvem cable, which is expected to be ready for service in 2026, will have its U.S. landing in South Carolina, following in the footsteps of Google's Firmina cable. Firmina landed in South Carolina earlier this year and that will ultimately connect with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Nuvem is "cloud" in Portuguese.

In Portugal, Nuvem will join Google's Equiano cable, the recently-completed system that connects Portugal with Togo, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, and St. Helena. 

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/introducing-the-nuvem-subsea-cable

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Asia Direct Cable Consortium picks Infinera’s ICE6 800G

Asia Direct Cable (ADC) Consortium has selected Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent solution on the GX Series Compact Modular Platform to power ADC’s advanced cable system. 

ADC is a 9,400-kilometer submarine cable connecting China, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ADC is built and operated by a global consortium comprising China Telecom, China Unicom, PLDT, National Telecom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications, and Viettel Group.

Infinera said that by providing more than 21 Tbps per fiber pair, ots’s ICE6 solution extends the commercial life of the fiber cable, maximizing the return on investment of this critical cable system.

“With the substantial investment in this cable link and the importance of connecting Asia Pacific, it was important to the consortium that we selected the best technology,” said Koji Ishii, SoftBank Corp. and MC Co-Chair of ADC Consortium. “ADC Consortium selected Infinera’s ICE6 based on its superior performance and highest spectral efficiency, which will enable us to provide a greater number of higher-quality services to our customers.”

“The ADC system is a great example of an open cable system that allows independent selection of industry-leading submarine solutions to ensure the ability to provide the highest level of services. We look forward to utilizing the agile solution to carry traffic across the ADC system cost effectively,” said Chang Weiguo, China Telecom Global Ltd. and MC Co-Chair of ADC Consortium.  

"Uncompromising quality is critical in today’s submarine networks as subsea operators scale to support ever-increasing amounts of customer traffic," said Peter Zwinkels, Vice President, Global Submarine Network, Infinera. “We are pleased to provide Infinera’s industry-leading ICE6 solution to ADC Consortium members to seamlessly manage high-quality services across subsea network segments while accelerating time to revenue with end-to-end point-and-click provisioning and full-service visibility and control.”

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Kinetic tests Coherent's 100G ZR QSFP28 transceiver

Kinetic by Windstream, which serves an 18-state footprint, completed testing of a 100G ZR QSFP28 digital coherent optical (DCO) transceiver over a live, DWDM transport network in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Kinetic is partnering with Coherent Corp. to deploy the new pluggable transceiver. The successful trial of the 100G DCO validates the ability to use this new technology across a large percentage of Kinetic's footprint. The module is currently a prototype and is set to be released in 2024.

“Kinetic is committed to bringing fiber connectivity to businesses and homes across rural America. This innovation will accelerate the scale of our network in a sustainable way,” said Jeff Austin, chief technology officer at Kinetic. “Not only does its small form factor reduce our carbon footprint, but it is also interoperable with legacy networks, eliminating the need to rebuild costly network infrastructures.”

“We’re proud to partner with Kinetic on the development of the 100G DCO,” said Matthias Berger, vice president, Coherent Corp. “Validating the transceiver’s performance over more than 800 km across an existing transport system gives our industry a definitive conclusion to the questions surrounding achievable performance at low cost, lower power dissipation and small form factor of the transceiver. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Kinetic and continuing to define world-first technology with this industry leader.”

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Amazon bets on Anthropic's Claude 2

Amazon will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic and will become Anthropic’s primary cloud provider.

Anthropic will use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips, which will be used in addition to existing solutions for model training and deployment. The company also will collaborate on the development of future Trainium and Inferentia technology.

Anthropic says its Claude 2 is being used for a wide range of tasks, from sophisticated dialogue and creative content generation to complex reasoning and detailed instruction. Significantly, Claude 2 has a 100,000 token context window for processing extensive amounts of information—including technical, domain-specific documents for use cases across finance, legal, coding, etc.

https://www.anthropic.com/index/anthropic-amazon

• In May 2023, Anthropic raised $450 million in Series C funding led by Spark Capital with participation from Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures, and others. 

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GlobalFoundries bids for CHIPS funding

GlobalFoundries has applied for U.S. CHIPS and Science Act Funding for capacity expansion and modernization of GF’s U.S. manufacturing facilities.

“As the leading manufacturer of essential semiconductors for the U.S. government, and a vital supplier to the automotive, aerospace and defense, IoT and other markets, GF has submitted our applications to the CHIPS Program Office to participate in the federal grants and investment tax credits enabled by the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act,” said Steven Grasso, senior director of global government affairs at GF. “This federal support is critical for GF to continue growing its U.S. manufacturing footprint, strengthening U.S economic security, supply chain resiliency, and national defense.”

GF is a longstanding supplier of essential chips for the U.S. aerospace and defense industry.

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