Broadcom's 25.6 Tbps Router Super Chip

Broadcom released the next generation of its StrataDNX family of single chip routers for carriers and cloud operators. 

Qumran3D boasts 25.6 Terabits per second of routing in a fixed form factor, with Ethernet port rates from 100 Gbps to 800 Gbps. The design packs three dedicated engines that perform on-chip processing and buffering, large-scale forwarding, and strong security function and native line-rate MACsec encryption on all ports.

Qumran3D’s 256 links of 100G PAM-4 SerDes enable 25% to 50% reduction in optical transceivers power consumption. It also supports emerging 800ZR+ optics for DCI and IPoDWDM.

The company estimates that a routing solution based on a single Qumran3D will save up to 66% more energy and up to 80% more rack space compared to previous generations.

“Qumran3D will accelerate the transition to merchant silicon routers,” said Ram Velaga, senior vice president and general manager, Core Switching Group, Broadcom. “With its unique combination of unyielding performance, power efficiency and security, Qumran3D is the ideal solution for the next generation of fixed, standalone routers. It will revolutionize the way that operators build and manage their networks.”

Key Features

• Up to 25.6 Tbps switching capacity per device
• High-speed, high-density port interfaces up to 800GE leveraging best-in-class 100Gb/s PAM-4 SerDes
• Feature rich processing pipe, addressing any Carrier and Cloud requirement and future-proofing via Elastic Pipe
• Carrier grade Hierarchical Traffic Manager
• High bandwidth, low power, and in-package HBM packet memory
• Massive on chip forwarding databases, eliminating the need for companion devices
• On-chip policy engines, protecting millions of flows
• Integrated IPsec engines and MACsec engines at line rate

https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/product-releases/61461

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FCC opens 6 GHz Band for Very Low Power Devices

The FCC opened the 6 GHz band to a new class of very low power (VLP) devices that will operate alongside other Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Specifically, the new rules authorize VLP operations in the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 portions of the 6 GHz band totaling 850 megahertz of spectrum.  Operations at power levels significantly lower than other unlicensed 6 GHz devices could occur anywhere, indoors or outdoors, without any need for a frequency coordination system. 

The Commission also proposed expanding operation of these very low power unlicensed devices to the remainder of the 6 GHz band and permitting VLP devices more operational flexibility through higher power levels subject to a geofencing system that provides interference protection to licensed incumbent operations in the band.

https://www.fcc.gov

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AT&T raises full-year free cash flow guidance

Citing higher Mobility, Mexico and Consumer Wireline revenues, partly offset by lower Business Wireline revenues, AT&T reported Q3 evenues of $30.4 billion, up 1% year over year. Operating income was $5.8 billion versus $6.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. When adjusting for certain items, adjusted operating income* was $6.5 billion versus $6.2 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Capital expenditures were $4.6 billion in the quarter versus $5.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Capital investment, which includes $1.0 billion of cash payments for vendor financing, totaled $5.6 billion.

“Our investments in best-in-class 5G and fiber connectivity are fueling our growth engine. We’re gaining profitable customer relationships and becoming more efficient. This is powering our strong business performance and gives us the confidence to raise our full-year free cash flow guidance,” said John Stankey, AT&T CEO. “We are pleased that customers are choosing AT&T and staying with us over the long run as we connect and simplify their digital world.”

Highlights

Mobility

Revenues were up 2.0% year over year to $20.7 billion due to higher service revenues. Service revenues were $15.9 billion, up 3.7% year over year, primarily driven by subscriber and postpaid phone ARPU growth. Equipment revenues were $4.8 billion, down 3.2% year over year due to lower device volumes.

Total wireless net adds were 6.6 million, including:

• 550,000 postpaid net adds with:
• 468,000 postpaid phone net adds
• (48,000) postpaid tablet and other branded computing device net losses
• 130,000 other net adds
• 26,000 prepaid phone net adds
• Postpaid churn improved to 0.95% versus 1.01% in the year-ago quarter.
• Postpaid phone churn improved to 0.79% versus 0.84% in the year-ago quarter.
• Prepaid churn was 2.78%, with Cricket substantially lower, versus 2.83% in the year-ago quarter.
• Postpaid phone ARPU was $55.99, up 0.6% versus the year-ago quarter, due to pricing actions, higher international roaming and a mix shift to higher-priced unlimited plans.
• FirstNet connections reached about 5.3 million across nearly 27,000 agencies. FirstNet is the nationwide communications platform dedicated to public safety. The AT&T and FirstNet networks cover more than 99% of the U.S. population, and FirstNet covers more first responders than any other network in America.

Business Wireline

• Revenues were $5.2 billion, down 7.9% year over year due to lower demand for legacy voice and data services and product simplification, partly offset by growth in connectivity services. This quarter also included approximately $100 million in revenues from intellectual property sales, which were relatively consistent with the prior year.
• AT&T Business serves the largest global companies, government agencies and small businesses. More than 800,000 U.S. business buildings are lit with fiber from AT&T, enabling high-speed fiber connections to approximately 3.3 million U.S. business customer locations. Nationwide, more than 10 million business customer locations are on or within 1,000 feet of our fiber.3

Consumer Wireline

• Revenues were $3.3 billion, up 4.6% year over year due to gains in broadband more than offsetting declines in legacy voice and data and other services. Broadband revenues increased 9.8% due to fiber growth of 26.9%, partly offset by a 9.0% decline in non-fiber revenues. The company now expects full-year broadband revenue growth of 7%+, versus prior guidance of 5%+.
• Total broadband net gains, excluding DSL and including AT&T Internet Air, were 15,000, reflecting AT&T Fiber net adds of 296,000, more than offsetting losses in non-fiber services. AT&T Fiber is now capable of serving 20.7 million customer locations and offers symmetrical, multi-gig speeds across parts of its entire footprint of more than 100 metro areas.

Latin America – Mexico Operational Highlights

• Revenues were $992 million, up 26.4% year over year due to growth in both service and equipment revenues. Service revenues were $672 million, up 20.2% year over year, driven by favorable foreign exchange and essentially stable subscriber and wholesale revenues. Equipment revenues were $320 million, up 41.6% year over year due to higher sales and favorable foreign exchange.
• Operating loss was ($29) million compared to ($63) million in the year-ago quarter. EBITDA* was $155 million compared to $101 million in the year-ago quarter.
• Total wireless net adds were 65,000, including 17,000 prepaid net adds, 55,000 postpaid net adds and 7,000 reseller net losses.

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Nokia reports disappointing Q3 and big job cuts

Citing macroeconomic pressures, inventory digestion, and a big drop in sales in North America, Nokia reported Q3 revenue of EUR 4.982 billion, down 20% from the same period a year ago.

Nokia continues to expect full year 2023 net sales in the range of EUR 23.2 to 24.6 billion with a comparable operating margin in the range of 11.5% to 13.0% assuming closure of outstanding deals in Nokia Technologies.

• IP Networks and Fixed Networks particularly impacted
• Optical Networks grew by 4%
• Mobile Network sales were impacted by North America continued inventory digestion; however there was strong growth in India
• Added 85 Enterprise customers in Q3
• Private wireless grew double-digit; now 675 customers

In light of results, the company announced an acceleration of its restructuring program, aiming for signicant cost savings by eliminating up to 14,000 jobs through 2026.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, states:

"Our third quarter performance demonstrated resilience in our operating margin despite the impact of the weaker environment on our net sales. In the last three years we have invested heavily to strengthen our technology leadership across the business giving us a firm foundation to weather this period of market weakness.

"We continue to believe in the mid to long term attractiveness of our markets. Cloud Computing and AI revolutions will not materialize without significant investments in networks that have vastly improved capabilities. However, given the uncertain timing of the market recovery, we are now taking decisive action on three levels: strategic, operational and cost. I believe these actions will make us stronger and deliver significant value for our shareholders."

"First, we are accelerating our strategy execution by giving business groups more operational autonomy. Second, we are streamlining our operating model by embedding sales teams into the business groups and third, we are resetting our cost-base to protect profitability. We target between EUR 800 million and EUR 1 200 million in cost savings by 2026. These actions keep us on track to deliver our long-term target comparable operating margin of at least 14% by 2026."

"In the third quarter we saw an increased impact on our business from the macroeconomic challenges that are pressuring operator spending, resulting in a 15% net sales decline in constant currency compared to the prior year. Network Infrastructure declined 14% due to weaker spending impacting IP Networks while Fixed Networks was impacted by the same challenge combined with customer inventory digestion. In Mobile Networks net sales declined 19% as we saw some moderation in the pace of 5G deployment in India which meant the growth there was no longer enough to offset the slowdown in North America. Cloud and Network Services proved more robust in the quarter with a 2% decline and continued to benefit from strong growth in the Enterprise Solutions business."

https://www.nokia.com/system/files/2023-10/nokia_slides_2023_q3.pdf

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Ericsson reports 60% drop in North American sales

 Citing a challenging environment and macroeconomic uncertainties, Ericssion reported that its Q3 2023 group organic sales declined by -10% YoY. Segment Networks organic sales declined by -16% while Enterprise and Cloud Software and Services sales grew organically. Reported sales decreased by -5% to SEK 64.5 (68.0) b.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson

"In a challenging operating environment, Ericsson delivered third quarter results in line with our guidance. Consistent with the rest of our industry, we expect the macroeconomic uncertainty to persist into 2024, which impacts our customers’ investment ability. We are addressing these challenges with a focus on elements within our control, namely cost management and operational efficiency. We are on a journey to fundamentally reposition our business and we continue to execute on our strategy to extend our leadership in mobile networks, grow our enterprise business, and drive lasting cultural transformation."

Some key points

• Q3 performance was in line with guidance, with an EBITA margin of 7.3% and an EBITA of SEK 4.7 b. 
• Group organic sales declined by -10%, with a -16% organic decline in Networks partly offset by 5% organic growth in Cloud Software and Services and 11% in Enterprise.
• Networks organic sales in North America were down by -60% YoY from a record quarter in Q3 2022, due to customers‘ inventory adjustments and a slower deployment pace. Sequentially, Networks sales declined by -2% in line with previous trends. The decline in North America was partly offset by growth in India as well as some early 5G markets resuming investments.
• More than one million Ericsson radios in the field are hardware prepared for open fronthaul which underpins our support for openness across our Cloud RAN and radio portfolios.
• Cloud Software and Services continued executing on the turnaround. 
• Ericsson saw continued strong growth in Enterprise Wireless Solutions, and  had a second consecutive quarter of positive EBITA in Global Communications Platform.

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OCP launches Security Appraisal Framework and Enablement program

The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) has launched a new Security Appraisal Framework and Enablement (S.A.F.E.) program aimed at improving the trustworthiness of devices across all data center IT infrastructure. 

The OCP S.A.F.E. program is expected to reduce cost overhead and redundancy of device security audits with an OCP Community developed per device security checklist, and advance the security posture of device hardware and firmware components across the supply chain.

The OCP S.A.F.E. Program is designed to reduce cost overhead and redundancy of device security audits:

1. provide security conformance assurance to device consumers 
2. increase the number of devices whose firmware and associated updates are reviewed on a continuous basis, rather than only once when the device is 1st manufactured. 
3. advance the security posture of device hardware and firmware components, through iterative refinement of review areas, testing scopes and reporting requirements.

"The OCP S.A.F.E. Program is designed to be a catalyst for upleveling the effort on security across the OCP Community and the industry. The OCP S.A.F.E. program is an OCP Community led effort to bring standardizations to device firmware security validation to help data center operators maintain a consistent security posture with reduced costs through removing duplication of efforts which can be replicated by other market segments. Security is the underlying foundation which makes OCP core tenets of efficiency, openness, scale, impact and sustainability possible," said Steve Helvie, VP Emerging Markets at the Open Compute Project Foundation.

"Creating a standardized approach for provenance, code quality and software supply chain for firmware releases and firmware patches that run on data center IT devices benefits the broader community; from democratizing the review process to streamlining efforts. Google is pleased to be a founding member of the OCP S.A.F.E. program and together, with the community, we will accomplish our mutual goal of increased security assurance for the industry," said Phil Venables, CISO, Google Cloud.

Independent third-party audits present significant challenges. These results are often available only to a certain set of customers, limiting their market impact. Also, these reviews are often commissioned by device consumers at the time of purchase, with device reviews are only performed once and subsequent security issues introduced by firmware upgrades and patches go undetected. The OCP driving a standardized approach, across all data center operators, will effectively and efficiently address these issues.

"We have partnered with OCP to create SAFE, a framework that promotes systematic security evaluations across the hardware ecosystem. This initiative provides enhanced levels of quality and security assurance to all hardware consumers," said Mark Russinovich, Azure CTO.

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OCP targets standard for GPU management

At OCP Summit in San Jose, Microsoft announced a collaborative effort with AMD, Google, Meta, and NVIDIA to create OCP standard requirements for GPU management. 

Standardizing allows suppliers to seamlessly collaborate with hyperscalers and enables them to host various suppliers in their datacenters within an accelerated timeframe. This new OCP initiative focuses on two models of accelerators and GPU cards: Universal Base Board and Discrete. Initial specifications have been driven via different OCP workgroups focused on GPU firmware update requirements, interfaces, and Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) requirements for hardware.

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Orange activates AMITIE transatlantic subsea cable

Orange announced "Ready for Service" (RFS) status on the new "AMITIE" transatlantic submarine telecommunications cable.

With a total length of 6,800 km and 16 fiber pairs, and a maximum capacity of 400 Tbps, AMITIE connects Lynn near Boston (USA), Le Porge near Bordeaux (France) and Bude (England). In France, Orange oversees the French part of the cable, and is in charge of operating and maintaining the system's landing station. It provides all AMITIE cable partners with the terrestrial infrastructure required for its smooth operation, from the limit of French territorial waters to the new Equinix datacenter based in Bordeaux.

Additional partners on the AMITIE cable include Aqua Comms, Meta, Microsoft, and Vodafone. The cable was built by Alcatel Submarine Networks.

In January 2021, Orange announced ready-for-service status on the new Dunant cable system, which is a joint project with Google, and boasts 12 fibre pairs with over 30 Tbps of capacity each.

https://newsroom.orange.com/orange-announces-the-launch-of-the-amitie-subsea-cable-offering-a-unique-and-robust-transatlantic-solution-with-ultra-low-latency/?lang=en

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Juniper intros Connected Security Distributed Services Architecture

Juniper Networks has introduced a new architecture called Connected Security Distributed Services Architecture, which integrates unified security management with routing and AI-Predictive Threat Prevention. This architecture decouples the forwarding and security services layers, allowing customers to use their existing Juniper MX series routers as an intelligent forwarding engine and load balancer.

The new Juniper Networks SRX firewalls (SRX1600, SRX2300, SRX4300, SRX4700) are 1RU in size, scale up to 1.4 Tbps, and include built-in Zero Trust capabilities, delivering the industry's highest firewall throughput performance per rack unit.

The new firewalls feature wire-speed MACsec, natively embedded TPM 2.0 chips, and cryptographically signed device IDs that allow security administrators and network operators to easily verify the trust posture of devices remotely and mitigate the risks of supply chain attacks.

“As new distributed data center architectures create more blind spots and operational complexity, it is vital to have advanced security capabilities that can adapt with the transformation. Leveraging our expertise in both security and data center operations, Juniper is thrilled to deliver our Connected Security Distributed Services Architecture, AI-Predictive Threat Prevention and new high-performance firewalls to enable our customers to enhance their security posture across their evolving data centers.”

https://investor.juniper.net/investor-relations/press-releases/press-release-details/2023/Juniper-Networks-Unveils-the-Industrys-First-Distributed-Security-Services-Architecture-for-Unmatched-Scalability-and-Operational-Simplicity/default.aspx

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Poland’s Hawe Telekom selects Infinera ICE6 800G

Hawe Telekom, a wholesale operator in Poland, selected Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent solution to deliver high-capacity services to network operators in Poland as well as interconnections to neighboring countries on its Frankfurt-Warsaw-Vilnius route. 

The selection follows a live network trial from Frankfurt to Warsaw conducted with Infinera’s partner, FCA S.A.  The trial delivered 600G and 800G transmissions on Hawe Telekom’s national and international routes over its existing optical line system.  Infinera said its ICE6 800G solution will enable Hawe Telekom to deliver the highest capacity services at the lowest cost per bit and power per bit to its customers enabling them to cost-effectively keep up with relentless bandwidth demand.

The results achieved on our network have confirmed that we meet the highest operator standards and can provide services at the highest speeds. We are always looking for cutting-edge solutions, and our investments are always carefully planned, which is why we have opted for Infinera’s ICE6 800G system, which allows us to use telecommunications services at the highest level of performance. One such service is ‘Super Highspeed Delivery’ which is unique in the market and enables Hawe Telekom to turn-up long-distance services within 48 hours of the order,” said Dominik Drozdowski, Vice President of the Management Board of Hawe Telekom S.A.

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/polands-hawe-telekom-selects-infinera-ice6-800g-solution/

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Fujikura's AFL to build fiber manufacturing factory in Poland

AFL, a subsidiary of Fujikura Ltd. and global leader in optical fiber network infrastructure, unveiled plans to construct a state-of-the-art, sustainable manufacturing facility in Poland to meet rapidly growing bandwidth needs across the region. The new facility is expected to open mid-2024 and will enable AFL to meet customer delivery expectations and more efficiently serve regional customers.

The Poland facility will become AFL's fourth European production center, joining existing optical cable factories in the UK and Germany and assembly/hardware manufacturing in the UK. The expansion reflects AFL's priority to locate sustainable manufacturing and logistics close to major hubs and enable faster customer deliveries.

"With data usage skyrocketing, fiber networks across EMEA are expanding rapidly," said Steve Polidan, Vice President of Connectivity at AFL. "A new factory in Poland will position us closer than ever to our customers, allowing us to deliver the optical solutions they need quickly."

"Enhancing the customer experience is a key driver for this expansion. By locating production closer to our customers, we can improve delivery speeds and responsiveness. This will allow us to better serve their business needs as demand rapidly scales across the region," Polidan continued. "Sustainability is also central to our expansion strategy. The plant will help AFL reduce its environmental impact through energy efficiency, waste reduction, conservation, and other initiatives."

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Tejas supplies optical network for FibreConnect in Italy

FibreConnect, a wholesale telecom infrastructure developer in Italy, has  launched its broadband services using equipment from Tejas Networks, including DWDM/PTN/OTN for Core to xPON and Ethernet for Access.   

As a part of this contract, Tejas Networks has deployed its full-range of products including its versatile TJ1400UCB, integrating GPON/XGS-PON, Fixed LTE and PTN technologies for Access and Aggregation, multi-terabit TJ1600 OTN/DWDM systems for Metro and Backbone, and feature-rich TJ2100 series of ONTs for business and industrial premises. The complete network is being managed using TejNMS, the company's universal, multi-technology network management system coupled with an advanced service orchestration solution to deliver an agile, resilient and future-proof network for FibreConnect.

Renzo Ravaglia, Executive Chairman and CEO of FibreConnect said, "FibreConnect is thrilled to partner with Tejas Networks on this transformative network rollout that seeks to bridge the digital divide for small & médium businesses in Italy and extend the benefits of high-speed connectivity to unserved businesses and industries across the country through its ISP partners. Tejas Networks' innovative solutions such as their business-grade Type-C protection switching on ONTs, 2.5G GPON ONTs, converged "swiss-knife" architecture for multiservice access, and novel interplay of PTN and OTN technologies in the backbone  are enabling us to deliver the highest level of service to our customers in a cost-effective manner. In spite of challenging macro-economic headwinds, Tejas Networks fully met our expectations of timely deliveries, high quality, and prompt customer support to successfully get this network up and running as per committed deadlines."

Mr. Anand Athreya, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tejas Networks said, "We are delighted that FibreConnect chose to build the complete network in Italy using our carrier-class optical and broadband access products. Besides signaling our emergence as a leading end-to-end supplier of world-class telecom equipment, this win also demonstrates  a  growing confidence among global telcos in our ability to design and execute complex, large-scale networks, all the way from access to core."

http://www.tejasnetworks.com 

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LITEON presents its Liquid Cooling at OCP Global Summit

LITEON Technology introduced new liquid cooling solutions under its new brand, COOLITE. 

The lineup includes intelligent Power Distribution Units (PDUs) equipped with real-time monitoring and control features, enabling data center operators to optimize power usage and ensure reliability. The ultra-efficient Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) provide a resilient power backup system, while the intelligent power management software offers insights into energy consumption patterns for proactive decision-making.

https://liteon-cips.com/

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Nile adds Zero-Trust Guest Internet Access

Nile introduced a guest internet access function to its Network-as-a-Service solution. 

Nile Guest Service automatically applies cloud-native, zero-trust principles, isolating visitor traffic from internal network resources by tunneling it to a local point of presence (PoP) and forwarding it directly to the internet.

This service is an extension of the zero-trust networking principles of Nile Access Service and is offered as an optional add-on.

“Today’s IT departments are focused on moving their business forward and do not want to expose their corporate resources while providing guest access. They also don’t want to spend all of their time protecting their infrastructure from every smartphone or tablet that seeks to connect,” said Suresh Katukam, Nile’s Chief Product Officer and co-founder. “Nile Guest Service automatically applies cloud native, zero trust principles to guest access and takes one more worry off of IT’s plate without taking a big bite of their budget.”

\

https://www.nilesecure.com/guest

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#OCPSummit23: AI is Open Compute Project's Biggest Challenge

Is AI the biggest challenge for the Open Compute Project (OCP)? 

Zaid Khan, Board Chair from Open Compute Project, explains:

- The sudden pivot to AI caught everyone by surprise, leading to a race in optimizing systems, data centers, and infrastructure to accommodate this shift.

- The lack of collaboration among companies and vendors in addressing AI challenges presents a unique opportunity for OCP to bring everyone together and solve these problems as a community.

- OCP is embarking on an important journey to tackle these challenges, emphasizing that this is not a problem one company can solve alone, but requires collective effort and collaboration. 

https://youtu.be/JcJb-10S70I

Filmed at OCP Summit 2023 (#OCPSummit23) in San Jose. Want to be involved our video series? Contact info@nextgeninfra.io

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Google opens Falcon for Hardware Transport

Google is contributing its Falcon hardware transport protocol to the Open Compute Project.

Falcon is a hardware-assisted transport layer designed for high-performance, low-latency connections in Ethernet data center networks. 

It leverages production-proven technologies including Carousel, Snap, Swift, PLB, and CSIG.

Falcon can support RDMA and NVM Express as well as other Upper layer protocols (ULPs).

Some industry perspectives shared by Google:

“We welcome Google’s contribution of Falcon as it shares the Ultra Ethernet Consortium’s vision to drive Ethernet as the best data center fabric for AI and HPC, and look forward to continuing industry innovations in this important space.” - Dr. J Metz, Chair, Ultra Ethernet Consortium (led by AMD, Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Eviden, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle).

“Falcon is first available in the Intel IPU E2000 series of products. The value of these IPUs is further enhanced as the first instance of an Ethernet transport to add low tail latency and congestion handling at scale. Intel is a Steering Member of Ultra Ethernet Consortium, which is working to evolve Ethernet for high performance AI and HPC workloads. We plan to deploy the resulting standards-based enhancements in future IPU and Ethernet products.” - Sachin Katti, SVP & GM, Network and Edge Group, Intel.

"We are pleased to see a high-performance transport protocol for critical workloads such as AI and HPC that works over standard Ethernet/IP networks and enables massive application bandwidth at scale." - Hugh Holbrook, Group VP, SW Eng., Arista Networks.

“Cisco is pleased to see the contribution of Falcon to the OCP. Cisco has long supported open standards and believes in broad ecosystems. The rate and scale of modern data center networks and particularly AI/ML networks is unprecedented, presenting a challenge and opportunity to the industry. Falcon addresses many of the challenges of these networks, enabling efficient network utilization.” - Ofer Iny, Cisco Fellow, Cisco.

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BT unveils its next-gen Global Fabric

BT unveiled its new Global Fabric network for connecting enterprise customers with multiple clouds.

BT says Global Fabric represents a generational shift in technology, based on a network-as-a-service (NaaS) technical and commercial model. 

The new network “underlay” will be an AI-powered digital orchestration layer. Global Fabric will be “deterministic”, selecting the optimal end-to-end paths for applications and workloads to move to and between multiple clouds and end users. Options will include a new BT-enhanced Internet service, point-to-point Ethernet, multi-point Ethernet and MPLS and these will be offered in bandwidth increments of 1 Mbps up to 100 Gbps. Connectivity will be interchangeable on the same port, offering flexibility not possible on current networks.

The fully programmable network is built with state-of-the-art equipment. BT estimates that when fully rolled out, Global Fabric will use 79 per cent less electricity than its current global networks.

Bas Burger, CEO, Business, BT, said: “Global Fabric will future proof customers’ connectivity by providing flexibility to ensure they’re always connected so they can always be productive. They’re facing a new wave of digital revolution with AI, IoT and automation driving demand for simplicity and better multi-cloud connectivity. Customers can achieve better total costs, boost app performance and user experience, all while complying with regulations and mitigating cyber threats. Global Fabric means multi-cloud works better on BT.”

Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Realty, said: “Global Fabric is a great example of how service providers should be innovating and will offer enterprises new options for connecting to Digital Realty, the world’s largest data centre platform. By building a cloud-centric network and locating its PoPs inside our world-leading carrier neutral facilities (CNFs), BT will be able to offer its customers terrific speeds with low latency while helping them minimise their environmental impact.”

Brenden Rawle, Senior Director Business Development EMEA at Equinix said: "We welcome BT’s launch of Global Fabric, which builds on its Connected Cloud Edge solution launched with Equinix last year. We enjoy a great partnership with BT and look forward to working together to connect customers to the doorstep of the cloud with a vast and varied choice of potential partners and other SaaS providers, in the Equinix location of their choice."

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-wraps-multi-cloud-in-a-new-global-fabric/

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Broadcom develops DOCSIS 4.0 AI Chipset with Comcast

Comcast and Broadcom are designing and building the new chipset based upon CableLabs’ DOCSIS 4.0 specifications and aimed at enabling the first AI-powered access network.

The new chipset that embeds AI and machine learning (ML) within the nodes, amps and modems that comprise the last few miles of Comcast’s network. Benefits are expected to include:

• Making smarter network performance decisions using network diagnostics insights produced by both local and cloud AI.
• Enhanced monitoring and issue detection using bandwidth-efficient telemetry data.
• Transforming network maintenance of the network using real time issue localization plus predictive and self-healing network intelligence.
• Protecting network facilities and customers with improved cybersecurity intrusion detection.
• Assisting customers more effectively through local and cloud-based AI.
• Monitoring home IoT devices for connectivity disruptions.

Additionally, the new chipset will be the first in the world to incorporate DOCSIS 4.0 Full Duplex (FDX), Extended Spectrum (ESD) and the ability to run both simultaneously, enabling Internet service providers across the globe to deliver DOCSIS 4.0 services using a toolkit with technology options to meet their business needs. 

“By enabling a toolkit that includes FDX, ESD or both simultaneously, this new Unified DOCSIS4 chipset incorporates the advantages of both technologies and will enable economies of scale as well as a common retail modem for the industry,” said Rich Nelson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Broadband Video Group, Broadcom. “The edge network and in-home capabilities of this chipset will improve network intelligence and reliability to create an improved broadband experience with enhanced privacy protection and cyber security for the consumer.”

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OCP and Ultra Ethernet Consortium team on AI Clusters

The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) and the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) announced a new collaboration to improve Ethernet performance for next-generation AI clusters and HPC. 

UEC plans to develop enhancements to Ethernet, and the OCP has an active Community developing sustainable large-scale computational infrastructure for AI and HPC with Ethernet. 

Key aspects of the collaboration will involve aligning work within OCP and UEC, focusing efforts on shared objectives and ensuring OCP's integration of UEC's Ethernet enhancements is smooth and effective. Overall, the alliance will leverage the expertise of both organizations to advance Ethernet performance for AI workloads. Areas that have been identified for initial exploration on potential collaborations include: OCP Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI), OCP Caliptra Workstream, OCP Networking Project, OCP NIC Workstream, OCP Time Appliance Project, and OCP Future Technologies Initiative.

“The uptake for AI to assist humans in the workplace is expected to be widespread, including automating data center operations, and has created a data center IT equipment investment perfect storm. Capex spend forecasts have been adjusted upwards by major analyst firms, driven by the planned deployments of hyperscale data center operators of large-scale AI clusters. By collaborating, the UEC and the OCP Community system specifications can have a greater influence on the development of sustainable, large-scale AI clusters addressing key memory size, and connectivity bandwidth challenges posed by large language models," said George Tchaparian, CEO at the Open Compute Project Foundation. 

“AI and HPC workloads present new network challenges such as the need for greater scale, more bandwidth, multi-pathing and faster reaction to congestion. UEC was formed to develop specifications for Ethernet that will bring improvements to better meet the requirements of these workloads as they are experiencing tremendous growth which will change the nature of network traffic, potentially as significant as the switch from voice to video. Collaborating with the OCP Community will fast-track the integration of the UEC-inspired Ethernet enhancements into complete systems that can serve the market”, said J Metz, Steering Committee Chair at the Ultra Ethernet Consortium.

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MaxLinear launches DOCSIS 4.0 cable modem and gateway chipset

MaxLinear released its DOCSIS 4.0 SoC cable modem and gateway platform, Puma 8. 

The new chipset builds on the success of its DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 predecessors (Puma 6 and 7) and includes all critical elements of a DOCSIS platform, including a low-power, ultra-high split upstream PGA. The platform is compliant to the DOCSIS 4.0 frequency division duplex (FDD) specification and enables immediate large-scale deployments as a DOCSIS 3.1 device with gradual feature expansion options without the need for costly CPE replacements. 

Complete modem, Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapter (EMTA), and gateway platforms will be available from MaxLinear’s early access OEM partners in 2024.

Several market leading OEM partners have developed MaxLinear-based DOCSIS 4.0 platforms in preparation of compliance and interoperability testing, field trials, and mass production deployments during 2024. MaxLinear’s early access partners include but are not limited to Askey, CommScope, and Hitron.

"We’ve harnessed our extensive IP portfolio and system knowledge to develop a comprehensive DOCSIS 4.0 system and platform, adopting a holistic strategy that encompasses a full suite of interrelated functionalities spanning every aspect of the system,” stated Will Torgerson, Vice President and General Manager of the Broadband Business Unit. “MaxLinear’s solutions empower service providers with innovation, flexibility, and reliable options.”

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