In the end of 2015 there were 3.2 billion people online. 67% of Americans now have broadband at home, compared to 70% in 2013, and 13% connect via smartphone only vs 8% in 2013; smartphone penetration in US at 68%. The share of Americans with broadband at home has plateaued, and more rely only on their smartphones for online access. We can see downtick in home high-speed adoption has taken place at the same time there has been an increase in “smartphone-only” adults – those who own a smartphone that they can use to access the internet, but do not have traditional broadband service at home. The American broadband market is notoriously oligopolistic with the majority of citizens offered limited choice, especially at the high-speed end, complete with high monthly fees.
Fixed Internet speeds increase – even without fiber to every house. We will start to see more 1Gbps Internet connections – and not all of them need fiber (2014 was the year of “fiber everywhere”). For example Comcast ‘rolls out’ ‘world’s first’ DOCSIS 3.1 modem, pumping 1Gbps over existing cable. It should, in theory, be quick and easy to get 1Gbps broadband to your home using DOCSIS 3.1, but I expect we will see only very few experimental roll-outs of the service in 2016. The beauty of DOCSIS 3.1 is that it is backwards compatible.
Mobile networks continue to lead the way when it comes to connecting people for the next generation of communications: Mobile subscriptions are now at 7.1 billion globally, and more than 95% of the world’s population are now within reach of a mobile network signal. Mobile cellular subscriptions have overtaken fixed phone subs, mobile broadband subscriptions and households with Internet access. This development most probably causes expectations that Network jobs are hot so salaries are expected to rise in 2016 as especially wireless network engineers, network admins, and network security pros are needed.
There are still some 350 million people globally who have no way of Internet access, mobile or otherwise, and there will be some race to get connections to at least some of those people. High stakes in broadband satellites race as building a satellite network and associated ground-based facilities and user terminals to provide Internet access to even the remotest and poorest parts of the world will be a huge technical, regulatory, and business challenge. Data versions of low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite networks started appearing in the late 1990’s, followed with mobile telephony via LEO satellites, but never managed to deliver on the hype—partly because of technology constraints or poor business models. Over years there have been huge technology advances in satellites: they can now be made much smaller and lighter, so launch costs are significantly lower. Also component costs associated with the different terminals and handsets have plummeted. These factors have clearly helped the business proposition, but there are still challenges.
There will be new radio frequencies available for wireless communications thanks to WRC-15 Spectrum Decisions: In addition to confirming the use of the 700 MHz band (technically 694 to 790 MHz) for mobile broadband services in ITU Region 1, which includes Europe, Africa, the Middle east and Central Asia, delegates also agreed to harmonize 200 MHz of the C-band (3.4 to 3.6 GHz) to improve capacity in urban areas and used in small cells, and the L-band (1427-1518 MHz) to improve overall coverage and better capacity. So the mobile broadband sector now has, at least in the short to medium term, three globally harmonized bands. There was also decision for spectrum to be used for wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC).
5G gets started. Just five years after the first 4G smartphone hit the market, the wireless industry is already preparing for 5G: cell phone carriers, smartphone chip makers and the major network equipment companies are working on developing 5G network technology for their customers. There are still many challenges as 5G infrastructure must be able to serve the billions of internet-connected objects of small appliances in addition to large consumers of information.700MHz harmonization is a key feature in operators’ plans to begin rolling out 5G services and C-band is also likely to be used for 5G. After 2016 to get the fastest promised 5G speeds very high frequency bands that will need to be deployed for 5G services, mainly above 24 GHz.
5G will not only be about a new air interface with faster speeds, but it will also address network congestion, energy efficiency, cost, reliability, and connection to billions of people and devices. Many believe that a critical success factor for 5G will be a fully revamped TCP/IP stack and a group of major vendors has put forward an open source TCP/IP stack OpenFastPath they say is designed to reinvigorate the ancient and rather crusty protocol. Cyber security research will be important important in 2016 as 5G networks will be critical infrastructure, on top of which for example. transport, industry, health and the new operators set up their business around 2020. Growing network virtualization functionality and programmability are both an opportunity and a threat to security. Keep in mind that everything connected to the Internet can, and will be hacked.
Heightened interest in the Internet of Things (IoT) and of Everything (IoE) will continue in 2016. IoT networks heat up in 2016 as low-power wide area networks for the Internet of Things have been attracting new entrants and investors at a heady pace with unannounced offerings still in the pipeline for 2016 trying to enable new IoT apps by undercutting costs and battery life for cellular and WiFi. There are many competing technologies in this field, and some will turn out to be winners and some losers. Remember that IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, so there is lots of business opportunities for many IoT technologies.
2016 will be another booming year for Ethernet. Wi-Fi is obviously more convenient than wired Ethernet cables for average mobile user. But Ethernet still offers advantages — faster speeds, lower latency, and no wireless interference problems. Ethernet matters a lot with desktop PCs, laptops at desks, game consoles, TV-streaming boxes, and other devices – like when building backbone networks and data centers. Assuming it’s easy enough to plug the devices in with an Ethernet cable, you’ll get a more consistently solid connection. Yes, Ethernet is better.
The augmented global demand for data centers is the key driver for the growth in Global Ethernet Switch and Router Market 2016-2020.25G, 50G and 100G Ethernet is finding it’s place in in the Data Center. Experts predict that the largest cloud operators will shift to 100G Ethernet fabrics while cost-efficient 25G and 50G will remain the workhorses for most of the other well-known data-center companies.The increasing usage of advanced technologies, such as 10GbE ports, by enterprises and universities for educational and official purposes, is a significant factor in the enterprise and campus segment. The key players in this segment will be Arista Network, Brocade Communications, Cisco, Dell, HP, Huawei and Juniper Network. The 2015 Ethernet Roadmap shows a roadmap for physical links through 2020 and looks into the future terabit speeds as well.
I expect 2016 will be a year of widespread product adoption around 2.5 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) bandwidth over twisted-pair copper cabling (2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T) as transition to next generation 802.11ac Wave 2 access points will drive significant demand for 2.5G ports. Enterprise operators are looking to fill the gap between 1G and 10G over this legacy unshielded twisted-pair copper cabling (Category 5e/Category 6) that is installed all over. IEEE 802.11ac is 3x faster and 6x more power efficient than its predecessor, 802.11n, while remaining interoperable with 802.11n. Rapid adoption of 802.11ac is run by fact that tablets and smartphones are becoming ubiquitous in the workplace.
Driven by IEEE standards, Ethernet hits the road in 2016: A new trend emerging in the automotive market in 2016 is the migration of Ethernet, a tried-and-true computer network technology, into connected cars. The proliferation of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features in many vehicles is also expected to expand Ethernet use. The completion of IEEE 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1 standards are both expected. The emergence of the 1000BASE-T1 standard in mid-2016 provides a roadmap for automotive Ethernet evolution. Ethernet, starting in 2016, will be seen as the dominant in-vehicle network backbone.
Prepare for the PAM4 phase shift. PAM4 (four-level pulse-amplitude modulation) will be coming to wider use in 2016 because we all the time need faster communications links between ICs inside devices. NRZ won’t work at 56 Gbps and it seems that PAM-4 is the way to go as PAM4 doubles the bit rate for a given baud rate over NRZ. At 56 Gbps, 400 Gbps Ethernet can be realized with four lanes of PAM4 but might require eight 28 Gbps lanes with NRZ. PAM-4 is also gaining traction in 28 Gbps links. The bad news is that PAM4 trades off bandwidth for SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) meaning it is more sensitive to noise and timing skew than NRZ. PAM4 does bring SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) to the forefront of design issues. With four voltage level and three eyes, PAM4 requires new design techniques for recovering embedded clocks and for identifying bits in symbols. PAM4 will be used mainly on copper links, but it can be also used with fiber optic links, which has it’s own set of challenges. These and other issues are forging new techniques for how to measure and simulate PAM4 signals.
Cloud Scale Networking term will be seen. The virtualization of networks, storage, and servers is reshaping the way organizations use IT. Cloud computing plays an essential role in this process as cloud delivers the additional capacity required to satisfy growing demand to an enterprise or small business from a third party. The amount of data volume carried by networks has exploded. Cisco estimated last year that by 2017, data centers will handle some 7.7 zetabytes of IP traffic, two thirds of which would be on account of cloud computing. Total global data centre traffic is projected to triple by the end of 2019 (from 3.4 to 10.4 Zettabytes). Legacy, tiered, network designs can be replaced with scalable flat network topologies. They can be future-proofed using open, scalable SDN and NFV platforms. The network is cloud computing’s final frontier, at technology, people and process levels. Service providers seek to reduce costs, create new business opportunities, and introduce new services more quickly.
The “software-ization” of Telco and increasing use of pen-Source Networking will continue in 2016. In 2015, the adoption of OpenStack, OpenDaylight, OpNFV for software and services, and Open Compute for hardware will supported more virtualized, more open source network computing platforms and architecture. The trend will continue. SDN provides control to the enterprises and carriers on the complete network through a single logical point, thereby simplifying the network design and operation. The traditional, one-vendor, proprietary solution is transitioning to solutions involving many suppliers – and this offers customers with significant cost savings and performance optimization. Growing network virtualization functionality and programmability are both an opportunity and a threat to security. Keep in mind that everything connected to the Internet can, and will be hacked.
After COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris there will be also interest in thinking how clean our networking is. It is being reported that communications technologies are responsible for about 2-4% of all of carbon footprint generated by human activity. The needs for communications and faster speeds is increasing in this every day more and more connected world – penetration of smart devices there was a tremendous increase in the amount of mobile data traffic from 2010 to 2014. When IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, with the current technologies this would increase power consumption considerably. The trend to look for greener technologies is tackling first mobile networks because of their high energy use. Base stations and switching centers could count for between 60% and 85% of the energy used by an entire communication system. More and more facilities, especially big names like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, have looked to renewable energy.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
US pledges $400M over the next 7 years for 5G research led by National Science Foundation — As President Obama approaches the end of his tenure in the White House, his team is launching a wireless networking research project that it hopes could be part of his wider legacy in the world of tech.
US, NSF to put $400M into Advanced Wireless Research Initiative for 5G networks
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/15/us-to-put-400m-into-advanced-wireless-research-initiative-for-5g-networks/
As President Obama approaches the end of his tenure in the White House, his team is launching a wireless networking research project that it hopes could be part of his wider legacy in the world of tech. Today, the Obama administration announced the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, a group backed by $400 million in investment that will work on research aimed to “maintain U.S. leadership and win the next generation of mobile technology” and specifically developing wireless networking tech that will offer speeds 100 times faster than the 4G and LTE networks that are being used today.
Led by the National Science Foundation with participation from other organizations, tech companies like Samsung and carriers, the AWRI will receive $400 million from the government over the next seven years to develop and test new wireless networking technology in four “city-scale” testing platforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turn on 5G, turn off old landlines: FCC plans future of phone networks
FCC votes open spectrum for 5G, let carriers discontinue legacy voice service.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/07/turn-on-5g-turn-off-old-landlines-fcc-plans-future-of-phone-networks/
Two votes taken by the Federal Communications Commission today could have big implications for the transition to faster mobile networks and the discontinuance of old landline networks.
The two votes aren’t directly related, but they each prepare for a future that could rely more on wireless technologies for voice and Internet service. In one item, the FCC voted to open up high-frequency spectrum to help carriers create 5G networks that would be faster than existing 4G ones.
The second vote will make it easier for carriers to turn off old landline phone networks as long as they replace them with either wired or wireless equivalents. Copper landlines can be replaced with fiber or wireless technology if they offer the same performance, reliability, coverage, access to 911, and compatibility with systems including medical monitoring devices.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the 5G spectrum vote might be the most important decision the agency makes this year. The FCC wants to “turn loose the incredible innovators of this country” by providing high-band spectrum without dictating what technologies the industry should use to deploy it, he said.
“These new rules open up nearly 11GHz of high-frequency spectrum for flexible, mobile, and fixed use wireless broadband—3.85GHz of licensed spectrum and 7GHz of unlicensed spectrum,” the FCC’s announcement said. The frequencies are in the 28GHz, 37GHz, 39GHz, and 64-71GHz bands.
With the higher bands, the FCC can allocate spectrum in blocks of at least 200MHz, instead of the standard 5MHz or 10MHz, allowing networks to carry a lot more data.
But while high-band spectrum could allow multi-gigabit speeds, the high-band airwaves are more easily blocked than lower-frequency ones, making it a challenge for phone companies to cover long distances and indoor locations. When it comes to providing LTE throughout the US, the most coveted spectrum is below 1GHz.
Carriers have begun 5G research and testing, but the industry hasn’t settled on what standards and technologies will be used to deploy next-generation networks.
Turning off landlines
Today’s second vote could speed up the shift from copper-based landlines to IP-based voice service over fiber and wireless networks. Because of the vote, carriers’ applications to discontinue legacy TDM (time-division multiplexing) voice service will be automatically granted in 30 days if the carrier “meets a clear, objective, three-pronged test,” the FCC said. Requirements are as follows:
Network performance, reliability, and coverage are substantially unchanged for customers.
Access to 911, cybersecurity, and access for people with disabilities meet current rules and standards.
Compatibility with a defined list of legacy services still popular with consumers and small businesses, including home security systems, medical monitoring devices, credit card readers and fax machines,
That last requirement on compatibility with legacy services is set to expire in 2025.
Carriers seeking to turn off TDM voice service in a given area can choose either the new, expedited application process or the FCC’s “normal adjudicatory channels.”
Turn on 5G, turn off old landlines: FCC plans future of phone networks
FCC votes open spectrum for 5G, let carriers discontinue legacy voice service.
by Jon Brodkin – Jul 14, 2016 11:13pm EEST
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Getty Images | Yuri_Arcurs
Two votes taken by the Federal Communications Commission today could have big implications for the transition to faster mobile networks and the discontinuance of old landline networks.
The two votes aren’t directly related, but they each prepare for a future that could rely more on wireless technologies for voice and Internet service. In one item, the FCC voted to open up high-frequency spectrum to help carriers create 5G networks that would be faster than existing 4G ones.
Further Reading
Next-gen cellular networks could use spectrum all the way up to 71GHz
FCC drawing up rules to encourage use of frequencies above 24GHz.
The second vote will make it easier for carriers to turn off old landline phone networks as long as they replace them with either wired or wireless equivalents. Copper landlines can be replaced with fiber or wireless technology if they offer the same performance, reliability, coverage, access to 911, and compatibility with systems including medical monitoring devices.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the 5G spectrum vote might be the most important decision the agency makes this year. The FCC wants to “turn loose the incredible innovators of this country” by providing high-band spectrum without dictating what technologies the industry should use to deploy it, he said.
“These new rules open up nearly 11GHz of high-frequency spectrum for flexible, mobile, and fixed use wireless broadband—3.85GHz of licensed spectrum and 7GHz of unlicensed spectrum,” the FCC’s announcement said. The frequencies are in the 28GHz, 37GHz, 39GHz, and 64-71GHz bands. As we’ve previously written, these frequencies are much higher than the ones used for 4G LTE and other existing networks. With the higher bands, the FCC can allocate spectrum in blocks of at least 200MHz, instead of the standard 5MHz or 10MHz, allowing networks to carry a lot more data.
But while high-band spectrum could allow multi-gigabit speeds, the high-band airwaves are more easily blocked than lower-frequency ones, making it a challenge for phone companies to cover long distances and indoor locations. When it comes to providing LTE throughout the US, the most coveted spectrum is below 1GHz.
Carriers have begun 5G research and testing, but the industry hasn’t settled on what standards and technologies will be used to deploy next-generation networks. In all likelihood, the industry will use a mix of low- and high-band spectrum, since high frequencies are more suited to densely populated areas.
Lobby groups representing wireless carriers and network suppliers praised the FCC’s vote. “The FCC’s plan frees a significant amount of new spectrum for mobile use, and does so without attaching strings or taking a wait-and-see approach,” the Telecommunications Industry Association said.
Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge said the FCC’s plan is good overall, but it didn’t get universal praise. Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America’s Open Technology Institute, called the FCC order “extremely shortsighted.”
“Because the big carriers will use these bands only in city centers and high-traffic indoor venues, exclusive and indefinite licenses over large geographic areas is a recipe for leaving these millimeter bands vacant in more than 95 percent of the country and millions of venues,” Calabrese told Ars. Calabrese wants public access to all unused spectrum in the new bands.
Turning off landlines
Today’s second vote could speed up the shift from copper-based landlines to IP-based voice service over fiber and wireless networks. Because of the vote, carriers’ applications to discontinue legacy TDM (time-division multiplexing) voice service will be automatically granted in 30 days if the carrier “meets a clear, objective, three-pronged test,” the FCC said. Requirements are as follows:
Network performance, reliability, and coverage are substantially unchanged for customers.
Access to 911, cybersecurity, and access for people with disabilities meet current rules and standards.
Compatibility with a defined list of legacy services still popular with consumers and small businesses, including home security systems, medical monitoring devices, credit card readers and fax machines,
That last requirement on compatibility with legacy services is set to expire in 2025.
Carriers seeking to turn off TDM voice service in a given area can choose either the new, expedited application process or the FCC’s “normal adjudicatory channels.” This flexibility “recogniz[es] that a shift from traditional networks to new technologies will never be a purely apples-to-apples comparison,” the FCC said.
Advocacy groups, customers, and union representatives have frequently accused carriers such as Verizon and AT&T of failing to properly maintain copper phone networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investors were disappointed by Ericsson’s second-quarter figures. Net sales fell by 11 per cent from one year ago, and net profit by as much as 22 percent lower. Swedish Analysts said the company has been forced to continue their hard additional savings program.
Ericsson’s net sales in April-June was SEK 54.1 billion, or approximately EUR 9.1 billion. Net income was 1.6 billion kroons, ie approximately EUR 270 million.
Ericsson cuts research costs in IP development (aim is to approximately 53 billion SEK annually, was 63 in 2014).
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4712:ericsson-petti-pakotettu-lisasaastoihin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia’s research director for YLE: keep Europe at the forefront of 5G technology
Europe can not fall behind 5G technology. Nokia’s research director Lauri Oksanen, the USA, Korea and Japan are clearly progressing through the 5G’s relationship and plan to open networks. “We want Europe to be at the forefront of this very involved,” Nokia’s Chief Research Officer Lauri Oksanen says Yle.
According to Oksanen, 5G technology will not only benefit from telecommunications companies, but it brings with it new and more efficient uses of a range of industries as well as consumers. Rapid network technology could benefit from, among other things, self-driving cars, and the Internet of Things.
Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and other major telecom companies want to 5G networks in Europe to be a reality by 2020. Companies released in early July of the common “5G-manifesto”, which explains firms plans to boost high-speed networks.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/07/19/nokian-tutkimusjohtaja-ylelle-eurooppa-pidettava-5g-tekniikan-eturintamassa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G Research Gets U.S. Call
21 companies join government effort
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330143&
A group of U.S. government agencies and corporations pledged to spend a total $400 million over seven years on research for 5G cellular networks. The news came one day after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to allocate nearly 11 MHz of spectrum in millimeter-wave bands for 5G
Backers claimed the moves put the U.S. ahead in a global race to deliver a wide range of next-generation cellular services across frequencies from less than a gigahertz to more than 60 GHz. However companies and regions including China, Europe, Korea and Japan launched public-private consortia working on 5G years earlier.
Corporate experts involved in the U.S. efforts lauded the actions and expressed optimism for harmony in 5G spectrum and research efforts around the globe.
AWRI aims to create four large 5G testbeds where corporate, government and academic researchers can work on next-generation cellular technologies and services.
The consortium’s work targets a range of 5G technologies including
Millimeter waves with data rates up to 100 Gbits/second over a few city blocks using small cells.
Dynamic spectrum use in sub-6 GHz bands
Architectures for wired data networks with a wireless edge
Architectures and management techniques for large-scale mobile networks
Techniques using spectrum “white space” to deliver Gbit/s links via long-range wireless meshes.
New ways to measure and monitor wireless network performance, security and reliability
Future cellular applications and services
Companies committing resources to PAWR include AT&T, Carlson Wireless Technologies, CommScope, HTC, Intel, InterDigital, Juniper Networks, Keysight Technologies, National Instruments, Nokia Bell Laboratories, Oracle, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Viavi Solutions.
FCC Paves Way for 5G
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330142&
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Thursday (July 14) voted unanimously to approve a set of rules allocating spectrum for 5G wireless broadband communications in the United States.
The FCC’s vote makes the U.S. the first country in the world to approve rules for communications operating at frequencies above 24 GHz.
“What’s significant about this is that it really shows that the U.S. is in the forefront of 5G,”
“Today’s vote by the FCC to make high band spectrum available for 5G was a clear victory for Americans’ mobile-first lives,”
The FCC’s new rules open up nearly 11 GHz of high-frequency spectrum for mobile and fixed-line wireless broadband in the so-called millimeter wave band. The rules create space for service in the 28 GHz , 37 GHz, and 39 GHz bands, and a new unlicensed band between 64 and 71 GHz.
“With today’s order, we are repeating the proven formula that made the United States the world leader in 4G: one, make spectrum available quickly and in sufficient amounts; two, encourage and protect innovation-driving competition; and three, stay out of the way of market-driven, private sector technological development,”
Millimeter wave signals do not travel as far as signals in other frequency bands and do not penetrate dense objects. Because of this, 5G coverage is expected to be enabled by small cells rather than large towers.
While the bulk of 4G wireless networks are built on frequencies from 600 MHz to 3 GHz, 5G will be built on much stratospheric bandwidth frequencies, introducing propagation challenges, Rosenworcel said.
“While these super-high signals carry a significant amount of data, they do not go far,” Rosenworcel said. “But we can turn this limitation into a strength by combining these frequencies with small cells packed close together, densifying networks at lower cost.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile broadband now cheaper than wired, for 95 per cent of humanity
But the Internet of Things is only working in Fjordland
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/25/mobile_broadband_now_cheaper_than_wired_for_95_per_cent_of_humanity/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Verizon wants to replace your net gateways with ‘a simple mux’
And then pipe in virtual network functions from all the big bit-movers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/25/verizon_gets_more_cloudy_with_virtualised_services_and_bigger_partner_list/
Verizon has launched the next piece of its seven-year strategy to virtualise its enterprise services, announcing a bunch of multi-vendor virtual security, WAN optimisation, and software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) services.
And Friday’s launch has an unusual characteristic: it breaks the decades-long practice among telecommunications carriers of awarding their new network or service to one or two vendors.
For now, the partner lists are:
vSecurity – Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper Networks, and Palo Alto Networks;
vWAN Optimization – Cisco and Riverbed;
SD-WAN – Cisco and Viptela.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NTT DoCoMo is not going to just wait for the completion of 5G standards in pursuit of a Gigabit data rates. The company’s Chief Technology Officer Seizo Onoen according to DoCoMo provides subscribers with 500-megabit data connections already during the current financial year.
- I hope that the 3GPP has the fifth-generation technology to define Release 15 standard finished in 2018. Then could get the technology for the Beijing Olympics in 2020.
DoCoMo has already tested the 5G pre standard technologies in a number of laboratory and field experiments, a number of OEMs, including Nokia.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4724:docomo-kiihdyttaa-jo-500-megabittiin-sekunnissa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia says it sent Orange Poland optical link, which can be displaced by as much as 1.5 terabytes per second 870-kilometer-long journey between Warsaw and Wroclaw. Both the fiber capacity that the transmission distance of the new record levels.
New record highs largely based on Nokia’s Bell Labs-developed fiber connections PSE-2 processor. It has 1.4 billion transistors in one silicon chip ahtavasta processor, which is Nokia’s developers by supporting up to 500 Gbps of data transfer.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4729:nokialta-huippunopea-optinen-yhteys&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G starts to move slowly
Equipment manufacturers and standards organizations already working feverishly 5G technology. The aim is to get the technology standardized by the year 2020. However, the 5G starts to move slowly Ovum Research estimates.
Ovum predicts that in 2021 5G technology users is 24 million. The amount is negligible, when compared with the total number of mobile phone users, which already exceeds five billion.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4746:5g-lahtee-liikkeelle-hitaasti&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The easiest way to add a 3G or LTE network coverage is sprinkle a small antenna units in different parts of the property. Ericsson’s solution to this is Radio Dot ie a small “base point”. A couple of years old concept is now starting to be interested in the world.
Ericsson Dot-mini base station weighs only 300 grams and fits in your palm. It is a simple 3G / LTE antenna unit with an amplifier and a power amplifier. The actual signal processing takes place on the other base station, to which the point is connected to a standard Ethernet cable (the protocol that runs on the cable is proprietary).
Ericsson According to one base unit can connect up to 96 points. These will provide comprehensive coverage in many public spaces
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4756:ericssonin-pistetukiasema-yleistyy&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Fiber plans to use cheap wireless tech to beat the cable guys
CFO Ruth Porat gives the unit a shout-out.
http://www.recode.net/2016/7/28/12318748/alphabet-google-fiber-wireless
Back in April, Recode told you about the next chapter in Google Fiber: An ambitious plan to beam wireless into homes.
Today, on Alphabet’s second-quarter earnings call, the company gave its most public acknowledgment that wireless is the linchpin of its strategy to take on the large cable and broadband industry.
“We continue to see Fiber as a huge market opportunity,” said CFO Ruth Porat, citing the company’s efforts to push “the frontier with tech applications.”
She continued: “We’re exploring both Fiber and wireless, and you may have seen our recent acquisition of Webpass.” Fiber snapped up the small internet provider Webpass, which relies on wireless tech to serve city markets.
Digging up neighborhoods and installing fiber internet is people- and labor-intensive; the so-far unproven wireless tech is not.
Google Plots Cheaper Wireless Future to Expand Fiber Project
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-28/google-plots-cheaper-wireless-future-to-expand-fiber-project
Google will use know-how from recent acquisition Webpass Inc., and its own wireless technology, to expand its Fiber fast internet business without having to spend so much.
Google parent Alphabet Inc. plans to adopt the startup’s lean approach to extend the reach of Fiber quicker and more cheaply, according to people familiar with the situation.
Webpass’s business model is equally frugal. It uses wireless technology to cut the cost of building fast broadband service in cities, a typically expensive and complex task that’s drained billions of dollars from the bank accounts of giant companies like Verizon Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc.
Pairing the Webpass business model with in-development wireless technologies from Google could turn what’s been one of Alphabet’s most-expensive projects into a less capital-intensive and potentially more-profitable business. That would be good news for analysts and investors who have worried about the company’s big spending.
The Fiber unit plans to offer Internet speeds of one gigabit per second — about 65 times faster than the U.S. average — in 22 cities, according to its website.
Webpass gets its service to homes and businesses by sending data between drum-shaped transmitters called millimeter-wave radios installed on the top of buildings. Those are plugged into existing fiber-optic cables in the buildings, which lead to Ethernet ports and end customers in living rooms and offices.
Adding these wireless radios to a building typically costs tens of thousands of dollars, whereas digging up streets to bury and connect fiber-optic cables to a building costs anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions, said Steve Stukas, a former fiber operations manager for Webpass.
“In the long term, fiber is cheaper. In the short term, wireless is vastly cheaper,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
David Gelles / New York Times:
Verizon’s goal with Yahoo and AOL: compete with Google and Facebook in digital advertising by sharing data on its wireless customers with advertisers
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/business/media/yahoo-and-the-online-universe-according-to-verizon.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fun fact of the day: Network routers are illegal in Japan
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/02/routers_are_illegal_in_japan/
under a very Japanese rule, the ability of electronic equipment to read a packet header both violates the law and “seems not illegal.”
Of course, routers (and switches, and network management tools, and content blocking) can’t actually function properly without reading packet headers in order to properly direct them, so that process is seen as being a “reasonable act.”
As such, Ogawa explains, it “violates the law, but seems not illegal.”
Routers and switches violate Japanese law, but seems not illegal
https://blog.apnic.net/2016/08/02/routers-switches-violate-japanese-law-not-illegal/
It’s well known that without reading the packet header, routers cannot forward packets.
In Japan, however, when an ISP’s router reads an IP header field to forward packets, it violates the Secrecy of Communications legislation. Although this necessary requirement of Internet communication is theoretically violating the law, at the same time, it does not seem to be illegal.
The Japanese Constitution (Article 21) and the Telecommunications Business Act (Article 4) include “Preservation of Secrecy”.
The “interpretation” of the law
This, “violates the law, but seems not illegal” interpretation can be seen in many places in the management of the Internet in Japan.
It is used to justify various ISP operations, for example; bandwidth control (legitimate act), traffic classification (legitimate act), and child porn blocking (to prevent harm from exposure to content).
Some of the “interpretations” of the law are compiled as guidelines”
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC Reaches Agreement With Router Manufacturers
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/02/fcc-reaches-agreement-with-router-manufacturers/
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a rule governing the certification of RF equipment, specifically wireless routers. This proposed rule required router manufacturers to implement security on the radio module inside these routers. Although this rule is fairly limited in scope – the regulation only covers the 5GHz U-NII bands, and only applies to the radio subsystem of a router, the law of unintended consequences reared its ugly head. The simplest way to lock down a radio module is to lock down the entire router, and this is exactly what a few large router manufacturers did. Under this rule, open source, third-party firmwares such as OpenWRT are impossible.
Now, router manufacturer TP-Link has reached an agreement with the FCC to allow third-party firmware. Under the agreement, TP-Link will pay a $200,000 fine for shipping routers that could be configured to run above the permitted power limits.
TP-Link agrees to allow third-party firmware in FCC settlement
https://lwn.net/Articles/695994/
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a settlement with network-hardware manufacturer TP-Link, covering both the company’s non-compliance with FCC transmission-power regulations and the company’s plan to lock-out third-party firmware—including open-source firmware projects like OpenWrt. “While manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers must ensure reasonable safeguards to protect radio parameters, users are otherwise free to customize their routers and we support TP-Link’s commitment to work with the open-source community and Wi-Fi chipset manufacturers to enable third-party firmware on TP-Link routers.” Under the settlement agreement, TP-Link will pay a $200,000 fine
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just FCC making life difficult for open source projects. They are pretty much guaranteeing that there will never be such a thing as ‘open source firmware’ for wireless devices on consumer hardware.
FCC believes that people shouldn’t be able to fiddle around with transmitting radios without a license and are forcing hardware manufacturers to cover the costs of enforcement.
Source: https://lwn.net/Articles/695994/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Average broadband speed in US rises above 50 megabits for the first time
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/03/average-broadband-speed-in-us-rises-above-50-megabits-for-the-first-time/
Speedtest has released its mid-year broadband speeds report, and there’s actually quite a bit of good news in there. Speeds are steadily increasing despite machinations within the industry, and in fact the average in the U.S. just went north of 50 megabits for the first time ever.
That average, 54.97 megabits per second is 42 percent higher than the same period last year
Comcast Xfinity took the honors for fastest speed on average, but its 125 megabits wasn’t that much higher than the competition: Cox with 118 and Spectrum with 114.
“Market consolidation by large ISPs doesn’t typically bode well for innovation and increased speeds,”
Fiber providers like Google and Verizon (which owns Aol, which owns TechCrunch, by the way) are continuing to roll out their networks, pushing services using traditional connections to provide competitive speeds
http://www.speedtest.net/reports/united-states/
Mobile internet customers have also seen performance gains, improving by more than 30% since last year with an average download speed of 19.27 Mbps in the first six months of 2016. The four major mobile carriers—Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint—are in a tight race for fastest download speeds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Olympic gymnast could have avoided his $5,000 cell bill for playing Pokémon in Rio
Don’t get hit with Olympic-size overage charges.
http://www.recode.net/2016/8/4/12377898/japanese-gymnast–5000-cellphone-billpokemon
We all know Pokémon Go can be addicting. Well, it was apparently so addicting for Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura that he has already racked up a 50,000 yen (nearly $5,000) cellphone bill traveling in Rio.
For the novices out there, here are three recommendations: One, of course, is to swap out one’s home country SIM card for a local option. That’s the cheapest, but it involves some effort and means forgoing your traditional phone number.
Second, you can rent a hotspot from companies like Xcom Global and use your phone in airplane mode. Xcom, for example, offers unlimited 3G roaming for about $8 per day.
Third, some carriers have their own options for people traveling abroad.
For U.S. travelers, T-Mobile offers free, unlimited roaming in many countries though speeds are typically capped at decidedly un-Olympic 2G speeds. However, T-Mobile is giving customers unlimited high-speed data in Brazil for the month of August.
Uchimura did eventually get his bill reduced by his carrier to $30 per day for flat-rate usage
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bombardier Rail Control Certifies Four Vendors and Offers 4G LTE Wireless Technogy
http://www.bombardier.com/en/media/newsList/details.bt-20160804-bombardier-rail-control-certifies-four-vendors-and-o.bombardiercom.html
Bombardier Transportation has successfully completed tests to operate its range of mass transit and mainline rail control solutions with the latest Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard for wireless data communications, commonly known as 4G. The tests were carried out with four leading suppliers with a global footprint – Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE. The technical assessments were conducted in line with the rail signalling industry’s Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for the transmission of critical signalling information alongside other wireless communication with the train.
Operators using LTE will be able to integrate the transfer of safety-critical signalling, closed-circuit television, passenger information system as well as onboard internet services onto one network. In addition, operating rail control solutions with LTE will enable enhanced system stability and data encryption and security.
Peter Cedervall, President, Rail Control Solutions Division, Bombardier Transportation commented, “Thanks to its high capacity, LTE can provide a broad range of services to the public and various infrastructure operators. It offers an effective, comprehensive and economical solution for city planners and national infrastructure decision makers.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introducing Open/R — a new modular routing platform
https://code.facebook.com/posts/1142111519143652/introducing-open-r-a-new-modular-routing-platform/?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=outbrain&utm_campaign=outbrain
We introduced Open/R, a custom-built, extensible distributed network application platform.
Open/R was originally designed as a shortest-path routing system to power Terragraph, our multi-node wireless network that delivers high-speed internet connectivity in dense urban areas via short-hop transmission between small nodes.
Open/R’s modular and extensible design allows for additional applications on top of the basic routing function, and we have successfully adapted the platform for use with other parts of our networking infrastructure.
Open/R makes it possible to prototype and deploy new network applications much more quickly than with the industry’s standard development process. Being able to iterate quickly is central to our ability to improve the speed, efficiency, and quality of internet connectivity around the world.
We will continue to iterate on Open/R and determine the best approach for contributing the software to the open source community and to the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).
We recently announced Terragraph, a multi-node wireless network that delivers high-speed internet connectivity to dense urban areas using small nodes. Terragraph is functionally more similar to wired networks in terms of bandwidth and latency, and it features complex topology and intelligent Layer 2 technology, allowing traffic to be sent only where it is needed.
Today at Networking @Scale, we introduced Open/R, the extensible distributed network application platform that powers the Terragraph network.
Design
At its core, Open/R generalizes the concept of a replicated state database found in well-known link-state routing protocols such as OSPF and ISIS. It uses this as an underlying message system upon which we can build multiple applications. Distributed routing is just one of the applications that leverages this message bus. We didn’t want to get bogged down in discussions over the lower-level protocol details, such as frame formatting and handshakes, so we decided to simply leverage Thrift for all message encoding and use the well-documented and mature open source ZeroMQ library for all message exchange, whether it’s intra-process or inter-process.
ZeroMQ typically uses TCP to establish transport connections and allows for flexible message patterns (with PUB/SUB being one important example) that we actively leverage. While it might sound heavyweight compared with OSPF and ISIS, which use their own “lightweight” transports, we haven’t found this to be an issue in modern networking hardware, such as the devices we use for Terragraph or the Wedge and 6-pack boxes running FBOSS in our data center networks. On the plus side, using ZeroMQ saves a lot of work implementing and testing the low-level aspects of the system, and it allows us to use the same framework for intra-application and inter-application messaging.
Scalability and testing
Stability and scalability in the presence of constant network churn are concerns for any distributed system. It has been traditionally believed that link-state protocols do not scale well with network size, mainly because they need to disseminate large volumes of information while building upon hardware platforms and channels with limited resources. This made those protocols susceptible to network meltdown.
To get there, we heavily optimized the message flooding logic used by KV-STORE in order to be more efficient when distributing state in large networks.
Though it was initially designed specifically for the Terragraph project, Open/R has been successfully adapted for use with other parts of our networking infrastructure, and we plan to open-source it at some point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE ratifies 802.3bq standard for 25GBase-T and 40GBase-T
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/07/ieee-8023bq-25gbaset-40gbaset.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_July112016&eid=289644432&bid=1455469
The IEEE recently ratified the 25G/40GBASE-T specifications, which were produced by the IEEE 802.3bq 25G/40GBASE-T Task Force. The Ethernet Alliance issued a statement welcoming the ratification of 802.3bq as well as three other recently ratified Ethernet standards.
“IEEE 802.3bq Standard for Ethernet Amendment: ‘Physical Layer and Management Parameters for 25 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s Operation, Types 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T’ opens the door for higher-speed 25- and 40-Gbit/sec twisted-pair solutions with autonegotiation capabilities and Energy Efficient Ethernet support for data center applications,” the Alliance said.
The standard’s ratification comes shortly after the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) approved its standard specifications for Category 8 cabling, which is the twisted-pair type designed to support 25GBase-T and 40GBase-T.
“Ethernet is erupting in every direction. Whether you are talking about new markets like automotive or historic proving grounds such as networks and data centers, Ethernet’s ongoing expansion has reached critical mass. There’s growing velocity behind work being done to develop the next generation of speeds, innovative technologies, and forward-looking specifications for emerging application spaces.”
The Ethernet Alliance also welcomed ratification of the following IEEE standards: 802.3bp Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for 1 Gb/s Operation over a Single Twisted Pair Copper Cable; 802.3br Specifications and Management Parameters for Interspersing Express Traffic; and 802.3by Media Access Control parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 25 Gb/s Operation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE 802.3bm 40/100-Gbit Ethernet standard available for free download
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/07/ieee-8023bm-40100gbe-free-download.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_July112016&eid=289644432&bid=1455469
As part of its IEEE Get Program, the Institute of Electrical And Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has made the 802.3bm standard—specifying 40- and 100-Gbit/sec Ethernet transmission over fiber—available for free download. The 802.3bm standard was completed in 2015 and, as with other documents available through the Get Program, it became downloadable free-of-charge once it had been available as a PDF document for six months.
The IEEE has established certain terms of use, to which an individual must agree before downloading the document.
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.3bm-2015.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fiber-optic modules form versatile transmission system
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442345/Fiber-optic-modules-form-versatile-transmission-system?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160711&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160711&elqTrackId=a7c208297a1e4c67a49f874a9e236a58&elq=87066f29b8e2450ca51c0a2cea99cb8a&elqaid=33033&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28859
PFO-100R/T fiber-optic receivers and transmitters from Link Electronics enable 3G/HD/SD-SDI or ASI fiber-optic transmission. The SDI pathological-test–compliant modules operate with single-mode or multi-mode fiber-optic cable and include a built-in equalizer, cable driver, reclocker, and jitter-elimination circuitry.
The PFO-100R (receiver) and PFO-100T (transmitter) are a matched pair for specific wavelengths, either the standard 1310 nm or any requested wavelength between 1270 nm and 1610 nm. These tiny receiver and transmitter modules support SMPTE ST 424 (3G-SDI 3-Gbps), SMPTE ST 292 (HD-SDI 1.5-Gbps), SMPTE ST 259 (SD-SDI 143/270/360-Mbps), and SMPTE ST 310 (DVB-ASI).
Capable of transmitting up to 24 miles (40 km) or 48 miles (80 km),
The system uses its own power supply or any 5-VDC supply.
http://www.linkelectronics.com/catalog.asp?form=Product_Info&ID=394
Tomi Engdahl says:
Powerline networking continues to improve
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4442208/Powerline-networking-continues-to-improve
The first version of the standard, HomePlug 1.0, claimed up-to-14 Mbps powerline bandwidth; successor (and backwards-compatible) HomePlug 1.0 Turbo boosted the spec’d speed to 85 Mbps in a vendor-proprietary fashion.
Next came “200 Mbps” HomePlug AV, which was designed to coexist (but not necessarily to interoperate) with HomePlug 1.0 equipment.
Now there’s HomePlug AV2, for which the HomePlug Alliance didn’t pursue IEEE certification (although, since AV2 is backwards-compatible with AV, it still touts IEEE 1901 compliance). Its “gigabit-class” PHY rate, again due to a combination of expanded powerline spectrum utilization and advanced modulation and EDAC techniques, leads to claims of between 600 Mbps (AV2 600) and 1 Gbps (AV2 1000) peak speeds in its base SISO (single-in, single-out) configuration, which uses only the “line” and “neutral” wires in an electrical cable. Optional HomePlug AV2 MIMO (multi-in, multi-out) additionally also leverages the “ground” wire (which isn’t even present in the wall wiring of older homes, so buyer beware) to create three possible wire-pair combinations, supposedly translating to a doubling of effective bandwidth to between 1.2 Gbps and 2 Gbps (AV2 1200 to AV2 2000).
HomePlug AV2: Software holds back hardware
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4442328/HomePlug-AV2–Software-holds-back-hardware?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160711&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160711&elqTrackId=f1599534338f41ffa2fc951fcaeb659a&elq=6bdb7797850943e8bd42d99055382204&elqaid=33026&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28852
Tomi Engdahl says:
Performance analysis: DOCSIS 3.1 cable TV headend combining systems – Measuring MER performance of QAM signals in passive & active combining systems
http://www.btreport.net/whitepapers/2016/07/performance-analysis-docsis-3-1-cable-tv-headend-combining-systems-measuring-mer-performance-of-qam-signals-in-passive-active-combining-systems.html?cmpid=enlmobile07122016&eid=289644432&bid=1457930
This White Paper compares the practical performance of splitters with the theoretical performance and explains the impact splitter performance will have on overall network performance. The Paper examines: 1. What is isolation? 2. What does isolation depend on? 3. How measurements are taken and the impact on passive combining systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4K 4 U: How to Prepare for UltraHD Video
http://www.btreport.net/hangouts/2016/06/4k-4-u-how-to-prepare-for-ultrahd-video.html?cmpid=enlmobile07122016&eid=289644432&bid=1457930
4K/UltraHD video is coming – consumers are buying the TV sets, and more content is becoming available. But actually delivering 4K video presents some significant challenges for service providers. Where will the bandwidth come from? What capacity planning needs to be done?
4K 4 U: How to Prepare for UltraHD Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66xUCS4FCwA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Power module eases ATCA system design
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442355/Power-module-eases-ATCA-system-design?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160714&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160714&elqTrackId=c06bf7012a544410a9845aab02f6f10c&elq=b68050f86fc84036b943d55111d6631f&elqaid=33076&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28908
An extension of Ericsson’s 3E PIM (Power Interface Module) family, the quarter-brick PIM4610PD delivers 12 A of output current at 80ºC with 1.5 m/s airflow for blade servers based on ATCA (Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture) and PICMG 3.7 standards.
The PIM4610PD operates over an input voltage range of 36 V to 75 V, supplying 864 W with a 54-V input, 768 W with a 48-V input, and 600 W with a 37.5-V input. Efficiency is as high as 98%
https://www.ericsson.com/ourportfolio/products/power-modules
Tomi Engdahl says:
PON Market to Grow at 3.6% Through 2018
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2016/07/pon-market-to-grow-at-3-6-through-2018.html?cmpid=enlmobile07142016&eid=289644432&bid=1462288
According to Radiant Insights, the global passive optical network (PON) equipment market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% from 2013 to 2018 (forecast period). The research house says large-scale penetration of smartphones and exponential growth in the number of household Internet users are the main growth drivers. An ongoing shift by network providers to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services is also expected to generate PON demand. FTTH applications are on the rise owing to introduction of high-speed services to accommodate streaming video and other bandwidth-intensive applications.
The worldwide market is fragmented on the basis of technology into Gigabyte PON (GPON) and Ethernet PON (EPON). GPON occupies a higher share of the total market. It is expected to grow faster than EPON in the coming years. GPON delivers increased bandwidth capabilities as well as triple play services over a single fiber to residences and office premises. This segment is expected to grow on account of increasing focus on upgrading the existing networks to PON to increase broadband speeds. EPON is primarily employed in local area networks (LANs).
Consumption of PON equipment in APAC is the chief driver of the global PON equipment market. Countries like Japan, China and India are increasingly demanding higher bandwidth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Impact of increased bandwidth on the fiber network
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-24/issue-7/features/data-center/impact-of-increased-bandwidth-on-the-fiber-network.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_DataCenters_July122016&eid=289644432&bid=1459800
The amount of information traveling on the Internet continues to grow as more devices are connected and new applications are developed. This growth is illustrated in the Cisco Visual Networking Index, which shows Internet Protocol (IP) traffic across the globe increasing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 25 percent per year.
Common applications such as web browsing and high-definition video make up approximately two-thirds of this traffic. The greater availability of high-speed bandwidth results in even more. Because the entire system is interconnected, growth in any portion of the network will result in similar growth in other portions. Optical fiber is the only transmission medium capable of supporting this explosive growth.
nformation passes through the entire optical network, but the requirements for delivering such information are different depending on the network segment being discussed. Consider three major portions of the network: access, data centers and metro/long haul.
Given greater bandwidth, people inevitably use it for a better user experience, perhaps with higher-quality video, faster downloads or lower latency. In fact, the availability of high-speed Internet can impact many lifestyle choices, including where to live or where to vacation.
The highest-bandwidth connections in the access network are found when fibers are connected directly to homes. But connecting high-speed broadband to the inside of the living units has traditionally been costly in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks. Some service providers have considered deploying G.Fast, which uses existing copper infrastructure inside the premises as a way to avoid bringing an optical fiber directly into a home.
The data center
The demand for data storage is exploding. Every video that is streamed or downloaded is stored somewhere. Every social networking site has its data stored as well. As a result, most of the information traveling over access networks moves back and forth between a data center and the user. Approximately one-third of the traffic exiting data centers is used to communicate with other data centers, either for backup purposes or for efficiency in delivering information to end users. For each bit of information that enters a data center, approximately four bits are passed within the data center.
Economics favors larger and faster data centers. State-of-the-art centers are operating at 10 Gbits/sec or faster, which favors transport over optical fibers rather than copper cables. Large data centers have many thousands of connections, with an average transmission distance of less than 100 meters. This situation, along with the massive deployment of MPO connectors, has resulted in the widespread deployment of Om3 and Om4 multimode fiber cables in the data center.
New trends in optical fiber development have included wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF) designed for operation from 840 nm to 950 nm, to enable multiple wavelengths to be deployed on a single multimode fiber.
Based on current trends, data centers will continue to grow, and it is likely that next-generation data center transmission will be 4x25G shortwave wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) to enable 100-Gbit/sec transmission over a pair of wideband multimode fibers.
This 144-fiber microcable with a 6.3-mm outer diameter is enabled by 200-μ-coated singlemode fibers.
Long-haul and metro networks
With network traffic growing at 25 percent per year, traffic on each fiber is expected to double every three years. Combined with the expected usable life of fiber at more than 25 years, network traffic on a given fiber can be expected to grow more than 100 times during its expected life span.
One challenge with this anticipated growth is that the information-carrying capacity of a singlemode optical fiber may be maximized during the cable’s lifetime.
Once this limit is reached, there are two options for a service provider to consider: deploying more optical fiber or increasing the number of amplification sites. Both options are very costly. If new fibers are deployed, one must consider what fiber types will maximize the network’s value to the service provider. The number of current deployments of 100-Gbit/sec systems in the United States and China indicates that these countries will see the first such overbuilds, with Europe following soon after.
To support higher bandwidth demand, the industry has introduced optical cables with higher average fiber counts. In some cases, these higher-count cables must be constructed with minimal changes to the cables’ outer dimensions. A new solution is the use of 200-micron (μ) coated optical fibers to increase the fiber density in these cables by a factor of two or greater. These high-density cables were first deployed in Italy and now are being accepted throughout the world.
Other ways to support increased bandwidth demand include next-generation optical fibers. For long-haul terrestrial deployments, the ITU-T is discussing large-area low-loss G.654 fibers.
How much fiber will be enough?
How much additional fiber will be deployed in the future? One way to estimate this value is to look at developed countries such as Japan and the United States, where there are approximately 4 kilometers (km) of optical fiber deployed per household. That amount can be compared to the world average of about 1.3 km per household (source: CRU August 2015). With 1.4 billion households in the world, a quick calculation indicates a need for about 3.8 billion km of fiber to bring the rest of the world up to the level of countries with highly developed communications network infrastructures.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The first killer app for 5G wireless may not even be mobile
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/test-cafe/4442274/The-first-killer-app-for-5G-wireless-may-not-even-be-mobile?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160712&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160712&elqTrackId=6c127e6e714d4f35893ea172ec43283e&elq=eb3be2789ccf4affa783eda2c13077d7&elqaid=33041&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28867
Frequent readers of Test Cafe know that I have recently focused on the rollout of 5G, the fifth generation wireless communication system. I’ve chosen to focus much attention to 5G in a test and measurement blog because of this basic fact: Wireless communication is the most consequential segment of the test and measurement industry, and each generation enables massive shifts in market share and instrument architectures. Wireless communication testing is both, mission critical and difficult. So, when a new technology wave begins to roll across the horizon, I’m on the case.
After all, when so many current wireless users complain that coverage is their major issue, not peak speed, how does a technology that enables uber-speeds but only spans 200 meters accomplish anything meaningful? Answer: it doesn’t, at least for that use case.
Hint: It’s not mobile communications.
Why do I say that? Well, I’m defining 5G to be mmWave communication. Given that, we know how chaotic propagation is at 30GHz and above.
One of many interesting charts Mark displayed was one that showed feasibility of servoing a beam onto a moving object. I
Summary: real time beamforming for a high-speed moving object just made 5G communication exponentially more difficult.
So, self-driving cars aren’t the killer app. At least at the get-go.
However, there are some non-mobile applications that may just be the trick. I’ll choose one: being the final link of an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Why do we need fiber to the home (or apartment) if we could just beam the data to the recipient?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Transmitter FFE makes the channel do the work
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/measure-of-things/4442311/Transmitter-FFE-makes-the-channel-do-the-work?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20160708&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20160708&elqTrackId=3019ac34542d4ce89f7b2521fbff6321&elq=5911f418b2904351a28495d785d6df64&elqaid=33011&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28834
At high data rates, around and above 10 Gbits/s, we have to face the reality that conducting traces glued to dielectric (a.k.a., printed circuit boards) are truly horrible waveguides. They attenuate the signal, whether it’s NRZ/PAM-2 or PAM-4, mess up the relationships between the Fourier components’ amplitudes, frequencies, and phases—everything that makes the waveform a signal.
We must do a lot of work to help the receiver recognize the resulting waveform as a signal. In addition to careful layout and use of quality components—all in a cost-optimized way, of course—equalization does a lot of work.
Here’s another way to think of it that I find more intuitive: the channel distorts the signal, so why not pre-distort the signal in such a way that the channel itself removes that distortion? In other words, pre-distort the transmitted signal in a way that includes the inverse channel frequency response so that the channel cancels the pre-distortion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless networking will cover the world
http://www.edn.com/design/wireless-networking/4442396/Wireless-networking-will-cover-the-world?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160721&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160721&elqTrackId=18e45b258bec4aac9c341b86ceaa4095&elq=9ad6a982e69743dbabc001cd93609f6f&elqaid=33150&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28979
The next 60 years of wireless and networking technologies will be exponentially more exciting than the first 60 years. As radio frequency (RF) bandwidth becomes consolidated under that banner of the worldwide right of every citizen to connectivity, the technologies of photonic LiFi, peer-to-peer communications, and low-orbit satellite integration for back-haul will unify the Earth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Time-sensitive networking and Industrial IoT
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/time-sensitive-networking-and-industrial-iot/30aa873af64b9c46478e469e8d6ae92d.html?OCVALIDATE&ocid=101781
The future of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is built upon the foundation of time-sensitive networking (TSN). IIoT creates a smart system of systems where smarter, hyper-connected devices and infrastructure of manufacturing machines, transportation systems, and the electrical grid will embed sensing, processing, control, and analysis capabilities. Here’s how TSN will help.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) promises a world of smarter, hyper-connected devices and infrastructure where manufacturing machines, transportation systems, and the electrical grid will be outfitted with embedded sensing, processing, control, and analysis capabilities. Once networked together, they’ll create a smart system of systems that shares data between devices across the enterprise and in the cloud.
Much of today’s network infrastructure is not equipped to handle such time-sensitive data. Many industrial systems and networks were designed according to the Purdue model for control hierarchy in which multiple, rigid bus layers are created and optimized to meet the requirements for specific tasks. Each layer has varying levels of latency, bandwidth, and quality of service, making interoperability challenging and flexibly changing data connections virtually impossible.
Today on Ethernet networks, there is a need for functions such as quality of service, which we can think about as paying to get onto a toll road.
TSN provides not only access to a tollway, or an express lane, but along with providing access, the signals along the way are all very tightly coordinated with time. Not only is there the benefit of a priority through the network, but it can actually guarantee end-to-end scheduling, and every light turns green at the right time.
Certification helps interoperability
The AVnu Alliance, an industry consortium driving open, standards-based deterministic networking, in addition to advancements made to TSN, is working with member companies to drive this next-generation standard and create an interoperable ecosystem through certification. Members are working within the Alliance to develop the foundational elements needed for industrial applications based on the common elements of AVB/TSN.
TSN promises through standard silicon to converge the previously disparate technologies needed for standard Ethernet communication, for deterministic high-speed data transfer, and for high accuracy time synchronization. These developments will create a common foundation that will impact numerous applications and markets ranging from machine control and asset monitoring to test cells and vehicle control.
The keynote speech by Marek Neumann, “The future of self-driving vehicles and how time-coordinated, networked intelligence will make that future a reality,” offered a compelling view of potential developments involving TSN. There were 27 speakers over the two-day conference across markets and industries.
“This year’s TSNA Conference was proof that support for TSN is growing at a rapid rate,”
As IIoT adoption continues, increased amounts of data and widely distributed networks will require new standards for sharing and transferring critical information
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless standards expanded for improved network traffic
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/wireless-standards-expanded-for-improved-network-traffic/3639b211eb05f18042c0d94918c0a5f1.html?OCVALIDATE&ocid=101781
The Wi-Fi Alliance expanded the 802.11ac standard to include features designed to provide a higher-performance connectivity experience with features such as spatial streams and extended support.
The Wi-Fi Alliance expanded the 802.11ac standard to include features designed to provide a higher-performance connectivity experience. Wi-Fi Alliance is also expanding Wi-Fi Certified ac to include features designed to provide a higher-performance mobility experience. The features include:
MU-MIMO: Networks with multiple user-multiple input and multiple output (MU-MIMO) are capable of multitasking by sending data to multiple devices at once rather than one-at-a-time, improving overall network efficiency and throughput.
160 MHz channels: Wi-Fi certified ac increases the maximum channel bandwidth from 80 MHz channels to 160 MHz channels, potentially doubling transmission speeds.
Four spatial streams: Device speeds are proportional to the number of spatial streams. Wi-Fi certified ac now includes support for four spatial streams, up from three spatial streams.
Extended 5 GHz channel support: Wi-Fi certified ac encourages device support for a greater number of available channels in 5 GHz.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ethernet as a leading machine automation protocol
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/ethernet-as-a-leading-machine-automation-protocol/5fcafa07bfb634c548e547a6d11a8de6.html?OCVALIDATE&ocid=101781
Although there are still dozens of industrial fieldbus protocols used in machine automation, Ethernet is starting to become the norm with EtherNet/IP and Modbus TCP becoming leading protocols in North America.
Fieldbus technology was a welcome advance from point-to-point wiring when it emerged during the last few decades of the 20th century, and it’s had a nice run in industry since then. Many fieldbus protocols have come and gone, but all have connected sensors, input/output (I/O) devices, and other field devices to automation systems.
For today’s industrial networks, Ethernet can be a more attractive option than competing protocols as performance can match and exceed fieldbus technologies. Setting up an Ethernet network is also typically less expensive and easier to configure than with other protocols.
A brief history of fieldbus
In the early years, there were the basic open-communication serial standards such as RS232 and RS422/485. These, among others, were the basis for better-defined standards such as Modbus, which used serial communication standards as the foundation for what became the leading industrial protocol.
Ethernet was not yet mature, and fieldbus protocols offered sufficient performance and reliability in many applications. However, fieldbus technology was often expensive and difficult to setup, and different protocols were incompatible on both the hardware and software levels.
For example, DeviceNet, Modbus, and Profibus DP each started out as proprietary protocols with Rockwell Automation, Modicon, and Siemens respectively. Each eventually became an open standard administered by an independent foundation.
While Industrial Ethernet’s growth is exceeding fieldbus growth for accessing devices and is expected to become the more dominate technology over the next 15 years according to IMS Research, other fieldbus networks have a very large installed base because they were the only option before Ethernet technology matured.
Many applications still benefit from the highly deterministic architecture that fieldbus networks such as DeviceNet and Profibus DP offer. With these and other similar protocols, it can be very convenient to add more devices using field-mounted I/O blocks to an existing network that is still satisfying the needs of the application.
Another popular fieldbus protocol is IO-Link, which is a point-to-point (P2P) network used for tying field devices to controllers, often through a converter
Although IO-Link and low-level fieldbus protocols work well for linking simple devices to controllers, more complex connections can benefit from the power, speed, and flexibility that Ethernet offers.
he case for Ethernet
An industrial Ethernet protocol may be considered instead of fieldbus communications in many new machine automation applications that require a high degree of information exchange, such as linking a vision system to a PLC. As hardware costs drop, it’s becoming more cost-effective for even simple applications such as remote I/O and for fieldbus device connectio
Many people still consider Industrial Ethernet as something different than fieldbus, but if one considers what fieldbus technology has traditionally accomplished in the past with what Ethernet can do today, they are really one in the same.
With early Ethernet networks, determinism was poor and jitter was significant,
With the advent of cost-effective, industrial Ethernet, unmanaged switches and then eventually managed switches, collisions have become a nonissue. Processing power has increased, and it has reduced data transmission days to an insignificant level in most applications.
Even with standard, off-the-shelf Ethernet chips, jitter is low enough for most applications as these can utilize scheduling mechanisms such as Class 1 I/O Messaging in EtherNet/IP. For applications that are even more time critical, protocols such as EtherCAT use precision time protocol synchronization (IEEE 1588).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Massive MIMO Deliver on the Promise of 5G?
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=281184&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20160808.tst004c
At an NIWeek 2016 keynote Wednesday Dr. Andrew Nix, dean of Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol and Dr. Ove Edfors, a professor at Lund University, took the stage to discuss the results of recent research showing the promise of Massive MIMO for delivering 5G.
Anyone who has been following the wireless space in the past year should already be familiar with 5G. The premise is simple. All of our demand for mobile data, streaming 4K video, autonomous cars, and all of the trappings of the Internet of Things (IoT) from smart factories to connect homes, is going to put a strain on our current wireless capabilities sooner rather than later. 5G promises to be the solution by delivering all of the speed, low latency, and high capacity that our increasingly connected world will demand.
The problem is no one has quite settled on a way to get there. And 2020, the anticipated year for 5G’s rollout, will be here sooner than most of us would like to think.
“Conventional [wireless] systems use time and frequency domains to share resources,” Edfors told the audience. “Massive MIMO takes a step into the spacial domain.” The result, he said, is a system that has better spectral efficiency and is also more energy efficient than current LTE (4G) technology.
The research teams conducted their test using a first-ever MIMO Prototyping System, created by National Instruments (NI). The system, which is scalable from four to 128 antennas, is designed to pair with NI’s new MIMO Application Framework software, allowing users to create small- and large-scale antenna systems and perform real-time MIMO-related operations such as channel estimation, precoding, and decoding. “The MIMO Application Framework that NI provided allowed our team to begin our work from an advanced starting point,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T automates Ethernet qualification process
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/08/at-t-automates-ethernet-qualification-process.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_August82016&eid=289644432&bid=1489917
AT&T is launching a tool it says will “change the game” for partners as they qualify Ethernet-based services.
The company on Tuesday [Aug. 2] announced a tool that automates the process of determining the availability and speed of certain Ethernet services. “Wholesale customers want to do business with a company that is open, fast and responsive, and that’s exactly what we’re enabling with the launch of this new tool,” said Brendan Floyd, vice president of AT&T’s wholesale solutions. “It helps wholesale customers quickly and easily check the availability and speeds of select Ethernet-based services, which allows them to compete more effectively.”
The company says the tool automates the qualifying process, and as a result, reduces the time from hours, days and weeks to just minutes. “We’re making it as easy as possible for service providers to help their customers move from legacy services to transformative technologies like 100-Gigabit Ethernet and AT&T Switched Ethernet Broadband Port,”
Mike Lesher, AT&T’s executive director of product marketing management, said AT&T followed MEF’s framework “to deliver an API flow … that lets our wholesale customers validate AT&T Switched Ethernet services within our 21-state footprint.”
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2015/05/mef-ce2-100g.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Internet Fight Goes On
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2016/07/open-internet-fight-goes-on.html?cmpid=enlmobile0822016&eid=289644432&bid=1484326
The court fight over the FCC’s contentious Open Internet Order continues. Several industry organizations – including the NCTA, ACA, USTelecom and CTIA so far – are seeking an en banc review of the decision by U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June to uphold the order.
” we have long supported the net neutrality principles embodied in the FCC’s 2010 order that could be enforceable under the Commission’s traditional light touch approach to Internet regulation. Regrettably, the 2015 Order abruptly and unreasonably abandoned that long-established precedent, reverting to an outdated regulatory framework.”
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s statement said: “It comes as no surprise that the big dogs have challenged the three-judge panel’s decision.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Time Synchronization in SmartMesh IP Network
http://www.edn.com/education-training/edntv?bclid=1740131708&bctid=5007193253001
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wave2Wave integrates MXC connector into data center optical backplanes
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/07/wave2wave-mxc-connector.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_DataCenters_July262016&eid=289644432&bid=1478945
Data center interconnect specialist Wave2Wave Solution has announced the integration of MXC connectors into its EVO and EXO platforms. The company explains that “this product integration extends optical backplane technology into structured cabling with expanded and collimated laser beams through the lensed MXC connector technology.”
Wave2Wave notes that its next-generation MXC connector family is optimized for direct interface to equipment densely populated with mid-board mounted, multimode or single-mode optical modules
Wave2Wave’s EVO panel family provides the highest level of scalability and density, supporting a wide variety of applications and fiber connectivity in telecom and the data center. EVO offers 3,840 fiber connections in its 1U chassis and 10,000+ in its 2U.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RF GaN Gains Steam
http://semiengineering.com/rf-gan-gains-steam/
Technology may be perfect for 5G, but there are still some challenges to overcome
The RF gallium nitride (GaN) device market is heating up amid the need for more performance with better power densities in a range of systems, such as infrastructure equipment, missile defense and radar.
On one front, for example, RF GaN is beginning to displace a silicon-based technology for the power amplifier sockets in today’s wireless base stations. GaN is making inroads in base stations, mainly because it’s a wide-bandgap technology, meaning that it is faster and provides higher breakdown voltages than silicon and other III-V devices.
Now, seeking to leverage these properties into a bigger market, some RF GaN suppliers are targeting the technology for future handheld systems. RF GaN is overkill and too expensive for today’s smartphones, but it’s a candidate for future handhelds based on a next-generation wireless standard called 5G.
RF GaN is ideal for 5G or even advanced 4G systems, as the technology shines at higher frequency ranges. But for future handhelds, the material has some challenges, such as power consumption, thermal issues and cost.
Still, the industry should keep a close eye on the progress of RF GaN. “GaN devices can handle more power than other high frequency technologies like GaAs and InP, with better frequency performance characteristics than other power technologies like LDMOS and SiC,” said Eric Higham, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.
“GaN devices also have higher instantaneous bandwidths, which becomes important as the industry goes to higher frequencies where the bands are wider and implements more carrier aggregation bands,” Higham said. “This means fewer amplifiers are needed to cover all the bands and channels.”
GaN, gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) are III-V compound semiconductor technologies that are used for RF applications. Meanwhile, laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) is a silicon-based RF technology. And silicon carbide (SiC) is used in various applications.
The problem with GaN? It’s expensive. Most RF GaN is produced on smaller and expensive SiC substrates.
GaN has unique wide-bandgap properties, but it’s expensive.
Meanwhile, the first big market for RF GaN was the military/aerospace sector.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Preterminated cabling systems
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-24/issue-7/departments/product-focus/preterminated-cabling-systems.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_July252016&eid=289644432&bid=1477302
Leviton’s preterminated fiber cable assemblies, built from Micro Data Center Plenum cable, are billed as ideal for high-density installations. With the product’s extensive factory testing and no need for field terminations or splices, users can ensure the highest level of performance while reducing installation time by up to 70 percent, claims the company. The company says its fiber components are factory-terminated and pretested
Tripp Lite says its Augmented Cat6/Cat6A preterminated copper trunk bundles combine six preterminated, certified Category 6A cables to save installers time, space and money.
Corning says that its EDGE solutions were the first preterminated optical cabling systems specifically designed for data centers. According to the company, “The value that EDGE provides continues to be proven-density, network uptime, speed, simplicity and a clear migration path to meet future requirements.” Corning maintains that “technology roadmaps indicate that transmission speeds from 40G to 400G will be based on either 2- or 8-fiber connectivity solutions,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
BSRIA: Cisco’s Digital Ceiling at the forefront of the cabling industry’s hottest topic
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/07/bsria-cisco-digital-ceiling-cabling-hot-topic.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_July252016&eid=289644432&bid=1477302
BSRIA, which provides market-intelligence studies and services for the structured cabling market globally, recently said that its most recently published study shows that the hot topic in the cabling industry is convergence and the impact of digitization. “With the launch of its Digital Ceiling, Cisco has, with its many partners, boosted the level of interest in convergence,”
As we reported previously, BSRIA’s study found that the worldwide structured cabling market declined by three percent, measured in U.S. dollars, in 2015. The study also reported that the increase in the sale of copper cables, sold by volume, was very low—indicating some competitive pressure in the market. BSRIA expects only a small increase in sales of copper cables this year.
“Overall, not much growth is expected from sales of cabling for data points,” BSRIA explained. “The main area of future growth is expected to be in the cabling of wireless access points and other services—also called distributed building services [DBS] such as CCTV, access points, access control, AV, whiteboards, digital signage, lighting and BACS/HVAC controls.”
BSRIA additionally found that most of the large converged intelligent buildings are new-build or major refurbishments in verticals like retail/shopping centers, high-end offices, universities, hospitals, airports, sports stadiums, government buildings, hotels and luxury departments.
“Most buildings have local area networks, although the standard and quality will vary and the option of adding new products and services to existing networks are limited.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
2.5 and 5GBase-T standard ratification expected in September; interoperability plugfest planned
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2016/07/25gbaset-5gbaset-standard-ethernet-nbaset-plugfest.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_July252016&eid=289644432&bid=1477302
The Ethernet Alliance and NBase-T Alliance jointly announced “a new collaborative effort designed to accelerate mainstream deployment of 2.5GBase-T and 5GBase-T Ethernet,” the organizations said. “The two organizations plan to validate multi-vendor interoperability at a plugfest event scheduled for the week of October 10, 2016 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory in Durham, NH.”
In the announcement, the two alliances said they expect the IEEE to ratify the 802.3bz 2.5GBase-T and 5GBase-T specifications in September. “IEEE P802.3bz defines 2.5GBase-T and 5GBase-T, and offers a seamless upgrade to 1000Base-T operation, which was introduced nearly 20 years ago,” they said. “The new specification enables up to five times the speed with no changes in cabling infrastructure required—resulting in a better user experience. In addition, 2.5GbE and 5GbE are well-suited to interconnect to the next generation of higher-speed wireless networks based on IEEE 802.11ac.”
This technology multiples network throughput of the more than 70 billion meters of Category 5e and Category 6 cabling sold throughout the last 13 years.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Years of Google Fiber: A Higher Bar for Everyone
July 19, 2016
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2016/07/5-years-of-google-fiber-a-higher-bar-for-everyone.html?cmpid=enlmobile07192016&eid=289644432&bid=1469825
This May marked the fifth anniversary of Google Fiber’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) launch in Kansas City. To date, the service is up and running in five markets, with another six planned, and 12 more cities announced as candidates. The company seems to have an impact wherever it goes with competitors’ reducing prices and/or building faster services.
“Google is driving the competition to innovate. The idea of growth in broadband data rate is something we have seen spurred on by what Google has taught with gigabit access,” said Loudon Blair, corporate strategy officer at Ciena
Google perhaps has sparked this drive more so than a telco/cable operator face-off could.
While Google is driving competition, the arena may settle down into a complementary ecosystem. Ultimately Google and other service providers will continue to focus on network connectivity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software eases 5G test system development
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442376/Software-eases-5G-test-system-development?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160719&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160719&elqTrackId=69cbd8aad6334c73ad25c56f184bffe8&elq=bf0d214db06540e8b986482be485a24d&elqaid=33112&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28943
Keysight’s Signal Optimizer all-in-one software platform performs calibration, signal creation, and signal analysis of 5G candidate waveforms. The software features fully guided system calibrations and task-based instructions that simplify complex system optimization and measurements, allowing engineers to confidently validate 5G designs.
Signal Optimizer generates and analyzes a host of 5G candidate technologies, including FBMC (filter bank multicarrier) and filtered-OFDM. According to Keysight, enhanced LTE for 5G is also being developed, along with new multiple access on existing LTE signals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NI vector signal transceiver to be major weapon in the fight for 5G
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/test-cafe/4442359/National-Instruments-new-vector-signal-transceiver-to-be-major-weapon-in-the-fight-for-5G?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160720&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160720&elqTrackId=4e649e02ccab485b93ecb1385076a18d&elq=22f8fabdd1444e8f9a456968c48d4226&elqaid=33125&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=28955
through NI’s 5G demo lab by James Kimery, Director of Marketing for NI’s RF, Communications, and SDR group. The lab hosted several demos, including a previously covered 5G mmWave prototyping system, mmWave channel sounding, phased array antenna processing, and massive MIMO. Nearly all demos were remotely accessible for distant users.
James pointed out that all the demos shared one thing in common- the ability for users to customize the signal processing via LabView, often downloading algorithms to the embedded FPGAs themselves.
NI unveiled a new vector signal transceiver that sets a new standard for density, performance, and customization.
NI PXIe-5840 VST
First of all, what is a VST? While it is an abbreviation for vector signal transceiver, the VST product category is relatively new, introduced by NI in 2012. It consists of a VSG (vector signal generator) combined with a VSA (vector signal analyzer), and (in NI’s case) digital I/O pins, all whose functions may be customized via embedded FPGAs.
NI PXIe-5840 module is the world’s first 1 GHz bandwidth VST, which means that both the signal generator and signal analyzer offer 1 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth. That’s a lot of bandwidth, while it covers spectrum from 9 KHz to 6.5 GHz. The lower number allows addressing low frequency avionics, while the higher number includes all Wi-Fi bands plus margin. The 1 GHz bandwidth can be useful for all sorts of applications, even when carriers are narrower
The VST supports PCIe Gen 3 rates to move data across the PXI backplane
This is a key element of the NI strategy- to be able to customize the instrument itself. The internal VSA, VSG, and serial digital port are all connected to high-speed Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGAs. Like the original NI VST before it, the entire design of the VST is open sourced in LabView. This allows the user to customize the instrument on many different levels to do what he or she wants to do- a tweak here or there, up to very powerful DSP algorithms- all at hardware speeds.
When this technology scales to a complete application, you can see the power. This is particularly true with the emerging 5G applications. Add external heads, more VSTs, or more FPGA modules as needed, to complete your challenging application. The FPGA code is generated by a single method, LabView FPGA, across their entire product line. Their recently introduced NI PXIe-4135 SMU (source measure unit), a product category critical to semiconductor and smart device testing, offers the same FPGA customization and I/O symmetry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT4 labs to put LTE-U to the test in Wi-Fi Alliance tie-up
Pushing ahead with ‘coexistence’ plan, while industry squabbles
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/09/at4_labs_to_put_lteu_to_the_test_in_wifi_alliance_tieup/
The row over Wi-Fi spectrum access is continuing, but the Wi-Fi Alliance is pressing ahead with coexistence tests to be conducted by US test laboratory AT4 Wireless.
LTE-U (LTE unlicensed) has caused heated exchanges ever since the proposal first emerged: its aim is to let cellcos send data over spectrum most often used by Wi-Fi if there aren’t any Wi-Fi users nearby.
Backed by chip outfits Qualcomm and Samsung, telco vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, along with Verizon, the idea has garnered high-profile opponents including Google and the US cable lobby, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
A coexistence plan is under discussion – and that’s what AT4 Labs is being contracted to test.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If you buy a new high-end smartphone next year, it will likely be underpinned by a brand new wireless technology. ABI Research predicts that using the frequency of 60 GHz WiGig-circuits the delivery amount will increase next year already 160 million chipset.
In 2012, the WiGig circuits are already sold in one and a half billion, half of which smartphones. ABI projected image well, or how WiGig also called 802.11ad is increasing rapidly in all mobile devices.
WiGig is sort of the current WiFi extension to new spectrum. On the other hand millimeter wave applications are slightly different, so there is also a change in the functionality of the equipment.
WiGig technology enables the gigabit wireless transmission speeds of equipment. In practice, the technology will replace the physical, for example, between the USB and HDMI cords. The limits defined by the walls of the premises WiGig brings high-speed data links
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4807:tama-nopea-tekniikka-tulee-alypuhelimeesi-ensi-vuonna&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
2016 Show Networking Best Practices
http://controlgeek.net/blog/2016/7/18/2016-show-networking-best-practices
We came up with the following list of what we consider current best practices for the use of networks on shows.