It’s always interesting (and dangerous) to lay out some predictions for the future of technology, so here are a few visions:
The exponential growth of broadband data is driving wireless (and wired) communications systems to more effectively use existing bandwidth. Mobile data traffic continues to grow, driven both by increased smartphone subscriptions and a continued increase in average data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of video content. Ericsson forecasts mobile video traffic to grow by around 50% annually through 2022, to account for nearly 75% of all mobile data traffic. Social networking is the second biggest data traffic type. To make effective use of the wireless channel, system operators are moving toward massive-MIMO, multi-antenna systems that transmit multiple wide-bandwidth data streams—geometrically adding to system complexity and power consumption. Total mobile data traffic is expected to grow at 45% CAGR to 2020.
5G cellular technology is still in development, and is far from ready in 2017. As international groups set 2020 deadline to agree on frequencies and standards for the new equipment, anything before that is pre-standard. Expect to see many 5G announcements that might not be what 5G will actually be when standard is ready. The boldest statement is that Nokia & KT plan 2017 launch of world’s first mobile 5G network in South Korea in 2017: commercial trial system to operate in the 28GHz band. Wireless spectrum above 5 GHz will generate solutions for a massive increase in bandwidth and also for a latency of less than 1 ms.
CableLabs is working toward standardization of an AP Coordination protocol to improve In-Home WiFi as one access point (AP) for WiFi often is not enough to allow for reliable connection and ubiquitous speed to multiple devices throughout a large home. The hope is that something will be seen mid-2017. A mesh AP network is a self-healing, self-forming, self-optimizing network of mesh access points (MAPs).
There will be more and more Gigabit Internet connections in 2017. Gigabit Internet is Accelerating on All Fronts. Until recently, FTTH has been the dominant technology for gigabit. Some of the common options available now include fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 over cable’s HFC plant, G.Fast over telco DSL networks, 5G cellular, and fiber-to-the-building coupled with point-to-point wireless. AT&T recently launched its AT&T Fiber gigabit service. Cable’s DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 are cheaper and less disruptive than FTTH in that they do not require a rip-and-replace of the existing outside plant. DOCSIS 3.1, which has just begun to be deployed at scale, is designed to deliver up to 10 Gbps downstream Internet speeds over existing HFC networks (most deployments to date have featured 1 Gbps speeds). G.Fast is just beginning to come online with a few deployments (typically 500 meters or less distance at MDU). 5G cellular technology is still in development, and standards for it do not yet exist. Another promising wireless technology for delivering gigabit speeds is point-to-point millimeter wave, which uses spectrum between 30 GHz and 300 GHz.
There are also some trials for 10 Gbit/s: For example Altice USA (Euronext:ATC) announced plans to build a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network capable of delivering broadband speeds of up to 10 Gbps across its U.S. footprint. The five-year deployment plan is scheduled to begin in 2017.
Interest to use TV white space increases in 2017 in USA. The major factors driving the growth of the market include providing low-cost broadband to remote and non-line-of-sight regions. Rural Internet access market is expected to grow at a significant rate between 2016 and 2022. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global TV white space market was valued at $1.2 million in 2015 and is expected to reach approximately $53.1 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 74.30% during the forecast period.
The rapid growth of the internet and cloud computing has resulted in bandwidth requirements for data center network. This is in turn expected to increase the demand for optical interconnects in the next-generation data center networks.
Open Ethernet networking platforms will make a noticeable impact in 2017. The availability of full featured, high performance and cost effective open switching platforms combined with open network operating systems such as Cumulus Networks, Microsoft SoNIC, and OpenSwitch will finally see significant volume uptake in 2017.
Network becomes more and more software controlled in 2017.NFV and SDN Will Mature as Automated Networks will become Production systems. Over the next five years, nearly 60 percent of hyperscale facilities are expected to deploy SDN and/or NFV solutions. IoT will force SDN adoption into Campus Networks.
SDN implementations are increasingly taking a platform approach with plug and play support for any VNF, topology, and analytics that are instrumented and automated. Some companies are discovering the security benefits of SDN – virtual segmentation and automation. The importance of specific SDN protocols (OpenFlow, OVSDB, NetConf, etc.) will diminish as many universes of SDN/NFV will solidify into standard models. More vendors are opening up their SDN platforms to third-party VNFs. In Linux based systems eBPF and XDP are delivering flexibility, scale, security, and performance for a broad set of functions beyond networking without bypassing the kernel.
For year 2016 it was predicted that gigabit ethernet sales start to decline as the needle moving away from 1 Gigabit Ethernet towards faster standards (2.5 or 5.0 or 10Gbps; Nbase-T is basically underclocked 10Gbase-T running at 2.5 or 5.0Gbps instead of 10Gbps). I have not yet seen the result from this prediction, but that does not stop from making new ones. So I expect that 10GbE sales will peak in 2017 and start a steady decline after 2017 as it is starts being pushed aside by 25, 50, and 100GbE in data center applications. 25Gbit/s Ethernet is available now from all of the major server vendors. 25 can start to become the new 10 as it offers 2.5x the throughput and only a modest price premium over 10Gbit/s.
100G and 400G Ethernet will still have some implementation challenges in 2017. Data-center customers are demanding a steep downward trajectory in the cost of 100G pluggable transceivers, but existing 100G module multi-source agreements (MSAs) such as PSM4 and CWDM4 have limited capacity for cost reduction due to the cost of the fiber (PSM4) and the large number of components (both PSM4 and CWDM4). It seems that dual-lambda PAM4 and existing 100G Ethernet (100GE) solutions such as PSM4 and CWDM4 will not be able to achieve the overall cost reductions demanded by data-center customers. At OFC 2016, AppliedMicro showcased the world’s first 100G PAM4 single-wavelength solution for 100G and 400G Ethernet. We might be able to see see 400GE in the second half of 2017 or the early part of 2018.
As the shift to the cloud is accelerating in 2017, the traffic routed through cloud-based data centers is expected to quadruple in the next four years according to the results of the sixth annual Global Cloud Index published by Cisco. Public cloud is growing faster than private cloud. An estimated 68 percent of cloud workloads will be deployed in public cloud data centers by 2020, up from 49 percent in 2015. According to Cisco, hyperscale data centers will account for 47 percent of global server fleet and support 53 percent of all data center traffic by 2020.
The modular data center market has experienced a high growth and adoption rate in the last few years, and is anticipated to experience more of this trend in years to come. Those data centers are typically built using standard 20 ft. container module or standard 40 ft. container module. Modular data center market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 24.1% during period 2016 – 2025, to account for US$ 22.41 billion in 2025. Also in 2017 the first cracks will start to appear in Intel’s vaunted CPU dominance.
The future of network neutrality is unsure in 2017 as the Senate failed to reconfirm Democratic pro-net neutrality FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, portending new Trump era leadership and agenda Net neutrality faces extinction under Trump. Also one of Trump’s advisers on FCC, Mark Jamison, argued last month that the agency should only regulate radio spectrum licenses, scale back all other functions. When Chairman Tom Wheeler, the current head of the FCC, steps down, Republicans will hold a majority.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Suspicious’ BGP event routed big traffic sites through Russia
Google, Facebook and Microsoft routed through PutinGrad, for no good reason
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/13/suspicious_bgp_event_routed_big_traffic_sites_through_russia/
A Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing incident saw a bunch of high-profile Internet destinations mis-routed through Russia on Tuesday, US time.
In what BGPMon called a “suspicious” event, “Starting at 04:43 (UTC) 80 prefixes normally announced by organisations such Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitch, NTT Communications and Riot Games were now detected in the global BGP routing tables with an Origin AS of 39523 (DV-LINK-AS), out of Russia.”
The glitch happened twice, the monitoring organisation reported: Once between 04:43 and 04:46 UTC on December 12, and then between 07:07 and 07:10.
Peers that accepted the announcements and made them reachable included Hurricane Electric and Zayo in the US, Scandinavian international collaboration Nordunet, and Telstra in Australia.
The autonomous system (AS) that made the announcements had been largely dormant for years.
“This means that this isn’t a simple leak, but someone is intentionally inserting these more specific prefixes, possibly with the intent the attract traffic”, BPGMon’s Andree Toonk wrote.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lights, camera, 802.11ax-ion!
Marvell claims it’ll have the first chipsets for new 10G WiFi ready for products in H2 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/13/marvell_80211ax_chipsets/
Chip-maker Marvell has claimed it will be the first to offer WiFi chipsets that bring the 802.11ax standard to the world.
802.11ax hasn’t been signed off yet, but promises to send WiFi towards 10 Gb/s thanks to its use of both multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) and the new Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA). MU-MIMO lets an access point use multiple antennae for a single connection, while OFDMA assigns individual users subsets of a link so the radios can serve more than one user at a time. Together, the pair make 802.11ax good at combining lots of different links so that users get more connections, more often, and end up with more bandwidth.
That’s a fine combination for business, as it promises the chance to serve users with fewer access points than are required today. Reduced complexity should result and should be appreciated, even if 802.11ax access points might just need a new cable standard to do meaningful work.
The company’s cooked three chipsets: the 88W9068 has eight antennae dedicated to reception and another eight for transmission while the 88W9064 has four of each. Both are destined to end up in business-oriented products or public spaces. The 88W9064S has two receivers and four transmitters and Marvell’s targeted it at set-top boxen.
Marvell said the chipsets will ship some time in early 2018 and will appear in products in the second half of the year. Widespread 802.11ax adoption in devices probably won’t happen until 2019.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google: Southeast Asia’s internet economy is growing faster than expected
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/12/google-southeast-asias-internet-economy-is-growing-faster-than-expected/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Southeast Asia is now the world’s third largest region for internet users — with more people online than the entire U.S. population — and internet is having a bigger impact on the region than originally thought, according to a new report co-authored by Google.
China and India typically dominate the conversation when looking at emerging economies in Asia, but Southeast Asia is rapidly being acknowledged as a market where the internet is changing daily behaviors and creating new opportunities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
60-GHz module targets wireless infrastructure
https://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4459154/60-GHz-module-targets-wireless-infrastructure
GigaRay MOD65412 from Lattice Semiconductor is a 60-GHz module set that is a precertified, production-ready component for wireless ISPs and mobile network operators. Leveraging Lattice’s SiBeam phased-array antenna and electronic beam-steering technology, the module set minimizes installation time and reduces maintenance costs.
Comprising a baseband module and RF module, the MOD65412 supports distances of up to 200 meters at 1 Gbps TCP/IP and up to 300 meters at 300 Mbps TCP/IP data bandwidth with a 45° steering range. The PCIe half-height baseband minicard employs Lattice’s SB6541 baseband processor, which performs MAC and PHY functions and features high-speed adaptive electronic beam-steering for link discovery, maintenance, and switching. The baseband module also includes RF and system interfaces.
Based on the company’s SiI6342 60 GHz phased-array RF transceiver, the 51.6×62.6×6.6- mm RF module integrates a high-gain PCB antenna and a combined EMI shield and heat sink for system thermal management. Also included with the module set is a Linux device driver.
http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/mmWave/UltraGigBeamformingTX.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
The pros and cons of mesh networking
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4459163/The-pros-and-cons-of-mesh-networking
With my new mesh network set up and running, now’s the time to answer the all-important question of how well it’s running. Also, Google’s designed Google Wifi to be easy to maintain (along with being family-friendly, such as via the “pause” feature that temporarily disables network access for one or a group of devices, or the recently-added device-specific or network-wide porn site blocking feature); how well did Google execute on its aspirations, and did any important features fall by the wayside in the process?
One thing you’ll discover right away and (like me) might find odd is that Google Wifi uses the same SSID with the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless networks, for a claimed “better, easier experience.” It’s up to each network client to select which frequency “beacon” it’s compatible with and (if both are options) which is better in a particular location, balancing performance (usually but not always 5 GHz) against range (usually but not always 2.4 GHz).
Another oddity: the LAN subnet is fixed (192.168.86.xxx), not admin-alterable. In most cases, this’ll be a non-issue for implementers.
Speaking of subnets, there’s seemingly no way to restrict the router’s DHCP server to use only a portion of the total available CIDR /24 subnet space. This seemingly means that static IP-assigned network clients can’t be reliably used with Google Wifi, although it’s alternatively possible to reserve at the router an IP address for a particular DHCP-configured client.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Official traffic will bypass normal 4G traffic in Finland
Separate networks and commercial operators have successfully tested over the previous year the privilege of public transport over other traffic. Separate networks, Elisa, Helsingin Poliisi and Nokia again tested in December the privilege of official traffic in a genuine load situation in the mobile network.
Virve’s network of authorities is moving to a new generation of technical solutions in which public transport is handled in co-operation with commercial operators. Implementation of critical government communication services on commercial network operators requires particular stability and interference.
Priority in the authority connection overrides the functionality of other on-line traffic and the availability of service in mobile network crash situations as a prerequisite for exploiting commercial networks in critical government communications.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/7306-viranomaisliikenne-ohittaa-tavallisen-4g-liikenteen
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Case Against Net Neutrality
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/a-case-against-net-neutrality
This is a guest post. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the blogger and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE.
However, an aspect of network operations that is often ignored in the popular network neutrality debate is this: It is, in fact, desirable that ISPs not always be neutral in handling network traffic.
As an example, consider two users whose Internet traffic goes through the same congested link. If one user is streaming video and another is backing up data to the cloud, a perfectly neutral network would slow down both transfers. Most people would probably agree that, to create the best experience for the most users, it would be best to slightly slow down non-interactive traffic such as data backups, and free up bandwidth for videos and voice-over-IP calls.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech Talk: 802.11ax Multi-User
https://semiengineering.com/tech-talk-802-11ax-multi-user/
How the new standard improves wireless bandwidth in the home and office and what’s needed to implement it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Awards $390 Million to Optical Components Supplier Finisar
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332731
Optical communications components provider Finisar will get $390 million from customer Apple to open a manufacturing facility for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), a technology used in key features of Apple products, including iPhone X.
Finisar will use part of the funding to transform a long-shuttered, 700,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Sherman, Texas, into a workhorse of VSCEL manufacturing by the second half of next year, creating more than 500 jobs, including engineers and technicians, Apple said. The combination of the Sherman plant and another Finisar plant in Allen, Texas, is expected to bring Finisar’s payroll in the state to more than $65 million.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The FCC officially votes to kill net neutrality
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/14/the-fcc-officially-votes-to-kill-net-neutrality/
Despite overwhelming opposition from Congress, technical experts, advocacy organizations, and of course the American people, the FCC has voted to eliminate 2015’s Open Internet Order and the net neutrality protections it established.
The order passed today, “Restoring Internet Freedom,” essentially removes the FCC as a regulator of the broadband industry and relegates rules that prevented blocking and throttling content to the honor system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The FCC just repealed net neutrality. What happens next?
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/14/the-fcc-just-repealed-net-neutrality-what-happens-next/
The FCC voted this morning to nullify 2015’s Open Internet Order and its strong net neutrality rules, substituting a flimsy replacement with a deeply (and deliberately) incorrect technical justification.
The battle is lost. What of the war? Here’s what happens next, and what you can do to help.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What telecoms and tech companies are saying about the FCC’s net neutrality decision
https://techcrunch.com/gallery/what-telecoms-and-tech-companies-are-saying-about-the-fccs-net-neutrality-decision/
The FCC just voted to eliminate the net neutrality rules established by 2015’s Open Internet Order. The blowback has been predictably sudden from many prominent internet companies that are decrying the commission’s decision. Just as pronounced, however, has been the support from prominent telecoms that expressed enthusiasm for the FCC’s vote
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. regulators ditch net neutrality rules as legal battles loom
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet/u-s-regulators-ditch-net-neutrality-rules-as-legal-battles-loom-idUSKBN1E81CX
The approval of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal in a 3-2 vote marked a victory for internet service providers such as AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc and hands them power over what content consumers can access. It also is the biggest win for Pai in his sweeping effort to undo many telecommunications regulations since taking over at the agency in January.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paresh Dave / Reuters:
Alphabet’s X inks deal with the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to install 2,000 boxes that provide high-speed wireless internet using light beams
Alphabet’s X sells new wireless internet tech to Indian state
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-india/alphabets-x-sells-new-wireless-internet-tech-to-indian-state-idUSKBN1E83BQ
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement, which begins next year, would see 2,000 boxes installed as far as 20 kilometers (12 miles) apart on posts and roofs to bring a fast internet connection to populated areas. The idea is to create a new backbone to supply service to cellphone towers and Wi-Fi hotspots, endpoints that users would then access.
The agreement is an outgrowth of X’s Project Loon
X plans to deploy free space optical technology, which transmits data through light beams at up to 20 gigabits per second between the rooftop boxes. There would be enough bandwidth for thousands of people to browse the Web simultaneously through the same cellphone tower, X said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tony Romm / Recode:
A coalition of state attorneys general, led by the New York AG, pledge to sue the FCC for repealing net neutrality rules
The next front in the net neutrality war: Feds versus the states
States like Washington and New York are gearing up to fight the FCC’s recent repeal
https://www.recode.net/2017/12/14/16779166/net-neutrality-trump-internet-fcc-california-new-york-states-lawsuit
Tomi Engdahl says:
Third quarter 2017 follows year-long theme for optical communications: LightCounting
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/third-quarter-2017-follows-year-long-theme-for-optical-communications-lightcounting.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2017-12-14
LightCounting states in its newly released “December 2017 Quarterly Market Update” that demand for optical communications technology in the third quarter of 2017 followed what has so far been a year-long trend: Service provider spending declined year-on-year while data center operators increased their investments.
Optical technology vendors looking for rays of light within the service provider gloom found them in sequential growth 100G DWDM transponders and WSS module sales. However, these upticks paled in comparison to the declines experienced in the FTTx and wireless fronthaul markets, both sequentially and annually (see “Demand for FTTx, wireless optics declines from 2016: LightCounting”). That said, LightCounting reports that check-ins with semiconductor vendors such as Analog Devices, Qualcomm, and Xilinx revealed increased activity in wireless communications, including 4.5G and 5G projects. This information leads the market research firm to expect initial commercial deployments of next generation wireless technologies in 2018, which in turn should boost the demand for optical fronthaul technology.
The news overall was much better for technology vendors with exposure to the data center and internet content provider markets. Alibaba, Facebook, and Google increased their infrastructure spends by 142%, 62% and 39%, respectively, leading to overall spending records in the space during the quarter. Facebook, meanwhile, plans to double capex in 2018 according to LightCounting, leading to hopes the growth is sustainable.
Shipments of PSM4 and CWDM4 100GbE modules set records during the quarter. However, 100GBASE-LR4 QSFP28 optical transceiver demand in the third quarter of 2017 proved softer than LightCounting expected.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet in 84% of U.S. homes
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2017/12/internet-in-84-of-u-s-homes.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-12-14
According to the Leichtman Research Group, 84% of U.S. households get an Internet service at home, compared to 83% in 2012 and 74% in 2007. Broadband accounts for 98% of households with Internet service at home, and 82% of all households get a broadband Internet service, an increase from 76% in 2012 and 53% in 2007.
In addition, 75% of adults access the Internet on a smartphone, up from 44% in 2012. Overall, 68% of households now get Internet service both at home and on a smartphone, an increase from 59% in 2014 and 42% in 2012.
Other findings indicate:
16% of households only get Internet service at home, compared to 41% in 2012.
42% not online at home access the Internet on a smartphone, representing 7% overall.
91% of all households access the Internet either at home and/or on a smartphone, compared to 85% in 2012.
91% with annual household Incomes greater than $50,000 get broadband at home, compared to 72% with annual household incomes of less than $50,000.
85% of households use at least one laptop or desktop computer; 93% of this group get an Internet service at home.
63% of those not online at home do not use a laptop or desktop at home.
“The percentage of households that have an Internet service at home is similar to what it was five years ago. Yet, increasingly the home Internet service is broadband, and it has also become more common for home Internet service to be paired with Internet service on a smartphone,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T trialing broadband over power lines
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2017/12/at-t-trialing-broadband-over-power-lines.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-12-14
AT&T (NYSE:T) has launched two trials of its Project AirGig broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, one internationally and a second in the United States in Georgia.
AirGig is intended to eventually deliver Internet speeds in excess of 1 Gbps via a millimeter wave (mmWave) signal guided by power lines. The object is to avoid building new towers or burying new cables in locations close to aerial power lines. AirGig is intended to allow trained electrical workers to install devices to provide high-speed broadband in just a few minutes.
“Project AirGig is part of our ongoing effort to accelerate Internet connections to a gig or more through both wired and wireless solutions,”
There’s no timeline yet for commercial deployment
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cable Labs gives OpenStack, and itself, some help on the edge
Serverless functions running on a set-top box could be a thing before long
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/15/cablelabs_snaps_opentstack/
CableLabs, the organisation that figures out to help pay TV operators sweat their networks, has launched OpenStack installers for its software-defined networking and network function virtualization efforts.
The organisation has had its eye on this for a while with an effort called “SNAPS” the “SDN & NFV Application Platform and Stack. SNAPS exists to help cable network operators implement SDN and NFV on their HFC networks.
SNAPS is designed to allow interoperability across cable networks, a more-than-useful quality given that those who provide virtualized network services will want them to work regardless of network operator. With many millions of homes around the world already using cable networks for broadband connections, and network operators hoping they can recruit many million more, there’s a big target market for network services. Throw in the potential to run network services on set-top boxen that cable TV companies provide and there’s a clear need for an interoperable SDN and NFV on cable tool.
While CableLabs has worked on SNAPs, OpenStack has become the de facto standard for carriers’ SDN and NFV efforts or plans.
Which is why CableLabs on Thursday announced “SNAPS OpenStack”, to brings its efforts to the open source infrastructure project.
SNAPS-OpenStack
https://github.com/cablelabs/snaps-openstack
SNAPS-OpenStack is step two for the SNAPSTM Program we are developing at CableLabs. It is an OpenStack Kolla installer for machines that have been initialized with SNAPS-Boot.
If you’re working with Software Defined Networks (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) or just building your own cloud, then this is where you want to be.
SNAPS-OpenStack was originally built by CableLabs and Aricent, but we could use your help! Check out our contributing guidelines to get started.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Positioning: Silicon photonics manufacturing requires parallelism in alignment processes
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-53/issue-10/features/positioning-silicon-photonics-manufacturing-requires-parallelism-in-alignment-processes.html?cmpid=enl_lfw_lfw_enewsletter_2017-12-14
To make silicon photonics devices profitably at scale, automation subsystems require alignment processes that support steps from device characterization at the wafer level to final assembly and packaging.
In 2000, well before the telecom-driven photonics boom of 1997-2002 reached its sudden end, the term “photonomics” was coined to underscore the importance of process automation for the economic well-being of the industry. The economic examples presented in that work seem quaint today: 60 parts per hour per workstation. Compare that to today’s silicon photonics manufacturing processes in which thousands of devices are minted per wafer. A pace of 60 parts per hour may have been blistering two decades ago, but now it would mean unsustainability in the current and future competitive landscape.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SoCalGas breaks ground on fiber-optic installation to monitor natural gas pipelines in real-time
December 14, 2017
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/12/socalgas-breaks-ground-on-fiber-optic-installation-to-monitor-natural-gas-pipelines-in-real-time.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2017-12-18
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) announced that it has broken ground on what it calls a “first-of-its kind” fiber-optic cable installation that will allow the company to monitor the condition of its high-pressure transmission pipelines in real-time.
The fiber-optic technology is being installed along a new, seven-mile section of natural gas pipeline in Bakersfield, California and will serve as an early warning system to detect unauthorized construction work that could damage the pipeline and changes in pressure in the line that could indicate a leak.
The technology uses fiber-optic cables that run along a pipeline and that transmit data across long distances. The system operates on the principle that light signals vary when a fiber optic cable is exposed to vibration, stress, or abnormal changes in temperature – all indicators of a possible natural gas leak or an impact to a natural gas line. The fiber optic system can pinpoint within 20 feet where a potential problem may be developing.
“Having real-time information on the status of high-pressure pipelines is critical in the early detection of a potential problem,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Single-port, triple-redundant Deterministic Ethernet function module supports time-sensitive networking applications
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/12/single-port-triple-redundant-deterministic-ethernet-function-module-supports-time-sensitive-networki.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2017-12-18
As noted at Design World, embedded computing electronics maker North Atlantic Industries, Inc. (NAI) has announced the availability of its TE1 single-port, triple-redundant Ethernet function module to support time sensitive networking applications.
The TE1 module supports all three traffic classes: Deterministic Ethernet Capability Time-Triggered Ethernet SAE AS6802 (TTEthernet); ARINC664 Part 7 and Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX); or IEEE 802.3 best effort protocol. Per a press release, “The NAI TE1 offers a huge advantage to systems integrators as the TE1 can be deployed in existing IEEE 802.3 protocol systems and later be updated to AFDX / ARINC664 Part 7 or TTEthernet without changing hardware.”
Applications include: Vehicle Management Systems, Flight Control Systems, Remote Data Concentrators, Remote Interface Units, Network Protocol Adapters, Space Communications, Automobiles and Autonomous Navigation Systems, as well as many others where safety critical and time sensitive Ethernet communication is required.
“TTEthernet and ARINC664 Part 7 are the leading time-critical protocols used in commercial, military, and aerospace applications,” states Lino Massafra, VP of sales and marketing for NAI.
He adds, “Aerospace and defense companies are demanding more robust and reliable Ethernet capabilities for flight and mission-critical systems. Coupled with this, are scalable, flexible long-term requirements to support future architectures and capabilities while reducing size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C). NAI has integrated these functions into a single module, the TE1.”
https://www.naii.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Two Major ISPs Are Suffering Outages, Making the Internet Really Slow Right Now
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/12/18/2143257/two-major-isps-are-suffering-outages-making-the-internet-really-slow-right-now?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Two major backbone internet service providers — Level 3 and Cogent — appear to be suffering from massive outages and downgraded service, according to ISP monitoring service Downdetector. Users in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. are apparently being hit the hardest. Comcast is also said to be affected to a lesser degree.
You’re Not Imagining It: The Internet Is Really Slow Right Now
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/12/18/the_internet_is_really_slow_right_now.html
Everyone has a sluggish Monday sometimes. This week it’s the turn of … what feels like the entire internet? Right now, two major backbone internet service providers, Level 3 and Cogent, appear to be suffering from massive outages and downgraded service, according to the ISP monitoring service Downdetector, which collects and analyses network status reports to determine early interruptions.
Slate reached out to Level 3 and Cogent to ask if they’ve determined the cause of the disruptions.
The internet is a network of networks, and slowdowns can happen all the time for any number of reasons. These could be regular, vanilla network maintainance problems. More worryingly, it could be the side effect of a massive botnet, like the Mirai botnet that was identified last October when hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of internet-connected devices sent junk traffic to Dyn, a major domain name service provider, to cause severe outages across the internet.
Sometimes outages are the result of disputes over peering, a term used to describe the connections between websites and internet service providers that determine how they exchange traffic so that data can be carried from one part of the internet to another.
This slowdown is also a reminder of what kind of internet we may well have once the new Federal Communications Commission rules axing network neutrality protections hit the books: They’ll allow internet providers to legally block or throttle access to websites, and are slated to go into effect as early as January 2018. The current outages are probably not a case of your ISP behaving badly—but come next year, that very well could be the case.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK good for superfast broadband, crap for FTTP – Ofcom
Ahead of only Nigeria when it comes to fibre
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/18/uk_good_for_superfast_broadband_crap_for_fttp_ofcom/
Blighty is one of the top countries when it comes to superfast broadband but one of the worst for full-fibre connections, according to an in-depth report by Ofcom comparing the UK with 16 other nations.
Superfast broadband is available to more than nine in 10 UK households, making it one of the top countries for 30Mbps, according to the International Communications Market Report 2017 (PDF), which compared speeds and availability across 19 countries.
These included France, Germany, Italy, the US, Japan, Australia, Spain, Sweden, Holland, Poland, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, India, China and Nigeria, Portugal and New Zealand.
However, the availability and take-up of ultrafast services (offering speeds above 300Mbps, in the UK is comparatively low, largely due to a focus on the deployment of fibre-to-the-cabinet rather than fibre-to-the-premises networks.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/108896/icmr-2017.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G: The Solution to Broadband Infrastructure
http://www.electronicdesign.com/communications/5g-solution-broadband-infrastructure
Small towns and rural areas still do not have adequate internet access, if any at all. But there are multiple efforts in place to solve that problem.
According to government sources, about 93% of U.S. citizens have access to fixed broadband service with speeds up to 25 Mb/s. About 73% of U.S. citizens subscribe to a high speed broadband service. Most of this is in the urban areas. Only about 72% of the citizens in rural areas have such service. Another source says that about 40% of homes in remote areas cannot get high speed internet service from a cable or telecom company. Given that huge geographical areas of the U.S. are remote and sparsely populated, that is no surprise. There are far too few potential subscribers in these regions to support cable, DSL, fiber, or other installations. Bottom line is, there is no money in it.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other government agencies have conducted studies and developed plans to solve this problem over the past several years.
Broadband the Cheap(er) and Easy Way
Adding fiber and cables to expand the broadband access is horribly expensive and massively time-consuming.
Now with the forthcoming 5G wireless standards, equipment, and systems in development, there is a real viable alternative to fiber and cable. While wireless broadband service has been available for years in some areas, it is generally too slow to be really useful. The proposed 5G New Radio (NR) systems are more than fast enough to compete with fiber. Lots of small cells and backhaul will be needed but the costs of building out the rural areas are surely less than any other approach. Most of the major wireless carriers have indicated that fixed wireless broadband will be an initial service. Here is a chance to prove it.
And let’s not forget satellite. Some satellite broadband already exists but it is pretty poor, especially the upload. Just recently the FCC approved system of 720 low-Earth orbit satellites that should be a great option for those in rural areas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MDU Internet: What happens when a tenant moves out?
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2017/12/mdu-internet-what-happens-when-a-tenant-moves-out.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-12-19&[email protected]
Smart home technology is one thing, but can it be extended to multiple dwelling units (MDUs)? This is a question property managers are asking as the cable industry heads into 2018.
“Where the gap has been is that providers of the (smart home) technology (haven’t) really provided a single dashboard that integrates what the resident might have with the property,” said Mike Slovin, VP, Xfinity Communities. “The problem with smart home to smart community is that you need Internet access.”
When apartments turn over, the management of the myriad workers – painters, repairmen, carpet installers – involved can be cumbersome. When all is done, someone has to make sure the windows are shut, the air conditioning or heat is turned down, the doors are locked, etc. To do this remotely would require Internet access. But when a resident moves out, the Internet coverage for the apartment goes with them.
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) has launched technology in a handful of cities that uses a long range (LoRa) wireless network to provide ubiquitous data coverage for small pieces of information, like commands to lock the door or turn off the alarm.
LoRa is a 900 MHz technology that offers two-way communications for payloads of less than 200 bytes. Each LoRa sensor can cover six floors in an MDU, Slovin said, adding that not many devices are needed to cover a whole building. Concrete and glass, or other areas that might be difficult for WiFi (when a router and gateway is not close), are not a problem for LoRa.
“(But LoRa) won’t replace a broadband connection. It is for use by the resident (or property manager) to manage smart devices,” Slovin said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virtual Segmentation(TM) Solution – the future of PHY deployment
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/webcasts/2018/01/virtual-segmentationtm-solution-the-future-of-phy-deployment.html
Virtual SegmentationTM (VS) allows MSOs to deploy PHY without the need for fiber deployment; it can be achieved through an existing coaxial network. Traditional networks are used to 870 MHz or 1002 MHz, leaving free spectrum above this range. VS utilises unused spectrum to realize high-speed data connections from 3 Gbps to 10 Gbps.
VIRTUAL SEGMENTATION
https://files.technetix.com/pdf/whitepapers/Virtual_Segmentation.pdf
The steady evolution of the DOCSIS system and Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) plants has enabled DOCSIS 3.1 delivered
via Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP). This evolution has provided an increase in density and scale, enabling
operators to address the exponential year-on-year bandwidth increase demanded by customers.
The next major evolution in the cable access network is a shift to a Distributed Access Architecture (DAA). DAA enables
access hardware to be moved from the Headend to smaller hub sites or into the plants. This implementation is realized
by separating the CCAP Core and PHY functionalities. The PHY is moved as close as possible to the subscribers while
only the core functionalities remain in the Headend location. The R-PHY is connected to the core via a digital optical
transmission link, which requires the operators to deploy fiber all the way down to each R-PHY location.
1
Technetix Inc
Nov/2017
Introduction
The steady evolution of the DOCSIS system and Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) plants has enabled DOCSIS 3.1 delivered
via Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP). This evolution has provided an increase in density and scale, enabling
operators to address the exponential year-on-year bandwidth increase demanded by customers.
The next major evolution in the cable access network is a shift to a Distributed Access Architecture (DAA). DAA enables
access hardware to be moved from the Headend to smaller hub sites or into the plants. This implementation is realized
by separating the CCAP Core and PHY functionalities. The PHY is moved as close as possible to the subscribers while
only the core functionalities remain in the Headend location. The R-PHY is connected to the core via a digital optical
transmission link, which requires the operators to deploy fiber all the way down to each R-PHY location.
Deploying fiber deep underground puts pressure on operators in terms of CAPEX and time, particularly when the
exponential bandwidth growth and the limited time available to deliver are taken into consideration.
Solution: Virtual Segmentation
Technetix’ Virtual Segmentation (VS) solution allows operators to deploy PHY without the need for fiber deployment. VS
is an innovative technology which enables 10 Gbps of symmetrical traffic to travel over a coaxial medium within the trunk
lines. This is realized by utilizing the broad RF spectrum (5 MHz to 3 GHz) to overlay Ethernet traffic over coax.
VS is a low-latency and low-power solution that provides the operator with an Ethernet pipe over coax. This starts and
ends with an 10G SFP+ connection that can be used to link the core in the Headend and the PHY in the field. The high
bandwidth(10 Gbps) and low latency (IEEE 1588v2) of VS ensures the smooth operation of the PHY
VS enables operators to make great savings in CAPEX compared to deploying R-PHY via fiber. Operators can deploy R-PHY
in little time at a very low cost, replacing existing amplifiers on the trunk line with low power-consuming VS nodes will also
lead to a reduction in energy consumption.
A VS link is deployed between the core and the PHY, this consists of a Transmitter, Repeater(s) and a Receiver. The VS link
also includes a control module which enables the operator to integrate the VS link into their own network monitoring systems
Repeater:
Repeater(s) are placed on the coax network at certain distances to compensate for the loss of data over
the coax medium. A repeater receives the RF data degraded over the coax medium and converts it to Ethernet to
regenerate the RF data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC kills Title II Internet order
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2017/12/fcc-kills-title-ii-internet-order.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-12-19
In a 3-2 party-line vote, the FCC has passed Chairman Ajit Pai’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” order, overturning the Obama-era Open Internet Order passed under the FCC’s then-Chairman Tom Wheeler in 2015.
Declaratory Ruling and Report and Order include:
Restores the classification of broadband Internet access service as an “information service” under Title I of the Communications Act – the classification affirmed by the Supreme Court in the 2005 Brand X case.
Reinstates the classification of mobile broadband Internet access service as a private mobile service.
Finds that the regulatory uncertainty created by Title II regulation has reduced Internet service provider (ISP) investment in networks, as well as hampered innovation, particularly among small ISPs serving rural consumers.
Finds that public policy, in addition to legal analysis, supports the information service classification, because it is more likely to encourage broadband investment and innovation, thereby furthering the goal of closing the digital divide and benefitting the entire Internet ecosystem.
Restores broadband consumer protection authority to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), enabling it to provide uniform online protections against unfair, deceptive and anticompetitive practices.
Requires that ISPs disclose information about their practices to consumers, entrepreneurs and the Commission, including any blocking, throttling, paid prioritization or affiliated prioritization.
Finds that transparency, combined with market forces as well as antitrust and consumer protection laws, achieve benefits comparable to those of the 2015 “bright line” rules at lower cost.
Eliminates the vague and expansive Internet Conduct Standard, under which the FCC could micromanage innovative business models.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Consortium completes 100G international fiber-optic network for research and education in Asia
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/consortium-completes-100g-international-fiber-optic-network-for-research-and-education-in-asia.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_datacom_2017-12-19
The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan and the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and Singapore Advanced Research and Education Network (SingAREN) in Singapore have jointly completed a 100G international fiber-optic network to connect Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan for international research and education networks (RENs) in Asia, the entities have announced.
Asia Pacific Ring (APR)
The infrastructure will be the backbone of a North to South-East Asia network, enabling nodes in Singapore and Japan to be Asia’s hubs worldwide for trans-continental research and education connectivity at 100G speeds. With the link, the research and education community will be able to finish the new Asia Pacific Ring (APR) network throughout the Pacific between Asia and North America.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Validating Client Cable Connections throughout the Data Center
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/08/validating-client-cable-connections-throughout-the-data-center.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_datacom_2017-12-19
Data center operations (DCO) require the right tools to test fiber-rich, carrier-neutral environments for redundancy, high-performance connectivity, and disaster recovery. As they scale their networks up to 400 Gbps, DCO and technicians struggle to install, verify, and troubleshoot client connections through passive and active data center interconnections. These connections can take many forms, such as direct attached cables (DACs), active optical cables (AOCs), single- and multimode fiber, and optical modules deployed almost daily in expanding data centers.
For these reasons, DCO require a hand-held, all-in-one tool for testing and troubleshooting electrical cables and fiber-optic interconnects between servers, switches, and routers at all data rates, using any given interface, located anywhere in the data center
As bandwidth demand grows, so do data center footprints, making it even more crucial to get higher-speed Ethernet technologies to the market as quickly as possible. Being able to test forward-looking Ethernet technologies in a vendor-neutral environment is key
Different Fiber-Optic Cables for Different Uses
DCO teams are responsible for the installation and verification of client cabling and transported services, from cloud applications to streaming content. Electrical Ethernet cabling such as active and passive DACs, Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat6a can be found in most plants for delivery up to 25 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) rates for patch panels and horizontal or vertical cable managers.
Fiber-optic cables are common for most rates greater than 10GbE and can vary in types, connectors, and lengths depending on the application. MPO trunk cables can support up to 72 fiber strands, housed in one MPO connector, but are expensive in nature and used for short distances. Single mode fibers are used for longer distances (10-40 ,m) and higher data rates (up to 100 Gbps), but are cost-sensitive due to the optics required for data transmission. Multimode duplex fiber provides high data rates (up to 10 Gbps per fiber) over short to medium distances (up to 300 m).
For these reasons, data centers incorporate a combination of electrical and fiber-optic data connections, over both short and long distances, and use a variety of connectors depending on the type of network element, performance, and speed required to support the client service.
There are three main areas of fiber-optic client cable testing:
Fiber-optic connector inspection
Optical transceiver analysis
Fiber-optic cable measurement
Connector inspection: How clean is the fiber connector?
Optic transceiver analysis: Are my pluggable optical modules functioning correctly?
Fiber-optic cable measurement: What is my total loss? How much loss at each termination?
Client Service Verification – Will the Data Connection Support the Client Service?
Selection of the proper benchmark verification test and location will determine client services through the data connection. Each benchmark test addresses a specific client service, demarcation point, or equipment to determine if the service-level agreement has been met
Here are the most common benchmark tests:
RFC 2544 – This IETF standards body test typically is used for packet-based network equipment or new lines. This traditional benchmark test is used to test the Layer 2 “pipe” throughput, latency, and frame loss after the physical Layer 1 fiber or electrical cable has been tested.
Y.1564 – This ITU standards body test is relatively new to the industry; it often is used to replace RFC 2544 in the operator end-to-end testing scenario but not for individual switch/router equipment. Y.1564 is a benchmark test used to emulate the “services” purchased by a client to verify the service acceptance criteria (SAC) agreed upon between client and service provider.
RFC 6349 – This IETF standard body test was recently developed. This benchmark test addresses the Layer 4 TCP communication within the packet-based transport. This test is focused on the client-to-client communication once the Physical, Transport, and Network layers are tested. Service providers and clients use this benchmark test to enable deeper testing into the packet; it is designed to test end-to-end throughput through a client demarcation point or firewall.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Planning starts now for high-speed data center migration
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/12/planning-starts-now-for-high-speed-data-center-migration.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2017-12-19
Big Data, mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT) are generating an enormous amount of data, and data center operators must find ways to support higher and higher speeds. Many data centers were designed to support 1-gigabit or 10-gigabit pathways between servers, routers and switches, but today’s Ethernet roadmap extends from 25- and 40-gigabit up through 100-gigabit, and 400-gigabit and even 1-terabit Ethernet loom within a few years. As a result, data center operators have an immediate need to migrate their Layer 1 infrastructure to support higher speeds
Planning for High-Speed Data Center Migration
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/industry-perspectives/planning-high-speed-data-center-migration
As the Ethernet roadmap extends to one terabit and beyond and data center applications demand higher transmission speeds, data center architects should plan today to support the future.
Recent data center trends predict bandwidth requirements will continue growing 25 percent to 35 percent per year. A key impact of this sustained growth is the shift to higher switching speeds. According to a recent study by Dell’Oro, Ethernet switch revenue will continue to grow through the end of the decade, with the biggest sales forecasted for 25G and 100G ports. The shift to 25G lanes is well underway as switches deploying 25G lanes become more commonplace. Lane capacities are expected to continue doubling, reaching 100G by 2020 and enabling the next generation of high speed links for fabric switches
The pace of change is accelerating. The move from 1G to 10G Ethernet took nearly a decade, for example, while migration from 10G to 25G and 100G will take half as long. A lot of legacy networks were designed with infrastructure that’s not as scalable as it needs to be; planners could anticipate an eventual move from 1G to 10G, for example, but in most cases cabling that was installed even a couple of years ago is now outdated. Data center managers are having to update fiber or add more fiber, and that fiber must support rapid advancements to 100G and beyond.
Standards are evolving. Many data centers use multi-mode fiber to connect servers and switches, but the state of the art in multi-mode fiber was OM3 or OM4 a few years ago. Last year, standards bodies approved the OM5 standard, which has four times the throughput of OM3.
Data centers are densifying. In multi-tenant data centers in particular, customers are reducing the size of their deployments by consolidating network gear into smaller footprints.
Migration is costly and disruptive. Ripping and replacing cabling is disruptive enough, but when the data center also needs higher-density cable management systems and patch panels, it can be a real nightmare.
The most important strategy for high-speed migration is to plan for the long term. Many data centers last upgraded their Layer 1 infrastructure to support the next generation of switches, routers and servers, but because the pace of change is accelerating, it’s best to plan for the longer term. Choose a point in the future (say, 400G), assume the data center will require more fiber strands than are available today, and buy the highest grade of multi-mode or single-mode fiber available to support future migration without ripping and replacing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Fundamental Principles of a Data Center Operations Plan
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/industry-perspectives/fundamental-principles-data-center-operations-plan
Developing an effective, and adaptable plan for successful operations requires the adoption of specific principles to guide these efforts that require IT to think holistically about their operational goals and how they intend to achieve them.
Principle 1: Experience is the Best Teacher
Principle 2: Designed Through the Eyes of an Operator
Principle 3: Flexibility and Control
Principle 4: Training and Certification Program
Principle 5: Focus on Eliminating Errors
Summary
Planning for the operation of your data center is a critical, and often, overlooked element of the new data center process. Effective operational processes and procedures are not the result of rigid adherence to past modes of operation or ad hoc efforts devoid of any underlying guiding foundation. Developing an effective, and adaptable plan for successful operations requires the adoption of specific principles to guide these efforts that require IT to think holistically about their operational goals and how they intend to achieve them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ruckus unveils 40/100G edge switches supporting IEEE 802.3bz, 802.3bt
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/11/ruckus-unveils-40-100g-edge-switches-supporting-ieee-802-3bz-802-3bt.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2017-12-19
On Nov. 14, Ruckus, a part of Brocade, announced a new family of switches to support next-generation network edge and aggregation/core requirements. The Ruckus ICX 7650 family delivers high-performance switching capabilities to meet current and future network demands, including high-density 802.11ac / 802.11ax Wi-Fi deployments, UHD video streaming, line rate encryption and single point of management.
According to the company, “The Ruckus ICX 7650 is the industry’s highest performing, scalable edge switch to deliver support for 100 Gigabit Ethernet—the highest port density for IEEE 802.3bz (multi-gigabit) Ethernet ports, along with the highest number of IEEE 802.3bt-ready (90 W PoE) ports on the market today. This family is the first fixed configuration switch to offer 100 Gigabit Ethernet for campus networks.”
“The new Ruckus ICX 7650 switch expands Ruckus’ offering in multi-gigabit Ethernet switching, delivering more multi-gigabit ports, higher performance with up to 100G uplinks and more PoE power to support high density wireless deployments, including future Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11ax and beyond,”
Ruckus Unveils Next Generation Edge Switch
https://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/it-unmasked/ruckus-unveils-next-generation-edge-switch.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
B’com Shifts Switch to 12.8 Tbits/s
Tomahawk-3 packs 256 56G serdes
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332756
Broadcom is sampling a 12.8 Tbit/second Ethernet switch chip targeting large data centers. The news shows the company continues to set the pace for a growing pack of competitors angling for a piece of one of the most demanding markets in networking.
The Tomahawk-3 packs twice the aggregate bandwidth of the Tomahawk-2 launched 14 months ago, both made in the same 16FF+ TSMC process. The company used engineering cleverness to pack 256 56-Gbit PAM-4 serdes in an “incrementally larger” die than the T2 that used as many 25G serdes.
In recent years, the Ethernet switch market has attracted seven merchant players. At least one of them, startup Innovium, aims to sample its own 12.8 Tbit/s chip within weeks.
Broadcom dominates the market today with a 73 to 94 percent share, depending on how market watchers slice the sector valued at nearly a billion dollars. Its closest rival, Cisco Systems, takes most of the rest with systems using its own ASICs. Juniper, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Huawei also make Ethernet switch ASICs for their systems.
Increasingly the dozen largest data center operators — including the likes of Facebook and Google — build their own switch systems or specify systems built by ODMs. They can drive sales of millions of chips a year but demand maximum bandwidth at minimum cost and power consumption.
The Tomahawk-3 is geared for the next-generation of their top-of-rack and aggregation switches, delivering up to 128 100GE or 32 400GE ports, the first merchant chip to support 400GE rates. While Broadcom declined to give many specifics about this chip, it did say its delivers 100GE at 40 percent less power and 75 percent lower cost than the prior part.
With seven merchant chips in the pipeline and four in-house ASICs in the works, “we will see a record number of unique platforms ship in 2018, not only those based on 50 Gbit/s lanes,” said Alan Weckel, principal of market watcher 650 Group.
“There will be over one dozen unique silicon offerings for the data center by the end of 2018, shattering any previous record by a significant amount,” Weckel said.
Among the merchant players, “only Cavium and Mellanox are really shipping in volume in 2017,” said Weckel. Marvell, China’s Centec and Taiwan’s Nephos are generally aiming at midrange and low-end markets.
A year ago, Cavium claimed it had just started shipping its 3.2 Tbit/s XPliant switch chip and had eight OEM design wins including ones at Arista and Brocade, now part of Broadcom. Mellanox’s chips generally support Ethernet and Infiniband but are mainly used in its own systems.
“Definitely, Cavium and Barefoot are making most of the headlines in terms of design wins so far. However, we have yet to see whether these design wins are for large-scale deployment or just to put pressure on Broadcom,” said Boujelbene.
Wheeler of the Linley Group expects the competition will drive Ethernet switch costs from about $60/port today to about $36/port by 2020.
Rochan Sankar, a senior director of product marketing at Broadcom, disagrees. He notes the new chip will pack into a 1U system the capabilities of an 8U system designed by Facebook using 12 Tomahawk-1 chips.
“I actually think competition hasn’t been driving a lot of disruption in pricing…we’re delivering leadership economics already,” Sankar said.
Barefoot and Cavium claim a software edge because they support programmable engines that can readily add new protocols as they emerge. Their work is part of a move supported by giants including AT&T and Google to software-defined networks that are easier to manage.
Data center giants “are driving their own code and programmable capabilities as close to the server as possible,” said Broadcom’s Sankar. Thus, the company has added programmability to its lower-end Trident and Jericho switches targeting carriers and business users and so-called control-plane networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultra-fast 5G wireless service declared national security priority by White House
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/19/ultra-fast-5g-wireless-service-declared-national-security-priority-by-white-house/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Who would have thought that the president who writes in 140-character missives would suddenly be interested in 70 Gbps wireless internet access?
The White House released its congressionally-mandated National Security Strategy report (warning: PDF) yesterday. Tucked away in a section on improving America’s infrastructure was this action item: “We will improve America’s digital infrastructure by deploying a secure 5G Internet capability nationwide.” Other than natural gas, 5G wireless service was the only area of technology to get a specific calling out for infrastructure.
5G wireless isn’t a specific technology per se, but rather a set of standards and technologies that interoperate in the millimeter wave spectrum to meet the needs of users today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
International APN Settings for Mobile Broadband Network Operators
https://www.hw-group.com/products/HWg-Ares/HWg-Ares_GSM_APN_en.html
Operators in Finland
http://www.mobiililaajakaista.com/operaattoriasetukset/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finns freaked out on mobile data – DNA users use most in the world
Finns are hard to use mobile data. The latest evidence is the consulting firm Tefficient that telecom operator DNA’s customers use the most mobile data in the world per subscription. And the same pace is with other operators. Elisa was the third and Suomen Telia sixth.
According to Teficin’s statistics, DNA’s subscription-specific data traffic in the first half of 2017 averaged 14.7 gig per subscription and month. Elisa was third in the survey with 12.2 gigabytes and Telia’s Finnish network sixth. The lowest data was used in the Nigerian MTG network.
The use of data at the DNA subscriptions is still rising, as the number in the third quarter of 2017 has risen to 16.5 gigabytes.
Source: https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/12/21/suomalaiset-tykastyivat-mobiilidataan-kaytto-nousee/
More:
Mobile data – Q3 2017
Spotting the operators capable of monetising the data usage growth
http://media.tefficient.com/2017/12/tefficient-industry-analysis-4-2017-mobile-data-usage-and-revenue-Q3-2017-per-operator.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beamforming to expand 4G and 5G network capacities
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4459171/Beamforming-to-expand-4G-and-5G-network-capacities
Most wireless subscribers believe all is well with their network coverage. The wireless industry knows the future tells a different story. 4G LTE has reached the theoretical limits of time and frequency resource utilization, while 5G will need new technology to meet its full potential.
The wireless industry is working feverishly to open a new degree of freedom and space for enhancing network capacity and performance to address growing connectivity demands. Engineers are looking at spatial dimension innovations, falling under the category of space division multiple access (SDMA), that will help deliver significant network capacity and performance.
With SDMA, the idea is to use software-driven, beamforming antennas to enable multiple concurrent transmissions using the same frequency without interference, thus allowing for abundant spectrum reuse with higher intensity signals delivered to both stationary and mobile users. This way, mobile operators can continuously reuse the same band of spectrum, at the same time, within a given spatial region, and direct coverage to where it’s needed, when it’s needed.
Wireless carriers and OEMs are considering two technologies that enable electronic beamforming to 4G and 5G networks to meet the boundless growth in wireless data consumption: multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) and beamforming.
Early MIMO deployments in 4G systems have been both exciting and disappointing. Exciting because real network capacity gains have been shown. Disappointing because hardware costs have outpaced performance gains.
Enter MU-MIMO
That leaves multi-user MIMO, where independent data beams are transmitted along diverse vectors. MU-MIMO is not without challenges, however. Practical MU-MIMO demos have shown that it is difficult to achieve linear capacity gain with the number of antenna/radio pairs used. In practice, the observed capacity gains have been more like one-tenth the number of radio/antenna combinations.
More recently, attention has been drawn to MU-MIMO power consumption in cellular bands. Several researchers have pointed out that multi-GHz clockrate 8-bit ADCs (analog-to-digital converters) require significant power. For a 128-element MU-MIMO array this implies at least half a kilowatt of power needed just for the ADC components.
Holographic beamforming
Holographic beamforming (HBF) is a new technique that is substantially different from conventional phased arrays or MIMO systems in that it uses software defined antennas (SDAs). It is the lowest C-SWaP (cost, size, weight, and power) dynamic beamforming architecture available.
HBFs are passive electronically steered antennas (PESAs) that use no active amplification internally. This leads to symmetric transmit and receive characteristics for HBF antennas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
System architecture milestone of 5G Phase 1 is achieved
http://www.3gpp.org/news-events/3gpp-news/1930-sys_architecture
The past two years have seen the 3GPP 5G architecture work progressing from the study period in 2016 to the delivery of a complete set of stage 2 level specifications. By achieving this milestone in 3GPP Release 15 the 5G system architecture has been defined – providing the set of features and functionality needed for deploying a commercially operational 5G system. SA2, the 3GPP architecture working group, has now specified the overall 5G system architecture; detailing features, functionality and services including dynamic behavior defined by information flows.
This article offers a brief introduction to the 5G system architecture, highlighting some of its main characteristics. The complete description is provided by the delivered specifications TS 23.501, TS 23.502 and TS 23.503.
The 5G stage 2 level specifications include the overall architecture model and principles, eMBB data services, subscriber authentication and service usage authorization, application support in general, but also specifically for applications closer to the radio as with edge computing. Its support for IMS includes also emergency and regulatory services specifics. Further, the 5G system architecture model uniformly enables user services with different access systems, like fixed network access or WLAN, from the onset. The system architecture provides interworking with and migration from 4G, network capability exposure and numerous other functionalities.
Service Based Architecture
Compared to previous generations the 3GPP 5G system architecture is service based. That means wherever suitable the architecture elements are defined as network functions that offer their services via interfaces of a common framework to any network functions that are permitted to make use of these provided services. Network repository functions (NRF) allow every network function to discover the services offered by other network functions. This architecture model, which further adopts principles like modularity, reusability and self-containment of network functions, is chosen to enable deployments to take advantage of the latest virtualization and software technologies. The related service based architecture figures depict those service based principles by showing the network functions, primarily Core Network functions, with a single interconnect to the rest of the system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARRIS unveils NVG578 PON gateway platform for network migration
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/arris-unveils-nvg578-pon-gateway-platform-for-network-migration.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2017-12-21
ARRIS (NASDAQ: ARRS) has unveiled the NVG578, a passive optical network (PON) gateway device.
The NVG578 platform is designed to scale as service providers evolve their networks to meet demands from new services and faster speeds, including current GPON speeds and 10-Gbps symmetrical XGS-PON and NG-PON2 speeds.
The NVG578 delivers whole-home Gigabit WiFi on the wireless side, with options to offer 802.11ac and upgrade to 802.11ax in dual-band and tri-band configurations alike.
ARRIS has also released the NVG558, a fixed wireless broadband gateway with integrated 4G LTE and 3.5GHz CBRS capabilities to support triple-play services, as well as the potential to support future 5G services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CWDM8 MSA releases specifications covering 400 Gbps over 10 km
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/cwdm8-msa-releases-specifications-covering-400-gbps-over-10-km.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2017-12-21
Members of the CWDM8 Multisource Agreement (MSA) have released a new technical specification for 400-Gbps optical links at distances up to 10 km over duplex single-mode fiber. The new specification represents the industry’s first 400G at 10 km interface focused specifically on implementation in next-generation optical module form factors, such as QSFP-DD or OSFP, for high-density data center networking equipment, the group asserts.
The new 10 km reach specification is a companion for the technical specification covering 400-Gbps optical transmission at distances up to 2 km over duplex single-mode fiber that the CWDM8 MSA released in November
According to the group, the 400G CWDM8 optical interfaces were developed to support an array of high-bandwidth networking applications in data center, campus, enterprise, and metropolitan area networks.
The CWDM8 MSA group was formed to address 400-Gbps applications using NRZ modulation on the optical end, while maintaining compatibility with 50-Gbps per lane electrical interfaces
https://www.cwdm8-msa.org/
The CWDM8 MSA (8-wavelength Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement) Group is an industry consortium dedicated to defining optical specifications and promoting adoption of interoperable 2 km and 10 km 400 Gb/s interfaces over duplex single-mode fiber.
The CWDM8 MSA was formed to meet the bandwidth and expansion needs of modern data centers and support deployment of 12.8T Ethernet switches and other advanced networking equipment with 50G SERDES. MSA participants are developing optical link specifications that will enable cost-effective, low power consumption 400G duplex single-mode optics using 50G per wavelength optical NRZ modulation, while maintaining full compatibility with standard 50G PAM4 electrical interfaces.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DARPA’s AI Spectrum Management Challenge Completes its First Round
https://www.spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/darpas-ai-spectrum-management-challenge-completes-its-first-round
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wi-Fi app – further troubleshooting information
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/wireless-checker
If the Wi-Fi checker app detects your Wi-Fi may be slowing down your broadband, you may want to try the following
Tomi Engdahl says:
Three Ways to Get Wi-Fi in Your Car
https://www.eeweb.com/profile/nicole-digiose/articles/three-ways-to-get-wi-fi-in-your-car?utm_source=Aspencore&utm_medium=EDN
Here’s how you can turn your vehicle into a hotspot on wheels
Look No Further Than Your Smartphone
Use a Dongle
Trade up to a Connected Car
Tomi Engdahl says:
The three major counterfeit communications cabling scams
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-25/issue-5/departments/infrastructure-insights/the-three-major-counterfeit-communications-cabling-scams.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2017-12-26
Using steel or aluminum instead of copper: Copper-clad-steel or copper-clad-aluminum is a classic method manufacturers use to save money. It consists of using an aluminum or steel core instead of costly copper, which causes high attenuation and poor signaling. In the long run, network speed will be affected.
Using re-ground plastic: RJ-45 connectors that don’t pass the quality test at the factory and turn out as rejected can be re-ground back to pellets and added to the plastic used to make new connectors. This process is legitimate, but it can have bad consequences when too much re-ground plastic is used, because it lowers combustion rating.
Substituting jacket material: Manufacturers replace CMP and CMR flammability ratings with inferior non-fireproof jacket material.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Watch this time-lapse untangling of a data center rack
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/01/timelapse-rack-untangling.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2017-12-26
Tomi Engdahl says:
The University of Southampton AirGuide Photonics program to investigate holey fiber
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/the-university-of-southampton-airguide-photonics-program-to-investigate-holey-fiber.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2017-12-22
The University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) says it will lead the new AirGuide Photonics program, which aims to develop and demonstrate hollow-core fiber, otherwise known as holey fiber. The £6.1 million program will be funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The glass core of conventional fiber limits the speed of light as it passes through and negatively affects other propagation aspects, which in turn limits fiber-optic network performance. The AirGuide Photonics effort will replace the glass core with air, or a vacuum, to create “light pipes” that will provide increased bandwidth with lower latency. Guiding light through air, instead of through glass, improves power handling and overall light transmission quality, according to the university.
The AirGuide Photonics program will assemble more than 25 research organizations and industry partners, and experts from Southampton’s ORC, to the effort, which will also explore potential use cases, including fast internet, space exploration, and laser-based manufacturing and bioengineering.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CWDM8 MSA releases specifications covering 400 Gbps over 10 km
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/cwdm8-msa-releases-specifications-covering-400-gbps-over-10-km.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2017-12-22
Members of the CWDM8 Multisource Agreement (MSA) have released a new technical specification for 400-Gbps optical links at distances up to 10 km over duplex single-mode fiber. The new specification represents the industry’s first 400G at 10 km interface focused specifically on implementation in next-generation optical module form factors, such as QSFP-DD or OSFP, for high-density data center networking equipment, the group asserts.
The new 10 km reach specification is a companion for the technical specification covering 400-Gbps optical transmission at distances up to 2 km over duplex single-mode fiber that the CWDM8 MSA released in November (see “New CWDM8 MSA specifications cover 400 Gbps over 2 km”).
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. FTTH deployments set record: Fiber Broadband Association
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/u-s-ftth-deployments-set-record-fiber-broadband-association.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2017-12-22
Service providers in the United States set a record for new fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments between September 2016 and September 2017, according to the Fiber Broadband Association (formerly the FTTH Council North America) and its research partner, RVA, LLC. Canadian carriers also aggressively rolled out FTTH infrastructure during the same time period, the research reveals.
New FTTH “homes marketed” (a category roughly equivalent to homes passed) in the U.S. hit 4.4 million in the U.S. RVA’s president, Mike Render, revealed December 19 during a webcast used to release the study results. The figure is the highest since RVA began keeping tabs, eclipsing the 4.2 million homes passed in 2008 at the height of Verizon’s FTTH roll out. Overall, 34.5 million U.S. homes have access to FTTH-delivered services – approximately 30% of all homes in the country – with 15.4 million connected at the end of September 2017.
The majority of FTTH deployments continue to come from Tier 1 service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink, Render reported.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese systems houses engaging with alternative component, subsystem sources: LightCounting
December 21, 2017
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2017/12/chinese-systems-houses-engaging-with-alternative-component-subsystem-sources-lightcounting.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2017-12-22
Several Western component and subsystems vendors have cited reduced demand from Chinese systems houses such as Huawei and ZTE for revenue declines in 2017. One reason for the slowdown is the fact that these systems houses have begun looking for more local optical technology sources, LightCounting Founder and CEO Vladimir Kozlov reported during a webcast December 20.
Kozlov noted that, in addition to doing more development work in-house (particularly in the case of Huawei), the two Chinese systems vendors have begun to work more closely with Chinese companies such as Accelink, Hisense, and HiSilicon as well as Japanese vendors such as Sumitomo.
Thus, while Kozlov expects Huawei and ZTE to pick up purchases of optical components and subsystems in 2018 as their systems sales improve and component inventories dwindle, Western firms (particularly in the U.S.) may not see their Chinese orders return to previous levels. Overall, Kozlov expects 2017 optics sales to be flat versus 2016 at approximately $7 billion; he predicted 2018 revenues will exceed $8 billion.
Much of this growth will derive from internet content providers and other mega data center operators, whose purchases of optical technology are beginning to rival those of traditional service providers
Kozlov noted that telecom equipment sales, measured in 100-Gbps port counts, rose in 2017. But 100G price declines wiped out any revenue gains such growth should have created. Telecom equipment sales revenues appear set to decline this year, he stated.