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:
3.6 terabytes on a single card
American ADVA Optical Networking will bring relief to the first palvelinkortillaan, which reaches as many as 3.6 terabytes of data speed.
FSP 3000 CouldConnect card, the secret is developing Advan TeraFlex interface technology. It allows a single wavelength can transfer data at 600 gigabits per second.
Advan according TeraFlex technology is also achieved at lower power consumption per gigabit, than with any other devices. This is a big factor in the new hyper-class data centers.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6034-3-6-terabittia-yhdella-kortilla
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadband Growth Slows, Cable Still Dominates
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/03/broadband-growth-slows-cable-still-dominates.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-03-21
U.S. broadband is still growing in terms of subscriber numbers, but that growth is down slightly from last year. According to the Leichtman Research Group, the 14 largest cable and telephone providers in the United States – representing about 95% of the market – acquired about 2.7 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2016. Annual net broadband additions in 2016 were 87% of the 3.1 million net adds in 2015.
The top broadband providers now account for nearly 92.9 million subscribers, with top cable companies having about 58.4 million broadband subscribers and top telephone companies having 34.5 million subscribers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Monitor in an SDN/NFV Environment
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/03/how-to-monitor-in-an-sdn-nfv-environment.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-03-21
Virtualization in the form of SDN and NFV could bring operators many benefits, like dynamic allocation and the optimization of services. But it comes at a cost in service assurance, said Gregg Hara, VP of business development and marketing at Centina Systems.
“These (systems) are starting to roll out. Later in 2017 and into 2018 (we will see) a lot of production,” Hara said. “The solutions have to have the same quality as existing carrier grade services … I have really not seen it (possible) to take existing performance systems and extend them easily to virtual services.”
The complexity comes from the number of virtual components (router, switch, etc.) that all have to be tracked in order to determine the health of the service. It is also important for a virtual assurance monitor to tie in with the network functions virtualization (NFV) manager, software defined networking (SDN) controller or orchestration system to notify users of the problem and request that changes be made dynamically, Hara said.
“Any one of these can make changes dynamically to the virtual service, but they don’t have visibility beyond themselves,” Hara said. “Orchestration has a broader sense of the virtual service (than NFV manager or SDN controller), but it probably won’t have a good sense of performance of the components.”
A virtual assurance monitor, on the other hand, offers optimization – by detecting performance issues like a network overload, and communicating an instruction to add more memory, for example – and remediation.
Hara also urges operators to look at the bigger picture when it comes to virtual monitoring
It is a given that a virtual assurance monitor should be able to help operators extend service level agreements (SLAs) in a virtual environment, but Hara said these tools also can also step up and offer a pre-breach fix. and monitor the SLA in real time to alert users before there is a breach.
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-performance transmitter circuit 5G for small base stations
Aalto University researchers in conjunction with the University of Tampere University of Technology Nokia and Bell Labs have developed a new kind of 5G radio transmitter, whose operating principle is as digital: the signal is converted to analog form only at the last stage of the transmitter amplifier.
“The transmitter has been developed completely new integrated electronic circuit that allows to send a significant increase in the frequency band. This increases the base stations, data transfer capacity of up to 20-fold, ”
“When 4G transmitters, transmission bandwidth is about 20 MHz, has developed a digital 5G transmitter possible to achieve up to 400 MHz bandwidth,”
The new generation of base stations, operators will be able to choose the parameters by adjusting the way and the number of devices they split the signal through the stations. Until now, the allocation is done at a fixed frequency.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/03/21/huipputehokas-lahetinpiiri-pieniin-5g-tukiasemiin/
More: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7870342/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia and Facebook have reached a new record in intercontinental meranalaisessa data transfer. Records were field test 5500 kilometers between Ireland and New York have passed a cable.
The test also achieved a 64-QAM modulation to a record high spectral efficiency. Reading ol 7.46 bits per second per hertz. This was developed by Bell Labs, possible new PCS modulation (Probabilistic constellation shaping) due to using a QAM patterns higher data capacity of the channel. Modulation clearly improves the fiber-channel spectral efficiency.
In the same tehtissä Nokia transferred a submarine cable data record of 11,000 kilometers in 5.68 b / s / Hz spectral.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6041&via=n&datum=2017-03-21_15:16:53&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Terabit optical transmitter as soon true
896 gigabits per second, size a few square millimeter chip. This has reached the Belgian microelectronics research institute IMEC, a research project, the results of which will be outlined tomorrow ending optoelectronic first event OFC in Los Angeles.
IMECin, the development shows that the terabytes of optical transmitters development is already close to reality. Silicon-based components achieve this objective and at the same time clearly higher data rates than today’s 100G-components.
Bi-directional transceiver silicon-based IMEC combined silicon-germanium (GeSI) speed of up to 56 Gbps dense matrix modulators in combination waveforms with the GeSI-photodetectors. Together, the transmitter has a modulator 16 and photodetectors 16, which is integrated in the chip every 100 microns.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6043-terabitin-optinen-lahetin-pian-totta
Tomi Engdahl says:
1000Base-T1 Compliance Test Solution Oscilloscope
https://www.eeweb.com/news/1000base-t1-compliance-test-solution-oscilloscope
Rohde & Schwarz announced the launching of the R&S RTO-K87 option, the first compliance test software on the market for automated testing of IEEE 1000Base-T1 interfaces. Fast data transmission within automotive Ethernet networks is critical for driver assistance systems as well as for autonomous driving applications. Rohde & Schwarz has been an active participant in IEEE and OPEN Alliance, using its expertise to help drive the development of a reliable test solution.
The Rohde & Schwarz compliance tests for 1000Base-T1 and 100Base-T1/BroadR-Reach as well as the trigger and decoding options for LIN, CAN, CAN-FD, FlexRay and CXPI provide the automotive industry with a comprehensive, yet compact test solution for ECU development.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia blasts 250 Gbps across Atlantic in optical test for Facebook
Boosted capacity of existing fibre by 2.5x. Coming soon: 32 Tbps per fibre
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/22/250_gbps_across_atlantic_in_optical_test_for_facebook/
Nokia has lit up a trans-Atlantic fibre for Facebook, in a field trial that showed off 200 Gbps and 250 Gbps wavelengths on a 5,500 km link.
According to Nokia, applying a technique from Bell Labs called probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) yielded a 2.5x increase in the rated capacity of the New York-Ireland cable used in the test.
PCS was combined with low-linewidth lasers and tricks to compensate for nonlearity in the fibre, to achieve spectral efficiency of 7.46 bits per second per Hertz in the 64-QAM transmissions.
PCS works by changing how QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) works.
In conventional QAM, every point in the constellation has equal weight
PCS, on the other hand, tries to choose optimal constellation points for conditions on the channel.
last year after demonstrating a Terabit channel with Deutsche Telekom
Nokia believes the field trial demonstrates that PCS will let the cable handle as much as 32 Tbps per fibre in the future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stephen Lawson / InfoWorld:
Facebook and Nokia successfully test new technique that boosts the speed of existing undersea cables from 13Tbps to 32Tbps
How much can a fiber carry? Facebook and Nokia are pushing it
An experimental technology from Nokia could expand a submarine cable’s capacity by 2.5 times
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3183636/internet/how-much-can-a-fiber-carry-facebook-and-nokia-are-pushing-it.html
Facebook and Nokia have found a way to push a lot more data through a submarine cable across the Atlantic, which could help the social network keep up with the growth of video and virtual reality.
On a 5,500-kilometer (3,400-mile) cable between Ireland and New York, the companies tested a new technique developed at Nokia Bell Labs for increasing the efficiency of fiber-optic cables. They say it comes close to the absolute limit for sending bits over a fiber.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said VR is the future of social media. If it is, then the networks that link consumers and data centers will have more data than ever to carry. Higher resolution video also is increasing the burden on networks. For example, Netflix recommends subscribers have at least a 5Mbps broadband connection to stream HD video and 25Mbps for Ultra HD (4K) streams.
The good thing about fiber-optic networks is that new equipment on each end of a link can boost its capacity far beyond what was available when the cable was laid.
“Every fiber in the ground, everywhere in the world, is different,” he said. Its ability to carry data depends on how long it is, the characteristics of the glass it’s made of, and other factors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
52% of all websites are in English, but only 25% of the world understands English. Find out how healthy the Internet is.
The Internet Health Report
What’s helping (and what’s hurting) our largest global resource
https://internethealthreport.org/v01/?utm_source=desktop-snippet&utm_campaign=IHR&utm_medium=snippet&utm_term=6221&sample_rate=0.01&snippet_name=6221
Welcome to Mozilla’s new open source initiative to document and explain what’s happening to the health of the Internet combining research from multiple sources.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia already ready for a new 4G-frequency
Nokia tells played the first LTE phone calls with a new 600-megahertz frequency range. Tests carried out in Nokia’s commercial base station equipment. Test was using pre-standard technology: 2+ megahertz channel that offers data connection speed of up to 387 megabits per second.
600 MHz will be a good addition to the 4G connectivity in many regions.
USA Telecommunications Authority FCC is currently organizing the auction, where the 600 MHz frequencies are allocated to operators. The first American-operators is expected to expand LTE network in 600 MHz region during this year.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6059&via=n&datum=2017-03-23_14:47:22&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multiple antennas put more bits to spectrum
In order for over a 5G technology data rate targets, is practically forced to stick several data connections at the same radio channel. University of Bristol researchers have, together with the Lund University researchers have succeeded in nearly a hundred bits per second per hertz.
(around 10 times more compared to the current LTE networks)
The same team has recorded a record by reading to 145.6 bit / s / Hz. However, BT Labs conducted the study of Suffolk demo could be 128 antenna siirtäämän data about two gigabit speeds in one 20 MHz channel 3.5 GHz range.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6058&via=n&datum=2017-03-23_14:47:22&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
NI or National Instruments and Verizon are the first demo of the operating 5G air link at 28 GHz. The place was San Francisco and IEEE WCNC Conference (Wireless Communications and Networking Conference).
The results are promising Demon. 2×2 channel link data is transferred at its best 5 gigabit per second speed. Companies under the speed increases by eight-MIMO awaken more than 20 Gbps.
Demonstration of San francsico an NI millimeter wave transceiver substrate. It is programmed LabVIEW system in which both the base station and the terminal code is customizable.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6055&via=n&datum=2017-03-23_14:47:22&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hamza Shaban / BuzzFeed:
Senate votes 50-48 to repeal Obama-era regulations requiring that ISPs ask before sharing customer data — The Senate voted Thursday to make it easier for internet service providers to share sensitive information about their customers, a first step in overturning landmark privacy rules …
Senate Republicans Vote To Gut Internet Privacy
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hamzashaban/the-republican-controlled-senate-votes-to-strip-internet?utm_term=.ki0dopEaxn#.lpX6JL148M
Passed by the Federal Communications Commission under president Obama, the privacy rules require internet providers like Comcast and AT&T to first get your permission before they can sell your private information like browsing history and location data.
The Senate voted Thursday to make it easier for internet service providers to share sensitive information about their customers, a first step in overturning landmark privacy rules that consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers view as crucial protections in the digital age. The vote was passed along party lines, 50-48, with all but two Republicans voting in favor of the repeal and every Democrat voting against it. Two Republican Senators did not vote.
Passed by the Federal Communications Commission in the final months of the Obama presidency, the privacy rules prohibited internet providers like Comcast and Verizon from selling customer information, including browsing history and location data, without first getting consent. The rules also compelled providers to tell customers about the data they collect, the purpose of that data collection, and to identify the types of third party companies that might be given access to that information.
But the telecom industry and Republicans in Congress fiercely opposed the new regulations. Critics argued that these rules unfairly target internet providers, restricting their ability to turn personal information into targeted advertising and other tailored services, even as giant web companies like Google and Facebook are free to collect and sell our information without those limitations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Waveguide Has Many Miles to Go
Waveguide technology has been written off as obsolete for some time, but nothing has replaced it yet.
http://mwrf.com/components/waveguide-has-many-miles-go?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170323_MWRF-001_840&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=10251&utm_medium=email&elq2=44db245241fd4dcc9c886143fd12f0cc
Waveguide suppliers are truly the “old-timers” of the RF/microwave industry, selling a transmission-line technology that most users would rather replace with something newer. For all its bulk compared to an alternative, such as a coaxial cable with connectors, waveguide is still the lowest-loss way to get a high-frequency electromagnetic (EM) signal from point A to point B. And it does get smaller as the frequency pushes higher.
Manufacturers of metal waveguide have been likened to blacksmiths working in a forge
this is a technology that many have predicted would soon vanish, but it is still here, and still in demand.
Millimeter-wave frequencies may be a best friend to metallic waveguides, mainly because coaxial cables—those lighter-in-weight, lower-cost transmission-line alternatives to waveguide—tend to suffer higher losses at higher frequencies, notably at millimeter-wave frequencies above 30 GHz.
Some impressive advances have been made in coaxial-cable and connector technologies over the past decade. They include relatively phase-stable, low-loss cables with connectors commercially available for applications to 110 GHz, such as for connection to a millimeter-wave vector network analyzer (VNA).
In terms of performance, waveguide has extremely low signal losses and reflections, with very little distortion of signal phase—a critical characteristic for phase-modulated communications signals. Waveguide is completely shielded compared to other transmission-line formats
Waveguide are also traditionally more expensive than other transmission-line formats, including microstrip and stripline on printed-circuit boards (PCBs).
Waveguide are fabricated entirely of conductors, such as copper.
Waveguide also tend to be manufactured in smaller quantities
Nonetheless, waveguide appear to be growing in popularity, most likely due to the growth of applications at millimeter-wave frequencies. The 60-GHz band has provided reliable, short-range unlicensed communications links at multi-gigabit data rates using traditionally expensive waveguide components. Such links are often referred to as “the last mile” in communications systems.
Developed and supplied by Pasternack, the waveguide transmitter is tunable from 57.0 to 64.8 GHz.
However, even at lower frequencies, there is sometimes a demand for waveguide components. The 24-GHz band is also an unlicensed portion of the frequency spectrum that is used for radar and communications applications.
The waveguide Gunn oscillator (model FMWGN1001) generates a signal at a center frequency of 24.125 GHz, which can be tuned by 1 GHz above and below that center frequency.
Waveguide technology may be a means of achieving that “last mile” of wireless communications at 60 GHz, and a part of 77-GHz automotive radar systems,
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT will soon be bringing half of roaming money
The Internet of Things will significantly affect the operators’ income generation. When even billions of devices connected to the operator’s network, they accounted for a roaming revenues will increase significantly.
ROCCO (Roaming Consulting Company) and MALE (Uni-Fi Roaming Solutions) have studied the IoT’s impact on operators’ revenue. According to them, as much as 50 per cent of operators’ roaming revenue comes IoT network connected devices by 2020.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6048-iot-tuo-pian-puolet-roaming-rahasta
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Your Wi-Fi Router Will Be Obsolete in 2017
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/itmanagement/why-your-wifi-router-will-be-obsolete-in-2017-75979
American households are adopting more and more smart devices that demand wireless access. According to a 2014 study published in Recode, more than 90 percent of U.S. households have three or more Internet-connected devices. In 2015, CITA announced there were more than 377 million wireless subscriber connections in the United States, and it is safe to assume these figures are even higher today.
As Americans become increasingly reliant on the Internet, many households are overloading their home Wi-Fi networks, with the signal becoming slow, sporadic and delayed. Part of the blame can be placed on Wi-Fi dead zones, areas in the home that receive poor wireless signal. Traditional single-access routers are no longer adequate to support the modern home; as a result, a new gamut of Wi-Fi Mesh Networking products have been aimed at consumers to alleviate this problem.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OFC Debates Road to Photonic ICs
European collaboration fabs 350+ InP devcies
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331512&
Electronic and optical components are destined to merge, but the annual OFC event revived the debate over whether silicon photonics (SiP) or indium phosphide (InP) is the best path.
An academic researcher helping to develop a foundry ecosystem for photonics in Europe made the case for InP in a keynote. But several analysts said that SiP will more likely be the winner.
Electronic and optical components are destined to merge, but the annual OFC event revived the debate over whether silicon photonics (SiP) or indium phosphide (InP) is the best path.
An academic researcher helping to develop a foundry ecosystem for photonics in Europe made the case for InP in a keynote. But several analysts said that SiP will more likely be the winner.
However, Smit admits that SiP has lower costs given supporters such as Intel with access to large 8-in. wafer fabs. “It’s a complex picture, and there’s no single solution for all … [In the end], InP with silicon electronics and SiP may work together,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Calls for Optical Leaps
Exec wants 10x capacity, 2x cost reductions
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331508&
Optical technologies need to take significant steps forward to keep up with demand from big data centers, said a Google executive. Urs Hölzle, vice president of technical infrastructure at Google, called for 2x cost reductions, 10x capacity gains, and more programmability in a keynote at the annual OFC event but gave few specifics on how to get there.
The talk once again underscored how big data centers are pushing the limits of communications technology. Ironically, the web giants are extreme both in their growth and in their sensitivity to cost, putting pressure on chip, component, and system makers.
“Things have been great for the last five years, but we’re rapidly approaching a wall, so we’re looking for step-function changes, not incremental changes,” Hölzle said.
“We see 2x growth in nearly all the [optical] markets — that’s true in the data center, in campus/metro networks where we connect data centers for storage replication, and to get to the Net and in the WAN where we deliver apps,” he said.
“The optics industry today is still more of an artisan craft,” he said, noting pluggable modules that look like USB sticks.
Today’s submarine cables pack as much as 144 Tbits/s in coherent optics, but they are expensive and unreliable. “They don’t even give you three-nines reliability and can’t even protect against the anchor of the ship” that lays them in much the same way as the first undersea cables in the 1860s, he said.
Hölzle called for cheaper bundles that might use 30 rather than three cables to provide more redundancy.
In another sign of how big data centers are driving comms, one OFC paper described a trial by Facebook and Nokia Bell Labs using a trans-Atlantic cable. It used new probabilistic constellation-shaping technology and shaped 64-QAM over a 5,500-km cable between New York and Ireland to increase capacity almost 2.5 times, delivering spectral efficiency of 7.46 b/s/Hz.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OFC: 200G and 400G Ethernet and the Technologies Behind Them
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331526&
Several test announcements came out of the annual conference in Los Angeles. High-speed Ethernet for datacenters and the underlying technologies were featured.
As is typical, several test announcements came about as datacenter communications exceeding 200 Gbits/s and 400 Gbits/s are emerging.
Anritsu showcased a 100-Gbit/s Shortwave Wavelength Division Multiplexing (SWDM) transmission over wideband multimode fiber (OM5).
The 200-Gbit/s and 400-Gbit/s optical technologies are based on two or four 56-Gbit/s data lanes, respectively. A demonstration of a 56-Gbit/s modulated with four-level quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM-64) took place in the Teledyne LeCroy booth
Using PAM4 modulation, 64 Gbaud yields 128-Gbits/s data rates.
Acacia Communications, Optelian, Precise-ITC, Spirent, and Xilinx came together to demonstrate 200-Gbit/s and-400 Gbit/s Ethernet links. Spirent, the first company to offer 200-Gbit/s Ethernet testing capabilities, provided the test equipment that generated native 200- and 400-GbE client signals.
Silicon photonics keeps making slow but steady headway into what might replace copper on PCBs. At OFC 2017, Luxtera announced that the company is now sampling its 100G-CWDM2 QSFP optical transceiver module. Scheduled for full release in the second half of 2017, the LUX45202 will be a 100-Gbit/s optical transceiver on a QSFP28 package. It will operate at 10.30125 Gbit/s, 20.625 Gbits/s, or 25.78125 Gbit/s with a reach of over 2,000 m.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OFC Debates Road to Photonic ICs
European collaboration fabs 350+ InP devcies
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331512&
SAN JOSE — Electronic and optical components are destined to merge, but the annual OFC event revived the debate over whether silicon photonics (SiP) or indium phosphide (InP) is the best path.
An academic researcher helping to develop a foundry ecosystem for photonics in Europe made the case for InP in a keynote. But several analysts said that SiP will more likely be the winner.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TowerJazz Rolls Out Silicon Photonics Process
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331515&
Specialty foundry TowerJazz Thursday (March 23) rolled out a silicon photonic (SiPho) process to complement its silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process used for manufacturing optical transceiver electronics.
“We are excited to be entering the silicon photonics foundry space in order to provide solutions to a greater portion of the optical transceiver market for our customers,” said Marco Racanelli, senior vice president and general manager TowerJazz’s RF & High Performance Analog business unit, in a statement.
Silicon photonics is a promising emerging technology for the production of photonic ICs, which transfer data using laser light in less time than conventional ICs.
The silicon photonic process, set to be available in the third quarter, is built to enable a range of optical fiber interconnect Tx and Rx front-end optical ICs, TowerJazz said. The process includes several versions of single-mode silicon waveguides, high speed germanium photodetectors, p-n junction modulators and enablement for edge and grating couplers, according to the company.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Calls for Optical Leaps
Exec wants 10x capacity, 2x cost reductions
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331508&
Optical technologies need to take significant steps forward to keep up with demand from big data centers, said a Google executive. Urs Hölzle, vice president of technical infrastructure at Google, called for 2x cost reductions, 10x capacity gains, and more programmability in a keynote at the annual OFC event but gave few specifics on how to get there.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can this SiPh transceiver technology satisfy the bandwidth-guzzlers?
http://www.electropages.com/2017/03/can-thi-siph-transceiver-technology-satisfy-the-bandwidth-guzzlers/?utm_campaign=&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=Can+this+SiPh+transceiver+technology+satisfy+the+bandwidth-guzzlers%3F
The constant demand for ever-increasing interconnect bandwidth in datacentres means single-mode optical transceivers will need to scale to Tb/s capacity and be tightly integrated with network switches.
For some years industry has been concerned as to whether it will be able to develop the technology to provide the bandwidth capability to meet the demands of the four big bandwidth-guzzling applications; the Internet of Things, cloud computing and data storage and transfer.
Nano-technology specialist Imec has recently demonstrated an 896Gb/s silicon photonics transceiver of just a few mm2, targeting future Tb/s optical links. Silicon photonics (SiPh) is seen as a potential technology platform that could cope with extremely demanding bandwidth and integration targets; including reaching beyond the 100Gb/s technology that is currently available.
The bi-directional 896Gb/s silicon photonics transceiver combines dense arrays of 56Gb/s Germanium-Silicon (GeSi) electro-absorption modulators and GeSi waveguide photo detectors with a multi-core fiber interface. It comprises arrays of 16 GeSi electro-absorption modulators (EAM) and 16 GeSi photo detectors (PD), implemented with 100µm channel pitch on a single silicon chip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Transition Networks debuts Ethernet over 2-wire extender with PoE+
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/03/transition-2wire.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-27
Transition Networks, Inc. has expanded its family of Ethernet extenders by introducing its Ethernet Over 2-Wire Extender With PoE+, designed to extend networks at near Gigabit speeds and provide power to security cameras, wireless access points, and other IP devices at distances beyond the typical 100m Ethernet cable limitation.
The company says the new extenders save time and money by leveraging existing unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling infrastructure to provide data and safety extra low voltage (SELV) power to IP/Ethernet devices in remote locations or at legacy sites, eliminating the need to install new cable and electrical power for upgrading, extending, or bridging networks.
these extenders provide an RJ-45 and 2-wire terminal block connection to accommodate CAT 5/6, CAT 3 or 2-wires of other 18-24 AWG UTP cable. The extenders can deliver full PoE+ at distances ranging from 400-7,000 feet (depending on cable type and number of wire pairs available), and data at half-gigabit Ethernet speeds over UTP cable at distances of 660 feet or fast Ethernet speeds at 2,000 feet (also depending on wire gauge).
“The evolution from analog phones and PBXes to IP telephony and other cabling upgrades have left a lot of 2-wire cabling stranded in the walls of many enterprises. These new extenders can help network managers to leverage that asset for the latest Ethernet applications,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE publishes IEEE 802.3bu for provisioning Power over Data Lines (PoDL) of single balanced twisted-pair Ethernet
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/03/ieee-podl-std.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-27
EEE and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) have announced the availability of IEEE 802.3bu-2016—Standard for Physical Layer and Management Parameters for Power over Data Lines (PoDL) of Single Balanced Twisted-Pair Ethernet.
According to IEEE, “single pair Ethernet was initially developed to support automotive manufacturer’s increasing demand for Ethernet connectivity in vehicles. IEEE 802.3bu-2016 defines specifications and parameters for adding standardized power to that cabling. The standard supports the latest single balanced twisted-pair Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1, using unshielded twisted-pair cable—a relatively low-cost cabling solution for the automotive industry resulting in reduced weight and cost, and increased reliability due to the need for fewer cables and connectors in automotive applications.”
“The IEEE 802.3bu project was initiated due to the increased utilization of Ethernet in automobiles in a single pair configuration. It also holds a good deal of promise for further applicability across a wide range of industries and within a rapidly growing Internet of Things ecosystem,” said Dan Dove, chair, IEEE P802.3bu Task Force.
IEEE 802.3bu-2016 is available for purchase at the IEEE Standards Store.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google exec warns optical networking ceiling could stall cloud growth
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/03/google-exec-warns-optical-networking-ceiling-could-stall-cloud-growth.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-27
At the core of all networks today are optical networks which serve as the backbone of modern connectivity. At this week’s OFC 2017 in Los Angeles, a prominent Google executive presented a talk detailing how the hyperscale network works today — and why current optical technologies need to improve, dramatically.
Hölzle explained that Google’s cloud network started with a basic co-location approach. It then evolved to the current stage which he referred to as Cloud 2.0, which is all about virtual machines and the services that run on top of them. What’s just starting to evolve now is Cloud 3.0, which is another layer of abstraction and the beginning of serverless services.
“You don’t even see the server or the network anymore,” Hölzle said. As the serverless network scales globally Hölzle said that Google is now looking for step functions and 10x improvements in network capacity. He noted that if demand doubles every year, than 10x only provides a little more than three years of room for growth.
The current model for Google’s networking is to use pluggable optics, which today are commercially available in 100 Gigabit Ethernet speeds. “It’s working but it (100 GbE) is also really bottlenecking what we do,” Hölzle said. “Both the power and the cost of the solution is on the edge of what is possible.”
Google Warns Optical Networking Limitations Could Hinder Cloud Growth
http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsp/google-warns-optical-networking-limitations-could-hinder-cloud-growth.html
“It’s working but it (100 GbE) is also really bottlenecking what we do,” Hölzle said. “Both the power and the cost of the solution is on the edge of what is possible.”
“The density that you can get is already too low,” he added.
Hölzle said that what Google wants is to move to some new form of optical networking module that is more compact, cheaper as well as something that is industrially manufactured.
“The optics industry today is still a bit of an artisan craft so to speak,” Hölzle said. “If you really want to get 10x performance and get the cost to work, you have to automate the process.”
“So if we could buy it, we’d rather have 30 cables across the Pacific and not three,” Hölzle continued. “It would be a better solution for us.”
Hölzle also wants to see continued programmability and flattening across both the IP and optical layer of the network to enable improved manageability and agility for application deployment. Overall Hölzle said that cloud architecture increases bandwidth demands, which is why more innovation is needed at the optical layer to dramatically help hyperscale networks to grow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s up your (firestop) sleeve? And other brilliant cabling commercials
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/03/cabling-commercials-blog1.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-27
So these recent ads from Specified Technologies, Inc. (STI), depicting the value proposition of its EZ-Path family of firestop cable management products, have a lot of that, i.e. aesthetic quality. One is animated, the next blends CAD and ‘live’ cabling installation footage backed by a kicking rock music soundtrack — both are more than usually fun to watch, IMO. But you be the judge!
Tomi Engdahl says:
MACOM unveils PAM-4 technology chipset for single-lambda 100G, 200G and 400G data center optical connectivity
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/03/macom-unveils-pam-4-technology-chipset-for-single-lambda-100g-200g-and-400g-data-center-optical-conn.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-28
At this week’s OFC 2017 (March 21-23) MACOM Technology Solutions Inc. announced a complete PAM-4 technology chipset for 100G data rates over a single wavelength, enabling single fiber and four-lane parallel fiber connectivity for 100G, 200G and 400G Ethernet applications. This chipset features a new transimpedance amplifier (TIA), transmit and receive clock and data recovery (CDR) devices and linear Electro-Absorption Modulated Laser (EML) driver module.
The company contends that “increased traffic within and between cloud data centers is driving the need for low cost 100G, and for high-speed and low power 200G and 400G interconnects. To increase bandwidth density per port, data centers OEMs are adopting faster data rates starting in 2018. These interconnects will be supported with smaller QSFP, QSFP-DD and OSFP form factor modules, which require suppliers to deliver lower power electronic components.”
“The major data center operators are currently deploying 100G optics in volume to build their intra data center switching fabrics,”
Today, the data center intra-connect market is driven by the advances in Ethernet switch ASICs. As 400G switches enter the market, optical transceivers will need to keep pace and rapidly transition to 400G. Ovum projects the 100G equivalent data center intra-connect market to grow at an explosive 56% CAGR by 2021, driving the need for low cost 100G over single lambda solutions. At the same time the industry will start adoption of higher speed 400G links also utilizing single lambda technology.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Semtech unveils new chipset for 100G QSFP28 data center modules
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/03/semtech-unveils-new-chipset-for-100g-qsfp28-data-center-modules.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-28
Live demonstration at OFC 2017 will demonstrate how the new chipset enables high-performance, low-power modules for data communications.
“This innovative chipset enables next-generation, 100G QSFP28 designs that are used in high-speed data communications infrastructure to support some of the world’s most dense and power-efficient communications networks,”
The new chipset includes Semtech’s GN2105, a quad ClearEdge CDR [clock and data recovery] IC with an integrated DML driver for DC-coupled chip-on-board and passive transmitter optical sub-assembly applications, and GN2110, a quad ClearEdge CDR with integrated transimpedance amplifier (TIA) in a compact 3.6mm x 4mm die for chip-on-board applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Juniper extends data center interconnect options
New line cards, BTI technology integration part of Open Cloud Interconnect package
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3183584/data-center/juniper-extends-data-center-interconnect-options.html
Large data center interconnect users needing high-speed connectivity and bandwidth for access to massive cloud resources have a new option to handle these demands.
Juniper today rolled out its Open Cloud Interconnect package which includes Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing optical boards for its QFX10000 Layer 3 spine switch and BTI7800 optical transport switch families as well as software to manage those systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The emergence of SDN: Understanding the critical infrastructure challenge of next-generation networks
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-25/issue-3/features/data-center/the-emergence-of-sdn-understanding-the-critical-infrastructure-challenge-of-next-generation-networks.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-03-28
For decades, information technology (IT) and telecommunications networks were decidedly different things, but times are changing. Today’s communications networks increasingly rely on IT systems, with data centers replacing traditional central offices. And many of today’s data centers are serving as hubs of vast computing networks, not unlike the traditional telco core/access architecture. The lines aren’t just blurred; they’re shared.
In both cases, these are sprawling, multi-layered networks of computing and communications technologies supported by increasingly intelligent critical infrastructure systems. The intelligence presents tremendous opportunity for more-efficient, more-reliable network operation, but realizing those opportunities can be a challenge. Monitoring and management of these diversified networks is key, but it can be difficult and it only scratches the surface of what’s possible with these technologies.
Software-defined networking (SDN) has the capability to fundamentally change our approach to today’s emerging next-generation networks. SDN separates network services and loads from dedicated hardware and servers, enabling a dynamic, virtualized network that runs on commercial-off-the-shelf hardware. These software-centric virtualized networks are becoming more common around the world, increasing network agility, reducing costs and time to market, and even generating new revenue streams.
The first step is automating manual processes to more-effectively collect and analyze data from devices across the network – including critical infrastructure systems – and scaling accordingly to meet demand. Ultimately, that’s the key to SDN. When activated, a truly software-defined network can shift loads seamlessly, in real time, across devices and locations.
Of course, it’s not quite that simple. A software-defined network requires a critical infrastructure that’s just as agile, just as flexible and just as dynamic as the technologies and software underpinning the network. SDN is only possible if the power and cooling infrastructure is capable of supporting that load.
That sort of network intelligence enables increased automation and even predictive capabilities, ensuring optimized performance – including reduced energy consumption and improved overall operating efficiency. Fully realized SDN can significantly reduce operational expenses. The increased intelligence inherent in a software-defined network makes maintenance calls more efficient and triggers timely proactive service calls.
We are moving closer to widescale adoption of SDN, and organizations must prepare for the evolution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OPNFV
https://www.opnfv.org/
Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) facilitates the development and evolution of NFV components across various open source ecosystems. Through system level integration, deployment and testing, OPNFV creates a reference NFV platform to accelerate the transformation of enterprise and service provider networks. Participation is open to anyone, whether you are an employee of a member company or just passionate about network transformation.
Technical Overview
Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) facilitates the development and evolution of NFV components across various open source ecosystems. Through system level integration, deployment and testing, OPNFV constructs a reference NFV platform to accelerate the transformation of enterprise and service provider networks. Goals include accelerating time to market for NFV solutions, ensuring the platform meets the industry’s needs, and enabling end user choice in specific technology components based on their use cases and deployment architectures.
As a testing and integration project, OPNFV brings together upstream components across compute, storage and network virtualization in order create an end-to-end platform. Activities within OPNFV focus on integration of components and automated build and deployment of the integrated environment. Continuous integration and automated testing of the platform for key NFV use cases is key to ensure that the platform meets NFV industry needs.
Use Cases
Virtual network functions range from mobile deployments, where mobile gateways (e.g. SGW, PGW, etc.) and related functions (e.g. MME, HLR, PCRF, etc.) are deployed as VNFs, to deployments with “virtual” customer premise equipment (CPE), tunneling gateways (e.g. VPN gateways), firewalls or application level gateways and filters (e.g. web and email traffic filters) to test and diagnostic equipment (e.g. SLA monitoring).
These VNF deployments need to be easy to operate, scale, and evolve – independently from the type of VNF being deployed.
OPNFV integrates components from upstream projects [insert link to upstream projects page], such as OpenStack [insert link to OpenStack page], OpenDaylight [insert link to OpenDaylight page], FD.io [insert link to FD.io page], ONOS, OpenContrail, OVS, Open-O,Ceph, DPDK, ODP, OpenBaton, KVM, and the Linux kernel community. OPNFV will continue working with these and other relevant upstream communities for future releases.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
House passes resolution that lets ISPs sell customers’ browsing history without user permission, 215 to 205 along party lines — As most had expected, the House of Representatives today voted 215 to 205 to kill privacy rules protecting US broadband subscribers.
The GOP Just Killed Consumer Broadband Privacy Protections
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/The-GOP-Just-Killed-Consumer-Broadband-Privacy-Protections-139244
Now, with limited competition and ever-shrinking regulatory oversight, there’s arguably little to prevent ISPs from doing whatever they’d like with your personal information, including selling it to companies that may wind up using it against you. And no, just getting a VPN isn’t going to be enough to help consumers tackle the consumer privacy issues to come. Next up for giant ISPs and their Congressional allies: killing net neutrality, and eroding FCC and FTC oversight of giant broadband providers even further.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I need an ISP that offers IPv6. Virgin Media: Whatevs, nerd
Not exactly getting with the program
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/28/virgin_media_no_ipv6/
Despite being the third-largest internet provider in the UK, Virgin Media is not exactly looking toward the future.
As pretty much every ISP in the world recognizes, we have already effectively run out of IPv4 addresses and so finally need to move to, or at least offer, IPv6.
Not so Virgin Media, which – despite owning 20 per cent of the UK market – has let customers know that it’s going to wait until non-nerds want this new-fangled addressing system with the funny letters and colons.
Tomi Engdahl says:
nbn™ to offer 100Mbps fixed wireless service
Rural businesses will be living the dream in 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/30/nbn_to_offer_100mbps_fixed_wireless_service/
nbn™, the entity building and operating Australia’s national broadband network (NBN), has announced it will launch a 100Mbps fixed wireless service in 2018.
Demonstrated to The Register at a trial site in Ballarat today, the service will require subscribers to update their aerial and modem.
Hitting 100Mbps for downloads, and 40Mbps for uploads, will require aggregation of a pair of LTE carriers. Hence the need for the new aerial that packs two radios into one chassis. Australian company NetComm Wireless will get the gig of building the modems, which will be stuffed with Qualcomm chipsets and tech from Ericsson.
The company expects the new service will be of most interest to businesses, as they’re already the dominant users of the current 50/20 speed tier on its fixed wireless networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CRN:
Report: Cisco is developing standalone Lindt OS to run on its older routers and switches — Cisco has reportedly built a new network operating system that will allow users to run its most sophisticated networking features on older and lower-cost Cisco routers and switches, CRN has learned.
Cisco Reportedly Developing Standalone Networking OS
http://www.crn.com/news/networking/300084349/cisco-reportedly-developing-standalone-networking-os.htm
Cisco has built a new network operating system that will allow users to run its most sophisticated networking features on older and lower-cost Cisco routers and switches, according to a report.
The move to potentially disrupt its networking hardware business was first reported by The Information, which said that Cisco, for now, is not looking to have its network operating system available for non-Cisco switches.
Customers who want to run the new operating system, known as Lindt, will be able to move away from switches based on proprietary high-performance Cisco chips to Cisco hardware that works with lower-cost chips, according to the report.
Partners told CRN that Cisco might feel a financial impact as it becomes less hardware-centric, but they don’t expect their Cisco sales to take a big hit in the short term.
Solution providers said Cisco selling stand-alone software could make Cisco a more valuable company in the long run.
“Yes, they’ve always made good hardware, but their software has been the differentiator,”
“I doubt Cisco would let it run on non-Cisco boxes,” the solution provider said. “But running the software on lower-cost boxes is what big customers will demand. And Cisco can do it cheaper this way.”
Indeed, Cisco has been moving to deliver networking functions on a wider variety of platforms, even standard, off-the-shelf servers in virtualized environments. Cisco offers a broad range of networking switches from low-cost desktop models to core data center models, as well as virtual switches for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualized and private cloud environments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Michael Cooney / Network World:
Extreme Networks acquires Brocade’s data center networking business for $55M cash
Extreme swallows Brocade’s data center networking business for $55M
Deal follows $100 million bid for Avaya’s networking business
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3186487/lan-wan/extreme-swallows-brocades-data-center-networking-business-for-55m.html
Extreme Networks continued to amass a nice nest of data center technology saying today it would buy Brocade’s data center networking business for $55 million in cash from its current owner Broadcom.
Broadcom bought Brocade last year for about $5.5 billion but has since sold off Brocade’s Ruckus Wireless Wi-Fi business for $800 million to Arris International and now the data center networking business to Extreme.
Extreme said it expects the deal to push its revenues to over $1 billion for its Fiscal 2018 year which begins July 1. Specifically, it expects the Brocade deal, pending approval, to generate more than $230M in revenue. Extreme also recently agreed to be a bidder for Avaya’s networking business which it expects will add $200M in revenue should Extreme win the bid.
In October 2016, the company closed its acquisition of the wireless LAN business from Zebra Technology Corporation, which is expected to generate over $115 million in annualized revenue.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Big Cable’s Case for Selling Your Data Doesn’t Hold Up
https://www.wired.com/2017/03/big-cables-case-selling-data-doesnt-hold/
This week, the House of Representatives followed the Senate in voting for a resolution that throws out Obama-era regulations that would have banned your internet service provider from selling your web browsing history to advertisers. What possible reason could Congress have for repealing such a consumer-friendly policy? The refrain on the House floor yesterday was “consistency.”
“What America needs is one standard across the internet ecosystem,” said representative Greg Walden (R-OR). If services like Google and Facebook can turn data into profit, the logic goes why can’t the cable companies?
But the House’s resolution doesn’t actually apply a single, consistent standard to the internet. It maintains the broken status quo, one in which internet service providers aren’t actually at a disadvantage to websites and apps. If anything, they’re held to a lower standard.
Get What You Pay For
There’s a growing awareness that you pay for “free” services like Facebook and Google by allowing them to serve up targeted advertisements, based on the data they collect from you. You might not be fully aware of the extent to which Facebook can track you across the web, but it does at least nag you to double check your privacy settings. Google, likewise, has made recent advertising expansions expressly opt-in.
But your internet services aren’t free. You probably already pay handsomely for your home broadband and wireless data plans. There’s no built-in expectation that your providers will “double dip” by selling your data and collecting advertising fees. But under the current law, it’s entirely acceptable for them to do so, as long as there’s at least some cryptic mention in the fine print of your contract.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Like a dream company like Nokia” Nokia 7 billion order
The network company Nokia says it has received for planning, building and operating a large network solution contract in Mexico. The order is according to Nokia, the company’s largest contract ever won by Latin America.
The order applies to new funded private and public funding model mixed network that is built for LTE and 5g-ready. Network project in Mexico known as the “Red Compartida”. The client is Altan Redes, which is Nokia’s bulletin described as a new operator in the Mexican, who gets the money of international and local investments.
The network will bring a wireless network in Mexico 92 per cent of the population.
Nokia to supply pictures of the network and the services it includes “turnkey” basis.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/kuin-unelma-nokian-kaltaiselle-yhtiolle-nokialle-7-miljardin-jattitilaus-6637557
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Wave Rises in Data Center
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331539&
A golden wave of excitement around merchant Ethernet switch chips for the data center is rising with new investments from traditional suppliers and startups.
Ethernet switch merchant silicon investments in the 10 Gbits/second space were very limited, with Fulcrum (Intel) being the most famous vendor to battle Broadcom’s dominance in the market. Cavium, with its acquisition of Xpliant in late 2014 sparked new interest. Now Barefoot, Innovium, a resurgent Marvell, Mellanox, Centec, as well as others with yet unannounced products have joined Cavium and Broadcom to chase the merchant silicon market in the data center.
The Ethernet switch merchant silicon market has become far more attractive to vendors for two reasons. First, the cloud is the fastest growing segment in data center switching and about to become the market’s largest segment. There is an allure in chasing after business from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Second, merchant silicon products are expanding their scope beyond traditional data center switching and into transport networks that connect data centers together, commonly referred to as the DCI market. Cloud providers are looking for one unified class of product to become their data center core and transport solutions.
Transport networks represent a significant expansion of the total addressable market. Silicon providers and system vendors see this transport market as 100% green field and as a higher ASP opportunity than the leaf/spine (top-of-rack) market which has become highly commoditized.
With the ecosystem around 25/100 Gbits/s mostly filled out and the major supply constraints mostly behind the industry, it’s time to look forward as to what is next. The market for merchant silicon is about to undergo two significant inflection points.
First, cloud customers are each planning on adopting next generation silicon at different rates. This is an opportunity and threat to the supply chain.
Simply put, there are too many intermediate steps between now and 400 Gbits/s for each supplier to invest and offer everything.
The go-to-market for merchant silicon will also undergo several inflection points by 2020. First, merchant silicon vendors will have to engage directly with cloud customers to directly show how they differentiate. Getting products to market will require using traditional switch vendors and direct ODMs as most cloud providers procure product through both.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon say they don’t sell customers’ personal web browsing history, in response to cancellation of new FCC privacy rules — Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon published blog posts this morning responding to the backlash they’ve been receiving since Congress voted to revoke …
Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon say you shouldn’t worry about gutting of internet privacy rules
http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/31/15138094/comcast-att-fcc-internet-privacy-rules-response
Of course, “no plans to do so,” is not the same thing as “we will never do so,” but Comcast is largely indicating here what we’ve suspected: that people’s worst fears — ISPs letting people buy their web history — isn’t likely to happen for any number of reasons.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Silicon Wave Rises in Data Center
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331539&
A golden wave of excitement around merchant Ethernet switch chips for the data center is rising with new investments from traditional suppliers and startups.
Ethernet switch merchant silicon investments in the 10 Gbits/second space were very limited, with Fulcrum (Intel) being the most famous vendor to battle Broadcom’s dominance in the market. Cavium, with its acquisition of Xpliant in late 2014 sparked new interest. Now Barefoot, Innovium, a resurgent Marvell, Mellanox, Centec, as well as others with yet unannounced products have joined Cavium and Broadcom to chase the merchant silicon market in the data center.
The Ethernet switch merchant silicon market has become far more attractive to vendors for two reasons. First, the cloud is the fastest growing segment in data center switching and about to become the market’s largest segment. There is an allure in chasing after business from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.
Second, merchant silicon products are expanding their scope beyond traditional data center switching and into transport networks that connect data centers together, commonly referred to as the DCI market. Cloud providers are looking for one unified class of product to become their data center core and transport solutions.
Transport networks represent a significant expansion of the total addressable market. Silicon providers and system vendors see this transport market as 100% green field and as a higher ASP opportunity than the leaf/spine (top-of-rack) market which has become highly commoditized.
It wasn’t until late 2016 that Cisco began ramping its own Nexus ASIC. At the same time, Juniper took a similar strategy of using its own ASIC in the QFX10K. This has caused the market for merchant silicon to temporarily plateau, but we believe the longer term trend remains and that the growth portions of data center networking will deploy more merchant silicon compared to the declined enterprise segment.
With the ecosystem around 25/100 Gbits/s mostly filled out and the major supply constraints mostly behind the industry, it’s time to look forward as to what is next.
First, cloud customers are each planning on adopting next generation silicon at different rates. This is an opportunity and threat to the supply chain.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Should you wait and see before taking the 802.11ac Wave 2 plunge?
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/03/should-you-wait-and-see-before-taking-the-802-11ac-wave-2-plunge.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-04-03
802.11ac Wave 2 is the splashy new kid in the wireless technology pool, but some experts caution that you might not want to let it play just yet without a lifeguard present.
As recently reported by ComputerWorld’s Jon Gold:
It’s unlikely that Wave 2 technology, in and of itself, is something an enterprise really needs right now, according to some experts. The main issue is that, since there are almost no laptops, smartphones or other endpoints on the market right now that use Wave 2, the most innovative features of the technology simply won’t work.
Even for larger setups, Carpenter added, the benefits are largely indirect, and not the product of brand-new features built into the new access points.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE publishes 802.3bv standard amendment for 1000 Mb/s Ethernet operation over plastic optical fiber
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/03/ieee-8023bv.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-04-03
IEEE and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) have announced publication of the IEEE 802.3bv—Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for 1000 Mb/s Operation Over Plastic Optical Fiber. IEEE says the IEEE 802.3bv standard amendment “responds to increased demand for high-speed Ethernet solutions for automotive, industrial, and home network connectivity. Plastic optical fiber provides unique capabilities for these applications where long link lengths aren’t required,” adds the consortium.
“Increasingly, automotive and industrial networks are migrating towards Ethernet,” states an IEEE press release. “Plastic optical fiber is already in use in automobiles and other vehicles, and IEEE 802.3bv provides a robust and reliable media option for Ethernet automotive networks. As an alternative transmission medium, the standard is also applicable to harsh, electrically noisy environments such as industrial automation islands and other applications with similar requirements.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEEE P802.3bv Gigabit Ethernet Over Plastic Optical Fiber Task Force
http://www.ieee802.org/3/bv/
http://www.ieee802.org/3/GEPOFSG/public/Tutorial/tutorial_GEPOF_1d_1114.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Forecaster: Fiber cleaver, stripper market growth will accelerate
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/03/electronicast-fiber-cleaver-fiber-stripper-forecast.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-04-03
ElectroniCast Consultants, a market and technology forecast consultancy addressing the fiber-optic communications industry, recently released its annual study of the use of certain fiber cleavers and strippers for the purpose of optical fiber preparation processing. According to ElectroniCast, the global use of fiber cleavers and fiber strippers is forecast to increase from $38.7 million in 2016 to $42.6 million in 2021—then the value is forecast to increase at a much faster pace to the year 2026, the organization said.
“Field-installable fiber-optic connectors, fusion-splice use, and other optical fiber preparation processing tasks are driving the need for accurate fiber preparation and cleaving,” said Stephen Montgomery, principal analyst of the fiber-optics group at ElectroniCast.
The study finds that the Asia Pacific (APAC) region employed nearly 160,000 new fiber cleaver and fiber stripper units in 2016. The APAC region is forecast to maintain the leadership role in relative market share in both volume/quantity and value. China, Korea and Japan are leading consumers of the fiber cleaver and fiber stripper units in the study, but the study also recognizes India as a rapid adopter of optical fiber communication technologies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SureTrace allows UTP cable tracing in a live rack
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/03/ideal-networks-suretrace-utp-cable-tracing.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-04-03
Ideal Industries’ SureTrace Circuit Tracer can be used alongside the company’s testers to streamline and simplify the task of tracing UTP cables, the company says. “For many network and data cable installers, tracing UTP cables often relies upon trial-and-error and can be disruptive, in terms of labor and customer downtime,”
“This SureTrace Circuit Tracer is truly innovative, allowing installers to trace Cat 5e and Cat 6 data cables in a live rack, without disconnecting the cables from the system,”
Ideal Networks explained the tool’s use this way: To trace a UTP cable, a technician plugs the inductive clamp into the battery pack and clamp it over the UTP cable being traced. The battery pack is then hung on the rack using a magnetic strap. Once the unit is turned on and receiving a strong signal, the installer can then go to the rack where the other end of the cable is, and slowly scan the area with the receiver. The cable can then be identified as it will be emitting the strongest signal.
http://www.idealcircuit-tracer.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telia will bring virtual technology to 5G Arena in Helsinki Finland
Helsinki Töölö football stadium is named Telia 5G arena. The telecommunication company plans to use the arena in the virtual reality and the Internet of Things benefits. Co-operation will bring a new kind of customer experience, says outfitted with virtuaalilaseilla Aki Riihilahti.
Sonera Stadium to again named Telia 5G Arena in Helsinki will be the company’s shop window, and increasingly in the digital environment. The name change became an issue when Sonera and Tele Finland merged Telia brand.
5G is expected to be a strong presence in Korea organized the 2018 Winter Olympics. TeliaSonera said last November it would bring the first-5G services in Helsinki in 2018.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/04/03/telia-tuo-virtuaalitekniikkaa-5g-areenalle/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rohde & Schwarz to test the first-5G cellular phone circuits
Measuring and testing house Rohde & Schwarz says that Qualcomm has selected its equipment to guarantee the first 5G-circuits. The first sandiegolaisyritykseltä upcoming 5G-circuit is called SDR051 and sample circuits will be like this year.
Circuits based on Qualcomm last October to publish the X50 modem (pictured). operating frequency of 28 GHz X50 modem allows up to five gigabit data rates.
Rohde & Schwarz points out that SMW200A is the only test instrument, capable of generating up to 2 GHz bandwidth and 40 GHz signal frequency by one and the same tester.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6116-rohde-schwarz-testaa-ensimmaiset-5g-kannykkapiirit