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:
Nokia plans to sell its undersea cables division: sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nokia-underseacables-idUSKBN17Z22U
Finland’s Nokia plans to sell its undersea cables unit, a business that underpins the global Internet, two union sources and a French government source told Reuters.
one of the top suppliers of undersea cable networks in the world
“ASN isn’t indeed a core business, according to Nokia,”
ASN’s rivals are Subsea Communications (SubCom), a unit of U.S.-listed Swiss company TE Connectivity (formerly known as Tyco Electronics), Japanese companies NEC and Fujitsu, and China’s Huawei
Tomi Engdahl says:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Seattle writes its own broadband privacy rules requiring user opt-in before ISPs can share data, pushing back against US government; ISPs must comply by May 24 — Hardly anyone was pleased by the rollback of the broadband privacy rule last month, opening up the possibility of ISPs collecting …
Who needs the FCC? Seattle writes its own broadband privacy rule
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/04/who-needs-the-fcc-seattle-writes-its-own-broadband-privacy-rule/
The city found its authority in the municipal code governing cable franchises; the rules on the books are mostly about TV service, but setting “privacy standards for subscribers of cable service and other services provided over the cable system” seems well within the mandate.
The new rule was added yesterday; it requires cable internet providers to obtain opt-in consent before using web browsing history or other internet usage data for its own purposes.
Internet providers have occasionally protested that they don’t do that kind of thing anyway.
“We say that’s great, but we still think there should be a rule. Trust, but verify — that’s our mantra,” Mattmiller said. “ISPs don’t want to be treated different from Google, Facebook, Amazon and other tech companies. But we believe that a consumer’s relationship with their ISP is fundamentally different from other services or websites.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G: The twelve trillion dollar technology
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4458362/5G–The-twelve-trillion-dollar-technology
The adoption of 5G mobile technology could enable $12.4 trillion of global economic output by 2035, according to a study by IHS Markit (commissioned by Qualcomm).
The study, The 5G economy: How 5G technology will contribute to the global economy, sees 5G as not just an improvement over 4G, but as a transformational step change that will make it a general purpose technology (GPT). Other GPTs include the printing press, electricity, and the steam engine.
Those are heady expectations, for sure, but it’s not hard to see why: right now, the fastest transfer speeds that come from 4G/LTE are about 1 Gbps. That’s assuming there are no disruptions to the connection (which, as we all know, are common). 5G could increase that speed ten-fold, to 10 Gbps, which means a movie could be downloaded in a matter of seconds. Download speeds of 1 Tbps have been achieved in test environments (which could transfer a file 100 times larger than a full movie in about 3 seconds).
Such speeds will also deliver vast improvements in latency (the time it takes for networks to respond) and reliability, since shorter, more robust connections will be less exposed to risks of interruption.
IHS Markit sees these efforts accounting for $200 billion in investments annually, starting as soon as 2020, and creating as many as 22 million jobs. Sensors and chips will be its building blocks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Skyworks Releases 5G Technology Paper
https://www.eeweb.com/news/skyworks-releases-5g-technology-paper
Skyworks Solutions, Inc. today released a new white paper, “5G in Perspective – A Pragmatic Guide to What’s Next,” providing the company’s insights into the quickly evolving fifth generation (5G) global telecommunications standard. The paper examines the current state of LTE networks, discusses ways it could evolve to deliver a 5G user experience, and identifies the tools and techniques required to support a 100x improvement in data throughput.
Skyworks Releases 5G Technology Paper
http://investors.skyworksinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1024790
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G in Perspective – A Pragmatic Guide to What’s Next
http://www.skyworksinc.com/Products_5G_Whitepaper.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Gustin / Motherboard:
John Oliver urges internet users to defend net neutrality again, temporarily crashes the FCC’s comments submission site
John Oliver Just Crashed the FCC’s Website Over Net Neutrality—Again
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/john-oliver-just-crashed-the-fccs-website-over-net-neutralityagain
“Once more into the breach, my friends.”
HBO comedian John Oliver is a strong supporter of net neutrality, the principle that all internet content should be treated equally. He made that clear in 2014 when he urged viewers to flood the Federal Communications Commission’s website with comments supporting robust open internet safeguards. The resulting deluge crashed the FCC’s website.
Three years later, Oliver is at again, and this time he’s targeting President Trump’s recently installed Republican FCC Chairman, former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai, who last month announced a plan to roll back Obama-era net neutrality protections.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G Bytes: Millimeter Waves Explained
High-frequency millimeter waves will greatly increase wireless capacity and speeds for future 5G networks
http://spectrum.ieee.org/video/telecom/wireless/5g-bytes-millimeter-waves-explained
Today’s mobile users want faster data speeds and more reliable service. The next generation of wireless networks—5G—promises to deliver that, and much more. Right now, though, 5G is still in the planning stages, and companies and industry groups are working together to figure out exactly what it will be. But they all agree on one matter: As the number of mobile users and their demand for data rises, 5G must handle far more traffic at much higher speeds than the base stations that make up today’s cellular networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The FCC’s comment system targeted by DDoS attacks during filing period for net neutrality
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/08/the-fccs-comment-system-targeted-by-ddos-attacks-during-filing-period-for-net-neutrality/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
The FCC suffered multiple distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks Sunday night and Monday morning, the agency said in a statement today. The attacks appear to be aimed at shutting down the electronic comment filing system by which people can submit opinions on the proposed rollback of net neutrality rules
Tomi Engdahl says:
With New 5G CPRI Specification on Horizon, Test Tools Continue Evolution
http://anritsu.typepad.com/basestationtransmits/2017/03/with-new-5g-cpri-specification-on-horizon-test-tools-continue-evolution.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRoaFl6VmxZVGN6WldJNSIsInQiOiJLVWxEUEt1V1V1Zmp2ZTVHVkJuYk40NnBUQ2NRSWI3V25SSDBwSVVBUWgyR0pSXC94aGMxSVhzTm9sY0xwWlFSUmtVR1VibzR1Q0g5U0tHRTBad2Nhek04TWN6ZHdrczhrcER1NHg0RlRmSFFVRDBYbWRUOSt4azN5RzA0dWJlM3EifQ%3D%3D
The latest CPRI specification remains on schedule to be releaed in August of this year, according to a news release published by the CPRI Industry Initiave. The new specification, known as eCPRI, will place emphasis on 5G fronthaul support and is expected to include increased efficiency to meet the anticipated high-speed, high-bandwidth needs of 5G networks. The goal of the eCPRI specification is to offer numerous benefits to engineers designing base stations. Among the expected advantages are:
A new physical layer split point to enable a ten-fold reduction of the required bandwidth
Required bandwidth that can scale flexibly based on the user’s plane traffic
Use of mainstream transport technologies such as Ethernet to possibly carry eCPRI and other traffic simultaneously in the same switched network
Use of sophisticated coordination algorithms for optimal radio performance
Easy-to-upgrade foundation so future introductions can be done via software updates in the radio network.
In addition to the new eCPRI specification, work continues to further develop the existing CPRI specifications to keep it as a competitive option for all deployments with dedicated fiber connections in fronthaul, not only 5G.
Base Station Performance Updates
CPRI Line Rate 8, which operates at 10.1376 Gbps, is becoming more common in base stations. While its faster transmission speeds are better suited for streaming and similar applications, it also means test instrumentation must keep pace. Fortunately, handheld analyzers are now available that support CPRI Line Rate 8.
Another example is that newer Base Band Units (BBUs) are supporting and implementing 20 MHz compression technology
Anritsu BTS Master, which now has a compression capability that allows for resampling of 20 MHz bandwidth IQ data signals from 30.72 Msps to 23.04 Msps to meet this market condition.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oulu’s 5G development environment opens up to companies
The first 5G test network in Finland is expanding in Oulu. In the future, the 5G development environment 5GTN of VTT, the University of Oulu and the Centria Polytechnic will be harnessed specifically for the use of businesses and their business.
There are already a large number of Finnish companies with whom 5G technology will be tested in several application areas. The first new products are being sought for field trials this year.
Most of the 5GTN + test network funded by Tekes, the 5G technology is applied to products and services even before commercial networks emerge. Thus, the opportunities offered by 5G technology will be re-used as early as possible. Companies have the opportunity to experiment with technology in their own application areas.
- The 5G test environment supports corporate product developme
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6276-oulun-5g-kehitysymparisto-avautuu-yrityksille
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oulu’s 5G network opens to businesses
The operation of the first 5G test network in Finland expands into Oulu. There are already a large number of Finnish companies with whom the 5G technology will be tested. Newcomers and test network exploiters are also looking for a network of networks.
The 5G development environment of 5GTN VTT, the University of Oulu and the Centria Polytechnic will be harnessed more powerfully for business use.
“The 5G test environment supports corporate product development. Its benefits are shown in practice, inter alia, for high-speed and reliable connections, short latency time, energy savings and connectivity, “says project manager Atso Hekkala VTT.
Companies have the opportunity to experiment with technology in their own application areas.
“We provide a test network and related skills for everyone to use. Are also welcome outside the project companies that are interested in using the new technology to business operations among the first, ”
“The 5G test network gives you the ability to experiment with what technology is capable of. At the same time we can get across to our own needs service developers,
Another 5G test network exploiter is Yle, whose primary objective is to investigate whether 5G networks and technologies can replace existing terrestrial TV and radio distribution technologies.
Yle has already studied the possibilities of LTE Broadcasting and eMBMS and wants to move to practice testing.
“At the same time we want to figure out how to 5G is suitable for different types of productions, which require high capacity, low latency, scalability, multi-sized events and the flexibility of the availability of solutions,”
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/05/09/oulun-5g-verkko-avautuu-yrityksille/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Improving 5G
http://semiengineering.com/improving-5g/
University of Bristol and Lund University Partner with NI to set world records in 5G wireless spectral efficiency using massive MIMO.
The Challenge: By 2020, Cisco forecasts that 5.5 billion people will own mobile phones. In the United Kingdom alone, tens of millions of these mobile users will each consume 20 GB of data per month and use more than 25 different smart devices in their daily routines. Factor in data-hungry applications like 4K video, driverless vehicles, smart factories, and broadband access expanding to the most rural places on Earth, and it’s no surprise that today’s wireless networks cannot handle the rapidly approaching, hyper-connected future.
University of Bristol and Lund University Partner With NI to Set World Records in 5G Wireless Spectral Efficiency Using Massive MIMO
http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-17101#
To address the unprecedented demand for increased data rates, expanded network capacity, and improved reliability, engineers and researchers at the University of Bristol and Lund University are using the NI Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) Prototyping System to rapidly innovate and advance 5G cellular networks to transform the future of wireless communications through massive MIMO techniques. The team has successfully demonstrated greater than 20X increases in bandwidth efficiency compared to current 4G cellular technologies, which opens up new, record-setting realms of possibility for 5G deployment sub-6 GHz bands.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless Test: Too Many Protocols
http://semiengineering.com/wireless-test-too-many-protocols/
Vendors struggle to balance new technologies and markets, and almost perpetual updates, against limited resources.
Testing wireless communications is getting far more difficult as more markets begin adding wireless communications and standards groups push to improve the speed, power and security of existing protocols.
There is already a long list of protocols, and it’s growing further as new communications technologies are added into the mix. With the addition of 5G, the new 802.11ax standard, and other short-range communications updates, just keeping track of all the standards is a chore. But for test and measurement companies, which already offer a comprehensive portfolio of instruments and software for testing the protocols used in autonomous vehicles, cellular communications, the Internet of Things, and other application areas, it also is putting pressure on them to limit their focus.
Anritsu, Astronics Test Systems, Keysight Technologies, LitePoint (a Teradyne company), National Instruments, Rohde & Schwarz, and Tektronix are among the top vendors vying for a piece of the ever-expanding wireless testing market.
Slicing up markets
Then there are the low-power IoT protocols, such as the IEEE 802.15.4 physical layer, powering ZigBee, LoWPAN, and others.
Cellular connectivity is pushing forward into 4.5G LTE in addition to 5G. “Industry and academia see the 5G standard moving along three vectors,” Buritica said. There is the effort to boost data transmissions to 1 gigabit per second or faster, he noted. There is work on ultra-reliable, low-latency connections, which would be incorporated in V2X technology. And then there is enhanced machine-to-machine communication, for the IoT and other applications, providing “bursty signals” for use in smart metering and other applications.
NI has been working with commercial and academic partners on development of massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology for beam steering and beam forming. The company is employing software-defined radio and millimeter-wave technology for greater bandwidth. Meanwhile, for 5G, the company is allowing for flexibility for the international standard as it is developed in the next few years.
NI isn’t alone in developing test solutions for individual markets.
Still, “RF goes ahead in leaps and bounds,” Vondran said. “Moore’s Law is going to enable bigger pipes, especially for the mobile devices. You don’t see a lot of wearables with a cellular link yet. But change in the test and measurement industry is usually slow. We’re a necessary evil.”
The company is working with Audi on self-driving car technology, dealing with “the latency of protocols” in automotive electronics, she noted. And it is supporting “new flavors” in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the Bluetooth 5 standard and IEEE 802.11ax in particular, Gurney said. Tek is also interested in LoRa, Sigfox, and LoWPAN.
“All products have to go through regulatory testing,” Gurney noted.
Conclusion
There is a lot going on in wireless communications these days—perhaps too much. In many ways, the wireless market is looking like the Wild West of protocols and standards. New markets, new requirements, and pressure to utilize bandwidth more efficiently and with lower power, all are driving the development of new protocols and approaches to communications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Leviton: OM5 fiber? Meh.
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/040/leviton-blog-om5-fiber-swdm.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-05-08
In a recent blog post, Leviton’s senior director of product management for fiber and data center solutions, Gary Bernstein, offers counterpoints to several reasons data centers may choose to install OM5 wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF). “OM5 fiber specifies a wider range of wavelengths between 850 nm and 953 nm,” Bernstein explains. “It was created to support short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM), which is one of the many new technologies being developed for transmitting 40-Gbit/sec, 100-Gbit/sec, and beyond.”
While the benefits of OM5 and SWDM have been described in several places—including here at cablinginstall.com—Bernstein’s blog post provides technical information that serves as counterpoints to four OM5 value propositions in particular: 1) It offers longer reach than OM4; 2) It will reduce costs; 3) It is required for higher speeds; 4) It will create higher density for switch ports.
“Leviton does not see any good reason to currently recommend OM5 to large data center operators. For enterprise data centers looking at migrating to 40GBase-SR4 or 100GBase-SR4, OM5 offers no additional benefit over OM4 or OM4+.”
Is OM5 Fiber a Good Solution for the Data Center?
https://blog.leviton.com/om5-fiber-good-solution-data-center
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia misses earnings and revenue estimates in Q1
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/04/nokia-misses-earnings-and-revenue-estimates-in-q1.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-05-08
Nokia Corporation’s first-quarter 2017 earnings per share of €0.03 (approximately 3 cents) reportedly missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 4 cents.
In the Nokia Networks segment , total revenue was approximately €4,902 million (around $5,223 million), down 6% year over year. The division includes [the company's] Ultra Broadband Networks, and IP Networks and Applications units. The decline in the Ultra Broadband Networks sub-group by 4% to €3,597 million along with reduction of 10% to €1,304 million in net sales of the IP Networks and Application, hurt the segmental sales.
Notably, net sales declined in all regions, apart from North America (7%), and Middle East and Africa (2%), which led to the segment’s below-par performance. Net sales declined by 33% in Latin America, 5% in the Asia Pacific, 3% in Greater China and 19% in Europe.
The telecom giant recently announced the separation of the Mobile Networks unit into two organizations: Mobile Networks (focused on products and solutions) and Global Services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 top concerns for 5G network operators
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/05/6-top-concerns-for-5g-network-operators.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-05-08
These issues, and how they play out over the next few years, will influence a considerable amount of the future of 5G.”
1. Trials, testing and deployment – “Looking back to an earlier generation of wireless technology, a 4G Radio Access Network (RAN) could only connect to a 4G core network. It had to operate as a stand alone network, separate from the 3G networks it was replacing. However, the transition to 5G will be different because the 5G RAN can be deployed (in early phases at least) within an evolved 4G network. This will speed up testing and trials of the RAN side of the network, in particular.”
2. Global rollouts – “There will be a lot of competitive pressure to demonstrate both capability and feasibility in the early, pre-standard phases of the 5G technology cycle.”
3. Spectrum issues – “There are three main parts to this topic, which are all interrelated. First, there’s some uncertainty about how to exploit new frequency bands (particularly at higher frequencies), which is a big issue that will be addressed with technology…Second, there will naturally be differences in regional spectrum assignments and auctions that may occur…Finally, the opportunistic use of unlicensed spectrum is seen as an attractive means by operators to boost their capacity beyond licensed spectrum in order to meet the 5G data needs.”
4. Network densification and small cells – “Using higher frequency bands means more density is required in the network – more transmission points, more basestations, and smaller cells
5. Use cases – “Thus far, many use cases have gotten a great deal of the press coverage around 5G. In early phases of 5G, several of these use cases will be the most likely to emerge: enhanced mobile broadband, connected vehicles, sports/fitness wearables, smart cities, and the like.”
6. Network slicing and virtualization – “Rather than dedicated resources going to a specific service in a more traditional “hardware” approach, a virtualized and sliced “software-defined” network can scale up and down dynamically
Tomi Engdahl says:
NBASE-T compliant Ethernet ICMs boost Cat 5e, Cat 6 network speeds from 1 to 5 Gbits up to 100m
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/040/pulse-nbaset-icms.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-05-08
Pulse Electronics has released a new series of multi-gigabit NBASE-T compliant RJ45 connector modules for 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T applications. The company says the new integrated connector modules (ICMs) meet IEEE 802.3bz specifications and are compatible with 100/1000BASE-T specifications. NBASE-T technology offers a cost-effective solution for boosting speed on existing Cat 5e and Cat 6 networks from 1 gigabit to 5 gigabits for distances up to 100 meters, notes the company.
Muhammad Khan, sr. product manager of Pulse Electronics’ Network Business unit, states, “Pulse ICMs are compatible for current and voltage mode PHYs and are qualified at major PHY vendors including Aquantia, Broadcom, and Marvell. Pulse parts have multiple LED options, have options to support Power over Ethernet, and are compliant with IEEE802.3af (PoE) and IEEE802.3at (PoE+) standards.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
DSL Pioneer Describes Terabit Future
Wireless inside a wired Swiss cheese
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331713
At a time when carriers are pondering an expensive shift from copper cables to optical fibers, a pioneer of digital subscriber lines is proposing a novel upgrade that someday could deliver terabit data rates.
In a keynote at the G.fast Summit in Paris Tuesday (May 9), John Cioffi will unveil ideas behind what he calls Terabit DSL (TDSL). They include carrying 50-600 GHz wireless signals through the tiny spaces between individual twisted pairs or the cables that bundle a hundred of them.
“We are shooting for a terabit/second over 100 meters, 100 Gbits/s at 300 meters and 10 Gbits/s at 500 meters — all those are 200 to 1,000 times better than traditional DSLs,” said Cioffi, whose research at Stanford in the 1980s led phone companies to embrace DSL for broadband.
Carriers charge as much as $4,000 to pull fiber to an individual home, a cost that could come down to as little as $200 for a shared fiber/TDSL link, Cioffi said. Others estimate it could cost 400 billion euros to deploy 5G cellular throughout Europe, a price tag that could be reduced to tens of billions using TDSL backhaul, he added.
“The largest cost in 5G is not the wireless part, it’s the wires behind it,” said Cioffi, who posted online slides from his TDSL talk.
“TDSL is a breakthrough in the pursuit of ultra high speed over copper. The combination of millimeter waveguides and vectoring signal processing puts new regimes of physics together with advances in mathematics–the business implications of this technological breakthrough will be tremendous,”
Cut sideways a typical bundle of twisted pair lines looks a Swiss cheese. TDSL uses those gaps to send wireless signals. Wires don’t carry signals directly but act as waveguides for them.
Because the gaps are so small, the signals need to use tiny wavelengths. “We used 50 GHz to 500-600 GHz, it’s not all going to work on any one cable,”
The array of antennas applies concepts well studied in MIMO wireless and vectored-DSL wired systems for “steering messy, multi-dimensional channels,” he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FOSA to educate and raise awareness of fiber-optic sensing benefits
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2017/04/fosa-to-educate-and-raise-awareness-of-fiber-optic-sensing-benefits.html?cmpid=enl_lfw_newsletter_2017-05-09
The Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA; http://www.fiberopticsensing.org), the U.S.A.’s first trade association dedicated to fiber-optic sensing, has officially launched with a focus on educating industry, government, and the public on the benefits of this cutting-edge fiber-optic technology. The organization was formed with the mission to provide greater awareness of the benefits of fiber-optic sensing technology and its applications in today’s marketplace. As part of its awareness campaign, FOSA has launched a new web presence at http://www.fiberopticsensing.org that features articles, information, and educational content about this technology and its impact.
Fiber-optic sensing is an emerging technology that uses deviations of light in fiber-optic cables to remotely measure acoustics, temperature, and strain. Through fiber-optic sensing, an individual can detect pipeline leaks, vehicle traffic, foot traffic, digging, tunneling, seismic activity, unsafe temperatures, crumbling infrastructure, and other conditions from miles away.
Fiber-optic sensing is used today to monitor thousands of miles of power lines, pipelines, international borders, critical infrastructure and facilities all across the globe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DSL inventor’s latest science project: terabit speeds over copper
Spare your hypegasm, this is a research roadmap
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/10/dsl_inventors_latest_science_project_terabit_speeds_over_copper/
John Cioffi, known as the “father of DSL”, reckons we’re nowhere near the limit of copper transmission speed, delivering a presentation claiming Terabit performance is feasible.
Feasible with a bunch of caveats, that is, the two most important of which are “if research delivers on theory”, and “if it can be standardised”.
The basis of Cioffi’s proposal in this PDF presentation is that at high enough frequencies, signals in copper behave differently to at low frequencies.
At the kinds of frequencies we use for today’s DSL, the signal is carried by the movement of electrons in the wires. If, however, the carrier frequency is high enough, the waves propagate in a “waveguide” mode – radio waves following the edge of the copper, rather than electrons oscillating inside it.
So far, so good: none of this is science fiction, and in fact, AT&T’s fooling around with using wires as waveguides in its AirGig demonstration.
What’s bound to raise eyebrows is the claim that a waveguide transmission mode would be sufficient to carry terabit signals in the copper links that today struggle with megabits.
If – and the more slides of the presentation you read, the more “ifs” there are – the carrier frequency in those waveguides is 300 GHz, and if those channels can carry 4096 tones, and if you can encode 2.5 bits per tone – then you get to a Terabit system that Cioffi reckons can operate at 100 metres; 100 Gbps at 300 metres; and 10 Gbps at 500 metres.
Also on the to-do list are:
Antenna design – how to couple signals into the waveguides;
Whether antennas can be designed that support the MIMO proposal terabit performance needs;
Digital signal processing design; as the presentation notes, today’s kit is better suited to 100 Gbps than terabit systems;
Measurements – the paper says “a real cable measurement or a few would help”.
nbn has already successfully trialled both G.fast and XG.FAST – achieving 8Gbps over the latter – in order to assess how these technologies might be deployed over the NBN.
“However, our G.fast and XG.FAST testing was delivered over relatively short copper lengths so the potential arrival of a new technology that could extend ultra-fast speeds of 10Gbps to 100Gbps over longer copper lines is a very exciting development for the entire industry.”
Terabit DSL (TDSL)
(Use of a copper pair’s sub-millimeter
Waveguide modes)
http://www.assia-inc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TDSL-presentation.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC should produce logs to prove ‘multiple DDoS attacks’ stopped net neutrality comments
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3195466/security/fcc-should-produce-logs-to-prove-multiple-ddos-attacks-stopped-net-neutrality-comments.html
Fight for the Future says the FCC should produce its logs to prove its ‘multiple DDoS attacks’ claim that silenced net neutrality comments
After John Oliver urged viewers of HBO’s Last Week Tonight to fight for net neutrality (again) and post comments on the FCC’s site, people were not able to submit comments because the site turned to molasses.
The FCC blamed the problem on “multiple” DDoS attacks: “These were deliberate attempts by external actors to bombard the FCC’s comment system with a high amount of traffic to our commercial cloud host. These actors were not attempting to file comments themselves; rather they made it difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC.”
A DDoS attack at the exact same time as Oliver’s viewers would have been leaving comments? Pfft. The last rally cry by Oliver resulted in such a flood of would-be commenters that it crashed the FCC comments site. So, it doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibilities that his newest plea for every internet group to come together and tell the FCC to preserve net neutrality and Title II could also crash the site.
n fact, Fight for the Future is highly skeptical of the FCC’s excuse and wants answers, saying the FCC should back up its DDoS attack claims with proof. It’s really quite simple, the FCC should release its logs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenWRT and LEDE agree on LInux-for-routers peace plan
There can be only one and it looks like the vote is bad news for the LEDE brand
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/10/openwrt_and_lede_peace_plan/
Competing Linux-for-routers distributions OpenWRT and LEDE will soon vote on a proposal to heal the schism between the two.
OpenWRT is often used as firmware for small routers, largely SOHO WiFi kit. But in March 2016 a group of developers decided they didn’t like the directions OpenWRT was taking and forked the project by creating the Linux Embedded Development Environment – LEDE – project. LEDE developers said they wanted to create a distribution that was more transparent and democratic than OpenWRT, followed a more predictable release schedule and produced stable code.
LEDE claimed it had skimmed the cream from OpenWRT’s pool of developers and said only forking could achieve those goals.
But in the shadow of Christmas 2016 the two groups revealed they had started talking again, with the aim of a re-merge once terms were set.
Those terms have now been nutted out and published
[LEDE-DEV] openwrt and lede – remerge proposal
http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-dev/2017-May/007336.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTE-Advanced Pro: The bridge to 5G
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4458335/LTE-Advanced-Pro–The-bridge-to-5G?utm_content=buffer4167d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Cellular technology has advanced from analog to 4G LTE-Advanced Pro, with 5G in development.
The press release describes IxLoad LTE XAir2 as a “radio access network (RAN) test product specifically designed for service providers, equipment and chip-set makers, as well as enterprises developing LTE Advanced Pro (4.5G) and 5G-related products and services.”
Ixia’s Gabriel Chiriacescu. “We see cellular IoT devices and the growing demand for greater bandwidth from mobile users as driving 5G. LTE-Advanced Pro is a bridge from LTE-Advanced to 5G.” he said. “The IoT market can’t wait for 5G.”
LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation (2CA through 4CA): Carrier aggregation finally gets its place in the sun. The idea behind it is to use two-to-five carriers, each 20-MHz wide
Chiriacescu noted that LTE-A Pro can accommodate up to 32 carriers, each at 20 MHz for a theoretical 640 MHz bandwidth.
SISO, 2×2 and 4×4 MIMO antenna configurations: Multiple antennas let wireless systems such as LTE and Wi-Fi increase throughput over single antennas; each antenna operates in the same RF band.
256QAM: Another way to increase data throughout is by cramming more bits into a symbol. Adopted in 3GPP release 12, 256QAM (Figure 4) encodes eight bits per symbol. That’s up from 64QAM in previous releases. With 256QAM, each carrier is capable of 100 Mbits/s data throughput.
Unlicensed spectrum: LTE-Advanced Pro takes advantage of the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum. The primary carrier operates at frequencies from 400 MHz to 3.8 GHz. Carriers can use the unlicensed spectrum either standalone or aggregated with licensed spectrum
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog’s 28-nm CMOS ADC for wideband software defined systems
http://www.eedesignnewseurope.com/news/analogs-28-nm-cmos-adc-wideband-software-defined-systems
Based on 28-nanometer CMOS technology, the AD9208 maximises bandwidth and dynamic range to cover the largest number of signal bands. It also features low-noise spectral density for diversity radio and I/Q demodulation systems, while consuming half of the power, when compared to alternative solutions.
The dual 14-bit AD9208 is optimized (see specification listing below) for wide input bandwidth, high sampling rate, linearity, and low power in a small package with an industry standard JESD204B interface to pair processor platforms and arrange signal processing partitioning using ADI’s wideband RF data acquisition technology. Sampling speeds up to 3.0 Gsamples/sec enable direct RF signal processing architectures with high oversampling. This simplifies front-end filtering, thereby reducing receiver design complexity and overall system cost. The AD9208 enables direct RF sampling of wideband signals beyond 6 GHz, allowing more flexibility and the ability to eliminate mixer stages and simplifies system design with an internal clock divider and optional RF clock output.
- On-chip temperature diode for improved system thermal management
In a 12 x 12 mm, 196-pin BGA, the device will be priced at $1326 (1000).
Tomi Engdahl says:
The next WLAN standard is called 802.11ax. It’s about work that started with the 2012 High Efficiency WLAN. Now the standard is finally being completed. NI, the former National Instruments, is responsible for the needs of hardware developers with updated testing software that enables the development of 802.11ax devices.
NI’s new WLAN Test Toolkit 17.0 is based on IEEE’s latest 802.11ax draft. According to current information, the IEEE Working Group will approve the 2.0 draft in September. The final standard will not be published until next year.
NI released a test software that supports the current draft. With the PXI Bus VST, developers can use new soft to generate Ax waveforms and analyze the generated signals.
In practice, ax level wifi on one 80 megahertz channel to 600 megabit data rate. When the channel is deployed to 160 megahertz, it is split into eight subchannels and the most efficient QAM-1024 modulation is used, reaching a single channel for more than 9.6 gigabits per second. The actual data rate depends, of course, on the available band and the signal conditions.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6291-wifin-vauhti-kiihtyy-jo-tana-vuonna
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC greenlights small cell free-for-all in the US
New rules wil lower requirements to build wireless cells
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/21/fcc_greenlights_small_cells/
America’s favorite watchdog the FCC has suggested a set of new rules for installing hardware for 5G wireless broadband networks.
The communications regulator’s notice (PDF) of proposed rule-making sets out new guidelines for carriers and places the burden for blocking small cell antenna units on the city and state authorities. The moves, like many being made under the leadership of FCC chairman Ajit Pai, would be decidedly more friendly to telcos than previous rules.
“Current and next-generation wireless broadband have the potential to bring enormous benefits to the US, supporting millions of jobs and billions of dollars in investment,” the FCC said in the notice.
“In order to continue to meet demand and to achieve the potential of next-generation services, wireless providers will depend on having a regulatory framework that promotes and facilitates network infrastructure deployment.”
Most notably, the new rules would require that when telcos notify local governments of their plans to install small cell hardware on city light poles and other public locations, the city be given a “shot clock” period to deny the request or the telco will be presumed to have permission. Previously carriers would be required that permission be granted before starting work.
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0420/DOC-344486A1.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
How One Little Cable Company Exposed Telecom’s Achilles’ Heel
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/10/165220/how-one-little-cable-company-exposed-telecoms-achilles-heel
Forget net neutrality — the real fight is over controlling price-gouging monopolies. As Susan Crawford writes at Backchannel, a little-known cable company, Cable One, just exposed the telecommunications industry’s Achilles’ heel: regulation. Cable One has been raising its data transmission prices quickly, and it’s making cable giants very, very nervous. If people begin noticing that there’s no competition, that Americans are paying too much for too little, and that the entire country is suffering as a result, that’s a big problem for Big Cable.
How One Little Cable Company Exposed Telecom’s Achilles’ Heel
Forget net neutrality — the real fight is over controlling price-gouging monopolies.
https://backchannel.com/how-one-little-cable-company-exposed-telecoms-achilles-heel-480e49b648bf?gi=6c0b1c0e433d
Listening to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai go on about “net neutrality” last week felt just like Alice’s encounter with Humpty Dumpty in Wonderland. The large, contemptuous egg says, scornfully, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Pai says, essentially, that he is looking for a new legal route that will satisfy consumers who care about their internet transmissions being treated fairly and, at the same time, that will lift old-fashioned Ma Bell-era regulation from the dynamic, shiny, wonderful businesses of AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter, and CenturyLink.
It’s all nonsense.
Here’s the reality: The details of the net neutrality rules adopted by the FCC in February 2015 were not important to AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Spectrum, or CenturyLink. What was important was the idea that any part of the government might have enforceable oversight over their data transmission services or charges. That’s what they can’t stand; that’s what they would do anything to avoid. And that’s what they are working to undo: the FCC’s classification of them as “common carriers” under “Title II” of the Telecommunications Act.
That classification gave the FCC the legal authority to say something to the carriers about treating internet traffic fairly. No classification, no “net neutrality” rule. The trouble for the carriers is that the classification carries with it the risk that their businesses will be treated, someday, as the utility services they are. Net neutrality: not risky. Classification: risky.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From: http://www.assia-inc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TDSL-presentation.pdf
Drivers for Higher-Speed DSLs
• MULTITUDE of 5G smaller cells
– high-speed low-latency wired support
– New 5G-fiber cost = 400B euros (for europe, DT CTO, 2016)
• Fiber theoreWcal capacity ~ 500 Tbps
– Today supports 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps (access-network)
•BUT
– INSTALL costs $3000-$4000/home (average) -> $4 trillion globally (instead pay national debts?)
– Successful business case needs < 1/10 of this cost
• The copper twisted pairs are there (1.3B)
– Run fiber part of the way ($3000/10 homes is a be`er business case)
– Continues x in xDSL , so can x=T?
• Can any PON get 1 Tbps to each customer?
• TDSL is technically feasible with 100 pairs and phantoms used for
backhaul
– Also roughly 1 Tbps @100m, 100Gbps at 300m, 10 Gbps at 500m
(But of course on ALL 100 pairs used together, Still could be very useful for 5G cell multitude)
• Terabit/s DSL per home (or small cell) also appears feasible
– Using waveguide modes and vectoring – SINGLE pair
Is it worth it? (or should we spend $4 Trillion to replace all the copper with fiber instead, say in the next 3-5 years ….. Or century?)
– Would 5G small cells be accelerated since this would reduce deployment cost?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tests Approved for Technology That Turns Airplanes into Satellites
http://www.mwrf.com/software/tests-approved-technology-turns-airplanes-satellites?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170511_MWRF-001_580&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=11022&utm_medium=email&elq2=4e215fd7a86a4f56aa6f1dc1c44ae143
Airborne Wireless Networks is trying to breathe life into a clever concept, but it might have missed its opportunity to compete with low-earth orbit satellites from Space X and OneWeb.
The Federal Communications Commission is letting a company test wireless networks that would transmit signals over thousands of miles using airplanes as stepping stones. Using thousands of airplanes, the network could act like a satellite constellation – one that could be landed and upgraded.
Last week, federal regulators informed the company, Airborne Wireless Networks, that it had been approved to conduct inflight tests. The firm, which uncovered the concept in a patent filed in 2001, will equip two Boeing airplanes with its technology and test the system in flight near Roswell, New Mexico.
“We intend to create a network between satellites and underwater cable and ground connectivity,”
The company is betting that the airborne network, in which each airplane acts like a wireless repeater, will cost significantly less to build than undersea cables or communications satellites. The firm, based in Simi Valley, Calif., aims to sell access wholesale to internet service providers and telephone companies, which will offer data plans to customers.
But Airborne’s equipment, which it has kept under tight wraps, has a major advantage: It can be installed on any of the 27,000 airplanes now flying worldwide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is 5G NR?
http://www.edn.com/5G/4458325/What-is-5G-NR-
For those of you who are not familiar with 5G NR, it refers to 5G New Radio. Qualcomm commented that NR is a complex topic as it relates to a new OFDM-based wireless standard.
The 5G Radio Access architecture is composed of LTE Evolution and a New Radio Access Technology (NR) which is not backwards compatible with LTE and is operable from sub-1 GHz to 100 GHz.
OFDM refers to “a digital multi-carrier modulation method” in which “a large number of closely spaced orthogonal sub-carrier signals are used to carry data on several parallel data streams or channels.” With 3GPP adopting this standard going forward, the NR name has stuck, just as LTE (long term evolution) caught on to describe the 4G wireless standard.
A new Radio Access Technology (RAT), beyond LTE is needed; it must be flexible enough to support a much wider range of frequency bands from less than 6 GHz to millimeter wave (mmWave) bands as high as 100 GHz. An OFDM4-based unified and more capable air interface has been chosen for this task going forward.
OFDM is a very well-defined and familiar waveform design principle. Both 4G (LTE and its evolutions so far) and IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) use OFDM as their basic signal format for sending data wirelessly. Basically, OFDM uses a large number of parallel, narrow-band subcarriers instead of a single wide-band carrier to transport information4.
Why OFDM2?
Some reasons that OFDM has been chosen are:
OFDM is a scalable waveform with lower complexity receivers
OFDM has a more efficient framework for MIMO spatial multiplexing which means higher spectral efficiency
OFDM allows enhancements like windowing/filtering for enhanced localization
SC-FDM/SC-FDMA is well-suited for uplink transmissions in macro deployments
Forward compatibility must be designed into 5G so that we can flexibly phase in future features and services
5G NR must be scalable enough to address diverse services and devices. These include massive IoT, mission critical control, and enhanced mobile broadband. See the following band allocation examples:
Low bands
Allocated in the low band area of 1 GHz are such bands as 600 MHz, 700 MHz, and 850/900 MHz. These bands are typically for longer range such as in massive IoT (An example: Ericsson for AT&T) and mobile broadband.
Mid bands
The mid band area is from 1 GHz to 6 GHz with such bands as 3.4-3.8 GHz, 3.8-4.2 GHz, and 4.4-4.9 GHz. These bands are typically used for such uses as mission-critical applications and eMBB.
High bands
The high band area lies above 24 GHz (mmWave) and these are denoted to be used as ‘extreme bandwidths’ like 24.25-27.5 GHz, 27.5-29.5 GHz, 37-40 GHz, and 64-71 GHz.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rishika Sadam / Reuters:
Verizon to buy 5G spectrum holder Straight Path Communications for $3.1B — Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), the No.1 U.S. wireless carrier, is buying wireless spectrum holder Straight Path Communications Inc (STRP.A) for an enterprise value of about $3.1 billion, ending a bidding war with rival AT&T (T.N).
Verizon beats AT&T to buy spectrum holder Straight Path
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-straight-path-m-a-verizon-idUSKBN1871HT
Tomi Engdahl says:
John Mannes / TechCrunch:
Cisco acquires conversational AI startup MindMeld for $125M to enhance its collaboration suite
Cisco acquires conversational AI startup MindMeld for $125 million
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/11/cisco-acquires-conversational-ai-startup-mindmeld-for-125-million/
This morning Cisco announced that it is buying MindMeld for $125 million. Founded in 2011, MindMeld helps businesses to build conversational interfaces with cloud-based services.
MindMeld, originally called Expect Labs, was launched on the stage of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012. At that time the startup wanted to build an iPad app that could listen in on your conversations and provide relevant contextual information. Since then the company has expanded its offerings to include a suite of APIs for parsing, reasoning about and generating language.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LTE-Advanced Pro: The bridge to 5G
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4458335/LTE-Advanced-Pro–The-bridge-to-5G
Tomi Engdahl says:
The SerDes – Terabit Ethernet Connection
Ethernet is moving faster than ever, presenting a distinct set of challenges for SerDes designers.
http://semiengineering.com/the-serdes-terabit-ethernet-connection/
400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GbE) and 200 Gigabit Ethernet (200GbE) are currently slated for official release by the IEEE P802.3cd Task Force in December 2017. Although there is not yet an official IEEE roadmap detailing what lies beyond 400GbE, doubling to 800GbE will likely become a reality when single-lane 112Gbps links hits the market. This technology will allow for larger lane bundles, providing 1 TbE or 1.6 TbE link with 10 or 16 lanes, respectively.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Terabit over DSL?
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/05/terabit-over-dsl.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-05-11
Research from ASSIA suggests that terabit throughput is possible over twisted-pair DSL lines. Dr. John Cioffi, chairman and CEO of ASSIA and emeritus professor at Stanford, says extreme high frequency sub-millimeter waves can increase single-line data rates to terabits per second at 100 meters on ordinary twisted-pair phone wire, as well as speeds of 100 Gbps over 300 meters and 10 Gbps at 500 meters.
Cioffi said: “Fiber-like speeds of 10 to thousands of gigabits per second are possible by using the previously unexploited waveguide modes of current copper infrastructure. Waveguide-mode use is similar to use of millimeter-wave transmissions in advanced wireless and 5G. Waveguides can enable use of frequencies above 100 GHz for extraordinary speeds.”
Cioffi’s keynote at the Paris G.fast Summit conference on May 10 titled “TerabitDSL” will introduce the new method. During the keynote, Cioffi will explain how 5G wireless often runs at 28 GHz and 39 GHz, while commercial microwave gear can run at 70 GHz and 90 GHz. Wireless above 300 GHz (sub-millimeter wave) is being actively researched. Early designs suggest that link latency of 50-100 μs is readily achievable, which would allow latency specifications of 1 ms or less to be achieved with terabit DSL lines.
G.fast uses only 200 MHz, while wireless uses 25 times as much spectrum.
” While Tbps demand may be a few years into the future, 10-100 Gbps speeds are important to networks today and will be a big market. Rapid advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), including autonomous vehicles, means the number of connected devices requiring high-speed ubiquitous connectivity will increase dramatically in the next decade. We believe that terabit DSL will play a critical role in serving the needs of that ecosystem with ultra-high-throughput and ultra-low-latency connectivity.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
With Ixia Acquisition, Keysight Moves Up the Protocol Stack
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331712&
With Keysight Technologies recent acquisition of network testing equipment manufacturer Ixia, the world’s largest test-and-measurement company gets a little larger — by about 1,800 employees.
Formed in 1997, Ixia has been a leading supplier of hardware and software for network testing, operating at communications protocol layers 2 through 7. Keysight’s expertise has traditionally come from the physical (layer 1), whether that be electrical, optical, or wireless. Keysight, when it was part of Agilent Technologies, had developed some products for wireline protocol testing but exited the business. Indeed, the company sold a line of network testers to Ixia in 2009. Thus, the acquisition brings Keysight back into the network-testing market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New radio channel model for the 5G world
The increase in data volumes and the congestion of telecommunication networks force the introduction of higher frequency bands. In addition to the current six Gigahertz, Oulu has tested a 10 GHz radio channel model for 5G networks.
Oulu has studied a statistical radio channel model in the 10 GHz band, which can be utilized in the design of the future generation of fifth generation telecommunications systems. Antti Roivainen, D.Sc. (Econ.), Holds a doctoral dissertation at the University of Oulu on Wednesday, May 17,
The multi-channel system (MIMO) channel measurements were performed in a two-storey lobby environment and in the cellular environment of the city walls. Measurements were made with a vector circuit analyzer and dual polarized virtual antenna groups at 500 MHz bandwidth.
The results also show mirror reflection as a more prominent radio wave propagation mechanism than diffusion scattering. Multilayer glass pass-through is similar to the lower frequencies. Concrete wall damping, in turn, is slightly higher than at lower (<6 GHz) frequencies.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/05/12/uusi-radiokanavamalli-5g-maailmaan/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia 5G: a hundred meters away gigabit speed
Nokia and the Japanese KDDI operator have demonstrated the 5G technology in Fujimino City. At a frequency of 28 gigahertz, a commercial Airscale iron link was used to transfer data to a hundred meters above the gigabit per second.
Data was transmitted at this speed between two homes in the same building. The results show that in large cities, the 28 gigahertz range is well suited for ultrafast broadband connections.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6304-nokian-5g-sadan-metrin-paahan-yli-gigabitin-vauhtia
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Survey by cable trade group NCTA shows 61% of Americans strongly or somewhat support net neutrality rules, 51% say net shouldn’t be considered a public utility
Cable lobby conducts survey, finds that Americans want net neutrality
NCTA touts opposition to price caps—which don’t exist for home Internet.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/cable-lobby-conducts-survey-finds-that-americans-want-net-neutrality/
As US cable companies push to eliminate or change net neutrality rules, the industry’s primary lobby group today released the results of a survey that it says shows “strong bipartisan consensus that the government should let the Internet flourish without imposing burdensome regulations.”
But proponents of keeping the current rules can find plenty to like in the survey conducted by NCTA—The Internet & Television Association. A strong majority of the 2,194 registered American voters in the survey support the current net neutrality rules that prohibit ISPs from blocking, throttling, or prioritizing online content in exchange for payment.
About 61 percent of respondents either “strongly” or “somewhat” support net neutrality rules that say ISPs “cannot block, throttle, or prioritize certain content on the Internet.” Only 18 percent oppose net neutrality, as the rest don’t know what it is or had no opinion.
https://www.ncta.com/sites/prod/files/morning_consult_poll_toplines_1.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
With Ixia Acquisition, Keysight Moves Up the Protocol Stack
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331712&
With Keysight Technologies recent acquisition of network testing equipment manufacturer Ixia, the world’s largest test-and-measurement company gets a little larger — by about 1,800 employees.
Formed in 1997, Ixia has been a leading supplier of hardware and software for network testing, operating at communications protocol layers 2 through 7. Keysight’s expertise has traditionally come from the physical (layer 1), whether that be electrical, optical, or wireless. Keysight, when it was part of Agilent Technologies, had developed some products for wireline protocol testing but exited the business. Indeed, the company sold a line of network testers to Ixia in 2009. Thus, the acquisition brings Keysight back into the network-testing market. To learn more about how Ixia fits in with Keysight, I spoke with Jay Alexander, Keysight’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, by phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC Suspends Net Neutrality Comments, As Chairman Pai Mocks ‘Mean Tweets’
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/05/14/236204/fcc-suspends-net-neutrality-comments-as-chairman-pai-mocks-mean-tweets
Thursday the FCC stopped accepting comments as part of long-standing rules “to provide FCC decision-makers with a period of repose during which they can reflect on the upcoming items” before their May 18th meeting. Techdirt wondered if this time to reflect would mean less lobbying from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, but on Friday Pai recorded a Jimmy Kimmel-style video mocking mean tweets, with responses Gizmodo called “appalling” and implying “that anyone who opposes his cash grab for corporations is a moron.”
FCC Temporarily Stops Taking Net Neutrality Comments So FCC Can ‘Reflect’
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170512/12095837350/fcc-temporarily-stops-taking-net-neutrality-comments-so-fcc-can-reflect.shtml
Okay, let’s be quite clear here: this is not some crazy new thing that the FCC is doing, but it’s important for members of the public to understand what’s happening. As lots of people have been commenting (some of which are fake) on the FCC’s proposed plan to rollback net neutrality, the FCC will be temporarily be shutting down the ability to comment. This is not in response to the fake comments. Nor is it in response to the site being overwhelmed — whether by John Oliver or [snort!] random DDoS attacks that no one else can see. Rather it’s… to give the FCC a moment of peaceful reflection.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Achieve Direct Counterfactual Quantum Communication For The First Time
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/05/14/1827218/scientists-achieve-direct-counterfactual-quantum-communication-for-the-first-time
Quantum communication is a strange beast, but one of the weirdest proposed forms of it is called counterfactual communication — a type of quantum communication where no particles travel between two recipients. Theoretical physicists have long proposed that such a form of communication would be possible, but now, for the first time, researchers have been able to experimentally achieve it — transferring a black and white bitmap image from one location to another without sending any physical particles…
Scientists Achieve Direct Counterfactual Quantum Communication For The First Time
Communication without particle transmission.
http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-achieved-direct-counterfactual-quantum-communication-for-the-first-time
This is what Einstein referred to as “spooky action at a distance”, and scientists have already used it to send messages over vast distances.
But that form of quantum teleportation still relies on particle transmission in some form or another. The two particles usually need to be together when they’re entangled before being sent to the people on either end of the message (so, they start in one place, and need to be transmitted to another before communication can occur between them).
Alternatively, particles can be entangled at a distance, but it usually requires another particle, such as photons (particles of light), to travel between the two.
Direct counterfactual quantum communication on the other hands relies on something other than quantum entanglement. Instead, it uses a phenomenon called the quantum Zeno effect.
Very simply, the quantum Zeno effect occurs when an unstable quantum system is repeatedly measured.
Counterfactual quantum communication is based on this quantum Zeno effect, and is defined as the transfer of a quantum state from one site to another without any quantum or classical particle being transmitted between them.
This requires a quantum channel to run between two sites, which means there’s always a small probability that a quantum particle will cross the channel. If that happens, the system is discarded and a new one is set up.
The team explains that the basic idea for this set up came from holography technology.
Not only is this a big step forward for quantum communication, the team explains it’s technology that could also be used for imaging sensitive ancient artefacts that couldn’t surprise direct light shined on them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew McMillen / New York Times:
How Australia bungled its $36B broadband modernization effort that began in 2009, as the country now ranks #51 globally in internet speeds, behind Kenya — BRISBANE, Australia — Fed up with Australian internet speeds that trail those in most of the developed world, Morgan Jaffit turned …
How Australia Bungled Its $36 Billion High-Speed Internet Rollout
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/world/australia/australia-slow-internet-broadband.html
Australia, a wealthy nation with a widely envied quality of life, lags in one essential area of modern life: its internet speed. Eight years after the country began an unprecedented broadband modernization effort that will cost at least 49 billion Australian dollars, or $36 billion, its average internet speed lags that of the United States, most of Western Europe, Japan and South Korea. In the most recent ranking of internet speeds by Akamai, a networking company, Australia came in at an embarrassing No. 51, trailing developing economies like Thailand and Kenya.
For many here, slow broadband connections are a source of frustration and an inspiration for gallows humor.
More broadly, Australia risks being left behind at a time when countries like China and India are looking to nurture their own start-up cultures to match the success of Silicon Valley and keep their economies on the cutting edge.
“Poor broadband speeds will hold back Australia and its competitive advantage,”
The story of Australia’s costly internet bungle illustrates the hazards of mingling telecommunication infrastructure with the impatience of modern politics. The internet modernization plan has been hobbled by cost overruns, partisan maneuvering and a major technical compromise that put 19th-century technology between the country’s 21st-century digital backbone and many of its homes and businesses.
The government-led push to modernize its telecommunications system was unprecedented, experts say — and provides a cautionary tale for others who might like to try something similar.
“Australia was the first country where a totally national plan to cover every house or business was considered,” said Rod Tucker, a University of Melbourne professor and a member of the expert panel that advised on the effort. “The fact it was a government plan didn’t necessarily make it doomed. In Australia, we have changes of governments every three years, which really works against the ability to undertake long-term planning, and the long-term rollouts of networks like this.”
Australia poses natural connectivity challenges
Still, Australia had high hopes for its ambitious internet project. Started in 2009, the initiative, known as the National Broadband Network, was intended to bring advanced fiber-optic technology to the doorstep of just about every home and business. It was initially estimated to cost 43 billion Australian dollars, shared by the government and the private sector.
“Years of failed policy have left Australia as a broadband backwater,” said Kevin Rudd, then the prime minister and leader of the Labor Party.
After a Liberal-led coalition was elected in 2013, that party looked for ways to contain costs and speed up the rollout. They focused on what in the telecommunications industry is called “the last mile” — the wires that connect a home or business with the broader network. While the National Broadband Network initially envisioned high-speed fiber connecting homes and businesses directly to the network, the Liberal-led effort compromised by connecting them with existing copper wire — basically, the same technology used in the earliest days of the telephone.
The result, critics say, was slow speeds that still did not stop rising costs.
“Australia had an aggressive, forward-looking, visionary government project to build a fiber network,” said Mike Quigley, who was chief executive of the project until 2013. He added, “that opportunity’s been absolutely lost because of bad judgments, ideologically and politically driven.”
GO1, an education technology company near Brisbane, spent about $22,000 on a speed upgrade in September 2015. It now pays nearly $1,000 a month for its high-speed, 100 megabit connection. As a software company, our two main costs are internet and staff,” said Andrew Barnes, the chief executive and co-founder. “If the former was lower, then we have more to spend on building up the team.”
The video game industry in particular has pushed for better speeds. “Right now, we are all on dirt roads,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Survey by cable trade group NCTA shows 61% of Americans strongly or somewhat support net neutrality rules, 51% say net shouldn’t be considered a public utility
Cable lobby conducts survey, finds that Americans want net neutrality
NCTA touts opposition to price caps—which don’t exist for home Internet.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/cable-lobby-conducts-survey-finds-that-americans-want-net-neutrality/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsemi, Aquantia roll out production-ready multi-gigabit switch reference platform
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/05/microsemi-aquantia-roll-out-production-ready-multi-gigabit-switch-reference-platform.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-05-15
Semiconductor developer Microsemi and Aquantia Corp., a specialist in high-speed Ethernet and data center connectivity solutions, have jointly announced a production-ready multi-rate switch reference platform, optimized to support 24×2.5G and up to four additional 2.5G/5G/10G BASE-T ports.
“The new multi-rate switch reference platform provides Microsemi customers a complete hardware and software solution that can be readily taken to the market, as Aquantia’s PHY application program interface (API) and firmware have been integrated into Microsemi’s Linux-based application software suites, including CEServices, SMBStaX and WebStax,” said Larry O’Connell, director of product marketing for Microsemi’s Ethernet Networking Technology (ENT) group. “Additionally the solution combines Microsemi PoE and low jitter clock solutions with our Ethernet switch and software technologies, providing our customers a single source for their Ethernet networking needs.”
today’s enterprise APs have maximized their Gigabit uplink throughput. IHS Technology expects total worldwide 802.11ac and 802.11ac Wave 2 APs will exceed 128 million units from 2015 to 2020, comprising more than 76 percent of total AP shipments by 2020. These 802.11ac upgrades, especially Wave 2, will require additional Ethernet data rates beyond what Gigabit Ethernet technology can currently support.
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_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-05-15
Previously, this magazine has devoted a significant amount of coverage to the hazards of being fooled into purchasing and, worse, installing counterfeit communications cabling. It’s a topic that always bears some revisiting, because the threat is apparently ongoing.
The CCCA video’s narrator reminds us, “It’s in everyone’s best interest that if a fire breaks out in a building, communications cables don’t act like a fuse and carry fire all over the building.”
“How to know if your Cat 5e, Cat 6 or Cat 6A Ethernet cable is counterfeit?”
“Installing counterfeit cables is a risk that eventually will have an expensive cost and could be considered negligence, fraud and criminal violation of building code regulations,” observes Beyondtech. “In some cases, the contractor could even face imprisonment.” The company goes on to succinctly outline three major scams that counterfeit cabling manufacturers try to foist on unwitting buyers. Quoting the blog directly, these scams are as follows.
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. Not every application requires these standards, but when they are needed it is critical for cables to have them.
How to know if your Cat5e, Cat6 or Cat6a Ethernet cable is counterfeit?
https://beyondtech.us/blogs/beyond-blog/detect-counterfeit-cables
There is a worrying trend in the cable industry that is impairing the final consumer: counterfeit cables.
Companies are doing this shady deal by selling under brand cables labeled as genuine products, but without the quality controls and even without the appropriate metal inside them. It is a $500 billion problem worldwide.
Companies are doing this shady deal by selling under brand cables labeled as genuine products, but without the quality controls and even without the appropriate metal inside them. It is a $500 billion problem worldwide.
Why do they do this?
Short version? To save money. But the long part is what surprise you:
We are talking about thousands of dollars. Impairing the consumer, who ends up installing slow networks that don’t hold their specifications for voice, video and data passing.
Corporations and homeowners are also susceptible to risks because sometimes these cables don’t comply with adequate fire and current rates.
Fake cables manufacturers make low-quality products, label them with the name of a legitimate company, pack them in a box and sell them at a fraction of the real prizes, making it impossible for legit manufacturers to compete them.
So, when you see a CATx cable or patch cord with a significantly low cost, don’t trust it.
So, what are some cables companies doing in order to save costs?
Using steel or aluminum instead of copper
Using re-ground plastic
Substituting jacket material
Furthermore, fake cables don’t meet with industry’s standards, which sooner or later will cause poor network performance and could even damage active equipment, because they claim to be 24 AWG but are 25 AWG or even 25 AWG instead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sean Buckley / Fierce Telecom:
Sprint and Windstream sue FCC over deregulation of business data services that allows ISPs like AT&T to raise prices for dedicated data lines
Sprint, Windstream sue the FCC for ‘capricious’ business data services proposal
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/sprint-windstream-sue-fcc-for-capricious-business-data-services-proposal
Sprint and Windstream are suing the FCC over the regulator’s proposed controversial business data services (BDS) deregulation plan that the two service providers said could potentially enable incumbent telcos to unfairly raise rates.
The lawsuit comes after the FCC voted on April 20 during its monthly meeting to deregulate lower speed BDS services, including wireless backhaul.
Reforming the $45 billion BDS market has been a controversial subject, pitting competitive carriers who want fair prices for off-net circuits and ILECs that say regulations will stifle investment.
After Donald Trump took office in January, former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler backed off from his initial proposal to pose caps on BDS lines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Buying Straight Path, Verizon Moves Needle Toward Millimeter Waves
http://www.mwrf.com/software/buying-straight-path-verizon-moves-needle-toward-millimeter-waves?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170516_MWRF-001_107&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=11105&utm_medium=email&elq2=4737540964c241c1bdcf5e47bdd88d4c
The wrestling matches over millimeter wave spectrum are intensifying. Major wireless carriers have acknowledged that the high frequency bands are vital for 5G communications.
On Thursday, Verizon announced a $3.1 billion deal for Straight Path Communications, a major holder of 28 and 39 gigahertz bands, paying twice what AT&T offered for the company last month.
Straight Path holds 133 licenses for 28 GHz spectrum and 735 licenses in the 39 GHz spectrum, which together cover the entire United States. For decades, these millimeter waves have been left dormant, with companies hewing to lower frequencies for 3G and 4G. But most companies believe that 5G will tap into both types of spectrum.
The lower bands are better at spanning long distances and penetrating buildings, but those available to be licensed are extremely scarce and expensive. On the other hand, millimeter waves are not only plentiful, but they also provide greater capacity and faster download speeds.
Last July, agency officials voted unanimously on rules that unsealed almost 11 GHz of millimeter wave spectrum above 28 GHz. The rule also opened unlicensed spectrum between the 64 GHz and 71 GHz bands.
Few options remain for licensing bread-and-butter frequency bands. AT&T said it was buying Straight Path shortly before federal regulators closed an auction of television spectrum in the 600 MHz band, one of communication’s sweet spots with better range and penetration than other bands.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Future of HFC is Here
http://www.antronix.com/antronix-solutions-intercept.php
Intercept eHFC™ represents the latest innovation in broadband delivery technology: a hybrid fiber coaxial end-to-end broadcast access network platform. Intercept’s family of products will give cable service providers the capability to use high capacity PON links to enhance existing DOCSIS data capacity and provide multi-gigabit symmetrical data to subscribers, while significantly reducing the cost-per-bit rate.
The Intercept platform of products includes end-to-end solutions for RF and optical signal transmission architectures: Node + 0, FTTC, and FTTP. Intercept is 100 percent transparent, seamlessly integrates with most existing infrastructures, and is fully compatible with all generations of DOCSIS, RFoG, and MoCA 1.0 and 2.0.
Tomi Engdahl says:
European 5G experts in Oulu Finland in June
The European 5G study will be held on 12-15 June at the EuCNC Communications Conference in Oulu. The event will be arranged at the University of Oulu CWC Research Unit, together with Tekes and the European Commission.
In June, Finland will host the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) for the first time in June. The theme of the event is the “5G – European Roadmap, Global Impact”.
Approximately 500 participants from around the world are expected to attend Oulu.
During the congress, the Oulu 5G test network and the services developed for it will be demoed.
present the main EU-funded 5G projects.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/05/16/eurooppalaiset-5g-osaajat-ouluun/