Here are some of my collection of newest trends and predictions for year 2018. I have not invented those ideas what will happen next year completely myself. I have gone through many articles that have given predictions for year 2018. Then I have picked and mixed here the best part from those articles (sources listed on the end of posting) with some of my own additions to make this posting.This article contains very many quotations from those source articles.
Big Data, mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT) are generating an enormous amount of data, and data center operators must find ways to support higher and higher speeds. Recent data center trends predict bandwidth requirements will continue growing 25 percent to 35 percent per year. Many older data centers were designed to support 1-gigabit or 10-gigabit pathways between servers, routers and switches. Today’s Ethernet roadmap extends from 25- and 40-gigabit up through 100-gigabit, and 400-gigabit and even 1-terabit Ethernet loom within a few years. The biggest sales are forecasted for 25G and 100G ports for next few years. Ethernet switch market has now 100 Gbit/s products in the volumes at the moment, and both 200G and 400G Ethernet versions will be taken to use in 2018.
Broadcom dominates the Ethernet switch chip market today with a 73 to 94 percent share, depending on how market watchers slice the sector valued at nearly a billion dollars. Its closest rival, Cisco Systems, takes most of the rest with systems using its own ASICs. Juniper, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Huawei also make Ethernet switch ASICs for their systems. With seven merchant chips in the pipeline and four in-house ASICs in the works, we will see a record number of unique platforms ship in 2018. Wheeler of the Linley Group expects the competition will drive Ethernet switch costs from about $60/port today to about $36/port by 2020.
Data center giants “are driving their own code and programmable capabilities as close to the server as possible.” The dozen largest data center operators — including the likes of Facebook and Google — build their own switch systems or specify systems built by ODMs. They can drive sales of millions of chips a year but demand maximum bandwidth at minimum cost and power consumption. The Tomahawk-3 is geared for the next-generation of their top-of-rack and aggregation switches, delivering up to 128 100GE or 32 400GE ports, the first merchant chip to support 400GE rates.
China will start making more optical components: Several Western component and subsystems vendors have cited reduced demand from Chinese systems houses such as Huawei and ZTE for revenue declines in 2017. One reason for the slowdown is the fact that these systems houses have begun looking for more local optical technology sources. In addition to doing more development work in-house (particularly in the case of Huawei), the two Chinese systems vendors have begun to work more closely with Chinese companies such as Accelink, Hisense, and HiSilicon as well as Japanese vendors. This can mean that Western firms (particularly in the U.S.) may not see their Chinese orders return to previous levels.
Higher power power over Ethernet: 802.3bt – IEEE Draft Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Physical Layer and Management Parameters for DTE Power via MDI over 4-Pair amendment to IEEE Std 802.3-2015 increases the maximum PD power available by utilizing all four pairs in the specified structured wiring plant. This represents a substantial increase to the capabilities of Ethernet with standardized power – allow delivery of up to 90 watts of power via existing Ethernet cabling. The Ethernet Alliance has announced details of its next plugfest: Dedicated to pre-standard testing of Power over Ethernet (PoE) technologies against Draft 3.2 of the IEEE P802.3bt standard, the event will be held in February 2018. The specification’s ratification is expected in September of 2018.
802.11ax hasn’t been signed off yet, but promises to send WiFi towards 10 Gb/s thanks to its use of both multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) and the new Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA). 802.11ax is good at combining lots of different links so that users get more connections, more often, and end up with more bandwidth. Marvell claims it’ll have the first chipsets for new 10G WiFi ready for products in H2 2018. Marvell said the chipsets will ship some time in early 2018 and will appear in products in the second half of the year. Widespread 802.11ax adoption in devices probably won’t happen until 2019.
5G something in it for everyone. 5G is big. 5G New Radio (NR) wireless technology will ultimately impact everyone in the electronics and telecommunications industries. Most estimates say 2020 is when we will ultimately see some real 5G deployments on a scale. In the meantime, companies are firming up their plans for whatever 5G products and services they will offer. Though test and measurement solutions will be key in the commercialization cycle. 5G is set to disrupt test processes. If 5G takes off, the technology will propel the development of new chips in both the infrastructure and the handset. Data centers require specialty semiconductors from power management to high-speed optical fiber front-ends. 5G systems will drive more complexity in RF front-ends .
Networks will become more and more virtual, especially on 5G. 5G networks will build on LTE network architecture with the introduction of cloud RANs (C-RANs) and virtualized RANs. Network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) tools and architectures could enable operators to reduce network costs and simplify deployment. For more details read System architecture milestone of 5G Phase 1 is achieved article.
Automotive Ethernet: Automotive Ethernet will replace the Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST) bus found on many vehicles today and also compete with systems like Maxim’s Gigabit Multimedia Serial Link (GMSL). The standards include IEEE 802.3bw 100BASE-T1 and IEEE P802.3bp 1000BASE-T1 that adopt the 100-Mb/s and 1-Gb/s Ethernet protocols to run over over a single twisted pair up to 15 meters. Chips, PHYs and switches are now readily available for automotive Ethernet. Automotive switches will support time-sensitive networking (TSN) features like audio video bridging (AVB) ingress policy, rate limiting andalso features 802.1Qav/Qbv queue-shaping support. We will need a Security Blanket for Automotive Ethernet.
Car-to-car communication: The industry and government have defined several versions of vehicular communications. These are vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-everything (V2X). V2V is the direct communications between vehicles within range of one another. V2V link-up is automatic and cars exchange status information messages Basic Safety Message (BSM) 10 times per second (contains data such as GPS location, speed, direction, brake status, and related conditions). There are competing technologies to make this all work. IEEE802.11p ahead of LTE-V2V for safety critical applications. 5G will offer increased capacity and decreased latency for some critical applications such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and self-driving vehicles. The big question is whether 5G will disrupt the landscape or fall short of its promises.
TSN (time sensitive networking) will be talked on many application. Success in the IIoT requires that information- and operational-technology networks work in tandem—time-sensitive networking can make it happen. A converged industrial network will address several challenges that currently exist in today’s disparate network architecture, and it is believed that needed convergence is provided by time-sensitive networking (TSN). TSN is a set of IEEE 802 sub-standards that, when implemented, enable deterministic communication over Ethernet networks while keeping the benefits of communication in best effort manner, on that same network. TSN introduces different traffic classes that share the same link. Proper implementation of TSN requires a solution that can provide a low latency and deterministic response at TSN end points and TSN bridges – it is usually implemented with combining a processor and a FPGA or using advanced Ethernet switch chip.
Gartner analyst says on-premises data centers will soon be ‘useless’: Govekar said that as soon as 2019, at least a third of the largest software vendors will have transitioned their products from cloud-first to cloud-only. For this reason Gartner analyst predicts doom for on-premises data centers. If this happens , there will be a lot of work for network operators and cloud service companies to be able to build the infrastructure that can handle all this without problems. I expect that not all on-premises data centers are doomed. There are applications where moving everything to central could does not make sense – for example many IoT applications are moving some of the processing from cloud to edge devices for various reasons (lower latency, reduce needed bandwidth, work also when communications does not work etc..). There is also place for some on-premises data centers on some application (may them be depending on need anything from embedded server to room full of equipment racks). When designing for the IoT, security needs to be addressed from the Cloud down to each and every edge device. Protecting data is both a hardware and a software requirement, as more data is being stored and analyzed in edge devices and gateways.
Network neutrality talks will continue in 2018. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on December 14, 2017 overturned the Title II-based Open Internet Order the previous Democratic-controlled FCC regime put in place in 2015. So what happens next? In the immediate term, nothing. The Restoring Internet Freedom Order won’t go into effect until sometime in the first half of 2018.
IPv6 usage seems to be finally accelerating in 2018. IPv6 has been a “future” since 1998, and an important future since 2007. IPv6 deployments have been increasing and chances are you have already used IPv6 – but haven’t realized it yet. IPv6 deployment is increasing around the world, with over 9 million domain names and 23% of all networks advertising IPv6 connectivity. Network admins will have many concerns about migrating to IPv6 in 2018. China plans to put the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)-based network into large-scale use, to boost the development of the Internet industry. China aims to have 200 million active users of IPv6 by the end of 2018. IPv6 use is increasing, but that does not mean that IPv4 is no way dying. It seems that both of those technologies will co-exist in Internet for a long time.
Sources:
Chinese systems houses engaging with alternative component, subsystem sources: LightCounting
System architecture milestone of 5G Phase 1 is achieved
Five technology trends for 2018
NI Trend Watch 2018 explores trends driving the future faster
ADAS Needs V2X to Meet ITS Goals
Taking Automotive Ethernet for a Test Drive
A Security Blanket for Automotive Ethernet
TSN: Converging Networks for a Better Industrial IoT
Gartner analyst says on-premises data centers will soon be ‘useless’
Gartner analyst predicts doom for on-premises data centers
M2M within the IoT – Pushing Security from the Cloud Down to Every Last Endpoint
Net Neutrality Overturned: Now What?
B’com Shifts Switch to 12.8 Tbits/s
Planning starts now for high-speed data center migration
China to speed up IPv6-based Internet development
Top 5 Concerns of Network Admins About Migrating to IPv6 in 2018
1,081 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fiber Optic Cable Replaces Copper Throughout the Network
http://www.cablinginstall.com/whitepapers/2018/01/fiber-optic-cable-replaces-copper-throughout-the-network.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-05&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1994108
Optical networking and fiber-optic cabling systems offer performance characteristics that make them advantageous over copper-based networks and cabling in many environments. Data centers represent one example of where fiber’s bandwidth and distance capabilities often are must-haves. Additionally, the evolution of enterprise networks has pushed fiber farther into the horizontal—in many cases all the way to the end device.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SkyRAN – fronthaul remote access and monitoring solution
https://www.exfo.com/en/products/skyran/
Scalable solution for real-time, on-demand testing and 24/7 monitoring of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum and optical fiber networks
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s first WLAN signaling tester for IEEE 802.11ax
https://www.eeweb.com/profile/eeweb/news/worlds-first-wlan-signaling-tester-for-ieee-802-11ax
The R&S CMW270 wireless connectivity tester is the world’s first tester to emulate all IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards, including 802.11ax. In signaling mode, users can test the RF properties of WLAN stations under real-world conditions.
Before now, the RF properties of WLAN stations (STA) were mainly tested in an artificial remote control operation, the non-signaling mode. For IEEE 802.11ax, this is only possible to a certain extent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tellabs, Alpha and EXFO demo symmetrical 10G PON with ‘no equipment’, stressing enterprise LAN investment protection
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2018/02/tellabs-bicsi-demo.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-12&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2000813
Tellabs, a provider of passive optical LAN (POL) technology, is at the 2018 BICSI Winter Conference in booth #1201, showcasing a demonstration of a Tellabs Optical LAN system operating the 2.5G ITU G.984 PON protocol simultaneously over a common optical distribution network supporting symmetrical 10G ITU G.989 PON.
The Tellabs demo is powered by communications networks specialist Alpha Technologies, with testing and monitoring provided by EXFO. According to Tellabs, “This industry-first display proves that customers deploying today’s PON technology can support future bi-directional 10 Gigabit connectivity speeds over the same infrastructure without the disruptive rip-and-replace that happens with traditional copper-based IT networks.”
“Our symmetrical 10 gigabit OLAN solution strategy is that it minimizes the impact on our existing customers and ensures today’s infrastructure is leveraged,”
In the demo, the Alpha Technologies eLimiter+ Class 2 Remote Power Distribution Unit showcases the ability to remotely power 10G ONTs along with today’s PON architectures.
“The eLimiter+ provides users with the ability to avoid costly and cumbersome AC power at the ONT. The Class 2 design meets NEC requirements, increases overall network reliability and lowers the total cost of ownership,” comments Grant Clark, Alpha Technologies’ vice president of product management and development. “It’s exciting to provide part of the infrastructure continuity that enables POL networks to deliver more bandwidth in the future.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arrayed Fiberoptics non-contact MPO and single-fiber optical connectors now available
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/arrayed-fiberoptics-non-contact-mpo-and-single-fiber-optical-connectors-now-available.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_datacom_2018-02-13&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2003310
Arrayed Fiberoptics Corp. says it non-contact MPO (NC-MPO) and single-fiber fiber-optic connectors have achieved off-the-shelf commercial availability. The company says the non-contact technology, a proprietary, patent pending development, provides significantly better performance than conventional alternatives.
The fiber connectors offer a typical insertion loss of 0.06 dB, repeatable to within less than or equal to 0.01 dB. Return loss is greater than or equal to 70 dB (single mode).
The fiber-optic connectors exhibit a lifetime of greater than or equal to 5,000 matings, which Arrayed Fiberoptics asserts is 10X that of traditional MPO connectors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
High-speed digital: 112 is the new 56
https://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4460312/High-speed-digital–112-is-the-new-56?utm_source=Aspencore&utm_medium=EDN&utm_campaign=social
At DesignCon 2018, 112 Gbps was all over the conference and exhibit hall. Even just a year ago, engineers were still talking more about 56 Gbps speeds than 112. This year, all agree that 56 Gbps speeds have been achieved. It’s time to move on.
Test-equipment companies and interconnect companies were demonstrating 112G systems, all using the same ICs from Credo and running four-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM4). The general agreement is that non-return-to zero (NRZ, also called PAM2) has finally reached its limit, as least for longer reaches.
CEI-56G interfaces was approved on December 29, 2017. With that done, OIF is looking toward CEI-112G
Extra Short Reach (XSR): links within a multichip modules (MCM) up to 1 cm, no connectors
Very Short Reach (VSR): a chip-to-module link, 12.5 cm through one connector
Long reach (LR): backplane connections through one or two connectors at 15-25 cm
The chip perspective
“Multichip modules are the new PCBs,” said Brian Holden of Kandou Bus. “ICs have achieved such a complexity that yields can’t keep up. So, it’s better to use smaller chips and have electrical data connections between them.”
Holden acknowledged that traditional NRZ is out of the question at 112 Gbps, but neither did he advocate for PAM4. Instead, Kandou Bus favors CNRZ-5 encoding, which transmits five bits over six wires
Holden claims that CNRZ-5 provides better signal integrity than PAM4. But, CNRZ-5 needs six wires as opposed to PAM4′s two wires. That might not be an issue for MCM communications.
For chip-to-module communications—Very Short Reach —Semtech’s Ed Frlan noted that SFP-DD modules will support CEI-112G-VSR and will use PAM4 with forward error correction (FEC). VSR is unique compared to other reaches because it’s the one that connects to optical modules that will re-time the signals before sending them to the fiber
Another undetermined issue is that of channel impedance, which had been 100 Ω but could drop to 92 Ω or 85 Ω. That will make PCB design even harder. Further, MCM packaging will have to improve at 112 Gbps
The host board produced about 1.32 dB/in. of insertion loss with Megtron-7 PCB material while the module board shows 1.36 dB/in. insertion loss.
OIF is also working to develop a standard for backplane channels
“The test results prove that we’re capable of transmitting 112 Gbps over 10-in. of copper from chips to modules,” he said. Test results show that insertion loss stayed within the industry standard of 30 dB.
Unfortunately, engineers can’t look at signals right at the receiver chip, but rely on indirect means. Reference receivers in test equipment attempt to emulate the characteristics of a receiver
If we know the transfer function between the measurement point and the receiver, then we can indirectly replicate what the receiver sees.
Of course, receiver manufacturers aren’t going to tell a standards body how they optimize their devices. Sekel expects that problem to only get worse. At best, the standard will include a generic reference receiver model.
“We saw the optimization problem in 56G and we expect it to get worse in 112G,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google says more than 40 carriers and device manufacturers now use its platform for RCS, the next generation of SMS
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/more-than-40-carriers-now-support-rcs-the-next-generation-of-sms/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is basically the standard for the next generation of text messaging, with apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LINE and others now offering features that go far beyond the standard SMS-based messaging apps that tend to ship with your phone — unless, of course, you are an Apple and iMessage user.
As Google announced today, more than 40 carriers and device manufacturers now use its RCS platform (out of a total of about 60 that currently support it).
RCS is a GSM standard, but its biggest champion has long been Google, which looks at the service to allow its Android platform to get at least some feature parity with Apple’s iMessage service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner reports first ever global decline in smartphone sales
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/gartner-reports-first-ever-global-decline-in-smartphone-sales/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Global smartphone sales have not been firing on all cylinders for several years now but Gartner’s latest figures record the first ever decline since the analyst began tracking the market all the way back in 2004.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ONE Broadband deploying Nokia’s GPON technology to meet high-speed service and capacity demands
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/one-broadband-deploying-nokia-s-gpon-technology-to-meet-high-speed-service-and-capacity-demands.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_service_providers_2018-02-19&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2008870
Nokia says ONE Broadband, a Hinduja Group company that offers residential and business services in India, is deploying its GPON technology to meet customers increasing demand for high-speed services and capacity. ONE Broadband also will use Nokia’s broadband network gateway (BNG), carrier-grade network address translator, and deep packet inspection capability to help enable the provision of 2-Gbps broadband connections to home users.
ONE Broadband will be able to meet its customers’ ultra-broadband needs regardless of network congestion, as well as be able to upgrade bandwidth for enterprise customers to symmetrical 10 Gbps, says Nokia.
“Growing demand for advanced services, like ultra-high speed broadband, OTT and 4K video transport, has created the necessity for a high-capacity fiber network,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
NBASE-T and 802.11ax to spur WLAN market in tandem: Analyst
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2018/02/delloro-nbase-ax.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-19&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2008194
According to a newly released report by Dell’Oro Group, a market analyst for the telecommunications, networks and data center IT industries, access points with NBASE-T and 802.11ax technology are set to accelerate wireless LAN market sales in 2018. Dell’Oro says the market is poised for revenue growth to outpace unit growth this year, as higher-priced technologies comprise a larger portion of the volume.
“Advances in WiFi technology have contributed to rising average prices per access point in the past,” notes Trent Dell’Oro, business analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “This occurred between 2008 and 2010 – and again in 2013 – during the onset of the 802.11n and 802.11ac transition periods. Similarly, we expect to see upward pressure on revenue when 802.11ax ships in 2018.”
Dell’Oro adds, “If history is an indicator of the price users are willing to pay for the increase in performance, we predict that 802.11ax will see volume in the market if priced within 50 percent of 802.11ac technology.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fluke Networks’ Versiv cabling certification system adds support for Legrand Clarity, Superior Essex PowerWise PoE products
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2018/02/fluke-legrand-se.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-19&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2008194
Fluke Networks announced that its Versiv cabling certification system now supports Legrand’s family of Clarity cords and high density jacks and Superior Essex Communications’ LP PowerWise cabling products. The combined PowerWise and Clarity system is designed to provide superior performance for Power over Ethernet (PoE), including the IEEE 802.3bt draft 3.0 standard.
Per a press release, “This new capability extends Fluke Networks as the only provider of certification products and services in the structured cabling industry with the capability to test and certify all IEEE standards and requirements for 802.3bt PoE installations worldwide.”
“PowerWise + Clarity is the ultimate solution for 4PPoE applications, offering enhanced reliability and energy efficiency,” asserts Gary Hess, VP Innovation, Legrand. “With support built into Fluke Networks Versiv testers, contractors and installers can expand their service offerings immediately. This will be key as the number of PoE installations continues to increase in 2018,” adds Will Byran, vice president, marketing and technology, Superior Essex.
Tomi Engdahl says:
APAC and EMEA hot, North America not for 2017 optical systems sales: Cignal AI
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/apac-and-emea-hot-north-america-not-for-2017-optical-systems-sales-cignal-ai.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2018-02-16&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2007705
Sales strength in Asia and the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) region battled unexpected softness in North America to determine the fate of optical hardware systems vendors in 2017, according to the latest “Optical Hardware Report” from Cignal AI. The former won out, as optical network systems sales tallied just over $13 billion in 2017, up 3% from 2016.
“One of the biggest surprises in 2017 was massive spending growth in China. Despite slumping purchases from component manufacturers, Chinese optical vendors Huawei and ZTE reported record levels of revenue. A strong component sales rebound should be expected if this divergence was a result of excess inventory,” said Andrew Schmitt, lead analyst for Cignal AI.
Tomi Engdahl says:
European FTTH/FTTB subscriber numbers jump 20.4%: IDATE
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/european-ftth-fttb-subscriber-numbers-jump-20-4-idate.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2018-02-23&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2014579
IDATE, working with the FTTH Council Europe at the latter’s FTTH Conference 2018 in Valencia, Spain, last week, reported that the number of subscribers in Europe served via fiber to the home/fiber to the building (FTTH/FTTB) networks increased 20.4% between September 2016 and September 2017. The increase in subscribers came as take rates on the continent among EU39 countries grew from 29.2% to 34.8% over the same time period.
The number of homes passed among the EU39 countries also expanded, to more than 148 million. The figure represents a 16% climb over the study period.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Post Luxembourg deploying Nokia’s Gfast technology to improve broadband speeds
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/post-luxembourg-deploying-nokia-s-gfast-technology-to-improve-broadband-speeds.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_datacom_2018-02-20&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2010319
Nokia says Post Luxembourg is deploying its Gfast technology to offer improved broadband speeds to residents in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Post Luxembourg is deploying the Gfast technology in apartment buildings as part of its continual fiber roll-out across the country.
Approximately 60% of homes in the Grand Duchy currently have gigabit fiber-optic network access. Fiber networks are not as accessible to residents in multi-dwelling units (MDU) however, with a complete rewiring of the premises necessary to bring fiber into an apartment.
Nokia’s Gfast utilizes built-in vectoring technology to decrease cross-talk interference that often effects data speeds over copper networks.
“The Gfast technology today makes sense for us in buildings where it is difficult or impossible to modernize the internal cabling of the building,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Malfunctioning Ethernet cable comes up short
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4460334/Malfunctioning-Ethernet-cable-comes-up-short
Ethernet cable is supposed to consist of four twisted-pair bundles, intended to cancel out EMI from external sources (including other twisted pairs), but there’s no twisted-pair bundles here, only discrete wires! More critically, Ethernet cable is supposed to consist of eight total wires, but there are only seven in this case! Clearly, this is not the “4Pairs” claimed on the plastic sheat
Fortunately, the cable isn’t completely unusable. 10/100 Mbit Ethernet only employs four (i.e. two twisted pair) of the eight wires that are supposed to exist, and the specific four it uses are indeed present in this otherwise flawed cable. This explains, I think, why I didn’t immediately notice the problem.
Shoddy workmanship like this is sad and frustrating. It leaves consumers angry with both the product supplier and retailer, along with cultivating longstanding negative impressions of both technology in general and engineers in particular. And all this for how much money saved … a few pennies, which will be more than eaten up in returns? C’mon, folks. We can do better.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NeoPhotonics shipping 64-GBaud coherent optical components for 600-Gbps, 1.2-Tbps designs
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/neophotonics-shipping-64-gbaud-coherent-optical-components-for-600-gbps-1-2-tbps-designs.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2018-02-22&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2013627
Ahead of next month’s OFC 2018 in San Diego, NeoPhotonics Corp. (NYSE: NPTN) says it has begun to ship a range of 64-GBaud optical components to multiple customers. The components – which include a 64-GBaud coherent driver modulator (CDM), a 64-GBaud coherent intradyne receiver, and an ultra-narrow linewidth tunable laser – are intended for use in designs aimed at 600-Gbps and 1.2 Tbps applications.
NeoPhotonics sees the components as useful to support single-channel 600G or dual-channel 1.2T requirements in data center interconnect (DCI) links at up to 80 km. The components also can be used in 400G metro applications of 400-600 km using 16-QAM modulation as well as to support 200G long-haul links greater than 1000 km when paired with QPSK modulation. All three components are compact enough to fit in CFP2 pluggable optical transceivers and compact daughter cards
Tomi Engdahl says:
Progress report: Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1Progress report: Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2018/02/progress-report-full-duplex-docsis-3-1.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2018-02-22&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24
CableLabs announced last month that Full Duplex (FDX) DOCSIS 3.1 now has MAC layer functionality, which will support FDX operation on the hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) link. It is focused on MAC management messaging and operation needed to enable FDX between the CMTS and cable modem.
“(Essentially) the MAC layer is how to get multiple users access to a single piece of medium at a time,” said Karthik Sundaresan, principal architect, CableLabs.
The CMTS is full duplex and can listen and talk at the same frequency and channel at the same time thanks, in part, to echo cancellation. On the cable modem side, it is full duplex with respect to the fact that there are multiple options for the width of a channel. There typically are three sub-bands that can be designated as either upstream or downstream. The echo cancellation here refers to making sure there is no interference between channels.
There already has been one interop event this month to begin testing components of FDX functionality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A state-run 5G wireless network isn’t a crazy idea: Engadget
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/02/a-state-run-5g-wireless-network-isn-t-a-crazy-idea-engadget.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-22&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2012439
America’s mobile infrastructure isn’t good enough, at least according to former National Security Council officer Brigadier General Robert Spalding. Spalding’s briefing document said the US was lagging behind China in wireless, and the solution was to build its own federal 5G network.
A state-run wireless network isn’t a crazy idea, just ask Mexico
Countries are testing out national wireless networks, even if the US isn’t.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/08/state-run-wireless-network-mexico-australia/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Artificial intelligence could hunt for slow zones in overcrowded wireless networks: Researchers
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/02/artificial-intelligence-could-hunt-for-slow-zones-in-overcrowded-wireless-networks-researchers.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-22&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2012439
Using artificial intelligence to hunt for slow zones in overcrowded networks
http://augustafreepress.com/using-artificial-intelligence-hunt-slow-zones-overcrowded-networks/
We’re all connected — and not just in a yogic sense. By 2022, there will be 29 billion connected devices across the globe, according to a forecast from the June 2017 Ericsson mobility report. All of these devices will want a piece of the radio spectrum — the cluster of frequencies used by television, radio, and wireless signals — which will overcrowd radio bands.
Researchers like Lingjia Liu and Yang (Cindy) Yi, associate and assistant professors, respectively, in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, are approaching the spectrum scarcity problem from various angles.
From techniques to tap unoccupied channels and improve spectrum efficiency to establishing protocols for sharing previously restricted bands, Liu, Yi, and their collaborators are exploring new ways to meet the skyrocketing demand. Liu is currently leading three projects totaling more than $2 million in funding.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will my existing cable plant support 2.5/5GBASE-T?
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2018/02/fluke-mullins-blog.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-22&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2012439
– Driven by the NBASE-T Alliance and compatible with the NBASE-T specification, IEEE 802.3bz specifies 2.5 Gbps over 100 meters of Category 5e cabling or 5 Gbps over 100 meters of Category 6 cabling. It also includes support for 5 Gbps over Category 5e on defined use cases (extended frequencies).
2.5/5GBASE-T was primarily introduced to support 802.11ac Wi-Fi devices over the installed base of Category 5e and 6, and now that active equipment is out in the marketplace, many enterprise businesses are looking to deploy this technology and reap the benefits of faster Wi-Fi without a cabling upgrade.
But not all cabling plants are created equal, and moves, adds and changes over the years can cause physical damage that can impact performance. It’s smart to know if your existing cable plant will support 2.5/5GBASE-T before you invest in the equipment.
About 80% of the installed base of cabling infrastructures in enterprise LANs consists of Category 5e that operates at 100 MHz or Category 6 cabling that operates at 250 MHz—both of which are typically able to support up to 1000 Mbps.
Extending the life of Category 5e and 6 cabling by enabling support for Wave 2 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the 802.3bz standards is based on 10GBASE-T but reduces the signaling rate to half (for 5GBASE-T) and to a quarter (for 2.5GBASE-T)
While alien crosstalk is a limiting factor in 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T applications, Category 5e and Category 6 cabling do not include alien crosstalk specifications.
It’s well known that longer, tighter cable bundles exhibit more alien crosstalk, and assessment can be made to determine which channels may be at risk. This assessment can be done by reviewing cabling documentation, previous test results and visual inspections.
While most enterprise customers with cabling plants that have been previously certified will likely have little problem supporting 2.5 and 5GBASE-T, testing is really the only way to truly know if your links will work properly. Thankfully, the Fluke Networks’ DSX series of testers includes an option for 2.5 and 5GBASE-T testing—and it can be done in less than ten seconds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Testing parallel optics
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-26/issue-1/special-reports/high-speed-migration/testing-parallel-optics.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-22&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2012439
Testing and cleaning parallel optics can present challenges, but port density and a solid high speed migration path make the effort worthwhile.
Parallel optics accommodate higher data rates and support network migration. Much of the technology to support parallel optics is not new; ribbon fiber and MPO (multifiber push-on/pull-off) connectors have been in use for more than a decade. But the way we are using them has changed. As we get into higher speeds, MPO use is no longer confined to a backbone solution; it is extending into servers and switches, primarily through QSFP ports.
1-Gbit and 10-Gbit connectivity are typically achieved in today’s networks.
Migrating to 40G and 100G
The architectures just described facilitate a migration path from 1/10G to 40/100G, as they use an MPO backbone.
The first step in such a migration is to change one end to connect to equipment (typically a switch) by connecting an MPO equipment cord to a Quad Small Form Factor (QSFP) port. This eliminates the cassette and duplex cords shown in Scenario 1, and the harness shown in Scenario 2.
The optics in the figure are MPO-connected SR4 optics—40GBase-SR4 or 100GBase-SR4. SR stands for short range, and 4 means there are 4 lanes. The lanes are either 10G each (for 40G) or 25G each (for 100G). Each lane is a duplex lane with a fiber for transmit and another fiber for receive. Note that even though it’s a 12-fiber MPO, this setup uses only 8 of the fibers; 4 to transmit and 4 to receive.
Why do these systems use multiple lanes? The goal is to achieve a 40G or 100G connection end-to-end, but it is prohibitively expensive to design optics that can turn on and off 40 billion or 100 billion times per second.
A better solution is to have 4 lasers operating at 10G or 25G, use individual fibers (or wavelengths) and combine them in the optics at the other end. This is like what is done in 1000Base-T, using four pairs of copper and breaking the signal down to 250 Mbits/sec per pair.
Standards
Although MPO connectors have been in use for a long time, existing testing standards don’t address MPO-specific test concerns, as they are aimed at testing single or duplex fiber terminated with single fiber ferrule connectors. Those standards are difficult to apply to the testing of ribbon fiber with MPO connectors. In response to the need for standards more applicable to MPO connectors, IEC SC 86C WG1 has released a technical report—IEC 61282-15/TR—on testing multi-fiber-optic cable plant terminated with MPO connectors. We anticipate there will be strong harmonization between the ISO/IEC standards and the TIA standards, which will provide a consistent approach to MPO testing no matter where you are in the world.
As mentioned earlier, a 12-fiber MPO connector is about the same size as a duplex LC connector, but that’s where the similarities end.
In addition to gender, MPO cables have specific polarities. Polarity defines how the individual fibers are connected. Polarity is critical as transmitters need to be connected to receivers and vice versa.
MPO connectors and adapters have keys. These keys are critical to defining the end-to-end polarity of an MPO system.
The TIA-568.3 standard provides three methods to configure systems to ensure that proper connections are made.
Inspect, clean, inspect
Before you connect MPO connectors, it is essential that all the fiber endfaces and the ferrule are clean—really clean. Lining up 12 or 24 fibers requires tremendous precision, especially when you consider that a singlemode fiber has a core only 9 microns in diameter. If there is any dirt in the mix on one of your fiber endfaces or on the ferrule, when you make the connection that piece of dirt will shatter and move all over the connector. The dirt creates air gaps that can prevent light from traveling down some of the fibers and will create back reflections and insertion loss on any fiber that’s affected.
Viavi recommends the “Inspect Before You Connect” approach, a practice that is consistent with IEC standards.
The concept is simple: First inspect all the fiber endfaces. If the endface is not dirty, you’re good to go. If there’s any contamination, you clean it. Then you inspect it again. Always re-inspect because it’s the only way to know if your cleaning process was effective. Never connect until the fiber endface is clean. Never clean first; there’s no point in cleaning something that is already clean because you don’t want to touch that fiber endface more than necessary.
To ensure that the system is free of contamination, both sides of every connection must be clean. Patch cords are easy to access and view compared to the fiber inside the bulkhead, which is frequently overlooked. That’s typically because the installer doesn’t have the right tool, but it’s a mistake to skip it. The bulkhead side may only be half of the connection, but it is far more likely to be dirty and problematic.
Conventional OTDRs show individual events but do not identify whether the event is in the front or the back of the connector. High-resolution OTDRs are available that can distinguish between the front and back connectors of a cassette. They won’t necessarily give you a 100-percent indication of loss between the front and the back connector but will show you the two separate events with the loss difference between them
Tomi Engdahl says:
Considerations in outside fiber-optic cable design
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-26/issue-1/features/network-cable/considerations-in-outside-fiber-optic-cable-design.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-22&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2012439
Loose tube, ribbon, and micro loose tube cables are all options for outside-plant fiber cabling
Since the development of fiber optic cable in the mid-1970s, there has been a steady stream of innovations in manufacturing, materials, and network systems which have advanced the design and capabilities of outside cables including loose tube, ribbon, and micro loose tube cables.
The cable that started the fiber optic revolution in the 1970s was the loose tube configuration, which isolated the optical fiber from the strains of installation by enclosing everything within fairly rigid protective sleeves or tubes. This design is still widely used today in harsh outdoor environments around the globe.
The 1990s saw the emergence of ribbon cable designs. This cable allowed for higher fiber counts and offered a time and cost savings realized from using mass fusion splicing to speed up network restoration and increase project turnover.
In the early 2000s, micro loose tube cables were first developed in Europe as an innovative approach to installing an optical network in a congested duct environment. These miniaturized stranded loose tube cables, with increased fiber counts per cross-sectional areas, could be installed with less cost and disruption than a rip-and-replace solution.
Typically, customer segments have standardized on one major cable type for their network or environment. However, as networks grow more complex and bandwidth demands increase, it’s becoming more common for multiple cable families to be used in the same network.
Generally speaking, if your system is greater than 100 km in length, low-loss fibers are worth evaluating for overall system cost savings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Networking Career: Taking the Road Less Traveled
https://www.networkcomputing.com/networking/networking-career-taking-road-less-traveled/1937778204
The traditional certification route for NetOps is giving way to automation and coding skills.
The traditional NetOps career path is the well-trod trail of certified network engineer. It’s a safe path that will get you to the end of your career without bumps along the way. You’ve got critical business and operational networking knowledge at your fingertips; you are what is known as an essential employee. There aren’t enough of you to go around, after all, so if you choose to continue down the well-traveled path, it’s not a bad way to go.
The other branch is, in the words of the great poet Robert Frost, “less traveled by.” It’s the one just starting to emerge as networking pros put down their CLIs and took up APIs in their stead. It’s the path that leads to automation, process optimization, and the ability to scale operations to volumes previously unachievable by manually-driven network operations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
On-Board Optics and CFP2 Transceiver Solution for 5G and DCI Applications
https://www.eeweb.com/profile/eeweb/news/on-board-optics-and-cfp2-transceiver-solution-for-5g-and-dci-applications
Ranovus Inc. announced the general availability of their 200G On-Board Optics and CFP2 optical transceiver solutions for 5G mobility and data center interconnect (DCI) applications. Ranovus’ product portfolio is based on the company’s innovation in delivering a multi-wavelength Quantum Dot Laser (QDL), Ring Resonator based Silicon Photonic (SiP) modulators, Driver ICs as well as Receiver building blocks. Ranovus’ products are now in lab trials with multiple optical networking equipment vendors for 5G mobility and cloud infrastructure markets.
“Our demonstration will feature transmission of 400Gb/s in an FSP 3000 CloudConnect™ terminal and over 80km of standard single mode fiber utilizing our open line system,” said Christoph Glingener, CTO/COO at ADVA. “In partnership with Ranovus, we have made impressive progress to validate direct detect technology as an effective way for data center operators to lower their cost per bit and improve energy efficiency.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nearly 3 million premises passed with Gfast networks as of early 2018: Point Topic
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/nearly-3-million-premises-passed-with-gfast-networks-as-of-early-2018-point-topic.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_service_providers_2018-02-26&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2016102
Approximately 3 million premises have been passed with Gfast networks as of early 2018, according to broadband analyst firm Point Topic’s estimations. The firm also estimates that about 29,000 households, the majority of which are in Southeast Asia, subscribe to the services.
Based on Point Topic’s research on the latest Gfast developments worldwide, 33 telecom operators and ISPs have deployed Gfast or plan to roll out this technology in the near future. Having conducted lab and some field trials, 14 service providers are at the trials stage, while 13 other companies are deploying Gfast on their networks. Commercial launches for these companies are expected over the next year or two. Among global operators, six have live Gfast services, offering maximum download speeds from 300 Mbps to 500 Mbps, says the analyst firm.
Since Gfast can be deployed with less necessary upgrades to the existing networks, several operators consider Gfast a more efficient option than fiber to the home (FTTH) and other superfast broadband approaches. Many operators regard Gfast as a convenient, temporary solution for deploying high-speed broadband to MDUs, reports Point Topic. Telekom Austria, BT, Swisscom, NBN, and other operators are currently trialing the next generation Gfast, with the potential of speeds up to 11 Gbps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EXFO combines NFV service assurance with ADVA’s Ensemble open virtualization suite to harness managed SD-WAN service potential
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/02/exfo-combines-nfv-service-assurance-with-adva-s-ensemble-open-virtualization-suite-to-harness-managed-sd-wan-service-potential.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_service_providers_2018-02-26&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2016102
EXFO Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO) (TSX: EXF) said it is combining its network functions virtualization (NFV) service assurance capabilities with ADVA Optical Networking’s Ensemble open virtualization suite to offer communications service providers and their customers the control, visibility, and flexibility needed to harness the potential of managed software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) services.
An open enterprise WAN service that is fully managed, SD-WAN is higher quality and lower cost than appliance-based services, the company asserts. EXFO says that the fully integrated and automated platform it can create with ADVA will meet SD-WAN management demands by combining SD-WAN orchestration and orchestrated service assurance.
“Managed SD-WAN represents a tremendous growth opportunity for communications service providers looking to transform their network from physical to virtual and to drive new revenue,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 trends we spotted at BICSI Winter 2018: Great Lakes
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2018/02/greatlakes-bicsi-trends.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-26&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2015464
Here are four trends that stood out to us in particular:
Industrial Boxes. We saw a lot of these products showcased by various vendors. The boxes can be used in indoor or outdoor environments, depending on the NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) rating and what the equipment in the box can be protected against (falling dirt, water, rain, snow, sleet, corrosive materials, etc.).
Fiber cabling and accessories. While fiber has been around for many years, it has become increasingly popular and more widespread because the cost of fiber installation and equipment has become more affordable.
Power Over Ethernet (PoE). Also a prominent trend seen at BICSI, PoE is the standard for sending data and power over Ethernet cable to low wattage devices such as network cameras, wireless access points, VoIP phones, etc. PoE gives you the ability to power devices in remote, hard to reach, and non-powered locations, with many of these locations being industrial/manufacturing environments (often used with NEMA boxes), as well as the data center environment. This trend is so important because entire systems can move to a PoE system to increase operational efficiency
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM). A high-level priority of data center managers right now is to increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs. As a result, DCIM tools are used to monitor and manage data center utilization and energy consumption of IT equipment and facility infrastructure components. Implementation of DCIM requires intelligent PDUs installed in the enclosure, environmental monitoring sensors that are normally installed on front and rear enclosure doors, as well as rack mount hardware to support the infrastructure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Transition Networks integrates managed PoE+ switches with Milestone Systems’ XProtect VMS
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2018/02/transition-milestone-integrate.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-26&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2015464
Transition Networks announced that it has partnered with Milestone Systems, a provider of open platform video management software (VMS), to integrate its Smart Managed PoE+ Switches with Device Management System (DMS) software into the Milestone Systems XProtect VMS platform.
According to the companies, “Through this integration, XProtect VMS security integrators and end users will have improved control and better management of security cameras and other connected devices. Users will be able to access management and diagnostic capabilities through the Milestone XProtect VMS for all devices connected to the Smart Managed PoE+ Switches.”
Transition Networks’ Smart Managed PoE+ Switches provide Layer 2 PoE+ connectivity that power devices including IP cameras, wireless access points, and VoIP phones. The built-in DMS capability provides time-saving installation features that enable security integrators or network administrators to establish and document a baseline deployment, and automatically discover and remotely configure attached IP-addressable powered devices (PDs).
DMS also features Auto Power Reset (APR) to monitor and automatically restart edge devices, saving on truck rolls to remote locations for simple rebooting of the attached PDs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s fastest CMOS optical transmitter
IBM’s researcher says they have implemented a CMOS-based optical transceiver, even the world’s fastest both in data transmission and in launching the broadcast. The transmitter’s power consumption is also record low, researchers praise.
The component has been developed as part of the EU ADDAPT research project. At IBM’s Zürich Research Institute, the receiver uses four optical fibers to transmit data at 160 gigabytes per second.
According to IBM, a 850nm photodiode-based transmitter is intended for affordable VCSEL-based optical connections. Of course, the main application can be found in data centers.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/7620-maailman-nopein-optinen-lahetin
Tomi Engdahl says:
MWC2018: Nokia brings wifi and 5G to homes
In addition to the 5G network, Nokia also believes that wireless wifi networks are needed. The company introduced its wifi router, which was acquired yesterday by the United States Unium. CEO Rajeev Suri echoed the new Wi-Fi technology in his speech, following the heaviest series of 5G technologies in homes.
Nokia introduces new wireless mesh-based wifi routers in Barcelona today’s Mobile World event. The current version does not yet have a 5G network connection. However, that is like the 5G-Wifi router, which is presented at the Chinese Huawei show. Huawei said it will bring its own product in 2019.
The Huawei 3GPP 5G router supports Wif as well as the latest 3GPP 5G network standard. The router utilizes Huawu’s own Balong 5G01 chipset and offers download rates up to 2 gigabytes. The previews were used a few weeks ago in Finland’s Elisa 5G experiments.
Nokia plans to bring a number of wireless wifi products to maximize home wireless wifi performance and simplify network management.
Source: https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2018/02/26/mwc2018-nokia-tuo-wifin-5gn-avuksi-koteihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 Key Elements of LEO and GEO Space Satellites
http://www.mwrf.com/blog/7-key-elements-leo-and-geo-space-satellites?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20180220_MWRF-001_239&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=15435&utm_medium=email&elq2=99dc979739a04b0087e46caa5c3f578c
Innovations in the small satellite industry have been increasing at a tremendous rate in recent years. This growth can be attributed to exponential increases in technology and the demand for broadband connectivity in remote locations all around the world. Low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary (GEO) satellites are big players in this skyrocketing industry, and the future for both is looking bright.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia 1.3 gigabit with spectrum sharing
LAA or Licensed Assisted Access is part of the 3GPP LTE configuration. It can be used to link both the licensed frequencies of the operator and freely available frequencies. Nokia and T-Mobile have now demonstrated high-speed LAA connections.
At T-Mobile Laboratory, Bellevue, Washington, used Airscale base station equipment already supplied by 14-antenna radios in Nokia. When five carriers were connected to the same link, the 4×4 MIMO connection and 256 QAM modulation enabled data to move at the top speed of 1.3 gigabytes.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7610&via=n&datum=2018-02-23_15:57:15&mottagare=31202
Tomi Engdahl says:
The wireless connection of the future runs in teraherts
In a collaboration project of several Australian universities, teraherts were studied, which would produce higher bandwidth for data transfer. In addition, teraherting radiation produces a more centralized signal that can improve the efficiency of communication stations and reduce the power consumption of mobile devices.
“In my opinion, switching to terahertz frequencies is the future of wireless communications,” says research paper author Shaghik Atakaramians. However, scientists have not been able to develop the terahertes magnetic source, which is an indispensable step to utilizing the magnetic nature of light with teraherts.
- Creating magnetic sources of Teraherts opens new directions for us. Magnetic sources of teraherts could help in the development of micro and nanotubes, Atakaramians said.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7608&via=n&datum=2018-02-23_15:57:15&mottagare=31202
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s fastest wireless broadband
Netgear has announced the sale of the Nighthawk M1 broadband router in the Nordic countries. This is a 4G router launched last year, which first supports gigabit LTE speeds. Now it is now released without SIM lock, which will support the majority of world telecom operators and their data connections.
Netgear introduces the router at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. If the operator has enough frequencies, the routers will be able to receive up to four carriers simultaneously with 4×4 MIMO technology. This allows the maximum data rate of one gigabit LTE class 16 to be reached. The network router supports a 150 megabit connection.
In Finland, the Nighthawk M1 router is sold at a price of 349 euros, so it settles at the top of the broadband roamer price
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/7627-maailman-nopein-langaton-laajakaista
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Source Networking and a Vision of Fully Automated Networks
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/open-source-networking-vision-fully-automated-networks/
At the recent Open Source Summit event in Europe, Arpit Joshipura, Networking General Manager at The Linux Foundation, discussed his vision of open source networks and how they are being driven by full automation.
“Networking is cool again,” he said, opening his keynote address with observations on software-defined networks, virtualization, and more.
“In a 5G world, it is mandatory that we automate services,” he said. “You can’t have an IoT device sitting on the phone and waiting for a service.” In order to automate network services, Joshipura foresees data rates increasing by 100x over the next several years, bandwidth increasing by 10x, and latencies decreasing to one-fifth of what we tolerate now.
The Linux Foundation hosts several open source projects that are key to driving networking automation. For example, Joshipura noted EdgeX Foundry and its work on IoT automation, and Cloud Foundry’s work with cloud-native applications and platforms. He also pointed to broad classes of open source networking tools driving automation
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia’s top 5G contract to the United States
Nokia says it has signed an agreement with T-Mobile for the construction of a multi-frequency 5G network across the United States. An Airscale base station solution is implemented in both 600 megahertz and 28 gigahertz bands.
Nokia will start building the network already in the spring. The land cover network will be available during the year 2020. Already this year, T-Mobile will begin offering its 5G subscribers to both of their frequency bands.
The networks built by Nokia are in line with the 5G NR standard adopted by 3GPP at the end of last year. As a device, they use Airscale base stations utilizing a new ReefShark chipset developed at the Bell Labs Research Center.
Compared to the current radioskeepers, ReefShark cuts up to 64% of power consumption.
The chip sets can be planted directly on Nokian Airscale baseband servers. As a result, the data transmission capacity of one module is growing at just 28 gigabits per second at no less than 84 gigabits per second. The operator receives data transferred through one Airscale base station module up to 6 terabytes per second after the update.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7633&via=n&datum=2018-02-28_14:22:22&mottagare=31202
Tomi Engdahl says:
400G Ethernet Testing
Industry’s Most Advanced Layer 1-2 Performance and Functional Testing Solution
https://www.spirent.com/Products/TestCenter/Boost/400G
Put 400G to the test
400G network devices will help address the expanding demands for network link speeds expected to exceed 1 Tb/s. Testing is the fundamental building block to delivering reliable, high-performing systems and starts with validating the link’s ability to pass up to line rate traffic as well as testing the functionality, performance, scalability and QoE of the upper-layer engines that deliver services.
400G Test Solution
Spirent’s 400GbE platform is designed to address today’s IEEE and MSA standards as they evolve. Spirent is committed to addressing these standards’ requirements to help protect your present and future investments.
Spirent, China Telecom, Huawei Collaborate to Verify 400GbE
Spirent, China Telecom, Huawei Collaborate to Verify 400GbE. Tests included the verification of 400GbE port functions such as line-speed forwarding, multi-service stacking, and fault reporting for medium and long-range technologies using Spirent TestCenter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brian Fung / Washington Post:
Inside the informal coalition of tech companies, experts, industry groups, and more who meet weekly in Washington to discuss protecting net neutrality rules
Inside the huge, low-profile alliance fighting to save the FCC’s net neutrality rules
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/02/28/the-unusual-alliance-fighting-to-save-net-neutrality-in-congress/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CS Optical Connector
http://www.qsfp-dd.com/cs-optical-connector/
http://www.qsfp-dd.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CS-Connector-Specification-Rev-1.0-TN-Final-2.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
CS Connector – The Next Generation of Data Centre Connectivity by Senko
http://opticalconnectionsnews.com/2017/06/cs-connector-next-generation-data-centre-connectivity-senko/
Senko’s new CS connector is specifically designed for Data Centre 400G optimization. Intended to complement the form factor of the next generation of (OSFP/ QSFP-DD) transceiver modules, the CS connector meets the requirement for 2x100G/200G CWDM4 transceivers requiring two pairs of TX/RX. Customer benefits include:
• 35 % reduction in size. Pitch is reduced to 3.8mm from LC standard of 6.25 mm resulting in 1.8 times higher patch panel density.
• No fan-out required and easy breakout.
• Meets TOSA/ROSA specifications.
• Uses tried and trusted LC standard size 1.25m ferrule.
http://www.senko.com/literature/CS-Connector.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zen And The Art Of Network Timestamping
https://semiengineering.com/zen-and-the-art-of-network-timestamping/
A look at the applications that use timestamps and the challenges involved in implementing them.
Timestamps are employed in network devices for various purposes – measuring network delays and performance monitoring being among the most common of these. In addition, timestamps are attached to packets for sampling and analysis purposes. Timestamps are also used in logs and reports to record the time of occurrence for events. In the last few years network timestamping has seen greater uptake. This has been driven by the emergence of more accurate time synchronization technology, along with the introduction of the IEEE 1588 synchronization protocol.
This white paper briefly discusses some of the major applications that require network timestamping. It will look at the challenges of implementing network timestamping and what needs to be done to overcome these. Then it will introduce Marvell’s generic and flexible approach to network timestamping and the benefits that this will have as timestamping continues to develop as an art form.
WHITE PAPER
Zen and the Art of Network Timestamping
http://www.marvell.com/documents/7a47sa82moydu7z8uvam/
What Does a Timestamp Look Like
?
Timestamps are used in network p
rotocols in two main forms:
a.
Text
-based timestamps
[2]
, [3]
– These are a human
-friendly representation of the time
-
of-day. For example:
2017-
07-
26T00:00:00Z
Text
-based timestamps are widely used in MIBs, YANG models, and in various JSON or
XML based information models.
b.
Packet timestamps
[4]
– These are generally represented in a more compact way than
text
-based timestamps. Furthermore, they have a fixed length, as they are intended to be
used in packet header formats. Two examples of common packet timestamp formats are
the Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp
[5]
and the Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
timestamp format [1]
.
How
are
Timestamp
s Used?
A timestamp is typically used by a network device in one of two ways:
a.
In-band timestamping
–
It is often necessary for network devices to incorporate
timestamps in packets, as some network protocols require timestamps to be inserted into
en-route packets.
b.
Timestamp logging
– Timestamps can be used for monitoring events or in logs. In such
cases a network device will store the timestamp that
corresponds to a specific packet or
event, along with other information that is relevant to that packet or event.
The Need for
In-band
Timestamping
In-band timestamps are proving themselves to be of benefit in various network applications and
network protocols. For example, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) congestion control
relies heavily on the ability to measure the round
-trip
-time [6]
via timestamps. Numerous
performance monitoring protocols [7]
, [8]
use timestamped packets for measuring the network
delay.
Another interesting application of timestamps is in
-band telemetry
[9]
.
Conventional thinking says that a timestamping mech
anism must be very lightweight and
efficient, as it is implemented by hardware logic that must be as close to the wire as possible.
Consequently, this paradigm implies that timestamping logic is typically fixed and customized to
a specific protocol and tim
estamp format.
Marvell, using its innovative Prestera
Ethernet switch technology
Each packet has an ingress timestamp attached to it (denoted by ‘1’ in the figure)
and
this timestamp value can be used in the packet processing
(‘2’ in the figure)
. If necessary, the
packet’s egress timestamp is measured
(‘3’ in the figure)
.
Optionally, the timestamp can be inserted into t
he packet.
Both the ingress and egress
timestamping operations are performed to a high level of accuracy since the timestamp is
sampled as close as possible to the device’s interface
Accurate PTP
-synchronized
Clock
Timestamping is performed using the pac
ket processor’s internal hardware timer. This timer can
be synchronized to an accurate network grandmaster using PTP, allowing highly accurate
network-
wide timestamping.
Smart Packet Processing using TimeFlips
Since a timestamp is internally attached to every packet, the device can take time-
based
decisions using TimeFlip. Moreover, TimeFlip can be applied either on an in-
band timestamp
that resides in the packet header, if one is present, or on the internal timestamp, without any
overhead on the packet header.
Marvell’s more generic timestamping approach enables
the use of multiple timestamp formats, such as the PTP timestamp format [1]
, the NTP
timestamp format [2]
and others. In order to allow timestamping over a UDP transport, Marvell’s
timestamping mechanism also permits the UDP Checksum Complement to be updated, thereby
making on-the-fly checksum correction possible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Moon Might Get Its Own 4G Network In 2019
http://www.iflscience.com/space/the-moon-might-get-its-own-4g-network-in-2019/
German scientists are hoping to set up a 4G network on the Moon, to support the arrival of two lunar rovers planned for next year.
Vodafone Germany announced in a statement yesterday that it planned to support a private mission from a German team known as the Part-Time Scientists (PTScientists), with help from Nokia Bell Labs. They are planning to send a rover to the Moon as early as next year on a launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Teaming up with Audi, the team has designed two “lunar Quattro” rovers to explore the Moon. The plan is to land these near NASA’s Apollo 17 landing site, drive up to it, and return images and HD video to Earth.
To communicate with each other, and to send data back to Earth (including a live video stream), Vodafone and Nokia will develop an Ultra Compact Network to accompany the mission. Weighing less than 1 kilogram (35 ounces), it will broadcast 4G using the 1800 MHz frequency band.
https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/nokia-rakentaa-4g-verkon-kuuhun-6703968?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=TV_AE_NA_03&utm_content=Ad+-+Post%3A+%2FTivi%2Fposts%2F10155313087522267
Tomi Engdahl says:
MultiPhy aims 100G single-wavelength PAM4 DSP at 5G cloud RAN applications
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/03/multiphy-aims-100g-single-wavelength-pam4-dsp-at-5g-cloud-ran-applications.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2018-03-01&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2020665
MultiPhy Ltd. used Mobile World Congress this week to unveil the MPF3101-SRW, a 100G single-wavelength PAM4 DSP device aimed at 5G cloud radio access network (RAN) applications. The programmable device also supports 25G and 50G transmission rates, making it applicable in a variety of applications, including those where network upgrades are anticipated.
The MPF3101-SRW leverages advanced DSP and mixed-signal technologies which, when combined with PAM4 modulation, enable increased data rates as well as lower power consumption and cost, MultiPhy says. The device will operate in extended temperature range applications and is designed to support QSFP28 form factors. It also supports Option 10 of the CPRI standard.
The company would appear to have at least one customer for the device. “5G wireless deployments present a strong potential opportunity for the entire optical industry,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oclaro sampling 400G, 600G InP 64 GBaud optical components
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/03/oclaro-sampling-400g-600g-inp-64-gbaud-optical-components.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2018-03-01&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2020665
Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLR) says it has begun sampling a range of 64-GBaud optical components suitable for applications that require 400- or 600-Gbps optical transmission. The portfolio includes a 64-GBaud micro-intradyne coherent receiver (micro-ICR), a 64-GBaud integrated coherent transmitter (ICT), a 64-GBaud high-bandwidth co-packaged driver modulator (HB-CDM), as well as a high-bandwidth LiNbO3 polarization-multiplexed quadrature Mach-Zehnder (PM-QMZ) modulator and a 100-kHz micro-integrated tunable laser assembly (micro-ITLA).
Tomi Engdahl says:
ProLabs showcasing EON-121 100G transponder line at OFC 2018
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/03/prolabs-showcasing-eon-121-100g-transponder-line-at-ofc-2018.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2018-03-01&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2020665
ProLabs said it will introduce a line of 100G transponders at OFC 2018 in San Diego, March 13-15. The ProLabs EON-121 transponder product line is smaller than comparable offerings and features the lowest power consumption for a 100G transponder, the company attests.
The transponder’s compact form reduces associated rack space costs in data centers. OFC 2018 attendees can learn more about ProLabs technology
Tomi Engdahl says:
II-VI to showcase ultra-low profile wide-band tunable optical filters at OFC 2018
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/03/ii-vi-to-showcase-ultra-low-profile-wide-band-tunable-optical-filters-at-ofc-2018.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2018-03-01&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2020665
II-VI Inc. (NASDAQ:IIVI) said it has launched ultra-low profile wide band tunable optical filters for next-generation pluggable coherent optics, which it will showcase along with other new products enabling next-generation optical networks at OFC 2018 in San Diego, March 13-15.
According to II-VI, its ultra-low profile etalon-based tunable optical filter (mini-ETOF) features a 90-GHz passband to enhance the signal fidelity and extend reach by filtering the optical noise generated at the transmitter. The mini-ETOF is designed to be embedded in CFP4, OSFP, and other transceivers with highly compact form factors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Things to watch at MWC: WiFi, 5G
http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2018/02/things-to-watch-at-mwc-wifi-5g.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2018-02-27&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24
Heading into Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, CableLabs was excited about the draft publication of the WiFi Multi Access Point (AP) specification by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It deals with the control protocol and other data elements that will enable access points to communicate via a common language.
With operators pushing higher speed tiers of Internet service up to 1 Gbps and beyond, customers want to be able to utilize these speeds throughout the home on all devices. WiFi, with its current single AP setup, is not adequate in many situations to meet these demands. While customers have been working out multiple AP situations on their own or even through an operator, these solutions are vendor-specific and use their own system of communication.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 10 global ribbon fiber-optic cable suppliers identified
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/02/top-10-global-ribbon-fiber-optic-cable-suppliers-identified.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-27&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2016809
Tomi Engdahl says:
Migration from 40G to 100G
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-26/issue-1/special-reports/high-speed-migration/migration-from-40g-to-100g.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-02-27&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=2016809
Comparing cabling and networking options for making the high speed migration from 40 to 100G
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moon to get first mobile phone network
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-telecoms-mobileworld-moon/moon-to-get-first-mobile-phone-network-idUSKCN1GB27A