Saturday, April 17, 2021

Friday, April 16, 2021

Critics blast Canadian MVNO mandate as lacking

Canada’s telecom regulator approved new rules aimed at boosting MVNO access to the country’s dominant networks, sparking criticism from independent operators and broadband advocates who argued the changes didn’t go far enough.

Ciena touts 800G, preps ZR pluggable

Last year, while the optical transport market seemed focused on 400 Gigabit, Ciena became the first vendor to roll out 800G technology, capable of sending up to 800 billion bits per second over a single optical channel. 600G was widely viewed as the logical next step after 400G, but Ciena says its customers want 800G.

Jeff Bezos signs off with aplomb

In his final letter to shareholders as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos looked back on the achievements during his tenure, laid out visions on multiple fronts for the company, and defended its track record in labour relations.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Delivering On Multi-Cloud Promises Means Killing Complexity

Distributed cloud-native applications represent a tantalizing, if complex, opportunity for enterprises looking to bring new, more resilient services to market faster than ever, Vijoy Pandey, Cisco’s VP of engineering and CTO of cloud, said during a panel discussion on multi-cloud and hybrid cloud networking earlier this week.

CableLabs takes on role of convergence catalyst

CableLabs is spearheading two initiatives – a group made of up execs from service providers and an advisory council comprised of vendors – focused on driving collaboration and scale around network and service convergence.

A need for speed: Racetrack invests in private 5G network

Northern Europe's largest motorsports track will use a private 5G network to connect drivers, test autonomous cars and broadcast live video from multiple vehicles at the same time. Finland's KymiRing will deploy Nokia's Digital Automation Cloud infrastructure and will use spectrum provided by Edzcom, the Finnish private network specialist recently acquired by tower giant Cellnex. Initially the network will use the 2.3 GHz spectrum, eventually evolving to 3.5 GHz and millimeter wave, according to Edzcom Managing Director Mikko Uusitalo.

Illinois is deploying SD-WAN throughout its state-run network

The Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology is upgrading its state-run education network, the Illinois Century Network (ICN), from MPLS to software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). The state consulted with Fujitsu Network Communications on the project and Fujitsu designed an SD-WAN solution using equipment from Silver Peak, which was acquired by HPE last July. Fujitsu declined to reveal the value of the contract.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Shaw's wireless biz waxes as wireline wanes

Extending a theme that has taken hold at the Canadian company in recent quarters, Shaw's cable pay-TV and broadband business continued to shed subscribers in fiscal Q2 as its mobile business gained more ground.

Daily Roundup: VMware, Dell Split Up

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletters to get these stories in your inbox.

F5 Labs Take Down Collusion Fraudsters

F5 threat researchers say attackers have found a new way to defraud organizations using digital transactions. They call it “collusion fraud,” and say that it cost one well-known food and beverage platform $1.5 million over a three-month period.

Juniper Networks Mounts Cloud Metro Vision

Juniper Networks today clamped on to a growing industry-wide effort to rethink how various layers of network infrastructure is assembled and operated. Cloud Metro, the vendor’s vision for the future of metro networks, aims to move past what it describes as siloed, point-to-point metro networks with a versatile IP services fabric.

Ericsson pushes 5G uplink limits with MIMO

Ericsson hit what it claimed was a single-user uplink record using multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, taking a step toward overcoming what one executive identified as a key limitation on mobile connectivity.

Cross-carrier RCS JV effort shuts down

A joint venture by the biggest U.S. wireless operators focused on an interoperable messaging service based on Rich Communications Service (RCS) is no longer in the works, as the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI) shut down. CCMI’s demise was first reported by Light Reading.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Masergy amps up AIOps service for enterprises

Providing a clear picture of network and application performance and the ability to make real-time changes is particularly useful to SMBs that often face budget constraints and have less in-house IT and cybersecurity staff than larger enterprises.

Nvidia CEO Predicts DPU Domination by 2026

Every data center in the world will deploy data processing units (DPU) to isolate the application layer from the control plane within five years, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang claimed Tuesday during a press conference.

VMware, Dell Technologies Reach Spinoff Deal

Dell Technologies today said it will spin off its 81% stake in VMware. The deal will create two separate companies but preserve Dell and VMware’s “strategic partnership,” VMware CFO and interim CEO Zane Rowe said in a statement.

KDDI Taps Cato SASE for Secure Remote Access

Networking and security vendor Cato today announced a partnership with Japan-based service provider KDDI to deliver its secure access service edge (SASE) platform to customers across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The announcement marks Cato’s first telecom service provider partnership.

VMware, Vapor IO, Dell Tech Form ‘Fungible’ Edge Alliance

VMware, Dell Technologies, and a group of cloud and edge infrastructure companies formed the Open Grid Alliance today to foster a re-architected internet. The group, which also includes DriveNets, MobiledgeX, and PacketFabric, wants the internet to converge as a shared platform for distributed compute, data, and intelligence at the edge. 

KDDI will offer Cato’s SASE to enterprise customers

Japanese service provider KDDI Corp. will begin selling Cato Networks’ secure access service edge (SASE) to enterprise customers in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company said that Cato’s SASE will enable it to offer enterprise customers secure access without having to integrate and manage multiple third-party appliances and virtual network functions (VNFs).

Verizon, Google highlight how 5G is changing the cloud

Executives from Verizon, Google, Mavenir and Wind River stressed the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in enabling a 5G world and spotlighted the ways in which the need for deployments of the technology at the edge was transforming the cloud landscape.

Words of wisdom from edge experts

The Linux Foundation recently published its State of the Edge 2021 report. As part of the report, a few leaders in edge technology made some insightful and humorous comments.

Monday, April 12, 2021

NEC eyes 5G gains with Red Hat deal

NEC Corporation became the latest network vendor to tap IBM’s Red Hat for a 5G boost, teaming with the software company to bring its suite of next-generation core capabilities to the OpenShift platform.

Mavenir Readies Xilinx Powered Massive MIMO 5G Radios

Mavenir intends to release massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) 5G radios with open interfaces powered by Xilinx silicon later this year. The chipmaker and open radio access network (RAN) software and equipment vendor claim the time is right for open RAN to prove its worth in compute-intensive environments like massive MIMO in a 5G network. 

Roku freshens up device lineup, OS

Roku is rolling out a new entry-level, $39.99 4K player, a premium voice remote and new soundbar/streaming combo, along with a mix of new features in updated OS for streaming players and Roku TVs.

Frontier names former AT&T exec as chief network officer

Frontier Communications hired Veronica Bloodworth for the new role of executive vice president and chief network officer. She’ll report to President and CEO Nick Jeffery and oversee all of Frontier’s network operations, including those related to the Company’s modernization plan, which basically involves expanding its fiber optic network.

Nvidia teams with telecom firms for AI-on-5G developments

Several companies working on 5G networks and services — Fujitsu, Google Cloud, Mavenir, Radisys and Wind River — are teaming up with semiconductor company Nvidia to create solutions for Nvidia’s AI-on-5G platform to help speed the development of a variety of use cases, Nvidia announced today.

Facebook, Google lead latest undersea cable boom

Facebook’s recent announcement that it is investing in two undersea cables connecting the U.S., Singapore and Indonesia is further confirmation that webscale content giants are now the top players in a market once dominated by the likes of AT&T, BT and telco-led consortiums.

Overcome the Key Challenges of Open RAN Roll-out

With the increasing pace of 5G rollout, network providers worldwide face growing expectations to deliver massive data volume over different types of spectrum while adhering to varying latency needs. Increasingly, operators and equipment manufacturers alike are adopting open radio access network (RAN) architectures to support successful RAN deployment and management at scale. Advancements in Open RAN networks, such as those made possible by O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications, allow more efficient scalability to meet rising data demands with reduced infrastructure deployment costs. Even so, a disaggregated O-RAN environment creates complexities that need to be addressed, all too often leaving network operators with the burden of ensuring conformance, interoperability, and performance. To streamline successful implementation of critical O-RAN use cases, VIAVI recently enhanced its Test Suite for O-RAN Specifications, a comprehensive set of testing modules for lab validation, field deployment, and service assurance.Roadblocks Ahead When planning deployment and management of networks based on Open RAN architecture, the most pressing concerns for operators center around ensuring interoperability, manageability, optimization and end-to-end performance in a multi-vendor environment. Designing the 5G RAN requires careful consideration of features including multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antennas and multi-band carrier aggregation. This poses a challenge for successful growth and maintenance of the networks, which now need to support multiple technology generations – 3G, 4G and 5G – while scaling to meet rising data demands. Imagine a network where RAN components such as the central unit (CU), distributed unit (DU) and radio unit (RU) are all provided by multiple vendors. This type of environment makes it even more challenging to identify and isolate issues. With the adoption of Open RAN, operators need to validate everything works together before it goes into the live network. Yet addressing these issues requires more than testing the interoperability of distinct vendor technologies. Operators need to see how the technology interacts with legacy 4G equipment in the network, as well as how it responds to different user equipment (UE) environments. Troubleshooting issues after the network has been deployed is important as well. In a multi-vendor environment, it is more difficult to identify product-related network performance issues than it was in a  single-vendor network. With an Open RAN network, operators need open standards and vendor-agnostic validation and troubleshooting solutions to resolve network performance issues.Navigate O-RAN Challenges Successful operation of disaggregated RAN networks will depend on the ability to integrate system components and meet network key performance indicators (KPIs) in a multi-vendor environment. Operators need to have the confidence that all components in the O-RAN network have been validated and verified in a trusted and controlled environment, and all open interfaces and components are working correctly, so that network performance is at least equal to that of a single-vendor network. Critical aspects to be evaluated include:

Zyxel CPE helps service providers make the most of XGS-PON/10G P

Service providers have more reasons than ever to prioritize speed and bandwidth for their customers. On the residential side, streaming is becoming the default method of video consumption, as major content providers like Disney and AT&T’s Time Warner move assets onto streaming services. On the enterprise level, the drive to move applications to the cloud has been accelerated by COVID-19, creating a demand for bandwidth that is not expected to subside. Meanwhile, both consumers and business customers are connecting a growing number of IoT devices to the internet, creating new needs for high speed, low latency connections.

Sunday, April 11, 2021

NEC Wraps Red Hat OpenShift Into 5G Aspirations

NEC is nearing the final stages of certifying Red Hat OpenShift for its 5G core offering. The Japanese vendor, which is determined to claim a greater share of the network infrastructure market, also plans to integrate the Kubernetes-based platform into 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment and software, and mobile edge computing. 

Comcast makes waves in open source

Two projects originally created by Comcast engineers – Kuberhealthy and Trickster – are the first from the operator to be accepted as 'Sandbox' projects by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Nvidia Unveils Next-Gen BlueField DPU

Nvidia unveiled its third-generation BlueField data processing unit (DPU) at GTC 2021 today. The smartNIC is the company’s first since acquiring Mellanox in 2019, and is specifically designed to accelerate SDN, storage, security, and now artificial intelligence applications.

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