Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) says it has introduced 5G network capabilities to several existing platforms that will enable operators to scale their current 4G networks. The company says its 5G network technology leverages an open, scalable design that enables products that both address stringent 4G and 5G network performance requirements and prepare for evolving demand characteristics.

According to Ciena, 4G and 5G networks will exist side-by-side on the same wireline network infrastructure, between cell sites, as well as to and from data centers, where accessed content is hosted. Reliability, latency, throughput, and security requirements will demand more than a basic network upgrade or expansion as mobile broadband and IoT traffic develops on these networks.

By now, you may have seen the announcement from the AXIe Consortium, the VITA trade organization, and six companies endorsing a new standard called the Optical Data Interface (ODI).

ODI is a new high-speed interface for instrumentation and embedded systems. It breaks speed and distance barriers by relying on optical communication between devices, over a standard pluggable optical fiber. With speeds up to 20 GBytes/s from a single optical port, and speeds up to 80 GBytes/s through port aggregation, ODI is designed to address challenging applications in 5G communications, mil/aero systems, high-speed data acquisition, and communication research.

TOKYO — As the lines begin to blur between cloud and edge computing, NXP Semiconductors is racing to offer the highest performance SoC of the company’s Layerscape family.

The new chip, LX2160A, can offload heavy-duty computing done at data centers in the cloud, enabling the middle of the network — typically, service operators — to execute network virtualization and run high-performance network applications on network equipment such as base stations.

Toby Foster, senior product manager for NXP, told us that his team developed the new high-performance chip with three goals in mind. They sought first to enable new types of virtualization in the network, second to achieve new heights of integration and performance at low power featuring next-generation I/Os, and third, to double the scale of virtual network functions and crypto, compared to NXP’s previous Layerscape SoC (LS2088A), while maintaining low power consumption.

Specifically, the LX2160A features 16 high-performance ARM Cortex-A72 cores running at over 2 GHz at 20- to 30-watt. It supports both the 100 Gbit/s Ethernet and PCIe Gen4 interconnect standards.

Why edge computing?
The industry, including NXP, tends to view edge processing as the driver for the next phase of networking, computing and IoT infrastructure growth.
By moving workloads from the cloud to the edge, operators will suffer less latency while gaining resiliency and bandwidth reliability, explained Foster.

Bob Wheeler, principal analyst responsible for networking at the Linley Group, told us, “In some cases, such as content delivery networks, the transition from the cloud to the edge is already happening.” He predicted, “Mobile edge computing will primarily happen in conjunction with 5G rollouts starting in 2019.”

Base station manufacturers are already designing iron that reaches the fast speed and latency requirements of the 5G networks. Future base stations also need new components. Silicon Labs’ new clock circuit solves one part of the tedious 5G equation.

The SiLabs Si5381 / 82/86 clock circuit is the first chip on the market that generates a clock signal for both the LTE / 5G base station and the Ethernet interface. It is specially designed for new 5G base stations using eCPRI.

The recently announced eCPRI specification supports the so-called ” the connection of the distributed base stations – where the antenna and calculation section elements are connected to one of the Ethernet bays. Until now, such a solution would have required the use of several clock circuits. The SiLabs novelty synchronizes both parts with a new base station.

In addition, the circuits have a voltage controlled VCXO crystal oscillator. A more integrated solution enables smaller device implementations, which is an important requirement for 5G networks consisting of smaller cells.

Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6901&via=n&datum=2017-09-27_15:45:03&mottagare=31202

Just under half of the wireless network operators in the world plan to have 5G technology deployed within the next 12 months, if they don’t already. The vast majority of carriers expect to have begun deploying 5G within 24 months.

AT&T and Verizon have been monopolizing the 5G spotlight, perhaps creating an impression that few other service providers are doing much with 5G. But the results of a survey conducted on behalf of Ixia demonstrate that there is an enormous cast of carriers in the wings preparing to take the stage, and soon. The survey asked service providers about their plans for evaluating 5G technology, and also their plans for deploying 5G technology.

The results suggest that the evolution toward 5G is moving faster than many expected, according to Ixia vice president of mobility and virtualization products Kalyan Sundhar. He told EDN, “The thing that interested us quite a bit was that two-thirds of them [network operators] will be in some state of evaluation in next 12 months … A lot of industry experts said it will be deployed later. Well, deployment in a widespread way may not come for a few years, but there’s a lot of action that will be driven by vendors and service providers over the course of the next 12 months.”

Two-thirds plan to evaluate 5G in the next year, and another 26 percent plan to start sometime in the subsequent 12 months. That leaves only 7 percent of wireless network operators uninterested in actively investigating the technology within the next two years.

Sponsored by: Texas Instruments. Simple in nature, the new RF-sampling receiver architecture yields major benefits at VHF, UHF, and microwave levels.

Benefits of RF Sampling

The simpler receiver signal chain offers some significant benefits. Fewer stages generally mean lower cost and better noise figure. Higher RF gain may be needed to offset the gain of the mixer and any IF amplifier, but the overall noise figure will be improved. An image problem does not exist.

The local-oscillator feedthrough and spur issues are also vanquished. It eliminates a local oscillator, but is essentially replaced by the ADC sampling clock. This architecture typically offers greater flexibility for frequency planning in design, a modern necessity because of the wide range of potential interference sources and targets.

A super-fast ADC potentially opens up a lot of application doors, particularly in RF communications. Some examples are software-defined radios (SDRs) of all types, satellite communications, radar, communications test equipment, forthcoming 5G radios, and digital sampling oscilloscopes.

Cellular technology has advanced from analog to 4G LTE-Advanced Pro, with 5G in development.

To find out more about LTE-Advanced Pro, I spoke with 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.”

Ixia’s LTE XAir2 emulates thousands of calls and is designed to test ICs, network equipment, and entire networks. A look at what it does gives you a good idea of LTE_Advanced Pro’s capabilities.

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, to form either bandwidth block of up to 100 MHz