It’s always interesting (and dangerous) to lay out some predictions for the future of technology, so here are a few visions:
The exponential growth of broadband data is driving wireless (and wired) communications systems to more effectively use existing bandwidth. Mobile data traffic continues to grow, driven both by increased smartphone subscriptions and a continued increase in average data volume per subscription, fueled primarily by more viewing of video content. Ericsson forecasts mobile video traffic to grow by around 50% annually through 2022, to account for nearly 75% of all mobile data traffic. Social networking is the second biggest data traffic type. To make effective use of the wireless channel, system operators are moving toward massive-MIMO, multi-antenna systems that transmit multiple wide-bandwidth data streams—geometrically adding to system complexity and power consumption. Total mobile data traffic is expected to grow at 45% CAGR to 2020.
5G cellular technology is still in development, and is far from ready in 2017. As international groups set 2020 deadline to agree on frequencies and standards for the new equipment, anything before that is pre-standard. Expect to see many 5G announcements that might not be what 5G will actually be when standard is ready. The boldest statement is that Nokia & KT plan 2017 launch of world’s first mobile 5G network in South Korea in 2017: commercial trial system to operate in the 28GHz band. Wireless spectrum above 5 GHz will generate solutions for a massive increase in bandwidth and also for a latency of less than 1 ms.
CableLabs is working toward standardization of an AP Coordination protocol to improve In-Home WiFi as one access point (AP) for WiFi often is not enough to allow for reliable connection and ubiquitous speed to multiple devices throughout a large home. The hope is that something will be seen mid-2017. A mesh AP network is a self-healing, self-forming, self-optimizing network of mesh access points (MAPs).
There will be more and more Gigabit Internet connections in 2017. Gigabit Internet is Accelerating on All Fronts. Until recently, FTTH has been the dominant technology for gigabit. Some of the common options available now include fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 over cable’s HFC plant, G.Fast over telco DSL networks, 5G cellular, and fiber-to-the-building coupled with point-to-point wireless. AT&T recently launched its AT&T Fiber gigabit service. Cable’s DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 are cheaper and less disruptive than FTTH in that they do not require a rip-and-replace of the existing outside plant. DOCSIS 3.1, which has just begun to be deployed at scale, is designed to deliver up to 10 Gbps downstream Internet speeds over existing HFC networks (most deployments to date have featured 1 Gbps speeds). G.Fast is just beginning to come online with a few deployments (typically 500 meters or less distance at MDU). 5G cellular technology is still in development, and standards for it do not yet exist. Another promising wireless technology for delivering gigabit speeds is point-to-point millimeter wave, which uses spectrum between 30 GHz and 300 GHz.
There are also some trials for 10 Gbit/s: For example Altice USA (Euronext:ATC) announced plans to build a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network capable of delivering broadband speeds of up to 10 Gbps across its U.S. footprint. The five-year deployment plan is scheduled to begin in 2017.
Interest to use TV white space increases in 2017 in USA. The major factors driving the growth of the market include providing low-cost broadband to remote and non-line-of-sight regions. Rural Internet access market is expected to grow at a significant rate between 2016 and 2022. According to MarketsandMarkets, the global TV white space market was valued at $1.2 million in 2015 and is expected to reach approximately $53.1 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 74.30% during the forecast period.
The rapid growth of the internet and cloud computing has resulted in bandwidth requirements for data center network. This is in turn expected to increase the demand for optical interconnects in the next-generation data center networks.
Open Ethernet networking platforms will make a noticeable impact in 2017. The availability of full featured, high performance and cost effective open switching platforms combined with open network operating systems such as Cumulus Networks, Microsoft SoNIC, and OpenSwitch will finally see significant volume uptake in 2017.
Network becomes more and more software controlled in 2017.NFV and SDN Will Mature as Automated Networks will become Production systems. Over the next five years, nearly 60 percent of hyperscale facilities are expected to deploy SDN and/or NFV solutions. IoT will force SDN adoption into Campus Networks.
SDN implementations are increasingly taking a platform approach with plug and play support for any VNF, topology, and analytics that are instrumented and automated. Some companies are discovering the security benefits of SDN – virtual segmentation and automation. The importance of specific SDN protocols (OpenFlow, OVSDB, NetConf, etc.) will diminish as many universes of SDN/NFV will solidify into standard models. More vendors are opening up their SDN platforms to third-party VNFs. In Linux based systems eBPF and XDP are delivering flexibility, scale, security, and performance for a broad set of functions beyond networking without bypassing the kernel.
For year 2016 it was predicted that gigabit ethernet sales start to decline as the needle moving away from 1 Gigabit Ethernet towards faster standards (2.5 or 5.0 or 10Gbps; Nbase-T is basically underclocked 10Gbase-T running at 2.5 or 5.0Gbps instead of 10Gbps). I have not yet seen the result from this prediction, but that does not stop from making new ones. So I expect that 10GbE sales will peak in 2017 and start a steady decline after 2017 as it is starts being pushed aside by 25, 50, and 100GbE in data center applications. 25Gbit/s Ethernet is available now from all of the major server vendors. 25 can start to become the new 10 as it offers 2.5x the throughput and only a modest price premium over 10Gbit/s.
100G and 400G Ethernet will still have some implementation challenges in 2017. Data-center customers are demanding a steep downward trajectory in the cost of 100G pluggable transceivers, but existing 100G module multi-source agreements (MSAs) such as PSM4 and CWDM4 have limited capacity for cost reduction due to the cost of the fiber (PSM4) and the large number of components (both PSM4 and CWDM4). It seems that dual-lambda PAM4 and existing 100G Ethernet (100GE) solutions such as PSM4 and CWDM4 will not be able to achieve the overall cost reductions demanded by data-center customers. At OFC 2016, AppliedMicro showcased the world’s first 100G PAM4 single-wavelength solution for 100G and 400G Ethernet. We might be able to see see 400GE in the second half of 2017 or the early part of 2018.
As the shift to the cloud is accelerating in 2017, the traffic routed through cloud-based data centers is expected to quadruple in the next four years according to the results of the sixth annual Global Cloud Index published by Cisco. Public cloud is growing faster than private cloud. An estimated 68 percent of cloud workloads will be deployed in public cloud data centers by 2020, up from 49 percent in 2015. According to Cisco, hyperscale data centers will account for 47 percent of global server fleet and support 53 percent of all data center traffic by 2020.
The modular data center market has experienced a high growth and adoption rate in the last few years, and is anticipated to experience more of this trend in years to come. Those data centers are typically built using standard 20 ft. container module or standard 40 ft. container module. Modular data center market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 24.1% during period 2016 – 2025, to account for US$ 22.41 billion in 2025. Also in 2017 the first cracks will start to appear in Intel’s vaunted CPU dominance.
The future of network neutrality is unsure in 2017 as the Senate failed to reconfirm Democratic pro-net neutrality FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, portending new Trump era leadership and agenda Net neutrality faces extinction under Trump. Also one of Trump’s advisers on FCC, Mark Jamison, argued last month that the agency should only regulate radio spectrum licenses, scale back all other functions. When Chairman Tom Wheeler, the current head of the FCC, steps down, Republicans will hold a majority.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s first 5G antenna module
Erisson and IBM are presented in San Francisco, ISSCC Conference on World ensimmäien phased antenna module which is made of silicon-based. The module operates 28 gigahertz region, which is becoming the first real commercial 5G area, at least in the United States.
The module consists of four circuit, which is made of 0.13-micron BiCMOS process. The circuits are solicon-germanium, and each chip has 16 antenna elements. A size of the module is about half of the current physical size of the smartphone.
Circuit antennas are installed at intervals of 1.4 degrees, and they are covered about 30 degrees coverage.
In addition to the small base stations 16 x 4 of the antenna modules can be used 5G-signal reception in cars.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/5833-maailman-ensimmainen-5g-antennimoduuli
Tomi Engdahl says:
Arista chair says data center calls for 800GE spec
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/arista-chair-says-data-center-calls-for-800ge-spec.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-14
Bandwidth-hungry data centers need a fast-track effort this year to define 800 Gbit/second Ethernet links, says a networking industry veteran. The existing IEEE process is too slow
Data Center Calls for 800GE Spec
Arista founder wants standard this year
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331332
Bandwidth-hungry data centers need a fast-track effort this year to define 800 Gbit/second Ethernet links, said a networking veteran. The existing IEEE process is too slow to serve the needs of Web giants, said Andreas Bechtolshiem, chairman of Arista Networks and a serial entrepreneur.
Network bandwidth has long been the bottleneck for companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, trying to connect thousands of servers to handle a flood of Web and mobile traffic. They are moving to 100GE connections this year and will start buying in volume as early as 2019 the 400G systems that are still in the lab today, he predicted.
At this pace, data centers won’t be able to wait for a formal IEEE process that could take three years to define 800GE, said Bechtolsheim. He called for serdes makers to forge a multi-source agreement this year on 112G interfaces using PAM-4 modulation as the basis for doubling the data rate of the IEEE 400G standard about to be formally ratified.
“We think the cloud industry needs faster networks and this is the best way to get there,”
Bechtolshiem forecasts vendors will ship five million 100GE Ethernet ports this year and double those shipments in 2018. Hard on its heels, 400G shipments could rise to one million units in 2019 and four million the following year, he estimated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Snowden-era paranoia creeps into new data center networking startups
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/snowden-era-paranoia-creeps-into-new-data-center-networking-startups.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-14
Of all the lasting effects of Edward Snowden’s leaks, there’s one photo that leaves a particularly strong mark. In it, U.S. federal employees in T-shirts and blue jeans are seen intercepting network equipment from Cisco Systems Inc. at a shipping facility.
a deeply held paranoia within Silicon Valley’s biggest internet companies: In an era of increasingly sophisticated nation-state hacking, how can we trust that network infrastructure isn’t compromised before it’s dropped off at the company loading docks?
This fear has created a sense of urgency for Apple Inc., Google, Facebook Inc. and other technology giants that have been devising their own alternatives to Cisco, which controls more than half of the market for network equipment.
Snowden-Era Paranoia Fuels Data Center Networking Startup Boom
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2017/02/07/snowden-era-paranoia-fuels-data-center-networking-startup-boom/
This fear has created a sense of urgency for Apple Inc., Google, Facebook Inc. and other technology giants that have been devising their own alternatives to Cisco, which controls more than half of the market for network equipment. After the photo was published, Cisco filed a public complaint with the White House, arguing that spying by the National Security Agency was hurting U.S. companies. Cisco told Bloomberg it doesn’t work with governments on backdoors for its products and maintains tight checks on its processes and supply chain to assure customers of their security.
While Cisco’s dominance isn’t in danger of slipping any time soon, the industry’s creeping concerns over cybersecurity have created an opening for new businesses and equipment-design skunkworks inside large companies. In the three years since the Snowden leaks, networking software and equipment startups raised $6.35 billion, a 47 percent increase over the prior three years, according to researcher CB Insights. “We’ve lost confidence in the vendors in the wake of the Snowden revelations, and that is a weakness and an opportunity,” John Kindervag said in an interview last month as a vice president at Forrester Research. (He recently left the market analysis firm to become an executive at Palo Alto Networks Inc.)
One company that’s benefiting is SnapRoute Inc., which was founded by a former manager of Apple’s global data center network. The startup makes a cheaper, simpler network switch than the ones Cisco sells. And unlike most switches, it’s open-source, allowing customers to look for bugs, performance glitches or backdoors that might allow a government to peek inside.
Facebook is also a founding member of the Open Compute Project, which develops and shares open-source data center designs.
The high cost of traditional networking products was the main reason for Amazon.com Inc.’s investment into creating its own equipment. “It was cost that caused us to head down our own path,”
Besides looking to save a lot of money on premium equipment, companies are placing a higher value on transparency. Cisco guards its code and designs, making them difficult to repair when things break. A web hosting company filed for bankruptcy protection after a series of Cisco switches failed and a major customer left, while Cisco worked for months on a fix. Cisco has declined to comment on that case, saying only that it tries to fix problems quickly.
By 2020, spending on open-source and self-built switches and other network technologies will account for at least 20 percent of the global data center market, up from less than 2 percent last year, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Big Switch Networks Inc., Cumulus Networks Inc., Pluribus Networks Inc. and SnapRoute are among the companies cultivating a niche that’s putting pressure on leaders Cisco and Juniper Networks Inc. and their proprietary code, said Naresh Singh, an analyst at Gartner.
The giants are already under pressure from software-based networking alternatives like SnapRoute’s, and the adoption of open-source tools from mega users, such as Facebook and Goldman Sachs, poses an even bigger threat to their businesses, Singh said. Cisco said some companies balk at using open-source network equipment, citing maintenance “complexity and hidden costs.”
whereas switches from Cisco and other big suppliers can have tens of millions of lines of code, SnapRoute’s has just 22,000
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Light Lunch: CableLabs Eyes Coherent Optics
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/02/a-light-lunch-cablelabs-eyes-coherent-optics.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-02-14&[email protected]&eid=289644432&bid=1662700
Coherent optics may be the solution that provides much needed relief in the bandwidth department.
CableLabs announced last week that it has adapted the technology, which has been used in long-haul fiber networks for quite some time, for use in short-haul access networks. The R&D consortium has demonstrated 2,048 Gbps using eight wavelengths of 256 Gbps each.
“Future demand is not based on pure capacity, but the architectures that are coming up in the cable space,” said Alberto Campos, CableLabs distinguished technologist. “As we looked at different alternatives, coherent technology came to mind because (it offers) high capacity on a per optical, per wavelength, perspective. It allows you to put many optical carriers in the same fiber.”
Specifically, with coherent technology, there are two dimensions of turning light, using amplitude and phase, as well as two polarizations. This allows more wavelengths in the spectrum compared to other technologies and, therefore, more capacity in a fiber.
In the long-haul environment, distances of more than 3000 km come into play. Fiber of that length needs a lot of compensation for distortion and noise. The result is a complex, expensive implementation.
The access network, however, involves tens of kilometers rather than thousands, which means that the amount of compensation necessary is significantly reduced. The result is a simpler, lower cost implementation, Campos said.
The process will now transition to R&D and specification development. Campos said he anticipates that a working group will be launched in the May/June timeframe.
“When you are (only) dealing with 30-40 km, the amount of dispersion compensation is negligible … so a smaller chip is needed.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rishika Sadam / Reuters:
Cisco reports Q2 revenue of $11.6B, down 2% YoY but beating estimates, as core businesses decline
Cisco profit beats on strong demand for security products
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cisco-systems-results-idUSKBN15U2O6
Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, helped mainly by strong demand for its security products.
Revenue in the security business, which offers firewall protection and breach detection systems, rose 14 percent to $528 million.
Revenue in the legacy switching business, still by far its largest, fell 5 percent to $3.31 billion in the second quarter
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish operators sold last year in the mobile network services 2.05 billion, which is 2.4 percent more than in the previous year. According to Gartner market research institute increased its unlimited mobile broadband faster than expected.
The users are willing to pay for fast mobile subscriptions without data transfer limits more than before. According to the forecast of mobile network services market will continue to grow in the coming years, but the growth is slow, about one per cent annually.
All in all, consumers are putting telecommunications connections in this year amounted to EUR 3.74 billion. It is a few percent less than last year.
The market is driven by a reduction in fixed-line services. This year, the fixed-line services are sold by EUR 875 million, ie 6.5 percent less than last year. The number of fixed-line connections as well as that of calls has decreased. At the same time, maintaining the fixed network has become more expensive
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5841&via=n&datum=2017-02-15_15:12:30&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sonera and Nokia are seeking applications from Oulu 5G
Sonera is looking for from Nokia and the local way of Oulu Central 5GFW Hackathon first 5G applications. In June happening hackers, companies and accelerate the development of future applications to the online world.
“We are looking for applications that take advantage of 5G’s ground-breaking features and draw in front of us the experience of a kind we have not seen before on your mobile device,” said Products and Services Vice President Tommi Mattila, Sonera’s technology unit.
Oulu 5GFWD Hackathon will be held 9 to 11. June. The event will also Nokia promises to open the first time in the history of the Oulu plant in processes to outsiders. Tools for participants Nokia offers a genuine 5G connection.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/02/15/sonera-ja-nokia-hakevat-oulusta-5g-sovelluksia/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Authorities in the fast lane on cellular phone networks
Elisa and Nokia tested the first in the Nordic government services to prioritize commercial LTE network. The test simulates the functionality of the communication services of critical public authorities on mobile network congestion conditions. A similar operation is planned to be tested also in other countries.
” The authorities assure the functioning of data in exceptional circumstances, such as a major accident or disaster situation, it is the interests of each citizen. Elisa’s mobile network director Sami Komulainen says.
Nokia had supplied to Elisa LTE network, where the tests were carried out. In addition, the authorities used the demo of Nokia phones were using the app, which allowed a group video call connection 4G network. ” Carried out with the Elisa test to prove functionality of prioritization in extreme situations, and the test is a step forward in increasing government becomes more reliable broadband services to development both nationally and internationally, ” Nokia’s radio network marketing Kai Sahala says.
At the moment, data transmission services authorities are already part of a commercial 4G network. Rapidly evolving 4G networks would enable the authorities of the most modern telecommunications services and all existing 4G spectrum utilization.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/02/15/viranomaisille-ohituskaista-kannykkaverkkoihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Finnish telecommunications market in end-user consumption is reduced according to research company Gartner, two per cent to EUR 3.74 billion. Fixed lines will be discontinued and mobile services have become the basic interface of Finnish consumers. Device Sale prices are falling.
The only bright spot in services
Mobile network services market rose last year by Gartner 2.05 billion in 2016, about 2.4 per cent growth. The introduction of an unlimited mobile broadband has been faster than expected, which raises the mobile market up slightly.
According to Gartner, users are willing to pay for the roof without the data fast mobile subscriptions than before. According to the forecast of mobile network services market will continue to grow in the coming years and there will be 2.08 billion in 2017 (1.3 percent growth) as well as (an increase of 0.5 percent) 2.09 billion in 2018.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/02/15/gartner-tietoliikenneostoihin-vahemman-rahaa/
Tomi Engdahl says:
AT&T will prove 5G using open-source SDN technology
AT&T teams with the Linux Foundation on critical open-source SDN infrastructure software to demonstrate new 5G applications
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3165402/mobile-wireless/att-will-prove-5g-using-open-source-sdn-technology.html
Earlier this week, AT&T, the Linux foundation, IBM, Intel, Ericsson and others announced an open source partnership to contribute to a critical component of the SDN stack—Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy (ECOMP)—that in the future will run on the mass-produced, commodity telecom hardware.
This move is best understood in the context of the open source data center hardware consortium, the Open Compute Project (OCP), started by Facebook that includes almost every large data center equipment maker and data center owner that operates or wants to operate at scale, including Facebook competitor Google.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the Open Compute Project’s Telco Project could transform the IoT, driverless cars
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3033093/internet/how-the-open-compute-projects-telco-project-could-transform-the-iot-driverless-cars.html
The chief of Germany’s 5G Lab explains how ultra-fast, ultra-low-latency 5G will use commodity hardware to control driverless cars and billions of IoT devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Now Get Weather Alerts Even When Your Mobile Networks Are Down, Thanks To IBM’s Mesh Networking
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/17/02/15/1828244/now-get-weather-alerts-even-when-your-mobile-networks-are-down-thanks-to-ibms-mesh-networking
Communicating news of severe weather events or natural disasters is something mobile phones are well suited to, but if there’s limited or disrupted network coverage the message may fail to get through.
The Android app, geared specifically for developing countries, uses IBM-developed technology called mesh networking that sends messages directly from one phone to another. The result is that information can propagate even when centralized networks fail. Using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks, the app can send data from phone to phone across distances between 200 to 500 feet
Weather app works even when disaster takes out the network
https://www.cnet.com/news/alert-app-weather-app-ibm-mesh-network-disaster/
IBM and the Weather Channel have a new app that sends emergency alerts from one phone to another, bypassing overtaxed mobile networks.
The Android app, geared specifically for developing countries, uses IBM-developed technology called mesh networking that sends messages directly from one phone to another. The result is that information can propagate even when centralized networks fail.
Using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks, the app can send data from phone to phone across distances between 200 to 500 feet, IBM Research staff member Nirmit Desai said. It doesn’t add any more battery burden than an ordinary app, and the mesh network can be used without having to reconfigure the phone’s network settings.
It’s a clever technique that’s well suited to regions with subpar networks. But much of the promise of mesh networking remains unfulfilled.
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) effort to bring low-cost Linux-powered computers to developing nations tried using it to improve networking. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt hopes mesh networking will help bypass government censorship. The ZigBee standard for home networking uses it, letting network data hop from one device to another across a home, but most folks haven’t heard of it. Perhaps coming mesh features in future Bluetooth short-range networking will catch on.
One of the biggest mesh challenges is achieving a critical mass of network nodes — in this case, people with phones running the app.
“Having mesh as part of one of the most popular apps helps,” Desai said.
Mesh networks also open open up a new security concern.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco shrinks: Revenue, profit and margin all dipped in Q2 2017
Big headaches in big iron, hyper-servers aren’t taking off, but software biz all smiles
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/16/cisco_q2_2017_results/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITU ponders whether blockchain belongs in its security standards
Security working group has decided it wants to know what it needs to know
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/16/itu_investigates_blockchain/
The International Telecommunication Union has decided the time has come to consider whether Blockchain deserves its attention so it can be considered for future security standards.
Study Group 17 of the Union’s Standardization Sector (ITU-T), which is dedicated to security, has scheduled a workshop in March to “examine blockchain’s potential to build trust into a wider variety of our interactions online”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dual mixer enables 5G wireless access
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4457399/Mixer-enables-5G-wireless-access
Optimized for 5G MIMO receivers, the LTC5566 downconverting mixer from Linear Technology is equipped with programmable-gain IF amplifiers. The dual mixer has a very wide 300-MHz to 6-GHz input frequency range and supports IF bandwidths of up to 400 MHz.
Each channel of the LTC5566 incorporates an active mixer and a digital IF variable-gain amplifier with a 15.5-dB gain-control range. The gain of each channel is independently programmable in 0.5-dB steps via an on-chip SPI bus. With each channel driving an ADC, the fine gain control provides a simple means to balance the gain of the two channels and calibrate to the optimum level with minimal external components.
Prices for the LTC5566, housed in a 32-lead plastic QFN package, start at $9.45 each in lots of 1000 units.
http://www.linear.com/product/ltc5566
Tomi Engdahl says:
DesignCon 2017 video: Expected and unexpected products
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4457644/DesignCon-2017-video–Expected-and-unexpected-products
With PAM4 showing up just about everywhere, you’d expect the oscilloscope companies to be on top of it. After all, a DesignCon paper covered the world’s fastest PAM signal.
PAM4 is now becoming part of Optical Internetworking Forum, and Ethernet standards for 56 Gbps and the upcoming 112 Gbps data rates. To keep up with those standards, engineers will need compliance-test procedures that will use oscilloscopes, bit-error-rate testers (BERTs), and signal analyzers. The video below shows a 56 Gbps (28 Gbaud) PAM4 compliance test running on a Teledyne LeCroy 65 GHz oscilloscope. The QPHY-56G-PAM4 option was released on Feb. 1 at DesignCon.
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DesignCon 2017 video: Expected and unexpected products
Martin Rowe -February 13, 2017
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When I walk around trade show exhibit halls, my video camera is always at hand. Aside from the fact that I knew know who I might encounter, I find taking short videos a good way for you to see that was on display. Plus, video doesn’t miss the details I might miss when taking notes. With that in mind, I present videos of usual (page 1) and unusual (page 2) products from DesignCon 2017.
With PAM4 showing up just about everywhere, you’d expect the oscilloscope companies to be on top of it. After all, a DesignCon paper covered the world’s fastest PAM signal.
PAM4 is now becoming part of Optical Internetworking Forum, and Ethernet standards for 56 Gbps and the upcoming 112 Gbps data rates. To keep up with those standards, engineers will need compliance-test procedures that will use oscilloscopes, bit-error-rate testers (BERTs), and signal analyzers. The video below shows a 56 Gbps (28 Gbaud) PAM4 compliance test running on a Teledyne LeCroy 65 GHz oscilloscope. The QPHY-56G-PAM4 option was released on Feb. 1 at DesignCon.
There’s more than one way to analyze a PAM4 signal. Multilane teamed with Texas instruments to show how adding equalization can improve signal quality by compensating for losses in a transmission medium.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Communication Processors March On But 5G Demands Much More
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/communication-processors-march-on-but-5g-demands-much-more/
Development is well underway on 4.5G cellular communications systems that promise an order of magnitude increase in data transfer rates. 5G is hot on its heels. Small cell access nodes will form an essential part of both systems but new communications processors are needed to make these a reality.
If there is one thing that the mobile communication revolution has proved it is that people love data. We can’t consume enough of it. And we want to access it across a range of devices in different locations and environments.
This situation has presented network equipment providers and operators with a wealth of business opportunities coupled with an equivalent amount of technological challenges. One way these are being addressed for the current, 4G, generation of devices is through the deployment of small cell radio access nodes such as microcells, picocells and femtocells. In urban areas in developed countries, saturation point is being reached for traditional cellular macrocell base stations due to environmental constraints. Small cells, concealed in lampposts and walls, are becoming the only option here. Tiny and hidden from view, small cells are able to offer similar data capacity to their larger cousins but, owing to lower RF transmit power, provide much smaller areas of coverage and user capacity individually.
While traditional cellular base stations have generally relied on discrete digital signal processors (DSPs) or application specific ICs, small cells generally use system-on-chip (SoC) devices featuring programmable DSP cores. As an example, Taiwan’s ITRI R&D organization recently selected the CEVA-XC DSP core to form the basis of its new 4G small cell base station platform. ITRI will deploy the core to enable a software defined radio (SDR) baseband architecture for its small cell platform. This provides a 3GPP release 10 (LTE Advanced) compliant access point solution integrating the core functions of baseband signal processing, RF front-end circuit and software protocols.
The Next Step
With the rollout of 5G equipment and services planned to occur from 2020, work is under way on the development of the stepping stone to it – LTE-Advanced Pro or 4.5G. This promises mobile broadband with download speeds up to 1Gbit/s. Users increasingly rely on mobile, rather than fixed line, Internet access and utilise this indoors. However, the higher frequency bands used by 4.5G (up to 3.7GHz) – and several preceding cellular communications standards – do not penetrate buildings very well. Consequently, there is a need for small cells within buildings and a corresponding requirement for new semiconductor architectures to support communication processing.
Supporting 5G
5G will ratchet up the demands on the network even further to deliver high speed and low latency services. The issue at this point will be responsiveness rather than throughput. This is because download speeds will far exceed the required levels for even the most bandwidth-hungry applications – such as streaming ultra high definition video – but services will be sold on the basis of instant response; for example, the ability to download a full length HD movie in a few seconds. In order to support the required Gigabit download speeds to users, extremely high transmission frequencies will be deployed – up to 70GHz. Such microwave bands are commonly used today to connect and backhaul macrocell towers together and to the network. Moving into microwave bands means that signals have only direct line of sight propagation: in urban outdoor environments signals will be blocked by buildings and indoors they will be blocked by walls. This means that a very large number of small cells will be needed to propagate the signals in a dense urban environment indoor and outdoor. Furthermore, they are likely to be powered over Ethernet, which will be used to provide backhaul for the network. This arrangement limits the power budget of the small cells to a range of 25-90W.
So what does this mean for the underlying electronics?
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Finland lacks a data center professionals”
Finland has data centers in the promised land, but we lack expertise in the field.
Gartner and industry analysts are predicting that the data center investments accelerate further this year. Europe, the new centers will be invested up to € 54.5 billion.
- Major competitors of data center investments are still in the other Nordic countries. One point on which we suffer in Finland, is a skilled and experienced data center professionals lack. This should be addressed in study programs are constructed. At the moment, unfortunately, Espoo, Helsinki Metropolia University is the only educational institution providing data center education, Mikko Aho says.
Internet of Things and Internet of Everything will make its breakthrough in 2017. A growing number of devices and terminals connected to the network and “industrial clouds” will increase production plants, public buildings and logistics.
Companies anticipate fierce savings, the efficiency increases. Market analyst IDC expects the so-called “Industry collaboration cloud” -pilvien to triple by 2018. Created platforms are available to all companies sharing their own data, the integration of processes and services, or for accelerating product development.
IoT and data-intensive analytics often need to very quickly react to the data network. When there is a massive amount of data processing, the calculation must be carried out near the place where the data is generated.
In 2017 the companies prefer the acquisition of IT services from the cloud instead of your own data center expansion
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5854&via=n&datum=2017-02-16_15:28:13&mottagare=30929
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
AT&T starts testing drones to provide LTE service in disaster areas or other locations without cell coverage
AT&T completes its first “flying COW” test flight
http://www.zdnet.com/article/at-t-completes-its-first-flying-cow-test-flight/
During several short test flights in a “dead zone” about an hour outside of Atlanta, the drones successfully transmitted and received LTE signals.
AT&T this week saw its flying COWs in action for the first time.
The company is building LTE-enabled drones for a range of uses cases. They could be deployed if networks go down in the event of a disaster, to assist in scenarios like forest fires, or for large events like concerts.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the company conducted its first test-flights drones equipped with LTE radios. AT&T says it is the first wireless company to test this technology.
Over those two days, the company conducted several simple flights, no longer than around 10 to 15 minutes, in a “dead zone” about an hour outside of Atlanta. The drones successfully transmitted and received LTE signals as expected, AT&T drone program director Art Pregler told ZDNet.
AT&T parked a Cell on Light Truck (COLT) onsite to provide coverage before the drone was deployed. Once the drone was in place, the truck’s satellite was switched off. The team regained coverage as soon as the drone was activated.
Ultimately, one drone will be able to cover an area up to 40 square miles, AT&T says — about the size of a 100 football fields
Once in operational status, the drones will be able to fly at just under 400 feet, capped by FAA regulations. The FAA’s drone rules create other limitations
AT&T’s flying COWs are better than they sound
http://www.zdnet.com/article/at-ts-flying-cows-are-better-than-they-sound/
AT&T is testing LTE-enabled drones for aerial inspections, disaster-relief efforts, and providing temporary cell phone service at crowded events.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
How competition from T-Mobile forced bigger carriers to offer “unlimited” data plans again, and how those plans compare
Why every US carrier has a new unlimited plan
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/17/14647870/us-carrier-unlimited-plans-competition-tmobile-verizon-att-sprint
It’s been a weird week in the world of major cell providers. After years of moving away from offering unlimited plans after the rise of data-hungry smartphones, Verizon announced out of the blue on Sunday that it would be offering a new unlimited plan to customers again. T-Mobile, who had previously led the way by removing tiered data back in January, updated its own unlimited plan to match. The move was followed by Sprint and AT&T by the end of the week.
Verizon’s unexpected move in offering unlimited data — for the first time since discontinuing the plan back in 2011 — seems to be the factor that caused the rest of the carriers to follow suit. But the question remains: why? Verizon has famously spent the past several years doing everything in its power to limit and raise prices on the last few grandfathered unlimited plans.
The simple answer is competition. T-Mobile, for all its underdog nipping at Verizon’s heels, is slowly catching up to Verizon
“Verizon’s perceived network advantage is no longer strong enough to keep its best customers on unattractive rate plans and it was forced to respond,”
That’s supported by T-Mobile’s own reports — the company specifically noted that porting rates from all other carriers have improved since it started only offering unlimited plans with taxes and fees included in the plan price on January 22nd.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5G will be the first 28-gigahertz
Federal Communications Commission FCC has practically decided that the first 5G is made available to 28 GHz frequency range. This is also reflected in the product mix of companies. 28 gigahertz imported equipment at an accelerating pace.
Measuring equipment manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz promises to introduce a week after the Barcelona Mobile World Congress for the first test solution to market 5G-network coverage for the characterization of airborne task.
Test the scanner and software to produce, for example, measurement data paths 28 gigahertz signals
responsible for Rohde & Schwarz has a mobile test equipment, group director Hanspeter Bobst says that now the market will need to quickly validate the initial 5G implementations. Field tested tester and LTE-Advanced combination of software used to troubleshoot networks will use a tool to 5G of the first implementations can be tested.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/5869-5g-tulee-ensiksi-28-gigahertsissa
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4457848/Xilinx-fires-a-5G-solution-shot-across-the-bow-of-traditional-RF-and-data-converter-companies?_mc=sm_edn&hootPostID=14116d6a9042733afea2c05b194ac0ef
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sebastian Anthony / Ars Technica UK:
International Telecommunication Union announces 5G specs: 20Gbps download, 1ms latency, support for up to 1M devices per square kilometer — The total download capacity for a single 5G cell must be at least 20Gbps, the International Telcommunication Union (ITU) has decided.
5G specs announced: 20Gbps download, 1ms latency, 1M devices per square km
Mobile 5G should be finalised in November, then they go and make the actual tech.
https://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2017/02/5g-imt-2020-specs/
The total download capacity for a single 5G cell must be at least 20Gbps, the International Telcommunication Union (ITU) has decided. In contrast, the peak data rate for current LTE cells is about 1Gbps. The incoming 5G standard must also support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometre, and the standard will require carriers to have at least 100MHz of free spectrum, scaling up to 1GHz where feasible.
These requirements come from the ITU’s draft report on the technical requirements for IMT-2020 (aka 5G) radio interfaces, which was published Thursday. The document is technically just a draft at this point, but that’s underselling its significance: it will likely be approved and finalised in November this year, at which point work begins in earnest on building 5G tech.
5G peak data rate
The specification calls for at least 20Gbps downlink and 10Gbps uplink per mobile base station. This is the total amount of traffic that can be handled by a single cell. In theory, fixed wireless broadband users might get speeds close to this with 5G, if they have a dedicated point-to-point connection. In reality, those 20 gigabits will be split between all of the users on the cell.
Similar to LTE and LTE-Advanced, the 5G spec calls for base stations that can support everything from 0km/h all the way up to “500km/h high speed vehicular” access (i.e. trains).
5G latency
Under ideal circumstances, 5G networks should offer users a maximum latency of just 4ms, down from about 20ms on LTE cells. The 5G spec also calls for a latency of just 1ms for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC).
5G spectral efficiency
It sounds like 5G’s peak spectral efficiency—how many bits can be carried through the air per hertz of spectrum—is very close to LTE-Advanced, at 30bits/Hz downlink and 15 bits/Hz uplink. These figures are assuming 8×4 MIMO (8 spatial layers down, 4 spatial layers up).
5G real-world data rate
Finally, despite the peak capacity of each 5G cell, the spec “only” calls for a per-user download speed of 100Mbps and upload speed of 50Mbps. These are pretty close to the speeds you might achieve on EE’s LTE-Advanced network, though with 5G it sounds like you will always get at least 100Mbps down, rather than on a good day, down hill, with the wind behind you.
The draft 5G spec also calls for increased reliability (i.e. packets should almost always get to the base station within 1ms), and the interruption time when moving between 5G cells should be 0ms—it must be instantaneous with no drop-outs.
The next step, as shown in the image above, is to turn the fluffy 5G draft spec into real technology. How will peak data rates of 20Gbps be achieved? What blocks of spectrum will 5G actually use? 100MHz of clear spectrum is quite hard to come by below 2.5GHz, but relatively easy above 6GHz.
ITU-R SG05 Contribution 40
https://www.itu.int/md/R15-SG05-C-0040/en
Draft new Report ITU-R M.[IMT-2020.TECH PERF REQ] – Minimum requirements related to technical performance for IMT-2020 radio interface(s)
Tomi Engdahl says:
The SIM card is lost from machines
Embedded SIM card has been talked about for a long time communication between machines and the IoT hype the debate only to accelerate. The chip card manufacturer Gemalto now says it has developed eSIM solution, which remote management GSMA has passed the rigorous testing organization.
In practice, have passed the tests means that the use of M2M connections, the SIM card is ready to retire. Devices can be integrated software pre SIM-based solution and can be used with ETA, and as desired by modifying.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/5902-sim-kortti-katoaa-koneista
Tomi Engdahl says:
How 5G might help turn aging municipalities into vibrant smart cities
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/how-5g-might-help-turn-aging-municipalities-into-vibrant-smart-cities.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-20
The next generation of wireless network infrastructure will undoubtedly be built using small cell networks employing 5G wireless technology. A newly available report presents how the connectivity and computing capacity unleashed by these high-speed wireless networks stands to have significant economic and community benefits, through reductions in energy usage, traffic congestion and fuel costs, and by creating jobs as well as entire new industries across the United States.
FCC cuts historic site regulations for 5G small cell, DAS roll-outs
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/08/fcc-cuts-historic-site-regulations-for-5g-small-cell-das-roll-outs.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
CTIA pushes FCC to clear local roadblocks to small cell, 5G deployments
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/ctia-pushes-fcc-to-clear-local-roadblocks-to-small-cell-5g-deployments.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-20
Wireless trade group CTIA has pushed the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with a proposal to clear the way at the state and local level for 5G infrastructure, while also pushing for spectrum to meet wireless demand
A high-ranking CTIA executive met with FCC officials last week to continue to push for streamlined policies for deploying small cells, reports FierceWireless.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The high-data-rate wait for Category 8
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-25/issue-2/features/design/the-high-data-rate-wait-for-category-8.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-20
If the high-data-rate applications 25 and 40GBASE-T can be compared to high-performance automobiles, and the cabling systems upon which they’ll run can be compared to highways, then the current state of the technological market is that the plans for those highways have been approved. There are no actual highways built yet, but that’s not holding up the process, because there also are no high-performance automobiles ready to race up and down them. Such is the status of Category 8 cabling systems and 25/40GBASE-T Ethernet systems.
The “plans have been approved” analogy refers to the respective standards for these technologies. In June the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) approved the Category 8 specs, ANSI/TIA-568-C.2-1. Very shortly thereafter the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) approved the 25/40GBase-T specifications, officially titled 802.3bq Standard for Ethernet Amendment: Physical Layer and Management Parameters for 25 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s Operation, Types 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T. The development of each standard was a multiple-year process.
“Category 8 cabling quadruples the specified bandwidth of balanced twisted-pair cabling from 500 MHz to 2000 MHz. This quadrupling of cabling bandwidth is utilized by the 40GBASE-T application to quadruple the previous maximum BASE-T data rate of 10 GB to a new maximum of 40 GB. The higher data rate was achieved while preserving backward compatibility, standardized RJ45 interfaces and cabling that is very similar to previous categories in size and installation practices. These higher data rates are supported over a maximum reach of 30 meters of cabling with two connections sufficient to serve a row of 20 cabinets or racks in equipment rooms or data centers.”
“Category 8 enables high-speed applications to use mid-span and end-span switch placements with structured cabling between the switches and servers”
With the TIA Category 8 standard published and the ISO/IEC specifications for Category 8.1/8.2 and Class I/Class II nearly complete, the industry is in a state of waiting for widespread availability of Category products and systems. Some, but not many, have hit the market.
In mid-2016 Nexans introduced the LANmark-8 end-to-end twisted-pair cabling system, which the company says is fully compliant with the ISO/IEC’s draft Class I/Class II cabling standards. “The new generation of twisted-pair cabling is designed to support growing data needs by enabling cost savings for BASE-T protocols compared to fiber or twinax solutions,”
So the high-performance automobiles (25/40GBASE-T) haven’t yet rolled off the assembly line, and there are scant few roads (Category 8 products) upon which they could drive. But if you wanted to conduct a “road test” of sorts, you could do that-because several testers with Category 8 capability are available.
In October the TIA authorized publication of the ANSI/TIA-1152-A standard, which covers field testing of installed Category 8 cabling systems.
“The Fluke Networks DSX-8000 CableAnalyzer has been confirmed by Intertek to meet the ANSI/TIA-1152-A level 2G requirements for measurement accuracy,”
Panduit has endorsed the DSX-8000 CableAnalyzer and verified that it meets all Category 8 requirements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fundamentals of Communications Access Technologies: FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, OFDMA, AND SDMA
Accommodating multiple users in a single bandwidth is the essence of access methods.
http://electronicdesign.com/communications/fundamentals-communications-access-technologies-fdma-tdma-cdma-ofdma-and-sdma?code=UM_Classics02217&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=9765&utm_medium=email&elq2=13b151bfdad64d90b5edb6e23c2ba77c
Access methods are multiplexing techniques that provide communications services to multiple users in a single-bandwidth wired or wireless medium. Communications channels, whether they’re wireless spectrum segments or cable connections, are expensive. Communications services providers must engage multiple paid users over limited resources to make a profit. Access methods allow many users to share these limited channels to provide the economy of scale necessary for a successful communications business. There are five basic access or multiplexing methods: frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), and spatial division multiple access (SDMA).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Network neutrality déjà vu
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4457425/Network-neutrality-d-j–vu
Back in March 2011, nearly six years (and a thousand miles) away from where I now find myself, I published a diatribe about AT&T’s planned DSL (150 GB/month) and fiber (250 GB/month) Internet usage caps, along with $10/50 GB surcharges beyond those thresholds. I gave AT&T grief for its claimed motivation for the move, network congestion, noting that if this were the case the company could just bandwidth-throttle heavy users until the bottlenecks eased. Instead, I postulated, this was a thinly disguised attempt to boost per-customer revenue by penalizing what would soon become “normal” monthly bandwidth usage, if it wasn’t already the case.
Well, it’s déjà vu time. I’m now in Colorado, not California, and my broadband provider is Comcast. And I’ve recently gotten word, although not yet from Comcast itself, that the download-plus-upload caps it’s been beta-testing in a few markets since 2012 were now more broadly rolling out … including to Colorado. The original threshold was 300 GBytes; this year, citing customer “feedback,” it boosted the cap to 1 TByte. Beyond that point, you’re charged $10/50 GB (sound familiar?); alternatively, for an extra $50/month, you can remain completely uncapped.
Comcast claims that the cap won’t affect more than 99% of its customers … at least per their current broadband usage patterns (which inevitably increase over time, however). You’re given two months’ (not necessarily even consecutive, either) “grace period” worth of >1 TByte usage every 12 month period without penalty, too.
So, what’s my beef? For one thing, as I earlier alluded to, broadband use tends to steadily-to-exponentially increase over time … more people (and devices) per residence, more connectivity persistence per device, more broadband-connected services utilized, ever-higher resolution video payloads, etc. Just because “more than 99%” of my fellow Comcast customers and I are under 1 TB/month now doesn’t mean we’ll continue to be in the future … and I bet Comcast is betting on it.
Secondly, it’s a good thing I heard about the cap from my Internet news services, because Comcast hasn’t bothered to tell me directly. Supposedly, the cap went into force on November 1; I still haven’t heard a single word from them.
Finally, and unsurprisingly, Comcast’s own services are exempt from the caps. Want VoIP from Ooma? Prepare to pay up, if it pushes you over the threshold. Comcast VoIP? No problemo, cap-free. The same goes for pay-per-view movies direct from Comcast versus video streaming from Netflix, for example … although ironically, Comcast just added native Netflix support to its X1 set-top box line.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cable’s Increasingly Wireless Future
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/02/cable-s-increasingly-wireless-future.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-02-23
With Mobile World Congress approaching, it is worth taking note that at CableLabs, wireless technology represents the largest area of research. Of the approximately 58 MSO members worldwide, 24 are already mobile network operators. WiFi is the largest carrier of mobile data, and the majority of WiFi sits on the cable network, said CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney.
“Cable is the largest transport network for wireless data in the world. It is part of the network today and always has been,” McKinney said. “Wireless today is core to the cable industry because customers don’t want to leave their broadband when they walk out the front door. They want reach and access to broadband no matter where they are.”
One of the wireless projects engaging CableLabs involves the 3.5 GHz band. What this means for cable operators is the ability to use LTE technology without being a mobile operator with its own spectrum.
“Cable can use LTE as a technology as small as cells deployed in homes and offices,”
CableLabs also is participating in the MulteFire Alliance, which is working on 3GPP License Assisted LTE Access.
In order to use 3.5 GHz, devices need to have a built-in radio, which Smyth anticipates will happen in the next two years. Since MulteFire already supports WiFi, devices already have the necessary radios.
“My view is that 3.5 GHz will happen first and support native (LTE) technology.”
A sidebar to the 3.5 GHz story, however, is that certain radar systems on U.S. Navy ships utilize the band. Currently, there is an exclusion zone that reaches 50-70 km off the U.S. coasts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Survey: Subs Willing to Pay More for Better WiFi
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/02/survey-subs-willing-to-pay-more-for-better-wifi.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-02-23
According to a survey on WiFi commissioned by AirTies, 74% of respondents would consider upgrading to a faster tier of Internet service if they were ensured better speed and coverage in every room of their home or apartment; 77% said they would be willing to pay an extra monthly fee for better WiFi.
The survey of 1,050 respondents in the United States and UK, with multiple WiFi users per home, indicated that 78% of consumers surveyed would prefer that their Internet service providers (ISPs) provide them with their in-home WiFi networking gear, vs. purchasing it themselves. The survey also indicated that 43% of respondents have areas in their home or apartment where Internet service does not work, and that 54% have called their ISP to complain about their home Internet or WiFi.
“When most consumers think about their own home Internet experience, they don’t view WiFi as something separate. This is why they are quick to call or blame their ISPs for performance issues,”
Consumers ranked home Internet/broadband service to be more important than pay TV or home telephone service; 63% ranked it No. 1, while fewer than 20% ranked either TV or home phone as being most important.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sprint, Ericsson to Demo Gigabit over LTE TDD
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/02/sprint-ericsson-to-demo-gigabit-over-lte-tdd.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-02-23
At Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Sprint (NYSE:S) plan to run a live demonstration of gigabit throughput via LTE TDD (time division duplex) over 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band.
LTE TDD is a mode of the LTE wireless standard for unpaired spectrum that evolved from TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access). It uses a single shared frequency for both upstream and downstream transmission, as opposed to LTE FDD (frequency division duplex), which uses two frequencies, one for upstream and another for downstream.
Dr. John Saw, Sprint CTO, said: “This demonstration highlights the incredible capacity and potential of Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings
Sprint has more than 160 MHz of 2.5 GHz (B41) spectrum in 100 U.S. markets and has deployed three-channel carrier aggregation (3CA) on 2.5 GHz in more than 100 markets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dual mixer enables 5G wireless access
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4457399/Mixer-enables-5G-wireless-access
Optimized for 5G MIMO receivers, the LTC5566 downconverting mixer from Linear Technology is equipped with programmable-gain IF amplifiers. The dual mixer has a very wide 300-MHz to 6-GHz input frequency range and supports IF bandwidths of up to 400 MHz.
Each channel of the LTC5566 incorporates an active mixer and a digital IF variable-gain amplifier with a 15.5-dB gain-control range. The gain of each channel is independently programmable in 0.5-dB steps via an on-chip SPI bus. With each channel driving an ADC, the fine gain control provides a simple means to balance the gain of the two channels and calibrate to the optimum level with minimal external components.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3 mistakes some electricians made installing data cables at our jobsite
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/02/electricians-data-cables.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-23
“electricians are often contracted to run data cable (Cat5e, Cat6) while installing electrical wire. Many times, they do a bad job and we have to clean up the mess,” opines the Canadian structured cabling installer firm.
– “They pull too hard on the data cable, causing it to tear or bend.”
– “They do not support the data cable in the ceiling properly.”
– “They do not terminate the data cable properly. This causes it to fail its certification.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xilinx fires a 5G solution shot across the bow of RF and data converter companies
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4457848/Xilinx-fires-a-5G-solution-shot-across-the-bow-of-traditional-RF-and-data-converter-companies
Well, now we are on the road to 5G and fast approaching the need for better signal chain solutions and Xilinx has rocked the industry again. They have embedded RF-class analog technology into their 16nm, all programmable MPSoC architecture. This new RFSoC design does not need discrete external data converters because they have integrated high speed/high performance ADCs and DACs into their SoC solution with a direct RF sampling architecture, bringing the industry closer to the goal of the software defined radio. This added flexibility in the digital domain is great news for 5G with massive MIMO, as well as for millimeter wave wireless backhaul needs. Xilinx claims an amazing board footprint and power savings reduction of 50 to 75%.
Moving from 4G to 5G
Today’s 4G radio access networks (RAN) have a bundle of lossy coaxial cables and wires to deal with in order to connect with remote radio heads (RRH). This system has power losses that need to be mitigated
For many years, designers have been on the ever-elusive quest of moving the digital and analog radios closer and closer to the antenna. The first step toward this goal was using active antenna arrays
The active antenna array worked for 4G systems, but with the advent of the huge number of connected devices for a viable 5G system, designers needed something new. Along came massive MIMO and beam-forming. These were a good start toward making 5G a reality.
Taking this design to the next level, layouts like mounting “tiles” along the exterior of a building, or billboards/signs, etc. are possible
Now here is where the Xilinx all-programmable RFSoC will enable an architecture to leap-frog to the next major step toward realizing 5G—a system design that is scalable for a flexible design with sub-arrays
Xilinx has managed to cleverly take routing a step further in simplicity by eliminating existing high-speed data converter interface lines presently running around 12.5Gb/s with the JESD204B protocol and eliminate those PB board lines altogether
The Xilinx integration of the high speed data converters onto their RFSoC takes the PC board from the top image to the smaller bottom image. This reduces power, board footprint, and speeds a designer’s time-to-market by removing the JESD204B IP cores and serial transceivers from the equation.
What will direct RF sampling do for flexibility?
Conventional intermediate frequency (IF) sampling provides for analog signal conditioning before the ADC. This architecture provides for a pretty power-efficient design, but the multiple analog filter components will have a larger footprint on the PC board, a more complex BOM with bulk analog filter components, and restricted flexibility because of fixed bulk components
Putting the signal conditioning in the digital domain after the ADC sampling will provide the designer with a greater flexibility in the digital domain, eliminating the higher power, higher sampling, larger board footprint, and BOM complexity of discrete filter components
By using the TSMC 16nm FinFET advanced CMOS process, Xilinx has created its all programmable RFSoc with integrated digital front-end (DFE), multi-channel scalability needed for 5G, and elimination of the JESD204B bus. This complete RF data converter subsystem on an integrated platform, which I never thought would happen this soon
My concern here was crosstalk between the multiple DACs and ADCs. In the 2015 paper, it was reported as follows:
FPGA-to-analog crosstalk was measured by mapping 100 k D-FFs to the FPGA. The D-FFs were simultaneously toggling at the FPGA clock rate while driving 2048 SLLs connected to the 16 DACs. The measurement was done while the DAC synthesized a 70 MHz full scale output tone at 800 MS/s using on-die memory. Measured crosstalk was better than 92 dBc for up to 12 W of switching power.
The same measurement was performed on the ADC while sampling a 70 MHz input tone at 250 MS/s. The crosstalk was not observable as it was lower than the ADC noise floor.
Pretty darn good. And for performance: Receive SNDR 61.6 dBFS to Nyquist at 500 MS/s and transmit SFDR 63.8 dBc to 400 MHz at 1.6 GS/s was measured. I never thought I would see that in an IC with an FPGA.
So TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process and Xilinx clever designers have combined to show exceptional high speed analog results, especially in the performance/watt of the converter subsystems in the RFSoC.
The IC is using a ZYNC Ultrascale+ MPSoC 64 bit processor scalability. Xilinx claims that this IC will apply Moore’s Law to analog. I agree. Let’s see how the 2018 and 2020 Olympics deploy some of this technology to realize 5G promises.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Custom Hardware Thriving
http://semiengineering.com/custom-hardware-thriving/
Predictions about software-driven design with commoditized IoT hardware were wrong.
In the early days of the IoT, predictions about the commoditization of hardware and the end of customized hardware were everywhere. Several years later, those predictions are being proven wrong.
Off-the-shelf components have not replaced customized hardware, and software has not dictated all designs. In fact, in many cases the exact opposite has happened. And where software does play an elevated role in those designs, it often is part of a tighter integration of hardware and software for power and/or performance reasons.
This is precisely what happened with software-defined networking.
Case in point: Intel has 97% market share in data centers, but instead of building the ultimate processing machine and selling the same device to everybody, it recognized that what Facebook wants is going to be different from what Tencent or Docomo are looking for.
“With that customization, if you think you can commoditize hardware, that’s a mythical concept,” Mohandass said. “There’s always a struggle of what you can do in hardware, and what you can do in software. But you can’t commoditize hardware. It’s not possible.”
The only way this scenario could possibly flip would be if commoditization of hardware added value, but this is not the way the semiconductor industry has evolved. There is innovation occurring on many fronts, despite industry consolidation, and that trend shows no signs of abating.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Embedded computing market projected to grow, but challenges remain
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/embedded-computing-market-projected-to-grow-but-challenges-remain/79ebec0fed13b1607a8a07c2549b4ba5.html
IHS Markit’s projects that the embedded computing market, currently valued at an estimated $2.54 billion in 2015, will grow for the next 5 years at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7%, but ATCA revenues have declined.
Sales in 2017 typically depend on design wins made in 2014 and 2015 and grow at different rates for different form-factors because of varying sector exposure. Commercial communication projects, for example, have typically become “run rate” business faster than defense, civil aerospace or railway projects. System-level technologies typically reach run rate business faster than board-level business.
For system-level ATCA, for example, 2014 was a reasonable year for design wins. However, vendors report that the outcome of these wins has not materialized into the production runs originally forecast. In some cases, system vendors would offer both ATCA-based and software-based products simultaneously and the latter outsold ATCA systems by far. As a result, ATCA vendors may have to transition away from a focus on hardware and telecom platforms to a more software-centric one, for example, by investing in new product lines to enable the transition to SDN/NFV environments.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From ‘Wired’ magazine: ‘What is 5G, and when do I get it?’
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/from-wired-magazine-what-is-5g-and-when-do-i-get-it.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-27
Excerpted from ‘Wired’ magazine: “Right now, it probably reads 4G LTE, and you’re probably fine with that. But soon—and we’re talking years, not months—your phone will say 5G there instead. The mobile industry is buzzing about this next generation of high-speed wireless service, and you can expect the chatter to get even louder at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.”
Also, 5G is about more than just shuttling GBs to and from your iPhone more quickly. The 5G revolution will cast a much wider net. It’s an information conduit being built to connect self-driving cars, VR headsets, delivery drones, and billions of interconnected devices inside the home.
The 5G networks being planned right now will operate in a high-frequency band of the wireless spectrum—between 30 GHz and 300 GHz, in what’s known as the millimeter wave spectrum. These millimeter waves can transfer heaps of data at very high speeds, but they don’t travel as far as the lower-frequency waves used in 4G networks.
High-frequency millimeter waves also have difficulty getting around walls, buildings, and other obstacles.
That’s partly why some 5G participants, like Qualcomm and Intel, are experimenting also in the sub-6 GHz range, as a way to supplement fickle millimeter wave signals with something more stable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xilinx fires a 5G solution shot across the bow of RF and data converter companies
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4457848/Xilinx-fires-a-5G-solution-shot-across-the-bow-of-traditional-RF-and-data-converter-companies
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Manhattan Neighbors for Safer Telecommunications’ launches; advocacy group seeks to educate on cell phone, wireless risks
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/manhattan-neighbors-for-safer-telecommunications-launches-advocacy-group-seeks-to-educate-on-cell-ph.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-27
The municipal advocacy group points out that the “WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer calls the radiation emitted by telecommunications antennas a Group 2B ‘Possible Carcinogen,’ but that antennas keep going up on residential buildings, benefiting owners while risking the health of residents.”
A new education and advocacy group focused on cell phone and wireless risks, Manhattan Neighbors for Safer Telecommunications, has launched. Manhattan Neighbors’ (www.ManhattanNeighbors.org) stated mission is “to educate about biological and health risks from microwave radiation-emitting devices and infrastructure, while teaching people how to live more prudently with modern technologies.”
As noted by the group, “In 2011, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the radiation from cell phones, wireless devices and wireless infrastructure as a possible carcinogen. And in 2016, a $25 million dollar study from the U.S. NIH’s National Toxicology Program confirmed this risk. “
Tomi Engdahl says:
Belden’s new 4K Ultra-HD shielded twisted-pair AV media cables deliver HDBaseT signals up to 100m
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/02/belden-ultrahd.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-27
Belden (NYSE: BDC) announced the launch of its new 4K Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) Media Cables, models 2183P (plenum) and 2183R (riser). The Belden 4K UHD Media Cables product line is designed specifically to deliver 4K content over HDBaseT up to 100 meters in a unique, small, sleek design. The products are now available for purchase through authorized Belden distributors.
“Belden conducted extensive HDBaseT testing in its Belden Engineering Center to better understand which cable characteristics best support the higher bandwidth needs of 4K video,”
The 4K UHD Media Cables are manufactured using Belden’s patented Bonded-Pair technology
The cable is rated to withstand 45 pounds of pull tension, much more than the typical 25 pounds of similar networking cables.
The Belden 4K UHD Media Cables are also up to 25% smaller than other HDBaseT cabling solutions, such as Cat 7A
Tomi Engdahl says:
NFV SOLUTIONS ENGINEERED FOR THE EDGE
http://www.enea.com/nfv-solutions/nfv-solutions-for-the-edge/
We provide the foundation for tomorrow’s virtualized network functions with best-in-class network virtualization software. Our solutions enable automation and flexibility for network operators and service providers.
We provide hardened solutions based on leading open source technology. We optimize, extend, and integrate to provide solutions that runs out-of-the-box. Our own solutions and technology complement it and provides an alternative. Our offering include NFV infrastructure, MANO solutions, VNF components, and lab infrastructure for development and methodology.
We provide OPNFV and OpenStack based NFV infrastructure to telecom operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers. We configure, optimize, enhance and integrate software solutions. Our solutions are hardened through extensive testing and validation together with partners and customers to provide carrier-grade reliability.
http://www.enea.com/about-us/events/mobile-world-congress-2017/
At the Mobile World Congress we will demonstrate our recent SDN/NFV advancements, particularly around edge solutions and vCPE platforms, and operating system solutions addressing 5G/LTE-A and eNodeB use cases.
Enea Element and Enea ElementCenter Demo
Enea NFV Platform Demo
NFV Flow Based Monitoring Demo
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enea and Lanner demonstrate multi-architecture Proof-of-Concept vCPE solution at Mobile World Congress
http://www.enea.com/press-releases/Item/?id=9EFEBED3877090F9
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, February 22, 2017 – Enea® (NASDAQ OMX Nordic:ENEA) together with Lanner Electronics Inc. (TAIEX 6245) today announced a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) of a commercial Network Function Virtualization (NFV) solution built on OPNFV running on both x86 and ARM based COTS hardware. Using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) virtual Customer Premise Equipment (vCPE) brings a promise of lower cost and lower power consumption, and equips customers with better architectural choice for their specific use case.
The NFV edge Proof-of-Concept
The PoC shows how NFV will help to push functionality and data streams to the edge where it can run on cheaper hardware and not congest the network.
Enea will run its network virtualization software platform on a central office server that sets up and initiates a video call between two tablets; one connected to an x86 based Lanner device, and one connected to an ARM based device. The demo highlights how data can stream between two efficient vCPE devices without putting a load on nodes in the network.
“Our OPNFV based software platform is flexible enough to seamlessly mix different vCPE architectures, and delivers the characteristics necessary for leveraging the benefits of NFV in the edge use case”,
Tomi Engdahl says:
What to Expect from 5G Wireless in 2017
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331397&
Test will play a significant role in how 5G moves towards deployment. National Instruments’ director of SDR marketing James Kimery explains what to look for.
We’re nearly two months into 2017 and 5G continues to capture headlines. At CES in early January, Qualcomm featured 5G prominently in their keynote, making it clear that the company has embraced the 5G challenge in a big way. When you take into account that AT&T and Verizon have also recently announced their intent to conduct 5G field trials in the U.S. in 2017 and early 2018, it’s beginning to look like 2017 will be a pivotal year for 5G. Here are a few speculative prognostications as we stand at the precipice of a new wireless world.
Standards take shape
The 3GPP standardization body has defined two phases of 5G standards development appropriately named Phase 1 and Phase 2. In 2017, the 3GPP will be driving to define the first unified standard for Phase 1. In March, the 3GPP will kick off the first 5G work item with an expected completion in September 2018.
Although 5G Phase 1, otherwise known as 3GPP Release 15, is expected to complete in 2018, we should get a clear picture of what will be included in the standard throughout 2017 as researchers around the world take on the monumental task of defining and standardizing each component of a new end-to-end network.
Because the standard won’t be finalized until 2018, companies need to begin commercializing the technology in 2017 to ensure mass deployments in 2018.
mmWave moves forward
Behind landmark announcements from the FCC, Verizon and AT&T, mmWave gained a lot of momentum in 2016 and we expect that to continue in 2017 with the first field trials of pre-release mmWave technology. Behind Verizon’s own “5G” specification infrastructure, customer premises equipment and smart device companies will be working furiously to deliver products that address the service operator’s aggressive timelines.
As South Korea has earmarked the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics to showcase 5G technologies, we will also be looking for more testing of mmWave use in a true mobile environment.
2017 is shaping up to be a pivotal year with monumental milestones for 5G. Commercial companies will shift investments from research to product development using the latest cutting edge technology—an unpredictable exercise as mmWave is still very new and not widely commercialized yet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Giant loophole makes a joke of EU’s roaming law
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/giant-loophole-makes-a-joke-of-eus-roaming-law-35491608.html
We are all fools. We believed them when they said that EU roaming costs would be abolished on June 15. Now we discover that there’s a giant loophole.
Three and Meteor say that the EU law ushering in a “roam like home” era this summer doesn’t apply if they jigger about with their terms and conditions.
Under the benign gaze of the telecoms regulator Comreg, two out of three of Ireland’s biggest mobile operators now openly say that their customers won’t get the same amount of data when travelling abroad in the EU as they will at home.
It has new terms and conditions as part of its €5-a-month price rise. It will keep offering ‘all you can eat’ data (up to 60GB according to its small print) at home. But Three now says that this is a “service benefit”, not a “core” part of the contract. The “core” part will be a fraction of its actual 60GB limit, as low as 1GB (and up to 7GB). By “restructuring” it this way, it only has to honour the lower bit when its customers travel across the EU and try to “roam like home”. Charges of €60 for every gigabyte will apply thereafter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cybersecurity: The Key is Making it Easy
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/02/cybersecurity-the-tough-task-of-making-it-easy.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-02-28&[email protected]&eid=289644432&bid=1677363
Cybersecurity is often looked at as a necessary evil and a burden to be endured, but instead it should be considered an opportunity to improve customer experience.
“No one wants to pay for different security products unless they have to or if they were affected by an incident. What they will pay for is a better user experience,” said Michael Glenn, VP of cybersecurity at CableLabs.
What businesses should take into account is that a security breach degrades the customer experience, Glenn wrote in a recent blog. For cable operators, an attack could affect the infrastructure, operator-supplied equipment or third-party purchased equipment. One infected computer could impact all the devices on a network and lead to increased truck rolls and customer dissatisfaction.
“The (most) common passwords are ‘password’ or ’123456′,” Glenn said. “This clearly says it’s not a matter of education around consumer behavior. We have to change the experience for users so they don’t have to remember those passwords.”
Public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates use a protected private key stored on a device and a public key. In the cable industry, the certificate is able to validate device identity and authenticate onto the network, with authorization level and modem identity.
The revamping of the process begins with getting people to think differently about security. “Complexity is the enemy of security,” Glenn said. “If you make procedures for employees too complicated, they will ignore it or bypass it …. If you make processes too hard, you get a lower level of security than if you had simplified processes.”
It is similar in a way to designing a good, simple-to-use, user interface, which can be difficult to do. “It takes a lot of work.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Switch unveils Tahoe Reno 1, world’s largest colocation data center
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2017/02/switch-unveils-tahoe-reno-1-world-s-largest-colocation-data-center.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-28
As reported by Datacenter Dynamics, “Switch has opened the world’s largest colocation facility in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Nevada, as part of its plans to develop the largest data center complex on Earth. Built and designed to Tier IV standards, Tahoe Reno 1 consists of 1.3 million square feet of data center space, with plans for a total of 7.2 million sq ft. [The current facility] has a power capacity of 130 MW, a fifth of its 650 MW goal.”
Surrounded by a 20-foot concrete wall, the complex, also known as the Citadel Campus, is set on a 2,000 acre stretch of land, neighboring Tesla’s Gigafactory. Switch highlighted the data center’s security, reliability and low latency, which is backed by the Superloop system, a 500-mile, multi-terabyte fiber optic network to San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as the company’s 2.5 million sq ft of data center space located in Las Vegas with 10Gbps circuits at 4-millisecond latency. The facility has a tri-redundant UPS power system, and offers up to 42 kW of power per cabinet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud to account for 92% of data center traffic by 2020: Cisco
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/11/cloud-to-account-for-92-of-data-center-traffic-by-2020-cisco.html
In the latest edition of its “Global Cloud Index” report, Cisco collected data from organizations like Gartner, IDC, Juniper Research, Ovum, Synergy, ITU, and the United Nations, and combined it with its own networking metrics. According to the results, an estimated 68 percent of cloud workloads will be deployed in public cloud data centers by 2020, up from 49 percent in 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data center placement, FO network design key to more efficient cloud computing: Researcher
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/02/ofc-researcher.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-02-28
An American researcher has developed a mathematical model that offers the potential to improve the flow of internet traffic generated by cloud computing by optimizing data center placement and utilizing distance-adaptive transmission technology. The scholarly work will be presented at the upcoming OFC 2017 tradeshow in Los Angeles.
Traditionally, the rate at which information is transmitted does not consider the distance that data must travel, despite the fact that shorter distances can support higher rates. Yet as the traffic grows in volume and uses increasingly more of the available bandwidth, or capacity to transfer bits of data, researchers have become increasingly aware of some of the limitations of this mode of transmission. New research from Nokia Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey may offer a way to capitalize on this notion and offer improved data transfer rates for cloud computing based traffic.
Guan says he worked with a newly emerged transmission technology called “distance-adaptive transmission,” where the equipment that receives and transmits these light signals can change the rate of transmission depending on how far the data must travel. With this, he set about building a mathematical model to determine the optimal lay-out of network infrastructure for data transfer.
“My preliminary results showed that in a continental-scale network with optimized data center placement and bandwidth allocation, distance-adaptive transmission can use 50 percent less wavelength resources or light transmission, and reception equipment, compared to fixed-rate rate transmission,” he explains. “On a functional level, this could allow cloud service providers to significantly increase the volume of traffic supported on the existing fiber-optic network with the same wavelength resources.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei is considering cell towers that wirelessly charge drones
Cell towers could power the drones that fly above them.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/02/27/huawei-drone-charging-cell-towers/
Huawei’s big news at MWC was, of course, the P10 handset and a new watch. The company does have its fingers in other pies, though, and one of those is the drone game. Far away from the exhibition halls where all the smartphones are on display is an area called “Innovation City” (it’s more of a hamlet, but we’ll go along with it). Here, Huawei is demoing a number of quirky ideas, one of which is a grand plan to help solve the short battery lives of drones — and it’s as curious as it is clever. In case you were worried, that’s a scale model of a cell tower above. The plan isn’t to have mega drones.
The concept is part of Huawei’s X Labs project (in partnership with China Mobile). The team behind it identified what it thinks are the two main problems when it comes to using drones for cell site inspection: battery life, and GPS interference from buildings. A spokesperson suggested that GPS issue is also often a significant contributor to the battery life issue. The proposed solution is to have cell towers boost GPS data, passing it to the drone while also providing wireless charging.
In the future, the company hopes that wireless charging will be good enough that the drone won’t need to land at all, but that seems a few years off