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T‑Mobile expands Home Internet to over 130 additional cities
T-Mobile US will increase its Home Internet service to more than 130 additional cities and towns across Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The move comes after it massively expanded its home broadband pilot to more than 20 million households in October.
The $50/month Home Internet pilot service will be deployed in underserved rural markets — through LTE-based coverage, with 5G service coming soon. The company says that only 63 percent of adults in rural America currently have access to high-speed internet.
“Home broadband has been broken for far too long, especially for those in rural areas, and it’s time that cable and telco ISPs have some competition,” said Dow Draper, T-Mobile EVP, Emerging Products. “We’ve already brought T-Mobile Home Internet access to millions of customers who have been underserved by the competition. But we’re just getting started. As we’ve seen in our first few months together with Sprint, our combined network will continue to unlock benefits for our customers, laying the groundwork to bring 5G to Home Internet soon.”
T-Mobile Home Internet is just $50/month all-in and features many of the same benefits that have made T-Mobile the fastest growing wireless provider for the past seven years:
- Self-installation. That means there’s no need for installers to come to your home.
- Taxes and fees included.
- No annual service contracts.
- No maddening “introductory” price offers. What you pay at sign-up is what you’ll pay as long as you have service.
- No hardware rental, sign-up fee or installation costs (because set-up is so easy!).
- No data caps.
- Customer support from the team that consistently ranks #1 in customer service satisfaction year after year.
Now that customers have had access to T-Mobile Home Internet since 2019, the reviews are in … and the feedback speaks for itself. Customers give T-Mobile Home Internet an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 42, compared to -75 (that’s a negative 75!) for their previous provider. Seventy-three percent report saving money with T-Mobile Home Internet, with 50% saving more than $30 per month (that’s $360 annually!).
The Home Internet pilot provides home broadband on the Un-carrier’s LTE network. With additional capacity unlocked by the merger with Sprint, T-Mobile is preparing to launch 5G Home Internet commercially nationwide, covering more than 50% of U.S. households within six years and providing a badly needed alternative to incumbent cable and telco ISPs.
Home broadband is one of the most uncompetitive and hated industries in America. Rural areas in particular lack options: more than three-quarters have no high-speed broadband service or only one option available. And when there’s no choice, customers suffer. It’s no wonder internet service providers have the second lowest customer satisfaction ratings out of 46 industries, beating cable and satellite TV companies by just one point according to the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index)!
T-Mobile Home Internet service is available on a first-come, first-served basis, where coverage is eligible, based on equipment inventory and local network capacity, which is expanding all the time. For more information on T-Mobile Home Internet or to check availability for your home in these areas, visit t-mobile.com/isp.
Reference:
Netgear Nighthawk 5G Hotspot Pro from AT&T; Netgear’s audio video over IP (AV over IP)
“The combination of AT&T 5G technology and the NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro gives AT&T customers fast speeds, low-latency and improved bandwidth for all of their WiFi needs,” said David Christopher, executive vice president and general manager, AT&T Mobility. “The 5G addition is innovative in a hotspot and much needed during a time when many of our customers continue to work and learn from home.”
“We are delighted to team with AT&T, to release their next generation 5G hotspot. The NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro combines the best of WiFi and mobile technologies – WiFi 6 and 5G, to keep you always connected at home and on the go via the AT&T 5G network,” said Patrick Lo, chairman and chief executive officer for NETGEAR. “This new mobile hotspot with WiFi 6 provides robust WiFi connectivity to the increasing number of mobile devices and computers simultaneously with the best mobile internet speeds available over 5G.”
The introduction of this hotspot also exceeds AT&T’s commitment to offer 15 5G-capable devices to our lineup in 2020. This expansive portfolio gives our customers a wide variety to choose from, with features and price points that best serve their needs. All of these devices tap into our nationwide 5G network, offering fast, reliable and secure connectivity across the U.S. Plus, 5G access is included in all of our current consumer and business unlimited wireless plans at no extra cost to you.3
NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK 5G MOBILE HOTSPOT PRO FEATURES
The NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro is the perfect portable device. Whether you’re constantly on the move or looking for an alternative to in-home broadband, it offers the following features that will provide a steady and reliable connection wherever you are:
- Capacity: Share your connection with up to 32 WiFi devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops for a connection you can count on.
- 5G Compatibility: In addition to AT&T’s nationwide 5G network, this device can also access AT&T 5G+ in parts of 35 cities across the country. Together, these two flavors of 5G create the best mix of speeds and coverage, and will power new experiences coming to life.
- WiFi 6: Tap into the latest WiFi technology that will power fast surfing, downloading, and streaming for the whole family.
- Touch Screen: Set up your device and manage your usage with ease from the NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro’s touchscreen.
- Battery Life: Power through your day and night with the long-lasting, powerful 5,040 mAh rechargeable battery. It also operates without battery when connected via the quick charge power adapter.
FIRST RESPONDERS
The NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Pro Hotspot will also be FirstNet Ready™, which means first responders can use it to tap into the power of FirstNet® – America’s public safety communications network. FirstNet Ready devices are tested and approved to operate with services using the FirstNet LTE network core. This gives public safety access to the critical capabilities that FirstNet enables, like the full power of AT&T’s LTE network, including Band 14 spectrum, which serves as a VIP lane for first responders.4
For more information on AT&T 5G, visit att.com/5G. For the latest on how we’re using this next generation of wireless technology, head to att.com/5GNews.
https://about.att.com/story/2020/netgear_nighthawk_5g_mobile_hotspot_pro.html
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- An entirely new series of switches developed and engineered for the growing audio, video over IP (AV over IP) market. These AV Line switches combine years of networking expertise with best practices from leading experts in the professional AV market.
- The new AV Line incorporates NETGEAR IGMP Plus™ for flawless video over IP (including audio and control). If you are using Dante or AVB in your audio deployment, you can trust that NETGEAR’s new AV Line switches are designed to seamlessly integrate into your solution.
- The new M4250 AV interface presents the common AV controls right up front with user-selectable profiles for common AV platforms making it a snap to ensure the settings are correct for a specific audio or video application.
CenturyLink rebrands as LUMEN for large enterprise customers; adds Quantum Fiber
CenturyLink has taken on a new identity — Lumen — a name it says better highlights the company’s future direction and focus on selling business services to large customers. [Note that there is already a Texas based company named Lumen Technologies Inc so there’s sure to be confusion and a possible trademark lawsuit in the near future.]
Lumen is a measure of the brightness of light, and the company’s competitive advantage this century has come from its massive fiber network, stretching 450,000 route miles. That has helped CenturyLink survive even as consumers cut their home phone lines in favor of wireless providers and switched off DSL in favor of faster alternatives.
But transporting light signals can also be a commodity service. Lumen is now pushing to offer more higher-value applications and enterprise services directly to its customers, reflected in the company’s new motto: “The Platform for Amazing Things.”
Lumen says on its website:
Lumen is an enterprise technology platform that enables companies to capitalize on emerging applications that power the 4th Industrial Revolution. Most IT leaders don’t feel ready to face the nearly century’s worth of data-driven innovation they expect in the next five years.
“Our people are dedicated to furthering human progress through technology. Lumen is all about enabling the amazing potential of our customers, by utilizing our technology platform, our people, and our relationships with customers and
partners,” said Lumen CEO Jeff Storey, in a statement on the name change.
“For the past three years we have been reinventing ourselves and repositioning the company to deliver on a brand-new promise: Furthering human progress through technology,” said Lumen CTO Andrew Dugan, who held the same title at CenturyLink. “We have been considering this change for many months. We are ideally positioned to help resolve the biggest data and application challenges of our time—this is why now is the right time to introduce Lumen.”
The CenturyLink brand will continue to be used for residential and small business customers using traditional copper based networks. “CenturyLink, with its strong heritage, will remain as a trusted brand for residential and small business customers over traditional networks,” the company said.
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The number of telecom and cloud service providers that have been acquired by CenturyLink is truly astounding. That list includes: US West (which was acquired by Qwest Communications), Embarq (which included Sprint Local and US Telecom), Savvis, App Frog, Tier 3, and the big one –Level 3 Communications in a deal valued at around $25 billion. Level 3, in turn, had also acquired a boat load of telecom providers such as Global Crossing and TW Telecom and before that: WilTel Communications, Broadwing Corporation, Looking Glass Networks, Progress Telecom, and Telcove (formerly Adelphia Business Solutions) and ICG Communications.
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These acquisitions, long with internal software innovations, they have given Lumen the ability to provide enterprise customers with a variety of services in a variety of areas. However, the company still does not have presence in the cellular communications business.
“Unfortunately, today’s network, cloud and IT architectures present latency, cost and security challenges that inhibit the performance of distributed applications and real-time data processing. Ultimately, the world needs a new architecture platform that has been designed to support the intensive performance requirements of next-generation applications. And that is exactly what we aim to provide with Lumen,” said Lumen’s chief marketing officer Shaun Andrews, in a video message.
Smart cities, retail and industrial robotics, real-time virtual collaboration and automated factories are some of the applications that Lumen believes it can help customers achieve in what it and others call the 4th Industrial Revolution. Steam power, electricity and then the computer chip all pushed economic progress, and now the melding of the digital and physical worlds that connectivity permits is doing the same, Andrews added.
That is the future direction, where the company sees the greatest potential for growth and new revenues. But Andrews emphasized that residential and small business consumers will still deal with CenturyLink, a brand executives believe still has value two decades into the new century. It is the name that will continue to show up on residential customers’ bills. CenturyLink Field in Seattle will retain its name.
Another new entity, Quantum Fiber, will handle the residential and small business transition to digital as the company rolls out more fiber-optic connections directly to homes and businesses (FTTH and FTTP, respectively). The company added capacity to reach about 300,000 homes and small businesses last year with gigabit service and plans to reach another 400,000 this year, according to Fierce Telecom.
Lumen says the can provide the ability to control latency, bandwidth and security for applications across cloud data centers, the market edge and on-premises, according to a blog by Dugan. Instead of putting critical applications into a centralized cloud, Lumen’s edge compute platform, which includes more than 100 active edge compute nodes across large metro markets in the U.S—puts them closer to the end user for low latency and better security.
“The Lumen brand is focused on supporting our enterprise business customers. It alludes to our network strength and to the incredible capabilities powered by our platform to help transform how businesses operate,” Dugan said.
“Quantum Fiber is an important new brand within Lumen with a focus on superior fiber connectivity and a fully enabled digital customer experience,” Dugan said. “Quantum Fiber serves residential and small business customers, and Lumen focuses on enterprise, government and global businesses.”
In 2019, CenturyLink expanded its fiber network to reach an estimated 300,000 additional homes and small businesses with its gigabit service. CenturyLink’s consumer fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) projects provide symmetrical speeds of up to 940 Mbps. The faster speeds were enabled in parts of Boulder, Colo., Spokane, Wash., and Tucson, Ariz. last year.
CenturyLink previously said it would build out its fiber network to an additional 400,000 homes and small businesses this year, including in Denver, Omaha, Neb., Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Salt Lake City, Spokane, Wash., and Springfield, MO.
MoffetNathanson analysts wrote in a note to clients (emphasis added):
The flagship Lumen brand is targeted toward larger enterprises, the likes of which would be most likely to adopt the company’s most advanced services. The CenturyLink brand is being retained for legacy copper services delivered to residential customers and some SMBs, as well as existing FTTH customers. And the new Quantum Fiber brand is being introduced for SMB services delivered via the automated platform the company has been developing and has indicated it would soon be rolling out to on-net, out-of-region locations (mostly ex-Level 3 buildings), and will include consumer FTTH sold in a similar manner. The services and capabilities Lumen delivers to each of these customer segments varies dramatically, so it’s not at all inappropriate to have separate brands for each. Innumerable examples of this phenomenon exist across other industries – automotive, consumer products, airlines, apparel, media, and so on. Within the world of telecom, carriers often have brands that target different segments or highlight different product types (Verizon with FiOS, AT&T with Cricket, T-Mobile US with MetroPCS, Altice USA with Optimum vs. Lightpath, and so on).
CenturyLink was an amalgamation of many different companies, assets, and capabilities. Management’s decision to rebrand as Lumen, Quantum Fiber, and CenturyLink acknowledges those differences and gives management an opportunity to refresh and communicate its vision for the company to customers, employees, and investors.
Andrews said the name change won’t include a relocation to Denver of the corporate headquarters, which will remain in Monroe, La., home of the original CenturyLink. Of the company’s 40,000 employees globally, 5,800 are based in Colorado, and metro Denver remains an important hub of operations, especially the ones that Lumen will emphasize.
It remains to be seen what will happen with CenturyLink’s wholesale and carriers carrier backbone services, which acquisitions such as Level 3 and Global Crossing mainly focused on, i.e. selling high bandwidth fiber optic long haul links to other carriers.
References:
https://www.lumen.com/en-us/home.html
https://news.lumen.com/CTO-Andrew-Dugan-explains-how-the-Lumen-platform-keeps-data-moving
At long last, commercial 400GE is real via Windstream -Evergreen long haul optical circuit
IEEE 802.3‘s “400 Gb/s Ethernet Study Group” started working on the 400 Gbit/s generation standard in March 2013. Results from the study group were published and approved on March 27, 2014. IEEE officially ratified its 802.3bs standard for 200G and 400G over Single Mode Fiber (SMF) and Multi Mode Fiber (MMF) on December 6, 2017.
Below are charts of recent IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standards development and the various option for 400GE over SMF or MMF:
| Name | Medium | Tx Fibers | Lanes | Reach | Encoding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 400GBASE-SR16 | MMF | 16 | 16 x 25 Gbps | 70 m (OM3)100 m (OM4) | NRZ |
| 400GBASE-DR4 | SMF | 4 | 4 x 100 Gbps | 500 m | PAM4 |
| 400GBASE-FR8 | SMF | 1 | 8 x 50 Gbps (WDM) | 2 km | PAM4 |
| 400GBASE-LR8 | SMF | 1 | 8 x 50 Gbps (WDM) | 10 km | PAM4 |
| 200GBASE-DR4 | SMF | 4 | 4 x 50 Gbps | 500 m | PAM4 |
| 200GBASE-FR4 | SMF | 1 | 4 x 50 Gbps (WDM) | 2 km | PAM4 |
| 200GBASE-LR4 | SMF | 1 | 4 x 50 Gbps (WDM) | 10 km | PAM4 |
Source: IEEE 802.3
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There’s been much talk about 400GE since then with continued promised of “deployment this year,” primarily for Data Center Interconnect (DCI), Internet Data Exchange, and wholesale fiber service providers. Now, it’s finally real!
Windstream Wholesale has begun deploying long haul 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400GE) to link the regional teleco’s fiber network with Everstream’s Chicago-to-Cleveland route. For this deployment, Windstream used Infinera’s Groove (GX) Series compact modular platforms and Juniper’s PTX Series transport routers. Windstream provided the 400G Wavelength Service using Infinera’s coherent wavelength technology.
The two primary customer segments for 400GE have been data center operators looking to interconnect two or more data centers, or service providers that want to build metro rings consisting of 400G lines on which they then would lease capacity to data center operators or enterprises through a data center interconnection (DCI) as-a-service offering.
“So this is not just an experiment,” said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “This is a real world revenue generating circuit for us. We have a lot of peers in this industry that we talk to quite a bit, and there’s a lot of experimentation and lot of discussion going on around about 400 Gig. But this is the first one that we’ve really heard about where it’s a real circuit with real revenue behind it.”
Source: Windstream Wholesale
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Bayer credited the work done in Windstream’s Little Rock lab earlier this year with Infinera for being able to boot up the commercial 400GbE connection with Everstream. In April, Windstream Holdings and Infinera paired 400GE with client-side services with commercially available 400GE-LR8 QSFP-DD compact pluggable interfaces. The trial used Infinera’s commercially available 2x 600G Wavelength muxponder on its Groove (GX) G30 Compact Modular Platform with the CHM-2T sled, which enabled the customer-facing 400GE service to be transmitted using a single-carrier 600G wavelength. Windstream has been aggressive about working with vendors such as Infinera and Ciena in its labs in order to provision 400G services.
“With the LR8, you now you have the optical reach for the long haul. So going from seeing it in the lab environment to now getting it onto our network live with a real customer is pretty exciting. This kind of put us in the driver’s seat from our consumers’ perspective,” Bayer said. “We get to take all their questions and all their needs and put them right inside of those labs and trials and create solutions around them,” he added.
The introduction of Windstream’s 400 GbE Wavelength Service helps Everstream meet the relentless growing bandwidth demands from enterprises and provide the flexibility to support a wide variety of business-class services. The partnership enables Everstream to leverage the national footprint of Windstream’s advanced fiber-optic network and augment its high-demand route between Chicago and Cleveland. Windstream’s Wavelength Service product offering includes routes across its nationwide fiber network from 10GbE to 400GbE.
“Everstream is committed to continually enhancing our business-only network and expanding our partnerships to deliver a customer experience that is unmatched for even the most demanding enterprise requirements,” said Everstream President and CEO Brett Lindsey. “As our customers continue to scale, they need access to high-bandwidth, agile network solutions. This opportunity with Windstream enables us to consistently lead the market in providing the services that businesses demand with the reliability they need.”
“Windstream is committed to tapping into the latest technological innovation, enabling us to offer customers the benefits of ultra-efficient, high-capacity transport solutions across our network,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president, Windstream Wholesale. “By partnering with Windstream Wholesale, regional service providers like Everstream have access to advanced national connectivity solutions to support the increasing bandwidth and capacity demands of their customers.”
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Cisco and Juniper have produced commercially available 400G for routers, but the optical network transport side has been slower on the uptake, according to Jimmy Yu, vice president and analyst for the optical transport market at Dell’Oro Group.
“So the fact that Everstream is going to be the first announced paying customer really speaks to the fact that they (Windstream) have gone full throttle on getting this not only up, but getting it running and getting a customer,” Yu said. “It does seem like they are kind of hitting the market first among service providers.”
Yu also pointed to Windstream’s work with Ciena for the build-out of Windstream’s new nationwide optical network, which is slated for turn up in the third quarter of this year.
Bayer and Yu expect 400G long-haul deployments will ramp up around the middle of next year after a few smaller launches near the end of this year. Bayer said the cost model for deploying 400G needs to come down for wide-scale adoption.
“I think the typical cost curve hasn’t kicked in yet,” Bayer said. “It’s supply and demand. As soon as there’s a demand on the 400G side, we’re going to see the cost come way down. You’re going to see cost models where it’s cheaper to turn up one 400 Gig as it is for turning up two 100 Gigs. We’re not there yet.
“The router blades are in the same supply and demand curves that the transport optics are in.”
Both Bayer and Yu said ZR pluggable optics, which will be for the longer spans of up to up to 120 kilometers, would start to become more widely available next year. Using ZR and ZR Plus pluggable optics allows service providers to eliminate transponders in the their WDM wavelength-division multiplexing) networks.
“IR8 is absolutely a good technology and it gave us the reach that we needed for 400 Gig, but ZR optics is another level of performance at a lower cost point,” Bayer said. “ZR is a lot lower cost point that’s going to be more appealing. I think that’s when you start to really see 400 Gig take off because now you can take that pluggable and put it in a router or transport gear. I think that’ll really kind of stir the nest for demand for 400G.
Yu said that while ZR is standards-based ZR Plus is not. ZR Plus could span up to 1,000 kilometers but may not fit on a switch or router.
“One of the advantages of ZR is everyone wants to put the pluggable on an Ethernet switch or router instead of on an optical system,” Yu said. “It’s not clear to me if ZR Plus can be put on a router or just go on an optical system but now it’s going to be more pluggable,” Yu added.
400G ZR and the longer-distance 400G ZR Plus will bring interoperability, and with that, potentially lower cost to 400G deployments as companies deploying 400G have more options to mix and match different vendors.
“ZR Plus will probably be generally available mid next year,” Bayer said. “ZR Plus is a lot lower cost point and that’s going to be more appealing. It’s not available to us yet, but as soon as it is we’re right in the labs and environments with it. We’re ready to go.”
References:
Everstream Partners with Windstream to Bring 400GbE Services to Market
https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/windstream-powers-up-live-400gbe-service-everstream
Ericsson deploys 25,000 base stations in Russia; 100 5G deployment agreements top Huawei & Nokia
Sebastian Tolstoy, Head of Ericsson in Russia, said:
“Our development enables Tele2’s subscribers the opportunity to use mobile internet services in high quality. As all our network equipment in Russia supports an upgrade to 5G technologies through remote software installation, operators in Russia are able to launch new services as soon as they get the appropriate licenses.
Ericsson’s 5G Innovation Hub in Moscow gives Russian service providers the opportunity to test innovations on live 5G and IoT networks. The Ericsson Academy, our training center co-located at the Innovation Hub, trains more than 1,000 specialists from Russian service providers and students each year.”
The pace of deployment from Ericsson is truly impressive, especially in the context of the ongoing pandemic. If the current pace is maintained, the five-year deal will be completed in two years.
Aleksey Telkov, CTO of Tele2 Russia, comments:
“In the Moscow region, from the very start, we installed 5G-ready base stations. We deployed a pilot 5G network in the center of Russia’s capital, and together with Ericsson, we are carrying out a large-scale network modernization across the country.
This allows us to say that Tele2 is technologically ready for 5G.”
The 5G Zone uses the 28 GHz band in non-Standalone (NSA) mode and the frequency band for anchor LTE band is Band 7 (2600MHz). 5G pocket routers supporting 28 GHz were used as end-user devices for mobile broadband services with ultra-high speeds.
Ericsson and Tele2’s 5G Zone was used to demonstrate the opportunities 5G presents, including immersive VR entertainment, smart buildings, and other consumer and industrial use cases.
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Ericsson announced it had 100 telco 5G agreements following the announcement of a 5G deal with Telekom Slovenije yesterday. That’s a lot of progress made in a relatively short time. Just under a year ago, Ericsson had publicly announced 24 5G contracts with equipment live in 15 networks. As of today, 58 contracts have been publicly announced and Ericsson’s gear is being used in 56 live 5G networks.
Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, said:
“Our customers’ needs have been central to the development and evolution of Ericsson’s 5G technology across our portfolio from the very beginning. We are proud that this commitment has resulted in 100 unique communications service providers globally selecting our technology to drive their 5G success ambitions.
We continue to put our customers center stage to help them deliver the benefits of 5G to their subscribers, industry, society and countries as a critical national infrastructure.”
Ericsson has been able to capitalize on the uncertainty surrounding Huawei’s future in many Western countries due to security concerns. Even prior to the UK’s decision to ban Huawei’s equipment, many operators in Britain were moving away from the Chinese vendor. India is now moving in that same direction.
In April, Howard Watson, BT’s chief technology and information officer, said:
“Having evaluated different 5G core vendors, we have selected Ericsson as the best option on the basis of both lab performance and future roadmap. We are looking forward to working together as we build out our converged 4G and 5G core network across the UK.”
For comparison, Nokia says it has 85 commercial 5G deals and equipment live in 33 5G networks. In February 2020, Huawei aid it had secured more than 90 commercial 5G contracts worldwide, an increase of nearly 30 from last year despite the relentless pressure from U.S. authorities and being banned in the UK.
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References:
Ericsson deploys 25,000 base stations in Russia to support Tele2’s 5G rollout
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/China-tech/Huawei-claims-over-90-contracts-for-5G-leading-Ericsson
IEEE 802.3cg and IEEE 802.1 Standards play huge role in Operational Technology and Time Sensitive Networks
Introduction:
The Ethernet Alliance and Avnu Alliance have separately released plans to speed up and simplify Ethernet communications networks. Operational Technology (OT) is the target of the IEEE 802.3cg specification from the Ethernet Alliance, while the Avnu Alliance is focusing on IEEE 802.1 time-sensitive networking (TSN) applications.
I. IEEE 802.3 and the Ethernet Alliance:
IEEE 802.3c is titled: IEEE Standard for Ethernet – Amendment 5: Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for 10 Mb/s Operation and Associated Power Delivery over a Single Balanced Pair of Conductors.” It defines the use of Single-Pair Ethernet (SPE) in many circumstances rather than a wide range of fieldbus cables, including RS‑485 twisted-pair, RG‑6 coaxial, and instrumentation cables.
The 802.3c Project Authorization Request (PAR) states:
“Applications such as those used in automotive and automation industries have begun the transition of legacy networks to Ethernet. This has generated an intrasystem control need for a 10 Mb/s solution which will operate over a single balanced pair of conductors. IEEE 802.3 does not currently support 10 Mb/s over a single balanced pair of conductors, and a reduction in the number of pairs of conductors and interface components required for 10 Mb/s Ethernet will provide a basis for an optimized solution in these applications.”
OT networks historically have been siloed from Ethernet-based IT networks and, “these networks, while operating effectively today, use dated, disparate network protocols. They are slow, typically 31.2kb/s, and require translation gateways to convert necessary data to Ethernet. SPE is purpose-built to address the challenges and topologies of OT networks,’ said Peter Jones, chair of the Ethernet Alliance and a distinguished engineer with Cisco.
“As the building- and industrial-automation industries come to rely more on SPE, there is a clear need to bring together the people creating and using the technologies so they can better understand one another,” said Jones.
“We are well positioned as a bridge between the OT experts in building and industrial automation and the IT (Information Technology) expertise that we have traditionally served across the Ethernet ecosystem. This new Ethernet Alliance industry focus will work to align the many disparate stakeholders and, in turn, help the building- and industrial-automation industries get to where they want to go with Ethernet.”
One of the key roles that the Ethernet Alliance plays is supporting the deployment of Ethernet technologies into markets not traditionally served by Ethernet. OT networks, which control manufacturing processes or provide occupant comfort and safety in a building, historically have been siloed from Ethernet-based IT networks.
In the past, application of Ethernet in OT networks required adapting the network to work with normal 10 BASE-T Ethernet. It was effective but created barriers, which limited adoption. SPE tears down those barriers, said Bob Voss, chair of the SPE subcommittee and a senior principal engineer with Panduit.
“SPE allows users to build the facilities served by OT networks in the ways they know work best; SPE is designed to support proven topologies and even uses a similar physical layer. Many SPE experts believe, given good cable health, that it could be possible to reuse physical-layer elements of current OT networks,” said Voss.
“We are excited about the Ethernet Alliance’s launch of an industry focus around building and industrial automation,” said Ron Zimmer, president and chief executive officer, Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA).
“SPE is a promising technology for our industry, and CABA’s membership of leaders in advancing integrated home systems and building automation worldwide are committed to innovation that empowers connectivity among people, spaces and technology for a better tomorrow.”
Added Brett Lane, chief technical officer, Panduit: “The benefits SPE can bring to building and industrial automation are exciting. SPE is a vital next-generation technology which stands to help industry achieve better business outcomes through the continuation of convergence across the enterprise, and the Ethernet Alliance’s launch of this industry focus around OT networks is well timed.”
The Ethernet Alliance includes a variety of communications vendors, including Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, Juniper, Intel as well as university and industry members. Here’s there 2020 Ethernet Roadmap and Applications:
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II. TSN, IEEE 802.1 and the Avnu Alliance:
TSN is a collection of standards developed by the IEEE 802.1 TSN Working Group, which defines a new set of mechanisms for providing time synchronization and timeliness (deterministic data delivery) for time-sensitive data in a LAN shared with other types of best-effort applications, said Dave Cavalcanti, Avnu Alliance Wireless TSN Workgroup chair and a principal engineer at Intel.
IEEE 802.1 TSN standards define new functions for 802-based LANs such as traffic shaping, frame pre-emption, traffic scheduling, ingress policing, and seamless redundancy. When all parts of a network are running with the same sense of reference time, traffic can be coordinated based on a time-aware schedule, one method that allows for better control of latency for time-critical traffic. These new features provide a whole new layer of control for managing traffic over Ethernet, Cavalcanti said.
The charter of the IEEE 802.1 TSN Task Group is to provide deterministic services through IEEE 802 networks, i.e., guaranteed packet transport with bounded latency, low packet delay variation, and low packet loss. The TSN TG has been evolved from the former IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) TG. The TSN TG includes the former IEEE 802.1 Interworking TG. The original work on AVB was done as part of the “Residential Ethernet Study Group” of IEEE 802.3.
Base standards for TSN:
- IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018: Bridges and Bridged Networks
- IEEE Std 802.1AB-2016: Station and Media Access Control Connectivity Discovery (specifies the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP))
- IEEE Std 802.1AS-2020: Timing and Synchronization for Time-Sensitive Applications
- IEEE Std 802.1AX-2020: Link Aggregation
- IEEE Std 802.1BA-2011: Audio Video Bridging (AVB) Systems
- IEEE Std 802.1CB-2017: Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability
- IEEE Std 802.1CM-2018: Time-Sensitive Networking for Fronthaul
The TSN standards can be applied in many verticals. Some of them are listed in the application of TSN page.
According to Cavalcanti, the IEEE 802.1 TSN standards have seen a lot of growth in the past three to five years, particularly in the industrial market. TSN is a networking layer that leverages under-laying data communication technologies (such as Ethernet, 802.11/Wi-Fi and eventually 5G). As such, TSN can be seen as a unifying layer operating across and potentially integrating heterogeneous connectivity technologies. The role of TSN is to ensure the end-to-end data delivery with determinism, Cavalcanti said. “Each of the individual connectivity technologies may implement its own features to help achieve TSN goals, but TSN has a broader scope than any particular connectivity technology.”
Wireless communications using TSN not only enable mobility, they are flexible and reduce wiring costs. “TSN capabilities over wireless, for instance, can enable manufacturers to easily reconfigure industrial automation and control systems as well as enable optimized routing and utilization of mobile robots and automatic guided vehicles,” Cavalcanti added. Industrial automation system and mobile robots are important use cases because wireless is fundamental for mobility, flexibility and reconfigurability of tasks and routes.
“Electrical power grid systems are another interesting use-case for wireless TSN, as these systems have varied coverage areas which may vary from local (e.g. substation) to wide areas (distribution and transmission). Industrial control systems could also benefit from wireless connectivity, but they will require the highest level of determinism and reliability and rely exclusively on time-aware (IEEE 802.1Qbv) scheduling over wireless links,” Cavalcanti said.
The push for combining wireless and Ethernet TSN comes from the Avnu Alliance which says its members include more than 95% of the Ethernet silicon suppliers as well as automotive industry and audio-visual vendors. Its affiliates include Cisco, Intel, Bose, Bosch, and Extreme. The Avnu Alliance defines requirements for interoperability and is the certification authority – grants certification for interoperable products – for TSN.
The Wireless TSN working group within Avnu Alliance states that “it is important to start early discussions and alignment on topics such as consistent TSN interfaces for wired and wireless technologies, interoperability testing, and certification efforts.”
The Alliance does not do the actual physical testing of products; this is handled by a network of registered test facilities. For example, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory is one registered test facility.
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References:
https://ethernetalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/EA_SPE_PressRelease-FNAL-08AUG20.pdf
Ethernet Alliance to focus on SPE in OT networks for building and industrial automation
CenturyLink Q2-2020 Earnings Beat; Fiber and Low Latency are the Foundation for Emerging Applications
CenturyLink Inc. on Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $377 million which beat analysts expectations. The global communications and IT services company posted revenue of $5.19 billion in the period compared to $5.375 billion for the second quarter 2019.
The company’s communications services include local and long-distance voice, broadband, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), private line (including special access), Ethernet, hosting (including cloud hosting and managed hosting), data integration, video, network, public access, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), information technology, and other ancillary services. CenturyLink also serves global enterprise customers across North America, Latin America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.
“We had a solid quarter of both revenue and sales results, highlighted by the performance in Enterprise, iGAM and consumer broadband,” said Jeff Storey, president and CEO of CenturyLink. “We have delivered for our customers in record time, and our agility positions us well to combine our network infrastructure with our cloud, security, edge and collaboration services into a platform that meets our customers’ data and application needs. I’m proud of the CenturyLink team’s response to COVID-19 and how we have worked with our customers, communities and each other, both in the current crisis and for the long-term.”
During CenturyLink’s Q2 2020 earnings call Wednesday afternoon, Storey said:
“The economic effects of the pandemic created uncertainty for our customers, partners, the company, and the market in general. It‘s also highlighted the absolutely essential and durable nature of CenturyLink’s services and infrastructure in an all-digital world. We own the critical infrastructure — everything from the extended fiber network, to the deep interconnection relationships required to deliver customers scalable, secure network that is easily and flexibly consumed.”
“Our customers see that using next generation technologies enabled them to adapt their business models more rapidly and are working to take advantage of tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning across distributed compute resources and high performance networking. This translates into greater demand for transport services, hybrid WAN connectivity, network based security, edge computing and managed services as enterprises adjust to a more data dependent and distributed operating environment. This new normal has also increased consumers’ need for digital services and the demand for data shows no signs of slowing.”
“As our customers moved beyond the first wave of crisis response, we‘ve seen a marked change in their engagement and increased urgency in their dialog around longer-term digital transformation of their work environment.”
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CenturyLink has been pleasantly surprised with the demand for broadband it‘s seeing from the consumer segment right now as many employees continue to work from home as a result of the pandemic. Indeed, 75% of CenturyLink employees are now working from home, Storey said.
Enterprise sales orders grew year-over-year for dynamic, fiber-based services as customers started “buying again” in the second fiscal quarter, Storey said. Enterprise is a market segment that includes CenturyLink‘s high-bandwidth data services, managed services and SD-WAN services. Revenues increased by about 1 percent to $1.43 billion during the carrier’s fiscal second quarter compared to $1.41 billion in Q2-2019.
Small and medium business (SMB) sales fell 6.1 percent during the quarter to $646 million compared to $688 million in Q2 2019. CEO Storey said that CenturyLink will be actively working to grow its SMB customer base in future quarters. The carrier hopes to attract more SMB customers in the same way it‘s gained traction with enterprises, through its fiber-based network offerings, together with services such as embedded security, edge computing, IP enablement and managed services, Storey said.
In addition to COVID-19, the SMB segment continued to be plagued by legacy voice declines, said CenturyLink‘s CFO Neel Dev. “We are monitoring [this segment] and working closely with our customers,” he said. ”Over the long-term, we believe SMB represents a growth opportunity for us … it’s a large addressable market.”
During the quarter, CenturyLink added 42,000 1-gig and above customers, a record since the company began expanding their fiber to the home efforts.
CenturyLink’s Global Network Statistics:
- 450K Fiber Route Miles
- 170K+ On-Net Buildings
- 27M Technical Space (square feet)
- 2,200+ Public Data Centers On-Net
- 100+ Edge Compute Nodes (Enabling > 98% of U.S. Enterprises within latency of 5ms)
–>Most highly connected Internet peering backbone in the world
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Two distinct business models with an all-digital operating mindset:
1. Enterprise:
- Growth-oriented, fiber-based Enterprise services
- Fiber is the enabler for all emerging communications technologies
- Highly scalable, global network
- Services are enhanced by cloud, security, WAN and edge initiatives
2. Consumer and Small Business:
- Coupling Century Link’s extensive footprint with greater digital engagement
- Expand efforts to grow Small Business group of customers
- Investing in growth with fiber-based, high-speed broadband
Fiber and Low Latency are the Foundation for Emerging Applications
• IoT
• Smart manufacturing and retail
• Personalized healthcare and finance
• Robotics
• AI/Big Data
• Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality
• Real-time video analytics
• 5G enablement (fiber backhaul for wireless telco partners)
More from CEO Storey:
“This agility is key to our strategy and is underpinned by our ongoing transformation from a telecom service provider to a leading technology company providing network and network supported technology solutions to today’s digital market.
We all know how well positioned our infrastructure is, that our value proposition is more than having great infrastructure. I frequently talk to employees about how our relationships with customers must be rooted in CenturyLink’s capabilities to drive their success, rather than the mindset of speeds and feeds and circuits of a typical telecom company.
As a technology company, we combine our deep infrastructure strength with a digital operating environment that enables our customers to turn their data and connectivity into a strategic advantage.
We integrate network, compute and operational technologies with managed services to simplify their business operation. Capabilities like orchestration services help them control the thousands of widely distributed devices and digital assets they now have to manage. The COVID-19 crisis didn’t create this need, but it has certainly amplified and accelerated it. And you can see this in our second quarter results with improving revenue trend led by revenue growth in enterprise, solid performance in iGAM on a constant currency basis and growth in consumer broadband.”
CenturyLink says they are well-positioned to capture expanding addressable market opportunities. Some examples are: Manufacturing, Gaming, and Retail. Storey highlighted the company’s change from wireline telecom and and IT services to a digital technologies solutions provider:
“This is the CenturyLink of the future, a company that delivers digital technology solutions to our customers differentiated through our world-class fiber infrastructure. If you consider the increasing demand across all customer verticals to move massive datasets as quickly as possible to widely distributed processing resources, our infrastructure is very well aligned to meet this shift in requirement.
By combining just 100 or so of our existing technical spaces with our deeply distributed fiber network, we can serve around 95% of US enterprise locations within five milliseconds of latency. Further, as operators of one of the largest and most interconnected networks in the world, we enable our customers to efficiently and effectively collect, process and move their data seamlessly across public clouds, private clouds, public data centers, company-owned data centers and the various work locations of the enterprise whether in employee’s homes or in the office. Now I see examples of this in our business every day.”
Gartner: 4 “Cool Vendors” for Communications Service Provider Network Operations
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Cool Vendors for communications service provider (CSP) operational technology (OT)create new value by developing faster and more cost-effective solutions, as well as embedding open and API-driven architecture to accelerate ecosystem creation.
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These vendors provide network- and vendor-agnostic solutions that CSPs can use to gain network-related insights, modernize their operations and automate to enhance operations efficiency.
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Cool Vendors tend to be more aligned to CSPs’ transformation objectives as compared with many established vendors, because Cool Vendors are not guided by any legacy business.
Table 1: Cool Vendors in CSP Operational Technology
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Vendor
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Approach to Create New Value
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Solve a Difficult Problem
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Provide Cost-Efficiency
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Actility
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Provides tools, platforms and an ecosystem for monetization of IoT beyond just connectivity
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Enables scaling up of IoT deployments up to national level networks
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Reduces M2M application development overhead with ThingPark IoT management platform and LoRaWAN IoT support
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DriveNets
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Provides disaggregated, cloud-native software that runs the routing on white boxes using merchant silicon chipsets
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Provides economics and flexible scale. Simplifies network operations, and reduces time to market of services.
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Reduces TCO for router capacity scale
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Federated Wireless
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Provides novel shared-spectrum ecosystem by harnessing cloud-native software solution
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Provides reliable connectivity without expertise and resources
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Reduces spectrum acquisition costs
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Sensat
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Creates 3D map and digital twin of physical environment for infrastructure planning
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Applies ML to physical network design to achieve spatial optimization and network efficiency
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Reduces network design costs
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IoT = Internet of Things; LoRaWAN = long-range wide-area network; M2M = machine-to-machine; ML = machine learning; TCO = total cost of ownership
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Innovation in infrastructure by disaggregation, virtualization and cloud native:
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Actility, DriveNets and Federated Wireless
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Innovation in operations by resource optimization, platform operations and network automation:
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Sensat
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U.S. government in talks with Intel, TSMC to develop chip ‘self-sufficiency’
The coronavirus pandemic has underscored longstanding concern by U.S. officials and executives about protecting global supply chains from disruption. Administration officials say they are particularly concerned about reliance on Taiwan, the self-governing island China claims as its own, and the home of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer and one of only three companies capable of making the fastest, most-cutting-edge chips (the two other foundries are Samsung and Intel).
Officials from the U.S. government are in talks with Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to build chip factories in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The U.S. government believes the pandemic showed how reliant the U.S. is on Asian factories and it now wants to promote more tech self-sufficiency.
“The administration is committed to ensuring continued U.S. technological leadership,” a senior official said in a statement. “The U.S. government continues to coordinate with state, local and private-sector partners as well as our allies and partners abroad, to collaborate on research and development, manufacturing, supply-chain management, and workforce development opportunities.”
HiSilicon, owned by Huawei, is a fabless semiconductor company which doesn’t have its own manufacturing plant. It relies on foundry companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to make its chips. The Trump administration is preparing rules that could restrict TSMC’s sales to HiSilicon. Huawei may be storing up chip inventories in anticipation of such tighter restrictions. Huawei may shift some of its orders to Chinese foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), but technology there still lags behind industry leaders like TSMC and Samsung.
Ultimately SMIC’s capabilities could be hampered if the Trump administration decides to dial up the pressure in its campaign against China. The Commerce Department said last week that it would expand the list of U.S.-made products and technology shipped to China that need to be reviewed by national security experts before shipping. SMIC depends on foreign semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including some from the U.S.
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Intel VP of policy and tech affairs Greg Slater said Intel’s plan would be to operate a plant that could provide advanced chips securely for both the government and other customers. “We think it’s a good opportunity,” he added. “The timing is better and the demand for this is greater than it has been in the past, even from the commercial side.”
Intel Chief executive Bob Swan sent a letter to Defense Department officials on 28 April, saying the company was ready to build a commercial foundry in partnership with the Pentagon. Strengthening U.S. domestic production and ensuring technological leadership is “more important than ever, given the uncertainty created by the current geopolitical environment,” Swan wrote in the letter. “We currently think it is in the best interest of the U.S. and of Intel to explore how Intel could operate a commercial U.S. foundry to supply a broad range of microelectronics,” the letter said. The letter was then sent to Senate Armed Services Committee staffers, calling the proposal an “interesting and intriguing option” for a U.S. company to lead an “on-shore, commercial, state of the art” chip foundry.
TSMC has been in talks with people at the Commerce and Defense departments as well as with Apple, one of its largest customers, about building a chip factory in the U.S., other sources said. In a statement, TSMC said it is open to building an overseas plant and was evaluating all suitable locations, including the US. “But there is no concrete plan yet,” the company said.
Some U.S. officials are also interested in having Samsung, which already operates a chip factory in Austin, Texas, expand its contract-manufacturing operations in the U.S. to produce more advanced chips, more sources said.
A trainee at a facility of the U.S. chip maker GlobalFoundries in Germany last year. The U.S. is looking to strengthen its own production of semiconductors. PHOTO: SEBASTIAN KAHNERT/DPA/ZUMA PRESS
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Taiwan, China and South Korea “represent a triad of dependency for the entire US digital economy,” said a 2019 Pentagon report on national-security considerations regarding the supply chain for microelectronics. The US has dozens many semiconductor factories, but only Intel’s are capable of making the chips with transistors of 10 nanometers or smaller. The company however mostly produces for its own products. Among companies that make chips on contract for other companies, only TSMC and Samsung make those high-performing chips. Many US chip companies such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, Xilinkx and Advanced Micro Devices rely on TSMC for the manufacture of their most advanced products. Intel also makes chips with TSMC, according to TSMC’s 2019 annual report.
The Semiconductor Industry Association is conducting its own study on domestic chip production. The report is expected to recommend the US government set up a billion-dollar fund to push domestic chip investment, another source said. Another proposal by SEMI, an industry group representing semiconductor manufacturing equipment makers, involves giving tax credits to chip makers when they purchase and install equipment at factories in the US.
The Commerce Department is also considering a rule aimed at cutting off Huawei’s ability to manufacture chips at TSMC (see Addendum below). President Donald Trump has approved the move, but Commerce Department officials are still working through preliminary drafts, sources said.
May 16, 2020 Addendum: U.S. Moves to Cut Off Chip Supplies to Huawei
References:
Highlights of Cisco Roundtable: Expanding the Internet for the Future: Supporting First Responders and Society at Large
The agenda at Cisco’s April 28th roundtable “Expanding the Internet for the Future, Today: Supporting First Responders and Society at Large,” was focused on how the coronavirus is impacting our use of the internet from expanded online learning for students and adults alike to increased telehealth platforms (more on this subject below).
The discussion featured guest panelists including representatives from AT&T, Comcast, Cox Communications, Facebook, Verizon, and the University Texas-Gavelston Medical Branch. The panelists first took turns giving their individual perspectives on the current state of the internet before shifting focus on innovating to meet the demands of the future.
The conference opened with host Jonathan Davidson, senior vice president and general manager, Mass Scale Infrastructure Group at Cisco sharing some choice illustrative Cisco Webex data. So far this month, Cisco has hosted more than 20 billion virtual meeting minutes. For perspective, that is up from a mere 14 billion last month. These March 2020 totals doubled the meeting minutes from February. Around the globe, traffic appears to be leveling off or decreasing from recent highs.
Speakers included AT&T’s FirstNet SVP Jason Porter (a long time colleague and September 2020 IEEE ComSocSCV workshop speaker) and Andrés Irlando, president of Verizon’s “public sector” that sells services to public-safety officials.
Almost all roundtable participants said they have been working overtime during the past few weeks to make sure doctors, nurses and other medical professionals and first responders remain connected as they fight COVID-19. “This was like a fire, flood and tornado in every single city at the same time,” said AT&T’s Porter commented on the demand for FirstNet services. Jason and other speakers said their networks have managed to meet that demand, and that traffic growth is beginning to plateau.
However, “this gives us a peak at what the future looks like,” argued Verizon’s Irlando, explaining that traffic likely will start to decline as most Americans return to work, but some things won’t return to the way things were.
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Cisco has a website to help healthcare providers transition to virtual healthcare. There you will find resources for scheduling, conducting, and joining virtual consultations between Doctors and patients.
Telehealth and complex video session between Doctor and Patient
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During the second half of the roundtable, panelists each shared the vision on ways to revolutionize the current model to provide access for people around the globe. Ideas ranged from the importance of government subsidies when it comes to building this infrastructure in some areas, to reverse auctioning portions of spectrum to cover more isolated communities. Facebook Vice President of Connectivity Dan Rabinovitsj floated the idea of allowing spectrum sharing in more remote areas without facing fines as well as the idea of utilizing the recently opened 6 GHz band for internet access around the globe. As individuals posed questions, Cisco executive Stephen Liu touched on the idea of a flexible consumption system to revolutionize the traditional service model.
“This allows Service Provider customers to procure equipment fully loaded with all the bandwidth they need, but only pay for what they use based on licensing. That way, if surges occur such as what happened with COVID-19, the capacity can be added immediately and paid for at a later time. The licenses can be pooled as well so that capacity could be moved from lower traffic areas into high traffic areas,” Liu said.
A huge problem for telehealth is insurance coverage. Light Readings Mike Dano wrote in a blog post:
One of the biggest obstacles was how healthcare insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, account for telehealth services. Prior to the pandemic, healthcare pricing generally discouraged the use of videoconferencing and phone calls for doctor’s visits, but new rules implemented due to COVID-19 now incentivize the practice, King explained.
In the telecom sector, the FCC is working to promote telehealth offerings. Earlier this month, the agency voted to adopt a $200 million telehealth program as part of Congress’ CARES Act.
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Currently, billions of people remain without internet access despite efforts to close the digital divide. Today, Cisco published the “Cisco Inclusive Future Report 2020” estimating that bringing those currently with internet access online would increase the worldwide economy by nearly $7 trillion and “would lift 500 million people out of poverty.” More than one-third (35%) of people in developing countries lack access to the internet compared to 80% of individuals in more “advanced economies.” The report also discusses the problems inherent with so-called digital literacy meaning a person’s basic understanding of using the internet, one of the principal roadblocks preventing “digital inclusion.” Internationally, nearly one-quarter of adults lack such digital literacy.
As the coronavirus continues to take its toll on populations and economies around the globe, the inadequacies of our digital infrastructure have been thrust into the spotlight. Current barriers to internet access has innumerable disadvantages for humans and economies around the globe. As has been illustrated during this pandemic-induced grand digital experiment, a well-equipped digital infrastructure has far-reaching social and economic implications for humans around the globe.
References:
https://www.webex.com/webexremotehealth.html