Ookla: Q3 2021 Satellite Internet performance finds Starlink still #1 but average download speed decreased
Satellite internet is making headlines all over the world. Starlink continues to launch service in new countries while Viasat plans to acquire Inmarsat.
Ookla continues their ongoing series on satellite internet performance around the globe with fresh data from Q3 2021 to see if Starlink’s performance is holding up and how satellite internet compares to fixed broadband in 12 countries.
In the U.S., satellite internet performance was mostly flat when comparing Q3 2021 to Q2 2021.
- Starlink’s median download speed decreased from 97.23 Mbps during Q2 2021 to 87.25 Mbps in Q3 2021, which could be a function of adding more customers.
- HughesNet followed distantly at 19.30 Mbps (comparable to the 19.73 Mbps we saw in Q2 2021)
- Viasat third at 18.75 Mbps (18.13 Mbps in Q2 2021).
For comparison, the median download speed for all fixed broadband providers in the U.S. during Q3 2021 was 119.84 Mbps (115.22 Mbps in Q2 2021).
Starlink continues to far out perform satellite-based competitors in general, and even clocks faster speeds than wireline networks in some countries. For U.S. users during the third quarter of this year, Ookla found that median download speed decreased slightly, from 97.23 Mbps during the second quarter of 2021, to a median of 87.25 Mbps in the third quarter. Ookla noted that this “could be a function of adding more customers.”
Starlink’s median upload speed of 13.54 Mbps (down from 13.89 Mbps in Q2 2021) was much closer to that on all fixed broadband (18.03 Mbps in Q3 2021 and 17.18 Mbps in Q2 2021). Viasat and HughesNet followed at 2.96 Mbps (3.38 Mbps in Q2 2021) and 2.54 Mbps (2.43 Mbps in Q2 2021), respectively.
Starlink, which uses low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, was the only satellite internet provider with a median latency anywhere near that seen on fixed broadband in Q3 2021 (44 ms and 15 ms, respectively). Viasat and HughesNet, which both utilize higher “geosynchronous” orbits, had median latencies of 629 ms and 744 ms, respectively.
Ookla analyzed Starlink performance in 304 counties in the U.S. While there was about a 100 Mbps range in performance between the county with the fastest median download speed (Santa Fe County, New Mexico at 146.58 Mbps) and the county with the slowest median download speed (Drummond Township, Michigan at 46.63 Mbps), even the lower-end speeds are well above the FCC’s Baseline performance tier of at least a 25 Mbps download speed.
Starlink’s critics will be watching closely to see if its slight decrease in performance becomes a trend. Since the company received nearly $900 million in government subsidies for broadband service as part of the Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF), other industry observers and players have argued about whether it’s actually possible for Starlink to deliver what it has promised.
In April of this year, satellite competitor Viasat went so far as to provide technical analysis that it says demonstrates in multiple ways that even if SpaceX deploys the full number of satellites that it has plans for, “significant shortfalls in Starlink capacity exist” due to a combination of limitations on spectrum re-use and the geographic density of the areas it bid on and provisionally won in the RDOF process. Starlink responded by scoffing at the analysis and said it was full of factual errors and incorrect assumptions.
As far as the existing service that Starlink is providing, though, it is still the best of the satellite internet providers. While Ookla’s data found that Starlink’s median download speed in the U.S. decreased to around 87 Mbps, the other the satellite internet providers were only able to provide a fraction of that speed. HughesNet and Viasat were a distant second and third, respectively, at 19.30 Mbps and 18.75 Mbps.
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Request: If you’re using satellite internet, take a Speedtest to help Ookla provide an accurate picture of real-world performance.
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References:
https://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/starlink-hughesnet-viasat-performance-q3-2021/
“5G smart hospital” launched in Thailand; Joint Innovation Lab to incubate 5G applications
The Office of The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) in Thailand, Siriraj Hospital, and Huawei jointly launched the “Siriraj World Class 5G Smart Hospital” on Sunday, December 10th. This is the first and largest 5G smart hospital project in the ASEAN region. It will deliver a more efficient and convenient experience to patients by introducing technologies such as 5G, cloud, and artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Siriraj Hospital and Huawei will establish a Joint Innovation Lab to incubate over 30 innovative 5G applications that will be promoted nationwide from 2022.
General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister, addressed the national policy on 5G and digital economy. “Thailand understands the importance of technology, and today is an important first step in the utilization of digital technologies and 5G in the medical field. We are thankful for the long-lasting friendship and collaboration between Thailand and China. We admire Siriraj Hospital and Mahidol University, and would like to thank Huawei, NBTC, and all other partners. We hope the project will act as a blueprint for all smart hospitals in Thailand going forward.”
Han Zhiqiang, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Thailand, emphasized that China will leverage technology to help Thailand fight the pandemic. “China and Thailand’s 5G cooperation has become a model in the region, helping Thailand become the first country in Southeast Asia to launch 5G commercial use. China will continue to support Huawei and other Chinese companies in advancing Smart Hospitals and bringing better lives for Thai and Chinese people.”
Prof. Dr. Prasit Watanapa, MD, Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital Mahidol University, and Colonel Natee Sukonrat, Ph.D., Vice-Chairman of NBTC emphasized that with the “smart hospitals” model, people in remote areas will have better opportunities to access advanced health care services.
Abel Deng, CEO of Huawei Thailand, said, “Huawei has collaborated with Siriraj Hospital to transform it into a world class 5G Smart Hospital, and introduced the Innovation Lab at Srisavarindira Building as part of its 5G infrastructure project for Siriraj Hospital last year. This signifies a model for upgrading Thailand’s public health industry in the future and contributes to Siriraj’s transition to becoming a smart hospital, in line with Huawei’s mission to Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand.”
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha touring the Siriraj hospital. Image courtesy of Huawei Technologies
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This cross-sector collaboration will enhance and upgrade the services of Siriraj Hospital to progress it to become a smart medical center using digital technologies based on 5G, AI, big data infrastructure, and cloud edge processing for the purpose of patient tracking, disease diagnosis by AI on cloud, data storage and analysis, and allocation of resources.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Siriraj Hospital and Huawei have established long-term cooperation in 5G technology development and application. In June 2020, Siriraj Hospital cooperated with Huawei Thailand to launch 5G self-driving vehicles for contactless delivery of medical supplies.
Siriraj Hospital and Huawei signed a five-year MoU in December 2020 to accelerate the use of 5G and cloud technologies. In June, 5G unmanned vehicles were introduced for contactless medical supplies delivery. Last year, Siriraj received the CommunicAsia “Most Innovative 5G Trial in Asia Pacific Region” award.
References:
https://www.huawei.com/us/news/2021/12/smart-hospital-thailand-5g-siriraj
https://www.itnews.asia/news/thailand-launches-first-5g-smart-hospital-in-asean-574247#
Thailand partners with Huawei to launch ASEAN’s first 5G smart hospital
MEF New Standards for SD-WAN Services; SASE Work Program; Dec 2022 UPDATE!
The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) [1.] has published new SD-WAN standards that add critical enhancements, including new service capabilities for underlay connectivity, important application performance metrics, and security zones for service providers deploying SD-WAN managed services.
Note 1. The MEF is an industry forum empowering enterprises to transform digitally with standard services and APIs for network, cloud, and technology providers. While initially focused on Carrier Ethernet, the MEF scope has broadened to encompass overlay services like SD-WAN. The ITU-T does not have an active SD-WAN standardization program so the industry must look to the MEF for service definitions and standards for that subject.
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The new MEF standards include:
- MEF 70.1 updates MEF 70, the industry’s first global SD-WAN standard, to include new service attributes for underlay connectivity services, new measurable performance metrics that provide visibility into an application’s performance within the provider network and across multiple service providers, and the infrastructure to support application-based security defined in MEF 88 (see below).
- MEF 88, MEF’s first security standard, enhances an SD-WAN service to add security functions. These include defining threats, malware protections, security policy terminology and attributes, and describing what actions a policy should take in response to certain threats.
- MEF 95 provides a unified policy framework for MEF’s SD-WAN (MEF 70.1), Network Slicing (MEF 84), and SASE (MEF W117) and Zero Trust (MEF W118) standards coming in 2022.
“We’re seeing a healthy uptick in SD-WAN deployments driven by work from anywhere, as more users are connecting to the cloud and cloud-based applications. We estimate the global SD-WAN service market will grow from $2.85B in 2020 to $14.5B in 2025 (CAGR of 38%),” said Roopa Honnachari, vice president of research & global program leader – network & edge services, Frost & Sullivan.
“MEF’s work in standardizing and certifying SD-WAN managed services is helping to drive that adoption, and we believe certified services and professionals will continue to play an important role in moving the market forward.”
“MEF develops standards and certifications to provide clarity and assurance and remove complexity for SD-WAN managed services.
The new standards define the service behavior and associated policy language needed to deliver high-performance, secure SD-WAN managed services,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF.
Source: MEF
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“These standards, and the forthcoming SASE and Zero Trust standards, benefit both customers and providers—customers know what to expect when purchasing SD-WAN managed services from a provider, and providers have the tools needed to deliver secure SD-WAN services that drive customer satisfaction,” Pascal added.
Both service providers and vendors can attain certification for MEF’s SD-WAN standards in the MEF 3.0 SD-WAN certification program which validates compliance with MEF standards for delivering managed SD-WAN services and the underlying technology. The objective is to eliminate market confusion, and enable faster SD-WAN market adoption.
In 2022, secure SD-WAN requirements will be added to the MEF 3.0 certification program. Currently, 17 companies have achieved MEF 3.0 SD-WAN certification. In addition, the MEF-SDCP Professional Certification training and certification provides an opportunity for the engineers, architects, product managers, and others deploying SD-WAN solutions to demonstrate their expertise in MEF 3.0 service standards.
- Worldwide, there are over 700 MEF-SDCP professionals employed by more than 120 companies.
- Over 60 service providers have either the Carrier Ethernet or SD-WAN certification within the MEF 3.0 framework, and a handful have both.
- AT&T, Verizon, Comcast Business and Windstream are among the service providers with MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Certification. Those companies also rank within the top five of Vertical Systems Group’s 2020 US Carrier Managed SD-WAN Leaderboard.
MEF SASE Work:
MEF will also be releasing SASE (MEF W117) and Zero Trust (MEF W118) standards in 2022. MEF started developing its secure access service edge (SASE) framework last fall to clarify the service attributes and definitions for SASE.
The SD WAN market has already become bogged down by different SASE definitions, which has led to confusion among enterprise customers and frustration for service providers.
MEF defines SASE as a “service connecting users (machine or human) with their applications in the cloud while providing connectivity performance and security assurance determined by policies set by the Subscriber.” The networking and security functions within a SASE service include routing, VPN, path selection, traffic shaping, firewall, threat prevention and more.
Yet finding one vendor that meets all those requirements, and delivers a SASE service that is simple to deploy, is proving challenging for service providers that want to provide SASE as a managed service to enterprise customers.
“The ideal is one vendor, right? That’s the ideal, we all agree with it. But at least for enterprise customers, we’d haven’t found a single vendor solution that meets their needs yet from a SASE perspective,” said Verizon’s Vincent Lee.
MEF Media Contact: Melissa Power [email protected]
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References:
MEF Introduces New Standards for High-Performance, Secure SD-WAN Services
https://www.mef.net/service-standards/overlay-services/sase/
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December 2022 UPDATE:
MEF SD-WAN and SASE Standards:
In August 2019, the MEF published the industry’s first global standard defining an SD-WAN service and its service attributes. SD-WAN Service Attributes and Services (MEF 70). The MEF SD-WAN standard describes requirements for an application-aware, over-the-top WAN connectivity service that uses policies to determine how application flows are directed over multiple underlay networks irrespective of the underlay technologies or service providers who deliver them. However, it does not address interoperability because it does not specify either a UNI or NNI protocol stack.
MEF 70 defines:
- Service attributes that describe the externally visible behavior of an SD-WAN service as experienced by the subscriber.
- Rules associated with how traffic is handled.
- Key technical concepts and definitions like an SD-WAN UNI, the SD-WAN Edge, SD-WAN Tunnel Virtual Connections, SD-WAN Virtual Connection End Points, and Underlay Connectivity Services.
SD-WAN standardization offers numerous benefits that will help accelerate SD-WAN market growth while improving overall customer experience with hybrid networking solutions. Key benefits include:
- Enabling a wide range of ecosystem stakeholders to use the same terminology when buying, selling, assessing, deploying, and delivering SD-WAN services.
- Making it easier to interface policy with intelligent underlay connectivity services to provide a better end-to-end application experience with guaranteed service resiliency.
- Facilitating inclusion of SD-WAN services in standardized LSO architectures, thereby advancing efforts to orchestrate MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services across automated networks.
- Paving the way for creation and implementation of certified MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services, which will give users confidence that a service meets a fundamental set of requirements.
In December 2022, MEF published two Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) standards defining 1.] SASE service attributes, common definitions & a framework and 2.] a Zero Trust framework that together allow organizations to implement dynamic policy-based actions to secure network resources for faster decision making and implementation for enterprises. MEF’s SASE standard defines common terminology and service attributes which is critically important when buying, selling, and delivering SASE services. It also makes it easier to interface policy with security functions for cloud-based cybersecurity from anywhere. MEF’s Zero Trust framework defines service attributes to enable service providers to implement and deliver a broad range of services that comply with Zero Trust principles.
- SASE Service Attributes and Service Framework Standard: specifies service attributes to be agreed upon between a service provider and a subscriber for SASE services, including security functions, policies, and connectivity services. The standard defines the behaviors of the SASE service that are externally visible to the subscriber irrespective of the implementation of the service. A SASE service based upon the framework defined in the standard enables secure access and secure connectivity of users, devices, or applications to resources for the subscriber. MEF’s SASE standard (MEF 117) includes SASE service attributes and a SASE service framework.
- Zero Trust Framework for MEF Services: The new Zero Trust Framework for MEF Services (MEF 118) defines a framework and requirements of identity, authentication, policy management, and access control processes that are continuously and properly constituted, protected, and free from vulnerabilities when implemented and deployed. This framework also defines service attributes, which are agreed between a subscriber and service provider, to enable service providers to implement and deliver a broad range of services that comply with Zero Trust principles.
ETSI MEC Standard Explained – Part II
by Dario Sabella, Intel, ETSI MEC Chair
Introduction:
This is Part II of a two part article series on MEC. Part I may be accessed here.
Access to Local and Central Data Networks (DN):
Figure 5. below illustrates an example of how concurrent access to local and central DN (Data Networks) works. In this scenario, the same UP session allows the UE to obtain content from both the local server and central server (service continuity is enabled by IP address anchoring at the centralized UPF, with no impact on UE by using Uplink Classifier -ULCL).
Figure 5. Concurrent access to local and central Data Networks (DN)
In this context it is assumed that MEC is deployed on the N6 reference point, i.e. in a data network external to the 5G system. This is enabled by flexibility in locating the UPF. The distributed MEC host can accommodate, apart from MEC apps, a message broker as a MEC platform service, and another MEC platform service to steer traffic to local accelerators. Logically MEC hosts are deployed in the edge or central data network and it is the User Plane Function (UPF) that takes care of steering the user plane traffic towards the targeted MEC applications in the data network.
The locations of the data networks and the UPF are a choice of the network operator who may choose to place the physical computing resources based on technical and business parameters (such as available site facilities, supported applications and their requirements, measured or estimated user load etc). The MEC management system, orchestrating the operation of MEC hosts and applications, may decide dynamically where to deploy the MEC applications.
In terms of physical deployment of MEC hosts, there are multiple options available based on various operational, performance or security related requirements (for more details, see the ETSI paper “MEC in 5G networks” [6] and the more recent study on “MEC 5G integration” [7]).
Moving forward with 5G (3GPP Release 17 onwards):
Given the increase of 5G adoption, and the progressive migration of network operators towards 5G SA (Stand Alone) networks this above MEC deployment is naturally becoming a long-term option considering the evolution of the networks. A major joint opportunity for MEC 5G integration, is on one hand for MEC to benefit from the edge computing enablers of the 5G system specification, and for 3GPP ecosystem to benefit from the MEC system and its APIs as a set of complementary capabilities to enable applications and services environm5 ents in the very edge of mobile networks. IN this perspective, also in the view of more mature 5G deployments, ETSI MEC is aligning with 3GPP SA6, defining from Rel.17 an EDGEAPP architecture (ref. 3GPP TS 23.558).
In this perspective, an ETSI white paper [3] provides some first information on this ongoing alignment, which is introducing a Synergized Mobile Edge Cloud architecture supported by 3GPP and ETSI ISG MEC specifications. This is an ongoing alignment, also in the view of future Rel.18 networks, and with respect to MEC federation and the related expansion (for MEC Phase 3 specifications) from intra-MEC communication to inter-MEC and MEC-Cloud coordination (as depicted in Figure 6). A very first study in this field has been published by ETSI MEC with the ETS GR 035 report [8].
Figure 6. MEC Phase 3: Expansion from intra-MEC to inter-MEC and MEC-Cloud
The MEC 035 study on “Inter-MEC systems and MEC-Cloud systems” was a major effort in ETSI MEC, mainly driven by the need of operators to form federated MEC environments. For example, to achieve V2X (vehicle to X) service continuity in multi-operator scenarios, to enable edge resource sharing among the federating members, and in general offer edge computing infrastructure as an asset to provide global services benefiting of better performance and low latency environments. Many use cases in MEC 035 are in need of MEC federation. Many are also based on the ETSI MEC requirements in MEC 002 (e.g. use cases like “V2X multi-stakeholder scenario” and “Multi-player immersive AR game,” among others).
This work carefully aligns with a GSMA publication introducing requirements for their “Operator Platform” concept. [The GSMA Operator Platform defines a common platform exposing operator services/capabilities to customers/developers in the 5G-era in a connect once, connect to many models. The first phase of the platform focuses on Edge which will be expanded in future phases with other capabilities such as connectivity, slicing and IPComms.] In this scenario, multiple operators will federate their edge computing infrastructure to give application providers access to a global edge cloud which may then run innovative, distributed and low latency services through a set of common APIs.
Currently ETSI MEC is working on the related normative work to enable and support this concept of MEC Federation, by defining a suitable MEC architecture variant in MEC GS 003, updating other impacted MEC specifications in Phase 3, and by introducing proper “MEC Federation Enablement APIs” (MEC GS 040) [9].
Enablement of MEC Deployment and Ecosystem Development:
MEC adoption is critical for the ecosystem. In this perspective, ETSI ISG MEC has established a WG DECODE dedicated to MEC Deployment and Ecosystem engagement activities. As a part of that (but not limited to it!) MEC is publishing and maintaining a MEC Wiki page (mecwiki.etsi.org), including links to several examples of MEC adoption from the ecosystem:
- MEC Ecosystem, with 3rd party MEC Applications and Solutions
- Proof of Concepts (PoCs), with a list and description of past and ongoing PoCs, including the ISG MEC PoC Topics and PoC Framework (and Information about process, criteria, templates….)
- MEC Deployment Trials (MDTs), with a list and description of past and ongoing MDTs (and the MDT Framework, clarifying how to participate)
Additionally, the MEC Wiki also includes: information on MEC Hackathons, MEC Sandbox, OpenAPI publications for ETSI MEC ISG API specifications, and outreach activities (e.g. MEC Tech Series of video and podcasts).
Summary and Conclusions:
- MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) “offers to application developers and content providers cloud-computing capabilities and an IT service environment at the edge of the network” (see Ref 1. below).
- The nature of the ETSI MEC Standard (as emphasized by the term “Multi-access” in the MEC acronym) is access agnostic and can be applicable to any kind of deployment, from Wi-Fi to fixed networks.
- MEC is also serving multiple use cases and providing an open and flexible standard, in support of multiple deployment options, especially for 5G networks.
- MEC is focused on Applications at the Edge, and the specified MEC service APIs include meaningful information exposed to application developers at the network edge, ranging from RNI (Radio Network Information) API (MEC 012), WLAN API (MEC 029), Fixed Access API (MEC 028), Location API (MEC 013), Traffic Management APIs (MEC015) and many others. Additionally, new APIs (compliant with the basic MEC API principles) can be added, without the need for ETSI standardization.
- The ongoing ETSI MEC work in alignment with 3GPP includes aspects related to MEC 5G Integration and future evolution, including the standardization work on MEC Federation. Also, carefully aligning the MEC work with requirements from GSMA OPG (Operator Platform Group).
Finally, since MEC adoption is critical for the IT ecosystem, ETSI ISG MEC has established a WG dedicated to MEC Deployment and Ecosystem engagement activities.
There is also a dedicated MEC Wiki page (mecwiki.etsi.org) which provides several examples of MEC adoption from the ecosystem (PoCs, trials, MEC implementations). It also includes information on MEC Hackathons, MEC Sandbox, OpenAPI publications for ETSI MEC ISG API specifications, and outreach activities (e.g. MEC Tech Series of video and podcasts).
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Previous References (from Part I):
Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Market, Applications and ETSI MEC Standard-Part I
[1] ETSI MEC website, https://www.etsi.org/technologies/multi-access-edge-computing
[2] ETSI GS MEC 003 V2.1.1 (2019-01): “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); Framework and Reference Architecture”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/mec/001_099/003/02.01.01_60/gs_mec003v020101p.pdf
[3] ETSI White Paper #36, “Harmonizing standards for edge computing – A synergized architecture leveraging ETSI ISG MEC and 3GPP specifications”, First Edition, July 2020, https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSIWhitePapers/ETSI_wp36_Harmonizing-standards-for-edge-computing.pdf
[4] ETSI GS MEC 009 V3.1.1 (2021-06), “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); General principles, patterns and common aspects of MEC Service APIs”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/MEC/001_099/009/03.01.01_60/gs_MEC009v030101p.pdf
[5] ETSI White Paper No. 24, “MEC Deployments in 4G and Evolution Towards 5G”, February 2018, https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSIWhitePapers/etsi_wp24_MEC_deployment_in_4G_5G_FINAL.pdf
[6] ETSI White Paper No. 28, “MEC in 5G network”, June 2018, https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSIWhitePapers/etsi_wp28_mec_in_5G_FINAL.pdf
[7] ETSI GR MEC 031 V2.1.1 (2020-10), “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); MEC 5G Integration”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/MEC/001_099/031/02.01.01_60/gr_MEC031v020101p.pdf
[8] ETSI GR MEC 035 V3.1.1 (2021-06), “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); Study on Inter-MEC systems and MEC-Cloud systems coordination”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/MEC/001_099/035/03.01.01_60/gr_mec035v030101p.pdf
[9] ETSI DGS/MEC-0040FederationAPI’ Work Item, “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); Federation enablement APIs”, https://portal.etsi.org/webapp/WorkProgram/Report_WorkItem.asp?WKI_ID=63022
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Additional References:
https://mecwiki.etsi.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/5g-operator-platform/
https://techblog.comsoc.org/2021/05/19/o2-uk-and-microsoft-to-test-mec-in-a-private-5g-network/
https://techblog.comsoc.org/2021/07/06/att-and-google-cloud-expand-5g-and-edge-collaboration/
Orange installs Private 4G/5G Network at Nokia factory in Poland
Orange Poland has announced that it has been selected as the partner in the creation of a private 4G and 5G network at Nokia’s factory and R&D facility at Bydgoszcz, Poland, which includes a factory and three R&D centers. Orange said the 5G private network will benefit from various innovations and edge computing applications.
The network will cover the entire 13,000 square metre facility, providing the location’s 6,000 employees with access to faster, more reliable communications. This, in turn, will enable numerous efficiency improvements within the factory itself, including facilitating automated guided vehicles to transport products internally, drones for surveillance and monitoring, and the widespread deployment of IoT devices. The network will also allow for greater reliability when it comes to inter-facility communications, including group push-to-talk and push-to-video applications. As a private network, it will not be incorporated with Orange Polska’s wider network.
“Private 5G networks are undoubtedly the future of an effective industry. I am glad that we can boast a unique experience on the Polish market, collected during the implementation of already operating implementations of this type, which pay off in subsequent projects, such as the one with Nokia,” said Julien Ducarroz, president of Orange Polska.
“It is a solution enabling the maximum adjustment of communication to the customer’s needs, safe and increasing the efficiency of processes.”
Orange has had a busy couple of months when it comes to 5G. Last month, the company launched its first 5G Lab in Antwerp, the Netherlands, a move that further expands the operator’s presence in the city. Orange has a well-established private 5G standalone network set up in Port of Antwerp, set up back in 2020, where they have been trialling a variety of 5G use cases. At around the same time, Orange was also launching their first Open RAN lab in Paris, with CTO Michael Trabbia notably arguing that interoperable RAN tech would be central to creating a stronger European vendor ecosystem and offering the continent greater technical sovereignty. Further 5G developments are going on in Orange’s other markets too. Just yesterday, Orange Spain announced a new 5G fixed wireless access trial in Galicia, as part of Orange’s wider commitment to the Spanish government’s National 5G plan.
References:
Algar Telecom deploys 1st 5G network in Brazil using 2.3GHz band
Brazilian network operator Algar Telecom announced that it launched what it claims to be the first commercial 5G network in the country. It’s a commercial Non Standalone (NSA) 5G service using its newly acquired 2.3GHz spectrum. The 5G network went live on 15 December and covers selected parts of Uberlandia and Uberaba, as well as Franca in Sao Paulo, with initial coverage reaching some 40 districts in these three cities.
Algar had carried out demonstrations of 5G technology two weeks ago in Uberaba via an implementation carried out together with Nokia and with a focus on agribusiness. According to the company, investments were made in transport network structures, network core and service platforms.
Brazil’s Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria, had anticipated in his hearing before the Senate last week that Algar would be the first telco to launch 5G services in the country.
“For this almost immediate launch to be possible, intensive planning prior to the 5G auction was essential, ensuring the acquisition of the 2.3 GHz frequency, which does not require spectrum cleaning. In addition, the company already had a good part of its infrastructure adequate or easily adapted to offer 5G. We made investments in backhaul structures, network core and service platforms,” the telco said in a release.
In the 5G auction, which ended on November 5, Algar Telecom had secured seven regional slots: five on the 26 GHz frequency, one on the 3.5 GHz frequency and one on the 2.3 GHz frequency. All slots obtained are in Algar Telecom’s original area of operation, where the company has operated since 1954, and which covers 87 municipalities in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul.
The government of Brazil raised a total of 47.2 billion reals ($8.5 billion) in its recent 5G spectrum auction, making it the second largest auction of assets in the country’s history, according to the government.
Through this auction, the government offered spectrum in the 700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 3.5 GHZ and 26 GHz bands.
The country’s main mobile operators, Vivo, Claro and TIM, secured 5G spectrum as well as telecoms operators Algar Telecom and Sercomtel. Also, six new entrants secured 5G spectrum in the auction.
The new entrants that secured licenses in the auction are Winity II Telecom, Brisanet, Fly Link, Neko Serviços e Comunicações and Entertainment and Education, Consórcio 5G Sul and Cloud2U Indústria e Comércio de Equipamentos Eletrônicos.
Brazilian Communications Minister Fabio Faria said that the government will schedule a new 5G spectrum auction in 2022 to sell batches that did not attract interest, mainly in the 26 GHZ spectrum band. Faria noted that the 26 GHZ spectrum did not attract interest due to uncertainties in the business model.
The rules previously approved by telecommunications watchdog Anatel stipulate that 5G should be deployed across Brazilian state capitals by July 31, 2022.
Brazilian cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants will have 5G by July 31, 2025, while the deadline for the rollout of the service in locations with more than 200,000 inhabitants is July 31, 2026. Also, Brazilian cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants will have 5G by July 31 2027, and the service will be available in locations with more than 30,000 inhabitants by July 31, 2028.
TeleGeography notes that Algar acquired regional spectrum in the 2.3GHz, 3.5GHz and 26GHz bands in the country’s 5G spectrum auction. Unlike the 3.5GHz band, the 2.3GHz band does not require cleaning for interference before 5G use. Algar executive Marcio De Jesus commented: “The company already had a good part of its infrastructure adequate or easy to adapt to the 5G offer. We made investments in backhaul structures, network core and service platforms.”
References:
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211216/5g/algar-telecom-activates-first-5g-network-brazil
https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2021/12/16/algar-telecom-launches-5g-using-2-3ghz-band/
https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/5G-and-3.5-GHz-Range-in-Latam.pdf
https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211108/5g/brazil-raises-total-8-billion-5g-spectrum-auction
Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Market, Applications and ETSI MEC Standard-Part I
by Dario Sabella, Intel, ETSI MEC Chair, with Alan J Weissberger
Introduction (by Alan J Weissberger):
According to Research & Markets, the global Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) market size is anticipated to reach $23.36 billion by 2028, producing a CAGR of 42.6%. Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) due to integration of MEC in network systems as compared to legacy systems and subsequent ability to generate faster Return on Investment (RoI) is further expected to encourage smaller retail chains to leverage MEC technology.
Multi-access Edge Computing Market Highlights (from Research & Markets):
- The software segment is anticipated to be the fastest-growing segment owing to emerging demand among service providers to use software that can be deployed for various applications without making changes to existing 3GPP hardware infrastructure specifications.
- The energy and utilities segment is expected to witness the fastest growth rate over the forecast period owing to increasing demand among companies to quickly access insights and analyze data generated from remote locations
- The Asia Pacific region is expected to emerge as the fastest-growing regional market due to strong support from the government to encourage advanced network infrastructure
A few important MEC applications/ use cases include:
- Streaming video and pay TV: Increasing number of users adopting the Over the Top (OTT) video delivery model is expected to promote telecom companies and mobile networks to upgrade their existing infrastructure to cache video/audio content closer to the user. Using the multi-access edge computing (MEC) architecture system brings backend functionality closer to the user network, which is expected to aid Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPD) to meet their customers’ demands. Users pay subscription fees for a specified duration of time to access the content offered by the MVPD.
- Deployment of MEC technology is expected to enable retail and on line stores to improve the performance of in-store systems and reduce data processing time, thus ensuring faster resolving of customer grievances. Furthermore, adoption of this technology is expected to reduce the load on external macro sites, thus offering a seamless in-store experience for users.
- Increasing number of IoT devices and the emerging need to gain access to real-time analysis of data generated by them is expected to drive MEC market growth. Leveraging this technology in IoT can facilitate reduced pressure on cloud networks and result in lower energy consumption, which is expected to offer significant growth opportunities to the market.
- Multi-access edge computing is expected to enhance manufacturing practices and thus facilitate the advent of connected cars ecosystem. Connected cars are equipped with computing systems, wireless devices, and sensing, which have to work together in a coordinated fashion, thus facilitating the need to adopt MEC.
- 5G MEC technology can be used to exchange critical operational and safety information to enhance efficiency, safety, and enhance value-added services such as smart parking and car finder.
Previously referred to as Mobile Edge Computing, MEC raises a lot of questions. For example:
- Can MEC be used with wireline and fixed access networks?
- Is 5G Stand Alone (SA) core network with separate control, data, and management planes required for MEC to be effective?
- Finally, why should MEC (and multi-cloud) matter to infrastructure owners and application developers?
Dario Sabella, Intel, ETSI MEC Chair, answers those questions and provides more context and color in his two part article.
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ETSI MEC Standard Explained, by Dario Sabella, Intel, ETSI MEC Chair
ETSI MEC – Foundation for Edge Computing:
MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) “offers to application developers and content providers cloud-computing capabilities and an IT service environment at the edge of the network” [1].
The MEC ISG (Industry Specification Group) was established by ETSI to create an open standard for edge computing, allowing multiple implementations and ensuring interoperability across a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders: from mobile operators, application developers, Over the Top (OTT) players, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), telecom equipment vendors, IT platform vendors, system integrators, and technology providers; all of these parties are interested in delivering services based on Multi-access Edge Computing concepts.
The work of the MEC initiative (see the architecture in Figure 1. above) aims to unite the telco and IT-cloud worlds, providing IT and cloud-computing capabilities at the edge: operators can open their network edge to authorized third parties, allowing them to flexibly and rapidly deploy innovative applications and services towards mobile subscribers, enterprises and vertical segments (e.g. automotive).
Author’s Note:
From a deployment point of view, a natural question is “where exactly is the edge?” In this perspective, the ETSI MEC architecture supports all possible options, ranging from customer premises, 1st wireless base station/small cell, 1st network compute point of presence, internet resident data center/compute server or edge of the core network. The MEC standard is flexible, and the actual and specific MEC deployment is really an implementation choice from the infrastructure owners.
Additionally, the MEC architecture (shown in Figure 2 and defined in the MEC 003 specification [2]) has been designed in such a way that a number of different deployment options of MEC systems are possible:
- The MEC 003 specification includes also a MEC in NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) variant, which is a MEC architecture that instantiates MEC applications and NFV virtualized network functions on the same virtualization infrastructure, and to reuse ETSI NFV MANO components to fulfil a part of the MEC management and orchestration tasks. This MEC deployment in NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) is also coherent with the progressive virtualization of networks.
- In that perspective, MEC deployment in 5G networks is a main scenario of applicability (note that the MEC standard is aligned with 3GPP specifications [3]).
- On the other hand, the nature of the ETSI MEC Standard (as emphasized by the term “Multi-access” in the MEC acronym) is access agnostic and can be applicable to any kind of deployment, from Wi-Fi to fixed networks.
- A major effort of the MEC standardization work is dedicated to publishing relevant and industry-driven exemplary specifications of MEC service APIs, that are using RESTful principles, thus exposed to application developers in a universally recognized language.
Figure 2. MEC Application Development Community
The ETSI MEC initiative is focused on Applications at the Edge, and the specified MEC APIs (see above Figure 2.) include meaningful information exposed to application developers at the network edge, ranging from RNI (Radio Network Information) API (MEC 012), WLAN API (MEC 029), Fixed Access API (MEC 028), Location API (MEC 013), Traffic Management APIs (MEC015) and many others.
Additionally, new APIs (compliant with the basic MEC API principles [4]) can be added, without the need of being standardized in ETSI.
In this perspective, MEC truly provides a new ecosystem and value chain, by opening up the market to third parties, and allowing not only operators and cloud providers but any authorized software developers that can flexibly and rapidly deploy innovative applications and services towards mobile subscribers, enterprises and vertical segments.
MEC in 4G (and 5G NSA) Deployments:
ETSI has already clarified how MEC can be deployed in 4G networks, given its access-agnostic nature [5], with many approaches:
From “bump in the wire” (where the MEC sits on the S1 interface of the 4G system architecture), to “distributed 4G-Evolved Packet Core” (EPC -where the MEC data plane sits on the SGi interface), to “distributed S/PGW” (where the control plane functions such as the MME and HSS are located at the operator’s core site) and “distributed SGW with Local Breakout” (SGW-LBO) -where the MEC system and the distributed SGW are co-located at the network’s edge.
Figure 3. MEC deployment options with distributed EPC (a), distributed S/PGW (b) and SGW-LBO (c)
Depending on the selected solution, MEC Handover is executed in different ways:
In the “bump in the wire approach,” mobility is not natively supported. Instead, in the EPC MEC, SGW + PGW MEC, and CUPS MEC, the MEC handover is supported using 3GPP specified S1 Handover with SGW relocation by maintaining the original PGW as anchor.
The same considerations apply for the SGW-LBO MEC deployment. In the latter case, the target SGW enforces the same policy towards the local MEC application.
Finally, the solutions that include an EPC gateway, such as EPC MEC, SGW+PGW MEC, SGW-LBO MEC, and CUPS MEC are compliant with LI (Lawful Interception) requirements.
This last aspect is also very relevant for MEC adoption, since public telecommunications network and service providers are legally required to make available to law enforcement authorities information from their retained data which is necessary for the authorities to be able to monitor telecommunications traffic as part of criminal investigations.
In that perspective, MEC deployment options are also chosen by infrastructure owners in the view of their compliance to Lawful Interception requirements.
Distributed SGW with Local Breakout (SGW-LBO):
A mainstream for the adoption of MEC is given by the progressive introduction of 5G networks.
Among the various 5G deployment options, local breakout at the SGWs (Figure 3c above) is a solution for MEC that originated from operators’ desire to have a greater control on the granularity of the traffic that needs to be steered. This principle was dictated by the need to have the users able to reach both the MEC applications and the operator’s core site application in a selective manner over the same APN.
The traffic steering uses the SGi – Local Break Out interface which supports traffic separation and allows the same level of security as the network operator expects from a 3GPP-compliant solution.
This solution allows the operator to specify traffic filters similar to the uplink classifiers in 5G, which are used for traffic steering. The local breakout architecture also supports MEC host mobility, extension to the edge of CDN, push applications that requires paging and ultra-low latency use cases.
The SGW selection process performed by MMEs is according to the 3GPP specifications and based on the geographical location of UEs (Tracking Areas) as provisioned in the operator’s DNS.
The SGW-LBO offers the possibility to steer traffic based on any operator-chosen combination of the policy sets, such as APN and user identifier, packet’s 5-tuple, and other IP level parameters including IP version and DSCP marking.
Integrated MEC deployment in 5G networks (3GPP Release 15 and later):
Edge computing has been identified as one of the key technologies required to support low latency together with mission critical and future IoT services. This was considered in the initial 3GPP requirements, and the 5G system was designed from the beginning to provide efficient and flexible support for edge computing to enable superior performance and quality of experience.
In that perspective, the design approach taken by 3GPP allows the mapping of MEC onto Application Functions (AF) that can use the services and information offered by other 3GPP network functions based on the configured policies.
In addition, a number of enabling functionalities were defined to provide flexible support for different deployments of MEC and to support MEC in case of user mobility events. The new 5G architecture (and MEC deployment as AF) is depicted in the Figure 4 below.
Figure 4. – MEC as an AF (Application Function) in 5G system architecture
In this deployment scenario, MEC as an AF (Application Function) can request the 5GC (5G Core network) to select a local UPF (User Plane Function) near the target RAN node. Then use the local UPF for PDU sessions of the target UE(s) and to control the traffic forwarding from the local UPF so that the UL traffic matching with the traffic filters received from MEC (AF) is diverted towards MEC hosts while other traffic is sent to the Central Cloud.
In case of UE mobility, the 5GC can re-select a new local UPF more suitable to handle application traffic identified by MEC (AF) and notify the AF about the new serving UPF.
In summary, MEC as an AF can provide the following services with a 5GC:
- Traffic filters identifying MEC applications deployed locally on MEC hosts in Edge Cloud
- Target UEs (one UE identified by its IP/MAC address, a group of UE, any UE)
- Information about forwarding the identified traffic further e.g. references to tunnels toward MEC hosts
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Part II. of this two part article will illustrate and explain concurrent access to local and central Data Networks. The enablement of MEC deployments and ecosystem development will also be presented.
Importantly, Part II will explain how MEC is evolving to the next phase of 5G– 3GPP Release 17. In particular, ETSI MEC is aligning with 3GPP SA6 which is defining an EDGEAPP architecture (ref. 3GPP TS 23.558).
Part II will also explain how MEC is evolving to multi-cloud support in alignment with GSMA OPG requirements for the MEC Federation work.
ETSI MEC Standard Explained – Part II
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References:
1. Introduction:
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-128/Accenute-MEC-for-Pervasive-Networks-PoV.pdf
PowerPoint Presentation (etsi.org)
2. Main body of this article (Part I and II):
[1] ETSI MEC website, https://www.etsi.org/technologies/multi-access-edge-computing
[2] ETSI GS MEC 003 V2.1.1 (2019-01): “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); Framework and Reference Architecture”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/mec/001_099/003/02.01.01_60/gs_mec003v020101p.pdf
[3] ETSI White Paper #36, “Harmonizing standards for edge computing – A synergized architecture leveraging ETSI ISG MEC and 3GPP specifications”, First Edition, July 2020, https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSIWhitePapers/ETSI_wp36_Harmonizing-standards-for-edge-computing.pdf
[4] ETSI GS MEC 009 V3.1.1 (2021-06), “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); General principles, patterns and common aspects of MEC Service APIs”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/MEC/001_099/009/03.01.01_60/gs_MEC009v030101p.pdf
[5] ETSI White Paper No. 24, “MEC Deployments in 4G and Evolution Towards 5G”, February 2018, https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSIWhitePapers/etsi_wp24_MEC_deployment_in_4G_5G_FINAL.pdf
[6] ETSI White Paper No. 28, “MEC in 5G network”, June 2018, https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSIWhitePapers/etsi_wp28_mec_in_5G_FINAL.pdf
[7] ETSI GR MEC 031 V2.1.1 (2020-10), “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); MEC 5G Integration”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/MEC/001_099/031/02.01.01_60/gr_MEC031v020101p.pdf
[8] ETSI GR MEC 035 V3.1.1 (2021-06), “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); Study on Inter-MEC systems and MEC-Cloud systems coordination”, https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/MEC/001_099/035/03.01.01_60/gr_mec035v030101p.pdf
[9] ETSI DGS/MEC-0040FederationAPI’ Work Item, “Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC); Federation enablement APIs”, https://portal.etsi.org/webapp/WorkProgram/Report_WorkItem.asp?WKI_ID=63022
Dell’Oro: PON ONT spending +15% Year over Year
According to a newly published report by Dell’Oro Group, total global revenue for the Broadband Access equipment market increased to $3.9 B in 3Q 2021, up 7% year-over-year (Y/Y). Growth came from spending on both PON infrastructure and fixed wireless CPE. Please see chart below.
“5G fixed wireless deployments joined fiber as the primary drivers for spending this quarter,” noted Jeff Heynen, Vice President, Broadband Access and Home Networking at Dell’Oro Group. “Despite supply chain constraints and increased costs, operators continue to focus on expanding broadband connectivity,” explained Heynen.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2021 Broadband Access and Home Networking quarterly report:
- Total cable access concentrator revenue decreased 27 percent Y/Y to $257 M. There was a clear mix shift this quarter to remote PHY and remote MACPHY devices, both of which saw Y/Y revenue increases.
- Total PON ONT unit shipments reached 32 M units, marking the fourth quarter in row-unit shipments have exceeded 30 M globally.
- Component shortages are clearly impacting cable CPE and home networking device sales, with unit shipments down markedly Y/Y.
The Dell’Oro Group Broadband Access and Home Networking Quarterly Report provides a complete overview of the Broadband Access market with tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments for Cable, DSL, and PON equipment. Covered equipment includes Converged Cable Access Platforms (CCAP) and Distributed Access Architectures (DAA); Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers ([DSLAMs] by technology ADSL/ADSL2+, G.SHDSL, VDSL, VDSL Profile 35b, and G.FAST); PON Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), Cable, DSL, and PON CPE (Customer Premises Equipment); and SOHO WLAN Equipment, including Mesh Routers. For more information about the report, please contact [email protected].
Separately, Dell’Oro reports that the worldwide Campus Switch market revenue reached a record level in 3Q 2021. Growth was mostly propelled by 1 Gbps, which reached a record level in shipments during the quarter, while Ethernet NBase-T ports were down Y/Y.
“We have been predicting the demand in the market to remain strong, but what surprised us is the level of shipments and revenues that vendors were able to achieve during the quarter, despite ongoing supply challenges,” said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “It appears, however, that these supply challenges are impacting the newer technologies more than the older ones, due to a less diversified ecosystem, and in some cases, a less mature supply chain,” added Boujelbene.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2021 Ethernet Switch – Campus Report:
- Extreme, HPE, and Juniper each gained more than one point of revenue share in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
- H3C outperformed the market and captured the revenue leading position in China
- Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) ports up strong double-digits and comprised 30 percent of the total ports
The Dell’Oro Group Ethernet Switch – Campus Quarterly Report offers a detailed view of Ethernet switches built and optimized for deployment outside the data center, to connect users and things to the Local Area Networks. The report contains in-depth market and vendor-level information on manufacturers’ revenue, ports shipped and average selling prices for both Modular and Fixed, and Fixed Managed and Unmanaged Ethernet Switches (100 Mbps, 1, 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 40, 50, 100 Gbps), Power-over-Ethernet, plus regional breakouts as well as split by customer size (Enterprise vs. SMB) and vertical segments. To purchase these reports, please contact us by email at [email protected].
About Dell’Oro Group
Dell’Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the telecommunications, networks, and data center IT markets. Our firm provides in-depth quantitative data and qualitative analysis to facilitate critical, fact-based business decisions. For more information, contact Dell’Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.delloro.com.
References:
Vodafone and Mavenir complete VoLTE call over a containerized Open RAN lab environment
Upstart network software provider Mavenir, announced today that it completed the first data and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call across a containerized 4G small cell Open RAN solution in a Vodafone lab environment. The completed tests are the latest steps forward to delivering an open and vendor-interoperable 4G connectivity solution for small to medium-sized office locations.
Having first started work on a containerized indoor enterprise connectivity solution in January 2021, Vodafone has completed tests for an important stage of the technology roadmap. The plug-and-play small cell equipment can ensure comprehensive mobile coverage in every corner of the office. The solution will provide 4G coverage initially, making use of radio hardware from Sercomm and software from Mavenir (Open RAN). Containerization means that software can be seamlessly transferred between equipment, platforms, and applications. Wind River provided its Containers as a Service (CaaS) software, part of Wind River Studio.
This demonstration of a containerized solution is a major milestone in the evolution of connectivity equipment away from physical infrastructure to a digital cloud-based environment. Containerization provides greater flexibility for customers, but also significant benefits in terms of speed and cost of deployment.
Open RAN technology separates software from hardware, meaning more flexibility for mobile operators and customers. This approach aims to see many companies providing the components that make up a mobile network site, where previously one vendor would have delivered the whole solution. The technology is controversial, but accepted by many as a potential disruptor for the telecommunications industry. Vodafone claims to be one of the industry leaders in supporting the development of the Open RAN vendor ecosystem.
Whereas much of the focus for Open RAN has been directed towards network infrastructure deployment on mobile sites throughout the UK, the technology can be implemented in an enterprise environment to support local connectivity requirements. As an interoperable and standardized (there are no standards for Open RAN!) technology, Open RAN solutions can be integrated with little disruption in a “plug and play” manner, interoperable with other Open RAN compliant vendors.
Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK, said: “Open RAN is opening doors to simplified and intuitive connectivity solutions. For our wider network deployment strategy, Open RAN is enabling us to work with a wider pool of suppliers and to avoid vendor lock-in scenarios that might prevent us from taking advantage of the latest innovations. The same could be said for enterprise connectivity solutions.”
“From the moment Open RAN is deployed in an office environment, customers are no-longer locked into a single upgrade path. Working alongside Vodafone, customers can be more flexible in how connectivity solutions are adapted and upgraded as demands evolve in the future.”
Stefano Cantarelli, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Mavenir, said; “Cloud Native and Open Solutions are becoming the new reality of the mobile world, and these include Radio Access and its containerized implementation. Open vRAN is a very flexible architecture that can serve any type of segment and Mavenir is really pleased to work with Vodafone in the enterprise business and achieved another first together. It is an opportunity to show that automated and AI controlled systems will simplify life to business and industry.”
“Mavenir is delighted to partner with Vodafone in Open RAN and to work in the U.K. on their radio network transformation initiative, proving the extreme flexibility of Open vRAN,” Virtyt Koshi, SVP of Mavenir EMEA, said. “We are particularly proud in working in the field within the Vodafone commercial network and in the Newbury Open RAN Test and Verification lab, supporting the Vodafone effort to boost the ecosystem.”
Moving forward, Vodafone and Mavenir will focus on finalizing the packaging and automation of the solution before beginning trials with selected customers.
References:
Vodafone and Mavenir create indoor OpenRAN solution for business customers
Vodafone partners with Mavenir to leverage Open RAN for in-building enterprise 4G
Dell Oro and IDC on the Global Service Provider Router and Switch market in 3Q-2021
According to a new report by Dell’Oro Group, the worldwide Service Provider Router and Switch market was flat in 3Q 2021. Market growth was stifled during the quarter due in large part to global supply chain constraints that affected vendors’ ability to deliver products to customers.
“Despite global supply chain problems, the underlying demand to upgrade backbone and 5G transport networks remains strong,” said Shin Umeda, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Service providers are transitioning to new network architectures, and demand for 400 Gbps capable systems and enhanced edge routers offer the networking capabilities required to achieve the transformations,” added Umeda.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2021 Service Provider Router and Switch Report:
- Cisco was the top-ranked vendor for the first three quarters of 2021, followed by Huawei, Nokia, Juniper, and ZTE.
- The Service Provider Router and Switch market is projected to grow at a slightly lower rate for 2021 due to the negative effect of supply chain constraints.
- The North American region outperformed all other regions with double-digit revenue growth through the first three quarters of 2021.
The Dell’Oro Group Service Provider Router and Switch Quarterly Report offers complete, in-depth coverage of the Service Provider Router and Switch market for future current and historical periods. The report includes qualitative analysis and detailed statistics for manufacture revenue by regions, customer types, and use cases, average selling prices, and unit and port shipments. To purchase these reports, please contact us by email at [email protected].
Dell’Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the telecommunications, networks, and data center IT markets. Our firm provides in-depth quantitative data and qualitative analysis to facilitate critical, fact-based business decisions. For more information, contact Dell’Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.delloro.com.
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On December 8th, IDC reported that the worldwide Ethernet switch market recorded $8.1 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2021 (3Q21), an increase of 7.5% year over year.
Meanwhile, worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market revenues grew 4.7% year over year in 3Q21 to $3.8 billion. These growth rates are according to results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and IDC Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker.
Ethernet Switch Market Highlights
The Ethernet switch market’s 7.5% annualized growth in 3Q21 builds on growth in the first half of the year. Year-to-date through the first three quarters of 2021, the market is up 8.6% compared to the first three quarters of 2020. On a sequential basis, the 3Q21 Ethernet switch market revenues were up 9.3% from the previous quarter. And compared to the third quarter of 2019, which was before the COVID-19 pandemic, revenues increased 9.6%, indicating strong organic growth in the market.
From a geographic perspective, the 3Q21 Ethernet switch market had strong results across most parts of the world. In the Asia/Pacific region, the People’s Republic of China increased 18.1% year over year while Japan’s market declined 13.6%. In the rest of Asia/Pacific (excluding China and Japan) (APeJC), the market rose 7.3% year over year, buoyed by the market in Korea growing 22.3% annually. In Europe, results were mixed: Western Europe’s market rose 16.7% year over year with strength from Germany, which grew 18.3%. Central and Eastern Europe’s market rose 3.3%. In the Middle East & Africa, the market declined 8.9% year over year. Across the Americas, the market in the United States rose 5.5%; Canada’s market fell 0.2%, and Latin America’s market increased 16.0% year over year with Brazil rising 43.6% compared to 3Q20.
“The Ethernet switching market continues to demonstrate impressive resilience. Through the first three quarters of 2021, the market has recorded healthy growth compared to 2020, driven by demand in both the enterprise campus and branch markets, as well as from hyperscalers and other cloud providers, which continue to invest in datacenter switching capacity,” notes Brad Casemore, research vice president, Datacenter and Multicloud Networking. “There are some headwinds in the market, though: supply-chain constraints occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic mean that customers and vendors must plan accordingly as they look to the year ahead, and the pandemic itself continues to sow uncertainty among technology buyers, especially enterprises in certain industries.”
Overall port shipments increased 9.1% with growth in both the non-datacenter and datacenter portions of the Ethernet switch market. Non-datacenter Ethernet switch revenues grew 6.5% in 3Q21 year over year with port shipments increasing 9.1%. The non-datacenter Ethernet switch portion of the market makes up 87.1% of port shipments and 56.7% of total market revenues with the balance of revenues and port shipments in the datacenter portion of the market. In the datacenter segment, revenues rose 8.8% year over year while port shipments increased 8.7%.
The higher-speed segments of the Ethernet switch market continue to see significant growth driven by hyperscalers and cloud providers. Market revenues for 200/400 GbE switches grew 70.4% from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2021 with port shipments more than doubling (+118.1%) on a sequential basis. 100GbE revenues increased 13.8% on an annualized basis while port shipments rose 13.1% year over year. 100GbE revenues make up 24.5% of the Ethernet switch market’s total revenues. 25/50 GbE revenues declined 1.1% annually while port shipments declined 7.8%.
Lower-speed switches, a more mature part of the market, saw mixed results. 10GbE port shipments declined 1.5% year over year with revenue dropping 6.0% annually; 10GbE switches make up 23.0% of the market’s total revenue. 1GbE switches increased 10.5% year over year in port shipments and increased 7.6% in revenue. 1GbE accounts for 34.4% of the total Ethernet switch market’s revenue. 2.5/5GbE switch revenue increased 7.3% sequentially from 2Q21 to 3Q21 while port shipments rose 6.7% quarter-over-quarter.
Router Market Highlights
The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market increased 4.7% year over year in 3Q21 with the major service provider segment, which accounts for 76.4% of revenues, increasing 3.6% and the enterprise segment increasing 8.3%. From a regional perspective, the combined service provider and enterprise router market increased 15.4% in APeJC. Japan’s market declined 6.1% while the People’s Republic of China market was up 2.2% year over year. Revenues in Western Europe were off 1.6% compared to 3Q20 while the Central and Eastern Europe the combined enterprise and service provider declined 4.9% annually. The Middle East & Africa region declined 1.7%. In the U.S., the enterprise segment increased 27.6% while the service provider revenues increased 5.4% giving the combined markets a 10.6% increase on an annualized basis. The Latin American market grew 7.3% on an annualized basis and Canada’s market increased 6.2% year over year.
Vendor Highlights
Cisco finished 3Q21 with a year-over-year decline of 1.3% in overall Ethernet switch revenues and market share of 45.4%. Meanwhile, Cisco’s combined service provider and enterprise router revenue grew 10.7% year over year with enterprise router revenue increasing 14.1% and SP revenues increasing 8.7%. Cisco’s combined SP and enterprise router market share stands at 37.5% in the quarter.
Huawei’s Ethernet switch revenue increased 11.4% on an annualized basis in 3Q21 giving the company market share of 10.7%. The company’s combined SP and enterprise router revenue increased 4.0% year over year giving the company a market share of 28.1%.
Arista Networks saw its Ethernet switch revenues increase 23.0% in 3Q21, bringing its share of the total market to 7.3%.
H3C’s Ethernet switch revenue increased 18.6% year over year giving the company market share of 6.2% in the quarter. In the combined service provider and enterprise routing market, H3C’s revenues grew 31.3%, giving the company a 2.2% market share.
HPE‘s Ethernet switch revenue increased 23.6% year over year in 3Q21, giving the company a market share of 5.8%.
Juniper‘s Ethernet switch revenue, which includes the company’s cloud-managed, enterprise campus Mist portfolio as well as its EX and QFX switch portfolios, increased 25.6% year over year in 3Q21, bringing its Ethernet switch market share to 3.2%. Juniper saw an 11.0% decline in combined enterprise and SP router sales, bringing its market share in the router market to 10.0%.
“Results in the Ethernet switch market were generally strong across the globe, indicating that most regions of the world continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic that caused decreased spending on network infrastructure,” noted Petr Jirovsky, research director, IDC Networking Trackers. “The growth in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2019 indicates strong fundamentals for the market, which is a positive sign for the future.”
The Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and the Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker provide total market size and vendor shares for the Ethernet switch and router technologies in an easy-to-use Excel pivot table format. The geographic coverage for both the Ethernet switch market and the router market includes nine major regions (USA, Canada, Latin America, People’s Republic of China, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan & China), Japan, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and Africa) and 60 countries. The Ethernet switch market is further segmented by speed (100Mb, 1000Mb, 2.5Gb/5Gb, 10Gb, 25Gb/50Gb, 50Gb, 100Gb, 200Gb/400Gb), product (fixed managed, fixed unmanaged, modular), and layer (Ethernet switch, ADC). Measurement for the Ethernet switch market is provided in vendor revenue, value, and port shipments. The router market is further split by product (high-end, mid-range, low-end, SOHO), deployment (service provider, enterprise), connectivity (core, edge), and the measurements are in vendor revenue, value, and unit shipments.
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