Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
While a slightly hyperbolic headline, there is a definite sense that the networks of the future are going to be subject to a lot more political will than their predecessors. As Russia plans a test to see what would happen to it if it gets shut out from the rest of the World Wide Web, the USA is stepping up its attacks on Huawei, preparing an executive order to ban Chinese equipment from American wireless networks, and potentially punish other countries that opt to use the cheaper vendors. So what does that mean for ambitious IoT projects? With the telecoms and networking world now firmly stuck between the superpowers, as they jockey for position on the world stage, there’s a…
Intel never causes shockwaves with its CEO choices. It has never selected an external candidate, and the newest leader, Bob Swan, has been doing the job on an interim basis for seven months already, since the abrupt departure of predecessor Brian Krzanich. Swan is only the seventh CEO of Intel in its 50-year history and while that has given the company the benefits of continuity and consistency of vision, it also limits the scope for innovation and a radical approach. And a hefty dose of radical thought is in order, for a firm which lost its ‘world’s biggest chipmaker’ status to Samsung (off and on) in 2017, and which is seeing intense pressure in its core markets, coupled with only…
More and more industries are looking to private cellular networks to support their specific requirements, or even to their own spectrum. If 5G, and even 4G, are to deliver the biggest benefits for each individual vertical, each will need networks that are deployed and optimized in individual ways, with specific levels of power efficiency, data speed, latency and security. The days of a single, high performance network supporting every requirement are coming to an end, and no MNO could create a network that would deliver all the advantages envisaged for 5G – even with flexible platforms like network slicing. This thinking has seen the German auto and manufacturing sectors successfully lobbying for 5G spectrum to be earmarked for industrial use;…
The large-scale commercial deployment of systems based on NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) may have been disappointing in its pace, but the ETSI specifications remain the bedrock of telcos’ transition to software-driven platforms – at least until the operator world moves forward and fully embraces the cloud-native approach coming from the cloud industry. The standards body has lost the momentum to open source groups in some areas, notably in management and orchestration (MANO) of virtualized networks, where its own Open Source MANO (OSM) is competing with the Linux Foundation-hosted ONAP (Open Network Automation Protocol). But ETSI is also making significant moves to enhance NFV’s deployability and keep its hand on the steering wheel. Last week, it published the first release of…
As with NFV (see previous item), so with software-defined networking (SDN) – operators have good intentions, but are at the very early stages of large-scale implementation. So perhaps, as in other areas, telcos can learn from the webscale industry, which is already a lot further along with SDN. And if Google is to be believed, it has already progressed to a whole new phase of SDN, which it calls a ‘network brain’ (or ‘temporospatial SDN’). The latest study to indicate how gradually SDN is making inroads into the central operations of operators comes from IHS Markit, whose survey found that most service providers have started evaluating or deploying SDN, but that barriers remain. The highest ones relate to products not…
After months of speculation, Ericsson has joined the ORAN (Open RAN) Alliance, in what looks like a mighty departure from the norms on which the Swedish firm has built its whole business. Nokia and Samsung have embraced several of the initiatives seeking to create open frameworks for disaggregated, mix-and-match RANs, but Ericsson has remained aloof. It seems that, while Nokia and Ericsson would clearly rather remain in the cosy world where they could lock customers into proprietary, end-to-end networks, they feel the tide of open, interoperable, virtualized systems is too strong for them to resist. Nokia, whose thinking has been more software-centric than its rival’s for some years, perhaps found it easier to adapt itself to the new world, and…
Above, we argued that the 5G RAN and core will, with Releases 16 and 17, become capable of delivering the wide range of functions envisaged for ‘5G’. However, these will only turn into profitable new revenue streams and an agile commercial platform if operators also transform their operations, processes and the systems which surround the network itself. One of the problems for early 5G deployers is that they had expected, a few years ago, that 5G would be inextricably linked with virtualized core and RAN. In reality, NFV (network functions virtualization) has come almost to a standstill amid criticisms that it is hard to scale, and as may operators turn away from first generation technologies and wait for fully cloud-native,…
Most leading mobile operators, when interviewed, make similar pronouncements about 5G: it is more than a radio upgrade; it needs to support brand new revenue streams, especially in the enterprise and IoT; it is about convergence with fixed and non-3GPP wireless technologies, to create a ‘network of networks’; it will only deliver all its commercial and socio-economic goals if it is deployed in parallel with a far broader overhaul of the network platform, from end to end, with the introduction of virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN), and networks that are disaggregated into a granular set of mix-and-match components. It is dispiriting, if not altogether surprising, that the rush to stick a 5G flag in the ground means early movers are mainly…
Conventional standards bodies are often at their weakest when two separate worlds converge. When the mobile network also became an IP and data network, it required a massive adjustment by its core standards body, the 3GPP, and uneasy cooperation with previously alien groups like the IETF (Internet Engineering Taskforce, the main Internet standards body). Into that breach, proprietary solutions can too easily step, but so can open source initiatives. As these start to have the same influence in telecoms as they have already had in the data center, it is no surprise that the Linux Foundation (LF) is building a power base in some of the new intersections – particularly between the telecoms network and the cloud. In the mobile…
In the run up to MWC, Deutsche Telekom has unveiled nuSIM, a new system that provides embedded SIM (eSIM) functions at a price-point suited for low-cost IoT devices. With a slew of partners onboard, the news comes as the MNO tries to position LTE as its primary LPWAN technology for long-life applications, to fend off the incursion from cheaper U-LPWAN options. Notably, no actually prices are discussed in the announcement, nor is a gesture towards the potential reduction in the cost of such modules. What is mentioned is the type of devices that DT anticipates making use of the technology, which are ‘mobile IoT applications with a long-life span, such as asset trackers or smart motion or temperature sensors.’ Now,…
Intel is supplying its True View technology to three English Premier League soccer clubs, Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC and Manchester City to power new features including multi-angle views of play, be the player capabilities, and a laser wall giving viewers a clear picture as to where players are positioned on a pitch. Intel True View uses the volumetric video capturing and rendering technology to record 38 5K UHD cameras, processing a substantial amount of data on servers running Intel Core i7 and Intel Xeon processors. Software then re-creates all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D person or object – rendering a virtual environment in multi-perspective 3D with true 6 degrees of freedom. Esports production firm Espat Media has partnered…
A small but influential group of mobile operators are introducing radical new approaches to network build-out, to disruptive effect, in some key world markets. Free Mobile’s skillful harnessing of its existing fiber and WiFi assets to reduce cellular costs and undercut its rivals’ pricing has shaken up the French market in recent years, and parent Iliad hopes to do the same in Italy now. A similar approach might be taken by Germany’s new mobile entrant, 1&1 Drillisch, if it buys 5G spectrum. Reliance Jio has rewritten all the rules in India, and now ecommerce giant Rakuten plans to do the same in the entrenched market of Japan. Superficially, what the first three have in common is an aggressive stance on…
Claiming to be the world’s only vendor currently providing interoperable G.fast and VDSL technology, Nokia has landed a huge deal at second-placed Japanese mobile network operator KDDI – upgrading MDUs (multi-dwelling units) to speeds of 830 Mbps. At a time when Japan is caught in a fight with Korea and China to be first to 5G, aiming to deliver the next-gen mobile network by the Japan 2020 Summer Olympics, some significant broadband news makes for refreshing reading. The announcement notes that Japan-specific VDSL2 technology is relied upon by between 5 million and 6 million residents, those who require network upgrades, while over 30 million households receive FTTH/FTTB services, of which approximately 9 million are MDU residents. But as fiber picks…
Live encoding expert Haivision has unveiled the Makito X4 encoder, a 4K UHD capable bit of kit powered by the vendor’s new HEVC/H.264 programmable 8 core encoding engine. The result is support for 4K UHD or quad HD at a full 60 frames per second with HDR support, and this ability to pack so much bang into such a small package is testament to the development of the Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) protocol, which Haivision drummed up an orchestra about during a chat a few months back. Although targeted primarily at broadcast production studios for on-the-go encoding capabilities, Haivision has also marketed the Makito X4 as suitable for at-home production workflows – branching outside its core market in doing so.…
The AV1 codec from the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) has passed another significant milestone on the road towards widespread adoption with Intel’s launch of the first open source CPU-based encoder for the emerging standard. This complements the first reference decoders already available giving device makers and streaming providers a full tool set to start developing fully AV1 compliant products and services. We recall that the AV1 code base was finally frozen in March 2018, but it has taken until now for the first fully compliant encoder to arrive and even that is a software tool running in the CPU ahead of dedicated AV1 encoders being released later in 2019. The Intel CPU-based encoder, which supports Linux, macOS and Windows…
Telenor is the latest operator to dampen vendors’ hopes that 5G might drive a significant revival in their network equipment revenues. The Norwegian company said it has no plans to increase its overall capex spending this year, despite starting to prepare the ground for commercial 5G in 2020. The operator said, in its quarterly earnings statement, that it would invest between NOK16bn and NOK17bn ($1.9bn to $2bn) in capex in 2019, excluding spectrum licences, which would close to 2018’s figure of NOK16.8bn. It said its goal was to reduce its capex-to-sales ratio to about 15% in 2020, from 15.4% in 2017. Its priorities for those investments in 2019 will be network modernization in its home market – fiber expansion and…
The FCC’s first millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum auction may be seen as a milestone for 5G, because of the regulator’s leadership in getting these high frequency airwaves into operators’ hands, but it will not excite the US Treasury. Provisional winning bids (PWBs) totalled $702,572,410 as the process ended. The regulator has 107 licences in the 28 GHz band still available, but has received no further bids, withdrawals or other action after 176 rounds of bidding, which started on November 14. “Therefore, bidding in the Commission’s first auction of Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service licenses has concluded under the simultaneous stopping rule,” the FCC said on January 25. It has announced March 14 as the start date for its next mmWave…