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Rajant Introduces Distributed Edge AI Platform AT CES

Platform-as-a-Service Streamlines Delivery and Management of Edge AI Applications 

Malvern, PA – January 8, 2024: Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks, along with Rajant Health Incorporated (RHI), a division of Rajant that is developing cutting-edge technology to provide health insights on-demand, will unveil its new edge AI platform during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Venetian Meeting Center in Room Zeno 4610 on January 9th – 12th. Known as the Cowbell, the edge AI platform is a distributed computing hub and platform-as-a-service to streamline and simplify the delivery and management of AI applications at the edge. 

According to Muthu Chandrasekaran, Ph.D. RHI VP of Artificial Intelligence, “There has been explosive growth in the number of connected devices in recent years, and without edge computing, the amount of data generated from these devices would severely overwhelm and adversely impact most of today’s enterprise networks. Furthermore, the inflated costs and latencies introduced by the cloud render cloud-hosted AI-based low-latency decision support systems almost impossible, not to mention that the productization of AI and its maintenance is very difficult and complex. The Cowbell platform simplifies this complex problem by providing software, hardware, and networking infrastructure necessary to bring distributed cloud native computing to the edge with what we’re calling MLOps-in-a-Box. By leveraging Rajant’s patented InstaMesh® networking technology, the Cowbell platform facilitates a secure, fault-tolerant, highly available distributed computing cluster over mesh, the first of its kind. Scaling the cluster is automatic when additional Cowbells are added to the deployment.” 

Those visiting Rajant at CES will also be introduced to Q-Stat, a cutting-edge wearable device created to transform your work experience. The Q-stat’s flexible design strategy allows for all types of different packaging, intended to serve various markets, from people to animals. Packed with advanced sensors, including skin temperature, O2, pulse rate and EKG, along with integrated Wi-Fi and BLE in a sleek, compact design, the Q-stat offers a seamless and enriching experience that caters to your safety and wellness needs. 

Rajant Health EVP Giana Schena, Ph.D. shares, “RHI will offer demonstrations of Trovomics, a user-friendly platform designed to provide a fast, no-code solution for omics analysis, empowering researchers to easily and quickly turn their sequencing data into stunning, interactive visualizations. Trovomics has received outstanding feedback and results from academic researchers in biomedical science since its debut, and we are thrilled to bring the platform to CES to show individual users the power to investigate their own data.”

Robert Schena, CEO of Rajant and RHI, states, “What we have accomplished here is an ecosystem that includes the enterprise Edge (Cowbell), personal Edge (Q-Stat), and analytics (Trovomics). This ecosystem is called Angelverse™ because we at Rajant believe that people should own and control their own data locally, choosing where, when, and who they wish to share it with. This ecosystem fully integrates Rajant’s industry-leading Kinetic Mesh and the Reios IoT suite of solutions offered by Rajant Italia SRL.”

Rajant EVP of Sales and Marketing Geoff Smith adds, “The Cowbell and Q-Stat unveiled at CES will be featured as fully integrated solutions with the Rajant Kinetic Mesh family of wireless networking BreadCrumb® solutions and Kinetic Mesh-enabled Reios IoT platform, which provides comprehensive automated operational intelligence anywhere, which is fast and easy to deploy. Reios brings intelligent insights to all facets of an operation through various devices that support the platform’s different applications – Smart Lighting, sTrack, IoT BMS, sDesk, and Smart Picking. 

More on Cowbell:

Housed in a rugged industrial-grade IP-rated enclosure, the Cowbell is a versatile platform perfect for indoor and outdoor use. It constitutes a powerful multi-core CPU and GPU with a plethora of wired (Serial, Ethernet) and wireless (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LoRa, Rajant Kinetic Mesh) connectivity interfaces and high-speed storage enabling ingestion, hardware-accelerated processing, and network-resilient transfer of multi-modal data from disparate sensors and peripherals. Applications deployed on the Cowbell can leverage the platform’s microservices-based software architecture and foundational services to serve custom machine learning models and facilitate dynamically configurable data pipelines. This state-of-the-art solution provides all the necessary data APIs to bring customers’ own (containerized or non-containerized) applications into the platform. It automates their deployment and orchestration to ensure availability. Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh ensures secure network transport and complete network isolation when needed. The Cowbell offers an integrated centralized cluster and applications management plane with a simple user interface, providing a seamless cluster provisioning, management, and application deployment experience. Secure remote access is enabled by a lightweight zero-trust VPN solution. Take advantage of the application-level logs, cluster- and node-level resource consumption metrics, and other dashboards for full observability of the health of the cluster and applications.

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What is “Fibre” Broadband? UK ISPs Respond to Ofcom’s Call for Clarity

A few months ago Ofcom launched a new consultation that proposed to only allow broadband ISPs to use the terms “fibre” and “full-fibre” on their sites and in contracts “if their network uses fibre-optic cables all the way from the exchange to the home” (FTTP). But feedback suggests that the biggest providers are not supportive.

Over the years’ there have been various attempts to correct this, such as a review conducted by the ASA / Advertising Standards Authority (here) and a failed court challenge by CityFibre (here). Back in 2021 the Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group (GigaTAG) also proposed several changes (here), including clearer labelling of broadband packages, but so far nothing has really succeeded.

The Regulator Takes a Stand

Back in May 2023 (here) the regulator, Ofcom, pointed out that pure Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines were due to become the dominant broadband delivery technology in the UK, and thus they felt it was finally time to address how the term “fibre” was still being “used inconsistently” by internet providers. The biggest ISPs, with a legacy of FTTC/HFC style solutions, have historically been the worst offenders on this front.

The regulator isn’t due to publish the outcome of this consultation until sometime in the coming Autumn, but they have recently published a summary of the responses they’ve had from various ISPs (credits to GreenLantern22 on our forum for spotting), which makes for interestingly reading.

Overall, the alternative networks (e.g. CityFibre, CommunityFibre, Gigaclear, Fern Group, Ogi and toob), most of which are building FTTP, were almost universally in favour of Ofcom’s proposals. The exception was Hyperoptic, which agreed with Ofcom’s push, but they also wanted it extended to include Fibre-to-the-Basement (FTTB) connections (they’ve built a lot of those) because, they said, such connections deliver “comparable services” (there’s usually only a little bit of Ethernet/LAN style cable involved); it will be interesting to see which way Ofcom goes on that one.

The debate over what should and should not be considered a “fibre” service has been going on for well over a decade. Hopefully by now most people should already know that fibre optic cables are made of glass (silica) or plastic, which allow information to be transmitted in the form of laser light. This makes them significantly more capable (speed, reliability etc.) than traditional metal (copper, aluminium etc.) based cables, which transmit data using electrical signs and are more prone to significant signal degradation over distance.

Despite this unavoidable fact, numerous ISPs have spent over a decade selling slower “part-fibre” or “hybrid-fibre” (e.g. FTTC / VDSL2, G.fast, Hybrid Fibre Coax) solutions as “fibre broadband” products, which is one of the reasons why so many people continue to be confused about the terminology today (i.e. if you think you’ve got a “fibre” service already, then you may be less likely to contemplate an upgrade to true FTTP).

Read the full story here.

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Infinera and LightRiver Successfully Demonstrate Multi-Vendor Interoperability Technology

Infinera and LightRiver have announced the successful completion of a multi-vendor interoperability technology demonstration. According to the joint statement, this collaboration showcases the capabilities of their respective solutions, focusing on coherent pluggable solutions, network orchestration, and automation.

Technology Demonstration

The demonstration involved Infinera, a company known for its intelligent coherent pluggable technology (ICE-X), and LightRiver, a provider of netFLEX Transport Domain Orchestration and Control Software.

The demonstration highlighted the successful integration of Infinera’s ICE-X coherent pluggable technology with LightRiver’s netFLEX software, showing how these technologies can work seamlessly together.

The demonstration includes Infinera’s ICE-X line of intelligent coherent pluggables deployed in third-party host devices, including routers from Juniper Networks operating over a Smartoptics open ROADM system and the leading FTTX PON solution, said the official release.

Network Efficiency

The main focus was on how network orchestration, combined with intelligent coherent pluggable solutions, can significantly enhance network efficiency. This includes improvements in operation, management, and capacity expansion.

The demonstration illustrated the ability of Infinera’s Intelligent Pluggables Manager (IPM) software to enable multi-vendor network automation. This allows different vendor solutions to work together harmoniously, potentially reducing operational complexities.

Read the full story here.

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Full fibre now covers 52% of UK

UK Regulator Ofcom has released its Summer 2023 Study, based on mobile coverage and fixed broadband availability in the UK, as of April and May this year 

According to the ‘Connected Nations’ report, “Full fibre” (FTTP) now reaches 52% of the UK, equalling 15.4 million households. This is up from 48% in January this year. The report notes that this growth has been predominately driven by deployments from larger fibre operators, but has been supported by a number of smaller altnets, serving individual regions and communities. 

However, the UK’s coverage of fixed “superfast broadband”, remains unchanged at 97%, but Northern Ireland saw an increase of 1%, up to 97%. The 3% unable to access this are likely to be in hard-to-reach areas. The study found that the ‘vast majority’ of the UK can access what is described as ‘decent broadband’, meaning download speeds of at least 10 Megabits per second (Mbit/s) and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s. 

Gigabit-capable broadband availability has reached 75% of homes, or 22.4 million, up from 21.9 million (73%) in January this year, when their last report was published. 

Regarding mobile coverage, there were no notable increases since the January report, however coverage remains stable, with 93% of the UK predicted to have good outdoor 4G coverage from one operator at least.  

5G coverage continues to expand, with 85% of premises able to access outdoor 5G coverage. 

The usage of 3G continues to decline, with its switch off already underway. Virgin Media O2 confirmed this week that its 3G switch off will begin in 2025, becoming the final major UK operator to do so. 

Read the full story here.

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Community Fibre Broadband Reaches One Million Connections in London

UK-based full fibre broadband provider, Community Fibre, has announced that more than 1 million residential properties in London are now connected to its fibre broadband services. According to the official release, the company reported a 75 percent expansion of its network footprint in the last 12 months.

Symmetrical Broadband Packages

The Internet Service Provider (ISP) offers a range of symmetrical broadband packages, ranging from 150 Mbps to 3 Gbps. According to the company, these packages are up to 45.9 times faster than the UK’s average download speed and 193.5 times faster than the average upload speed.

Also Read: Virgin Media O2 Expands Broadband Services With XGS-PON Technology Across UK

Connecting London Businesses

Community Fibre said its network expansion also benefits businesses, with over 212,000 London-based enterprises now within 100 meters of its network footprint. These businesses can take advantage of up to 10 Gbps symmetrical speeds for their operations and growth.

Community Fibre expressed pride in the company’s role in providing faster, cheaper, and more reliable fibre broadband to over one million London properties.

The Internet Service Provider (ISP), owned by funds advised by Warburg Pincus LLC, DTCP, Railpen, and NDIF, also emphasized its commitment to offerings, such as setting new out-of-contract pricing standards capped at Euros 2 across all packages and providing easy access to the social tariff without requiring consumers to provide proof of eligibility criteria.

Read the full story here.

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Adtran CEO: ‘We of course expect to be BEAD-compliant’

Adtran is the latest telecom equipment company to announce that it’s ramping up domestic manufacturing in order to meet “Buy America” rules for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

The company on Wednesday said it will invest up to $5 million in its Hunstville, Alabama, facility, creating 300 jobs. The investment will allow Adtran to expand its US production of optical line termination (OLT) equipment and onshore the manufacturing of optical network terminals (ONTs).

“We of course expect to be BEAD-compliant,” Adtran CEO Tom Stanton said at an event hosted at the company’s 270,000-square-foot facility in Huntsville.

Adtran further said it will work to engage new hires by partnering with local schools for its high school apprenticeship program and developing a co-op program for college students.

The announcement from Adtran follows this month’s news that Nokia will partner with Sanmina Corporation to manufacture broadband network electronics products for BEAD at Sanmina’s facility in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, starting next year.

Additionally today, Nokia announced its partnership with optical supplier Fabrinet to domestically produce fiber broadband optical modules for BEAD. Production will start next year at Fabrinet’s facility in Santa Clara, California, “and brings additional high-tech jobs to the country,” said the company.

Jobs and manufacturing

Speaking at Wednesday’s event at Adtran’s Huntsville facility, NTIA Chief Alan Davidson thanked the company for its investment and noted that BEAD is “not just a connectivity program. It is a jobs and manufacturing program.”

Read the full story here.

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BT, Ericsson make 5G breakthrough

BT and Ericsson have demonstrated the transmission of 5G services in a wideband frequency division duplex (FDD) radio carrier (over 20MHz) within a sub-3GHz spectrum band.

In what is a European first according to both, the breakthrough demonstrates the benefits of configuring a wide carrier bandwidth of 50MHz in EE’s 2.6GHz band and performing downlink aggregation with two TDD carrier in EE’s 3.5GHz band.

The trial also evaluated an intermediate carrier bandwidth of 30MHz.

“This breakthrough is the latest example of our commitment to maximising the full potential of 5G for our customers,” said Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT.

“As network quality and accessibility improve, so too will innovation and the 5G services ecosystem. Demonstrating new network capabilities such as those announced today is critical to achieving this goal, and also paves the way to ensuring that 5G SA delivers new possibilities for our customers.”

Conducted on BT’s live network in Bristol and Potters Bar using existing Ericsson commercial hardware and by activating the software feature ‘Large Bandwidth Support Low-Band’, testing with MediaTek Dimensity powered handsets with integrated MediaTek M80 Release-16 modem, the trial has shown a capacity uplift of more than three times with a single FDD carrier.

This is significant for the uplink in 5G Standalone (SA) which is currently based on a single carrier.

5G SA will enable superior experiences, the companies said in a statement, adding that it will enable growing demand for data, driven by cloud gaming, VR and other emerging edge technologies.

Read the full story here.

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Openreach expands Optical Spectrum Access solution with 100G service powered by Adtran

LONDON, August 02, 2023–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adtran today announced that Openreach, the UK’s largest wholesale broadband network, has deployed its FSP 3000 open optical transport technology to enable its new Optical Spectrum Access 100G Single enterprise service. Openreach’s new product offers a dedicated fiber link that empowers more UK businesses to harness point-to-point 100Gbit/s data transport. The solution also brings efficiency benefits that reduce capital and operational expenditure. The latest collaboration builds on more than a decade of successful partnership between Adtran and Openreach.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230802224594/en/

Adtran’s FSP 3000 technology is helping Openreach deliver managed 100G connectivity to UK businesses. (Photo: Business Wire)

“Corporate cloud applications and other data-intensive tasks such as data centre backhaul are fueling a growing demand for bandwidth. Adtran’s scalable optical technology enables us to offer a managed, high-speed service that satisfies that demand at a highly competitive price point,” said Simon Williams, head of optical products at Openreach. “With no filters or amplifiers required, our Optical Spectrum Access 100G Single service offers secure and always-on optical services that can transport enormous amounts of data. We’re also making dedicated, uncomplicated and customizable access available in a slimmed-down package that’s even easier to manage.”

Read the full story here.

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Vodafone posts UK growth and names new CFO

Vodafone has reported improved sales growth over the first quarter after increasing its prices.

This comes despite the operator losing customers in its biggest market Germany, where sales fell by 1.3% – still an improvement from the previous quarter.

In the UK, where the merger with Three UK was announced, there was a 5.7% increase in service revenue, driven by growth in consumer services.

Consolidating the two brands will create a combined brand value close to £4 billion, making it the most valuable telecoms brand in the UK.

The slight improvement is good news for new CEO Margherita Della Valle, who took on the role following Nick Read’s departure from the group.

Della Valle had previously served as CFO of the company, and Vodafone has moved swiftly to appoint Luka Mucic to the role.

Mucic was the CEO of SAP Se from 2014-2017 and its CFO from 2014-2023. During this time, he was responsible for SAP’s groupwide finance, legal, data protection, procurement, audit, risk management, security, IT and process management functions.

On the appointment, Della Valle said: “I am thrilled that Luka will be joining the Vodafone team. He has a strong track record of international leadership, corporate repositioning and value-creation.

“Luka is joining us at a critical time as we undertake the transformation of Vodafone.”

Read the full story

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Impact of DWDM on passive optical network component choices

As network engineers strive to meet the ever-growing demand for bandwidth, their choice of passive optical network (PON) components, including connectors, splitters, and muxes/demuxes, becomes critical.

The continued adoption of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology is revolutionizing the telecommunications industry. In fact, some analysts project the DWDM system market to reach a value of $18 billion by 2032, up from $8 billion in 2022. This multiplexing technology increases the bandwidth of new or already-installed fiber networks by enabling the transmission of multiple active wavelengths of light over a single fiber.

As network engineers strive to meet the ever-growing demand for bandwidth, their choice of passive optical network (PON) components, including connectors, splitters, and muxes/demuxes, becomes critical. In this article, we explore how the increased trend toward DWDM is impacting the need for customizable components that can support higher-density deployments both indoors (central offices, data centers, or micro-edge data centers) and outdoors (outside plants).

Read the full story here.

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