WIRELESS
Keysight | May 20, 2022
Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced that Celona has selected Keysight’s Open RAN Architect (KORA) solution portfolio to validate the quality and reliability of 5G private network deployments for enterprises.
Keysight’s integrated test, validation and optimization tools enable Celona to accelerate the deployment of 5G local area network (LAN) solutions, including access points for indoor and outdoor wireless coverage and cloud-native software powered by artificial intelligence (AI). As a result, Celona can deliver solutions and services to the private mobile network sector with software and hardware components that speed private wireless network deployments and maximize available network capacity.
“Keysight is pleased to support Celona in delivering end-to-end networking solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing enterprise networks to simplify private cellular wireless operations and accelerate the adoption of business-critical applications requiring deterministic wireless connectivity,” said Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president and general manager for Keysight's enterprise and service providers group. “Keysight’s test solutions speed industrial device and network validation and certification, network planning, deployment and site acceptance, as well as simplify network monitoring critical in smart manufacturing, energy, utilities, mining, transport and health care.”
Celona serves a growing private network market with turnkey 5G LAN solutions that are purpose-built for enterprises. Celona delivers deterministic and reliable connectivity, security and wireless performance by integrating cellular wireless communications within existing enterprise-owned IT infrastructure.
“Our enterprise customers expect high quality and performance of deployed critical wireless infrastructure, Keysight’s test tools enable Celona to quickly verify the 5G radio operation and performance of Celona’s 5G LAN solutions, leading to significant reduction in time to market and improved performance.”
Mehmet Yavuz, co-founder and chief technology officer at Celona
Celona is using several Keysight 5G radio access network (RAN) test tools, including:
Keysight’s user equipment emulation (UEE) test solution (UeSIM) to emulate real network traffic over radio and O-RAN fronthaul interfaces, enabling comprehensive base station performance validation across the protocol stack.
Keysight's S9130A 5G Performance Multi-Band Vector Transceiver (VXT), a non-signaling measurement system, to accelerate the validation of sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G base stations (gNodeBs) according to the latest 3GPP specifications.
About Keysight Technologies
Keysight delivers advanced design and validation solutions that help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysight’s dedication to speed and precision extends to software-driven insights and analytics that bring tomorrow’s technology products to market faster across the development lifecycle, in design simulation, prototype validation, automated software testing, manufacturing analysis, and network performance optimization and visibility in enterprise, service provider and cloud environments. Our customers span the worldwide communications and industrial ecosystems, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics markets. Keysight generated revenues of $4.9B in fiscal year 2021
Read More
NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
Metronet | August 02, 2022
Metronet today announced that construction of its ultra-high-speed 100 percent fiber optic network has officially begun in Colorado Springs. Metronet’s fully funded $130 million investment in Colorado Springs will provide residents and businesses throughout the city with access to Metronet’s future-proof fiber optic internet. Once the two-year construction process is complete, Colorado Springs will join the country’s internet elite as a Gigabit City.
Construction has begun north of Dublin Blvd. and east of Union Blvd. which will expand rapidly throughout Colorado Springs with the first customers connected later this year. As construction continues throughout the city, customers may sign up for presale which will indicate their interest and prioritize service installation once available. Those interested in Metronet services may visit shop.metronet.com to be notified once their address is available for installation and to access presale.
“With construction of our 100 percent fiber optic network beginning in Colorado Springs, residents and businesses are one step closer to having access to ultra-high-speed internet in a time when access to faster and more reliable service is critical, Just more than one year after we began conversations with the city, we are proud to officially begin building the network that will bring multi-gigabit speeds, including 5GB, through XGS PON technology directly to the homes and businesses of the first city we will serve in the Centennial State, Colorado Springs.”
John Cinelli, Metronet CEO
Colorado Springs residents will soon begin seeing Metronet trucks throughout the area as pre-construction activities begins. Residents will receive communication by mail about construction activity in their neighborhood 30 days prior to starting. Additional messaging, such as yard signs, will also be provided to notify residents of when construction is beginning in their neighborhood. Metronet crews are identified by ID tags and branded Metronet vehicles.
Metronet plans to hire local market management positions, sales and customer service professionals and service technicians to support the Colorado Springs area. Those interested in joining the Metronet team can visit Metronet.com/careers to search available positions and to submit applications.
About Metronet:
Metronet is the nation’s largest independently owned, 100 percent fiber optic company headquartered in Evansville, Indiana. The customer-focused company provides cutting-edge fiber optic communication services, including high-speed Fiber Internet and full-featured Fiber Phone. Metronet started in 2005 with one fiber optic network in Greencastle, Indiana, and has since grown to serving and constructing networks in more than 250 communities across Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, and Louisiana. Metronet is committed to bringing state-of-the-art telecommunication services to communities — services that are comparable or superior to those offered in large metropolitan areas. By offering XGS PON technology, Metronet can easily carry its communities into the future of 5GB service. Metronet has been recognized by PC Mag as one of the Top 10 Fastest ISPs in North Central United States in 2020 and Top 10 ISPs with Best Gaming Quality Index in 2021. Broadband Now has recognized Metronet as the Top 3 Fastest Internet Providers and Fastest Fiber Providers in the Nation in 2020, and #1 Fastest Mid-Sized Internet Provider in two states in 2020. In 2020, Metronet was awarded the Vectren Energy Safe Digging Partner Award from Vectren.
Read More
WAN TECHNOLOGIES
BackBox | August 03, 2022
BackBox, a leading provider in network automation, security and management, announced the general availability of the latest version of the Backbox Automation Platform. This latest version adds cloud-based SaaS features to a platform with a largely on-premises footprint, giving customers the best of both worlds, and includes new capabilities that improve user experience, accelerate time-to-value, and deliver insights into usage and automation performance.
BackBox’s product release delivers greater scalability and faster onboarding for both managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs), as well as enterprise customers. The release expands capabilities for network inventory, and adds cloud-based telemetry reporting based on system performance and inventory data into an easy-to-use executive dashboard.
“Organizations around the globe rely on BackBox’s network automation solutions, including some of the largest MSPs and MSSPs in the world, We are aiming to change the way network automation tools are used to enhance network security, performance, and compliance. While many of our enterprise customers require an on-premises solution for network automation, especially when managing secure, closed, and OT networks, many other customers require a distributed approach to best manage their multi-cloud environments. This has been especially evident as we’ve worked to partner with our MSP, MSSP, and cloud-first customers. With this product release, we can better support our on-premises customers and offer new capabilities for customers managing hybrid environments.”
Andrew Kahl, CEO of BackBox
The new hybrid SaaS model of the BackBox platform allows for new features like the executive dashboard. Analytics on inventory and automation performance help customers quantify the business impact of network automation and inform their automation strategies. The dashboard will help both customers and MSP/MSSP partners better validate and justify their work while identifying common and recurring issues, and strategies for overcoming them.
"This latest release and the upcoming releases we have scheduled for later this year are focused around improving capabilities of the product for MSPs and enterprise customers with a need to automate network security posture improvements,” said Craig McDonald, Head of Product at BackBox. “We are also continuing to enhance our product capabilities around network inventory and cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM), as these have been key areas of interest amongst our customers. This latest release both advances our capabilities in these areas and positions us for rapid expansion of these capabilities throughout the remainder of the year and beyond.”
“One new capability we are particularly proud of is a greenfield provisioning tool for MSPs. We’ve worked with some of our largest MSP/MSSP customers to develop a new tool to accelerate their deployment and onboarding of client firewalls and other network infrastructure gear. This latest release of our automation platform includes several key capabilities required to connect the platform to the provisioning tool in the ways our customers want to use them,” said McDonald.
With each new release BackBox adds support for new network devices. The platform currently supports thousands of different physical and virtual device types from over 180 different vendors including Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, f5, Juniper Networks, and Check Point.
About BackBox
BackBox is dedicated to empowering our customers to continuously enhance the health, performance, and security of their network infrastructure through intelligent, security-minded automation. We believe that network automation should be easy, attainable, and provide our customers with unprecedented time savings and reduced risk.
Read More
NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
Omdia | July 06, 2022
Omdia released the white paper: "The enduring value of IP + Optical" at the 2022 Next Generation Optical Networking (NGON) forum held in Barcelona, Spain.
The white paper offers analysis of "IP over WDM" and "IP+Optical", states t IP over WDM was initially designed for one specific cloud service provider niche application. For communications service providers (CSPs)"IP+Optical" continues to be the more practical solution for CSP network, application and operational needs.
As stated in the white paper, the IP over WDM (IPoWDM) concept has been around for many years. Its fundamental premise has always been the ability to deploy transmission optics within routing platforms to delayer and simplify networks.
However, the hardware and software standardization of IPoWDM are work in progress industry initiatives and a significant integration effort is shifted from the vendors to the CSPs.
In contrast to the multi-variant architecture of IPoWDM, IP + Optical continues to demonstrate enduring value for the CSP community.
CSPs can continue to quickly leverage best-of-breed technology developments. Networks can be managed with existing skill sets and resources. Major advances in wavelength management continue, both in the core, at scale, and at the edge.
Read More