TIP launches a disaggregated cell-site gateway design

Part 1: TIP white-box designs

Four leading telecom operators, members of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), have developed a disaggregated white-box design for cell sites. The four operators are Orange, Telefonica, TIM Brazil and Vodafone. BT is also believed to be backing the open-design cell-site venture.

 Source: ADVA

The first TIP cell-site gateway product, known as Odyssey-DCSG, is being brought to market by ADVA and Edgecore Networks.

TIP isn’t the only open design framework that is developing cell-site gateways. Edgecore Networks contributed in October a design to the Open Compute Project (OCP) that is based on an AT&T cell-site gateway specification. There are thus two overlapping open networking initiatives developing disaggregated cell-site gateways. 

ADVA and Edgecore will provide the standardised cell-site gateways as operators deploy 5G. The platforms will support either commercial cell-site gateway software or open-source code. 

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Giving telecom networks a computing edge

Operators have long sought to provide their users with a consistent quality of service. For cellular it is why ubiquitous cellular coverage is important, for example.

But a subtler approach is taking hold as networks evolve whereby what a user does will change depending on their location. And what will enable this is edge computing.

 Source: Senza-Fili Consulting

“This is an entirely new concept,” says Monica Paolini, president and founder at Senza-Fili Consulting. “It is a way to think about service which is going to have a profound impact.”

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Is silicon photonics an industry game-changer?

Briefing: Silicon Photonics

Part 3: Merits, challenges and applications   

Shown in blue are the optical waveguides with their tight bend radius while the copper wires carrying high-speed electrical signals is shown in orange. Source: IBM

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Terabit interconnect to take hold in the data centre

Intel and Corning have further detailed their 1.6 Terabit interface technology for the data centre.

The collaboration combines Intel's silicon photonics technology operating at 25 Gigabit-per-fibre with Corning's ClearCurve LX multimode fibre and latest MXC connector.

Silicon photonics wafer and the ClearCurve fibres. Source: Intel

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