NEWS & BUSINESS
ZION flyin’ as Italian highway hits 200 Gbits/s
Backbone to the future: Nokia replacing Telenor optical core network
Italian wholesale network reseller Open Fiber has reported the successful completion of tests on its ZION photonic backbone network. The tests on ZION, billed as Italy’s first scalable 200 Gbits/s long haul network, were conducted on the Rome to Florence section of the infrastructure. ZION is also the first Italian optical network to use Huawei’s ROADM and Flex Grid solutions. The passive optical fibre infrastructure is provided by energy group Terna. According to Open Fiber, the significance of ZION lies not only in its capacity of 200 Gbits/s per optical channel, but also in its scalability: with a simple software command, ZION can transmit data at 100, 200 and even 400 Gbits/s, depending the needs of the managed service and the conditions of the optical link. The network is expected to enter service at the end of March. “Where typically the big
fibre links stop at 40 Gbits/s in Italy, we are the first in Italy and among the first in Europe to achieve these performances”, explains Stefano Paggi, Director of Network & Operations Cluster C and D of Open Fiber. With the Flex Grid product it will be possible to aggregate multiple optical channels simultaneously on a single optical fibre and therefore manage more and more customers and services. This will additionally point the way to enabling Open Fiber to fully exploit the very high transmission band of the fibre at the Terabit range. In other Open Fiber news, earlier this month the company inked an agreement with Rome-headquartered utility ACEA to begin the development of a FTTH broadband communication network that would reach 1.2 million homes and premises in the capital in 5 years. That scheme was costed at €375 million, €350 of which will be provided by Open Fiber.
Multinational telecommunications operator, Telenor, has tapped Nokia as sole supplier to replace its legacy optical core network connecting 200 nodes in Norway and Sweden. The new optical network will feature Nokia’s coherent optical transmission technology. Built on the Finnish company’s solutions with advanced wavelength routing (Colourless Directionless Contentionless network management and automation. The network offers an SDN-ready platform that will provide Telenor with a more efficient way to automate, optimise and assure network services. Nokia stressed the network, bringing the total number of countries in the network to 45. The network currently serves around 803m people and covers 3.8m sqkm. With these latest additions, French-headquartered Sigfox says it is on track to achieve its aim of extending the network across 60 countries and regions and reaching 1bn people in 2018. The new countries are served by operators that will become Sigfox’s exclusive strategic partners, responsible for deploying the network in their territories, developing the Sigfox ecosystem and establishing support channels to address all industry verticals. OPERATORS In Asia, these new operators are Xperanti in Malaysia and Flexible Grid, or CDC-F), it will allow for greater flexibility and dynamic robustness of the new backbone, with many operations having been
certified as compliant with ISO27001 information security standards and, in other cases, having satisfactorily demonstrated conformance to those standards. Nicolas Almendro, Head of Europe & MEA Optics Business Development at Nokia, said “We are excited to be chosen for this multi- year turnkey project. This highly resilient and secure optical backbone will play a critical role in deploying next-generation services to Telenor customers in Norway and Sweden, and help the customer prepare for the demands of 5G.” Nokia’s optical technology is designed to pave the way for SDN-ready dynamic network capabilities and its multi- Terabit capacity will support evolution to 5G mobile, growing consumer demand for online video and Internet usage, and the increasing use of cloud applications. IoTnet in Hungary; and iWire in the UAE is a new Middle East partner. Rodolphe Baronnet-Frugès, executive vice president of operators at Sigfox, said: “We have already started to collaborate with our new partners to expand the power of our LPWAN and strengthen our ecosystem. “It’s another major step that reinforces our strong, unique position in the IoT market. These new partnerships take us a step closer to our goal of creating a worldwide network able to support business both locally and globally, thanks to an extensive network of business partners.” Sigfox says its global network is designed to provide energy-efficient and cost-effective connectivity,
Sigfox global IoT sprawl extends to another five countries Global IoT service provider Sigfox has added five new countries to its global Amotech in South Korea. In Europe, they are Heliot in Switzerland and Omnicell areas and main transport/ communications links. Supply chain, transportation,
allowing companies to generate additional revenues, by not only improving their performance but creating new business models too. The new national roll-
energy management, oil and gas, food, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and telecare, among other sectors, are all being targeted in the new regions.
outs have already begun and will initially include all urban and industrial
‘Sencrop’ is a Sigfox IoT-enabled system that supports farming.
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ISSUE 12 | Q1 2018
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