25G has become the mainstream in 5G fronthaul Besides ultra-low latency, 5G applications demand high-bandwidth connections over the wireless link and through to the radio access network (RAN). On top of that, when air interfaces employ a higher number of multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) antennas or a broader spectral bandwidth, the associated fronthaul traffic grows exponentially. As a consequence, the adoption of 25Gbit/s fronthaul interfaces is quickly ramping up and will soon become a universal requirement for most 5G fronthaul deployments. And the lack of fiber resources in highly popul ..read more

The International Timing & Sync Forum is the largest conference in the network sync industry, showcasing solutions for telecoms, finance, broadcast, smart grids, IoT, distributed data centers, transport and defense. It’s the place to be for news of the latest technology for precise and stable time and sync from leading manufacturers, together with the latest in standards and standards roadmaps. This year, there were a record number of attendees with over 300 international delegates. Oscilloquartz innovation is always a key part of the conference, and our experts play a central role in the ..read more

Fiber is being deployed everywhere and is the future-proof solution on everyone’s mind. Large public investments are being driven by initiatives like the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and the European Electronics Communications Code (EECC), and private equity investments. The shared goal remains access to fiber and gigabit services. Yet, actual implementations of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) in rural areas and dense urban locations prove difficult. Taking fiber to rural communities costs a tremendous amount for little return in terms of average revenue per user. Urban areas suffer from phy ..read more

The demands of the modern digital economy are compelling the enterprise to become both leaner and more flexible, and this is playing out on network and compute infrastructure. Any organization that has not implemented a high degree of network virtualization is in serious danger of falling behind. But virtualization comes in many forms. And most leading businesses recognize that virtualized hardware is only marginally effective if that hardware still locks you into a proprietary networking platform. It must also be open. This is why demand for universal customer premises equipment (uCPE) has ra ..read more

Mobile working and cloud-hosted applications have made a tremendous impact on the security architecture of enterprise networks. Mobility means that users connect from anywhere over untrusted public networks. IT teams address this exposure with secure VPN technologies. But an increasing number of mobile users connect into public clouds because their data and applications have been moved there from the enterprise network. Accessing the cloud by sending traffic through the enterprise network becomes an unnecessary detour. Giving the mobile user direct access to the cloud seems to be the better ap ..read more

Data traffic demand is exploding, and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. Our reliance on internet connectivity has significantly increased with the pandemic. At the same time, our expectations have also grown. We don’t just expect to get online. We must have high-speed, secure and reliable connectivity.  This is forcing network operators to evolve their optical edge infrastructure, and especially to increase transport speeds in their last-mile network. In most cases this means an upgrade from 1Gbit/s to 10Gbit/s rates. That is a ten times capacity increase! This in turn requires th ..read more

Network security has long been a priority in the digital era, but until recently the brunt of activity has focused on hardening and protecting land-based infrastructure, since this carries the bulk of data communications. But satellite technology is responsible for more than just digital commerce – it plays a critical role in national and international security, weather monitoring, scientific research and a host of other important functions. One set of critical vulnerabilities in satellite communications are the signals that govern positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). Failure to properly ..read more

The old model of centralized energy production and distribution is a thing of the past. Taking its place is the smart grid – a decentralized, distributed model that enables hybrid energy production to be spread across a wide geographical area. Battery storage is now more common, as is small-scale renewables-based power generation. And energy can now even flow bidirectionally, turning many consumers into "prosumers" – both producers and consumers of power.  The smart grid has many other advantages and one of the most attractive among them – to power companies at least – is the potential to ..read more

If I ask you to think of hotbeds of technological innovation across the globe, you’ll probably conjure images of San Francisco, Austin, New York, Taiwan, or Tokyo. Of all the cities you could list, I imagine that York in the northeast of England wouldn’t even feature. In fact, York probably brings to mind medieval architecture, cobbled streets, and well-equipped tea rooms. But that might be about to change, especially in the world of 5G.  As you may have seen in the media, the UK government is currently involved in a big project to diversify the country’s 5G supply chain and spark a whole ..read more

Data growth is accelerating at a rapid clip in the digital economy as organizations create more knowledge about their markets and business processes. At the same time, data movement is on the rise as well, and this is driving demand for wider pipelines and more effective means of enhancing connectivity. Fiber is playing a key role in this environment, naturally. Not only does it offer greater bandwidth and throughput than copper, it maintains signal strength over dramatically longer distances, which makes for more streamlined and ultimately less costly communications infrastructure. This is pr ..read more