SpaceX rideshare takes off with Charlie the nanosat on board
The first of two nanosatellites built and integrated for Aurora Insight by bus manufacturer NanoAvionics, are to rideshare into space with the help of SpaceX.
Nicknamed Charlie, the nanosatellite forms one half of two mission contracts awarded to NanoAvionics by Aurora Insight, which uses satellite-based sensor technology to detect spectrum usage and interference around the globe from its Colorado HQ.
Billed as a "cosmic carpool", the launch of SpaceX's Transporter 1 Falcon 9 rocket took place on 22 January, Eastern US time, carrying "dozens of satellites", including Charlie.
Jennifer Alvarez, CEO of Aurora Insight said: “This satellite will give us access to a whole new set of data on the radio frequency spectrum and further our understanding of global wireless infrastructure, enabling organizations to invest, grow, and move forward. NanoAvionics has been an incredibly skillful and cost-effective partner in building the two nanosatellites, integrating the payload and providing launch and operation services.”
Transporter 1 is the first fully dedicated rideshare launch for nanosats and microsats as part of SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program in 2021. For those who are wondering, Aurora's second nanosat is called Bravo!
Telco Systems upgrades NFVTime edge compute solution for public cloud
Telco Systems has upgraded its NFVTime uCPE and Edge Compute solution to support public Cloud environments, including AWS and Microsoft Azure.
As part of the upgrade, Telco Systems has redesigned its management and orchestration (MANO) to operate natively in public Clouds. This upgrade also includes full security and availability mechanisms for these platforms.
“The telecom market is discovering the beauty of the public cloud,” explained Ariel Efrati, CEO of Telco Systems. “Our exciting new uCPE offering for the public Cloud is attracting attention from forward thinking service providers around the world, accelerating its adoption and providing valuable new use cases for their enterprise customers.”
The new NFVTime uCPE and edge compute offering allows customers to focus on expanding their portfolios of NFV-based services and generating new sources of revenue from their business customer segments. By running the NFVTime uCPE MANO solution in a public cloud environment, service providers no longer need to spend valuable time and resources managing the IT and security issues that typically impact private Cloud environments.
Ekinops and Nexicom enter distribution partnership
Ekinops has formed a new distribution partnership with Nexicom Systems Inc. (NSI), to help meet growing demand for more cost-effective, high-performance edge technologies and optical transport solutions in Canada.
It means the Ontario-based Nexicom can now offer Ekinops’ portfolio of open and fully interoperable optical transport and access solutions, and benefit from sales, marketing, and technical support.
Kevin Antill, Ekinops’ group vice president of sales for North America, said the partnership marked "yet another milestone for our growth in North America".
He added: "Ekinops’ strong combination of advanced edge technologies and optical transport solutions enables Nexicom Systems to quickly and easily address the technical and budgetary needs of its customer base. We look forward to working with Nexicom Systems to promote uptake of Ekinops technologies across Canada.”
Mavenir and VIAVI validate radio access solutions
Viavi Solutions has been chosen by Mavenir to help it validate and optimise radio access solutions in the US.
“Mavenir is proud to be a leading vendor to mobile operators around the globe, offering software-defined infrastructure that can adapt to evolving requirements for both brownfield and greenfield networks, large-scale to start-up networks,” said Ramnik Kamo, EVP quality, systems and people, Mavenir. “VIAVI has been a highly collaborative partner with our two companies’ engineering teams working together to prove a new technology against very tight customer timescales," Kamo added.
Luiz Cesar Oliveira, VP, Americas, VIAVI, added: “As vendors across the industry develop open, cloud-native and disaggregated architectures, testing against user expectations of service quality will be critical to accelerate adoption at scale.
“We are excited to help Mavenir optimise their advanced radio access solutions based on our unique experience supporting over 200 service providers and virtually every network equipment manufacturer worldwide.”
Three UK calls on Tata Consultancy Services for 5G network rollout
Three UK has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to help configure and maintain its next-generation mobile network and leverage automation technology.
Three is in the process of deploying a new 5G radio access network, which is already live in 175 towns and cities in the UK, across more than 1,000 sites. TCS was selected to manage the configuration of a new core next generation mobile network, and ensure it integrates correctly with the 5G radio access network. This work will include configuring the core network for new site deployments, site upgrades, performance management, and 3G and 4G tuning changes.
TCS’ software will speed-up configuration checking and reduce manual errors, ensuring first time right network configuration. TCS is also providing 24x7 support across the network for configuration corrections and ad-hoc site testing. These improvements will help Three deliver faster, secure and more reliable 5G services to its customers.
“Three UK’s 5G roll-out is underpinned by our agility in bringing services to market. Our decision to partner with TCS was based on this need to deliver at pace whilst being flexible to changing demands. TCS were able to rapidly mobilise and are now embedded in our 5G delivery to support our 5G journey,” said Carlo Melis, chief networks officer, Three UK.
The work will build on 15 years of collaboration between the two.
