Jon Gold
Author Archives: Jon Gold
- Home → Author's archive:
Jon Gold
0
5G grabs 3G wireless frequencies, creating headaches for some enterprise cellular users
The end is near for 3G in the US, as AT&T prepares to shut down its network next week, with T-Mobile and Verizon to follow suit within the calendar year.It’s a changeover long in the making, according to experts. The carriers, facing a spectrum shortage, have wanted to reuse 3G spectrum for newer-generation network technology for years, and the shortfall has only gotten worse as 5G begins to roll out. Verizon stopped supporting new 3G devices in 2018, and pushed back a planned 2019 3G shutdown until the end of 2022, according to IDC research manager Jason Leigh.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Data center capex on the rise despite cloud momentum
Global capital expenditure on data center infrastructure is set to grow by 10% over the next five years, to a total of $350 billion by 2026, in spite of the general move toward cloud in the enterprise, according to a report released earlier this month by Dell’Oro Group.Part of that spending growth will be driven by hyperscalers like Google, Amazon and Microsoft buying up data center equipment for their own public clouds, but an underrecognized trend is that the cloud isn’t for every organization, according to the report’s author, research director Baron Fung.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Data center capex on the rise despite cloud momentum
Global capital expenditure on data center infrastructure is set to grow by 10% over the next five years, to a total of $350 billion by 2026, in spite of the general move toward cloud in the enterprise, according to a report released earlier this month by Dell’Oro Group.Part of that spending growth will be driven by hyperscalers like Google, Amazon and Microsoft buying up data center equipment for their own public clouds, but an underrecognized trend is that the cloud isn’t for every organization, according to the report’s author, research director Baron Fung.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Cost of banning Chinese 5G gear soars to $5.6B
Network providers have asked for $5.6 billion to cover the cost of replacing deployed wireless equipment made by Huawei and ZTE, whose gear has been banned from US carrier networks.Congress had set aside $1.9 billion for the program, but a preliminary total of applications for reimbursement revealed a shortfall of $3.7 billion. FCC Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel seeks Congress to make up whatever the actual amount turns out to be.Wireless equipment manufactured by Huawei and ZTE have been placed on a restricted list by the Commerce Department over concern that they could be a security threat to the US.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Do new technogies make IT easier?
Software-defined networking, intent-based networking, SD-WAN, and a host of other technologies are focused on making IT work easier through automation. Rather than manually configuring every part of a system, these technologies offer templates, AI assistance, and, in theory, a much lower workload for the IT worker in the field. Whether that theory translates to practice, however, remains a matter of debate.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Do new technologies make IT easier?
Software-defined networking, intent-based networking, SD-WAN, and a host of other technologies are focused on making IT work easier through automation. Rather than manually configuring every part of a system, these technologies offer templates, AI assistance, and, in theory, a much lower workload for the IT worker in the field. Whether that theory translates to practice, however, remains a matter of debate.To read this article in full, please click here
0
5G auction: AT&T and Dish spend billions while Verizon sits out
The usual suspects—bar one—spent big on the latest FCC auction for 5G spectrum, with AT&T and Dish headlining the winning bidders.At the top of the list was AT&T, which spent over $9 billion to acquire 1,624 licenses in the 3.45-3.98GHz range, according to the FCC. Each license represents the right to use 10MHz of that spectrum in a given geographical subdivision of the country.What is 5G? Close behind AT&T at $7.3 billion was Dish, which acquired 1,232 individual licenses. T-Mobile spent almost $2.9 billion on 199 licenses, and U.S. Cellular spent nearly $580 million on 380 licenses to shore up its own 5G spectrum holdings.To read this article in full, please click here
0
5G deployment near US airports slowed for now
5G deployments are proceeding around the country, albeit more slowly, after a partial agreement between the FCC and the FAA about the potential danger of 5G transmissions generated too strong and too close to airports on bandwidths adjacent to the spectrum used by airplane altimeters.President Biden announced that Verizon and AT&T had agreed to slow deployments of 5G around major airports after consultation with the Department of Transportation, in order to assuage concerns over air travel safety.What is 5G? At issue is potential interference between newly opened 5G spectrum in the 3.7GHz range and radioaltimeter equipment on older aircraft. While there’s some separation between the 3.7GHz 5G signals, which top out at 3.98GHz, and the bottom of the 4.2GHz range used by the avionics equipment, the FAA and the airline industry remain concerned over potential interference that, theoretically, could prevent affected aircraft from landing safely in low-visibility conditions.To read this article in full, please click here
0
6G exploratory group to be led by wireless heavyweights
The FCC has named 44 people to a technological advisory council tasked with exploring the possibilities of 6G wireless connectivity, a large proportion of the council’s members being drawn from the ranks of the country’s biggest networking-technology corporations.The chair of the committee will be a former Qualcomm executive, Dean Brenner. Intel, Cisco, Comcast, Microsoft, Nokia, Ericsson, and all of the major mobile operators are also represented on the commission’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC). Also representatived are large trade associations and academia.6G’s vast promises FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said that leadership in the 6G realm has to be a priority for the US.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Full speed ahead for contested 5G, W-Fi spectrum
Recent wrangling over 5G and Wi-Fi wireless spectrum indiates the breakneck pace of new bandwidths being opoened up to broadband use will continue.The underlying issues are whether newly alloted 5G bandwidth will interfere with airplane safety and whether new unlicensed spectrum will interfere with the backhaul of communications from cell towers.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Airlines vs. telecoms The FAA’s well-publicized worries over 5G deployments in the recently auctioned C-band frequencies center on the potential of those 5G services to interfere with radio altimeter equipment in older aircraft. A radio altimeter is an avionics device that measures the distance between the bottom of an airplane and the ground directly, using radio waves, rather than measuring the surrounding air density like barometric altimeters do. It’s a key technology for bad-weather and low-visibility landings, and the possibility of any interference with those systems is worrisome from a safety perspective.To read this article in full, please click here
0
IoT in 2022: IoT turns into a service
The Internet of Things has been a hyped technology for years, but the pandemic and its associated tidal wave of remote work pushed its actual use in the enterprise into overdrive. What’s more, IoT is maturing as vendors begin to sell fully functioning applications, not just the components needed for businesses to build their own.The pandemic has already driven sharp growth in the types of technologies for which the IoT is already well-known including predictive maintenance in industry and automation at ports and other transportation facilities. In those areas IoT limits the amount of time workers spend on-site because remotely monitored systems don’t need to be maintained in-person nearly as often as they might otherwise. Some functions, including certain types of inspection and servicing, can be handled fully remotely, further reducing the amount of time workers have to spend on-site and in close proximity to one another.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Latest 5G specs highlight IoT support, better spectrum efficiency
The latest 5G technical specifications from an overarching standards organization sets a roadmap for development that addresses streamlined IoT support, AI/machine learning, and more efficient use of wireless spectrum.The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a group of seven organizations developing telecom standards, has issued Release 18 of the specs on both 5G systems architecture and radio access networks.“This is deciding on which project the 3GPP ecosystem is going to work on, and how far the scope of each project needs to go,” said Qualcomm senior director of technical marketing Danny Tseng. Qualcomm is a member of 3GPP and an important contributor to 5G development.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Bumps in the road for open RAN
Open standards for radio access networking (RAN) technology have long been hyped as a way for mobile network operators to control the costs of 5G deployment, but some experts are beginning to question that potential, and legal difficulties for vendors working on the standard continue to arise.The idea behind open RAN is relatively simple. Using a standards-based approach to carrier radio equipment would allow carriers to mix and match the gear they use in base stations--freeing them from the traditional vertical integration of such equipment and potentially making the market more competitive, driving prices down.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] But this requires a considerable degree of coordination from companies like Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung that aren’t used to working cooperatively with one another. And some reports suggest that the hype around open RAN is considerably exaggerated.To read this article in full, please click here
0
There’s a 3-6 month wait for WI-Fi 6
Wi-Fi 6 is the most sought-after wireless LAN technology by enterprises, but the global chip shortage is preventing it from getting into the hands of IT pros as quickly as desired, according to the Dell’Oro Group.The usual amount of lead time required for a purchase of new Wi-Fi equipment is two to four weeks, according to the report’s author, Tam Dell’Oro, the CEO and founder of the group. “Now, we’re looking at between three and six months,” she said.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] The worldwide dearth of silicon is to blame. According to Dell’Oro, the biggest enterprise Wi-Fi vendors were the first to feel the pinc eharlier this year. Cisco, Extreme, and HPE/Aruba reported in their second-quarter results that the shortage was affecting supply, and many more US and European sellers reported similar problems in the third quarter.To read this article in full, please click here
0
There’s a 3-6 month wait for Wi-Fi 6
Wi-Fi 6 is the most sought-after wireless LAN technology by enterprises, but the global chip shortage is preventing it from getting into the hands of IT pros as quickly as desired, according to the Dell’Oro Group.The usual amount of lead time required for a purchase of new Wi-Fi equipment is two to four weeks, according to the report’s author, Tam Dell’Oro, the CEO and founder of the group. “Now, we’re looking at between three and six months,” she said.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] The worldwide dearth of silicon is to blame. According to Dell’Oro, the biggest enterprise Wi-Fi vendors were the first to feel the pinc eharlier this year. Cisco, Extreme, and HPE/Aruba reported in their second-quarter results that the shortage was affecting supply, and many more US and European sellers reported similar problems in the third quarter.To read this article in full, please click here
0
FCC auction for prime 5G bandwidth rakes in $21.8B
The FCC auction for a prime band of 5G wireless spectrum has attracted $21.8 billion in bids, underscoring the importance of the frequency blocks that range from 3.5GHz to 3.55GHz.Of the 4,060 blocks available for discrete geographic areas throughout the country, all but 19 sold during the 29-day auction, according to the FCC.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Carriers have been hungrily buying up this mid-range spectrum that some call the Goldilocks Zone because its transmissions propagate over a significant distance and also support high data rates. Earlier this year an auction for blocks of spectrum in the 3.7GHz (C-band) range raised more than $81 billion. To read this article in full, please click here
0
Researchers warn of Bluetooth Classic security vulnerability, release proof-of-concept
Researchers at Singapore University of Technology and Design has released a proof-of-concept exploit for a family of vulnerabilities it has dubbed BrakTooth, which affects the software development kit used to program Bluetooth chipsets using the ESP32 standard.BrakTooth affects the Bluetooth Classic protocol, which is widely used in laptops, smartphones and audio devices. The team says 16 flaws make up BrakTooth, the effects of which, if exploited, range in severity from crashing affected systems to remote code execution.The most serious flaw, dubbed V1 by the team, targets the ESP32 SoCs used in industrial automation, smart home, and fitness applications, among others. Certain models of MacBooks and iPhones are known to be affected. Because the ESP32 BT Library does not correctly run an out-of-bounds check on certain types of inputs, a malicious request to the system can allow an attacker to inject code onto a vulnerable system and potentially take control.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Researchers show how to exploit Bluetooth Classic security flaws
Researchers at Singapore University of Technology and Design has released a proof-of-concept exploit for a family of vulnerabilities it has dubbed BrakTooth, which affects the software development kit used to program Bluetooth chipsets using the ESP32 standard.BrakTooth affects the Bluetooth Classic protocol, which is widely used in laptops, smartphones and audio devices. The team says 16 flaws make up BrakTooth, the effects of which, if exploited, range in severity from crashing affected systems to remote code execution.The most serious flaw, dubbed V1 by the team, targets the ESP32 SoCs used in industrial automation, smart home, and fitness applications, among others. Certain models of MacBooks and iPhones are known to be affected. Because the ESP32 BT Library does not correctly run an out-of-bounds check on certain types of inputs, a malicious request to the system can allow an attacker to inject code onto a vulnerable system and potentially take control.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Report: Chip shortage and edge/IoT will drive IT change in 2022
The author of a new report from Forrester Research says that the simultaneous growth of IoT and edge computing usage are interlinked, and that future growth in both areas will be fueled heavily by federal regulations to reduce emissions.“We cannot disassociate the advancements in IoT without talking about the effect on edge,” he said. “They’re not distinct from each other..and the effect they have on use cases is combined.”[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] The demand for “sustainability-related service,” will place IoT and edge front and center, according to Forrester’s “Predictions 2022: Edge, IoT, And Networking” report. Environmental use cases like monitoring CO2 levels, pollution, and air quality will all be increasingly sought-after, as will IoT systems that allow businesses to manage their resources (think water and power usage) more efficiently.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Report: Chip shortage and edge/IoT will drive IT change in 2022
The author of a new report from Forrester Research says that the simultaneous growth of IoT and edge computing usage are interlinked, and that future growth in both areas will be fueled heavily by federal regulations to reduce emissions.“We cannot disassociate the advancements in IoT without talking about the effect on edge,” he said. “They’re not distinct from each other..and the effect they have on use cases is combined.”[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] The demand for “sustainability-related service,” will place IoT and edge front and center, according to Forrester’s “Predictions 2022: Edge, IoT, And Networking” report. Environmental use cases like monitoring CO2 levels, pollution, and air quality will all be increasingly sought-after, as will IoT systems that allow businesses to manage their resources (think water and power usage) more efficiently.To read this article in full, please click here