Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit 2022
This year’s OCP summit was held in person in San Jose California 18-20 October. The Open Compute Project (OCP) was initiated in 2011 with a mission to apply open source and open collaboration to increase the pace of innovation in data centers. The Global summit like data centers themselves are bursting at the seams and […]
Data Center Synchronization Assured
At ITSF 2022 data centers were one key market that was extensively discussed throughout the presentations and a key element highlighted throughout as something that needs to be minimized was latency. Modern applications require low levels of latency to meet user expectations and to support this, many data center operators are looking to move the […]
5G OTA Wander Mask: Fact or Myth?
In my previous blogs (Synchronization Monitoring: The fuel gauge for mobile networks and Synchronization is not a single number), I discuss the importance of making time error (TE) measurements on the transmitted mobile signal and visualizing this information as a TE vs time plot. This gives valuable insight into the performance of the network and […]
Synchronization is not a single number: Can we see what is to come?
In my previous blog, I pointed out that a good test solution can verify not only that the network is operating within performance limits of the ITU-T and 3GPP but also to give insight into just how much margin there is before a problem might occur. Regular monitoring also allows the operator to spot drifting […]
Synchronization Monitoring: The fuel gauge for mobile networks
Extrapolation of ITU-T recommendations on sync to the output of the end user application can be challenging. ITU-T recommendations are intended to deal only with the packet network portion of a communication system. However, being always pragmatic, the ITU-T authors recognise that the packet network ultimately serves an end application. Because of the significance of […]
Innovating to Shape the Future of Distributed Edge
Colt delivers ground-breaking private 5G pilot in Paris supported by Cisco and Calnex. Innovation is at the heart of Colt’s strategy and we’re continually testing the latest technologies to meet the future needs of our customers. As part of our 5G and Edge incubation program we’ve been working with partners including Cisco and Calnex on […]
Decoding ITU-T standards for optimum APTS network limits
ITU-T Rec. G.8271.2 edition 2 was published in May 2021 and addresses the network limits for deployment scenarios of partial timing support (PTS) in mobile networks. In PTS networks, it is assumed that the core network is not fully time aware. In other words, not every node in the core network implements a transparent clock […]
The Open Compute Project opens the door to big benefits for datacenters
The first presentation at the ITSF 2021 conference in Brighton discussed the implementation of Precision Timing Protocol (PTP) in datacenters and this was the first of many presentations that focused on the benefits and challenges of improved synchronization in this market. Improve Sync in datacenters and the benefits are shared Throughout the conference, it was […]
Elimination of guard bands in 5G NR increases need for sync testing
Only Over-the-Air sync testing fully characterizes network performance. The rollout of 5G networks worldwide is drawing sharp focus on the need for phase/time synchronization. Poor phase synchronization will lead to interference. The specifications laid down by 3GPP WG-4 clearly state that any pair of cells on the same frequency and with overlapping coverage are to […]
Achieving Accurate Time Synchronization in Decentralized Datacenters
It’s been reported that in 2020 every human on the planet created 1.7 megabytes of information every second. This continued growth in data generation, driven by applications providing video streaming, social media, online gaming and financial trading at the fingertips of users worldwide, is creating a data challenge for providers. In order to deliver lower […]
