Networking

Chromium browser maker, Brave, has unveiled Brave Talk, a video service based on an implementation of the open source video meeting platform Jitsi. 

Brave is one of over dozen Chromium-based browsers vying for a space on desktops and mobile devices as an alternative window to the web beyond Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari. It’s now, perhaps rather belatedly, jumping on the video conference bandwagon to join Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Cisco Webex with Brave Talk. Brave bills itself as a privacy-focused browser. It arrived in 2016 with the promise of tracking protection, an ad blocker, and HTTPS Everywhere. While it is a popular Chrome alternative, its crypto methods of monetizing the software with ads has annoyed some users. Nonetheless, the company is taking the same privacy message to the video meeting space. It argues that many other video conferencing providers monitor calls, metadata, and images, and the records of that data can be sold or shared without user consent. “Brave Talk users can enable multiple layers of encryption on calls, so an eavesdropper cannot listen in on users’ calls, and our servers don’t save metadata, so calls, images, and activities are never recorded or shared without user consent.” Brave Talk is underpinned by 8×8, a video meeting service provider that uses the Jitsi video meeting platform and the WebRTC (Web real time communications) standard for video codecs in browsers.   

With apps like Zoom and Teams already well-entrenched among consumers and businesses, it’s going to be hard for something like Brave Talk to break through, but it’s another tool for those who use Brave for privacy reasons at a time when video meetings are crucial for day-to-day life. 

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Brave in February claimed to have 25 million active users and now says it has 36 million users. Brave Talk free to for one-to-one video calls. It also features video groupwatch, YouTube livestreaming, and unlimited call times for free version users. There is a paid-for version too: group calls with three or more people need to pay $7 a month. The paid-service includes call recordings, muting and entry passcodes, and calls with larger groups. In coming weeks, Brave plans to launch a free version of Brave Talk in the Android and iOS apps. More

Dell Technologies is expanding support for Dell EMC CloudIQ, a cloud application that’s a steppingstone to creating autonomous infrastructure. The effort is part of an effort to create autonomous operations starting with CloudIQ, which includes AIOps tools to manage issues before they become critical. Dell Technologies rolled out its Apex portfolio as a service effort and fleshed out plans introduced in 2020. Like Cisco and HPE, Dell sees its future riding along with recurring revenue, financing and as-a-service offerings. The move is likely to speed up automation in data centers and infrastructure. Dell Technologies will roll out Dell EMC CloudIQ at an Autonomous Operations event hosted by Mark Hamill. As part of the presentation, Dell Technologies will outline a Level 1 to level 5 framework for autonomous operations. The framework, which rhymes with SAE International’s levels of autonomous driving, starts with partial automation at level 2 and rises to full autonomy at level 5. At level 5, human reliance to run infrastructure is minimal and a system can handle all operations without exception.
Dell Technologies
×dell-cloudiq-levels.pngAccording to Dell, CloudIQ will cover the entire Dell EMC portfolio including hyperconverged infrastructure, compute, storage, networking and data protection. Support for PowerEdge and PowerSwitch gear is included. In a video interview, Dell Technologies CTO John Roese and Jeff Boudreau, general manager of Dell Infrastructure Solutions Group, said intuitive monitoring will be key toward becoming more autonomous. For Dell, the plan is to leverage CloudIQ with its APEX Console and APEX Data Storage Services. APEX is Dell’s primary vehicle to offer its products as-a-service.

CloudIQ and Dell EMC infrastructure supports up to level 3 of its autonomous operations model. The roadmap for Dell will bring its infrastructure to level 5 in years to come. Dell executives said that CloudIQ can integrate insights from third-party vendors including ServiceNow, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Ansible and vRealize. More

StarHub is forking out up to $162.8 million to acquire a 50.1% stake in MyRepublic’s broadband business in Singapore, taking out the latter’s 6% share in the local market. This will see the MyRepublic business unit subsumed as a StarHub subsidiary when the transaction is finalised. MyRepublic carved out a new entity, called MyRepublic Broadband, for the transaction, which would encompass its consumer and enterprise customers in the city-state. StarHub Online, which comprises the telco’s broadband business, would acquire the MyRepublic shares. The acquisition would push StarHub’s share of the local broadband market to 40%, the two companies said in a joint statement Wednesday. MyRepublic currently has a 6% share of the market. 

In an email reply to ZDNet, MyRepublic’s chief investor relations officer Jeannie Ong confirmed the deal would only cover its broadband business in Singapore, and would not impact its mobile business here, as well as its platform business and other overseas entities. Its franchise partnership with Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group also remains unchanged. “We continue to retain 100% ownership of these,” Ong said. “Naturally, the transaction impacts all our businesses favourably, as the capital raised will be used to accelerate our plans in all markets and also for our platform business.”In a June 2021 report, MyRepublic told ZDNet it was looking for new revenue in Singapore’s enterprise space, with plans to ramp up its service offerings with particular focus on cybersecurity, where it might look to make acquisitions to plug product gaps. It also had eyes on growing its enterprise business, where it saw large margins and growth potential. MyRepublic then had some 6,000 enterprise customers including small and midsize businesses and large organisations, as well as 85,000 broadband subscribers in Singapore. As at May 2021, it also had 70,000 mobile subscribers. It launched its mobile business here in 2018.

The Singapore market remains the main revenue source for the operator, which also offers broadband services in Australia and New Zealand. StarHub’s investment would include an initial consideration of $70.8 million for the 50.1% stake and a $92 million deferred consideration dependent on future financial performance. The Singapore telco also would refinance $74.2 million of debt for MyRepublic over a span of three years, upon completion of the transaction. The latter would retain 49.9% share, with its senior management team including co-founder and CEO Malcolm Rodrigues remaining in his role. The acquisition was slated to be completed by end-December, subject to the usual regulatory approvals. The acquisition would provide MyRepublic customers access to StarHub’s range of consumer and business offerings, including over-the-top content and online games. The two companies added that they also would achieve cost savings, scale, and synergies through joint go-to-market opportunities and wholesale service offerings. StarHub CEO Nikhil Eapen said in the statement: “We intend to scale up and deliver better and faster services to our customers, while realising high-quality earnings accretion. We stand to mutually benefit from StarHub’s digital-first technology platforms, our challenger mindset in innovation and customer-centricity, and MyRepublic’s lean operating model and experiences in regional markets.”Rodrigues said: “This milestone propels us forward in MyRepublic’s journey towards IPO. With StarHub onboard as a key investor, we are charting a new course for the long-term direction of the industry.”In a note to MyRepublic’s broadband customers in Singapore, Rodrigues described the deal as a “historical moment” for the company, after a decade of operations here. He said the investment put the company in “a stronger financial position” for IPO and enable it to scale up operations.”In due course, more details will be released on the additional access for myRepublic broadband customers as a result of this partnership,” he added.  MyRepublic earlier this month suffered a third-party security breach that compromised personal data of 79,388 mobile subscribers. The mobile operator had declined to reveal further details about how the data breach was discovered, saying only that it was informed of the incident by “an unknown external party” on August 29. When asked, Ong said it would work closely with StarHub as part of the due diligence process under the acquisition agreement. She added that they would work to gather information about MyRepublic’s data privacy and security compliance as well as to safeguard StarHub’s interests as an investor. “The recent data breach incident affects MyRepublic’s mobile business in Singapore and MyRepublic has taken all the necessary steps to respond to the incident appropriately,” she said, noting that it still was working with the relevant authorities on the investigations. “Our data breach incident has had no bearing on the partnership with StarHub, which follows comprehensive due diligence, review, and evaluation of the relevant synergies between both parties.”RELATED COVERAGE More

Japan-based Rakuten Mobile introduced its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service back in 2014. The carrier has since built a fully virtualized, 5G-ready, cloud-native mobile network through a partnership with the Cisco Customer Experience (CX) group. Rakuten Mobile created a new type of mobile service that didn’t exist prior to the partnership, which is still going strong today. For those not familiar with Cisco CX, it is the services team at Cisco. It’s branded “CX” because the services are designed around customer outcomes versus traditional infrastructure services, which are more technology-centric.  

In 2018, Rakuten Mobile called on Cisco CX to play a program management role in its network buildout. Together, Rakuten Mobile and Cisco architected and deployed an efficient infrastructure for networking, storage, and computing. This helped Rakuten Mobile provide a variety of new services without placing additional strain on the network. Cisco worked with its multi-domain teams — distributed across Rakuten Mobile’s 10 locations — to come up with a software-only solution that boosted the usage of edge hardware resources from 30% to 90% for application workloads. Cisco also collaborated closely with other vendors to ensure compliance with their workloads. Next-generation mobile is multi-cloud “The orchestration of these workloads on any cloud is a daunting challenge already, whether it’s Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud. The fact that you could take a cloud workload and move it to any cloud does not automatically mean you have achieved productivity and efficiency,” Rakuten Mobile’s chief technology officer Tareq Amin said during a recent call with analysts. “It’s important to have a good software foundation. With Cisco, we were able to migrate traffic in less than a second without sending anyone to any of our data centers.”Three factors differentiate Rakuten Mobile, Amin said:How it orchestrates and automates application workloads: Rakuten Mobile’s technology runs near real-time, latency-sensitive workloads on a virtualized infrastructure across a vast number of distributed data centers.How it drives artificial intelligence: Rakuten Mobile’s platform has built-in conversational and engagement AI services.Compelling private cloud solutions: Many customers continue to have a preference for private cloud deployments, in which both Rakuten Mobile and Cisco specialize. This year, Rakuten Mobile began deploying Cisco’s segment routing over IPv6 (SRv6) equipment, enabling fixed-mobile convergence on Rakuten Mobile’s existing internet protocol (IP) backbone. Rakuten Mobile has been optimizing its mobile network to support 5G services, including standalone services with network slicing capabilities. The renewed partnership will allow the carrier to launch enterprise-focused private 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) services.Private 5G is coming to enterprises 

“We have a compelling offering for Cisco as they contemplate how to make private 5G successful. We want to combine Cisco’s enterprise private 5G know-how with Rakuten Mobile’s technology,” said Amin.Rakuten Mobile is taking lessons learned in Japan and expanding globally. The carrier wants to bring its technology stack to Europe, which is well-positioned for a networking overhaul. In the next phase, Rakuten Mobile and Cisco would once again work together to provide unified cloud network functions (radio, core, intelligent operations) and a customer-centric billing experience offered through a market store, according to Amin.Meanwhile, both companies are also pursuing opportunities in the private 5G space in the U.S. Amin envisions having small cell access nodes with 5G capabilities connected to highly reliable 802.11ax sixth-generation Wi-Fi, coupled with software that manages the network. The combination of 5G/Wi-Fi 6/software would make networks easier to deploy and operate — and also lower the cost trajectory for connectivity.”Our partnership with Cisco CX isn’t just about a project or a small period of time,” said Amin. “We have a complimentary technology stack and complementary skills. We will continue to find ways to challenge each other and collaborate.”One of the interesting aspects of this partnership was Rakuten’s choice of Cisco for program management because this wasn’t a typical role for Cisco at the time. In a briefing with analysts, I asked Amin why he used Cisco in that role. He answered that one of his goals was to minimize the number of vendors, so he was going to choose from the group of vendors he was using. “Although this was a new service offering for the Cisco CX team, I liked how they looked at the project from a customer point of view,” Amin said. “They were fully engaged with our team, and it often felt like the team was not wearing a Cisco badge but a Rakuten one. I want to be clear that there were problems along the way, and there always are. What’s important is how the vendor responds and Cisco CX, and we continue to find ways of challenging each other and collaborating. Ultimately, it was Cisco’s willingness to be a partner that is why we picked them. Now it’s not just Japan where we will use them; there are other global opportunities”. From an industry perspective, the model Rakuten and Cisco CX have put in place should be something all large enterprises seek. Digital technologies are significantly more complex than previous generations, creating implementation and adoption challenges. Technology vendors need to be open, multi-vendor and outcome-focused because this will help their customers succeed.

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Nokia on Tuesday introduced the fifth generation of its network processing silicon, delivering better capacity and efficiency and a new encryption capability. The FP5 is designed for service providers that have to meet the higher broadband demands triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic while at the same time addressing the spike in denial of service attacks. 

Nokia’s prior-generation IP routing silicon, the FP4, delivered volumetric DDoS defense with router-based detection and mitigation. FP5 introduces an additional layer of network protection with ANYsec — a new line rate, flow-based encryption capability integrated directly into the chipset. The options for encrypting network traffic are typically MACsec and IPsec. MACsec is silicon-based and thus low-latency and cost-effective. However, its hop-by-hop architecture introduces risk and latency when applied to IP services like MPLS and segment routing. Meanwhile, IPsec takes just a single hop, but it’s slower and more expensive. Nokia’s ANYsec uses a number of encryption standards from MACsec while supporting encryption natively over MPLS and over segment routing. It does so at scale without impacting performance or power efficiency, Nokia said. Meanwhile, FP5 also supports next-generation router capacity. They support high-density 800GE ports, while the optics to support 800 Gigabit Ethernet should start becoming available on the market by the middle of next year. It supports up to 1.6Tb/s flows, though standards have yet to be set for anything past 800GE. As far as efficiency goes, Nokia’s FP5 network processors drive down power consumption per bit by 75%. They are backwards compatible with FP4 and fully integrated into the latest versions of Nokia’s Service Router Operating System (SR OS).

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Elon Musk has announced that his SpaceX Starlink project, which aims to deliver global broadband service through a satellite constellation, will go live in October — a month later than what was planned.Musk took to Twitter to confirm that the company received “good feedback” from its Starlink beta 10 users, and that there were now plans to roll out beta 10.1, which beta users can request from this Friday, ahead of an official launch next month.Beta services are currently operating in 11 different countries. SpaceX outlined as part of beta services, users can expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and latency from 20ms to 40ms in “most locations over the next several months” while the Starlink system continues to be enhanced. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all, the company added.The company shipped 100,000 terminals to customers in August. At the time, Musk noted licence approval to provide telco services remained pending in “many more countries”. In other SpaceX news, the company’s first private crewed mission arrived safely back to Earth on Saturday. After three days orbiting the Earth at altitudes of 590 kilometres above the Earth’s surface, the Inspiration4 crew splashed down off the coast of Florida at 7:06 pm EDT, 18 September, 2021, in the fully automated Crew Dragon spacecraft.

On board were four crew members: Shift4 Payments founder and CEO Jared Issacman, cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, geoscientist Sian Proctor, and aerospace employee Chris Sembroski. They each underwent six months of training prior to launch.   During their multi-day journey, the crew carried out scientific research to improve human health on Earth and during future long-duration spaceflights. Some of the research involved measuring movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, bloody oxygen, cabin noise, and light intensity.The Inspiration4 mission also fundraised more than $210 million to help children with cancer at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. RELATED COVERAGE More

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Among the “servitization” of all things tech infrastructure at Lenovo Tech World this month, the company announced a smattering of new Windows laptops, Chromebooks, and Android tablets. Its new ThinkPads will be among the first to ship Windows 11, and the new Chromebook follows up Lenovo’s breakout 10″ Duet 2-in-1 by upping the screen size to 13″. While, like the recently announced HP Chromebook 11 X2, it has a Snapdragon processor and a second USB-C connector, it lacks the down-market portable charm of the first Duet but comes in well under the price of the forthcoming HP.But one feature of Lenovo’s new Android tablets was the most significant from a cross-device standpoint as they will be the first client devices to support Lenovo’s Project Unity. On the surface, the effort seems like an answer to Apple’s Sidecar feature, which allows an iPad to serve as an external display to a Mac. However, unlike Sidecar or other options like Duet that would enable an Android tablet to serve as an external display for a PC or Mac, Unity allows the continued use of Android apps in “second screen” mode because screen extension is done via an app. It’s a useful feature, albeit one that may become less advantageous over time if Microsoft can fully execute on its now-delayed plans to integrate Android apps into Windows 11. While Wi-Fi will be the go-to way to connect the devices at launch, Lenovo says it is exploring other connection means.

With Unity, secondary screens are paired with a PC via a QR code. (This may remind some of Lenovo’s early work with SHAREit, a local cross-platform file sharing app that the PC maker eventually spun out.) Lenovo hints, though, that Unity is far more ambitious than just extending screens in that it is based on Lenovo’s UDS (users-devices-services) ecosystem. Little has been said publicly about UDS, but Lenovo has confirmed that users will have to be logged into their Lenovo accounts to use Project Unity and that elements of UDS are included in both the Windows and Android apps, enabling Project Unity features. As for why the functionality is limited to Lenovo’s forthcoming tablets, the company explains that it requires at least Android 11 or later from the client-side.While smartphone heavyweights Samsung and Xiaomi both offer Windows PCs and Android tablets, Project Unity takes advantage of Lenovo’s standing as the only of the “Big Three” PC vendors that crosses that platform divide. Nonetheless, its Lenovo-branded Android business is a small one compared to that of Motorola, which has seen a comeback even as many of its feature phone-era contemporary brands have faded. One may chalk that up in part to Lenovo taking a hands-off approach to the pioneering cellular brand. Indeed, having both Lenovo PCs and Motorola smartphones driving the company’s ThinkReality A3 glasses represents a rare brand crossover.But Motorola smartphones are so far sitting out Project Unity. Rather, Motorola launched its own cross-device screen outreach feature, dubbed “Ready for.” It includes such features as a DeX-like desktop environment (with distant echoes of the line’s Atrix 4G laptop dock) for external monitors and usage as a more capable webcam for PCs. Lenovo’s PC and phone businesses can justify separating the initiatives names in that the phone features have nothing to do technically with Project Unity. Still, the broad connotation of that name and the hints Lenovo has dropped about its ambitious roadmap make the separation a missed opportunity for now. That said, if, as was shown during a Lenovo Tech World video segment, Project Unity can find relevance in the company’s modest Smart Clock, Motorola could eventually play into Project Unity while preserving “Ready for” as a distinct set of features.PREVIOUS AND RELATED CONTENTLenovo Project Unity allows tablet to extend PCs while using native functions. The new wireless connectivity app will be available on the new Lenovo Tab P12 Pro tablet.

For laptops, multiple options for multiple screensFrom a simple way to steal a glance at your smartphone to slide-out second screens, a host of options provide the benefits of multiple displays to laptops.Apple Sidecar: Use your iPad as a second screen for your MacApple’s new Catalina and iPadOS updates make your iPad more useful than ever.   More

Alphabet’s X ‘moonshot labs’ has beamed 700TB of data across the Congo River, offering a potentially cheaper alternative to laying fiber cables in difficult terrain. Google’s solution for crossing the Congo River is to create a connection between Brazzaville and Kinshasa that relies on “free space” optics, which was also used to transmit data in its now shut down Loon project. It uses light to transmit data between two points, in this case a 4.8 kilometer distance that would required a 400 km land route for fiber due to the river. Connectivity is five times more expensive in Kinshasa because the fiber connection has so far to travel. 

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The Taara links sent 700 TB of data over 20 days with 99.9% availability. That’s like “watching a FIFA World Cup match in HD 270,000 times”, the Taara team note. SEE: Fiber vs. cable: What is the difference?The optical wireless beams link up with ISPs or cell providers’ file-optic networks, in this case African provider Econet’s. Taara’s technical advances on wireless optical communication come from the Taara terminals’ ability to search and find the other sensor’s beam of light, and then “lock-in” to create a high-bandwidth connection. The technology is affected by things like fog, haze and disturbances from wildlife, but Taara’s director of engineering, Baris Erkmen, reckons it is viable to deliver faster, lower-cost connectivity to the 17 million people living in these two cities. 

So long as there is a clear line of sight, Taara can transmit data up to 20 Gbps between two points up to 20 km apart. They are intended to extend existing fiber networks.   “Taara’s terminals search for each other, detect the other’s beam of light, and lock-in like a handshake to create a high-bandwidth connection,” Erkman explains. Taara engineers have been refining its atmospheric sensing, mirror controls and motion-detection capabilities to help Taara terminals automatically respond to changes in the environment and maintain a robust connection.”These techniques combined with better pointing and tracking capabilities have meant that when Taara’s beam has been affected by haze, light rain, or birds (or a curious monkey) we’ve not seen any service interruptions,” noted Erkmen. SEE: Quantum cryptography: This air-filled fiber optic cable can transport un-hackable keys, say researchersX sees potential for the wireless optical technology to extend fiber networks around forests, water bodies, railway tracks, or land with high real-estate costs. While Loon shared some larger goals with Space X’s Starlink satellite constellation, X’s wireless optical technology appears to be less ambitious but possibly still practical for large parts of the world, according to its map of viable locations below that are shaded in red. 
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