Today, HPE Aruba announced its Aruba Air Pass cloud service that allows for a hand-off between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.  The service is enabled by Passpoint, which is a standard created by the Wi-Fi Alliance.  The idea is that a mobile operator customer can go into a building with Wi-Fi coverage and, without having to "log on" to the Wi-Fi, the user's phone will automatically connect.   Using Air Pass means that mobile operators won't need to build a cellular infrastructure in these buildings for customers to continue with their phone calls.

For mobile customers to see the benefit of seamless roaming from the Air Pass service, mobile operators will need to engage in a relationship with the property owners of the building.  While this seems like a lot of work, connecting to Air Pass will be far easier than it would be for a property owner to install a cellular network inside the building.   Examples of in-building cellular that can operate either on licensed, shared or unlicensed spectrum is a Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) system or licensed small cells.  Building owners or operators have to build new, in-building cellular if they want cellular coverage.  Managed Service Providers, such as Federated Wireless, have begun selling a service to property owners where they will manage the cellular infrastructure for the owner.

Aruba has some competition for its service to allow Wi-Fi sharing to mobile operator customers. In February 2020, Cisco announced its Unified Domain Center as a means of sharing Wi-Fi coverage with mobile operators, as well, and claimed that it is at the proof of concept stage with operators.  Also, Swedish software and services company, Aptilo, has created systems that allow SIM-based device users to roam onto Wi-Fi, as well.  We applaud the efforts of Aruba, Cisco, Aptilo and many others who have built systems to allow device users to roam between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

There has been a lot of excitement by mobile operators and cellular equipment suppliers about the 5G opportunity to expand to enterprises.  In November 2019, for instance, Nokia discussed how enterprises are adopting its Private LTE systems to allow cellular coverage at customers such as utilities and shipping ports.  We have been cautious on the idea that mobile operators will get lots of new revenue from providing cellular coverage to the enterprise; a year ago, we laid out our thoughts on the 5G Enterprise hype at the MWC19 show. 

The implications of the emergence of services like Air Pass and the capabilities of Unified Domain Center is that Enterprise Wi-Fi coverage will be leveraged in the 5G era far more than all the hype about "5G" wiping out the need for Wi-Fi.  However, we also feel that cellular systems will see growing popularity in certain enterprise verticals, as was evident at the MWC-Americas 2019 show.

Qualcomm made many wireless-related announcements today from its San Diego, CA headquarters, in place of making a presentation at #MWC20 in Barcelona.  Top announcements included its FSM100xx 5G small cell chips customer announcements, RF-chip availability, Wi-Fi 6E demonstrations, and 5G smartphone customer announcements.
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FSM100xx 5G RAN endorsements.  Qualcomm announced its FSM 5G RAN platform in May 2018, targeting small cells and remote radio heads and enabling bothmmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum using 10 nm process geometry.  The company listed multiple vendors and operators in its press announcement relating to FMS100xx chips.  Each of the vendors shared some interesting statistics, the most important of which we share here:

• Airspan is using FSM products in developing its small cell products and base stations.  The company’s CEO said, “we are on track to deliver tens of thousands of 5G base stations in [the] field in 2020.”
• Altiostar, an Open vRAN software maker well-known for its win at Japan’s competitive mobile operator, Rakuten, announced a year-ago at #MWC19, said that the performance of its vRAN and Qualcomm’s 5G RAN platform will allow operators to build carrier-grade high performance RAN. 
• Baicells plans to use Qualcomm’s 5G RAN platform chips to serve “vertical industries” using small and easily deployable infrastructure.
• Corning has a working relationship with Qualcomm on 5G mmWave RAN and plans bring “open platforms” to indoor spaces.
• Radisys, Rakuten, Small Cell Forum endorsed Qualcomm, as well, without too many specifics.
• Samsung has expanded its 5G product set, using Qualcomm 5G RAN platform, to “in-building and outdoor hotspots.”
• Sercomm plans to use Qualcomm 5G RAN platforms in its products to serve mobile network operators with 5G small cells.
• T&W has used the FSM90xx and FSM99x to deliver “over 100,000” 4G RAN small cells for leading operators.  Using FSM10xxx, T&W expects to provide Tier 1 operators with its 5G small cells on both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands.
• Verizon endorsed the use of Qualcomm based small cells, as well as the “incorporation of virtualization and open interfaces.”

​Qualcomm ultraSAW Filter.  Expect availability in 2H20.  Hit parity in performance in 2019 and now claims that its ultraSAW Filter will exceed performance of competitors, especially in high-bands.

​Wi-Fi 6E.  Qualcomm demonstrated 6 GHz operation between its Networking Pro Series (Wi-Fi 6 chips for Wi-Fi infrastructure like access points and routers).  Qualcomm was not specific about the timetable for delivery of 6 GHz systems, but the company hinted that the 6 GHz demonstration “underscores Qualcomm’s readiness to extend its successful Wi-Fi 6 portfolio into the 6 GHz band for a transformative Wi-Fi 6E performance, pending regulatory approval.”  The company expects that mobile devices using its Snapdragon 865 Mobile chips (intended for user devices like smartphones) can operate more than 3 Gbps when using the new 6 GHz spectrum, or 1.8 Gbps when using existing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz available today.  Qualcomm said its Networking Pro Series (Wi-Fi 6 chips) have been “deployed in more than 200 designs shipping or in development.”

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform.  The company announced that its chip system for mobile phones that features its second-generation 5G Modem-RF system, the Snapdragon X55, has been “announced or are in development” in over 70 designs, including those from top vendors such as OPPO, Samsung, Xiaomi and ZTE.

​Additionally, the company made VR devices and Personal Computer (PC) announcements including partners such as Facebook (VR) and Microsoft (PC).

We review the new announcements Cisco made public for the now-cancelled MWC20 show, and they are:  BNG on unified control plane, Unified Domain Center-to-DNA Center interoperation, IoT Control Center, SP Services Edge (CDN), new Open RAN partners, NCS 540 router with CPRI support, and Crosswork automation platform.  Since MWC is a show primarily focused on mobile and wireless, we think the two announcements that are most “wireless” in nature were: (a) Unified Domain Center announcement, which will unify management of WiFi to cellular operator LTE is interesting and (b) the partnerships Cisco announced with Open RAN vendors like Parallel Wireless, NEC and World Wide Technology.
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Summary of announcements by Cisco:
Core Networks 

• Core first in the 5G era.  Cisco believes SPs should focus on new services creation, and that process begins with selection of the core of the network.  So, its view is that the decision on how to architect a 5G networks begins with the core; in contrast, in the 3G era, selection of radio was first.
• CUPS / Packet Core.  The company now offers a single control-plane system that includes EPC, CCAP and BNG (BNG integration is a new announcement).  The user-plane can be delivered over three different systems:  Cisco VPP (servers) and/or Physical ASR 9000 and/or Physical NCS 5700.  These will then connect to various access systems: 3G, 4G, 5G (private and/or public), home, business.
• The company shared maximum throughputs of each of the user plane systems: VPP throughput 400 GB, ASR 9000-series 4 Tb, and NCS 5700 2.4 Tb.
• Cisco 5G Core engagements cover 1.3B mobile connections: VZ, Orange, kt, Spring, Rakuten, KDDI, Telenor, T-Mobile, Spark, Gogo, 5G RuralFirst, Working Group Two.  This list of engagements excludes 4G announcements.  Engagement: have deployed NSA or trialing NSA or SA.
• Dynamic microservices and cloud-native.
• Its 5G Core (Ultra Cloud Core) does forwarding 50% faster, services proxy 20% faster during congestion and 40% cell site capacity, and does traffic optimization that reduces congestion 30% to save on RAN expansion.

 
Unified Domain Center

• (new) Unified Domain Center.  SPs can expose their SP network to enterprise, as a managed service.  DNA Center manages WiFi – will see the SP slice.  We are in proof of concepts with a few SPs in the world
• The company has no public announcements to share yet
• This system works in conjunction with Cisco’s cloud-native packet core.
• Cisco has confidence in the deman for Unified Domain Center; in fact, according to a Cisco-led survey, 94% of customers want unified management of WiFi, CBRS/Private-LTE, FWA, etc.

 
IOT Control Center

• (new) IoT Control Center was announced.  This is based on technology Cisco got from the acquisition of services company, Jasper.  We did not get a lot of detail on what is new here, but is clear that Cisco is aggressively pursuing the IoT opportunity.

 
SP Services Edge 

• Delivering a CDN system (hardware, services, software) that can be provided to edge sites to allow distribution of things like Disney-Plus. 
• The business model, as we understand it - is Cisco pays for the equipment/software and gets paid based on usage.

 
Converged SDN Transport “New Engines”

• In Dec 2019, Cisco made an announcement around “Silicon One.”  Spokepersons today summarized this announcement for MWC as “New cards for existing routers, plus new routers, improving throughput.”
• NCS 540, 10/25/100 GE, 4.5x* vs ASR 900 – 300 Gb system
• ASR 9000 line card generation: 4 Tb/slot
• NCS 5700, 9.6 Tb/slot
• Cisco 8000, 14.4/Slot

 
Open RAN

• RAN has an advantage of 30-50% capex reduction.
• Partners planned for the MWC show:  Parallel Wireless, NEC, World Wide Technology partnership announced. 
• Cisco has momentum: Rakuten, Telenor, Etisalat, etc.

 
NCS 540

• (new) NCS 540.  Converged Fronthaul router.  Move towards IP implementation, reduces operations costs. 
• Indoor and outdoor, plus aggregation site router (includes CPRI support).

 
Automated Network Operations

• (new) Cisco Crosswork Automation Portfolio 
• Previously, had individual applications like Network Service Orchestrator (NSO), Situation Manager, etc.
• In the future, these applications can be delivered in an integrated platform called “Crosswork” 
• Single pane of glass: segment routing provisioned end to end to cell site to DC
• ACI routing capabilities are also being introduced that are SP-specific

 
Trusted path routing

• Routes around altered routing software images
• Security function

 

Last week, at Nokia's analyst meeting in Helsinki, it discussed its achievements and its challenges.  The company’s successes include its traction and product introductions on the enterprise market, its market traction in selling Nokia’s end-to-end portfolio, and its 5G market momentum.  Management reiterated that Nokia has signed 50 5G deals and its products are involved in 16 live 5G network.  The company addresses some of its challenges, as well, including its delays in Systems on Chip (SoC) development progress, its diminished operating margins, competitive challenges in China, and an acknowledgement of increased price competition in the 5G era. We focus our writeup on two main topics: Enterprise and semiconductors.  
 
Enterprise.  The company leads with private LTE in selling to mostly outdoor environments where mobility needs are key.  Nokia calls these networks “private wireless.”  Generally, the target companies are those that are asset-intensive businesses, and Nokia has no current plans to go down-market. Nokia has sold to 120 enterprise customers as of September 2019, up from 80 as of June 2019.

•    24 transportation
•    35 energy
•    32 public sector
•    11 manufacturing
•    18+ other industry

The company announced products specialized for the enterprise market including:

•        Packet core for optimized for enterprise
•        World 1st MulteFire modem (CPE) + LTE unlicensed (USB dongle and US).
•        Industrial terminal portfolio
•        New small form-factor ruggedized field IP-MPLS over LTE routers.  7705 SAR-Hmc

Nokia sees worldwide support for private LTE, including:

•        Vertical spectrum band support.
  •    B43. Germany
  •    B28/38.  France
  •    B31/72.  450 MHz global
  •    B53.  Globalstar footprint.
•        CBRS.  12/19 launch.
•        Japan, Germany, UK will have private spectrum available.

 
Semiconductors.  The company discussed semiconductors at great length at the meeting.  Here is a summary of the main chips that were discussed.

•        PSE-3 shipped for trials. Optical not meeting our margins targets, an issue of scale
•        FP-4 has been shipping for a year and is experiencing widespread adoption.
•        Quillion GPON chip launched a month ago.  It is intended for 5G backhaul.
•        Reefshark RF and baseband SoC.  The set of chips generally known as Reefshark were a big focus at the conference, following announcements made at the company’s 3Q19 earnings call.  The CEO said Nokia’s SoC push could have started earlier and it also said that one chip supplier “dropped the ball” on SoC.  Similar to what was disclosed on the 3Q19 call, the company is increasing its investments in SoC’s to reduce Nokia’s dependence on FPGAs in 5G baseband and RF.  Two main transitions are underway in the FPGA to SoC journey:
  • 5G Massive MIMO RF SoC should roll out during 2020.  These SoCs are already in volume product today and by the end of 2019, radio units using these SoCs will be shipping in significant volumes.
  • 5G baseband SoC available April 2020. 

Commscope expects 6 GHz 802.11ax products to be shown at the CES show in January 2020 and that FEM and filters are not available today but will be by year-end or early 2020.

Newracomm is an 802.11ah (900 MHz WiFi) chip company that had won an award at the show. It claims to be an early leader in the market and based on comments made during presentations, we expect by 2H20, we will see systems and IoT services based on these types of chips.

Celeno, a stand-alone WiFi chip company, demonstrated radar on WiFi chip capability - the company won multiple award at the show. The company expects that a year from now, its Doppler on WiFi will emerge in products from SPs such as BT, Orange, and Comcast. The Doppler service only consumes about 3-5% of throughput capability when using Doppler and enables some very interesting capabilities such as fall detection, proximity detection, people counting and arm gestures.

​We attended the operator and vendor consortium of 5G Americas.  The themes of the show were: 5G, spectrum, cell siting, Asia-Pacific operator progress.  For the second time in the past couple weeks, we saw FCC Commissioner Michael O'Reilly present, and his key messages were similar both times, focusing on CBRS, C-Band and 6 GHz.  In attendance from the North American service provider side were AT&T, T-Mobile US, Shaw, and Sprint (we focused on NA operators mainly in this write-up).  Notable vendors included Cisco, Commscope, Ericsson, Intel, Kathrein, Mavenir, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Samsung.  We would say the most important theme from the show is the surge in interest in unlicensed spectrum, both for the use of mobile operators, as well as competing carriers, as well as by enterprises both for indoor and outdoor applications.  For this write-up, we are focusing primarily on comments made by some of the leading operators who attended the conference.

AT&T discussed mmWave, future 3GPP releases, 5G phones, Mobile Edge Computing and indoor cellular, mid-band spectrum strategies, 5 GHz spectrum usage, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), StandAlone (SA), among other topics.  AT&T views mmWave as just a tool in the toolkit, so to speak, and not the only spectrum that is useful in 5G.  It considers mmWave to be most helpful in urban and potentially indoor settings.  Representatives said that future 5G-oriented Releases 16 & 17 are expected to be software upgrades to existing hardware and won't require new equipment to incorporate these new capabilities which will include network slicing.  AT&T is making a big deal about its Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) initiative.  At the conference, it emphasized MEC as having two main parts: a) expansion to about 100 edge sites (mostly Central Offices) from about 20 central locations in the LTE era and initially supporting packet core, and b) Microsoft Azure services managed end-to-end by AT&t.  The company also emphasized that it plans to pursue some indoor cellular opportunities, some that currently leverage 5 GHz using LAA technology, some that will leverage CBRS and some that will leverage mmWave.  We get the impression from AT&T that it is open in how it pursues future mid-band spectrum strategies.  Its strategy could change based on: a) the timing of the CBRS PAL licenses (currently slated for June 25, 2020), b) the potential for C-Band  private auctions (potentially in the mid 2020 timeframe), c) the potential for some or all of the 6 GHz spectrum availability (where Wi-Fi 6 would co-occupy), as well as other factors.  We learned that, at least in certain regions, the company is making very ample use of 5 GHz spectrum using LAA techniques.  AT&T seeing its picocells (small cells) get around 100 Mbps from LAA out of a total 130 Mbps inclusive of around three other licensed spectrums.  We were surprised the company makes such ample use of unlicensed spectrum where Wi-Fi currently exists.  The 5 GHz experience of AT&T leads us to think that 6 GHz, which promises to offer far more spectrum that the 5 GHz swath presently available, could be very beneficial to mobile operators and their consumers, as well as the Wi-Fi industry, and its consumers.  AT&T expects that by this time next year, it will be "pushing" 5G to all its customers, part as a result of handsets adopting 5G capabilities, part the result of its network seeing nationwide coverage.  Of the services that AT&T operates, it is installing mainly Packet Core in its MEC systems.  AT&T is also planning to run Microsoft Azure services in its MEC locations.   It expects that both Packet Core and Azure will see a 10-20 ms latency reduction by being located in MEC locations.  AT&T says that StandAlone (SA) is "just new software," and downplayed the significance of the upgrade from EPC/NonStandAlone (NSA) to SA.

Sprint "is all-in on 2.5 GHz mid-band deployments for 5G services."  Given the company's potential merger with T-Mobile USA, we view its network-build-out choices as being somewhat limited.  It has limited options because it increases its near-term value to its acquirer, T-Mobile, if it deploys 5G in 2.5 GHz.  Likewise, it is doesn't implement in mmWave, this reduces overlap with T-Mobile, who is deploying there.  The company reiterated that it had launched 5G in 9 markets.  It is seeing its peak speeds on 5G (aided by the fact that it has simultaneously upgraded hardware to Massive MIMO) be about 3-5 times that of its 8T8R LTE systems.  It currently covers 11M POPs and 2,100 square miles with 5G.  Sprint also shared that it sees RFPs from customers to replace Wi-Fi with 5G, though it didn't share more about this topic.  The company's experience is that in upgrading its macro base stations to Massive MIMO 64T64R capabilities, it is getting 3-4x faster throughput than its 8T8R systems, though in the field these measurements vary widely.  Additionally, Sprint said that its Massive MIMO systems relative to earlier systems show "generally the same coverage," with 1-2 dB better sometimes.  Sprint is exploring ORAN and vRAN but "not adopting near term."

Shaw (Canada) presented its mobile LTE and 5G efforts and plans.  Shaws plans are interesting because the company has significant cable services deployed in Canada.  The company said nearly all the mobile technology it has installed in the past three years are "5G-ready."  It will use 5G first in 600 MHz, then in mid-band (probably in 3.5 GHz) and the last in mmWave. Shaw expects that low-band 5G handsets will be available in 2020, and, similar to what AT&T said, it expects that is when 5G mobile will start in earnest in Canada.  Shaw admitted that it is behind where the US operators are in deploying 5G, but offered no apologies, as it felt it is where it needs to be from a competitive standpoint in Canada.  Almost laughing, Shaw explained that it would never consider deploying mmWave along highways, and that only high-density locations would get mmWave coverage.  Shaw's view that mmWave is for high-density locations was shared universally by other operators in attendance, including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile US.

T-Mobile US spokespersons explained that mmWave has seen some challenges, relative to initial expectations and that while it does get mmWave to operate beyond near-line-of-sight, the view of T-Mobile is that mmWave is "just part of 5G."  T-Mobile expects 3GPP Release 16 to be completed in 2020, but that it will be 2021 before it deploys Release 16, which won't require "a massive hardware refresh" and which will incorporate industrial and connected vehicles features.  T-Mobile views 5G as being appropriate for indoor installations because while mmWave has challenges penetrating glass and concrete, but when 5G operates in low and mid-band spectrums, the "issue goes away."  By 2020, T-Mobile expects StandAlone packet core to be ready, but since its current EPC/NonStandAlone (NSA) systems are already virtualized, the upgrade to SA is "not a forklift" upgrade.  T-Mobile says virtual RAN (vRAN) "will take time," and that it will "need accelerators," which we take to mean FPGA-based Network Interface Cards (NICs) or the like to allow servers to operate faster than just x86 processors will allow.

Juniper held its industry analyst day last week to present its strategy update to the market; the company wants to change networking for the cloud era.  The company reiterated its commitment to three customer types: cloud provider, service provider, and enterprise.  The company is making investments to take advantage of multiple technologies:  400 Gbps, 5G, Multi-cloud, segment routing across its portfolio for multiple IPv4 and IPv6 use cases; artificial intelligence (AI); and security.  An underlying theme for Juniper’s enterprise strategy is its AI-focus that comes with its Mist acquisition, a WLAN company; the company is transferring this AI technology to its wireline products in the coming quarters.  We cannot emphasize enough how big the opportunity is for Juniper in the enterprise market.  The company has taken on a big task by extending the Mist AI engine to other parts of the portfolio, starting with the campus and branch switching and routing products, but we expect customers will see the value of automation and intelligence throughout the enterprise product line.

The company highlighted several key points of differentiation:
• A cloud-optimized, Linux based version of Junos is available for certain data center use cases 

• Silicon photonics Aurrion optics will be available starting in the 400 Gbps optical era 
• Contrail Networking is deployed widely (in ~50 Tier 1 and 2 service providers) for its automation and SD-WAN cloud-native capabilities
• The most recent in-house developed semiconductors supporting 400 Gbps: Triton (for PTX routers and QFX switches) & Penta (for MX routers)
• AI Artificial Intelligence including its Marvis system will be used to simplify operations, first for WLAN, and then it will be made available through its enterprise wired products

Enterprise. To emphasize its re-invigorated focus on enterprise, the company highlighted its recently closed acquisition of Mist Systems, an AI and WLAN vendor, which bolsters its enterprise product breadth.  Now Juniper has a wide product portfolio: WLAN, switching, SD-WAN, routing, and security.

Service Provider.  The company is showing good growth in its cloud-delivered SD-WAN offering. The company supports segment routing across its portfolio for multiple IPv4 and IPv6 use caseswhich it believes will allow it to serve 5G needs of operators. Contrail system Networking has been deployed widely to control and manage virtualized infrastructure EPC, IMS, and combined control plane systems at operators. Juniper continues to invest in high performance routing as evidenced by its strong position in the emerging 400Gbps market.

Cloud.  Juniper expects that in the 400 Gbps era, it can take market share in Tier 1 hyperscaler switching because it has addressed some deficiencies it had not delivered in the 100 Gbps era. This includes support for SONIC, P4, Stratum, and other private APIs.  It expects to ship the PTX 10008/16, with 14.4 Tbps per slot, by year-end 2019.  Juniper is also disaggregating Junos to meet cloud operators’ flexible consumption models and cloud-optimized architectures.

Business Model.  The company expects that by the year 2021, it will get 16% of its revenues from software.  It revealed that recently, it was at 10%.  

Today, Huawei announced 1H19 results were CNY401.3B, up 23.2% Y/Y.  Carrier business 1H19 revenues were CNY146.5B, with 50 commercial 5G contracts and shipments of more than 150,000 base stations.  Enterprise 1H19 revenues were CNY31.6B.  Consumer Business 1H19 revenues were CNY220.8B, with 118M smartphone units, up 24% Y/Y.  The company said "revenue grew fast up through May.  [and that] we continue to see growth even after we were added to the entity list."

The fact that Huawei says it is still experiencing growth despite being placed on the US Entity List is important because it says that despite the efforts of the US to stymie Huawei, it is still growing.  Huawei has typically provided semi-annual results to the public, so it is not odd that has not provided 2Q19 results, which were almost certainly weaker than 1Q19 results given the US efforts to slow Huawei.
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We attended the Open19 Foundation Summit 2019 in San Jose, CA.  The key message of the leadership team of the Foundation was that it expects 2019 to be the year where Open19 systems begin shipping.  Yuval Bachar, President of the Foundation explained that there are 8-10 companies that are deploying or seriously considering, including two mega data center operators in process of evaluation and at least 6 adopters in advanced evaluation/deployment.  Open19 does not specify what technology will be inside the systems; it only defines the form factor.  Interestingly, GPU and ARM designs are included and we heard about AMD CPU more often than we did Intel.  
 
VaporIO made a presentation about its edge data center systems.  Matt Trifiro, CMO of VaporIO explained that its systems nominally consume up to 165 kw in a 9 foot round datacenter.  It claims that Vapor IO is deploying in 6 cities, 3 to 4 data centers in each city.

ASUS and a new company, German Edge Cloud, both made interesting presentations.  Salim Fedel, Associate VP Enterprise Solutions Business Group, ASUS, presented a few of the company's Open19 oriented products, Alps19, Brick and its Network Switch.  Jason Rylands, VP of Data Center Strategy & International Sales, German Edge Cloud, made a very interesting presentation about its company's activities in Germany on how it is participating in the manufacturing industry in Germany.  There is reticence on putting manufacturing data and control on the cloud, but there is a desire to build a German-only computing system, driven in part by GDPR and part by the nation's focus on manufacturing - that's the opportunity.  German Edge Cloud has decided to use Open19 systems - accessing only the front of the racks is a big deal, it believes.

German Edge Cloud shared many examples of how it is engaging with manufacturers for real-time error tracking during the manufacturing process, using analytics, and sharing information between various companies in the German supply chain.

​We attended media briefings at the Keysight World conference held near San Francisco, California, yesterday.  Keysight World San Francisco showed a more integrated Ixia as well as a further push towards 5G, automotive and energy, and data center and telecom.  Much of the companies conversations during the event related to synergies between these technologies.  Such as how to push the automotive industry forward using 5G and the need for edge computing in 5G.  As Keysight is involved at the beginning of the launches of many new cellular technologies, it has good insights into the timeline and progress of the 5G market.

One of our key takeaways from the show is the increased pervasiveness of Ethernet in the telecom and automotive industry as well as the significant increase in constant data creation.  All this data will need robust, and more intelligent networks to transport it.  We were also impressed that Keysight World will actually take place in 10 cities around the world, with San Francisco being the first.

Another interesting observation was just how global Keysight was in looking at products, for example in one session that we attended, much of the automotive effort in the company was located in Germany.