Benzinga | Dec 8, 2020 08:32AM EST

Marvell Issues 3 Press Releases highlighting New Ethernet Capabilities, 5G Technology, MIMO Radio Unit Solutions

Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) today introduced its new Prestera(r) DX 7300 series of Ethernet switches, designed to intelligently enable secure and efficient data movement throughout carrier access and metro networks. With 5G deployments already rolling out, network operators are tasked with accelerating their path to transformation as the combined demands of 5G and IoT traffic drive a shift in network infrastructure. To meet ever-increasing bandwidth demands, metro networks are also seeing a move to pluggable 400GE coherent optics, which enables the carrier and data center edge with high-capacity, long-reach connectivity directly from an Ethernet switch. In order to address the stringent and emerging requirements of 5G carrier and 400GE metro optical networks, the low-power, small footprint Prestera DX 7300 switches incorporate accurate time-sensitive features, integrated MACsec and advanced processing functionality, and support port speeds up to 400Gbps.

Innovative radio access network (RAN) disaggregation and virtualization solutions depend on the network's ability to deliver high-performance deterministic connectivity for fronthaul streams within ubiquitous and flexible Ethernet-bridged networks. To support the new RAN deployment models for radio access fronthaul applications, the Prestera DX 7300 family integrates highly accurate time synchronization, 802.1CM Time-Sensitive-Network (TSN) for fronthaul, network slicing and native eCPRI-aware processing. The switches are part of Marvell's open radio access network (open RAN) and virtualized radio access network (vRAN) platform solutions, also announced today.

Ever-increasing processing demands in the metro data center are driving the need for high-bandwidth data movement at an economical cost. The Prestera DX 7300 series of switches integrate 56Gbps SerDes, high-capacity MACsec and advanced processing that can be matched with pluggable 400G-ZR optical modules. This functionality enables system manufacturers to develop solutions for multi-access edge computing (MEC) and data center interconnect (DCI) applications that benefit from traffic efficiency, openness and the optimized cost structure of packet Ethernet networks.

"As 5G brings rigorous data protection and performance demands to the transport network, the infrastructure has to meet the requirements for secured communications at higher speeds and data rates to support emerging use cases," said Guy Azrad, general manager and senior vice president of Switching at Marvell. "Our newest Prestera family offers the most secured switching solution with the high-speed interfaces needed to fulfill 5G potential at the industry's lowest power and footprint available today."

"The emerging carrier solutions spanning edge, metro data center and 5G depend on strong and scalable network performance and security," said Alan Weckel, founder and technology analyst, 650 Group. "Marvell's new switch family is designed to innovate and strengthen the new cloud-native architectures, delivering scale and capabilities to address the increased demand for this technology."

The Prestera DX 7300 devices are Marvell's third generation of its highly successful carrier Ethernet switch family, with tens of millions of ports shipped to date to over 100 existing customers. The portfolio is comprised of three cutting-edge Prestera Ethernet switches that scale port speeds from 1Gbps to 400Gbps with bandwidth ranging from 300Gbps to 1.6Tbps. The newest switch additions continue the product line's legacy of versatility, delivering low-power and small footprint flexibility that enable the development of cost-effective solutions tailored to deployment-specific needs.

Powered by a modern Marvell Software Development Kit (SDK), the Prestera DX 7300 switches share a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) with other Marvell switching products. This interoperability is designed to simplify the development effort and accelerate system introduction. Marvell brings strong support of a rich ecosystem of open-source and commercial networking software solutions. The solutions, which include Marvell's own turnkey networking software stack, provide a comprehensive platform of options from original device manufacturers (ODMs).

Key Features

Marvell's Prestera DX 7300 switching family is built with flexibility and feature richness to fulfill the emerging and wide variety of carrier 5G, edge, access and metro use cases.

* ITU-T G.8273.2 Class C PTP/SyncE, Time Sensitive Networking (802.1CM) compliance for precise 5G timing

* Advanced security with secure boot and integrated 802.1ae 256b MACsec engines for Layer2 data encryption

* Segment Routing (SRV6) for advanced traffic engineering and service chaining

* Enhanced network telemetry and intelligence for actionable metadata exports

* 56Gbps PAM4 SerDes supporting port speeds up to 400Gbps

* Flexible I/O speeds 1G/2.5/5/10/25/50/100/400G

Availability

The Prestera DX 7300 series of switches are available now.

For more information about the new Prestera DX 7300 family, please visit the Marvell Carrier Switching web page.



Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) today introduced its 5G O-RAN portfolio with the launch of its open radio access network (open RAN) and virtualized radio access network (vRAN) platform solutions. With Open Ran Alliance compliance, Marvell's O-RAN platform solution brings established, leading-edge DPU and connectivity technology to the emerging open RAN and vRAN markets. Marvell's OCTEON Fusion(r) baseband processors, OCTEON(r) multi-core DPUs and Prestera(r) switches have enabled leading telecom original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to successfully deploy hundreds of radio networks worldwide.



Open RAN architectures provide operators with a choice of infrastructure supplier options for RAN components and increased flexibility. Open RAN implementations have moved beyond lab trials and greenfield deployments to mainstream mobile and private networks. Most implementations have relied on FPGA or GPU-based PHY layer acceleration with associated cost and power compromises. Marvell's O-RAN platform now provides a purpose-built, cloud native, highly programmable solution to address capacity, power, cost and time-to-market challenges presented by current architectures.

"Marvell's O-RAN Platform leverages our industry-leading baseband DPU, switch and Ethernet products. The Platform provides our customers with high-performance, low-power and programmable solutions that offer a seamless path to commercial 5G open RAN and vRAN market segments," said Raj Singh, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Marvell's Processor Business Group. "Our cost-effective, purpose-built yet flexible O-RAN Platform helps power the transition to O-RAN enabled commercial 5G, while optimizing for OPEX and CAPEX."

Marvell's O-RAN platform includes the industry-leading OCTEON Fusion baseband processor family that is currently shipping in volume to tier 1 OEMs. Marvell's newly announced OCTEON Fusion-O(tm) processors maintain the full capabilities of the OCTEON Fusion family including 15 Gbps capacity and support for 200MHz channelization, while adding specific O-RAN functions such as eCPRI compression/decompression and split 7.2 interfaces with integrated fronthaul. Additionally, the platform includes key reference software, allowing OEMs, ODMs and network operators to rapidly bring O-RAN compatible products to market.

Marvell O-RAN Platform

The Marvell O-RAN platform solution consists of silicon, software and hardware reference designs spanning the radio unit (RU), distributed unit (DU) and centralized unit (CU) with Ethernet connectivity between these network elements.

mMIMO RU

A 32T32R, 8 DL layer, 100MHz channel radio unit.

* Hardware reference design in partnership with Analog Devices

* Reference lower L1 and beamforming software

* O-RAN management plane software

* O-RAN fronthaul interface

* Analog Devices Transceivers and DFE software

vDU and DU

The OCTEON Fusion-O DU hardware reference designs are available as either a virtualized DU (vDU) PCIe-based offload accelerator or an integrated DU.

* Dual mode 5G and LTE

* Integrated fronthaul for 7.2 split

* 16DL/8UL layer support

* Reference LTE and 5G L1 software

CU

In addition to support for vDU server configurations, the Marvell O-RAN platform also provides support for our industry-leading L2/L3 OCTEON processors supporting a fully integrated standalone CU implementation.

* Dedicated L2/L3 silicon

* Virtualized L2/L3 support

* Partnership protocol stack ports from industry leaders

As an acknowledged leader in Ethernet connectivity solutions, Marvell's O-RAN Platform includes the latest generation of carrier Ethernet switches, the Prestera DX 7300 Ethernet switch family. It offers best-in-class telemetry, scalability, performance, power and cost.



Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) and Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI) today announced an advanced 4G/5G radio unit (RU) design that supports high antenna counts and multi-gigabit per second throughput for both integrated RAN and Open RAN deployments. Leveraging the companies' complementary radio silicon and RU software suite, the next-generation massive MIMO RU design that results from this collaboration will deliver power, weight and performance improvements inherent with ASIC solutions for both integrated RAN and Open RAN deployments.



As 5G deployments continue to ramp, network operators are increasingly seeking higher capacity RU systems to deliver the performance expected by their customers. The ADI-Marvell solution will enable a growing number of OEMs to bring competitive solutions to the market, enabling additional capacity for existing radio sites. With an ongoing shift toward Open RAN, the newly launched solutions will provide native support for O-RAN split 7.2x functionality.

"Our goal in joining with ADI in this effort was to provide a complete, open standards-based RU platform, one that leverages what each company does best," said Raj Singh, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Marvell's Processor Business Group. "We wanted to minimize the amount of silicon required to deliver massive MIMO RU solutions capable of supporting 32T32R performance, along with beamforming and DFE functions. ADI's transceiver solutions align perfectly with our RU and digital unit baseband offerings -- it's exactly what the industry has been seeking in next generation RU designs."

"The demand for much higher capacity radio units is exploding," said Joe Barry, Vice President of the Wireless Communications Business Unit at ADI. "Together with Marvell, we are able to get ahead of the curve and help the industry transition to 32T32R -- or even higher capacity -- radio units. At the same time, by providing differentiated radio architectures and algorithms we are allowing the operators to effectively manage both their capital and operating expenses."

The 5G massive MIMO RU solutions will incorporate ADI's next-generation transceiver technology, including an advanced, programmable digital front-end. Marvell is providing its baseband silicon, which offers beamforming and a lower L1 software supporting O-RAN split 7.2. The solutions provide complete system-level hardware reference designs developed in collaboration with Benetel, a leading innovator in RU solutions. Initial prototypes are expected in latter half of 2021.