Keysight’s communication solutions group sees largest growth
Keysight Technologies saw its revenues rise 21% year-over-year to hit a record of $1 billion for the quarter, the company reported, with the strongest growth in its Communication Solutions Group. Keysight earned $832 million during the same period last year.
According to Keysight’s earnings numbers, net income was $121 million, compared to a loss of $18 million during the same quarter of 2017.
Keysight’s CSG unit’s revenue for the fiscal third quarter was $515 million, a year-over-year increase of 23%, which the company said was “driven by 5G-related [research and development] spending across the wireless ecosystem, early investment in next-generation 400G and PAM-4 network test and strong growth in the aerospace, defense and government end-market.”
Keysight’s Electronic Industrial Solutions group’s revenues were up 19% year-over-year, which the company attributed to strong growth in its offerings in automotive and energy, general electronics and semiconductor measurement. Keysight’s Services Solution Group, which focuses on calibration, repair and equipment re-sale, saw revenues grow 9% year-over-year to $116 million. Keysight recently acquired Australia’s largest calibration company,
Revenues from the Ixia Solutions Group was $119 million for the quarter, compared to $120 million in the year-ago period. Keysight noted that ISG’s revenues improved from the fiscal second quarter after “extensive integration activities” and said that its “pipeline of activities continued to grow, including increased demand for visibility and 400G Ethernet test solutions.”
Keysight expects its revenues for next quarter to land in the range of $996 million to just over $1 billion.
In other test news:
-Keysight said this week that it is providing NTT DoCoMo with 5G emulation solutions (full story here).
-Industry interest in 5G, cloud computing and the industrial internet of things is spurring the market for gigabit Ethernet test solutions, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
“As telcos and enterprises reshape their network infrastructure, [test and measurement] vendors are creating solutions that will allow them to harness the demand for GbE testing from data centers and web-scale companies,” said Krati Bhargava, senior research analyst for measurement and instrumentation at Frost & Sullivan, in a statement. “Test offerings that are scalable and include aftermarket services will secure them greater market share.”
Frost said that among major markets, North America has an “established, consolidated GbE testing market.” However, the firm added, “market-savvy participants will be looking to widen their footprint in developing markets in Asia-Pacific due to the expanding application areas for GbE notably in industrial communications.”
–Toyota has invited its Ann Arbor, Michigan-area research and development team and their families — about 1,800 people — to have their vehicles outfitted with Dedicated Short Range Communications technology in a large-scale local pilot program for DSRC that also involves the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute for the testing of intelligent and autonomous vehicles.
According to UMTRI, its Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment is “the world’s largest connected vehicle test environment for the DSRC 5.9 GHz [vehicle-to-everything] technology and operates throughout the city of Ann Arbor.” The deployment was first implemented in 2012 as a $30 million model deployment project by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which has been considering a DSRC mandate in new vehicles for a number of years, and UMTRI. UMTRI and Toyota said that $50 million has been invested in connected vehicles and infrastructure in Ann Arbor, to date, and that ACCVTE funding partners include the University of Michigan, the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the City of Ann Arbor and other program partners and suppliers.
“We believe this represents a significant step forward in creating a safer and more efficient driving ecosystem while advancing connected and automated technology,” said Wayne Powell, VP of electronics systems at Toyota Motor North America.
“Ann Arbor is an international hub for connected vehicle technology and research and it has everything to do with the community,” said James Sayer, director of UMTRI. “This deployment allows us to gather data critical to advancing transportation safety. A fully operational deployment enables UMTRI to
conduct $3-5M in research a year, making it a significant living laboratory.”
Toyota announced in April that U.S. models of its Toyota-brand and Lexus vehicles will be equipped with DSRC beginning in the 2021 model year. It has already implemented the technology in Japan.
–AEM International said this week that its TestPro Multifunction Cable Tester received the highest Extract-Transform-Load accuracy certifications for testing Category 8 cabling systems from Intertek. The tester supports a six-second CAT 6A certification test, according to AEM, and can qualify link speeds up to 10 gigabit Ethernet and verify loaded Power over Ethernet up to 90 watts. Having the three functions in one test solution enables faster and more efficient testing of power, cabling and connectivity — what AEM called the “essential core functions” for network infrastructure.
“Digital transformation is having a huge impact on today’s networks and the demand for more bandwidth is driving increased use of multi-gig Ethernet over copper cabling. In addition, sophisticated PoE devices like multi-sensor cameras, Wave 2 wireless [access points]s, building security systems and more are turning the network switch into a power distribution center,” said Harshang Pandya, GM of test and measurement at AEM International, in a statement. “With the TestPro, contractors and network owners can quickly and accurately certify the cable, qualify link speed and validate PoE++, which are all critical components to test in today’s digital infrastructure.”
