Technology companies bet that optical networks will promote AI and 6G transformation
The rapid adoption of e-commerce, online streaming media and workplace productivity tools – especially during the Covid pandemic – has put enormous pressure on existing telecommunications networks. now.
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Some of the world’s biggest technology companies are supporting a new type of telecommunications network that they say will help reduce the overall energy consumption of data-hungry artificial intelligence applications and speed up the transition Switch to next generation 6G mobile Internet.
Liked by Microsoft, Google, IntelAnd Sony is supporting a little-known initiative called the IOWN Global Forum, a global collective of cloud hyperscalers, telecommunications conglomerates and chipmakers.
These companies are aiming to fully deploy “all-photonic” networks, or APNs, by 2030.
What is a photonic network?
The IOWN Global Forum is a global group that develops technical standards for all-photonic networks.
Dozens of major tech companies have signed on as backers. These include names like Microsoft and Google, the companies behind two of the largest public cloud platforms.
Telecommunications companies such as NTT, Ericsson And Nokia is also a core member of the group. Chip manufacturers also play an important role with Intel and SK Hynix as a member.
In short, a photonic network is a network that uses light instead of electrical pulses to transmit data. This approach is expected to help reduce energy consumption for data transmission worldwide.
Currently, electricity usage is a big problem in the technology industry. The rapid adoption of e-commerce, online media and workplace productivity tools – especially during the Covid-19 pandemic – has forced companies to reassess their infrastructure. their network layer and explore new ways to deliver data.
What is the goal?
The goal is to ease the strain on today’s telecommunications networks, which are predicted to get worse in the coming years as digital adoption and demand for AI continue to grow – especially is creative AI.
“Mobile traffic is increasing every day,” Katsuhiko Kawazoe, president of the IOWN Global Forum, told CNBC via email. “There needs to be efficient use of radio spectrum and energy.”
Kawazoe added that IOWN technology allows operators to optimize spectrum and power usage in mobile networks in real time depending on the circumstances.
For example, a large city may require more radio equipment during business hours than at night. However, residential areas will need more units to serve them in the evening, when workers go home.
IOWN technology will “allow us to power down in certain situations in the network,” explains Gonzalo Camarillo, head of implementation at Ericsson and chair of the marketing steering committee at the IOWN Global Forum. ”.
Reducing the climate impact of AI
Large language models, like the one behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, require huge amounts of training data and powerful graphics chips called GPUs. But that comes at a high cost to the climate.
Masahisa Kawashima, IOWN chief technology officer at NTT Corporation and chair of the technology working group at the IOWN Global Forum, said photonic networks could make small data centers much more powerful.
“Data centers are getting bigger and bigger, and hyperscale data centers are fighting to reduce society’s carbon footprint,” Kawashima said.
“Many data centers are too concentrated in a small area, and that causes a large power demand for that area. But if we use IOWN APN, we can ask users to deploy data centers over a wide area,”
Each data center on this network will resemble a “hyperscale” data center, Kawashima said, even if it is medium-sized. AI model developers can use shared GPU infrastructure in smaller regions to develop their AI models.
“AI has become central to the competition of many industries, including automotive and pharmaceuticals,” Kawashima said. Many enterprises are interested in running their own GPU infrastructure.”
What will IOWN’s technology be used for?
The IOWN Global Forum is exploring a number of photonic network use cases with partners. One is for banks to use IOWN technology in their backend infrastructure.
Banks could operate two separate data centers located in different locations and then replicate their data across both locations, Kawashima said. This will help them “achieve resilience” in their infrastructure, he added.
Banks and other financial services companies need to send data back and forth at a fast pace to ensure service consistency and ensure transactions are processed smoothly — whether it’s sending money , withdraw money or bank transfer.
Mitsubishi UFJa Japanese bank, is one of the major organizations using IOWN technology for financial infrastructure.
Another use case is broadcasting and media streaming. Today’s modern streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, use huge amounts of data to facilitate the cloud-enabled distribution of movies and TV shows.
With IOWN, the aim is to make this process consume less energy, while increasing the amount of data that can be sent over the network and reducing latency.
Sony is working with NTT to develop a wide-ranging remote production platform for broadcast stations, newsrooms and event departments.
“Distributed computing is really possible and it will soon be greener and more energy efficient,” Katsutoshi Itoh, head of connectivity technology at Sony’s research and development center, told CNBC. .
It could also help with the 6G transition
IOWN technology is expected to accelerate the transition to 6G, the next generation of mobile networks beyond 5G.
NTT’s Kawashima said optical networking technology could help telecom carriers deploy 6G antennas less expensively. It could also allow them to share their radio towers to optimize the network more effectively.
“To deploy the antenna, we need fiber optic cables to connect the antenna to the radio data centers,” Kawashima explains. “So if we use IOWN APN to connect the antenna to the base stations then perhaps we can reduce the cost of antenna deployment.”
“APN will allow mobile network operators to share radio towers,” Kawashima added. That’s because, with 5G and 6G, “many carriers are concerned about investing too much in antenna deployment.”
IOWN technology is still in the early stages of development. It will be several years before photonic networks really have an impact on industries.
Currently, the IOWN Global Forum is working to achieve its key goals by 2030. The Forum is aiming for real-world commercial applications of the technology this year.
