The rapid adoption of e-commerce, online streaming, and workplace productivity tools, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, has put tremendous pressure on today’s telecommunications networks.
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Some of the world’s largest technology companies are backing a new telecommunications network they say will help reduce the overall power consumption of data-intensive artificial intelligence applications and accelerate the transition to the next generation of 6G mobile internet.
like Microsoft, Google, Inteland sony is backing a little-known initiative, the IOWN Global Forum, a global group of cloud hyperscalers, telecom groups and chip manufacturers.
These companies aim to fully deploy “all-photonic” networks (APN) by 2030.
What is a photonic network?
The IOWN Global Forum is a global organization that develops technical standards for all-photonic networks.
Dozens of major tech companies have signed on as supporters. These include companies like Microsoft and Google, which are behind two of the largest public cloud platforms.
Telecommunications companies, e.g. NTT, Ericsson and Nokia He is also a core member of the group. Chipmakers also play a key role, including Intel and SK Hynix.
Simply put, photonic networks are networks that use light rather than electrical pulses to transmit data. This approach is expected to significantly reduce the energy consumption of global data transmission.
Electricity usage is a big issue in the tech industry right now. The rapid adoption of e-commerce, online streaming and workplace productivity tools, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, has forced companies to re-evaluate their network infrastructure and explore new ways of transferring data.
What is the goal?
The goal is to relieve the current pressure on telecommunications networks, which is expected to worsen in the coming years as demand for digital adoption and artificial intelligence (especially generative artificial intelligence) continues to grow.
“Mobile traffic is growing every day,” Katsuhiko Kawazoe, president of the IOWN Global Forum, told CNBC via email. “Efficient use of radio spectrum and power is required.”
Kawazoe added that IOWN technology allows operators to instantly optimize the use of spectrum and power in mobile networks based on specific conditions.
For example, a large city may require more radio installations during office hours than at night. However, residential areas will require more units to serve workers at night when they go home.
IOWN technology will “allow us to black out certain situations in the network,” explains Gonzalo Camarillo, head of implementation components at Ericsson and chairman of the IOWN Global Forum Marketing Steering Committee.
Reducing the climate impact of artificial intelligence
Large language models, such as the one behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, require large amounts of training data and powerful graphics chips called GPUs. But this comes at a huge cost to the climate.
Masahisa Kawashima, IOWN technical director of NTT Corporation and chairman of the IOWN Global Forum Technical Working Group, said that photonic networks can make smaller data centers more powerful.
“Data centers are getting bigger and bigger, and hyperscale data centers are part of society’s fight to reduce carbon emissions,” Kawashima said.
“Many data centers are too concentrated in a small area, which results in a large energy demand in that area. But if we use IOWN APN, we can allow users to deploy data centers over a wide area,”
Kawashima said each data center on the network is similar to a “hyperscale” data center, even if it is mid-sized. Developers of AI models can use shared GPU infrastructure in smaller areas to develop their AI models.
“Artificial intelligence has become the center of competition in many industries, including automotive and pharmaceuticals. Many companies are interested in operating their own GPU infrastructure,” Kawashima said.
What will IOWN’s technology be used for?
The IOWN Global Forum is exploring multiple use cases for photonic networks with its partners. One is that banks use IOWN technology in their back-end infrastructure.
Kawashima said banks could operate two independent data centers at different sites and then replicate data between the two sites. This will help them “achieve resilience” in their infrastructure, he added.
Banks and other financial services companies need to send data back and forth quickly to ensure consistency in their services and to ensure transactions are processed smoothly – whether they are deposits, withdrawals or wire transfers.
Mitsubishi UFJThe Bank of Japan is one of the major institutions 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 large amounts of data to facilitate the delivery of movies and TV shows to the cloud.
The goal of IOWN is to reduce energy consumption while increasing the data capacity that can be sent over the network and reducing latency.
Sony is working with NTT to develop a wide-area remote production platform for broadcast stations, newsrooms and event halls.
Katsutoshi Itoh, director of connectivity technology at Sony’s R&D center, told CNBC: “Distributed computing is indeed possible, and it will soon become more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient.”
It could also help with the 6G transition
IOWN technology is expected to promote the transition to 6G The next generation of mobile networks beyond 5G.
Kawashima of NTT said that optical network technology can reduce the cost of deploying 6G antennas for telecom operators. It also allows them to share radio towers for more efficient network optimization.
“In order to deploy the antenna, we need optical fiber to connect the antenna to the radio data center,” Kawashima explained. “So if we use IOWN APN to connect the antenna to the base station, then we can potentially reduce the cost of antenna deployment.”
“APN will allow mobile network operators to share radio towers,” Kawashima added. This is because, for 5G and 6G, “many operators are worried about the huge investment in antenna deployment.”
IOWN technology is still in the early stages of development. It will take several years for photonic networks to truly have an impact on the industry.
Currently, the IOWN Global Forum is working towards achieving its main goals by 2030.
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