There is no denying that connectivity has become an essential part of our daily lives - at home, at work and everywhere in between. And as we continue to immerse ourselves in the internet, the lines between the physical and virtual worlds are ever more blurry. Welcome to the metaverse... But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Hyper-reliable highway
The road to Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the road to the metaverse won’t be either. In order to ensure the high performance required for quality connectivity experiences in the future, we need to build a more robust foundation today. As a result, the network infrastructure on which the 21st century is built demands an unprecedented level of reliability.
Previously, the industry used metrics like mean time between failure (MTBF) and bit error rate (BER) to determine whether or not networks were reliable and capable enough. But today we’re thinking about reliability on an entirely new level, which encompasses extreme performance, sustainable technology, automation and a secure, global supply chain that communications service providers (CSPs) and cloud infrastructure providers (CIPs) can trust. At Fujitsu, we call this hyper-reliability, and it’s driving the next revolution in networking.
As gigabit network demands continually grow with downward pressure on cost, network managers are increasingly challenged. To address this issue, we are ushering in an evolution to Terabit networking that offers higher speeds, greater capacity and extended reach, while dramatically simplifying deployment, integration and operations. With Terabit networking, network managers will be able to do more with less, lowering the risk of scaling. The result will be hyper-reliable optical networking that delivers extreme performance and scale at a lower cost per bit per kilometer.
Moreover, growing pressure to make more sustainable choices is impacting network managers in every aspect of their business. It’s not just enabling extreme performance and scale that improves overall reliability, but also doing it in a sustainable way. Borrowing a page from the supercomputer playbook, we foresee network operators using advanced liquid-cooled thermal management to reduce power consumption, putting less strain on network equipment over time. This approach reduces reliance on fans for thermal management, improving reliability, reducing maintenance, shrinking the platform footprint and lowering the audible noise level. Plus, this hyper-reliable and sustainable solution enables reduced OpEx and smaller space requirements to house network equipment.
Evolved architecture
Traditionally, packet and optical networks have co-existed, with each serving a critical role in the network — service aggregation and delivery on the packet network, and fiber capacity and price per bit improvement on the optical network. With the recent development of pluggable ZR and ZR+ optics, more optical functionality can be absorbed into the packet network.
In fact, we expect the advent of ZR optics to lead to changes in network architecture, but this will be highly dependent on the use case. New innovations to support multiple networks like AI-enabled design tools, multi-vendor optical control and orchestration, and solution integration and maintenance practices are helping to address some of the challenges. But this is likely to remain a network-by-network choice, and not necessarily a holistic network architecture change.
For example, metro data center interconnect (DCI) is a key network use case where ZR optics make sense and are already being deployed. These networks have short overall distances and, more critically, are point-to-point with no ROADM pass-throughs. This optical architecture is relatively simple to plan and to stock spares, and streamlined operations teams can benefit from the consolidated architecture. Beyond the metro DCI market, more complex architectures, higher performance requirements and corporate culture will limit the practical extent of ZR optics.
Equal opportunity enabler
To fully realize tomorrow’s digital universe, equal access to connectivity for everyone will be essential. In other words, high-speed network infrastructure will be the critical on-ramp for the metaverse. Yet the global broadband gap is still very real. That’s why many governments are making significant investments in shovel-ready broadband deployment projects to rebuild and revitalize underserved communities.
In the U.S., for example, government initiatives such as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) and Tribal Broadband Connectivity programs, the U.S. Treasury American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and the USDA ReConnect project are slowly beginning to expand broadband connectivity access, particular in rural, tribal and other underserved areas. Likewise, many Canadian provinces and European governments also are investing in equal access programs, including a recent European Union deal to develop its own satellite internet system.
As these large public programs continue to roll out, this spending will drive an increase in targeted network build-outs in 2023, with ripple effects on infrastructure investments worldwide. Of course, that’s assuming that recent global supply chain disruptions can be minimized; an effort that will continue to remain top of mind with vendors such as Fujitsu that design, engineer and manufacture products in-house.
21st century revolution
Considering how indispensable network connectivity has become to our daily lives, CSPs and CIPs cannot take chances on unforeseen events, such as the recent pandemic-related global supply shortages. The network infrastructure that will power the metaverse requires an unprecedented level of reliability.
This means we have to think about reliability in a new, more holistic way. In 2023 and beyond, the networks of tomorrow will evolve to deliver a completely new level of hyper-reliability that exceeds MTBF metrics to include extreme performance, sustainability, automation and a robust global supply chain. This will be the next revolution in networking and it starts now.
