Look around you. There are signs of the relentless pace of technological change everywhere you look. Whether you or your friends are wearing smartwatches or you are reading about driverless cars hitting our roads – we’re living in a world where everything is smart and connected.
The pace of change driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), of which unprecedented volumes of data being produced at velocity is a bi-product, means networks are increasing in complexity; with wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, 5G and satellite networks layered on top of wired infrastructures.
While these “newer” wireless technologies attract the lion’s share of media attention – with wireless viewed as the foundation of the future – wired connections will not disappear in the foreseeable future. In fact, the role they will play in managing the next-generation Internet is indispensable.
Next-generation Internet
The Internet as we know it is changing and it is under greater pressure than ever. The early Internet was tasked mainly with moving packets of information from a well-defined selection of devices such as PCs, servers and routers. Emerging technologies are now making demands on the Internet that it was not originally designed to support. Gartner’s prediction that there will be 6.4 billion connected devices in 2016, a 30 per cent increase on 2015, is not simply a challenge in terms volume. The variety of devices and information that will be connected to the next-generation Internet goes beyond its original remit.
Simply put, having the capacity to cope with the explosion of data crossing the networks should be the least of our worries when it comes to the next-generation Internet. The more pertinent questions are: Is the Internet ready to have driverless cars connected to it? How does this complex ecosystem of technologies come together to deliver a seamless virtual reality (VR) experience?
The instinctive reaction is to say if we need the Internet to fulfil a new purpose, we need new technologies to support it – and those new technologies are wireless.
Yet, on the contrary, the demands of next-generation Internet increase the importance of wired fibre-optic networks rather than reduce it, and the entire network ecosystem must evolve to stay ahead.
Wired and wireless must work together
Wireless will play a key role in the future of connectivity given the ubiquity of smart and connected objects that make up the IoT. Technologies such as 5G can offer cost-effective alternatives for last mile connectivity and improve the quality of service for consumers when using mobile devices. With this said, wired connections and physical infrastructure won’t disappear for two reasons. The first is bandwidth: wired fibre optic networks will be capable of carrying superior workloads than wireless alternatives for the foreseeable future.
Using Tata Communications’ own subsea fibre network as an example, far greater capacity than we currently need exists in the form of dark fibre – fibre-optic cables that are currently unused but are waiting to be turned on when greater capacity is required. We are even seeing the likes of Facebook and Microsoft invest in wired infrastructure with the MAREA high-speed trans-Atlantic cable, because of the superior capacity capabilities and speed of fibre networks.
The second reason is security. It remains easier to control and monitor what traffic is going out or coming in to the network when using a physical wired connection. After all, wireless is a shared medium, so anyone who is in range of the signals can capture and potentially interfere with them; unlike a wired connection where somebody needs access to the physical cable to disrupt it.
Next-generation networks
Whether wired or wireless, technological progress offers opportunities as well as challenges.
Using security – one of the greatest concerns held by stakeholders regarding the IoT – as an example, the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in helping route network traffic to break up Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is particularly exciting. Furthermore, AI could help route, organise and prioritise data packets based on the level of protection and security they require, and their importance. For example, in the context of a smart city, should IoT data being used by emergency services to communicate receive priority over entertainment-based data, and could AI be used to categorise traffic in real-time?
It is up to network providers, enterprises and policy makers to ensure that the enabling technologies keep up with new emerging technologies. As the IoT gathers momentum, smart cities continue to become a reality and VR becomes a consumable entertainment medium, we need a next-generation network for the next-generation Internet. The network needs to be able to consistently deal with heavier workloads than before, and provide a level of security that is befitting for a world where everything is smart and connected – in other words – hackable.
To achieve this goal, the wired networks that still make up the core global infrastructure on which next-generation networks are based are fundamental. Next-generation Internet means next-generation workloads and it will be wired fibre that allows us to keep up. Therefore, while wireless will undoubtedly have a positive impact in the long-term, wired networks will not disappear.
