Japanese telecom company NTT and electronics firm Toshiba are working on new solutions to increase the amount of data that can be transmitted. For instance, as recently as last July they showcased high-speed factory production. This amazing achievement was enabled by an optical and wireless network, completely remotely operated from a data center that is 300 kilometers away. This industry-first event is a watershed moment in the development of collaborative communication technologies.
NTT and Toshiba have partnered to make a transformational breakthrough in data transmission. They’ll apply the potential of photonics, transmitting information with light to vastly improve efficiency. NTT has chosen photonics to be the most important component in creating the next-generation information and communications infrastructure. This innovation will help address the escalating pressures for improved speed, efficiency, and workload data management.
Demonstration of High-Speed Production
In the recent demonstration, NTT and Toshiba captured the attention by controlling a factory production line over an optical network. This remarkable achievement opened everyone’s eyes to the incredible potential of their technology. The data centre, meanwhile, is 300 kilometers away in Quebec City. This remarkable distance is an exciting testament to the optical network’s capabilities, showcasing its capacity to power real-time, latency-sensitive processes across great spans.
NTT called this accomplishment a first of its kind in the industry, highlighting its dedication to leading the way in developing data transmission. Leveraging optical and wireless networks in these applications can reduce even the worst case response times by an order of magnitude. This enhancement shortens latencies in commodity global supply chains. As industries from agriculture to logistics come to depend on lightning-fast data for all their decisions, such innovations are about to become essential.
The advanced technology shown is only a slice of NTT’s bigger vision as laid out in the company’s Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative. By advancing these innovations, NTT hopes to change the way industries use data and make their operations a lot more efficient.
Collaborations and Future Roadmap
NTT has also joined hands with other global leaders, including U.S. chipmaker Broadcom. Collectively, they’re on track to deploy the second-generation Photonic Electric Converter (PEC) by 2026. The PEC promises to enable advanced optical communications, creating a foundational element of IOWN’s vision.
The IOWN roadmap contains multiple phases, with the second phase dedicated to creating optical, or light-based, communication between circuit boards. This pause will allow for continued progress to come. Broadly speaking, we could see inter-chip photonics links by 2028 and intra-chip connections come online by 2032. Taken together, these developments represent a smart effort to build a robust infrastructure that uses high-speed processing and transmission of data.
NTT’s IOWN initiative has garnered significant support, boasting over 160 members from various sectors, including chip manufacturers, server makers, and major internet companies like Google and Microsoft. This diverse coalition serves as a reminder that working together across sectors is key to fostering innovation across next-generation communications technologies.
Addressing Current Limitations
Even with great leaps forward in fiber optic technology, significant hurdles still exist in the race for data domination. Currently, though fiber optic cables provide very high-quality connectivity, the process of converting photons into electric signals at internet exchange points requires a lot of electricity. This conversion process is known to create energy inefficiencies that many organizations – like yours – are striving to avoid.
At this moment, the time lag for data exchange is just 17 milliseconds. Through these initiatives, NTT expects to reduce this latency substantially to improve performance overall in these data-driven applications. Reducing latency in data transmission is critical for industries that rely on instant analytics. This is doubly true in fields such as finance, healthcare, and artificial intelligence (AI).
IOWN will be a singularly important factor in the future of AI technologies. AI is moving fast, and this trend will be even more pronounced over the next five years. In turn, the need for fast and reliable data delivery will increase tremendously. The foundation that NTT and Toshiba are laying today will most likely set the course for how AI gets adopted across many different industries.