Introduction
The exponential growth of data volume and power consumption in global data centers is becoming a critical challenge. According to estimates, the data volume could grow 16 times, and power consumption could increase 13 times by 2030 compared to 2018 levels. This unsustainable trajectory necessitates a paradigm shift in information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.
NTT Corporation has proposed IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) as a next-generation sustainable ICT infrastructure to address this challenge. IOWN aims to leverage cutting-edge photonics technology to revolutionize optical networks and computing architectures, enabling high-capacity, low-latency, and energy-efficient data transmission and processing.
The Evolution to "Beyond Human"
Traditional digital systems are designed for human consumption, with information presented within human perception limits and response speeds aligned with human activities. However, future sensor and AI systems will process data beyond human recognition capabilities, enabling autonomous control at millisecond-order speeds. This "beyond human" level of cognitive capacity, communication speed, and responsiveness is crucial for advanced applications like autonomous driving, robotics, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR).
Why Optics?
The transition from electronics to photonics is driven by the inherent advantages of optical technologies. Optical wiring offers substantially lower power consumption compared to electrical wiring, especially at higher frequencies and longer transmission distances. NTT has pioneered various optical device innovations, including directly modulated lasers, photonics transistors, all-optical switches, optical logic gates, and nano-scale photodetectors and modulators.
IOWN Networking: All-Photonics Network (APN)
The IOWN networking roadmap consists of several generations, starting with IOWN1.0, which focuses on deploying an All-Photonics Network (APN) for long-distance and metro networks. The APN offers unprecedented low latency, up to 1/200th of existing services, with no delay jitters and visualized delay adjustments. This enables exciting use cases like remote entertainment experiences, telesurgery, and GPU as a Service over the APN.
The APN's impact extends to data centers, enabling their decentralization and interconnection via a mesh-like fiber network. This approach promotes renewable energy usage, smoothens power demand density, and facilitates hybrid sovereign cloud solutions.
IOWN Computing: Photonic Disaggregated Computing (PDC)
IOWN computing aims to address the inefficiencies of current CPU-centric computers by introducing Photonic Disaggregated Computing (PDC). PDC is a memory-centric architecture that connects various components (CPU, GPU, storage) through a photonic fabric, enabling only necessary components to operate and reducing power consumption.
The PDC roadmap involves several generations, starting with IOWN2.0, which focuses on board-level connections using ultrafast optical switches and SmartNICs. IOWN3.0 advances to chip-level connections, enabling memory-centric computing with Photonic Fabric-Attached Memory (PFAM). IOWN4.0 targets die-level connections within multi-chiplet computing architectures, aiming for significant power efficiency improvements.
IOWN Global Forum: Driving Collaborative Innovation
The development and deployment of IOWN technologies require global collaboration. In 2020, NTT, Intel, and Sony established the IOWN Global Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the next-generation communication and computing infrastructure. The forum brings together industry leaders, academic institutions, and research organizations to work on technical solutions, use cases, and applications across various domains.
As of February 2024, the IOWN Global Forum has made significant progress, including publishing white papers, interim reports, technology documents, and hosting member meetings and workshops. The forum's future plans include releasing additional reference documents, a Vision 2030 white paper, and on-site workshops.
Conclusion
IOWN represents a transformative vision for a sustainable, high-performance, and energy-efficient ICT infrastructure enabled by cutting-edge photonics technologies. Through global collaboration and innovation, IOWN has the potential to revolutionize optical networks, computing architectures, and enable a smarter, more sustainable world.
Reference
[1] Y. Aragane, Photonics Technology Enables Next Generation Sustainable ICT Infrastructure. NTT Corporation, 2024.
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