Demand for bandwidth continues to surge with increasing use of AI, high-definition video streaming, cloud and 5G mobile applications. In response, optical services need to become more dynamic and meet stricter service-level requirements. Consequently, metro-based networks owned by communications service providers (CSPs) and used for mobile transport, enterprise services or broadband access services face new demands relating to power, multiservice aggregation, security, AI integration and network slicing. Figure 1 shows a rich set of applications in a typical metro network.
Figure 1 — A typical metro network supports a rich set of applications.
As AI use grows, it will create a force multiplier that will drive significant traffic to transport networks. But the challenging throughput, latency and reliability requirements of AI workloads are already taking network scale and complexity to another level. CSPs are facing unprecedented pressure to deliver more, faster and better.
Figure 2 shows the impact of AI traffic growth based on a recent Nokia Bell Labs study. This growth can range from 14% to 31%.
Figure 2 — Traffic growth effects on CSP networks. CSPs’ access and aggregation network (orange) will bear the heaviest load, roughly 31% of the total AI traffic. CSPs’ metro network (pink) is Continue reading
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