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2016 Trends: Preparing the Network for Web-Scale Demands

  • 2016 Trends: Preparing the Network for Web-Scale Demands-

    Submarine Networks

    Service providers will begin planning for a submarine capacity shortfall.

    Submarine networks that transmit 99 percent of the world's global Internet traffic are currently operating at 20 percent capacity, yet in just four years, with the volume of data traversing the networks growing at 40 percent year-over-year, this critical Internet infrastructure will be at maximum capacity. To support this growth rate, service providers will need to make significant investments in the development of not only new cables, but in the specialty ships and specialist crew to lay the fiber. There will be much talk about who will fund this, and how. Due to the long lead-time required to build a submarine cable (about two years), the conversations about how these new cables will become a reality will need to start soon.

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2016 Trends: Preparing the Network for Web-Scale Demands

  • 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
  • 2016 Trends: Preparing the Network for Web-Scale Demands-7

    Submarine Networks

    Service providers will begin planning for a submarine capacity shortfall.

    Submarine networks that transmit 99 percent of the world's global Internet traffic are currently operating at 20 percent capacity, yet in just four years, with the volume of data traversing the networks growing at 40 percent year-over-year, this critical Internet infrastructure will be at maximum capacity. To support this growth rate, service providers will need to make significant investments in the development of not only new cables, but in the specialty ships and specialist crew to lay the fiber. There will be much talk about who will fund this, and how. Due to the long lead-time required to build a submarine cable (about two years), the conversations about how these new cables will become a reality will need to start soon.

Loudon Blair, senior technology director, Network Architecture, Office of the CTO, Ciena, believes that in 2016, we will continue to see fundamental changes to the way networks are designed, architected and provisioned in order to meet the growing bandwidth requirements of today's web-scale world. The web-scale dynamics currently impacting the network include the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and virtualization, HD video and mobility. As organizations get more comfortable with these changes, we'll see them make adjustments based on lessons learned.

In this slideshow, Blair outlines networking trends that we can expect to start seeing in 2016.