Should be as wary of photonics promises as we are of 6G?

We balanced that with a field report from a key 6G conference that suggested that not all stakeholders were convinced by all that was being promised for the next major milestone in telecommunications. But it turns out telco is maybe not the only part of the digital sector that can, if left to its own devices, become so idealistic that there’s a serious risk of backlash. In this case, we refer to what NTT has decided to let get started in the debate about its call to ‘replace the electron with the photon’, and which it’s let be advertised with messaging that literally says it’s going to turn Science Fiction Into Science Fact.

Which is a promise that always gives one pause for thought. However, given our sector is no stranger to the power of light to speed up message transmission, we should all be perfectly comfortable with claims of how speed-of-light technologies will improve daily life and work. Where we think a little scepticism is, arguably, warranted is when this same technology, like 6G, is then positioned as somehow automatically benefiting not just ‘society at large’, but Mother Earth too. 

Specifically, we’re talking about what the Japanese datacentre giant is trying to do with not merely a new communications infrastructure, but a new kind of technology that can better support both people and the environment, which among other things will give us a ‘Greener, Faster, More Powerful Internet’ along the way.

In other words: IOWN, the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network, a concept first proposed in May 2019. Not to be outdone by 6G’s aims of ultra-high data rates of 100Gbps and latency of less than a millisecond, IOWN is aiming for an Internet 100 times more power-efficient than today with 125 times its current transmission capacity, and latency down by a factor of 200.

What if there is a basis to at least some of the photonics promises, though?

Before you figuratively turn the blog page with what the Netflix subtitles call a ‘scoff’ sound, since 2023, a foundational component of IOWN has been commercially available in Japan and some very interesting demos have been run. The idea is that by moving from electronic to photonics-based systems we would have dramatically more power efficient datacentres, the basis for the kind of ultra-high-speed data transfer, crucial for AI workloads, cloud computing, and, yes, 6G networks, and so a range of use cases that could make jitter free telemedicine over vast distances and other use cases likes remote but high precision applications that much more feasible.

IOWN’s proponents say we must be ready to make such bold moves, as data infrastructure, thanks to things like AI training, real-time analytics, and edge computing, is reaching its limits and require speeds and efficiencies that electronic-based systems struggle to deliver.

IOWN, even though it’s only 1.0 status, has already demoed 800Gb/s transmission over the 3000km (1864 miles) between Japan and Taiwan, while in 2023 demo, doctors conducted a real-time remote medical procedure over a 150km (93-mile) photonic network with no perceptible lag or jitter. The first real ‘product’ out of all this, the APN, the All Photonics Network (APN) is being trialled for AI workloads, with demand from AI developers who anticipate needing 400Gb/s networks soon.

If all this seems some way off, there could be some big implications for things like datacentres, which of course is a rather relevant problem for telco cloud builders. If we could start worrying less about cramming all this stuff into already very congested brownfield city centre sites, rather than clustering in urban hubs like Tokyo or London photonic-based data centres could be placed where renewable energy is more easily available, allowing for a distributed, energy-efficient data infrastructure with far less environmental impact. It would also mean all of us, in both the enterprise and telco, to start to perhaps radically rethink our infrastructure investments and long-term strategies.

Which is why, even if IOWN started off as NTT’s baby, firms like Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, and Microsoft have since joined the industry group that’s trying to push all this forward. This, the IOWN Forum, dedicated to envisions a future chock-full of great things including:

‘Completely immersive digital worlds, also known as “metaverses,” where we can work, shop, play, and interact in virtual environments. AI (artificial intelligence) that learns and evolves like the human brain to solve big problems and deliver on new opportunities. Quantum computing and security as a new way of computing (already in development) that uses photonics-based technologies to instantly process massive amounts of data with greater security than we have today. Medical technologies to help us live healthier, longer, and more fulfilling lives.’

Great: we’d all like that. But, I hear you point out, full-scale adoption is still years away, right? Well, the roadmap is clear; NTT launched IOWN 1.0 in 2023, as stated, which claims to offer customers like big Japanese banks ultra-low latency network services—but sometime this year photonic logic board connections (IOWN 2.0) are expected, by 2028 chip-to-chip photonics (IOWN 3.0) will be introduced, and by 2032, intra-chip photonic computing (IOWN 4.0) should be a reality.

To which, we can only wish the IOWN people Godspeed; this sounds great. But then we also read things like this in the literature that makes us worry that no rose-tinted spectacles are being worn here:

‘By assigning wavelengths to each function on a single optical fibre, we can provide multiple functions that support our social infrastructure, including information and communication functions such as the Internet and sensing functions, without interfering with each other… The possibilities are immense if we move towards photons replacing electrons in our devices and across all our networks.’

But maybe we are being a bit harsh. In a world that seems to be turning darker, maybe there’s a place for something to inspire us. Whisper it: maybe there is a brighter future based on optics somewhere out there ahead that’s worth looking ahead to?