period Upgrade 2024, NTT Corporation (NTT) and NTT Data Corporation demonstrated successful demonstrations All Photonic Network (APN)-Drives ultra-low latency connections between data centers located in the US and UK. In the UK, NTT interconnects data centers located in North and East London via: NTTinnovation Optical Optical Wireless Network (IOWN) APN, achieving communication with a round-trip delay of less than 1 millisecond. Likewise, in the United States, a data center in Northern Virginia achieved similar results. The main goal of NTT APN deployment is to have geographically dispersed IT infrastructure act as a single data center.
Dr. Yosuke Aragane, Vice President, IOWN Development Office, NTT Corporation, introduces new APN configurations for the UK and US at Upgrade 2024 on April 10, 2024
The data center market faces significant local challenges. Restrictions on CO2 emissions and scarcity of land make it difficult to build data centers in urban areas, leading operators to turn to suburban areas. However, as data centers are further apart, communication delays and high latency can become significant, becoming a major obstacle to meeting customers’ low-latency needs.
During the proof-of-concept experiment, NTT and NTT DATA interconnected the UK (HH2 at Hemel Hempstead and LON1 at Dagenham) and the US (VA1 and VA3 at Ashbourne) using NEC’s APN equipment. data center. Data centers in the UK and US are 89km and 4km apart respectively. Measurements on 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps links show that two APN-connected data centers in the UK operate with less than 1 millisecond (approximately 0.9 milliseconds) latency and a latency variation of less than 0.1 microseconds. By comparison, cloud connectivity provider Megaport says typical latency between data centers at similar distances is more than 2,000 microseconds (2 milliseconds).
In the US scenario, the latency over a shorter span is about 0.06 milliseconds, with latency variation of less than 0.05 microseconds. In comparison, traditional networks using general-purpose Layer 2 switches experience delays ranging from a few microseconds to tens of microseconds. Essentially, APN cuts latency in half and reduces jitter by orders of magnitude.
APN is not only a technological advancement, but also a solution that meets the needs of various industries. It delivers the extremely low latency required for current and emerging use cases, including distributed real-time AI analytics (such as industrial IoT and predictive maintenance), smart monitoring systems, smart grid and energy management, and natural disaster detection and response, among others. NTT DATA is also conducting demonstrations in the financial sector, where low latency is critical for remittances, settlements and transactions. Another advantage of IOWN APN is its ability to activate lines by simply adding wavelengths, eliminating the need to install new dark fiber. It enables data center operators to respond to customer demand at the speed of light.
Dr. Yosuke Aragane, Vice President of NTT Corporation’s IOWN Development Office, explains new all-photonic network (APN) technology
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