during Upgrade in 2024, NTT Co., Ltd. (NTT) and NTT data A successful demonstration was held. APN (All-Property Network)It is based on ultra-low latency connections between data centers located in the US and UK. In the UK, NTT interconnected data centers located north and east of London. NTTinnovatory Optical Wireless Network (IOWN) APN, achieving communication with a round-trip delay of less than 1 millisecond. Similarly, a data center in Northern Virginia, USA, achieved similar results. The main goal of deploying NTT APN is to have a geographically distributed IT infrastructure that acts as a single data center.
Dr. Yosuke Aragane, Vice President of NTT Corporation IOWN Development Office, introducing new APN configurations for the UK and US in Upgrade 2024, April 10, 2024
The data center market faces significant regional challenges. As carbon dioxide emissions limits and land shortages make it difficult to build data centers in urban areas, operators are turning to suburban areas. However, when data centers are distributed over long distances, communication delays and high latencies can become significant and become a major obstacle to meeting customer demands for low latency.
During a proof-of-concept experiment, NTT and NTT DATA used NEC’s APN equipment to interconnect data centers in the UK (HH2 in Hemel Hempstead and LON1 in Dagenham) and the US (VA1 and VA3 in Ashburn). Data centers in the UK and US are separated by a distance of 89km and 4km respectively. Measurements performed on 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps links show that two APN-connected data centers in the UK operate with a latency of less than 1 millisecond (approximately 0.9 milliseconds) and a delay variation of less than 0.1 microseconds. By comparison, cloud connectivity provider Megaport says typical delays between data centers at similar distances exceed 2,000 microseconds (2 milliseconds).
In the US scenario, the delay over much shorter ranges was about 0.06 milliseconds, with a delay change of less than 0.05 microseconds. In contrast, traditional networks using typical Layer 2 switches experience delay variations ranging from a few microseconds to tens of microseconds. Essentially, APNs halve latency and reduce jitter by orders of magnitude.
APN is not just a technological advancement, but a solution that meets the needs of a variety of industries. It delivers the ultra-low latency required for current and emerging use cases such as distributed real-time AI analytics (such as industrial IoT and predictive maintenance), smart surveillance systems, smart grid and energy management, and natural disaster detection and response. Others. NTT DATA is also conducting demonstrations in the financial sector, where low latency is critical for remittances, payments, and transactions. Another advantage of IOWN APN is that lines can be activated by simply adding wavelengths, eliminating the need to install new dark fiber. This allows data center operators to respond to customer demands at lightning speed.
Yosuke Aragane, Vice President of NTT Corporation IOWN Development Office, explains the new All-Photonics Network (APN) technology.
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