Future network fabric

We are advancing millimeter wave and distributed massive MIMO technologies, as well as targeting new spectrum bands in the terahertz frequencies. Our aim is to maximize spectral efficiency and boost wireless network capacities beyond 100 Gbps.

Future networks will be virtualized in the cloud. We are innovating open systems that will enable these highly distributed, ultra-flexible access network architectures to run on commercial off-the-shelf processors.

A paradigm shift toward rate-adaptive, passive optical networking will bring ever-greater gains in fiber-access performance at the lowest possible cost. We are developing innovations that will bring unprecedented deterministic low latency and revolutionize solutions for radio network fronthaul and enterprise services.

We are defining new AI and machine learning algorithms that will inject an unprecedented level of intelligence into the radio interface, giving it the ability to self-optimize and enhance its own performance.

The risks and consequences of cyberattacks are continuously increasing as threat vectors become more diverse, and the scale, sophistication and efficiency of these attacks grow. We are innovating end-to-end security solutions that will protect the entire span of communications, enterprise and industrial networks while predicting new kinds of security attacks and vulnerabilities before they occur.

We are creating orchestration platforms that will enable service providers and enterprises to manage the ever-increasing complexity of networks that connect countless numbers of machines and support myriad new services.

The cloud era has made computing highly distributed, but the next step in data center evolution will be toward extreme elasticity. We are creating solutions that will enable the data center to scale at a moment’s notice, expanding and contracting its processing capabilities based on real-time application needs, and work closely with neighboring data centers as new demands arise.

The demand for data is unrelenting, growing at a constant pace of 60 percent per year. We are constantly innovating to push optical transport systems to their performance and efficiency limits – regardless of whether they are used to link continents or servers in a data center.

The pace of innovation in processing, systems and networking is quickly surpassing that in interfaces, materials and packaging. But a 1 Gbps link is of little use to a laptop if it contains no port capable of receiving such a connection. We are creating materials, ASICs and interfaces that will volumetrically increase the information available for everyday use by a factor of 1,000.

Future industrial applications will need much more than best-effort connections. A one-second delay could mean the difference between life and death on a factory floor. We are redefining the performance parameters of networks to make them deterministic, dynamic and data driven. This will allow networks to regulate their levels of reliability, security, latency and capacity instantaneously, depending on the type of data being transmitted and the type of application being used.