It's now 15-years since Negroponte wrote "being digital" and despite its concise 247 pages my copy is still sitting unread on the shelf above my desk next to a couple of books of the same vintage on ATM and SDH. I can feel pretty smug about not paying too much attention to the technical books - we are now well and truly in the age of Ethernet - but "being digital" set out how technology was going to change our lives as we ended the century and I'm looking forward for a chance to read it to find out how the 1995 view of the future looks now.
Why? Because I did find time over the holidays to thumb through a couple of recent books recommended by Bart Oskam, CEO of Eurofibre in his presentation at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress in Berlin last autumn. Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" and Nicholas Carr's "The Big Switch" set out how the world is changing as a result of the technological revolution which we are all enabling through our work in high speed optical networking and cloud computing.
We sometimes forget when we are looking at wavelengths, amplifiers, UNIs, traffic management, encapsulation schemes, SOAM and all the other technical building blocks which go together to build a modern carrier network just how this all relates to the application layers and then abstracting this to people's daily working and domestic lives. One thing is for sure, despite the ups and down of the industry the technology developments have moved on relentlessly. The world has changed a lot in 15-years and there's a lot more to come.
Friedman and Carr spell out the most amazing changes to the way businesses run which have already happened as a result of our always-on limitless global bandwidth, vast educated workforces in far away countries and our huge but strangely discreet data centres - buried away in faceless industrial buildings. Though hidden from view, these elements have lead to the opening up of the world market for almost anything to anyone anywhere - driving down costs, pushing up GDP, opening opportunities. Friedman in particular poses some thought provoking predictions on what that will mean for governments, companies and employees and the different skills we will all need in this new age.
Ethernet has a role in removing barriers to competition in the Access
So how does this relate to Ethernet Access? Well I've been very lucky to have spent a lot of time over the last 18-months taking part in consultations and now the standardization process for a "Next-Generation" broadband utility access network for the UK - and it's 100% Ethernet. The UK regulator (OFCOM) has asked industry (through NICC) to define the framework for a very high speed bitstream utility access network built on Ethernet. It will encourage competition by allowing consumers to access a wide range of service providers over a shared utility network.
In this model, Ethernet will be used as a unifying layer to virtualize the access. Consumers will be able to choose services from multiple different providers simultaneously and independently. The excellent transparency offered by Ethernet and its low position in the communications stack means Service Providers really will have a clean canvas to invent new offers and business models.
There is an eerie similarity here with the utility approach taken to distribute energy in competitive markets where consumers are able to choose electricity or gas from a wide range of providers who then lease capacity on the National Grid to deliver it into the consumer's premises - with the local operating company offering service to the provider such as maintenance and metering activities. It is fitting that Carr sees the Cloud Computing of the early 21st Century following a similar pattern to the roll out of utility electricity services in the early 20th Century - with data centres mirroring the power generation plants and fibre optics mirroring the high voltage transmission cables. Perhaps OFCOM is adding the final step of the late 20th century competitive market model.
Combining the power of Cloud Computing and Ethernet Access
When this resilient, centralized but distributed utility computing and storage capability is connected by low latency ubiquitous fibre optic transmission and delivered through high bandwidth open and un-encumbered Ethernet access to businesses, employees and consumers wherever they are; new business, communication and entertainment models can be launched extremely easily and if successful they can be ramped up to global scale as quickly as customers come onboard (YouTube etc.). Of course it can also be torn down again just as easily if the business flops. All this can be done using carrier services provided to the business operator. Business operators are able to focus their energy and innovation on their unique differentiators with minimal risk and expenses while the carriers are able to do what they do best - build large scale efficient and flexible facilities and lease out capacity.
Once the access network becomes virtualized and intelligent with all the attributes of Carrier Ethernet, providers can offer any service to any customer with service independence and performance guarantees.