Rapidly aging internet infrastructure is becoming a real problem
Picture a city where everyone uses bicycles to get around. Now imagine what would happen if from one day to the next, people suddenly decided to switch to SUVs. Chaos, right?
That’s pretty much what’s happening nowadays with the Internet.
Technologically speaking, we’ve come a long way in just a couple of decades and while individuals’ Internet usage is increasing, so is the sheer number of users. Online platforms are transmitting previously unforeseen quantities of data in the form of video, audio, images, gaming and interactive content, placing a huge strain on the existing internet infrastructure. Now more than ever, companies need to respond with innovative and effective solutions.
The need for appropriate data analytics and AI
The process of revamping physical infrastructure is no longer cost-effective or sustainable, as proven by the efforts of Internet service providers who seek to temporarily resolve the problem by simply adding more hardware. Demand nonetheless continues to outstrip supply in what closely resembles a game of cat-and-mouse between infrastructure capacity and user demands.
Cast your mind back a few years and remember what happened with the then revolutionary 3G and ADSL networks, and how quickly they were surpassed by demand. Without intelligent thinking, the same thing is set to happen all over again with 5G.
A widespread network congestion issue is already starting to rear its head. With video streaming accounting for over half of the volume of downstream internet traffic, latency is becoming a serious problem for content providers. As data-hungry and extremely lucrative formats such as eSports continue to gain popularity, the problem is likely to be compounded in the near future.
So, what’s the best way to account for exponential internet growth and create networks that are able to scale on demand, thus delivering the kind of performance expected in this day and age? By deploying data analytics and AI to manage network resources. Instead of sticking a band-aid on the problem by continuing to add hardware, companies need to investigate the possibilities of superposing intelligent and dynamic systems on top of existing technology. By doing so, they will be able to scale the Internet to meet the demand at an affordable infrastructure cost.
More and more users are coming online
The need for sustainable solutions is becoming all the more crucial at a time when the developing world is starting to come online.
It’s worth remembering that just over a decade ago, only one in five Southeast Asians had access to the Internet. Nowadays, the region is home to the largest group of mobile internet users on the planet. As more Southeast Asians head toward cities such as Jakarta, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh and Penang, rapidly aging internet infrastructure is becoming a real problem.
An issue that is not limited to Southeast Asia: internet usage has reached previously unseen levels in India over the past few years, mainly due to increasing availability of cheap data and mobile devices alongside rising average user data consumption. However, mobile download speeds tend to vary considerably from region to region and at different times of day - a crucial issue in a country that is not only a leading outsourcing destination, but also boasts its own growing start-up and innovation ecosystem.
Developing nations are particularly vulnerable to Internet congestion issues, as infrastructure replacement times interrupt the fluidity of digital economies. In these regions, congestion is becoming a true time bomb and one that risks seriously hindering economic growth in the long term. Compounded user growth is the shift towards high-bandwidth services such as VOIP, HD games and interactive education.
The companies making waves in AI and analytics
Artificial intelligence and analytics companies with their finger on the pulse are beginning to wake up to opportunities provided by a need to find a solution to Internet congestion. After all, AI is already helping us solve real-life traffic congestion issues, so why couldn’t it do the same for the internet?
With their Adaptive Network initiative, the US-based Ciena is using analytics and intelligence to expand on autonomous networking concepts and transform static networks into dynamic, programmable environments ready-made for gaming. Similar to Myelin Foundry, based in India, which is seeking to develop innovative AI-based solutions for low latency and efficient bandwidth usage. At the same time, System 73’s Kuno Stream, described as a “complete end-to-end content delivery solution” is seeing huge demand across Asia and Latin America, regions plagued by some of the slowest Internet connections in the world. PolyNet, its flagship product, is an augmented Multi-CDN which employs an optimized overlay topology to the Internet enhancing resolution and virtually eliminating congestion. Lead investor behind System 73, William Erbey, a statistician and finance professional, is a strong believer in data analytics and AI to better serve the modern economy.
As both the Internet and its users grow evermore data-hungry, the need for durable, scalable solutions is only set to increase over the years to come. Intelligent thinking is ultimately the way to bring about the development of intelligent systems.
No Deccan Chronicle journalist was involved in creating this content. The group also takes no responsibility for this content.
