Hard to Separate Edge Computing, 5G, Optical Networking, AI and VR

In terms of evaluating potential impact, it is becoming very difficult to separate 5G and optical networking from edge computing from applied artificial intelligence as platforms to create new use cases and applications driving value for end users and enterprises as well as revenue opportunities for computing and communications providers. 

Consider the new industry forum, the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum, founded by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Intel Corporation and Sony Corporation.

The global forum’s objective is to accelerate the adoption of a new communication infrastructure that will bring together an all photonics network infrastructure including silicon photonics, edge computing and connected computing.

That includes artificial intelligence, dynamic and distributed computing, as well as digital twin computing (a computing paradigm that enables humans and things in the real world to be re-created and interact without restrictions in cyberspace).

For a few decades now, digital simulations and environments  have been touted as new ways to use “virtual worlds” to support real world commerce. Some might recall SimCity, a 1989 videogame. So virtual reality is not essentially new. Digital twinning arguably is new. 

The concept of creating virtual representations of real worlds now is referred to by some as digital twin computing, and applies mostly in industrial settings. A digital twin is a dynamic, virtual representation of a physical asset, product, process, or system, human or non-living entity.

Such digital representations model the properties, condition, and attributes of the real-world counterpart, and originally were useful for simulating the capabilities of machine tools in a safe and cost-effective way, as well as identifying the root causes of problems occurring in physical tools or infrastructure. 

If a physical machine tool breaks down or malfunctions, engineers can evaluate the digital traces of the digital twins’ virtual machines for diagnosis and prognosis.

Some believe the use of digital twinning, creating virtual replicas of physical objects and devices, eventually including humans, will be an important outcome of network and computing advances. 

Twinning, AI in general and virtual reality, in turn, will often going to be related to edge computing. “Forty-three percent of AI tasks will be handled by edge computing in 2023,” said Kwon Myung-sook, CEO of Intel Korea, during a forum in Seoul. “AI devices empowered with edge function will jump 15-fold.”

Azure now allows users to invoke supercomputer instances from their desktops. Nvidia markets an edge computing platform incorporating AI, for example.