Optical Fiber Communications Drive Emerging Distributed Cloud Computing Infrastructure

The ever-increasing demand for more communication bandwidth is driving the development of new network structures and creating new opportunities for deploying cloud computing resources. The emergence of distributed cloud computing resources, different from the traditional monolithic server farm implementations we are familiar with today, will create new opportunities for delivering local resources to connected users with dramatic efficiency improvements. Fiber-optic communications will provide the key connectivity required to create these new opportunities.

Fig. 1: Emerging heterogeneous wireless network architecture

The emerging heterogeneous network infrastructure

The emerging heterogeneous network architecture is a response to the need to push bandwidth, storage, and computing power closer to the connected consumer. Wireless networks in particular are undergoing a key evolution from large integrated implementations to much more distributed approaches (Fig. 1). Small-cell architectures, made up of macro, micro, pico, and femto cells, each with a different coverage area, will be deployed in a much more cost-efficient manner (since they can just be located on rooftops, or inside a building) instead of in costly large-cell tower deployments. The traditional cell tower, with its integrated hardware approach, is also evolving to separate the front-end wireless radio processing, located in a remote radio head, from the digital baseband processing. Front-end processing data can be transmitted over an optical “front haul” connection, perhaps over multiple kilometers using a standard communications protocol (CPRI, for example), to a centralized server installation where the baseband processing is performed. Baseband processing can be done on standard server hardware, which cuts the development and deployment costs of the baseband functions. Standard server hardware also makes it easier to deploy software updates and to more easily scale capacity. The use of standard servers makes it possible for carriers to move some cloud-computing-related processing and storage functions, to “follow” the consumer, providing new features and, of course, new revenue sources. 

The centralized servers will need to connect to a fiber-optic backbone to satisfy the communications requirements from multiple coverage areas and to connect to other server clusters. High-speed communications between clusters will help to balance processing and storage requirements, depending on the number of users in each area. Server-to-server connections will allow load balancing so that deployed computing and storage resources, the more costly elements of the system, are used efficiently. The resulting overall network thus begins to look more like a mesh, with a large number of smaller servers at the connection points to provide the baseband processing, data storage, cloud computing, and communications functions.

In this new system, resources will naturally follow the user throughout the network to optimize their bandwidth, storage, power, cost, and convenience, probably depending on what level of service plan the user has. Additionally, the communications grid becomes much like the smart power grid with “peak times,” “off-times,” and “deals of the day” when resources can be had “on a budget.” The result will be more resources for more users with improved efficiency that dramatically changes the connected user’s experience for the better.