ABSTRACT

The essential vision We are entering a new technological era with unprecedented demand to

digitize everything, and with new value created from the automation of

lives and systems. The network will be required to deliver information and

entertainment content on a massive scale but with an economic outlay that

is not vastly different than what we expend today. This requirement comes

at a time when we have reached the physical limits of today’s network

performance; so a top-to-bottom restructuring of networks is required,

with a wholesale shift to highly distributed, highly intelligent optimized

networking. Today’s self-contained, standalone networking constructs

— whether it be an operator, network, network layer or element — will

be disaggregated and then realigned and reintegrated at different levels

using a set of new software platforms and interfaces. The shift will also

require a new automated control paradigm, in which networks are truly

programmable and become the essential building blocks of a new digital

connected reality. Three essential elements are required to realize this new

digital networking era.