Getting ready to turn more heads

Communication and networking technologies are driving digital transformation in many ways. Here is how different sectors can benefit from these

Communication and networking technologies are an integral part of the digital transformation (DX) journey. And they have witnessed a phenomenal rate of growth in the last three decades. According to estimates, the global spending on DX could be around USD 1.6 trillion in 2022 and it is expected to reach USD 3.4 trillion by the end of 2026.

The accelerated growth opportunities can be attributed to the rising demand for 24*7 connectivity and unified communication that includes voice, video, and data. These technologies have been instrumental in changing the lives of people and integrating the common people with the elite on the technology embracer pyramid.

More people are expected to reap the benefits that new technologies will render. While some of them are already in the adoption stage, others have just started to get heads to turn.

5G cellular

India’s long wait for the 5G is finally over with its grand rollout in October last year. The technology is expected to unlock enormous benefits for both consumer and enterprise businesses by leveraging shorter and higher frequency bands of the radio spectrum. Some of its highlights include low latency, greater density per area, and unprecedented broadband speed. Telecom subscribers will enjoy a great time with mobile gaming, fixed wireless access, and new immersive user experiences. Moreover, the exhilarating experiences of augmented and virtual reality can be accessed over the phone via many different applications.

Wi-Fi 6E is the next step in Wi-Fi evolution that improves wireless connectivity by opening new dedicated channels previously unavailable.

The growth of Industry 4.0 technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), smart manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), smart factories, and Cloud Computing will be accelerated with the adoption of 5G. Some early mover industries such as manufacturing and healthcare are geared up to extract maximum benefits out of private 5G networks. With its capabilities, process automation will become faster with the remotely controlled deployment of simulators, drones, and robots.

Post Covid-19 pandemic, the need to provide quick healthcare services has become imperative. 5G technology can do wonders for online interaction between healthcare professionals and patients – located even in the most remote corner of the world. Apart from healthcare and manufacturing, other sectors that are expected to benefit include retail, defence, airports and ports, government, and education.

Wi-Fi 6E

It is the next step in Wi-Fi evolution that improves wireless connectivity by opening new dedicated channels previously unavailable. With 2.4 and 5 GHz bands getting crowded, 6 GHz has been opened to address the issues of congested devices and networks. WI-FI 6E will provide speeds up to six times faster than Wi-Fi 5.

An intent-based network applies a granular level of intelligence to replace the time-consuming manual approach of configuration and issue resolution.

Its benefits include greater access point (AP) capacity, larger channel width, efficient bandwidth sharing, Wi-Fi sleeping, and backward compatibility. The industries that are poised to benefit from Wi-Fi 6E are manufacturing, healthcare, government, hospitality, education, retail and commerce, and transportation and logistics sector.

SD-WAN

It is an acronym for Software Defined Wide Area Network in which a virtualised overlay of the network is created by abstraction from its hardware.

An intelligent network based on pre-defined metrics has been the need of industries for many years. Thanks to the advent of SD-WAN, wonderful things are possible now. An SD-WAN helps to connect many remote branch locations to a hub location. The hardware abstraction increases the network’s flexibility and automation more than a standard WAN.

The network efficiency is underpinned by four central components including Edge Connectivity Abstraction, WAN Virtualisation, Centralised Management, and Elastic Traffic Management.

Network automation

To introduce agility and flexibility to the network, its automation is crucial. Network automation enables the team to configure, scale and integrate the infrastructure and application services much more quickly compared to manual performance.

A more sophisticated version of intelligent network automation leverages the power of big data and machine learning to determine the best configuration and management of the network.

Intent-based network

It is an improvement on previous networking concepts that apply a more granular level of intelligence to replace the time-consuming manual way of network configurations and issue resolution.

To achieve the final objective, the network administrators initially define the intent or the objective. Based on the pre-defined conditions, the embedded software determines the approach to achieve the goal, credit to the capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

By Hemant Agrawal

Hemant is the CTO of Netweb Technologies

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