Building the Internet for the future @TLF India 2020

At the TLF India 2020, Sanjay Kaul, President, Asia Pacific & Japan, Service Provider Business, Cisco Systems, presented on 'Building the Internet for the future.' He said that we are at the cusp of something great happening in the industry. The future of the Internet and 5G are seeing new normals, new participants, new potentials, partnerships and business models. Today, sensors, cameras, machines, etc., are connected to everything.

In India, there will be 600 million people online via mobile by the end of 2020. 20% of GDP growth will be contributed by digitization. 10-15X impact of digitization will be powered by IoT, 5G and Wi-Fi 6. TSPs have to look at reducing costs, create new revenues, improve experiences and time to service. We have to increase trust and security.

Cisco started a project on the future of the Internet. It also introduced a silicon. Innovation across multiple dimensions can shift the paradigm. There will be new possible network architectures that are converged, cloud enhanced and fabric based. The future Internet will be delivering unprecedented cost and power efficiency, prioritized operations, and augmented intelligence.

He said: "We need to adapt how the consumers want to procure. There will be integrated systems. Discrete components will rise. We have the architecture re-imagined as the SP North Star. The SP will be a predominant channel for cloud-based services. There will be a flat network, ie, IPoEoF that is converged, intelligent, zero touch and zero trust. There will be a horizontal cloud layer. There will be distributed data center architecture -- MEC and new edge. There will also be converged SDN and automation.

"There will be a platform for service innovation. All services will be IP over Ethernet over fiber (IPoEoF), with subscriber experience to the cloud. This enables service agility and increased productivity. There will be new user experiences and digital value plays. There will also be new business models and transformation."

Unlocking the Internet 2.0

KS Rao, CEO Network Software and Services, STL, spoke on Unlocking the Internet 2.0! The question is: How do we take this journey forward today and in the future? We look at the power of digitization. By 2025, digital can transform India's economy key sectors. The newly digitizing sectors will see significant values emerge. The core digital sectors have the potential to ~2X their GDP contribution by 2025.

Digitization can be slow and painful. Despite government push, India has so far made slow progress in the digital competitive index (IMD). It is ranked 44th out of 63 countries. India also has low Internet penetration today, reaching only 35% of connectivity. How do we unlock Internet 2.0 for India, and help become a $5 trillion economy?

Here, rural Internet can play significant role in boosting the economy. It supported over $100 billion in ecommerce. South Korea has perfectly matched the demand-supply principle by creating the awareness and interest for the Internet. It has facilitated the required policies and infrastructure to fulfill it. South Korea has focused on the investment in the content industry. It also invested in ICT education.

France used the ladder of investment, a regulatory approach. Entrants climb the investment ladder and acquire the access at the next level. The entrants are encouraged to invest in the network elements necessary to bypass the first level of access.

India can leapfrog all of this. It can even set a new trend for the global market. There should be innovative business models. Product engineering can be used to manage complexities. The government can provide effective regulations and policies. It can also educate people and help create awareness.

STL is driving innovation through connectivity solutions. STL tries to do things that impact the future generations. It is important to look at all network stacks and try to do something that can bring a change in the future. Digital connectivity should be impacting the GDP growth for the country.

Limitless intelligent connectivity

Sachin Kalantri, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Qualcomm India, said that the theme of this year's MWC is limitless intelligent connectivity or LIC. Just like any road infrastructure, we need to ensure the infrastructure is efficient and capable of delivering the various needs.

Sachin Kalantri

Cellular connectivity has made a leap every 10 years. Today, we are looking at a unified, future-proof platform in 5G. Earlier, 4G had mobile broadband and emerging expansion. The enterpreneurs will think of coming up with new things using 5G. 5G has the ability to redefine industries. The ecosystem partners can collectively make it all happen. With 5G, the additional focus is: how do we make industries better, and how can we make them do newer things? How do you connect the existing sensors?

There is also a need to expand the eMBB beyond the smartphone. Besides enhanced mobile broadband, there will be massive IoT and ultra-reliable low latency. We need to process data at the source to scale and make sense of a digitized world. The future will have a fully distributed AI architecture with lifelong on-device learning.

Some 5G use cases are boundless XR, 4K multiview streaming and sharing, 5G enterprise, high-density value connectivity, industrial and dynamic factory reconfiguration, etc.

There is a virtual telepresence collaboration on the edge cloud, but not necessarily on the premise. Evolution to 5G NR supports smart transportation use cases. There will be enhanced network communication, new direct communication, and massive IoT. Enterprise networks will also be on focus. There will be a very huge surge in industrial IoT. Enterprises can be a game changer for telecom.

Focusing on 7S

Vinit Goenka, Member Governing Council, Center for Railway Information Systems, (CRIS), spoke on 'Data privacy issues on mobile networks'. He said: "We have a 7S concept. Smile - does technology bring a smile to the common man? Savings - do we have savings? Speed, scalability, etc., are there."

When you bring a technology to the common man, they do not understand technology. How do you bring the first S? Eg, old men or pregant ladies cannot run from one platform to another, in case there is a change of platform.

Third, death and accidents. Safety is the third concern. Can you help me with sensors and devices that can identify problems? That has to be done in a simple way. Can I also have better signalling? Scalability also counts. Is my fellow Indian happy, we should ask ourselves. Technology will help us in finding out where your train is at any point of time. We cannot have technology that are imported. We need to have indegenous technology. We need to have sovereignty in technology.

A country cannot be weak and meek. We need to develop our own data security and privacy. We cannot overlook the contribution of technologies. Can a small sensor on a train coach inform that the bathroom does not have water?Remember, the smile that you travel when you are in a train.