In defining his vision of the future of the network at the Broadband World Forum in Paris today, the co-founder of Irish technology firm Intune Networks said mobile packet traffic is set to grow by a factor of 10 in less than five years.
Intune, which has attracted more than €25m in venture capital investment, including a €22m round led by Dermot Desmond and Kernel Capital, plus up to €15m from the Irish Government, has developed a breakthrough virtualisaton technology that should transform optical packet switching and in turn boost mobile data traffic.
The company’s co-founder, John Dunne, outlined a 10-year transition from today’s centralised, static and complex networks to networks that will be distributed, dynamic and simple.
Mobile packet traffic, he said, is forecasted to grow by a factor of 10 in less than five years, with video consuming more than 50pc of projected new bandwidth growth.
Normal growth challenges have been exacerbated by the recent proliferation of high-powered mobile devices, such as smartphones and netbooks, which produce increasingly unpredictable data traffic patterns.
This mobile growth is in addition to the doubling of packet-based traffic every 18 months based on current and ever-increasing new web and internet services.
The problem facing networks is how to evolve network architectures to cope with the massive increase in unpredictable traffic demand while sustaining profitability and controlling costs. Intune Networks has achieved this through its breakthrough technology named Optical Packet Switch and Transport (OPST) and the Intune Network’s iVX8000 platform will deliver this solution.
Global economic transition based on web services
Dunne said: “We are at the beginning of a global economic transition based on web services. The current network and network technologies will all fail to be able to meet the future economic drivers.
“Central to solving this problem will be a unified network for all services that can dynamically adapt to demand, whilst operating at the lowest cost. Intune Network’s Verisma, the world’s first web-enabled tunable network solution, empowers service providers to fundamentally change the economics that challenge business survival, and provide a foundation for future prosperity.
“Intune Networks will deliver solutions based on Optical Packet Switch and Transport technology that enable users to realise the potential of their assets through virtualising the network. Customers will achieve new levels of network efficiency, operational simplicity and service delivery agility.
“Solutions from Intune Networks will unlock the possibilities in networks, delivering a step-change in the level of real-time network customisation, architectural simplicity and reduced operational costs that will enable a sea change in the value of their networks and services,” he said.
John Dunne and Tom Farrell founded Intune Networks in Dublin in 1999. Both UCD graduates, they were researching tunable laser technology in European-funded programmes.
Over the next 11 years, Intune developed and refined its technology and today is focused on the telecoms equipment market where the next generation of digital service requirements, such as quality of experience and high on-demand bandwidths, are creating a new global opportunity which Verisma meets. Intune employs 130 people and has design centres in Dublin and Belfast.
