Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1081695
March/April 2019 I 43 ready to terminate with reliability and speed the potentially hundreds of thousands of connections and high-count cables required for smart city and widespread IoT applications. Likewise, ACE was a valuable precursor of today's software-defined networking (SDN) and data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platforms that when embedded with AI are used today to reduce energy use, optimize cooling capacity and improve uptime, among other important control functions. AI, IT, ICT AND MAKING THE INTELLIGENT ECOSYSTEM A REALITY In a TIA video interview with Arpit Joshipura, GM of networking and orchestration at the Linux Foundation and Manish Vyas, president of communications business and chief executive of network services at Tech Mahindra, the interviewees agree that although early adopters of AI in certain enterprise vertical industries, like manufacturing, are reaping benefits from the technology, AI from a real-time decision-making cognitive standpoint is not ready to support the trillions of devices and transactions characterizing the end-to-end intelligent network and ecosystem that everyone is envisioning. 11 Encouraged by the baby steps the industry is continuously making in that direction, Joshipura and Vyas assert that in order to make the intelligent ecosystem a reality, a community of experts need to share data. Therefore, the Linux Foundation has issued Community Data License Agreements (CDLAs) that allow both individuals and groups to share data sets in the same way they share open source software code. According to Mike Dolan, VP of strategic programs at The Linux Foundation, communities are forming around artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases, autonomous systems, and connected infrastructure. The CDLA license agreements also enable sharing data openly, embodying best practices learned over decades. It stands to reason that this community should occupy more than the current drivers, such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and AT&T, with an open invitation for more ICT participation as well. Admitting that the possibilities enabled by IoT and forthcoming 5G are virtually endless, Vyas and Joshipura contend that much is still needed, including reliable security measures, new business paradigms, and new optical network architectures and models.