Future Networks

Much of our thinking and expectation in telecommunications is conditioned by a history of radio and copper cables of constrained bandwidths and high distance-related costs - with centralised switching systems and services, soft ware of massive complexity to realise simple functions, and interfaces for the convenience of technology. There is already a new regime of very low cost transmission and computing - distance, bits. MIPS and storage are now almost free - relative to most physical commodities. Future prospects include the migration of intelligence to the periphery of networks, total customer control of services, distributed switching, increased mobility, bandwidth on demand, and radical changes in services and hold times. In the next decade, most of the established wisdoms, practices and operating regimes might also be expected to be overturned and replaced by new modes and concepts.