Business Lab

Next-generation solutions and products are hitting a wall with wi-fi: it’s not fast enough, and latency and connectivity issues mean it’s not reliable enough. What’s an innovator to do? Focus on what’s next: 5G and software-defined networking. Nick McKeown, senior vice president and general manager of the network and edge group at Intel Corporation says this technical leap is what will make future innovation possible, “Once you've got a software platform where you can change its behavior, you can start introducing previously absurd-sounding ideas,” including, he continues, “fanciful ideas of automatic, real-time, closed-loop control of an entire network.” While nascent, these technological advancements are already showing promise in practical applications. For example, in industrial settings where there’s more analysis happening at the edge, having greater observability into the network is allowing for fine timescale responses to mechanical errors and broken equipment. “Corrective action could be something as