A Novel Framework of Distributed Datacenter Networks to Support Intelligent Services: Architecture, Operation, and Solutions

Existing datacenter networks (DCNs) support the legacy cloud services well; nonetheless, it is inherently short of provisioning the emerging IoT services, such as the vehicle services, where real-time intelligence, cognition, and security are required, mainly due to its long distance with the IoT devices that generate the intelligent services. Regarding this, this paper proposes a new interconnection architecture for distributed DCNs by way of passive optical network (PON) technology to construct a ubiquitous cloud computing (UCC) environment with high scalability, resiliency, and data locality. A novel de-centralized architecture of virtualized mega DCNs on customized next-generation PONs (NGPONs) to provision UCC is proposed under the name of NGPON-DCN. In addition, a cost-effective deployment design framework and an associated revenue-driven elastic infrastructure-as-a-service delivery model are specified for creation and operation of such NGPON-DCN, followed by a discussion of anticipated key research challenges and optimization opportunities in this new NGPON-DCN convergence paradigm.