Page 38: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2024)

FEATURE SUBMARINE CABLES AND AI (SLTE), and there may be multiple opportunities to enhance

From Conventional Cloud to AI Data Centers

The biggest question mark over AI data centers is what effect cable performance by taking advantage of the latest tran-

AI processes such as training vs. inference will have on traf? c sponder and SLTE terminal technology. AI can play a part patterns. The initial observations are that the move to AI data in this enhancement in two different ways: operational and centers for training large neural network models is boosting network-based functionality.

east-west growth because, for one thing, these models are ex-

Operational Use of AI ceeding the scale that can easily be trained inside using the capacity that can be rented at any one time in a single data There are three main operational areas where AI can be used center. I’ve shown this speculative growth prediction with the to enhance SLTE capability, and all of these functions tend to shaded section in Figure 2. be housed within the management and automation software

Inference requires low latency, whereas training is regarded of the network.

as being less latency-sensitive for the simple reason that it Automating Network Planning and Capacity Optimization usually happens within a single data center. In the inference In a modern open cable system, it’s essential to character- phase, in terms of network traf? c, a pre-trained model is ize each ? ber pair to ensure that the cable operator got what queried using relatively short text prompts, and the respons- they paid for in terms of wet plant performance. Character- es sent back are also short text documents or still images. ization using a range of parameters has been well de? ned by

North-south traf? c per user will obviously increase as AI the SubOptic Open Cable Working Group. But the process of moves from text responses to still images and then to ever- taking these measurements can be labor intensive, and AI can increasing quality of video. certainly play its part in reducing the manual work required.

The next step for operators is spectrum planning and alloca- tion. That can include the need to support spectrum sharing on

AI’s Impact on Submarine Network Technology

Once a submarine cable is deployed, it has an engineering a given ? ber pair. This stage is performed knowing the exact life of 25 years, but the only thing we can upgrade during type of transponders that will be deployed, and these perfor- that lifetime is the submarine line-terminating equipment mance parameters can be plugged into an AI model that can

FIGURE 2:

Traf? c volumes 38 November/December 2024

MTR #8 (34-47).indd 38 11/20/2024 10:40:26 AM