Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), a Japanese company employing over 300,000 people globally, is making a name for itself with its research arm, NTT Research, located in Silicon Valley. With a $3 billion annual budget, the subsidiary is conducting scientific investigations in various areas such as optical networking, cybersecurity, AI, sustainability, and healthcare. Recently, executives at NTT Research showcased their efforts at an Upgrade event in San Francisco, highlighting the potential impacts of their work in networking and security.
One of the key research areas NTT is focusing on is the All-Photonics Network (APN). This approach integrates optics-based technology throughout the network infrastructure, from terminals to transport networks. The benefits of this rearchitected approach include potentially eliminating latency through optical technology integration, improving power efficiency, and addressing energy consumption concerns related to AI applications. NTT’s vision for an APN could revolutionize networking by significantly improving energy efficiency and transmission capacity.
In addition to networking advancements, NTT Research is also dedicated to reimagining security and data protection. The company’s Security, Privacy and Integrity Protection Platform (SPIP) aims to simplify data protection by incorporating advanced privacy technologies such as attribute-based encryption and multi-party computation. These elements help segregate data and enable joint functional computation while maintaining the privacy of inputs, addressing the data protection concerns related to generative AI applications.
NTT’s secure computational system, San-Shi, consists of multiple servers and a client to register data through a secret sharing process, ensuring that no single server can access complete information. This approach to security is efficient, with NTT’s research indicating that San-Shi’s efficiency is comparable to non-encrypted data processing. With groundbreaking research in networking and security, NTT is positioning itself as a leader in addressing the evolving challenges of next-generation applications and technology infrastructure.
As NTT continues its research efforts, the company’s capabilities and audacious goals are becoming more apparent. The APN represents NTT’s ambitious vision for the future of networking, while SPIP has immediate impacts on data protection and privacy. With the technology industry constantly evolving, innovative breakthroughs are necessary, and NTT’s investments in groundbreaking research are likely to change its relatively unknown status outside of Japan. As the company continues to push the boundaries of technology, its impact on networking and security may soon become widely recognized.
