A new white paper from Lumen Technologies has called for a “reset of network capabilities,” contending that current systems are not fit to meet demands for the next generation of cloud.

The report, authored by Lumen CTO Dave Ward, contends that legacy networks were designed for voice, internet, and VPNs and not bandwidth-heavy technologies set to proliferate in the next half-decade, such as AI.

According to Lumen, some one billion square feet of incremental U.S. data center capacity will be added by 2030, and the current-generation connectivity that relies on internet overlays and carrier-neutral facilities has “hit its limits.”

Ward’s white paper suggests that seismic shifts brought about by the AI boom and what he described as “Cloud 2.0” will occur by 2028, and that a “fundamental network architecture shift” is needed to make networks not only capable of handling such workload, but more secure, distributed, and programmable.

“A fundamental flaw in the belief that the public internet can be used for AI and Cloud 2.0 is that it’s ubiquitous and infinite,” the CTO wrote. “The public internet may be ubiquitous, but it certainly isn’t infinite. Just getting a bigger internet pipe will not be enough.”

Expansion into ‘AI corridors’

Among the suggestions to meet the connectivity demands for the AI boom, Ward and the team at Lumen suggest extending fiber and optical connectivity into areas where power exists and data centers are planned.

With traditional markets like Northern Virginia already exacerbated, Lumen’s white paper suggests Cloud 2.0 will see hyperscalers and enterprise providers alike looking to expand to locations in Tier 2 markets.

The likes of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Montgomery, Alabama, were listed in the report among the locations being eyed by hyperscalers in what is driving U.S.-wide network disaggregation.

“This explosion of rural data center operator (DCO) clusters only further exacerbates current architecture problems,” the white paper reads. “Instead of backhauling to a major metro to find a carrier-neutral facility (CNF) interconnect, new local interconnection may be much more efficient. Lumen has identified dozens of new data center clusters scattered across the U.S. that will require fiber, wave, and IP services.”

Lumen itself is already looking to take advantage of the demand, with the vendor aggressively expanding its 400G-enabled footprint to 100,000 wavelength route miles through 1.26 petabytes of new capacity.

Back in August, it revealed it had brought 400G connectivity to major U.S. markets, including New York City, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

“The connection to and between data centers is now a crucial element of Cloud 2.0, moving away from the old notion of the enterprise WAN core,” Ward wrote. “Relying on public network overlays is outdated. We are now building modern and programmable private networks without the constraints of the past.”

‘Purpose-built connectivity’

Beyond purely scaling fiber for scale’s sake, Lumen’s white paper suggests that more “purpose-built connectivity” is needed to truly meet the demands for AI workloads.

Instead of connecting everything equally, Ward and Lumen’s idea for purpose-driven networks would see more dark fiber networks employed to help connect facilities.

Distributed data centers are of growing interest to hyperscalers, with solutions like Nvidia’s Spectrum-XGS looking to turn multiple, disparate data centers into unified “AI super-factories,” to borrow the chipmaker’s parlance.

Ward wrote: “While we expect that these factories will primarily communicate with one another through distributed and sharded training and reinforcement at an industrial scale, they will also interface with the already overburdened Cloud 1.0 architecture in major metropolitan areas to distribute inference and exchange data and models with partners.”

In addition to dark fiber, Ward and the team at Lumen want networks supporting next-generation workloads to feature programmable underlays.

This would allow operators to employ bandwidth from premises to the cloud and create fabrics as needed, with SD-WAN and SASE tunnels helping to keep workloads secure.

“Interconnected enterprises will most certainly transform with Cloud 2.0,” Ward wrote. “Both public and private internet networks must become faster – as well as more secure, distributed, and programmable – to meet new demands.

“Most of the architectural foundations that defined Cloud 1.0 are obsolete and cannot support the requirements of the new cloud era.”

Beyond the recommendations and analysis in the Ward-authored white paper, Lumen is looking to take advantage of the AI boom through specialized services.

Having already secured sizable deals with Meta and Microsoft, it recently turned its attention to slashing provisioning timelines for enterprises. In early September, Lumen unveiled RapidRoutes, a way for enterprises to purchase pre-built 100G-400G connections to bring provisioning timelines down from months to just 20 days.

The vendor has also been making strides to revitalize its network-as-a-service (NaaS) offerings. Launched in 2023, it now supports more than 1,000 customers, a substantial increase from the 400 customers reported late last year.