The Future of Middle-Mile Fiber

In 25 years, our broadband networks will likely be carrying at 12 to 15 times the volume of data that they carry today, and probably more. Unfortunately, there is no easy path to upgrade middle-mile networks to keep up with the expected future demand. Faster lasers can’t alone satisfy the future demand for increased middle-mile bandwidth. Achieving faster speeds on middle-mile routes is going to require a lot of replacement of existing middle-mile fiber—to fiber that is clearer and that has fewer microscopic impediments. We are probably going to have to use a combination of three strategies to handle the middle-mile demand over the next 25 years:

• Rip and replace current fiber to higher-quality fiber to be able to handle terabit or faster lasers.
• Build a lot of new fiber alongside existing fiber routes to handle the increased capacity.
• Employ strategies for reducing the demand on middle-mile networks (think edge computing, caching, and peering.