Letter from the Editor

By: Tim Young

“We're supposed to keep evolving.
Evolution did not end with us growing opposable thumbs. You do know that, right?”
 - Bill Hicks

If you know anything about Bill Hicks—a true comic genius, chain-smoking and acerbic, who died far too young more than 20 years ago—you know that he would hate that a square like me quoted him in a tech magazine. But his point here, which I can’t help but read with his trademark bluster, works within the context of our topic for this month: network evolution and optimization.

We—and by “we” I mean everything from our network to our species—are in the middle of something. We’re always in the middle of something. And as our environment and our circumstances change, we must find ways to consistently adapt. Our networks are more critical than ever, with connected devices growing in number, complexity, and importance all the time. How can our networks meet the incredible demand for more speed and wider coverage while also having zero down-time?

In this issue of Pipeline, we’re talking network evolution and optimization. We all know that networks are changing, growing, and developing to keep pace with the digital lifestyle, new device capabilities, changing technology and population shifts. So where are we headed and how can we get there?

We’ll discuss software-defined networks, the use of small cells to optimize network performance, IoT, and quality of experience. We’ll also explore the future of wireless networks and bring work from gen-E on how to evolve management tools to keep pace with network technology. We’ll also hear from Microsoft about the dawn of AI and its application to cognitive services and customer care and bring you lots more news in the information communications and entertainment (ICE) technology space.

Enjoy, and keep evolving.

Best,