Juniper research funding to advance artificial intelligence and network innovation

Juniper Networks has announced a university funding initiative to fuel strategic research to advance network technologies for the next decade.

Juniper's goal is to enable universities, including Dartmouth, Purdue, Stanford and the University of Arizona, to explore next-generation network solutions in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), intelligent multipath routing and quantum communications.

The company says investing now in these technologies, as organisations encounter new levels of complexity across enterprise, cloud and 5G networks, is critical to replace tedious, manual operations as networks become mission critical for nearly every business. This can be done through automated, closed-loop workflows that use AI and ML-driven operations to scale and cope with the exponential growth of new cloud-based services and applications.

The universities Juniper selected in support of this initiative are now beginning the research that, once completed, will be shared with the networking community. In addition, Juniper joined the Center for Quantum Networking Industrial Partners Program to fund industry research being spearheaded by the University of Arizona.

"Cloud services will continue to proliferate in the coming years, increasing network traffic and requiring the industry to push forward on innovation to manage the required scale out architectures," says Raj Yavatkar, chief technology officer at Juniper Networks

"Juniper's commitment to deliver better, simpler networks requires us to engage and get ahead of these shifts and work with experts in all areas in order to trailblaze," he says.

"I look forward to collaborating with these leading universities to reach new milestones for the network of the future.

Sonia Fahmy, professor of computer science at Purdue University, adds, "With internet traffic continuing to grow and evolve, we must find new ways to ensure the scalability and reliability of networks.

"We look forward to exploring next-generation traffic engineering approaches with Juniper to meet these challenges," she says.

Dartmouth University professor of engineering George Cybenko says, "It is an exciting opportunity to work with a world-class partner like Juniper on cutting edge approaches to next-generation, intelligent multipath routing.

"Dartmouth's close collaboration with Juniper will combine world-class skills and technologies to advance multipath routing performance.

Jure Leskovec, associate professor of computer science at Stanford University says as network technology continues to evolve, so do operational complexities.

"The ability to utilise AI and machine learning will be critical in keeping up with future demands," Leskovec says.

"We look forward to partnering with Juniper on this research initiative and finding new ways to drive AI forward to make the network experience better for end users and network operators.

University of Arizona NSF Center of Quantum Networking director Saikat Guha, adds, "The internet of today will be transformed through quantum technology which will enable new industries to sprout and create new innovative ecosystems of quantum devices, service providers and applications.

"With Juniper's strong reputation and its commitment to open networking, this makes them a terrific addition to building this future as part of the Center for Quantum Networks family.