NTT Docomo Launches GPU over APN Testbed Connecting 8 Data Centers

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On July 6, 2026, NTT Docomo Business launched the "GPU over APN Testbed," a nationwide wide-area distributed GPU verification environment utilizing IOWN APN (All-Photonics Network).

This Testbed connects eight locations—Sapporo, Kanazawa, Fukuoka, Osaka, and the Tokyo metropolitan area (Akihabara, Mitaka, Kawasaki, Yokohama)—via APN, enabling GPUs distributed across each location to be flexibly utilized as a single massive computing resource. The importance of data center decentralization is increasing due to risks of disasters or failures from concentrating data centers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, as well as the sharp rise in electricity demand driven by the proliferation of generative AI. The GPU over APN Testbed aims to provide enterprises and research institutions with an environment to flexibly leverage GPU resources beyond geographical constraints, promoting AI development and application.

Inter-location connections utilize APN, enabling low-latency, high-capacity communication at 100 Gbps class. Eitetsu Noyama, Section Chief of the Innovation Center IOWN Promotion Office, stated that even between Fukuoka and Tokyo, approximately 1,000 km apart, real-time collaboration is possible, with about 25 GB (equivalent to one Blu-ray disc) of data transmitted in approximately 2 seconds.

According to NTT Docomo Business Evangelist Zhang Xiaojing, the GPU over APN Testbed is positioned as a verification environment where distributed GPU resources can be trialed. The company will leverage the results and insights gained here to advance proposals for full-scale implementation.