NTT Communications' SDx Technologies to be Adopted by McLaren-Honda for 2017 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix

McLaren-Honda, a pioneering leader in Formula 1 motor racing for over 50 years, and NTT Communications, the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (TOKYO:9432), announced today that NTT Communications’ software-defined-everything (SDx) technologies will be incorporated for the first time in a track-side network connecting the Suzuka Circuit in Japan and the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, UK during the 2017 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.

By adopting NTT Communications’ SDx technologies, McLaren-Honda plans to implement a series of tests during the Japanese Grand Prix to strengthen its remote management of race strategy using telemetry data provided at extra high speed. NTT Communications’ secure ICT infrastructure is expected to control network bandwidth flexibly and efficiently in testing the speed and quality of the new software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN)’s greatly increased bandwidth. Data will also be transmitted between Japan and the UK via an existing MPLS circuit.

Features of New SDx Technologies

• Flexible network leveraging SD-WAN
  The SD-WAN will offer expanded bandwidth and highly efficient data transmission in response to data priority by combining the existing MPLS circuit and NTT Communications’ complementary circuits, including internet, constructed at the circuit. The solution is expected to shift traffic from internet circuits in the garage, engineers’ workplace, and guest Wi-Fi to these complementary circuits alongside the existing MPLS network. Large-capacity, high-resolution, video conferencing will be distributed over the NTT SD-WAN to enable the all-important collaboration between engineers working trackside and other global locations.
• WAN acceleration and UTM achieved with NFV infrastructure
  Network functions virtualization (NFV) infrastructure will be leveraged in the cloud to rapidly deploy both WAN acceleration for data transmission without latency and a unified threat management (UTM) Web proxy function for guaranteed network security.
• SD-Exchange leveraged for high-speed connection between Japan and UK
  NTT Com’s SD-Exchange service will enable high-volume data to be transmitted much faster than with a normal internet connection because the data will be routed from Japan to the UK through NTT Communications’ global high-bandwidth infrastructure.

Mr. Matt Lockie, IT Director for Racing, McLaren Technology Group said, “In the highly competitive world of Formula One, our ability to partner with NTT Communications to utilize state of the art SD-WAN technology really helps to give us an advantage over the competition. I am proud of the way our teams have worked together in delivering such innovative network technology to meet the challenging requirements of fast data delivery to our engineers trackside and back at base in Mission Control.”

Mr. Tatsuya Yamashita, Senior Vice President, Technology Development / Vice President, Next Generation Platform Taskforce, commented, “McLaren Honda is the remarkably advanced technological team among the Formula 1. It will be a great advantage for NTT Com to jointly conduct development as a technology partner to meet highly technological demand. I am excited that we can deploy our advanced technologies of SD-WAN and NFV to the race site at Formula 1 team earlier than other providers.”

Dr. Shin Miyakawa, Vice President, IoT Office / McLaren Taskforce said, “Formula 1 racing leverages world-class technologies to transmit in-race data from global race sites to often faraway team headquarters for crucial strategizing. NTT Com, as a team sponsor and technical partner of McLaren-Honda, will incorporate cutting-edge SDx technologies to build a mission-critical trackside network that fully utilized world-class transmitting technologies.”

Following deployment of this solution for the 2017 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren-Honda and NTT Communications plan to further test and enhance large-capacity data transmission security, speed and efficiency, with an eye on deployment for future races. By transforming the way they collect and leverage racing data, NTT Communications and McLaren-Honda expect to transcend current Formula 1 methodologies. Further details about this initiative will be introduced at NTT Communications Forum 2017 in Tokyo on October 5 and 6.

NTT Communications, beginning from this year’s racing season, is also providing McLaren-Honda with its Arcstar Universal One enterprise VPN network service to deliver fast and flexible communication to the company’s 16 global offices.

Data is shared widely in real-time, including at track and the team’s headquarters in a coordinated effort to plan and implement real-time racing strategies faster than the competition. In-race transmissions can reach as much as 100GB of data — covering race-site weather, engine speeds, brake pressures, fuel levels, tire air pressure, on-board video, and more — this data is collected from 200 sensors and cameras embedded in a race car.

About McLaren-Honda Formula 1 Team

Since 1963, McLaren Racing has become one of the most successful and ground-breaking teams in Grand Prix motor racing, creating some of the most iconic Formula 1 cars in the sport's history.

From its humble roots in a small workshop in New Malden, Surrey, where Bruce McLaren pulled together a small crew of committed individuals to design, build and race cars bearing his own name, McLaren Racing is now based at the famous McLaren Technology Centre, Woking - home to all of the team's businesses, and workplace to more than 3,000 people. For any organisation, that's quite an incredible transformation. Yet the company's sporting successes have equally blossomed beyond measure since those early days.

Bruce took the team into Formula 1 at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix – and, since that day, no team in Formula 1 has scored more victories [182] than McLaren. Over the 50 plus years that it has been competing in the sport, McLaren has also won 12 Drivers' Championships and 8 Constructors' Championships. Elsewhere, the team dominated the iconic North American CanAm sports car series, taking 43 wins between 1967 and 1972, won the Indy 500 three times between '72 and '76, and took the Le Mans 24 Hours on its first attempt, in 1995.

The team's great champions – Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton – are all household names and legends of motorsport.

McLaren-Honda campaigns the 2016 FIA Formula 1 World Championship with the driver pairing of two-time (2005, 2006) world champion Fernando Alonso and 2009 world champion Jenson Button. They drive the McLaren-Honda MP4-31.

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimize the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company’s worldwide infrastructure, including the leading global tier-1 IP network, the Arcstar Universal One™ VPN network reaching over 190 countries/regions, and over 140 secure data centers worldwide. NTT Communications’ solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.

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Contact information

NTT Communications
Mr. Ryu Kanishima
Technology Development
sd-wan@ntt.com