IOWN Global Forum 3rd Annual Member Meeting April 2023 – Highlights
Executive Summary
On April 25-27, 2023, IOWN Global Forum hosted its third annual member meeting in Osaka, Japan. With nearly 400 registrants from 78 organizations, and 175 members participating online from around the world, the meeting fostered significant collaboration and discussion about the Forum’s goals and vision for the near future.
IOWN Global Forum President and Chairperson, Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe, kicked off the opening message by sharing that “Vision to Reality” was the goal for this member meeting. Throughout the meeting, numerous members gave presentations and held member discussions, operating sessions, and workshops both in person and virtually. Important themes included Proof of Concept (PoC) status updates and discussions set to enable the Vision 2030 Roadmap, Efficiency and Conservation, Deterministic Networking, a Networking and Computing Joint Session, and Transport Path Calculation Engines (PCE). The meeting also saw five directors welcomed to the IOWN Global Forum Board of Directors for a 2023 – 2025 term, and each newly elected director shared remarks on their excitement for the Forum, and what their goals were for the future.
Lastly, an award ceremony was held to recognize the tremendous efforts of a select few of the Forum’s members, acknowledging their contributions. The success of this meeting was felt throughout the week by attendees as the goals for the meeting were far exceeded.
Opening Message, Announcement of New Directors, Keynotes
IOWN Global Forum President and Chairperson Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe welcomed members to Japan for the 3rd Annual Member Meeting, expressed gratitude to the members for their contributions, and made opening remarks. He discussed the recent attention given to Generative AI, highlighting both its effectiveness and risks, and emphasized the increasing power of consumption required for AI applicants. He finished his remarks by stating that IOWN Global Forum’s mission is to move the world toward a sustainable future by solving the power consumption issue. Further, the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, gave a speech detailing his excitement and gratitude for the IOWN Global Forum and its strides toward a better future.
Following the opening message, five Directors with deep leadership and diverse technical experiences across the communications ecosystem were welcomed to the IOWN Global Forum Board of Directors. Each new Director gave brief comments and were joined by the sitting eight Directors onstage.
The announcement was followed by Chris Wright, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Red Hat, Inc.’s keynote address, “IOWN and LINUX for the Environment Sustainability.” During his talk, he discussed open-source benefits, IOWN Global Forum’s Vision 2030 Objectives as recently published in Version 2 of the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum Vision 2030 and Technical Directions White Paper, and the open-source software possible within IOWN technology, including ongoing PoC activities.
The Forum then listened to Caroline Chan, Vice President of the Network and Edge Group and General Manager of the Network Business Incubator Division at Intel Corporation’s keynote address, “Digital Life Enhanced by Rich Compute and Connectivity.” During her talk, she discussed the seamless connectivity between physical and digital worlds, and its effect on the health, retail, industrial, transportation and entertainment industries.
IOWN Global Forum Contributor Award Ceremony
As IOWN Global Forum had successfully grown from the diverse and excellent contributions of distinguished individuals, and since the Forum wishes to be continuously appreciative and encouraging of outstanding contributions both now and in the future, in 2022, the Board of Directors introduced an annual award program to recognize individuals who provided outstanding contributions for IOWN Global Forum Steering Committee and Working Group activities. Recipients are nominated by the Chairs and approved by the Board of Directors. This year the following six individuals received an award:
- Andres Arjona of Nokia for his decisive contributions to the Vision 2030 White Paper
- Yoshisato Fukatsu of Oracle for leading the IOWN Data Hub Task Force and establishing its strong tie with the Digital Twin Framework Task Force
- Philip Ji of NEC for his contributions to the Open APN Fiber Sensing Task Force
- Masahisa Kawashima of NTT for his decisive contributions to the Vision 2030 White Paper
- Christoph Schumacher of NTT for his effortless contributions to the Data-Centric Infrastructure Task Force cross task force coordination
- Katsushi Shindo of NTT for his leadership role in the Reference Implementation Model Task Force
New Member Company Introductions
The IOWN Global Forum is proud to continue welcoming new members to the organization. Each member has the opportunity to introduce their company when attending the member meeting for the first time. The following members gave brief introductions about their companies and their interest and expectations for the IOWN Global Forum:
Sponsor Member: KDDI
General Members: JSR Corporation, Nitto Boseki Co., Nissho Electronics, ProteanTecs
Academic Members: Cloud Computing & IoT Association in Taiwan
Steering Committee and Work Group Annual Activity Reports
On April 26, 2023, the IOWN Global Forum Steering Committees and Working Groups presented Annual Activity reports. These reports included the Marketing Steering Committee, the Vision Steering Committee, the Technology Steering Committee, and the Technology, Use Case and Liaison Working Groups. Each segment reported on the status of work in the past year, and the next steps for each committee for the remainder of the year. Topics also covered specific objectives for each committee and the Forum’s involvement in each.
Member Presentations
Five presentations from IOWN Global Forum members companies, including one academic member, were given on topics and their ties to IOWN technology, including standards developments, Coherent Pluggables and Open Photonic Networks, Patrolling Robots and Drones, and Super White Boxes. Presenting companies included Comm Scope, Fujitsu Limited, Rakuten Mobile, Delta Electronics, Inc., and Information and Communications Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
On April 26, Dr. Mohamaad Naddar Hamdy, Director of Networks Strategies and Solutions, and Noriaki Mieda of CommScope, presented on IMN and ORAN, with a reading of the latest standard developments. Lead Software Architect for Fujitsu Limited, Colin George Peters, then presented accompanying IOWN technology innovations, including the Edge, the web service development flow, and the edge service enabling platform. Rakuten Mobile Division Manager, IP & Transport Engineer & Ops Division Praveen Kumar, presented on Coherent Pluggables and Open Photonic Networks, discussing the future technology enablers and the large role that coherent pluggables have on lower power consumption targets. Lastly, Delta Electronics, Inc. Director Albert Lin, presented about improving efficiency and safety with Smart Patrolling Robots and Drones, including the future of collaborative patrolling and how robot integration can enhance patrolling data.
On April 27, Pang-An Ting, the General Director at Information and Communications Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), presented about the CPO-based data-centric infrastructure, covering who ITRI is and its role in developing the semiconductor and server industry in Taiwan. He explained the current problems facing cloud computing infrastructure, including AI/ML/Analytics needing access to larger data sets, and the problems computing centric architecture encounters. He then discussed the CPO developments in ITRI, including the evolution of optical communication architecture, CPO module in CDI, Photonics, automation in full-wafer measurement, and supply chain integration.
Discussions, Breakout Sessions, and Workshops
Rich member discussions, breakout sessions and workshops took place during the meeting, including vision and roadmap updates and PoC strategy. On April 28, additional discussions, breakout sessions and workshops took place to benefit those eager to continue their work on future deliverables.
Summary of Annual Member Meeting Discussions
Before concluding the meeting, a recap session was held to summarize discussion points made during the event. These points centered around many timely topics, including RIM, Open APN (OAA/OAW & OAF), DCI, IOWN technology for mobile networking, deterministic networking, transport PCE, DTF/Digital Twin for Transport NW, energy efficiency and conservation, IDH/IOWN Data Hub 2.0 and IOWN technology security. The hybrid format of this meeting allowed the Forum to reach all members and have discussions about each topic listed above in great depth, successfully achieving the Forum’s initial goal of transforming “Vision to Reality” and setting the stage to carry this mission moving forward.
Closing Remarks
To wrap up the meeting, Per Beming, IOWN Global Forum Director and Vice President and Head of Standards & Industry Initiatives at Ericsson, delivered closing remarks. He touched upon recent accomplishments, current focus areas and future goals for the Forum. In his talk, Beming highlighted the progress made during the member meeting and thanked all attendees for their efforts. Lastly, he announced that the next IOWN Global Forum Member Meeting would be held in Europe in September 2023.
We would like to thank you all for your support and involvement in making this Member Meeting a success. We would also like to thank all our sponsors, Chunghwa Telecom, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC and NTT, for their support. We look forward to future Member Meetings with IOWN Global Forum members.
Many presentations, photos, and recordings from the 3rd Annual Member Meeting are now available to IOWN Global Forum members via the Member Portal. If you are interested in becoming a member, learn how to join today.
