Executive Summary

The IOWN Global Forum kicked off 2022 by holding its 4th Member Meeting online during the week of 15-18 February. A total of 477 individuals representing 76 different Member companies registered to join us for three days filled with updates on IOWN Global Forum activities, an overview of the newest technology reference documents, member company presentations, and much more!

IOWN Global Forum President and Chairperson Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe, Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development Planning, NTT Corporation, welcomed members to the meeting and communicated his appreciation and gratitude for all the work that has been accomplished so far.

“I believe that IOWN technologies will enable us to transform the world where economic growth and zero environmental impact will be achieved at the same time.” – Katsuhiko Kawazoe, Ph. D., President and Chairperson of IOWN Global Forum

During his Opening Message, he discussed the future of IOWN Global Forum activities, including the beginning initiatives on digital twin computing and the growing interest in carbon neutrality. He emphasized the outstanding results that have been achieved over the past year, including the finalization of two use case documents, six technology reference documents, and the completion of Phase 1 activities. This momentum and participation from members have shown excellent outcomes of IOWN GF activities in the short term.

Opening Keynote

Chris Wright, Senior Vice President, CTO, Red Hat, delivered the opening keynote presentation, “The Next Technology Frontier – Data-Centric Infrastructure over All Photonics Network.” In this presentation, Chris highlighted Red Hat’s current work in IOWN Global Forum, several new and emerging technologies, and why he believes that using open-source software can ensure future success for IOWN technologies. He added that the top benefits of utilizing open-source include higher quality software, access to the latest innovations, and better security, allowing ongoing end-user feedback and continuous improvement.

He touched on an essential trend in hardware – the disaggregation of the CPU-centric system model into a composable compute model – and his thoughts on how this trend will change hardware forever.

Throughout the keynote, Chris highlights his excitement about using open-source software and IOWN technologies for the vision of a sustainable future.

“The vision of a smarter future that’s connected through the network, bringing data and compute together, to help us build the intelligence that will enable us to create a sustainable society is what attracted me [to vision 2030].”  – Chris Wright, Senior Vice President, CTO, Red Hat

IOWN Global Forum Updates

Use Case and Technology Working Group Updates

Katsutoshi Itoh, Use Case Working Group (UCWG) Chair​, and Masahisa Kawashima, Ph. D., Technology Working Group (TWG) Chair, delivered updates on recent achievements and plans for future activities within the IOWN Global Forum Working Groups. The newly released “starter pack,” which includes vertical stacks for application domains, platforms for data collection and exchange, network services, and infrastructure, was a central topic of discussion as the completion of Phase 1 allows members to embark on the evolution journey towards IOWN technologies! In addition, they shared each group’s future plans and emphasized that the objective is to ensure that these initiatives do not just end with the documents but that they can be advanced into a working concept. To do this, the Technology Working Group and Use Case Working Group will be working even closer together to demonstrate the positive impacts of IOWN technologies to stakeholders.

Proof of Concept Briefing

As IOWN Global use cases rely on many technical features such as wavelength path services, DCI computing nodes, data hub, etc., the Technology Working Group Chair, has asked the Technology Working Group coordinators to lead Reference Implementation Model (RIM) development and Proof of Concept (PoC) activities on a per-technical-feature basis. These activities will help IOWN Global Forum develop RIMs and PoCs for specific use cases as the second step in the process. IOWN for Mobile Networks and Fiber Sensing with Open APN will also benefit from these activities.

New Company Introductions

To wrap up day one of the February Member Meeting, the following new IOWN Global Forum members shared brief introductions. They provided an overview of their companies, colleagues participating in the IOWN Global Forum, and areas of particular interest within the industry.

Sponsor Members:  Accenture Japan Ltd., Mizuho Bank, Ltd., MUFG Bank, Ltd.

General Members: AISIN CORPORATION, JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., NetApp G.K., Net One Systems Co., Ltd, Nissan Chemical Corporation, Renesas Electronics Corporation, SCSK Corporation, SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, Toppan Inc.

Academic/Research Members: Keio University

Introduction of Technology Documents

Masahisa Kawashima, Ph. D., Technology Working Group (TWG) Chair, introduced the recently released ‘starter pack’ for the IOWN Evolution Journey and provided a brief overview of why the six technology documents were created. He noted that the documents were released in support of the Forum’s goal to provide reliable, high-speed, low-latency data and communications paths using an all-optical data transport architecture.

The reference documents focus on methodologies for the provisioning of data and communications paths and computing improvements designed to deliver more energy-efficient ways of routing network traffic than what is available today.

Presenting on the first document, Open All-Photonic Network (APN) Functional Architecture, Hideki Nishizawa, NTT and Dr. Yu Tanaka, Fujitsu shared the evolution of digital coherent transmission systems over the last ten years and how the convergence of computing and networking is expected to accelerate over the next ten years. The document explains the design goals of the Open APN functional architecture, a high-level reference architecture describing the network that connects endpoints directly with optical paths and allows end-to-end communication with deterministic performance and high energy efficiency. To realize the design goals, the presenters also shared an overview of the gap analysis conducted to identify technical challenges.

Dr. Gary Li, Intel, presented on the document Technical Outlook for Mobile Networks Using IOWN Technology and provided an overview of each section, including the main drivers for initiating the study on mobile transport networks, its challenges, the gap analysis, and the proposed study items. As mobile data usage continues to grow, the IOWN Global Forum Use Cases enabled by the projected future technologies would call for enhanced KPI targets, potentially providing a 10X+ improvement factor for network throughput, latency, and mobile position. Furthermore, Mr. Li shared how the IOWN Global Forum Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI) Functional Architecture would be applied to mobile access networks.

Dr. Daisuke Iida, NTT, covered the Fiber Sensing for Open APN document, stating that the purpose of the deliverable was to describe the technical requirements and items of fiber sensing using APN and DCI for new fiber sensing benefits. The concept would use distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) technology to allow for multi-point, real-time, and continuous measurement of environmental information around the optical fiber cable. He shared an overview of each section of the document and explained the complementary relationship between the Open APN, DCI, and Fiber Sensing architectures.

The document, Reference Implementation Model (RIM) for the Area Management Security Use Case, was presented by Katsushi Shindo, NTT and his colleague Ryousuke Kurebayashi, Ph.D., NTT. Together, they emphasized the TWG and UCWG’s shared goal of accelerating the development and commercial availability of IOWN Global Forum’s architectures and technologies by developing and evaluating RIMs to help realize IOWN Global Forum use cases. As described in the document, the development of RIMs begins with developing the Benchmark Model (BM) for select use cases. The RIM activities will be the basis for the use case PoC work to be carried out in 2022.

Representative Meeting

Select member representatives assembled for a Representative Meeting, which was open to all member companies and moderated by Dr. Gonzalo Camarillo to close out Day 2.

The goal of the Representative Meeting is to facilitate exchanges between representatives of each Member company, discuss challenges and improve operations activities of the IOWN Global Forum. During this Representative Meeting, members discussed several topics, including PoC specifications and implementations and the plans around promoting and publishing the IOWN Global roadmap.

Introduction of Technology Documents (continued)

To begin Day 3 of the Member Meeting, Dr. Clara Li, Intel, provided an overview of the Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI) Functional Architecture document. With the goal of developing an open and disaggregated communication and computing infrastructure, the DCI infrastructure consists of both physical and logical components. It contains infrastructure control and management functions to manage the entire system. She proceeded to describe the two main features of DCI, Internet as a Service (IaaS) and optimized data movement and processing.

Tomohiro Inoue, NTT and Yoshisato Fukatsu, Oracle, shared the background of the Data Hub Functional Architecture document. The IOWN Data Hub is a data management and sharing infrastructure that enables fast and trusted data processing, usage, and exchange among multiple parties or locations. They reviewed the structure and contents of the document, emphasizing that the Data Hub takes advantage of features of both the Open APN and DCI functional architectures.

Member Presentations and Discussions

IOWN Global Forum was pleased to welcome several members to present on Day 3 of the Member Meeting. Four member companies, Orange, Delta, Broadcom, and DIC Corporation, gave member presentations on various IOWN-related topics.

Eric Hardouin, Vice President, Orange, presented on “Orange Vision on 2030 Networks.” During the presentation, he explains the company’s vision for 2030 networks, including fixed and mobile networks, from the perspective of their European, African, and Middle Eastern operation footprint. Throughout the presentation, Mr. Hardouin highlights Orange’s three expectations for 2030 regarding information and communication technology (ICT): enabling value for society and innovation, supporting societal requirements, and satisfying operational necessities. He continued to speak on the current challenges, constraints, and technical directions to meet these expectations. He emphasized that the IOWN Global Forum is in an excellent position to address these challenges.

In the presentation, “Micro-grid integration with charging station, renewable energy and energy storage,” Geoffrey Dai, Director of Strategic Product Development and Albert Lin, Director of Corporate Strategic Business Development and Alliance, of Delta Electronics, Inc., shared key facts and data about the expansion of the global electric vehicle (EV) market and its impact on electricity demand and change in daily load profile. By utilizing one of Delta’s real-life use cases in Taiwan, the presenters explained that the best way to balance the electricity supply and load mismatch is to use an energy storage system (ESS).

Manish Mehta, VP of Marketing and Operations, Broadcom, presented on the topic, “Scaling highly integrated silicon photonics optical interconnects for networking and computer,” which was noted to be the central theme of IOWN Global Forum activities. Dr. Mehta discusses the importance of investing in the siliconization of the optical interconnect, as scaling and agility in bandwidth and capacity continue to be driven by the insatiable need for data. In addition, he shares Broadcom’s recent advances in integrated optical I/O and addresses the roadmap for future fully integrated systems.

In the presentation, “Introduction of material technologies for high-speed transmitting,” Norimasa Fukazawa, and Shunji Baba, both of DIC Corporation, provided a brief introduction of DIC Corporation’s material technologies and product line. They discussed Ag nanomaterials and the process technology for highspeed transmitting PCBs and explained their organic/non-organic hybrid material technology for photonics.

Closing Remarks

To close the IOWN Global Forum Member Meeting, Gilles Bourdon, Director of IOWN Global Forum, Vice President Wireline Networks & Infrastructure, Orange Innovation, provided his closing remarks and highlighted the impressive attractiveness of the IOWN Global Forum. He commended all speakers for providing a very rich, content-filled Member Meeting. He noted that all the presentations showcased the fantastic things that can be achieved with IOWN technologies in the future.

Mr. Bourdon reiterated the exciting growth of the IOWN Global Forum, noting the Forum now has 88 members who “understand the importance of IOWN and now participate to shape the future.”

In closing, Mr. Bourdon thanked members again for their energy, deployments, time, and contributions in IOWN Global Forum. He reminded them that now is a critical moment for them to get involved, share and deliver, so the ambitious and exciting goals that IOWN GF has defined together can be achieved!

All presentations from the Member Meeting are now available, to all IOWN Global Forum members, via the Member Platform. If you are interested in becoming a member, learn how to join today. We thank you all for your support and involvement in making this Member Meeting such a success, and we look forward to future Member Meetings with IOWN Global Forum colleagues.