Executive Summary

On 30 September-3 October 2025, the IOWN Global Forum hosted its Midterm Member Meeting 2025 in Dallas, Texas, welcoming more than 240 registrants from over 61 organizations representing 22 countries. FUTURES Dallas, held on 2 October, offered an opportunity to non-members both in person and online to join the Forum in exploring the “AI Infrastructure of the Future.” Throughout the week, collaboration and innovation took center stage as Members advanced the Forum’s vision and celebrated tangible and meaningful progress.

Opening Keynotes Set the Stage for Collaboration

The IOWN Global Forum President and Chairperson, Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe, welcomed Members and expressed appreciation for their continued efforts to support the Forum and their work towards its achievements. He also emphasized how the increasing demand for AI is leading to changes in the environment, such as the emergence of Neo Cloud providers, and how the Forum’s Open APN Functional Architecture Release 3.0 contributes to that demand.

Forum Members heard from speakers that highlighted the connection between industry, academia and other organizations. Professor Andrea Fumagalli from the University of Texas at Dallas shared the University’s OpenLab Automation Platform for multi-vendor open networks, highlighting the importance of universities for research purposes. John Gibbons, Assistant Vice President, Network Core Infrastructure and Services at AT&T Labs, discussed the successful collaborations between the IOWN Global Forum and Open ROADM. Dr. Cliff Grossner, Chief Innovation Officer at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation, then discussed the future plans of OCP and potential collaborations with IOWN Global Forum to lead the future of AI. Following the presentations, the keynote speakers were invited back to the stage and joined by Dr. Masahisa Kawashima, NTT, for a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Gonzalo Camarillo, Ericsson, to dive deeper into how we can further strengthen collaborations between industry Members.

Discussions, Breakout Sessions, Workshops, and Networking

Rich member discussions, workshops, and breakout sessions for Steering Committees, Working Groups, and Task Forces took place during the meeting, on topics such as the all-photonics network, AI, techno-economic analysis of early adoption use cases, and more. Those in-person also enjoyed a variety of networking opportunities to connect with fellow IOWN Global Forum Members.

IOWN Global Forum Implementation of the Year Awarded

The Implementation of the Year Award recognizes the Recognized Proof of Concept with the results that most showcase the abilities of Forum technology. The PoC Report titled “Reference Implementation Model for the Interactive Live Music Entertainment Use Case,” was presented the 2025 Award for its real-life implementations. Forum Members who participated in this PoC were Fujitsu Limited, Keysight Technologies, NEC Corporation Sony Corporation and Sumitomo Electric Industries.

Member Companies Offer Industry Perspectives

Seven Member Presentations were given during the meeting.

• SK Telecom’s Jongyoon Shin and Takki Yu  presented “AI-Native Network Innovation: Network AI, 6G, and IOWN,” which explored the evolution of ‘Network AI,’ alongside the transformative role of 6G.
• Lieven Levrau of Nokia, presented “The Transformative Impact of Massive MIMO on Fronthaul Traffic, Leveraging Optical Aggregation,” where he highlighted how IOWN Global Forum technologies play a role in addressing today’s data demands.
• Robert Hsu of the Industrial and Technological Research Institute (ITRI) and Dr. Helen Shan of Chunghwa Telecom gave the talk “From Vision to Reality: Powering DCI and APN through Taiwan’s ICT Ecosystem,” which articulated how Taiwan’s ICT ecosystem actively contributes to the Forum’s vision.
• Fujitsu’s Jacek Nazdrowicz presented “Digital Twin Computing and IOWN for Intelligent Urban Infrastructure in Renewable Energy-Driven Cities,” sharing a practical use case for applying digital twin computing and Forum technologies in medium-sized cities.
• Nokia brought back Lieven Levrau to offer a transformative vision for networking, “A Two-Way Street: Networks for AI and AI for Networks,”  offering the perspective of networks shaped by AI advances and the deep digitalization of the enterprises’ world.
• Multiple panelists from companies including Intel, NTT and Red Hat came together to discuss “End-to-End Deterministic Networking for OpenShift VM/Container Applications with Software-Defined Optical Interconnect,”
• Michi Uematsu of IP Infusion shared the presentation “IOWN Network Solution: Deployment Momentum.”

FUTURES Dallas 2025 Defines AI Infrastructure of the Future

On 2 October, the Forum’s FUTURES Dallas event was held to explore how the rise of AI is transforming infrastructure requirements, from compute and connectivity to power and sustainability. Open to the public, the event welcomed almost 300 in-person and 50+ online participants to listen to presentations and panels by experts on the Forum’s important work and how it can play a significant role in the AI infrastructure of the future. Member Companies exhibited their latest technological advancements and allowed attendees to discuss opportunities these new technology approaches offered.  The event spurred over 10 media interviews for Forum Spokespeople and featured speakers from a variety of viewpoints, including a think tank, ecosystem company, and university specialist, to tie the work of the Forum to larger industry impact. View on YouTube.

Keynotes Close with Future Plans for the Forum

The last day of the meeting featured a keynote from Ralph Rodschat, IOWN Global Forum Board Director, titled “APN Evolution in the AI Era,” which highlighted the Forum’s priorities for capacity and efficiency in its technologies. Attendees also heard status updates on work progress from the different Steering Committees and Working Groups in the Forum.

Lastly, attendees heard a closing message from IOWN Global Forum Board Director, Jeff Wang, who thanked Members for their participation and reflected on the importance of a new form of connectivity to drive AI innovation. He also announced the next Member Meeting, which will take place from 14-17 April 2026, in Sydney, Australia.

The Forum would like to thank all participants for their support and involvement in making this Member Meeting a success. We would also like to thank our sponsors, 1Finity, a Fujitsu company, Fujitsu, NTT and Pegatron, for their support. We look forward to future Member Meetings with IOWN Global Forum Members.

Many presentations, photos, and recordings from the 2025 Midterm Member Meeting are available to the IOWN Global Forum Members via the Member Portal, YouTube and Flickr.

If you are interested in becoming a Member, learn how to join today.