Joint Initiative to Drive the Future of Optical Infrastructure for Sustainable, Low-Latency Communications
Dublin—November 20, 2024—The Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum (the IOWN Global Forum) and the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) today announced a new collaboration to advance the development of cutting-edge optical technologies, principles, approaches and designs. This initiative is designed to accelerate the innovation of energy-efficient, low-latency network infrastructure, supporting the next generation of data-driven and communication-intensive applications.
Details of the Partnership:
The collaboration between the IOWN Global Forum and TIP focuses on developing innovative optical infrastructure solutions. By combining TIP’s extensive operator-driven expertise and the IOWN Global Forum’s advanced industrial use cases, the partnership aims to:
- Collaborate on new optical technologies, principles, approaches and designs: The organizations will develop work on future infrastructure concepts and components, such as remote and user-owned transceivers, and align technical trials to advance optical networking models.
- Drive event collaboration and market development: The partnership will feature co-developed showcases at major industry events, such as TIP’s FyuzTM and the IOWN Global Forum’s FUTURES events, with a focus on demonstrating the potential of optical networks in real-world use cases. Collaboration to develop complementary messaging in these areas of mutual interest and the identification of co-marketing opportunities is also covered by the agreement.
“Our work with TIP marks a significant step forward in realizing our vision for a more advanced, sustainable communication infrastructure,” said Hans Werner Bitzer, Chair of the IOWN Global Forum’s Liaison Working Group. “By aligning our efforts with TIP’s expertise in optical technologies, we are accelerating the development of next-generation optical infrastructure, as envisioned in our Vision 2030 roadmap. This shared interest enables us to push forward innovations that will support future use cases across industries, driving sustainable growth and addressing the global demand for high-performance networks.”
“This collaboration with the IOWN Global Forum underscores TIP’s commitment to advancing optical networking that meets the demands of tomorrow’s communication infrastructure,” said Olli Andersson, Chief Technology Officer of Telecom Infra Project. “By combining TIP’s operator-driven model with the Forum’s pioneering vision for All-Photonic Networks (APNs), we’re enabling the deployment of innovative optical solutions. Together, we aim to drive sustainable, low-latency networks that not only meet the stringent demands of today’s connectivity but also open doors for the applications of the future.”
The collaboration between the IOWN Global Forum and TIP will enable leveraging of both organizations’ approach towards optical networking.
- TIP’s operator-driven model focuses on real-world deployments through sub-projects, testing, and validation in labs. TIP’s use of “badges” to indicate solution maturity ensures that developed technologies meet stringent technical requirements, enabling scalable optical network solutions.
- The IOWN Global Forum’s work, specifically on an Open APN Architecture, aligns well with TIP’s Optical Packet Transport framework. With an emphasis on Proof of Concept (PoC) and early adoption, the Forum’s expertise ensures that the collaboration will facilitate innovation in sustainable, low-latency photonic networks that meet both immediate and future industry needs.
TIP hosted a session with the IOWN Global Forum at this year’s FyuzTM event, to discuss the partnership to realize APNs in more detail.
About the IOWN Global Forum
The IOWN Global Forum was established in 2020 as a private sector organization to develop IOWN technologies and use cases. As of the end of 2023, it is comprised of over 150 organizations. The objective of the IOWN Global Forum is to accelerate innovation and adoption of a new communication infrastructure to meet our future data and computing requirements through the development of new technologies, frameworks, specifications, and reference designs in areas such as photonics R&D, distributed computing, use cases and best practices. For more information, visit IOWN Global Forum – Innovative Optical and Wireless Network.
About Telecom Infra Project
The Telecom Infra Project is a global community of companies and organizations working together to accelerate the development and deployment of open, disaggregated, and standards-based technology solutions that deliver the high-quality connectivity the world needs – now and in the decades to come.
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Media Contacts
Joe Hatt
IOWN Global Forum
Eugina Jordan
Telecom Infra Project
