The IOWN Global Forum technology documents include published deliverables from the Forum’s work efforts to establish the fundamental architecture of IOWN technology’s compute and network infrastructure. Published documents include Technology Outlooks, Functional Architectures, Reference Implementation Models (RIMs), and Proof of Concept References (PoC References).
Technical Outlooks
Emerging mobile technologies such as massive MIMO, dynamic spectrum sharing and mmWave wide spectrum deliver high data rates to enable video-centric, latency-sensitive applications such as remote surgery, AR/VR and industrial automation. To render these use cases possible, the reference document addresses new requirements and proposes solutions and evolution paths for the transport networks handling capacity, reliability and availability supporting next generation wireless networks utilizing the IOWN technologies.
The second version “Technical Outlook for Mobile Networks Using IOWN Technology – Advanced Transport Network Technologies for Mobile Network” covers the technical topics related to mobile and transport networks to support the IOWN Global Forum’s efforts to develop fundamental technologies on communication, computing, data handling, and energy efficiency that would bring a quantum leap in performance improvements over existing networks and enable a much smarter world with advanced applications. This document presents advancements that members have made since the original “Technical Outlook for Mobile Networks Using IOWN Technology” was published in January 2022.
IOWN Security Task Force studies a Multi-Factor Security (MFS) architecture which can combine multiple technologies to achieve end-to-end data protection with post quantum security. MFS could address a wider range of threats including sudden cryptographic compromise and achieve a required security level by the user that cannot be reached with a single method.
IOWN Global Forum is focused on driving the development of future communications and computing infrastructure to create a more connected and efficient society. The Forum’s innovative structure and collaborative approach allow it to deliver distinct benefits to the market and provide value by focusing on two key technology segments: IOWN Networking and IOWN Computing. This document presents an overview of the direction of the IOWN Global Forum in the form of a technology evolution roadmap.
Functional Architectures
The Open APN defines the architecture of network infrastructure that creates direct optical communication paths among communication endpoints and enables end-to-end communication with deterministic performance.
The Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI) is designed to enable service providers with the tools needed to build and flexibly place data pipelines, including data processing and storage functions, while dynamically selecting data transfer and network protocols on a pipe-by-pipe basis.
The concepts, features, and functional architectures of high-speed distributed data management and sharing solutions that enable various use cases envisioned by the IOWN Global Forum.
The IOWN Global Forum Open APN Fiber Sensing Task Force (OAF Task Force) studies the system architectures and the use cases for applying the fiber sensing function to the IOWN Open APN. With the addition of the sensing function, the fiber optic network becomes more intelligent, with better operation efficiency and resiliency. The sensing function also brings new value streams to the network infrastructure.
Reference Implementation Models (RIMs)
This document delves into the RIM for the Interactive Live Music Use Case (ILM UC) as defined in the IOWN AIC UC. The purpose of this RIM work is to develop and evaluate the RIMs iteratively. The RIMs provide guidance for the practical implementation of these technologies and their combinations for the overlay solution targeting specific CPS/AIC Use Cases.
This document describes an IOWN Global Forum end-to-end system that will meet the requirements of a target use case. The reference design also aims to demonstrate many of the benefits of the IOWN Global Forum architecture and technology over today’s cloud-based implementations.
IOWN Global Forum has initiated the development of RIMs, with CPS Area Management Security Use Case (AM Security UC) included in Cyber-Physical System Use Case Release 1 [IOWN CPS UC] and others already entering the Proof of Concept stage. This document covers an additional initial study on another target use case, the Industry Management use case included in IOWN CPS UC, and presents a RIM for this purpose. The RIM in this document has been developed concerning Open APN [IOWN Open APN] and Data-Centric Infrastructure Functional Architecture [IOWN DCI], and Data Hub Functional Architecture [IOWN Data Hub], which were released in January 2022, as well as subsequent development on these architectures at the IOWN Global Forum.
Proof of Concept (PoC) References
The IOWN Global Forum aims to establish an open architecture for photonic networking so that service providers can integrate photonic network functions into their entire computing and networking infrastructure with more granularity. The open architecture should also enable service providers to build an intelligent operations support system. In this PoC work, we plan to evaluate dynamic (automatic) optical path design methods, as well as its open interfaces, multi-environment support, and automatic provisioning functions.
The purpose of the PoC proposed in this document is to confirm and demonstrate that RDMA over Open APN indeed removes the obstacles of long-range communication for IOWN Global Forum use-cases.
Data-centric-infrastructure-as-a-service is an open architecture that can provide a generic and heterogeneous computing and communication infrastructure.
The intention of this Proof of Concept (PoC) Reference is to provide guidelines for conducting PoCs to demonstrate and illustrate to mobile network operators the benefits and viability of Open APN as a fronthaul solution/service.
The purpose of the IOWN Data Hub (IDH) PoC Reference is to build the foundation for realizing digital experience services by verifying the IDH function architecture, which was designed to meet such severe requirements based on a hierarchically distributed architecture as described in the IDH Functional Architecture document. By quantifying IDH capabilities and identifying areas for improvement, developers will be able to design the foundation for real-time and economically rational digital experience services.
The purpose of distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) is to detect and monitor changes in the physical environment surrounding a fiber optic cable. DFOS technology utilizes the optical fiber as a sensing element, allowing for distributed measurements of temperature, strain, vibration, and other physical parameters along the length of the fiber. Distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS), has been proposed to be a new feature for IOWN Global Forum’s Open All Photonics Network (APN). This PoC is designed to achieve the understanding of the crosstalk between the fiber sensing signals and the optical communication signals to verify the feasibility of having both signals co-existing on the same optical network, especially over the new Open APN architecture.
Based on the Area Management Security (AM-S) RIM document, this PoC Reference provides guidelines for conducting PoCs to validate the IOWN technologies as enablers of low-cost and low-power consumption of AM Security Use Cases.
