This month, Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum (IOWN Global Forum) brought together 226 delegates from 22 countries to shape the future of digital infrastructure and connectivity. Representatives from across its global network of 180+ member organizations gathered in the Dutch capital to address practical decisions facing industry and policymakers as AI drives new demands on computing, networks, and energy.

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IOWN Global Forum members meet in Amsterdam

IOWN Global Forum members meet in Amsterdam

The Decisions Shaping AI Infrastructure

At the Forum’s public session FUTURES Amsterdam, Ian Redpath, Research Director at Omdia, shared a global view of the AI infrastructure market, examining changing requirements for capacity, power, latency, and sustainability.

Stijn Grove, Managing Director of the Dutch Data Center Association, explored the changing data center landscape in Europe, including the availability of power and network capacity needed to support AI growth.

A panel moderated by Ronald van Loon, Founder and CEO of Intelligent World, considered what digital sovereignty means in practice and the choices facing governments and industry as they develop AI capabilities. Stijn Grove, Accenture’s Jeff Wang, and Ciena’s Dejan Bilbija covered the relationship between data centers, networks, and cloud services, alongside the policy and investment decisions that will influence deployment.

Dr. Gonzalo Camarillo, Marketing Steering Committee Chair of the IOWN Global Forum and Head of Implementation Components at Ericsson, outlined how the Forum is developing architectures and deployment approaches for next-generation networks, including the role of All-Photonics Networks (APNs) in supporting AI workloads.

Recognizing Practical Innovation

The IOWN Global Forum named the Remote Media Production in Broadcast Industry project as Implementation of the Year.

The project demonstrated how dynamic optical path provisioning through the Open APN can provide high-capacity, low-latency connections between remote production sites on demand. The implementation also assessed reliability and economic feasibility, including the transmission of multiple uncompressed video streams and remote control of production equipment.

Expanding Partnerships

In a special ceremony, the IOWN Global Forum announced further cooperation with the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) and the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) on next-generation communication technologies and their application to connected mobility.

New Membership

The IOWN Global Forum welcomed a number of new organizations to its membership at FUTURES Amsterdam, including:

  • Sponsor Member: FET

  • Academic Members: Singapore University of Technology and Design; Utsunomiya University

  • General Members: Airbus SAS; DDN; Narita International Airport Corporation; Universal Systems Engineering

Building for What Comes Next

Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe, President and Chairperson of the IOWN Global Forum, commented: “It was a pleasure to have members and partners from around the world join us in Amsterdam, and to welcome new organizations to the IOWN Global Forum. Their participation strengthens our ecosystem and brings new expertise and perspectives to our collaborative efforts.

“Sovereign AI depends on having greater control over the infrastructure that supports it. That means giving organizations more choice over how their data, computing, and networks are connected while reducing dependencies that can limit their ability to adapt as their needs change. The IOWN Global Forum has an important role to play by developing architectures and use cases that give organizations more options in how they build and operate this infrastructure. By working across industry boundaries, our members can help shape a more resilient and flexible foundation for sovereign AI and the next generation of digital services.”

About the IOWN Global Forum

The IOWN Global Forum was established in 2020 as a private sector organization to develop IOWN Global Forum technologies and use cases, and is comprised of over 180 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 Home – IOWN Global Forum.

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