IOWN Global Forum Releases Its Vision 2030 White Paper Version 2.0

The Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum (IOWN Global Forum), which seeks to create a smarter, more connected world, released a new version of its Vision 2030 White Paper that outlines the strategic direction and imperatives of the photonics industry to deliver a next-generation infrastructure for future use cases and business impacts. Ongoing engagement at last month's Working Group Workshop, with over 100 attendees, continues to drive the momentum of the Forum toward its ultimate future vision of computing and networks.

Vision 2030

The IOWN Global Forum has made significant progress since the first publication of the Vision 2030 White Paper in 2020. With a high level of member engagement, there have been excellent improvements made on key requirements, use cases and Proof of Concept (PoC) activities. As a result, the new version of the Vision 2030 White Paper has a clearer focus on key interest groups with a better connection to the IOWN Global Forum working groups. It also takes into account new societal, environmental and technology trends, as well as provides an update on the IOWN Global Forum plans and the achievements towards the infrastructure evolution enabled by IOWN technology and its expected benefits.

Successful Working Group Face-to-Face Meetings

In February of 2023, in Paris, France, a Working Group Workshop organized by the IOWN Global Forum's Technology and Use Case Working Group hosted 100 in-person attendees and succeeded in its objective to build strong business cases for the early adoption of IOWN technologies. Representatives from member companies, who attended in-person and online, presented business and vertical use cases focusing on Open All-Photonics Network (APN), Mobile X-Haul, Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI), Data Hub and Digital Twin, Fiber Sensing, and Reference Implementation Model (RIM) technologies. The group discussed and developed step-by-step plans focusing Proof of Concept work towards both short- and mid-term business use cases.

Steady Growth Continues

The IOWN Global Forum has seen a strong increase in membership to over 115 organizations and academic institutes globally. The focus of the Forum continues to be the development of next-generation networking and computing, including device technologies, network-enabled services, silicon photonics, and distributed computing. In late August of 2022, the IOWN Global Forum celebrated its 100-member milestone.

About IOWN Global Forum

IOWN Global Forum's objective 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.

Details on IOWN Global Forum and membership information can be found at https://iowngf.org.