Delivering on the promise of a truly smart and connected world, where we enjoy an environment that improves the way humans live and interact with technology, requires a significant shift in computing, communications and network infrastructure. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Intel Corporation (Intel) and Sony Corporation (Sony) today announced that they will create a new industry forum, the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN¹ ) Global Forum.

The global forum’s objective is to accelerate the adoption of a new communication infrastructure that will bring together an all photonics network infrastructure including silicon photonics, edge computing and connected computing 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, including photonic devices of the future, photonic network equipment and end-to-end architecture, powered by advances in photonics-electronics convergence technologies. This will significantly reduce power consumption and enable instant access and response by shortening latency times and broadening transmission capacity.
• Connected compute, which is expected to be increasingly critical for computing across networks, leveraging both artificial intelligence (AI) and workloads that will be dynamic and distributed.
• Use cases and best practices for a smart world and enabling technologies, such as digital twin computing (a computing paradigm that enables humans and things in the real world to be re-created and interact without restrictions in cyberspace), R&D in human behavior and society modeling, large-scale simulations and next-generation “real” UI/UX device technologies.

Next-generation communications have the potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from remote healthcare, disaster prevention, education, automated driving, finance, entertainment/sports and industrial manufacturing. IOWN’s aim is to deliver the next generation of communication infrastructure that will allow as many people as possible to take advantage of this future.

Technology, telecommunications and other industry organizations will be invited to join the forum. NTT, Intel and Sony, with their industry leadership and expertise in these technology areas, will act as founding members. In the coming months, NTT, Intel and Sony will select the initial board of the IOWN Global Forum to jointly kick off operations.

IOWN Global Forum will be based in the U.S., and membership opportunities are currently available to interested parties. More details on IOWN and membership information can be found at http://www.iowngf.org.

“NTT has a long history in photonics-related R&D and has achieved cutting-edge results in fields like silicon photonics and optoelectronic convergence. Based on these technologies, NTT aims to power the next generation of technology innovation and solve many of today’s societal challenges, such as ever-increasing power consumption. We will bring our leading R&D expertise to foster the photonics revolution and unlock new technologies to ultimately enable a smart world, where technology becomes so ‘natural’ that people are unaware of its presence. NTT is looking forward to collaborating with its best-in-class partners and realizing a smart world.” – Jun Sawada, president and CEO, NTT.

“Digital transformation and the growth of data is driving an infrastructure build-out that will dwarf the first era of the cloud defined by hyperscale data centers. We are using information technology now in completely new ways that demand we move, store and process data even faster, more securely and often closer to the person using the service. The combination of super-fast networking and pervasive high-performance computing – the edge infrastructure to deliver smart services anywhere, anytime – can only be achieved with a profoundly new mindset shared across a global ecosystem. The IOWN collaboration is an important step forward. A vision of this magnitude can only be achieved with global leaders across industries. Intel is honored to join forces with NTT and Sony in this industry-wide journey to help define the future of technology.” – Bob Swan , CEO, Intel Corporation

*“Based on our Purpose to ‘Fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology,’ at Sony we work closely with creators to help them realize their vision through technology, and deliver compelling content to their fans around the world. The high-capacity, low-latency, energy efficiency and flexibility that IOWN offers, opens up exciting new possibilities in terms of connecting creators with users, bringing together people with people, and sharing highly realistic entertainment in real time. We are proud to stand together with NTT and Intel as we embark on the establishment of this forum, and look forward to working with them and many other partners going forward, in order to create new value.” – Kenichiro Yoshida, president and CEO, Sony Corporation

¹ IOWN stands for Innovative Optical and Wireless Network. IOWN is future communications infrastructure to realize a smart world by using cutting-edge technologies like photonics and computing technologies.