PRI-EEE Research Seminar on 11 December 2025 (Thursday): International Optical Networks towards 2030 and Beyond (ION-2030) for the AI Era

_^Topic

International Optical Networks towards 2030 and Beyond (ION-2030) for the AI Era

_^Abstracts

The International Telecommunication Union’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) has recently started a framework to envision International Optical Networks towards 2030 and beyond (ION-2030). At the ITU-T Study Group 15 (SG15) plenary meeting in Geneva in October 2025, the first ION-2030 technical report had been agreed, and three new projects had been established to take a deep dive into ION-2030 for datacenters optimised for AI, AI-enhanced broadband, and AI-enhanced home networking. In this talk, recent advances in ION-2030 for the AI era will be presented, with an emphasis on the mutual empowerment between ION-2030 and AI. Interesting aspects related to AI data centers and their electrical power demands, new optical networking research trends, and cooperation among standards development organisations (SDOs) will also be discussed.     

_^Biography

Xiang LIU is the Chief Scientist of Optical Standards at Huawei Technologies. He has been actively contributing to international standards in ITU-T SG15, ETSI ISG-F5G, IEEE 802.3, OIF, and BBF. He had been the Vice President for Optical Transport and Access at Futurewei Technologies.  He received the Ph.D. degree in applied physics from Cornell University in 2000. He has authored/co-authored over 360 publications and holds over 120 US patents. He is the author of a book entitled “Optical Communications in the 5G Era”. He has served as a General Co-Chair of OFC 2018. He is a Fellow of IEEE and OSA, and an Adjunct Professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).