Description:
The rapid growth of AI infrastructures is reshaping the requirements for optical communication and networking. Emerging AI data centers, high-performance computing platforms, and distributed cloud-edge environments are driving unprecedented demand for bandwidth, scalability, energy efficiency, and operational intelligence. These evolving demands are pushing optical systems toward wider spectral utilization, higher capacity, and broader deployment scope, while also driving optical networks toward more programmable, adaptive, and application-aware architectures. At the same time, AI itself is becoming an important tool for optical systems and networks, enabling tasks such as transmission optimization, telemetry-driven control, and autonomous operation.
As a result, the design space of optical systems and networks is rapidly expanding, encompassing a wide range of transmission technologies, device innovations, and architectural approaches, including ultra-wideband systems as one promising direction. However, as optical technologies diversify, fair and meaningful evaluation becomes increasingly difficult. Performance comparisons are often based on inconsistent assumptions regarding traffic models, workload scenarios, performance metrics, energy efficiency, reliability, reconfiguration behavior, and baseline architectures.
This raises a timely need for common benchmarking methodologies for optical systems and networks supporting AI infrastructures and workloads, as well as those enhanced by AI.
Part I: Benchmarking Methodologies for AI-driven Optical Networks
This part addresses how emerging optical systems and architectures should be benchmarked. The focus is on performance limits, evaluation metrics, reproducibility, and fair comparison across diverse technological approaches, including networks designed to support emerging AI infrastructures and applications.
Invited Speakers:
| Prof. Hiroshi Hasegawa | Nagoya University, Japan | Benchmarking Dynamic Control Methods of Mesh Optical Networks |
| Dr. Andrea D’Amico | NEC Laboratories America, USA | Benchmarking Open and Disaggregated Optical Networks with GNPy |
| Dr. Ronit Sohanpal | UCL, UK | Energy-Efficiency Benchmarking for Ultra-Wideband Optical Transmission Systems |
| Prof. Suresh Subramaniam | George Washington University, USA | Benchmarking Frameworks for PON-Based Fronthaul Network Design |
Part II: Ultra-wideband Systems and AI-driven Optical Infrastructure
This part explores how AI-driven infrastructure demands are pushing optical systems toward wider spectral utilization, higher capacity, and broader deployment scope. It also considers technological directions such as ultra-wideband transmission, device and system innovations, and the emerging role of AI in transmission and system optimization.
Invited Speakers:
| Dr. Fukutaro Hamaoka | NTT, Japan | Title TBA |
| Dr. Joao Pedro | Nokia, Portugal | Title TBA |
| Dr. Stefano Gaiani | Politecnico di Milano, Italy | Title TBA |
| Dr. Jiaqian Yang | UCL, UK | Title TBA |
Format:
The workshop will consist of two 90-minute sessions, each featuring invited presentations followed by a panel discussion involving speakers and participants.
The workshop aims to foster discussion on future directions for optical infrastructures supporting AI, as well as benchmarking methodologies for next-generation optical networks.
Description:
Next-generation AI computing will be shaped by advances in processors, accelerators, and communication infrastructures that interconnect them. As AI systems scale, performance, scalability, and energy efficiency of computing and switching fabrics become key constraints, exposing the limits of conventional electrical technologies in bandwidth, latency, and power. Emerging photonic solutions, such as optical circuit switching, coherent and co-packaged optics, and linear photonic computing, offer promising alternatives by reducing data movement costs and enabling high-capacity, scalable architectures. This workshop examines these developments, focusing on trade-offs between electrical and optical approaches, energy efficiency (pJ/bit), novel network topologies, and geo-distributed strategies for sustainable AI infrastructure.
Part I: Photonic Switching
Invited Speakers:
| Dr. Luis Torrijos | IPronics, Programmable Photonics, Spain | Programmable Photonics as Reconfigurable Switching Fabrics for Scalable AI Factories |
| Alvaro Jimenez | GDS Factory, Sunnyvale, Ca, USA | AI-Enabled Design of Photonic Switching and Computing Chips for Energy-Efficient AI |
Part II: Linear computing
Invited Speakers:
| Prof Antonio Hurtado | Institute of Photonics, SUPA Dept. Physics, University of Strathclyde, UK | Photonic Spiking Neurons and Neural Networks for Light-Enabled Neuromorphic Processing |
| Dr. Andrés Macho | Photonics Research Lab, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain | Analog programmable photonic computation and information |
| Prof. Nikos Pleros | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece | Linear and Nonlinear Mathematical Operations using Linear Optics |
Format:
The workshop will consist of two 90-minute sessions, each featuring invited presentations followed by a final panel discussion involving speakers and participants.
Description:
Can integrated photonics truly enable quantum‑enhanced data centers?
Integrated photonics is widely viewed as the key enabling technology for scaling quantum communications and computing systems, providing compact, stable, and manufacturable platforms for sources, detectors, switching, and interconnects. At the same time, the concept of quantum‑enhanced data centers has gained attention, promising tight integration of quantum and classical resources.
Data-center-scale environments may provide one of the first realistic scenarios where quantum communication technologies can be deployed, since they avoid many of the severe challenges associated with long-distance quantum networking.
This workshop explores whether integrated photonics can effectively bridge classical and quantum communications at data‑center scale. It also examines whether current architectures underestimate challenges in switching, control, coexistence,, system and network integration and how they can be addressed. The workshop covers integrated photonic technologies enabling hybrid quantum–classical systems and quantum secure application, including QKD, the coexistence in shared photonic infrastructures, and their role in future quantum‑enhanced data‑center architectures. It also discusses limitations and challenges.
By bringing together operators and system architects, photonic device experts, and quantum system/network researchers, the workshop aims to critically assess feasibility and scalability, and identify realistic pathways beyond proof‑of‑concept demonstrations, stimulating a vibrant discussion on requirements, enablers and challenges.
Part I:
Invited Speakers:
Yasutaka Morioka | NTT DOCOMO, Japan | A Proposal for Hybrid Use of PQC and QKD |
Antonio Melgar | Telefonica, Spain | Operator Perspective on Integrating Photonic and Quantum Security Technologies for Next‑Generation Data‑Center Networks with Built‑In Security |
Elisa Redolfi | FiberCop, Italy | Protecting Critical Infrastructure Data with Quantum-Safe Communication Networks |
Marco Avesani | University of Padova and Thinkquantum, Italy | Photonic integrated circuits for quantum secure applications |
Sebastian Etcheverry | Luxquanta, Spain | Continuous-variable QKD: towards scalability with photonic chips |
Part II:
Invited Speakers:
Rikizo Ikuta | The University of Osaka, Japan | Frequency-conversion quantum switches for heterogeneous quantum networks |
Elham Heidari | University of Florida, USA | Kerr Optical Frequency Combs in both classical and quantum PIC applications |
António Teixeira | PICadvanced, Portugal | Packaging of integrated photonics in classical and transition to quantum communications |
Panel discussion with all Invited Speakers.
Format:
The workshop will consist of two 90-minute sessions, each featuring invited presentations followed by a final panel discussion involving speakers and participants.
