The explosive growth of GPU-centric AI, especially training large language models (LLMs), is driving massive bandwidth demands within data centers (DCs), across DC interconnects (DCIs), and over wide area networks. As LLM training expands beyond single sites, distributed training will further increase networking requirements. Machine-to-machine traffic now exceeds user traffic, ushering in an era of networks built for AI.
This panel will examine optical networking challenges and solutions to scale networks for AI in different regions: low-latency scale-out DC networks, optical switching, spatial division multiplexing to scale DCI beyond fiber Shannon limits, and distributed AI inference at the edge.
The key questions to address in this panel are:
- Will the AI-driven bandwidth explosion continue?
- What AI workloads dominate traffic for now and the future?
- How will network architectures adapt to machine-driven traffic?
- What scaling solutions fit each network region?
- How will optical interconnects and spatial multiplexing and switching evolve?
The panel will be divided into two topics.
Session I, Scaling Inside DC (Scale out)
Session II, Scaling Between DC (DCI)
Organizers
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Ashwin Gumaste
Microsoft, United States
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Behnam Shariati
Fraunhofer Inst Nachricht Henrich-Hertz, Germany
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Jesse Simsarian
Nokia, United States
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Anbin Wang
Alibaba Group, China
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Kang Ping Zhong
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Panelists
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Michael DeMerchant
Lumentum, Canada
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Chongjin Xie
PhotonicX AI, United States
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Shikui Shen
China Unicom, China
Shikui Shen, PhD, Research Institute of China Unicom, Professor-level Senior engineer, China Institute of Communications (CIC) Senior Member, IET Chartered Engineer, IEEE Senior Member, Optica member, received doctor's degree from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2011, received bachelor's degree from Wuhan University in 2006. He is focusing on research, standardization and application of optical network techniques since 2011 joined in China Unicom. He has participated in ITU-T standardization work since 2012, served as ITU-T SG15 Q6 associate Rapporteur currently, has developed several ITU-T Recommendations.
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Arash Vakili
Meta, United States
Arash Vakili is Tech Lead for Network Planning at Meta, leading capacity planning and scaling across Meta’s global backbone, edge, and data center infrastructure. With 12+ years in network planning and optical communications, he translates high-level business requests—such as large GPU cluster builds—into short-term and long-term network strategies covering inter- and intra-DC connectivity. Arash owns Network CAPEX modeling and plays a key role in Meta’s Corporate and Long-Range Planning processes, shaping infrastructure investment. Previously, he was a network specialist and sales engineer at Ciena. He holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering from McGill University and regularly speaks at industry conferences.
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Yawei Yin
Microsoft, United States
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Zhizhen Zhong
Netpreme, United States