18 Mar 2026
14:00 - 18:30
Room 515A
Generative AI (GenAI) will fundamentally change the way optical systems, and networks are conceived and operated. This symposium brings perspectives from experts applying GenAI to real-world problems in optical networking: network digital twins and optimization, synthetic dataset generation, and LLM-/agent-driven planning for provisioning, predictive maintenance, restoration, automation, and more. The symposium will also address intent-to-policy pipelines for closed-loop automation, guardrails, data governance, and interoperability issues for their deployment. Speakers from cloud platforms, carriers, and vendors will present concrete use cases, architectures, and lessons learned, and will discuss practical integration for multi-vendor, multi-layer deployments.
The key topics to address in this symposium are:
- GenAI Solutions for optical networking, including network digital twins, optimization, and automation;
- Agentic Operations for provisioning, predictive maintenance, restoration, autonomous networks — LLM/tool-use pipelines from intent to verified actions;
- Safety and Governance — guardrails, policy engines, auditability, and red-team evaluation of AI in closed-loop optical systems and networks;
- Standards and Interoperability — practical integration for multi-vendor, multi-layer deployments.
Organizers
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Harish Babu
Verizon Communications Inc., United States
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Behnam Shariati
Fraunhofer Inst Nachricht Henrich-Hertz, Germany
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Ricard Vilalta
Centre Tecnològic Telecom de Catalunya, Spain
Speakers
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Akhil Gokul
Ericsson, United States
Talk: Agentic AI and Autonomous Networks: Shaping the Future of Connectivity
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Yvan Pointurier
Huawei Technologies, France
Talk: GenAI and Digital Twins for Network Automation
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Sangit Rawlley
JLA Advisors, United States
Wireless is being rewritten. AI-native architectures are taking root, driving autonomy across the stack to cut costs, fuel growth, and deliver an EBITDA uplift of ~12–15 percentage points. Incumbents, constrained by legacy technical debt, struggle to cross this chasm — while the winners are those controlling the AI “brain” and scaled ecosystems, poised to disrupt the value curve with models like free connectivity and AI-powered personal assistants. Early signals — spectrum acquisitions, edge build-outs, and agentic “telco OS” launches — show the disruption is already underway.
A seasoned senior executive and entrepreneur with deep expertise in artificial intelligence, strategy execution, and venture building. As Senior Partner and AI Practice Lead at JLA Advisors, Sangit built the firm’s AI practice from the ground up, advising C-suite leaders on AI strategy, governance, and transformation. He co-founded Aiberry, a visionary AI-driven health-tech company pioneering multimodal intelligence for mental-health screening. At Ericsson, Sangit served as VP of Strategic Business Development and Head of Strategy Execution, where he led the creation of an AI-powered smart-city platform. Previously, as a Partner at inCode Consulting, he advised top executives at T-Mobile, Cox, Reliance, Microsoft, McAfee, Carlyle, Blackstone, and Juniper. His career spans launching new ventures, building AI practices, and driving growth and large-scale transformation across industries.
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Reza Rokui
Ciena, Canada
Talk: From Automation to Autonomy: AI Multi-Agents Dynamic Workflow Powering Next-Gen IP/Optical Operations
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Takahito Tanimura
Hitachi Ltd, Japan
Talk: Leveraging Small and Large Language Model Agents for Optical Network Control
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Imen Grida Ben Yahia
Amazon Web Services, United Kingdom
Talk: Self-Governing Networks with Agentic AI and Data-Centric Approaches