Special Session: Rethinking Networking Convergence from operational perspective: Towards a Data and AI centric Operational Future

19 Mar 2026
14:00 - 16:00
Room 515A

The telecommunications industry stands at a critical crossroads. Despite years of effort and investment, telcos continue to struggle with transitioning to a truly cloud-native, data-centric operational model. Initiatives such as CORD, ETSI NFV, vRAN, virtual BNG/OLT, and cloud-native Mobile core production have made limited progress, often hindered by siloed infrastructure, fragmented operational models, and a lack of cross-domain expertise. Fixed, WiFi, and cellular networks still operate largely in isolation, each attempting its own version of transformation—with minimal cumulative benefit. At the same time, forward-looking R&D activities in areas like 6G and digital network twins show promise, but they remain narrow in scope and disconnected from practical deployment challenges. Gaps between technical vision and market reality—such as the inflated expectations versus actual demand in 5G and FTTH—continue to widen.

Automation, while repeatedly identified as a critical goal, has seen only marginal gains, again limited by technology silos. Meanwhile, the economic inefficiencies of underutilized telco resources persist. 

Focus
This special session invites fresh perspectives on how to reimagine telco network convergence from an operational and data-driven point of view. We seek contributions that explore bold, practical, and holistic approaches to:
 

• Designing networks cloud-native by design, focus on convergence that eliminates silos across fixed, wireless, and mobile domains.
• Operational convergence—rethinking convergence not just at the technology level, but through harmonized production and operational models.
• Resource-centric architecture—leveraging all available compute and communication resources through shared, dynamic allocation strategies.
• Seamless data usage models that treat data as a central resource for orchestration, optimization, and automation.
• Bridging the gap between R&D and operational implementation with scalable, field-ready solutions.

We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches, including architecture design, automation frameworks, resource utilization optimization, and models for accelerating innovation adoption across large-scale telco infrastructures.

Organizers

• Andreas Gladisch

  Deutsche Telekom AG Laboratories, Germany

• Dan Kilper

  University of Dublin Trinity College, Ireland

• Fritz-Joachim Westphal

  Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories, Germany

Speakers

• Sebastian Bigo

  Nokia Bell Labs, France

• Inder Monga

  Energy Sciences Network, United States

  Talk: The Integrated Ecosystem: AI-capable Multi-Domain Orchestration and Cross-Layer Operations

  ESnet's transition to AI-managed infrastructure will highlight how cross-layer and AIOps create an autonomous network fabric capable of accelerating global scientific workflows. We explore building new integration frameworks within the American Science Cloud Genesis Mission.

• Hideki Nishizawa

  NTT Corporation, Japan

  Talk: Cloud-native Optical Network in the Era of AI: Requirement and Architecture

  This talk discusses requirements and architectures for cloud-native optical networks leveraging digital twins as key enablers, emphasizing telcos’ transition to data center operators and system integrators to enable AI-driven operations.

• Mallik Tatipamula

  Ericsson, United States