Intra-Data Center Optics Powering AI

Dr. David Hillerkuss is a prominent expert in optical networking and communications technology, currently serving as a key innovator within Nokia. His work focuses on developing modern, efficient network infrastructures to support the "AI Era". 

Professional Roles & Affiliations

• Nokia: Following the planned acquisition of Infinera by Nokia, Hillerkuss is an integral part of the combined optical networking leadership.
• Infinera: He previously held significant roles at Infinera, where he moderated industry-shaping webinars and drove standards for optical networks.
• Industry Leadership: He is a frequent moderator and speaker for Optica (formerly OSA) webinar series, such as "Optical Networks toward 2030" (ON2030), focusing on high-speed optics like 1.6T ZR/ZR+.
• Academic Background: He earned his doctorate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he specialized in high-capacity optical transmission systems. 

Key Contributions & Awards

• World Record Transmission: He was part of the team that achieved a 32.5 Tbit/s Nyquist WDM transmission using a single laser, a milestone in spectral efficiency.
• IOWN Global Forum Contributor Award: Recognized in May 2025 for his work on energy efficiency and sustainability in technology working groups.
• Charles Kao Award (2015): Received the IEEE Communications Society award for the Best Optical Communications & Networking Paper.
• Research Areas: His extensive publication record covers OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing), silicon modulators, and CV-QKD (Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution). 

2018 OSA Ambassador Jelena Pesic is a research engineer with NOKIA Bell Labs, based in Paris, France. After receiving a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade in Serbia, she completed a 6 month internship with the engineering school of Telecom Bretagne, located in Brest, France. This involved working on the optical access network, GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) under the supervision of profs. Annie Gravey and Philippe Gravey. This rich experience encouraged her passion for research and subsequent enrolment into optics.

Jelena then completed her PhD in the subject of proactive restoration of backbone optical networks, with the French operator Orange Labs, under the supervision of Esther Le Rouzic and prof. Laurent Dupont. In recognition of this work, she received the award of best paper at the conference ONDM2011 (Optical Network Design and Modelling)
Following her PhD, she carried out two postdoctoral studies. During the first of these, she worked for INRIA (French National Research Institute) on the European project SASER, designing MAC layer for TWIN optical networks. During the second, she worked with Telecom Bretagne.

Jelena’s current position with Nokia Bell Labs affords her the opportunity to be part of future product innovation, as well as several European projects like SENDATE and  ORCHESTRA.  She has served as a technical committee member for OSA and IEEE international conferences, reviewed articles submitted for peer-review and accepted invitations to write and publish articles at various international worldwide conferences.

Chigo Okonkwo is a Professor leading the high capacity optical transmission laboratory of the Electro-Optical Communications Group at the Institute for Photonics Integration, TU/e. He currently works on two key areas: Firstly, he is working to maximise the capacity of presently deployed single-mode fibre systems by employing advanced-coded modulation schemes and Probabilistic/Geometrically shaped signals and low complexity digital signal processing. More importantly, he is working on future proof transmission systems based on Space Division Multiplexing, and developing the new optical components required to scale the capacity of the optical transmission systems towards Petabit/s transmission. This can be done by exploiting the various spatial channel of a multi-mode fibre or multi-core fibre.

Chigo’s research is also focused on the development of new measurement systems, and his work has led to a provisional patent and several critical publications in Nature Photonics, JLT and Optics Express. Since 2010, Chigo has built up a world-class high capacity optical transmission laboratory and collaborates with several industrial partners.

Over 99% of all data generated will go through an optical fibre. Optical transmission systems form the foundation of the Internet and are slowly running out of capacity. We need a paradigm shift in how we design and test our systems to develop next-generation low-energy, robust and high capacity photonic networks

George C. Papen is a prominent electrical engineer and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His research spans advanced photonic systems, optical communications, and networking infrastructure.

Professional Background & Research

• Current Focus: He specializes in lightwave technology for networking and computing, including optical circuit switches and transceivers for large-scale data centers.
• Academic Career: Before joining UCSD in 2002, he was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for over a decade.
• Industry Collaboration: He has served as a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Google, working on optical fabric architectures to improve the efficiency of global internet infrastructure.
• Environmental Impact: He leads the Carbonless Cloud Computing Lab, which explores ways to extend the lifecycle of IT hardware to reduce the carbon footprint of digital infrastructure. 

Key Contributions

• Textbook Author: He co-authored the textbook Lightwave Communications with Richard E. Blahut, covering the mathematical and physical foundations of optical systems.
• Remote Sensing: Early in his career, he developed lidar systems for atmospheric research, including systems used at the South Pole to characterize the upper atmosphere.
• Optical Networking: He is a key contributor to the RotorNet project, which focuses on developing practical, microsecond-scale optical networking for data centers. 

Kazuya Anazawa is a prominent researcher at NTT Network Innovation Laboratories in Japan, specializing in optical networking and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for next-generation data centers. 

Professional Profile

• Current Role: Researcher at the Network Innovation Laboratories, NTT Corporation.
• Academic Background: He earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Aizu (2016 and 2018, respectively).
• Industry Involvement: Serves as a coordinator for the IOWN Global Forum, specifically focusing on AI interconnect infrastructure. 

Key Research Areas

Anazawa's work primarily focuses on enhancing the efficiency and scalability of data center networks through:

• Optical-Circuit-Switching (OCS): Developing verification algorithms for fiber topology and quality to improve energy efficiency.
• SDN Controllers: Leading the first demonstrations of SDN controllers specifically designed for open optical-circuit-switched networks.
• AI Data Center Infrastructure: Researching optical networking technologies that serve as enablers for AI-driven data centers.
• Network Digital Twins: Investigating Digital Twin operations for optical networks to enable flexible lightpath management and remote transponder control. 

Notable Publications

• "Experimental Evaluation of an SDN Controller for Open Optical-circuit-switched Networks" (2025) – Journal of Optical Communications and Networking.
• "Efficient Verification Algorithm for Topology and Quality of Optical Fibers..." (2025) – Journal of Optical Communications and Networking.
• "Design of Multiple-Plane Twisted and Folded Clos Network..." (2025) – IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management

Xu Wang is data scientist for Meta.  He has a background in Biostatistics and Machine Learning.