BARCELONA, Spain, March 4, 2025 -- During the MWC Barcelona 2025, Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, proposed the evolution of optical networks towards AI Optical Network (AI ON) in the AI era. This transformation aims to provide 5A-quality connectivity, laying a robust foundation for AI growth and prosperity.

The AI era is defined by three key characteristics: AI application is everywhere, AI computing power is everywhere, and AI native is everywhere. These trends demand networks that can sense service types, deliver differentiated connectivity, and ensure optimal service experiences. Additionally, networks must provide deterministic connectivity to support flexible and efficient computing power scheduling, while also integrating AI capabilities to enhance both service quality and network efficiency.

Bob Chen emphasized that since the release of the target network for the AI era in 2024, Huawei has collaborated with global customers to drive continuous innovation. The next-generation evolution of optical networks, termed AI ON, is now clearer and is characterized by the following features:

• Awareness: In the past, optical networks did not sense service types. Future optical networks need to accurately identify service types based on traffic patterns and flow directions, ensuring that bandwidth, latency, and reliability requirements are met. This enables networks to better understand and adapt to service needs.
• Always On Demand: Unlike the past, where networks offered undifferentiated connectivity, future optical networks need to provide real-time, differentiated connectivity tailored to specific service demands. For instance, a gaming user can be offered a three-hour 1 Gbps bandwidth package.
• Assurance: In the past, many factors such as network congestion, fault, and service increase may degrade the connectivity quality. In the future, optical networks need to guarantee high-quality connectivity regardless of network changes or service fluctuations, ensuring deterministic latency and zero packet loss for all services.
• Autonomous O&M: In the past, network O&M was reactively performed after a fault occurred. Moving beyond the traditional mode of reactive maintenance, future networks need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks before they impact users, achieving self-healing and optimization.
• AI Native: Full-stack AI-native capabilities need to be embedded across network terminals, devices, and management systems, accelerating network intelligence. For example, AI computing power in ONTs/FTTRs will identify application types and enhance device performance using small models on terminals.

In closing, Bob Chen remarked that the AI represents a transformative shift in human society, offering unprecedented opportunities for the ICT industry. Just as 5A signifies the highest service quality in industries like hospitality and tourism, premium connectivity will be essential to seize these opportunities. Huawei is committed to collaborating with the industry to advance optical networks towards AI ON, deliver 5A-quality connectivity, and drive new growth in the AI era.

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