English-language book explores the transformative capabilities of advanced optical-photonic and wireless networks
News Highlights:
Akira Shimada, president and CEO of NTT, and Katsuhiko Kawazoe, senior executive vice president and CTO of NTT, have published a book, "The Identity of IOWN," in which they discuss the IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) Initiative spearheaded by NTT, a global technology leader.
The newly translated book explores NTT’s vision of IOWN and how it will enable a more sustainable society in an increasingly data-driven world.
"The Identity of IOWN" is now available on Amazon following publication during NTT’s annual research and innovation summit, Upgrade. Upgrade 2025 is being held in San Francisco April 9-10, 2025.
SAN FRANCISCO & TOKYO, April 09, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NTT Corporation (NTT) announced the publication of "The Identity of IOWN," an English-language book outlining the company’s development and implementation of a global optical and advanced wireless network to enable significantly more efficient and environmentally sustainable computing technologies.
The Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) Initiative aims to enable a smarter world by moving beyond electronics into a photonics-based future that responsibly realizes the enormous potential of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) across a variety of industries, from finance and healthcare to sports and live entertainment.
"The price of humanity’s rapid industrial development has been the heavy burden placed upon the Earth," wrote NTT President and CEO Akira Shimada in the book’s preface. "Climate change has begun exerting a serious impact around the world. While the internet has transformed our lives through digitalization and otherwise, it also poses major challenges and opportunities. There is a way to simultaneously achieve solutions for both issues—the challenges and opportunities posed by the internet and the need to manage power usage to ensure global sustainability—and thereby create a better society – through the IOWN Initiative."
The book highlights the four stages of IOWN’s planned commercialization and deployment. Following the initiative’s announcement in 2019, NTT contributed to the completion of the first stage—IOWN 1.0—with the initial commercialization of its All-Photonics Network (APN) in March 2023. The APN seeks to maximize the efficiency and performance of long-distance data transfer by eliminating optical-electronic-optical conversions along the transmission path.
In 2024, NTT launched IOWN 2.0 to expand the initiative from networks to computing, announcing the development of photonics-electronics convergence (PEC) devices to advance light-based connections between computer boards. NTT is targeting the commercialization of these devices in 2026.
Around 2029, IOWN 3.0 will further miniaturize these devices to the millimeter scale for light-based connections between semiconductor chips. Beginning around 2032, IOWN 4.0 will see the further development of PEC devices enabling optical signaling inside chips themselves, thus entering the micro realm of optical semiconductors. Ultimately, these four stages aim to culminate in enabling IOWN’s three key performance targets: a 100x increase in power efficiency, a 125x increase in transmission capacity and a reduction in latency by 200x as compared to contemporary infrastructure.
"Building the future of computing requires global collaboration and partnership," said Sean Lawrence, vice president, head of IOWN Development Office, NTT. "NTT was able to foresee the data transmission and processing demands of the future, conceptualizing IOWN after decades of fundamental research and development in optics and computing. The need for IOWN is further exacerbated by AI, and we look to IOWN to unlock AI's full potential in a far more sustainable way."
IOWN is supported by the IOWN Global Forum, a non-profit organization established in 2020 by founding members NTT, Intel and the Sony Group to promote the international development and adoption of IOWN technologies. Today, the IOWN Global Forum has grown to include more than 150 member companies and organizations, such as Cisco, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA and many more.
In the book’s afterword, senior executive vice president and CTO at NTT Katsuhiko Kawazoe describes IOWN as "unlimited innovation," referring to the ability of IOWN to allow us to "paint a picture of a new future by leaping past the limits of our thinking that is premised on the technologies at our disposal now."
In addition to sections on the IOWN roadmap and underlying technology, the book examines IOWN use cases and potential social impact, echoing Kawazoe’s sentiment regarding the ability for IOWN to create a faster, smarter and more sustainable world.
Announced during Upgrade, NTT’s annual research and innovation summit, "The Identity of IOWN" is now available for purchase on Amazon in English. It was previously published in 2024 in Japanese.
Upgrade 2025 is being held in San Francisco on April 9 and 10, with NTT and its collaborators exploring the theme of "Innovation for the New Reality" through demonstrations and presentations on a range of topics including IOWN and photonics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cryptography, workforce transformation, autonomous medical care and more. For more information, visit the event website.
About the Authors
Akira Shimada: Akira Shimada is president and chief executive officer, representative member of the board of NTT. He joined NTT in 1981 and, since then, he has been engaged in various roles such as enterprise sales, global network service development, finance and accounting, human resources management and corporate strategy planning and implementation. After working in the United Kingdom and the United States, he became senior vice president and head of the general affairs of NTT in 2012 and became senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of NTT in June 2018. He took up the position of president and chief executive officer of NTT in June 2022.
Katsuhiko Kawazoe: Katsuhiko Kawazoe is senior executive vice president and chief technology officer, representative member of the board of NTT. He holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from Kyoto University. He joined NTT in 1987. He has held several roles including research, development planning and implementation. He became executive vice president and head of Research and Development Planning Department of NTT in 2020 and became senior executive vice president, chief technology officer of NTT in June 2022. Since 2020, he has also served as president and chairperson of the IOWN Global Forum, leading the global promotion and development of IOWN technologies.
About Writing Contributors
"The Identity of IOWN" was created with contributions from several executives representing NTT and its operating companies: Shingo Kinoshita (senior vice president, head of Research and Development Planning Department, Research and Development Market Strategy Division, NTT), Yosuke Aragane (vice president, head of IOWN Development Office, Research and Development Planning Department, Research and Development Market Strategy Division, NTT), Hidehiro Tsukano (president and CEO, NTT Innovative Devices) and Masahito Tomizawa (senior executive vice President and CTO, NTT Innovative Devices).
About NTT
NTT contributes to a sustainable society through the power of innovation. We are a leading global technology company providing services to consumers and businesses as a mobile operator, infrastructure, networks, applications, and consulting provider. Our offerings include digital business consulting, managed application services, workplace and cloud solutions, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. We are over $92B in revenue and 330,000 employees, with $3.6B in annual R&D investments. Our operations span across 80+ countries and regions, allowing us to serve clients in over 190 of them. We serve over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, thousands of other enterprise and government clients and millions of consumers.
