Liaison statement
IOWN Global Forum to IETF

Dear Chairs of the Internet Engineering Steering Group and the Internet
Architecture Board, Ms. Mirja Kühlewind and Mr. Lars Eggert,

Please let us introduce the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global
Forum (IOWN GF) to you and your members by sending you our first technical
deliverable released in April 2021. The paper, titled "IOWN GF System and
Technology Outlook," was published and made publicly available for the purpose
of discussion.

IOWN GF and its members recognize IETF’s role in the industry and the
standardization community and we would be interested to enter into a discussion
with you by sharing our views and plans.

The IOWN GF System and Technology Outlook paper identifies technology gaps
between current technologies and the key requirements of the use cases
described in the previously released Use Case Interim Report. Based on the
identified technology gaps, the paper proposes the concepts of a new
heterogeneous infrastructure architecture, Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI),
and an open and disaggregated photonic network architecture, Open All Photonic
Network (Open APN). The paper also presents work items to complete DCI and Open
APN.

IOWN GF's objective is to accelerate innovation and adoption of a new
communication infrastructure to meet our future data and computing requirements
through the development of new technologies, frameworks, specifications and
reference design in areas such as Photonics R&D, Distributed Connected
Computing and Use Cases and Best Practices.

The IOWN GF and its members are fully aware of and supportive of the
cooperative and open approaches in the scientific, technological, and
standardization communities that have led to the successful innovation of
services and solutions we are witnessing. IOWN Global Forum is determined to be
an active member and good citizen of these communities.

With kind regards

The President and the Board on behalf of the IOWN Global Forum