TIP is proud to be part of a landmark demonstration at OFC 2025, that showcases the power of open, collaborative innovation in the optical domain in partnership with NTT, Orange, Telefónica, as operators; IP Infusion, UfiSpace, Ciena and NEC Corporation, as the solution providers; and IOWN Global Forum, Open ROADM MSA open forums, with the collaboration of the OpenLab@UT Dallas on supporting the demonstration pre-staging and showcasing. This joint activity is contributing to building and demonstrating the All-Photonics Network (APN) use cases defined by IOWN Global Forum [1] based on open specifications—delivering on the promise of high-performance, and multi-vendor interoperability of the optical infrastructure.
A key contribution from the TIP Open Optical & Packet Transport (OOPT) community to this showcase is the MANTRA Proof of Concept (PoC) [2]. MANTRA, a project within TIP, focuses on enabling the IP over DWDM use case through disaggregated architectures. As part of the OFC 2025 demo, MANTRA demonstrated how an L2/L3 controller (ETSI Teraflow SDN Controller) [3], in addition to a hierarchical orchestration application developed by NTT for the coordination of IP and Optical domains, can manage IPoDWDM capable routing solutions hosting optical coherent ZR+ transceivers using OpenConfig, proving the seamless control of optical layer components from the IP layer. ZR+ transceivers’ signals are routed across an disaggregated OpenROADM open optical transport network managed by the Transport PCE Controller, and open source Software Defined Network (SDN) controller.
In the context of the broader demonstration, MANTRA’s contribution exemplifies how IPoDWDM open and interoperable solutions can be deployed over Open and Disaggregated Optical Transport Networks [4] and integrated into multi-vendor brownfield scenarios. TIP’s involvement highlights the value of open, community-driven innovation when solving real-world challenges adding MANTRA IPoDWDM to other success stories such Quality of Transmission (QoT) optimization through GNPy.
Equally important is the collaboration across open forums. TIP’s alignment with IOWN GF and Open ROADM MSA ensures that complementary specifications and technologies can come together to form a cohesive, interoperable solution. Each organization brings its strengths—IOWN GF with its visionary APN architecture, Open ROADM MSA with its detailed optical interoperability standards, and TIP with its agile, implementation-driven community approach. Together, they form a powerful force pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in open optical networking.
The demonstration at OFC 2025 is more than a technology showcase—it’s a proof point for how cross-industry collaboration and open innovation are laying the foundation for scalable, sustainable, and future-ready optical transport networks. TIP is excited to continue driving this journey with our partners and community members around the world.
Citations:
[1] Open All-Photonic Network (APN): An innovative network based on photonics technology whose architecture is being developed openly at the IOWN Global Forum. As a network supporting the use case of IOWN, it enables direct connection between necessary points by optical wavelength path when necessary.
[2] TIP MANTRA Whitepaper: IPoDWDM PoC 2024 results readout
[3] Teraflow Open Source Controller for L2/L3 Devices Implemented in ETSI
[4] TIP OOPT MUST Optical Whitepaper Target Architecture: Disaggregated Open Optical Networks