Edgecore Networks Joins Taiwan–Japan Partnership to Advance IOWN All-Photonics Network

Building an Open All-Optical Architecture to Accelerate Intelligent Applications

“Enabling light as a key driver for intelligent applications.”

HSINCHU, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edgecore Networks, the leader in open networking solutions and a subsidiary of Accton Group, today participated in the “AI IMPACT: Smart Cities and Southern Taiwan Achievement Showcase,” under the guidance of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), officially unveiling outcomes of the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) all-photonics network application.

The exhibition was jointly demonstrated by the National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC), Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), and Accton Technology / Edgecore Networks, with the assistance of Japan’s NTT and Taiwan NTT Systems. Together, the collaboration leverages the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN), specifically the All-Photonics Network (APN) and photonic-electronic convergence technologies in computing applications, to realize low-power “IOWN photonic computing” use cases. The showcase highlights a new milestone in Taiwan–Japan collaboration toward sovereign AI enabled by all-photonics networking.

The demonstration includes a Taiwan–Japan cross-border real-time translation livestream powered by APN, highlighting the advantages of ultra-low latency and high efficiency enabled by all-photonics networks. It further presents AI-based intelligent transportation applications for image recognition and analysis using IOWN photonic computing, validating real-time collaboration of distributed computing resources and high-speed remote failover capabilities.

The NSTC, through NCHC’s National Cloud Computing Center as the core, interconnects all-photonics network nodes across Tainan, Shalun, Taichung, and Hsinchu, integrating Chunghwa Telecom’s nationwide all-photonics network and AI data center infrastructure. Through Taiwan–Japan all-photonics interconnection testing, the system further connects with AI data centers in Japan. Moving forward, the collaboration will continue to advance toward building Taiwan’s next-generation all-photonics network while fostering diverse innovative applications and expanding into global markets.

As a key member of “An Accton Company,” Edgecore Networks demonstrated its core capabilities in delivering integrated end-to-end open infrastructure spanning hardware and software. This further strengthens Accton Group’s overall capability in enabling real-world all-photonics network applications.

The IOWN demonstration is built upon the Optical Wavelength Switch (OWS) solution, combined with Edgecore’s integrated rack-level solutions, platform software, device management, and system integration capabilities. All applications were validated in a real network environment across international boundaries, running entirely on live computing resources and production-like network infrastructure, rather than simulated or laboratory environments.

At the application level, the intelligent transportation scenario enables remote real-time control and vulnerable road user detection, validating real-time computing and data processing capabilities across cross-border environments. The cross-border real-time translation scenario achieves near-zero latency natural conversations. In distributed AI computing scenarios, the system enables cross-border AI inference and real-time resource orchestration, demonstrating that geographic distance is no longer a constraint.

By integrating AI computing power, high-speed switching, and optical communication technologies, the system forms an “all-photonics compute node” under the IOWN architecture, enabling cross-border AI applications to operate reliably in low-latency and high-bandwidth environments. This successfully validates the feasibility and stability of IOWN in supporting cross-border AI workloads.

These results further elevate IOWN from a network technology concept into a deployable and scalable infrastructure platform, highlighting Edgecore Networks’ role as an open infrastructure provider and marking a key transition from proof-of-concept (PoC) to field validation.

Looking ahead, under the strategic planning and leadership of NSTC and NCHC, the collaboration will continue to deepen validation of IOWN all-photonics applications. The Taiwan–Japan consortium will further advance large-scale cross-border compute orchestration, multi-site application testing, and system optimization.

As one of the leading providers of open network infrastructure, Edgecore Networks will continue to leverage open networking and scalable architecture design to support the deployment and expansion of all-photonics network applications.

The results of this validation demonstrate that, through open and modular system design, the architecture offers strong reproducibility and scalability. It is well-positioned to support future global demands in distributed data center interconnect (DCI), AI compute networking, and smart city infrastructure, laying a critical foundation for the international development of all-photonics networks.

IOWN® is a trademark or registered trademark of NTT, inc.

About Edgecore Networks

Edgecore Networks Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accton Technology Corporation, the leading network ODM. Edgecore Networks delivers wired and wireless networking products and solutions through channel partners and system integrators worldwide for AI/ML, Cloud Data Center, Service Provider, Enterprise and SMB customers. Edgecore Networks is the leader in open networking providing a full line of open Wi-Fi access points, packet transponders, cell site gateways, aggregation routers and 1G, 10G, 25G, 40G, 100G, 400G, 800G and 1.6T data center switches and offer widest choice of commercial and open-source NOS and SDN software.

For more information, please visit www.edge-core.com.

© 2026 Edgecore Networks. All trademarks, service marks, registered marks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Edgecore Networks shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.