Achim Autenrieth co-moderates workshop on federated optical testbeds and telecom data spaces at ECOC 2026

• Speakers: Achim Autenrieth, senior director of advanced technology at Adtran; Behnam Shariati, deputy head of data analytics and digital signal processing group, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) (moderator); Marco Ruffini, professor at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland; Yusuke Hirota National Institute of Information and Communications (NICT), Japan
• Topics: Can global and federated optical testbeds power AI-native networks and telecom data spaces?


• When: Sunday, September 20, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CEST
• Where: ECOC 2026, The Malaga Trade Fair and Conference Center (FYCMA), Málaga, Spain https://ecoc2026.org/ecoc2026

AI-native automation and digital-twin technologies for optical networks depend on access to diverse, high-quality and trustworthy telemetry. However, today’s data remains siloed across vendors, operators and research testbeds, limiting reproducibility and slowing progress toward interoperable AI-driven network control. Emerging concepts such as data spaces, sovereign data sharing and federated learning offer a path to unlock collaboration without centralizing sensitive operational data.

In this workshop, Achim Autenrieth and fellow moderators will bring together experts from industry and academia to explore whether global or federated optical testbeds can serve as the backbone of a telco data-space ecosystem, enabling reliable AI models, cross-domain digital twins and scalable simulation capabilities. Discussions will examine approaches to data sharing, federated operations and sovereign data pipelines while identifying the interoperability, governance and architectural requirements needed to support AI-driven optical networking.