Light Reading is pleased to announce the finalists in the 20 categories of the 20th anniversary year of the Leading Lights Awards program.
On behalf of Light Reading's editors, I am pleased to announce the Leading Lights Awards shortlist for the contest's 20th anniversary year.
For two decades, the Leading Lights has been Light Reading's way of recognizing the innovation, technical and market achievements of the rapidly changing global communications industry.
We celebrate the industry's achievements independently of the events, conferences or trade shows your firm sponsors. That said, no awards system is perfect and we understand the challenges of applying an objective methodology to a subjective process. To pull that off as fairly as possible, you need an engaged group of editors and reporters, an exceptional panel of independent judges, and an audience that supports those efforts and believes in the credibility of our brand.
Twenty years in, we appreciate the broad support for the Leading Lights as one of the top awards programs in this industry. Even though we can't call every entry a finalist, we admire the efforts of the companies and individuals who have entered. Each year, we come away from this process with a renewed enthusiasm for how much innovation is happening in communications networks worldwide.
Now it's time to reveal the finalists our editors and guest judges have picked for the Light Reading Leading Lights Awards. The not-so-shortlist is below:
Most Innovative Optical Networking Product
Awarded to the optical systems vendor or optical components vendor that has provided the most innovative optical networking solution for service provider or webscale customers.
Acacia – Delphi DSP ASIC
Adtran Networks SE – Coherent 100ZR Pluggable Series
Credo Technology Group – Dove 850 Linear Receive Optics (LRO) DSP
Infinera – ICE-X 800G multi-haul intelligent coherent pluggables
Lumentum – 800G ZR+ Transceivers
Marvell – Orion 800G Coherent Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
Precision OT – Genesee Dispersion Compensation ASIC
Qualcomm – 10G Fiber Gateway Platform
Most Innovative Routing and Switching Solution
Awarded to the vendor that has launched the most innovative hardware- or software-based routing and switching solution for network operators, enterprises, cloud networks or data center applications.
DZS – Saber 2200 Coherent xHaul Ethernet transport switch
Juniper Networks – AI-Native Networking Platform
Marvell – Teralynx 10
Nokia – 7730 Service Interconnect Router (SXR)
RtBrick – FullStack
Most Innovative Service Provider Transport Product or Solution
Awarded to the vendor providing the most innovative transport solution for service provider customers. The range of applications could include satellite backhaul, microwave, mobile network fronthaul and backhaul, as well as traditional telecom WDM.
BroadbandOne – Telco-as-a-Service (TaaS)
Infinera – ICE-X 400G Single Fiber
IP Infusion – OcNOS 6.4
Marvell – COLORZ 800 ZR/ZR+ Pluggable Module
Nokia – Coherent Routing Solution for IP-Optical Network Convergence
ZTE – Pluggable 800G OTN Solution
Most Innovative Telecom Software Product or Solution
Awarded to the vendor providing the most innovative solution that helps CSPs evolve and improve their IT back office (OSS/BSS/CX), making their networks more efficient and allowing them to deliver a better customer experience.
Amdocs – amAIz
Infinera – Open Wave Manager
Jio Platforms Ltd. – JioBrain
Mavenir – Digital Enablement Platform
Optiva – Optiva BSS Platform (OBP) on Google Marketplace
Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Site Manager
Tata Elxsi – Sky DNE (Digital Network Enabler)
Totogi – Charging-as-a-Service
Vonage – Network Registry
ZTE – uSmartNet
Most Innovative Test & Measurement Product or Solution
Awarded to the systems vendor with the most innovative new solution that aids communications service providers in network testing, measurement, monitoring or assurance.
Keysight – AresONE 800GE Dual Interface Model-M
Ookla – Downdetector Explorer with AI-Powered Situation Reports
RADCOM – Virtual Test Drive
RouteThis – Certify
VIAVI – INX 760 Probe Microscope
Witbe – Quality of Experience and Data Usage Benchmarking Technology
Most Innovative RAN Product or Solution
Awarded to the vendor with the most innovative radio access network (RAN) product or solution that was either launched or significantly improved during the past year.
Cohere Technologies and Vodafone – Universal Spectrum Multiplier Software
Corning – Everon 5G Enterprise Radio Access Network (ERAN) 620
EdgeQ – Base Station on a Chip
Globalstar – XCOM Radio Access Network (RAN)
Radisys, Lockheed Martin and Intel – 5G Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB)
Tejas Networks – TJ1400 Ultra-Converged Baseband Product
ZTE – UBR Pioneer
Most Innovative Broadband Product or Solution
Awarded to the company that has launched the most innovative new product or solution to enable the delivery or enhance the user experience of high-speed broadband access.
Amazon – eero Max 7
ATX Networks – GigaXtend Orchestrator
Calix – Calix Broadband Platform Intelligent Access Solution
Gfiber – 20 Gig + Wi-Fi 7
Harmonic – Beacon Intelligent Speed Maximizer
Nokia – Next generation multi-PON toolkit
Tarana Wireless – Gigabit 1 (G1) in 6GHz
Vecima Networks – Entra EN9000 GAP Node
Most Innovative Cloud Product or Service
Awarded to the service provider, cloud provider or vendor that has launched the most innovative cloud-native, communications-focused product or service during the past year.
Arrcus – FlexMCN Egress Cost Control (ECC)
Console Connect – Edge SIM
Extreme Networks – ExtremeCloud IQ
IBM – Hybrid Cloud Mesh
Juniper Networks – AI-Native Networking Platform
Nokia – Corteca Home Controller
Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Cloud
Titan.ium Platform and Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier
Wind River – Wind River Studio
Company of the Year
Awarded to the company (public or private) that stands out from its competitors, innovates constantly, has a track record of earnings stability and has the potential to outperform the market.
Amdocs
KT
Singtel
SK Telecom
Vecima Networks
Zayo Group
Executive of the Year
Awarded to the senior executive who has demonstrated decisive leadership, good judgement and has stood out in the past year as someone who made an unmistakable difference in their company or business unit.
Arpit Joshipura, GM, SVP, Linux Foundation
Dinni Jain, CEO, GFiber
Elif Yenihan Kaya, Director, Network Capabilities, Turkcell
Bruce Kelley, SVP and CTO, Netscout
Woojune Kim, President and Head of Networks Business, Samsung
Igor Leprince, Group CEO, Boldyn Networks
Bill Major, CEO, FiberLight, LLC
Rajesh Vashist, Chairman and CEO, SiTime Corp.
AI/Machine Learning
6D Technologies – AI-driven Customer Value Management Platform
Ciena – Blue Planet Network Health Predictor
Huawei and China Mobile – ADN Net Master
Jio Platforms Ltd. – Forecasting Network Capacity with JioBrain
Mavenir – Network Intelligence as a Service (NIaaS)
SK Telecom, Nokia, NTT and NTT Docomo – AI-native Air Interface (AI-AI)
SK Telecom – On-Device AI for Smartphone Power Saving
ZTE and DITO – 3D Radio Composer Solution
Bridging the Digital Divide
Baicells – Connecting the Tohono O'odham Tribe in Arizona
Calix – Broadband Academy & The Broadband Success Playbook for Tribes
Conexon, Washington EMC, Tri-County Electric Cooperative – Conexon Connect Fiber Broadband Impact
DZS, Connect2First, Irby Utilities – City of Cabot Fiber Network
Fibertime Networks, Nokia and VulaCoin – South African Internet Access
HFCL – Baidabettu and Baslambi Villages
Hughes and Mexico's SICT – Isla Santa Margarita Smart Village Project
Hughes, Microsoft and Colombia's MICT – Juntas de Internet: Connectivity Communities
Tarana Wireless and Choice Broadband – Navajo Nation project
Veea – Veea Digital Divide Solution for Argamukti, Indonesia
Customer Experience
Arelion – OSTTRA's Ethernet Services
Comba Telecom and Highline – Viracopos International Airport's 5G Indoor Network
DZS and UScellular – Self-Install 5G CPE
Frontier Communications – Marcus Communications' Business Fiber
HFCL – Customer Loyalty
PearlComm and Conexon – Pearl River Valley EPA Fiber Network
Spectrum Enterprise – Texas State Aquarium
Network Energy Efficiency
Amdocs and Claro Argentina – Mobile Network Energy Efficiency
Mavenir – Energy-Efficient 5G UPF
Nokia Mobile Networks – Virtual Power Plant Solution
SK Telecom, Intel and Nokia – AI-Assisted Network Energy Efficiency Solutions
Networked Edge
Graphiant and Rampart CIO – New Network Edge
Qwilt, Cirion – Media Delivery for Content Publishers in Latin America
Rakuten Symphony – Stateful Edge with Rakuten Cloud
Singtel – Paragon for Telcos
Private Networks
Anterix – 900 MHz Private Wireless Ecosystem for Utilities
Nokia, Solis Tower de Brasil – Vera Cruz do Xingu Farm
Trilogy NextGen, Microsoft and Ericsson – TBN Studio
RAN Deployment
Freshwave – Princess Alexandra Hospital
Mavenir – Paradise Mobile
P.I. Works – Telus
Skylo – DDS Satellite Service
Network and Service Automation
Airties – Airties Orbit
Ciena – Spectrum Defragmentation App
Huawei and China Mobile Zhejiang – ICN Master Solution
Nokia – Multi-Access Network Slicing
Radisys, Dense Air and EdgeQ, Inc. - Millennium Lakeside Garage Network Pilot
ZTE and China Mobile Fujian – Network Optimization
IoT
Cradlepoint – City of Las Vegas Smart Park
Infovista and Italgas – Automated Smart Meter Monitoring and Assurance
Skylo, Murata and Sony – 5G-Ready Narrowband IoT Over Satellite
ZTE, China Mobile and Guangdong Limited – China Southern Power Grid (Shenzhen)
Driving Digital Transformation
Boingo Wireless – MTA, LIRR Cellular Expansion
Comba Telecom – Smart Transport Service
LotusFlare and Globe Telecom – GFiber Prepaid
Matrixx Software – One New Zealand LaunchPad MVNE
Spectrum Enterprise – Paul Miller Ford
Congratulations to all our finalists and, again, thanks to everyone who entered the Leading Lights.
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