2026 Showcase
Welcome to the NextGenInfra Upperside World Congress Showcase. This was the 27th edition of what was previously called "MPLS World Congress. The conference showcases the cutting edge of transport and wide-area technologies.
The latest advances in IP, SRv6, Quantum, SASE/SD-WAN, and network automation were covered the discussions and presentations at the conference (along with AI, the ever-present topic across all technology and business conferences). Check out the perspectives from the speakers below.
While you're here, download our brand new 2026 edition of our data center networking report covering scale-up, scale-out, and scale-across connectivity for today's AI workloads.
2026 Upperside World Congress
Welcome to the NextGenInfra Upperside World Congress Showcase. This was the 27th edition of what was previously called "MPLS World Congress. The conference showcases the cutting edge of transport and wide-area technologies.
The latest advances in IP, SRv6, Quantum, SASE/SD-WAN, and network automation were covered the discussions and presentations at the conference (along with AI, the ever-present topic across all technology and business conferences). Check out the perspectives from the speakers below.
While you're here, download our brand new 2026 edition of our data center networking report covering scale-up, scale-out, and scale-across connectivity for today's AI workloads.
Video interviews
AI-Driven Network Automation: The Future of IP and Optical Solutions
David Stokes, Head of IP Solutions & Portfolio Marketing at Ribbon, discusses how the industry is evolving beyond traditional networking by incorporating automation and AI to optimize user experience. He showcases advances in IP and optical networking capabilities enabled by domain-level automation platforms.Ekinops acquires Chimere ZTNA & highlights Quantum Security
Marc Bouteyre, Head of Virtualization at Ekinops, discusses the company's acquisition of Chimere, a universal ZTNA solution that strengthens its SASE portfolio and market position. He also highlights Ekinops' optical portfolio advancements in quantum-resistant networks.Optimizing AI Inference Performance: Testing Networks at Scale
Daniel Munteanu, Senior Technical Product Manager at Keysight Technologies shares how to ensure optimal AI inferencing performance in production environments. He introduces an emulation and analytics test platform that enables organizations to build and deploy AI inference infrastructures with confidence through emulation and testing.AI-Driven Network Automation: Data Quality Powers Autonomous Systems
Tom Foottit, VP Products at Cisco Systems, presents Cisco Crosswork assurance and automation, highlighting how the company uses AI to enable autonomous networks through advanced data collection and analysis capabilities. He introduces Integrated Performance Measurement (IPM), a new technology providing granular network visibility.Edge Computing, 5G Networks & Ruggedized Solutions
Cyril Chouviat of Lanner Electronics, presents the company's comprehensive product portfolio, featuring Edge Compute Appliances with Intel Granite Rapid CPUs and GPU acceleration, ruggedized IEC-compliant cybersecurity solutions, and IP67-rated 5G UCPE units for outdoor deployment. The showcase includes systems supporting Intel Xeon 6, Nvidia MGX architecture with Grace CPU, and Jetson Thor appliances for robotics.AI-Driven Networking: From Model Training to Inference at Scale
Rafael Francis, Senior Director of Product Line Management at Ciena, discusses how AI is changing networking as the market shifts from model training to inference, showcasing the company's routing portfolio for data center interconnection and coherent routing integration with optical capabilities. He also touches on automation and agentic AI.Multi-Vendor Network Testing: EANTC Interop at Upperside
Malake Abidar, Solutions Engineer, South EMEA at Keysight Technologies, discusses the company's participation in the annual EANTC transport and network cloud interop, where Keysight provides realistic traffic generation, protocol emulation, and performance validation across multi-vendor environments testing segment routing, EVPN, and advanced transport services.Multi-Vendor Interop Testing: 5G Transport, SRv6, EVPN & Autonomous Networks
Carsten Rossenhövel, Managing Director at EANTC, presents results from this year's multi-vendor interoperability event for transport and cloud networks, featuring 12 vendors and over 80 engineers conducting three weeks of testing that generated more than 1,900 test result pairs across segment routing, EVPN, time synchronization, orchestration, and use case blueprints.AI Networking for Service Providers: A Different Approach with DDC Clusters
Juan Rodriguez, Senior Sales Engineer at DriveNets, explains how service providers are adopting AI networking through a "third" approach leveraging distributed disaggregated chassis (DDC) cluster technology with fabric architecture.AI Networking: Open Standards & 800G Switches Proven Through Live Testing
Alex Nichol, Principal Engineer at Arista Networks, showcases the company's new AI networking equipment including 800 gigabit switches and latest XPO optics while emphasizing their commitment to open standards.Hybrid SASE: Cost-Effective Security Architecture for Enterprises
Amir Zmora, Founder and CEO of Flexiwan, highlights SASE market growth to $25B by 2027, SD-WAN infrastructure at $7.5B, and ZTNA with 18% YoY growth. He discusses how a hybrid SASE approach enables users to selectively route traffic through the security service edge or on-premises firewalls for optimized cost, performance, and security.AI-Powered Network Defense & Quantum-Safe Solutions
Roland Thienpont, Director of IP Division Product Marketing at Nokia, presents data center interconnection with automation capabilities using modular architectures. He discusses the network journey from data centers to wide area networks, featuring AI agents for network operations, DDoS protection, and quantum-safe networks.Featured companies
Reader feedback on our latest report: "Appreciate the broad coverage and unique insights." "Up, Out, Across, and Away we go"Download our 2026 Data Center Networking report now and send us your feedback!