Testing must evolve beyond traditional component-level validation toward system-level, data-driven, and continuous assurance

1. The telecommunications industry is undergoing a significant transformation. What key changes are shaping the landscape in India, and what role is VIAVI playing in enabling this evolution?

India is at the forefront of the global telecommunications transformation, with the rapid rollout of 5G, adoption of cloud-native networks, emergence of AI-RAN, growth of AI-driven data centers, and ambitious digital initiatives reshaping how networks are designed, deployed, operated, and secured.

At the same time, India is preparing for the next phase of connectivity, including 6G, satellite communications, quantum-safe technologies, mission-critical communications, and increasingly intelligent network architectures.

These technologies will extend connectivity across terrestrial, non-terrestrial, enterprise, industrial, and critical infrastructure environments, creating new levels of network complexity and performance requirements.

At VIAVI, we see these shifts as a significant opportunity. As networks become more intelligent and complex, trusted test, measurement, assurance, and security solutions are foundational to successful deployment. We help operators, hyperscalers, network equipment manufacturers, enterprises, and ecosystem partners validate, optimize, and secure next-generation networks, AI infrastructure, and mission-critical communications with confidence.

India is not only one of the fastest-growing telecom markets—it is emerging as a global innovation hub for future connectivity. VIAVI is proud to collaborate with the ecosystem to accelerate innovation and enable resilient, future-ready digital infrastructure that will support India’s AI-driven economy.

2. As AI, automation, and cloud-native architectures reshape the test & measurement industry, how is VIAVI evolving its portfolio to enable smarter, more predictive network testing?

As AI, cloud computing, next-generation data centers, and automated network operations drive increasingly intelligent and complex infrastructures, testing must evolve beyond traditional component-level validation toward system-level, data-driven, and continuous assurance.

Traditional testing approaches focused primarily on individual components are evolving toward comprehensive, system-level validation that evaluates network behavior, interoperability, resilience, and operational performance at scale. VIAVI is evolving its NITRO AI portfolio by combining advanced instrumentation, automation, AI-driven analytics, and software-based validation capabilities to address the needs of increasingly intelligent and complex networks.

For AI infrastructure and next-generation data centers, solutions such as ONE LabPro ONE-1600 and TestCenter enable validation of high-speed optical and Ethernet networks, helping customers verify performance, interoperability, and scalability as they transition to 800G and 1.6T architectures.

VIAVI’s wireless, security, and applications portfolio, powered by TM500 and TeraVM, delivers a full suite of solutions for AI training, testing, and optimization from 5G to 6G. It covers specification testing and the testing of AI RAN and AI-driven RAN applications, backed by RAN and UE datasets, real field measurement data, and advanced ray tracing. The portfolio also tests AI-native components to enable neuromorphic architectures and AI-driven PHY-layer innovation.

Realistic conditions still need the right AI workload running through them. CyberFlood drives that workload, real traffic patterns at scale, end to end. AI Inference Test measures whether the responses that come back stay accurate, consistent and timely, under live RAN load.

The VIAVI NITRO platform adds intelligent assurance through automation, analytics, and real-time visibility, helping operators move toward more proactive network operations.

CyberFlood and TeraVM Security enables application and security validation to ensure resilience in increasingly connected environments.

VALOR pairs independent, AI-RAN Alliance-endorsed validation with AI-Driven Lab Intelligence: intelligent diagnostics, real-time health monitoring, predictive analytics, automated topology mapping, smart test orchestration and AI Experts.

Finally, AI Experts with Agents automate the engineer workflows, such as configuration, analysis, and diagnostics across field and lab.

Together, these capabilities enable smarter, more predictive testing across the network lifecycle—from research and development and manufacturing to deployment and live operations. By helping customers validate changes before deployment, identify potential issues earlier, and optimize performance continuously, VIAVI is enabling the industry to build more intelligent, resilient, and future-ready networks.

3. As Hollow Core Fiber gains traction, which application areas are expected to drive adoption, and how is the ecosystem addressing challenges around performance validation and long-term reliability?

Hollow Core Fiber (HCF) is emerging as an important technology for applications requiring ultra-low latency, high bandwidth, and secure communications. Potential use cases include AI and high-performance computing, data center interconnects, quantum communications, defense networks, high-frequency financial trading, edge computing, and future 5G/6G infrastructure.

As HCF moves from research into commercial deployment, accurate performance validation becomes essential. Operators need confidence in key parameters such as latency, attenuation, dispersion, and end-to-end transmission performance.

VIAVI is addressing this need with advanced fiber testing solutions designed specifically for HCF environments. VIAVI’s all-in-one medium- and long-range bidirectional testing and certification solution combines OTDR-based fiber characterization with advanced analysis of chromatic dispersion (CD), polarization mode dispersion (PMD), and attenuation.

By enabling comprehensive visibility across short, metro, and long-haul networks, VIAVI helps accelerate hollow core fiber adoption while ensuring reliability, performance, and operational confidence.

4. As demand for AI workloads accelerates the move to 1.6T networking, how is VIAVI contributing to the industry’s readiness for this next leap in Ethernet speeds?

The rapid growth of AI workloads is accelerating the evolution of data center networks, with cloud providers and hyperscalers transitioning from 400G and 800G toward 1.6T Ethernet architectures. AI infrastructure is scaling in multiple dimensions: scale-up within the rack, scale-out across AI clusters, and scale-across between data centers. Each of these environments demands massive bandwidth, ultra-low latency, high density, and highly reliable connectivity.

The move to 1.6T and eventually 3.2T is also driving new physical and optical architectures, including 16X224G and 8X448G lane configurations enabled by technologies such as Silicon Photonics (SiPh) and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO). As optical connectivity becomes increasingly dense, every connector interface is a potential source of signal degradation, making comprehensive validation, inspection, and connectivity assurance critical to the performance of AI fabrics.

VIAVI is helping the industry prepare for this next generation of Ethernet with advanced test, measurement, inspection, and validation solutions that support customers across the lifecycle—from design and manufacturing through deployment and ongoing monitoring.

At the design stage, VIAVI helps customers validate performance, interoperability, and reliability of next-generation networks.

During manufacturing and production, VIAVI supports quality, performance, and compliance testing at scale. Through deployment and ongoing operations, VIAVI solutions address fiber inspection, testing, monitoring, sensing, and cleaning to help ensure the underlying connectivity delivers the performance and reliability required by AI infrastructure.

5. Currently, what major trends are shaping the test & measurement industry?

The Test & Measurement (T&M) industry is evolving rapidly as automation, AI, and digital transformation reshape next-generation communications and critical infrastructure. Emerging technologies—including next-generation wireless networks such as 6G, Open RAN, and AI-RAN; resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT); quantum-safe and secure communications; and AI-driven data center and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure—are creating new requirements for network validation, interoperability, security, reliability, and performance assurance.

AI training and inference workloads are accelerating demand for high-speed Ethernet and optical connectivity, driving data center networks from 400G and 800G toward 1.6T architectures and beyond. As AI infrastructure scales, network performance, interoperability, resilience, and security are becoming increasingly critical to maintaining predictable application performance.

Open RAN and AI-RAN are advancing the evolution of 5G-Advanced toward increasingly AI-native network architectures and helping shape the path toward 6G. At the same time, quantum-safe communications and resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technologies are becoming increasingly important for securing, synchronizing, and ensuring the resilience of mission-critical networks.

As telecom, hyperscale, semiconductor, aerospace, automotive, and critical-infrastructure environments become increasingly software-defined, distributed, and AI-enabled, organizations require intelligent test, measurement, assurance, security, and automation solutions to accelerate innovation, validate interoperability, ensure performance and reliability, and strengthen security.

VIAVI is well positioned to address these evolving requirements through its broad portfolio of test, measurement, network assurance, security, AI infrastructure, wireless, and resilient PNT solutions—helping customers validate, deploy, and operate next-generation networks and infrastructure with confidence.