Giovanni Milione is a former Senior Researcher and Business Incubation Lead in the Optical Networking & Sensing Department at NEC Laboratories America, Inc. (NECLA), where he drove the development of groundbreaking optical technologies that span communications, sensing, and computing. With a focus on translating cutting-edge research into commercial and societal impact, Dr. Milione bridged the gap between scientific innovation and business viability. At NECLA, his work included pioneering research in space division multiplexing over optical fibers and free space, the application of machine learning to distributed acoustic sensing, and analog optical computing.
Dr. Milione earned his B.S. degree in Physics from Stony Brook University, his M.A. degree in Physics from CUNY (The City College of New York), and M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from CUNY The City College of New York/Graduate Center, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. He has authored over 100 publications and patents, with his work cited approximately 5,000 times. His research spans fundamental physics to applied technologies, including innovative approaches involving optical polarization, structured light, and optical communication and sensing systems. Among his notable contributions were advancements in real-time biometric authentication using photo-acoustic tomography, new techniques in high-speed and long-distance free-space and optical fiber communication using optical orbital angular momentum and multimode and multi-core optical fibers.
In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Milione was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering‘s prestigious U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium—an honor reserved for the nation’s top early-career engineers. Additionally, he was named Top 40 Under Forty by his undergraduate alma mater, Stony Brook University. He is also a U.S. Army veteran, having served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Eric Blow of NEC Labs will address how machine-learning methods applied to distributed acoustic-sensing data can monitor facility perimeters and detect intrusion via walk, dig, or drive events over buried optical fibre—for example achieving ~90% classification accuracy.
Our Giovanni Milione will present Mobile Orbital Domains: Addressing Dynamic Topology Challenges in Satellite Networks (JW4A.47) in Joint Poster Session III at the Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS) conference in Denver, CO, on October 29, 2025, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. We analyze satellite trajectories and identify satellite backbone networks with stable inter-satellite connections.
Join our Andrea D’Amico as he presents Open and Disaggregated Optical Networks: From Vision to Reality (FW6E.1) at part of the Next-Generation Optical Fiber Transmission Systems and Networks Session at the Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS) conference in Denver, CO, on October 29, 2025, 3:30 PM to 4:00 PM. Open and disaggregated optical networks can potentially reshape the telecom landscape.
We introduce anchor vectors to monitor Rayleigh-backscattering variability in a fiber-optic computing system that performs nonlinear random projection for image classification. With a ~0.4-s calibration interval, system stability can be maintained with a linear decoder, achieving an average accuracy of 80%-90%.
We propose a novel optical flow processing technique for distributed temperature and strain sensing with the chirped-pulse coherent OTDR. Unlike conventional 1-dimensional cross-correlation methods, the technique treats the 2-dimensional waterfall data as sequential video frames, estimating local shifts through optical flow. The weighted least square approach with adaptive window size enables pixel-level optical flow calculation, providing accurate local shifts via accumulative tracks with enhanced spatial resolution. Preliminary experimental results over 20km fiber demonstrate its effectiveness for dynamic temperature and strain sensing, addressing limitations of traditional methods and improving sensing capabilities.
We demonstrate fiber-optic acoustic data transmission using distributed acoustic sensing technology in an underwater environment. An acoustic orthogonal frequencydivisionmultiplexing (OFDM) signal transmitted through a fiber-optic cable deployed in a standard 40-meter-scale underwater testbed.
We experimentally demonstrate real time mode division multiplexing free space optical communication with commercial 400G open and disaggregated transponders. As proof of concept,using HG00, HG10, and HG01 modes, we transmit 1.2 Tb/s/l (3´1l´400Gb/s) error free.
The NEC Labs America Optical Networking and Sensing team is attending the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), the premier global event for optical networking and communications. Bringing together over 13,500 attendees from 83+ countries, more than 670 exhibitors, and hundreds of sessions featuring industry leaders, OFC 2025 serves as the central hub for innovation and collaboration in the field. At this year’s conference, NEC Labs America will showcase its cutting-edge research and advancements through multiple presentations, demonstrations, and workshops.
Vector beams are spatial modes that have spatially inhomogeneous states of polarization. Any light beam is a linear combination of vector beams, the coefficients of which comprise a vector beam spectrum. In this work, through numerical calculations, a novel method of free-space optical sensing is demonstrated using vector beam spectra, which are shown to be experimentally measurable via Stokes polarimetry. As proof of concept, vector beam spectra are numerically calculated for various beams and beam obstructions.
In this work, for the first time, we experimentally demonstrate mode division multiplexing-based bidirectional free space optical communication in real-time using commercial transponders. As proof of concept, via bidirectional pairs of Hermite-Gaussian modes (HG00, HG10, and HG01), using a Telecom Infra Project Phoenix compliant commercial 400G transponder, 400-Gb/s data signals (56-Gbaud, DP-16QAM) are bidirectionally transmitted error free, i.e., with less than 1e-2 pre-FEC BERs, over approximately 1-m of free space