LF Broadband is pleased to announce the results of the 2026 VOLTHA Technical Steering Team (TST) election. Praneeth Kumar Nalmas of Radisys has been reelected to another two-year term, continuing the steady technical leadership that has helped VOLTHA grow into a proven platform for open broadband access.
Praneeth joins a returning TST that includes Abhilash Satish Laxmeshwar (Radisys), Burak Gurdag (Netsia), and Serkant Uluderya (Netsia), all of whom were reelected in 2025 and continue to guide the project through its current phase of expansion. In addition, the TST has reappointed Serkant Uluderya and Abhilash Satish Laxmeshwar as co-chairs for another year, a signal of continuity at the top of the team as VOLTHA moves forward on its production roadmap.
The re-election of Praneeth and the reappointment of the co-chair pair reflect the community’s confidence in the team steering VOLTHA through a period of real momentum. Deployments continue to grow, new features are landing in successive releases, and the project’s role in AI-ready open access networks is coming into sharper focus.
About the VOLTHA Project
VOLTHA is an open source broadband access project designed to bring multi-vendor, disaggregated “any broadband as a service” to the Central Office. It supports Passive Optical Network (PON) deployments and is already in production at major operators including Deutsche Telekom and Türk Telekom, as well as in labs and trials across a growing global ecosystem. Feedback from real-world deployments, collaborative development with vendors, and active engagement from the community ensure that VOLTHA continues to deliver high-quality, feature-rich software for operators worldwide.
Meet the VOLTHA TST
Praneeth Kumar Nalmas (Senior Technical Specialist, Radisys)
Praneeth has served on the VOLTHA TST since 2024 and brings nearly four years at Radisys to his work on the project. His contributions span core protocol work in voltha-protos and improvements to VOLTHA’s service-failure handling, alongside consistent engagement in the TST’s technical review and roadmap discussions. His reelection extends that active involvement into the next term.
Abhilash Satish Laxmeshwar (Architect, Radisys; Co-Chair)
With over 20 years of experience in telecom and software, Abhilash has been a driving force within the VOLTHA community for more than five years. His work on components such as the openolt-adapter, rw-core, and openonu-adapter has helped shape VOLTHA’s stability and feature roadmap. He continues to focus on new functionality and platform reliability.
Burak Gurdag (Software Development Director, Netsia)
Since joining the VOLTHA effort in 2019, Burak has played a key role in developing and maintaining the openolt agent. His contributions include features such as Dynamic LAG Support, Combo OLT Support, Separation of IGMP channels, and Multi-NNI Support, all critical enhancements that improve deployment flexibility and service delivery.
Serkant Uluderya (Engineering Manager, Netsia; Co-Chair)
Serkant brings more than 15 years of experience in SDN, VoIP, DPI, and mobile core networks to his work on VOLTHA. Since early 2019, he has focused on high availability, scalability, and performance improvements. Most recently, he has worked on upstreaming new components for IGMP message handling to better support IPTV services, while also engaging with LF Broadband and BBF to align specifications and standards.
Weekly TST Meetings – Open to All
The VOLTHA TST meets every other Tuesday at 8:00 AM Pacific Time. These meetings are open to the public and provide a valuable opportunity for community members to stay informed, ask questions, and contribute to VOLTHA’s roadmap.
We look forward to continued progress under the leadership of Praneeth, Abhilash, Burak, and Serkant as VOLTHA advances into its next phase of innovation and deployment.
