27 July 2022, Shenzhen, China - ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the mobile internet, and China Mobile have jointly written two papers which are accepted by ECOC (European Optical Communication Conference), the continent’s largest event in the field and one of the most prestigious and traditional events on optical communications worldwide.

The theme of one paper is that the 800G 2000km LH transmission based on G.654.E optical fiber hits a world record, and the other is about the original 1G fine-granularity optical/electrical rates joint adjustment mechanism.

The research results of the two papers provides rich evidence for LH transmission, and will contribute to the bandwidth utilization improvement, as well as the transport capacity expansion of optical networks in the field.

As the digital economy booms and the east-to-west computing resource transfer project starts in China, computing power has become crucial to technical innovation competitive advantage, and mainstream operators in China have actively promoted the construction of computing power networks. At present, they are facing network transformation and bandwidth challenges. Therefore, operators and vendors are both driven to improve the single-wavelength rate and transmission distance, increase the bandwidth utilization of the optical communication system, and satisfy the growing network traffic demands.

800G 2000km transmission sets a world record, and beyond-400G optical transport era is approaching
In recent years, ZTE, together with operators such as China Mobile, has carried out a lot of commercial trials of the single-wavelength 400G and 800G ultra-high-speed transport, and has achieved certain research progress.

In October 2021, based on the new-generation optical transport devices and boards, ZTE verified the world's first single-wavelength 400G large-capacity optical transport, covering more than 1000km, at C+L extended band of 11THz ultra-broad spectrum in the existing networks of China Mobile. The 800G 2000km LH transmission elaborated in the paper is another major breakthrough made by both in beyond-400G optical transmission. ZTE employs the brand-new single-wavelength 800G board, Flex-shaping 2.0 and low-noise Optical Amplifier, along with G.654.E optical fiber, to greatly extend the transmission distance limit of the 800G system, which successfully exceeds 2000km, indicating that the beyond-400G optical transport era is accelerating.

Industry's first 1G fine-granularity probabilistic shaping greatly improves the bandwidth utilization of the optical communication system
Currently, with mature electrical-layer bandwidth adjustment. the optical transport network  allows rigid transport of 2M-100G services based on OSU. However, the interface rates on the optical layer are still over 50G. Therefore, China Mobile and ZTE jointly proposed the OTN interface architecture. The interface has ultra-fine granularity and can implement non-stop optical/electrical rates adjustment with a minimum granularity of 1G. The paper introduces China Mobile and ZTE’s innovative OTN interface architecture based on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), that is, the 1G fine-granularity optical/electrical joint adjustment mechanism. At the same time, It demonstrates the experimental results, which proves the success of the first mechanism in the industry. The mechanism can greatly improve the actual bandwidth utilization of the optical communication system.

Besides, ZTE’s next-generation single-wavelength 1.2T optical transport devices will adopt the latest technology in the industry to increase the baud rate by 30% and further reduce power consumption. While assisting operators and industrial customers in implementing the national "green and low-carbon" plan, ZTE will give full play to its innovative design and powerful industrial chain integration to expand the bandwidth of commercial optical transport systems and enhance the transport capabilities of 400G and beyond-400G systems, contributing to the national east-to-west computing resource transfer project.

Moving forward, ZTE, with great commitment to being a driver of digital economy, will continue working with global operators to explore ultra-high-speed, large-capacity and intelligent optical connectivity technologies. Meanwhile, the company will unleash vigorous "computing power" with more powerful "transport power", expecting to make connectivity and intelligence everywhere.