ZTE's HI-OTN Breakthroughs Earn Top Honors at OFC 2026

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ZTE Corporation announced that two of its research papers were selected as Top-Scored Papers at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) 2026 in the United States. One paper demonstrated the industry's first real-time 1.2 Tb/s S-band silicon photonics coherent transceiver, while the other focused on large language model training across multiple AI data centers over long-haul optical networks. These achievements reinforce ZTE's HI-OTN solution as a foundation for next-generation optical networks supporting ultra-wide spectrum transmission and distributed intelligent computing.

Why it matters

ZTE's dual breakthroughs in optical network research represent significant advancements in addressing industry challenges around higher speed, larger capacity, longer reach, and lower latency requirements driven by emerging applications like generative AI. The recognition of these innovations as Top-Scored Papers at the prestigious OFC conference underscores ZTE's leadership in core optical network technologies and its commitment to building efficient, green, and intelligent next-generation computing infrastructure.

The details

The first paper showcased ZTE's development of the industry's first real-time coherent transceiver in the S-band, achieving a record speed of 1.2 Tb/s. By leveraging the wavelength-insensitive characteristics of silicon photonics, the transceiver overcame the limitations of traditional spectral transmission and enabled compatibility between the S-band and C+L bands. The company also designed and nano-packaged an S-band Integrated Tunable Laser Assembly (ITLA) to ensure high-quality signal transmission. The second paper focused on ZTE's field trials of large language model distributed training across three AI data centers over a 600-km long-haul optical network. The trials revealed the core requirements of large model training for optical network bandwidth and latency, and evaluated the potential of hollow-core fiber to mitigate efficiency degradation and lower network energy consumption.

• The OFC 2026 conference was held in the United States in March 2026.
• ZTE announced the recognition of its two research papers as Top-Scored Papers on March 20, 2026.

What’s next

ZTE plans to continue advancing the industrialization of S-band optical devices and deepen research into cross-domain intelligent optical network optimization, helping to build an efficient, green, and intelligent next-generation computing infrastructure.