Embracing Three Trends in Optical Business, Accelerating Industrial Intelligence with F5G-A

Facing the intelligent era, the optical industry has accelerated its "3 In 3 Out'" trends. More than 9000 all-optical campuses around the world have implemented Fiber-in Copper-out. In terms of fgOTN-in SDH-out, SDH has been replaced by fgOTN in industries such as electric power and transportation, and large-scale fgOTN deployment has been started. For Optical-sensing-in Hard-work-out, optical fiber sensing has been commercially used in more than 80 cases. Huawei calls on all industry customers and partners to seize new "3 In 3 Out" opportunities and accelerate industrial intelligence together.

Three Trends in Optical Business, Accelerating Industrial Intelligence

The next decade will be an intelligent one. AI terminals are gradually maturing. AI foundation models are continuously iterating, and their multi-modal and real-time interaction have made a huge leap forward. This has made AI applications more popular. In 2023, Huawei released an industrial intelligence reference architecture. In this architecture, sensing is the prerequisite for data collection. The network is a foundation for mass data transmission. The computing base and platform are the key to providing robust computing power and easy-to-use tools.

The optical industry focuses on intelligent connectivity and sensing. For intelligent connectivity, homes and campuses are evolving from gigabit to 10G, and optical fibers will replace copper cables. This trend has been dubbed "Fiber-in Copper-out". Moreover, on the production networks of industries like electric power and transportation, SDH is evolving to fgOTN at an increasing pace, which is called "fgOTN-in SDH-out". For intelligent sensing, in scenarios such as oil and gas pipeline inspection and perimeter inspection, manual onsite operations will be replaced by remote operations, and converged sensing such as vision and fiber sensing will be required. This trend is called "Optical-sensing-in Hard-work-out".

Fiber-in Copper-out at Homes: ISPs Monetize Coverage, Bandwidth, and Experience, Accelerating Business Growth

For fiber broadband in different regions around the world, we believe that ISPs can monetize coverage, bandwidth, and experience to achieve business success.

The first step is to monetize coverage. In areas where fiber coverage is insufficient, ISPs need to speed up fiber broadband construction to seize demographic dividends. Huawei uses products and solutions like Nano OLT and Trouble Free ONT to shorten the ROI period to 2.5 years.

The second is to monetize bandwidth. In areas with 100 Mbps broadband, packages need to be upgraded from 100 Mbps to Gbps, to improve the ARPU per user. So far, more than 450 carriers have released gigabit or higher-rate packages worldwide.

The last is to monetize experience. FTTR is required to provide premium ultra-gigabit experiences. Huawei has delivered more than 20 million sets of FTTR devices worldwide, and the average ARPU of carriers has increased by 40%. In addition, ISPs need to actively develop FTTR B2B services to achieve business growth.

Fiber-in Copper-out at Campuses: FTTO Accelerates Commercial Use

Now, "Fiber-in Copper-out" is moving from homes to campuses. Since Huawei released the industry's first FTTO solution, FTTO has become widely popularized. In China, more than 10 industry and organization standards have been released, including for general construction, education, healthcare, and manufacturing. In addition, nine provinces and cities have started to prepare regional passive all-optical standards. Outside China, 11 countries have started to develop their own standards. In addition, FTTO is more and more commercially used. So far, it is used in over 9000 campuses globally. Huawei FTTO 2.0 solution supports 12.5G/25G to rooms, improving bandwidth by 25%. With its hard-isolation slicing, one network can carry many services like production and office, reducing the TCO by 30%.

fgOTN-in SDH-out onIndustry Communications Networks: Large-Scale Commercial Use of fgOTN

As a hard pipe isolation technology, SDH has ensured production security in industries such as electric power and transportation for more than 30 years. Amid digital and intelligent upgrade, traditional SDH technology faces challenges regarding bandwidth and legacy devices. Therefore, ITU-T released the fgOTN standard at the end of last year. It clearly defines fgOTN as the next-generation standard technology that inherits SDH. This year, ITU-T continued to improve the standards and specifications of fgOTN features, including protection and clock synchronization. In addition, many industries have invested in the reconstruction of legacy SDH networks. 8000 SDH devices are reconstructed in China every year. In terms of solutions, Huawei launched the industry's first optical transmission product that supports the fgOTN standard at the beginning of this year. The product has been verified by China Electric Power Research Institute, as well as State Grid Shandong. It is fit to carry various electric power services.

fgOTN-in SDH-out at Data Centers: Helping Improve the Scale and Efficiency of Intelligent Computing Training

Intelligent computing training is scaling up from 10,000 cards to 100,000 cards, and in some cases even millions of cards. If the training scale is greater than 4000 cards, traditional pure switch networking will face challenges in scalability. Each time the intelligent computing scale is expanded, the data center network needs to be reconstructed, which is costly and time-consuming. Moreover, a large number of optical modules are prone to failures. According to statistics, in a 10,000-card cluster, training is interrupted around 60 times every year due to optical module failures. Additionally, the average port rate of computing cards doubles every two years, making it difficult for data center networks to evolve smoothly.

Huawei believes that applying optical technologies to data centers can solve these problems. This year, Huawei launched an all-optical switch solution for data centers. This solution provides ultra-dense ports and ultra-low power consumption, supporting on-demand expansion from 1000 to 1 million cards. It does not require any optical modules, which greatly reduces the failure rate. We also use port-level optical switching, which can evolve from 400G to 1.6T, or even higher.

Optical-sensing-in Hard-work-out: Small-Scale Perimeter Inspection and Spectral Sensing Solutions Benefit More Scenarios

Many industry scenarios, such as oil and gas pipeline inspection, perimeter inspection, and road traffic law enforcement, still require manual onsite operations, which often comes with poor working conditions and low operation efficiency. In the intelligent era, optical fiber, vision, and radar can sense information from multiple dimensions. AI can be used for more accurate intelligent remote operations, enabling employees to move from outdoor sites to offices. This helps create a more comfortable working environment and improve employee productivity.

Huawei's intelligent fiber sensing solution has been applied to more than 80 cases, such as oil and gas pipeline inspection, buried optical cable inspection, and perimeter inspection. For example, PipeChina uses Huawei's solution to implement intelligent remote inspection of oil and gas pipelines spanning several kilometers. In Shandong province alone, this solution accurately identifies and prevents more than 100 construction related issues in a timely manner.

Huawei Develops Innovative F5G-A Products to Embrace Three Trends

Focusing on "3 In and 3 Out", Huawei has been exploring various industry scenarios and continuously developing innovative products and solutions.

In terms of "Fiber-in Copper-out", Huawei launched the new 10G Wi-Fi 7 optical terminal OptiXstar EN8145 for home networks. This helps ISPs upgrade from 100M to 1000M, providing users with an ultimate Wi-Fi experience and high-speed access of home storage. For campus scenarios such as classrooms and offices, Huawei has updated its FTTO 2.0 solution and launched OptiXstar P884E, the industry's first high-density 10G optical terminal, achieving 25G coverage. For hospitals, hotels, and education networks, Huawei launched four Huawei OptiXstar series Wi-Fi 7 optical terminals and optical gateways, including W617E, to build new standard configuration for digital and intelligent Wi-Fi 7 campuses.

In terms of "fgOTN-in SDH-out", Huawei launched OptiXtrans E6600/9600, the industry's first optical transport product portfolio that supports the fgOTN standard. The goal is to build a solid and reliable communication network for industries such as electric power and transportation. In smart power distribution and consumption scenarios, Huawei released the high-speed power line communications (HPLC) dual-mode solution, which raises the meter collection success rate to 99.9%. For 300 households, this solution shortens the collection time from 15 minutes to 1 minute, achieving reliable and quick meter collection. All this drives the digital and intelligent upgrade of the electric power industry.

Huawei OptiXsense ES100, an intelligent gas leakage detection product based on spectrum sensing, improves precision by 40% and prolongs service life by 50% compared with traditional solutions, and eliminates the need to replace batteries in three years. The product has been in use in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone for half a year, with its precision and reliability fully verified.

This year, since Huawei proposed "3 In 3 Out" trends in optical business, a large number of excellent practices have been accumulated in various industries worldwide. We have selected 100 excellent cases to share, covering government and enterprise businesses in electric power, transportation, ISP, education, healthcare, and manufacturing.

There is an old Chinese saying, "A man may have wisdom, but that is not as good as seizing a favorable opportunity." It means that timing is the most important element in success. We call on all industry customers and partners to join us in seizing new "3 In 3 Out" opportunities to achieve win-win results in the intelligent era.

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