ZTE Corporation, a renowned global provider of cutting-edge information and communication technology solutions, is thrilled to announce its partnership with China Mobile in a groundbreaking initiative—the activation of the world’s premier ultra-long-haul optical backbone link powered by 400G Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) technology.
China Mobile recently hosted a press conference titled “Empowering Nationwide All-Optical Coverage and Computing: Completion and Application of China Mobile’s First Inter-provincial 400G OTN (Optical Transport Network) Backbone Network Link.” At this event, China Mobile unveiled its pioneering 400G all-optical inter-provincial backbone network link, which spans from Beijing to Inner Mongolia. This network, set to be fully operational by mid-year, is poised to enhance high-speed connectivity across all eight major hubs of China’s “east-data-west-computing” project.
In alignment with China’s “New Infrastructure” strategy and the burgeoning demand for AI applications like ChatGPT, Sora, and Vision Pro, computing prowess has emerged as a pivotal force in the digital economy era. In response to this escalating demand, China Mobile has taken the lead in the industry chain, successfully overcoming internal 400G technological challenges and achieving in-house core components, thereby laying the groundwork for cutting-edge network infrastructure.
ZTE and China Mobile have forged a close partnership in the realm of 400G technology. In March 2023, ZTE supported China Mobile in executing the world’s inaugural 400G QPSK live trial link, achieving an unprecedented transmission distance of 5,616km over land cable—a feat that set a new benchmark for 400G QPSK transmission sans an electric regenerator. In March of the present year, ZTE played a pivotal role in China Mobile’s rollout of services such as “east-data-west-computing,” leveraging the world’s premier 400G QPSK ultra-long-haul optical backbone link—a milestone that heralds the official commencement of large-scale commercial utilization of 400G QPSK OTN networks.
In the construction of the 400G OTN inter-provincial backbone network, ZTE deployed innovative technologies including 400G QPSK, C6T+L6T band expansion, 100T+ platform, and OXC. This solution not only quadruples transmission bandwidth compared to the preceding generation backbone network but also significantly reduces latency inter-hubs to under 20ms, decreases the latency of main active links by 20%, and slashes energy consumption per bit by an impressive 65%. Moreover, it can concurrently support up to 640,000 channels of AR virtual shooting “east-data-west-rendering”—four times the capacity of the 100G backbone network—ensuring seamless real-time user experiences for “east-data-west-rendering” services. Notably, ZTE’s 100T+ OTN platform offers forward compatibility, thereby safeguarding operators’ existing investments.
Building upon the 400G OTN inter-provincial backbone network solution and network-media integration technology, ZTE and China Mobile have introduced the “east-data-west-rendering” service. This innovative service leverages an ordinary mirrorless camera and lightweight AR terminal for shooting, with real-time video transmitted through the 400G backbone network to a computing node in western China. Following high-quality AR rendering on ZTE’s XRExplore cloud platform, the mixed reality video stream is delivered to an eastern broadcast control platform for live streaming, offering lightweight, portable, and high-quality mobile AR virtual shooting services accessible to all.
With the successful implementation and application of China Mobile’s inaugural 400G OTN inter-provincial backbone network project, ZTE remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring the seamless execution of the entire project, thereby aiding China Mobile in erecting the world’s largest scale 400G all-optical backbone network.
Looking ahead, ZTE is dedicated to collaborating with global partners to establish a robust optical foundation for computing networks, fostering the healthy growth of the industrial ecosystem, and injecting new momentum into the digital economy.
