On September 10, the NPO Standards Industry Summit, co-hosted by IPEC and OIF, convened at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center, drawing participation from top players across the global industry chain. The event, reported by Media OutReach Newswire, focused on NPO evolution and international standards development, with in-depth discussions on ecosystem upgrade and industry chain collaboration. A consensus on international NPO standards was reached, laying a solid foundation for the industry upgrade and large-scale commercial use of near-packaged optics (NPO).
The summit featured experts from organizations such as OIF, CAICT, Tencent, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, Huawei, Broadcom, SENKO, Amphenol, and Yamaichi. Dr. Zhao Wenyu, Vice Chairman of IPEC and Deputy Director of the Technology and Standards Research Institute of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), emphasized the critical need for NPO standards. "As SuperPoDs continue to expand in scale, traditional optical modules are consuming huge amounts of energy, and co-packaged optics (CPO) faces constraints like a closed industry chain and complex operations and maintenance," he said. "In contrast, near-packaged optics (NPO) – with its excellent energy efficiency, a favorable trade-off in port density, and strong compatibility with existing pluggable ecosystems – is expected to become the preferred solution for SuperPoD interconnect in the near term." Dr. Zhao called upon stakeholders across industry, academia, research institutions, and user groups to join hands in developing NPO standards and driving the NPO ecosystem from "usable" to "easy-to-use at scale."
Industry leaders shared insights on NPO's trajectory. Jiang Zhibin, Optical Network Architect at Tencent, highlighted that as SuperPoDs expand and SerDes data rates increase, optical interconnect solutions will advance more rapidly towards 6.4T NPO, necessitating opto-electronic collaborative design to overcome advanced packaging challenges. Dr. Man Jiangwei, Director of the Advanced Opto-Electronics Laboratory at Huawei, announced that Huawei has launched the industry's first high-bandwidth 7.2T NPO product and successfully demonstrated dynamic transmission at the IPEC exhibition booth. He noted that with key technologies like built-in light sources and highly-integrated SiPh chips, the product achieves "high bandwidth, high reliability, and high availability" while delivering "low latency, low power consumption, and low cost."
At the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE), the IPEC booth showcased the latest achievements of the global NPO industry chain, particularly from the US, Japan, and China. The display included high-density connector solutions from leading US and Japanese vendors, as well as NPO modules of various capacities developed by multiple Chinese vendors, alongside several NPO switches, demonstrating a high level of commercial maturity. The joint exhibition of industry ecosystem products has strengthened industry confidence in building an open and prosperous NPO ecosystem.
The success of the summit and exposition marks a milestone for the global NPO industry. The consensus on international NPO standards and streamlined collaboration paths between standards organizations and the industry chain lay a solid foundation for large-scale commercial use of NPO. This development is poised to accelerate the adoption of NPO technology in data centers and high-performance computing, potentially reducing energy consumption and costs while enhancing interoperability. For the Long Beach, California area, a hub for technology and communications companies, these standards could drive innovation and investment in optical interconnect solutions, benefiting local businesses involved in cloud computing, AI, and advanced networking. As the NPO ecosystem evolves, it may create new opportunities for regional firms to participate in the global supply chain, fostering economic growth and technological leadership.
