Huawei Technologies demonstrated what it calls the industry's first 7.2-terabit-per-second near-packaged optics module at the China International Optoelectronic Exposition in Shenzhen on September 10, running live at 200 gigabits per lane across 36 channels3. The demonstration exceeds the 6.4T capacity that the Optical Internetworking Forum, the international standards body writing the NPO specification, has made its primary focus.
The module is designed to reduce bottlenecks in AI data center interconnects by placing optical components closer to switching chips, cutting signal loss and power consumption as AI clusters scale to connect more processors2. Huawei said it integrated multiple functions into the chip and omitted the optical digital signal processor, shortening latency from 100 nanoseconds to 10 nanoseconds and reducing power consumption by roughly 60 percent.
From SuperPod to supply chain
"In our 1st-gen Atlas 910C SuperPoD, we introduced optical interconnects for the first time. Then in the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, we brought in LPO," Dr. Man Jiangwei, director of Huawei Technologies' Advanced Opto-Electronics Laboratory, told reporters at a media roundtable at the exhibition center on September 10. "Now, for our 3rd-gen product, we've pioneered the 7.2T NPO, which will be deployed in our future SuperPoD series".
Man said the module would not be reserved for Huawei Technologies' own systems. Asked whether it would be supplied to third parties such as Chinese cloud providers, he said: "Huawei is a strong advocate of this industry-wide synergy. So, for one, NPO will be applied to our SuperPod series. But at the same time, we are also more than happy to share this product with our customers in the downstream. And actually not only downstream, but we also like to share this technology with the suppliers on the upstream, including various vendors from different countries and regions". He gave no terms, volumes, or customer names.
Huawei Technologies said the product is still in development and that volume production will depend on supply-chain and manufacturing readiness.
Standards landscape
Before May, NPO work was split across several multi-source agreement groups, none of them formal international standards bodies. At the Optical Internetworking Forum's second-quarter plenary in May, an NPO module project was formally initiated with backing from more than 40 companies. Huawei Technologies described itself as an initiator and core advocate of the NPO proposal. The OIF NPO project has two specifications under discussion: 6.4T as the main focus and 12.8T as an extension.
ANALYSIS Huawei Technologies' 7.2T demonstration sits between the OIF's two specification tiers, which could position the company to influence where the final standard lands. The demonstration also extends Huawei Technologies' vertical integration in AI infrastructure, from the Ascend accelerator chips ordered by customers such as DeepSeek for large-scale clusters[2] to the optical interconnect layer that links those chips inside data centers.
Near-packaged optics places the optical engine at the edge of the switching chip's package substrate, roughly five centimeters from the ASIC, compared with about 20 centimeters for a front-panel pluggable module. Huawei Technologies said the demonstration came ahead of the standard the module will eventually have to meet.