The NPO Standards Industry Summit, co-hosted by IPEC and OIF, concluded with a landmark consensus on international standards for near-packaged optics (NPO), a development that could reshape the future of data center interconnects and high-performance computing. Held on September 10 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center, the summit assembled top players from across the global industry chain, including experts from OIF, CAICT, Tencent, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, Huawei, Broadcom, SENKO, Amphenol, and Yamaichi. The agreement on standards marks a critical step toward the large-scale commercial use of NPO, which is increasingly seen as a key enabler for next-generation SuperPoDs.
As SuperPoDs continue to expand in scale, traditional optical modules are consuming unsustainable amounts of energy, while co-packaged optics (CPO) face constraints such as a closed industry chain and complex operations and maintenance. 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 that NPO offers excellent energy efficiency, a favorable trade-off in port density, and strong compatibility with existing pluggable ecosystems. He noted that NPO is expected to become the preferred solution for SuperPoD interconnect in the near term, and coexist and evolve alongside CPO and other solutions in the long 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 underscored the urgency and momentum behind NPO. 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, revealed that Huawei has launched the industry's first high-bandwidth 7.2T NPO product and demonstrated dynamic transmission at the IPEC exhibition booth. He stated 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 featured high-density connector solutions from leading vendors in the US and Japan, 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, which included connectors, NPO modules, and switches, 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 the streamlined collaboration paths between standards organizations and the industry chain lay a solid foundation for the large-scale commercial use of NPO. For more information about IPEC, visit https://www.ipec.org. This development is significant because it signals a unified push to standardize NPO technology, which could accelerate its adoption, reduce costs, and foster a more open and competitive ecosystem, ultimately benefiting the entire optical communications industry.
