Latency of less than 1 millisecond! The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issues guidelines to promote the construction of all-optical computing power networks, with OCS and optoelectronic converged networking deployments on the horizon.

① Today, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice on launching a special action for ‘millisecond computing’ in metropolitan areas; ② It mentioned that by 2027, the deployment rate of all-optical cross-connects at key metropolitan sites should be no less than 50%; ③ The notice was sent to the three major operators: China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom.

The STAR Market Daily, October 16th Report: As artificial intelligence penetrates various industries at an unprecedented pace, the transmission efficiency of traditional computing power networks is becoming unsustainable. To address latency and reliability issues, the deployment of optical communication is becoming an urgent necessity for the next-generation computing power network.

Today, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Notice’) to all units regarding the launch of a special action for ‘millisecond computing’ in metropolitan areas. It emphasized promoting the deployment of optical network equipment towards integrated access points and user-side facilities such as industrial parks, accelerating the extensive coverage of all-optical networks, and building millisecond-level low-latency one-hop computing capabilities in metropolitan areas.

Regarding the specific content of the action, by 2027, the following goals are expected to be achieved:

Achieve optical-layer unidirectional interconnection latency of less than 1 millisecond between medium-sized and larger computing centers within metropolitan areas.

Achieve a deployment rate of all-optical cross-connects at key metropolitan sites of no less than 50%.

Achieve coverage of no less than 70% for the 1-millisecond latency circle of metropolitan computing power.

Medium-sized and larger computing centers in metropolitan areas refer to computing centers with a design scale of 1,000 standard racks or more within metropolitan regions. To achieve the above goals, the Notice mentioned that it is necessary to conduct validation of new technologies such as fine-granularity Optical Transport Networks (OTN) and deterministic networks; promote the technical application and deployment of all-optical switching (OCS) in computing centers and optoelectronic integration networking.

Notably, the recipients of this Notice include the three major operators: China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom. According to the work requirements, each group company of basic telecommunications enterprises must strengthen specialized guidance, policy support, and technical assistance to their subsidiaries and branches within the implementation regions. They are also required to organize relevant subsidiaries and branches to increase investment and ensure the smooth completion of the action objectives.

In fact, domestic operators have already accumulated sufficient technological expertise and commercial deployments in optical communications. Since the beginning of this year, China Mobile and China Telecom have initiated the deployment of hollow-core fiber commercial lines and procurement, respectively, while China Unicom has completed the deployment and commercialization of its 400G/800G all-optical computing power network foundation.

Amid the booming demand for AI computing power, all-optical network solutions are taking over from optoelectronic integration to become a new trend in the development of the optical communications industry. At the Full Connection Conference in September this year, Huawei launched the Atlas950 supernode, which adopts an all-optical inter-cabinet interconnection solution. According to securities firms’ research reports, leading cloud vendors have begun to explore the procurement of commercial OCS equipment for integration into data centers.

According to China Mobile’s ‘AI Industry: Cloud Intelligence and Optical Interconnection Development Report,’ future breakthroughs in the performance ceiling of large-scale intelligent computing clusters will rely on optical interconnection models represented by OCS. Through the Scale-Out capability of all-optical computing networks, it can support the deployment of future million-card-level intelligent computing clusters, providing the underlying computing power infrastructure for the development of general artificial intelligence.

From a technical perspective, OCS does not replace optoelectronic switching solutions such as CPO but represents the further proliferation and下沉 of optical communication technology, extending from traditional connectivity to switching. As NVIDIA noted at the OCP EMEA 2025 conference, the manufacturing cost of optical switches remains significantly higher than that of electrical switches. When the two solutions are combined, power consumption can be further reduced.

Guosheng Securities believes that the supply chain for OCS is taking shape, with more and more companies showing interest in this field. The industry has yet to enter the phase of disproof. However, in the long term, leading optical module manufacturers will build comprehensive competitive advantages in the emerging OCS track by leveraging their robust global ecosystem channels, deep partnerships with strategic customers, accumulated experience in scaled manufacturing, and systematic forward-looking R&D capabilities.