- Capability group
- Connectivity, Cyber & Trust Technologies
- Domain
- Critical Technology · Hard Power
- Identifier
- factbase.org/cap/RS01993T07
- Reference
- Optical communication Wikipedia
Papers
21.7k
2020–2024
Paper growth
+1%
2020–24 on 2015–19
Patent families
76.5k
2020–2024
Filed abroad
33%
families in more than one office
In the framework
What the capability covers and what it leaves to others, and the indicators it will be measured by.
Bounds
Covers the optical technology frontier; deployed fibre and subsea systems belong to Strategic Infrastructure, and photonic materials are shared with the materials group.
Lineage
Carried from v0.0 (formerly Advanced optical communication) with the same identifier; rewritten from a definition of optical communication to the capacity to advance and supply it, with photonics named.
Indicators
- research publication share in optical communicationResearch
- photonic component production sharePending
- optical transmission records heldPending
Research
Papers classified to the capability, by year and by the nation of their authors' institutions, 2020–2024. Read from the v0.0 research topic Advanced optical communication.
Papers by year
The five leading nations, papers by year
Share of papers, 2020–2024
Of papers with a known author nation; 23% have none and are left out.
- 1China23.4%4,997 papers
- 2India10.9%2,324 papers
- 3United States8.1%1,721 papers
- 4Japan4.8%1,032 papers
- 5United Kingdom4.8%1,014 papers
- 6Italy3.0%631 papers
- 7Germany2.6%547 papers
- 8Spain2.5%532 papers
- 9Canada2.3%497 papers
- 10France2.2%475 papers
Leading institutions, 2020–2024
By fractional count: each paper divided among its authors' institutions.
- 1Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications413fractional papers
- 2Tsinghua University166fractional papers
- 3Fudan University159fractional papers
- 4NTT (Japan)118fractional papers
- 5Indian Institute of Technology Delhi116fractional papers
- 6Xidian University107fractional papers
- 7University of Science and Technology of China97fractional papers
- 8Chandigarh University87fractional papers
- 9Chinese Academy of Sciences78fractional papers
- 10Soochow University70fractional papers
Patents
Patent families by the nation of origin of their applicants and their earliest priority year, from the CPC and IPC classes the capability is read from. 2025 onwards is incomplete: families are published 18 months after priority.
Families by priority year
The five leading origins, families by year
15,432 applicants filed here in 2015–2024; the five largest held 10% of families (HHI 35 of 10,000: unconcentrated).
Share of families by origin, 2020–2024
- 1China60.9%46,581 families
- 2Japan11.7%8,972 families
- 3United States11.7%8,949 families
- 4South Korea4.1%3,102 families
- 5Germany2.6%1,958 families
- 6Taiwan2.4%1,856 families
- 7France1.0%748 families
- 8United Kingdom0.8%586 families
- 9Netherlands0.5%410 families
- 10Israel0.5%392 families
Applicants filing most internationally, 2015–2024
Families filed in more than one office, by applicant as the offices name them.
- 1HUAWEI TECH CO LTD2,503international families
- 2NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE1,664international families
- 3SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES1,256international families
- 4ZTE CORP770international families
- 5NEC CORP723international families
- 6FUJIKURA LTD705international families
- 7MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP704international families
- 8FUJITSU LTD657international families
- 9COMMSCOPE TECHNOLOGIES LLC588international families
- 10CORNING RES & DEV CORP494international families
Classification read
- H04B10/00 Optical transmission systems: fibre and free-space · 499k documents
- H04J14/00 Optical multiplexing, e.g. wavelength division · 174.4k documents
- G02B6/00 Optical fibres, waveguides, couplers and photonic integrated circuits · 1.7m documents
- H04Q11/0001 Optical switching · 163.2k documents
- H01S5/00 Semiconductor lasers · 838.6k documents
- H01S3/067 Fibre lasers and fibre amplifiers · 70k documents
Shares inventions with
Capabilities whose classes the same families also fall in, by overlap (Jaccard).
- Advanced Imaging & Photonic Sensing3,878 families · 0.038
- Superconducting, Magnetic & Photonic Materials1,397 families · 0.023
- Human-Machine Interfaces2,106 families · 0.022
- Advanced Packaging & Heterogeneous Integration2,328 families · 0.018
- Directed Energy Technologies726 families · 0.014
Companies
50 companies in this capability, across 7 regions. The leading 12:
- 1HuaweiWorld's largest optical transport vendor (OptiX OSN/OTN, 800G/1.2T coherent) and the top international patent applicant in this capability (2,503 filings).Manufacture
- 2Coherent Corp.Former II-VI/Finisar; one of the largest makers of datacom and telecom optical transceivers, lasers, InP and VCSEL chips, and wavelength-selective switches.Manufacture
- 3CienaLeading coherent optical networking vendor outside China; its WaveLogic 6 modems were the first to reach 1.6 Tb/s per wavelength.Design
- 4BroadcomSupplies VCSEL/EML lasers, PAM4 optical DSPs and co-packaged optics (Bailly/Tomahawk CPO) for AI data-centre interconnect.Design
- 5CorningInventor of low-loss optical fibre and the largest optical fibre and cable producer outside China (SMF-28, Optical Communications segment).Equipment & materials
- 6NokiaMajor optical transport vendor (PSE-6s coherent DSP) that absorbed Infinera and its InP photonic integrated circuit fabs in 2025.Manufacture
- 7Zhongji InnolightRanked the world's largest optical transceiver maker by revenue; it is a leading supplier of 800G and 1.6T modules to hyperscale AI clusters.Manufacture
- 8NVIDIAThrough Mellanox it designs LinkX optical interconnects and Spectrum-X/Quantum-X silicon-photonics co-packaged-optics switches for AI networks.Design
- 9LumentumLeading supplier of EML and CW lasers, tunable lasers, ROADM WSS modules and transceivers; it also owns the former Oclaro and NeoPhotonics.Manufacture
- 10Marvell TechnologyDominant supplier of PAM4 optical DSPs (ex-Inphi) and COLORZ coherent-lite DCI modules that sit inside most 800G transceivers.Design
- 11Sumitomo Electric IndustriesProducer of ultra-low-loss and multicore fibres, InP laser and photodiode devices and transceiver components; third-largest international patent applicant here.Manufacture
- 12Cisco SystemsOwns Acacia Communications, a leader in silicon-photonics coherent pluggables (400ZR/800ZR) and DSPs for routed optical networks.Design
