Recently, Mao Qian, a full-time member of the Communication and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that in recent years, China has developed rapidly in the field of optical fiber preforms and has a large production capacity. However, most of the optical fiber preforms produced by Chinese manufacturers are joint ventures with foreign countries and do not have their own core technologies. The core technology is almost in the hands of foreign manufacturers. Only a few manufacturers with strong research and development strengths such as Bonfire and Changfei have mastered some key technologies of optical fiber preforms in some aspects, but they are not comprehensive. For example, the long-flying super-large diameter preforms can pull out long fiber, and the bonfire is prefabricated in optical fiber. Rod high-speed wire drawing has been at the forefront of the international market. However, from a holistic perspective, there is still a certain gap between China's optical fiber preforms and the international leading level, and the industry is constantly striving.

At present, many raw materials for making optical fiber preforms in China are not self-sufficient, so we must work harder on the supply of raw materials and the improvement of the industrial chain. In the future, there will be a demand for ultra-low loss fiber. This fiber is very different in process from traditional fiber. Whether the existing process line can continue to produce ultra-low loss, large effective area and other fiber suitable for future development needs further Explore. In addition, there is still a certain gap between China and foreign manufacturers in improving the production efficiency and yield of optical fiber preforms. This requires the industry to invest more in research and development to solve this series of problems.

The development of optical communication is relatively stable. The development from 100G to 400G is a relatively long-term process. If 400G is to be applied as soon as possible, systems, modules, and optical fibers need to cooperate with each other. There are still many problems in 400G commercial applications that need to be solved by the industry.

It is a good idea to use silicon photons instead of the original optical devices, but silicon photons also have disadvantages, so it is difficult to commercialize silicon photons without overcoming their shortcomings.

Academician Mao believes that it is expected that optical communication and 5G collaborative development will become a hot topic in the industry. At present, the 5G standard has not yet been determined, and how optical communication supports 5G development remains to be explored by the industry.