NTT equips communication chip with the world's first function to “diagnose” the entire length of an optical network

NTT developed a chip-based optical network monitoring function inside a transceiver DSP, the first commercial approach of its kind.

The system cuts required computation by 100x and can localize signal-loss faults in real time over distances up to 1,005 km.

Its fault detection results matched OTDR while avoiding any noticeable impact on communication quality or power consumption.

The technology could enable always-on monitoring without dedicated test gear, reducing maintenance costs for large AI-era optical networks.