R&D CloseupBeijing R&D Center Sharpens theCompetitive Edge of <strong>ZTE</strong>In 1998, <strong>ZTE</strong> opened the BeijingR&D center in Beijing, China’scapital city, cultural, political, andeconomic center, as part of its drive toincrease optical R&D. The researchareas of the center now includeDWDM, CWDM, and ROADM aswell as data communications.As people demand a broad varietyof services, greater emphasis is puton large capacity and long distancetransmission. The establishment ofthe Beijing R&D center facilitated thecompany’s expansion into the arenaof high-capacity transport networkin late 1990s, greatly enhancing thecompetitiveness of <strong>ZTE</strong>’s opticalproducts. After almost ten years ofdevelopment, this center has becomea mainstay of innovation in opticaltransport for <strong>ZTE</strong>.The center broadened its R&Dscope when a data communicationsR&D base was set up in August 2006.It’s been expanded further when thecompany centralized its operatingbranches in Beijing on a single siteat the beginning of this year. Hence,the center is expected to play a biggerrole in the company’s development:attracting more talents and increasingthe company’s overall strength beforethe 3G license is issued and before theBeijing 2008 Olympic Games is held.At present, nearly 300 engineers areengaged in research and developmentof optical transport, among whom, 70percent holds a master degree. Withwell-defined product developmenttechnology roadmap and objectives,the center has built a cohesive fightingforce with the employee commitmentand satisfaction maintaining at a highlevel. It is through their dedicatedeffort that the center have madeimprovements in R&D processnormalization, talents cultivation, R&Defficiency, logistics operation, productplanning, standardization activities,p a t e n t s p o o l i n g , a n d p l a t f o r mdevelopment. The center passed theTL9000 certification initially and itsDWDM First Year Return Rate (YRR)reached the lowest level in the industry.A good startOne year after the center was setup, <strong>ZTE</strong> and Beijing University ofPosts and Telecommunications (BUPT)4 <strong>ZTE</strong> TECHNOLOGIES
jointly undertook the OADM subjectof National 863 Programme in China.In 2001, the OADM equipment ofthis project passed the appraisal byan expert team. <strong>ZTE</strong> sustained itsmomentum of success with a seriesof breakthroughs both in the Chineseand international markets including thewest ring project of China Mobile.As <strong>ZTE</strong> had accumulated a certainamount of experience in ultra longhaulprojects, it was appointed as editorto draft recommendation on Ramanamplifier technology in 2003, whichwas approved in 2005. In September2005, <strong>ZTE</strong> was asked by ITU to draftthe standard on adaptive dispersioncompensators.A s Z T E i s p a r t i c i p a t i n g i ninternational standardization activitiesand pushing to set the standards, it isalso vigorously implementing patentsstrategy. It has acquired more than 100patents in the optical communicationf i e l d , a m o n g t h e m , t h e c l o c kmanagement and protection techniqueswon China Excellent Patent Awards.<strong>ZTE</strong> has been active in research anddevelopment on standards and patentsrelating to optical communications. Take2006 as an example, <strong>ZTE</strong> registered 108Chinese patents, and 11 internationalpatents, and made a total of 23contributions to ITU.As a result of its strong R&Dability, <strong>ZTE</strong>’s DWDM system hasrealized a leap-forward development,with a capacity of reaching 1.6Tb/s,fully satisfying the requirement ofnext generation services. With theadoption of multiple industry-leadingtechnologies such as Raman amplifiers,enhanced FEC, dynamic powerequalization, and distributed dispersionmanagement, it can implement superlong-haul non-REG transmissiondistance of more than 5000km overG.652 and G.655 optical fibers.R&D bears fruitsWith cutting-edge technologies,<strong>ZTE</strong> has succeeded in carving a nichefor itself in the optical networkingproduct space. Today, <strong>ZTE</strong>’s WDMproducts are widely used in trunk linenetworks and local area networks ofChina’s major operators while enteringcountries in Southeast Asia, SouthAsia, the Pacific region, WesternEurope, Eastern Europe, SouthAmerica and North Africa. <strong>ZTE</strong> hashad the highest average sales growthrate of all the mainstream opticaltransport equipment providers from2003 to 2005 according to globaltelecoms analyst organization, OVUM-RHK.Indeed, <strong>ZTE</strong> has made a greatheadway with its WDM solutions sinceits triumph in 2002 (China Mobile’swest ring project). In India, <strong>ZTE</strong> wasselected to build Phase I of the BSNLnational backbone network and wasauthorized to carry out the Phase IIcapacity expansion project. This is thefirst national-level backbone networkinstalled by <strong>ZTE</strong> outside of China,covering two thirds of India. In China,<strong>ZTE</strong> was chosen by late 2005 to carryout the expansion phase of ChinaMobile’s west ring project, whichboasts the most nodes and the longesttransmission distance.In 2006, <strong>ZTE</strong> has been riding a newwave of optical growth. In the first halfof 2006, <strong>ZTE</strong>’s share of the ChineseWDM market was first and its shareof the international LH DWDM wasthird. Meanwhile, <strong>ZTE</strong> has made solidprogress in one of its most importantmarket, Europe. It signed with GTSCentral Europe in early 2006 fordeployment of an ultra long-haulDWDM backbone transmission networkspanning Eastern and Western Europe.<strong>ZTE</strong> offers a comprehensive rangeof optical products for all kindsof networks, meeting customers’demand at all levels. For the metronetwork, <strong>ZTE</strong> offers the WDM metroequipment that has special designsfor metropolitan networks such asmulti-service OTU and T-MUX aswell as a most complete protectionswitching structure in the industry.The ROADM-based DWDM systemis used in metro core, meeting thesituation when traffic continues togrow. ROADM offers advantagesover the conventional OADM suchas flexibility for bandwidth growth. Itfeatures add-drop capability of 40 and80 wavelength, and “pay as you grow”scalability. <strong>ZTE</strong>’s compact and highperformance metro CWDM system, onthe other hand, is used in metro accessnetworks.Innovation is key to <strong>ZTE</strong>’s businesssuccess. R&D has always been thecornerstone of the company’s strategy.The Beijing R&D center as thebackbone of <strong>ZTE</strong>’s optical transportdevelopment will keep innovating witha market-oriented approach, and makeinnovation propel the development of<strong>ZTE</strong>.<strong>ZTE</strong> TECHNOLOGIES 75