China Telecom, YOFC, and ZTE Demonstrate Bidirectional 800G Transmission over Over 1007 km Fiber Optic Cable

A research group led by Chen Mohan from Peking University adapted ABACUS—an open-source density functional theory (DFT) package developed in China—for the full line of Huawei Kunpeng 920 processors. Furthermore, the team optimized 19 different classes of core operators. This was reported by Huawei Computing in a publication on October 31, as learned by IT Home. The code was uploaded to the project repository on GitHub.

Density functional theory (DFT) is a primary first-principles method for studying the properties of materials such as metals and semiconductors. ABACUS was jointly developed by several institutions and has over a thousand users across more than one hundred organizations.

According to the team's data, when configuring both sides to 28 cores with 28 processes running one thread each, the Kunpeng 920 build, utilizing the SVE instruction set, showed speeds 1.3 to 3.9 times faster than a standard x86 CPU when working with a standard set of 10 material systems containing 8 to 216 atoms, including GaAs, MoS2, BaTiO3, iron, and silicon. When using the chip's matrix computation unit, the speedup reached up to 10.7 times when operating on all cores of a single node. In cases of stochastic DFT, the team recorded a speed increase of 2.8 to 3.1 times for SVE and 6.1 to 20.1 times for the build using the matrix block.

The initial step was porting, as various Kunpeng 920 models support vector instructions NEON, SVE, or SVE512, as well as a dedicated matrix block, which remain unused when using general compiler options. The team created separate toolchains: gcc with OpenMPI and OpenBLAS was used for NEON and SVE builds, while clang with HMPI and KBLAS from Huawei was used for others, and the USE_KML option was added for integration with the Kunpeng Math Library. All compiled versions passed ABACUS integration tests covering DFT for plane waves and LCAO Kohn-Sham, stochastic DFT, and DeePKS, with results matching the main implementations.

Next, the team rewrote frequently called small operators. Replacing the recursive procedure for the generalized Laguerre polynomial with an iterative recurrence allowed complexity reduction to O(n) and made it approximately eight times faster in a million-test run. Switching interpolation search to binary search reduced the average number of comparisons in a 400-entry table from about 200 to nine. Other changes included trigonometric recurrences, cycle invariant lifting, mixed-precision tuning, and memory layout, with the numerical results of each operator being re-verified.

Using automatic source code optimization in Huawei's DevKit, the team also increased the processing speed for an 8-atom high-density carbon case by 2.28 times and a 512-atom silicon case by 2.66 times on the newer Kunpeng 920 model. Huawei notes that the resulting tuning experience can be applied to other scientific software.

MTN South Africa, in collaboration with Huawei, successfully conducted a proof of concept demonstration and achieved the first commercial validation in the industry of enhanced microwave spectrum reuse capability. This feature is based on Huawei's CCIC (Co-Channel Interference Cancellation) microwave solution and is designed to increase capacity by more efficiently utilizing existing licensed spectrum.

The new capability allows for more efficient use of microwave spectrum, helping MTN build capacity in areas where additional spectrum is either limited or difficult to obtain. The demonstrated solution showed a significant improvement in spectrum utilization efficiency while maintaining network performance, which contributes to rapid capacity growth and accelerated deployment of 5G services.

MTN South Africa is one of the leading providers of mobile and digital services in the country, and MTN Group is the largest mobile operator on the African continent. Due to the expansion of commercial 5G services, MTN South Africa faces growing demand for high-capacity microwave backhaul networks. This has created an urgent need to maximize the use of licensed spectrum while controlling associated costs.

Obtaining additional spectrum is traditionally expensive and often requires lengthy regulatory procedures. Furthermore, strong interference in low-frequency bands can significantly degrade the quality of backhaul service. At major hub sites, further network expansion is often limited by insufficient spectrum availability and the complexity of obtaining new spectrum licenses.

To solve these problems, MTN South Africa implemented the Huawei CCIC solution. This technology continuously analyzes co-channel interference in real-time and generates compensating signals to suppress it. By overcoming the limitations of physical isolation in traditional microwave systems, this solution enables more efficient reuse of existing microwave spectrum, supporting capacity expansion where spectrum is constrained. In a deployed configuration, it demonstrated a significant increase in spectrum reuse efficiency.

This achievement allows operators to use existing frequencies for both capacity growth and targeted expansion, optimizing spectral resources and reducing operational costs.

Spectrum Scarcity

Rodni Reddy, Senior Transmission Planning Manager, Tivashan Naidu, Senior Transmission Specialist, and Rim Al Saba, Senior Transmission Specialist at MTN South Africa stated that 'the CCIC solution directly addresses spectrum scarcity issues. It enhances spectral efficiency and optimal spectrum utilization during capacity expansion, eliminating spectrum limitations that have historically constrained hub site growth. This allows us to maximize our existing spectrum assets while simultaneously improving operational efficiency and reducing spectrum-related costs.'

Nkosinathi Nzima, General Manager of Transport and OSS (Operations Support Systems), noted: 'This phase demonstrates how targeted innovations can help us effectively expand capacity in constrained areas, increase the value of licensed spectrum assets, and create a scalable, future-ready transmission network. This deployment supports our broader strategic goal of expanding network capacity while maintaining investment discipline and operational efficiency.'

Alex Singh, Vice President of Key Account Management for MTN Group at Huawei, emphasized: 'Huawei is committed to continuous innovation in microwave transmission technologies. The CCIC solution significantly improves spectral efficiency, enhances network performance, and optimizes the total cost of ownership for operators. By enabling higher capacity and more efficient microwave backhaul networks, this solution helps accelerate the large-scale deployment of 5G services.'

This implementation shows the potential of CCIC technology in helping operators maximize the value of existing spectrum assets, expand network capacity more efficiently, and support the growing demand for 5G connectivity.

About Huawei

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure and intelligent devices. With 213,000 employees working in over 170 countries, the company serves more than three billion people worldwide.

Huawei strives to enable digitalization for every person, home, and organization towards a fully connected, intelligent world. In 2025, Huawei achieved revenue of C¥880.9 billion, reinvesting 21.8% (C¥192.3 billion) in Research and Development (R&D), with approximately 53.7% of its employees working in R&D. As a private company wholly owned by its employees, Huawei focuses on customer-centric innovation and open collaboration to create long-term value and drive technological breakthroughs globally.

Huawei, in collaboration with the China Telecom branch in Shaanxi Province, has commercially deployed 32T32R FDD Massive MIMO technology on the Shu-Lan and Yinxi high-speed railway lines. This equipment operates simultaneously on 1.8 GHz and 2.1 GHz frequencies.

Huawei states that this is the first commercial use of FDD Massive MIMO in a high-speed railway environment in China. High-speed rail networks present significant challenges for mobile coverage due to the large distance between towers, train speeds up to 350 km/h, and penetration losses caused by metal carriages.

Massive MIMO technology, which is often used to increase capacity in densely populated urban areas, forms narrower beams compared to traditional wide-beam antennas. Huawei asserts that this beam shape is suitable for a linear route: the beams can be directed along the tracks, follow the train through cells, and adapt to compensate for the Doppler effect, which could degrade the connection.

The company highlighted three key design aspects for railway application. Adaptive beams are designed to limit frequency shift effects at high speeds. Inter-cell beam tracking and coordinated planning aim to reduce the number of handovers when a train crosses multiple cells. Furthermore, broadcast beams and pilots are configured to ensure linear coverage so that energy remains within the corridor rather than scattering in open terrain.

According to the statement, measurements conducted on the Yinxi section in Shaanxi showed an approximate 200-meter expansion of cell coverage after modernization, a 24% increase in average 5G uplink speed, and an increase in average downlink speed of over 50%. User experience improvements were even more pronounced: uplink speed at the zone boundary increased by 95%, and downlink speed by over 100%.

Although FDD Massive MIMO has long served as a tool for increasing capacity in urban macrocells, deploying 32 transmit and 32 receive chains on a high-speed corridor represents an attempt to apply this urban capacity model to a fast-moving linear cell. Huawei and Shaanxi Telecom present the deployment in Shaanxi as an operational commercial network, not a laboratory experiment. It should be noted that all claimed gains in coverage and throughput are assertions made by the company and operator from the announcement in October and have not undergone independent verification.