Smarter and Greener Optical Modems

As people increasingly use online education, online offices, and online shopping, there has been an explosion of Wi-Fi devices. Most consumer devices, from mobile phones, tablets, and computers to home appliances and IoT devices, rely on Wi-Fi for Internet access. Wi-Fi networks are now a critical part of home infrastructure. Optical modems offer users direct connections to fiber broadband and the Internet, but for a long time, optical modems and routers were separate devices. This architecture was wasteful and energy-intensive. Power consumption increased even more recently, as optical modems evolved from single-band/Wi-Fi 5 to dual-band/Wi-Fi 6.

In 2020, Huawei integrated optical modems and routers into one product, and launched the Huawei OptiXstar smart optical modem series. This product series is the first of its kind. It features three levels of energy saving (algorithm, module, and architecture), enabling power savings in software, hardware, and the system as a whole. Huawei OptiXstar has Advanced Power Management (APM), which puts the device in different modes (active, dormant, sleep) at different times of day, depending on usage patterns. It offers a superior experience to users while maximizing energy savings.

Each Huawei OptiXstar uses only 0.37 kWh per day, which saves users 38.5 kWh every year, compared with competing products. In 2020, the Huawei OptiXstar series was in service in more than 40 million households worldwide, saving over 1.5 billion kWh of electricity and reducing CO₂ emissions by more than 730,000 tons¹, equivalent to planting more than 30 million trees.

Huawei OptiXstar for a green, connected lifestyle