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Topic · Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Optical Network Technologies

Optical Network Technologies is a research topic within Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Science Explorer counts 67k research works in it since 1951. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers advances in optical fiber communication technologies, including topics such as coherent detection, digital signal processing, nonlinear effects, space-division multiplexing, high-capacity networks, modulation formats, fiber amplifiers, dispersion compensation, and optical performance monitoring.

  • Optical Fiber
  • Coherent Detection
  • Digital Signal Processing
  • Nonlinear Effects
  • Space-Division Multiplexing
  • High-Capacity Networks
  • Modulation Formats
  • Fiber Amplifiers
  • Dispersion Compensation
  • Optical Performance Monitoring
Research works
67k
fractional, since 1951
In the world top 10%
6.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
46% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Optical Network Technologies

Which countries lead Optical Network Technologies research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.7k and 1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.7k works
  2. 2 United States 1k works
  3. 3 India 803 works
  4. 4 Japan 696 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 371 works
  6. 6 Germany 366 works
  7. 7 France 280 works
  8. 8 Italy 269 works
  9. 9 Canada 247 works
  10. 10 Russia 176 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 46.3%United States: 13.2%India: 10.1%Japan: 8.8%6 others listed: 21.6%46%largest
China3,667 · 46.3%United States1,045 · 13.2%India803 · 10.1%Japan696 · 8.8%6 others listed1,709 · 21.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Optical Network Technologies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications publishes the most Optical Network Technologies research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and NTT (Japan).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 306 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 188 works
  3. 3 NTT (Japan)Japan 134 works
  4. 4 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 121 works
  5. 5 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 110 works
  6. 6 Fudan UniversityChina 99 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 94 works
  8. 8 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 89 works
  9. 9 Nokia (Finland)Finland 89 works
  10. 10 Peng Cheng LaboratoryChina 84 works

Who are the leading researchers in Optical Network Technologies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Optical Network Technologies include Wei Huang, Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi.

  1. 1 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  2. 2 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k citations
  3. 3 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k citations
  4. 4 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  5. 5 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  6. 6 L. Li France 211k citations
  7. 7 Jiaguo Yu China 207k citations
  8. 8 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  9. 9 Edward Hartley Sargent Canada 185k citations
  10. 10 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Optical Network Technologies?

The most cited paper in Optical Network Technologies is "Nonlinear Fiber Optics" (Govind Prasad Agrawal, 2007), with 9,064 citations. Next come "Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber" (4,374) and "Quantum detection and estimation theory" (3,895).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Nonlinear Fiber Optics Govind Prasad Agrawal · Lecture notes in physics Book chapter 24 Jun 2007 9,064
2 Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber John M. Dudley, Goëry Genty, Stéphane Coen · Reviews of Modern Physics 4 Oct 2006 4,374
3 Quantum detection and estimation theory Carl W. Helstrom · Journal of Statistical Physics Open access 1969 3,895
4 Photonic Crystal Fibers Philip St.J. Russell · Science 16 Jan 2003 3,851
5 Space-division multiplexing in optical fibres David John Richardson, John M. Fini, Lynn E. Nelson · Nature Photonics Open access 29 Apr 2013 3,390
All 97 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Optical Network Technologies research done?

The largest centres of Optical Network Technologies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Tokyo (Japan) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Coppell, Corning and Fujimino.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 915 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 363 works
  3. 3 TokyoJapan 362 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 269 works
  5. 5 ShenzhenChina 210 works
  6. 6 NanjingChina 201 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 184 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 168 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 147 works
  10. 10 Xi'anChina 133 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. CoppellUS · 37.6 works259×
  2. CorningUS · 30.1 works166×
  3. FujiminoJP · 23.8 works105×
  4. MarkhamCA · 33.2 works88×
  5. SunnyvaleUS · 23.9 works28×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Optical Network Technologies than the world average.

See Optical Network Technologies on the map

Where is the best place to study Optical Network Technologies?

Among universities, judged by research, Fudan University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Zhejiang University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.76%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Cornell UniversityFudan UniversityHong Kong Polytechni…Zhejiang University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Fudan UniversityChina 66.519.5%7.2×99 +53.8%
2Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 58.316.2%4.4×33 +19.5%
3Zhejiang UniversityChina 57.215.7%3.2×75 +63.9%
4Cornell UniversityUnited States 54.934.0%0.8×9 +20.9%
5Taiyuan University of TechnologyChina 54.128.5%3.6×13 +106.7%
6Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 53.86.1%54.9×306 +5.3%
7Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 53.810.5%7.0×110 +17.9%
8University of California, Los AngelesUnited States 53.820.2%2.4×24 +116.4%
9University of SouthamptonUnited Kingdom 52.214.9%11.8×53 -26.7%
10Politecnico di MilanoItaly 51.612.0%6.2×39 +26.7%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Optical Network Technologies, country by country

Is Optical Network Technologies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Optical Network Technologies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Optical Network Technologies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.041% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%Optical Network Technologies0.039% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Optical Network Technologies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Optical Network Technologies9.5% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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