skywalking/docs/en/setup/backend/otlp-trace.md

OpenTelemetry Trace Format

OpenTelemetry metrics and log formats are supported, the trace format is not supported directly.

OpenTelemetry and Zipkin formats are generally logically consistent. If the Zipkin server alternative mode is expected, user could use OpenTelemetry Collector's Zipkin Exporter to transfer the format and forward to OAP as alternative Zipkin server.

Read Zipkin Trace Doc for more details about Zipkin Server Alternative Mode.

To contributors, if you want to contribute otlp-trace handler in receiver-otel receiver, we could accept that PR. But still, we could require the trace transferred into Zipkin format in the handler.