As an optical communication component with considerable potential, the Integrated Optical Acousto-optic Tunable Filter (IAOTF) has been paid great attention in recent years. With the advantages of low insertion-loss, broad tuning range, continual electric-tuning with high speed and simultaneous multiple-channel filtering, it has promising prospect in the future in a1l-optic networks. At first, the paper introduces acousto-optic coupling principle of AOTF briefly. Secondly, it concretely analyses the existing problems and the solutions of every developing stage with the research work of our laboratory. Finally, according to the developing trend of optical communication, we put forward a simple analysis of AOTF's developing direction and the method of improving AOTF's performance.