ZTE's Zhang Zhenchao: Integrated Intelligent CLOUD Transport Network Serving New Digital Era

14 November 2022, Shenzhen, China - ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, today announced that Mr. Zhang Zhenchao, General Manager of Transport Network International Marketing of ZTE, has shared his insights into transport network with a speech entitled “Integrated Intelligent CLOUD Transport Network Serving the New Digital Era” at ZTE 5G Summit and User Congress in Italy.

“Digital transformation of the industry has become a global consensus. The development of digital economy triggers massive data and the sharp increase of network traffic. Ubiquitous connections of 5G and cloud services require diversified SLA(Service Level Agreements). In addition, users have increasingly higher requirements for network quality and service response timeliness,” said Mr. Zhang. “The new era is calling for a new O&M mode, and telecom services are entering a new blue ocean. Therefore, transport network, as the base of the communications network, not only needs to meet full-service connections, but also faces many challenges such as large bandwidth, determinacy, programmability, smooth evolution, and intelligentization.”

Mr. Zhang introduced ZTE’s CLOUD Transport solution, which proposes the intelligent architecture with hierarchical disaggregation, where the network layer, service layer and management & control layer are planned independently. With a number of innovative technologies, this solution supports five core capabilities, namely Cooperative, Lite, Omni, Ultra and Deterministic, to meet the requirements of future network infrastructure.

Firstly, the network layer focuses on basic network capabilities like ultra-large bandwidth, determinacy, and energy saving, and offers standard components for the service layer to implement CaaS (Connection as a Service). According to the forecast of Omdia, a research and consulting company, the deployment scale of 400G ports will increase by 20 times in five years, and 400G will become the mainstream technology for high-speed cloud and network interconnection.

“ZTE’s 400G technology is becoming mature, and our backbone network core routers and 400G Fabric data center switches can meet the requirements for high-speed inter-cloud and intra-cloud interconnection,” said Mr. Zhang. “In addition, ZTE has completed the world’s first prototype test of 400G QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) together with China Mobile, and achieved ultra-high-speed transmission over 3,038km, which shows the excellent performance of 400G QPSK in long-distance transmission on optical backbone network.”

Secondly, the service layer focuses on the programmability and serviceability of the network, and builds agile and elastic network connections according to the differentiated requirements of ToB/ToC/ToH services to implement NaaS (Network as a Service). ZTE supports innovative SRv6/EVPN/BIERin6/iFlow technologies. With maturing end-to-end programmability, the network can implement fast service connections, value-added network services, and fast network perception. The SRv6 programmable interface is the key to service-based network, and can truly improve network resource scheduling efficiency. Recently, ZTE has cooperated with Telekom Malaysia (TM) to build the next-generation backbone IP network.

Finally, the management & control layer focuses on user experiences. It translates user intents into network language, interconnects the service layer/network layer, and finally builds an autonomously evolving service-based network that can perceive and adjust intelligently, to implement EaaS (Experience as a Service). ZTE’s Athena management & control solution supports AI-based autonomous network. ZTE provides AI forecast-based network devices to achieve dynamic energy saving in the SPN network of China Mobile, effectively reducing the power consumption of the network while ensuring service security, with the average energy saving efficiency reaching 15.28%. In addition, ZTE won the Best Test&Measurement Technology Award for its iFlow solution at 5G World 2020. ZTE and China Unicom jointly won the Best Network Intelligence Award at BBWF 2019 for its Intelligent Configuration Check based on Role Fingerprint, winning high recognition from the industry.

Being value-oriented, ZTE focuses on new 5G cloud and network technologies and provides all-scenario cloud transport solutions and products. According to Mr. Zhang, in the optical networking field, ZTE’s Real 400G solution can provide powerful transport capability for the digital era. With the evolution of three innovative technologies, it can increase the transmission distance by more than 60% compared with the average level in the industry, and so it is the optimal choice for backbone optical networks. In the IP network field, focusing on large capacity and programmability, ZTE has been dedicated to building new digital and intelligent communication infrastructure for cloud and network integration with continuously evolving 400G ultra-broadband interfaces and continuously improved serviceability and programmability. Moreover, ZTE has been putting investments in in-house core chipsets to ensure the secure delivery of transport products and long-term serviceability.

With more than 20 years of experience, ZTE has made great achievements in the global market of transport network products with outstanding technical strength. Moving forward, ZTE will continue focusing on technological innovations and cooperating with its partners for a win-win future. ZTE will further break the technological boundaries and facilitate digital transformation of the industry. From creating connections and improving experience to building the ecosystem, ZTE will work with global partners to light up the new digital era.