The New Journey of White-Box Devices

At the "CCBN2018 Theme Report Conference," Liu Yunjie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated that the CENI project will establish 133 edge networks in 40 cities.

At the conference, Liu Yunjie pointed out that the existing network architecture has largely taken shape, and the core focus for the future is to build intelligent network highways on this existing framework. "The future network testbed based on service customization has already been deployed in 12 major cities including Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xi'an. More than 80 innovation teams across the country are conducting experiments on this testbed, which has already achieved interoperability with the existing internet and future network testbeds in Europe and America."

The network has become a hot topic both now and in the future, with various industries globally embracing the Internet+ era. Regarding this, Liu Yunjie believes, "Experimental verification is a fundamental method in internet research. The innovation and application of network technology require a large-scale, national-level experimental network platform. This will comprehensively enhance network innovation capabilities, strengthen the core competitiveness of the network industry, ensure the security of cyberspace, and guarantee the sustainable development of networks."

In February 2013, the State Council Document No. 8 included this project in the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Construction of National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure (2012-2030)," indicating that the CENI project has been elevated to a national strategic level. In December 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission initiated its implementation.

It is reported that the goal of the CENI project is to create an advanced, open, flexible, international, and sustainable large-scale general-purpose test facility. It aligns with the experimental verification needs of national major science and technology projects during the 13th and 14th Five-Year Plan periods, such as the next-generation internet, cyberspace security, and integrated space-earth networks. The project aims to achieve a batch of innovative results that are 5-10 years ahead of the industry, leading industrial development.

Liu Yunjie revealed that the CENI project will establish 133 edge networks in 40 cities. He explained that all nodes in these 40 cities will use SDN white-box devices. "The backbone network will be 100G; cloud data centers will be 40G; edge networks will be 10G; the operating system will be hierarchical and domain-specific (3 domains and 2 levels): backbone domain, edge domain, cloud data center domain, and cross-domain coordination; it will serve experimental users of new network technologies while also handling real user traffic (including new service traffic) for enterprises and households."

Regarding research directions and breakthroughs, Liu Yunjie indicated that the CENI project mainly focuses on several key areas. "Smooth evolution and deployment experimental verification of operator network SDN; experimental verification of ultra-large-scale data center networks; experimental verification of data center network protocol innovation based on P4; experimental verification of 4K/8K video and AR/VR service distribution; experimental verification of integrated space-earth-sea networks; and experimental verification of network optimization learning based on artificial intelligence. This will provide an environment for basic scientific research and innovation in the network field in China; supporting operators, equipment manufacturers, and internet companies in various innovative experiments to meet new application demands."

"Facing the development demands of 4K/8K, AR/VR, and the industrial internet, and the wave of future network technology changes, the broadcasting and television field will encounter a new and significant opportunity," Liu Yunjie stated. He suggested that broadcasting networks should construct a new DC-centered network based on SDN/NFV. "Centered on the cloud (data center) and combined with SDN technology, a new network architecture integrating cloud and pipe should be built to address three major scenarios: cloud network, cloud access, and cloud connection."

Finally, Liu Yunjie called for the future network innovation test environment CENI to provide significant support for scientific research and industrial research in the network field. Global network operators, equipment manufacturers, service providers, universities, and research institutions can engage in more joint innovations to achieve breakthroughs in core network technologies.