China Telecom deploys Huawei's SDN technology

"We are glad to cooperate with Huawei in the SDN field and successfully commercialize the technology. We hope these new services can create more value for our customers," said Xu Hong, the vice general manager of Beijing Telecom.

In collaboration with Huawei, Beijing Telecom has delivered what it calls a service-centric IDC network and new business model focusing on both bandwidth resources and value-added services. The operator says the SDN-based network represents a ground-breaking implementation of a commercial carrier-grade SDN. It’s one of the first commercial deployments of SDN technology, but other operators are likely not far behind (see “SDN and NFV enter carrier trial phase says Infonetics”; in fact, Cyan would likely say it’s Beijing Telecom that’s not far behind – see “Metro Communications opts for Cyan Blue Planet SDN and packet-optical transport,” for example).

Based on the SDN-enabled IDC network, Beijing Telecom released a range of IDC services such as DC-one for virtual resource services, DC-care for assurance services, DC-keeper for auxiliary services like detailed traffic reporting, and DC-private for customized services. The service-centric IDC network architecture meets service customization requirements of tenants, improves IDC resource use and operations, and optimizes network O&M efficiency, giving Beijing Telecom a competitive edge on the IDC market, Huawei asserts.

The SDN technology for Beijing Telecom's IDC comprises key components such as the smart network controller (SNC), powered by a carrier-grade SDN control algorithm (Flow Engine), and the orchestrator NetMatrix, to achieve intelligent traffic optimization for data center egress nodes, and flexible definition of traffic optimization policies.

"Huawei has extensive and successful collaboration with China Telecom in many areas,” said Zha Jun, president of Huawei's fixed network business unit. "The deployment of SDN-based IDC innovations demonstrates China Telecom's foresight in cutting-edge technologies and Huawei's strength in SDN. As a leader in SDN, Huawei will continue to promote SDN standardization and commercialization to help operators excel in the SDN era."

Huawei points to its recent demonstration of SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV) -based architecture with Telefonica at Mobile World Congress in February 2014 as further proof of its prowess in SDN (see “Huawei, Telefonica trial SDN-based IP and optical layer interworking”). The Chinese vendor unveiled its SDN offering last March (see “Huawei unveils Transport SDN platform and application system”).