Advancing Enterprise Connectivity in China and Beyond

The role of the enterprise network is changing fast. No longer does it simply connect data storage facilities to servers and workstations. Today, technological advances have put the network firmly at the heart of any modern enterprise.

According to Gartner, intelligent things and analytics, which use AI and machine learning to interact with people and the environment, are transforming business process and workplace. Digital innovation is now a key strategic agenda. And corporations are increasingly looking for ways to enhance their network infrastructure that is critical to be automated, secure, seamless and software-driven needed to support business agility.

Making all the difference

Geography, political landscape and regulatory regimes are different all over the world. The impact of these differences multiply quickly when companies embrace global and regional initiatives, like China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which involves less developed geographies. Networks need to be flexible, adaptable and have a broad coverage across the globe to provide full support rather than constrain a company’s business.

As the leading provider of advanced intelligent network architecture, China Telecom (CT) is dedicated to making a difference. With over 50 terrestrial and submarine cables and a state-of-the-art OTN network, CT global footprint extends from China to every part of the world. More than 170 global POPs in major cities worldwide provide CTG customers with flexible connectivity options, such as private, low-latency Ethernet lines, MPLS-VPNs and high-speed Internet access to meet their business needs.

Designed for agility

The term “software defined” is becoming increasingly popular these days. Software defined networking can offer enterprises agility, added speed and a way to keep up with business demands. While many enterprises have invested in deploying robust network infrastructures, however, they often face challenges in ensuring optimal network performance.

CT’s competing software-defined network infrastructure and cloud-network capability enables enterprises of all sizes to simplify their network operations through centralized management and gain control of network traffic flow in a cost-effective way.

For example, when a Fortune 500 sportswear manufacturer looked for a resilient solution to interconnect all of its China branches and accelerate connection to the global public cloud, it chose CT. In turn, CT’s networking solutions made the company networks agile and always available.

Bandwidth is becoming a critical resource, and demand is skyrocketing. CT’s network offers bandwidth on demand, allowing enterprises to centrally fine-tune their bandwidth consumption based on real-time traffic requirements. The overall costs for network maintenance also decrease – an important advantage when it comes to planning and budgeting.

A better answer for latency

Latency always matters. It is particularly critical in the global electronic financial marketplace where it is based on computer systems performing high-frequency trades in real time. Even microsecond delays can wreak havoc and result in million-dollar losses.

CT is dedicated to providing ultra-low latency network services to support time-sensitive financial trading and electronic transactions. It has established more than 30 industry-leading low-latency routes connecting the world’s most important financial hubs, including Dalian, Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, New York, Chicago, Moscow and more.

For instance, the Hong Kong to Frankfurt link sees latency round trip time (RTT) as low as 149.17 milliseconds, while latency between Shanghai and London is just 147.93 milliseconds. The latency between Shanghai and Singapore as well as Shanghai and Tokyo are even lower at 53.4 and 24.39 milliseconds respectively. It all adds up to tremendous benefits for customers executing their trades through ultra-fast connections.

Combating security concerns

While new technologies have brought many benefits, they have also expanded the threat surface. Meanwhile, the financial penalties resulting from a breach is also becoming heavier.

That is why CT adopted a multi-layered defense in building a smarter and faster network that guarantees customers secure and reliable access to mission-critical data. CT’s private, low-latency Ethernet lines offer secure, reliable and high-speed point-to-point or point-to-multipoint international connectivity. Its anti-DDoS services also provide around-the-clock protection, through Black-Hole and Clean-Pipe services.

Platform for accelerating business ambitions

Fundamentally, intelligent networking is more than data transmission. It is a blueprint for building modern enterprises, and offers an innovative platform to capture new global business opportunities.

By adopting cloud-based and software-defined paradigms to add intelligence to its network architecture, CT’s market-leading portfolio of network solutions can help global customers navigate market challenges, mitigate risks and provide a robust foundation on which they can build the kind of future they want, wherever they want it.

China Telecom Completes First Phase of Global Optical Transport Network (OTN)

With increasing demand for bandwidth in China, continued investments in optical wavelength transmission capacity have been needed to relieve chokepoint congestion and improve enterprise application delivery.  China Telecom has addressed this need with the completion of Phase 1 of its next generation global Optical Transport Network (OTN).  The new OTN looks to eliminate such nagging problems that enterprise customers are facing with long delivery times and difficult bandwidth adjustment.

China Telecom’s new OTN brings many features

China Telecom’s new OTN brings many features such as bandwidth-on-demand, low latency, high speeds and reliability, and wide coverage.  These features look to improve on the status quo when it comes to enterprise service.  Other features that OTN also bring to the table include cloud network integration features, comprehensive end-to-end protection, 50 ms automatic recovery, and a guaranteed 99.99% network uptime.  A self-service portal with the ability to adjust bandwidth and an initial service delivery time of 7 days round out the features for China Telecom’s new OTN.

Speed is vitally important to any network and China Telecom reads you loud and clear.  The premium Optical Transport Network exceeds 300 Tbps and can have a cap of 100G which is 40 times higher than the current SDH network.  Providing high speeds across the network with 2M-100G end-to-end channels covering wide ranges of service bandwidth granularity.  The OTN also provides support for both TDM services for STM1/4/16/64 and packet services for Fast Ethernet (Fast-E), Gigabit Ethernet (Gig-E), 10G Ethernet and 100G Ethernet.

Due to China Telecom’s system upgrade of their incumbent optical network and equipment, low-bandwidth latency of metropolitan networks will lower by more than 50%.  This improvement will also shave ping times down between cities with one-way delays lowered to less than 5.5ms per 1000 km.

China Telecom is introducing their new OTN in phases

China Telecom is introducing their new OTN in phases with Phase 1 being completed this past Summer.  Phase 1 covered 16 cities including:  Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Tianjin, Suzhou, Chongqing,  and Xi’an.  The remaining 112 cities that will take part in the OTN will be successfully rolled out and operational by December 2019 and include Points-of-Presence (PoPs) at key interconnection data centers globally.

Second upgrade of Trans Pacific Express (TPE) cable will strengthen capacity between USA and China

China Telecom Americas recently announced that the second upgrade of Trans Pacific Express (TPE) cable network has passed Provisional Network Acceptance (PNA) and is now ready for service. All parties engaged in the upgrade can put their relative capacity into commercial service.

Trans Pacific Express (TPE) cable

The TPE cable is a submarine cable system which officially started its commercial service in 2008 with multiple landing stations located across Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States. Designed to directly link both sides of the Pacific, the TPE has been widely recognized by global enterprises as the first choice for a low latency transmission route between China and the USA.

Second upgrade in the TPE cable’s lifecycle

Beginning in 2014, the second upgrade in the TPE cable’s lifecycle introduced 100 Gb/s DWDM technology, which significantly increased the capacity to 9.6 Tb/s in the trans-Pacific segment and to 17.2 Tb/s in the Intra-Asia segment. China Telecom assets include 10×100 Gb/s bandwidth across the trans-Pacific segment and 4×100 Gb/s bandwidth in intra-Asia segment according to the configuration of the latest upgrade.

With the added capacity of China-US bandwidth brought by the completion of the upgrade, the TPE cable network will effectively meet the rapidly surging demand for low latency Trans-Pacific network solutions for years to come, as well as satisfy demands across Intra-Asia and the China-Japan-US networks.

The following is a detailed distribution of China Telecom’s capacity:

Trans-Pacific Routes- No. of 100G Waves

  • T1-T5 Qingdao-US 4
  • T2-T5 Korea-US 1
  • T3-T5 Taiwan-US 1
  • T4-T5 Chongming-US 4

Intra-Asia Routes No. of 100G Waves

  • T1-T2 Qingdao- Korea 1
  • T3-T4 Chongming – Taiwan 1
  • T1-T6 Qingdao -Japan 1
  • T4-T6 Chongming -Japan 1