In the 5G and cloud era, networks are the digital foundation of 5G infrastructure. A 10-fold growth in bandwidth, a 1,000-fold increase of complex connections, differentiated SLA requirements, and higher O&M efficiency are only some of the new challenges that transport networks must overcome. For metro networks that need to provide ultra-large bandwidth and application-level SLA to serve massive vertical industries, intelligence and unified convergence have become an inevitable trend. Huawei's NetEngine 8000 leverages a new platform, new protocol stack, and new O&M capability to become the industry's first intelligent metro router oriented for the 5G and cloud era.
New platform: largest capacity of 14.4Tbps per slot and one platform for all scenarios
Huawei's NetEngine 8000 delivers a capacity of 14.4Tbps per slot, large enough to handle the evolution requirements on traffic over the next 10 years. Despite such large capacity, power consumption is low at only 0.3 W/G thanks to green design. To ensure that the NetEngine 8000 provides ultra-high performance, Huawei overcame many technical hurdles during its development, including making innovations in heat dissipation and power supply. (1) With magnetic blow-out technology, NetEngine 8000 can switch between power modules within milliseconds and deliver a stable, highly reliable power output, with a 90% improvement in the power supply efficiency. (2) The unique VC phase-change heat dissipation technology and thermally conductive carbon nano technology provide a four-fold improvement in heat dissipation efficiency. Compared with traditional fans, the industry's first mixed flow fan provides a three-fold increase in air volume while reducing the noise by 6dB. In addition, the unified router platform supports an extensive range of usage scenarios, such as PE, SR, and DC-GW, thereby empowering customers to simplify their networks and sites and support converged transport of 5G, home broadband, and enterprise services.
New protocol: SRv6 for intelligent connectivity
The SRv6-ready NetEngine 8000 provides massive connections in response to a host of 5G services and applications. Automated cross-domain connectivity enables one-click to cloud by SRv6. The traditional approach of computing routes over the shortest paths fails to guarantee differentiated SLAs with the development of diversified 5G services, such as CloudVR and V2X. The combined use of SRv6 and Network Cloud Engine (NCE) allows optimal path selection from various dimensions, such as service bandwidth and latency, thereby guaranteeing differentiated SLAs based on smart path selection by tenant and application.
New O&M: full lifecycle automation
In the early stage of 5G construction, large-scale deployment of sites is required. Traditionally, multiple site visits and manual configuration are needed, leading to low efficiency. Huawei NCE automates the addition of 5G sites, reducing the service provisioning time for a single site from 30 minutes to three minutes and improving the service provisioning efficiency by 90%. The traditional approach of collecting data through an NMS was time-consuming and failed to provide an overview of the network status in real time. The majority of faults on operator networks, approximately 90%, were diagnosed based on complaints, leading to O&M being performed passively. On ShowNet at the Interop exhibition, Huawei demonstrated its In-band Flow Information Telemetry (iFIT) solution, which provides millisecond-level monitoring of real traffic. Paired with Huawei's NCE, the solution allows service experience to be perceived proactively and achieves both second-level fault demarcation and minute-level fault location.
"Huawei datacom router domain has continuously invested in chip, standard protocols, and AI," said Hank Chen, President of Service Router Domain, Huawei Data Communication Product Line. "We hope that NetEngine 8000 products can help operators build an ultra-broadband and simplified transport network that provides committed SLAs and intelligent O&M to enable business success in the 5G and cloud era."
Interop Tokyo is an industry recognized gathering and the largest ICT exhibition in Japan. The Best of Show Award is a flagship of Interop Tokyo. The winner of this award is the most innovative, technically advanced product or solution that features high business value. It is selected from hundreds of candidates by the functional review team, which is comprised of industry experts and leading academics. Winning the Best of Show Award Grand Prize in network infrastructure demonstrates that Huawei's NetEngine 8000 is highly regarded by experts throughout the industry.
