China has launched its first dedicated scientific and technological communications network, the China Environment for Network Innovation (CENI), which recently achieved a major milestone by transferring 72 terabytes of data in just 96 minutes.
The CENI network: Goals and Core Functions
• To create a cost-effective and scalable environment for testing and verifying technologies in next-generation network research.
• To support trials and experiments in key technological fields, including 5G-Advanced, 6G, artificial intelligence (AI), the industrial internet, and applications for the "low-altitude economy" (e.g., air taxis, drones).
• To ensure the high-performance and reliable transmission of big data between research centers and industrial facilities.
Test Run: Record-Breaking Results
• Data Volume: 72 terabytes (TB), equivalent to the daily data output of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST).
• Route: Transmitted from the FAST site in Guangzhou to the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei Province, covering a distance of approximately 1,000 kilometers.
• Transmission Time: Completed in 1.6 hours (96 minutes).
• Performance Gain: Compared to a theoretical transfer over a conventional public internet connection, which would take an estimated 699 days, the CENI network achieved a speed increase of approximately 10,400 times.
CENI’s Technical Specifications at Launch
• Geography: 40 cities across China.
• Fiber-Optic Transmission System: Over 55,000 kilometers of dedicated lines.
• Connected Test Networks: 128 individual networks integrated into the platform.
• Concurrent Testing Capacity: Capable of running 4,096 simultaneous heterogeneous service tests.
• Interoperability: Designed to be fully compatible with the existing public internet and global research and testing (sandbox) networks.
Key Technological Innovations and Outputs
• Service-Customized Network Architecture (First Implementation)
• Distributed Operating System for Large-Scale Networks
• Global Deterministic Network (World's First; Guarantees Fixed Latency and Zero Packet Loss)
• 206 International and National Technical Standards Developed
• 221 Invention Patents and 139 Software Copyrights Acquired
• Multiple Prestigious Chinese National Science and Technology Awards Received
Potential Applications and Capabilities
• Massive Scientific Data Transfer: Facilitating the exchange of large-scale datasets from fields such as radio astronomy (FAST), genomics, and high-resolution climate modeling.
• Distributed AI Model Training: Supporting the training of extremely large AI models (e.g., 100 billion+ parameters), achieving high-speed iteration cycles (e.g., ~16 seconds for 500,000 iterations).
• Industry Pilots: Serving as a testbed for industrial applications, including smart manufacturing, energy, distance education, telemedicine, and the management of drones and air taxis.
Future Prospects
• 2025–2030: Transitioning to full-scale commercial services across China.
• Exporting the core technology and actively participating in international 6G standardization consortia, such as those within the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) and the IMT-2030 framework.
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