It is China Telecom's first all-optical backbone network (AON) that is innovatively designed to integrate interprovincial and intraprovincial backbone networks via a single architectural approach. With ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) technology and high-quality OTN (Optical Transport Network) bearer networks, this is the world's first deployed all-optical switching network. As a result of its all-optical backbone network, China Telecom offers a wide network coverage, a large bandwidth, high quality, and low latency, which greatly enhances the bandwidth and quality of the basic Internet, as well as facilitating the development of high quality Internet applications.

The four major technological innovations have been applied to achieve the large-scale backbone all-optical switching and transmission network

During the development of China Telecom's backbone all-optical network, a number of technological innovations have been achieved as a result of the difficulties with network architecture, ultra-long transmission, wavelength switching, as well as intelligent operation and maintenance. 

A nationwide integrating inter-provincial and intra-provincial flat AON is built first by proposing an innovative architecture for the integration of inter-provincial and intra-provincial backbones. By eliminating bottlenecks in key technologies and optimizing the core parameters of all-optical transmission system design such as transmission medium, code pattern, and spectrum, the all-optical transmission system has achieved world-leading performance indicators. By developing high-integrity and high-performance all-optical switching equipment at wavelength-level, China Telecom is leading the introduction of the latest optical/electrical layer switching technology to Chinese network deployment. As well as providing equipment with granularity-granularity cross-connection capabilities, OTN equipment supports large bandwidth granularity cross-connection. 

Moreover, China Telecom has introduced an innovative deterministic fast dynamic service recovery technology that combines distributed and centralized circuit algorithms. It has also been proposed to implement some intelligent maintenance and operation technologies, such as the automatic identification and verification of wavelength routing at the physical layer and the automatic discovery of optical fiber connections. The world's largest backbone all-optical switching and transmission network was established as a result of a series of technological innovations. The deployment of an all-optical switching network based on ROADM technology will provide wide coverage, large bandwidth, and fast recovery. To provide end-to-end service bearing and high reliability to government and enterprise OTN networks based on photoelectric collaborative scheduling. 

China Telecom’s Backbone ROADM Network in Five Regions 

To provide high reliability, low latency and large bandwidth connections for the public and government and enterprise customers

Through its all-optical backbone network, China Telecom has established an end-to-end dedicated data transmission channel with high reliability, low latency, and guaranteed bandwidth that is essential to the development of high-quality computing networks across enterprises and the cloud. As a result of the strong cooperation of each service link and the deep convergence of industrial and digital development modes, it has provided comprehensive services for the vertical industry and accelerated the development of the head service capability in the information industry. 

To date, the all-optical network (AON) has provided tens of thousands of high-quality connections for government affairs, the Internet, energy, manufacturing, medical treatment, education, finance, agriculture, and many other sectors. A high-speed and stable communication infrastructure has been provided to Internet users by the construction of an all-optical ROADM network, which has greatly improved the operation quality of ChinaNet, a public Internet backbone network. Online education, webcasts, and other applications based on video have also become popular in China. 

Statistics Figure of China Telecom’s Internet Network Operation Quality

Providing an All-optical Network Base for a Thousand of Industries

Achieve double abundant harvest for economic and social benefits.

Since the launch of China Telecom's all-optical backbone network, the company has achieved significant economic and social benefits. It has been estimated that the revenue from private line products based on the backbone all-optical network has reached approximately 1.97 billion yuan. As a result, AON can reduce a significant amount of network construction costs, which is expected to result in savings of up to 800 million yuan. The low latency, high stability and low latency of the backbone all-optical network creates an appreciable indirect economic value for financial customers and OTT users. As a result of China Telecom's all-optical network, the national economy has achieved significant social benefits, such as the promotion of the digital transformation of the national economy and the facilitation of the rapid development of Internet applications and services.

All-optical Networks Offer Many Benefits to Government and Enterprise, Including
Wide Coverage, High Quality, Low Latency, High Bandwidth, Service On-demand, and Rapid Response.