Computing power network has become a new engine for digital development. How can operators make use of it?

At present, the digital economy has become the top priority of global economic development. As the computing power carrier for the operation of information systems in various industries, computing power infrastructure undoubtedly plays an irreplaceable role in the development of the digital economy. Especially under the promotion of the "East Data West Computing" policy, the country is actively deploying the computing power industry to press the "fast forward button" for its development. Operators, as builders of network infrastructure, are also actively involved in it, contributing their own strength to the development of China's computing power industry.

Computing network becomes a new engine for digital development

As mentioned before, the vigorous development of the digital economy requires high-quality computing power networks as a favorable support. Based on this, computing power has also become a strategic choice and new focus of competition for global economic development. Li Zhengmao, general manager of China Telecom, once publicly stated that in the digital economy era, the development of productivity is accelerating from the power era to the computing power era. The role of computing power in driving my country's GDP growth is becoming increasingly significant. For every 1 yuan invested in my country's computing power industry, it will drive an average of 3-4 yuan of economic output.

"At present, computing power networks are an important driving force for the in-depth development of new infrastructure." Zhang Hao, director of the Network and IT Technology Research Institute of China Mobile Research Institute, said earlier. In his view, computing power will bring three important values.

• First, it is related to national security and people's livelihood. Whether it is energy, finance, communications or transportation, it is inseparable from the support of underlying computing power.
• The second is that it is related to the realization of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. At present, the electricity consumption of computing centers is increasing at a rate of 10% per year. In 2020, the power consumption of national data centers will reach nearly 3% of the national electricity consumption, and it will increase exponentially in the future. Therefore, computing power is related to the realization of future dual carbon goals.
• Third, it is related to the development of national strength and core competitiveness. Although my country's computing power ranks second in the world, the per capita computing power is insufficient. Further improving the computing power scale and per capita computing power in the future will further affect the country's overall competitiveness.

In the view of Tang Xiongyan, deputy director of China Unicom Research Institute, with the deepening of digital transformation and the widespread application of artificial intelligence, the demand for computing resources, computing services and the Internet of Everything in all walks of life is growing rapidly, prompting data resources and computing resources to accelerate from the two-level cloud to the three-level cloud, edge and end distribution, and expand to more regions. Therefore, building a high-quality computing network has become the key to the efficient use of computing resources and the on-demand provision of computing services.

Operators accelerate the layout of computing power networks

The importance of computing power networks is self-evident. With the official launch of the "East Data West Computing" project, operators are taking advantage of the momentum of the "East Data West Computing" project and are accelerating the layout and construction of computing power networks.

Specifically, China Telecom proposed a "2+4+31+X+O" cloud-network integrated resource layout, namely 2 central data centers serving the world, 4 key regional nodes (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Shaanxi-Sichuan-Chongqing), one data center in each of the 31 provinces, and widely distributed edge nodes and overseas nodes.

China Telecom said that around the national "East Data West Computing" project and the integrated big data center layout, it will deploy data centers, DCI networks, computing power and Tianyi Cloud in an all-round manner, and proactively deploy computing power networks. China Telecom plans to invest about 14 billion yuan in computing power (cloud resources) in 2022, add 160,000 cloud servers, and increase computing power by more than 8%; IDC investment is 6.5 billion yuan, and 45,000 racks will be added.

China Mobile will build a ubiquitously integrated computing network, create a "computing service" that is accessible at one point and available immediately, promote the efficient integration of computing power in physical space, logical space, and heterogeneous space, build a computing network brain for integrated scheduling and orchestration of computing power, and gradually promote computing power to become a social-level service like water and electricity.

In terms of computing power supply, the deployment of the national "East Data West Computing" project has been implemented, and the "4+3+X" data center layout has been optimized and formed, with 407,000 IDC racks available to the outside world, a net increase of 47,000 racks; the cloud infrastructure has been continuously improved, and the "N+31+X" mobile cloud layout has been continuously optimized. China Mobile plans to invest 48 billion yuan in computing power networks in 2022, and put into production a total of 450,000 IDC racks available to the outside world.

In terms of computing power services, we actively explore business integration and innovation. During the Beijing Winter Olympics, China Mobile combined computing power networks with the concept of the metaverse to create a number of ice and snow technology applications such as sports star digital humans, XR studios, and AR ice and snow towns, to help promote and popularize ice and snow sports.

China Unicom proposed to build a new data center layout of "5+4+31+X", namely 5 central hub nodes (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing National "Eastern Data" Hub Node and Shandong, Henan and Shaanxi Communication Cloud Region), 4 (Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia) national "Western Computing" hub nodes, 31 provincial core data centers and X prefecture-level regional and edge data centers.

China Unicom stated that it will seize the new opportunities of "East Data and West Computing" to create an integrated computing and network service of "connection + perception + computing + intelligence", and build a new "5+4+31+X" data center system across the country that is integrated with cloud, network and edge, reasonably distributed, green and intensive; accelerate the construction of national high-level data centers in the four national East Data hub nodes in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing regions; build four national West Computing hub nodes in Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia; build "31" provincial new data centers on demand; flexibly deploy "X" edge data centers to achieve large-scale computing power deployment, and improve the quality and utilization efficiency of computing power services.

Although operators have achieved good results while actively promoting the development of computing power networks, we must realize that the construction of computing power networks is not a matter of one day or one night. It involves multiple technical fields and faces new challenges in technology and the existing business model of the industry. We hope to see operators continue to make breakthroughs and innovations in computing power networks, and we also hope that the industry can work together to complete the long march of computing power networks as soon as possible.