H3C strengthens the foundation of intelligent connectivity with 400G products, providing new impetus for the digital economy

[51CTO.com original article] At present, the digital economy has become a new engine to promote China's economic growth, and the digital transformation of traditional enterprises has become a top priority. With the development of new technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things, big data, and AI, various new applications have been rapidly implemented, and Internet traffic has shown an explosive growth trend, making data centers overwhelmed. Therefore, 400G technology has become one of the key technologies for future data centers to cope with the digital torrent.

Qiao Yan, General Manager of H3C Switch Product Line

On December 10, H3C Group organized a media communication meeting to elaborate on the technology outlook, market prospects in the data center field, and the development process and application practice of H3C's flagship product 400G core switch product series. Qiao Yan, general manager of H3C Group's switch product line, said that with the improvement of computing power and the application of NVMe all-flash storage, data centers will have higher and higher requirements for bandwidth, which has promoted the growth of demand for 400G products in large-scale data centers. 400G core switches are mainly used in key nodes such as data centers, metropolitan area networks or backbone networks, and are important network infrastructure in the digital economy era. The large-module deployment of 400G core switches can effectively reduce the cost per bit of data centers, which will also become a key factor in the gradual transition of large data centers at home and abroad to 400G networks in the future.

From 10G to 400G, we are constantly exploring the development of data center bandwidth

At this year's Navigator Summit, H3C demonstrated to the market for the first time the country's first 400G core switch S12500CR, 64-port 400G box-type core switch S9825-64CD, and the industry's first 100G/200G hybrid port access switch S9855-32CDF, providing 400G high-speed switching support for data centers, DCI (data center interconnect), and 5G bearer network scenarios.

In September, H3C released the new generation S12500R converged switching router and S12500G-AF intelligent converged core switch, further enriching its product layout. Through an efficient product portfolio, it has formed a complete 400G data center solution, providing comprehensive support for multi-scenario applications.

As a leading network equipment supplier in the industry, H3C has experienced more than 20 years of development and practice in the field of network products, from 10G to 400G, and the promotion and application of connection technologies such as SDN and SRv6 are inseparable from H3C equipment. In the more than ten years of participating in the development and construction of China's Internet, H3C has accumulated rich technical and commercial practice experience, and has made important contributions to the development of ultra-broadband in data center application scenarios.

It is understood that as a milestone product in the field of network equipment for many years, the independently developed orthogonal CLOS architecture adopted by the H3C S12500 core switch is still used by high-end network equipment in the industry.

Qiao Yan also told reporters that in order to fully protect customers' investments, H3C's new generation 400G switching service line cards are developed based on the previous generation S12500 and can be applied to the previous generation S12500 switch products that were previously deployed in large quantities. He said that when the user network is upgraded to 400G, it can be well compatible with the previous infrastructure and existing boards, reducing the deployment cost of customers upgrading from 100G networks to 400G and lowering the entry threshold for 400G.

Use innovative technology to promote product iteration and meet the needs of different users

H3C has never lacked competitors in the field of network equipment design, production and manufacturing. Both Huawei and Cisco have been deeply involved in this field for many years and have accumulated strong technology and application experience. H3C chose to start with technology and accelerate product R&D and innovation to cope with the fierce market competition.

Whether it is the orthogonal CLOS architecture core switch S12500 independently developed by H3C in 2008, or the industry's first orthogonal midplane-free core switch S12500X-AF launched by H3C in 2016, or the industry's first 400G data center S12500R converged switching router launched by H3C in 2018 that supports WAN technologies such as SRv6/FlexE, all of which reflect H3C's innovation in the field of network equipment manufacturing.

In 2020, H3C believed that the speed at which AI capabilities must be integrated into the network must be faster than business applications, and launched the S12500G-AF, the first AI-capable switch in the 12500 family, to support the industry's only AI intelligent network module with GPU - SeerBlade, which shocked the industry and was commercially deployed in the future network of USTC.

"There are many players in the network field, technology is developing rapidly, and market competition is very fierce. H3C has always forged ahead." Qiao Yan said that H3C has always adhered to the two major concepts of technological product innovation and customer-centricity, and has always focused product development and product services on how to help users solve pain points, improve network operation efficiency and reduce overall deployment costs. With a more innovative and rich product portfolio and solutions, we can meet the needs of different users and grow and progress together with users.

[[359910]]

Chen Bochao, Director of Product Management Department of H3C Switch Product Line

"H3C has a large number of customers who have cutting-edge demands for network performance and can lead technology trends. We have a faster product development and iteration speed. The product quality has been fully verified by users and is stable and reliable. Therefore, we are confident that we can stand out from the competition and gain more recognition from customers." Chen Bochao, director of the product management department of the switch product line of H3C Group, said that 400G stands at the turning point of the times. Taking advantage of the new infrastructure and the new opportunities brought by smart manufacturing and smart cities, 400G technology will play an important role in the country's economic transformation. H3C's timely launch of 400G series switch products will provide users with better network solutions, which is also a manifestation of its confidence.

Accurately locate and illuminate application scenarios to accelerate 400G deployment and application

Although 100G is still the mainstream in data centers, due to the impact of the epidemic, online office and meetings have increased significantly this year, which has put higher requirements on network bandwidth. For this reason, Qiao Yan believes that 400G will give priority to serving industries with relatively high requirements for bandwidth and bandwidth operating costs, such as telecom operators and OTT public clouds.

Qiao Yan said that starting from next year, in the next five years, global Ethernet will quickly enter the 400G era. H3C predicts that by 2021, the overall deployment cost of 400G will be about twice that of 100G, and the cost per bit will drop by half, which provides a better opportunity for the deployment of 400G.

It is reported that H3C's 400G products and solutions have entered 5 well-known domestic OTT companies, and the product share accounts for more than 90%. In terms of operators, H3C has made certain progress in China Unicom's intelligent metropolitan area network, and will combine 400G, Flex-E, SRv6 and other new technologies to build the core and aggregation equipment of 5G backhaul network for Unicom's intelligent metropolitan area network.

In addition, H3C Group and Shenzhen Cyberspace Science and Technology Laboratory (Pengcheng Laboratory) jointly created the country's first commercial 400G Ethernet project, marking that China's Ethernet construction has officially entered the 400G era.

Qiao Yan believes that 400G will be put into use very quickly. After 400G is widely used on the Internet in 2021, financial enterprises, securities companies, high-end manufacturing, semiconductors and other fields will also begin to use 400G. Therefore, H3C will continue to promote the intelligent development of network products and technologies, make breakthroughs and innovations, and work with partners to build intelligent connectivity into the basic capability of digital transformation and provide new connectivity momentum for the digital economy.

[51CTO original article, please indicate the original author and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]