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 policy of "East and West", the country is actively deploying the computing power industry and pressing the "fast-forward button" for its development. As the builders of network infrastructure, operators are also actively involved in it, contributing their own strength to the development of China's computing power industry.

The computing power network becomes a new engine for digital development

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

"Currently, the computing power network is an important driver 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 previously. In his view, computing power will bring three important values.

• First, it is related to national security, national economy and people's livelihood. Whether it is energy, finance, communication or transportation, it is inseparable from the support of the underlying computing power.
• Second, it is related to the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. At present, the electricity consumption of computing centers is increasing at a rate of 10% every year. growth, so computing power is related to the realization of the future dual carbon goal.
• The third is related to the development of national strength and core competitiveness. Although my country ranks second in the world in terms of computing power, the per capita computing power is insufficient. To further increase the computing power scale and per capita computing power in the future will further affect the country's comprehensive competitiveness.

According to Tang Xiongyan, Vice President of China Unicom Research Institute, with the continuous deepening of digital transformation and the wide application of artificial intelligence, the demand for computing resources, computing services and the Internet of Everything in all walks of life has grown rapidly, prompting data resources and computing resources. From the two-level acceleration of the cloud to the three-level distribution of the cloud edge and the end, and expanding to more regions, building a high-quality computing network has become the key to efficient utilization of computing resources and the provision of computing services on demand.

Operators speed up the deployment of computing power networks

The importance of the computing power network is self-evident. With the official launch of the "East Digital and Western Computing" project, operators are speeding up the layout and construction of the computing power network.

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

China Telecom said that it will deploy data centers, DCI networks, computing power and Tianyi Cloud in an all-round way around the national "East Digital and Western Computing" project and the layout of an integrated big data center, with a forward-looking layout of the computing power network. China Telecom plans to invest about 14 billion yuan in computing power (cloud resources) in 2022, adding 160,000 cloud servers, an increase of more than 8% in computing power; IDC invests 6.5 billion yuan, adding 45,000 racks.

In terms of China Mobile, it will build a ubiquitous and integrated computing power network, create a "computing power service" that can be accessed and used immediately, promote the efficient integration of computing power in physical space, logical space, and heterogeneous space, and build a computing network. The computing network brain that integrates scheduling and orchestration gradually promotes computing power to become a social-level service like water and electricity.

In terms of computing power supply, we implemented the national project deployment of "East and West", and optimized the layout of the "4+3+X" data center. Externally available IDC racks reached 407,000, a net increase of 47,000; the cloudification foundation was continuously improved. Facilities, "N+31+X" mobile cloud layout continued to be optimized. In 2022, China Mobile plans to invest 48 billion yuan in the computing power network, and put into production a total of 450,000 IDC racks available for external use.

In terms of computing power services, it actively explores business integration and innovation. During the Beijing Winter Olympics, China Mobile combined computing power network and integrated the concept of the Metaverse to create a variety of ice and snow technologies such as sports star Sapiens, XR studio, AR ice and snow town, etc. application to help popularize ice and snow sports.

China Unicom proposes to build a "5+4+31+X" new data center layout, that is, five central hub nodes (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing National "East Digital" hub node and Shandong-Yuyu Shaanxi Communication Cloud Region), 4 (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 said to the outside world that it will seize the new opportunity of "Eastern Digital and Western Computing", create "connection + perception + computing + intelligence" computing network integration services, and build cloud network edge integration, reasonable distribution, green and intensive "5+" services nationwide. 4+31+X" new data center system; accelerate the construction of national high-level data centers in the four major national eastern digital hub nodes in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing region; build four major national data centers in Menggui, Gansu and Ningxia National western computing hub node; build new data centers in "31" provinces on demand; flexibly deploy "X" edge data centers to achieve large-scale computing power deployment and improve computing power service quality and utilization efficiency.

Although operators have achieved good results while actively promoting the development of the computing power network, we must realize that the construction of the computing power network does not happen overnight. It involves many technical fields, both in terms of technology and existing business models of the industry. face new challenges. We expect 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.