Huawei Unveils Intelligent Metro Router for 5G and Cloud Era

Huawei has launched the industry’s first intelligent metro router for 5G at the MPLS+SDN+NFV World Congress 2019 in Paris. The NetEngine 8000 is designed to deliver the diversified services and massive number of connections required in the 5G and cloud era.

The NetEngine 8000 series can also help build a simplified and intelligent metro network encompassing a converged transport solution, ultra-large capacity, end-to-end SRv6, and full-lifecycle automation.

The NetEngine 8000 series comes just in time to meet what is expected to be a huge demand for 5G ready solutions. According to research from GSMA, by 2025 there will be 1.3 billion 5G users and 1.36 billion 5G mobile devices worldwide, with 40% 5G network coverage. Gartner forecasts that the number of global IoT connections will reach 2.5 billion by 2021.

"Years of IP industry experience has enabled Huawei to innovatively develop the industry’s first intelligent metro router that offers the largest capacity, SRv6-ready, and full-lifecycle intelligent automation,” said Kevin Hu, President of Huawei’s Data Communications Product Line, “leading intelligent IP networks into the future.”

With the explosive growth driven by 5G, cloud VR/AR, and enterprise private line services, metro networks are facing significant challenges:

•10GE metro cannot meet the 10-fold traffic growth expected over the next five years
•Today’s metro network cannot support the expected 1000-fold increase in the number of connections, fueled by the IoT and video services.
•Low efficiency network operations cannot address the proactive O&M and intelligent automation required by cloud services.

The 5G and cloud era is already underway. IP networks are fundamental for 5G infrastructure. Ultra large bandwidths and application-level SLA are required to deliver the massive connectivity services needed for 5G vertical industries. The intelligent and all-service-in-one metro network is set to become an industry trend. The three key characteristics of metro networks in the 5G and cloud era are: simplified networks, intelligent connectivity, and committed high availability.

New platform: industry’s largest capacity with 14.4T/slot, and all-service in one

The NetEngine 8000 series provides the industry’s largest capacity with a 14.4T/slot, which is 1.5 times the industry average and highest density - up to 36 x 400GE ports or 72 x 100GE ports. NetEngine 8000 series features a compact design –powerful heat dissipation, efficient power supply and a converged platform with SR, PE, and DC-GW together to simplify the network site and reduce cost.

New protocol stack: Support SRv6 for intelligent connectivity with the first commercial deployment

The NetEngine 8000 series offer SRv6 capability, which can effectively cope with the massive connections required, provides an improved user experience, and helps operators achieve a smooth evolution from MPLS to SRv6. SRv6 is based on native IPv6 and meets the requirements for massive connections. SRv6 also provides expansion capabilities to implement automatic cross-domain connection and minute-level service provisioning, achieving one-click connection to cloud of service configurations, performing service awareness with tenant/app level SLA assurance.

New Way of Operation: Full lifecycle automation

The NetEngine 8000 series use the Network Cloud Engine (NCE) to establish intelligent connections - a new O&M system with high availability to implement full-lifecycle automation.

The NCE + SRv6 can implement 50ms protection, minute-level traffic optimization, second-level fault identification, and minute-level fault locating for any topology. It significantly improves network availability and helps operators expand their business in vertical industries in the 5G and cloud era.