In an exclusive interview with Telecom Review, Meng Zuo, Vice President of Huawei's Data Communications Product Line, discussed the business growth opportunities and network challenges brought by enterprise digital transformation for carriers. To address these challenges, he shared how Huawei's data communications products and solutions help carriers seize the opportunities of digital transformation and achieve new growth.
Digital transformation has become a global trend. We see that more than 100 countries and regions have released their own digital strategies. What do you think of the digital transformation opportunities for carriers?
As digital transformation accelerates, more and more enterprises are moving to the cloud. This move brings great changes to these enterprises. Cloud migration not only helps them cut initial hardware costs and quickly launch services but also allows them to concentrate on their core competencies.
For example, in the field of data communication, carriers have a lot of new opportunities to offer services. They can deliver DC management services, provide private lines for enterprises to access the cloud, help enterprises build campus networks and offer managed network and security services. In a word, the digital transformation of various industries has made DICT a new engine for operators to grow in the digital economy era.
What new requirements and challenges do you think today's IP networks face? How will IP networks evolve in the future to support global digital transformation?
Network is the foundation for digital transformation. The network has evolved from connecting people to connecting everything. It also extends from office scenarios to production scenarios. Due to this, network requirements have changed greatly.
First, the number of connections keeps increasing. It is estimated that the total number of connections will exceed 200 billion by 2030. Therefore, massive access will become an important basic capability of IP networks.
Second, connection bandwidth continues to grow. According to TeleGeography, the CAGR of global Internet bandwidth from 2018 to 2022 is 29%, and that of Africa is 44%. With the deployment of gigabit home broadband, 5G mobile broadband and Wi-Fi 6 on enterprise campus networks, connection bandwidth will continue to grow rapidly.
Third, the connection experience requires end-to-end assurance. High-quality VR/AR services, 5GtoB production services, and enterprises' cloudified mission-critical services and core production systems all require end-to-end SLA assurance. This means that networks need to have better quality assurance capabilities.
Fourth, networks need intelligent O&M. As more and more services are deployed, IP networks keep expanding, and network management becomes more difficult. In response, we need intelligent O&M to minimize fault impact, such as detecting network issues in advance and quickly locating and fixing network issues. Intelligence allows us to keep networks running smoothly.
To meet the four requirements, we'll keep improving the forwarding capacity of devices and speeding up network technology innovation based on IPv6. This will help create a solid foundation for digital transformation in various industries.
As an IP network equipment manufacturer, how will Huawei help carriers seize the opportunities of digital transformation?
First, we offer an IPv6 Enhanced-based converged transport solution that allows one network to carry home broadband, mobile broadband, enterprise private line and other services using SRv6 and slicing technologies. This means that mobile carriers' 5G transport networks can also carry home broadband and enterprise private line services, which lowers costs while meeting different service requirements.
Second, Huawei's unique network digital map technology enables real-time visualization from six views: physical, slice, network, tunnel, service and application. This enables automatic pre-sales evaluation, in-sales deployment and after-sales assurance for private line services.
Finally, at MWC 2023, we launched the Digital Managed Network Solution. This solution can help carriers upgrade traditional MPLS VPN private lines to "private lines + X" and offer digital managed network services like Managed LAN, Managed WAN, Managed Security, and Managed DCN on top of IP private lines. These offerings can also enable carriers to upgrade the quality assurance and automation capabilities of their network infrastructures for differentiated site-to-cloud private lines. So, carriers can provide enterprise customers with a wider range of product portfolios to boost new B2B revenue growth.