What exactly does the new generation of communication network refer to?

On April 28th, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held a meeting, explicitly proposing to deeply tap the potential of domestic demand and strengthen the planning and construction of the "Six Networks", including the water network, new power grid, computing power network, new - generation communication network, urban underground pipeline network, and logistics network.

According to the preliminary estimate of the National Development and Reform Commission, the investment scale of the "Six Networks" this year will exceed 7 trillion yuan.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted wide attention from the whole society, and news media also reported on it one after another. This is inevitable. Involving the national strategic direction and huge investment, every individual and every enterprise hopes to capture their own opportunities from it.

Among the "Six Networks", there are both traditional infrastructure and new - type infrastructure (new infrastructure). Obviously, the computing power network and the new - generation communication network belong to the new - type infrastructure, which are the directions that we ICT practitioners should focus on.

Everyone should be able to understand the computing power network. The problem lies in the "new - generation communication network", and its object is not clearly defined. So, many people raise the question - what exactly does the "new - generation communication network" refer to? Is it 6G?

First, let's state the conclusion. The new - generation communication network definitely does not solely refer to 6G, nor does it refer to any other specific technology or standard. It is a more grand systematic concept, an infrastructure network integrating air, space, land, and sea and fully integrating communication, sensing, computing, and intelligence, which is oriented towards 2030 (or even a more distant future).

That is to say, 5G - A/6G in the field of mobile communication, 50G - PON (10 - gigabit) in the field of fiber - optic broadband, as well as satellite Internet, low - altitude communication network, communication - sensing network, quantum communication network, etc., all belong to the scope of the new - generation communication network.

As we all know, the so - called "digital technology" nowadays mainly consists of information + communication, that is, IT + communication (ICT). Chips, operating systems, databases, software, cloud computing, big data, etc., have always belonged to the scope of IT. Mobile communication, Wi - Fi, optical communication (optical access network and backbone network, etc.), satellite communication, etc., belong to the scope of communication (CT).

A long time ago, there was a clear boundary between IT and communication. In recent years, IT and communication have been deeply integrated, such as the integration of cloud and network and the cloudification of communication.

After the arrival of the AI wave, the integration process has been accelerated. The IT field is subdivided into the three major elements of AI, namely computing power, algorithms, and data.

AI has a direct demand for computing power, and the performance improvement of traditional single - card computing power has reached a bottleneck. It is necessary to make a breakthrough from the perspective of communication - for example, by creating a large - scale distributed computing power cluster through high - speed and low - latency optical interconnection to meet the computing power demand. Or, through powerful communication, realize the cloud - edge - end collaboration of computing power to meet the demand for AI training and inference implementation.

Algorithms are strongly related to computing power, so they are also strongly related to communication. The flow of data also cannot do without communication and is also strongly related.

Therefore, the relationship between AI and communication has become closer.

This meeting did not mention large - scale data centers and communication networks separately, but emphasized the "computing power network" and the "new - generation communication network", which reflects our country's core strategy of building the supply of computing power resources - strengthening computing power through the network.

That is to say, the development of computing power boards (chip semiconductor technology) should continue, and efforts should be made to promote the localization of computing power and improve the computing power of domestic single - cards. At the same time, we should find a new way and use the existing advantages of communication technology to build a stronger computing power cluster, realizing that "group attack > one - on - one fight" and providing more powerful computing power. The super - nodes of Huawei and Hygon follow this idea.

At a higher level, it is the connection between computing power clusters and the connection between intelligent computing centers. This involves the computing power scheduling network across operators (service providers), which can only be achieved at the national level.

In recent years, the computing power interconnection, millisecond - level access to computing, computing power Internet, AI Internet, and the East - to - West Computing Initiative promoted by the state all belong to this category. At the national level, building a backbone network with a speed of 400G or even higher to connect intelligent computing centers in different places, realizing a national - level low - energy - consumption computing power network, meeting the computing power demand of the whole society, and facilitating the large - scale implementation and in - depth application of AI.

It is worth mentioning that this computing power network not only includes the high - speed interconnection within the computing power cluster (for model training) and the high - speed interconnection between computing power clusters (also for model training), but also includes the interconnection between user terminals and computing power clusters (mainly for model inference).

This time, the top - level officials mentioned the computing power network separately, mainly in response to the wave of AI intelligent computing, which is the AI Internet. After all, this demand is the most urgent and the trend is the most obvious at present.

Each of us, every enterprise, and every government department uses computing power when using mobile phones, computers, and the Internet. In the computing power network, computing power accounts for 70%, and the communication network accounts for 30%.

In contrast, the new - generation communication network emphasizes the systematic upgrade of communication technology.

Not all communication technologies serve AI (but basically all serve computing power, or rather, cannot do without computing power). The new - generation communication network focuses on the improvement of network capabilities, the extension of network functions, and the expansion of the coverage area. For example, the 10 - gigabit speed of 5G - A/6G, the 10 - gigabit speed of 50G - PON, the global coverage of the satellite Internet, the sensing ability brought by communication - sensing integration, the security ability brought by quantum communication, etc.

The new - generation communication network is more inclined to the user side and the access side, that is, the "last - mile" connection ability between end - users and the network. It is also more inclined to scenarios, including consumer scenarios and enterprise digital scenarios.

In general, the computing power network focuses on the scheduling, supply, and service of "computing power resources", which can be understood as the national computing power resource pool (and the supporting network). The new - generation communication network focuses on the further upgrade of "connection capabilities" and the further evolution of communication technology, bringing a better connection experience.

The two are not separated but are deeply coordinated and support each other. You serve me, and I serve you.

Don't forget that there is also a new power grid in the "Six Networks". No matter how powerful the computing power and communication are, they cannot do without electricity. The state has always been emphasizing "computing - power and electricity coordination". One of the core purposes of the East - to - West Computing Initiative and the computing power network is also to save electricity. The new power grid should serve the computing power network and can also be regarded as half of the "new infrastructure".

In the future, there will be a new - type infrastructure system integrating "computing power + communication + electricity", which will support the development of new - quality productivity, serve the digital and intelligent transformation of all industries, promote the development of the digital and intelligent economy of the whole country, and win the initiative in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Do you all understand?

This article is from the WeChat official account "Xianzao Classroom" (ID: xzclasscom), written by Xiaozao Jun, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.