DATA CENTRES
INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY
China brings Future Network Experimental Facility into operation
China has officially placed its Future Network Experimental Facility into full operation, marking a significant milestone in the development of the country’ s next-generation computing and communications infrastructure, according to reports carried by state media. The launch signals a shift toward more integrated, large-scale digital systems designed to meet the rapidly growing demand for high-performance computing and data transmission across vast geographic distances.
The facility connects computing centres and research institutions in 40 cities nationwide through a newly constructed ultra-high-speed optical fibre network spanning more than 55,000 kilometres, or roughly 34,175 miles. Through this infrastructure, geographically dispersed computing resources can be centrally scheduled and managed, allowing them to function as a single coordinated system whose overall performance approaches that of a massive supercomputer.
Engineers involved in the project said the system supports a range of advanced networking capabilities. These include the ability to run up to 128 independent virtual networks simultaneously, host as many as 4,096 concurrent experimental services, and deliver deterministic data transmission with ultra-low latency and extremely high reliability. Such features are considered essential for complex, time-sensitive digital workloads.
Together, these capabilities are designed to support artificial intelligence model training, high-performance scientific research, industrial simulations, and other data-intensive applications that require tightly synchronized computing resources across long distances. Officials associated with the programme noted that the platform will help accelerate digital transformation in research, industry, and public services by easing bottlenecks caused by fragmented and unevenly distributed computing capacity.
During testing, the network successfully transmitted a 72-terabyte dataset generated by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, commonly known as FAST. The transfer was completed in approximately 1.6 hours, a task that would typically take hundreds of days using conventional internet connections, according to project data.
Officials said this demonstration underscored the facility’ s potential to support large-scale scientific research and near real-time data processing. They added that such capabilities are increasingly critical for fields such as astronomy, climate modelling, and advanced manufacturing, where rapid analysis of massive datasets can significantly shorten research and development cycles.
The facility is a key component of China’ s broader East Data, West Computing initiative, which seeks to balance national computing demand by linking dataintensive eastern regions with major computing hubs in central and western parts of the country. By relocating energyintensive processing tasks to areas with greater access to land and power resources, the initiative aims to improve efficiency while reducing long-term operational costs.
Project leaders said the network is expected to function as a shared national platform for research institutes, universities, and enterprises. It is intended to support innovation in artificial intelligence, nextgeneration internet technologies, smart manufacturing, remote services, and future network research.
Officials added that continued expansion, open access policies, and collaboration with industry partners will be essential to ensuring the system’ s long-term reliability, security, and global relevance, as demand for large-scale computing infrastructure continues to grow rapidly in the years ahead. Analysts say the project demonstrates China’ s ambition to shape international standards for future networking and distributed computing architectures worldwide in coming decades. • www. intelligentcio. com
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