China launches world's 1st ultra-high-speed next-gen internet backbone

China has launched the world's first ultra-high-speed next-generation internet backbone with a bandwidth of 1,200G bits per second (1.2T), boasting a total transmission network of over 3,000 kilometers linking Beijing, Wuhan and Guangzhou.

The Future Internet Technology Infrastructure (FITI) backbone is a major technological achievement of China's national FITI project, according to a press conference held at the Tsinghua University in Beijing on Monday.

The FITI backbone, jointly developed by the Tsinghua University, China Mobile, Huawei and CERNET Corporation, has been running stably and reliably, successfully passing various tests since its trial operation on July 31.

The FITI backbone is operated based on China's own key technologies, such as the next-generation internet core router 1.2T ultra-high-speed IPv6 interface and the ultra-high-speed multi-path aggregation, with locally made software and hardware.

The FITI, built by 40 Chinese universities, including the Tsinghua University, is based on IPv6 technology. The core nodes of its high-performance backbone network are distributed in 40 universities in 35 cities across the country.

The high-performance backbone network of the FITI started operation in April 2021, achieving interconnection with IPv4/IPv6 test facilities both at home and abroad.