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Huawei Enterprise networking products and solutions for enterprise customers in 2020

Even in the days of total “social turbulence”, Huawei continues to train its partners and customers. Of course, for the sake of our common good now - strictly online. A series of webinars is scheduled for April and May: some of them are dedicated to the product and technological strategy of Huawei Enterprise, and some are dedicated to the review of specific products and projects. For those who are more comfortable reading than watching, we decided to “pack” webinar material in text format. We bring to your attention the first such material, with a panorama of Huawei network solutions and the company's product strategy for 2020. We will definitely inform you about fresh educational content in social networks - stay tuned for updates.



From the pages of the book of Nassim Taleb, a “black swan” flew unexpectedly to us - a rare event that is difficult to predict and whose influence extends to the entire globe or to most of it. COVID-19 turned out to be such a nasty bird. That only the pandemic did not turn upside down. Including made our industry abandon its traditional offline events. The MWC 2020 conference in Barcelona, ​​which eventually took place online, was no exception . Our story is a short excerpt from what Huawei shared at that event.

What products and solutions does Huawei offer in 2020?


Regarding the place of Huawei in the technological world, the further you go, the less so it is fair to call our company a network vendor, a server vendor, or some other particular type of product. Today it will be objectively more correct to say what we offer in terms of synergy: one solution in conjunction with another produces a cumulative effect, and the resulting one turns out to be larger (and more valuable!) The sum of its constituent elements. Undoubtedly, Huawei gained fame as a manufacturer of telecom equipment. However, so far not even all our market colleagues are aware of our solutions in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Even fewer people are aware that these developments are an integral part of almost all of our current products.

Which way are we looking?
Huawei — IP-.

Moreover, a considerable part of our activity is directly related to open developments, primarily in relation to SRv6 and Wi-Fi 6. This is not surprising if we take into account the fact that about 45% of our employees are somehow related to R&D. So far, the same Wi-Fi 6 has not reached super-mass deployments in Russia. However, we are sure this is a matter of several months. In other markets, the networks of the new standard are gaining ground in the sun: they are being built at a rapid pace, say, in Latin America.



Standard - sometimes I want to say "antediluvian" - networks that were managed through the command line have undergone dramatic changes. During the evolution, Data Center Networks (DCNs), Intent-Driven Networks (IDNs), and Autonomous Driving Networks (ADNs) stood out.

By and large, the main distinguishing feature of SDN is automation, and the most mature automation today takes place precisely in data center networks. In turn, the main thing that added the pragmatic application of the Intent-Driven concept, if you leave out the nuances, is an understanding of what is happening on the network. In the case of the old-style network, the engineer was not always able to navigate the traffic flows. The need to create a service map could cause not just a panic attack - a slight insanity: the available tools at that time, including using NetFlow, did not give a general picture of what was happening on the network.

Among the supporting trends of the near-sight that Huawei is committed to in its strategy is the spread of the Autonomous Driving Network (ADN) ideology. This definition covers mobile networks of various kinds with autonomous control.



A reservation should be made: no matter what the breakthrough potential of the decision is, it is important to be aware of how mature it is. As our study showed, among the most popular areas in which Huawei and other manufacturers work, the most mature domain is Data Center Networks (DCN). In second place are optical networks, in third are telecom operators. Thus, in the case of data centers, we have the most thoroughly developed solutions, both in terms of their commissioning and in terms of their further use.



In order to implement autonomous managed networks as we see, the umbrella brand iMaster NCE was formed. It integrates into itself:

  • eSight corporate network device management system functionality , which was previously separate;
  • smart intelligent network analyzer FabricInsight ;
  • Agile Controller , which is used for consistent control and dynamic prediction of network resources.

This is a holistic complex, parts of which are joined not formally and “to be”, but seamlessly. And indeed, he manifests himself as mature as possible in the data centers, with their carefully developed processes.
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As an illustration, consider a network in a data center of a bank. It’s easy to imagine how his business needs fall on network technology. To begin with, its core service - the same online banking - should work at high speeds and without loss. In the case of the iMaster system, the required is achieved, in particular, due to the fact that it forms the requirements received from higher systems and translates them into lower ones (this happens with network recommendations, etc.). One or another set of templates comes into play, which are selected and installed on the underlying network. Let's say the AI ​​Fabric ruleset is designed for use with the second version of RoCE converged networks, with the ability to directly access memory at the Fiber Channel / InfiniBand level on an Ethernet network.

It is important to keep under control what has been implemented. We are talking about, among other things, the rules of information security and the simulation of failures. Such solutions will be distributed just in 2020, and some of their implementation has already been made.



Prior to iMaster NCE, the network architecture in the data centers based on Huawei solutions looked something like this. There was a separate eSight network element management system, U2000 was used to manage transport devices, together with them Agile Controller was used as an SDN controller and FabricInsight as a network analyzer. All of these components practically did not interact with each other and did not create added value during operation. Accordingly, such an infrastructure assumed the presence of three management consoles, and decisions on the network were made on the basis of various data.
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In contrast, the iMaster NCE architecture is converged. When it was created, the company set itself the goal of closely integrating previously poorly interacting products with each other in order to deploy a network close to the state of autopilot. We, without too much boasting, succeeded. A high degree of independence of the network infrastructure is achieved by a set of solutions. Among other things, the analyzer is “trained" using the accumulated data. A part of training algorithms is sewn into it. For example, the system uses PyTorch and MLib libraries to predict when the interface will degrade, under what conditions the optical transceiver will fail, etc.

In standard scenarios, it is not uncommon for a presale to beat a high-level design for two weeks, after which a low-level design is implemented. Now everything is easier due to the fact that a design studio has been added to the system. Nothing prevents you from designing the design in it, and after the devices are connected to the system, they will receive HLD data and will be configured in accordance with the intentions of the engineer. With regard to data center networks, such functionality, as far as we know, has not yet been implemented anywhere else.



The new model is accompanied by a new approach to network deployment and management - iMaster 2-3-4. By itself, iMaster is modular software, and the customer is free to choose which modules will be enough for him. The minimum set is an SDN controller and a device management system (in old terms - eSight). Further additions are possible: analyzer, planning tools, etc., depending on the goals of the client. When the network is expected to be static, there is almost certainly no need to use the planning and construction modules on an ongoing basis. If our network infrastructure is constantly changing - say, cloud computing, calculations associated with big data, etc. are used - definitely an analyzer is needed. Is it known that the system will constantly be modified and grow? MeansYou will need to regularly optimize it, and then you need the maximum set.

What's New for Data Center Networks


Several approaches are used to implement Huawei's new concept in data center networks.

In 2019, Broadcom, and in particular Brocade, which is part of it, for geopolitical reasons, refused to partner with Huawei, as a Chinese manufacturer. Soon, our division, which deals with storage systems, focused on the use of systems associated with remote direct access to the memory of another device (RoCEv2), and for good reason. In tests, we recorded a performance increase compared to the standard Fiber Channel. So, Dorado and software-defined FusionStorage 8 show in RoCEv2 scenarios at least a 20% performance gain due to the use of machine learning algorithms (six licensed algorithms are used that operate at the level of machine learning acceleration cards directly on switches).

In fact, the Huawei DCN line, together with our new storage systems, makes it possible to get a “three in one” solution and, according to the most conservative estimates, opens up a new market for storage networks worth about $ 5 billion.



Using the new, integrated approach in the case of Huawei SDN allows you to work with applications more granular. In this regard, flexible configuration of containers and configuration of connectivity with them are gaining importance. The control model itself has become much clearer and easier - not least due to the use of the principles of Drag-n-Drop and WYSIWYG. Ultimately, our model provides the deployment of a data center network with unprecedented efficiency, including through pre-testing (on average three times faster than common competitive solutions).

Our network automation method is being put into practice with a range of innovative solutions. Among them is a simulation of an event. Simplifying the argument, before setting anything up, we simulate the effect of the selected options, including from the point of view of the network component. For example, if changes threaten to stall some traffic flows, the system will warn the engineer about the corresponding risk before accepting these changes. This type of feedback, implemented using a proactive rather than a reactive model, greatly simplifies the operation of a data center.



Another distinguishing feature of Huawei’s new approach to building networks in data centers is the use of the previously mentioned O&M 1-3-5 intelligent platform. This is done primarily in order to get one hundred percent visualization of the network. The administrator sees, without exaggeration, everything of any significance that is happening in the data center or campus network. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand how what is happening relates to the operation of applications. In standard scenarios, when visualizers from other manufacturers are involved, in the end, either it remains to be satisfied with the collection of information on NetFlow, which does not lead to an accurate picture in the data center network, or expensive traffic detectors must be installed at critical points. Neither one nor the other solution can be considered acceptable in 2020. In the case of O&M 1-3-5, switches and wireless devices, such as access points,can remove ERSPAN of all traffic passing through them to the Layer-4 level and give this information, in connection with which the panorama of network activity acquires the highest degree of detail. Thus, it is much faster to solve problems in the network. On average, every Huawei system — for the data center or campus — provides the user with a solution to more than 75% of the failure cases that are collected in machine learning mode.

— single node deployment A-P / A-A?
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Huawei


Recently, due to the influx of consumers, Netflix and YouTube began to reduce the quality of the video stream for visitors. Thus, as you see, the question “Why do we need 400 Gb / s Ethernet in 2020, in principle?” disappears by itself. Everything comes to the conclusion that as soon as we have consumers, the band that we can provide them from our network is utilized completely, and 400 Gbit / s, by the way, is not the limit. Standards for 800 Gb port capacity are already being developed, which will definitely find application, especially in the context of highload applications. Of course, supercomputers cost little where, but modern systems of working with big data can seriously load the network - so that there is no bandwidth left for other applications.

In the light of the circumstances described, we predict even greater demand for our CloudEngine 16800 - the world's most high-performance 400GE switch, with a capacity three times that of the closest devices of this class in the industry.



Some of the products announced by us will be released in the middle of the year. The 400GE Era TOR line will include models designed for the most diverse scenarios for organizing a network environment (see their lettering). They are made exclusively with the use of Huawei's proprietary chips - Solar. At the moment, components of Taiwanese, South Korean and Chinese origin are used in the production of the company's switches, which eliminates the unpredictability in the supply of the element base due to the economic and political situation.

The trend is undeniable: 5G networks strongly affect data center switches. And the connection standard of 50 Gbps per port, which used to be typical for carrier-class equipment and was used when connecting fifth-generation base stations, is gradually gaining ground in data centers. Huawei, we note, has switches, including CloudEngine 6866, which are able to work with servers of different generations.

The company also launches its Huawei iNIC network cards, which provide bandwidth up to 200 Gbps. At the end of 2020 - the beginning of 2021, a card will be released that will provide 400 Gbps (to the server).

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Notable solutions that allow the use of the pay-as-you-grow model, in our terminology - the consumption model. They allow you to buy up ports or throughput as infrastructure grows, and in the end, the cost of modular products for the customer decreases by tens of percent - up to 40%. From our point of view, these products are of the greatest interest to customers from the SMB segment. Such solutions make it possible to expand within the same model range, with a gradual increase in the underlying bandwidth.

Someone wonders if the growth opportunity for a business with modest infrastructure needs is really needed. For those who doubt, we can only say that the migration from one-gigabyte to ten-gigabit servers was quite lengthy, but the industry moved from 10 to 25 Gb / s to the server relatively quickly. Often in new projects, Huawei system architects no longer have requests for connecting 10 Gb / s rack servers. And the average load pattern, which the customer expects, has recently increased significantly. In addition, year after year, there is a serious reduction in the speed of the port, and what looked fabulously expensive some time ago is becoming quite affordable.



What Huawei is preparing for core networks


If 2019 was the year of data centers for Huawei, then 2020 is definitely the year of core networks. And with a variety of customers. The most common tasks are to ensure connectivity of data centers, connectivity with a branch network, a higher organization, etc. Based on a market request, we have simplified our product line. With all the richness of choice, we admit that earlier it was really difficult to navigate in it. In routers alone, nothing was worth confusing: NE5, NE08, NE20, NE40, NE80, NE5000. From now on, for most customers, the product line will stop at the NetEngine 8000 family: “nine-thousandths” are more of a carrier-class device, although, of course, they can serve the corporation well, which is actively absorbing other companies, and therefore it needs to provide serious bandwidth ability.



So, in the enterprise segment, the 8000 family is most in demand - intelligent routers for all conceivable scenarios of operation in 5G networks. The lineup is divided into classes: X, M, F. Those devices that are marked with the letter F are best suited for building metro networks. Say, on the F1A model, ports start at 1 Gbit / s: 1, 10, 25 Gbit / s on the left side of the device, 40 and 100 Gbit / s on the right. By flexibly switching these ports (most importantly, without exceeding the bandwidth of iron - 1.2 Tbps), you can flexibly expand and modify the network within one form factor, which will clearly be a trump card in the eyes of those who are not ready to change the hardware fleet every three of the year.

The most popular models are the M8 and M14. They are designed for medium and large customers and are designed first and foremost for the construction of aggregate networks. For example, they will come in handy when solving problems of aggregating branch networks, aggregating serious channels to the Internet, peering with providers, etc.

Finally, the X8 / X4 is heavy artillery. This is a platform on which you can implement ports 100 and 400 Gbit / s. Its capacities are quite suitable for providing transcontinental connections.



Flagship in 2020 are the architecture of HiCampus and HiDC . Key products, in turn, are AirEngine Wi-Fi 6 access points, OptiXtrans DC908 optical data compression equipment, smart uninterruptible power supplies SmartLi UPS , OceanStor Dorado storage system .



As for Huawei's own chips, they cover the entire range of network equipment applications. In the Solar line, the letter in the model name actually denotes the main scope of the processor. Labeled Rs are intended for installation in routers, S - in heavy switches (switches), W6 - in devices for Wi-Fi networks 6. Chips for general-purpose devices, such as small routers, pass under the letters A and C. Further, The Kunpeng 920 is designed primarily for use in servers, and the Ascend 310 - for heavy switches, routers and network security devices, so that we can use machine learning models directly on devices (among other things, prioritize traffic on switches and routers and make complex operationswhich the central processor is not capable of).



Also, 2020 is also, without a doubt, the year of Wi-Fi 6. At the moment, Huawei has a line of appropriate solutions for both customers from the enterprise segment and for end users - AirEngine Wi-Fi 6.

More than ten Wi-Fi 6 access points are already available to corporate customers. Among the main challenges our customers face is ensuring Wi-Fi 6 works with both old and new devices. Last year, there were very few telecom equipment supporting the Six - only the adapter from Intel, which was inserted into the M2 slot, was recalled (as an option, it was possible to buy additional modules); custom gadgets were practically not supported. In 2020, the situation has changed dramatically. There are laptops and wearable devices with native support for Wi-Fi 6, and Huawei is ready to provide a suitable level of service in the sixth generation networks.



Although Wi-Fi 6, it would seem, without a week, is already actively working on the seventh generation standard, which is expected to be implemented more dense work with channels. But even the sixth brought us many innovations in comparison with the fifth. Along with the rest - a normal function of energy saving.

Not everyone is ready to install open protocols like LoRa on their network. Many still prefer to use a single wireless environment, especially within not-so-large rooms, where, for example, there is no additional coverage. And here the Wi-Fi 6 wireless environment is most suitable for us - due to the technological advantages of OFDMA, MU-MIMO and TWT.

We note three primary factors by which Wi-Fi 6 bypasses the previous standard:

  • bandwidth
  • number of users per access point;
  • low delays for new applications (in gaming, AR / VR, telemedicine, etc.).




Huawei’s strategy includes transforming the concept of the campus itself: in our understanding, it should become completely wireless, and in its heart will be Wi-Fi 6 based on 5G.

We know: our wording “100 Mbps everywhere” confuses some in the industry. Skeptics simply do not believe that up to 500 people can be associated with one access point. However, if we start from even 50 or 100 connected, 10 Gbit / s per point will be released, adjusted for overhead. In this context, “100 Mbit everywhere” no longer seems out of the ordinary.

We also note that in the new solutions we will use additional technologies, such as OFDMA and Multi-User MIMO, which in the past were represented mainly in the networks of mobile operators. However, being integrated into the corporate network, they help to achieve tangibly better service.



We achieve radical changes in the implementation of wireless access primarily through the use of smart antennas and lossless roaming functions. Previously, in order to reassociate to a new point, the consumer had to disconnect from the old one. In Wi-Fi 6, the situation is different: before disconnecting from the old one, the device first connects to the new one. These innovations dramatically change the approach to the wireless environment.

In addition, Wi-Fi 6 has less overhead when transmitting traffic: by and large, the WiFi environment begins to be a “pseudo-TDM environment”, where we can “cut” as many slots as we need for users, and service traffic will create much less load than in previous networks. Regarding the use of additional applications, such as VoIP, the benefits of sixth generation networks are even greater.

We ourselves are the first to follow our declarations: at Huawei, which has more than 180 thousand employees, campuses are built only on the basis of wireless technologies. Telephony equipment, printers, smart boards, consumer devices - all equipment uses exclusively WiFi-environment.



Using more spatial streams allows for impressive TCO and ROI. Our points with the 16T16R antenna - especially the flagship one (the figures show the indicators for it) - clearly proved this during the tests.



Often, our experts hear: “Well, the new Wi-Fi is fine, but the old is enough for me.” Meanwhile, the fundamental thesis in favor of the “new Wi-Fi” is the transition from the Best Effort model to guaranteed application delivery. Especially regarding solutions related to the movement of stand-alone devices.

For example, in China - by the way, Europe is catching it here - with the help of next-generation networks, fully automated warehouses and factories are being built (earlier, device management could have caused overlays due to roaming in the old wireless environment). A vivid example is the Chinese logistics company SF Express, whose warehouses are automated from and to. For retailers, such solutions in the future are also of considerable interest.

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Huawei has been engaged in optics for a long time - both in the carrier and in the corporate class. Moreover, it is not only and not so much about the transmission of traffic over long distances. Now, when our company receives 60% of revenue in the segment of data centers, it is becoming extremely demanded to build models of connectivity between data centers. To implement such projects, we must ensure the use of one iron for at least five to ten years.

To solve such problems, we created OptiXtrans DC908 - a product for DCI, which combines both a high utilization rate for fiber optics (up to 88 Tbps) and low power consumption. It is also noteworthy that machine learning technologies have reached a classical field such as DWDM. With their help, we solve a significant number of problems related to management and efficiency.





Here are some of the best features of the OptiXtrans DC908: ultra-wideband, high-bandwidth, using Super C + L bands.



The machine learning technologies inherent in OptiXtrans DC908 (we talked about them earlier, in relation to iMaster NCE), already contain about 500 thousand ready-made samples. Using these patterns, we together can foresee about 60% of errors, such as, for example, fiber degradation.



What does the operation of our optical solutions look like from the perspective of the end customer? The first thing that catches your eye is a noticeable reduction in the number of internal cables; the secret is that in "adult" models, OXC is used - an optical cross-connect card, which eliminates the need for internal fiber-optic connections.

In operation, the new solution is also radically simpler. It does not require endless field trips with the setting of logical connections. According to our measurements, where in the standard case it takes about four days to start the infrastructure, using OptiXtrans DC908 with intelligent O&M requires eight minutes with a competent approach. A good way to save time and spend the saved hours and days on development, and not on operational tasks.



Huawei


Recall that in 2020, Huawei has two new flagship architectures - HiDC and HiCampus.

First of all, architecture is valuable due to the availability of infrastructure construction methodology. Even today, data centers are often created in approximately the same way: we take servers, storage, an uninterruptible power supply, and go ahead, something happens.

When building a modern data center, among many other factors, they must be taken into account and calculated with a view to the optimum: various kinds of loads, including engineering (facility), energy consumption, network pattern, and it is also necessary to determine whether certain resources will be used whether data lakes will be organized, etc. HiDC architecture exists for that. It was presented relatively recently - about a month and a half ago (and individual webinars will be dedicated to it).



In addition to the OptiXtrans DC908 and CloudEngine 16800 described above, our key products for 2020 include the Atlas, Ascend, and Kunpeng line of devices that run on graphics accelerators, machine learning accelerators, and servers with ARM processors. OceanStor Dorado, in turn, is Huawei's advanced data storage system.

But the fundamental meaning of innovation is that our flagship products and software for them form a single architecture. Armed with her vision, we understand how, under certain requirements of the data center, it is better to build it so that it is reliable, easy to operate and does not resemble a Frankenstein monster, animated, as if by lightning, by the order of the head “to do quickly”.





The farther, the more network engineers have to know about the IT load. So we strongly advise them to get to know Dorado, the storage system that we bring to the market, in the near future. By the way, one of its distinguishing features not mentioned earlier is the fact that it is connected not to the fiber channel with the main channel, but to Ethernet using RoCEv2.



“SmartLi UPS can make every office room a data center” - the statement is not at all unfounded. The advantages of lithium-ion batteries do not need too much advertising: in comparison with other types of batteries, their weight is less, the footprint they occupy is also, but the life cycle is much longer. Currently, Huawei has a promotional offer: lithium-ion batteries at a price comparable to that of lead-acid batteries.



Our business customers are unanimous: smart campuses are the foundation of the intelligent world. No wonder, because over 80% of gross national product per capita is generated on campuses, and most innovations are created there.

Yes, in terms of networking on campuses, there are so many challenges. For example: the company has a legion of employees, everyone wants to get a high-quality WiFi service and consume a huge amount of resources. Or: business owners want to get new services next week, and CIO says that it needs several months to conduct a tender, complete a purchase, etc. Therefore, recently the concept of using passive optical lines on campus has been popular with our customers . In this case, we are not dealing with an ordinary GPON, but with a GPON saturated with additional devices. For example, WiFi-points and cameras that are directly connected to GPON (more precisely, to POL). Additionally, on top, a platform is installed into which applications can integrate.





An example of the implementation of this approach is the Huawei Smart Campus, which is deployed at the headquarters of Huawei. As soon as an employee enters the campus, the camera sees him and, if the biometry is “correct”, opens the door in front of him. It is also accepted that the employee has a badge with an RFID module on his neck. It is read by a Wi-Fi access point 6. In fact, a person receives all the rights and preferences that are assigned to him according to the staffing table, by person and badge. This is ensured not only by downstream devices, but also by the digital platform itself - the Huawei Horizon Digital Platform.



Ultimately, the technology portfolio is designed to benefit the business, and this is also one of the priorities of Huawei's strategy. So, Wi-Fi 6, on which we are betting, has enormous potential in terms of increasing the efficiency of work in various organizations. In addition, he promises a visible improvement in processes in factories and factories that use AGV - autonomous vehicles. Well, the first Wi-Fi 6 introductions, which showed impressive returns, were made in crowded places (mainly in the Asia-Pacific region so far): in large parks, airports, etc.



And a few words about the maturity of the decision. The standard three-level campus network, if we want to seriously modify it, will have to be updated almost completely. With the introduction of POL, everything is much simpler: with new Huawei products, you do not need to pull and connect a huge number of cables. Moreover, this solution is of interest not only, for example, for Internet providers, but also for our business customers from a wide variety of industries (and cases of such implementations are already in Russia).



In that campus concept — all-optical, with the ubiquitous wireless environment and intelligent O&M — that Huawei offers to the world, there are three main advantages:

  • bandwidth is many times higher than other solutions on the market;
  • Significantly higher number of served customers;
  • Unprecedentedly low latency.



Finally, as mentioned earlier, iMaster NCE solution is used to manage such an environment, which is the key to successful digital transformation and campus development.



***


As we promised, in April and May, Huawei experts will hold a large number of webinars. Including about the subject use of Wi-Fi 6, about our smart O&M, about some new products, and also about why you need to be certified for a Huawei expert in 2020. The list of webinars for April is available here .

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