Interview with Deng Yiou, Secretary General of the NIDA Alliance: Impending Innovation and Development of Internet Infrastructure
In this context, the Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance ( Network Innovation and Development Alliance, NIDA for short) came into being. So, what is the background for its founding? Why was it founded this year? What is the goal? During the 2024 Mobile World Congress in Shanghai (2024 MWC Shanghai), Communications World Reporter interviewed Deng Yiou, Secretary-General of the NIDA Alliance. He told us about the orientation and development direction of NIDA's industry.
The all-IP network is unstoppable. NIDA emerges at the moment. From the perspective of the industry, the innovation and development of the global IP industry has entered a key point in urgent need of transformation. For a long time, standards organizations such as the IETF and IEEE have created many innovative IP technologies and protocols that are highly competitive, and have selected highly competitive solutions through free competition. This bottom-up and dynamic innovation mechanism has enabled IP technologies to defeat many network technologies over the past decades and achieve the "All IP" pattern in most service scenarios. However, over time, this innovation mechanism also faces significant challenges. On the one hand, the rapid development and innovation of services in various industries pose higher requirements on IP networks. On the other hand, some major technical problems, such as TCP efficiency and Ethernet packet loss, remain unresolved for a long time and become increasingly serious, which greatly restrict the space for innovation. What direction will the IP technology develop? What will the next generation Internet look like? This has become an important issue and is facing the entire industry.
However, these major technical problems have formed a huge ecosystem in decades, deep into every corner of the Internet industry. Innovative technologies to solve these problems may still be developed based on the original bottom-up and free-competition innovation mechanism. However, these innovative technologies need to reach a consensus across the entire industry chain and jointly promote them. In this way, they can be implemented and better support businesses in various industries. At the same time, it is possible to define the evolution direction of the next generation Internet only by gathering the broad consensus of the industry.
"In this context, we believe that the IP industry needs to build on the existing bottom-up innovation mechanism and build a top-down, planning-driven force and consensus-building platform. The Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) was established to meet this need and to take on this responsibility. Deng Yiou stressed.
Aggregates global industry consensus and builds an international industry-university-research-use ecosystem.
Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) has set its registration place in Hetao, Shenzhen. This is a profound decision. Shenzhen, as the frontier of China's reform and opening-up, has a global vision and a soil for innovation. It is not only an important window for communication with the world, but also has strong execution and innovation. It gathers many leading enterprises and organizations in the industry chain, providing abundant resources and an efficient communication environment for the development of the alliance.
is the first and only international industry and standard organization cluster in China. Hetao International Industry and Standard Organization Cluster (Hetao Cluster for short) has proved its capabilities and advantages in promoting standard innovation and industry development through its own innovative exploration and practice. Although it has been less than a year since the official opening of the Hetao Cluster Area, it has attracted one center and six standard alliances due to its superior geographical location and international scientific research environment. Up to now, the international industry and standard alliances under the Hetao Cluster Area have accumulated fruitful results: Drafted 130 standards, published 23 white papers, tested and certified 211 products, and developed 1,643 members.
"In the Hetao cluster area, multiple international industries and standards organizations cooperate deeply, collide with each other, and stimulate each other. New ideas and opportunities for cooperation are emerging, which injects a strong impetus to the development of the alliance. Deng Yiou said that the Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) is an international, industrial, and non-profit social organization founded voluntarily by industry institutions, universities, research institutes, and companies around the world, focusing on promoting fixed network technology innovation and industrial upgrading. The Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) aims to "define the intergenerational evolution and network construction standards of global Internet infrastructure, and guide the upgrade of the datacom industry". It is committed to gathering global industry consensus, building an international industry, university, and research ecosystem, and promoting fixed network technology innovation. Promote the sustainable development of the fixed network industry.
At MWC Shanghai 2024, NIDA presented the white papers and solutions related to fixed networks and presented the achievements in network standard construction. It is learned that the work scope of the Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) includes the following six aspects:
conducts fixed network research and survey, policy consultation, and requirement analysis, forms and publishes research results
and builds industry consensus on fixed network evolution and development. Jointly define the fixed network evolution direction. ;
alliance is to define the network evolution path, analyze application scenarios, and design the network architecture suitable for the scenario. The alliance does not engage in the R&D of basic technologies, but uses existing innovative technologies to build network architectures. If the existing technologies cannot meet the requirements of specific scenarios, submit R D requirements to relevant standards organizations and establish cooperation relationships with them. "said Deng Yiou. ;
When talking about the next generation Internet, Deng Yiou believes that its connotations are rich and diverse. From a certain point of view, the key to the Internet is "connecting", and the next generation of Internet "connecting" objects will change dramatically. In addition to connecting people, mobile phones, homes, and enterprises, we will also connect more extensive and complex objects such as production networks, vehicle-road synergy, and AI computing. The next-generation Internet may be a unified network that can carry these diverse needs as a result of these different connected objects.
According to the first batch of members of the Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) include academic research institutes, think tanks, carriers, equipment vendors, test instrument vendors, and chip vendors, and overseas members from six countries. Deng Yiou,
, revealed that in the preparation stage, key members of the Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) participated in the discussion on the positioning, mission, and value of the Alliance. A number of working groups are already being prepared, and everyone is eager to put them into action as soon as possible. In the future, the Alliance expects to work with more industry organizations and invite more participants in the industry chain, including integrators, test institutions, and application business enterprises, to join hands to promote network innovation. The
Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) emphasizes the need to have an end-to-end network vision and focus on the collaborative evolution and improvement of the entire network, rather than just a single point of technology breakthrough. This is complementary and cooperative with some existing alliances focusing on single technological innovation in China. "In the global industry, there is no organization with the same positioning as the Alliance, which means that the Alliance needs to explore a development path in the absence of ready-made benchmarks. "said Deng Yiou. The establishment of
Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) is an important milestone in the development of China's Internet infrastructure industry. It has the mission of bringing together industry forces and leading innovation and development, and will make unremitting efforts to build a more advanced, efficient, and intelligent Internet infrastructure. In the future development journey, I believe that the Global Fixed Network Innovation Alliance (NIDA) will continue to explore and innovate, contribute to the development of the global Internet infrastructure industry, and write a bright new chapter in the development of the Internet.
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