24 March 2016, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, today announced with China Unicom that they have signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Software Defined Network (SDN)/Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Both parties aim to build-on current SDN/NFV network development trends through collaborative innovation, implement SDN/NFV applications, and promote the next-generation network construction for China Unicom, meeting customers' demands, and promoting network transformation, business innovation, and service upgrade. The leaders and experts from China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute and ZTE attended the signing ceremony where they entered into an agreement on the purpose, direction, and methods of cooperation.

In 2015, China Unicom published the New-Generation Network CUBE-Net 2.0 White Paper, a decoupled and intensive network architecture based on dual centres (a user centre and a data centre). The White Paper also established the basic ideas for subsequent network evolution and construction, aiming to achieve leading network service capabilities and optimal productivity during multi-resource collaboration; driving network architecture evolution and deployment adjustment through dual centres; network pattern realizing 3-dimensional decoupling; service functions, logical functions, and deployment functions; promoting intensivism of the control plane, data management, data centres, and network nodes.

China Unicom has been proactively promoting the SDN/NFV industry process. The voice over long term evolution (VoLTE) service project based on virtual evolved packet core (vEPC) and virtual IP multimedia subsystem (vIMS) architecture sponsored by China Unicom for NFV proof of concept (PoC) was successfully completed in October 2015. This project comprehensively verified the SDN/NFV-based end-to-end VoLTE services, promoted the NFV process, and practiced the network as a service (NaaS) concept advocated by China Unicom.

In accordance with the new-generation network, CUBE-net, proposed by China Unicom and the strategic cooperation agreement signed by China Unicom and ZTE, both parties will cooperate using open-source technology, application scenarios, product requirements, service applications, and market development of SDN/NFV technologies, generate research results meeting network evolution requirements and lay a solid foundation for long-term and sustainable partnerships. China Unicom and ZTE will work together with open-source communities, requirement analysis, solution and product development, test verification/PoC, and commercial pilot office deployment for SDN/NFV. In addition, China Unicom and ZTE will continue research and propose draft standards and patent applications, jointly apply for and undertake national key research projects, and share the achievements in the SDN/NFV field.

"By building nationwide, world-connecting, advanced, and powerful modern telecom networks, China Unicom is committed to providing users with comprehensive and high-quality ICT services. The partnership with ZTE should focus on China Unicom's marketing and business development needs, and start from service innovation and technological innovation to establish a market-oriented innovation mechanism, and adopt open-source, iterative, and other new R&D models," said Mr. Chi Yongsheng, deputy director of the China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute.

"With its rapid development, SDN/NFV is destined to become an important trend for network evolution. ZTE and China Unicom have established long-term partnerships. Today, both parties work with each other again by signing a strategic cooperation memorandum in the field of SDN/NFV, thereby accelerating the revolution in network technologies and the development of the entire industry through continuous innovation and exploration," said Mr. Liu Peng, vice president of ZTE.

"ZTE is pleased to strengthen its cooperation with China Unicom. The development objective of future telecom networks is to establish a hierarchical, centralized, orchestrated, and software-defined elastic network by introducing the SDN/NFV architecture, IP and optical network integration, content delivery networks (CDNs), and enhanced service orchestration capabilities.ZTE will continue investing in SDN/NFV, and be committed to R&D and implementation of SDN/NFV technologies, aiming to become a leading pioneer in the SDN/NFV field. ZTE is willing to contribute to SDN/NFV technologies and global industrialization with our partners," said Ms. You Yan, vice president of ZTE.

Following the SDN/NFV-based network reconstruction strategy for developing the next-generation networks, aiming to build an elastic, cloud-based, and open network, ZTE has proposed an innovative ElasticNet architecture and solution integrating the Cloud and Pipe.

As leaders in the commercial SDN/NFV field, by adhering to openness, collaboration, innovation, and win-win ideas, China Unicom and ZTE will actively promote the development of the SDN/NFV industry chain, and optimize and transform the existing network architecture. In addition, ZTE is committed to building a future-proof SDN/NFV network architecture for its customers, and helping operators with Internet-based transformation in the commercial SDN/NFV era.