How Huawei Built a Foundation for Digital Government Construction in Beijing

The construction of new infrastructure is driving the digital transformation of industries. This trend is clearly apparent in the digital government sector, too, where key priorities include improving digital governance capabilities to boost intelligent decision-making, in turn supporting both industrial development and public well-being.

Network construction is a key aspect of achieving these aims, and the e-Government extranet is a cornerstone for the development of digital government. In the recently released Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of New Infrastructure in Beijing (2020–2022) , the construction of an e-Government private network is acknowledged as a key task.

Naturally, as the political, cultural, and science and technology innovation center of China, Beijing provides an example to the rest of the country, particularly in terms of how its e-Government extranet has been constructed and the social and economic benefits it brings.

New Infrastructure Leads to Need for Government Network Upgrades

Digitalization, networking, and intelligence technologies are developing rapidly, and the digital transformation of industries — even entire societies — is accelerating. As an important aspect of Digital China, as well as the key to optimizing the business environment and promoting social and economic development, strengthening the digital government system has become paramount.

More and more cities are improving the efficiency of government services by enhancing their e-Government systems. After nearly 15 years of construction, e-Government extranets have been deployed in 32 provinces and counties across China, playing an important role in promoting the sharing of information resources and strengthening the integration of the service system.

The acceleration of new infrastructure construction is driving the upgrade of the Beijing e-Government extranet office service system, since it brings with it higher requirements for network reliability, security, and robustness.

Indeed, many video services — such as e-Government video conferencing and city video security management — are already in use. Cloud services, including desktop cloud and real-time window services, have become increasingly popular. Therefore, ongoing upgrades for the application experience are required, since these developments all create higher requirements for network capabilities.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address resources on the live network are proving insufficient to meet upgrade needs. In this context, many networks have been — or are being — upgraded and reconstructed to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). In response, China issued its Action Plan for Large-scale IPv6 Deployment.

The e-Government extranet also carries services such as video and voice data, services for common offices, online service halls, mobile offices, and government hotlines. Such a large network has many applications, complex technologies, and high management requirements. Determining how to simplify management and perform intelligent Operations and Maintenance (O&M) has been a major challenge for the e-Government extranet. As government departments relocate to Tongzhou, and more and more employees are accessing the network, finding a solution to the high concurrent user authentication problem has been a priority.

The plan states that the e-Government private network must be intensive, open, stable, and secure. By expanding, optimizing, and upgrading existing resources, e-Government private networks must be built to support the IPv6 protocol.

How the Beijing e-Government Extranet Was Built

As a respected partner in the digital transformation of governments, Huawei launched its Intent-Driven e-Government Extranet Solution to help Beijing upgrade and reconstruct its e-Government network, so that it could handle all government services and perform unified O&M on one network.

The Intent-Driven e-Government Extranet Solution applies technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and big data. It uses Huawei's AirEngine, NetEngine, CloudEngine, and HiSecEngine, alongside a new generation of e-Government network architecture, to build a single simplified e-Government network with multiple planes and cloud-network integration. This network accelerates data-sharing and the collaborative management of private networks of government departments at all levels, ensuring a high level of network service quality.

In short, during the Beijing e-Government's network upgrade and reconstruction, the Intent-Driven e-Government Extranet Solution satisfied all network service requirements.

The solution uses new high-end routers to build a high reliability, low latency, and high performance network, meeting service evolution requirements for the next eight to ten years. With a path toward IPv6 evolution in place, Segment Routing version 6 (SRv6) technology greatly simplifies network protocols and enables flexible network expansion, with programmability reducing reconstruction difficulties — ultimately protecting the customers' investment.

A Software-Defined Networking (SDN) network 'brain' is used to perform automatic O&M management for the entire network, which simplifies O&M and reduces labor costs. High performance broadband access servers are used to support control plane virtualization and high concurrency performance, meeting the requirements for the concurrent access authentication of government employees.

Leading the Way to More Efficient Government

"The reconstruction of the Beijing e-Government network contributes greatly to government management, city management, industry promotion, and industry services, to better support the collaboration of government departments, support key national events, and create a great driving force for industry," commented Xi Xiaochun — Deputy General Manager of the Private Network Business Department of Capital Information Development Co., Ltd. — in a speech given at the Huawei Network Innovation Technology Forum in Beijing.

Xi Xiaochun, Deputy General Manager of the Private Network Business Dept., Capital Information Development Co., Ltd.

Indeed, the upgrade and reconstruction of the Beijing e-Government network will promote government service collaboration, improve the government's decision-making and management capabilities, significantly boost administrative efficiency, and bridge any gaps between the government and the public, through improved transparency.

The changes to the network will also significantly improve the city’s service management capabilities, and further improve the city’s refined management level and emergency management capabilities.

The network upgrade will create a favorable environment for network industry development, boost Research and Development (R&D) and the application of domestic network devices, support the training of more informatization personnel, and improve the capabilities of those involved in the network construction and promotion processes.

Ultimately, improvements to the network will boost the service level of each industry. The upgraded network will also improve information services for key projects and activities, including the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the construction of a sub-center of Beijing in Tongzhou.

From this success case in Beijing, it’s clear that creating a solid network foundation is the key to building a digital government. It’s also apparent that finding a partner that knows both the industry and the technologies involved is critical. Indeed, the Intent-Driven e-Government Extranet Solution demonstrates Huawei's expertise in these fields, highlighting its insights into industry trends and customer requirements, as well as its ability to integrate innovative technologies and core services.

As new infrastructure becomes more widespread across the country, Huawei will continue to apply its knowledge and experience, collaborating with partners to provide customers with reliable and secure infrastructure networks, accelerate the digital transformation of industry, and improve social governance capabilities.