China has introduced a pioneering ultra-fast backbone that sets a new benchmark for the world’s Internet infrastructure. The network operates at 1,200 Gbps, or 1.2 terabits per second, a milestone highlighted during a November press briefing at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The backbone network is a collaborative achievement involving Tsinghua University, China Mobile, HUAWEI, and CERNET.com Corporation. It stretches across more than 3,000 kilometers and links major urban centers, including Beijing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou. This expansive route forms the core of a high-capacity communications layer designed to handle the demanding data flows of today and tomorrow.
Known as the FITI backbone network, it represents a central achievement within the national Future Internet Technology Infrastructure project. The system has undergone extensive testing and has demonstrated stable and reliable performance since its initial operational trials began on July 31 of the preceding year.
The operation of FITI rests on a suite of nationally developed technologies, notably the 1.2T ultra-high-speed IPv6 interface embedded in the next-generation Internet core router and the capability to aggregate multiple parallel data paths at such speeds. Both the software and hardware components are produced domestically, underscoring a strong emphasis on national tech sovereignty.
FITI was conceived and built with the participation of forty Chinese universities, including Tsinghua University. The backbone’s central nodes are distributed across forty universities located in thirty-five cities nationwide, creating a widely dispersed backbone that can support high-capacity research, education, and industry applications.
Back in April of the previous year, FITI’s high-performance backbone network entered operational status and began interconnecting IPv4 and IPv6 testing facilities both within China and in international collaborations, expanding the scope of experimental and production-grade network capabilities.
This development signals a strategic push toward a more resilient, scalable, and secure national Internet framework. It illustrates how a coordinated effort among leading academic institutions and major technology companies can accelerate the deployment of advanced networking technologies, set higher benchmarks for international competition, and provide a practical platform for future research, smart city initiatives, and advanced digital services across the country. The emphasis on IPv6 and multi-path aggregation highlights a forward-looking approach to handling the growing traffic demands of cloud services, artificial intelligence workloads, and large-scale data analytics, while keeping a focus on domestic innovation and production. The announcement framed the 1.2T backbone as a foundational element for ongoing experimentation, regional interconnectivity, and the broader maturation of the national digital infrastructure. University press conference and affiliated institutions.