As information technologies advance rapidly, education informatization has emerged as integral to education modernization. Recently, China's first 5G education private network went live in Guangdong province, marking a significant milestone in China's education informatization journey. This project is jointly proposed by China Unicom Guangdong, China Education and Research Network (CERNET) (Guangdong), and Huawei. It not only increases the campus intranet rate by 20 times but also introduces multiple innovative applications in the education field, significantly driving the advancement of smart education.
Digital Education Demands New Infrastructure
Amid the wave of digital education, Guangdong province has proactively responded to the demand for digital education and leverages new education infrastructure as a key driving force for high-quality education development. In this context, Guangdong province is driving education informatization through the construction of the 5G education private network, pioneering smart education nationwide.
5G Free-Mobility Private Network Solution Drives Education Innovation Towards Greater Security and Efficiency
The 5G education private network is powered by the 5G Free-Mobility Private Network solution launched by China Unicom. It combines the network resources, computing power, and innovation capabilities intended for CERNET and the 5G Free-Mobility Private Network solution, and features green sharing, security and reliability, as well as intelligence and openness. This network has powered convergent, ubiquitous campus networks for up to 168 universities, providing VPN-free, seamless access experience for faculties and students — all while enabling cross-domain access between intranet and Internet services. This groundbreaking education product has three key advantages:
Optimal Service Experience: Thanks to 5G premium networks and smart traffic steering capabilities, users can access enterprise intranets and extranets anytime, anywhere without changing their SIM cards or numbers.
High Data Security: Huawei offers the 5G UPF, which introduces major technologies, such as exclusive tunnel, secondary authentication, and network slicing, aiming to ensure network security and reliability. Data security is guaranteed through directly connecting the UPF and a campus intranet.
Simplified Network Management: Intensive and Internet-based operations of China Unicom's 5GCtoB One Telco Cloud are leveraged to uniformly manage campus intranets that offer both B2B and B2C services, as well as to centrally manage multiple campus intranets for each university. In addition, a self-service platform for the 5G Free-Mobility Private Network solution is provided for the university to achieve self-maintenance, self-management, self-operation, and visualized monitoring of private networks.
The 5G education private network allows faculties and students to access their campus intranet without using a VPN and delivers a seamless access experience to them. In addition, it implements cross-domain service access between the intranet and Internet and helps drastically increase the campus intranet rate, which is now 20 times higher than that of the traditional 4G+VPN. In summary, the 5G education private network supports diversified smart education applications, including 5G smart class, 5G converged media live streaming, and 5G messaging platform. These applications cover multiple education informatization scenarios, such as office, teaching, research, and management.
Future-oriented Application Upgrade Drives Profound Education Reform
Looking into the future, the 5G Free-Mobility Private Network solution will act as a new engine for promoting innovative 5G applications, improving production efficiency, and accelerating digital transformation. China Unicom Guangdong will dive deeper into key vertical industries, such as education, industrial manufacturing, and entertainment, as well as enrich services in local-domain, wide-domain, and cross-domain scenarios. For this reason, the construction practice of the 5G education private network will be promoted nationwide, expanding large-scale 5G deployment in the education industry and fully supporting the construction of new education infrastructure.
Furthermore, China Unicom Guangdong will pioneer a novel model of education private network convergence, innovation, and win-win cooperation. It will closely collaborate with ICT equipment vendors and smart education application service providers to build a 5G smart education demonstration area and promote typical 5G smart education applications. By formulating standards and specifications for 5G education private network construction, China Unicom Guangdong will inject various industries with 5G as well as 5G applications.