By reporters Jiang Shuilin and Tang Liu Ming: Carrying a sense of anticipation, braving the howling cold wind, at 10 PM on February 17th, we arrived at Beijing Unicom's Xizhimen Telephone Bureau to interview regarding the upgrade and cutover of their broadband access server.
This is one of nearly a hundred data aggregation nodes for Beijing Unicom, currently serving 60,000 telephone users and over 40,000 broadband users. Deputy Director Hou Minghui of the Xizhimen Telephone Bureau introduced that "fiber-to-the-home replacing copper" is an important part of telecom operators' "service-for-the-people excellence competition" campaign. In the past two years, the main work of the Xizhimen Telephone Bureau has been laying optical cables from the bureau end to user doorsteps. Currently, 70% of telephone users have the conditions for fiber-to-the-home. With the increase in fiber users, the broadband access server faces expansion pressure and requires replacement with new high-capacity servers. To minimize the impact on users, system cutover is generally scheduled after midnight.
Approaching 11 PM, I followed Hou Minghui into the broadband access server room where more than ten technical personnel were busily preparing for the cutover, such as determining which channel the lines would go through and how data would be backed up. In the server room, I met Jia Dongyun, manager of Beijing Unicom’s Broadband Access Center. Seeing her heavy dark circles, I joked, "You must not have rested well these few days." Jia Dongyun smiled faintly and said, "We've been busy since before the Spring Festival with the broadband access server upgrades - ordering from manufacturers, receiving goods, debugging, and installation. Except for the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, weekends haven't been spared. The server here at Xizhimen arrived on February 9th. From receiving the goods to completing the system cutover takes about a week. There are still 53 more locations like this in Beijing where broadband access server equipment needs to be replaced, all of which must be completed before the national 'two sessions' network lockdown on March 3rd. We've already finished over ten nodes; the remaining workload is still very large, so we can only work in shifts around the clock." She then pointed to a young man working and said, "Like our Ma Lipobo, he often works until two or three in the morning and gets woken up by engineering calls at seven or eight the next day, only able to sleep four or five hours."
The team leader of Huawei equipment at the broadband access center, Ma Lipobo, walked over, pushed up his thick glasses, and introduced the entire cutover process: the first step is data backup, collecting data information from various network elements to ensure all users can use the new network after the cutover; the second step is taking the old equipment offline, forcibly logging off users operating on the old equipment via commands to avoid duplicate billing; the third step is releasing routing information on the new equipment to ensure user route information transfers to the new system; the final step is comparing user information and notifying the network management center to add new device information. "To prepare for the cutover, we come to the server room at 8 PM. Completing the cutover usually lasts until two or three in the morning. The most troublesome part is the final data comparison, comparing over 300 network element data entries in an Excel table item by item without any errors. After a whole night, my eyes often ache unbearably," he explained with the rigor characteristic of a technician. He also pointed to several other technicians and said, "It's not just us at the broadband access center; colleagues from the construction center, district branch companies, sub-bureaus, network management center, as well as the construction team and equipment manufacturers, must all cooperate fully."
The server room environment was extremely noisy, and after spending half an hour inside, my eardrums began to feel uncomfortable. They spend six to seven hours daily in the noisy server room, requiring extraordinary patience and dedication.
Despite the hardship and fatigue, the hearts of Beijing Unicom employees hold beautiful aspirations. The belief in "leading urban residents into a beautiful world of optical networks" serves as their strong spiritual pillar. Jia Dongyun smiled and told the reporter, "The new server has port density 40 times that of the original server, all connected with 10-gigabit ports. In the future, people watching HD movies online and enjoying IPTV services will experience smoother performance. The dreams of smart TVs and digital homes will gradually become reality on the optical network."
As the clock struck midnight on February 18th, the intense cutover work began: taking the old equipment offline, bringing the new equipment online, importing and comparing data. Everyone took their positions, meticulously and attentively carrying out their tasks. Although some users temporarily couldn’t use their broadband due to staying up late, within two hours, a faster, safer, and more exciting optical network world would enter their lives.
In order not to disturb their busy work, the tired reporter left the cutover site, ending this brief yet highly meaningful interview. Outside the building, the cold was biting, but looking at the brightly lit building, imagining the hard work and dedication of Beijing Unicom employees, a warm current surged in my heart. Suddenly, an ancient poem came to mind: "Who knows that every grain in the plate comes from hard labor?" For broadband networks, each speed increase brings a more wonderful experience. "Free upgrade to 10M" is not as simple as the public imagines; it's not just making some changes in the backend system. Behind the beautiful optical network lies the efforts of telecommunications employees.