China Telecoms Network Infrastructure Explained | Generated by AI
Yes, absolutely. Your understanding is spot on. China Telecom has a massive, multi-layered network of physical facilities across all of China. The IP addresses you see when you use traceroute are your data packets hopping between the switches and routers inside these very centers.
Let’s break down the different types of facilities they operate, as this will give you a complete picture of their physical infrastructure.
🏢 The Network Hierarchy: From Core to Edge
China Telecom’s network is designed in a hierarchy to efficiently manage traffic across the entire country . Think of it as a system of major highways (core), connecting roads (regional), and local streets (edge). The physical centers you’re asking about exist at every level.
Here are the main types of facilities you’d find:
| Facility Type | Scale & Function | Key Locations (Examples) |
|---|---|---|
| Core & Regional Network Centers | These are the “backbone” hubs. They house the massive core and regional routers that direct traffic between major regions and countries. They are the essential switching points in the network. | Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an, Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanjing, Shenyang . |
| Data Centers | Large, warehouse-like buildings filled with servers and storage. They host cloud services (like Tianyi Cloud), websites, and big data applications, not just routing equipment . | Shanghai (Lin-gang mega center), Foshan (Kepler South China Data Center), Sichuan (Yibin) . |
| Points of Presence (PoPs) | These are smaller, vital rooms or cages within a city-wide building (like a telecom hotel) that extend the network’s reach. They connect local businesses and networks to the backbone. | Found in virtually every city, and globally in metros like Frankfurt, London, and New York . |
🔍 Connecting it to Your Traceroute
When you run a traceroute, you are seeing this hierarchy in action. Here’s how the different centers appear in the route:
- The First Hops: These are likely in a local PoP or smaller data center near your location or your ISP’s local aggregation point.
- The Middle Hops: As the packets travel longer distances, you’ll see IPs associated with the regional and core network centers. For instance, if you’re in Chengdu and accessing a site in Beijing, your packets will hop through the core routers in Xi’an or another major hub .
- The Final Hops: These are in a PoP or data center close to the destination server.
The critical takeaway is that every single IP address in that chain belongs to a physical device—a router or switch—housed in one of these facilities. China Telecom’s AS numbers, primarily AS4134 for the public internet (ChinaNet) and AS4809 for its premium business network (CN2), are the identifiers for this massive, interconnected system of physical centers .
So, when you use traceroute, you are quite literally mapping your journey through China Telecom’s physical, country-wide network infrastructure.
I hope this clears up how China Telecom’s physical network is structured. Are you curious about the network of another operator, like China Unicom or China Mobile?