Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Launching a special action for "millisecond computing" in urban areas to provide millisecond-level computing resource network accessibility within urban areas

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, on October 16, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized a special action for "millisecond computing" in urban areas, focusing on the development of computing power networks to build a high-capacity, low-latency, and widely covered urban network that provides millisecond-level computing power resource accessibility. This includes achieving millisecond interconnection (<1 millisecond) for computing power centers aimed at infrastructure, millisecond access (<1 millisecond) for computing power resources at key locations, and millisecond accessibility (<10 milliseconds network latency) for computing power applications at terminal devices. This special action aims to drive all parties in the industry to focus on smooth millisecond computing channels and promote the construction of millisecond computing networks across the country, with a goal of forming a comprehensive, efficient, and smooth urban millisecond computing network capability system by 2027.

The original text is as follows:

Notice from the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the Launch of the Urban "Millisecond Computing" Special Action

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Communication [2025] No. 54

To the communication management bureaus and industrial and information technology authorities of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, China Telecom Group Co., Ltd., China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd., China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd., China Broadcasting Network Group Co., Ltd., and all relevant units:

In order to thoroughly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and to fulfill the requirements of the "Action Plan for the High-Quality Development of Computing Power Infrastructure," enhance the efficient transportation capacity of computing power, and effectively promote the integrated development of computing and networks, we are now organizing the urban "millisecond computing" special action. The relevant matters are notified as follows.

1. Overall Ideas and Goals

Focusing on the development of computing power networks, we aim to build a high-speed, high-capacity, low-latency, and widely covered urban network that provides millisecond-level computing power resource accessibility. This includes achieving millisecond interconnection (<1 millisecond) for computing power centers aimed at infrastructure, millisecond access (<1 millisecond) for computing power resources at key locations, and millisecond accessibility (<10 milliseconds network latency) for computing power applications at terminal devices. This special action aims to drive all parties in the industry to focus on smooth millisecond computing channels and promote the construction of millisecond computing networks across the country, with a goal of forming a comprehensive, efficient, and smooth urban millisecond computing network capability system by 2027.

1. Action Content

(1) Promote "millisecond interconnection of computing power centers" and strengthen the implementation of innovative technologies.

Improve the interconnection network architecture between computing power centers, guide the optimization of the urban computing network layout aimed at computing power centers, and enhance the network hierarchy and interconnection topology of urban computing power centers. By 2027, achieve a unidirectional interconnection latency of less than 1 millisecond between medium and large computing power centers in urban areas. Accelerate the deployment of high-performance networks between computing power centers, orderly promote the application of high-speed optical transmission system equipment with 400Gbps and above in urban areas, and by 2027, achieve a deployment rate of no less than 50% for 400Gbps exports of medium and large computing power centers and a deployment rate of no less than 50% for all-optical cross connections at important urban sites. Conduct verification of innovative network technologies between computing power centers, promote the verification and implementation of innovative technology solutions and new network protocols, accelerate the research and verification of technologies such as all-optical high-capacity lossless transmission, task-based scheduling, intelligent operation and maintenance of computing networks, and wide-area lossless networks, further enhancing the operational efficiency of integrated computing and networks (2) Promote "millisecond access to computing power resources" to create a millisecond computing foundation

Improve the network layout for computing power access in key locations, promote the deployment of optical network equipment to integrated access points and industrial parks on the user side, accelerate the realization of widespread coverage of all-optical networks, and build metropolitan area millisecond-level low-latency one-hop computing capabilities. Promote the verification of new technologies for computing access networks, carry out new technology verifications such as small-granularity optical transport networks (OTN) and deterministic networks, and guide basic telecommunications companies to upgrade the service experience of dedicated computing access lines. Conduct assessments of millisecond access capabilities for computing resources, establish a monitoring mechanism for the coverage capability of metropolitan medium and large computing centers with a 1-millisecond latency circle, and achieve a coverage rate of no less than 70% for metropolitan computing with a 1-millisecond latency circle by 2027, creating a high-quality millisecond computing foundation.

(3) Promote "millisecond accessibility of computing applications" to enhance application interaction experience

Optimize the network latency from computing application terminals to servers, promote technological innovations in network architecture and protocols within computing centers, optimize the communication efficiency of artificial intelligence training and inference, promote the deployment of technologies such as all-optical switching (OCS) and optoelectronic integrated networking in computing centers, and enhance the network performance of computing centers. By 2027, promote the one-way network latency from computing application terminals to computing center servers to be less than 10 milliseconds. Enrich the integrated computing network services, focus on key industries such as manufacturing, finance, transportation, healthcare, education, and entertainment, encourage basic telecommunications companies to launch customized integrated computing network service packages based on differentiated computing needs, provide flexible and inclusive computing network service capabilities, support the enhancement of interaction experiences for typical computing applications such as industrial quality inspection and auxiliary diagnosis, and promote high-level empowerment of artificial intelligence for new industrialization.

III. Work Requirements

(1) Action Launch. The communication management bureaus of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, in conjunction with the competent departments of industry and information technology, will select prefecture-level cities (including districts and counties under municipalities) with dense computing resources, good network infrastructure, and urgent computing application needs as the implementation areas for the special action, with a total number not exceeding 3. The competent departments of industry and information technology in each prefecture-level city, together with local basic telecommunications companies, will fill out the metropolitan "millisecond computing" special action plan form (Attachment 2) based on the special action work guidelines (Attachment 1). The communication management bureaus of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government will summarize the materials from within the province and submit them to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (Department of Information and Communication Development) by November 15, 2025. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will comprehensively assess the implementation conditions in various regions and clarify the scope of action implementation.

(2) Mid-term Assessment. One year after the implementation of the action, the communication management bureaus of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, in conjunction with the competent departments of industry and information technology, will organize local basic telecommunications companies to report relevant network monitoring data of the special action to the computing power network capacity monitoring system of the China Computing Power Platform, fill out the special action summary form (Attachment 3), and submit it to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (Department of Information and Communication Development) by November 15, 2026. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will organize relevant experts to conduct assessments through verification of indicator data, technical evaluations, and on-site inspections, and will optimize and adjust the scope of action implementation as needed, reporting on the implementation status of the action.

(3) Effect Summary. After the action period ends, the communication management bureaus of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, in conjunction with the competent departments of industry and information technology, will organize local basic telecommunications companies to summarize the implementation status and fill out the special action summary form, submitting it to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (Department of Information and Communication Development) by November 15, 2027 The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will evaluate and summarize the implementation of the action, releasing a list of completed actions and their effectiveness.

(4) Organizational support. The communication management bureaus of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government will work with the competent departments of industry and information technology to strengthen organizational support, enhance research and guidance, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of local basic telecommunications enterprises, computing power service providers, and computing enterprises, and coordinate to solve various problems and difficulties, providing necessary policy, funding, and municipal pipeline resources support for the special action. Each basic telecommunications enterprise group company will strengthen special guidance, policy tilt, and technical support for its subsidiaries (branches) in the action implementation areas, organizing relevant subsidiaries (branches) to increase investment efforts to ensure the smooth completion of action goals. Advanced experiences and typical practices from the special action will be promoted in a timely manner to strengthen the leading and driving effect.

This article is compiled from: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official website; edited by Zhitong Finance: Chen Xiaoyi