With the development of broadband and multimedia services, the traditional bearer network with SDH/ATM cannot meet the demands of future services. Currently, there are two main trends that can be seen in the bearer network: packetization and intelligence. The aim of these two trends is to simplify network layers and increase the amount of intelligent features in order to realize a "data perceptive" transmission network, thus reducing network complexity and operating cost.

Packetization will have an impact in two areas: the metro network and backbone network. Carrier Ethernet + NG-WDM will become the main model for building metro networks, while TSR + DWDM will become the preference for backbone networks. All services including voice, data and multimedia will be transmitted using the same IP technology. With the growing importance of IP in telecom networks, carrier-class IP networks must be available in order to maintain service quality for users in the new technology system. Based on the "operable and manageable" concept that we have been following since 2000 and through many years of continuous innovation, Huawei proposed and implemented the concept of the IP Telecom Network in 2003. Today we have completed end-to-end control and management of the IP network and have laid a solid theoretical foundation for more telecom-based IP. Meanwhile, Ethernet is attracting more attention due to its simplicity, affordability and broad scale application. However, Ethernet needs to provide guaranteed services like a telecom network. In 2003, Huawei proposed the idea of V-Switch in the Ethernet field and put it into operation. Currently, Huawei's V-Switch is widely deployed. In order to respond to the increasing popularity of packet-switched services, the optical system needs to adapt to the trend of packet switching. Thus, NG-WDM for packet transmission will be widely applied in the next three to five years and will extend into the access layer to address the great demands of future large-scale broadband development. In this area, Huawei has proposed the creative concept of GE-ADM, which has become one of the key features in NG-WDM.

Intelligence can be seen from two different perspectives. On one hand, it can be seen through the intelligent control on each layer of the transmission network. In this situation, automatic routing and configuration via dynamic signaling can be realized on each of the different layers of SDH, WDM, Ethernet and IP. On the other hand, intelligence can be seen from the transmission of the interaction between different layers, especially the interaction between the packet layer (Ethernet and IP) and the optical layer (WDM and OTN) to realize a "data perceptive" transmission network. This improves the automation degree and application rate of the network, the service response time and customer satisfaction, and also reduces the operation and maintenance cost of the network.