Introduction
The State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology (SKL-NST), hosted by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), was one of the first State Key Laboratories granted by the State Planning Commission and Ministry of Education, and funded by the World Bank through the Key Studies Development Project. It was officially opened to the public in 1992 as State Key Laboratory of Switching Technologies and Telecommunication Networks, where Professor Junliang Chen, CAS&CAE Academician, was the Founding Director. It took its current name in 2005 as SKL-NST, where Professor Ping Zhang is the current Director.
Since its inauguration, SKL-NST has been focusing on technology innovation, scientific research, and talent nurturing, aiming at “serving national strategic goals, engaging in leading technology research and focusing on innovation capabilities”. SKL-NST specializes in Network Services, Network Management, Network Security and Network Architecture research and development. There are eight research centers in SKL-NST: Network Management Research Center, Broadband Network Research Center, Switching and Intelligent Control Research Center, Network Intelligence Research Center, Network Service Research Center, Network Security Research Center, Information Security Research Center and Network Information Processing Research Center.
Over its 20-year history, SKL-NST has made a number of significant breakthroughs and great achievements. At the end of the 20th century, SKL-NST developed China’s first carrier-grade Stored Program Controlled (SPC) switching system — “CIN02 Advanced Intelligent Network System”. Early in the 21st century, SKL-NST’s recommendation on Traffic Management of Virtual Private Network (VPN) was accepted as an ITU-T Standard M.3208.3, representing China’s first contribution to ITU-T.
Currently, SKL-NST has an excellent team of researchers, including two CAS&CAE academicians, 22 doctoral program supervisors, 22 professors and 39 associate professors. Many of them are recipients of national awards with outstanding scientific contributions, including three Distinguished Scholars of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program, four Distinguished Young Scholars of NSFC, five Mid-Aged Experts with Remarkable Contributions to the Country, five Talents in the Thousand Talents Program, and twelve Talents in the New Century Excellent Talents Program of the Ministry of Education.
SKL-NST has completed more than 350 projects, many of which were funded by the Program 973, the Program 863 and the NSFC. SKL-NST has received one National Award for Technological Invention, seven National Awards for Science and Technology Progress, and over 30 Awards for Science and Technology Progress on provincial and ministerial levels. SKL-NST has published a large number of high-quality research papers and influential monographs, and has obtained more than 150 national and international patent licenses. SKL-NST encourages commercialization and application of scientific research achievements. Many of the research achievements have been commercialized, and have achieved remarkable socioeconomic benefits. SKL-NST has become an important national research and education base in the area of the networking and switching technologies.