Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) is a highly available network service that runs on Alibaba Cloud's private global network. CEN uses a Transit Router (TR) as a hub to establish private channels between Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) across regions and between VPCs and on-premises data centers, forming a flexible, reliable, and large-scale enterprise-grade cloud network.
Components
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Diagram |
Component |
Description |
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CEN instance |
A CEN instance is the basic resource for creating and managing an integrated, intelligent cloud network. It serves as a container for one or more transit routers. Connect multiple transit routers with inter-region connections to build an interconnected network. |
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Transit Router (TR) |
A Transit Router (TR) is a regional core network hub that forwards traffic within or across regions and supports flexible routing policies. Each CEN instance allows one TR per region. |
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Network instance |
A network instance represents a cloud or on-premises network resource. Common types include: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Express Connect Router (ECR), Cloud Connect Network (CCN), IPsec-VPN connection, Virtual Border Router (VBR), and Transit Router (TR). A TR connects to these instances to forward traffic between network environments. |
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Network instance connection |
Attaching a network instance to a TR creates a connection. You can create connections to interconnect cloud resources, connect resources across regions, and enable communication between cloud and on-premises resources. Supported connection types: VPC connection, ECR connection, CCN connection, VPN connection, VBR connection, or inter-region connection. |
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TR route table |
A TR forwards traffic by looking up its route tables. By default, each TR has a system route table. You can create custom route tables and use route association and route learning to define connectivity, isolation, and traffic steering policies. |
Use cases
Typical interconnection scenarios:
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Intra-region VPC connection: Connect multiple VPCs in the same region.
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Inter-region VPC connection: Connect VPCs in different regions.
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Hybrid cloud connection: Connect multiple VPCs in the cloud to an on-premises IDC.
Other use cases:
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Filter traffic between VPCs
Route traffic through a security appliance so networks exchange only inspected traffic. Use an Enterprise Edition transit router to ensure secure traffic forwarding.
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Access shared services from isolated VPCs
Allow isolated VPCs to reach a shared service without communicating with each other. Allow isolated VPCs to access a shared service.
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Inter-region QoS
Traffic scheduling marks inter-region traffic with priorities and applies per-priority bandwidth limits, guaranteeing bandwidth for critical services. Use the traffic scheduling feature to control inter-region bandwidth.
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Inter-region traffic analysis
Flow logs capture traffic information across TRs and network instance connections, including inter-region, VPC, VPN, ECR, and VBR connections. For more information, see Flow logs.
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Cloud multicast
Connect network instances to a TR to create a multicast network. The TR acts as a multicast router to forward multicast traffic between attached instances. Multicast management.
Benefits
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Global interconnectivity |
Low latency and high throughput |
High reliability and quality |
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Transit routers connect VPCs and on-premises networks across regions for global communication. Within a single region, an Enterprise Edition TR supports up to 1,000 VPC connections. |
Transit routers provide low-latency, high-throughput network transmission. Intra-region communication reaches the port forwarding rate of network devices. Inter-region latency is significantly lower than over the public internet. |
Forwarding nodes deploy across multiple availability zones with automatic failover. Multiple high-quality transmission links connect any two nodes; if a link fails, the network converges automatically without service impact. |
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Secure and flexible networking |
Pay-as-you-go and rapid delivery |
Centralized O&M |
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Custom routing policies support complex architectures: isolated security domains, a unified DMZ for outbound traffic, and service chains. |
Pay-as-you-go billing charges only for connected network instances and processed traffic. Inter-region links are provisioned on demand with no fixed equipment or line investment, which reduces network construction costs. |
The console provides geographical and resource-based topology views for monitoring your entire network at a glance. |
Supported regions and availability zones
Supported regions and availability zones for Transit Router.
Network transmission
Alibaba Cloud provides a high-performance, low-latency private network that offers a secure cloud environment to meet your networking needs. The Alibaba Cloud transit network targets a P99 hourly packet loss rate below 0.0001% for inter-region transmission. Packet loss can result from flow collisions, data-link layer errors, or other network failures.
Key considerations:
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Only CEN-managed traffic routes through the Alibaba Cloud transit network. With sufficient purchased bandwidth, CEN significantly minimizes packet loss for inter-region traffic.
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The leased lines that connect the Chinese mainland with other regions are provided by China Unicom. The operational goals for these lines are consistent with those of the Alibaba Cloud transit network.
Get started with CEN
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Using the console: See the Connect VPCs in the same region quick start.