When choosing a Japanese server, an unavoidable question is: What is the difference between CN2 servers and ordinary line servers? Why do many people prefer to spend more money to choose CN2? What business scenarios are they suitable for?
CN2 is China Telecom's next-generation bearer network, also known as China Telecom's boutique network. CN2 is divided into multiple levels, among which CN2 GIA is its highest-level international line product, with exclusive international export bandwidth, low latency, QoS guarantee, priority forwarding of important business data, extremely low packet loss rate, and support for two-way intelligent routing to return to China and optimize outbound traffic.
In contrast, although traditional ordinary BGP lines have certain multi-line access capabilities, they have low priority when data is congested, do not provide any path optimization and traffic guarantee mechanism, and are prone to "high peak delay and serious packet loss".
Typical advantages of Japan's CN2 servers
1. Lower and more stable return delay
Japanese servers using CN2 GIA lines usually have a Ping value of 30ms to 60ms when accessing mainland China, while ordinary BGP lines may reach more than 80ms, and fluctuate greatly. CN2 avoids congestion points in path selection and can maintain low latency during peak hours.
2. Extremely low packet loss rate
In cross-border communications, packet loss rate directly affects user experience. CN2 GIA has QoS mechanism and congestion avoidance capability, so its packet loss rate can be controlled below 0.1%, while the packet loss rate of ordinary lines often exceeds 5% during evening peak hours.
3. Suitable for north-south interconnection
CN2 can effectively improve the quality of north-south interconnection through the joint access network of China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. However, some ordinary lines are limited by the single-line structure and may have slow access problems in the south or north.
4. Support games, acceleration, and voice applications
Due to its low jitter and low packet loss characteristics, CN2 is very suitable for game servers and transit accelerators, overseas voice communications, video live broadcast platforms, cross-border training systems, and fast interconnection between overseas applications and domestic APIs.
Characteristics and limitations of ordinary line servers
Japanese ordinary line servers mostly use standard international BGP exports to maintain connections with countries around the world, but do not have special return optimization capabilities.
Advantages:
Cheap price: Under the same configuration, ordinary lines are 20-40% cheaper than CN2;
Good global connection capabilities: Suitable for international business in Europe, America, Australia, and Southeast Asia;
Sufficient bandwidth: Usually supports larger shared bandwidth or unlimited traffic plans.
Limitations:
Access to mainland China is unstable: Especially during the evening peak, the access speed in some provinces has dropped significantly;
Packet loss is prominent: slow response or inaccessibility often occurs during high-concurrency connections;
Not friendly to real-time business: video conferencing, online games, and voice chats are prone to lag and delays.
Selection suggestions: How to choose for different businesses?
Combined with actual business scenarios, the following are the adaptation suggestions for CN2 and ordinary line servers:
1. For services for users in mainland China, such as official websites, e-commerce, education platforms, and game servers that are mainly visited domestically, CN2 line servers should be preferred to ensure a stable return path and a good user experience.
2. For site group SEO/content publishing stations, a large number of overseas IPs need to be deployed, and cost control is sensitive. Ordinary line servers can be selected to share the pressure with CDN acceleration or front-end cache.
3. For overseas users, such as deploying service platforms for international visitors such as the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia, ordinary BGP lines can meet the needs, and there is no need to choose more expensive CN2 lines.
4. For transit acceleration and game springboard nodes, such as those used to build real-time communication systems such as game accelerators and transit tunnels, CN2 GIA lines should be selected to ensure data transmission quality.
5. Traffic-based applications (such as movies, download sites) are more concerned with bandwidth resources and costs. It is recommended to use large-bandwidth ordinary line servers and cooperate with traffic optimization strategies to reduce bottlenecks.
The Japanese server market is becoming more mature, and the product variety is becoming more and more abundant. The price gap is mainly reflected in the line quality. CN2 lines represent "high-quality return experience" and ordinary lines represent "universal international connectivity". No line is suitable for all users. The truly suitable server should be comprehensively judged based on business model, user distribution, access priority and budget.
Before deploying the server, it is recommended to test the line performance in advance, compare the service quality of different suppliers, and give priority to service providers who can provide CN2 two-way optimization, 7x24 operation and maintenance support, and flexible upgrade strategies to ensure long-term business stability.
