In 2001, the information technology project of the education industry, as a highlight of the domestic IT application field, attracted the attention of almost all IT companies, and the most attractive ones in the industry were the “school-to-school” projects being implemented in primary and secondary schools nationwide. At the end of the year, the "School-to-School" project was jointly launched by China Electronics News and CCID. The "School-to-School" project was at the forefront with its huge market and far-reaching influence.

The goal of “School-to-School Communication” is to strengthen the construction of information infrastructure and information resources in China's education industry in five to 10 years, so that about 90% of the independent primary and secondary schools in the country can connect with the network and improve the education of all primary and secondary schools. The quality of teaching enables each primary and secondary school teacher and student to share online educational resources, so that all teachers can generally accept continuing education aimed at improving the level and ability of quality education. Since the Ministry of Education issued a notice on the implementation of the "School-to-School" project in October 2000, many schools and IT companies have expressed strong interest and concern.

Accelerated growth of network equipment investment The core and main content of the “School-to-School” project is the construction of campus networks in primary and secondary schools, especially the construction of hardware facilities. Because the "School-to-School" project emphasizes network connectivity and information sharing within the school and between schools, routers and switches-based network equipment play an increasingly important role in the construction of campus networks. In 2001, the first year of the official implementation of the “School-to-School Connection” project, the network products were applied to a large extent, and their share of the total investment in IT products reached 15.2%. Promotion, the application market of network equipment in the education industry is growing. From low-end to high-end, from individual products to overall solutions, network equipment vendors are facing an application market with huge development potential.

At present, there are two main types of network equipment used in the "School-to-School" project: high-end and low-end products, of which medium and low-end products are the main products. The application of high-end products is not very extensive, mainly for foreign brands. The products of these brands have been well received by many schools because of their high overall performance and good stability. For the most important middle and low-end network equipment market in the “School-to-School” project, domestic brands have an absolute advantage. Although the time to intervene in the network equipment market is shorter than that of foreign established manufacturers, in the domestic education information market, especially in the primary and secondary schools, these manufacturers have been actively participating in the information construction of the school for a long time, and accumulated rich industry experience. And formed their own core competitiveness. Domestic products have strong competitiveness in price, have high cost performance, and adapt to the comprehensive requirements of product performance and price in the information market of primary and secondary schools.

Compared with the middle and low-end network products of primary and secondary schools, higher education institutions are more inclined to use high-end products. Due to the large scale of campus network in colleges and universities, the complexity of institutions, and the large number of people using the network, the demand for high-end network equipment in colleges and universities has been relatively large. The network system of primary and secondary schools is relatively simple, and the scale is also small. In addition, the institutions with higher information investment in primary and secondary schools are more nervous. Therefore, most of the low-end products are used in network construction. From the perspective of the proportion of hardware equipment investment, the network equipment investment in primary and secondary schools accounts for a small proportion of the total investment.

There are many sub-systems involved in the education industry information system, so the requirements for system reliability are relatively high, especially in the network era. For the sake of network security, whether a system can operate stably and reliably is even more important.

The concern about price during product purchase is mainly due to the fact that the investment sources of information construction in primary and secondary schools are generally not abundant. At the same time, the requirements for the after-sales service of the manufacturers are also increasing. In addition, in the process of upgrading the equipment, the school generally prefers the products that are being used. This aspect considers the compatibility of the products; on the other hand, it considers the familiarity with the products and the ease of use.

As an important part of the education information market, the “School-to-School” project has been the focus of the “School-to-School” project from the beginning. As far as the current situation is concerned, there are only 6,000 schools with a campus network among the existing 680,000 primary and secondary schools in the country. This figure has a considerable distance from the overall goal of the Ministry of Education on the “School-to-School Connection” project. . Therefore, the market for the demand for network equipment will also be huge.