1. Independent design and implementation

CERNET, as a major infrastructure in China's education and research sectors, must be designed and implemented by Chinese people, with crucial techniques in it being mastered by Chinese people so as to prepare for extensive implementation of China's information initiative.

2. Uniform planning, step implementation and specific immediate objective

To a systematic engineering, not only immediate objective, but also space for expansion and development shall be considered in its overall design, for a computer network with nationwide coverage cannot be implemented in one day. Considering the long-term development of CERNET, strategies of uniform planning and design as well as step implementation shall be adopted.

3. State-of-art, openness and standardization

To set up such a large-scale education and research net, advanced and mature technologies shall be employed. Computer systems and network equipment incorporating state-of-art technologies of 1990's shall be chosen to ensure stable and reliable operation of the net in a long time. Various network applications developed or outsourced shall be as advanced as possible and feature long-term availability. One of the most conspicuous features of modern computer network is its excellent openness based on standardization to allow easy interconnection and interoperability. To this end, a networkwide consistent architecture and uniform communication protocols shall be implemented, in other words, standard-compatible network architecture and communication protocols prevailed globally shall be selected to make CERNET a completely open computation environment.

4. Social partners

To complete such a large-scale computer network project, it is a must to invoke multiple resources, especially support from universities and colleges countrywide. The national center, regional nodes, CERNET backbone and regional backbone are financed by the state treasury, while campus networks are mainly funded by the hosting universities and colleges.

5. Short-term support, long-term independence

In allusion of successful experience of education and research networking in west countries, the central government shall fund the initiative in quite a long period to support the network construction and operation. Rates will be charged after the network has become an indispensable tool in teaching, learning and research in higher education--only at such time, can CERNET become self-supported.

6. Application and service highlighted

Network application and service shall be highlighted in CERNET program, for only application and service are of benefits directly accessible to users. A special team shall be assembled to impulse CERNET application during the construction period to synchronize network construction and application and service, and to prevent against bias towards network construction.

7. Basic principles of cross-border cooperation

It is a must to arouse enthusiasm of international organizations, institutions and businesses on construction of CERNET, and to activate multiple support sources, financial and technological, so as to accelerate CERNET construction.

8. Stringent management

In reference to international practice, CERNET prioritizes stringent access management and breach penalty by leveraging leading-edge technologies to ensure compliance with statutory rules and regulations and to protect legal rights and IPR of users. To organizations and users acting against its established policies, CERNET will terminate services accessible to them and bring a lawsuit when necessary.