Single service comparison

Both services split the data plane into a physical connection plus logical virtual interfaces, but the resource models and naming differ. AWS Direct Connect exposes Connections, LAGs, virtual interfaces (private, public, transit) and Direct Connect gateways that abstract multi-VPC and cross-region peering. Huawei DC models three resources: Connection (physical port), Virtual Gateway (per-VPC anchor) or Global DC Gateway (VPC-transit anchor), and Virtual Interface. Huawei additionally offers Hosted Connections partner-shared ports, while AWS mirrors this with Hosted/Hosted-connection allocations; API verbs and ARN-style ownership are not portable.

Scaling, failover and routing behavior diverge at the control plane. AWS supports BGP with priority-based failover through Direct Connect gateway and Transit Gateway integration, plus SiteLink for location-to-location private routing. Huawei DC enables active/standby or load-balancing pairs of virtual interfaces through a Priority setting (Preferred vs Standard) and uses BGP ASN 64512 by default (65533 in CN-North-Beijing1, 65535 in some AP-Bangkok locations). Huawei route propagation injects remote subnets into the VPC default route table automatically; engineers must replicate AWS BGP communities, AS-path prepending, and Local Preference traffic-engineering policies manually.

Integration, region footprint and operational responsibility are not symmetric. AWS Direct Connect spans many global locations with self-service LOA-CFA provisioning and MACsec on selected ports. Huawei DC supports 1GE, 10GE, 40GE and 100GE ports but provisioning is operator-assisted: after submitting a connection request, the customer and a Huawei manager confirm configuration, carrier cabling is arranged, and construction completes within two working days. For cross-VPC and on-premises transit, Huawei pairs DC with Enterprise Router (ER); this is an architectural equivalent to AWS Transit Gateway plus Direct Connect gateway rather than a built-in feature of DC itself.

Start with an assessment that inventories every AWS Direct Connect virtual interface type (private, transit, public), its gateway target (VGW, Direct Connect gateway, Transit Gateway attachment), BGP ASN, prefixes advertised, Jumbo-frame MTU, MACsec and BGP communities. Map each to a Huawei DC Connection plus a Virtual Gateway (single-VPC) or Global DC Gateway plus Enterprise Router (multi-VPC, cross-region, or transit). Confirm target region DC locations and port types with the Huawei Direct Connect manager before ordering, since locations and per-region BGP ASNs are more constrained than AWS.

Rebuild the network topology on Huawei rather than attempting API lift-and-shift. Provision one or two Connections at chosen DC locations, create the Virtual Gateway or Global DC Gateway with correct local subnets, then create Virtual Interfaces with VLAN, local/remote /30 gateway IPs, bandwidth and BGP MD5 keys. Replicate AWS failover by assigning Preferred and Standard priorities across virtual interfaces for active/standby, or equal Priority for load balancing. Recreate BGP route maps, AS-path prepends and prefix limits on the on-premises CE, because Huawei does not import AWS-specific BGP community attributes or transit virtual interfaces.

Validate control and data plane before cutover. Confirm BGP sessions establish and expected routes are injected into the VPC default route table and into ER route tables where ER is used. Run latency, packet-loss and bandwidth tests against representative workloads, checking MTU/MSS for hybrid paths. For active/standby designs, force a primary failure and verify convergence time and that traffic shifts to the standby virtual interface. Security group rules must be opened in both directions because Huawei default rules deny inbound traffic, which can silently break connectivity that AWS security-group-referral allowed.

Account for cost, contract and quota changes. Huawei charges Connections on a yearly/monthly subscription (not per-hour like AWS), plus per-Virtual-Interface bandwidth, and standard VPC, EIP, ER and bandwidth-plan charges can apply when ER or cross-VPC transit is added. Recalculate TCO with connection duration, port speed, virtual-interface bandwidth, cross-region ER traffic and partner hosted-connection fees. Confirm per-region DC quotas, locations and ASN availability with the Huawei account manager, and note that there is no automated one-click migration; cutover is a planned carrier-coordinated event.