China's IPv6 highway has been fully completed, and the number of active users has reached 551 million

At present, the world is experiencing a profound scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, among which the evolution of the next generation Internet is an important support, which has attracted great attention from all countries. As an important innovation platform for the next generation Internet, IPv6 has the advantages of sufficient network addresses, scalability, and segment routing traceability. It can provide a solid foundation for the integrated innovation and development of new technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and industrial Internet, and become an important cornerstone of the era of the Internet of Everything.

China started the formulation of IPv6 standards in 2001. After more than 20 years of development, it has achieved great results in technological innovation and commercial practice, and has taken a leading position in the world. At the 2021 China IPv6 Innovation and Development Conference held recently, leaders of national competent departments, experts from professional associations and enterprises gave a detailed introduction to the overall situation of domestic IPv6 research and development and application.

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Top-level design leads the way, and application is steadily advancing

According to Sheng Ronghua, deputy director of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and deputy director of the National Cyberspace Administration of China, China's top-level design for IPv6 is becoming increasingly perfect. In 2017, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Large-Scale Deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)". In 2021, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Large-Scale Deployment and Application of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)", which clarified the roadmap, timetable and task book for the development of IPv6 during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. In addition, all levels and departments actively created a good development environment, and the government, industry, academia, research, and application fields jointly established an IPv6 standard working group to actively promote cutting-edge technology innovation and network performance optimization.

As of now, China has nearly 60,000 IPv6 address blocks, ranking first in the world. At the same time, the number of active IPv6 users has reached 550 million. The status and role of IPv6 in the development of the domestic digital economy are becoming increasingly prominent. Sheng Ronghua said that the "14th Five-Year Plan" period is an important strategic opportunity period for my country to accelerate the construction of Digital China, and it is also a critical period for promoting the innovative development of IPv6. All parties in the industry need to grasp the new development stage, implement the new development concept, build a new development pattern, and gather the forces of government, industry, academia, research and application to accelerate the high-quality development of IPv6 in my country.

In order to promote the rapid development of IPv6 technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has worked together with relevant departments to do a lot of work in promoting IPv6 end-to-end connectivity and traffic improvement. According to Han Xia, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China has made three important progress in the field of IPv6. First, sufficient resource supply capacity has been established. The upgrade of 4G, 5G and fixed-line IPv6 has been fully completed, providing the world's leading IPv6 network infrastructure for the development of the domestic digital economy. Major data centers and CDN cloud service companies have also initially acquired the ability to provide IPv6 services across the country. China's applied IPv6 resources account for 1/5 of the total number of IPv6 addresses allocated worldwide. Second, terminal equipment has been upgraded faster, and breakthroughs have been achieved in the key links of end-to-end connectivity. On the one hand, this is because terminal equipment is clearly required to support IPv6, and on the other hand, telecom operators have accelerated the upgrade and replacement of existing terminals. Third, the innovative vitality of related industries has been stimulated. From Internet companies to emerging industrial ecosystems such as industrial Internet and smart homes, IPv6 innovation and upgrading are accelerating, driving the rapid increase of IPv6 users and traffic. As of the end of September 2021, the number of IPv6 address users has increased from 74 million in 2017 to 1.634 billion, and the proportion of mobile network IPv6 traffic has reached 22.87%, exceeding the annual target ahead of schedule.

Han Xia said that looking to the future, my country still has shortcomings in terms of the concentration of IPv6 in Internet applications and the support capabilities of fixed-line terminals, which require joint efforts from all parties to be resolved.

Commercial development, standards first

In the ICT field, new technologies need to be standardized before they can be commercialized on a large scale. China took early action and invested heavily in IPv6 standards, which is also an important reason why China's IPv6 application development leads the world. According to Wen Ku, Secretary-General of the China Communications Standards Association, my country launched the IPv6 standard formulation work in 2001, and has formulated and issued 120 IPv6 standards so far, covering protocols, network equipment, transition technologies, etc.

The initial stage was from 2001 to 2008, when IETF released the IPv6 standard. my country then studied and formulated a number of basic IPv6 protocols, realizing the localization of international standards. During 2009-2017, China focused on the needs of domestic network construction and innovatively formulated 2 national standards and 86 industry standards to support the construction of the national next-generation Internet special implementation project. After 2017, my country's IPv6 standard promotion work ushered in a new stage of innovative application, mainly carrying out IPv6 monitoring and evaluation, IPv6 application, and IPv6+ innovative standard research. At present, the China Communications Standardization Protocol Network and Business Capability Technical Committee has completed 14 IPv6+ standards.

Wen Ku said that after 20 years of development, my country's IPv6 standards have formed a systematic and standardized trend, covering five major categories of standards: resources, networks, applications, security, and transition. The overall progress is consistent with international standards. From the perspective of subsequent development, Wen Ku believes that the top-level design of the IPv6 standard needs to be further improved, and it is necessary to participate in the research and formulation of international standards with a more active attitude. "Next, we need to comprehensively promote the large-scale deployment and integrated application of IPv6 in various industries. We need to promote the research of national standards with universality, industry integration and innovative development significance, and promote the large-scale deployment of IPv6 in all industries and fields." Wen Ku said.

First, we need to organize and set up a special IPv6 working group in the National Communications Standardization Technical Committee and the China Communications Standards Association, so that domestic IPv6 forces can form a joint force and coordinate the development of national standards. Secondly, we need to continue to increase cooperation in international standards, welcome foreign companies to participate in the formulation of Chinese standards, and also pave the way for Chinese technology to go global. Third, we need to improve the standard system, be demand-oriented, focus on problems and make up for shortcomings, promote the formulation of IPv6 development indicators and monitoring methods in various fields, and focus on strengthening the development of standards in monitoring, terminals, security, industry, integrated applications, and innovative technologies.

In terms of monitoring, it is necessary to focus on the study of IPv6 monitoring indicators and evaluation methods in the fields of network infrastructure and applications, and support the supervision and assessment of the large-scale deployment of IPv6 by relevant departments. For terminals, it is necessary to focus on the study of the technical requirements and evaluation methods for various types of terminal equipment to support the IPv6 protocol, and provide standard support for terminal manufacturers to develop and manufacture IPv6 equipment. In terms of security, it is necessary to focus on the study of the standards of IPv6 security mechanisms, protocols, and equipment to provide security guarantees for the large-scale deployment and application of IPv6. For the integration and application of IPv6 industries, it is necessary to focus on the study of IPv6 standards in government affairs, finance, electricity, petroleum and petrochemical industrial interconnection and other industries. For innovative technologies, it is necessary to focus on the study of new IPv6 network architecture standards for key technologies such as network intelligence, virtualization, and cloud computing.

Technological innovation promotes application development

Under the guidance of national top-level design and industry standards, the domestic telecommunications and radio and television industries have actively invested in technological and business innovation, driving the rapid development of IPv6 technology applications in my country.

Yang Xiaowei, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio and Television, said that in the process of promoting the transformation and upgrading of radio and television networks, the radio and television industry has vigorously implemented IPv6 transformation and made positive contributions to the large-scale deployment and application of IPv6 across the country. The State Administration of Radio and Television has also included the application of IPv6 in the industry's "14th Five-Year Plan" for scientific and technological development, and plans to focus on three aspects of work: building IPv6 innovation and demonstration networks in the radio and television industry, promoting the simultaneous planning and implementation of IPv6 and radio and television 5G construction, and realizing the large-scale deployment of IPv6 in the entire process of radio and television networks, platforms, applications, and terminals; strengthening the integrated application of IPv6 in the omnimedia communication system, promoting the IPv6 transformation of the second and third level links of key radio and television media websites, promoting the IPv6 transformation of radio and television cloud platforms, integrated media platforms, and Internet TV integrated platforms, and deploying new IPv6 services; improving the IPv6 supervision system of the radio and television industry, establishing an industry IPv6 address management system and technical system, building an industry IPv6 data development platform, and realizing docking with the national platform as soon as possible.

Based on the national overall strategy and the company's own development needs, China Mobile has been fully implementing the promotion of large-scale deployment and innovative development of IPv6, and has achieved phased results. According to Li Huidi, deputy general manager of China Mobile Communications Group, China Mobile has been promoting the development of IPv6 since 2003, and has now achieved a leapfrog development from technical research, industry promotion, large-scale commercial use to full support for IPv6. "China Mobile also actively participates in domestic and foreign standardization organizations, promotes the research and development of relevant standard patents, undertakes technical pilot work, and has now built the world's largest IPv6 single-site VoLTE network." Li Huidi said.

At present, China Mobile has built the world's largest IPv6 network, with 870 million active IPv6 connections (730 million on mobile networks and 140 million on fixed networks), 26.3% of mobile network IPv6 traffic, and 6.7% of fixed network IPv6 traffic. China Mobile's self-operated website applications fully support IPv6, and the concentration of self-operated IPv6 far exceeds the average device. Among them, the concentration of IPv6 in the second and third level links of self-operated websites has reached 100%, and the network connection quality is basically the same as that of IPv4 networks. According to the country's overall arrangements and business development needs, China Mobile has also included the large-scale deployment and application of IPv6 in the "14th Five-Year Plan".

"China Mobile will use its own network and user advantages to drive technological and application innovation in the IPv6 Internet industry, and strive to make greater contributions to achieving comprehensive leadership in IPv6 technology, users, networks, and traffic scale," said Li Huidi.