The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interprets the three-year special action plan for increasing IPv6 traffic, requiring home terminals to support

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The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission jointly issued the "Three-Year Special Action Plan for Improving IPv6 Traffic (2021-2023)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Special Action Plan") on July 9. This plan puts forward 13 work requirements and task measures from four aspects: infrastructure, application ecology, terminals, and security. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published an interpretation of the plan today.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that IPv6 is the next-generation Internet protocol version developed by the International Organization for Standardization (IETF) (Internet Working Group), which can provide sufficient network address resources and broad innovation space, and is a globally recognized next-generation Internet commercial application solution. my country has always attached great importance to the development of IPv6, and issued the first "Action Plan" as early as 2017.

1. Achievements of IPv6 Construction in my country

As of the end of April 2021, the number of users in my country who have obtained IPv6 addresses has increased from 74 million at the end of 2017 to 1.54 billion; network infrastructure such as backbone networks, mobile core networks, metropolitan area networks, and Internet backbone direct connection points fully support IPv6 and carry IPv6 services; more than 50% of cloud service available domains support IPv6, and the content distribution network (CDN) IPv6 service acceleration capabilities have covered major provinces and cities across the country; mainstream mobile terminals in the market all support IPv6, and basic telecommunications operators such as China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom have also completed the IPv6 upgrade and transformation of all qualified existing home gateways; the IPv6 traffic of LTE core networks and fixed networks exceeds 10Tbps. It can be said that China's IPv6 network "highway" has been fully built.

At the same time, officials said that my country's IPv6 traffic share is still far behind that of the world's leading countries. There are problems such as low IPv6 concentration in commercial Internet applications, insufficient IPv6 support capabilities for home terminals, and the need to enhance the IPv6 service performance of application infrastructure.

II. Two characteristics of the Special Action Plan

First, we should pay attention to the continuity of policies. The Special Action Plan is based on the implementation results of the previous series of special actions, such as "IPv6 Network Readiness" and "IPv6 End-to-End Connectivity Improvement". It summarizes experience, finds deficiencies, analyzes the root causes, and proposes development goals and key tasks for the next three years in view of the shortcomings and weaknesses and the development direction of the new era. From "network readiness" to "end-to-end connectivity" and then to "traffic improvement", it reflects that my country's IPv6 development fully follows the technical development laws of network evolution, proceeds step by step, and determines the corresponding development priorities for different development periods, ensuring the continuity, stability and sustainability of policies.

Second, we should focus on the coordination of links. In addition to continuing to put forward new task requirements in the fields of network infrastructure, application infrastructure, terminals, security, etc., the "Special Action Plan" also makes deployments in commercial Internet applications, industrial Internet, smart home system platforms, and "IPv6+" network technology innovation, striving to coordinate and promote key links to achieve IPv6 traffic growth and high-quality development.

3. The Special Action Plan proposes three key tasks

1. Improve the IPv6 service capabilities of network infrastructure. New gigabit optical networks and 5G networks should be deployed with IPv6 simultaneously; newly launched home broadband, enterprise broadband and dedicated line services should support IPv6, and in principle, IPv4 single-stack dedicated line capacity expansion will no longer be provided; optimize the IPv6 single-stack dedicated line opening process and provide preferential tariffs.

2. Optimize the IPv6 acceleration performance of the content distribution network, complete the IPv6 upgrade and transformation of all CDN nodes, and support the IPv6-based content back-to-source function; new CDN nodes should support IPv6 by default; IPv6 application acceleration performance should not be lower than IPv4.

3. Expand the IPv6 coverage of the cloud platform and complete the IPv6 upgrade and transformation of all available domains of the public cloud; new cloud products should support IPv6 by default; the performance of all cloud services should not be lower than IPv4.

4. Accelerate the in-depth transformation of IPv6 in data centers and improve the IPv6 service activation process in data centers; newly built data centers should support IPv6 by default.

5. Enhance the IPv6 resolution capability of domain name resolution servers, continuously improve IPv6 domain name resolution capability, and optimize IPv6 domain name resolution performance. Through these measures, we will achieve accelerated coverage of IPv6 services across the country and lay a good foundation for IPv6 service innovation.

The "Special Action Plan" also proposed that in terms of application ecology, it is required to deepen the IPv6 upgrade and transformation of commercial Internet websites and applications, promote the TOP100 commercial websites and applications to give priority to IPv6 access for all services and functions, increase IPv6 concentration, and complete IPv6 coverage of all provincial administrative units. In addition, it is also necessary to accelerate the IPv6 upgrade and transformation of platform software and hardware on the industrial Internet, and give priority to supporting IPv6 access.

In terms of household terminal devices, the "Special Action Plan" puts forward specific requirements: First, it requires all types of terminals including home routers, smart TVs, set-top boxes, smart home terminals and Internet of Things terminal modules to accelerate the support of IPv6 and increase the support ratio; second, it clearly requires that terminal devices with IP address allocation function should enable the IPv6 address allocation function by default; third, it requires basic telecommunications companies to formulate a work plan to accelerate the upgrade and replacement of old terminal equipment; fourth, it requires e-commerce platforms to continue to strengthen publicity and guidance work, and give priority to recommending terminal devices that support IPv6 to users.

Interpretation of the Three-Year Special Action Plan for Improving IPv6 Traffic (2021-2023): Click to open