IPv6+, a new starting point for the next generation Internet

As of July 2020, the number of users allocated IPv6 addresses in my country has reached 1.442 billion; LTE mobile terminals, which have a relatively large market share, already support initiating IPv6 address requests, obtaining IPv6 addresses, and can support IPv6 applications.

At the same time, the total traffic of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom's LTE core networks reached 4372.06 Gbps, with an average IPv6 inflow traffic accounting for 10.25%.

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Therefore, we have entered the IPv6+ stage, the stage of how to enrich the capabilities of IPv6. The so-called "IPv6+" is represented by technologies such as SRv6, network slicing, flow detection, new multicast and application-aware networks, combined with intelligent "network autonomous driving" innovative technologies, which can meet the needs of multi-cloud one network, intelligent connection, intelligent operation, and intelligent operation and maintenance brought about by the Internet of Everything and the cloud migration of thousands of industries, and realize the true network following the cloud and the intelligent connection of all things.

Three Phases of IPv6+

Wu Hequan, director of the Expert Committee for Promoting Large-Scale Deployment of IPv6 and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said: "From 2019 to 2020, China's IPv6 will be able to develop in sync with the world's average level, but the lack of addresses alone is not enough to become a driving force for the development of IPv6. Therefore, we have established an IPv6+ technical working group to explore more potential of IPv6 and creatively proposed 'IPv6+'."

Wu Hequan pointed out that the IPv6+ innovation system is mainly divided into three development stages:

• The first phase is network programming capabilities (2020-2021), network simplification, partially autonomous networks, fast provisioning of SRv6/BE/TE/Policy services, and flexible path control.
• The second phase is user experience assurance (2021-2023), experience assurance, conditional autonomous networks, large-scale network slicing, in-flow detection, new multicast and other large-scale network slicing, visual experience and optimal experience.
• The third stage is application-driven network (2023-2025), application awareness, achieving highly autonomous network, application-aware network, application-driven network programming, and network flow-by-flow SLA guarantee.

China Unicom: In 2020, it will further explore unified bearer of all services and service chain based on SRv6

Tang Xiongyan, chief scientist of China Unicom Research Institute, said: "The vision of IPv6+ in the future is to perceive computing power and dispatch services by enhancing network intelligence, enabling cloud-network integration from 1.0 to 2.0, and ultimately achieving computing-network integration."

According to reports, SRv6 is a new-generation network protocol based on Native IPv6 and source routing. It provides an innovative platform for the implementation of network programming and computing power networks. Through a three-layer programmable space, it enables operator networks to achieve "Network as Computer" and "Network as Service".

Therefore, SRv6 technology is a target technology for future bearer networks. By utilizing the aggregatability and natural accessibility of IPv6 addresses, it will bring great advantages to protocol simplification, cross-domain dedicated lines, and network operation and maintenance. In addition, the programmability of SRv6 can also stimulate more potential of the bearer network.

At the end of last year, China Unicom and Huawei built the industry's first integrated bearer network based on SRv6 + FlexE technology in Xiong'an, realizing the world's first SRv6 application in 5G bearer network. "This year, China Unicom will further explore unified bearer of all services and service chains based on SRv6," said Tang Xiongyan.

China Telecom: Introducing IPv6 single stack for 5G SA network

At present, China Telecom Tianyi Cloud has completed a comprehensive transformation, and 144 resource pools distributed across the country support IPv6; the IPv6 support rate of smart home gateways has reached 92%; and the Internet of Things has launched IPv6 services.

At the same time, China Telecom innovatively proposed key issues such as addressing, identification, and security verification management based on IPv6 terminals. The system is now online and can provide services to government and enterprise customers across the country.

However, the IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack stage did not solve the problem of IPv4 address shortage, especially the high maintenance cost of the two protocol stacks. Therefore, China Telecom has developed a technical solution for introducing an IPv6 single stack for the 5G SA network, advancing it from the user plane, bearer plane, and control plane respectively.

In addition, China Telecom actively promotes the deployment of SRv6 in scenarios and applications such as metropolitan area networks, backbone networks and mobile networks. It is understood that in the first half of this year, China Telecom fully deployed cross-vendor SRv6, FlexE, etc. on STN equipment carrying 5G SA networks, and has achieved basic coverage of SRv6 across the country.

In May this year, China Telecom launched its first SRv6-based multi-cloud switching intelligent IP private network, realizing the interconnection of Shanghai Telecom's public cloud resources. At the same time, it realized automated business deployment through the iMaster NCE network cloud engine (hereinafter referred to as "NCE"), and the time for opening enterprise cloud dedicated lines was shortened from weeks to days, meeting the business demands of small and medium-sized enterprises to quickly enter multi-cloud.

China Mobile: Taking the lead in formulating an innovative SRv6 header compression solution and gaining industry consensus

At present, China Mobile's mobile network IPv6 traffic accounts for 10.1%, an increase of 6.5pp from the beginning of the year; the fixed network IPv6 traffic accounts for 2.4%, an increase of 1.1pp from the beginning of the year. Therefore, China Mobile will explore the 5G cloud-edge network integrated bearer solution based on SRv6 technology in the future.

In fact, as early as 2019, China Mobile carried out a pilot verification of the SRv6 native solution in Guangdong Mobile's CMNet provincial network. Through the pilot, it was found that SRv6-BE can effectively solve the cross-domain problem under the MPLS service mechanism and improve the opening speed and maintenance efficiency. In addition, SRv6's designated path capability can give the network differentiated service capabilities and provide users with certain paths and delays.

It is particularly worth noting that China Mobile has taken the lead in developing an innovative SRv6 header compression solution: G-SRv6, which has gained consensus from many domestic and foreign manufacturers. Through header compression technology optimization, the encapsulation efficiency of SRv6 messages can be increased by 3-4 times, while reducing the requirements for chips for message processing.