IPv6 network scale deployment accelerates, with active connections reaching 1.15 billion within the year

The large-scale deployment of IPv6 networks has been accelerated. The "Notice on Launching a Special Action to Improve IPv6 End-to-End Connectivity Capacity in 2020" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the 23rd requires that by the end of 2020, the number of active IPv6 connections will reach 1.15 billion, an increase of 43% from the target of 800 million connections in 2019.

Industry experts said that IPv6 is the core protocol of the next generation Internet and the starting point for the development and innovation of the next generation Internet. Compared with IPv4, whose address resources are exhausted, IPv6 network can not only provide nearly unlimited address space, but also has many advantages such as protocol simplification, flexible expansion, and built-in security. The development of IPv6 will promote the design, management, operation and innovation of the Internet into a new stage, and it is also the basic condition for the development of emerging applications such as 5G, cloud computing, Internet of Things, Industrial Internet, and the realization of the Internet of Everything.

People from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology said that my country's large-scale deployment of IPv6 has achieved remarkable results, but it is still in its infancy. There is still a big gap compared with leading international countries in terms of active users and traffic ratios, and there is broad prospect for future development.

The Notice proposes three specific goals: First, by the end of 2020, the performance of IPv6 networks will converge with that of IPv4, and the average packet loss rate, latency, connection establishment success rate and other indicators will not deteriorate by more than 10% compared with IPv4; second, the number of active IPv6 connections will reach 1.15 billion, of which China Telecom Group Co., Ltd. will reach 290 million, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. will reach 640 million, and China Unicom Group Co., Ltd. will reach 220 million; third, the proportion of mobile network IPv6 traffic will reach more than 10%.

To achieve the above goals, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requires that the IPv6 network access capabilities be optimized and improved, and that basic telecommunications companies be supported to offer a 5% or greater discount on the opening of IPv6 single-stack dedicated lines.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also requires that the content distribution network (CDN) IPv6 application acceleration capabilities be improved as soon as possible. By the end of 2020, the number of nodes in the content distribution network that support IPv6 will reach more than 85% of the number of IPv4 nodes; based on the administrative divisions at the prefecture and city level, the IPv6 service coverage will reach more than 85% of the IPv4 service coverage; and the IPv6 application acceleration performance will reach more than 85% of the IPv4 application acceleration performance.

The "Notice" also clarified key tasks such as significantly improving the IPv6 business carrying capacity of cloud service platforms, comprehensively expanding the IPv6 coverage of data centers (IDCs), focusing on improving the IPv6 support capabilities of terminal equipment, steadily increasing the IPv6 concentration of industry websites and Internet applications, and focusing on strengthening IPv6 network security protection capabilities.