How will the two major operators' competition to upgrade IPv6 affect me?

On May 21, at the 2018 Global Next Generation Internet Summit, Yang Zhiqiang, deputy director of the China Mobile Communications Research Institute, said that China Mobile will carry out IPv6 upgrades across the entire network this year. At the same time, China Telecom also stated that it has basically completed the IPv6 transformation and has the ability to open the entire network.

Several major operators are scrambling to deploy IPv6, but for the average person like me, the so-called IPv4 and IPv6 are completely incomprehensible, let alone their relationship with our lives. In this article, I will talk to you about the impact of a comprehensive upgrade to IPv6 on us.

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What is IPv6?

IPv6 address is the next generation Internet Protocol address. The currently commonly used Internet Protocol address is IPv4 address. IPv6 is the next generation Internet IP protocol designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to replace IPv4.

What are the advantages of IPv6?

Compared with IPv4 currently used in the world, the biggest advantage of IPv6 is that it can solve the problem of the number of network address resources, and it can also solve the obstacles for various devices to access the Internet.

The biggest problem with IPv4 is the limited network address resources. It is this defect that seriously restricts the application and development of the Internet. However, IPv6 does not have this problem.

The key to the problem is that the IPv6 address is longer, four times the length of the IPv4 address. Our common IP addresses such as "192.168.0.1" are typical IPv4 addresses. Their combinations are extremely limited, which is also an important reason restricting the development of the Internet.

IPv6 uses three different representation methods and can also embed IPv4 addresses. Compared with the currently popular IPv4 addresses, it has a more powerful structure and more diverse combinations. This is why IPv6 is said to be able to "generate a URL for every grain of sand in the world."

How does it affect us?

What are the benefits of IPv6 for the general public? The most intuitive benefit is that it can provide us with faster Internet access and a safer Internet experience. Its anti-interference, privacy and security are better than the current IPv4.

In addition, IPv6 can connect more devices to the Internet. In addition to the mobile phones and computers we are familiar with, the televisions, washing machines, refrigerators and rice cookers in our homes can all have a place on the Internet, creating a truly intelligent "Internet of Things". The author believes that this is the most precious gift that IPv6 brings us.