IPv6+ is the key to the digitalization process of an era and an important opportunity for China's network power strategy. From the discovery to the realization of IPv6+, the key part is to expand the application space and give full play to its supporting value for the digitization of thousands of industries.
In 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Notice on Accelerating the Deployment and Application of the Sixth Edition of the Internet Protocol (IPv6), which clarified the key directions for promoting the deployment and application of IPv6 scale in the future by 2025. Among them, the focus of application expansion is to deepen the combination of IPv6 technology and industry, while ensuring the overall traffic growth horizontally, vertically open up the value of IPv6 as the base for the digital development of the industry.
As time goes on, what is the overall process and specific practice of IPv6+ integration with the industry? We can already see what development space IPv6+ brings to the digitalization of the industry? The answers to these questions can be found in the forum "IPv6+, Creating ubiquitous intelligent IP connectivity" held during Huawei's 19th Global Analyst Conference on April 26.
At the forum, Liu Shaowei, President of Huawei's DataCom Product Line R&D, shared the overall vision of the datacom industry to "create ubiquitous intelligent IP connectivity" and introduced Huawei's latest exploration of IPv6+. At the same time, guests from operators, media, finance, industry and other fields shared their own IPv6+ practices. It can be said that it is a panoramic depiction of the combination of IPv6+ and the industry.
From "growing up in the deep boudoir people do not know" to "no one in the world knows the king", IPv6+ is becoming a friend of thousands of industries and another key to the intelligent world.
Long Winds Sending Autumn Geese: Ready for IPv6+
After a long period of preparation and development, IPv6+ has come all the way and is ready to combine with the industry today and become the base of industrial digitalization. This includes the continuous maturity of IPv6 itself in technology and industrial system, as well as the continuous improvement of relevant cognition in the industry and the adoption of an aggressive exploration approach.
Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, proposed that it is necessary to enhance the understanding of IPv6 development and capabilities, take multiple measures and focus on efforts, promote the large-scale deployment and application of IPv6 in the mainland, accelerate the evolution and upgrading of the Internet, and provide solid support for the construction of a network power, digital China and smart society.
One of the most critical steps is to innovate from IPv6 to IPv6+. As we know, IPv6 is the 6th version of the Internet Protocol, and the original goal was to solve the problem of insufficient IPv4 addresses. Its ability to assign an IP address to "every grain of sand on earth" is widely known.
In order to meet the real connectivity needs, especially the digital needs of the industry, IPv6+ came into being. IPv6+ is an enhanced innovation of IPv6 and a comprehensive upgrade to IPv6-based network capabilities. In the Gap Analysis report released by ETSI in August 2021, it is believed that IPv6+ comprehensively improves IP network capabilities from six dimensions: ultra-wide, wide connectivity, certainty, low latency, automation and security.
Focusing on the continuous development of IPv6+ itself, it can be found that its development has gone through three stages. Liu Shaowei believes that the first stage of IPv6+ development is the network programmability stage, the second stage is experience assurance, and the third stage is the application-driven network. Today, IPv6+ 2.0 is in the phase of scale deployment and is accelerating towards 3.0.
Today, IPv6+ is already emerging at the application driver and industry standard level. The two stages of network programmability and experience assurance have basically matured. Looking back, IPv6 appeared in the context of IP protocol iteration; IPv6+ was born in the case of IPv6 adapting to the needs of new industries, and IPv6+ has come to the third stage of application drive.
Along the way, it can be said that the long wind sent autumn geese, and finally brought IPv6+ to the front of industry applications. At the commercial deployment level, Huawei has deployed more than 100 IPv6+ networks, and the related solutions are very mature.
The pace of IPv6+ towards the industry has quietly emerged.
Dongfeng night flowers and thousands of trees: when IPv6+ landed in thousands of industries
Returning to the forum "IPv6+, Creating Ubiquitous Intelligent IP Connectivity", we can find that those industries that are most sensitive to network innovation and most concerned about digital upgrading have opened their own IPv6+ exploration.
In the field of operators, Tang Xiongyan, vice president of China Unicom Research Institute, introduced that for computing power networks, China Unicom proposed a "1+N+X" computing power network system, so as to achieve the upgrading of the ability of one network connection multi-cloud and one-click network tuning cloud. Among them, the introduction of IPv6+ technology can strengthen the intelligent integration of the carrier network and the ability of computing power to coordinate, and then realize the delivery and service of the integration of the computing network.
The application of IPv6+ technology has penetrated into all aspects of operator networks, such as intelligent private lines and network slicing, intelligent security applications provided by edge computing power networking, and capacity building based on SRv6+SFC cloud network security integration. IPv6+ has become a key technology node for operators to open up the digital market of the industry and provide more diversified services. The follow-up will bring continuous market space and technological upgrading leverage.
The Winter Olympics at the beginning of this year touched the global attention, and the wonderful live broadcast effects and live broadcast technology in the Winter Olympics have made the global audience understand the connotation of the Winter Olympics of science and technology. In the technology bloom broadcast by the Winter Olympics, there is also the figure of IPv6+.
Dr. Mei Jianping, director of the Data Application Department of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, introduced that CCTV has practiced the new scientific and technological characteristics of the 8K Winter Olympics in this science and technology Winter Olympics, which is also the first time in the world to use 8K ultra-high definition for large-scale live sports events. In the face of complex and challenging Winter Olympic broadcast scenarios, traditional AV technology has been difficult to complete the support. As a result, the main station IP-based the traditional AV network, and finally realized the live broadcast technology of cloud-network integration. With the help of IPv6+, from the Zhang family to the Bird's Nest to the CCTV studio, a cloud-based live broadcast system has been formed as a whole. Thus realizing the common platform and common architecture of multi-local live broadcasting, and IPv6+ is the network escort of all this.
After years of exploration, China has achieved a global leader in the field of 8K ultra-high definition, and its main symbol is the exploration of live broadcast technology based on IPv6+.
In the industrial field related to industrial livelihood, the value of IPv6+ is also taking root step by step. Zhao Yanling, deputy director of the Sensing and Network Control Center of the Institute of Comprehensive Technology and Economics of Machinery Industry Instrumentation, introduced that the integrated development of ICT technology and OT technology drives field instruments to IP, networking and intelligence, thereby realizing the integration of perception control and computing and accelerating the transformation and development of the process industry. Taking the networking of the verification system of the second-wire instrument as an example, this project with great value in the project has carried out the technical standardization verification related to IP and networking. It attracted the participation of major instrument manufacturers such as PetroChina and Shaanxi Coal Group. In industrial scenarios, field instruments are developing towards networking and intelligence, and IPv6+ has important value in it.
Banks always have the most stringent and high-precision network upgrade needs, and the banking financial scenario is also an important landing direction for IPv6+. Wang Yifan, Chief Network Architect of China CITIC Bank, said that China CITIC Bank and Huawei's CloudFabric 3.0 solution for hyperconverged data center networks have promoted the evolution of IPv6 through digital transformation.
From 2021, China CITIC Bank has launched the bank's intensive operation and maintenance, intelligent and digital transformation. And the IPv6 transformation of the intranet is being realized. It is estimated that in the next 3-4 years, China CITIC Bank will gradually eliminate IPv4 on the intranet and truly move towards the era of IPv6+ applications.
From the network architecture upgrade of operators and banks, to an OB truck and an industrial instrument, IPv6+ has taken root in thousands of industries, and an IPv6+ picture of "Dongfeng Night Flowers and Trees" has emerged.
In the future, IPv6+ has the potential to become a new digital and intelligent base that activates productivity development in various industries.
With its strength, good wind sends me to Qingyun: a productivity engine for the intelligent era
IPv6+, which can meet a variety of digital innovation needs and meet the expectations of a large number of industries, is no longer just a network capability. Instead, with its deterministic network, wide connectivity, and high degree of credibility, it is evolving into a productivity engine. Just like the Internet, AI, cloud computing and other technologies, the digital upgrading of the industry around IPv6+ and the liberation of productivity are on the verge of erupting.
Looking to the future, we can take a look at what productivity improvement space IPv6+ has and how it can change the level of digitalization in more industries.
The reason why IPv6+ may become the engine of digital productivity is because it has the role of the central axis of the digital system. The IP network itself connects everything down and connects the application upwards. IPv6+, which can meet many innovative needs, can be said to be iterative of the role of IP networks, so that the digital system of more industries can be strengthened and IP, and the release of connectivity has brought about digital upgrade dividends. We can summarize the industry value improvement space that IPv6+ can bring from four aspects.
First, promote the integration of computing power and network, so that the results of eastern and western computing can benefit thousands of industries
The core of the national project of the east and west is to significantly reduce the cost of computing through intensive and centralized computing to meet the needs of computing upgrades in various industries. In this process, there can not only be computing power, but also need a reasonably adapted network to allocate, obtain and provide computing power.
IPv6+ has just that value. With the process of computing power centralization, IPv6+ can achieve a high-quality network with extreme experience, so that the data center can better release the computing power. In terms of hash rate scheduling, IPv6+ can transmit computing power more flexibly and securely; on the access side, IPv6+ can also meet the IP of a large number of devices and achieve accurate invocation of computing power.
IPv6+ is the key to the integration of computing power and network, and it is also the key to making computing truly inclusive and promoting the further development of digitalization.
Second, support the standardization of the industrial Internet and build a base for industrial intelligence
The fundamental problem faced by the networking and intelligence of industrial and production scenarios is that the network protocol is not standard. If you want to truly achieve the data expected by the industrial Internet from the device to the cloud, and the intelligence from the cloud to the device, you need a large number of industrial production scenarios to have standardized characteristics of the network. IP is the greatest common denominator of industrial networking protocols and the basis for the development of industrial intelligence.
The emergence and landing of IPv6+ can truly meet the network needs of industrial scenarios while PROMOTING the standardization of the industrial Internet through IP. Let standardization and capability upgrading be carried out at the same time, and build a base for the development of industrial intelligence.
Third, the network is green and low-carbon, and promote the realization of the double carbon target
ICT infrastructure is becoming a major energy consumer and will continue to be upgraded in the future. In order to achieve the goal of socialized double carbon, the green and low-carbon of the network is a problem that must be considered when the digital development of various industries. IPv6+ enables flexible and responsive network management to achieve a low-carbon network vision of zero bits and zero watts. And the green network capabilities of IPv6+ can also drive the green and low-carbon upgrading of a series of infrastructures to achieve environmentally friendly development in the digital world.
Fourth, the trusted network, so that more production business networking, cloud
Today, many enterprises and business types do not want to go to the cloud and are unwilling to carry out intelligent upgrades. Instead, it is worried about the security risks brought about by this, especially in important industries involving the national economy and people's livelihood. The network architecture built under the zero trust principle is often very complex, which brings a series of inconveniences in operation and maintenance management. In the process of promoting IPv6+, a series of system-level network security capabilities can be realized, and a trusted network suitable for key industries to go to the cloud and access the Internet can be built. So that more industries can ensure security while realizing business cloudification and intelligent production systems.
Looking back, IPv6+ has landed in thousands of industries, supporting a series of digital transformations and upgrades. The practice and summary of these industries will make us more accurately aware of the value of IPv6+. Its continuous innovation in the fields of ultra-large bandwidth, ubiquitous connectivity, deterministic experience, synaesthesia integration, intelligent native and trusted networks will be the beginning of more digital and intelligent upgrades in the future.
IPv6+ is such a good wind, driving thousands of industries and flying to the digital and intelligent clouds.