Growth of IPv6 brings about need for collaboration between tech and others

China's top industry regulator on Monday called for more collaboration between the information and communication industry and sectors such as finance, education, healthcare and energy to promote innovative services based on IPv6, or Internet Protocol version 6.

The call came after China has built a world-leading infrastructure for IPv6, the most recent version of Internet Protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the internet. IPv6 allows much higher theoretical limits on the number of IP addresses than the current IPv4 system, and it is better designed for the internet of things era.

Han Xia, chief engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on Monday that the nation's 4G, 5G and fixed broadband networks have all been upgraded to support IPv6.

Currently, the number of applied IPv6 addresses in China ranks first in the world, Han said at an IPv6 conference in Beijing.

She said more efforts are needed to encourage the information and communication industry along with finance, education, medicine, energy and other areas to carry out larger and deeper IPv6 collaborative innovation.

Han said IPv6 not only provides massive address resources, but also serves as fundamental support for network capacity improvement, technological innovation and industrial upgrading. It is also of great significance to enhance the comprehensive competence of the country's cyber power.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a plan in July that China aims to cultivate 700 million users of IPv6 services by the end of 2023, and build a benign development pattern of advanced IPv6 technology, industry, facilities, applications and security systems by then.

Experts often use metaphors to highlight the importance of IPv6, saying that both IPv4 and IPv6 are like the internet's oil fields and the IP addresses are oil. As IPv4 resources are exhausted, it is hard to continue extraction. But oil is still pouring out of IPv6.

Hu Kewen, senior vice-president of Huawei Technologies Co, said China is now leading the world in the development of IPv6+, which is an upgrade based on IPv6 that comprehensively improves IP network capabilities in six aspects－ultra broadband, ubiquitous connectivity, determinacy, low latency, automation and security.

Hu said IPv6+ can fully release the flexible capabilities of IPv6, realize network upgrades and provide a solid foundation for the digital development of thousands of industries.

China now has successfully deployed more than 80 IPv6+ networks, Hu said, highlighting that the nation has contributed to 85 percent of the global technical standards on IPv6+.

To better promote its standardization work, China also recently issued an outline that details measures to ensure the country realizes its long-term development goals through 2035.

The document, jointly released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, is meant to promote standardized development at the national level in its pursuit of high-quality development and modernization.

With improvements to be made in the standardized management system with Chinese characteristics, a market-driven, government-guided and enterprise-oriented standardized development pattern featuring mass participation and opening-up and integration will take shape in China by 2035, the document said.

Both government and the market will contribute to the standards-making process, all economic sectors will be covered by industry standards and international cooperation on standardization work will be extensively deepened, the document added.