As of July 2020, the number of users with IPv6 addresses allocated in China has reached 1.442 billion ; LTE mobile terminals with a relatively large market share have all supported initiating IPv6 address requests, obtaining IPv6 addresses, and can support IPv6 applications.
At the same time, the total LTE core network traffic of China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom reached 4,372.06Gbps, and IPv6 inflow traffic accounted for an average of 10.25%.
Therefore, it has now entered the IPv6 + stage, and how to enrich the capabilities of IPv6. The so-called “IPv6 +”, is to SRv6, network slice, with the flow detection, the new multicast and application-aware networking technology as the representative , combining intelligent “network autopilot” innovative technology to meet the interconnection of all things, a cloud on thousands of lines of all trades The requirements brought about by multi-cloud and one network, intelligent connection, intelligent operation, intelligent operation and maintenance, etc., realize true network movement with cloud and intelligent connection of all things.
The three stages of IPv6 +
Wu Hequan, Director of the Expert Committee on Promoting IPv6 Scale Deployment and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said: “From 2019 to 2020, China’s IPv6 will be able to keep pace with the world’s average level, but the address is not enough. This demand is not enough to promote IPv6 development. Therefore, we set up an IPv6 + technical working group to tap the 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 stage is network programming capabilities (2020-2021), network simplification, partial autonomous networks, rapid provision of SRv6/BE/TE/Policy services, and flexible path control.
The second stage is user experience guarantee (2021-2023), experience guarantee, conditional autonomous network, large-scale network slicing such as network slicing, flow detection, new multicast, etc. The experience is visible and the experience is optimal.
The third stage is the application-driven network (2023-2025), application-awareness, realization of a 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 the unified carrying of all services and the business chain based on SRv6
Tang Xiongyan, chief scientist of the China Unicom Research Institute, said: “The vision of IPv6+ in the future is to perceive computing power by enhancing network intelligence, dispatch services, and enable cloud-network integration from 1.0 to 2.0, and finally realize the integration of computing and network.”
According to reports, SRv6 is a new generation network protocol based on Native IPv6 and source routing. It provides an innovative platform for network programming and the realization of computing power networks. Through the three-layer programmable space, it enables operators’ networks “Network as Computer” and “Network as Computer”. Network as Service”.
Therefore, SRv6 technology is a future-oriented bearer network target technology. The use of IPv6 address aggregation and natural reachability 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 potentials in the bearer network.
At the end of last year, China Unicom and Huawei built the industry’s first comprehensive bearer network based on SRv6 + FlexE technology in Xiong’an, and realized the world’s first SRv6 application in 5G bearer networks. “This year China Unicom will further explore the unified carrying of all services and the business chain based on SRv6.” Tang Xiongyan said.
China Telecom: Introducing IPv6 Single Stack for 5G SA Network
At present, China Telecom Tianyi Cloud has completed a comprehensive transformation, with 144 resource pools distributed across the country supporting IPv6; the IPv6 support rate of smart home gateways has reached 92%; and the Internet of Things has opened IPv6 services.
At the same time, China Telecom has innovatively put forward key issues such as addressing, identification, and security verification management based on IPv6 terminals. The system is currently 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 launched the technical solution of IPv6 single-stack introduction for the 5G SA network. The control surfaces are advanced separately.
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 has 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 of this year, China Telecom’s first SRv6-based multi-cloud switching intelligent IP private network realized the interconnection of Shanghai Telecom’s public cloud resources; at the same time, the iMaster NCE network cloudification engine (hereinafter referred to as “NCE”) was used to realize business automation deployment, and enterprise cloud private lines The opening time has been shortened from week to day, meeting the business demands of small and medium-sized enterprises to quickly enter the cloud.
China Mobile: Take the lead in formulating an innovative SRv6 header compression scheme to achieve industry consensus
At present, China Mobile’s mobile network IPV6 traffic accounted for 10.1%, an increase of 6.5pp from the beginning of the year; fixed network IPv6 traffic accounted for 2.4%, an increase of 1.1pp from the beginning of the year. Therefore, China Mobile will explore the 5G cloud-side network converged bearer solution based on SRv6 technology in the future.
In fact, as early as 2019, China Mobile launched a pilot verification of the SRv6 native solution on the Guangdong Mobile CMNet provincial network. It was discovered through the pilot that SRv6-BE can effectively solve the cross-domain problem under the MPLS service mechanism, and improve the speed of opening and maintenance. In addition, the designated path capability of SRv6 can endow the network with differentiated service capabilities and provide users with a definite path and delay.
In particular, it should be pointed out that China Mobile took the lead in formulating an innovative SRv6 header compression scheme: G-SRv6. At present, this scheme has achieved the consensus of many domestic and foreign manufacturers. Through the optimization of header compression technology, the encapsulation efficiency of SRv6 messages can be increased by 3-4 times while reducing the chip requirements for message processing.
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