CNGI China:Market Too Large for IPv4

Wu Hequan
Vice President
Chinese Academy of Engineering


Chinese have started a large-scale IPv6 trial called CNGI (China Next Generation Internet), with strong government initiative. But what are the real motives and goals of this project? IPv6style asked Wu Hequan, the leader of this project.


IPv6style:What do you think is the significance of Chinese government conducting project like CNGI, experimenting IPv6 on a national network?

Wu Hequan:China has a great potential in developing telecom infrastructure. Per capita GDP of China in the year 2020 will be 3,000 US dollars. We need to improve the information infrastructure to satisfy economic and social development. Current telecom technology has become a cost burden. Telecom demand is developing very fast, but telecom operators can expect very low revenue. Existing telecom technology cannot support IP services. Internet technology is suitable in terms of cost, but it has some problems such as scalability, security, and QoS. So telecom operators want to use the new internet technology to meet these challenges. It is important for Chinese government to support them.

IPv6style: Do you think data networking service alone will require IPv6 to be scalable?

Wu Hequan:Yes. The number of mobile subscribers in China has reached more than 270 million. If only 10 percent of them begins to use data networking services, IPv4 addresses are not enough to support that. Internet market in China is already very large, but the potential is even bigger. So large telecom operators need to transit to IPv6, and supporting that is a big mission of CNGI. Chinese research and educational institutions have a large demand for intelligent networking to develop educational and scientific application. Telecom operators need to be able to monitor network in order to support a large number of subscribers and get maximum profit out of that. So telecom operators and Chinese government need to build new network. Competition among telecom operators is intensifying. That’s why they want to use new network and new services to be competitive. For example, China Mobile is very aggressive in trying to increase the number of mobile subscribers. In order for that, they need to utilize IP as much as possible. IPv6 is very suitable for mobile applications, especially 3G applications. So there are different needs from different ministries and agencies. Therefore, we decided to build one large network to satisfy all these needs.

IPv6style:The first phase of CNGI project will last till the end of 2005. What would you want to see achieved in this phase?

Wu Hequan:The first aim is to build a CNGI core network with more than 30 nodes covering more than 20 provinces. We will also conduct various trials on core networking capabilities including next generation security and QoS. WE will also focus on applications such as mobile IPv6, 3G, Grid Computing and sensor censor networking. I think remote education is always very important application. We also want to promote hardware, software and middleware developed in China through CNGI project.

IPv6style:QoS is obviously a very important topic in CNGI project. Is there any specific goal you would like to see achieved in this project?

Wu Hequan:I think we can do various QoS trials in this area. CNGI will be composed of 6 networks operated by different service providers. Each operator will implement different QoS technologies. End-to-end QoS is the ultimate goal, but CNGI will be continued beyond 2005.

IPv6style:What will be the main applications for CNGI in its first phase?

Wu Hequan:One major focus is Mobile IPv6. Young People in China want to use mobile internet. There are many applications on mobile. Many operators want to focus on video applications, too.