Global IPv6 Summit in China 2004 Keynote 1 zmGI and NGN

Wu Hequan, Vice President, Chinese Academy of Engineering

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Wu Hequan, Vice President, Chinese Academy of Engineering

Wu Hequan is the leader of CNGI, a Chinese government project to build one of the world’s largest native IPv6 network by the end of 2005 and to conduct application trials. He said CNGI is an attempt by Chinese government to realize NGN (Next Generation Network) and NGI(Next Generation Internet) in an integrated manner. Below is the summary of his speech:

The word NGI usually refers to upgrading the current Internet with better security, QoS, convenience, and manageability. NGN, on the other hand, comes from the telephone world, but it also talks about enabling scalability, mobility, manageability, and QoS at the same time. QoS, in particular, is a clear objective for NGN. IP can be a nearly ideal tool to realize NGN, given sufficient QoS functionality.

NGN by definition doesn’t mandate use of IPv6. Use of IPv4 is not precluded. But IPv6 is superior to IPv4 in terms of address space, QoS, security, manageability, and other characteristics. IPv6 is more suitable for NGN.

Circuit exchange for telephone and packet exchange for Internet can be integrated to enable NGI and also open the door to NGN. Considering the future of connecting every household with 100Mbps, as discussed in the U.S., MPLS could be considered a good candidate as the technology to realize QoS. But MPLS alone is not enough, as QoS involves many other communication quality management services.

It is not easy to realize a full-service network. But in China, calls using VoIP has already surpassed TDM for domestic long distance voice communication. Mobile phone is growing dramatically in this country. We are about to see communications among devices. There is a clear need to develop NGI and NGN in a complimentary and integrated manner.

Chinese government has conducted trials on NGI and NGN separately so far. CNGI tries to realize the two together. We will build large-scale IPv6 network for interoperability testing of connected devices, as well as for developing mechanisms for QoS. security, and accounting. We will further conduct mobile communication involving wireless networking with roaming.