IPv6+ accelerates carriers’ target network development in Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific Target Network Conference themed “Consolidate Elastic Target Network, Unlocking New Digital Value” concluded online on Friday. Around 500 professionals from government agencies, standards organizations, enterprises, carriers, and industry mainstream vendors attended this conference hosted by Huawei. At this conference, Huawei worked with leading regional operators such as PLDT, Telkom Indonesia, Globe and CMI etc., to discuss the intelligent target network architecture and highlight the value of the transport network.

Hank Chen, President of Router Product Line at Huawei delivered the keynote speech on “Build Intelligent Cloud-Network Based on IPv6+ for Digital Transformation”. In his keynote speech, Chen addressed that the intelligent cloud network built based on “IPv6+” capabilities will promote the digital development of individuals, enterprises, and households and enable carriers to succeed in business. The comprehensive development of fixed and mobile services will bring huge opportunities to carriers. The enterprise business is the biggest and most important opportunity while individual and home services are the cornerstones of carriers’ revenue stability.

“Industry should be more active in practicing application deployment of “IPv6+” capabilities, and promote the development of the “IPv6+” industry by using massive applications in mobile bearer, enterprise, smart healthcare, smart education, and smart home scenarios, helping carriers to accelerate the construction of cloud network capabilities and inspire the digital potential,” said Hank Chen.

ETSI ISG IPE Chairman Latif Ladid and IETF IAB member Robin Li delivered keynote speeches focusing on the global IPv6 development trend, IPv6 technological innovation system, IPE industry alliance and the latest progress of IPv6+ standards.

In his speech themed “Accelerating IPv6 Innovation and Crossing the Digital Divide,” Latif echoed participants such as Huawei’s idea that IPv6 will be widely applied to services such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and 5G, which implementing Internet of Everything. He said that IPv4 addresses are about to be exhausted and the IPv4 resources in Asia-Pacific countries are becoming increasingly tight. IPv6 is the right choice for future development of IP network.

Currently, countries around the world have issued IPv6 policies to promote IPv6 development. As the scale of IPv6 deployment continues to expand, IPv6 will be widely applied to services such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and 5G, which implementing Internet of Everything. IPv6 technology innovation includes protocol innovation and AI innovation to provide service assurance that meets different requirements and intelligent connection of everything.

In October 2020, ETSI established the ISG IPE Alliance to promote full connectivity of IPv6 on everything and promote the commercial success of IPv6 technologies. Currently, more than 60 members which including carriers, vendors, and academia, have joined the IPE to build IPv6 only target network and build a fully connected digital world.

In the keynote themed “IPv6+ Standards and Industry Progress” by Robin Li, the IETF IAB member said that services drive IP evolution. From Native IP to MPLS, IP networks have entered the IPv6+ era. It is recommended that the evolution and deployment of IPv6+ standard in three phases:

In phase 1.0, basic SRv6 capabilities are provided. In this phase, basic features such as SRv6 VPN, SRv6 TE, SRv6 FRR, and end-to-end protection are involved. The basic functions of SRv6 and the intelligent management and control system are used to implement network programmability, simplify the network, and support efficient end-to-end cross-domain resource coordination.

In phase 2.0, the new network service capabilities for 5G and Cloudification era are provided. In this phase, standards mainly involve service quality assurance, such as network slicing, In-situ Flow Information Telemetry, and BIERv6 which provide differentiated experience assurance. SRv6 combines network slicing, in-flow detection, and SDN intelligent management and control to implement enterprise-level multi-purpose, accurate service performance detection, and differentiated assurance of high-quality service experience. With the widely deployment of SRv6, the impact of the header length has gradually becomes more prominent, and SRv6 compression becomes a hot topic in current research and standards.

In 3.0 Phase, application-aware network (APN6, Application-aware IPv6 Networking) innovations and standards are built to implement refined operation based on application-based differentiated channels. In this phase, networks are adjusted based on intents to achieve the goal of highly autonomous networks.

“Today’s investment in IPv6+ standards, especially SRv6, will bring fruitful results to carriers in the Asia Pacific region,” Robin Li calls on carriers and suppliers such including Huawei to build a SRv6 industry ecosystem, promote IPv6+ standards, and continuously explore future-oriented IP target network.

“IPv6+” is a comprehensive capability upgrade of the IPv6 technology system. It is based on “re-enhancement” of the IPv6 technology system, “re-innovation” of core technologies, “re-improvement” of network capabilities, and “re-upgrade” of the industry ecosystem. IPv6+ provides more open technologies and service innovations, more efficient and flexible networking and service provisioning, better performance and user experience, and more intelligent and reliable O&M and security assurance which enabling IP network upgrade and innovation. The emergence of IPv6+ will bring more development and space for carriers in the Asia Pacific region. BCS Bureau