[IP] China Builds a Better Internet
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 22, 2006 3:07:41 AM GMT+02:00
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] China Builds a Better Internet
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
China Builds a Better Internet
Americans have been hogging Internet addresses for decades, leaving
late-comers like China to divvy up the few remaining slivers. But
China is fighting back by vaulting to an addressing standard that
could rewrite the rules of the Internet—and business innovation—for
decades to come.
BY BEN WORTHEN
<http://www.cio.com/archive/071506/china.html?CID=22985>
On a Friday night in mid-April, a gang of Friendlies, the
multicolored, panda-cum-Teletubby-like creatures, which are the
official mascots of the 2008 Olympics, mill about awkwardly, waving
to confused tourists stumbling out of the bars that ring Houhai Lake
in Beijing. Several miles away, construction crews are working around
the clock on the Olympic stadium and other venues, trying desperately
to keep to their schedules for the opening ceremony two years away.
Meanwhile, out of sight, in research labs throughout China, engineers
are busy working on another project that the Chinese government plans
to unveil at the Olympics: China's Next Generation Internet (CNGI), a
faster, more secure, more mobile version of the current one. And
unlike the Friendlies and the stadiums, which the world will forget
as soon as the games end, CNGI's impact will be felt for decades.
CNGI is the centerpiece of China's plan to steal leadership away from
the United States in all things Internet and information technology.
The strategy, outlined in China's latest five-year plan, calls for
the country to transition its economy from one based almost entirely
on manufacturing to one that produces its own scientific and
technological breakthroughs—using a new and improved version of
today's dominant innovation platform, the Internet. "CNGI is the
culmination of this revolutionary plan" to turn China into the
world's innovation capital, says Wu Hequan, vice president of the
Chinese Academy of Engineering and the chairman of the CNGI Expert
Committee, the group overseeing the project. "We will use it as a way
to break through and be competitive in the global economic market."
The technology at the heart of CNGI is an emerging communication
standard called Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6). The Internet
protocol is the Internet's version of a postal envelope, containing
information such as the destination and return addresses, and details
about a package's contents. The current standard, IPv4 (IPv5 never
made it out of the lab), doesn't have enough unique addresses for
every would-be user in the world to connect to the Internet. IPv6
solves this problem, and is also more secure and efficient than its
predecessor. For these and other reasons, most experts agree that a
shift to an IPv6-based Internet is inevitable.
China is betting that by moving to the next-generation Internet
before the rest of the world, China's researchers, academics and
entrepreneurs will be the first ones to develop applications and
services that take advantage of the new capabilities. (China isn't
alone in this thinking. Japan and Korea have also launched national
initiatives to move to IPv6.) If all goes according to plan, those
services will be commercialized, making China home to the next wave
of eBays and Googles. But China is also working on ways to use IPv6
to enhance its now infamous control over Internet traffic into and
out of the country—which could have dramatic security implications
for the United States (see "A New Weapon for Control and
Intelligence?").
Call CNGI the first-mover advantage to end all first-mover
advantages. "[China is] looking to leapfrog the U.S.," says Michael
Gallagher, who was assistant secretary of commerce for communications
and information, and President Bush's top adviser on Internet issues
before joining the law firm Perkins Coie in February. According to
Chinese and U.S. sources familiar with the project, the Chinese
government has already invested close to $200 million in CNGI and has
created a special office of the State Council dedicated solely to the
project. China's major telecommunications companies, each of which is
responsible for building a portion of the network, have also spent
hundreds of millions of dollars so far. Today, CNGI connects 100
universities, 100 research institutes and 100 companies in 20 cities.
At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China plans to use CNGI for
everything from broadcasting the events to controlling the Olympic
facilities.
The Coming Threat
The United States is still the undisputed leader when it comes to the
Internet. "[But] we cannot let our current success become a
liability, with a continued reliance on the present protocol, while
everyone else moves forward," says Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman
of the House Committee on Government Reform.
But that's exactly what's happening, in large part because few people
in the United States know the threat exists. "Over time IPv6 could
revolutionize what we can do with the Internet," says David Powner,
director of information technology management issues for the
Government Accountability Office. "My concern is that we will get
behind."
[snip]
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