Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The mutual reflection of many thought-inspired hard technologies and reality in wandering Earth 2 is a very bright spot, and it is also the focus of many technology practitioners and enthusiasts.

Among them, the key plot of "restarting the root server" has triggered a lot of discussion. Some industry insiders have pointed out that the setting of the root server in the film does not accord with the reality.

Why does a "root server" touch the nerves of the public and practitioners? This should mention a kind of "root technology anxiety" that exists in Chinese science and technology in reality.

In the root server, the root technology of the Internet, the contradiction is particularly significant, so anxiety is also particularly prominent.

The paradox is that China has the second-largest Internet economy in the world. The World Internet Development report 2022 assesses the development of the Internet in 48 countries and regions around the world. China is second only to the United States.

However, as the "central nervous system" of the Internet, the number of DNS root servers previously owned by China is a big "zero". In reality, we use a total of 13 main root servers of the Internet, which are distributed in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Specifically, the DNS root server is responsible for providing top-level domain name resolution service. When we try to connect to the Internet, it is one of the most important network infrastructure, whether in movies or in reality, to find and reach the desired address. It is very important for network security and stability.

The more important the root server, the stronger the anxiety that the root technology is not in your own hands.

Wandering Earth 2 will reboot one of the main root servers in Beijing, China, which does bring you a kind of comfort and a kind of anxiety relief. More importantly, it is not an illusory "refreshing narrative". If China wants to take the initiative and discourse power of the Internet in its own hands, the film does provide a way to solve the problem that reflects the reality.

That's-- upgrading from IPv4 to IPv6.

According to Zhihu user @ Sweet Strawberry sharing, a member of the scientific consultant team of wandering Earth 2, the reason why one of the root servers in the movie is in China (the other two are designed in the United States and Japan) is that after deducing many future Internet forms, the team concluded that at that time, the IPV4 resource pool had been exhausted and the global IPV6 network had become popular, so it was based on the real [snowman project] The distribution mode of the future root server is designed.

The snowman project (Yeti DNS Project), led by China next Generation Internet Engineering Center, is a global next generation Internet (IPv6) root server testing and operation experimental project based on a new technology architecture, which aims to provide more root server solutions for next generation Internet. According to the plan of the snowman project, there are a total of 25 IPv6 root servers worldwide, of which one main root server and three root servers will be deployed in China.

As you can see, the real process of IPv6 does move forward along the basic background of the movie (global IPV6 network popularity) and break the root server dilemma.

Out of the cinema, we continue to witness a battle for the right to speak of IPv6 staged next to you and me.

Because of the popularity of IPv6, the global Internet pattern has changed, which has changed the predicament that China's root server is zero, and has become the source of film imagination and realistic discourse power.

However, in reality, the reason for the development of IPv6 may not be so grand and remote, it is very simple because the original IP address resources are about to be exhausted, a large number of new devices can not be assigned addresses, so they cannot connect to the Internet. Not to mention planetary engines, your smart appliances may become ordinary appliances, and a large number of factory Internet devices will become a bunch of furnishings.

Fortunately, the advent of new technologies has brought a turnaround, which is why the creative team believes that the global Internet will certainly run on IPv6 in the future.

The number of IPv4 address bits is 32 bits, and only a network device of 2 to the power of 32 (about 4.3 billion) in the world can be connected to the Internet. IPv4 has been used for more than 30 years so far, the networking equipment has long been beyond the scope of the agreement, and the IP address is drying up, which is far from being able to meet the needs of Chinese users for IP. You know, China accounts for 70% of the world's mobile animal network connections, has jumped to the "trillion level", it is impossible to rely solely on IPv4 to support.

IPv6 greatly expands the address space. Its address length is 128bits, and in theory, the number of IP addresses available can reach 2 to the 128th power, that is, a total of (4.3 billion x 4.3 billion). Anyway, it is beyond my cognitive ability to recognize numbers, and it is possible to "compile a web address for every grain of sand in the world".

Therefore, promoting the upgrading of IPv4 to IPv6 and solving the problem of exhaustion of IP resources once and for all will play a decisive role in the development of China's digital economy.

Wu Hequan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also believes that IPv6 gives China a chance to start before it is too late compared with developed countries.

Bypassing the boundary of IPv4, on the new starting line of IPv6, China is expected to have a key voice and walk out of a future.

Clear path: in 2016, the Internet Digital Distribution Agency (IANA) proposed to the International Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that the new Internet standard only supports IPv6 and is no longer compatible with IPv4.

From this point of view, China's development of IPv6 is not only a must-answer, but also a scramble to answer.

However, the determination of the value of technology only defines the significance and necessity of IPv6. In the field of science and technology, technology is not equal to products, products are not equal to commodities, from birth to landing, we still need to go a long way.

In fact, there has been talk of upgrading from IPv4 to IPv6 for many years, and intertwined issues can delay new technologies indefinitely. On the other hand, the road of China's IPv6 must be taken, feasible and fast, and it is inseparable from these previously on:

First of all, the solid and urgent market demand, so that IPv6 this road must go.

According to CNNIC data, as of June 2022, there were 1.051 billion Internet users in China, with an Internet penetration rate of 74.4%. At the same time, the level of Internet economy is second only to the United States, ranking second in the world (World Internet Development report 2022). The rapid growth in the number of network connection nodes and the control of Internet security risks all need the IP guarantee provided by IPv6.

Secondly, the broad field of industrial digitization makes the road of IPv6 feasible.

As mentioned earlier, network upgrade depends on the investment of real money. If there is no clear path of investment recovery, why do telecom operators of various countries not rely on IPv4 for a while instead of various alternatives? The positive embrace of IPv6 by Chinese telecom operators is directly related to the growth potential and commercial space revealed by industrial digitization. AI, 5G, cloud computing and IoT have brought new opportunities to the industrial Internet. On the one hand, with the development of mobile Internet for many years, it has come to the key nodes of service upgrading, such as larger user scale, faster service response, meta-universe / VR and other new service models, etc., Internet native enterprises actively participate in the IPv6 industry, driving a large number of network upgrade needs.

On the other hand, the transformation and upgrading of non-digital native physical enterprises, a variety of Internet of things devices and a large number of intelligent applications stationed in the production scene, the interconnection of these devices and data and real-time low-delay transmission, all rely on a higher quality network "highway", IPv6 has become a prerequisite and an important part of industrial digitization. In the period of IPv4, operators mainly assign addresses to individual users, while industrial digitization drives enterprise users to become mainstream users of IPv6, which brings operators a new business model and more motivation and confidence to continue to invest and upgrade the network.

In addition, the fast lane built by the joint efforts of industrial ecology makes the road of IPv6 fast.

The migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is a project with a wide range of implications and a high degree of industrial cooperation. The underlying technological innovation, network equipment replacement, wide area network architecture adjustment, network protocol support and so on need industrial ecological linkage.

The major and low-level changes in science and technology must be the result of the concerted efforts of all parties. The crisis in wandering Earth 2 shows that "unity is strength", which is also a true portrayal of China's IPv6. In the era of IPv6, China has achieved global leadership, relying on the joint efforts of policy departments, ICT enterprises, industries and industry participants to build a fast track to accelerate the deployment of IPv6.

The fast lane that has been opened to traffic throughout the industry cooperation, in just a few years, step by step to push IPv6 forward in China. This "highway of the next generation Internet", from the first sleeper to the full line of operation, shows the "Chinese speed" of Internet infrastructure.

First, delineate road signs.

In November 2017, the State issued the Action Plan for promoting the scale deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Telecom operators such as China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, as well as cloud computing service providers such as Aliyun, Tencent Cloud and Huawei Cloud, have announced IPv6 plans one after another, and Internet giants have also responded by proposing a timetable for IPv6 evolution and supporting IPv6 addresses. The construction of a "IPv6 highway" has officially begun.

Second, lay the foundation.

Network architecture update and equipment iteration involve a large number of underlying innovations. Communication companies such as Huawei and ZTE cooperate with telecom operators to actively promote collaborative innovation between IPv6 and new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, and take the lead in developing cutting-edge technologies such as SRv6, downstream testing and APN6 in the world, continuously improve IPv6 service performance, and consolidate China's IPv6 technology base.

Third, the model of the world.

If the network infrastructure, including the root server, can only run on the standards and routes set by others, it is naturally difficult to have any say. Technological innovation in the field of IPv6 has also enabled China to achieve a leap from following, synchronizing to leading at the standard level. During the IPv4 period, China's contribution rate of international standards was only 5%. By the IPv6 stage, China's contribution to international standards has reached 20%, accounting for 85%, which means that China has a higher degree of participation and voice in the governance rules of the IPv6-based next-generation Internet.

Fourth, the whole line should be opened to traffic.

Thanks to the efforts of China's ICT industry, up to now, China has built an IPv6 single-stack network with the largest number of users in the world. The three major operators' backbone network, bearer network, metropolitan area network, LTE mobile core network, Internet backbone direct connection points, and international exports all support IPv6. The IPv6 readiness of the top 10 cloud service platforms and major data centers has reached 100%. A "highway" supporting the IP demand of various industries across the country has been completed and opened to traffic.

Fifth, scale application.

Of course, the infrastructure that has been built cannot be left vacant, and the level of market acceptance determines whether IPv6 can establish a healthy development model. This requires industry application scenarios to verify, upgrade iterations, and improve the level of application. In this process, many non-digital native industries, such as finance, energy, government and other fields, have dared to take the lead.

For example, ICBC proposed to achieve intranet IPv6 from 2021 to 2025, Sinopec proposed to fully support IPv6 by 2023, and excavated the landing application of IPv6 in the enterprise's existing business, which played a certain demonstration effect.

At the same time, equipment manufacturers and operators through subsidies, concessions and other ways to improve the enthusiasm of C-end users to upgrade IPv6 optical cats, routers and other home network terminals, but also to improve the personal terminal traffic of IPv6 is very helpful.

In 2022, the work arrangement for further promoting IPv6 scale deployment and Application in 2022, jointly issued by the Central Internet Information Office, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that by the end of 2022, the number of IPv6 active users had reached 700 million, and the proportion of mobile network IPv6 traffic reached 45%.

At this speed, connected terminal devices and digital applications will be gestated, grown and run on the "highway" of IPv6 in the future.

Since the 1950s, the Internet has become mature step by step, and the first countries and regions that have joined it earlier are more likely to evolve into the center of the industry through a long process and accumulation, establishing numerous and complicated rules and thresholds. China's Internet, which started relatively late, naturally cannot be accomplished overnight if it wants to get rid of the shackles of the lack of underlying technology.

The reason why the plot of the root server in the movie has attracted everyone's close attention stems from this anxiety about the "make-up lessons" of Chinese science and technology.

Fortunately, the key background setting for the root server in the movie, the popularity of IPv6, has already taken place in China.

If wandering with the earth is a feat of all mankind, then you and I may be an indispensable water drop and a variable to change the root server dilemma. You casually click on app, an app that supports IPv6, and replace your home with a new device that supports IPv6. In fact, you also quietly contribute a little light to the highlight moment of the Chinese root server in wandering Earth 2.

Everyone makes their own choices. Chinese science and technology and Chinese sci-fi movies are bound to become more powerful as a result of their joint efforts.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: brain polar body (ID:unity007), author: Tibetan fox

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