China Builds a Better Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: September 22, 2006 3:07:41 AM GMT+02:00
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] China Builds a Better Internet
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

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]
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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