Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

The current internet is built upon IPv4 technology where an IP (Internet Protocol) address is assigned to every single computer that is connected to the World Wide Web. A finite number (4,000 million) of IP addresses are shared across the world. Since Internet was originated in the United States, therefore, USA has the biggest piece of the pie which is over 1,200 million IP addresses. China, on the other hand, is a late comer and therefore has less than 60 million IP address. According to the population of the two nations, 22 Chinese have to share 1 IP address where a single American can have over 6 IP addresses. This obviously effect the Internet services in China and it’s surrounding areas. The current scarcity over Internet IP address is not only effecting China but also Asia in general. The solution to the problem is to roll out IPv6 for commercial internet usage as soon as possible.

Till the end of this year, China will have invested RMB1.4 billion to build a commercial IPv6 backbone network to connect all its major cities. The IPv6 network will be the largest in the world and will start full operation in 2006. The beta tests of this new network will start next month. IPv6 uses 128 bits address length which will generate an almost infinite number of IP addresses compare to the 32 bits length address (IPv4). However China is still limited to 2.2% of the overall IP address resources in the IPv6 era. USA will have 13.7%.