 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
China Looks To Advanced Internet
by Winter Casey
As Asian countries move further toward deploying the next generation of the Internet, the United States needs to do more to keep pace, according to a top Internet expert.
Just this week, China's state media announced that the country has taken a major step in developing Internet protocol version 6, a more robust version of the Internet commonly called IPv6. A Chinese expert panel composed of top scientists and researchers under the umbrella of the National Development and Research Commission gave an acceptance certificate to an academic network in IPv6 that connects 25 universities in 20 cities across the country.
China is "certainly being aggressive" about moving toward advanced Internet technology, with the goal of getting as much accomplished as possible before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, said Tony Hain, the senior technical leader of IPv6 technologies with Cisco Systems.
China's actions alone are not a threat, Hain said, but if all of Asia moves into the IPv6 environment and the technology then migrates back to the United States because U.S. companies have been doing nothing, "then that will be a threat because all of the jobs will move to Asia."
The newly approved network is being touted as a major step toward China's goal of developing the world's largest advanced Internet. IPv6 is said to offer more secure access and enhanced network capacity by exponentially increasing the number of possible Internet addresses.
In August 2003, China's State Council approved a multi-faceted plan for the country's advanced Internet. Part of China's goal includes decreasing reliance on foreign companies for core technologies. But thus far that "hasn't really happened yet," Hain said.
According to Chinese state press, five Chinese telecommunications operators, including China Telecom and China Mobile, are building national IPv6 networks.
"The world outside the United States is under pressure to move quickly into Internet space," Hain said. "The world is running out of space in IPv4," with roughly 80 percent of the space now occupied, he said, and in the next decade it will be gone.
The United States is behind in IPv6 deployment in part out of a reluctance and lack of financial incentives to change, Hain said. An August report from the Government Accountability Office found that multiple federal agencies have failed to meet White House deadlines for the IPv6 transition. Unless key planning activities are completed, agencies risk not completing the transition on time, the report said.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has mandated that all agencies shift to IPv6 by June 30, 2008. Critics have argued that agencies are not receiving sufficient resources to meet the deadline. But Hain said it is "cheaper to make a change over a period of time rather than to wait until the last minute when external conditions force a change and panic sets in."
"Most of the agency network managers are not particularly concerned about what happens to the global Internet as they are focused on meeting daily demands," Hain said. "Those with strategic vision realize that their customer base will be forced over."
In Asia "the Japanese government wants to take the leadership role in IPv6 and take all the jobs related to Internet development and move them to Japan," Hain said. China has said it wants to own the intellectual property of all IPv6-related technology, he added. Those countries are taking the same steps the United States did in the mid-1980s with IPv4, he said.
Internet expert Karl Auerbach -- a former board member on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the group that operates the Internet addressing system -- said the real issue facing Internet users is not Web-addressing space "but routing information, and IPv6 does nothing to alleviate that problem."
"IPv6 is merely a mid- to low-level protocol," he said. Auerbach added that "the Chinese have already demonstrated a willingness to go it alone on the Net" and have established an extended domain-name system. "The U.S. bodies that tout the unity of the domain-name system try to cover this over," he said. "From the point of view of our national security, that kind of fantasy thinking creates both a weakness and a vulnerability."
Auerbach also said he could see China becoming a major provider of networking components and de-facto technology standards.
Many governments around the world are actively involved in IPv6. This fall, the French IPv6 Worldwide Summit will be held Nov. 14-16 in Cannes, France, and the European IPv6 Task Force will discuss the drivers of IPv6 deployment in Europe on Nov. 21-23 in Finland.
United States Loses Ground In Competitiveness
The United States has fallen from first to sixth place in global competitiveness, according to an annual World Economic Forum report released Tuesday.
The 2006-2007 study found that Switzerland, Finland and Sweden rank the highest on the competitiveness scale. It is the first time Switzerland has ranked No. 1. Other top 10 countries were Denmark, Germany, Singapore, the Netherlands, Japan and the United Kingdom.
The success of Switzerland and the Nordic countries is attributed to good education systems and a focus on technology and innovation. The countries also have solid macroeconomic management and an efficient judicial system, the report said. Switzerland, in particular, has spent a considerable amount on research and development and intellectual property protections, according to the report.
The fall of the United States was said to be the result of macroeconomic imbalances, including rising levels of public debt associated with repeated fiscal deficits.
The rankings are developed from hard data and a survey for which more than 11,000 business leaders in 125 economies are polled. The forum placed India at 43, and China moved from 48 to 54 on the list. China has low penetration rates for the latest technologies and school enrollment rates that are still low by international standards, the report found.
Also this week, Indian Industry Minister Ashwani Kumar called for deeper economic engagement between Indian and U.S. industry. Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Kamal Nath also highlighted opportunities for Japanese small and medium enterprises in the Indian economy.
Malaysia Wants Domestic Internet Exchange
Malaysian Internet service providers and infrastructure owners have been told to create the nation's own Internet exchange by the end of 2006, a top ministry official said this week.
Currently, Malaysian Internet users surfing Malaysia-based Web sites are routed via Singapore or sometimes the United States. The new exchange is expected to reduce the need for each Internet service provider to create its own direct links, lower Internet connection costs and result in faster connection times for Internet users, according to the Malaysian government.
"I cannot understand the sluggish pace," Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian government has been organizing a public-awareness campaign to get more pre-paid telephone users to register with their service providers. As of early September, 44 percent had registered.
The deadline for pre-paid telephone users is Dec. 15. After that, they will have their lines suspended for two weeks, during which they can only receive calls and make emergency calls, according to Malaysia's The Edge Daily. Those who fail to register after the two-week grace period will have their phone numbers deactivated.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
