IPv6 and the Olympics: Showing Some Backbone
Posted on July 28, 2008
Filed Under Beijing Olympics, China Internet |
CRN reports:
While the 2008 Beijing Olympics might be good for China’s image in the world, they will definitely be great for the IPv6 standard. China is relying on the IPV6 technology to transmit real time footage of all Olympic events to live TV broadcasting systems and video streaming over the Internet. China’s official service provider for the Olympics is broadcasting most of the events in high definition. About 5 billion TV viewers are expected to tune-in into the Olympics, and millions will be viewing some of the events online.
IPv6 is the next addressing scheme for the internet. It’s sorely needed as IPv4 (ye olde 000.000.000.000 addresses) is rapidly running out of numbers. IPv6 is also meant to provide support for encryption (IPSec native) and is reckoned to be super for multicasting (for video goodies).
China (under the auspices of the National Development and Reform Commission) started on building an IPv6 backbone in 2002, and pretty much has done it. All the then-major carriers had to build their own IPv6 network (another integration headache for telecoms providers), plus one for China’s universities. It’s called the China Next Generation Internet (CNGI) and was absolutely off the radar until the Olympics.
CNGI is a backbone network, to the degree its actually used outside of the university system. It’s invisible to everyone. But not anymore!
Technology is to be heavily featured at the Games and the massive data transmission requirements (video of events and, er, video of attendees) are tailor-made to show off IPv6. IPv6.com:
China Netcom, the official service provider for the Olympics, has taken steps to connect its optical network to the respective IT systems, TV broadcasting system and security systems in all the venues to cover the events at all the different venues, right from the start of the ceremonies.
…To offer viewers the experience of a high-quality and live video streaming display of the relay and all the other sporting and entertainment events delivered over leased-line services via satellite, cable and submarine cable networks, a unique ASON-MSTP based intelligent transmission platform is also being built. Around 70-80% of the live Olympic event coverage will be broadcast in high-definition.
Lighting and thermostats at the Olympic venues will also be taken care of by the network, and even the taxis in Beijing will be monitored by CNGI via IPv6 sensors so that traffic congestion can be quickly and effectively relieved.
With the long list of things that government has to worry about with taxi drivers in Beijing during the Olympics, I’m not sure that they’ll be anything in place to monitor traffic. The video stuff is the focus.
IPv6 is needed for further internet growth. With lots of mobile devices around the corner and the internet expanding in the developing world, there’s a big need for more addresses to go around. Add to that the growth of video over the internet and it should be a Yao Ming slam dunk.
Except that everyone is dragging their feet. There really isn’t a well-established plan to transition to IPv6 and no one is really sure how ready customers (business and consumers alike) are, or if they’re even aware of it.
The technological benefits of it have been apparent for a long time and it has been integrated into the gamut of networking devices and software. There isn’t a technical problem, just a transition problem. I hope China Netcom’s IPv6 network creates plenty of ooohs and aaahs at the Olympics, but it won’t make a bit of difference in encouraging IPv6 adoption.
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We have a more detailed analysis of the real technology behind IPv6 at the Beijing Olympics here: http://www.commandinformation.com/blog/?p=70
That’s a great rundown (not sure what you mean by “real”, but whatever).
Any idea when we’ll actually see it being used at the client level on commercial networks? In China or elsewhere?