China cannot afford to delay the implementation of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), and domestic network equipment vendors, in particular, should speed up research and development (R&D) on IPv6-enabled products to seize the golden opportunity in which they can catch up with and even, overtake world-leading counterparts, suggest experts.

IPv6 is the core technological protocol for the next generation Internet (NGI). Thanks to the almost infinite IP addresses available under IPv6, any device, can be given a permanent global IP address and integrated into NGI, not only including the Internet, wireless network, mobile communications network, but almost anything else, even a piece of sand.

Featuring "always-on (online)'', NGI is expected to bring profound changes to ordinary people's life.

"IPv6 is the hope of China's IT (information technology) industry,'' said Wu Hequan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering last week on the Elite Panel of the Global IPv6 Summit in China.

As a latecomer to current Internet applications, China lags behind developed countries such as the United States in IPv4, on which the current Internet is based, he said.

Under IPv4, the United States has grabbed most of the IP addresses, leaving few for Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea.

However, the emergence of IPv6 has offered a chance "not to be missed'' for China to close the technological gap and even take a leading role in the NGI era, as China is able to initiate the R&D of IPv6 almost at the same time as developed countries, he explained.

The possible crisis that could be brought on by a lack of IP addresses in Asia is also one of the major drives for China to initiate R&D on IPv6, said experts.

The first national NGI network based on IPv6 in China, CERNET (China Education and Research Network) 2 has been in operation for academic uses since mid-March. It connects more than 200 colleges, universities and research institutions across the country.

Meanwhile, five major telecoms carriers in China -- China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom and China Railcom -- have started setting up their own IPv6-enabled networks nationwide.

The six networks will be pillars for China's next-generation Internet (CNGI), which is to be completed by the end of 2005 and is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world. Commercial operation of large scale is expected to begin between 2006 and 2008.

The Chinese Government has allocated 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) and major telecoms carriers have earmarked 400 million yuan (US$48 million) for development of the network.

Japan, the forerunner of IPv6, was able to offer IPv6-enabled products about three years ago. The United States, which previously felt reluctant to launch such projects as it has sufficient IP addresses, has just started its IPv6 trial project called Moon6 out of security concerns.

In addition to more addresses, IPv6 also provides better security and privacy, and improved quality of service.

As almost all the Internet equipment in use is only IPv4-enabled, a prevailing upgrade is needed in Internet-related devices to support IPv6.

Such a move would provide huge business opportunities, not only to network carriers, but also equipment manufacturers, software vendors, and content providers, said experts.

No estimates are available for the market value of such technological revolution in China. But the Japanese Government estimated new emerging businesses and services taking advantages of IPv6 in Japan is expected at US$809 billion by 2010, reported Reuters.

甅DNM?subhead>: No killer application?

甅DNM?bodytxt>However, in contrast with the government's clearcut attitude and active moves to promote the technology, domestic vendors seem to be just watching on, even if more and more are aware of the inevitable trend towards IPv6.

According to many industrial insiders, the lack of a "killer application'' for IPv6 is a most important reason for their reluctance to develop and produce equipment supporting the technology.

To date, there are no applications that only IPv6 can support while IPv4 fails, despite the difference in quality of service, security and privacy.

"Killer application'' refers to applications of technology that can bring profits to businesses.

However, experts said although CNGI, China's IPv6-based national network, has not been put into commercial operation, vendors now should be prepared for products supporting IPv6.

"Killer applications should be found during the implementation stages instead of just empty talk,'' Li Guojie, director of the Computing Technology Institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said during the summit.

"In particular, domestic terminal device manufacturers are supposed to speed up their R&D of IPv6-enabled products,'' he said.

The experiment of CERNET 2 is facing a shortage of IPv6-enabled terminal products, in particular, mobile phones, said Li.

It seems some foreign vendors are better prepared.

According to Ma Jian, principal scientist of Nokia Research Centre in China, Nokia will launch the world's first "dual track'' CDMA handsets -- able to function under both IPv4 and IPv6 -- by the end of this year.

Dual track is the preferred approach for China to switch from IPv4 to IPv6, said experts.

"CDMA handsets will be the biggest driver for the IPv6 campaign in the Asia-Pacific region,'' he said.

IT giants such as Nortel and Cisco have also started supporting IPv6 in their products.

Meanwhile, six domestic router manufacturers, including Huawei Technologies and ZTE, are able to produce dual-track routers.

In particular, Tsinghua BitWay, a Sino-foreign joint venture, has recently launched the country's first high-end dual-track routers, and the price is slightly higher -- 10 per cent to 20 per cent higher than its IPv4-enabled counterparts, Jiang Song, BitWay's marketing manager, told China Business Weekly last week.

"We think the price is acceptable,'' said Jiang.

Reasonably priced products are crucial to push IPv6 implementation, especially at a time when the new technology is not well accepted by the market, Wu told China Business Weekly.

"Why not adopt a dual-track product if it is no more expensive than the only IPv4-enabled?'' he said.

Meanwhile, China has intentionally focused on trials of different applications on its six pillar CNGI networks to explore feasible models that can be adopted in business operations, said Li.

For example, China Mobile and China Unicom will focus on 3G (third-generation) mobile communications, and China Netcom will concentrate on sensors and streaming media.

CERNET will serve for the country's college students and explore grid-computing, a kind of high-performance, efficient calculation on its IPv6-based network.

The huge number of Chinese netizens could prove to be an advantage for local firms looking to develop a "killer application," said Vinton Cerf, chairman of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The country's fast-growing economy will improve the financial status of more people and allow them access to the Internet, said Cerf.

China now has a netizen community of around 70 million, accounting for 6 per cent of the total population. The figure is still growing fast, he said.

Moreover, the vast market in China means numerous possibilities to create new applications, Cerf added.