Recent progress in the study of the next generation Internet in China

Abstract

The Internet has become a major part of the global communications infrastructure supporting modern-day socio-economic development, social progress and technological innovation. Invented 30 years ago, today the Internet is facing severe challenges. Many countries have funded research projects on the new-generation Internet, such as GENI, FIND, FIRE and CNGI, in an effort to solve these challenges. In addition, over the past few years, the networking research community has engaged in an ongoing conversation about how to move the Internet forward, and there are now two different approaches towards Internet research. The first approach is based on using the existing Internet architecture to solve the major technical challenges-this is called 'evolutionary' research. The other, which is called the 'clean slate', involves the design of an entirely new Internet architecture. In the first part of this paper, the basic features of the next generation Internet and its principal contradictions are analysed. Then a survey of recent progress in the study of the next generation Internet in China is discussed. Finally, the focus and direction for the next step in research are presented as based on fundamental research into the international next generation Internet architecture, and the many new innovative demands placed on Internet architecture in recent years.