There are a total of 13 root servers worldwide, with the United States monopolizing 10. Is it possible to shut down the Chinese network?

Tech 2023-07-15 19:16:06 Source: Network

prefaceOn June 22, 2021, the United States suddenly launched a challenge against Iraq, not only shutting down a large number of its websites, but also banning the websites of Iraqi state-owned television stations.Faced with the hegemony of the United States, Iraq dares not speak up, because there are a total of 13 global IPv4 root servers, with the United States monopolizing 10, and the only primary root server is in the United States

preface

On June 22, 2021, the United States suddenly launched a challenge against Iraq, not only shutting down a large number of its websites, but also banning the websites of Iraqi state-owned television stations.

Faced with the hegemony of the United States, Iraq dares not speak up, because there are a total of 13 global IPv4 root servers, with the United States monopolizing 10, and the only primary root server is in the United States.

Both Iraq and our country have no IPv4 root servers, so there is a saying online that if there is a war, the United States can also cut off China's network at any time.

Is this really the case? Will China, like Iraq, really be dominated by the United States in terms of internet communication?

The monopoly position of the United States on IPv4 root servers

For people who frequently surf the internet, the importance of domain names is self-evident. For example, the familiar ". com" and ". cn" are domain names, and once they encounter problems, web pages cannot be accessed normally.

These domain names are not created casually, but managed by a special service system, namely the global Domain Name System.

The global Domain Name System is a hierarchical service system. The highest level is the domain name root server, followed by the top-level domain name server and the secondary domain name server.

The level of the root domain name server is higher than the top-level domain name server, so it can be manipulated. The United States can directly disconnect Iraq because its IPv4 root server is the highest level, which can directly manipulate Iraq's top-level domain name ". iq".

So during that period, there was no way to search for any news about Iraq online, and what the United States wanted to do with Iraq could not be transmitted to the outside world. This country seemed to disappear online out of thin air.

In addition, in July 2021, the United States used the same method to shut down the main websites of 36 mainstream media in Iran, and overnight, these media disappeared from the internet.

The tough tactics of the United States are chilling, but there is no way out. Out of the only 13 IPv4 servers in the world, 10 are located in the United States.

Although the remaining three IPv4 root servers are distributed in Europe and Japan, the only primary root server is still located in the United States.

And all 13 root servers are managed by agencies authorized by the US government, so the global internet domain names and IP addresses cannot bypass the US, which is equivalent to the global internet communication being controlled by the US.

Why can IPv4 root servers monopolize the world without other series of root servers being able to counter it?

IPV4 at the Birth of the Internet

At the beginning of the internet, IPV4 addresses were used, which could provide a total of nearly three billion IP addresses generated using binary methods. The main server responsible for providing these addresses to people was called the "root server".

Therefore, these 13 root servers are the products of the early The Internet Age. Although only 13 root servers have been produced due to limited technology, they are still in use today.

Especially in some relatively backward countries, they still use IPV4 root servers controlled by the United States as a whole, so they can be controlled by the United States.

So what is the current situation in China, how can it compete with the United States without IPV4 root servers?

In fact, China has also experienced network disconnections due to domain name issues before. The worst case was in 2014, when multiple provinces in China experienced slow or even inaccessible webpage access, and well-known websites such as Sina and Baidu were also affected.

However, these are all local network outages, as there are many internet users in China. If the United States wants to cause widespread network paralysis in China, it is very difficult to do so unless the root server is shut down.

But if the root server is shut down, except for China, the entire world's internet will be affected, including the United States itself.

The United States will not choose to do such a thankless thing, let alone China, which is already prepared for this situation,If the United States really cuts off a certain range of data services on the root server, China can also use the "mirror root server system" to counter it.

China's Anti Sanctions Measures

Due to its late start in the field of the internet, China has never had our own IPV4 root server.

Due to understanding the importance of root servers, China has also applied to the United States to set up a secondary root server in China.

But of course, the United States did not approve our application, so China researched the "Mirror Root Server System" on its own.

Before the research in our country, some other countries in the world have also studied this technology, which is used to prevent the United States from cutting off its own network.

This technology is simply backup, which means using one's own server to back up the data output from the IPV4 root server.

In this way, even if the United States cuts off a certain range of data services on the root server, as long as our server center does not carry out such operations, Chinese netizens can still access these domain names through our server.

Nowadays, this type of mirror server has been spread all over the world, and China also has ten. Therefore, in the face of possible "lockdown actions" by the United States, China is naturally not afraid.

This "mirror root server system" can not only prevent the United States, but also improve the resolution efficiency and security of Chinese internet domain names, thereby improving the online experience of Chinese internet users.

Previously, China also required Google to place its Chinese servers under the supervision of domestic servers and to review Google. cn's search results, which has met with dissatisfaction from Google.

After the "Prism Gate" surveillance incident in 2007, China also attached greater importance to network security issues, and therefore had stricter requirements for Google.

However, Google still does not agree with China's conditions, so China can only withdraw Google from Chinese Mainland in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, which also indirectly promoted the rise of Baidu.

However, China also knows that although the 'mirror root server system' is very useful, it is not entirely its own root server. Therefore, China invested more in internet construction and seized the development opportunity of IPV6.

The decline of IPV4 and the rise of IPV6

After 2010, with the rapid development of the global internet and the continuous expansion of network scale, the address resources of IPV4 root servers began to face depletion.

The IPV4 root server is composed of 32-bit addresses, which are divided into two parts: network number and host number. There are binary number and Dot-decimal notation number representations, and five types of addresses are defined.

Simply put, with IPV4 root servers, a maximum of over 4 billion network addresses can be generated, and due to numerical constraints, many number segments cannot be allocated for use. Excluding these, it can only provide us with over 3.6 billion addresses to use.

At present, the global population has exceeded 7 billion, and if the demand for addresses is calculated using mobile phones, based on one mobile phone per person, these 3.6 billion addresses are far from enough for allocation.

Then there is the problem of Routing table expansion,The topology of the address space directly leads to the independence of the address allocation form from the network topology. With the growth of the number of networks and routers, the excessively expanded Routing table increases the search and storage costs, which becomes a thorny problem in the development of the Internet.

Another issue is the uneven allocation of IP addresses,Since these addresses all originate from the United States, the United States allocates more than half of its addresses to its own country, accounting for approximately 56.9% of the total available addresses, while other countries allocate the remaining addresses.

In this situation, countries around the world are starting to research new versions of root servers. With the development of IPV4, it is time to be replaced.

So IPV6 root server emerged, and IPV6 is a new version of the Internet Protocol proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to replace IPV4. It is written in hexadecimal, expanding the address to 128 bits. You should know that the address of IPV4 only has 32 bits.

In terms of address space, IPV6 can provide a total of more than 3.4 * 10 ^ 38 addresses, which can be said to be very large.For example, even using IPV6 to write an address for every grain of sand on Earth is sufficient.

Seeing the importance of developing IPV6 root servers, China made a decisive decision and issued an invitation to countries around the world for the "Snowman Plan" internet architecture, implementing the action of replacing IPV4 root servers with IPV6.

The implementation of the "Snowman Plan" also broke the passive situation of IPV4 root servers being monopolized by the United States. By 2016, through this action, 16 countries worldwide had already installed IPV6 root servers, totaling 25.

After the "Snowman Plan", China not only has one primary root server, but also three secondary root servers, totaling four.

The main root server is located in Beijing, while the other three auxiliary servers are located in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu.

And this plan is advocated by our country, which has also made the allocation of addresses more fair. It not only eliminates the previous situation where the United States was dominant, but also makes the distribution of various secondary root servers more evenly distributed worldwide.

From the development of IPV6 and servers, it can be seen that although China was once a catcher in the history of internet development, we have now become creators.

IPV6 is an important opportunity for China to participate in the development of global internet technology, and it is also a manifestation of China's gradual dominance of internet technology in the world.

The Current Situation and Future Development of Internet Technology in China

After building the IPV6 root server, some issues have also arisen while making it more convenient.

For example, in terms of routers, due to the excessive number of IPV4 routers, the transition from IPV4 to IPV6 is a slow process, and therefore the two will coexist for a longer period of time.

Until now, China has not been able to achieve full coverage of IPV6 routers.

In terms of security features, although IPV6 has significantly improved encryption technology compared to IPV4, there are still security issues that need to be improved in this regard.

Based on these discovered issues, China has also taken more comprehensive improvement measures in recent years.

With our efforts, China has reached new milestones in promoting the scale deployment and application of IPV6.

In 2017, China ranked very low in the global IPV6 next-generation internet penetration rate ranking and only reached 67th place.

However, from 2017 to the end of 2022, the popularity of IPV6 in China has increased nearly 20 times, and the ranking has also risen to 38th place. It can be seen that China has achieved phased results in promoting IPV6.

However, according to this year's statistics, in February 2023, the proportion of mobile network IPV6 traffic in China reached 50.08%, reaching a breakthrough where mobile network IPV6 traffic exceeded IPV4.

However, of course, we will not stop here. At present, China is in the critical period of industrial Digital transformation. If IPV6 can be used well, its innovation will help to achieve leapfrog development of industrial digitalization.

The traditional internet mainly focuses on people, involving human scenarios such as office, entertainment, and consumption.

With the deepening of the Digital transformation of the industry, the Internet will also extend from IT systems to production scenarios, and then the connection of things will gradually become the mainstream.

For example, in the context of smart city scenarios on the internetIf you want to synchronize high-definition video transmission and understand the specific situation in every corner of the city to ensure the safety of residents and the city, IPV6, or even IPV6+internet technology is needed to achieve this.

And the direction of artificial intelligenceIf we want to achieve more precise and long-distance control commands, traditional IPV4 cannot be achieved, and IPV6 and more advanced technology are also needed to complete these operations.

From this, it can be seen that China has not stopped developing IPV6, but gradually moving towards a more advanced and sophisticated technological direction.

Even now, China has started researching IPV9, which is more comprehensive in compatibility and security than IPV6. In the future, IPV9 will definitely make greater contributions.

However, IPV9 has not yet gained international recognition, as IPV6 is the mainstream standard in the current civilian internet.

However, IPV9 proposes an encryption mechanism that is physically impossible to decipher, making it more secure than IPV6. Therefore, it may gain international recognition from a national security perspective.

Anyway, what our country pursues is a more secure, progressive, and inclusive internet environment, and it is obvious that we are also working towards it now.

epilogue

Based on the above analysis, we can find that the claim that the United States can cut off the Chinese network at any time and cause widespread paralysis of the Chinese network is completely wrong. The rapid development of Internet technology in China has fully equipped it with the ability to resist risks.

In recent years, China has not only made significant breakthroughs in the field of servers, but also gradually freed itself from the control of the United States in more high-tech fields.

At present, China is also steadily developing and becoming stronger on the established path. It is absolutely impossible for the United States to casually "manipulate" China in the field of the Internet.

The internet technology we currently possess is fully capable of countering its threats!

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