Wuxi has become a domestic leader in putting the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)-based network into large-scale use, according to a statement by the municipal government on Sept 10.

A national key strategic infrastructure of the next generation internet, IPv6 first set foot in Wuxi.

IPv6 is the sixth version of the Internet Protocol (IP) developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the problem of IPv4 address exhaustion. It is intended to replace IPv4.

Building the IPv6-based network was elevated into a national strategy in an action plan for promoting the large-scale deployment of IPv6 issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council.

As a demonstration city for developing the next generation internet, Wuxi launched IPv6 trials in 2009 and began to put it into large-scale commercial deployment in 2012.

The city has solved a large number of key technical problems, promoted more than 50 commercial properties of IPv6 applicable in internet devices, formulated a series of technical standards and acquired a number of invention patents.

Wuxi has been on a fast track of IPv6 growth since last year. China Telecom's Wuxi branch took the lead in upgrading the city's internet infrastructure with IPv6 this August with a Fiber optic broadband network and a wireless network. As a result, a total of 500 million netizen in the city have access to IPv6-based Internet.

Wuxi has currently achieved full deployment of IPv6-based Internet, which will provide abundant address resources for the upcoming 5G network construction and a good online environment for extensive application of the new generation of information technology in areas such as the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing.

Gao Yaguang, deputy mayor of Wuxi, said that the city will seize the opportunity brought by IPv6 to boost advanced development of the new generation of the information industry and continue to support the growth of the IoT industry in Wuxi.