China proposed a new operating model for the global network. Huawei, together with China Unicom, China Telecom and the Ministry of Industry and Informatization, presented to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) a new model to replace TCP / IP, developed almost half a century ago.
According to Huawei, the TCP / IP protocol suite cannot always meet the current needs of users, and the problem will only get worse in the future. When text messages and small files were transmitted over the network, TCP / IP was a good model. But now the interaction on the network is not only between people, but the Internet of Things, communication between computers, autonomous cars, etc. is actively developing.
The technical details of the model proposed by Huawei are still unknown. According to Financial Times, the company says the protocols are in the development stage and that elements of the new system will be ready for approval in 2021.
Obviously, the existing protocols are becoming obsolete. However, this does not mean that the rest of the world adopts the Chinese model, Hu Xianfeng, a professor at the Software Institute at Tongji University (Shanghai), told Sputnik.
“Any technology has its life cycle. And if the old protocol does not meet modern requirements, it will be replaced by a new one. But the question is whether the Chinese model will be accepted by the international community. The TCP / IP protocol is already widespread throughout the world, and it will not be possible to replace it overnight. We will see what place the new proposed protocol will occupy, “said the expert.
In its proposal, Huawei showed the advantages of its protocol. When a smart home motion sensor detects “suspicious activity,” it sends a signal to a surveillance camera, and it records a video and sends it to the owner’s smartphone. The owner, after evaluating the situation, decides that there is no danger and sends the corresponding signal to the camera. The camera forwards it to the sensor, and all the equipment of this chain works again in standby mode. With today’s network architecture, all communications are done over the global network and use DNS domain name root servers. The Huawei protocol proposes to establish direct communications between the equipment, avoiding the global network, which will be used only to transmit the information to the owner of the smartphone. In this way, the load on the global network is reduced and its operation is optimized.
At the same time, Huawei proposed controlling the network “from above” so that traffic routing and prioritization of network layers were determined in a directive manner. This approach caused negative reactions from some ITU members. In particular, Patrik Fältström, who pioneered the spread of the internet in Europe and is now also a member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), points out that the beauty of architecture existing is that the internet is neutral and is not regulated by anyone. Meanwhile, China’s proposed standards negate this libertarian idea.
However, today’s internet is also not a free and unmanaged community. After the dot-com bubble, there was a monopolization by tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. They also establish the rules of interaction on the network and control the personal data of users. They decide who to give access to their services and reserve the right not to explain the reasons if they deny it. It is true that the internet is little regulated by the State at present, but that does not mean that it is free as before.
