Alibaba Cloud Executive Discusses IPv6 Deployment, Global Collaboration, and AI‑Driven Network Evolution at the 2023 Wuzhen Internet Forum

Amid the rapid growth of next‑generation Internet technologies such as IPv6, AI, 5G, IoT, and cloud computing, Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure leader Cai Dezhong shared his insights during the "Promoting High‑Quality Development, Co‑building the Next‑Generation Internet" forum held in Wuzhen on November 9, 2023.

Topic 1 – IPv6 Deployment Practice and Experience: Alibaba began a group‑wide IPv6 project at the end of 2017, executing it over five years in three stages. The first stage piloted dual‑stack deployment and linked five top apps with 27 cloud products. The second stage (2019‑2020) expanded coverage to more products, apps, and regions, reaching 500 million active IPv6 users by the end of 2020. The third stage (2020‑2021) focused on traffic concentration, optimizing end‑to‑end performance so that over 90 % of traffic for the top 20 apps used IPv6, and achieved global IPv6 deployment for core cloud services.

Cai identified three key success factors: (1) organizational guarantee – a company‑wide campaign led by the CTO since 2018; (2) technical innovation – decoupling IPv6 ecosystems through layered separation of cloud products, apps, and underlying networks, both internally and with carriers; and (3) ecosystem cooperation – leveraging the IPv6 Scale‑Deployment Expert Committee chaired by academician Wu Hequan.

Looking ahead, Alibaba is pursuing two parallel initiatives: moving to IPv6‑only (single‑stack) deployments and exploiting IPv6’s technical dividends for AI infrastructure. Notable experiments include using IPv6‑based RDMA for high‑performance data‑center networking, SRv6 for wide‑area upgrades, and white‑box routers, all aimed at building the next‑generation AI infrastructure.

Topic 2 – Strengthening Organizational, Regional, and International Cooperation: Cai emphasized the necessity of global collaboration for fundamental protocol innovation, citing Alibaba’s participation in the Linux Foundation’s SONiC project and the creation of a routing workgroup to feed IPv6 deployment practices back to the open‑source community. He also highlighted joint efforts with international bodies to standardize high‑performance network protocols for AI workloads, spanning both Layer 3 (IPv6) and Layer 4 technologies.

Topic 3 – Network Technology Transformation in the AI Era: From Cai’s perspective, network architecture has evolved through three eras: telecom/classic networks, the internet application era, and the current AI‑centric “intelligent computing” era. Large‑model AI drives unprecedented demand for compute and networking, requiring predictable, high‑performance interconnects. He predicts that the next decade will see a shift from best‑effort to predictable networking, with continuous innovation across Ethernet, IPv6, and high‑speed transport protocols, all underpinned by worldwide cooperation.

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