We Need a “Demand Side” World IPv6 Launch

ipv6-not-an-option
August 3, 2012
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I was chatting recently with Michael Vincent, an IPv6 savvy colleague, about worldwide IPv6 adoption, which despite the considerable press around World IPv6 Launch, is progressing at a snail’s pace. We lamented that while World IPv6 Launch provided great publicity around IPv4 exhaustion and the need for IPv6, the focus of IPv6 launch was on IPv6 deployment for the Internet supply side, i.e., websites. It’s absolutely wonderful that so many organizations have enabled IPv6 on their websites, but where are the IPv6 users, or the demand side? 

As IPv4 addresses dwindle in supply, service providers will ultimately need to begin assigning IPv6 addresses to their mobile and broadband subscribers. Nevertheless despite a growing number of IPv6 Internet users, these users will expect and demand ubiquitous Internet access, which requires connectivity to IPv6 and IPv4 websites. Therefore, each service provider will need to accommodate this customer requirement by either assigning both an IPv6 and an IPv4 address in a dual stack configuration, at least until IPv4 addresses run out, or by deploying address translators within their networks to convert IPv6 packets into IPv4 packets to reach IPv4 destinations. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Global, ICT Management, Intelligent Networks, IT Infrastructure Tagged With: , , , , ,

IPv6 — protecting the world as we know it

ipv6-day
May 29, 2012
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Vint Cerf is Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist. When he talks, people listen. And he says, “the transition to IPv6 is one of the most important steps we will take together to protect the internet as we know it.”

We know IPv6 is necessary. We know that IPv4 addresses are running out, and we realise that as a global people we need to make the transition to make sure future generations have the same open and direct access to the internet as we do today. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Intelligent Networks, IT Infrastructure Tagged With: , , , , ,

Six Simple Steps to IPv6

ipv6-six-steps
May 23, 2012
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It’s easy to understand how one would be perplexed by the multitude of IPv6 deployment options and approaches. And depending on the extent of your network on which you plan to deploy IPv6 as well as the state of your current IPv4 network and computing environment, the task of IPv6 deployment may range from being quite straightforward to being very complicated. [Read more...]

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Ingredients coming together for global DNSSEC deployment – are you ready?

dnssec
May 1, 2012
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It’s been a year since .com was signed, which was a major step forward towards Internet community support for DNSSEC implementation given that nearly 45% of all Internet domains fall within the .com branch. I was curious how other top level domains (TLDs) were doing in this regard so I checked out the ICANN Research site for TLD signing statistics. As shown in the following summary table, [Read more...]

Filed Under: Intelligent Networks, IT Infrastructure Tagged With: , ,

IPv6 is no longer considered optional

ipv6-not-an-option
April 23, 2012
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The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which for all intents and purposes is the standards body of the Internet Protocol, has declared that “IPv6 is no longer considered optional.” In RFC 6540 officially published the other week as an Internet Best Current Practice, the IETF cites the impending depletion of IPv4 address space with the continued growth of the Internet as drivers for widespread IPv6 deployment. While the RFC defines requirements for all developers of IP nodes, the main target seems to be [Read more...]

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Dictionary Needed: IPv4-IPv6, French-English

Green-cable-hand
March 30, 2012
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I was fiddling with a London Underground ticket machine to purchase a “tube” (subway) ticket, and a couple on the next machine over starting asking me questions…in French. Through gestures and pointing to the ticket machine screen display, I figured out that while the screen stated the Oyster card they wished to purchase covered the tram and bus, it did not mention use on the tube. I was experiencing some screen information shortcomings myself in desiring to purchase a zones 1-3 ticket, but only 1-1, 1-2 and 1-4 were offered. So given my prior research on the Oyster card and the incompleteness of our respective ticket machine user interfaces, I assured them that their Oyster card would work for the tube as well. [Read more...]

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Happy Chinese New Year! Half a billion internet users!

DragonChineseNewYear
January 25, 2012
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Global Times, a leading English news periodical in China, reported last week that the number of internet users in China surpassed half a billion by the end of last (calendar) year, according to the China Network Information Centre. According to the report, China now counts 513 million internet users, up from about 457 million at the end of 2010, about 12 per cent growth.

The question I’ve been trying to answer is how many of these 513 million users have IPv6 addresses vs. IPv4 addresses? As yet I’ve been unsuccessful in answering my own question. But I’ve found that Mike Leber from Hurricane Electric publishes a daily Global IPv6 Deployment Progress Report. This report lists the TLDs with IPv6 (surprisingly only 85.9 per cent have IPv6 addressable name servers today), a summary of A and AAAA records for “next level domains” for each TLD, a summary of advertised autonomous systems (ASes) for IPv6 networks, top websites available over IPv6 and more.

The top websites statistic is an interesting one, which today indicates that about 1.1 per cent of the top one million websites as reported by Alexa, publishes at least one AAAA record to advertise IPv6 reachability. I view this statistic as the “supply side” of the IPv6 supply and demand relationship. The “demand side” would be represented by the number of IPv6 user devices, or my as yet unanswered question, not only for China but worldwide. At some point in time, I expect this demand side will reach a level where organisations will want to participate in supplying IPv6 content. But having visibility to this demand curve is necessary to make this decision. So I’ll keep fishing around but if anyone has any suggestions, please share them!

BT Diamond IP will be exhibiting at this years’ Cisco Live 2012 show in London next week at the ICC London ExCel – if you’ll be there, stop by booth E29-E32 to learn more about IPv6.

Filed Under: ICT Management, IT Infrastructure Tagged With: ,

World IPv6 day

Tech in 60 seconds
June 8, 2011
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Tech in 60 seconds

Watch this video which explains IPv6

There’s no avoiding the issue: IPv4 address space is running out and sooner or later everyone will need to adopt the new standard. World IPv6 Day is sponsored by the Internet Society and has been set up to publicise this issue. In addition it will enable participants to test and experiment with the new standard and see how well it holds up on their network. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Global, Inside Technology, Social business Tagged With: ,