IPv6 Act Now

Could Smart Grid, the Obama Administration’s effort to modernize the nation’s electric grid, be the killer app for IPv6?

That’s what Internet engineers are asking as they see billions of dollars in stimulus funds pumped into smart electric meters, automated utility substations and new sensors networks – all of which could take advantage of the abundant address space and built-in security offered by IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet’s main communications protocol.

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Maarten Botterman, lead researcher on the recent EC-sponsored IPv6 Deployment Monitoring Survey, chaired a session at the recent RIPE 59 Meeting in Lisbon. Expanding on the issues raised by that survey, Botterman used a website to poll the meeting attendees in real-time and discussed the results with a panel that included Geoff Huston, Gert Doering and Kurtis Lindqvist. He has now published the results and some analysis of this session.

For more information, see RIPE Labs.

In a recent interview, John Curran, president and CEO of the American Registry of Internet Numbers, explained why businesses need to sit up and take notice of the impending shift that is taking place as we move from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to the more expansive IP version 6.

What’s happening is the original Internet numbering system — which assigns addresses such as 192.168.1.1 — is running out of numbers. IPv4 is a 32-bit system with four billion possible combinations. “That sounds like a lot of numbers, but it really isn’t when you think about the size of the globe and the number of devices being connected these days,” Curran says. In fact, we’re due to run out of numbers within 700 days, he warns. IPv6, with 128-bit addressing space, enables “numbering of all of the molecules in the galaxy,” he says.

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BEIRUT: Cisco program manager Salam Yamout criticized on Wednesday the high costs of Internet services in Lebanon due to lack of competition in “a partially liberalized market.” “The prices that we pay in Lebanon for Internet services are unacceptable. In Paris, which is the most expensive city in Europe, the user gets Internet, cable television and telephone services with a 12MB per second speed for only $45,” Yamout told The Daily Star.

“In Lebanon, the individual user pays $70 for a speed of 1MB per second,” she added.

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Remember the rush to prepare for Y2K? Well, there’s a similar imperative for customers to prepare for the transition to IPv6 as the number of IPv4 addresses diminishes as we near 2011.

What’s driving this? The increasing number of devices and the fact that more and more emerging countries are connecting to the Internet and requiring IP addresses.

More from Fernando Ayala…

The call for ramping up the roll out of the IPv6 standard has been renewed with a warning the world could run out of IPv4 addresses by as early as 2011.

James Spenceley, CEO at IP transit provider Vocus said that with around 10 per cent of the world’s IPv4 devices remaining, the crunch will come within two years.

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IPv6 slowly seems to become more mainstream, we hear about IPv6 more and more and it seems that at least some Service providers and governments understand that there is a sense of urgency. Regularly we see the statements of networks that are planning to roll out IPv6 and vendors that are promising to make their products IPv6 ready.

But talk is cheap and the question remains, how far are we actually with rolling out IPv6 deployment? We tried to answer that question by looking at the Internet Routing tables.

More from BGP mon…

If you’re looking for proof that the adoption of IPv6 is becoming a U.S. phenomenon, take a look at both Comcast and Verizon Wireless. Both of these service providers have decided to migrate from IPv4-based networks to IPv6. According to the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), U.S.-based service providers interest in IPv6 over IPv4 addresses continues to ramp up.

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If you are like me, you have been running IPv6 stack since XP days. You have configured your router for auto local link address and you started your research a while ago. If you remember, IP Address was running out! Matter of fact, it was about to run out almost six years ago! So, what changed? Why aren’t we hearing about this IPV6? It was supposed to eliminate NAT/PAT and SSL with secure stack that was 128 bit in length. So, what happened?

I believe IPv6 is our future. It is something we have to move to. But, since all the applications must be rewritten, app vendors must start the drive. For example, if Microsoft comes out with IPV6 version of Office Suite that does killer features that IPV4 cannot do, this would drive the need to move our network to IPV6.

More from Network Engineers Group…

The first test specifications for IPv6 compliance, which will be required for government networking procurements beginning next July, have been released for public comment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

After a 30-day public comment period, NIST expects to publish by the end of the year the revised test suites that make up the initial test program.

More from Government Computer News…