IPv6 Act Now

If you are using Internet or almost any computer network you will likely using IPv4 packets. IPv4 uses 32-bit source and destination address fields. We are actually running out of addresses but have not fear, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is here with IPv6.

The IPv6 packet (Fig. 1) doesn’t look much like its IPv4 (Fig. 2) cousin, except for the leading version field. The IPv6 address fields are 128-bits. The larger address space is one reason to migrate to IPv6 but there are many more differences that give IPv6 an advantage. For example, the header checksum field has been eliminated because transport reliability has gone up and its overhead was unnecessary.

The movement to IPv6 on a global scale is inevitable. It has been more of an issue of getting the infrastructure in place to make the move to cause the minimal number of problems. It is possible for IPv4 and IPv6 subnets to exchange traffic but there are issues that vary depending upon the network configuration and the type of network traffic.

More from Electronic Design…

Leading internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day.

IPv6 is the new net address system that replaces the current protocol IPv4, which is about to run out of spaces to allocate.

Web companies participating in the event have pledged to enable IPv6 on their main websites from that date.

The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo are the inaugural web firms involved.

More from BBC News…

Last year, a number of the worlds largest companies transferred IPv6 for 24 hours as a test run to determine whether it would work as predicted. June the 8th came and went without the Internet breaking, companies imploding, or the sky falling in – much to the relief of the pro-IPv6 camp.

Six months down the track, leading Internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day, with web companies participating in the event pledging to enable IPv6 on their main websites from said date.

The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented; “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard with Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo set to be the inaugural web firms involved.

More from Business Computing World…

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Yahoo have pledged to support the worldwide launch of IPv6 on 6 June 2012 for the permanent activation of the Internet standard in the companies’ products and services.

After a successful IPv6 day in June 8 of last year, the companies will now be joining the “World IPv6 Launch” day on June 6.

More from Social Barrel…

The urgent push to move the whole of Internet addresses off of a system never intended to replace telephone, television, and computing simultaneously, and onto the IPv6 address system, is now entering its 13th consecutive blockbuster year. Despite high-level government recommendations for action plans, a global DNS poisoning scare that many say could never have happened under IPv6, and a grass-roots effort to build an actual holiday around the transition, it’s estimated that the rate at which the Asia/Pacific region is depleting IPv4 addresses is far outpacing the rate that hosts in that region are moving to IPv6.

It’s almost as if everyone wants a real Internet, but too few want to lend a hand in building it. Now the Internet Society, its original non-profit guidance organization, is stepping up its push to make IPv6 more marketable, first with the launch of a new Web site called Deploy360, to be followed up next week with meetings with consumer electronics vendors at CES in Las Vegas.

More from Read Write Web…

Much of our current thinking about networking for physical security systems lags behind the advances of technology. Because advancements come more rapidly every year, it is no longer sufficient to base our thinking on “the latest technology.”

We have to take technology trends into account if we wish to deploy systems that will have useful lives of 5 to 10 years, and which can use and be used by new technology as it arrives in the coming decade.

In the late 1990s, there was much activity in the Internet standards community. The dot-com boom was rolling, use of the Internet was expanding, and commerce-based cryptography and security standards were just being developed. Many network protocols were devised, refined and/or standardized during this time. Among these was IPv6, the solution to IPv4 address limitation as well as a logical evolution of the Internet for many reasons.

More from SecurityInfoWatch…

IPv4 is the most commonly used Internet layer protocol and at the writing of this article is used by the vast majority of devices connected to the Internet.

There are over four billion possible IPv4 addresses that can be used.  However due to the increase in usages of smartphones, laptops and tablets, theses addresses are running out quickly.

Earlier in the year the IANA announced that “The future of the Internet is in IPv6. All Internet stakeholders must now take definitive action to deploy IPv6.” This is due to the last IPv4 addresses having been allocated.  At Evolving Networks we believe that in 2012, the switch over from IPv4 to IPv6 will begin to gather serious momentum.

So what is IPv6 and how is it different to its predecessor?

More from Industry Today…

In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked world of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law. Patent wars shaped competition in tablets and smartphones, hacktivists attacked a widening array of political and corporate targets, repressive regimes unplugged citizens from the Internet, and the U.S. government moved to block the giant merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a technology icon who redefined the computer, entertainment and consumer electronics industries. These are the IDG News Service’s picks for the top 10 technology stories of the year:

More from PCWorld…

The New Zealand IPv6 Task Force is pleased to announce that New Zealand’s public sector is making steady progress towards greater adoption and usage of IPv6 – the next generation Internet protocol.

The finding follows a series of interviews conducted by the Task Force with a swath of SOEs, Crown entities, core government agencies and tertiary / research institutes.

The key takeaways from the report are:

Awareness of IPv6 and of IPv4 exhaustion is high in the government and wider state sector.

More from Voxy…

IPv4, the current Internet protocol standard, is running out and the new standard, IPv6 is not backwards compatible. Because the two cannot communicate directly with each other, it’s imperative that IPv6 is adopted globally to avoid any disruption in Internet connectivity.

The RIPE NCC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia has around 65 million remaining IPv4 addresses. Although this may seem like a lot, in reality, IPv4 in the region is expected to be fully depleted by the first half of 2012. The RIR for Asia Pacific (APNIC) has already exhausted its supply of IPv4 and the RIPE NCC is not far behind.

More from IDG Connect…