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…

In the earlier RIPE Labs article 6to4 – How Bad is it Really? it was noted that that roughly 15% of 6to4 connections fail. More specifically we saw a TCP-SYN, but not the rest of a TCP connection. In this article we take a closer look at why 6to4 connections fail, specifically the interplay between 6to4 and firewalls.

Read more on RIPE Labs…

Dutch organisation SURFnet has created a document that looks in depth at how they deployed IPv6 across their network. Intended for network architects and network managers implementing IPv6 in their organisations, the document has been translated by the RIPE NCC and is available online.

Read more…

The Number Resource Organization (NRO) announced today that the free pool of available IPv4 addresses is now fully depleted. On Monday, January 31, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated two blocks of IPv4 address space to APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the Asia Pacific region, which triggered a global policy to allocate the remaining IANA pool equally between the five RIRs. Today IANA allocated those blocks. This means that there are no longer any IPv4 addresses available for allocation from the IANA to the five RIRs.

IANA assigns IPv4 addresses to the RIRs in blocks that equate to 1/256th of the entire IPv4 address space. Each block is referred to as a “/8” or “slash-8”. A global policy agreed on by all five RIR communities and ratified in 2009 by ICANN, the international body responsible for the IANA function, dictated that when the IANA IPv4 free pool reached five remaining /8 blocks, these blocks were to be simultaneously and equally distributed to the five RIRs.

“This is an historic day in the history of the Internet, and one we have been anticipating for quite some time,” states Raúl Echeberría, Chairman of the Number Resource Organization (NRO), the official representative of the five RIRs. “The future of the Internet is in IPv6. All Internet stakeholders must now take definitive action to deploy IPv6.”

“This is truly a major turning point in the on-going development of the Internet,” said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Nobody was caught off guard by this, the Internet technical community has been planning for IPv4 depletion for quite some time. But it means the adoption of IPv6 is now of paramount importance, since it will allow the Internet to continue its amazing growth and foster the global innovation we’ve all come to expect.”

IPv6 is the “next generation” of the Internet Protocol, providing a hugely expanded address space and allowing the Internet to grow into the future. “Billions of people world wide use the Internet for everything from sending tweets to paying bills. The transition to IPv6 from IPv4 represents an opportunity for even more innovative applications without the fear of running out of essential Internet IP addresses,” said Vice President of IANA Elise Gerich.

Adoption of IPv6 is now vital for all Internet stakeholders. The RIRs have been working with network operators at the local, regional, and global level for more than a decade to offer training and advice on IPv6 adoption and ensure that everyone is prepared for the exhaustion of IPv4.

“Each RIR will have its final full /8 from IANA, plus any existing IP address holdings to distribute. Depending on address space requests received, this could last each RIR anywhere from a few weeks to many months. It’s only a matter of time before the RIRs and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must start denying requests for IPv4 address space. Deploying IPv6 is now a requirement, not an option,” added Echeberría. IPv6 address space has been available since 1999. Visit http://www.nro.net/ipv6/ for more information on IPv6, or your local RIR for information on how to get address space.

Internet policymakers and industry leaders are hailing the Obama Administration’s plan to upgrade all federal Web sites and e-government services over the next two years to support IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet’s main communications protocol. More at Computerworld…

For those who are excited about the prospect of mobile data and Internet-based mobile networks, then IPv6 is something they should pay attention to. Future mobile networks are being designed around IP frameworks, by which we mean using Internet technology to run mobile services. We’re standing on the cusp of a huge update of one of the underlying technologies of the Internet – from IPv4 to IPv6. To help understand what all this means, and the impact of IP on the future of mobile networks, GoMo News interviewed Mícheál Ó Foghlú, Executive Director of Research at the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG), and Chair of the Irish IPv6 Task Force.

Before that, what’s difference between IPv4 and IPv6?

More from GoMo News…

In its 2008 action plan for the deployment of the Future Internet Protocol in Europe, the European Commission is calling for the inclusion of relevant technology knowledge in retraining curricula and in higher education computer and network engineering courses. To support this action, the European Commission, Directorate F – Information Society and Media Unit F4, has just launched a new study aimed at evaluating the current landscape (needs and offer) in the field of the Future Internet Protocols training.

If you are in an organisation providing training and courses in the field of Information Technologies or if you are an organisation making use of IT in its daily activity, you are invited to take the TRICE survey. By answering the survey questions, you will be contributing to the definition of recommendations aimed at developing a European landscape for IT training in line with your needs.

More info

Following on a very successful event in January 2009 (videos and slides of the sessions are still available), which was supported by funding from the ISOC Community Grants Programme, the Irish National IPv6 Task Force is hosting another all-day summit in Dublin Castle, Ireland on Wednesday, 19 May 2010.

More from IPv6 News…

An IPv6 Task Force established last month under the auspices of InternetNZ will establish separate bodies to debate, represent and act on the concerns of various industry groups regarding the adoption of the IPv6 internet addressing scheme, says Murray Milner, who is co-ordinating the effort.

For example, Milner says, an ISP, a datacentre proprietor and a large commercial organisation will face different challenges in adopting IPv6, and will need to develop “road maps” appropriate to their needs. The sectoral groups sparked by the taskforce will each support a workstream to that end, he says.

More from ComputerWorld New Zealand…