Tag Archive for IPv6

RB | April 4, 2011
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IPv4 Address Worth $11.25

IPv6Now that the last IPv4 addresses are gone, the Internet numbers are increasing in value. Microsoft is spending $7.5 million for 666,625 IPv4 addresses from Nortel (NRTLQ). As Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) fight over Nortel’s 4G bones (which I noted earlier), DownloadSquad reports that Microsoft (MSFT) jumped all over Nortel’s stash of IPv4 addresses when they became available for purchase through bankruptcy proceedings.

NortelMicrosoft ponied up $7.5 million for the Nortel pool, which works out to $11.25 per IP address. There were 13 other interested buyers, but only Microsoft and three others actually submitted bids according to DownloadSquad. With the last block of IPv4 addresses already issued (which I wrote about when it happened), snatching up over 666,000 IPv4 addresses in one fell swoop is a smart move by Microsoft.

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Steve BallmerCould Ballmer‘s boys be planning a cloud based IPv6 <–> IPv4 transition service?

Are they trying jump-start an IPv4 address space underground economy?

Like the authors say, we’ll just have to wait and see.

What do you think?

What is Redmond up to?

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Category: IPv6 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
RB | October 22, 2010
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IPv4 Doomsday Pushed Back

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) announced this afternoon (10-20-10) that Interop has returned its unneeded Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address space. The ARIN Press Release explains that Interop was originally allocated a /8 before ARIN’s existence and the availability of smaller-sized address blocks.

Another press release indicates that Interop founder Dan Lynch acquired the addresses block to allow for unfettered Interoperability Testing between TCP/IP equipment vendors in the formative years of the Internet. Interop will continue to use a small part of the original grant to continue Interop’s 25-year mission to foster industry-wide interoperability, while returning the rest of the address block to ARIN for the greater good of the Internet community.  The organization recently realized it was only using a small part of its address block and that returning the rest to ARIN would be for the greater good of the Internet community.

ARIN will accept the returned space and not reissue it for a short period, per existing operational procedure. After the hold period, ARIN will follow global policy at that time and return it to the global free pool or distribute the space to those organizations in the ARIN region with documented need, as appropriate.

With less than 5% of the IPv4 address space left in the global free pool, ARIN warns that Interop’s return will not significantly extend the life of IPv4. ARIN continues to emphasize the need for all Internet stakeholders to adopt the next generation of Internet Protocol, IPv6.

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As the original poster at Slashdot points out, if any of the other IPv4 /8 address holders return their unused addresses, the IPv4 exhaustion date would be pushed back even further. I wonder what some of these companies plan on doing with all of these IP addresses?

  • HP has 32 million publicly routable addresses (16 million of its own and 16 million from DEC which HP acquired when it ingested Compaq) most of which seem to used to handle VoIP calls to India for sales and support calls.
  • Is Ford going to install a IPv4/IPv6 gateway on all the cars with My Ford Touch, an upgrade of Sync, its in-car Internet service with Microsoft?
  • How is the USPS using it 16 million IP addresses?

Some IPv4 /8 Address Holders

PrefixDesignationDate
003/8General Electric Company 1994-05
004/8 Level 3 Communications, Inc.1992-12
008/8 Level 3 Communications, Inc.1992-12
009/8IBM 1992-08
012/8 AT&T Bell Laboratories 1995-06
013/8Xerox Corporation 1991-09
015/8Hewlett-Packard Company 1994-07
016/8 Digital Equipment Corporation 1994-11
017/8Apple Computer Inc. 1992-07
018/8MIT 1994-01
019/8Ford Motor Company 1995-05
034/8 Halliburton Company 1993-03
035/8MERIT Computer Network 1994-04
040/8Eli Lily & Company 1994-06
048/8Prudential Securities Inc. 1995-05
054/8Merck and Co., Inc. 1992-03
056/8 US Postal Service 1994-06
The allocation of IPv4 address space to various registries is listed at www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.xml.

This gadget has been developed by Takashi Arano, Intec NetCore

Category: IPv6, Networking | Tags: , , , , ,
RB | November 7, 2009
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IPv6 Growing Despite Economy

ipv6The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) reports that demands for IPv6 address space is growing.  According to the 10-19-09 article, Next-generation Internet defies recession on NetworkWorld, during the first nine months of 2009, ARIN  received 300 requests from carriers for blocks of IPv6 address space. This compares to 250 requests received in all of 2008 and 2007.

“We’re seeing an uptick in IPv6 address space requests; it’s a very significant aringrowth rate,” says John Curran, president and CEO of ARIN. “We’ve seen a slight slowdown in IPv4 address space requests…It’s probably dropped off 10% or 20% year over year.”

Curran says ARIN is beginning to see ISPs such as Comcast and Verizon Wireless put a great deal of effort into migrating from IPv4-based networks to those built using IPv6.

“ISPs are asking for IPv6 addresses so they can make their networks IPv6-enabled so they are ready [for the future],” Curran says. “We give each ISP enough IPv6 addresses to support 4 billion networks, and each network can contain trillions and trillions of hosts.”

Curran says the recession is not hampering carriers’ interest in IPv6. “IPv6 solves a problem that hasn’t happened yet. So seeing any demand is surprising, and it means that organizations are planning ahead,” Curran says. “The current weakness in the economy…is not dampening down IPv6 demand significantly because IPv6 is right around the corner for ISPs. We may be two years away from the IPv4 free pool of addresses running out, but two years if you’re an ISP is enough time to get one network deployed. Two years is within everyone’s planning horizon.”

ARIN plans several policy changes to push carriers towards IPv6 adoption. These include:

* Allowing ARIN to reduce the size of IPv4 address space allocations to carriers as the industry gets closer to IPv4 address depletion.

* Increasing access to IPv6 address space by removing the requirement for carriers to first demonstrate that they have hundreds of customers.

* Allowing carriers to run multiple, discrete IPv6 networks that don’t have to be connected to each other, such as community networks.

* Reconsideration of a current policy that requires the regional registries including ARIN to evenly divide up any IPv4 space they are able to recover.

This gadget has been developed by Takashi Arano, Intec NetCore

Category: IPv6, Networking | Tags: , , ,
RB | July 28, 2009
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Feds to Test IPv6

ipv6NetworkWord is reporting that the U.S. government has reportedly launch a comprehensive product testing program for IPv6. The new program, USGv6 Test Program , will be run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will require all network hardware and software vendors to pass IPv6 compliance and interoperability tests before they can sell their products to the U.S. federal government market. The NIST IPv6 test plan covers basic IPv6 functionality as well as related standards such as: IP Security (IPsec), Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2 ), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv6), Open Shortest Path First (OSPFv3), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP4+) and multicast requirements in MLDv2 .

nistThe USGv6 program will allow vendors to run IPv6 compliance tests in their own labs as long as the labs are accredited by NIST, but they must run IPv6 interoperability testing in someone else’s lab. Erica Johnson, Director of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory told NetworkWorld, “The way that the NIST profile is going to work is that conformance testing can be done in an accredited first-party [vendor], second-party [buyer] or third-party [independent] lab…But the interoperability testing must be done in a second-party or third-party lab.”

The time-frame for the USGv6 Test Program is tight. NIST is expected to publish this week [July 31] the final version of its IPv6 test specifications  aka Special Publication 500-273 and to finalize its test plan in November 2009. Testing labs are to be accredited before the end of the calendar year. Network vendors will have six months to get their routers, operating systems, firewalls and other security systems through IPv6 testing prior to the federal government’s July 2010 acquisition deadline.

By July 2010, federal agencies will be required to purchase only hosts, routers and network security systems that have been tested for IPv6 compliance. Vendors must issue a “Suppliers’ Declaration of Conformity” that states host and router products have been tested for IPv6 compliance and interoperability, while security products must undergo functional IPv6 testing. All of the testing must be done in NIST-accredited labs.

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It’s about time – I have been including IPv6 requirements in RFP’s for over 6 years. It is amazing to watch the vendors tap-dance arounf what IPv6 compatibility means. Only some of these products from Cisco or Foundry Brocade are IPv6 compatible depending on the image you buy. I guess the real trick will be to get a”Suppliers’ Declaration of Conformity” if you are not a Fed.

Category: IPv6, Networking | Tags: , ,
RB | March 8, 2009
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IPv4 Addresses Drying Up In China

Over at ChinaTechNews, they are reporting that China may soon run out of IP addresses. According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNIC), under the current allocation speed, China’s IPv4 address resources can only meet the demand of 830 more days, which means approximately January 01, 2011. Li Kai, director in charge of the IP business for CNNIC’s international department, says that new IPv6 network addresses are only used among educational networks in China.

RB- So apparently, China isn’t much further along with IPv6 deployment than Europe (GEANT)  and North America (Internet2), where the research/educational community primarily has large IPv6 networks

Category: IPv6, Networking | Tags: , , , ,
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