You are forgiven if you missed IPv6’s birthday (I did). The next-generation network addressing scheme turned 6 years old back in June. June 06, 2012, was World IPv6 Launch Day when everybody was supposed to permanently enable IPv6 on their networks. The results – not so good. There are global highlights but 3/4’s of internet users still regularly connect to the Intertubes over legacy IPv4.
The Internet Society rightly points out that enterprise operations tend to be the “elephant in the room” when it comes to IPv6 deployment. If only 26% of networks advertise IPv6 autonomous system prefixes, 74% do not. Most of the 3/4ths not using IPv6 are likely to be enterprise networks.
Enterprises have traditionally been reluctant to embrace IPv6 — there has been no real need to implement it, with many seeing it as an additional cost and risk with no direct use for their daily business. Cost can include monetary assets, but also people and time
Migrating to IPv6 will be hard. The migration will involve all departments of the organization and every piece of equipment connected to the network. Then consider that the migration will be made over time and that everyone needs to be on the same page working together for the best outcome and smoothest transition.
Legacy systems can be defined basically as older systems. They likely are missing some common functionality from current technology, but still exist because they perform a key or important function for the organization just fine, thus there is no reason to replace it. However, this attitude is starting to change.
Larger and more tech-savvy enterprises are forging innovative paths forward. CircleID points out Microsoft (MSFT), which made one of the first publicly announced purchases of IPv4 address space, reportedly purchasing 666,000 addresses at $11.25 per address in 2011. In a recent blog, Microsoft described the steps is taking to turn off IPv4 and become an IPv6-only company. Their description of their heavily translated IPv4 network includes phrases like “potentially fragile”, and “operationally challenging”, and about dual-stack operations, “complex”.
Outside of the enterprise space, there’s still the rest of the Internet that needs to make the migration. According to the stats in the article, the top carriers in the U.S. still carry less than half of the IPv6 traffic that the Indian ISP Reliance Jio carries. The Internet Society takes the happy view that the excuse that “no one is doing IPv6” is gone. For many people and networks, IPv6 is the new normal and is the future of Internet connectivity.
Some of the highlights for IPv6 are:
- 237 million people in India connect over IPv6.
- Mobile operators are adopting IPv6, some have over 80 or 90% of their devices connecting over IPv6.
- 28% of the Alexa Top 1000 websites are IPv6-enabled.
National mobile networks are driving the global adoption of IPv6. Some mobile networks are taking the step to run IPv6-only to simplify network operations and cut costs. Japan and India are leaders in IPv6 adoption.
The Indian wireless carrier Reliance Jio has an 87% IPv6 rate.
In Japan, the top three wireless carriers are:
U.S. wireless carriers are deploying IPv6 also:
- T-Mobile (TMUS) – 93%,
- Verizon Wireless (VZ) – 84%,
- Sprint (S) – 70%,
- AT&T Wireless (T) – 57%.
Many home and business users get Internet connectivity from broadband ISPs. Many broadband ISPs have deployed IPv6 on their networks. They send the majority of their traffic over IPv6 to major content providers. For example, Comcast (CMCSA), the largest broadband ISP in the U.S. is actively deploying IPv6. Per the World IPv6 Launch website, Comcast has an IPv6 deployment measurement of over 66%. Globally broadband ISPs are also deploying IPv6.
Sky Broadcasting in the UK IPv6 deployment over 86%.- Belgium – VOO 73%.
- The Netherlands – XS4ALL 71%,
- Germany – Deutsche Telekom 56%,
The following table from the Internet Society lists the top IPv6 carriers based on the number of users.
| Rank | ISP | Country | IPv6 Users (estimated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reliance Jio | India | 237,600,764 |
| 2 | Comcast | United States | 36,114,435 |
| 3 | AT&T | United States | 22,305,974 |
| 4 | Vodafone India | India | 18,368,165 |
| 5 | Verizon Wireless | United States | 15,422,684 |
| 6 | Idea Cellular | India | 14,681,694 |
| 7 | Deutsche Telekom AG | Germany | 14,261,836 |
| 8 | T-Mobile USA | United States | 14,057,105 |
| 9 | KDDI Corporation | Japan | 11.871,952 |
| 10 | Sky Broadband | Great Britian | 11,829,610 |
| 11 | Claro | Brazil | 10,235,805 |
| 12 | Softbank | Japan | 8,613,145 |
| 13 | Orange | France | 7,924,119 |
| 14 | AT&T Wireless | United States | 7,694,881 |
| 15 | Cox Communications | United States | 6,316,462 |
| 16 | Kabel Deutschland | Germany | 5,835,590 |
| 17 | SK Telecom | Korea | 5,764,073 |
| 18 | NTT Communications | Japan | 5,596,206 |
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
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