NZRS technical specialist Sebastian Castro travelled to Éire this month for the RIPE 66 Conference. Whilst there, he witnessed an interesting IPv6-related presentation – titled ‘IPv6 Cisco Live 2013’. For those interested, a copy of the presentation is available online at the following link:
https://ripe66.ripe.net/
Sponsored by InternetNZ in conjunction with the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force, three expert speakers featured – Convenor of the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force Dr Murray Milner, InternetNZ technical policy advisor Dean Pemberton and REANNZ CIO Sam Sargeant – each of whom took to the subject-matter with gusto.
Milner began proceedings with a meaningful analysis of IPv6 and ‘what the problem is’. That problem, in a nutshell, is IPv4 address exhaustion and the fact that its replacement protocol – IPv6 – is not backwards compatible.
IPv4 is the addressing protocol that originated with the Internet. The number of IPv4 addresses, now exhausted, total only 4 billion – a paltry figure when one considers the press of humanity and astonishing growth of networked devices, especially mobile. One estimate suggests that by the year 2020 there could be 7 billion Internet users and 7 trillion devices. This emerging ‘Internet of Things’ will unquestionably be driven by IPv6 addressing.
In our now IPv4-scarce world there is a range of alternatives. For example, it is possible to buy IPv4 addresses on auction sites such as eBay. However, this starts to fragment address ranges and is not a sustainable option, says Milner. Another alternative is to stay with IPv4 and make use of NAT (Network Address Translation). NAT however comes with several fishooks, he cautions – including degraded network performance, scalability and cost.
These alternatives also do not take into account a more sobering reality – that three of the world’s largest-growing economies (China, India and Indonesia) are growing from very low to very large Internet penetration off the back of IPv6.
“As more entities and developing countries make use of IPv6-only addresses, innovation on the Internet will start to occur on the IPv6 Internet.”
This is not something that garden variety Internet users need lose sleep over, but enterprises must acquaint themselves with the issue. The only long-term sustainable solution for enterprise, says Milner, is IPv6 adoption.
Those enterprises without an IPv6 capability, warns Milner, risk missing out on business opportunities in these IPv6-only pockets and could even lose contact with customers and suppliers.
Pemberton followed up with an impassioned presentation, highlighting what he is seeing at a global level with IPv6 deployment. His messages were four-fold – IPv6 is real and here; IPv6 is essential for reaching the entire Internet; IPv6 will soon be the default training protocol and; if IPv6 is deployed correctly enterprises can minimise their investment.
The amount of IPv6 traffic on the Internet is growing day-by-day, increasingly being deployed on large-scale mobile networks and by content providers such as Google, Wikipedia, Akamai, Yahoo, Facebok and Verizon Wireless. Pemberton claims that these content providers are witnessing huge jumps in how much traffic is delivered over IPv6, with “exponential growth” at Google, the Amsterdam Internet Exchange regularly seeing “6-7 GBs of IPv6 traffic per second” and “a majority” of traffic at Louisiana State University now IPv6.
“IPv4 is now the also-ran. IPv6 is real, here and is being used by massive global players. Stop asking if and when. The question now is how can you join.”
Pemberton heavily stressed the need for enterprises to enable IPv6 if they wish to reach the entire Internet. He, too, noted that many of the countries exhibiting Internet growth are the least developed nations.
“New Zealand is an export driven economy and our export markets are deploying IPv6. We need to ensure that our customers can contact us and vice versa.”
IPv6 will soon be the default training protocol. APNIC – the regional Internet registry for Asia Pacific – is looking at ways to make IPv6 the default protocol taught in its workshops and Pemberton claims that at least one network engineering course at a New Zealand university is looking to do the same.
Wrapping up his suite of messages, Pemberton noted that if IPv6 deployment is approached in a sensible manner as part of normal hardware refresh cycles it will cost a minimal amount. But, engineering in a crisis will cost money. He wound up with a question directed squarely at the CIO audience – “Where would you like to spend your money? On ways to keep IPv4 working, on ways to reduce reliance on IPv4, or on deploying IPv6?”
Bringing a real-world deployment perspective into the frame, Sargeant succinctly outlined REANNZ’s IPv6 journey – a story previously reported at www.ipv6.org.nz/2011/09/07/reannz-lives-the-ipv6-story.
Copies of the three presentations are available below:
Dr Murray Milner – Introduction to IPv6 Adoption with New Zealand Enterprises
]]>A full run-down of the meeting – including copies of all presentations – is available online at www.apricot2013.net/program/apipv6tf.
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NZNOG13 Is Upon Us
Register early for NZNOG13 and receive a free Mikrotik wireless access point and router!!
The New Zealand Network Operators Group (NZNOG) is holding its annual conference and training workshops and tutorials in Wellington from the 21st to 25th January 2012.
Training workshops and tutorials run from the 21st to the 23rd of January. The conference is then held on the 24th and 25th of January.
This annual conference provides both an opportunity to exchange technical information, and a high-value opportunity for NZ’s networking staff to ‘network’ amongst themselves. This is New Zealand’s only technical networking conference.
The event will be held at the Mecure Hotel in Wellington. Accommodation is available on site at a discounted rate for conference attendees as well as in the immediate area.
Registrations are open. The cost of attendance has been confirmed at $250, students receive a 60% discount and a fellowship scheme exists should you require assistance to attend.
Conference Presentations 24-25th January
Confirmed presenters for NZNOG13 include:
- Scott Bartlett (Orcon) – UFB one year in
- Andrew McDonald (Vodafone) – RBI Wholesale 12 months.
- Colin Dyer (GeoNet) and Ewen McNeill (Naos, Consultant) – Geonet: 1pps to 10,000 hits/second.
- Beatty Lane-Davis – SDN: accelerating the pace of evolution in packet and transport networks
- Sam Russell (REANNZ) – Thimble: OpenFlow-enabled device
- David Brownlie (REANNZ) – perfSONAR for measuring performance, and troubleshooting.
- Donald Love – UFB realities
- Philip Smith (APNIC) – IPv4 / IPv6 route table analysis for NZ
- Phil Regnauld (NSRC) – DNSSEC
- George Michaelson (APNIC) – Last words on IPv6
- Stu Fleming (WIC) – On being a WISP
Plus updates from NZRS, APNIC, CityLink, IPv6 Task Force, WAND and InternetNZ.
Tutorials – 23rd January
Mikrotik wireless and routing systems (full day)
APNIC – Internet Resource Management IRMe (half day)
APNIC – DNSSEC (half day)
IPv6 Security – Karl Auer IPv6Now (half day)
TBC
Workshops – 21st – 23rd January
IPV6 BGP Routing – Philip Smith (APNIC)
This workshop is targeted at engineers and network administrators from both ISPs and SOHO/enterprise networks.
ISP network topology overview
ISP IP Addressing Plan
Introduction of Internet routing infrastructure
2 Byte and 4 Byte AS Numbers
BGP operation
Understanding BGP metric and path selection process
Configuring BGP within an AS [iBGP, route reflector]
Configuring BGP between ASes [eBGP]
Controlling routing update traffic [prefix list, distribute list, route map]
Route Summarization with BGP
BGP Traffic engineering [MED, Local Pref, AS-Path prepend]
It is highly recommended that participants bring their own laptop computers (At least Pentium 4, 1gb Ram, DVD drive, with administrative access to system) to practice the lessons learned during the workshops.
DNSSec Workshop – Phil Regnauld
The course is designed for network engineers, systems administrators, and anyone who is involved in managing DNS operations.
DNS concepts
BIND (DNS server) and Resolver (DNS client) configurations
Reverse DNS
DNS Security
TSIG
DNS security extensions (DNSSEC)
DNS and IPv6
Social Events
Wednesday Night Event
The Southern Cross bar on Abel Smith Street has been confirmed for the networking event sponsored by Network Hardware Resale. The Southern Cross (affectionately known as ‘The Cross’) is somewhat of an icon in Wellington with unique decor and an impressive range of boutique beers – not to mention their legendary stone grills and Kiwiana inspired menus. Kick off will be 6PM, Wednesday the 23rd of January.
Thursday Night Conference Dinner
One of the highlights of the NZNOG conferences each year is the conference dinner which provides an opportunity for attendees to get together, relax and enjoy a night out. The 2013 event will be held at Zealandia: The Karori Wildlife Experience and promises to be a great night! Buses will leave the conference venue for Zealandia at 6PM on Thursday the 24th of January.
Accommodation Options
Mercure is offering an exclusive room rate for NZNOG attendees starting from:
$115.00 room only
$135.00 bed and breakfast for one guest, 1 room
$155.00 bed and breakfast for two guests, 1 room
* Rates include GST.
* Rates are per room per night, based on single, double or twin share occupancy
To book contact Dean on [email protected] and mention you are with attending NZNOG 2013
http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/
Multiple other accommodation options within Wellington exist.
Sponsors
NZNOG is grateful for the support received from its Conference sponsors.
Platinum Sponsor
- Vocus Communications
Gold Sponsors
- Go Wireless NZ
- Internet New Zealand
- Network Hardware Resale
- Alcatel Lucent
- Citylink
- Kordia
Silver Sponsors
- Fortinet
- Opengear
- Brocade
- ISPANZ
Bronze Sponsors
- Allied Telesis
For further information:
To register: http://www.nznog.org/register
Follow NZNOG on Twitter: @NZNOG
Susbscribe to the NZNOG mailing list: http://www.nznog.org/mailing-
Visit the conference website: http://nznog.org
The introduction of the next generation Internet based on IPv6 should be of great interest to all users of the Internet and hence it is appropriate for the Task Force to support this event, he says.
“The Task Force has previously supported the NetHuis held in Auckland and received considerable value from the interaction with people interested in all aspects of the Internet. We expect that the same will be true of the first regional NetHui in Dunedin.”
“In this regard we encourage people from across the Dunedin and the lower South Island communities to participate in the NetHui South event. We are certain that there will be topics and discussions of interest to every user of the Internet. This will not just be on technical topics but cover the full range of social, business, education and health issues related to the use of and enhancement of the Internet. Your participation will add to the richness and diversity of the conversation at this NetHui.”
More information about NetHui South – including how to register – is available at www.nethui.org.nz.
In respect of IPv6 more generally, Milner notes that the last IPv4 addresses are currently being distributed globally and says it is time to adopt the IPv6 address scheme to ensure the Internet can continue to grow without bounds.
“In order to enable a smooth and low risk and cost adoption of IPv6 the Task Force encourages early consideration of this change so that it can be easily incorporated into normal business as usual upgrade and refresh plans for any entity using the Internet.
“For most residential consumers and small businesses the effort involved will be minimal, with most of the work being done by their ISP. For larger enterprises, there needs to be a planned programme of work, which if undertaken over a period of time can be quite painless.”
]]>Hosted by the New Zealand Network Operators Group, NZNOG 2013 is the country’s only technical networking conference, and features a host of plenary sessions, practical workshops and tutorials.
Spaces are limited, so register now and join your fellow ICT specialists for a feast of information sharing, technical up-skilling and professional networking.
To register, please visit http://www.nznog.org/register
What: NZNOG 2013
When: 21 – 25 January 2013
Where: Mercure Hotel, Wellington
The platinum conference sponsor is Vocus Communications.
—-
Conference structure
NZNOG 2013 incorporates two three-day practical workshops, a one-day of technical tutorials and the conference-proper.
Workshops: 21 to 23 January, 2013
Advanced routing – taught by Philip Smith, APNIC
DNSSEC – trainer to be confirmed
Tutorial: 23 January, 2013
Topics to be confirmed
Conference-proper: 24 – 25 January, 2013
Programme and keynote speakers to be confirmed
A range of pricing options are available, including a heavily-discounted student registration:
- Main conference (waged) – $250.00
- Main conference (student) – $50.00
- Practical workshop (advanced routing or DNSSEC) – $150.00
- Tutorial – $50.00
Conference Fellowships available
Assistance is available to those people that mightn’t otherwise be able to attend NZNOG 2013 but have a lot to offer to, or gain from, the NZNOG community. Fellowships are open to all – employed, unemployed, students, programmers.
Fellowships will cover conference and tutorial registration fees, and accommodation. Travel assistance may also be considered.
Applicants must:
Write a few paragraphs explaining why they need a fellowship to NZNOG 2013 and what they hope to get out of it.
Demonstrate a history of involvement in some aspect of the NZNOG community or an intent to become involved, and how attending NZNOG 2013 will benefit them.
Actually attend the NZNOG sessions!
Fellowship prospects will be helped greatly if applicants are presenting, or intend to present a conference paper, lightning talk or otherwise contribute to the conference.
If you are interested in being considered for a fellowship please e-mail [email protected].
More information
More information about NZNOG 2013 can be found at www.nznog.org.
For sponsorship opportunities please contact [email protected].
]]>In 2011, Internode became the first broadband company in Australia to offer IPv6 as a standard service. Commenting about Internode’s IPv6 activity, the ANZIAs judges noted that:
Internode shows clear leadership in the industry and are a deserving winner of this years’ IPv6 Award. The launch of native IPv6 connectivity for all of their new customers, means these customers no longer making any distinction between IPv4 and IPv6 services. The judges see this to be a major step forward in the seamless delivery of IP services for its customers and, as such, provides an exemplar for ISPs in Australasia. This organisation participated in World IPv6 Launch and achieved around 2.5% IPv6 traffic, which is more than double the target set by the Launch organiser.
Studentnet specialises in Internet services to Australian schools and has created an IPv6 collaborative network for schools based on delivering IPv6 networking infrastructure into the school environment. The judges noted that:
It is encouraging to learn that students could enable IPv6 access in their campus networks on World IPv6 Day in 2011 and the World IPv6 Launch in 2012. The judges agreed that Studentnet has been a pioneer in the use of IPv6 technology for several years and should be rewarded for its’ efforts to educate “next generation” end users with new IP protocol and also Internet security issues.
More information about the ANZIA Awards is available at www.internetawards.org.au.
]]>His presentation focuses on the country’s overall IPv6 landscape, leveraging the Task Force’s recently-released quarterly metrics report. A copy is available below:
]]>Pageviews were up 10 times in percentage terms compared with pageviews on a normal day. That is, 450 pageviews on Launch Day compared with c.sub-30 pageviews normally. The share of hompage-views versus metrics-views also increased, with the metrics page being the second most popular.
Launch Day also received a good amount of coverage in the New Zealand Press. For more details, check out the following Google Document:
]]>Clark’s message to the audience was simple; IPv6 is happening, whether you like it or not. It’s better to orderly progress IPv6 rather than chaotically change, and deploying IPv6 is simply “best practice”.
The Task Force promotes a low-cost ‘business-as-usual’ approach to IPv6 adoption. Clark says the first step is to “acknowledge” that IPv6 is happening. In a nod to the recent success of World IPv6 Launch, Clark, for example, noted that 70 percent of pageviews on the global Internet are now available via IPv6 and the protocol is slowly but surely penetrating the global Internet.
In New Zealand, native IPv6 traffic is still relatively small at 0.11 percent. In France, by contrast, the figure is nearer five percent. However, New Zealand is well advanced from an infrastructure point-of-view, ranking among the top countries for percentage of networks announcing IPv6.
As a significant purchaser of ICT, the public sector is incredibly important from an IPv6 adoption perpective and, while the New Zealand Government hasn’t mandated IPv6, many other countries have. This is significant, says Clark, because 72 percent of New Zealand’s export trade by value is to countries where there is some form of government IPv6 mandate.
“If we want to continue to be able to access government supply contracts in those markets we need to be able to accept and respond in IPv6,” he says.
The pointy end of IPv6 road-mapping involves specifying boxes that have feature parity between v4 and v6 and drafting ICT policies that are IP-version agnostic. “Start with your website or a key service, pick off some key wins and repeat until complete,” says Clark.
This appears to be happening in New Zealand’s public service, with an increasing number of high profile government websites up-and-running on IPv6. These include the Ministry of Science & Innovation, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Primary Industries, the Ministry of Culture & Heritage and the Department of Internal Affairs. The Government DNS is also now fully IPv6-enabled.
More information on New Zealand’s general state of IPv6 readiness is available at www.ipv6.org.nz/metrics
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