Her study is expected to help policy-makers, vendors and managers understand the barriers organisations face in adopting IPv6, and the factors that enable them to overcome these barriers.

Awinder is looking to interview executives and managers from organisations that have implemented or are planning to implement IPv6.

More information about Awinder’s research is available below. If you are interested in participating, please email her at awkaur [at] aut.ac.nz.

Information sheet – AUT doctoral research (IPv6)

Prepared by the Task Force in conjunction with InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc), the whitepaper is intended to be  used as a primer for enterprises in New Zealand, to encourage them to adopt IPv6 in a cost effective and low risk manner.

The 22-page whitepaper acts as a roadmap for the adoption of IPv6. The target audience for its ‘adoption’ message is any organisation which uses Internet Protocol technology within New Zealand.

The whitepaper can be downloaded and read at the following link:

NZ IPv6 Task Force whitepaper – IPv6 Adoption by New Zealand Enterprise

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IPv6 makes mobile networks faster
ExtremeTech – 16 January 2013

“At CES in Las Vegas, a panel of experts on Internet Protocol technology discussed IPv6 and the benefits of having mobile devices use IPv6 instead of IPv4. As it turns out, IPv6 offers some pretty substantial benefits over IPv4 for mobile networks and the devices that connect to them.”

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/145765-ipv6-makes-mobile-networks-faster

PlusNet Tests IP Address-Sharing As IPv6 Fails To Take Off
TechWeek Europe – 15 January 2013

“PlusNet, the Sheffield-based ISP owned by BT, is testing a controversial scheme in which all its customers could share one IP address through Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT). The move, made necessary by the slow progress of the new protocol IPv6, could limit customers’ Internet actions and cause problems with tracking abuse or criminal action.”

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/plusnet-ipv4-ipv6-nap-networking-104349

IPv6 can boost mobile performance, battery life, proponents say
Network World – 11 January 2013

“IPv6, the next version of the Internet Protocol, could make life easier and battery life longer for electronics-addicted consumers. Much of the push for IPv6 has been focused on the requirements of enterprises and the challenges they face in making the transition from the current protocol, IPv4. If device makers and service providers do their jobs right, consumers won’t even know it when they start using IPv6, but they do stand to benefit, proponents of IPv6 said in a panel discussion at International CES on Thursday.”

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/011113-ipv6-can-boost-mobile-performance-265733.html

IPv6 takes one step forward, IPv4 two steps back in 2012
Ars Technica – 5 January 2013

“IPv6 rollout is still inefficient with problems ahead, but there is slow progress.”

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/01/ipv6-takes-one-step-forward-ipv4-two-steps-back-in-2012/

IPv6 shift puts cash-strapped telcos in a fix
The Times of India – 27 December 2012

“India’s much-delayed transition to the next-generation technology standard for internet communication-IPv6 – have put country’s telecommunication and internet services providers in a quandary as they must now spend on technology to prepare for the change.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/internet/IPv6-shift-puts-cash-strapped-telcos-in-a-fix/articleshow/17778269.cms

Featuring a variety of Ministerial press releases, speeches, and other information relating to the running of the country, the Beehive website is frequently updated and understood to be highly trafficked.

The New Zealand IPv6 Task Force congratulates the worker bees responsible for this IPv6-enabling!

The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has announced that 80 percent of Australian government agencies will be externally IPv6 capable by the end of the year, with the remainder by Q2 next year.

Speaking at the 8th annual Australian IPv6 Summit, AGIMO’s John Hillier says since developing and releasing its mandated IPv6 transition strategy in 2008 public sector uptake has been pleasing.

AGIMO’s latest statistics show that:

• 100% of agencies have reviewed their procurment policies, ensuring that IPv6 is specified for all new equipment purchases.
• 83% of agencies have more than 75% of their ICT hardware IPv6 ready. The lag is due to refresh cycles, says Hillier.
• Over 60% of agencies have applied for IPv6 address space.
• 83% of agencies are “on the way” to having their operating systems IPv6 ready.
• 60% of agencies have made concrete steps in upgrading other “necessary” applications.
• 6 of Australia’s 8 lead government agencies are on track to having upgraded their ICT gateways by the end of the year. 47% of client agencies have made significant progress and are also expected to meet that deadline.

Thanks to the Australian Government’s IPv6 mandate, all departments – from the very large to the very small – must roll out IPv6. All Commonwealth authorities and Finanal Management and Accountability Act agencies must also deploy the protocol.

More information about Australia’s IPv6 transition strategy can be found at www.finance.gov.au/e-government/infrastructure/internet-protocol-version-6.html.

ANZIA award-winning service provider Internode today regaled IPv6 Summit attendees with a potted history of its IPv6 journey – a technical tale spanning more than ten years.

The company’s co-founder Simon Hackett says it took its first tentative steps in 2004, obtaining an IPv6 address allocation. It then “connected up” and started learning how IPv6 worked.

Fast forward four years and, in 2008, Internode had dual-stacked its network and began offering native IPv6 access to its fixed line, ethernet port and data centre co-location customers.

In 2009, the company launched an opt-in technical IPv6 trial for its ADSL customers. Hackett admits that, at this time, most people shrugged and carried on as usual. But there were a small number of customers that did enable IPv6 and started their own learning process. By late-2010, hundreds of Internode customers were using IPv6.

Meanwhile, says Hackett, enabling of IPv6 was quietly happening in PCs and laptops. The same thing thing started happening in the smartphone sphere, with OS’s updated for IPv6 and enabled by default.

In January 2012 Internode enabled IPv6 by default through all broadband access paths for all new customers. In the same timeframe, all routers sold by Internode had working IPv6 stacks. And by June 2012 all new routers shipped by the company had IPv6 switched on by default.

Presently, all new Internode ADSL2+ connections are IPv6 enabled, as are its new NBN connections.

Hackett credits the recent World IPv6 Launch as a catalyst for IPv6 growth and points to two factors that will drive further uptake – mobile Internet access in developing markets with rapidly rising customer counts and operators realising that IPv6-only is a lower cost path than using carrier-grade NAT.

The cumulative effect of Internode’s IPv6 activity has seen the adoption rate among its customers rise significantly. The percentage of its customers routing IPv6 packets has risen from 0.1% in late-2010, to 2% in June, to 5% today.

While Hackett notes that the majority of its customers don’t care about IP addressing, from a business point of view, the enormity of the fact that IPv4 numbers have run out is now the prime motivator.

Australian telco Telstra is making steady progress with the adoption of IPv6 across its suite of service offerings.

Speaking at the Australian IPv6 Summit, Telstra’s David Woodgate says its business and enterprise-grade products are tracking well from an IPv6 perspective. These customers can take advantage of IPv6 over ethernet, IPv6 for IP VPNs and IPv6-supported DoS protection. There is also a managed secure network gateway which has been dual-stacked, and IPv6-supported ADSL will soon be available for its enterprise, government and business services.

Consumer is lagging however, with lack of IPv6 support in CPE still a major issue. Moreover, as Woodgate points out, “If you force IPv6 on millions of customers at once it’s risky for business. A controlled release is needed”. He says that consumers don’t care about whether their connections are IPv4 or IPv6. They just want them to work.

In a promising sign of things to come the company has been running a single stack IPv6 trial on its wireless LTE network. And Woodgate reassured the audience that Telstra will soon have its principal portals running on IPv6, along with its managed services, VPN extensions and machine to machine applications. Any new product development will, as a matter of course, also incorporate IPv6 compatibility, he says.

With respect to industry uptake of IPv6, Woodgate sketched out four ‘phases’ – experimentation, early implementation, transition and completion.

Prior to 2010, the industry was largely experimenting with IPv6. That experimentation phase, he says, is now dead.

Industry is now dabbling in the early implementation phase, where ISPs become serious about IPv6 build. Overall, IPv6 traffic is still relatively low, but providers are obtaining valuable experience about how to run IPv6 properly in their networks.

Next is the transition phase, which Woodgate says is yet to truly arrive. While there will still be a large IPv4 presence, IPv6-only offerings will increasingly be seen, along with dual stack content and significant amounts of IPv6 traffic. IPv6 will also come as standard on CPE.

Finally, comes the completion phase, in which IPv6 is preferred. There will be IPv6-only content, and a reducing amount of IPv4. This phase is some way off picks Woodgate, likely to be well into the next decade.

Telstra is seeing more dual stack deployed globally and in Australia, but this remains the exception rather than the rule, says Woodgate. He predicts more IPv6 adoption pressure points arriving as the European Registry RIPE exhausts its IPv4 supply and APNIC navigates the aftermath of its recent exhaustion.

Watch this space …

IPv6 adoption grew globally by 150% in the past year, according to Google, and the Internet giant predicts that, at this rate, 50% of its users will be using the protocol in six years.

Speaking at the 8th annual Australian IPv6 Summit, Google’s Jen Linkova says that the World IPv6 Launch event in June 2012 has done much to spur IPv6 awareness and growth.

With over 2,000 participants, World IPv6 Launch saw a number of the world’s largest content providers and service providers permanently switch on IPv6.

“The Launch proved that IPv6 is being used and we are seeing it being deployed around the world in almost every access technology including cable, DSL and LTE,” says Linkova.

During World IPv6 Launch, Google saw a 75 percent increase in IPv6 queries per second. Other IPv6-related statistics compiled by Google show that AT&T has enabled IPv6 for 1 million subscribers; 20% of LTE Verizon Wireless users are now using native IPv6, and closer to home, 3.5% of Internode (Australia) subscribers are using native IPv6.

The Internet giant permanently measures IPv6 adoption among Google users – the adoption figure for Australia is 0.31%; the New Zealand figure is 0.23%.

More details at www.google.com/ipv6.

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has 2.83 /8s of IPv4 space remaining and will run out completely in either the first or second quarter of next year, it was announced today.

Speaking at the 8th annual Australian IPv6 Summit, ARIN President and CEO John Curran reiterated that global depletion has effectively arrived. Each Regional Internet Registry (RIR) received its last /8 (a block of 16 million IPv4 addresses) from IANA on 3 February 2011 and there are no more IPv4 addresses left in the central pool.

Describing IPv4 as the protocol that has led to the success of the Internet, Curran says it’s now time to move on and he took the opportunity to hammer home the importance of IPv6 for all organisations.

“Every organisation, at a minimum, needs to make its servers reachable via IPv4 and IPv6 because the public Internet is now IPv4 and IPv6,” he says. “If you’re only installing a server via IPv4 you’re not reaching the entire Internet and are shortchanging yourself. This also goes for web, mail and applications.”

ISP requests for IPv6 address space have been ramping up steadily in the ARIN region, with most already having approached ARIN with prefix requests. Actual IPv6 assignments show growth in both the end user and ISP realms.

A recent survey of all RIR members – the 2012 NRO Global IPv6 Deployment Survey – shows that IPv6 is gaining traction. 77% of respondants have some IPv6 presence, up from 40% in previous years.

In respect to the IPv4 resale market, ARIN has adopted what it calls ‘specified transfer policies’ where a party can transfer their v4 addresses to another party who needs them.

“We’ve had a lot of uptake,” says Curran. “For those organisations who’ve been asleep at the switch, transfer policies like these act as an airbag for those who haven’t had their IPv6 seatbelts on.

“IPv4 transfer capabilty is important. It will help bring under-utilised IPv4 back into use. But remember that there’s only a one or two year supply in aggregate because the demand is so high.”

Curran also provided a useful summary of IPv6’s history, for the uninitiated. The Internet Engineering Task Force began work on the protocol as early as 1993. It has been completed, tested and available since 1999 and is used and managed in much the same way as IPv4.

IPv6 provides a phenomenal 340 undecillion addresses and, while Curran says RIRs can afford to be generous in allocating IPv6 addresses they must also be careful, “allocating in such a way that ensures IPv6 is the last protocol change we ever make”.

The recent World IPv6 Launch Day did an excellent job of lifting overall IPv6 awareness, says Curran, and he envisions a situation in the not-too-distant-future when people will stop talking about IPv6 deployment and start talking about the whole Internet again.

The 8th annual Australian IPv6 Summit kicked off in fine style this morning, with global computing giants HP and Cisco positioning IPv6 front and centre of an increasingly networked and connected world.

The Internet is now a mission critical piece of infrastructure for almost all businesses and organisations, a point stressed by Yanick Pouffary from HP. This view was backed by Cisco’s Fred Baker, who noted that the Internet is expected to rapidly grow over the next several years, both in terms of subscriber numbers and the value of the Internet to countries’ GDP.

However, Pouffary says the recent IPv4 address run-out has seen the Internet “running on empty”. The European Regional Internet Registry RIPE, for example, exhausted its pool of IPv4 addresses a few weeks ago and the American Registry ARIN is likely to run out in 2013.

In considering “when IPv6 will become more important than IPv4,” Baker says that IPv6 adoption is following an S-type adoption curve. He claims that adoption will start to self-propel when the S curve crosses 28 percent.

“We are at 15 percent worldwide,” he says. “Within the next equipment lifecycle it will start to self-propel. The biggest delay problem at present is the residential gateway – the box sitting in the house which is often IPv4 only.”

Baker claims that when the S curve reaches 70 percent businesses will begin discussing turning IPv4 off. He says this will start happening in about five year’s time, with some businesses such as China Mobile already experimenting and talking publicly about moving away from IPv4 entirely.

Many businesses have responded to the IPv4 / IPv6 issue by employing a translation technology known as NAT (Network Address Translation). Such “band aid” models, however, can’t be sustained, according to Pouffary.

The killer application for businesses is now connectivity, she says, and for business continuity reasons they simply must have a presence on both the IPv4 and IPv6 Internet. She notes the ability of the IPv6 protocol to connect almost everything, saying that for the world to continue to embrace the mobility and Cloud era, IPv6 is vital.

“Those that move to IPv6 are able to leverage the strengths of the protocol. It’s more than just a larger addressing space. It’s about end-to-end services and applications, better suport for QoS, enhanced mobility, the Internet of Things and smart grids.”

Cisco’s Baker agrees, saying that every 3 to 5 years the Internet fundamentally changes in respect of the  payload it carries. Video-based content and smart grid and monitoring-style applications, for example, are on the rise.

“On the commercial backbone, video is becoming dominant, primarily from ICPs that colocate with some or all of an ISPs POPs. In private networks we’re seeing distributed telemetry and distributed control.”

Alluding to Douglas Adam’s book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Baker says that when businesses deploy a new technology a key consideration is when they think it is their problem or “SEP – somebody else’s problem”.

“For the majority of service providers, IPv6 is not somebody else’s problem and the ability to deploy IPv6 is extremely important from a business perspective. For enterprise networks, IPv6 can be somebody else’s problem but this depends on the context. A problem arises when their customers, partners and suppliers can’t talk to them and vice versa. For the customers of residential broadband networks, IPv4 versus IPv6 is defintely somebody else’s problem,” he says.

In exploring transition to IPv6, both Pouffary and Baker encourage businesses to look at their transformation in a holistic manner. Businesses must examine their network architecture options but must also thoroughly plan for IPv6, looking at how it can help achieve their business and IT goals.