IPv6: The NEXT BIG BAIL-OUT: Will IPv6 Save the Internet?

摘要

The long discussed and debated transition to IPv6 did not happen over the past ten years with the objectives of achieving a smooth and low-cost Internet sustainability through incremental refresh of technology. The source can be traced back in the mixed messages sent to industry on the hard-to-justify ROI, the address depletion confusion (between 2010 by Tony Hain -2030 by Geoff Houston) and the invented myth of lack of market demand as IP is a simple plumbing that only engineers should fix and offer as an extended service to sustain the Internet growth and continuity. Now, it's abundantly clear that the address space is going to be consumed in just the next 24 months, putting an end to the growth of the Internet. The address space is now down to just 12% left. Well congrats! http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html No IPv4 addresses means simply no new routers can be connected, no new email servers, no new web servers, no mobile devices, and no new users from developed and especially developing nations. IPv6 readiness is going to be a challenge to achieve by 2010. All Internet stakeholders are responsible for this situation and they should take their role seriously and face the hard facts and do something about it. The European Commission has taken a strong leadership way ahead of industry and marked its stamp on promoting Europe as the largest pioneer in the deployment of IPv6 through the funding of more 100 M? of projects over the past 10 years. Looking at the number of active IPv6 prefixes, it is clear that the European ISPs have the lion's share of IPv6 prefixes with over 50%, however only a handful of the largest IPSs are offering services over IPv6 and therefore putting Europe way behind the US and Asia, lagging behind not listening to its biggest customers and not offering IPv6 services to end-users denying them the new innovative services to empower end users with two-way interactive Internet services.