IPv6: The New Platform

The Internet has
inarguably shrunk the world. The number of websites, the kind of information
that is created and accessed everyday is enormous. While the web business is
booming, crunch of IP addresses is becoming a huge challenge, which the industry
stalwarts have long been warning about. The current version of IP addresses
allotted to websites-IPv4-has been the base for the Internet for the past forty
years. But it is almost getting exhausted. By 2011-12, the IPv4 platform would
have already run out of its IP addresses.

India is the second largest telecom market in the world,
and this is definitely going to create a huge demand in the Internet industry,
with the rapid growth of broadband and wireless technologies that will push the
demand for IP addresses in India.

A survey commissioned by the European Commission (EC)
reveals that the organizations have been slow to the adoption of IPv6, the next
generation of Internet addressing protocol. This is jeopardizing Internet growth
and the socio-economic development in various regions.

India is also the second largest member country for APNIC-a
body that allots IP addresses. We consume 0.22% of IPv4 space in the world
today. While the US holds 54.72%, Japan 6.15%, China 4.98%, and Australia (first
in Asia) holds 0.76% of IPv4 space.

Globally, almost 90% of the available IPv4 addresses are
already consumed (only 25/8 IPv4 addresses are available, and are expected to be
exhausted sometime in 2011). It seems unreasonable to expect the current IPv4
based infrastructure to scale up to the demands of the coming decade.

The IPv4 version, which is widely used today, is the most
popular networking protocol. The IPv4 protocol uses a 32 bit address, and yields
about 4.3 bn addresses. In the current scenario, the unique IP addresses
provided to the websites are growing. The estimates of the same is around 4 mn
globally. The IPv4 has the limitation of accommodating only a finite number of
addresses.

The unique address that is given to the web space has been
under pressure. The IPv6 system, which has been developed can accommodate 340 tn
web addresses. It uses 128 bit web addresses that can possibly allow infinite
number of URLs and trillions of new addresses.

It has been estimated that the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) will exhaust allocating all its IPv4 addresses to Regional
Internet Registries (RIR) by April 2011, and the RIRs will end up doing so by
July 2012!

Despite the exhaustion of IPv4, the slow rate of adoption
of IPv6 has left the industry stalwarts wondering as to what can be the possible
ways in which users can be motivated to upgrade to the new platform. The IPv6
deployment remains below 1% globally and near zero in India. This has become a
serious issue to be contemplated among all levels as web users are not
restricted to any specific company or location.

Importance for India

In the aftermath of 3G, mobile phones will also be net exhaustive and almost
every mobile will have a unique IP address. Broadband users will also be
increasing, and threat will require a whole range of new IP addresses.

Be it rich applications, converged services, gaming
solutions, or m-governance-the market will be booming with data applications,
and thus the need to migrate to the new platform of IPv6 will become important.

Currently, there are about 18 mn addresses available in
India. And, there is a huge difference that exists between the two IP platforms.

IPv6 implementation requires careful planning and education, crucial for the successful integration and transition PK Saji, senior vice president, global infrastructure operations, Sify Technologies	India should adopt this next generation of Internet addresses as early as possible Jayachandra K, president, IPv6 Forum, India

Most big operators across the globe are in the process of
deploying IPv6 infrastructure and some are in trial phase with firm plans. China
Telecom (incumbent wireline SP in China) has publicly announced that they have
started the IPv6 trials now, and there are plans for mass deployment in 2012,
and that IPv4 shall retire by 2015. Telstra in Australia has firm IPv6 roll-out
plans with their public Internet backbone to offer services within 2010, and
other networks to follow.

Countries like India and China, that have 38% of the
world's population, are dictating the new rules of Internet traffic. China, last
year, surpassed the US in terms of Internet usage. The huge increase in the
number of web addresses used and created on a daily basis in these countries is
having global implications.

Vish Iyer, VP, service provider, Cisco, India & SAARC
says, "Given the scale and size of the Indian mobile market, Indian operators
need the ISP infrastructure to support IPv6. The back-end systems are already in
the process of gearing up from a network evolution perspective."

Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel are some of the
SPs working to upgrade the exponential growth of Internet witnessed in recent
times with an updated version on this front.

Impediments

The main impediment of migration from IPv4 to IPv6 has been a lack of will
on the part of the companies. Alamuri Sitaramaiah, director, sales and
marketing, Fluke Networks India says, "The lack of absolute compulsion is what
is probably putting off the migration."

A recent survey commissioned by APNIC and conducted by
KPMG-with 601 respondents from forty-four different Asia Pacific economies-has
revealed that nearly two-thirds of the respondents are not adequately prepared
for the transition to IPv6.

As of today many routers, switches, and servers are yet to
be IPv6 enabled. The cost of transition will not be very high, if it is done on
time. Says Jayachandra K, president, IPv6 Forum, India "There will be a steep
loss if companies do not go for the upgradation as early as possible. After two
to three years, the cost of transition will be very high." The upgradation will
also require some capital expenditure which is also a reason for procrastination
as PK Saji, senior vice president, global infrastructure operations, Sify
Technologies says, "There are older devices which do not support IPv6 stack, and
then it would involve capex spend."

"Another reason for the slow adoption of IPv6 could be the
lack of knowledge among system administrators who are comfortable with IPv4 and
its functionalities," says Shridhar Luthria, manager, channel development,
ResellerClub, Directi.

There is also an issue-which is above technicalities-that
is involved in the IPv6 migration. Says Saji, "There is an uneven distribution
of IPv4 addresses today. To clarify, 67% of the total IP addresses are allocated
in the US which has less than 5% of the world's population, whereas Asia with
56% of the population possess only 9% of the allocation." So, it is time to act
to deal with this uneven distribution by adopting Ipv6 as early as possible.

It is worth noting that sify.com is the first commercial
portal with IPv6 capabilities in India. The IPv6 space has 340 undecillion
addresses; APNIC has assigned Sify a 0.00000002% share, which by itself
constitutes 79.22 octillion addresses.

Luthria adds, "The other mainstream challenge is the lack
of demand and awareness of IPv6. The interoperability issue is also one of the
main factors that have deterred its adoption." The inability of IPv6 to support
IPv4 has led to the creation of work around tunneling, etc. These mechanisms
allow providers to support IPv6 and still offer IPv4 to customers while they
wait for the mass market to catch up on IPv6. The more people know about IPv6,
the more they will demand for it, and with a greater demand the business case
for IPv6 will also be evident.

Stopgap measures like Network Address Translation (NAT)
provides a temporary relief for the need of more IP addresses. But as of now, it
is restricting the end user experience and affecting the growth of the Internet
in general. Relying on NAT for long can actually hamper the growth of Internet,
as a router using NAT uses only one IP address for all computers on its local
network and also has loopholes in terms of security.

Tip of the Iceberg

Early adoption is being advocated not only because of the crunch in the IP
addresses but also because there are many technical advantages of IPv6. IPv4 was
designed for data, whereas IPv6 was designed considering multimedia (data,
voice, and video) applications. Auto configuration (stateless address auto
configuration helps assign IPv6 address to the end hosts), simplified headers
make it easier for network equipments to process IPv6 packets. Further it will
also be a challenge to address requirements of emerging applications such as
Internet enabled wireless devices, home and industrial appliances, Internet
connected transportations, integrated telephony services, sensors networks such
as RFID, IEEE 802.15.4/6Lo WPAN, and distributed computing or gaming.

IPv6 is therefore the most transparent platform; and the
application layer protocols will need little or no changes to operate it.

IPv6 is a huge step up from IPv4 in terms of space
availability. With IPv6 and greater availability of Internet space, coinciding
with the increased adoption of cellphones and GPRS and broadband in general, the
Indian market will be ideal for web services.

Green field applications that will be supported by the
IPv6 is a major advantage that enterprises will experience.

Apart from working as a First Responder Network (FRN)
which will help in emergency needs like healthcare, ambulance service, etc.

The m-governance and e-governance programs will also get a
boost. Jayachandra says, "The number of access points that are required is huge
in the wake of m-governance and projects like UID. Therefore, adoption of IPv6
is going to be beneficial for enterprises."

IPv6 is the foundation that can attract a lot of
innovation. Says Jayachandra, "Full-fledged adoption of IPv6 is going to take a
lot of years, till then both the Internet protocols can coexist."

Subhashini Prabhakar, chief technology manager, Dax
Networks says, "The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will take several years to
finalize. During this period, a common situation will be that a TCP/IP stack has
to support communications with both type of nodes."

The Only Alternative

The adoption and implementation of IPv6 is the best way to resolve the
crunch of IP addresses. Networks today are critical to business operations and
mission operations of commercial establishments and government agencies and
institutions. It is fundamental for the successful market adoption and smooth
integration of IPv6. Arvind Mathur, chief architect, Sify Technologies says,
"All organizations integrated to the Internet infrastructure should adopt IPv6
early-on, so as to ensure a smooth migration as well as to circumvent any
potential scalability issues in the future."

Countries like Japan and South Korea have been at the
forefront of IPv6 adoption and are believed to be nearly ready for it. They have
managed this through tax benefits and government backing that pushed for its
early adoption. In India, government bodies like Trai and the IPv6 Program
Implementation Group (IPIG) have been instrumental in raising awareness about
IPv6. Currently, BSNL's National Internet Backbone is IPv6 ready, and Tata
Communications is one of the largest IPv6 ISPs in the world.

The prompt action from the governing bodies to spread
awareness about the IPv6 forum shows that we are on the right track. The
challenge now is adoption across ISPs and companies.

Archana Singh

archanasi@cybermedia.co.in