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Guest Blogger, Doug Marschke: The Sky is Falling

Submitted by doug on 8/16/10

The Sky is falling, All Hail IPV6

 

We have been hearing about ipv6 for quite awhile now, and how we need to start designing ipv6 networks.  Well, maybe the cry for wolf was too early, and everybody has forgotten about it.  Ok, well maybe not everybody.  Most of the big service providers out there already have ipv6 networks (Comcast, at&T etc), as well as the big content providers. (yahoo, facebook,google).  However, smaller providers and the everyday home user doesn't care too much about ipv6, yet.

 

I have some news for you all, we better start caring!   Depending on who you talk to 2011 will be the year when there are no more ipv4 addresses to doll out.  I am sure the registries will be able to hold until 2012, but not long after that.  Have we fallen into the "boy who cried wolf" scenario.  There was big hoopla about Y2k, without much happening.  There is not too much about ipv6, although an article did his CNN recently.

 

Many smaller companies are taking a wait and see approach, as migration strategies are not yet clearly defined, nor easy to understand. Do we simply make a parallel ipv6 network to ipv4 or build something different?  Looking at the current routing table for ipv6, it looks like the big providers have chosen something different, and the BGP peering points of ipv4 and ipv6 are different.

 

Some may argue the we don't need ipv6 since we can just NAT private IP's. I agree, that NAT works in many situations, however, today’s bandwidth requirements have outpaced the processing power of NAT devices.  Some day, maybe the technology will catch up, but it has not yet.

 

From a small business or home user, sometime next year, they will only be able to connect to the internet via ipv6 and everybody needs to be on board in order for this to work.  If not, we will have segmented connectivity, which will not only affect the user experience, but have financial consequences as well. (no new customers, e-commerce loss etc.)

 

I am doing my part at Proteus by creating training courses for real life migrations, and getting my PS staff properly trained to help our customers with ipv6 in their time of need.  Although I really hate reading all this hex, I am on board, cause the wolf is really here.