In a survey of members on the transition to IPv6, the Internet Society (ISOC) found the main driver for moving to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was customer demand. In a study of the operational characteristics of IPv6 in its organisation members’ networks, ISOC found that while customer pressure motivated IPv6 deployment, specific business-case drivers did not yet exist.Respondents to the survey noted that while “there were no concrete business drivers for IPv6, the technology was being driven by a general perception about customer demand and a need to be prepared for the next large technology step in the evolution of the internet.”Organisations surveyed also appeared to be pleasantly surprised at the lack of complexity in implementing IPv6, although a lack of technical expertise was an issue as operating IPv6 in a network was a new experience for those involved meaning training was important.The survey of ISOC members found almost ten of the 22 respondents, responded to this question, stated that demand from customers was the main driver for their deployment of IPv6. The need for additional address space was found to be the second most popular reason for deploying IPv6.”Of those who responded, only three member organizations are in the early stages of deployment, while 15 stated they were satisfactorily underway and three others characterised IPv6 as being fully deployed in the networks they operate,” the report noted.Other findings from the survey were:
- nine of the 22 respondents expect to ask for more IPv4 address space soon
- when asked what would happen if respondents could not obtain more IPv4 addresses, most said they would make more extensive use of network address translation (NAT) technology with some thinking they would be able to reengineer their networks through renumbering
- two respondents thought their organization might be willing to return unused IPv4 addresses, while “most pointed out that although they either have transitioned or expect to transition to IPv6, they also expect there to be a long to very long period of coexistence where they will continue to use their the existing IPv4 address allocations.”
The survey was released this week to stimulate debate among a panel of experts from industry and other Internet thought leaders who will convene next week to discuss the pressing need to adopt IPv6.Currently, most Internet services are based on IPv4 which, due to the Internet’s continued rapid growth, is expected to run out of available addresses in the next two to three years.In the survey of ISOC members, who range from small companies to large corporations, internet service providers (ISPs) to enterprises, vendors to network operators, all of whom operate a network of some kind, and, due to their diversity, provide a wide cross section of use models for IPv6.The panel discussion will be part of a luncheon that will take place on Tuesday, March 24 at 11:30 a.m. in Grand Ballroom A of the Hilton San Francisco Hotel in conjunction with a meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).More information, including a summary of the study, is available from www.isoc.org.