Tag Archives: IPv6

TLD, And More, Updates: .GAY Donates $148K; 2021 .EU Web Awards Gala, 17 Years of .PL IDNs; .LT Scammers; RightOfTheDot and NamesCon Live Auction; FTC Transition to IPv6 and Tobias Sattler on New gTLDs Second Round

Over $148,000 has been donated to LGBTQ Community Beneficiaries GLAAD and CenterLink from .gay domain name registration revenue, according to the .gay Impact Report released this week. The registry, Top Level Design, donates 20% of all .gay registration revenue to the LGBTQ organisations.

Continue reading TLD, And More, Updates: .GAY Donates $148K; 2021 .EU Web Awards Gala, 17 Years of .PL IDNs; .LT Scammers; RightOfTheDot and NamesCon Live Auction; FTC Transition to IPv6 and Tobias Sattler on New gTLDs Second Round

TLD Update: Verisign Second Quarter Results, Q&A With Tom Kleiber, SWITCH’s new MD, SWITCH Appoints Data Protection Officer, China Aims For 700m Users Of IPv6-Based Services By 2023, Registry.si Publishes 5-Year Strategic Guidelines, auDA Consults On 2021-25 Proposed Strategy, .NL Releases Name Suggestion Tool

Verisign ended the second quarter of 2021 with 170.6 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 5.2% increase in 12 months, and a net increase of 2.59 million during the second quarter of 2021, according to the company’s second quarter 201 results.

Continue reading TLD Update: Verisign Second Quarter Results, Q&A With Tom Kleiber, SWITCH’s new MD, SWITCH Appoints Data Protection Officer, China Aims For 700m Users Of IPv6-Based Services By 2023, Registry.si Publishes 5-Year Strategic Guidelines, auDA Consults On 2021-25 Proposed Strategy, .NL Releases Name Suggestion Tool

Smart Technologies Lead To Evolution To IPv6+

With autonomous driving, industrial automation, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented Reality in 5G and the cloud era all upon us, demand for and use of internet protocol addresses is growing and evolving, and with this “foreseen evolution” IPv6 needs to be further combined with other technologies to generate ground-breaking “IPv6+” based networks.

Continue reading Smart Technologies Lead To Evolution To IPv6+

.VN Sees Domain Registration Growth of 8.3% in 2018 On Back Of New Online Registration System


IPv6 penetration grew by a quarter (25.85%) in 2018 to take Viet Nam’s ccTLD to 13th place globally for IPv6 adoption while domain names under management reached 465,890, an increase of 8.3% compared to the end of 2017. Since 2011, .vn has been one of top 10 ccTLDs for growth in the Asia Pacific.

The growth in registrations in 2018 came on the back of a new registration procedure and management system for .vn that came into effect in September 2018. The simplified registration process means it’s much easier for to register domain names in Viet Nam’s country code top level domain but still comply with Vietnamese regulations and laws.

The growth in IPv6 deployment of 25.85% means there are now more than 14 million IPv6 users including 6.5 million of FTTH subscribers and 3.1 million of mobile users. Viet Nam was ranked the second place in ASEAN, the 6th place in Asia Pacific and 13th place globally for the highest IPv6 adoption rate.

2018 also saw VNNIC, the .vn ccTLD registry, continuously improve the stable connection, security and safety for the national DNS .VN system and other critical information infrastructures operated by VNNIC. DNSSEC was extended to all national DNS servers and the national .vn DNS system is connected with DNS ROOT and international DNS systems.

By the end of 2018, the Viet Nam National Internet eXchange (VNIX) system had 20 members peering over exchange points in Ha Noi city, Da Nang city and Ho Chi Minh city with the total connection bandwidth reaching 269 Gbps. 13 of VNIX members deployed dual-stack network. Among them, CMCTI, VNPTNET and Viettel are 3 ISPs having the highest amount of traffic over VNIX which are 51GB, 50GB and 42GB respectively which increased by about 34% compared to their traffic over VNIX in 2017.

On 7 August, VNNIC maintained and extended the validity of the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification standard within the scope of operation and management of essential network systems in Viet Nam including the national DNS .VN system, the Internet eXchange system and Internet data centers (IDCs) in Ha Noi city, Da Nang city and Ho Chi Minh city.

In 2019, VNNIC plans include accomplish the Viet Nam National IPv6 Action Plan, continuously promote the use of internet resources in Viet Nam, and strengthen the security of critical information infrastructures including the national DNS .vn and VNIX system, improve the effectiveness of internet resources management policy and develop regulations for the auction of one and two-character .vn domain names and to innovate VNIX operating system following international standards.

Slow Adoption of IPv6 Risks Harming Dutch Innovation Climate: SIDN

Slow adoption of IPv6 in the Netherlands is liable to harm the nation’s innovation climate. That’s the conclusion of research carried out for SIDN, the .nl ccTLD registry.

According to monitoring by Google, the Netherlands has been slow to adopt the newer protocol. As a result, SIDN believes that the Netherland’s competitiveness as an innovation centre is being undermined. Tech companies are likely to see countries with good IPv6 support as more desirable bases. The Netherlands lags behind with IPv6 largely because of the policies of the two biggest access providers, the report concludes. Neither KPN nor Ziggo offers internet users a proper dual-stack IPv6 connection.

According Google’s data, Belgium heads the European ranking for IPv6 adoption, with more than 54 per cent of all visits to Google pages made from IPv6 addresses. In the Netherlands, the figure is just 13.2 per cent. The reluctance to embrace IPv6 does not bode well for the Dutch internet’s future-readiness. Nor, indeed, for the competitiveness of the country’s business community, since it makes the Netherlands less attractive as a place for innovation and investment in the Internet of Things (IoT).

Digitale Infrastructuur Nederland (DINL), which speaks for the companies and organisations that supply the facilities on which the digital economy is based, remains unconvinced of the case for IPv6, the study found. DINL argues that there is no pressing shortage of IPv4 addresses, and therefore no clear economic incentive to switch to IPv6. Nevertheless, DINL advocates research into the risks associated with slow adoption, since it doesn’t want to see the sector caught out by developments that it can’t respond to quickly.

According to the study findings, big companies and small businesses are embracing the new protocol more than medium-sized enterprises. Of the various sectors analysed, universities are easily the biggest IPv6 supporters, with an adoption rate of 43 per cent. And the private sector is using IPv6 more than the public sector. Nevertheless, the overall percentages are generally disappointing.

“Slow adoption of IPv6 is liable to harm our country’s international standing,” fears Roelof Meijer, SIDN’s CEO. “It detracts from the Netherlands’ image as a leading innovator. And that increases the danger of startups and innovative tech companies seeing other countries that do have good IPv6 support as more desirable bases. The services of global technology companies, such as Netflix, Google and Facebook, have been using IPv6 for a long time. That tells you which way the world is heading.”

Meijer also highlights the growing demand for IP addresses linked to the rise of the IoT: “Hubs and gateways that enable communication with IoT devices and domotics need IP addresses. If the Netherlands is going to continue to feature in development of the IoT, further implementation of IPv6 is essential.”

SIDN’s Chief Exec is therefore calling on everyone involved to finally commit to IPv6: “We all have a responsibility here. What we’re talking about is our country’s readiness for the future.”

IPv6 is the successor to IPv4, the protocol that underpins the internet’s addressing system. It’s needed because the world has run out of IPv4 addresses and the technical workarounds used to keep the system going have implications for the stability of the internet. With IPv6, addresses are structured in a completely different way, enabling far more of them to be created.

IPv4 is now nearly forty years old, but is still used for the bulk of internet traffic. Because the internet has developed in ways that were unimaginable four decades ago, with countless internet-connected devices and appliances, the demand for addresses has long since outstripped the scope for creating them on the basis of IPv4. IPv6 uses a different addressing technology, and therefore has a much bigger ‘address space’. Whereas IPv4 has space for 4 billion addresses, IPv6 has space for 340 undecillion (34 followed by 37 zeros).

The research report from the Dutch country code top level domain manager is currently available only in Dutch. An English translation will be available shortly SIDN advises.

IPv6 Deployment Grows 3000% in 5 Years

Deployment of IPv6 has increased 3,000% since the beginning of World IPv6 Launch 5 years ago, according to a report released by the Internet Society this week.

The State of IPv6 Deployment 2017 shows IPv6 deployment is increasing around the world, with over 9 million domain names, out of over 330 million, and 23% of all networks advertising IPv6 connectivity.

Google reports 37 countries exceeding 5% of traffic, with new countries being added weekly. Akamai reports 7 countries whose IPv6 traffic exceeds 15%. In Japan, all three major mobile networks, NTT, KDDI, and Softbank, are deploying IPv6 this year, and in India, Reliance JIO’s deployment has driven measures of IPv6 traffic in the country to exceed 20%. The IPv4 Market Group comments that it expects IPv6 user count to exceed 50% world-wide in 2019, and with that, the start of the decline of the IPv4 address market.

The report also finds over 25% of the Alexa Top 1,000 websites are reachable using IPv6 with some networks now IPv6-only internally (e.g. JPNE, T-Mobile USA, SoftBank), and some major networks are now majority-IPv6 (e.g. RelianceJIO, Verizon Wireless, SkyBroadcasting, XS4ALL).

IPv4 is also slowly being turned off as some organisations in the process of turning off IPv4 within their networks and/or data centres to reduce network complexity and cost (e.g. T-Mobile, Facebook, LinkedIn).

For those who will have to move to IPv6, and haven’t yet started, the Internet Society’s core recommendations are to: (a) start now if you haven’t already, (b) use established RFP requirements like RIPE-554: Requirements for IPv6 in ICT Equipment, and (c) take advantage of existing IPv6 deployment information including the Internet Society’s Deploy360 Program.

The IPv6 protocol came out of a recognition, reported on by Frank Solensky to the IETF in August 1990, that the allocation rate of IPv4 address space was such that the Internet would run out of address space in less than five years. While this took longer, IPv4 numbers are scarce with the 5 Regional Internet Registries having no IPv4 addresses to allocate, retaining retain space only for allocation to new market entrants.

To download the State of IPv6 Deployment 2017 report from the Internet Society, go to:
https://www.internetsociety.org/doc/state-ipv6-deployment-2017

NTIA Reopens Consultation On Incentives, Benefits, Costs and Challenges to IPv6 Implementation

NTIA logoThe US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), who was responsible for overseeing the IANA transition to a global multistakeholder oversight is now reopening a consultation on how to boost IPv6 adoption. With IPv4 addresses as ‘scarce as hen’s teeth’ the NTIA recognises the imperative for IPv6 implementation and use.

The consultation originally opened on 18 August seeking public comments and input on the benefits, costs and challenges experienced, as well as any insight into additional incentives that could aid future adoption, implementation and support of IPv6. In response to requests for additional time in which to comment, the NTIA has extended the closing deadline for submitting comments to 17 October.

The NTIA is specifically seeking comments from adopters and implementers of IPv6 as well as any other interested stakeholders to share information on the benefits, costs and challenges they have experienced, as well as any insight into additional incentives that could aid future adoption, implementation, and support of IPv6. After analysing the comments, the Department intends to aggregate input received into a report that will be used to inform domestic and global efforts focused on IPv6 promotion, including any potential NTIA initiatives.

Vint Cerf: If I Recreated Internet, I’d Include IPv6 And Public Key Cryptography

Vint Cerf imageEven the father of the internet would do things differently if he were creating the internet all over again. At a recent conference, Vint Cerf said he would have started with 128-bit addresses from the start.

“If I could have justified it, putting in a 128-bit address space would have been nice so we wouldn’t have to go through this painful, 20-year process of going from IPv4 to IPv6,” Cerf, who is now Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, told an audience of journalists during a press conference on 22 September at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany, according to the IDG News Service. Cerf said in hindsight he would have also like to have added public key cryptography.

“I doubt I could have gotten away with either one,” said Cerf according to the report, who won a Turing Award in 2004 and is now vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. “So today we have to retrofit.”

While it couldn’t have been envisaged at the time, it soon became obvious the 32-bit addresses were inadequate.

The report continued:
The 128-bit address space, for instance, “wouldn’t have seemed realistic back then,” he said. Particularly given the effort’s experimental mind-set at the time, “I don’t think we could have forced that.”

There actually was debate about the possibility of variable-length addresses, but proponents of the idea were ultimately defeated because of the extra processing power associated with them, he explained. “Because computers were so expensive back then, we rejected the idea.”

As for public key cryptography, the notion had only recently emerged around the time the internet protocols were being standardized back in 1978.

“I didn’t want to go back and retrofit everything, so we didn’t include it,” Cerf said. “If I could go back and put in public key crypto, I probably would try.”

IPv6 On Its Way To Dominating IP Traffic

World IPv6 Launch logoIPv6 became the dominant protocol for traffic from the United States’ four major mobile providers in July, and growth of IPv6 traffic continues apace.

At the end of 2015, 37.59 percent of their traffic was delivered over IPv6 for Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Sprint Wireless and AT&T Wireless to major IPv6-capable content providers. The most recent figure for August is close to 55 percent.

Major USA Mobile Networks IPv6 Deployment graph

“This is really remarkable progress in the four years since World IPv6 Launch in 2012, and the growth of IPv6 deployment in 2016 is showing no signs of abating,” wrote Mat Ford on the World IPv6 Launch blog.

For the same four networks, Akamai reported on a blog post in June that “As of May 4th, requests to dual-stacked sites on Akamai from the top-4 US mobile networks used IPv6 around 60% of the time for Android and over 20% of the time for iPhones, with almost all of those IPv6-enabled US mobile iPhones being on dual-stacked Verizon Wireless.”

And growth is continuing apace around the world. In 2015, Mat Ford wrote in another post on the World IPv6 Launch blog, there were “new deployments from major operators all over the globe like Elion in Estonia, TELUS in Canada, GVT and Vivo in Brazil, KPN, University of Twente and Ziggo in the Netherlands, BSkyB in the UK, SKTelecom in South Korea, Comteco in Bolivia, and Mediacom, Centurylink and Premier Communications in the USA.”

US Government Seeks Stakeholder Experiences Of IPv6 Implementation

NTIA logoHas your organisation implemented IPv6? If so, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) wants to hear from you. The NTIA wants to hear from all stakeholders, particularly those who have implemented IPv6, about the factors and circumstances that influence the decision to adopt and use the protocol and what NTIA can do to promote greater adoption of IPv6.

The consultation has come about as the NTIA notes “we are on the verge of an explosion in the number of Internet-connected devices, from smartwatches to connected refrigerators, furniture and thermostats. Some experts predict that there will be as many as 200 billion connected devices around the world by 2020, or about 25 devices per person.”

ipv6Some of the questions the NTIA is asking are: What are the benefits of and obstacles related to implementing IPv6? What factors contribute to an organization’s decision to implement IPv6? What is the anticipated return on an IPv6-related investment? How long does the planning process for IPv6 implementation take, and what are the different types of costs involved?

A posting on the NTIA website by Ashley Heineman, Telecommunications Policy Specialist, Office of International Affairs goes on to say:
Many of those devices will need an IP address to connect to the Internet, but the legacy Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) supports only about 4.3 billion IP addresses. Current demand has all-but-exhausted the global supply of IPv4 addresses. Luckily, the Internet technical community has been developing the next-generation Internet Protocol for nearly two decades. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) offers 2128 IP addresses – that’s more than 340 undecillion addresses, or 340 followed by 36 digits.

The pace of IPv6 adoption has picked up recently, but only about a third of the Internet services in the United States are IPv6 capable. As IPv4 addresses become more scarce, companies and other organizations that have yet to transition to IPv6 may find it difficult to expand their Internet presence.

Many of those devices will need an IP address to connect to the Internet, but the legacy Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) supports only about 4.3 billion IP addresses. Current demand has all-but-exhausted the global supply of IPv4 addresses. Luckily, the Internet technical community has been developing the next-generation Internet Protocol for nearly two decades. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) offers 2128 IP addresses – that’s more than 340 undecillion addresses, or 340 followed by 36 digits.

The pace of IPv6 adoption has picked up recently, but only about a third of the Internet services in the United States are IPv6 capable. As IPv4 addresses become more scarce, companies and other organizations that have yet to transition to IPv6 may find it difficult to expand their Internet presence.

For more information and the source of the above, see:
https://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2016/ntia-seeks-input-it-develops-initiatives-increase-ipv6-adoption