IPv6: This is your wake-up call

By Mary Petrosky
Network World, 05/14/01

Recent IPv6 announcements from Cisco and NEC America won't have a dramatic impact on the U.S. network market this year. U.S. demand for IPv6 is small, primarily driven by early adopters and developers of third-generation mobile systems. However, commercial availability of IPv6 routing code from the leading router maker and hardware-based support for IPv6 from any vendor in the U.S. is significant. These announcements are a wake-up call to enterprise IT managers and service providers, particularly those with business operations or partners outside the U.S. IPv6 is real and is happening now.

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U.S. network managers have largely ignored IPv6. Equipped with IPv4 addresses, network address translation and Classless Inter-Domain Routing, corporations and service providers have had little incentive to investigate IPv6. However, if U.S. multinational corporations and service providers want to participate in the global economy, they must begin taking IPv6 seriously.

For much of the rest of the world, IPv4 is too little, too late. There aren't enough IPv4 addresses to meet the needs of countries in Asia, South America and Africa, particularly if we factor in the growing demand for wireless devices, such as cell phones and PDAs. As a result, momentum for IPv6 is building worldwide. The governments of Japan, Korea and China have announced plans for large-scale IPv6 deployment. In Japan, several service providers offer commercial IPv6 services, and equipment makers such as NEC have been shipping IPv6 products in Japan for some time.

Another indicator of growing interest in IPv6 is the number of conferences held on the topic. During the past six months, IPv6 "global summits" have been held in Japan and Spain. Another kicks off this week in Canada, while another is slated for July in Korea.

Here in the States, Seattle's Zama Networks this spring became the first U.S. service provider (of which I'm aware) to offer commercial IPv6 services. Zama initially is focusing on serving traffic between North America and the Asia-Pacific region, and recently brought up a node in Tokyo. In March, the company launched Smarter-Kit, which includes access to Zama's native IPv6 backbone network as well as consulting services. From the Zama network, customers can access the 6bone and other IPv6-based networks worldwide. Not surprisingly, Zama is testing IPv6 gear from NEC, among other vendors.

Cisco and NEC's announcements are noteworthy because they are among the first IPv6 offerings from hardware vendors targeted to the enterprise market as well as service providers. Most of the commercially available IPv6 implementations have come from Unix vendors, including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun. (Microsoft, although heavily involved in IPv6 development, offers only a prerelease version of its IPv6 code aimed at developers; Redmond has not announced a delivery schedule for commercial code.)

Cisco's IPv6 support in release 12.2(1)T of its IOS code represents the first in a series of rollouts of v6 capabilities. In this first phase, users of most Cisco routers (the 12000 and 7600 families excepted) can deploy IPv6 as soon as they upgrade to the new IOS release. Cisco supports IPv6 in software only at this time, and has not disclosed when hardware support will be available. The lack of hardware support could slow deployment of Cisco's gear in production environments concerned about performance. However, it shouldn't affect customers looking to test the IPv6 waters.

In contrast, NEC in the next few months will roll out a family of Layer 2/Layer 3 switches and routers with hardware-based support for IPv6 and IPv4. Products in the family range from a multiservice switch router positioned for use at the LAN/WAN boundary (including Ethernet, packet over SONET, ATM, frame relay and circuit emulation service interfaces) to pure Ethernet-based backbone and edge switches. NEC is targeting companies and service providers with these products.

Clearly, a lack of products is no longer an excuse for ignoring IPv6. Enterprise IT managers and service providers need to realize that deployment of IPv6 isn't a matter of "if" but "when." Network managers should begin investing in IPv6 education and training now to develop a strategy. Multinational organizations should be aware of the IPv6 activities in the countries in which they operate - particularly the Asian continent, where the commitment to IPv6 is strong.

For organizations that operate in the U.S. only, IPv4 will be all they need for the foreseeable future. For the rest of you, this is your wake-up call.