Is New Zealand ready for IPv6?

It's no news that the pool of available Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses is running out. Thanks to the internet growing rapidly with increased broadband uptake, legacy over-allocations of blocks and with no effort to conserve remaining routable IPv4 address space, estimates say by 2011, or as early as the end of next year, none will be left.

Moving to IPv6 with its close to inexhaustible 128-bit address space is the natural solution to IPv4 address wells running dry, but it's not a simple migration. IPv6 comes with new features that introduce complexity by themselves, and the next-generation Internet Protocol is only slowly being introduced around the world.

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How is .nz doing in the IPv6 stakes? Computerworld spoke to some of the major internet players, to find out how ready the country is for the time when IPv4 addresses are no longer available.

InternetNZ: IPv6 not as high a priority as broadband

Being ready for IPv6 is "imperative if you want to reach all of the internet", says executive director Keith Davidson of InternetNZ. Pockets of "IPv6 only" internet are emerging, Davidson says, especially in populous countries such China and India, and IPv4 networks cannot directly reach these.

To further the uptake of IPv6, InternetNZ is leading by example by being an early adopter of the protocol. The root .nz country top-level domain is IPv6-capable already for instance.

"We have already added IPv6 to the .nz name servers around two years ago, so we are ready," Davidson says and adds that .nz root has been serving IPv6 requests for more than a year.

However, with only FX Networks and the academic KAREN network offering IPv6 connectivity in New Zealand, the traffic levels are low on the new protocol and mainly from inside the country, Davidson says.

InternetNZ is also working hard with the IPv6 Steering Group towards holding IPv6 huis in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in August to encourage the development and commitment to deployment roadmap, Davidson says.

Members of the NZ IPv6 Steering Group include telco equipment suppliers Alcatel-Lucent, Allied Telesis, Cisco and Juniper as well as network operators Kordia/Orcon, Telecom, TelstraClear, Vodafone, FX Networks and WorldxChange. Industry organisations Telecommunications Carriers' Forum and ISPANZ are also represented, ditto the government through the Ministry of Economic Development (MED).

Furthermore, InternetNZ has secured internet legend Vint Cerf for a New Zealand visit to promote the IPv6 huis and roadmap development, according to Davidson. A Technical Special Interest Group, or SIG, chaired by industry veterans Dean Pemberton and Andy Linton is seeking to build the "how to for NZ" guide to IPv6 deployment, and InternetNZ is providing active support for it.

Finally, Davidson says InternetNZ hosts the ipv6.org.nz website that provides deployment information and news, plus various IPv6 related mailing lists in which industry peers participate and discuss the new protocol.

Why aren't more New Zealand organisations moving to IPv6 then? Davidson says that it is a hard sell to get commitment to migrate. "There is some awareness that IPv4 is running out, but if you have adequate IPv4 space, there is not any particularly compelling reason to change," he says.

"There is increasing pressure to not spend money and IPv6 deployment has real costs, and no tangible resulting increases in revenue," he says.

Also, our legacy of underinvestment in networks is coming back to haunt us. Davidson suggests that IPv6 is not as high a priority as getting useful broadband deployed.