As of today many routers, switches, and servers are yet to be IPv6 enabled. The cost of transition will not be very high, if it is done on time. Says Jayachandra K, president, IPv6 Forum, India "There will be a steep loss if companies do not go for the upgradation as early as possible. After two to three years, the cost of transition will be very high." The upgradation will also require some capital expenditure which is also a reason for procrastination as PK Saji, senior vice president, global infrastructure operations, Sify Technologies says, "There are older devices which do not support IPv6 stack, and then it would involve capex spend."

"Another reason for the slow adoption of IPv6 could be the lack of knowledge among system administrators who are comfortable with IPv4 and its functionalities," says Shridhar Luthria, manager, channel development, ResellerClub, Directi.

There is also an issue-which is above technicalities-that is involved in the IPv6 migration. Says Saji, "There is an uneven distribution of IPv4 addresses today. To clarify, 67% of the total IP addresses are allocated in the US which has less than 5% of the world's population, whereas Asia with 56% of the population possess only 9% of the allocation." So, it is time to act to deal with this uneven distribution by adopting Ipv6 as early as possible.

It is worth noting that sify.com is the first commercial portal with IPv6 capabilities in India. The IPv6 space has 340 undecillion addresses; APNIC has assigned Sify a 0.00000002% share, which by itself constitutes 79.22 octillion addresses.

Luthria adds, "The other mainstream challenge is the lack of demand and awareness of IPv6. The interoperability issue is also one of the main factors that have deterred its adoption." The inability of IPv6 to support IPv4 has led to the creation of work around tunneling, etc. These mechanisms allow providers to support IPv6 and still offer IPv4 to customers while they wait for the mass market to catch up on IPv6. The more people know about IPv6, the more they will demand for it, and with a greater demand the business case for IPv6 will also be evident.

Stopgap measures like Network Address Translation (NAT) provides a temporary relief for the need of more IP addresses. But as of now, it is restricting the end user experience and affecting the growth of the Internet in general. Relying on NAT for long can actually hamper the growth of Internet, as a router using NAT uses only one IP address for all computers on its local network and also has loopholes in terms of security.

Tip of the Iceberg
Early adoption is being advocated not only because of the crunch in the IP addresses but also because there are many technical advantages of IPv6. IPv4 was designed for data, whereas IPv6 was designed considering multimedia (data, voice, and video) applications. Auto configuration (stateless address auto configuration helps assign IPv6 address to the end hosts), simplified headers make it easier for network equipments to process IPv6 packets. Further it will also be a challenge to address requirements of emerging applications such as Internet enabled wireless devices, home and industrial appliances, Internet connected transportations, integrated telephony services, sensors networks such as RFID, IEEE 802.15.4/6Lo WPAN, and distributed computing or gaming.

IPv6 is therefore the most transparent platform; and the application layer protocols will need little or no changes to operate it.

IPv6 is a huge step up from IPv4 in terms of space availability. With IPv6 and greater availability of Internet space, coinciding with the increased adoption of cellphones and GPRS and broadband in general, the Indian market will be ideal for web services.

Green field applications that will be supported by the IPv6 is a major advantage that enterprises will experience.

Apart from working as a First Responder Network (FRN) which will help in emergency needs like healthcare, ambulance service, etc.

The m-governance and e-governance programs will also get a boost. Jayachandra says, "The number of access points that are required is huge in the wake of m-governance and projects like UID. Therefore, adoption of IPv6 is going to be beneficial for enterprises."

IPv6 is the foundation that can attract a lot of innovation. Says Jayachandra, "Full-fledged adoption of IPv6 is going to take a lot of years, till then both the Internet protocols can coexist."

Subhashini Prabhakar, chief technology manager, Dax Networks says, "The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will take several years to finalize. During this period, a common situation will be that a TCP/IP stack has to support communications with both type of nodes."

The Only Alternative
The adoption and implementation of IPv6 is the best way to resolve the crunch of IP addresses. Networks today are critical to business operations and mission operations of commercial establishments and government agencies and institutions. It is fundamental for the successful market adoption and smooth integration of IPv6. Arvind Mathur, chief architect, Sify Technologies says, "All organizations integrated to the Internet infrastructure should adopt IPv6 early-on, so as to ensure a smooth migration as well as to circumvent any potential scalability issues in the future."

Countries like Japan and South Korea have been at the forefront of IPv6 adoption and are believed to be nearly ready for it. They have managed this through tax benefits and government backing that pushed for its early adoption. In India, government bodies like Trai and the IPv6 Program Implementation Group (IPIG) have been instrumental in raising awareness about IPv6. Currently, BSNL's National Internet Backbone is IPv6 ready, and Tata Communications is one of the largest IPv6 ISPs in the world.

The prompt action from the governing bodies to spread awareness about the IPv6 forum shows that we are on the right track. The challenge now is adoption across ISPs and companies.

Archana Singh
archanasi@cybermedia.co.in

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