2009/9/17 Steve Crocker <steve(_at_)shinkuro(_dot_)com>:
Here are some useful points along the way from pure IPv4 to pure IPv6.
A. Every new computer is able to talk IPv6
B. Every transport is able to talk IPv6, i.e. every network from tier 1 ISPs
down through wifi hot spots and every internal corporate network
C. Every major service, e.g. Google, CNN, Amazon, is reachable via IPv6
I would suggest C before B.
My machine has been able to "talk IPv6" for a long time. The more
recent changes have been related to the fact that it can now "talk
IPv6" in different environments. Give it IPv6 and it will use that.
Give it only a public IPv4 address and it will attempt 6to4. Give it a
private/NATted IPv4 address and it will do Teredo. For IPv6 to be
interesting I have to be able use it where I am.
And Google at least is already there...
And transport will follow. Some time back an ISP person asked me if
they should offer IPv6 - nobody was asking for it. I suggested that he
start by looking at how much tunneled IPv6 he was already carrying.
F. A substantial number of major services are not directly accessible via
IPv4 (but, of course, will be accessible via gateways)
Of course it would be nice for legacy services to remain accessible in
the same old way for a long, long time. But the reality is that a lot
of this business just does not work that way. I just do not expect
other people to invest in gateways for me.
But again that is not for tomorrow and maybe people will change.<g>
Imagine the decision process for the CIO or network architect of a medium or
large company. A security policy exists and it's implemented with a
collection of commercial products -- firewalls, routers, intrusion detection
systems, etc. -- all configured and managed to support the company's
security policy. Further imagine the both the transport and the individual
devices are all capable of supporting and using IPv6. How quickly will the
CIO or network architect decide that it's time to switch everyone over to
IPv6?
But he will not decide to "switch everyone over". No enterprise-level
flag-day. The more interesting question for him is which bit of the
organisation he decides to enable first. And anyway some of them will
be still using IPv6 before then.
IPv6 is definitely necessary and we should all do everything we can to move
I'm just noting that even when IPv6 is widely available
and in broad use, there will be a long tail before IPv4 fades from the
scene.
I am not so sure about the relevance of the "long tail". Anybody on
this list using a laptop which is ten years old? Five years old? How
often to you renew bits of your home network? I of course don't know
where the tipping point is but I suspect that it could tip in fewer
years than one might have imagined. Still years. But less than ten
rather than more than twenty?
Gordon
_______________________________________________
Ietf mailing list
Ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf