IP v.6 Struggles To Address The Market

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA302486

Internet Protocol version 6 promises a huge number of Internet addresses, but its actual deployment is dragged down by concerns about customer demand and transitioning the installed base.

By Karen Brown
June 1, 2003
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It's a technology created to feed the exploding number of Internet-enabled wireless devices hitting the market, but these days there are many who wonder if Internet Protocol version 6 has been deep-sixed for lack of economic value.

While the technology promises to greatly expand the number of IP addresses assigned to computers and wireless devices now in use, the daunting task of network transition and a lack of consumer demand is dramatically slowing its adoption in the United States.

It's no trivial matter, given Internet Protocol sets the ground rules for how and where Internet data and voice traffic flows across networks. The ruling version today is IP version 4.

But IP v.4 has its drawbacks–notably, its limited packet header information can only support about 4 billion IP addresses. Considering the proliferation of computers, Internet-enabled wireless phones and other wireless devices world wide, the worry is the world will run out of IP addresses.

Enter IP v.6, which among other things offers a whopping 340 undecillion addresses–that's 340 with 36 zeros. But while the mobile world initially was driving IP v.6 development, the priority has definitely shifted, according to Larry Lang, general manager and vice president for Cisco Systems' mobile wireless group.

"Sometimes when operators talk about v.6 it's almost the way you talk about exercise–you know you need to do more of it, and you know it would be good for you, but you are awfully busy right now and, well, maybe tomorrow," he says.

Network engineers, meanwhile, have staved off the IP address shortage in the United States using schemes like Network Address Translation that share addresses between devices, he adds. And then there is the daunting task of switching existing networks from IP v.4 to IP v.6.

"There's an old joke about this–about how could God create the world in only six days? It's because he had no installed base to worry about," Lang says. "It's a kind of nerdy joke, but it kind of makes the point that we are wrestling here with, that it's all very well to suggest that we'd be better off if we started from scratch with nothing but v.6. But of course we are not."

While Sprint Corp. has been active in development of the IP v.6 standard, it has not deployed the technology for its wireless network or product lines, according to Rob Rockell, principal engineer for Sprint Corp.'s SprintLink Internet backbone.

"We're in a state where if adoption does take place on a large scale any time soon, we will be ready to move quickly, but we are taking a wait-and-see standpoint–we'll let the market drive us," Rockell says. "Primarily it is customer demand–it's the thing that is going to drive everyone."

Lang also points to consumer demand, saying while wireless carriers are interested in IP v.6 "until somebody can point to that and say 'yes, that is the reason that you absolutely, positively need this, in a way that links to the end user,'" he said.

But others see the technology taking hold already, particularly in wireless hardware. Nokia has incorporated IP v.6 in its infrastructure products and it is working on putting the protocol into handsets, "so we are moving ahead," says Bob Hinden, Nokia's chief Internet technologist.

IP v.6 has been deployed mostly in Asia where IP addresses are at a premium. Of the 4 billion IP v.4 addresses, about 1.9 billion are earmarked for North America, 300 million belong to Europe, 177 million belong to Asia and remaining 1.2 billion are unallocated.

"If you are sitting in Asia, it's clear you are just not going to be able to get the addresses from v.4," Hinden said. "When you look at the adoption rates being first in Asia and then in Europe, you look at where the addresses are now and it makes perfect sense."

What will drive IP v.6 adoption in the United States will be new applications such as peer-to-peer services, which don't work well with NAT and virtual private networks, which require each device to have a steady IP address.

"All of these vendors now are shipping products with IP v.6 in them, but they may not be active. The code is there, it works and it may be getting some use," Hinden said.

For others, however, the jury is still out on whether IP v.6 will gain a foothold or join the ranks of standards-ratified technology that didn't pan out for the mass market.

"I think it will be an interesting year or two here, because I think the question will be, as we get closer to the date it is ostensibly there, will there be new applications like gaming or whatever that prompt it to be moved into the actual budgeted cycle?" Lang asks. "Or does it always become a sort of mañana, mañana thing?"