The March of the IPv6 Internet

By Gunter Van de Velde, Sr Technical Leader, NOSTG Engineering

It has been a year since the World IPv6 Launch and in that year the global usage of IPv6 has more than doubled. Where traditionally it is believed that there is no IPv6 traffic on the Internet is now shown differently! The reality of real existing user traffic demonstrates the progress of the next generation of the Internet. During the World IPv6 Launch a year ago there was about 0.64% of Internet traffic carried over IPv6, while right now about 1.35% of the Internet traffic is carried over IPv6. That is nearly double and experts believe exponential growth is expected over the next couple of years.

Another data-point is the readiness of the service providers regarding IPv6. On the Internet there are about 44,470 Autonomous networks announcing one or more IPv6 prefixes into the global routing system. A year ago only about 13.7% of them were announcing IPv6 prefixes. That number increased to 16.1% resulting in 7.168 networks out of the 44.470 that are announcing IPv6 prefixes right now.

Source: http://www.worldipv6launch.org/infographic/

Looking at these important statistics per region are educating us that nearly 20% of the networks in Asia and Europe are IPv6 capable.

Source: http://www.worldipv6launch.org/infographic/

It is not debatable to believe we have passed a tipping point regarding IPv6 adoption by networks. Looking at the number of Local Internet Registry (LIR) we currently see that those with IPv6 allocations (5.630 LIRs) outnumber those without IPv4 only (3.584 LIRs) allocations. From that aspect it can be stated that for sure we have crossed a tipping point and the March of the IPv6 Internet can not be stopped anymore.

IPv6 is here, it is real and it is to stay!

As Steve Simlo mentioned in his blog “Ignore the Mouse – Get your IPv6 Learn On at Cisco Live Orlando 2013” know that at Cisco Live hands-on opportunities will be provided through the “Walk-In Self Paced” Labs. Direct opportunities for discussion will be available via the Cisco Live “Meet The Engineer” program, through the “Table Topics” lunchtime discussions and through an open Panel “PSOSPG: IPv6 – Where Do We Go From Here” which will be supported by both Cisco staff and a number of highly experienced Industry professionals with direct experience of v6 deployment in a variety of scenarios.

Look at www.cisco.com/go/ipv6/ to start, optimize and tune your IPv6 Internet deployment!