IPv6 Info
IPv6 Status in the World
The current status of deployment of IPv6 in different parts of the world is very encouraging and gives an idea of what the future holds for the Internet in the coming years.
Highly populated countries (India and China) are studying and deploying IPv6 because of lack of IPv4 addresses while countries with adequate IPv4 addresses such as United States are more interested in obtaining benefits of IPv6 technology. The European Commission plans to promote IPv6. It recently set the goal of having 25 percent of European users on IPv6 by 2010. The commission will attempt to set an example and press providers to follow it.
Others deserve mention, not least of which is up-and-comer India, which expects explosive growth in mobile users - as many as half a billion users by 2010, according to network infrastructure vendor Cisco.
Taiwan, which recently distributed IPv4-to-IPv6 translation hardware for seven of its biggest Internet service providers and installed IPv6 voice-over-IP phones for thousands of government users, maintains separate development projects for key device and user categories, such as cars, campuses and personal electronics, according to Bruce Sinclair, chief executive officer of Hexago, a Montreal maker of IPv6 gateways.
In South Korea, another Asian IPv6 hotbed, Korea Telecom, which is a major purchaser of Hexago's gateways, recently began an IPv6 trial, and the government has helped fund pilot programs offered by ISPs and municipalities. The government of Korea plans to achieve complete IPv6 Transition in Public Sector and 10M IPv6 users by 2010: total IPv6 Transition in Backbone network by 2010 and in access network by 2013 for ISP.
"China is the only country that has more people than IP addresses," said Jun Murai, a Japanese IPv6 expert, nicely summing up the quandary of this fast-developing country, largest in the world with 1.3 billion people.
For several years, the Chinese government has provided funding for IPv6 promotional councils and task forces. Most significantly, it has begun building the IPv6 based China Next Generation Internet in partnership with major providers.
"The big driver for IPv6 in China for us has been the Olympics," Sinclar said, noting that the country has bought Hexago gateways as part of its infrastructure upgrades for this year's summer games in Beijing.
IPv6 deployment in Japan enjoys strong governmental support.Major ISPs, and even start ups and rural ISPs have started services.Besides, backbone and IX providers (NSPIXP6, JPIX) have started functioning. Major router vendors (Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Furukawa Electric, Yamaha etc) are also 'v6-ready'.
Lastly, the following slide gives an overview on the development of major IPv6 initiatives worldwide.