Ipv6 Usa
IPv6 deployment – Wikipedia
Deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), the latest generation of the Internet Protocol, has been in progress since the mid-2000s.
IPv6 was designed as a replacement for IPv4. IPv4 has been in use since 1982, and is in the final stages of exhausting its unallocated address space, but still carries most Internet traffic. [1] Google’s statistics show IPv6 availability of its users at around 30. 30–35. 10% depending on the day of the week (greater on weekends), as of April 2021. [2] Adoption is uneven across countries and Internet service providers. Many countries have 0% use while a few have over 50% use, such as India and Germany.
In November 2016, 1, 491 (98. 2%) of the 1, 519 top-level domains (TLDs) in the Internet supported IPv6 to access their domain name servers, and 1, 485 (97. 8%) zones contained IPv6 glue records, and approximately 9. 0 million domains (4. 6%) had IPv6 address records in their zones. Of all networks in the global BGP routing table, 29. 2% had IPv6 protocol support. [3][4]
By 2011, all major operating systems in use on personal computers and server systems had production-quality IPv6 implementations. Cellular telephone systems present a large deployment field for Internet Protocol devices as mobile telephone service continues to make the transition from 3G to 4G technologies, in which voice is provisioned as a voice over IP (VoIP) service. This mandates the use of IPv6 for such networks. [why? ] In 2009, the US cellular operator Verizon released technical specifications for devices to operate on its 4G networks. [5] The specification mandates IPv6 operation according to the 3GPP Release 8 Specifications (March 2009), and deprecates IPv4 as an optional capability. [5]
Deployment evaluation tools[edit]
Number of IPv6 prefixes and AS on the Internet since 2003
Monthly IPv6 allocations per RIR
Google publishes statistics on IPv6 adoption among Google users. A graph of IPv6 adoption since 2008 and a map of IPv6 deployment by country are available. [6][7]
Akamai publishes by-country and by-network statistics on IPv6 adoption for traffic it sees on its global Content Distribution Network (CDN). This set of data also shows graphs for each country and network over time. [8]
A global view into the history of the growing IPv6 routing tables can be obtained with the SixXS Ghost Route Hunter. [9] This tool provided a list of all allocated IPv6 prefixes until 2014 and marks with colors the ones that were actually being announced into the Internet BGP tables. When a prefix was announced, it means that the ISP at least can receive IPv6 packets for their prefix.
The integration of IPv6 on existing network infrastructure may be monitored from other sources, for example:
Regional Internet registries (RIR) IPv6 prefix allocation[10]
IPv6 transit services[11]
Japan ISP IPv6 services[12]
IPv6 testing, evaluation, and certification[edit]
A few organizations are involved with international IPv6 test and evaluation, ranging from the United States Department of Defense to the University of New Hampshire.
The US DoD Joint Interoperability Test Command DoD IPv6 Product Certification Program
University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory involvement in the IPv6 Ready Logo Program[13]
SATSIX
Major milestones[edit]
Year
Major development and availability milestones
1996
Alpha quality IPv6 support in Linux kernel development version 2. 1. 8. [14][failed verification]
6bone (an IPv6 virtual network for testing) is started.
1997
By the end of 1997 IBM’s AIX 4. 3 is the first commercial platform supporting IPv6. [15][16]
Also in 1997, Early Adopter Kits for DEC’s operating systems, Tru64 and OpenVMS, are made available. [17]
1998
Microsoft Research[18] releases its first experimental IPv6 stack. This support is not intended for use in a production environment.
1999
In February, the IPv6 Forum[19] is founded by the IETF Deployment WG to drive deployment worldwide. This results in the creation of regional and local IPv6 Task Forces.
Implementation of the first IPv6 tunnel broker, by Ivano Guardini that also contributed the RFC:3053, at CSELT.
2000
Production-quality BSD support for IPv6 becomes generally available in early to mid-2000 in FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD via the KAME project. [20]
Microsoft releases an IPv6 technology preview version for Windows 2000 in March 2000. [18]
Sun Solaris supports IPv6 in Solaris 8 in February. [21]
Compaq ships IPv6 with Tru64. [17]
2001
In January, Compaq ships IPv6 with OpenVMS. [17]
Cisco Systems introduces IPv6 support on Cisco IOS routers and L3 switches. [22]
HP introduces IPv6 with HP-UX 11i v1. [23]
On April 23, 2001, the European Commission launches the European IPv6 Task Force[24]
2002
Microsoft Windows NT 4. 0 and Windows 2000 SP1 have limited IPv6 support for research and testing since at least 2002.
Microsoft Windows XP (2001) supports IPv6 for developmental purposes. In Windows XP SP1 (2002) and Windows Server 2003, IPv6 is included as a core networking technology, suitable for commercial deployment. [25]
IBM z/OS supports IPv6 since version 1. 4 (general availability in September 2002). [26]
2003
Apple Mac OS X v10. 3 “Panther” (2003) supports IPv6 which is enabled by default. [27]
2004
In July, ICANN announces that IPv6 address records for the Japan (jp) and Korea (kr) country code top-level domain nameservers are visible in the DNS root server zone files with serial number 2004072000. The IPv6 records for France (fr) are added later. This makes IPv6 DNS publicly operational.
2005
Linux 2. 6. 12 removes experimental status from its IPv6 implementation. [28]
2007
Microsoft Windows Vista (2007) supports IPv6 which is enabled by default. [25]
Apple’s AirPort Extreme 802. 11n base station includes an IPv6 gateway in its default configuration. It uses 6to4 tunneling and manually configured static tunnels. [29] (Note: 6to4 was disabled by default in later firmware revisions. )
2008
On February 4, 2008, IANA adds AAAA records for the IPv6 addresses of six root name servers. [30][31] With this transition, it is now possible to resolve domain names using only IPv6.
On March 12, 2008, IETF does an hour long IPv4 blackout at its meeting as an opportunity to capture informal experience data to inform protocol design work going forward;[32] this led to many fixes in operating systems and applications.
On May 27, 2008, the European Commission publish their Action Plan for the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in Europe, [33] with the aim of making IPv6 available to 25% of European users by 2010. [34]
2011
On June 8, 2011, the Internet Society, in conjunction with several large companies and organizations, held World IPv6 Day, a global 24 hour test of IPv6. [35][36]
2012
On June 6, 2012, the Internet Society, in conjunction with many large companies and organizations, held World IPv6 Launch Day, a global permanent deployment of IPv6. [37][38]
Operating system support[edit]
By 2011, all major operating systems in use on personal computers and server systems had production-quality IPv6 implementations. [39] Microsoft Windows has supported IPv6 since Windows 2000, [40] and in production-ready state beginning with Windows XP. Windows Vista and later have improved IPv6 support. [41] macOS since Panther (10. 3), Linux 2. 6, FreeBSD, and Solaris also have mature production implementations. Some implementations of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file transfer protocol make use of IPv6 to avoid NAT issues common for IPv4 private networks. [42]
Government encouragement[edit]
In the early 2000s, governments increasingly required support for IPv6 in new equipment. The US government, for example, specified in 2005 that the network backbones of all federal agencies had to be upgraded to IPv6 by June 30, 2008; this was completed before the deadline. [43][44][45][46] In addition, the US government in 2010 required federal agencies to provide native dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 access to external/public services by 2012, and internal clients were to utilize IPv6 by 2014. [47] Progress on the US government’s external facing IPv6 services is tracked by NIST. The government of the People’s Republic of China implemented a five-year plan for deployment of IPv6 called the China Next Generation Internet (see below).
Coexistence with IPv4[edit]
On 7 March 2013, the Internet Engineering Task Force created a working group for IPv4 sunset in preparation for protocol changes that could be used to support sunset / shutdown of remanent IPv4 networks. [48][49] However, in May 2018 this working group was closed as no immediate work could be identified due to the slow transition to IPv6. [50]
The Internet Engineering Task Force expects IPv6 to coexist with IPv4 as it is considered impractical to transition to IPv6 in the short term. [51][52] The coexistence is expected to be based on dual-stack, tunneling or translation mechanisms. [53] Dual-stack implementations required two parallel logical networks, increasing cost and complexity of the network. [54] IPv4 networks are expected to slowly transition into segmented subnetworks using IPv4 Residual Deployment. [55]
The slow transition to IPv6 has caused significant resentment in the Internet community. [56][57]
As a result, many larger enterprises, such as Microsoft, are now taking steps to turn IPv4 off, running IPv6-only within the company. In a recent blog, the company describes their heavily translated IPv4 network as “potentially fragile”, “operationally challenging”, and with regard to dual-stack operations (i. e. those running IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously) “complex”. [58]
Deployment by country and region[edit]
Algeria[edit]
AnwarNet (); AfriNIC has allocated range of IPv6 address space to AnwarNet. AnwarNet started IPV6 services in 2011.
Australia[edit]
AARNet completed network AARNet 3, a high-speed network connecting academic and research customers in the major metropolitan centres, with international links to major ISPs in the US, Asia, and Europe. One of the design goals was to support both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols equally. It also supports multicast routing and jumbo frames. [59]
IPv6 Now Pty Ltd[60] introduced the first[61] commercial-grade IPv6 tunnel broker service in Australia on April 30, 2008. Also, in June 2008, IPv6Now introduced the first dual-stacked (IPv4 & IPv6) web hosting service. [62]
Internode is the first commercial ISP in Australia to have full IPv6 connectivity and make IPv6 available to customers. [63] The availability to customers was officially announced to Whirlpool on July 18, 2008. [64]
The Victorian State government granted A$350, 000 to establish an IPv6 testbed network (VIC6)[65] freely available to industry to evaluate their IPv6 products and strategies. [66]
Telstra announced on 5 September 2011 that their backbone network was fully double-stacked and that they had commenced providing its enterprise, government and wholesale customers with IPv6 connectivity, and helping customers through the transition;[67] they would activate IPv6 addressing for its mobile network on 12 September 2016. [68]
Aussie Broadband offers native IPv6 as an opt-in beta feature, as of November 2018 however it had to be withdrawn briefly due to bugs in their Cisco supplied equipment.
Bangladesh[edit]
Infolink successfully tested and started commercial IPv6 beta deployment to end user for the first time in Bangladesh on May 22, 2017. [69]
Belgium[edit]
On July 13, 2010, Logica Netherlands (operating within the SPITS project in cooperation with Mobistar Belgium) successfully tested native IPv6 over UMTS/GPRS in Belgium and the Netherlands within a vehicle platform as an Intelligent transportation system solution. The test was performed both in gsm and in tethering mode using a Nokia smart-phone. [70]
Since September 2013, research and government ISP Belnet offers native IPV6 to all customers. [71]
VOO[72] A large residential ISP (cable) started its transition in April 2013 leading to impressive growth[73] in IPv6 in Belgium
Telenet started its transition in February 2014, helping to push the Belgian average of IPv6 usage to almost 30%[74] by September 2014 and putting them in the top 10 of worldwide ISPs[75] of which customers are visiting websites with IPv6.
According to APNIC, IPv6 penetration is 52% as of January 2019; penetration briefly peaked around 70% in August 2017. [76]
Brazil[edit]
As of April 2021, Brazil has 38. 4% IPv6 adoption. [7] IPv6 adoption in the country was boosted in 2015 when the Brazilian telecommunications agency, Anatel, announced that all Internet operators and service providers would be required to provide IPv6 addresses to consumers. This was one of a number of initiatives to increase the speed of deployment. [77]
Bulgaria[edit]
Has constructed a research center to study the possibilities of adopting IPv6 in the country. The center will operate alongside another facility, which is equipped with an IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer. [78]
Since 2015, the ISP Blizoo enabled IPv6 for many home customers.
At the end of 2016, the ISP ComNet Bulgaria Holding Ltd. has provided complete IPv6 support for all customers and households within company network in Bulgaria. [79]
Canada[edit]
IPv6 deployment is slow but ongoing, with major Canadian ISPs (notably Bell Canada) lacking in support for its residential customers, and the majority of their business customers (including server packages). According to Google’s statistics, Canada reached an IPv6 adoption rate of 34. 69% as of August 2021. [2]
Rogers Communications has deployed native IPv6 network wide, including their DOCSIS 3. 0/3. 1 wireline broadband network and their HSPA/LTE mobile network. In 2018, it appears that all Wireless LTE devices in the network have only IPv6 address and no more IPv4 Gateway, IP address and DNS for service.
Shaw Communications has IPv6 including DOCSIS 3. 1 for residential customers using the latest XB6 cable modems since 2018.
Fibrenoire, [80] a Canadian Metro Ethernet fibre network operating in Quebec and Ontario, has been providing native IPv6 connectivity since 2009.
Aptum Technologies(formerly Cogeco Peer 1)[81] has provided IPv6 backbones to Canadian data centres since 2011, as well as in its peering centers.
TekSavvy has deployed its own IPv6 network to its customers on DSL in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec as well as for cable customers serviced by Rogers Communications. [82]
Vidéotron[83] has deployed their own IPv6 network to customers as a beta service. [84]
SaskTel has deployed IPv6 support for business customers subscribing to their Dedicated Internet or LANSpan IP product. [85]
Telus has deployed IPv6 support for business services and residential customers with 61. 23% IPv6 usage in August 2021 according to World IPv6 Launch measurements. [86]
Origen Telecom[87] is a Canadian internet service provider operating in Montreal and Toronto, and supports IPv6 connectivity for its business clients.
Belair Technologies[88] Operating in Montreal, Laval and surrounding area as well as Cornwall and Toronto, and fully supports IPv6 connectivity for all its clients.
TelKel, a relatively new ISP which offers FTTH only, in Montreal, Quebec and suburbs, supports native dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 since the beginning.
Cogeco provides IPv6 to customers. [89]
Beanfield Metroconnect provides IPv6 for business customers. [90]
EBOX provides IPv6 to its customers since 2013 on fiber and DSL/FTTN last-mile technologies.
China[edit]
The China Next Generation Internet (CNGI, 中国下一代互联网) project is a five-year plan initiated by the Chinese government with the purpose of gaining a significant position in the development of the Internet through the early adoption of IPv6. China showcased CNGI’s IPv6 infrastructure during the 2008 Summer Olympics, being the first time a major world event has had a presence on the IPv6 Internet. [91] At the time of the event, it was believed that the Olympics provided the largest showcase of IPv6 technology since the inception of IPv6. [92] The deployment of IPv6 was widespread in all related applications, from data networking and camera transmissions for sporting events, to civil applications, such as security cameras and taxis. The events were streamed live over the Internet and networked cars were able to monitor traffic conditions readily, all network operations of the Games being conducted using IPv6. [93]
Also, the CERNET (China Education and Research NETwork, 中国教育和科研计算机网, 教育网) set up native IPv6 (CERNET2), and since then many academic institutions in China joined CERNET2 for IPv6 connectivity. CERNET-2 is probably the widest deployment of IPv6 in China. It is managed and operated jointly by 25 universities. [94] Students in Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, for example, get native IPv6. [95][96]
In November 2017, the Communist party decreed a plan to get all its Internet users on IPv6 by 2025 with a quarter of them by the end of 2018. [97]
According to Google’s statistics, China had an IPv6 adoption rate of 2. 29% by April 2021. [2]
Czech Republic[edit]
As of September 2019, the country has deployment ratio around 11%, both by Google and APNIC stats.
O2 Czech Republic have deployed IPv6 on residential xDSL lines since 2012. [98] It uses dual-stack PPPoE with CGN for IPv4. Only /64 prefix size is available via DHCP-PD.
T-Mobile Czech Republic have deployed IPv6 on residential xDSL lines since 2014. [99] It uses dual-stack PPPoE with one public static IPv4 address and /56 IPv6 prefix delegated via DHCP-PD.
UPC Czech Republic have deployed IPv6 on residential DOCSIS lines since 2017. [100] IPv6-only network with IPv4 over DS-Lite is used. Customers are forced to terminate the connection in carrier-provided CPE with limited customization options.
IPv6 is generally available in datacenters and web hosting companies.
As of 2019, no mobile network supports IPv6.
Denmark[edit]
As of July 2020, the country has only 4% IPv6 traffic, according to Google stats. [2]
A web page (in Danish) follows national IPv6 deployment. [101]
The ISP Fullrate has begun offering IPv6 to its customers, on the condition that their router (provided by the ISP itself) is compatible. [102] If the router is of a different version, the customer has to request a new router.
Several other small ISP have already began implementing the protocol as well as 3, the smallest mobile provider.
Estonia[edit]
Estonian Telekom is providing native IPv6 access on residential and business broadband connections since September 2014. According to Google’s statistics, Estonia has reached an IPv6 adoption rate of 28% by July 2020. [2]
Finland[edit]
FICORA (Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority), the NIC for the top level domain, has added IPv6 address to DNS servers, and allows entering IPv6 address when registering domains. [103] The registration service for new domains is also available over IPv6.
A small Finnish ISP Nebula has offered IPv6 access since 2007. [104]
FICORA held national IPv6 day on June 9, 2015. [105] At that time Elisa and DNA Oyj started providing IPv6 on mobile subscriptions, and Telia Company (via 6rd) and DNA Oyj (native) started providing IPv6 on fixed-line connections.
According to Google’s statistics, Finland has reached an IPv6 adoption rate of 31% by July 2020. [2]
France[edit]
AFNIC, the NIC for (among others) the Top Level Domain, has implemented IPv6 operations. [106]
Renater, the French national academical network, is offering IPv6 connectivity including multicast support to their members.
Free, a major French ISP, rolled-out IPv6 as an opt-in at end of year 2007. [107] In 2020, it removed the possibility to opt-out, effectively reaching 99% coverage. [108] Free also activated IPv6 on its mobile network just after Christmas 2020. [109]
Nerim, a small ISP, provides native IPv6 for all its clients since March 2003. [110]
Orange (formerly France Telecom), a major ISP, is currently rolling out IPv6 on its wired network. ETA Q2 2016 for FTTH and VDSL, 2017 for ADSL. [111]
OVH has implemented IPv6. [112]
FDN, a small associative ISP, has been providing native IPv6 since November 2008. [113]
SFR, a major ISP, rolled out IPv6 as an opt-in on its wired network. [114][115]
Bouygues Telecom plans deployment for 2017. [116]
all mobile operators in France support IPv6 (December 2020)[117]
As of January 2021, France has 42. 91% IPv6 traffic according to Google, and 40% according to APNIC. [118]
Germany[edit]
According to Google’s statistics, Germany has reached an IPv6 adoption rate of 52% by April 2021. [119][2]
DFN backbone network offers full native IPv6 support for their participants. [120] Many scientific networks in Germany, like the Munich Scientific Network (MWN) operated by Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, are connected to this network. [121]
Deutsche Telekom started rolling out IPv6 for new All-IP DSL customers in September 2012. [122] Telekom started to roll out IPv6 (dual stack) in their mobile network in August 2015. [123] In January 2020 Deutsche Telekom announced a new APN for IPv6-only. [124] The overall deployment rate for both mobile and fixed network was 76% as of 31 December 2020. [125]
Vodafone Kabel Deutschland and Unitymedia offer native IPv6 to their new customers. The adoption rate was 63% for both Vodafone Kabel and Unitymedia as of 31 December 2018. [126][127]
M-net [de], a regional carrier and ISP, offers native IPv6 for their customers. Adoption rate was 72% as of 31 December 2020. [128]
Regional carrier and ISP NetCologne has begun offering native IPv6 to its customers. Deployment rate was 68% as of 31 December 2018. [129]
Primacom (now part of PŸUR) offers IPv6 for their customers. [130]
PŸUR [de] (former Tele Columbus) offers IPv6 connectivity since end of 2014. [131]
Deutsche Glasfaser offers ipv6 via DHCPv6 or 6rd. IPv4 connectivity is provided via CGN to its customers. [132]
O2 has introduced IPv6 for new DSL customers in 2018. [133]
Vodafone started with IPv6 in its mobile network end of 2019. [134]
O2 Germany started to roll out IPv6 in its mobile network, first only for new contracts, later step by step for all customers till end of June 2021[135]
Hong Kong[edit]
Date
Entity
Description
Hong Kong Internet Exchange
Hong Kong Internet Exchange (HKIX), the local Internet exchange point, started to operate its IPv6 exchange (HK6IX).
2006
Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation
The Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation, the administrator of the domain, started offering IPv6 domain name services.
Hong Kong government
Hong Kong government enhanced the Government Backbone Network to inter-connect the systems of bureaux and departments using IPv6.
2009
Hong Kong government enhanced the Government Internet Gateway systems so that the public can access over 200 government websites, including GovHK using IPv6 and use Internet mails to communicate with over 60 government bureaux and departments using IPv6. Also, government users can access IPv6 resources through the Internet.
Hong Kong Observatory
The Hong Kong Observatory launched the IPv6 network time service. [136][137]
Hong Kong government initiated the Next Generation GovWiFi Programme[138] to provide better and faster free Wi-Fi service, which supported IPv6, for the general public. [139]
2013
goIPv6 Consortium[140]
The goIPv6 Consortium introduced free IPv6 tunneling service for Hong Kong users to connect to the IPv6 Internet through their existing IPv4 network connection. [141]
Hungary[edit]
In Hungary Externet was the first ISP starting deploying IPv6 on its network in 2008 August. [142] The service was commercially available since 2009 May. [143][144]
Magyar Telekom was running tests on its production environments since the beginning of 2009. Free customer trials started on November 2, 2009, for those on ADSL or Fiber Optic. [145][146] Customers are given a /128 via DHCP-ND unless they register their DUID in which case they receive a /56 – using a static configuration results in a single /64.
According to information on, [147] UPC Hungary will start deploying IPv6 in mid-2013, finishing it in 2013. The plan has not materialized until the end of 2015. [148]
In 2015, December RCS&RDS (Digi) has enabled native dual-stack IPv6 (customers receive dynamic /64 prefixes) for its FTTB/H customers. [149][150][151][152] In November the same year UPC Hungary introduced DS Lite(with private IPv4 addresses)[153] which can be enabled on a customer-to-customer basis if the customer asks for it.
Magyar Telekom deployed dual-stack IPv6 (using dynamic /56 prefixes on DSL and GPON and static /56 prefixes on DOCSIS) for all of its wired (and for all of its compatible mobile) customers in October 2016. [154][155][156][157][158]
According to the statistics of APNIC, IPv6 use in Hungary as of 2018 December has reached around 20%. [159]
According to Google’s IPv6 statistics the adoption rate in Hungary as of July 2020 is 26%. [2]
India[edit]
According to Google’s statistics, India has reached an IPv6 adoption rate of around 55. 8% in April 2021. [2]
APNIC places India at more than 70% preferring IPv6. [160]
Department of Telecommunications, of the government of India has run workshops on IPv6 on 13 February 2015 at Silvassa & on 11 February 2015, at DoT headquarters, New Delhi. They have also released roadmaps on IPv6 deployment. [161]
Sify Technologies Limited, [162] a private Internet service provider, rolled out IPv6 in 2005. [163] Sify has a dual-stack network that supports commercial services on IPv6 transport for its enterprise customers. [163] Sify is a sponsored member of 6Choice, a project by India-Europe cooperation to promote IPv6 adoption. is the first to launch a dual-stack commercial portal.
ERNET – The Indian Education and Research Network, Department of Electronics & IT of the government of India is providing dual-stack networks from 2006 onwards and has been part of many EU funded initiative such as 6Choice, 6lowpan, Myfire, GEANT etc. ERNET’s[164] own websites and those hosted of other organisations are all running on dual stack. ERNET provides Consultancy and Turnkey project Implementation to organisations migrating to IPv6 along with fulfilling their Training needs. ERNET has an IPv6 central facility aimed at system and network administrators to provide hands-on training in the use and configuration of web, mail, proxy, DNS and other such servers on IPv6 spearheaded by Praveen Misra, an IPv6 evangelist.
Reliance JIO has deployed and is offering IPv6 services in India since September 2016, [165] and has migrated 200M of their Internet users on their IPv6 only mobile network by the end of 2017. [166]
Ireland[edit]
eir, dual-stack, VDSL2 & FTTH
Virgin Media, DS-Lite, DOCSIS
Growth of IPv6 in Ireland as seen by Google.
Italy[edit]
Fastweb announced in 2015 the initial availability of IPv6 addresses for its residential customers. [167] As of February 2021, it is the only large ISP in Italy that provides full IPv6 service, using 6rd.
TIM, the largest Italian ISP, has offered since 2017 a basic pilot service in order to allow its customers to connect using IPv6. [168] However, the functionality provided is minimal and the service is described as “experimental”. It does not provide permanent IPv6 addresses.
Sky Wifi provides IPv6 service. SkyWiFi started using dual stack, but will switch to an IPv6-only network using MAP-T for IPv4 connectivity[169]
Dimensione provides IPv6 by assigning a /48 via DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation with IPv4 in Dual Stack.
Pianeta Fibra provides IPv6 by assigning a /56 via DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation with IPv4 Dual Stack.
Navigabene provides IPv6 by assigning a /56 via DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation with IPv4 Dual Stack or via IPv6 over PPPoE depending on the technology used in the access network.
According to Google’s statistics, Italy had an IPv6 adoption rate of 4. 73% by April 2021. [2]
Japan[edit]
This section’s factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2014)
Telecommunications company NTT announces itself as the world’s first ISP to offer public availability of IPv6 services in March 2000. [170]
According to Google’s statistics, Japan had an IPv6 adoption rate of 38. 46% by April 2021. [2]
Lebanon[edit]
Telecommunications company Ogero enabled IPv6 support for DSL users and for private operators since July 2018[171]
Lithuania[edit]
The LITNET academic & research network has supported IPv6 since 2001. Most commercial ISPs have not publicly deployed IPv6 yet.
Luxembourg[edit]
RESTENA, the national research and education network, has been running IPv6 for a number of years. It is connected to the European GEANT2 network. In addition, it runs one of the country Internet exchanges, which supports IPv6 peering. [172] RESTENA also runs the top level domain, which also supports IPv6. [173]
P&T Luxembourg, main telecom and Internet service providers, has announced they have production quality IPv6 connectivity since January 2009, with the first professional customers being connected as of September 2009. [174] Deployment of IPv6 to residential customers is expected to take place in 2010. [175]
According to Google’s statistics, Luxembourg reached an IPv6 adoption rate of 36% by July 2020. [2]
Netherlands[edit]
SURFnet, maintainer of the Dutch academical network SURFnet, introduced IPv6 to its network 1997, in the beginning using IPv6-to-IPv4 tunnels. Its backbone is entirely running dual-stack, supporting both native IPv4 and IPv6 to most of its users. [176]
XS4All is a major Dutch ISP. In 2002 XS4All was the first Dutch broadband provider to introduce IPv6 to its network, [177] but it has only been experimental. In May 2009 the provider provided the first native IPv6 DSL connections. [178] As of August 2010 native IPv6 DSL connections became available to almost all their customers. [179] Since June 2012 native IPv6 is enabled by default for all new customers. [180]
Business-orientated Internet provider BIT BV[181] has been providing IPv6 to all their customers (DSL, FTTH, colocated) since 2004. [182]
SixXS[183] had two private Dutch founders and has been partnering with IPv6 Internet service providers in many countries to provide IPv6 connectivity via IP tunnels to users worldwide since 2000. It started out as with a predominantly Dutch user base and reorganized as SixXS to be able to reach users internationally and be diversified in ISP support. [184] SixXS also provided various other related services and software which contributed significantly to IPv6 adoption and operation globally. They ceased their operation on 6-6-2017. [185]
Business ISP Introweb provides an IPv6-only 8 Mbit/s ADSL connection for 6 euro per month to 100 customers as a pilot, both for companies to learn how to adapt to IPv6 as for themselves in working on a fully IPv6 enabled network. [186][187]
Signet is the first ISP in the country which provides IPv6 connectivity together with IPv4 on multiple national fiber networks (Eurofiber, Glasvezel Eindhoven, BRE, Glasnet Veghel, Ziggo, and Fiber Port). [188]
Most Dutch hosting companies, including the biggest one, Leaseweb, [189] support IPv6, but customers by default get only IPv4 address.
Several government sites (such as) are available via IPv6. [190]
On July 13, 2010, native IPv6 over UMTS/GPRS was successfully tested in Belgium and The Netherlands within a vehicle platform as an Intelligent transportation system solution. This test was performed by Logica Netherlands within the SPITS project, [191] in cooperation with Mobistar Belgium. [70]
In 2018 KPN started issuing /48 address blocks to their business clients for a one-time fee.
T-Mobile doesn’t have plans to deploy IPv6 yet. [192]
New Zealand[edit]
As of 2012, surveys conducted by the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force indicated that awareness of IPv6 had reached a near-universal level among New Zealand’s large public- and private-sector organisations, with adoption mostly occurring as part of normal network refresh cycles. Most of New Zealand’s ISP and carrier community have a test environment for IPv6 and many[quantify] have started bringing IPv6 products and services on-stream. [193] An increasing number of New Zealand government websites are available over IPv6, including those of the Ministry of Defence (New Zealand), Ministry for Primary Industries (New Zealand) and the Department of Internal
What is IPv6, and why aren’t we there yet? | Network World
IPv6 has been in the works since 1998 to address the shortfall of IP addresses available under Ipv4, yet despite its efficiency and security advantages, adoption is still slow.
Thinkstock
For the most part the dire warnings about running out of internet addresses have ceased because, slowly but surely, migration from the world of Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) to IPv6 has begun, and software is in place to prevent the address apocalypse that many were before we see where are and where we’re going with IPv6, let’s go back to the early days of internet is IPv6 and why is it important? IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol, which identifies devices across the internet so they can be located. Every device that uses the internet is identified through its own IP address in order for internet communication to work. In that respect, it’s just like the street addresses and zip codes you need to know in order to mail a previous version, IPv4, uses a 32-bit addressing scheme to support 4. 3 billion devices, which was thought to be enough. However, the growth of the internet, personal computers, smartphones and now Internet of Things devices proves that the world needed more rtunately, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recognized this 20 years ago. In 1998 it created IPv6, which instead uses 128-bit addressing to support approximately 340 trillion trillion (or 2 to the 128th power, if you like). Instead of the IPv4 address method of four sets of one- to three-digit numbers, IPv6 uses eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, separated by are the benefits of IPv6? In its work, the IETF included enhancements to IPv6 compared with IPv4. The IPv6 protocol can handle packets more efficiently, improve performance and increase security. It enables internet service providers to reduce the size of their routing tables by making them more twork address translation (NAT) and IPv6Adoption of IPv6 has been delayed in part due to network address translation (NAT), which takes private IP addresses and turns them into public IP addresses. That way a corporate machine with a private IP address can send to and receive packets from machines located outside the private network that have public IP addresses. Without NAT, large corporations with thousands or tens of thousands of computers would devour enormous quantities of public IPv4 addresses if they wanted to communicate with the outside world. But those IPv4 addresses are limited and nearing exhaustion to the point of having to be helps alleviate the problem. With NAT, thousands of privately addressed computers can be presented to the public internet by a NAT machine such as a firewall or way NAT works is when a corporate computer with a private IP address sends a packet to a public IP address outside the corporate network, it first goes to the NAT device. The NAT notes the packet’s source and destination addresses in a translation NAT changes the source address of the packet to the public-facing address of the NAT device and sends it along to the external destination. When a packet replies, the NAT translates the destination address to the private IP address of the computer that initiated the communication. This can be done so that a single public IP address can represent multiple privately addressed is deploying IPv6? Carrier networks and ISPs have been the first group to start deploying IPv6 on their networks, with mobile networks leading the charge. For example, T-Mobile USA has more than 90% of its traffic going over IPv6, with Verizon Wireless close behind at 82. 25%. Comcast and AT&T have its networks at 63% and 65%, respectively, according to the industry group World Ipv6 websites are following suit – just under 30% of the Alexa Top 1000 websites are currently reachable over IPv6, World IPv6 Launch are trailing in deployment, with slightly under one-fourth of enterprises advertising IPv6 prefixes, according to the Internet Society’s “State of IPv6 Deployment 2017” report. Complexity, costs and time needed to complete are all reasons given. In addition, some projects have been delayed due to software compatibility. For example, a January 2017 report said a bug in Windows 10 was “undermining Microsoft’s efforts to roll out an IPv6-only network at its Seattle headquarters. ”When will more deployments occur? The Internet Society said the price of IPv4 addresses will peak in 2018, and then prices will drop after IPv6 deployment passes the 50% mark. Currently, according to Google, the world has 20% to 22% IPv6 adoption, but in the U. S. it’s about 32%) the price of IPv4 addresses begin to drop, the Internet Society suggests that enterprises sell off their existing IPv4 addresses to help fund IPv6 deployment. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has done this, according to a note posted on GitHub. The university concluded that 8 million of its IPv4 addresses were “excess” and could be sold without impacting current or future needs since it also holds 20 nonillion IPv6 addresses. (A nonillion is the numeral one followed by 30 zeroes. )In addition, as more deployments occur, more companies will start charging for the use of IPv4 addresses, while providing IPv6 services for free. UK-based ISP Mythic Beasts says “IPv6 connectivity comes as standard, ” while “IPv4 connectivity is an optional extra. ”When will IPv4 be “shut off”? Most of the world “ran out” of new IPv4 addresses between 2011 and 2018 – but we won’t completely be out of them as IPv4 addresses get sold and re-used (as mentioned earlier), and any leftover addresses will be used for IPv6 ’s no official switch-off date, so people shouldn’t be worried that their internet access will suddenly go away one day. As more networks transition, more content sites support IPv6 and more end users upgrade their equipment for IPv6 capabilities, the world will slowly move away from is there no IPv5? There was an IPv5 that was also known as Internet Stream Protocol, abbreviated simply as ST. It was designed for connection-oriented communications across IP networks with the intent of supporting voice and was successful at that task, and was used experimentally. One shortcoming that undermined its popular use was its 32-bit address scheme – the same scheme used by IPv4. As a result, it had the same problem that IPv4 had – a limited number of possible IP addresses. That led to the development and eventual adoption of IPv6. Even though IPv5 was never adopted publicly, it had used up the name IPv5.
Join the Network World communities on Facebook and LinkedIn to comment on topics that are top of mind.
Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.
State of IPv6 Deployment 2018 – Internet Society
Key points
IPv6 deployment continues to increase around the world. In the six years since World IPv6 Launch[*] levels of IPv6 deployment in networks and service providers all over the globe have increased dramatically.
Over 25% of all Internet-connected networks advertise IPv6 connectivity.
Google reports 49 countries deliver more than 5% of traffic over IPv6, with new countries joining all the time.
Google reports 24 countries whose IPv6 traffic exceeds 15%.
Figure 1 – Countries with IPv6 deployment greater than 15%
In some countries, major mobile networks are driving IPv6 adoption. In Japan (NTT – 7%, KDDI – 42% and Softbank – 34%), India (Reliance JIO – 87%) and the USA (Verizon Wireless – 84%, Sprint – 70%, T-Mobile USA – 93%, and AT&T Wireless – 57%) national mobile networks have very high levels of IPv6 deployment. Some mobile networks are taking the step to run IPv6-only to simplify network operations and reduce costs.
IPv6 has emerged from the “Innovators” and “Early Adoption” stages of deployment, and is now in the “Early Majority” phase. The price of an IPv4 address is near its projected 2018 peak, and cloud hosting providers are starting to charge for IPv4 addresses while leaving IPv6 services free from additional charges for address space.
Increasingly, IPv4 is an unnecessary cost, and a speculative asset. An IT department or CIO that is faced with purchasing IPv4 addresses has reason to ask whether the expense is worth the value. The short answer is that it increasingly is not. Even when not faced with that decision, the company would do better, in the long term, to sell the address space it has and use the money to fund IPv6 deployment, connecting to an upstream ISP that will use translation mechanisms to connect to remaining IPv4-only content.
For those businesses and networks that have yet to make the upgrade, the best time to start the IPv6 deployment process is now and there are many resources available online to help.
Operator case studies
Reliance JIO, in India, started deploying IPv6 after its local Internet registry ran out of IPv4 address space. Reliance has been forced to purchase IPv4 address space as a result, but for business reasons prefers not to. As of February 2017, Reliance reported that about 90% of its LTE customers are using IPv6, and represent about 80% of their traffic. This is driven, they say, by their principal content partners, Google, Akamai, and Facebook, who deliver their content only using IPv6 in that network. Reliance activated over 200 million subscribers with IPv6 connectivity in just 9 months, between September 2016 and June 2017.
Verizon Wireless proactively deployed IPv6 even though they had an existing IPv4 network. Per reports, they had at least 70 internal instances of the same private address space, and found themselves spending effort and money on the resulting network complexity; IPv6 deployment was a solution that simplified their network and reduced the cost of operating it. Over 80% of traffic from Verizon Wireless to major online content providers now uses IPv6. T-Mobile USA is similarly in the process of turning IPv4 off within their mobile network, operating IPv6-only.
Facebook reports that they are in the process of turning IPv4 off within their datacentres; IPv4 and IPv6 from outside comes to their load balancers, and behind them it is only IPv6. The effect has been operational improvements and innovation in their software. Other companies, including LinkedIn and Microsoft, have similarly stated an intention to turn IPv4 off within their networks.
Universities have also been early deployment test locations and early adopters. Virginia Tech, for example, deployed IPv6 in a trial location in 2004, and then expanded it throughout their campus system. In 2016, they reported that 82% of their traffic volume used IPv6. Similarly, Imperial College London reports that they started experimenting in 2003, secured commercial service in 2010, and in 2016 had SLAs for IPv6 service equivalent to their IPv4 service – averaging 20-40% of their traffic. Interestingly, they report that a significant proportion of their high-energy physics collaborations, such as with CERN, depend on IPv6.
Views of IPv6 Deployment
Web content
Alexa Top Million Websites: 17% with working IPv6 (up from 13% in 2017)
Alexa Top 1, 000 Websites: 28% with working IPv6 (up from 23% in 2017)
Figure 2 – Percentage of Alexa Top 1000 websites reachable over IPv6
Countries & Regions
Google reports 49 countries using IPv6 for more than 5% of their interactions with them (up from 37 in 2017). APNIC, Akamai and Facebook report similar numbers of countries accessing their services using IPv6.
Figure 3 – Countries with IPv6 deployment greater than 5%
To get a sense of the relative numbers of IPv6 users in each of these countries we can refer to APNIC data about the percentages of the total IPv6 user population geolocated to these more-or-less IPv6-enabled countries.
Figure 4 – Percentages of total IPv6 user population in countries with high levels of deployment
Special mention must be made of Belgium, the first country in the world to regularly deliver more than 50% of traffic to major content providers over IPv6.
Deployment is global: Trinidad and Tobago is among what the UN calls “Small Island States” and is a recipient of development funding. But Google asserts that nearly 20% of accesses from there use IPv6.
Nearly half of all IPv6 users on the planet today are in India where an estimated 270 million users have IPv6 connectivity to the Internet.
Of the G20 nations, 13 are in the list of nations delivering more than 5% of their traffic to Google over IPv6. The seven G20 countries that have less than 5% IPv6 measurable are China, Indonesia, Italy, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain and Turkey.
Figure 5 – G20 Countries with less than 5% IPv6 deployment
Domain Name System (DNS)
In the root domain, which is to say the service that provides the addresses for top-level domains (TLDs) such as,,, or, there are twelve companies operating thirteen root server identities (Verisign operates two). Each of these identities is dual stacked; it has both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses.
There are 1, 543 TLDs, of which 98. 4% (1519) have IPv6 name server addresses and can be queried using either IPv4 or IPv6; an ICANN requirement of all new TLDs is that they be IPv6-capable from the day they launch.
In total, across all TLDs, there are 11, 4221, 950 registered domains with AAAA records (up from 9, 510, 719 in the 2017 report).
DNS clients use IPv6 for approximately 7% of requests seen at K Root.
IPv6 Routing
There exist 54, 154 Autonomous Systems (networks) advertised in the global BGP routing database, as seen by Hurricane Electric. Of these, 13, 947 (25. 8%) advertise an IPv6 prefix, and 13, 704 advertise both IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes. 243 networks only advertise IPv6 prefixes. APNIC also publishes a report on BGP and their numbers vary a little as the BGP database seen by any given operator differs from that seen by other operators but are approximately the same.
Backbone (Transit) ISP
Transit ISPs offering IPv6 services exist in every country, with the exception of parts of Africa, the Middle East, and China.
Broadband ISP
Many broadband ISPs have IPv6 deployed to the majority of their subscribers and send the majority of their traffic over IPv6 to major content providers. For example, Comcast is actively deploying IPv6 in the US. Per the World IPv6 Launch website, Comcast has an IPv6 deployment measurement of over 66%. British Sky Broadcasting has IPv6 deployment in excess of 86%. Deutsche Telekom (56%) in Germany, XS4ALL (71%) in the Netherlands, VOO (73%) and Telenet (63%) in Belgium all have very significant IPv6 deployment.
Figure 6 – World IPv6 Launch Network Operator Measurements
Again, we can refer to APNIC data to understand which ISPs have the most IPv6 users. India and the USA currently dominate this view of IPv6 deployment. Reliance Jio may have more IPv6 users than all other IPv6-capable ISPs combined.
Rank
ISP
Country
IPv6 Users (estimated)
1
Reliance Jio
237, 600, 764
2
Comcast
36, 114, 435
3
AT&T
22, 305, 974
4
Vodafone India
18, 368, 165
5
Verizon Wireless
15, 422, 684
6
Idea Cellular
14, 681, 694
7
Deutsche Telekom AG
14, 261, 836
8
T-Mobile USA
14, 057, 105
9
KDDI Corporation
11, 871, 952
10
Sky Broadband
11, 829, 610
11
Claro
10, 235, 805
12
Softbank
8, 613, 145
13
Orange
7, 924, 119
14
AT&T Wireless
7, 694, 881
15
Cox Communications
6, 316, 462
16
Kabel Deutschland
5, 835, 590
17
SK Telecom
5, 764, 073
18
NTT Communications
5, 596, 206
Content Networks and Data Centres
Google, LinkedIn, Akamai, and Facebook are actively deploying IPv6 within their networks, and connecting to IPv6 users outside. An interesting point is that they report that delivering their services using IPv6 appears to improve user experience in terms of download times. IPv6-only datacentres are reducing operational complexity for these very large service providers.
Mobile Wireless (Cellular)
Mobile wireless, today, is rapidly becoming an IPv6-majority market. Reliance Jio reports that about 90% of its traffic uses IPv6, driven by its major content providers. Verizon Wireless similarly reports that about 90% of its traffic uses IPv6. T-Mobile USA is among the providers in the process of turning IPv4 off. Other major cellular IPv6 providers include AT&T Wireless, Sprint, Telus, Tele2, EE, KDDI, Softbank, OTE, Rogers and many others.
Figure 7 – Major US Mobile Network IPv6 Deployment (May 2017 to May 2018)
Enterprise Networks
Enterprise operations tend to be the “elephant in the room” when it comes to IPv6 deployment; if nearly 26% of AS’s advertise IPv6 prefixes, 74% do not, and those are likely to be enterprise networks.
Larger and more tech-savvy enterprises are forging innovative paths forward. A case in point is Microsoft, which made one of the first publicly-announced purchases of IPv4 address space, reportedly purchasing 666, 000 addresses at $11. 25 per address in 2011. Per a recent blog, however, Microsoft is taking steps to turn IPv4 off, running IPv6-only within the company. Their description of their heavily translated IPv4 network includes phrases like “potentially fragile”, “operationally challenging”, and with regard to dual stack operations, “complex”. The summary of their logic is both telling and compelling:
“Hopefully, migrating to IPv6 (dual-stack) is uncontroversial at this stage. For us, moving to IPv6-only as soon as possible solves our problems with IPv4 depletion and address oversubscription. It also moves us to a simpler world of network operations where we can concentrate on innovation and providing network services, instead of wasting energy battling with such a fundamental resource as addressing. ”
In other words, for Microsoft, turning on dual stack operation and then turning IPv4 off is expected to reduce cost and introduce efficiencies. It is the most sensible business strategy.
Incentives and challenges for IPv6 deployment
As the case studies above illustrate, strong incentives for IPv6 deployment stem from the operational simplification that comes from removing overlapping address space from the network, the reduced operational costs of managing such complex networks, and the minimization of shocks to networking business that arise when additional address space is unavailable or requirements to deploy IPv6 arrive with a short time horizon.
More work is clearly required to drive IPv6 deployment in countries, some of them major industrialised nations like Russia, China, Spain and Italy, that have not seen significant levels of IPv6 deployment to date. There is also significant opportunity for increased IPv6 deployment in countries that have already seen significant deployment.
Many networks have IPv6 on their backbone but not to their end-users. Akamai reports that of the top 55 networks they interconnect with more than half have IPv6 deployment greater than 2% and these networks account for half of the residual IPv4 traffic that Akamai sees. Greater deployment efforts from this relatively small number of networks could yield huge increases in overall IPv6 deployment measured globally.
Recommendations
Get started
As noted, networks worldwide are in the process of turning IPv6 on, and some are in the process of turning IPv4 off. An interesting business opportunity exists, given the current IPv4 market, to deploy IPv6 technology and then sell a company’s IPv4 address space to pay for the conversion. In that regard, the IPv4 space is a speculative asset; as the conversion progresses, in all likelihood the value of an IPv4 address will decay over time. The projections of the IPv4 Market Group may or may not be exactly correct, but the outline of the graph is assuredly correct; they assert that we can expect IPv4 prices on the market to start to decline in 2019.
Observe common RFP requirements
As a general rule, companies deploying IPv6 technology require compliance with one or more of:
IPv6 Forum “IPv6 Readiness Logo”, Phase 1 for hosts and Phase 2 for network elements.
US Government IPv6 Profile
RIPE-554 Requirements for IPv6 in ICT Equipment
RIPE-631 IPv6 Troubleshooting for Residential ISP Help Desks
IETF IPv6 Node Requirements
There is a lot of good deployment advice
Since a number of actors have already deployed IPv6 in their networks, there is an abundance of good advice on the ‘net or in books about the process. Examples include:
RFC6782: Wireline Incremental IPv6 Deployment
IPv6 Center of Excellence (Infoblox)
IPv6 Address Planning (Coffeen)
IPv6 Essentials (Hagen)
Deploy360 (ISOC)
RIPE IPv6 Deployment Training
The Regional Internet Registries each offer training in IPv6 deployment:
AfriNIC: APNIC: ARIN: LACNIC: RIPE NCC:
[*]
Frequently Asked Questions about ipv6 usa
Does the US use IPv6?
Currently, according to Google, the world has 20% to 22% IPv6 adoption, but in the U.S. it’s about 32%).
Who is using IPv6 currently?
Broadband ISPRankISPIPv6 Users (estimated)1Reliance Jio237,600,7642Comcast36,114,4353AT&T22,305,9744Vodafone India18,368,16514 more rows•Jun 6, 2018
Is IPv6 used 2020?
It’s also evident that the uptake of IPv6 has not been even over this period. … In 2019, the overall growth of IPv6 users was from 18% at the start of 2019 to 24% at the end of that year, or a net growth of 6%. In 2020, the net growth was just 3%, to 27% of users by the end of the year.Feb 8, 2021
