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How Ready Is IPv6 To Succeed IPv4?

Posted by timothy on from the depends-what-you-want-to-do-with-it dept.

New submitter unixisc writes: Over the last 2 years, June 6th had been observed as IPv6 day. The first time, IPv6 connections were turned on by participants just for a day, and last year, it was turned on for good. A year later, how successful is the global transition to IPv6? According to Cisco 6labs, adoption rates vary from 50% in Belgium to 6% in China, with the U.S. coming somewhere in the middle at 37%. A lot of issues around IPv6, such as the absence of NAT, have apparently been resolved (NAPT is now available and recognized by the IETF). So what are the remaining issues holding people up — be it ISPs, businesses, consumers or anybody else? When could we be near a year when we could turn off all IPv4 connectivity worldwide on an IPv6 only day and nobody would notice?

1 of 595 comments (clear)

  1. Backwards Compatability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Remember when Intel pushed IA64 for years and years with little success? Then AMD rolled out x86_64 and it spread like wildfire. Intel has been making "AMD clones" ever since.

    You know how many parts of the world have skipped deploying millions of miles of phone wire and jumped straight to cell towers?

    You know how everyone said they couldn't switch to Linux because they were familiar with Windows? Then MS rolled out a new Windows with a drastically different UX, and everyone jumped on it? Or how OpenOffice is more similar to pre-ribbon Word, but people who couldn't go to OOo because it had different menus plunked down good money to use the new Ribbons?

    In each of these cases, the important piece wasn't familiarity or similarity. It was compatability.

    IPv6 is not backwards compatible with IPv4. My IPv6-only client cannot talk to your IPv4-only server and your IPv4-only client cannot talk to my IPv6-only server. For these reasons, I don't believe that Belgium has 50% adoption. I don't believe that the U.S. has 37%. And it can't be like cell towers and just leap-frog the old. Because cell technology is compatible with non-cell technology.

    I'm waiting for somebody to come out with IPv7 that is compatible with IPv4 and convince Cisco or Juniper to put it on their boxes and submit it to IEEE. It might not even have to be IPv6-compatible to displace IPv6. Just like x86_64.