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By Michael Eggebrecht
Pushing the U.S. government toward IPv6 adoption, the Federal CIO Council last week issued a guide to help agencies plan and execute their migration.
Citing progress in China and the European Union in implementing the next-generation Internet Protocol, the guidance, which was prepared by the council's IPv6 working group and the American Council on Technology, notes that action is needed to "retain our nation's technical and market leadership in the Internet sector and to expand and improve services for America's citizens."
According to a study released last year by Google, IPv6 penetration in the U.S. stood at 0.45 percent in October, compared to 0.24 percent in China; Russia led with 0.76 percent, followed by France at 0.65 percent.
IPv6 Act Now, a Web site launched today by non-profit RIPE NCC to support the move from IPv4, says that 88 percent of IPv4 addresses have already been allocated and will likely be exhausted by 2011. "Organizations need to put adoption and integration of IPv6 at the top of their technology agenda today," says the site, adding that all Internet stakeholders, including national governments, should work together to prepare for the change.
In a roadmap designed for CIOs, chief architects and other government IT leaders, the Federal CIO Council is recommending that agencies set up a transition plan, "commit to specific measureable improvements in agency performance," establish testing labs and network prototypes and deploy IPv6-enabled network services when performing regular technology upgrades. Migration plans are expected to be in place by December and the transition should take place from January 2010 to December 2011.
Among the benefits of the protocol, which has been around for ten years despite its meager adoption, are the 128-bit address space, versus 32 bits for IPv4; built-in security; increased support for mobile devices; and enhanced streaming of media. "One of the main advantages of IPv6," says the guide, "is that it reestablishes the P2P connection that was lost in IPv4 because of Network Address Translation. IPv6 greatly simplifies the deployment of next-generation services and the 'plug and play' experience."
Without a transition to IPv6, the government's ability to meet its technical needs will be greatly affected within "the next two to three years," says the CIO Council. The government, it adds, would not be able to expand its existing Web services since host computers would not be able to connect to the Internet.
The government has been working toward IPv6 adoption since 2003. Beginning in 2005, the Office of Management and Budget led an initiative to ensure that the government's network backbone is IPv6-enabled. "All major agencies" met a June 2008 deadline to have IPv6 capabilities. The next step is integrating applications with the network.
According to the CIO Council, the OMB Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office will monitor progress of the transition through agencies' yearly segment architecture reports and quarterly updates, along with quarterly milestone updates and annual status assessments.
As they prepare their migration plans, agencies should consider budget cycles, technology refresh cycles, IT infrastructure quality improvements, equipment and software certification cycles, IT project dependencies, technology standards development and adoption and the software development life cycle, according to the guidance.
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