IPv6 Activity Increases as IPv4 Exhaustion Reaches Critical Milestone

[Brisbane, Australia – Monday, 1 November 2010]
The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) calls for action after the most recent allocation to the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region has reduced the global pool of unallocated IPv4 addresses to below 5% remaining.
APNIC Chief Scientist, Geoff Huston, said the impending exhausting of IPv4 and consequent adoption of IPv6 is one of the more important ICT issues facing businesses during the next three years.

Despite a clear need for all Internet-connected organizations to support IPv6 in the future, a recent global survey funded by the European Commission found that 16% of responding organizations had not yet applied for IPv6 address space because they did not recognize the ‘business case’ for the required investment.

“It has only been about nine months since the free pool dropped below 10%. The current rate of consumption eliminates any doubt about the IPv4 exhaustion timeframe.

IPv4 address exhaustion is one of the significant ICT issues facing Asia Pacific businesses in the coming years. During this time IPv4 addresses will no longer be available for network expansion, and all organizations with any form of reliance on the Internet must be prepared to support IPv6,” Mr Huston said.

Large Players take IPv6 Adoption Seriously
The 5% milestone in IPv4 exhaustion again highlights the need to deploy the next protocol, IPv6.
During the past two years, major global ICT enterprises, such as Google, YouTube, and Microsoft made the necessary investments to ensure their products and services are IPv6-enabled.

Leading up to the 10% point milestone, other Asia Pacific enterprises followed suit, including large ISPs, Telcos, and ICT suppliers such as data centres. Many of these organizations have now built their roadmaps for deployment planning and capacity building.

Preparations for an IPv6 Internet are gathering momentum. For example, Apple announced that the recent Apple IOS 4 upgrade for the iPhone has IPv6 capability.

Governments in the Asia Pacific region have also awakened to the need for IPv6 deployment with many now working to layout IPv6 roadmaps. The latest to announce significant planning was the Indian Government, which has called for a 2012 deadline on IPv6 deployment.

With these developments, APNIC projections for growth in new IPv6 allocations during 2010 now show an increase of at least 300% over 2009 allocations. These projections are fuelled by the strong response to the APNIC ‘Kickstart IPv6’ campaign, which provides easier IPv6 allocations to many organizations.

Market Forces Favour IPv6 Adoption
Market forces and rapid economic development in the Asia Pacific region will continue to drive the demand for Internet addresses creating a sound business case for adoption by both service providers and organizations with public-facing Internet services. The current mobile broadband adoption trends alone in economies such as China and India require many IP allocations.

APNIC Director General, Paul Wilson, said the role of APNIC is to ensure fairness in the distribution of these resources.

“APNIC allocation policies ensure equal access to IPv6 addresses to ISPs in every corner of the region, but we particularly support developing economies with the provision of critical network infrastructure and many training and educational activities. I encourage all Asia Pacific ICT providers to continue to expand IPv6 services and offerings, and for all users to ensure that they are prepared” Mr Wilson said.

For more information on APNIC IPv6 initiatives, visit:
www.apnic.net/ipv6

Managing IPv4 Exhaustion and Stewardship in the AP Region
There are now 12 /8* address blocks remaining in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) free pool of IPv4 addresses. These blocks are allocated to Regional Internet Registries as they are required, and then subdivided for allocation to networks in each region. All allocations are made according to ‘demonstrated need’ and there is no quota or reservation system at any level, whether regional or national.

However when the free pool reaches five blocks, these will be distributed evenly among the five Regional Internet Registries, according to a policy agreed last year by the global Internet community.

Mr Wilson said that APNIC would continue to manage the remaining IP addresses in an equitable and responsible manner.

“At the APNIC regional policy level, distribution plans for the final /8 will extend the life of IPv4 as much as possible, and to ensure this, we will limit allocations to any one organization to a single /22 block (1024 addresses) from that final /8,” Mr Wilson said.

As the Asia Pacific community nears that point in time when the final /8 is distributed, it is necessary for business leaders in the region to begin IPv6 deployment if they have not already.