IPv6 brings great opportunities

Beijing time on June 8 news, according to foreign media reports, the new generation of Internet Protocol IPv6 was formally launched on June 6, the world's major websites and network service providers (ISP) will conduct a 24-hour IPv6 test. Prior to the upgrade, fewer than one IP address was available for everyone in the world. After the upgrade, this number soared to 1 billion.

You may have heard that the Internet IP address will run out. If all this happens, the consequences will be unthinkable - millions of potential internet users will be deprived of access to the Internet.

Although I have heard it, I don’t need to panic. The vast majority of network service providers are upgrading the network to support the transition to IPv6. The content provider will also join it later.

In the IPv6 on-line event held on June 6, 2012, most of the world's popular websites began to support IPv6, allowing content to be permanently accessed. Although some problems appeared on the day of IPv6 on-line activity, the vast majority of end-users have been able to access content through IPv6 and have not been affected in the slightest.

If we say that billions of Internet users around the world have not been greatly affected, why should we pay attention to the upgrade of IPv4 to IPv6? Because this upgrade is the largest scale upgrade of IP networks since the advent of the Internet. People previously used mainly IPv4 with 32-bit addresses, supporting 4 billion IP addresses; while IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, the number of available single addresses is: 3.4e+38 (34 times 10 to the 38th power). The emergence of "new" Internet will also bring tremendous opportunities to enterprises, operators and content providers.

The current situation and why it needs to be upgraded

IPv4 is the abbreviation of Internet Protocol version 4 (Internet Protocol version 4). The protocol family used by the current global Internet is the TCP/IP protocol family. IP is a protocol at the network layer in the TCP/IP protocol suite and is the core protocol of the TCP/IP protocol suite. Due to the rapid growth of the Internet and the continuous adoption of new devices by users, about 93% of current IPv4 addresses have been exhausted.

At present, 300 million IPv4 IP addresses that have not yet been allocated will soon be exhausted. Market analysts expect that network access equipment will triple in the next three years, from about 5 billion today to 15 billion in 2015. The dramatic increase in the number of network access devices is mainly driven by the growth in demand for smart phones, televisions, portable game devices, tablet computers, notebook computers, and various smart devices such as home monitoring systems, home appliances, and even automobiles.

The only way to solve the exhaustion of IPv4 IP addresses is to upgrade to IPv6, so that users get more IP addresses. According to a survey of 67 network service providers by global domain name server provider Nominum, 97% have deployed or plan to deploy IPv6; 23% have deployed IPv6; 35% plan to not be IPv6 this year; 39% of companies plan to deploy IPv6 in 2013 or later. There is no doubt that increasing the number of IP addresses to expand the business is the primary reason for these companies to make this adjustment.

IPv6 Business Case

For a long time, there has been a saying that IPv6 does not have any business arguments for companies. This statement is not correct.

Google and other forward-thinking content providers are actively promoting IPv6. Why? Did they discover what value other companies have not found?

There are several business arguments to consider:

Increase user loyalty - IPv6 makes content such as Facebook or Google Maps faster, and can support new applications such as peer-to-peer games.

The network is more efficient - IPv6 supports larger data packets, which allows users to download video and access cloud applications faster.

Cutting expenditures - Using IPv6 can allow companies to cut some unnecessary expenses.

Increase revenue - IPv6 addresses can contain more information than IPv4 addresses, including device manufacturers and Mac addresses (a unique identifier for each device on the Internet). This can make it easier for network service providers to provide web-based subscription application options, such as allowing parents to choose what children can browse on the Internet device. It also enables content providers and their advertisers to provide search results, content, and advertising more precisely based on the user's IP address. In fact, this is the biggest motivation for content providers to promote IPv6 adoption.

What should I do now?

Currently, all network operators should think carefully about how to adapt IPv6 to their plans for the future. In addition to the need for IP addresses, companies should consider other issues. While actively deploying IPv6, network service providers should continue to test and carefully monitor the exhaustion of IPv4 IP addresses.

Large enterprises should:

Check if all purchased new network devices and applications are compatible with IPv6.

Evaluate how IPv6 can help your company's cloud services.

Consider adding IPv6 navigation to your site.

Consider letting users upgrade to the latest operating systems such as Windows 7 or OS X Lion to better support IPv6.

Small businesses should consult their network service providers for information on providing IPv6 services. Once IPv6 is not completed, we will see new applications that have never before been imagined, and the experience of Internet users will be better than ever. Innovating companies will find new ways to improve corporate effectiveness through this transformation, and become more agile while enhancing competitiveness.