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While talking about next-gen technologies, CIOs across India are happy to talk instantly about Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-To-Machine (M2M) communication and how these technologies can take businesses to the next level. In the past, we have highlighted many prominent CIOs talking about these next-gen technologies and their interest in adopting such technologies. However, now, when we talk about Internet Protocol (IP) version 6, the most basic and perhaps the most important (if you look into the future), implementation for promoting IoT and M2M, we are shocked to find out that IPv6 is nowhere in the priority list of most Indian CIOs.
With the exponential growth of Internet, we will become out of supply of IP addresses very soon. Even then IPv6 is nowhere in most CIO’s radar. Are we looking at taking businesses to next level by deploying futuristic technologies by depending on old frameworks? Or, do we really don’t care and are happy to keep on extending the lifespan of IP version 4 with Network Address Translation (NAT) or other techniques?
For as long as there has been Internet, IPv4 has been synonymous with IP. However, it has outlived its usefulness. With the explosion on Internet and the exponential growth of IP-based devices, the need for more IP addresses was felt and a new Internet Protocol version (IPv6) was devised taking into account the challenges the present IPv4 faces and the expectations and promises the future of networking holds.
And guess when was IPv6 conceived?
In 1998, yes, you got that right! After 16 years of IPv6’s existence, in February 2014, the percentage of Internet users using Google services over IPv6 crossed an awesome 3 per cent for the first time.
While blanket migration to IPv6 is not feasible, CIOs can always opt for dual stack wherein IPv4 and IPv6 coexist. This might cost CIOs 8 to 10 per cent of IT budgets or more for some but this cost cannot be a long-term excuse to continue with IPv4.
Most CIOs are questioning the need for IPv6. They are skeptical with the real benefits from shifting to IPv6 from IPv4 as justifying costs would be difficult. Having said this, can we look at IPv6 as a new gateway for customer enhancement?
Recalling IPv6
The v6 of IP was designed to replace IPv4. Though IPv4 has proven to be robust, easily implemented and interoperable, we have to look forward to IPv6 as IPv4 is not designed to support the following:
1) IP level security
2) Support real-time delivery of data, aka quality of service (QoS)
3) Simpler auto-configuration and renumbering of network devices
4) IoT and M2M
IPv6, the successor of IPv4 is claimed to enable us to assign even a coffee maker it’s very own global address.
“With the exponential growth of internet of things, we will be run out of IP addresses very soon, unless we move on to IPv6. Additionally, there are many other properties; we can bundle with the address. Hence, it is not a question of choice but becoming inevitable. You are talking about a jump from 4.3 billion addresses to 340 trillion IP addresses, not a matter of joke,” feels Subhasish Saha, CTO, Apeejay Surrendra Group.
Currently, we are adjusting ourselves and implementing solutions to somehow extend the longevity of IPv4. However, these techniques fail to take the bull by its horns and address the need for more IPs. It is estimated that a single IP is used by 10 devices at a time.
The designers of IPv4 had not anticipated the recent rapid growth of the Internet and the nearing exhaustion of IPv4 addresses. Thus, the need for IPv6 is obvious. Organisations can successfully deploy IPv6 with their existing IPv4 infrastructures.
The good news is that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has designed the IPv6 addressing scheme to be interoperable with the existing IPv4 networking architecture. So, IPv6 and IPv4 networks can coexist.
“As of now, migrating to IPv6 is not in our priority list. We are looking at creating a strategy around deploying IPv6 in our company. For the time being we would be looking at maintaining dual-stacks and then in future, migrate completely to IPv6,” says Sachin Jain, CIO (Global IT Operations) and CISO, Evalueserve.
Apart from solving countering the scarcity of IP addresses in IPv4, IPv6 enhances routing and addressing capabilities along with simplifying IP header and helps in multicast routing as it supports larger address blocks and various types of IP addresses.
2017 Deadline
Recently, ERNET India, an autonomous scientific society under the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India held a road show on IPv6 in New Delhi to make IT professional aware of IPv6 and remind the fact that Internet is “not a one-time invention” rather a tool that’s needs to evolve to match the present expectations.
ERNET has made a significant contribution to the emergence of networking in India. It practically brought Internet to India.
IPv6 is an obvious extension of what will eventually be critical for mass connectivity. While the term has been predominantly discussed in technology circles, it’s implications for organisations and the general user community is relatively unexplained. The exhaustion of IPV4 addresses had a major impact on the growth of the Internet, Internet service providers (ISP) and Internet presence (websites, e-commerce, email). So, the move to IPV6 (340 trillion, trillion, trillion unique IP addresses) is a viable option for the ecosystem at large. India has already taken significant strides towards the mainstream deployment of IPV6 with the Department of Telecom (DOT) unraveling the ‘National IPV6 Deployment Roadmap Version II’. This mandates that starting January 1, 2014 all internet connections provided to business organisations should support the new version of internet addresses based on IPV6. It also states that government organisations should prepare a detailed transition plan for complete migration to IPV6 by December 2017.
“The government has set 2017 as the deadline to move to IPv6. CIOs, therefore, have to plan accordingly. If it is for the government, then the private sector will also have to move,” says Neena Pahuja, Director General, ERNET.
“We are at a position where we know the internet is exploding. We will face tremendous problems if we don’t migrate to IPv6 because there won’t be any connectivity with the devices that are being manufactured and imported,” adds Pahuja.
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