Axel Pawlik, summarises the outcome of the most recent government roundtable and the progress being made in the EC as governments flesh out their IPv6 roadmaps.
The RIPE NCC recently outlined the issues surrounding the underlying infrastructure of the Internet and called for governments to take a leading role in Internet development.
At The RIPE NCC Roundtable meeting for governments and regulators last month, it was clear that Europe is making progressive action towards IPv6 migration. Governments have now laid out a clear intention to assist in the development of the Internet and lead by example.
This latest event saw Advisor to the European Commission, Detlef Eckert, urging member states to lead transition and highlight the importance of public sector leadership. Eckert reiterated the crucial role of EU governments in leading the way to IPv6 migration, and over 50 delegates from 20 countries were told of the important role of governments and organisations to start planning and acting now for the transition to IPv6.
He pointed out at the event, that the over-hyping of certain IPv6 features in the past had resulted in underestimations of its benefits to society on a wider scale. For instance IPv6 is key to a flexible national IT architecture, providing positive user experiences and agile business environments. In line with the recent UK government’s efforts to stimulate ‘Digital Britain’, IPv6 also makes it easier and cheaper for users to operate their own home servers and networks, offer content on their own websites and collaborate directly, without the need for a hosted server.
Migration to IPv6 holds many challenges for government however, and uptake to date has been slow, partly due to limited private sector involvement. Given current financial restraints, the meeting hosts re-emphasised that it is essential for the public sector to take the long term view and decide on ways to intervene by taking the lead on IPv6 implementation.
Back in May 2008, the EC committed to enabling 25 per cent of users to connect to the Internet over IPv6 by 2010. The EC has already moved internally to IPv6 and has launched a study to measure progress in IPv6 traffic over the next two years. There is clearly active planning taking place in many European member states working to provide support to generate synergy across the European Union.
Current European Union IPv6 Activities:
– Stimulation of IPv6 reachable content, services and business applications
– Public sector procurement
– Monitoring security and privacy implications
– Discussion with Member States
– Study to measure IPv6 deployment just launched
– • Two recent FP7 projects:
http://www.6deploy.eu/
http://www.efipsans.org/
– Various outreach activities
– Preparatory work to introduce IPv6 in
Commission’s network
– Statement of intent on international Co-operation
Although Eckert’s Outlook for the EU emphasized the need for immediate action, he pointed out that the speed of IPv4 exhaustion is still not clear, with current expectations pointing to a date in 2011. He also noted that a dilemma still remains – there are numerous benefits in IPv6 uptake for both individual users and society at large, but there are few incentives for individual actors. Because IPv4 exhaustion is not seen as an immediate problem, a ‘wait and see’ mentality still exists in the private sector, so the pressure on governments to act is compounded.
Axel Pawlik, Managing Director at the RIPE NCC, sees this as a key factor for Internet growth, commenting at the roundtable, “We view governments as key players in Internet growth and urge them to play their part in the deployment of IPv6 and in particular to lead by example in making content available in IPV6. Ultimately, we urge that the widespread deployment of IPv6 be made a high priority by all stakeholders."
The RIPE NCC February update confirms that EC governments are actively pushing for networks to start deploying IPv6 as they begin to develop their IPv6 roadmaps. It has also noticed clear indications that governments across the world are increasingly enthusiastic in the way they are sharing information.
Many are looking to neighbouring countries for examples of how to approach the issue, but they all realise that these are not country specific and that the issue is one of a global nature.
There is also a strong degree of knowledge sharing occurring between public and private sectors, and whilst information from all the governments involved is being disseminated to other areas of its community membership, governments are also looking to the technical communities for consultation.
The RIPE NCC is keen to convey to governments that if they are looking for information on what has been achieved and how, it is very much ready and willing to help. It is also confident that the next meeting will see governments presenting back in detail on a variety of the achievements and developments made so far.
