APNIC chief scientist Geoff Huston says 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 organisations to support IPv6 in the future, a recent global survey funded by the European Commission found that 16% of responding organisations had not yet applied for IPv6 address space because they did not recognise 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 time frame.

“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 organisations with any form of reliance on the internet must be prepared to support IPv6,” Geoff says.

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 organisations have now built their road maps 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 road maps. 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 organisations.

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 organisations 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 says 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.”