Agencies Slowly Appreciating Need for IPv6 Upgrade—Official

IPv6’s main advantages are greater address space for a host of non-PC devices expected to come online the next several years, and improved built-in network security. Applications under discussion include sensors in ventilation systems to reroute smoke and on highways to divert traffic ahead of accidents, and soldiers in the field are already transmitting through several IPv6- enabled devices, Tseronis said. Agencies must have IPv6 transition plans ready by June 30.

Agency leaders have a “don’t mess with it” attitude regarding the Internet that is out of sync with other technology purchases, Tseronis said. He tried to sneak in funding for Education’s IPv6 efforts through a routine Office of Management and Budget request, but got a “mini- slap on the wrist” from OMB and was told to simply to use the technology refresh money that’s in each agency’s budget. Even then, convincing his budget director to replace Cat 3 cable -- long ago eclipsed by the Cat 5 standard -- was an uphill battle, and the agency still can’t technically handle IP phones. The foot-dragging is slowing IPv6 adoption elsewhere, he said, pointing to a meeting this year with French and Japanese ministers, who said their countries were waiting for U.S. action.

Vendors have been complaining that they can’t meet IPv6 compliance requirements before the government settles on a profile or baseline, Tseronis said. The Defense Department, about 5 years ahead of the rest of the government in the IPv6 transition, has a testing lab for vendors, but it’s in the middle of nowhere, he said. The government is preparing for “phase two” of the transition, which includes labs for testing and accreditation, and deployment plans should be “rubber stamped hopefully in the next day or so.” The updated IPv6 profile should be out in January, he said.

Asked how Education recently declared itself compliant with the OMB requirement to be IPv6-ready, Tseronis cited close coordination with Cisco, whose equipment powers Education networks. Education can handle the bare minimum of “ping, trace, screenshot,” or successfully transmitting and receiving IPv6 packets on its intranets and the Internet. It’s meeting with Cisco next week to discuss the IPv6-enabled applications that Education wants to use in the next 3 to 5 years, such as its School 2.0 initiative. Agencies can get a jump on compliance by working closely with their service providers, he said.

Lower level agency officials can best convince their superiors to dedicate money to the IPv6 transition by avoiding jargon, Tseronis said. “Use the excuse that your equipment needs to be upgraded” to support the “next- generation Internet,” without mentioning IPv6, and discuss buzzworthy applications enabled by IPv6, such as telepresence, he said. Tseronis said he was naive when in 2005 he took on the responsibility of federal IPv6 coordination, thinking 2 1/2 years would be plenty of time. “It doesn’t end for the government in June,” Tseronis said, predicting no “rudder changing” on IPv6 efforts after the 2008 election either. -- Greg Piper

IEEE Globecom Notebook…

“The Internet is not going to go ‘plop'” but will need “thoughtful investment” the next 3 to 5 years to keep apace with demand from consumers and innovation in applications, said Fred Baker, Cisco fellow and former Internet Engineering Task Force chairman, at the conference. He pointed to recent Vodafone financial results showing data revenue jumping 49 percent from a year earlier as voice grew 7 percent and SMS 9 percent. Even consumers on sluggish GPRS connections are devouring data, including applications outside Vodafone’s walled garden, Baker said. Far from freeriding on telco and cable networks, as some have claimed, those applications are driving revenue, he said. Network operators can’t keep blaming peer-to-peer users for sucking up their bandwidth, though, because HTTP traffic -- led by social networking platforms -- has made a resurgence in recent years and now roughly equals P2P traffic, Baker said. The U.S. shortage of fast connections has become painfully apparent as Baker has traveled worldwide, he said. Minimum speeds were 10 and 20 Mbps in Japan and Switzerland when he visited with the IETF, and Indian officials gave profuse apologies for their “Third World” 256 kbps connections -- the same as his California ISP, Baker said. The University of Kabul has satellite Internet access through the NATO Silk Highway project, impoverished Uganda is laying fiber and connecting schools, hospitals and government offices with DSL, and even the nomadic Masai in Kenya have set up Internet centers, he said. The Chinese government was planning for the IPv6 transition long before the U.S., Baker said, recalling a 1999 meeting with a Chinese minister. There are precious few “dual stack” networks running both IPv4 and IPv6, and the network address translation products don’t work very well between the two protocols, he said, saying he’s leading a Cisco meeting next week to devise alternatives for the transition. “The sky’s not falling, but parts of it are getting pretty expensive to hold up,” he said.