News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs Workshop Hosts IPv6 Challenge

Challenge Part of IPv6 Working Group Broader Outreach Program to Promote New
Protocol Adoption

LINCOLN, Neb. – July 21, 2008 – The Internet2 IPv6 Working Group today
announced it will begin a broad outreach program to help promote the
adoption of the IPv6 protocol among the research and education community and
beyond. As a first step, the working group has created an IPv6 accessibility
challenge for attendees of the ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs meeting hosted
this week by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, July 20-24.  

IPv6 is the next version of the Internet Protocol, the data packaging and
routing standard on which the Internet is based. IPv6 offers several
improvements over IPv4. Most importantly, IPv6 vastly increases the number
of addresses available from about 4 billion to approximately 340 trillion
trillion trillion. According to the American Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN), which manages the distribution of Internet number resources (IPv4
and IPv6 address space and Autonomous System Numbers) in Canada, many
Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States, only 19% of
IPv4 address space remains available and is depleting quickly.  

“Given the rapid growth of the Internet, ensuring an abundance of Internet
addresses is critical. The proliferation of connected devices means that in
the near future many addresses will be required for each individual person
who uses the Internet. The techniques currently employed to deal with the
shortage of IPv4 addresses are reaching their limits, and many of these
techniques - such as network address translation - puts the growth of the
Internet in serious jeopardy,” said Dale Finkelson, senior network engineer
for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co-chair of the Internet2 IPv6
Working Group. 

The challenge asks workshop attendees to set up their personal computers to
operate using only IPv6. Users will then attempt to connect to the meeting’s
wireless network to access a registration website at
http://jointtechs.es.net/IPv6-Reg/ only accessible via IPv6. If successful
in reaching the site, attendees will then use the web interface to register
to win a grand prize of an Apple iPod Touch 32G to be raffled off at the
meeting´s July 22 evening reception. All attendees who are successful in
reaching the IPv6-only site will receive a gift for their participation.

The website will also be used to gather documentation on the level of IPv6
compliance for each user’s computer system, DNS server and campus network to
enhance the working group’s knowledge on current deployment and adoption
rates.

Finkelson added, “The Internet2 IPv6 Working Group believes it is important
that the research and education community show leadership in the adoption of
IPv6 and in the development of resources to facilitate that deployment. We
are utilizing our various meeting venues to help encourage IPv6 testing,
compliance and accessibility and hope to expand our efforts in the coming
months to help prepare our community for the IPv6 future.”

Similar experiments have taken place successfully at recent networking
events, such as the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) and
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) meetings, but this is the
first such experiment targeted specifically at the U.S. academic networking
community.

A special session will be held on Monday, July 21 to assist attendees in
setting up their systems who would like to participate in the challenge.
Further details can be found at:
http://events.internet2.edu/2008/jt-lincoln/agenda.cfm

About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the
research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions
of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and
unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development,
deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 brings
the U.S. research and academic community together with technology leaders
from industry, government and the international community to undertake
collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet.
For more information: http://www.internet2.edu/

Media Contact:
Lauren Rotman, Internet2

202.331.5345