EGI joins the IPv6 World launch day
Today, the 6th of June 2012, is the official World IPv6 launch – a day organised to raise awareness and improve the deployment of IPv6. This new technology will extend the current Internet system to allow more and more devices to connect to the worldwide community. One of the worldwide events is taking place in Amsterdam and Steven Newhouse, director of EGI.eu, will be discussing EGI's plans for IPv6.
IPv6 world launch badge [enlarge]
But what is IPv6? And what impact could it have on EGI?
Communications on the Internet are managed by a set of rules called the Internet Protocol (IP). These allow devices connected to the global network to communicate and share information. Currently each device is assigned a unique ID, called an IP address. Currently the mainstream version, IPv4, puts an upper limit of just over 4 Billion IDs. This may seem like a lot but, because of the growth in the use of the Internet, it is expected that we will run out of IP addresses in the very near future.
This is of particular interest to organisations like EGI as it will soon become difficult and expensive to get new addresses as well as track and manage their existing ones. To solve this problem the body in charge of producing Internet standards, the Internet Engineering Task Force, has developed IPv6. This will extend the range of unique IDs to 3.4 X 10^38.
EGI is aware that IPv6 needs to be implemented as soon as possible to ensure long term sustainability and growth. To that effect, EGI is working closely with all its partners and has created a task force to look at the impact IPv6 will have on EGI and to define the deployment priorities.
More information
EGI & IPv6 (presentation by Steven Newhouse at the IPv6 launch event in Amsterdam, PDF file 1MB)
6 June 2012
Neasan O'Neill