[LAC-TF] Network World sobre IPv6 week

[Fernando Gont]

Es agradable que el evento haya sido cubierto por Network World, así
como también que hayan entrevistado a "muchas caras conocidas".


Fuente:
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/020812-ipv6-brazil-255876.html>


IPv6 Week: This Brazilian party is for techies only

IPv6 Week attracts dozens of Latin American Web sites, ISPs and hosting
companies to turn on next-gen Internet Protocol
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World
February 08, 2012 12:37 PM ET

Forget Mardi Gras. Brazil is hosting a party for techies only this week
to encourage deployment of IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol.

Brazil's IPv6 Week, which runs Feb. 6-12, has prompted dozens of Web
sites across the country - and in Latin America and the Caribbean, too
-- to turn on IPv6 alongside the current version of the Internet
Protocol, known as IPv4.

More than 120 organizations are participating in IPv6 Week, including
carrier Telefonica, Portuguese content provider UOL; Brazilian TV
network Globo, Brazilian video streaming company IG, and Spanish Web
portal Terra.

Participating Web sites have agreed to support both IPv4 and IPv6
traffic for the week, while regional ISPs are offering IPv6 connectivity
to businesses and homes for testing purposes.

"IPv6 Week started in Brazil, but it has become regional. Many content
providers from other countries are involved in this activity," says
Arturo Servin, CTO for LACNIC , the Latin American and Caribbean
Internet Address Registry, which provides IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to
carriers and enterprises in the region. "We're trying to get some
movement from providers and ISPs in the region and get them to start
working on IPv6 so they are more prepared."

Brazil's IPv6 Week is similar to World IPv6 Day, a 24-hour IPv6 test
that was sponsored by the Internet Society in June of last year.

Carriers and content providers need to test IPv6 thoroughly and deploy
it carefully because it is not backwards compatible with IPv4, which is
running out of addresses. IPv6 solves the addressing limitations of IPv4
and can support billions of devices connected directly to the Internet.
Network and Web site operators can either support both protocols in
what's called dual-stack mode or translate between IPv4 and IPv6, which
could add latency and cost.

Until recently, Latin America lagged the rest of the developed world on
IPv6 deployment. One reason is that LACNIC isn't expected to run out of
IPv4 addresses until January 2014. In contrast, Asia has already run out
of IPv4 addresses, Europe is expected to deplete its supply this year,
and North America's pool of IPv4 addresses will be gone next year.

"I don't know if it's to our advantage or our disadvantage that LACNIC
is not running out of IPv4 addresses yet," Servin says. "For a long
time, ISPs here didn't talk about IPv6. They think they can take things
slowly and relax. But they aren't taking into account that IPv4 is gone
in other regions. Asia Pacific doesn't have IPv4 addresses, so they are
moving the Internet ahead in so many ways. It's important for the whole
Internet to move to IPv6.''

The Brazilian Network Information Center, which operates the .br
registry, came up with the idea for IPv6 Week to raise awareness among
ISPs and content providers in the region that they need to start working
on IPv6 deployment. Other organizations that helped publicize the
week-long IPv6 trial include LACNIC and the Internet Society.

"The goal of this activity was to create awareness...to show users that
it was very easy to deploy IPv6," says Christian O'Flaherty, Regional
Development Manager for the Internet Society. "We're hoping this week is
going to get people to start thinking about IPv6."

So far, IPv6 Week has gone smoothly. Of the 188 participating Web sites,
170 had successfully served up the quad-A records required by IPv6 in an
ongoing measurement as of Wednesday morning.

"There were not many connectivity problems," O'Flaherty says. "Some
users may have experienced some issues on the first day for their
initial testing or configurations, but none were bad enough that anyone
had to go back and dis-configure IPv6. No problems were big enough that
they had to be announced."

IPv6 Week is generating some additional IPv6 traffic in Latin America.
The event was timed to coincide with a technology-oriented festival that
is taking place in Sao Paolo called Campus Party Brasil, which has
attracted 7,000 participants.

"On Monday, about 1.5% to 2% of the traffic at Campus Party Brasil was
IPv6," O'Flaherty says. "We have used Campus Party Brasil to give some
talks about IPv6 and raise awareness."

O'Flaherty says that many of the Web sites participating in IPv6 Week
plan to keep IPv6 services up and running after Feb. 12. Others are
gearing up for the next IPv6-related challenge: World IPv6 Launch, which
is scheduled for June 6. World IPv6 Launch is the agreed-upon deadline
for many popular Web sites such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo to deploy
IPv6 permanently.

"We hope to have more participation in our region in World IPv6 Launch,"
O'Flaherty says. "Last year, at World IPv6 Day, there were not many
Latin American or Caribbean organizations participating...We will be
trying to work with all of these participants to encourage them to
finish their tests and start doing IPv6 services that are more official
and standard."

Servin says the major carriers and ISPs in Latin America have upgraded
their backbone networks to support IPv6 but haven't deployed the new
protocol in their access networks. So while universities and business
can purchase IPv6 transit in some Latin American cities, commercial IPv6
service isn't available yet for residential customers in the region.

"In our region, the issue is the access networks," Servin says. "We're
trying to create awareness around that. The technical people are very
aware of the problem, but we need the CTOs and CEOs who control the
budgets and strategies in the ISPs to be aware that this upgrade to IPv6
is coming."

At least two U.S. carriers - Level 3 and Hurricane Electric - joined in
on the IPv6 action in Brazil this week. Level 3, signed up for IPv6 Week
as a supporting telco given that it provides commercial IPv6 services
including dual-stack as well as IPv6 over MPLS. Hurricane Electric,
meanwhile, used IPv6 Week as an excuse to launch a Portuguese language
online certification program for IPv6 skills.

-- 
Fernando Gont
e-mail: fernando at gont.com.ar || fgont at si6networks.com
PGP Fingerprint: 7809 84F5 322E 45C7 F1C9 3945 96EE A9EF D076 FFF1