Direction on Adoption of IPv6
AITI has issued a direction for the adoption of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) technology in Brunei Darussalam for all Internet Service Providers. This direction is effective from 15 February 2018 and ensure:-
- ISP’s network infrastructure has capabilities to support both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses;
- ISP’s Internet-related applications providing services to customers are capable of supporting IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously;
- ISP’s customer premises equipment can support both IPv4 and IPv6.
AITI has provided an Advisory Guidelines for Adoption of IPv6 in Brunei Darussalam on this link as a general reference.
What is Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)?
Internet Protocol version 6 is the next-generation communications protocol designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The objective for IPv6 is to solve the issue of limited Internet Protocol Numbers caused by depletion of IPv4.
Since 2010, AITI conducted an assessment on Brunei Darussalam’s IPv6 status quo and readiness. AITI has organised a series of activities to gauge the response of the nation on IPv6 technologies.
Some of these activities include:
- An assessment paper;
- Setting up a committee comprising of AITI, Internet Service Providers and other Government agencies;
- Conducting a seminar with external guest-speakers;
- Conducting a workshop with technical experts in IPv6; and
- Providing certified IPv6 training session with a local training company.
Benefits of IPV6
IPv6 has 2128 or 3.4 x 1038 addresses, basically more than enough to cater the growing number of devices predicted to emerge in the future. IPv6 is represented as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, each group representing 16 bits. The groups are separated by colons (:).
An example is 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.
The key benefits for utilising IPv6 are:
More efficient routing
Larger IP address space
IP Multicast
Auto-configuration
Better end-to-end connectivity
Mobile IPv6
What is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)?
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the IP numbers we are currently using. During the early stage of the Internet, IPv4 was primarily used by institutions and organisations for experiments and projects. At that time, with a pool of 232 or approximately 3.7 billion addresses, IPv4 was thought to be enough for everyone.
As the Internet usage continues to expand rapidly through Wi-Fi hotspots, affordable Internet access and mobile broadband subscriptions, the percentage of population with Internet has increased from less than 1% in 1992 to 32.5% in 2011. As devices connecting to the Internet continue to rise, IPv4 address is predicted to cease by 2022.