Editor-in-Chief, IPv6style
The “IPv6 Summit in KOCHI 2005,” hosted by IAJapan (IPv6 Deployment Committee), was held in Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, on November 2, 2005. Key members who promote IPv6 in various regions, including Prof. Hiroshi Esaki, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, gave talks and a panel discussion.
The purpose of this seminar series is to propagate and promote IPv6, and it is held in many places, including Sapporo, Okinawa, Hiroshima, Shizuoka, etc. The next seminar is planned to be held in Toyama Prefecture on March 3, 2006.
Keynote Speech
Prof. Hiroshi Esaki, Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, gave the keynote speech and reported the latest news surrounding IPv6. The summary of his speech is below.
From Getting Money to Saving Money
During the course of the Internet explosion, computers have also been used as a tool for selling information. However, computers started out as tools for processing and analyzing information. Analyzing information in order to lower costs, rather than selling information in order to gain money, is the model for information systems that people these days, such as system integrators, refer to.
When talking about IPv6 to people other than network administrators, such as average users and people in new industries, things such as the IP address being 32 bits or 128 bits and which version it is, do not concern them at all. Looking back at the history of the Internet, an IP address was 4 bits at first, but it was expanded to 8 bits since NASA was going to use it, and then it became 32 bits. So, what it means is that you just need to expand it when necessary. In other words, there is no issue there.
Rather than those matters, what interests average users the most when talking about IPv6 is how much it can lower costs. For example, building facility management. Up until now, there were competitions over the right to adjust the building’s temperature. This is because there were differences in temperatures even on the same floor, due to the limited number of air ducts and to the impossibility of individual air duct control, and also because how a particular temperature felt differed from person to person. However, in brand new buildings, detailed temperature control is possible and they can make it so that it feels cool to people who feel hot and warm to people who feel cold.
One example even shows that they were able to reduce the power bill for the building by close to 40% by controlling the temperature in detail. Especially in Japan, where the unit cost for energy is about twice as much as the US, they say that the amount of money you save is enough to build an identical building if you keep saving 40% of the cost for 20 years.
In cases like this, they use network technology that combines IPv6 and sensors. Several buildings that use IPv6 already exist and some are also under construction. Of course they can use IPv4, too. However, when using IPv4, the network design and troubleshooting are complicated. Furthermore, when they try to switch things made with IPv4 to IPv6 in the future, it will require large-scale work and cost a lot of money.
It is also the same for data centers, not just office buildings. Data centers pursue their business by equipping themselves with computers that create large amounts of heat and cooling them off with AC. However, if they control the air conditioning system in order to improve the cooling efficiency, they can lower their costs and provide less expensive services to their data center customers, which also lead to the company being more competitive.
Since you can set up the network automatically by using auto-configuration, it’s hard for set up mistakes to occur and so management costs can be reduced even when the office moves or expands.
There are lots more examples like these. So, when you think about “saving money” in the long term rather than immediately thinking about “getting money”, IPv6 is a practical choice.
In his keynote speech, Prof. Hiroshi Esaki (University of Tokyo) stressed the economic merits of IPv6.
Interest in IPv6 overseas
As for the situation overseas, countries have started adopting IPv6 as their policy. Up until now, China was not able to take initiative internationally in the Internet field. However, they started a project called CNGI (China Next Generation Internet) and announced that they are going to push IT in up-coming international events, such as the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai Expo. As a nation, they will develop and improve their IPv6 information communication system by then. Korea also declared that they would use IPv6 for broadband. In the US, many people voiced their opinion that IPv4 was sufficient because the US had many IPv4 addresses. However, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that they would switch military systems to IPv6 by 2012. The division that promotes e-government also announced its adoption of IPv6. The government’s procurement division announced that the US government network would be switched to IPv6 by June 2008 and that it is working on guidelines.
Lowering defense spending is also a big reason in the DoD’s case. As we all know, the US spends huge amounts of budget funds for defense, and their goal is to restructure the budget. They aim to reduce the number of soldiers by improving efficiency in defense and battles and to automate resource management.
Changes in business models
It is also possible that a change may occur in network application business models. Some people say that the reason why the content business targeting cell phones can charge while the content business targeting the Internet cannot charge is because you can identify the client terminals. This means that it is hard to charge customers in a business model where it is hard to identify the client terminals because they are inside of an NAT network, and that it is easier to charge customers in an environment where the client terminals can be identified from outside; for example, an environment where cell phones and STB are used. It is true that there is a privacy issue in identifying the client terminal, however, the traits of IPv6 will probably have an effect on thoughts toward such business models.
IPv6 probably has an effect not only on business models, but also on trust models where security issues exist. In the environment where the client terminals are inside of an NAT network and cannot be identified, it is becoming hard to have enough security.
Engineers’ productivity
The engineers who design networks combining IPv4 and NAT are currently having a very hard time. With regards to network management, some think that operating costs are high even without considering equipment costs because troubleshooting in an IPv4 and NAT-combined network is especially hard.
For example, regarding client terminal configuration for IP telephones, there was a case where there were errors in about 300 client terminals, out of 20,000 IP telephones, due to IPv4 set up mistakes, etc., but with IPv6, less than 10 client terminals had errors. As you can see in this example, if IPv6 is used, the network management is simplified and you will be able to apply engineers’ productivity in other areas.
Saving money, in other words, reducing network management costs, means that for the amount you saved, you will be able to use your engineers’ time for other essential works that are creative, such as projects that can bring in money.
With the birthrate declining and an aging population, what countries are especially interested in as a matter of policy is how they can create an industrial structure that is more efficient. It is desired to allocate personnel in essential areas and reduce costs as much as possible.
Lecture
Takashi Arano, Intec NetCore, Inc., reported that IPv4 address depletion is progressing faster than expected. He also spoke about what engineers should consider when adopting IPv6 in the future.
IPv4 address depletion progresses faster than expected
Up until now, some people were taking it easy, thinking, “things would work out fine” with regards to the IPv4 address depletion issue. According to IANA’s research, however, in the worst case, there is a possibility that IPv4 addresses will run out by 2008 and that there will be no more IPv4 address allocations available. Especially, you can expect a last-minute rise in demand and there will probably be some auction sales of IPv4 addresses, although it is against the rules. So, as you can probably imagine, these things will cause a commotion.
It is also important to note that only 25% of all the IPv4 addresses that can be allocated are left. You could say that there is still 25% left. However, when you consider ISP businesses, it means that there will be no IPv4 addresses available to be allocated when the number of users increases by 25%.
When you think this way, you can tell that we won’t be able to say “IPv4 is good enough” for very long.
Takashi Arano (Intec NetCore) stressed the issue of IPv4 depletion.
Promoting IPv6 adoption
There have been various IPv6 tests conducted up until now. They were useful in terms of seeing if the new technology actually works or not. However, if there is something that we should reflect on, it would be that IPv6 tests were conducted in order to adopt IPv6. From now on, we should think of using IPv6 because it’s better, rather than just thinking about what we can use IPv6 for.
To do so, it would be easier if you organize your thoughts using the following three ways of thinking:
- Smooth transition
- Forced deployment
- Solution-oriented deployment
Smooth transition means that companies make themselves ready for IPv6 in preparation for when they upgrade their system periodically once every few years. Some point out that this may raise operation costs, however, it won’t be as much of an increase as hiring one engineer. This is the same as when TCP/IP once coexisted with AppleTalk over Ethernet. Rather, the risk is bigger than the cost increase if they leave the IPv4-only environment as is and keep using it for several years from now.
Forced deployment means forcing adopting of IPv6. For example, analog terrestrial TV broadcasts will stop by 2010. Similarly, IPv6 adoption occurs by using coercive powers like this.
Solution-oriented deployment means that companies use IPv6 as a method to solve problems, but not because of the protocol. For example, in order to implement a solution that lowers costs, it is important to make it clear that using IPv6 has advantages. Do not think about what IPv6 lets you do. You should use it in places where it will have an impact because it is better than IPv4.
Panel discussion
At the end of the event, a panel discussion was held and activities on several applications were introduced. In this session, they introduced examples of network services within limited areas, but did not introduce network service for large areas.
Panelists
Motoko Fujii, Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
Takashi Arano, Executive Director, Intec NetCore, Inc.
Shinzo Takechi, Director, Shikoku Office, JA-LP Gas Information Center, Inc.
Kazuyuki Komatsu, SOHO & Venture Institute/Visiting Researcher, Kochi University of Technology
Yutaka Kikuchi, Assistant Professor, Kochi University of Technology Research Institute, moderated the discussion.
Panel discussion participants
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