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Do We Need An IPv6 Flag Day?

In recent interviews about World IPv6 Launch I've been asked by several different people whether or not I think there needs to be some kind of a "Flag Day" on which the world all together switches from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to the version 6 (IPv6). I don't think a flag day is needed. World IPv6 Launch is just the right thing. It's worth looking at some previous flag-type days to get a better sense of why. more

Thoughts on the Open Internet - Part 2: The Where and How of “Internet Fragmentation”

In defining what is meant by "Internet Fragmentation" it is useful to briefly describe what is meant by its opposite, an "Open and Coherent Internet". As we've explored in the previous section, "coherence" implies that each of the elements of the Internet are orchestrated to work together to produce a seamless Internet which does not expose the boundaries between discrete elements. more

Richard Clarke: Defend Against Cyberwar by Re-Architecting Networks, Not Buying More Technology

In his keynote yesterday at the RSA Security Conference, former U.S. top chief counter-terrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, said cyberwar defence efforts need to focus on re-architecting networks not buying more technology. more

The IETF’s Job Is Complete - Should It Now Scale Up, Down or Out?

My assertion is that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an institution whose remit is coming to a natural end. This is the result of spectacular success, not failure. However, continuing along the present path risks turning that success into a serious act of wrongdoing. This will leave a social and political legacy that will tarnish the collaborative technical achievements that have been accumulated thus far. more

Thinking Strategically About the Benefits of IPv6

In a recent blog post How to Sell IPv6 to Executives -- Guidance for Engineers, the feedback I got from mailing list discussions was that the case for IPv6 was more of mitigating risk than some inherent benefit of IPv6 itself. That is quite true depending on context. In this article, I will attempt to give more insight into the benefits of deploying IPv6. In a nutshell, viewed from the traditional lens of benefit as something we know and recognise based upon experience, IPv6 has little benefit apart from the large address space. more

IETF Releases the New and Improved Internet Security Protocol, TLS 1.3

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has announced the official release of TLS 1.3. more

Watch ION Belfast / UKNOF Live Tuesday, Sept 9, for IPv6, DNSSEC, BGP Security and More

On Tuesday, September 9, 2014, you have a great opportunity to watch live a very packed agenda full of great sessions about IPv6, DNSSEC, routing/BGP security and other components of Internet infrastructure streaming out of the UKNOF / ION Belfast event in Belfast, UK. All of the sessions can be seen live. more

Current ICANN Policy Precludes the ITU Becoming an IP Address Registry

Lost in all the discussion around the recent ITU meeting (TIES account required of course) is any discussion of the current policy regarding the formation of new RIRs. You may recall that one of the reports that the ITU commissioned on this subject suggests that it would be possible, even desirable for the ITU to be allocated a /12 of IPv6 from the IANA to be further allocated to Country Internet Registries. more

Video Recording Now Available of FCC Dec 6th Workshop on PSTN Transition

If you missed attending or listening to the live stream of the US Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) workshop on the transition of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to new technologies that was held last week on December 6th, the FCC has very nicely made a video recording available from their website for viewing... FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also appeared briefly to provide a few comments. more

2025 IPv4 Price Trends and 2026 Predictions

Through 2024, IPv4 leasing stayed steady at about $0.50 per IP per month, even as purchase prices diverged by block size. Large blocks (like /16) corrected notably while smaller blocks (/20 - /24) remained comparatively firm. That spread reflected shifting enterprise behavior (more surgical allocations, less speculative buying) and the resilience of subscription-like leasing in unstable conditions. more

Significant Changes Underway for Core Internet Protocols

Significant changes to the core Internet protocols are underway due to the increased necessity to overcome limits that have become apparent particularly with regards to performance. more

Fifty Years On – What to Expect in the Next 50 Years of the Internet

When did the Internet begin? It all gets a bit hazy after so many years, but by the early 1970s, research work in packet-switched networks was well underway, and while it wasn't running TCP at the time (the flag day when the ARPANET switched over to use TCP was not until 1 January 1983) but there was the base datagram internet protocol running in the early research ARPA network in the US. Given that this is now around 50 years ago, and given that so much has happened in the last 50 years, what does the next 50 years have in store? more

Averting the Internet Meltdown

A call to action went out: a small, California-based organization called People for Internet Responsibility (PFIR) posted an announcement for an urgent conference - "Preventing the Internet Meltdown." The meltdown that PFIR envisioned was not an impending technical malfunction or enemy attack. Instead, conference organizers foresaw "risks of imminent disruption" to the Internet that would come from an unlikely sector: government officials and bureaucrats working on the unglamorous-sounding problems of Internet Governance. more

Summit to Focus on Knowledge Sharing for IPv6 Deployment

The IPv6 Forum, the North American IPv6 Task Force, and Charmed Technology, Inc. today announced that the U.S. IPv6 Summit 2003 will be held December 8 - 11, 2003 in Arlington, VA, at the Doubletree Crystal City. The U.S. IPv6 Summit 2003 will focus on deployment, technical depth of key IPv6 features, and applications or services of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).  more

The Rising Technical Challenges of Networking at Home

For me, one of the more interesting sessions at the recent IETF 81 meeting in July was the first meeting of the recently established Homenet Working Group. What's so interesting about networking the home? Well, if you regard challenges as "interesting", then just about everything is interesting when you look at networking in the home! more