U.S. federal agencies ready for IPv6 D-Day (which is today)

provides so many IP addresses — 2 to the 128th power — that it is expected to enable secure, mobile and embedded applications that are inconceivable today. Although commercial deployment of IPv6 is furthest along in Asia, where IPv4 addresses are scarce, the United States was the first country to require its federal networks to support IPv6 by a particular date. Indeed, the U.S. government’s apparently successful effort to make its backbone networks IPv6 capable has prompted action among other countries worried about falling behind in next-generation Internet technology.

The European Commission held an IPv6 Day in Brussels, Belgium, in May to discuss Europe’s lagging IPv6 deployment. European Union countries have set a goal — but not a requirement — for 25 percent of commercial, government and residences to use IPv6 by 2010. “Basically, what they were saying at this meeting is that [Europe is] a little bit behind the U.S. and Asia,” says Cody Christman, director of product engineering at NTT America, which has offered IPv6 Internet access for five years and counts the Federal Aviation Administration among its customers. Christman attended the 30 May IPv6 Day. “This is a call to action for the EU to get on the stick.”

Karen Evans, administrator of the Office of E-Government and Information Technology in OMB, says that she expects all federal agencies to meet the IPv6 deadline. “We have no reason to believe that agencies are not going to meet the deadline,” Evans says. “Based on everything they have been reporting to us and how the process is supposed to work, there is no reason for the agencies not to be able to demonstrate compliance with IPv6.” Evans said ten cabinet-level agencies have submitted the required e-mail to OMB from their CIOs stating that they have successfully transmitted IPv6 packets. Evans expects to receive similar e-mails from fourteen other cabinet-level agencies in the next few days. “They’ve done the work; they just need to send in the notification to OMB to validate the work that’s been done,” Evans says. “This doesn’t mean I’m in a panic because I haven’t received the form from 14 agencies. This is normal. We track [IPv6 progress] on a quarterly basis…We have no reason to believe that we won’t receive the other notifications.” Evans says no federal agency has notified OMB of having failed to pass IPv6 packets successfully over the backbone network, and no