The IEEE Orange County Computer Society
Presents

The IPv6 Landscape:
- a report from the trenches
By Carl Williams

IPv6 is the biggest, the most drastic, and the most comprehensive change to the underlying structure of the Internet in more than 20 years. The deployment of IPv6-the new version of the Internet Protocol (IP) -will be a massive undertaking that will require the reconfiguration of more than 100 million computers. Not since the adoption of the Internet Protocol itself in January 1983 has there been such a fundamental shift.

The software that lets computers talk on an IPv6-enabled network is now built into the current versions of Windows XP, MacOS, Linux, and many forms of Unix. Every router made by Cisco comes ready to run IPv6. But most importantly IPv6 will be everywhere soon, worldwide development is moving beyond infrastructure these days. IPv6 is available today in Gaming Devices (Sony), Mobile Phones (i.e., every Nokia Phone has it), home fire alarms (Invensys), Digital Cameras (Sanyo, Canon), Cars, Refrigerators, TVs, Internet Phones and many more devices. IPv6 is specified as IP of choice for 3GPP networks. Additionally, most car vendors are heavily developing for IPv6. They are all involved in projects and say that a car in the future will have some 15 IP addresses.

The IPv6 Forum and it's various international regional task forces such as the North America IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF) are focused on the IPv6 evolution - how to deploy IPv6. Evolution means that suddenly something is common, which was unimaginable, a short time beforehand. This is what is happening with IPv6 and the IPv6 Forum with its global alliance of vendors, ISPs, forums, and other relationships are focused on aiding the deployment efforts. IPv6 may feel new today, you may not imagine transitioning your network to IPv6 immediately, but tomorrow you will use it naturally, just like your cell phone. And the advanced services, applications and enhanced mobility, all based on IPv6, will create a business advantage. IPv6 can be an enabler for new markets and services. You will be able to create business opportunities with new and innovative services that use the advanced features of IPv6.

While the timing and speed of a commercial move to IPv6 is uncertain, it is expected that IPv6 will gradually replace IPv4 over the next several years. For the status of IPv6, the main thing to be said is that the announcement of the DoD will greatly accelerate the vendor market to work for IPv6 support, so this area is changing very fast these days in the US. In recent days (early May 2005) the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has embraced IPv6. DOC operating units are now mandated to acquire IPv6 capability into any new or upgraded IP-based technologies. Both the DoD and DOC mandates will greatly effect commercial deployment within the United States - with such momentum the United States is poised to outpace IPv6 deployment in Asia in years to come.

This presentation will take you into the trenches giving you first hand information regarding the status of the pulse of IPv6, its deployment and its incorporation into commercial services and business plans. In addition, an exploration will be made on how companies will use IPv6 to harness and glue a mix of wireless systems that they expect to deploy in the next couple of years. It's that enticing mix of local and remote communications, all seamlessly linked together via IPv6, that's inspiring the global trend to construct the new Internet of Things. With that it is increasingly important that the industry focus on new capabilities to take advantage of the IPv6 landscape as the Internet migrates to IPv6. Thus, the presentation will conclude with the status of more forward thinking product lines, technologies and IPv6 related startups.

BIOGRAPHY

Carl Williams has been working on IPv6 since early 1995 as a senior engineer with Sun Microsystems. He serves on the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF) and is an active member of its steering committee. Carl's activities on the NAv6TF are focused in the deployment of IPv6 and as such he will provide a presentation on his experiences of being in the trenches for IPv6 development and adoption. Carl is currently a Principal Architect with SI International which is working on the DISA DoD IPv6 Transition contract. In this role Carl is heading up the IPv6 Mobility and ad-hoc routing transition team within the DoD IPv6 Transition Office. He is also currently working on the DoD's IPv6 Addressing Plan and application transition. In addition to his DoD work, Carl is also actively working with KDDI R&D Labs on the commercial deployment of IPv6 within the Japanese carriers network. He has a number of patents pending that deal with IPv6 Mobility extensions for use in 3G and home networks. He has been a consultant with KDDI for nearly 3 years and has worked with SI International for more than 1 year. In addition, Carl serves on the Technical Advisory Board of Native6, Inc, a company that provides commercial IPv6 services and training.

Carl currently sits on the North America IPv6 Task Force Steering (NAv6TF) committee where he works on IPv6 deployment efforts within the United States. One of his roles is to work on Moonv6, a US IPv6 Pilot network. Carl was appointed an IPv6 Forum Fellow (www.ipv6forum.org) for his technical contributions to the IPv6 community in 2004.

Carl has been active since 1996 in the IETF in the area of IPv6 Mobility and Wireless groups. In addition, he served on the IPv6 Socket API design team within the IETF IPv6 working group in the late 1990's. He has authored and co-authored many IETF drafts and co-chaired the BOF on Triggers for Transport. He has published numerous papers in the area of Mobility and presented at many conferences. He currently is chairing the scientific committee for the Zigbee 2005 Conference. He previously served on Saint2005 IPv6 scientific committee and the IP over Cellular Networks conferences in both 2002 and 2003. Previously, Carl worked at Sun Microsystems for nearly 10 years and served as the Solaris Mobile IP/Ipv6 Technical Lead. He was one of the core Solaris IPv6 teams formed in 1995 to begin working on standardization and development of the Solaris IPv6. He also had employment internships at HP, DEC, and Firestone Research Labs. Carl has a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Kent State University, Kent, OH where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He served as ACM president of the Kent's Chapter of the ACM and was subsequently awarded the Outstanding Leadership Award.