June 8, 2011 was World IPv6 Day, the first 24-hour world-scale test-flight of IPv6 (the successor to the protocol currently used on the Internet), during which top web destinations, such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and Facebook, as well as major content delivery networks, including Akamai and Limelight, moved the Internet into the near future by turning on IPv6 for their main services for 24 hours.
In order to be part of this unique moment in history, and at the initiative of Beirut Internet eXchange members and other stakeholders, Berytech hosted an event on and around IPv6, with interesting workshops and an exhibition space where participants could surf the Internet over IPv6 and test the readiness of their mobile devices and systems to the new Internet protocol, and talk to industry experts. Details of the event and the participating partners can be viewed at http://blog.berytech.org/events/33/world-ipv6-day/
The workshops started with an address by Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, Director of Berytech and spokesperson to Beirut IX. “With IPv4 address space running out at IANA level, the industry cannot afford to wait much longer. It is not a question of if, but when will IPv4 run out at LIRs and user levels…”, he stated.
Mr. Mawaheb Kabbara, Consultant Systems Architect at Cisco, then explained technical details regarding IPv6 protocol, and presented Cisco’s 3P strategy for IPv6, which relies on business continuity and migration tools, with a focus on IPv4/IPv6 coexistence and IPv6 transition solutions such as NAT44, CGN and others.
Emile Aben, from RIPE NCC in the Netherlands, shared with the audience (via Skype) measurements and findings of traffic before and during WorlrdIPv6Day. “We hoped for a very boring World IPv6 Day: Seems to be true. Experience and data show that Internet IPv6 at large is (and has been) production ready and if not, we know what to improve”, Aben concluded.
The last session was dedicated to an interactive Q&A session with the ISPs and the audience. Local ISPs have been operating IPv6 since more than a year now, having BGP up and running with IPv6 peers (over tunnels) with DNS also serving IPv6. They are ready to provide IPv6 tunnels to clients. “This is quite interesting for users who want to test IPv6 with currently installed CPEs (wireless and DSL) in Lebanon that do not have native support for IPv6”, says Ms Dima Saleh, NOC Manager at IDM.
A mailing list and an IPv6Leb task force has been created, with mission to grow IPv6 awareness in Lebanon, and set national migration strategies.
Further resources and picture gallery of the event can be found at http://blog.berytech.org/world-ipv6-day/
Also keep an eye out on http://labs.ripe.net for the latest on measuring World IPv6 day.
You can also subscribe to our mailing list here http://lists.beirutix.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ipv6leb
