IPv6 traffic rises in U.S., but remains sliver of overall Internet

Network World - U.S. ISPs are reporting a significant rise in IPv6 traffic during the last three months, even though the overall numbers remain tiny -- less than 1% of Internet traffic.

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IPv6 is an upgrade to the Internet's addressing scheme, which was created 40 years ago using a protocol known as IPv4. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses and can support 4.3 billion devices connected directly to the Internet. IPv6, on the other hand, uses 128-bit addresses and can support a virtually limitless number of devices: 2 to the 128th power. IPv6 is necessary because the Internet is running out of IPv4 addresses. However, IPv6 is not backwards compatible with IPv4, requiring network operators to support both protocols at an added cost.

U.S. carriers, content providers and network companies are surging ahead of their global rivals in the push to deploy IPv6. But despite their efforts, IPv6 remains a sliver of overall Internet traffic for now.

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Comcast has deployed IPv6 across more than half of its broadband footprint in the United States and will be done upgrading the rest of its network by 2013. Currently, 2.5% of Comcast customers are using its native dual stack IPv6 broadband service, according to John Brzozowski, chief architect for IPv6 and distinguished engineer at Comcast.

"We saw our IPv6 traffic increase around 400% this year and 1,000% since last June," Brzozowski says.

Although IPv6 remains below 1% of Comcast's overall traffic, it peaked at around 6% of traffic during the Summer 2012 Olympics. This was a result of YouTube streaming video from the Olympics to Comcast customers over IPv6.

Brzozowski says the biggest challenge to IPv6 usage in the United States is legacy home routers and other electronic gear such as TVs and gaming systems, which need to support IPv6 by default.

"When one of our customers starts using IPv6, up to 40% of the traffic in and out of their home is IPv6," Brzozowski says, adding that the bulk of IPv6 traffic that Comcast sees is driven by YouTube, Netflix and the iTunes App Store. "Once IPv6 is on the home router, a lot of IPv6 starts to get consumed."

Comcast is focused on providing IPv6 to its residential broadband customers right now, but starting next year it will give its business customers IPv6 by default in order to help drive enterprise usage of the new protocol.

"Consumer electronics is the area that needs the greatest amount of work," Brzozowski says. "In residential, you can expect to see more penetration this year. Commercial usage will be a close third. You can expect to see expanded deployment as it relates to commercial services soon."