The Federal deadline requiring agencies to be IPv6 compliant by June 2012 is quickly approaching. Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6 for short, is intended to be the next primary communications protocol for packet-switched inter-networks. IPV6 is the designated successor to IPv4. The transition to IPv6 is considered important primarily because current projections indicate that Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the various Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) will run out of available IPv4 addresses within the next few years. IPv6 has over 28 orders of magnitude more potential addresses than IPv4, which should be sufficient for quite some time.

The United States Government appears to be the fastest adopter of IPv6.  In some circles it is thought that a shortage of knowledgeable and skilled network engineers could be holding back certain agencies from moving forward. IPv6 has already been built into various desktop operating systems (Linux, Windows, Mac OS, etc) as far back as the year 2000. The United States Air Force with help from RTGX is well on its way to IPv6 compliance. RTGX has been assisting the Air Force with its IPv6 migration worldwide and as garnered recognition for its efforts in this area.

In a Sept. 28, 2010 memo, federal CIO Vivek Kundra laid out specific steps for agencies to expedite the operational deployment and use of IPv6 .

Although IPv6 allows for significantly more numerical addresses — specifically, 340 undecillion new ones — migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 could prove difficult. The dependence on IP addresses to control, secure, route and track everything and compliance with Government regulation can make the move from IPv4 to IPv6 a bit complex.

As June 8, 2011 marks World IPv6 Day, Facebook, Yahoo and Google are enabling IPv6 for their main services that day. Limelight and Akamai are also joining the party by enabling their customers to participate, according to Ars Technica.

Peter Tseronis, associate CIO of the Energy Department and chairman of the Federal CIO Council’s IPv6 task force, said the time for talking about the transition is over, according to SearchSecurity.com.

For those interested in checking whether their organization is ready for the migration, the Internet Society offers a way to test IPv6 compatibility on its website.