For years we have been talking about the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Now time is running short. We have a deadline of January 2011 and it is time to discuss implementation, looking at the transition from the point of view of the person responsible for either a public or a private network. Given its economic and operational repercussions, this transition is a complex matter. Each case is unique and, generally speaking, experiences are not fully replicable. However, the fact is: not having a short-term plan for that transition could have consequences exceeding the possible costs of that migration.

Much is being made of the differences between one protocol and the other, but the chief focus should be on what really distinguishes this new protocol: the quantity of addresses available for using it. A mere glance at the advantages of assigning one, several, or many IP addresses per NETWORK user can point right away to: (a) the advantages of the new protocol in terms of security, which justifies the investments that would have to be made - a typical case would be financial systems, whose security systems come under frequent attack; (b) the possibilities of generating new services or developing those that are already in place, geared to different user segments;(c) the facilities for rational billing of these services and many other attributes generated by this protocol.

Getting back to the subject of implementation, there are, as is well known, five “Regional Internet Registries” (RIRs), administering IP addresses. They are: AFRINIC, for the Africa region. APNIC, the Asia-Pacific region; ARIN, covering Canada, United States, and part of the Caribbean; LACNIC, Latin America and part of the Caribbean; and RIPE, Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. All these organizations support implementation of IPv6, but we shall refer here to the organization that covers our region: LACNIC. One thing that LACNIC does is assign blocks of addresses, free of charge, as a way of removing one of the initial obstacles to the decision to implement IPv6. At the same time, it conducts training courses in all the countries of the region and offers specific support both to a state and to a private organization for the transition.

The website called “Portal of the Transition to IPv6 of Latin America and the Caribbean, ” http://portalipv6.lacnic.net/es/quienes-est-n-implementando-ipv6-en-la-regi-n, contains information on all these matters and, of course, “frequently asked questions.” The “IPv6 Task Force” http://www.lac.ipv6tf.org/ is also up and running.

In short, all the tools are in place for making this transition/implementation a relatively simple and economically viable task. All that is needed is a political decision to make it happen.

Oscar Messano
Rapporteur
Group on issues relative to Internet resources