Government Computer News
Critics say agencies are behind the curve on IP v.6
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“DOD is fully committed to moving to IP v.6 as soon as we can.”
—Acting CIO Linton Wells
—Acting CIO Linton Wells
The answer is: “IP v.what?”
Agencies, industry need to define specs
Lightman is one of the nation’s most vocal IP v.6 evangelists, but government officials are beginning to share his concern.
“A majority of agencies have not begun to grapple with the challenges of IP v.6 in any meaningful manner,” Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) said during the opening keynote at the Coalition Summit for IP v.6 held last month in Reston, Va.
Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said he would hold hearings on how to push the federal government to the new protocols. He said implementing IP v.6 is necessary for maintaining U.S. technological and economic leadership, and for improving national security. He said the Office of Management and Budget should take a leadership role in shepherding agencies to the new protocols.
More than 500 networking experts from the United States and allied governments, industry and academia attended the three-day summit to discuss challenges, opportunities and strategies for making the transition to Version 6 of the Internet Protocols.
“IP v.6 sounds good, but it has been accepted at about the same level as the metric system,” said Bill Kine, a product manager for Spirent Communications Inc. of Calabasas, Calif.
Old, but not broken
The Internet Protocols are the set of rules defining how computers communicate with each other. Most hardware and software today use IP Version 4, which has been around for about 30 years. Although IP v.4 is not broken, the unanticipated growth of the Internet has outstripped the functionality built into the protocols.
The Internet community began developing Version 6 in the early 1990s, including a greatly expanded address space and added support for mobility and security. This will make end-to-end connectivity simpler and enable a host of applications now complicated by clumsy workarounds needed with IP v.4.
Despite the potential advantages of the new protocols, IT officials in the United States have not built a business case for moving to the new protocols, said Charles Lynch, director of the Defense Department’s IP v.6 Transition Office. DOD has announced plans to begin mi- grating its Global Information Grid network to IP v.6 by 2008, the first agency to make such a commitment.
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