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IPv6 advocates seeking a major financial commitment from the U.S. federal government to the next generation of the Internet's main communications protocol will be disappointed with the findings of a new report from the Department of Commerce.

"Aggressive government action to accelerate the deployment of IPv6 by the private sector is not warranted at this time," according to the Commerce Department's IPv6 Task Force, which consists of officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The Commerce Department report found that "no substantial market barriers appear to exist that would prevent industry from investing in IPv6 products and services as its needs require or as consumers demand."

The report did, however, hint at additional federal funding for IPv6-related research and development.

"The federal government will need to consider allocation of new resources and to work cooperatively with nonfederal authorities and the private sector to address outstanding IPv6 research and development issues and to expedite the development of suitable deployment, coexistence, and transition plans," the report says.

Characteristics of IPv6

Developed by the IETF, IPv6 promises easier administration, tighter security, and a more advanced addressing scheme than IPv4, the Internet's current protocol. IPv6, which uses a 128-bit addressing scheme, supports a virtually limitless number of uniquely identified systems on the Net, while IPv4 uses a 32-bit addressing scheme and supports only a few billion systems.

The Commerce Department's IPv6 Task Force was created in response to a 2003 White House report on cyberspace security. The task force was charged with conducting a cost/benefit analysis to determine whether the transition to IPv6 should be accelerated to provide enhanced cyberspace security.

The task force's report, "The Evolving Internet: A Technical and Economic Assessment of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)," outlines the benefits of IPv6 including more address space, end-to-end security, and easier network administration. Nonetheless, the report recommends a go-slow approach to federal agencies and enterprises interested in migrating to IPv6.

"Although IPv6 has the potential to produce significant benefits for U.S. businesses and consumers over time, the near-term benefits are less clear," the report states. "In the initial years of IPv6 deployment, network security will likely be no greater under the protocol than is currently available in IPv4 networks. Additional evidence suggests that premature adoption of IPv6...could result in unnecessary costs and reduced information technology security."

How IPv6 Will Develop

The Commerce Department report has many positive things to say about IPv6. Indeed, the report suggests the inevitability of IPv6's deployment in most network hardware, operating systems, and software within the next five years.

The report says that enterprises and government agencies will likely purchase IPv6-enabled gear during standard tech refresh cycles and move to the technology gradually rather than all at once. The report identifies a number of obstacles to IPv6 deployment, including the huge installed base of IPv4 systems and the labor-intensive process of upgrading to IPv6.

"Large and midsized user organizations, such as corporations and government agencies, will likely incur greater costs," the report says. "The magnitude of those costs will depend on each user's existing network infrastructure and operational policies, the extent to which their customer applications must be modified to adopt IPv6, and whether the user intends to connect to other organizations using IPv6."

The report concedes that most Internet experts believe IPv6-based networks will be technically superior to today's IPv4 networks, with tighter security and with support for new services that take advantages of the additional address space that IPv6 offers.

Migration to IPv6

At the same time, the report emphasizes the security risks of deploying mixed IPv4 and IPv6 environments during the transition to IPv6.

"Experts generally agree that implementing any new protocol, such as IPv6, will entail an initial period of increased security vulnerability," the report says. "Additional resources will be necessary to deal with new threats posed by a dual standard environment."

The report recommends that all organizations be prepared for IPv6 to appear on their networks and to create security plans and policies for dealing with IPv6 traffic during the years-long migration process.