In brief: IPv6 and distributed applications

At different rates in different parts of the world, the next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6, is inching its way toward adoption. Asian countries are moving fastest, at least partly because their need for IPv6´s expanded address space is greatest, but efforts in the US and Europe also signal that the protocol´s detractors haven´t stopped its progress. IPv6 got a boost from the US government in June, when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy2005/m05-22. pdf) that all federal agency networks must be using it by June 2008. Such blanket directives, together with product development at industry and consumer levels, are giving a boost to the transition from the current Internet protocol, IPv4. Network equipment manufacturers, such as Cisco and Juniper, have included IPv6 capabilities in their products for years, and all major operating systems are implementing it. IPv6 proponents say that it will support a new world of distributed applications, and 2005 showed movement out of university and R&D testbeds into the marketplace. It´s a matter of space.