IPv6 deployment
IPv4, which has been in use since 1982, is in the final stages of exhausting its unallocated address space, but still carries most Internet traffic.
[2] As of August 2024[update], Google's statistics show IPv6 availability of its global user base at around 42–47% depending on the day of the week (greater on weekends).
[5][6] Akamai publishes by-country and by-network statistics on IPv6 adoption for traffic it sees on its global Content Distribution Network (CDN).
[8] This tool provided a list of all allocated IPv6 prefixes until 2014 and marks with colors the ones that were actually being announced into the Internet BGP tables.
The integration of IPv6 on existing network infrastructure may be monitored from other sources, for example: A few organizations are involved with international IPv6 test and evaluation, ranging from the United States Department of Defense to the University of New Hampshire.
Some implementations of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file transfer protocol make use of IPv6 to avoid NAT issues common for IPv4 private networks.
[45] As of 2025[update], all major web browsers support the Happy Eyeballs mechanism, in which they attempt to first create an IPv6 connection to dual stack endpoints whereever an IPv6 address is available as an option, falling back to IPv4 only if IPv6 connection is not immediately possible.
[46][47][48][49] In addition, the US government in 2010 required federal agencies to provide native dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 access to external/public services by 2012, and internal clients were to utilize IPv6 by 2014.
On 7 March 2013, the Internet Engineering Task Force created a working group for IPv4 sunset in preparation for protocol changes that could be used to support sunset/shutdown of remnant IPv4 networks.
[54] The Internet Engineering Task Force expects IPv6 to coexist with IPv4 as it is considered impractical to fully transition to IPv6 in the short term.
[60][61] As a result, many larger enterprises, such as Microsoft, are transitioning to phasing out IPv4 and moving towards IPv6 Single-Stack within the company.
China showcased CNGI's IPv6 infrastructure during the 2008 Summer Olympics, being the first time a major world event has had a presence on the IPv6 Internet.
[103][104] In 2017, China issued an "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6" where it encouraged a nationwide adoption of the IPv6 network.
Outlined in the plan, China had set goals to develop a next-generation internet technical system and industrial ecosystem with independent intellectual property rights in 5 to 10 years, and aimed at having the largest IPv6 network in the world by the end of 2025.
[105] In 2018, US researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology categorized China as being part of a group of 169 countries that had little IPv6 traffic.
Estonian Telekom is providing native IPv6 access on residential and business broadband connections since September 2014.
[157][158] Customers are given a /128 via DHCP-ND unless they register their DUID in which case they receive a /56 – using a static configuration results in a single /64.
[161][162][163][164] In November the same year UPC Hungary introduced DS Lite(with private IPv4 addresses)[165] which can be enabled on a customer-to-customer basis if the customer asks for it.
Most of New Zealand's ISP and carrier community have a test environment for IPv6 and many[quantify] have started bringing IPv6 products and services on-stream.
[215] Globe Telecom has already set in motion the transition of its core IP network to IPv6, noting that it is now fully prepared even as the Internet runs out of IPv4 addresses.
Globe claims it is the first local telecommunication company to test IPv6 with Department of Science and Technology (Philippines).
[242] SudREN[243] (Sudanese Research and Education Network) is the first ISP to provide native IPv6 connectivity of the member institution.
Operators offering native IPv6 access for business clients and collocation customers include Tele2 and Phonera.
The national IPv6 Task Force was established in November 2021, by ministerial decision, with the mandate to develop a comprehensive action plan aimed at accelerating IPv6 adoption which is a key prerequisite for the rollout of 5G technology in Tunisia.
The final roadmap, along with the technical decisions, the key choices, and the implementation phases for each actor on various networks and services, was unveiled during a public workshop on Friday, February 4, 2022.
[254] Both the implementation and testing phases spanned about one year, culminating in the official announcement of IPv6 adoption on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, during a grand event led by the Minister of Communication Technologies, Dr. Nizar Ben Néji.
This date marked a significant milestone in the effort to build a resilient national network infrastructure capable of supporting emerging technologies.
