World IPv6 Day: a 24-hour test flight
Summary
On 8 June 2011 Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Akamai, Limelight Networks and numerous other providers additionally enabled their services over IPv6 for 24 hours. The Internet Society called the day a test flight: providers, manufacturers and web operators were to show that IPv6 works at scale, after the IANA’s free IPv4 pool had run out in February. The test went largely smoothly and paved the way for the permanent World IPv6 Launch a year later.
Why a test day
Many providers shied away from IPv6 for fear of one particular problem: clients with broken IPv6 connectivity try IPv6 first and hang instead of falling back to IPv4. Anyone enabling IPv6 for their website alone risked exactly these complaints. Switching together on one day spread the risk and made errors visible.
The Internet Society provided guides for ISPs, manufacturers, operating system vendors and websites. On 6 June 2012 the World IPv6 Launch followed, in which large providers left IPv6 permanently enabled.
Ideas
- Switching together lowers the risk for each individual.
- Broken IPv6 connectivity at the customer end was the biggest worry, not the servers.
- A deadline makes preparation binding.
- A test without a follow-up step has no consequences.
Insights
- The day was less a technical test than a coordination problem: everyone waited for the others, and only a shared date broke the waiting.
- Even so, it took many more years until IPv6 became a matter of course; today large providers receive a considerable share of their traffic over IPv6.
Facts
- World IPv6 Day took place on 8 June 2011 and lasted 24 hours.
- Participants included Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Akamai and Limelight Networks.
- The permanent World IPv6 Launch followed on 6 June 2012.
References
- Internet Society: World IPv6 Day: a 24-hour test flight
- World IPv6 Launch (2012)
- NRO: free IPv4 pool depleted (February 2011)
Remarks
- The original worldipv6day.org page survives only in the Web Archive; the Internet Society redirects its old address to general IPv6 information.
Recommendations
- Check your own connection with an IPv6 test and ask your provider for native IPv6.
- Offer your own services dual-stack and test how clients fall back.
Original page in the Web Archive
Links to the original source and the Web Archive open in a new tab.