(No.99) Moving to IPv6: Challenges for Internet Governance
In February 2011 IANA officially announced the exhaustion of its IPv4 addresses pool. This represented that there were no more space IPv4 available for the Regional Internet Registries. Two months later, in April 2011 APNIC announced the implementation of his last /8 policy. This APNIC policy officially started a period of tight management of IPv4 resources allowing only a final limited space allocation to current Asia Pacific operators and guarantee a small IPv4 block for newcomers focusing in allow them to have a smooth transition to IPv6. According to the current consumptions rates is expected that RIPE serving Europe and Middle East region will also implement his last /8 policy in some moment during 2012. The adoption of IPv6 by network operators has been discussed extensively at previous IGFs, but with the imminent exhaustion of the IPv4 address pool, the focus on the Internet governance implications of this issue has intensified. The NRO recognizes that the adoption of IPv6 is the only way to allow Internet to continue to grow, without very major change to its architecture. In order to facilitate the adoption of IPv6 different sector and groups need to coordinate efforts to allow a stable transition to IPv6. This workshop will examine the importance of globally coordinated administration of Internet number resources, possible scenarios for future management of the IPv4 address space, and strategies for progressing the global adoption of IPv6.